Part 1: Introduction & Interview
Q. What is your full name?
A. My full name is Vineeth Venugopal. Currently, I am living in the UK but I am originally from Kerala, India, which you may guess from my name.
Q. What do you want me to call you?
A. You can call me “Vineeth” if you like. You can also call me simply “Vinu” which my parents often call me. Even just ‘Vin’ will be fine as my grandmother calls me ‘Vin’. That’s going to be easy I reckon!
Q. Do you work or study?
A. I have completed my graduation from a university in India, and now I work as a “medical professional” in the United Kingdom for the time being. A few months ago, I moved to the United Kingdom.
Q. What part of the day are you busy?
A. As a medical professional, I remain busy both during the day and night. However, I am busy in the morning hours most of the time because that’s when I need to treat the most complex patients in the hospital. Moreover, whenever I have a meeting with other doctors and hospital management, my time does fly!
Q. What part of the day do you like the most?
A. Well, that would be more than one part of the day! I tend to take a short nap, not a sound sleep, at the noon after my lunch when it is hot outside. After that, I feel refreshed and motivated to work more dedicatedly. That’s the time I enjoy a lot. Apart from that, after I return home after a busy workday and get inside my blanket in my room and enjoy reading a book, that’s something precious to me. I also like the serenity of the night and when I am off duty, I read books or watch movies. This is also a very special time for me.
Q. How many languages can you speak?
A. I can speak Tamil, Hindi, Malayalam and Urdu very fluently. Those all are local languages in India. Besides, I speak English most of the time as I work in a multicultural environment where people from different languages and countries come and gather. I also know very basic of Arabian language that a few local people here speak. I am not sure how good I am in speaking English, well I can tell you after the IELTS test result… I guess.
Q. What are the languages that you will love to learn in the future? Why?
A. I would love to learn English more efficiently as I need to use this language most of the time. Given an opportunity, I would love to learn new languages like French with which I suppose I would be wobbling around in a few years from now, as I aspire to immigrate to Canada where it is a predominant language apart from English. Learning a new language always comes with a bonus to communicate, I believe.
Part 2: Cue Card/ Candidate Task Card
Topic:
Talk about a job that you would like to try.
You should say:
- what the job is
- what skills are necessary to do this job
- whether it is a good job in your country
and explain why you would like to have/try this job.
[You will have to talk about the topic for 1 to 2 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. ]
Sample Answer 1:
Mobility is one of the most wanted things for the people who remain highly busy with their respective business. Only a car of own can remove the problem. Now, here I will describe how I bought my first car and thank you for the chance to describe the event here.
I have always dreamt of having a car of my own. But it was not so easy for me to afford the price of a car. In fact, being a small businessman, it was really hard for me to arrange all the money required to buy a new car. So, I started to save money for the purpose. Since I had to manage all the expenses of my family from my small income, it was hard for me to save money. But, by cutting and reducing my own expenses, I managed the entire cost to buy a car of my own.
It may sound strange to you. But this is true. I had to wait for long eight years. In each of the day of these years, I have saved the money. It was difficult indeed to save money and hold the attention for the purpose. Besides, there were no fixed amount to save. I have saved the money after my capacity. Often I have deposited cash and coins in the depository of my own which I made solely for this purpose. Interestingly, it was not me who saved money at the depository, rather my wife, kids and other family members also had their contribution to increasing the fund for having a car of my own. I am truly grateful to them for their selfless contributions. After passing around eight years, I found that I have gathered the required amount of money to buy a brand new car.
In these years, I have experienced that saving money is the most difficult task for me. In fact, the range of expenses was on the rise but my business was not expanding in consideration of the expenses. But, I was determined to buy a car for me. It was becoming harder day after days to reach my business stations (I deal with export and import of poultry feed in Delhi and also own a small superstore in the city). I was unable to meet deadlines to meet with clients and others. Sometimes, I also have missed some deals with my clients for being late in the meeting place. There are many such other events are available to describe. Hence, I pledged to buy a car for me and I did it. I saved a small amount each day and finally I was able to accommodate the entire expense of my own car.
The feeling of having the car cannot be explained in words. It took me eight years to make my dream come true. In fact, it was not my dream, it was something more than a dream. It was a necessity for me. By the time, my business started growing and I needed to travel from one place to another. But I was determined that I would not take loans from a bank or any individual. It was my necessity and I will meet it no matter how long it takes. At last, I was able to get a car and when I brought it home, it appeared that it was the family member of mine for whom we all waited a long time.
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Model Answer 2:
There were a lot of things that I had to save money for, but the one that I can remember very clearly was my first laptop. It was ten years ago when I was in the first year of university. I wanted to buy a laptop for my study; however, my parents would only pay for a desk computer, which was much cheaper at the time. So I had to save up the gap between a PC and a laptop, which was a huge gap for a uni student.
But I was determined to save up for my laptop, so I started to work part time as a private English tutor for high school students. The hourly rate was generous, but because I only had 2 students, I was not able to save up as quickly as I wished. Because I lived on the campus, so I could not cut down my accommodation cost. Instead, I cut my food spending, so for a few months, I did not have proper dinner.
I felt like I had done everything I can to save up as quickly as possible, but in the end, it still took me almost a year. Because I had put so much effort in it, I felt incredibly proud when I finally had my laptop in my hands.
Follow-up Questions
Q. Is it easy to work in that job?
A. I would say definitely ‘No’. This job has never been easy nor will be as there are no definite protocols to help you all the time during your job. It is basically your conscience and presence of mind, your gut feelings, a daring attitude that are gonna help you come out of it. Not many people would dare to get engaged in such a job. It requires the utmost passion and mentality to embrace the unknown and challenges. All you can expect from this job is the “unexpected”!
Q. Are many people working nowadays in that field?
A. Not many people are working in this profession, but yes, one could easily find many amateur explorers on YouTube, and all. I have neither heard of any school or institution for studying such skills nor about people who can get the necessary training for an explorer job. Many are into this as part-timers or they see it as a hobby and passion. But as a mainstream profession on exploring, we will seldom find people in this profession, at least in my country.
Part 3: Details Discussion
Q. What is the most common way to get a job in your country?
A. Someone needs a university degree with a good result and also relevant job experience to apply for a nice job in my country. It is very common among the young generation to apply online, through the job portals, where employers have submitted their job details. For the government jobs, one has to take a tough exam and a few top scorers are offered government jobs. There is a huge competition in this exam though.
For job seekers, a common way to get a job would be to go online and search for a job circular and then apply for it. If you are selected for the interview, the job might be yours. Finally, social media like LinkedIn and Facebook have also become a platform for new job seekers.
Q. What do most young people do to find a job in your country?
A. It depends on the place they live in and the type of organisations they are applying to. In village areas, newspaper advertisements, local government employment exchanges and bulletin are the way of knowing about a job circular and young people there rely on these methods to apply for a job. In urban areas, it’s basically newspaper, the internet, and social media are the way of knowing about and applying for jobs. The interview of any job is the main criteria for ensuring a job. Most of the private companies decide the deserving candidates for a job during the interview. If someone can make a good impression during the interview and prove his or her worth, he or she is assured to get the job.
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