Games for conversation practice: a collection of ideas everyone can enjoy
“I can’t keep a conversation going.” “I’m not good at talking with people I’ve just met.” Do you have these conversation-related worries? In fact, games are perfect for practicing conversation! Simple rules naturally spark dialogue—and laughter too! In this article, we introduce games that let everyone enjoy practicing conversation together.
From telephone (whisper-down-the-lane) and finding common ground to coordination/communication games, they’re all easy to use as workplace icebreakers or at get-togethers with friends.
Your communication skills will naturally improve through these games, so give them a try!
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A game for practicing conversation. A collection of ideas everyone can enjoy (11–20)
Marshmallow Challenge
The classic “Marshmallow Challenge” is a staple of icebreakers and team-building.
It’s a simple game where a team works together to build a marshmallow tower—but it’s surprisingly deep.
The tower is complete once you can place a marshmallow at the very top.
However, there are restrictions: you can’t secure the base with tape, and cutting the marshmallow is not allowed.
Besides the marshmallow, the only materials you may use are spaghetti, tape, and string.
Discuss with your team how to proceed so you can successfully complete the tower.
Telephone game
The telephone game is a classic recreation activity.
Starting with the person at one end of a single line, they pass a prompt word to the next person so that no one else can hear.
It continues in order—so that no one else can hear—to the next person, and then the next…
and you enjoy seeing whether the message makes it all the way to the end correctly.
Because everyone whispers quietly into each other’s ears, the low volume often makes it hard to communicate clearly, so the message frequently gets garbled.
But that’s part of the fun—it gets everyone laughing and really livens things up.
Commonality-Finding Game
It’s a perfect game to kick off a conversation by looking for commonalities among the participants.
However, since the goal is to find something everyone has in common, it can be brutally never-ending in some cases.
It’s important to identify topics that are likely to overlap—for example, narrowing the genre and asking about favorites, or conversely focusing on things people dislike.
The difficulty increases as the number of members grows, so it’s recommended to start with rules like “clear if it applies to a certain number of people,” and gradually make it harder.
Communication game
A communication game where each person contributes one character at a time to collectively produce a single answer that matches the prompt. For example, if the prompt is “a red fruit” and you want to align on “ringo” (apple), players would present り, ん, and ご one character at a time; if the word comes together perfectly, you succeed.
しかし、「り」や「ち」や「ご」のように有効な単語にならないものになってしまったら失敗です。
The number of characters in the answer changes depending on the number of players, so be careful.
It’s best with a small group of about 2–5 people.
You can enjoy it with close friends, coworkers, or family.
Who am I? game
It’s a game where you try to figure out the theme based on a back-and-forth of questions and answers.
The key is what kinds of questions you ask—by narrowing the scope step by step, you can enjoy the feeling of getting closer to the answer.
Setting rules, such as a time limit or asking only yes/no questions, helps you focus and makes the game more engaging.
If you still can’t figure it out, it’s also a good idea to give hints that help guide players toward the answer, like sharing the category of the theme.
In conclusion
There are many games that are perfect for practicing conversation, and the appeal of all of them is that you can enjoy the process while naturally growing closer to the other participants.
Some games even let you discover unexpected sides of others, so the circle of communication will keep expanding.
Whether you’re with people you’ve just met or coworkers, enjoy plenty of conversation through these games!