I went into my local dry cleaners at the weekend and the lady behind the till spotted my wife’s Italian accent.
Apparently she is learning Italian too, and we had a chat for about 30 minutes between us about learning Italian.
We spoke about ways to learn and she said she loves doing crosswords in Italian. She also taught me the word for crossword in Italian but I’ve forgotten it! @Ottavia-Mandarin_Simplified_HS maybe you can help
Anyway we spoke about how useful games are when learning a language and that brought me onto my favourite Italian game show, Caduta Libera.
It’s a fun word game where people have to fill in the blanks to create a word. Whilst it’s a level above me I often get 3-4 correct per episode which is quite a nice feeling (this without subtitles too).
I wondered if any of you use word games, either on paper or TV, to learn a language.
BONUS || one of our writers, Elisa from Italy, wrote this great article about her favourite Italian TV game show.
FUN FACT || she actually appeared on the first one in the list. I watched and she did a great job!
There’s no way I could see this post and not comment about Chinese chess!
aka: 象棋 xiàngqí
This game is a super fun way for chess learners to learn/reinforce certain vocab, like:
象 (xiàng) - Elephant
马 (mǎ) - Horse
炮 (pào) - Cannon
兵 (bīng) - Soldier
河 (hé) - River
It also has a few ‘cultural’ differences from Western chess, which adds some interesting context to the game! One example is the soldiers (equivalent to pawns) not being able to get promoted once they cross the other side, which some people say reflects the stronger presence of rigid hierarchies in Chinese culture
My Chinese teacher used to make us play Taboo in Chinese and it was super fun and also very useful to improve the vocabulary skills because you had to make people guess the word you had on your card by explaining it using different Chinese words.
The queen of reality shows and games is @Hannah tho, she always have a new one for every occasion
It’s always nice when a random everyday situation turns into a meaningful language exchange. I completely agree — games are such an effective and fun way to reinforce what you’ve learned.
I haven’t tried Caduta Libera yet, but it sounds like a perfect mix of challenge and entertainment. I usually play word association games or use language apps that include mini word puzzles — they help me think faster in the target language and make vocabulary stick more naturally.
And yes, doing things like crosswords or watching shows without subtitles really takes comprehension to the next level. It’s a great feeling when you start catching more words than you expect!
More info here if anyone wants to learn how to play: 
