📘 Part 3: Games

This episode's vocabulary

Make-believe game (noun) - a game where you believe or imagine things that appear to be attractive or exciting, but are not real.

Hide-and-seek (noun) - a children's game in which a group of children hide in secret places and then one child has to go to look for them.

Cowboys and Indians (noun) - a children’s game involving mock pursuits, gunfights, and killings as though between cowboys and American Indians.

Timeless (adj.) - something that is timeless does not change as the years go past.

Classic (noun) - a well-known piece of writing, musical recording, or film which is of high quality and lasting value.

Divergence (noun) - the situation in which two things become different.

Outlier (noun) - a person, thing, or fact that is very different from other people, things, or facts, so that it cannot be used to draw general conclusions.

Solitary (adj.) - a solitary person or thing is the only person or thing in a place.

To collaborate (verb) - to work with someone else for a special purpose.

Per se (adverb) - by or of itself.

Readily (adj.) - quickly, immediately, willingly, or without any problem.

To scaffold (verb) - to provide or support with a raised framework or platform..

Guideline (noun) - information intended to advise people on how something should be done or what something should be.

To prevail (verb) - to get control or influence.

To beat (verb) - to defeat or do better than.

Loaded question (noun) - a question that has particular words chosen to suggest the answer that is wanted.

To compete (verb) - to try to be more successful than someone or something else.

Hooked (adj.) - strongly attracted to something or someone.

Antisocial (adj.) - often avoiding spending time with other people.

Excessive (adj.) - too much.

Questions and Answers

M: What games do children play these days?

R: Other than video games, like I said? Oh, there are a lot of apps they play on their phones and tablets. Though I think they also really like the outdoor and make-believe games like hide-and-seek or cowboys and Indians where they have the chance to play or chance to play them. They're sort of timeless classics that anyone could enjoy.

M: Do boys and girls play different games?

R: I don't think so when they're younger. Though, as they get older, there's definitely a divergence of interest. Boys seem to start preferring things which are more active and related to the jobs of providers, whereas girls usually lean towards passive activities that relate to the role of carer. That's just generally speaking, though, there will be outliers.

M: Which are better, team games or individual ones?

R: That's down to personal choice, and, well, and the purpose I think. If you're more of a solitary person, and like to relax in your own company, then you'll likely want a lot more, well, your time, compared to a more social person who will want to develop from being around people and collaborate or compete more.

M: And which ones do you think are more popular these days?

R: Just going by the media, probably team games. You see people doing team sports a lot more often than you see them doing solitary ones. Like people have rugby teams that they go to, or I think there's a game that people play. Fortnite. That's what it is. That's quite famous, and you have to play in a team for that too.

M: Are games important for children's development?

R: Well, I don't know if it's games per se, but free and structured play is important. And games just seem like the most readily available example of that. They scaffold their understanding of rules and relationships, which are important guidelines for how we function in life.

M: Why do people like to play different games?

R: Well, if we're talking about the same person playing different games, then probably the novelty of seeing something new will be a key driver of behaviour. If we're all about different people engaging in different games, it will likely be about diverging interests, I suppose.

M: Is winning the most important goal in playing games?

R: I mean, that depends on what you mean by winning. If it's about domination, then probably not. People are social creatures, so they get more out of trying and prevailing together, rather than the actual beating of the other team. Though, I'll concede that as part of it. Of course, if the goal is to win and enjoy the rewards that come with it, then that's another matter, though, then it's less about the victory and more about the rewards then. Don't you think?

M: Is it important to develop a sense of competition in children?

R: Well, that's a loaded question. If by a sense, then you mean like this awareness of competition and how it works, then yes, since they need to cope with loss and manage the emotions that come with competing, if we're talking about getting kids hooked on the idea of competing, which people often mean when they say this phrase, then no, I mean, that can have really damaging consequences or damaging results in the long term, since they'll only care about the competition and nothing else. Just pretty antisocial.

M: Do you think games can help people relax and relieve stress?

