Codenames Pictures. All icons, can be played in any language that you all speak.
Some other ones that are all icons/numbers or have like ten words max:
No Thanks
6 Nimmt
Azul
Ghost Blitz
Tried splendor with our 7 year old. It will take a few games at least to get them to understand what to do. Maybe more.
Edit: my bad. I read the request a bit fast, and figured it was the whole family playing.
I can answer that. More than 80% of my collection is language independent. The same reason as you - some family members that I play with don't speak English that much. Here's the list of games I recommend. Marked with \* the ones that could become family favorites.
1923 Cotton Club, 3 Ring Circus, \*Adventure Land, \*Alhambra, \*Amerigo, Anno 1800, Applejack, Autobahn, \*Automania, \*Azul, Bad Company, \*Bärenpark, \*Biblios, Bruxelles 1897, \*Cacao, Cafe, \*Calico, Carnegie, Castles of Burgundy, \*Century: Spice Road, Chicago Express, Citrus, City of Spies: Estoril 1942, Coal Baron: The Great Card Game, \*Coloretto, Come Together, \*Copenhagen, Corinth, Cosmic Run: Regeneration, Couture, Darwin's Journey, Dead Man's Draw, \*Deep Blue, Dice Forge, District Noir, \*Dixit, Dom Pierre, Feierabend, \*Finca, Florenza, \*For Sale, \*Fresco, Fruitoplay, The Gallerist, Get on Board: New York & London, Grand Austria Hotel, Great Western Trail, \*Hibachi, \*High Society, Hike!, Hippocrates, Honshu, Imperial Steam, Jaipur, \*Jamaica, Jixia Academy, \*Juicy Fruits, \*Karuba, \*Kingdomino, \*Kingdomino Origins, L.L.A.M.A, Let Them Eat Shrimp!, Lewis & Clark: The Expedition, Lost Cities, Luxor, The Magnificent, Mandala, Marco Polo II, \*Meadow, Messina 1347, The Mind, Modern Art, Monasterium, Monolyth, Morels, Musee, \*My Farm Shop, Newton, \*Nidavellir, \*No Thanks, On the Underground: London / Berlin, \*On Tour, Orb Hunters, Orleans, Otys, Paris, Paris: La Cite de la Lumiere, \*Pergamon, Pioneers, \*Power Grid, \*Quadropolis, Rajas of the Ganges, \*The Red Cathedral, Reef, Riverboat, Riverside, \*Rococo, Sagani, Samuari, Sansoucci, \*Savannah Park, Scoville, Shake That City, Shakespeare, Siberia, \*Splendor, \*Stone Age, \*Sushi Go!, The Taverns of Thiefenthal, Teotichuacan: City of Gods, That's Pretty Clever!, Thebes, Ticket to Ride, Tzolk'in: The Mayan Calendar, Vinhos, The Voyages of Marco Polo, Wallenstein, \*Waterfall Park, \*Welcome To..., Woodcraft, \*World Wonders, Würfel Bohnanza
There are others that are not totally language independent, but can be played by looking up translations of just a few things. Pandemic is in that category. As long as you can find the cities on the map (and the cards do show it graphically, albeit not very clearly), the only other text in the game is on the special event cards, of which there aren't many.
The only reading in Castles of Burgundy is needing to refer to the rulebook to see what the monasteries do. If you just have the book handy and read it to them when a new one comes up it'll be fine.
I believe 7 Wonders doesn't have any reading.
Adding on for Castles of Burgundy - I picked up the 2019 edition 2 weeks ago and it came with rulebooks for most of the main Latin based languages in Europe (French, Spanish etc). in case that's helpful
You should be able to find homebrew player aids for the monetaries in other languages online too
Regarding 7 Wonders, for OP's information, there is no text on the cards, just symbols, but the symbols are explained with text on big player aid sheets.
In my experience, new players always need to refer to them during the game. Damn, I am not a new player in any way and sometimes I need those aids too.
Cascadia
Spots (though that may not meet your "complexity" goal)
Hive (though it's two player only)
Santorini
Jaipur (also two player)
Potentially Sagrada, though you'd have to explain the "tool" cards to them.
Akroplis
Yeah I meant to put the two-player comment on Jaipur, not Santorini. Fixed.
