Brief summary of activity
In pairs of two the participants describe postcards. The listeners closes their eyes, tries to imagine the picture. Afterwards, they look at the picture and compare the image created by the description with the image on the postcard.
Aim of the activity
Participants practise describing language.
Expected Outcomes
Awareness of importance of descriptive language.
Experience and skills required
The participants need to express themselves and have a rich vocabulary.
Infrastructure, setting, resources
Quiet room
Length
20 mins
Material
Postcards, pictures or objects
How the activity should take place
Each person gets a card with landscape, animals, people, etc. In pairs, the participants describe each other the cards, also using characteristics, that are not obvious, trying to describe all senses (how does it smell, colours, sounds) and perspectives. The listener closes eyes, tries to imagine the picture. Afterwards, they look at the picture and compare the image created by the description with the image on the postcard.
Recommended max. number of participants and trainees to trainers ratio
Max. 10
Risk and possible adaptation
Make sure that the people really try to describe precisely what’s on the postcard.
Variations
For visually impaired and blind people: Use objects instead of postcards. Again, they should exactly describe how this objects feels like. Attention: it’s not about to guess what kind of object it is. The participants can tell for example “it’s a hut”, but the goal is, that they explain the hut in a way that their partners can imagine how it feels like.
Requirements for participants
For visually impaired and blind people there is a variation.
Analysis and evaluation
When the participants see the postcard after the description they realise what their partners possibly didn’t mention. The perspective, colours, sizes of objects, etc. This is an interesting experience.
Scheduling
Before writing scripts or as an ice breaker at the beginning of the training.