Inspiration can be found during many snapshot-like moments in life: Eating food that reminds you of something that’s long passed just for a split second, or catching the right photograph at the right time. Sometimes the same type of inspiration can also come during a bridge game or slots spin – and sometimes it’s only later that you realize this inspiration comes from bridge.

There are many skills bridge can inspire even though you might not realize this actively during a game.

Here are some of them – and it should be a good enough reason for educators and parents to get kids to play more bridge.

1. Math

Math was the only school subject I remember having serious trouble with as young child. The only way I can describe it today as an adult is the fact that I found words fitting together easier than numbers: I could tell why words fit in certain places, but numbers came a little slower.

It’s one of the first skills that improved once I took to bridge, and this alone made me wish that I could have picked up the game five or ten years sooner than I did.

2. Language Skills

There’s nothing that will kick you right across the language barrier than a bridge chatroom where most of those present are talking in languages you don’t speak yet. The same way, the average bridge game or tournament has people from all over the world.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that bridge – played online, played offline or discussed through a forum – can help you to work on your language skills.

Sure, I’m far from fluent, but I’ve picked up a lot of phrases (and a few insults) through regular online playing of board games and bridge. Likely more than I would have by doing anything else.

3. Interaction

If you’re outgoing and you love to interact with people, you’ll be fine at a bridge game. If you’re the opposite and you find interaction hard to deal with on some days, you’ll also be just fine at a bridge game. For everyone else – and those who are chronically ill and can’t travel for the most part – there are platforms like BBO.

Bridge is great for interaction, and it’s great in the sense that it allows for either human interaction when you feel like it or play against bots when you don’t.

A lot of parents with chronically ill children have asked what their kids can do to feel part of something. This is part of why I’ll always recommend a friendly game of bridge first.

4. Consequence

Sometimes in order to understand consequences, we have to see the event happen in front of our eyes or experience it ourselves.

If you’ve ever played the PC game Lemmings, you’ll see what a lack of this will do: One Lemming follows another right the hell of the cliff in spite of the fact that the other fifteen just did the very same thing in front of them.

Bridge can teach you consequences in a way that very few things in life can. It’s true for many other board and card games too in their own way.

If you let go of the wrong cards in the wrong situation, you could blow a shot at winning a trick. But of course, you have to go through a considerable amount of studying, playing and making these mistakes to eventually learn this.

This lesson in consequences can quickly carry over to other parts of your life outside bridge.

5. Tact

It’s not always what you say, but it’s how you say it. Bridge can teach tact: How you approach other people, how you approach winning and how you approach people of different personality types at the table – both actively during the game and away from it.

The average bridge tournament (online or not) sees more careers, countries and personality types than you can fit in the average office building: And it’s a great way of learning, simply, how to interact with people.

It’s also a fair reason to teach bridge in schools: Would there be less overall issues if kids could get rid of the stress around the card table?

6. Art

While I don’t have any current aspirations to be a fine artist myself, I can say that I appreciate art in all of its forms – from performance through to the combination of oil on canvas.

Card decks and art are interlinked, especially if you include elaborate tarot decks in this equation too.

Playing bridge has allowed for the exploration of some fascinating card decks, fantastic illustrators and great art: And again, it’s something I likely would never have seen if it hadn’t been for bridge.