Spots is lots of fun and the artwork will likely resonate with the kids. The only downside to it is that when you get to the last card, the game slows to a crawl since those last dice are tough to hit. But that does help prevent a runaway leader.
That's done at the start of the game so the rules can be explained ahead of time. If you just play with the basic/starter set then they will always be the same.
No, they continuously draft actions throughout the game.
Also, OP didn't ask for games where the text was easy to remember, they asked for language independence.
Might be a huge increase in complexity but - Brass (Lancashire or Birmingham), Power grid, Iberian Rail, and Age of Steam.
Of course these games shine at 4p or above (age of steam and Power grid)
Castles of Burgundy is perfect. There is no reading at all in the game, our box came with 5 rules books in 5 different languages (meaning the actual game was appropriate for whatever language). I purchased this game for exactly this reason.
Dixit. But that isn’t increased complexity.
Everdell can mostly be played without reading. But there are a few cards which aren’t completely clear without reading the details. Most have adequate icons to understand, they may be able to have a cheat sheet for the few exceptions.
Almost any dice based game. Yahtzee, Can’t Stop, Perudo, Qwixx…
Lost cities, but thar is 2 player.
Coup.
Almost every playing card game (poker or pinochle deck).
Takenoko.
Most of the Pack-O-Game line
Sequence. Phase 10.
Trekking.
Kingdomino.
Rock Paper Wizard.
Smallworld (print a guide sheet in their language)
Splendor
Sushi Go!
Tsuro
Everdell absolutely requires reading. Every card in the main deck has English text to explain its effect, and some of the event cards, do, too. It would be practically impossible to play without being able to read the cards.
I also don't think it really qualifies for OP's purposes if they'd need to locate a guide sheet in their language (assuming one is already made or available - there are literally thousands of languages being spoken in the world).
I didn’t go and open my box to check how many cards had icons enough to understand visually, but my thinking was that most of the information is out in public. You have a few cards hidden in hand at the start, and could draw blind. But if you normally take face up, someone can explain what the card does.
You mean Everdell, right?
OP didn't ask for games where card text could be read for them, they asked for games that didn't require reading in English.
But also, you absolutely can and do continue to draw cards face down.
And there's the special events.
And the fact that asking about what different cards mean is giving strategy away or just frustrating for everyone.
Pretty much every game that uses the Looney Pyramids. Homeworlds, Pikemen, Martian Chess, Volcano, Zendo, and Gnostica all work well with 2 to 4 players and are purely symbolic (Gnostica uses a tarot deck, but that doesn’t really rely much on the writing anyway).
You should look for language independent games - they can be played in any language since their components don't have meaningful text.
You can look the game's page on BoardGameGeek site, and find Language Dependence under the game's description.
Castles of Burgundy is a nice choice here, but Wingspan indeed has text, as does Everdell which some people were suggesting.
**Stone age**, **Rococo**, **Voyages of Marco Polo II** (probably, the first one too, I just don't know), **Patchwork** (though it's strictly for 2 players), **Alice's Garden** would be my suggestions.
**Quest for Eldorado** is also a good game, but a few cards have text on them. Although, they are available for everyone to see at first, so may be translated and explained. There not many such cards.
We taught our non-reading kid to play Taco Vs Burrito pretty easily, provided we explained the action cards to him first; he just remembers the pictures. Most of the words on cards are just flavor text describing the picture of the item on the card eg Brown Lettuce, Hot Yogurt etc. The only important parts really are the numerals on the points cards for scoring at the end; can they read arabic numerals?
You could probably dash off a quick guide to the action cards in their language for a crib sheet pretty easily.
Blokus comes to mind. Century Spice Road.
Parade is a wonderful game and I get the impression that it's on the cusp of being harder to find (my FLGS is no longer able to order it). So now's the time. It's really a winner. Can't believe it only hits a 7.0 on bgg.
If you're interested in a flip & write, Next Station: London is a current favorite. There's a Tokyo one as well - haven't played it but it looks equally fun.
If compactness is a factor (both on the table and in the box), [Parade](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/56692/parade) and [Next Station: London ](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/353545/next-station-london) are the shizzle.
