Our Picture Talk exercises, or 看图说话 (kàntú shuōhuà) in Chinese, use pictures as a way to encourage you, the learner, to speak. Our teachers may use these with you in our courses, but if you are learning by some other means, please feel free to use them too (download samples here). But how do you get the most out of Picture Talk exercises?

Say What You See

Start with the basics. Don’t get stuck trying to be too clever!

If you are at the elementary level, saying anything comprehensible at all can feel like a great achievement! If at first you can’t think of how to use the selected language point, don’t worry about it. Just start talking! It’ll warm up your mouth, get your brain going, and our teachers are not going to stop you. Maybe once you have said the obvious, the not-so-obvious things you can say will come to mind.

Some more advanced learners might just stop after giving a basic description of what’s in the picture, and that’s a terrible shame. As long as you have the ability to say more, don’t stop here! You’ve only just dipped your toe into this pool of powerful speaking practice.

Say What You Don’t See

At AllSet Learning we are always thinking about your learning outcomes, and you should be too! Maybe you feel like your level is too low and you cannot adequately describe what is in the picture. Maybe you feel like simply talking about what is in the picture is too easy for you.

Don't limit yourself to what is in the picture. For example, the picture might be a single frame in a longer story you want to tell your teacher. You might want to:

Talk about one of your own experiences that relates to the picture. Maybe you have just had a great day at work and the office scene in the picture reminds you of this. Maybe your cat is sick and the picture makes you think of that. All fine!

Invent a story, where the scene in the picture is just one moment in a sequence of events. There are no limits here!

Make a comment on one of the people in the picture: she looks smart, funny, clever or stupid… Just be sure to also tell why!

Say how you feel about the picture. If you are an elementary learner, you might look at the picture of the burger and feel hungry. If you are intermediate, you might say that you eat burgers twice a month in your favorite restaurant. If you are advanced, you might say that the photographer has really captured the deliciousness of this burger. You get the idea.

This is your place to speak Chinese. Make the most of it by talking about what’s on your mind or however you can extend the significance of the picture to your own life.

Don’t Obsess over the Language Point

Sure, you’re supposed to use the picture to practice using a particular language point, but you can do it on your own terms! No one’s got a gun to your head demanding that you say as few sentences as little as possible. In fact, since this is a speaking exercise, the more you say, the more you win! Don’t be optimal. Don’t be an efficient machine. Be rambly and creative! Maybe you need to say a few sentences of preface in order to bring in the language point. Or maybe you need to shift to “commentary mode” instead of “description mode.” You might even want to say something that the picture reminds you of. All of this is OK!

Use the language point, but don’t let it bully you. Have your say, and accommodate the language point while you’re at it. You’ll get round to it eventually. At the end of the day, this is about you and your Chinese, after all.

Have Fun

That feeling of enjoyment invigorates you and activates more centers in your brain, causing you to learn better. So make your teacher laugh! Or, failing that, make yourself laugh with your own brand of humor that’s funny for you and you alone! Bringing your sense of humor to a second language is possible at all levels, and a task which will really satisfy you once you achieve it!

Furthermore, if you’re making sentences that are weird, funny, or relevant to your life, they’re almost certainly more memorable that the “optimal” sentences you could have made to complete the task in as little time as possible. By having fun and not obsessing over the language point, you’re giving yourself more speaking practice and helping to make the language stick.

Here are some examples of good picture talk:

As we have different language points for different levels, the below examples do not relate to any particular language point, but are good examples of free-styling at different levels!

A2 Example:

有两个船，有两个人，有两只鸟，有很多山。我喜欢鸟。我喜欢山。我要去这个地方。

Pinyin:
yǒu liǎnggè chuán, yǒu liǎnggè rén, yǒu liǎngzhī niǎo，yǒu hěnduō shān. wǒ xǐhuān niǎo. wǒ xǐhuān shān. wǒ yào qù zhègè dìfāng.

Translation:
There are two boats. There are two people. There is one bird. There are a lot of mountains. I like birds. I like mountains. I want to go to this place.

Comments:
At the A2 level, it is enough simply to state what is in the picture and give some personal response to it if possible. This person also managed to add a few simple personal reactions at the end. All great!

B1 Example:

这张图片很漂亮！它让我想起我去桂林的时候，我坐了这样的小船，一个老人带我去看风景，有山有水，但是没有鸟。可能下次去能看到这种鸟，那就完美了。

Translation:
This picture is very beautiful! It reminds me of when I went to Guilin, I took a boat like this, an old man took me to see the scenery, there are mountains and water, but no birds. Maybe the next time I go I can see this kind of bird, that would be perfect.

Comments:
At the B1 level the picture can serve as a starting point to tell a story from your own experience, or simply make one up. This story uses a lot of elements from the picture, but it doesn’t have to!

B2 Example:

昨天在外面吃晚饭，吃完我叫了出租车回家，司机是个老头，瘦瘦的，皮肤黑黑的。他看我有外国面孔他说他自己也是外地人，每年半年在上海开出租车，半年在老家钓鱼。这个老头在上海开着出租车，应该多想念在老家钓鱼，背后有山，脚下有湖，头上有多年陪伴的鸟。

Translation:
I ate out last night. Afterwards I called a taxi to go home. The driver was an old man, thin and dark-skinned. He saw that I have a foreign face. He said that he is also an outsider here. Every year he spends six months in Shanghai driving a taxi and half a year in his hometown fishing. While he is driving his taxi in Shanghai, he would surely miss the time fishing in his hometown, with mountains behind him, the lake at his feet, and the bird which has accompanied him many years over his head.

Comments:
At the B2 level, what we see in the picture is just a single instance in a story entirely created by the learner. Very little time is spent directly describing what is seen in the picture, it is rather used purely for inspiration!

Now that you know how it’s done, go forth and talk about pictures!

Talk About the Pictures 看图说话 (kàntú shuōhuà) forms one small part of our varied discussion courses.
Get some taster segments of our teaching materials from our Free Downloads Page.

Make the Most out of “Picture Talk”