Hi! Im an english teacher at a high school in Taipei. I’ve started lunch time sessions where students can come play English games and get some extra speaking practice. I want to purchase more boardgames that are in English so they can get a bit more variety and challenge. I’ve found many boardgame stores in Taipei, but none of them seem to carry English language editions, only Chinese. I guess boardgames are actually quite popular here as many boardgame stores also sell game sessions where you can play their games and get unlimited snacks and drinks while you play.
Maybe there’s an online store I’m unaware of that would carry the English versions?
I really want to limit how much Chinese there is if possible
Board Game Hut has a decent selection of English games and the staff will usually print off the Chinese instructions. Amazon is a good place to get games as well, most of them qualify for the free shipping if you spend 60.
Swan Panasia usually has some games that are in Chinese, but they don’t involve any cards or reading, so you can just print off the English manual from online.
Other than those three check Shopee. You can find most games on there. If you don’t care about the quality or supporting the publisher you can even find knockoff games from China that are very cheap.
I run a board game club at my school. My students are elementary school level, grades 5 and 6. So, most of the games we play aren’t complex. UNO, One Night Wearwolf, Imagine, Poker Cards, Monopoly, Geistes. I’ve tried to introduce games that involve more strategy like Saboteur, or Splendor but usually it’s too hard or the students just don’t care for it.
Cool thanks for the suggestions! My students are highschool level so they can usually tolerate a bit more complexity.
So far I’ve used Avalon (a game similar to werewolf) and drawful 2 (was free for a bit on epic)
I’ve also tried mimicking old american game shows which has worked (what’s my line and family feud for example) I’ve also done boggle which I think is a bit too hard still
Every board game store I’ve been in in Taipei either has the English version of the game or will order it for you. Usually the games are coming from Germany though, so be aware that the “original game”, if it doesn’t have any words on the actual game components, will probably be in German (packaging and instructions)
Funny, I asked at three different stores but the clerk always said they didn’t have any English available. One store showed me all 4 of the English language board games he had.
I’ll have to check the name of the store I frequented most often. It’s near Taipei Main / Ximen (somewhere in between) and they had a board game cave downstairs (for ppl to play) and a shop on the second floor.
Edit: this is the shop: 卡牌屋桌上遊戲
They even had some games that didn’t take off after being on Kickstarter that I couldn’t get at board game shops in Chicago. Like “Wok on Fire”, which can be a great food name learning game for the classroom.
The other one I went to a lot was near Wanfang Hospital Station. They were willing to bend over backwards for me knowing I was a public school teacher.
Just thought, if you have access to a printer, you can also print your own version of games. I printed some monopoly money and made a custom Monopoly board with my laser cutter. It cost less than 50 ntd to make that. I know lots of people print their own Love Letter as well. Some games even have print and play editions available.