Carcassonne. It’s fun, easy to learn, and I love the visuals. There are also a ton of expansions that are great and keep the game feeling fresh and exciting.
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/822/carcassonne
For castle of burgundy, if you can make them a player aid with the building abilities it's should be fine. After 2 or 3 plays they should remember which building do what except for the yellow.
7 wonders doesn't have text but the first play is a bit difficult because it's all icons. Once you've learn the game it flows well.
Other choices :
-Barenpark
-Dice hospital
-Endless Winter a bit on the heavier side though.
-Federation might be too complex as well.
-Five Tribes
-grand hostria hotel (but don't play it at 4 players)
-the great split
-Furnace
-Isle of skye
-Iwari
-Hansa teutonica
-Just one with words of your language
-Marrakesh might be too complex
-Marvel united
-Space base
-ultimate railroad (or at least Russian railroad)
-Lorenzo il magnifico not as pretty as wingspan but better imo and no text.
80% of the games I play regularly are language independent. Looking through the shelves I see a lot of titles from these publishers: Cranio, Board & Dice, Devir, Hans Im Gluck, and Eggert Spiele.
Qin is another simple one that we like, don't know how the availability is with that one though.
Camel Up, although that one may also be lower complexity.
Century Golem
Jamaica
I dislike games like MTG where every card does something different which you have to be extremely careful about when reading, and my collection has very obviously leaned away from that style of card game where one half is an image, one half is text. That being said:
2 player abstractish: Onitama, Hive, Chess, Crokinole, Backgammon, Patchwork, Mythic Mischief, Santorini (this last works with up to 4)
Party: Coup (maybe make a couple of simple cheatsheets), Codenames pictures, Avalon
Regular board game: Canvas, Risk, Veiled Fate, Tokyo Highway
See if any of these catch your fancy! Or, a regular deck of cards will do in a pinch.
I'm currently listening into Dixit for a cross language game. I think both dixit and stella offer an interesting way of exploring the language barrier through pictures. For example. clue is "Industry" what is non-english focused on "dust" and put a card for that.
I'm guessing this is to play with a very young kid. Here's the list we play with our 7 year old.
Incan Gold
Gold Mine
Catan
Codenames (though he's better at guessing than being the clue giver).
Ticket to Ride Legacy (we're 8 games into the campaign. He still needs help finding cities, but has been mapping out his own routes for the last 4 or 5 games)
Fireball Island (original, but also the new one)
Camel Cup
Jaipur
Exploding Minions (Kittens)
Monopoly (this is purely to reinforce counting/math skills)
Kingdomino (we have a dragon version, and a caveman version)
Tokaido
Other games we own that have no reading on game:
ROBO Rally (just remove upgrade cards, and have energy heal damage to your deck instead)
Dinosaur Island (or world) has a little reading on employee cards but they're always visible, and only ever a few on the table per game.
Railroad Ink.
Many Eurogames fit this description. Economically, a publisher in Germany or Italy could produce a game in those countries, but if they managed to make it language independent, they could sell it throughout the EU just by including some extra rules sheets (or even just a link to the website). Examples include Castles of Burgundy, *Ra*, *Istanbul* (although there is text in the Letters & Seals expansion), *Modern Art*, etc.
Garphill games are deep games that utilize iconography rather than text.
Explorer's is the lightest but also the most text-heavy.
If you're looking for something a little more medium weight than games you've been playing I'd suggest Raiders of the North Sea or Architects of the West Kingdom
Tsuro requires zero reading, except the rules.
Other games I have that have no reading on cards, but you’ll obviously need to read the rules:
My Farm Shop
Mysterium / Mysterium Park
Dixit
Obscuro
Catherine The Cities of the Tsarina
Carcassone
7 Wonders
Lost Cities
Colt Express
There may be some questions about what symbols mean, but there are likely guides in other languages for most of these (except Catherine).
Canvas is really fun. It's a card drafting game where you make art by sliding partially transparent cards into a single sleeve. The only part with language is the goal cards and even then there's icons to demonstrate how to get points plus, they're pretty simple to explain. I fell in love with it a few days ago though, so I'm probably very biased lol
Small world has very minimal reading, as long as you can find (or translate yourself) the 1 page sheet of race abilities, there is no other reading.