R: Yeah. Though, you have to ask yourself why that is. I mean, usually, we feel stressed out because of the need to cope with some sort of excessive pressure. So why are games necessary to help with this and why do people feel that way as a matter of normal life?

Discussion

M: Hey, Rory, thank you for your answers! Games. What a topic. Games. Children and games. Video games, dear listener, obviously. On their phones, on tablets. Okay, The preposition is on. Because we have a lot of apps.

R: On technology.

M: Like online, on my phone, on the internet. They use different apps, and applications, and some children enjoy playing outdoor games. What did you mean by make-believe games?

R: Well, outdoor games are games that you play outdoors and make-believe games are games where you assume different roles.

M: Make-believe games like hide and seek, or Cowboys and Indians. So these are timeless classics that anyone can enjoy. Games, which will always be popular. A divergence of interest. dear listener. Is a synonym to different interests. So when people grow older, there is a divergence of interest.

R: But that just means that people like different things. I should say if it's a divergence then it's going in two directions. So the two directions here would be boys on one side and girls on the other. Mostly.

M: Yeah. And here you can say like, most boys prefer things which are more active, and related to the role of a provider. Because boys usually are usually the providers in the family, they provide, and they earn money. Again, usually, right? Whereas, while, but girls usually lean towards. So they prefer, they lean towards passive activities that relate to the role of carer. Carer - a person who takes care of something. So girls usually play with dolls. What else do they do? They kind of play hospital.

R: Well, they play house. Well, they play house much more cooperatively than boys do.

M: They play house. They do kind of different things in the house.

R: Yes. This is as they get older, when they're younger, no. Like they're usually very similar in terms of what they do in terms of their play.

M: Really? Okay.

R: You don't think so?

M: Well, I don't know.

R: I'm just thinking like, up until the age of about seven or eight they're normally the same. They all play similar things and then it starts to get a lot more competitive for boys and a lot more cooperative for girls. Usually. There are some girls that play football, for example. And there are some boys that are quite happy to sit and chill.

M: Yeah. And also boys might prefer shooting, soldiers, play war. And girls could also play war. Could be Indians. But usually kind of like unicorns, teddy bears, houses and different like Barbie dolls. Oh, have you seen the film Barbie?

R: I have not seen Barbie yet. Don't ruin it for me. I hear it's good.

M: Oh, really? Okay. No, I haven't seen it. Dear listener, are you in the trend? Have you watched Barbie? Did you go to the movies wearing all pink with your, I don't know, partner husband, boyfriend, or a friend wearing Ken's clothes? Did you do that? No? Okay.

R: Do you have a life?

M: There will be outliers. So outliers are exceptions?

R: Yeah, we already talked about them. There'll be some girls to play football, for example. They would be outliers.

M: So an outlier is not a liar, dear listener. Just outlier. A person, thing or fact that is very different from other people, things or facts. Okay?

R: Well, outliers are just things that are outside of the norm.

M: Usually boys enjoy sports. But there are outliers. Because some boys enjoy reading or music or dancing. Or, I don't know, fishing. Team games or individual games. For individual games, Rory used a nice synonym. What did you say? Solitary games?

R: Yeah, games that you play by yourself. Or if you're more of a solitary person, then you're a person that likes to be by themselves.

M: And it depends on a personal choice. Or you can say that's down to personal choice. Pretty much it depends on the person. And then we go like if, if you are more of a solitary person if you are an introvert, then you will likely want a lot of time for yourself. Or if you are a solitary person, you will enjoy individual games or solitary games. If you are a more social person, outgoing person, and a person who enjoys teams, you will want to be around people to collaborate with people. Collaborate? Support other people, deal with them, work with them. And compete with other people. So you will enjoy competing more.

R: But all of those things are to do with social interaction.

M: And you can talk about team sports. Like football, rugby. And individual sports... Well, what are individual games or sports?

R: Well, individual games could be like Solitaire. That's a card game you play by yourself. Some video games are designed for you to play by yourself.

M: Oh, right, video games. And that's it, right?

R: No, there are card games that you play alone. And jigsaws. I mean you can choose to play Jigsaw by yourself.

