Lately I’ve been feeling like my Japanese language skills have been fading. I haven’t been studying nearly as much as I used to and it seems like, when I watch anime, I’m glancing at the subtitles at the bottom of the screen a lot more that I once did. I can’t even remember the last time I clicked on my Duolingo app on my phone! Though I’m very happy with my progress with my New Year’s resolutions to walk more and learn Blender, that doesn’t mean I want to forget the good habits I had before the new year started! So to inspire myself to get back into the habit of language studying, I decided to rummage around in my old books and notes on language games, and I found a really good one that I just had to share! This is a game I learned in one of my language classes while I was at university, and I wrote down the rules because it really was fun and helped me learn a lot.

Rules

This is a fairly simple game that can be played in a group or solo. Much like traditional Bingo, the goal is to get as many matches from your card as possible. Getting a full black-out is best, but getting all the matches vertically or horizontally is also pretty good. 1. Start with a “Card”, a grid with a Japanese word in each box (see example below). 2. While watching an subbed episode of anime, listen carefully for a character to say one of the words on the card. 3. As you hear the words, mark off that matching word on your card. 4. When you’ve heard every word in a vertical or horizontal line that’s Bingo! Special: If you want an extra challenge, you can go for a “Black-out”, meaning you have to watch anime until you hear a match for every word on the card!

Example

Here is an example of a Anime Bingo card you can use, or you can also make your own with a lined sheet of paper. Feel free to check out my list of 100 Anime Exclamations for help finding words to create your cards. Hope you have lots of fun with this, I know I will!

Nani!	Ohaiyo!	Hayaku!	Mo ii?	Anata!
Honto?	Saiko!	Okii!	Hanase!	Shinde!
Kawaii!	Ja ne!	Onnegai!	Chotto ma te!	Zuto zuto!
Itadakimasu!	Sumimasen	Kochira!	Dekita!	Omoi!
Baka!	Oishi!	Umi!	Ganbatte!	Urusai!