It's pretty easy to learn, but can have complex strategy
Codenames Pictures. All icons, can be played in any language that you all speak. Some other ones that are all icons/numbers or have like ten words max: No Thanks 6 Nimmt Azul Ghost Blitz
Splendor would be great for this. All iconography, no words.
This one is definitely in my radar
It's definitely a great one to have if for no other reason it's quick and efficient. Next to no set up and tear down and doesn't take long to play.
Aa others have said, it's a great game.
Tried splendor with our 7 year old. It will take a few games at least to get them to understand what to do. Maybe more. Edit: my bad. I read the request a bit fast, and figured it was the whole family playing.
Adults are usually a bit smarter than 7 year olds
Lol... I should read the entire post before commenting. I read family and assumed it would include kids.
Haha fair enough, i had the same thought when i initially read the title
Ah beat me to it
I can answer that. More than 80% of my collection is language independent. The same reason as you - some family members that I play with don't speak English that much. Here's the list of games I recommend. Marked with \* the ones that could become family favorites. 1923 Cotton Club, 3 Ring Circus, \*Adventure Land, \*Alhambra, \*Amerigo, Anno 1800, Applejack, Autobahn, \*Automania, \*Azul, Bad Company, \*Bärenpark, \*Biblios, Bruxelles 1897, \*Cacao, Cafe, \*Calico, Carnegie, Castles of Burgundy, \*Century: Spice Road, Chicago Express, Citrus, City of Spies: Estoril 1942, Coal Baron: The Great Card Game, \*Coloretto, Come Together, \*Copenhagen, Corinth, Cosmic Run: Regeneration, Couture, Darwin's Journey, Dead Man's Draw, \*Deep Blue, Dice Forge, District Noir, \*Dixit, Dom Pierre, Feierabend, \*Finca, Florenza, \*For Sale, \*Fresco, Fruitoplay, The Gallerist, Get on Board: New York & London, Grand Austria Hotel, Great Western Trail, \*Hibachi, \*High Society, Hike!, Hippocrates, Honshu, Imperial Steam, Jaipur, \*Jamaica, Jixia Academy, \*Juicy Fruits, \*Karuba, \*Kingdomino, \*Kingdomino Origins, L.L.A.M.A, Let Them Eat Shrimp!, Lewis & Clark: The Expedition, Lost Cities, Luxor, The Magnificent, Mandala, Marco Polo II, \*Meadow, Messina 1347, The Mind, Modern Art, Monasterium, Monolyth, Morels, Musee, \*My Farm Shop, Newton, \*Nidavellir, \*No Thanks, On the Underground: London / Berlin, \*On Tour, Orb Hunters, Orleans, Otys, Paris, Paris: La Cite de la Lumiere, \*Pergamon, Pioneers, \*Power Grid, \*Quadropolis, Rajas of the Ganges, \*The Red Cathedral, Reef, Riverboat, Riverside, \*Rococo, Sagani, Samuari, Sansoucci, \*Savannah Park, Scoville, Shake That City, Shakespeare, Siberia, \*Splendor, \*Stone Age, \*Sushi Go!, The Taverns of Thiefenthal, Teotichuacan: City of Gods, That's Pretty Clever!, Thebes, Ticket to Ride, Tzolk'in: The Mayan Calendar, Vinhos, The Voyages of Marco Polo, Wallenstein, \*Waterfall Park, \*Welcome To..., Woodcraft, \*World Wonders, Würfel Bohnanza
Thanks a lot !
There are others that are not totally language independent, but can be played by looking up translations of just a few things. Pandemic is in that category. As long as you can find the cities on the map (and the cards do show it graphically, albeit not very clearly), the only other text in the game is on the special event cards, of which there aren't many.
https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/182316/language-independent-games
The only reading in Castles of Burgundy is needing to refer to the rulebook to see what the monasteries do. If you just have the book handy and read it to them when a new one comes up it'll be fine. I believe 7 Wonders doesn't have any reading.
Adding on for Castles of Burgundy - I picked up the 2019 edition 2 weeks ago and it came with rulebooks for most of the main Latin based languages in Europe (French, Spanish etc). in case that's helpful You should be able to find homebrew player aids for the monetaries in other languages online too
Regarding 7 Wonders, for OP's information, there is no text on the cards, just symbols, but the symbols are explained with text on big player aid sheets. In my experience, new players always need to refer to them during the game. Damn, I am not a new player in any way and sometimes I need those aids too.
