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📖 Thai: let them talk first, and write afterwards

Four games that get the room using language out loud before anybody writes anything — proverbs, verbs, telling a story, and actually listening to each other.

Thai⏱ 20 minutes

The problem it solves

You set a piece of writing and the room goes silent — because nobody has said the thing out loud even once before being asked to put it on paper.

What you need

  • A screen or projector at the front
  • One sheet of paper each, for the last step

Run it like this

  1. 5min

    Open Proverb Halves and let the room complete them together — then, every time, ask what it means and when you would say it.

    “Now that we have it — who has heard somebody actually say this?”

  2. 5min

    Play Verb Spell one learner at a time, with the seated room spelling it out loud together.

  3. 7min

    In threes, play Two Truths One Lie. They have to listen to a whole sentence from somebody else and actually take it in to guess right.

    “Listen to the whole thing before you guess.”

  4. 3min

    Now write three lines: the true thing about you that people got wrong, then open it into a paragraph. Everybody now has something to write about.

A way in for the learner who isn't ready

A learner who will not speak in front of the class holds the screen or presses the buttons. They are fully in the activity, hearing exactly as much language as everybody else, without having to say a word.

When it goes sideways

They argue about what a proverb means

Let them. Ask each side for a situation where it would be said — that argument is a better lesson than the answer.

One group goes quiet

Sit down with them and take one turn yourself, as a player and not as a supervisor.

Open these

🪷 Half a ProverbThe first half of a Thai saying is on the board. Where does the rest of it go?🔤 Spell the ActionA painting of somebody doing something. Stretch the word out, hear the sounds, and lay the letters down in order.🤔 Two Truths, One LieThe screen deals six statements; you pick two that are true of you and one that is not, and the room guesses which. It ends by printing two real things about everybody.🖼️ Name the PictureA painted thing, and one question: what is it called? No options, no clock.

If the screen fails you

Half a proverb on each slip; they walk about and find the person holding the other half.