The following tip, from 100 Games and Activities for the Introductory Foreign Language Classroom by Thierry Boucquey et al., provides foreign language teachers with a fun and engaging activity to play with students to teach them idiomatic exclamations, simple phrases, and useful travel vocabulary.

Materials:
•  A list of at least 10 idiomatic exclamations and simple phrases common to the target language.
•  A scenario page with a description of a scene to be acted out by the students; the most successful
   have to do with travel, such as buying a ticket, hailing a taxi, or any daily activity involving brief
   exchanges.

Objectives
To learn common idiomatic expressions and short phrases and apply them to everyday activities.

Instructions:
This activity is carried out using only exclamations and two-word phrases native to the target language. During this activity, the class can be split into any number of groups, small or large, depending on how many exclamations and scenarios you wish to provide. Once the groups are formed, give the students a list of exclamations and two-word phrases common to the target language. The studens must act out their scenario speaking only in exclamations and short phrases. After each group has practiced, they must perform for the class. Their classmates then guess what the performance depicts.

Some common Spanish expressions are as follows:

• ¡Oye!		• ¡Qué Lástima!		• ¡Gracias!
• ¡Claro!		• ¡Por Favor!		• ¡Vámonos!
• ¡Caramba!

French expressions could include the following:

• Bien Sûr!		• D'accord!		• Allez-y!
• Oui!		• Merci!		• Mon Dieu!

Example:
In our Spanish class, the most popular scenario to depict was a tourist hailing a taxi. The dialogue went something like this:

Tourist: ¡Oye, Taxi!
Taxi Driver: ¡Hola! Adónde Va?
Tourist: Al hotel ¡porfavor!
Taxi: Bien. ¡Vámonos!
Tourist: ¡Gracias!