M: Crosswords, jigsaws, card games, video games. Yeah. But also kind of like video games. Even if you play with other people. You're just there alone, but you collaborate like virtually, so it's not the same as being in a team, like playing a board game like Monopoly, for example, or some other board games.

R: Could you play Monopoly by yourself? I hope not. That's sad.

M: It's all mine.

R: If you play Monopoly by yourself, then you have already won.

M: Games are usually structured, which is good for children's development. And what did you mean when you say this per se?

R: Per se is just... Actually, it's not English, it's Latin, but we use it in English all the time, per se, just means by itself. So if you say, I'm not sure it's the games per se, what do you mean to say is it's not the fact that there are games that support the... Or which supports the development of children.

M: Yeah, so we can say like, it's not games themselves that are good for development. It's the social aspect of games or competitions, for example. So per se, dear listener, itself or themselves. Could you give us another example with this? Maybe about like games or sports?

R: Well, what would the question be?

M: Do video games have a negative influence on children?

R: I'm not sure it's the video games per se that have the negative influence. It's their inability to handle the transition between video games in real life that's the problem. So it's probably deeper than that.

M: Nice. Games scaffold children's understanding of rules and relationships. Do they scaffold? They help children to understand the rules and relationships between people, especially team games, yeah? Because you collaborate, you compete with people, you have to talk to people. So games scaffold children's development, they scaffold their understanding, and they help. And games have important guidelines. So rules, and regulations for how we function in life. Because yeah, like how we behave in a game, we usually behave in a similar way in life. So like, if you are a leader in life or at work, most likely you will be the leader of the game. The leader I mean like telling people what to do, like organizing people, helping them.

R: You would hope so.

M: Yeah. But usually, usually it's like that. People who are sitting there quietly in life, usually sit quietly in a game. Yeah, but there are outliers, dear listener. Remember? Outliers - exceptions. People who do something differently. People play games, because of the novelty of a game. The novelty? Something new. New is an adjective and novelty is a noun. People enjoy the novelty of a new game.

R: But that's just like the fact that it's new, something that they're into.

M: People engage in different games, because blah, blah, blah. So engaging in different games means playing different games, and spending time on different games. What did you mean, like, so they engage in different games because of their diverging interests?

R: Yeah, that just means that they have different interests. So they're playing different games.

M: Ah, okay. So, a game... For example, I play Monopoly, I play team sports, I play video games, I have diverging interests. So different things interest me.

R: Well, if we focus on you, the individual, you are playing different games for the novelty so you don't get bored. But if different people are playing different games, that will be because they have different interests.

M: So you play Monopoly, I play video games, we have different interests. We have diverging interests.

R: Yeah. Probably. I mean, no, I couldn't play Monopoly with anybody. That would bore me to death. Could you do that?

M: Oh, I used to play Monopoly a lot when I was a child. Yeah.

R: I hate Monopoly. It's horrible.

M: My sweet childhood days. And I have a brother, dear listener, I have a younger brother. And when I was a child, my brother was like a very small child, and he would cry his eyes out. Like.... I lost. And he would just like really cry.

R: And Maria would laugh because she's evil.

M: Yeah, I enjoyed it. Yes. So evil. So this eldest sister. And I told him like, okay... But my brother wanted to play Monopoly. He wanted to play more and more. So we just played the whole day long. And I told him, so you stop crying or I will never play with you again. And he would, okay, okay, like through tears, he said like, okay, I will stop crying, just play, play with me again. And he would lose. But he just wanted to keep going, my brother with Monopoly.

R: Very resilient.

M: Yeah, but now we get along more or less with my brother.

R: More or less...

M: More or less... Yeah.

R: Sometimes we want to murder each other.

M: Yeah, the evil sister.

R: Oh, and then our next question is about whether winning is the most important thing.

M: You know, sometimes it is. Yeah? And then Rory got philosophical. That depends on what you mean by winning. Because winning for me is something different than winning for you. Might be. But when I play squash, for example, I enjoy winning. Really. I really do. I just want... like to win.

