EASY ENGLISH CONVERSATION: How to tell a story in English
Summary
TLDRIn this video, Emma teaches viewers how to tell a story in English, emphasizing the importance of storytelling in conversations with friends, family, and coworkers. She explains common expressions to introduce stories, such as 'Did I ever tell you about the time when...' and 'That reminds me of...'. Emma highlights the need to keep stories concise, use signal words to indicate the sequence of events, and choose appropriate verb tenses like the past and past continuous. She also offers tips on ending stories effectively and recommends watching English talk shows to improve storytelling skills.
Takeaways
- 😄 Telling stories is an important conversational skill in English.
- 🗣️ Common expressions are used to signal the start of a story, such as 'Did I ever tell you about the time when...'
- 🔗 Phrases like 'Oh, that reminds me' and 'Let me tell you about' are used to connect a current conversation to a personal story.
- 📚 It's important to pay attention to the listener's cues to gauge their interest and adjust the length of the story accordingly.
- 📉 English speakers typically prefer shorter stories unless the narrative is exceptionally engaging.
- 📚 Signal words like 'first', 'then', 'next', 'later', and 'finally' help organize and clarify the sequence of events in a story.
- 👂 Listener engagement, such as asking 'Then what happened?', indicates interest in the story being told.
- 🕒 Past tense is the most common tense used in storytelling, with simple past and past continuous tenses being particularly popular.
- 🔚 Ending a story with phrases like 'Can you believe that?' or 'I'll never forget it' signals to the listener that the story is over.
- 😐 If the listener's reaction is underwhelming, saying 'I guess you had to be there' acknowledges that the story may not have translated well.
- 📺 Watching English talk shows is recommended to improve storytelling skills by observing native speakers.
Q & A
What is the main topic of Emma's video?
-The main topic of Emma's video is teaching viewers how to tell a story in English.
Why is storytelling an important conversation skill according to Emma?
-Storytelling is an important conversation skill because it is often used in interactions with friends, family, or coworkers to share experiences or past events.
What is the purpose of using expressions to introduce a story in conversation?
-Expressions are used to introduce a story as a signal to the listener that a story is about to be told, preparing them for the narrative.
Can you provide an example of how Emma's father introduces a story?
-Emma's father often introduces a story by saying, 'Did I ever tell you about the time when...' followed by the event or situation.
What is another common way to introduce a story as mentioned by Emma?
-Another common way to introduce a story is by saying 'Oh, that reminds me. That reminds me of when...' which is used when something someone else says triggers a memory of a related story.
How does the phrase 'Let me tell you about' function in storytelling?
-The phrase 'Let me tell you about' is used as an introduction to a story, setting the stage for the storyteller to share their experience or event.
What does Emma suggest to do when telling stories in English regarding the story's length?
-Emma suggests being careful about the length of a story, as English speakers often prefer shorter stories and have a shorter attention span.
Why is it important to pay attention to the listener's cues when telling a story?
-Paying attention to the listener's cues is important to gauge their interest and engagement, and to adjust the storytelling accordingly to maintain their attention.
What are signal words and how do they help in storytelling?
-Signal words are words that indicate the sequence or direction of the story, such as 'first', 'then', 'next', 'later', and 'finally'. They help organize the story and make it easier for the listener to follow.
What does Emma recommend to improve storytelling skills?
-Emma recommends listening to native speakers tell stories, such as by watching English talk shows, to improve storytelling skills by hearing different models and styles.
How can viewers practice what they learned from Emma's video?
-Viewers can practice by visiting Emma's website at www.engvid.com, where they can take a quiz on the topics discussed, and by subscribing to her channel for more resources on learning English.
What verb tenses are commonly used when telling stories in English according to the video?
-The simple past tense and the past continuous tense are commonly used when telling stories in English.
How does Emma describe the use of the past continuous tense in storytelling?
-Emma describes the past continuous tense as useful for describing background activities or situations that were in progress at the time of the story, often using 'was' + verb-ing form.
What are some phrases Emma suggests to use at the end of a story to signal its conclusion?
