Education should learn from the positive side of gaming – reward, accomplishment, and fun.
Sebastian Thrun
Learning a foreign language can seem tedious, and learning Russian is no exception: the letters of the Cyrillic alphabet, vocabulary, grammar, and all of those words in textbooks or on computer screens that you have to learn by heart.
This can make it challenging to stay motivated when learning Russian.
Fortunately, there are ways to make language learning fun. There are several Russian language games out there to help you learn Russian vocabulary and other aspects of the Russian language and culture.
🕹️ Why Use Games to Learn Russian?
Games in any form, whether physical, video or digital, have been a popular tool to cultivate a sustained interest among language learners to enjoy and excel at learning a new language. Here are three main reasons why games can effectively promote Russian language learning.
Immersion
Vocabulary retention
Listening skills
Many academic research and scientific studies have indicated that learning a new language through gaming is not only creative, interactive, and effective, regardless of the language learners' age.
An academic study involving digital games and second language learning revealed that the language learned while playing a game can be applied to real-life contexts, such as acquiring new vocabulary and forming new sentences. (Scholz and Schulze, 2017)
🎯 Top Russian games for learning the language
Maybe you’re looking for something you can play with several other beginner Russian students in order to study together and break the monotony of memorizing common verbs and genitive declension. Learning a language is often easier if you are doing it in a group!
💎 Language-Focused Games
This is where Russian language instruction can take the form of games, either through board games or gamified language learning apps. And why not?
Board games like Scrabble are convivial and fun, and with the right ones, you can revise verb conjugation, demonstrative pronouns and ordinal numbers without it feeling like work.
Additionally, you can explore language learning apps that offer easy accessibility and variety in language game levels. They often have exercises that use audio and visual prompts to make learning easier.
| Name | Type | Example/Details |
|---|---|---|
| Drops (Russian) | App | Visual vocabulary learning with swipe-based mini-games with an engaging reward system to learn Russian creatively. |
| Mondly | App | Offers gamified lessons, daily quizzes, and a chatbot to practice real dialogues through speech recognition. |
| Duolingo | App | Beginner-friendly app using levels, streaks, and game mechanics to learn Russian basics. |
| Russian Scrabble (Скрабл) | Board Game | Boosts spelling and word recognition using Cyrillic tiles, can be a group of solitary activity |
| Codenames (Russian Edition) | Board Game | Improves word association and deduction skills using Russian vocabulary. |
| Dixit (Russian Edition) | Board Game | Combines creative storytelling and language use in Russian. |
💎 Interactive Party Games
You can also try some version of Charades, Pictionary or Taboo if you have enough people - one team gives the other a word or phrase, while half of the other team has to act it out, draw it or explain it (without using certain keywords) so that the rest of the team can guess it. Intermediate or advanced learners might also enjoy something like Trivial Pursuit in Russian!
Or Rory’s Story Cubes - they’re dice with pictures on them. You roll them and have to tell a story based on the pictures. Guess Who? forces you to practise physical descriptions of people and Russian verb conjugation.
💎 Russian Video Games that Help You Learn Naturally
Another way, of course, is to simply play your favourite video games in Russian! Simply change the language settings on Steam and download anything from cute point-and-click adventures and role-playing games (the best for learning vocabulary) to racing games and 1st-person shooters.
It's important to note that the majority of Russian video games have a heavy narrative with complex themes like military, psychology that are suited for older learners as well as intermediate or advanced Russian language learners.
Useful Russian learning tip: We normally suggest beginner learners to have a basic knowledge of the Russian language through games in apps before tackling story-heavy video games.
Before we go into the list, be sure to enable the following settings to Russian to have a enriched and comprehensive language immersion.