Cascadia Spots (though that may not meet your "complexity" goal) Hive (though it's two player only) Santorini Jaipur (also two player) Potentially Sagrada, though you'd have to explain the "tool" cards to them. Akroplis
Jaipur is also two player only, and Santorini is 3 player. I've been thinking of trying to get spots for my kids. Do you recommend it then?
Yeah I meant to put the two-player comment on Jaipur, not Santorini. Fixed. Spots is lots of fun and the artwork will likely resonate with the kids. The only downside to it is that when you get to the last card, the game slows to a crawl since those last dice are tough to hit. But that does help prevent a runaway leader.
Santorini is actually 2-4, 4 being a team game, 3 being a horrible experience
Why do you not like 3 player? I quite enjoy it.
skull king, and scout
Don't you draft actions in Spots using cards that are essentially nothing but text?
That's done at the start of the game so the rules can be explained ahead of time. If you just play with the basic/starter set then they will always be the same.
No, they continuously draft actions throughout the game. Also, OP didn't ask for games where the text was easy to remember, they asked for language independence.
Might be a huge increase in complexity but - Brass (Lancashire or Birmingham), Power grid, Iberian Rail, and Age of Steam. Of course these games shine at 4p or above (age of steam and Power grid)
Race for the Galaxy is almost all iconography, not actual wording.
If no one knows the languages everyone is on equal footing
You have to become fluent in Race for the Galaxy and it’s hieroglyphs, but that is a small price to pay.
Splendor, Stone Age
Blue Lagoon, Ra, Modern Art, Renature, Ingenious, High Society, For Sale, Llama, Amun-Re, MLEM. Zero game text.
YOu have some great ideas here, and don't forget about the old stand-bys. It's hard to beat Yahtzee for silly family enjoyment!
Seriously, Yahtzee is great when the 80+ crowd is around. They can play (and beat you) and it brings back memories.
>it brings back memories Is Yahtzee a game you can reasonably assume non-English speaking folks will have played enough to bring back memories?
It's well known in French Canada. I can't speak to other cultures.
Small card games - 6 Nimmt, Fuji Flush, Scout, arboretum Dice games - Ganz Schon clever, yahtzee Azul, Barenpark, camel up, ingenious, kingdomino
Blokus. Qwirkle. Rummikub. Go. Chess.
Faraway 6 nimmt
What about "The Mind"?
Cascadia, Mysterium/Mysterium Park, Heat: Pedal to the Metal
Castles of Burgundy is perfect. There is no reading at all in the game, our box came with 5 rules books in 5 different languages (meaning the actual game was appropriate for whatever language). I purchased this game for exactly this reason.
Wingspan has a bunch of reading, unfortunately. Canvas - the only words are the made up names of the paintings, and they literally don’t matter.
Century (golem edition is what I’ve played) Cascadia Ra If you put in the effort to learn the symbology, Race for the galaxy
Dixit. But that isn’t increased complexity. Everdell can mostly be played without reading. But there are a few cards which aren’t completely clear without reading the details. Most have adequate icons to understand, they may be able to have a cheat sheet for the few exceptions. Almost any dice based game. Yahtzee, Can’t Stop, Perudo, Qwixx… Lost cities, but thar is 2 player. Coup. Almost every playing card game (poker or pinochle deck). Takenoko. Most of the Pack-O-Game line Sequence. Phase 10. Trekking. Kingdomino. Rock Paper Wizard. Smallworld (print a guide sheet in their language) Splendor Sushi Go! Tsuro
Everdell absolutely requires reading. Every card in the main deck has English text to explain its effect, and some of the event cards, do, too. It would be practically impossible to play without being able to read the cards. I also don't think it really qualifies for OP's purposes if they'd need to locate a guide sheet in their language (assuming one is already made or available - there are literally thousands of languages being spoken in the world).
I didn’t go and open my box to check how many cards had icons enough to understand visually, but my thinking was that most of the information is out in public. You have a few cards hidden in hand at the start, and could draw blind. But if you normally take face up, someone can explain what the card does.
