What to play when the room does not share a language
Every family gathering has somebody being translated for.
· 5 min read
The situation nobody writes about
A lot of family gatherings contain at least one person who is being quietly translated for. A grandparent who is fluent in a language the grandchildren only half speak. A cousin visiting from abroad. A partner meeting everyone for the first time.
They are usually fine, because conversation absorbs it. Games do not. Almost every party game is a vocabulary test wearing a hat — charades needs shared films, word games need shared words, trivia needs a shared education — and the person being translated for ends up spectating a game everybody keeps insisting they are included in.
The games below need no vocabulary at all. Not simplified vocabulary: none.
Pictures do the work
Draw & Guess is the obvious one and deserves the reputation. A drawing of a cat is a cat in every language, and the guessing can happen out loud in whatever anybody has — the app only needs the answer typed, and that is one word.
Telephone Pictionary is better still for a mixed room, and it is the one worth actually trying. A phrase becomes a drawing, becomes somebody else's guess, becomes another drawing, and the chain is read out at the end. Because each step is short and private, nobody is put on the spot in front of the room, and the drawings carry the meaning between the people whose words do not overlap.
It has a second advantage here that is easy to miss: the funniest outcome is a misunderstanding, so a room where misunderstandings are already happening is not disadvantaged. It is the one game on this list that actively benefits from the situation.
Games with no words at all
Memory Match asks nothing of anyone but attention, which makes it the reliable choice for a group spanning eighty years and three languages. A five-year-old and a grandparent play it on exactly equal terms, and usually the five-year-old wins.
Reaction Grid is the same idea with more shouting. A tile lights up and the fastest tap scores. It takes ten seconds to explain by demonstration, which is the real test — if a game can be taught without a shared language, it can be played without one.
Emoji Decode sits in between and comes with a caveat. The emoji are universal but the answers are films, so it works beautifully if the room shares a film culture and not at all if it does not. Check before you reach for it.
What to avoid, kindly
Skip anything where the answer is a phrase rather than a thing. Word Chain and Atlas are both excellent and both depend entirely on vocabulary depth in one language.
Skip the writing games, for the same reason with more exposure attached — being the slowest writer in a room is visible in a way being the slowest guesser is not.
And skip anything timed tightly. A clock turns a language gap into a disadvantage, where a relaxed pace turns it into nothing much at all. Most of the games above let the host set the timer, and the right move is usually to make it longer than you think.
The games in this post
Emoji Decode
Guess the movie, show or phrase from emoji clues.
2–10 players
Draw & Guess
One person draws, everyone races to guess it.
2–10 players
Telephone Pictionary
Write it, draw it, guess it, draw the guess. Read the books at the end.
4–10 players
Memory Match
Flip cards two at a time and remember where the pairs are.
2–10 players
More like these on Games for Family.