Ethnography in Play: Didactic Games of Russian Germans

This article presents the case of creating educational games with linguistic, ethnic and cultural components. Games are viewed as a means of conveying important cultural information and as mechanism for ethnic socialization. Germans have a long history of playing board games which have been an important part of their leisure time. One of the most popular board games was “Mensch, ärgere dich nicht.” In 2020 the COVID pandemic triggered active implementation of educational games by official Russian German organizations. Such games have found wide application in classes of German language clubs, ethnic and cultural clubs and camps, and youth club meetings. Initially, games focused on language studies with the audience; subsequently games related to history and ethnography of Russian Germans were added. The most common practice of creating games is filling the game principle of a well-known game with ethnic and cultural component associated with Russian Germans. Most of these games are board or card games, but there are also mobile (quests) and electronic games. Several categories of games include games for learning the German language, regional studies games, and games with ethnic and cultural component. Specific examples of games with their mechanics are given for each of these categories. It was concluded that this is an effective method of working with cultural heritage since it evokes ethnic identity and assists in mastering the language and in-depth learning of history and culture of the people.