Creative Language Learning at Its Best: Private Joke ® at the World Languages Conference in Basel
Last weekend at the World Languages Conference in Basel, Switzerland 🇨🇭, I led a workshop called Private Joke ® Where Language Learning Meets Future-Ready Fun.
When I asked the 40 or so teachers what drew them in with dozens of other highly experienced language educators to be inspired by, they shouted in unison ...
"FUN" ... and honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many teachers laugh.
We played the short and long version of the game: teams in English, French, and Spanish competed to invent new words for oddly specific human experiences.
I also shared my personal journey from the bottom of my year in languages, to an MPhil at Cambridge, meeting Emmanuel Macron this summer as a Franco-British Young Leader, and being able to go on many, many incredible adventures due to having stuck with languages (French & Chinese), no matter how challenging I found them.
Once teachers had created their words, they guessed which real foreign words existed for those feelings - a hilarious, chaotic, and deeply human process that led to brilliant reflections on how language connects emotion, culture, and creativity.
My message? Private Joke ® is not just a game. It's a tool to unlock the 21st century skills we so desperately need to be imparting to the next generation.
What teachers said
Feedback from the session came in at 4.2 / 5 ⭐ , with words like fun, inspiring, unique, and interactive cropping up again and again.
Several teachers said they planned to use the game for language clubs, DP word family lessons, or units on untranslatable words, noting how it would encourage students to take creative risks with vocabulary and pronunciation. Here's the feedback in its rawest form:
❤️ What Teachers Loved Most
“Inventing words” (6+ mentions)
“Playing together / competition / teamwork”
“Social connection + laughter”
“Thought-provoking discussion”
“The personal touch and story behind the game”
🧩 How They’ll Use It
Phonics and word learning
Word families in DP / IB
Language clubs
Morphology lessons
Building confidence
Units on untranslatable words
The conference itself
Organised by Laura Owens at the International School of Basel, no detail was left untouched. From coffee cups to certificates of participation, teachers from Frankfurt to Dubai came together to share ideas and learn.
It was great catching up with folks I've met previously such as Dr Liam Printer, whose new book, Captain Super Sleep, was recently brought to life following a successful Kickstarter campaign (highly recommend!), as well as Joe Dale, who is the King of automating and AI'ing the living daylights out of your language classrooms.
I also got to meet the lovely Monique Francis, Founder & Author of JapanEasyReads and Sohelie Zafar who is organising the Beyond the Language Barrier CPD event from Discover the World Education which I'll also be presenting at on November 29th in Bradford. Sign up here.
Since I currently build Private Joke ® alone and from the confines of my attic, my inner Golden Retriever was thrilled for some in-person collaboration, idea-generation, and physical play time.
The bigger picture
Underneath the fun, Private Joke ® is about something serious: helping people rediscover language learning as an act of curiosity and emotional intelligence, not rote memorisation. As one teacher said, “I learnt new words, but I also remembered why I love teaching them.”
In a world where AI does the boring stuff, the future belongs to those who can communicate creatively, empathetically, and playfully - across cultures and across languages. That’s exactly what Private Joke ® is designed to spark.
Next stop: the German edition, more classroom workshops, and a few new surprises in the pipeline.
Until then, here’s to more laughter, more learning, and a few more untranslatable words that bring us together.
👉 Learn more or try the print-and-play classroom version at privatejoke.org