-Some phrases to signal the end of a story include 'Can you believe that?', 'I'll never forget it.', 'I can't believe that happened.', and 'I guess you had to be there.'
Outlines
📖 Introduction to Storytelling in English
Emma begins the video by highlighting the importance of storytelling in everyday conversations. She explains that telling stories is a crucial conversational skill used in various settings, such as with friends, family, or coworkers. Emma introduces the session's aim to teach viewers how to effectively tell a story in English. She outlines different expressions used to signal the start of a story, providing examples like 'Did I ever tell you about the time when…' and 'That reminds me…'. She emphasizes the significance of these expressions in making the listener aware that a story is about to be shared.
🕒 Managing the Length and Flow of Stories
Emma discusses the cultural aspects of storytelling, noting that story length can vary significantly across different cultures. In English-speaking contexts, shorter stories are generally preferred due to shorter attention spans. She advises paying attention to the listener's cues to ensure the story is engaging and not too lengthy. Emma introduces the concept of 'signal words' such as 'first', 'then', 'next', and 'finally' to help organize the story and maintain clarity. She also mentions the positive listener feedback phrase 'Then what happened?' as an indicator of interest.
⏳ Using Past Tenses in Storytelling
Emma explains the importance of verb tenses in storytelling, focusing on the past tense, which is commonly used in English stories. She differentiates between the simple past tense and the past continuous tense, providing examples of each. The simple past is often used for main events ('I saw a bear'), while the past continuous describes ongoing actions or background settings ('I was walking down the street when I saw a bear'). Emma suggests watching additional videos on past continuous for more practice and understanding.
🎬 Concluding Your Story and Practical Tips
Emma discusses how to effectively end a story, offering phrases like 'Can you believe that?' and 'I'll never forget it' to signal the conclusion, especially if the story is surprising. She also addresses situations where the listener's reaction is underwhelming, suggesting the phrase 'I guess you had to be there' to acknowledge the lack of engagement. Emma recommends listening to native speakers on English talk shows as a practical way to improve storytelling skills. She concludes by encouraging viewers to visit her website for quizzes and additional resources, and to subscribe to her channel for more English learning content.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Storytelling
💡Conversational Skill
💡Expression
💡Cultural
💡Attention Span
💡Signal Words
💡Past Tense
💡Past Continuous Tense
💡Ending a Story
💡Talk Shows
Highlights
Emma introduces the importance of storytelling as a conversational skill in English.
Different ways to introduce a story in conversation are discussed.
The expression 'Did I ever tell you about the time when...' is highlighted as a common story starter.
Using 'Oh, that reminds me' as a way to connect a current topic to a personal story.
The phrase 'Let me tell you about' is presented as a direct introduction to a story.
The introduction 'You'll never guess what happened' is suggested to pique listener interest.
The simplicity of saying 'I have a funny story for you' to start a story.
The cultural aspect of story length and attention span in English storytelling.
The importance of observing listener cues to adjust the length of the story.
Signal words like 'first', 'then', 'next', 'later', and 'finally' are recommended for story organization.
Listener engagement indicated by 'Then what happened?' as a positive response.
The use of past tense, including simple past and past continuous, in storytelling.
Explanation of simple past tense with examples like 'I saw a bear'.
Past continuous tense usage for background or ongoing activities during the story.
Signaling the end of a story with phrases like 'Can you believe that?' or 'I'll never forget it'.
Handling situations where the listener doesn't find the story interesting with 'I guess you had to be there'.
Recommendation to listen to native speakers on English talk shows to improve storytelling.
Emma provides resources for further learning and practice on her website and channel.
Transcripts
Hello. My name is Emma, and in today's video,
I am going to teach you how to tell a story
in English. This is a very important conversation
skill because a lot of the times when we see
our friends or our family or coworkers, we
often tell stories. You might talk about your
weekend and tell a story about something funny
that happened to you, or maybe you want to
talk about something funny from your past or
something scary. So, we often tell stories
in conversation. So, let me teach you how you can tell a story in English. So, let's
get started.