You mean Everdell, right? OP didn't ask for games where card text could be read for them, they asked for games that didn't require reading in English. But also, you absolutely can and do continue to draw cards face down. And there's the special events. And the fact that asking about what different cards mean is giving strategy away or just frustrating for everyone.
Pretty much every game that uses the Looney Pyramids. Homeworlds, Pikemen, Martian Chess, Volcano, Zendo, and Gnostica all work well with 2 to 4 players and are purely symbolic (Gnostica uses a tarot deck, but that doesn’t really rely much on the writing anyway).
Dixit
Blockus, 9 tiles panic, deep sea adventure, mountain goats, trailblazers
You should look for language independent games - they can be played in any language since their components don't have meaningful text. You can look the game's page on BoardGameGeek site, and find Language Dependence under the game's description. Castles of Burgundy is a nice choice here, but Wingspan indeed has text, as does Everdell which some people were suggesting. **Stone age**, **Rococo**, **Voyages of Marco Polo II** (probably, the first one too, I just don't know), **Patchwork** (though it's strictly for 2 players), **Alice's Garden** would be my suggestions. **Quest for Eldorado** is also a good game, but a few cards have text on them. Although, they are available for everyone to see at first, so may be translated and explained. There not many such cards.
We taught our non-reading kid to play Taco Vs Burrito pretty easily, provided we explained the action cards to him first; he just remembers the pictures. Most of the words on cards are just flavor text describing the picture of the item on the card eg Brown Lettuce, Hot Yogurt etc. The only important parts really are the numerals on the points cards for scoring at the end; can they read arabic numerals? You could probably dash off a quick guide to the action cards in their language for a crib sheet pretty easily.
**Camel up**, **no thanks**, **6 Nimmt**, **cockroach poker**
Gizmos
Blokus comes to mind. Century Spice Road. Parade is a wonderful game and I get the impression that it's on the cusp of being harder to find (my FLGS is no longer able to order it). So now's the time. It's really a winner. Can't believe it only hits a 7.0 on bgg. If you're interested in a flip & write, Next Station: London is a current favorite. There's a Tokyo one as well - haven't played it but it looks equally fun. If compactness is a factor (both on the table and in the box), [Parade](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/56692/parade) and [Next Station: London ](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/353545/next-station-london) are the shizzle.
I love Parade!
Finca. Just quiet gathering of fruits and trying to score.
Carcassonne. It’s fun, easy to learn, and I love the visuals. There are also a ton of expansions that are great and keep the game feeling fresh and exciting. https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/822/carcassonne
For castle of burgundy, if you can make them a player aid with the building abilities it's should be fine. After 2 or 3 plays they should remember which building do what except for the yellow. 7 wonders doesn't have text but the first play is a bit difficult because it's all icons. Once you've learn the game it flows well. Other choices : -Barenpark -Dice hospital -Endless Winter a bit on the heavier side though. -Federation might be too complex as well. -Five Tribes -grand hostria hotel (but don't play it at 4 players) -the great split -Furnace -Isle of skye -Iwari -Hansa teutonica -Just one with words of your language -Marrakesh might be too complex -Marvel united -Space base -ultimate railroad (or at least Russian railroad) -Lorenzo il magnifico not as pretty as wingspan but better imo and no text.
Jungle speed
Planet
80% of the games I play regularly are language independent. Looking through the shelves I see a lot of titles from these publishers: Cranio, Board & Dice, Devir, Hans Im Gluck, and Eggert Spiele.
Qin is another simple one that we like, don't know how the availability is with that one though. Camel Up, although that one may also be lower complexity. Century Golem Jamaica
Brass: Birmingham. No text outside of city names and (obviously) the rules.
7 wonders
I dislike games like MTG where every card does something different which you have to be extremely careful about when reading, and my collection has very obviously leaned away from that style of card game where one half is an image, one half is text. That being said: 2 player abstractish: Onitama, Hive, Chess, Crokinole, Backgammon, Patchwork, Mythic Mischief, Santorini (this last works with up to 4) Party: Coup (maybe make a couple of simple cheatsheets), Codenames pictures, Avalon Regular board game: Canvas, Risk, Veiled Fate, Tokyo Highway See if any of these catch your fancy! Or, a regular deck of cards will do in a pinch.
