As the summer holidays approach, you don’t always feel like burying yourself into your language books. However, it’s best to keep in touch with your target language, even when you’re on holiday. Fortunately, there are plenty of entertaining ways to learn a language in an enjoyable way. Vocabulary, spelling, speaking… Here are 5 games to learn all aspects of a language in a fun way.
1. Time’s up: fun and friendly
Whether it’s a barbecue with friends or an evening out with the family, Time’s up is the game that will set the mood! The principle is simple, you have to form teams and make your partners guess as many famous people as possible. You can play this game in the language of your choice.
During the first round, you can use as many words as you want to describe your characters. This allows you to work on your oral expression.
In the second round, you are allowed only one word: choose it carefully! This is an opportunity to work on your memory and vocabulary.
In the last round: forget the languages, it’s time for mimes! This is the most fun part of the game.
To find out how to play Time’s up, see the Game Rules. If you don’t have the official game, you can simply create your own character cards on small pieces of paper.
Note: for a family version, replace the famous people with everyday objects.
2. Scattergories: go back to childhood!
Who hasn’t played scattergories as a child? All you need is a sheet of paper and a pen for each player.
Choose a few themes such as “jobs”, “fruit and vegetables”, etc., in the language of your choice.
One participant chooses a letter of the alphabet at random. Then, for each theme, everyone has to find words starting with that letter as quickly as possible.
Example of a scattergories round in English with the letter C:
- first name : Charles ;
- animal : cat ;
- country : China ;
- fruit : cherry ;
- city : Canberra ;
- profession : carpenter ;
- etc.
This is the best way to learn and use basic vocabulary without spending hours re-reading your vocabulary cards.
3. Ba Ba Dum: learning a language while having fun version 2.0
Can’t find anyone willing to play with you in your target language? You can always turn to the Ba Ba Dum website.
This site offers you the opportunity to revise more than 1,500 words through 5 free games. You can even log in to save your best results and see the records of other players.
English, Spanish, Russian, Turkish… Ba Ba Dum is available in more than twenty languages.
Each word is read by a linguist so you can know the exact pronunciation. Unlike other online games, on Ba Ba Dum, all the words have been checked by a team of professional translators.
4. Scrabble: the most intellectual one
Do we still need to introduce Scrabble? As you know, the aim of this game is to create words using 7 letters and then place them on a grid. The aim is to place the most complex words possible in order to obtain the maximum number of points.
This is probably the best game to improve your spelling, as a misspelled word will not increase your score!
If you already have this board game, you can use it to play in any language that uses the same alphabet. If not, there are many smartphone apps that allow you to play Scrabble in any language you want.
5. Hangman: simple and effective
Hangman is a simple game for two or more people to review their vocabulary. One of the players (the judge) thinks of a word and writes it on a sheet of paper (or a board), with as many dashes as the number of letters in the word. The other player (the convict) has to guess the letters to find the word.
For each correct answer, the judge writes the letter. If the letter does not appear in the word, the judge draws an element of the gallows. The convict must guess the entire word before being “hanged” by the judge.
Of course, there can be more than two players. In this case, the convicts play in teams.
If you are looking for a fun way to improve your language skills during your holiday, you can choose from the 5 ideas we have just given you. Alternatively, you can always book a distance learning language course with your 1to1PROGRESS trainers!