OPIc past experience phrases for Japanese speakers
A free deck of English story frames for OPIc past-experience questions, with Japanese prompts. Eight everyday topics each run through the same ten moves: start the story, set the time, say what surprised you, say how it ended and close.
What this deck teaches
OPIc past-tense answers work best when you can move through the story without stopping to invent transitions. These cards train the reusable pieces: "A few years ago...", "At first...", "What surprised me was..." and "From that experience, I learned...".
The topics are ordinary on purpose: travel, school, work, shopping, food, hobbies, family and friends. Those are the areas where learners are most likely to need a personal story quickly.
Use each English answer as a frame, then add one true detail from your own life. That keeps the response spontaneous while giving you a stable speaking rhythm.
One story, told card by card
Eight topics each get the same ten moves, in the order a story is told. Working through one topic is a full past-experience answer in outline.
A trip, from the first sentence to the last
Open the story, say how it ended, then say why you still remember it. Add one detail of your own after each card.
When the question is about work
The same moves fit a work topic. The feeling at the start is the part people tend to leave out.
Finishing a short story about a meal or a friend
Small topics need an ending too. These two close a story about a restaurant and about meeting an old friend.
Japanese marks the past once at the end of the sentence with 〜た. English needs the past tense on every verb through the whole story. Each frame here is already in the simple past, so the tense comes with the phrase.
How to practice past experiences
- Keep the order. Say the cards in story order: background, first feeling, change, result and lesson. OPIc stories sound better when the sequence is automatic.
- Add your detail. After the phrase, add one real name, place or activity from your life. The frame is fixed, but the answer should still be yours.
- Practice feelings out loud. Do not skip the feeling cards. They make a story sound human rather than like a list of events.
Sample cards
Get this deck
Open VoiceCards, tap Add a deck → From a link, and paste this URL:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1UX1VzhoV--OQtrMYrLopRsmzoCkfj6lYweJMVx78rNY/editDo not have the app yet? Install it first, then come back and import the deck.