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The Narcissist game

author:  Nathan Jacobson
level:  Elementary
target_English:  vocabulary/short question & answer
big_small:  Big groups

This is a game that I ripped off from a Japanese television show called Waratte ii Tomo. Actually this TV show is full of great games that can be adapted to your Eikaiwa class.  Check it out sometime!  Anyway, the name of the game on the show is "Kanchigai Shiteiru no ha Dare??"  Basically it means "Who thinks too highly of themselves". 


You run this game in two rounds. 
There is one round for the boys and one for the girls. 
I usually start off with the boy`s round. 
What you do is get five brave souls to volunteer and have them stand up in a row along the blackboard at the front of the class. 
From this point on they absolutely cannot look at the blackboard behind them. 
Then you take five English flashcards of the same category. 
For example you could have five fruits, five animals, five dead American presidents or whatever. 
Then you hang the pictures at random behind the students; one card for each kid. 
From this point on whatever is written on that card is the student`s new name.  For example if one student had a picture of a giraffe behind their head they would be referred to only as "Mr./Ms. Giraffe."  Be careful that you don`t accidentally use their real names and make sure the other students don`t either. 

Okay, now comes the fun part. 
If your volunteers are boys you ask questions only to the girls (and vice versa). 
Pick one girl from the class and ask her a question like:
"Who is the most handsome/charming?" 
"Who is the best armwrestler?" 
"Who is the most likely to become the Prime Minister of Japan in the future?" 
Anything like that will do.  But only ask her one question.  So if the question is "Who is the most handsome??" there will inevitably be uproarious laughter while she tries to pick the most handsome boy of the five.  After much delay she will eventually answer with something like "Mr. Zebra is the most handsome." 

Continue by asking four more questions to four different girls until all the boys have been picked for something. 
Each boy can only be picked one time so this makes it interesting at the end when there is only one boy left to be picked. 
Okay so now it`s time to find out who the narcissists are. 
Repeat the answers to the boys to remind them of which person matched up with which answer then give them a moment to decide which one they think they are. 
Then go down the row one by one and have them guess which person they are (Mr. Zebra, Mr. Monkey, etc.) 
Make a mental note of which boys guessed wrong and which guessed correctly. 
On the actual show the ones who guess wrong get bonked on the head with a falling bucket.  I usually add that part in for fun. 
Repeat the process one more time with girls up at the front of the class and you`re finished. 

This game is a lot of fun because the whole class can see which volunteer matches up with which name but the volunteers themselves are totally clueless.  I have used this lesson in every class for grades 2nd to 9th and it always leaves the whole class rolling in the aisles.  Just adjust the English a little for the different age groups and you`re ready to go.  Happy teaching!


Nathan Jacobson

NEW: If you have any lists of questions that could be used with this game then please send them in!

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