Audio
- Practice listening skills
Subtitles
- English to Russian at your own pace (improve vocabulary)
Menu
- Suitable for intermediate and advanced learners
Now, let's review some story-rich or voice-acted games developed in Russia with different gaming paces and learning levels.
| Game/Series | Genre/Type | Description & Language Features | Suitability for Language Learner Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| Beholder | Simulation/narrative | Focuses on daily and bureaucratic language in context, conversation exchanges | Intermediate |
| Pathologic (1 & 2) | Psychological horror/adventure | Deep philosophical storytelling, suitable for tose who want to learn more complex Russian vocabulary | Advanced |
| Black Book | RPG (Slavic folklore) | Focuses a lot on the storyline, characters and setting, folklore/myth-based vocabulary | Intermediate–Advanced |
| The Wild Eight | Survival action-adventure | Plot-driven; consists moderately complex Russian dialogue and narration | Intermediate |
| Atomic Heart | Action FPS | Offers more modern Russian dialogue, slang, colloquial phrases | Intermediate–Advanced |
Popular International Games with Russian Settings or Language Options
Over the years, there have been a few international Russian games that have gained a strong fan base among gamers due to their amazing game production quality and immersive storylines.
We'll highlight three popular international games recommendations for you to try out:
Engaging storyline with rich voice acting, a video game series installation that is based on Dmitry Glukhovsky's novels
Suited for those who love the survival horror genre and a blend of real-world locations and history
Players get to imagine themselves in a military war set in the fictional Norvinsk region that's located in northwestern Russia
🎧How to Use Russian Games Effectively
After you have reviewed a variety of Russian games, it's time to put them into actual practice. Let's go through the ways to set effective goals while you're playing them.
Vocabulary tracking
Listening to cut scenes
Noting grammar
💡 Where to Find Russian Games
Now, let's explore some of the best platforms to find these Russian games. First up, we have digital gaming platforms like Steam and GOG (Good Old Games) , where the game community come together to give the best game recommendations for Russian language immersion. You can also check out on yourself which game offers audio settings with Russian voiceovers with multiple subtitle support.
Next up, you can also look up language learning platforms to have a mixture of education and entertainment, like Memrise and Clozemaster. And of course, we certainly cannot miss out on the versatility of discovering Russian games through YouTube channels with walkthroughs.
Not only that, you can practice your Russian listening skills while watching their videos too. Some of the YouTubers that you can watch include MrLololoshka and Windy31.
👥 Special Group Games for Russian Language Courses
If you are a teacher in a Russian language course or are looking for something you can play in a study group or similar learner group, you might like some of these group games:
⭐ Word Race
You will need a stopwatch or egg timer. It can be played on a whiteboard, or else each person or team gets a piece of paper and a pen. A topic is chosen from a bag (or you can just pick one at random) and each person or team must write down as many words related to that topic as possible in the set amount of time.
Tip: If you are playing with teams, a good way to play is to have each member write down one word and pass the paper or whiteboard pen to the next person on the team. Whoever has the most terms wins (irrelevant or misspelt words are eliminated, of course - don’t forget to keep a Russian dictionary on hand!)
⭐ Sentence Salad
Pick a sentence appropriate to the level of your language classes - it can be a simple practice sentence or one photocopied from a book. Copy it as many times as you have players. Cut up each sentence and put them into separate boxes or bags.
On the count of three, the players have to put their sentences in the correct order. The first one to finish (with the right grammatical word order!) wins. It's a good way to learn Russian sentence structure.
⭐ Find the Treasure
An object is chosen as the “treasure”, and one player is chosen as the Treasure Hunter. The Treasure Hunter is sent out of the room, and the object is hidden within the room, and various obstacles are placed randomly throughout the room. The Treasure Hunter comes in and stands by the door.
The other players direct him to the object, but they CANNOT simply say “it’s behind the cushions of the sofa”. Instead, they have to tell him each step of the way: “Two steps to the blue chair. Now turn left for one step. Left again. Now three steps to the TV. Those were big steps - one step back.” And so on. Wonderful for practising giving and understanding directions.
⭐ What’s My Problem?
One student has a problem, but is not told what it is. All the other students know it and have to give the student advice on how to solve it. The first student must then guess what the problem is based on the advice they receive.
Tip: This is a good way to practise all sorts of vocabulary lessons - the “problem” can be anything from being sick to needing to find the cinema to meet someone there at 10:00.
If you are looking for an experienced Russian tutor near you, head to Superprof Canada to start browsing a wide selection of Russian tutors' profiles. Most Superprof tutors offer their first lesson for free, and not only that, you can view the overall average hourly rates for Russian tutoring in your city beforehand, too.
You're bound to have an engaging and affordable Russian learning experience from the get-go. And don't forget to enjoy the game recommendations from this article too!
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