Speak With Me: Chinese Speaking Practice for Clear & Natural Storytelling

In Storytelling by Angel Huang

Telling stories in Chinese is about more than "saying the right words".

Things like pauses, emphasis and your overall rhythm are key to making your story flow...

So how do you improve these skills so you can keep your listener engaged?

Well, one effective way is to "shadow" a native speaker.

So in today's lesson I'm going to help you practise telling a story out loud with me!

Summary Of Storytelling In Chinese from the video above

Chinese Story: The Missing Yogurt... (At the office)

gāo hào de dù zi è le.

高浩的肚子饿了。

Gao Hao was hungry.

tā kàn dào tóng shì de zhuō zi shàng yǒu yī píng suān nǎi.

他看到同事的桌子上有一瓶酸奶

He saw a bottle of yogurt on his colleague's desk.

tā lì kè ná qǐ nà píng suān nǎi

他立刻拿起那瓶酸奶,

He immediately grabbed the bottle of yogurt,

jiù dà kǒu dà kǒu de hē wán le.

就大口大口地喝完了。

and chugged it down.

wǔ fēn zhōng hòu,

五分钟后,

5 minutes later,

tā de tóng shì huí lái le. 

他的同事回来了。

his colleague came back.

tóng shì dà shēng jiào dào:

同事大声叫到:

His  colleague shouted:

“wǒ de xǐ miàn nǎi ne?

“我的洗面奶呢?

"Where is my facial cleanser?

zěn me bù jiàn le? 

怎么不见了?

Why is it missing? 

sān bǎi duō kuài de, hǎo guì de!”

三百多块的,好贵的!”

It cost more than ¥300, it's so expensive.

gāo hào méi yǒu shuō huà,

高浩没有说话,

Gao Hao didn't say anything, 

tā zhǐ shì mò mò de zǒu xiàng xǐ shǒu jiān,

他只是默默地走向洗手间,

he just walked silently to the bathroom,

rán hòu yòng jǐn quán shēn de lì qì bǎ gāng gāng hē jìn dù zi lǐ de dōng xī tù chū lái.

然后用尽全身的力气把刚刚喝进肚子里的东西吐出来。

and then put all his effort into vomiting up what he had just poured into his stomach.

jīng guò shí duō fēn zhōng de zhé téng,

经过十多分钟的折腾,

After more than ten minutes of struggle, 

tā zhōng yú bǎ suǒ yǒu de dōng xī dōu tù chū lái le.

他终于把所有的东西都吐出来了。

he finally managed to vomit everything up.

jiē zhe tā màn màn de zǒu huí dào zì jǐ de zuò wèi.

接着他慢慢地走回到自己的座位。

and then he slowly went back to his seat.

zhè shí,tā de tóng shì ná qǐ yī gè píng zi gāo xìng de shuō:

这时,他的同事拿起一个瓶子高兴地说:

At that time, his colleague was holding a bottle and happily said:

“xià wǒ yī tiào! 

“吓我一跳!

"I was shocked. 

yuán lái wǒ de xǐ miàn nǎi zhǐ shì bù xiǎo xīn diào zài zhuō zi dǐ xià. 

原来我的洗面奶只是不小心掉在桌子底下。

It turns out that my facial cleanser just accidentally fell under the desk.

wǒ de suān nǎi zěn me yòu bù jiàn le?”

我的酸奶怎么又不见了?”

Why is my yogurt missing again? "

gāo hào, shēn shēn de tàn le yī kǒu qì.

高浩,深深地叹了一口气。

Gao Hao sighed deeply.

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