During the long winters, livestock herder’s children play word games indoors. Word games are highly important for teaching the players proper expression, rich vocabulary and understanding the deep meanings of the words and developing creative thinking. Word games have endless diversity, such as quizzes, tongue-twisters, breath expanding expressions, humorous verses, and quizzing contests.
Breath Expansion Expressions
A player will start this game by saying, “I will be a good man counting 32 white flagons through one breath.” The player will then continuously count flagons, saying, “one white flagon, two white flagons, three white flagons…” and so on, until reaching 32 white flagons. The player, who counts the most number of flagons wins. This game is significant for expanding one’s capacity of the lung and increasing the length of one’s breath.
Questioning and Guessing
WHO IS THE DIFFICULT ONE?
The following game is a word game in dialogue style, which serves to explore natural phenomena and to justify the human as the most powerful creation. This game can have many variations on this theme.
Once upon a time, there was a spleen. One day, while running, the spleen bumped into a piece of ice and got stuck on it.
The spleen asks, “Ice, are you strong?”
“Yes, I am,” the ice replies.
“If you are strong, why do you melt away in the sun?,” asks
the spleen.
“The Sun is stronger than me,” says the ice.
“Sun, are you strong?,” asks the spleen from the sun.
“Yes, I am,” the sun replies.
“If you are so strong, why can you be shadowed by cloud?”
“The cloud is stronger than me,” answers the sun.
“Cloud, are you strong?” asks the spleen from the cloud.
“Yes, I am,” cloud replies.
“If you are so strong, why are you driven by the wind?”
“The wind is stronger than me,” says the cloud.
“Wind, are you strong?” asks the spleen from the wind.
“Yes, I am very strong,” the wind replies.
“If you are so strong, why can’t you break the tree?”
“The tree is stronger than me,” says the wind.
“Tree, are you strong?” asks the spleen from the tree.
“Yes, I am,” the tree answers.
“If you are so strong, why can you be cut down by a saw
and axe?”
“The saw and axe are very strong,” says the tree.
“Saw and axe, are you strong?” asks the spleen from the
saw and axe.
“Definitely, we are,” reply the saw and axe.
“If you are so strong, why do you serve as the slaves to your
master?”
“Our master is very strong,” say the saw and axe.
“Master, are you strong?” asks the spleen from a human.
“Yes, I am strong. Who else can be stronger than me?”
asks the human. Then he pulled off the spleen from the ice and
glued it to the rumen of an animal.
TONGUE-TWISTERS
‘Bronze iron and crystal tobacco pipe’
‘If our Khan`s thousand silver balls are not called
The thousand silver balls,
Then whose Khan`s thousand silver balls can be called
The thousand silver balls?’
‘Three of a vulture, crow, and duck
Three of my mom’s iron, griddle and handle
Three of my sister’s skewer, griddle and eraser’
Players need to say these tongue-twisters fast without any interruption, confusion, or mistakes. If one of the players makes mistake, the next player continues and the player doesn’t make any mistakes, that player wins.