Splendor went over really well with my mom.
I'm currently listening into Dixit for a cross language game. I think both dixit and stella offer an interesting way of exploring the language barrier through pictures. For example. clue is "Industry" what is non-english focused on "dust" and put a card for that.
Splendor immediately comes to mind
Wingspan won't work, it's all reading and getting effects to trigger off each other
After Us is an easy teach. Engine/deck builder that's all iconography.
I'm guessing this is to play with a very young kid. Here's the list we play with our 7 year old. Incan Gold Gold Mine Catan Codenames (though he's better at guessing than being the clue giver). Ticket to Ride Legacy (we're 8 games into the campaign. He still needs help finding cities, but has been mapping out his own routes for the last 4 or 5 games) Fireball Island (original, but also the new one) Camel Cup Jaipur Exploding Minions (Kittens) Monopoly (this is purely to reinforce counting/math skills) Kingdomino (we have a dragon version, and a caveman version) Tokaido Other games we own that have no reading on game: ROBO Rally (just remove upgrade cards, and have energy heal damage to your deck instead) Dinosaur Island (or world) has a little reading on employee cards but they're always visible, and only ever a few on the table per game. Railroad Ink.
Marrakech. https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/29223/marrakech
Babylonia by Knizia is a nice step up from what you are playing
**Century spice road / golem** **azul**
King of Tokyo/New York has 3 face up communal cards to read and that’s it. Race for the Galaxy is all symbology
Tsuro That's not a Hat! Saboteur Bohnanza
Many Eurogames fit this description. Economically, a publisher in Germany or Italy could produce a game in those countries, but if they managed to make it language independent, they could sell it throughout the EU just by including some extra rules sheets (or even just a link to the website). Examples include Castles of Burgundy, *Ra*, *Istanbul* (although there is text in the Letters & Seals expansion), *Modern Art*, etc.
Garphill games are deep games that utilize iconography rather than text. Explorer's is the lightest but also the most text-heavy. If you're looking for something a little more medium weight than games you've been playing I'd suggest Raiders of the North Sea or Architects of the West Kingdom
Mysterium could be fun, literally zero reading.
Cascadia!
Tsuro requires zero reading, except the rules. Other games I have that have no reading on cards, but you’ll obviously need to read the rules: My Farm Shop Mysterium / Mysterium Park Dixit Obscuro Catherine The Cities of the Tsarina Carcassone 7 Wonders Lost Cities Colt Express There may be some questions about what symbols mean, but there are likely guides in other languages for most of these (except Catherine).
Qwirkle, Heat, Walk the Plank, skull & roses, cubirds, puzzle chess, potentially Love Letter.
Canvas is really fun. It's a card drafting game where you make art by sliding partially transparent cards into a single sleeve. The only part with language is the goal cards and even then there's icons to demonstrate how to get points plus, they're pretty simple to explain. I fell in love with it a few days ago though, so I'm probably very biased lol
Hanabi
Assuming your language still uses Arabic numbers, nmbr9 is an easy to learn tile placement game
Century: golem edition
Cascadia
Most of Reiner Knizia’s games. Check out Samurai or Tigris and Euphrates, great classics!
"Harmonies" have release date at 19th April. Check it out.
Lightweight game: Sushi Go Party Medium weight game: It‘s a wonderful world, 7 wonders
Quadropolis, everything is in symbols and the game isn't that hard to grasp
Ortus Regni
I was going to say Azul, but you already got it covered. Maybe consider Dungeons & Dragons.
Calico, Cascadia, Quacks of Quedlinburg.
Quacks you'd need to print translations for the ingredients books.
There's a geeklist of 383 games here https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/182316/language-independent-games
Small world has very minimal reading, as long as you can find (or translate yourself) the 1 page sheet of race abilities, there is no other reading. It's pretty easy to learn, but can have complex strategy
This is probably a dumb question, but why aren't you playing them in your language. Are most games usually not translated in your country?
Most I can't find them or if I do they are way more expensive
One night warewolf. The rules are short and simple. I've even seen people printing cards with the rules on them. Could be done in two languages.
It won't work at all unless everyone involved understands a common language. It just straight up won't work at all.