R: And this is why Maria and I don't play squash.

M: Oh, I would beat you, Rory, at your own game. Squash was born in the UK. Okay?

R: Was it?

M: Oh, yeah, yeah, it's, it appeared in one of your posh schools. Your posh schools.

R: Mine specifically.

M: In England, but not in Scotland. So... But still, you're British. So I would beat you at your own game. Yeah, you see how winning is important for me? But we should talk in general. So for some people, it's really important. And if winning means domination, then... Rory, your answer is really difficult and philosophical.

R: What do you mean?

M: If winning means elimination, then it's not important. So it's not important to dominate people and win all the time.

R: There you go, that was easy. And if you win, then you prevail.

M: And prevail means...

R: To win. Usually to win in a competition or against some sort of opposing force.

M: Yeah, prevail is formal. And it's C2 vocabulary item, which means proficiency level.

R: Oh, my, that means it's band nine. Yay.

M: Band nine. So prevail - get control or influence. So for example, common sense will prevail in the end. Like emotions prevailed. So they got control. Or, for example, it could also mean to win in an argument. And in this context, people get more out of prevailing together. So together as a team, yeah? So they win together, they prevail together, or they can be into beating the other team. So beat the other team, to win, right? So kind of to be better than the other team. When you win, you enjoy the rewards that come with victory. So usually, you get some, I don't know, money, or some kind of price. So rewards. You can say it's less about the victory and more about the rewards. If for example, the final prize is a large sum of money, so like, the reward is far more important than victory. When we play games, we compete, and we can develop our sense of competition. And Rory told us it's a loaded question. Rory, what did you mean?

R: Uh, well, a loaded question is just, it's something that it's not... Like, it's not like an open question. It's like, you're trying to make a point about something. So when people talk about developing a sense of competition in children, they usually mean that they want them to focus on winning rather than why or how to achieve winning, or how to achieve a victory. So you sort of... It's just a way of buying time, really, if it's a very difficult question to answer. And the examiner assumes something.

M: Yeah. And it could be your strategy to answer the question, like, if you mean this, then it's this. But if you mean this, then this. Yeah. If by a sense, you mean... Then blah, blah, blah. When children compete, they develop this awareness of competition, so they become more aware of the fact that there is competition between different people. And then they learn to cope with loss. So they didn't win. So they have to deal with it. Face the music. Okay, you lost and just cope with loss. Manage their emotions. So they lost, okay, so what to do about it.

R: What now?

M: Yeah. So manage the emotions that come with competing, or manage, and deal with the emotions that come with losing. Some kids, kids or children, could get hooked on the idea of winning. So get hooked on something or on doing something. So get addicted to this, get obsessed with this. Like, oh, I have to win, I have to win all the time. Yeah? Everywhere.

R: It's like their only focus.

M: Yeah, the only focus is on winning. So some kids could get hooked on the idea of competing. Competing. Yeah? Just the competition, like Monica remember? From friends. Monica. Really enjoyed competing everywhere.

R: Really great example of a very healthy person.

M: Yeah. So if they focus on the idea of competing, this could have damaging results in the long term. So damaging results? Like negative results in the long term. 10 years after an adult could face some problems with this. Some gains can relieve stress. So they help us to relax. We feel stressed out. We cope with excessive pressure. And games relieve this stress.

R: And games help with that.

M: Yeah, because like when you play Monopoly, you can shout at people, like you can get hysterical, you know?

R: I don't get hysterical. I just walk away.

M: Relieve your anxiety and stress. But usually, some games can help people relax. People unwind while playing, I don't know, Uno or board games or card games. But sometimes they could get hysterical.

R: Like Maria's brother.

M: Yeah, when he was like six or five. Yeah, Rory, would you ever get hysterical when you play any game?

R: Me?

M: Yeah. Would you go emotional and just shout at people?

R: Yeah, I think most kids would at the beginning.

M: Rory as a child, but now no.

R: Not in a game anyway.

M: Thank you very much for listening! And we'll get back to you in our next episode. Okay, dear listener? Bye!

R: Bye!

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