Picture this

One way to practise using the language you’re learning and to learn more vocabulary in context is with pictures or cartoons. You could choose any picture and try to describe what you see in it. If you choose cartoons the descriptions are likely to be amusing, which will make them more memorable.

You could describe what people look like, what they’re wearing, where they are, what they’re doing, where they come from and where they’re going, and so on. You could also focus on particular aspects of the picture such as colours, shapes, or the location of different bits in relations to others. Alternatively you could make up a story about the picture – e.g. what happened before and after it, and how are the people in it connected.

The descriptions could be as simple or as complex as you like – at first maybe you can only manage a simple description, but as your knowledge of the language improves, you will be able to go back to add more details.

When describing the above cartoon, for example, you could focus on the people – their appearance, clothes, relationship, back story, what they’re saying to each other, etc; the setting; the colours and/or shapes; or even the duck.