Now I'm going to ask you some

general
questions
let's talk about what you do
do you work or are you a student
well at the moment I'm working
I'm
teaching sports studies in a
university
what do you like about your job
well I
like the fact that I can have an
imprint
on people's lives and teach them
valuable skills that they're going to
use in life
I think this is particularly true
teaching at a university and I work
with
a great bunch of people so
yeah we have a lot of fun
is there anything you don't like
about
your job
not really I took up the job of
teaching
because I needed to fund my PHD
but now that
I'm a teacher I have less time for
my research
so what do they say it's either time
rich and money poor or vice versa
yeah one day I hope to be both
time rich
and money rich at the same
moment but
would you think about changing
your job
no I'm happy with where I am at
the
moment um I find it I find it really
fulfilling but I don't know where
I'm
going to be in 10 years time but for
now it's okay
let's talk about holidays
do you prefer holidays near the sea
or in the countryside
depends really both um I like
yeah if the weather's great I like to
be by the sea
um I love water sports
but I like walking and hiking as
well so
a holiday in the countryside is fine
as well
what do you usually do on your
holidays
well if I'm by the sea I like to swim
I'll do some windsurfing maybe
some
sub-aqua hang around for mates
I'll play some beach volleyball
um yeah just chat over some food
and
drink that sort of thing
um
but yeah if I'm in the countryside
then
my uncle he raises cattle so I'll
help him out on the farm
and I'll do some hiking trekking
and then
catch up on some sleep
is having a holiday important to
you
yeah yeah I think holidays are
important to everyone
why just because it's
um it's
exhausting to be working all the
time
and teaching is particularly
exhausting as well
I think it's important to get some
down
time to recharge the batteries and
just
to get out the city for a while it
feels good
let's talk about current affairs
how do you get your news of the
world event
I'm a real news junkie so I will
watch
and read news on my phone a lot
an awful lot and
I'll watch tv news as well but not
so much nowadays really
do you read newspapers
not so much I might treat myself to
a fat paper on a Sunday and
and have some coffee but yeah
do your older friends or relatives
read
newspapers yeah more than I do I
think
they've just got into the habit of
reading the daily papers
for years and yeah I've tried to tell
my parents to
stop reading the dead tree press but
they won't listen to me
let's talk about shopping
do you shop online
yes I do actually I buy I
get all of my music and books
online
there's the range is enormous and
it's
infinite actually whereas in town
you
can only get so much so yeah do
you shop in real shops
yeah um if I have to
yeah I don't enjoy shopping
um
but I don't like shopping for clothes
either online because it's just
annoying
if you know you have to change
the fit
or the color or anything like that
you've got to send it back but I'm a
very organized person so I know
exactly
what I want and where to find it I'll
go into the shop
and I'll try on the fit I'll come back
and that's it I won't spend my time
looking around
has online shopping affected the
shops
in your hometown
not so much yet um
I think that some of the smaller
shops specialized shops have
disappeared
the bigger global shops they seem
to be
surviving okay for the moment but
I’m
not sure how how long that's going
to last
um
yeah so I think my generation
actually
and the coming generation they're
going
to see shops disappear a lot more
and I
know that some people think that's
a shame and I do as well
sometimes but
I don't think things are suddenly
going
to go into reverse are they
now I'm going to give you a topic
and I
would like you to talk about it for
one
to two minutes you'll have one
minute to prepare and
you can write some notes if you
want do
you understand
yes thank you okay
here's your card
and some paper to write some
notes
I would like you to talk about an
important invention
can you start speaking that please
okay well this was a really tricky
topic
because there's so many
inventions and innovations that
have
changed the world there's
computers the internet
credit cards
virtual money it was really difficult
actually to choose just one of them
but
in reflection i think the biggest and
most significant
invention to have
changed the world is social media I
mean
if you look at
Facebook and twitter and those
kinds of
platforms there's no doubt that
they've had a huge
profound impact on our lives
and
the good thing is is that with
the uh coming of
uh a global world
we're now able to communicate
with
friends and family across the world
instantly I mean I think that's
wonderful
um
and also just for things like
birthdays
that's really handy to have as well
just
to be updated with things like that
but I just wonder if
in reflection
if the disadvantages and
drawbacks to social media aren't
outweighing the benefits
so
if you think about the number of
people who
have posted things online and
you know comments and
photographs and
then as they get older they
suddenly
regret that picture of themselves
being up there so
yeah I think there's definite
disadvantages
um also it can just be used as a
a platform for people to get each
other
so attacking politicians or
bullies at school or celebrities
based
on something that they've said you
know
so
yeah and then there's the the
playing
around with our personal
information um
to manipulate political elections I
mean
that is frightening
let's talk about mobile phones
do you think people spend too
much time
on the mobile phones for example
definitely I mean the amount of
times
that I've been in a restaurant and
I've
seen groups of people at the table
not
talking to each other or having
conversations and usually on their
phones any other negative effects
yes but less seriously
so
how many times have you been
walking down the street right and
then
you bump into somebody because
they've
been checking their mobile phone
how can people limit the time they
use on their gadgets
that's a difficult one to answer
because
um
just every single day there seems to
be a new app that comes about
um
for people to play with and fiddle
around with in fact I think right
that
there should be an app that comes
out
that stops people disables their
phones
after two hours of using them
um yeah
I don't know I think it's
it takes a lot of willpower to do it
yourself but
probably it starts at the home
how
um
I just think
with parents you know parents
have to do
something to teach their kids to
stop
using their phones for at least part
of the day um I've got
uh
friends who've got got kids and
they
will stop uh their children using
their phones at bedtime
um you know when they're going
out to the bedroom and
uh also at mealtimes you know
they can't
play with their phones at meal time
so i think that kind of
early training is is important do
you
think the level of quality of
communication has improved with
the use
of mobile phones compared to say
50 years ago
the quantity has increased but I'm
not
sure about the quality if you look at
um
uh
grandparents who
yeah they had phones in there in
their
house
but
bills are really expensive so they
wouldn't just chat on the phone
they
would use their phones in an
emergency or
um
yeah
you know for important
information and
messages and that sort of thing
how is that different from now
well just that mobile phones
nowadays
are really cheap to use so
yeah I mean I'm sure you've seen
people in supermarkets
um usually men I admit who will
be checking up their
uh something online you know
usually a
packet of cereal or something
which one
to have
and there's the um ubiquitous you
know
I'm I'm on the train so the quantity
of
communication has improved
um the quality is difficult to define
I think I mean you could argue
that
conversation and phones have
become more trivial
um
and in the past they were taken
more seriously but then
I don't know who's to say you
know
there's no harm in trivia and the
people that a
are watching you know or listening
might
you know they might think that it
is trivial but maybe not to the
people who are actually talking
so yeah I think
um
it's a difficult one but I think that
the jury's still out on that one
thank you
that is the end of the speaking test
you

ENGLISH PODCASTS