Speaking Topic - "Neighbours"

  

Speaking Topic - "Neighbours"

Q.  How often do you see your neighbours? [Why/Why not?]

Answer: I try to see my neighbours as often as possible because it helps me build up a solid and steady relationship with them, especially, if they live in close proximity to me. Besides, seeing neighbour as often as possible is important so that we can help out each other during the time of need and emergency.

Q.  Do you invite your neighbours to your home? [Why/Why not?]

Answer: Yes, I do try to invite my neighbours to my home whenever I can because it helps us understand each other better, by exchanging our views and opinions with each other, on issues which affect our life. Inviting neighbours to my home also brings me joy and happiness when I feel down and depressed.

Q.  Do you think you are a good neighbour? [Why/Why not?]

Answer: Yes, I do think that I am a good neighbour. Of course, I reckon that everybody will say the same thing about being a good neighbour.  But as far as I am concerned, since I have never really had any complains from my neighbours in the past nor have I ever had any argument with them, I guess that it is fair to suggest again that I am a good neighbour.

Q.  Has a neighbour ever helped you? [Why/Why not?]

Answer: Yes, I have been lucky to have some good neighbours in my life, and they all have helped me many times one way or another. For example, one of my neighbours helped me about a year ago or so by looking after our home and property for a whole week when I and my entire family had to leave the town because of an emergency.

Part 2 - Cue Card/ Candidate Task Card

[The topic for your talk will be written on a card which the examiner will hand over to you. Read it carefully and then make some brief notes.]

Describe a very difficult task that you succeeded in doing as part of your work or studies.

You should say:

what task you did

why this task was very difficult

how you worked on this task

and explain how you felt when you had successfully completed this task.

[You will have to talk about the topic for one to two minutes. You have one minute to think about what you are going to say. You can make some notes to help you if you wish.]

 

Model Answer:

Being a senior staff at work certainly has its rewards just as its pain, and I figured it out when I was assigned to mentoring a group of very talented but unruly interns at my office recently. In fact, up until that point, I just didn’t know that managing some young and talented students would prove out to be such a difficult task.

So, again, the task was to manage a group of university students who wanted to do an internship in “Financial Management” at our company head office.  By the way, it was a regular yearly thing at my company except, of course, only this time around, I was the person who was assigned to mentor them.

By the way, I didn’t have any experience of running and managing such an internship programme before. But, I thought that since there already were some guidelines, I would be able to pull it off, only to find out later on that learning something in theory and applying them practically were completely two different things.  Anyway, after starting the programme, I found the students to be very casual at their jobs, and they were more interested in talking about their personal matters with each other instead of actually focusing on their tasks at hand. At one point, they even started to “cheat” in their jobs. So, I decided to become a “tough” boss and told them that I was going to ask each of them about the assignments, they had finished, at the end of every day. At the same time, I also announced some kind of “surprise” rewards to the most productive interns at the end of every week. Luckily, after that, I noticed some improvement in their performance and professionalism.

Anyway, after completing the internship programme successfully, I felt like I had finally managed to climb Mount Everest! However, the best thing about running that internship programme was that I also learned a lot of new things about the level of my skills and expertise just like the young interns. All in all, it was a very good and rewarding experience for me.

Part 3 - Details discussion:

Discussion topic: "Difficult jobs"

Q.  What are the most difficult jobs that people do?

Answer: Well, before answering this question, please allow me to classify the difficult jobs in two general categories. One category of "difficult jobs" is very physically demanding, and the other kind is very intellectually demanding. The most difficult jobs, which are physically demanding, may include general cleaning and maintenance jobs, farming and agriculture-related jobs, security-related jobs (ie. police and army) and construction work. As far as the other type of difficult jobs, which are very intellectually demanding, is concerned, they may include surgeon/medical doctors, Astronauts and nuclear scientists.

Q.  Why do you think some people choose to do difficult jobs?

Answer: Again, it depends on what category of difficult jobs (based on the answer to the previous question above), we are talking about here. Some people choose to do difficult jobs (which can be physically demanding) either because they just don’t have any other types of skills, education or qualification to do other jobs, or they are just paid really well for their work. Then, there is another group of people, in my opinion, who like to do difficult jobs, primarily because they enjoy doing those jobs, and they like challenges and adventure. Finally, there is another group of people who choose to do difficult jobs, purely because they just suit their lifestyles perfectly.

Q.  Do you agree or disagree that all jobs are difficult sometimes?

Answer: Yes, I do agree that all jobs can be difficult sometimes, even if they are generally considered to be easy jobs, mainly because it all depends on the mood and the circumstances of individuals who do those jobs. For example, the job of a salesperson at a flower shop may seem to be an easy one and straight forward, but if that salesperson somehow feels sick or less energetic at his job, the chances are, he or she will find even that simple job a bit more difficult than usual.  Some jobs may prove out to be difficult sometimes also because the chances are that the individuals, who do those jobs, just don’t have the right set of skills or expertise.

Discussion topic: "Personal and career success"

Q.  How important is it for everyone to have a goal in their personal life?

Answer: A long time ago, when I was just a schoolboy, I heard for the first time that a life without a goal is very much like a boat without the radar. Back then, of course, I didn’t quite understand and appreciate the meaning of those words, but as time progressed, I started to decipher the meaning of each and every word of that statement. So, yes, it is absolutely important for everyone to have a goal, be it small or big, in their personal life, if they really want to have a meaningful and productive life – a life which not only will benefit him or his family but also the society, in which he lives, in large.

Q.  Is it always necessary to work hard in order to achieve career success?

Answer: Yes, in my humble opinion, it is always necessary to work hard in order to achieve career success, primarily because if we achieve something in our life comparatively easily, then the chances are that we won’t be able to understand the proper value of our success. And, if such is the case, then the chances are also that we won’t be able to hold onto our success for a long time. However, it is also worth mentioning here that while we can achieve our career success by working hard always, it would become a bit easier for us to do so if we work a bit smartly too sometimes.

Q.  Do you think that successful people are always happy people?

Answer: No, I don’t really think that successful people are always (and “always” is the operative word here) happy people, especially, because there is no single and acceptable definition of success or happiness as yet. Social scientists have been working very hard and for very long to find some sort of correlation between the two, but they are yet to find out any conclusive evidence to suggest that successful people are “always” happy people, be them successful in their personal life or professional life. But, of course, we can easily say that success plays a huge role in making people happy in general, at any given time, but not always.