Set up a word crossing game
There's a small world.
Creatures that know a lot live on it.
You want to learn about them.
But you know very little of their language.
You learned 10,000 words they know best,
And their meanings.
One is the humans.
That one may speak any word.
They act as every human, and the world.
The rest are the ones who study the humans, from another world.
What is it like?
The ones who study may only speak and understand the 10,000 words for conversation with humans.
They can speak to each other without breaking rules in their own language
When the ones who study don't know a word the humans use, they may try to learn to use it.
Pick 5 letters from a bag.
If you can make the word with them, plus any words on the game board, you learn it.
If you cannot make the word, write it. You learned it wrong.
If you were right, tell the others what it means.
If you were wrong, tell them what you think it means.
Write the wrong meaning.
You may only guess once for each word.
Go home.
What did you learn?
For a “word crossing game,” I would recommend Scrabble.
I got this idea from the 200 word RPGs Deconstruction, by Abstract Machine, and History Lesson, by Edward Turner, along with Thing Explainer, by Randall Munroe.
A good website to tell if the words you use are included in the 10000 is https://xkcd.com/simplewriter/