What are some family games that dont require speaking the same language?

poker, war (the card game).

Are you going to be able to run around? or is this mostly an indoor activity?

Magic tricks seem to transcend the age/language barrier.

I agree with @ChazMaz in that I have always found simple card games to be best when there is a language barrier. War is a perfect suggestion.
A physical type of game that has also works well without communication is to blindfold someone, spin them around and let them “catch” the other people. Of course the first person who is tagged will be blindfolded next.

Uno

Memory or concentration with cards. You lay them out in a grid on a table top and players uncover two at a time, then turn them back over. The goal is to start identifying and picking up pairs, then removing them from the grid. The one with the most cards at the end wins.. Great for kids that age.

Cards. Crazy 8’s, Go fish, 21, Memory (oh, I just noticed @janbb just wrote memory)

Dots (you know when you make the boxes by attaching the dots, and count them up)

If you can get an adult to write out a bunch of simple word in both Hebrew and English, you might be able to make up your own game of pictionary.

Chess, card games, hangman, and many more.

Dominos, Aggrevation, puzzles, Checkers.

Hide and seek
Marco Polo (can’t everyone say that)

@ItsAHabit Hangman?

Games with a ball, large or small. Games with marbles. Games with a rope. Are the cousins boys or girls? Old-fashioned games like jacks, dolls, and hopscotch cross language barriers.

I’d have to guess that there are not too many things that kids with that age range could play together, language barrier or no. How about finding something they do all play and then joining in?

Hangman is a word game. You have to be well matched in a common language to play it. It would not be recommended for people who use two different writing systems.

Charades.

Twister, sardines (the reverse of Hide and Seek), pick-up-sticks, jigsaw puzzles, marbles, mumblety-pegs.

@gailcalled a puzzle is a great idea.

chess.

Or you could just invite @zenele to play with the kids!

@janbb GA.

@gailcalled lurvin sardines haven’t seen kids playing that for ages, may hae to reintroduce it to my daughter!

Yahtzee

@sakura: That was the game of choice as we hit puberty. It gave us a chance to schmoosh in with a member of the opposite sex. And we always played outdoors.

Clue, you have to say certain words in one language but you don’t have to speak in complete sentences. Plus there are pictures that go along with the words.

My family’s favorite game is Skippo. Just numbers there.

Pico, Fermi, Bagel is a neat game that teaches logic and doesn’t require a lot of speech (although you might need someone to translate the rules). Fun, educational, easy to learn, and just uses numbers and those 3 words.

@gailcalled maybe I shouldn’t introduce it to my daughter then ; )

@sakura: It depends on how old she is. We were innocents during the Eisenhower Era so it didn’t take much to give us good dreams.

“Post Office” and “Spin the Bottle” transcend language barriers also.