There are different ways to introduce a story
in conversation. So, a lot of the times, we
actually will use an expression, and that
shows the listener that we are going to tell
a story. It's almost like a signal. So, when
you hear somebody say these things, you know,
okay, a story is coming. They are about to
say a story. So, let's look at some of these
different ways to start a story in conversation.
This is an example of something my father
says all the time in English. He always says,
"Did I ever tell you about the time when _____
happened?" So, this can be many different
things. "Did I ever tell you about the time
when I got in trouble at school?" "Did I ever
tell you about the time when I met your mother?"
"Did I ever tell you about the time when the
storm of the century happened?" Okay? So,
there's a lot of different ways you can introduce
a story. This is a very common way. "Did I ever tell you about the time when _____?"
You might also hear somebody say this, "Oh,
that reminds me. That reminds me of when _____
happened. That reminds me." We usually use this when someone is telling us something
and it reminds us of a story. So, they're saying something and suddenly we think of
a story from our own experience. So, maybe somebody is talking about maybe something
from their childhood, and maybe they're talking
about soccer, and I go, "Oh, that reminds
me of when I was a child and I used to play
soccer." And then I'll probably tell a story.
So, "that reminds me" is a common way to introduce a story.
You might also hear this, "Let me tell you
about... Let me tell you about the time when
I got really scared. Let me tell you about
the time when I was on a roller coaster. Let
me tell you about the time when I went to
China and my experiences there." So, we often
use "let me tell you about" as an introduction to a story.
You might also say something to somebody like,
"You'll never guess what happened." This is
a great introduction to get the listener interested
in what you are going to say. "You'll never
guess what happened." And then you tell something
interesting that just happened. "You'll never
guess what happened." You might actually
just say something like, "Oh, I have a funny
story for you." This is common, too. Or, "I have a story for you." So, if it's funny,
you might use this. If not, you might just
say, "I have a story for you." So, these are
all common ways to start telling stories in conversation.
Now, let's learn a little bit more about how
to tell stories in English. So, the next thing
I want to tell you about telling a story in English is you need to be careful about
the length of a story. Telling stories is
very cultural. So, in some cultures, we might
tell very long stories, whereas in other cultures,
we might typically tell shorter stories. In
English, people often have a shorter attention
span, so they prefer stories to be on the
shorter side, unless it's a really good story.
So, the reason I'm telling you this is it's
important when you are telling a story to pay attention to the listener. You want to
look at the listener and look at their cues.
Are they yawning? Are they looking at their
watch? That would be rude, but maybe they're
doing that. Are they not even looking at you?
By looking at what the listener is doing, that can actually help you improve your own
storytelling, because you don't want your stories to be too long and you don't want
them to be too short. There's a good amount of
time you might tell a story. So, in English,
again, usually we prefer shorter stories to longer stories.
The next thing I wanted to tell you about
telling stories in English is in conversation,
we often use signal words. So, what are signal
words? Well, they're words that tell us where
the story is going, or maybe they tell us
the sequence of events. What happened first?
What happened next? Then what happened? So, to improve your storytelling, I recommend
using signal words. Here are some examples.
First, then, next, later, finally. These are
just a few signal words, but they're examples.
They really help with the organization of
your story. One other point is I mentioned that it's important to listen... Or to pay
attention to the listener and see how they are responding to your story. One good sign
is if the listener says, "Then what happened?"
"Then what happened?" means they are interested.
Okay? So, while you're telling the story,
the listener might say, "Then what happened?"
So, this is a good thing to hear from a listener.
It means they are interested in what you are
saying. "And then what happened?" Okay, now
let's learn a little bit about the verb tenses
we use when we tell stories in conversation.
Okay, so when you tell a story in English,
one of the most common tenses we use is the
past tense. It's possible to use the present
tense, but in general, we usually use the
past tense when we tell stories. So, I'm going
to talk a little bit about the past tense and how we use this when we tell stories.
So, there are different forms of the past tense in English. Two examples are we have
the simple past tense, and we also have the
past continuous tense. These are both popular
to use when we tell stories. So, I'm going to give you an example of the simple past
tense. "I saw a bear." So, in a story, this is true. One time, I saw a bear. Notice the
verb I used. The verb is in the simple past tense. The verb is "to see", I've changed
the verb into the past tense, and now it is the verb "saw". "I saw a bear." So, a lot
of the times when we tell stories, we just
use the simple past tense. Simple past tense,
regular verbs in the simple past tense often
have -ed endings, so if that helps you to
remember. So, for example, you might talk
about how you worked yesterday, or you visited
your grandmother. So, we use the simple past a lot when we tell stories.
We also use the past continuous. So, you might
wonder, what is the past continuous? Well,
whenever you see grammar with the word "continuous"
in it, or "progressive", that usually means
there's an -ing ending somewhere. So, here
is an example of the past continuous. "I was
walking down the street when I saw a bear."
So, "walking" has our -ing in it, it's a verb
with -ing, and we also have the "be" verb, "was". So, "I was walking down the street.
It was raining. It was snowing. It was...
The sun was shining." These are all examples
of the past continuous.
So when do we use the past continuous, or
how do we use it when we tell stories? Well,
we use it to talk about either the background,
so what was the weather like? What was happening
when something happened? So, we use it to talk about the background description, or
we can use it to talk about an activity that
is in progress at the time of your story.
So, just a clear example, here is what is
happening. This is the activity in progress.
"I was walking down the street." So, that is happening when I saw a bear. So, this is
an interruption of that activity.
So, we have videos on the past continuous. I
recommend if you don't know how to use this
tense to watch some of these videos, they
can be very helpful. But again, when we tell
stories in conversation, we often use the
simple past tense or the past continuous tense.
Now, let's learn what else we use when we tell stories in English.
So, you've told your story now, and the question
is, "How do you end it?" We like to signal
to the listener that the story is finished.
So, what can we say to show our story is over?
Well, there's a couple of things we can say.
At the end of a story, we can say, "Can you
believe that?" So, this is a way to show my
story is finished, and it's a surprising story.
"Can you believe that?" Or you might say something like, "I'll never forget it. I'll
never forget it. I'll never forget what happened."
You might say something like, "I can't believe
that happened. I can't believe it. I can't
believe that happened." So, we often use these,
especially if there's a surprise in the story.
Now, sometimes when we tell a story, we think
it's a great story, and we look at the listener,
and they are like this. They don't find the story
funny. They don't find the story interesting.
They're not really showing any emotion. So,
after we tell a story, if the listener looks
like this, you can say, "I guess you had to be there." This means in order to like
the story, you needed to experience it. "I guess you had to be there." This is a very
common thing people say at the end of stories
when the reaction to the story is not good.
So, if the listener looks like this, you can say, "I guess you had to be there."
Okay, so we've covered a little bit about how to
tell stories in English. There is a lot more to
say on this subject. One thing I recommend my
students do is listen to people tell stories.
The best way to improve is to actually hear models of what you want to do.
So, the way you can listen to native speakers
tell stories is watch English talk shows.
If you ever watch an English talk show, you
will notice that the celebrity on the talk show
always tells a story, and it's usually a funny
story or an interesting story, and they're short.
So, I recommend you watch talk shows if you want
to improve your storytelling. You can watch The
Late Show, The Tonight Show, The Colbert Report.
There are many different talk shows in English.
You can watch them on YouTube, but I highly
recommend doing this to improve your storytelling.
So, thank you so much for watching. You can practice what you learned today by visiting
our website at www.engvid.com. There, you can
actually take a quiz on some of what we talked
about today. I also recommend that you subscribe
to my channel. I have a lot of different resources
on grammar, vocabulary, listening, writing, and many other subjects of English,
so I highly recommend doing that. Just don't
forget to ring the bell. If you want to get
new notifications, you need to ring the bell to
subscribe. You can also check out my website at
www.teacheremma.com, and there you can find more free resources on learning English.
So, thank you so much for watching, and until next time, take care.
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