Part 1: Introduction & Interview
Q. What is your full name?
A. Umm… my full name is Darwin Lesmana, but you can call me “Darwin”.
Q. Can I see your ID?
A. Sure, here is my ID.
Q. Do you work or study?
A. I currently work at a local retail company in Jakarta as an Accountant. I have finished my graduation a couple of years ago and since then I am working for this company.
Q. Where are you from and how long have you been living there?
A. I am originally from Bandung, a small city located in the southern part of Jakarta. However, I am currently living in Jakarta. I was born in Bandung and also grew up there. But after I graduated from high school, I moved to Jakarta. So I lived in Bandung for about 17 years.
Q. Do you like it there?
A. Yes, I love this city very much. The city has comfortable weather and a great natural view unlike many other cities in my country. It offers a safe and fascinating living experience and the crime rate is pretty low there. Good friends and neighbours in this city make it worth living in harmony and peace.
Now let’s talk about “history”...
Q. Do you like history?
A. Yes, I do like history a lot. I read different history books whenever I get a chance, and important historic events often fascinate me as a reader. I’m passionate about learning important historical events and prominent personalities who have had changed the world we see today.
Q. How often do you watch historical movies or documentaries?
A. I mostly like to read books related to history. But sometimes, I watch TV documentaries and movies based on real-events to learn more about history. Some of the programmes on the History Channel are quite captivating and I watch them regularly on TV. I often use the YouTube application on my TV to watch history-related documentaries.
Q. Can you name a historical personality that you would like to learn about? [Why?]
A. Well, I would like to study further about one of the greatest leaders in the world – Alexander the Great. I have always wanted to learn more about this significantly important historic personality but had not got the chance to explore his life. I hope I will do that soon.
Q. Why would you like to learn about him/her?
A. The reason I am curious about Alexander is that he was a visionary man, and he had been a successful leader apart from being a conquerer. He inspired his soldiers in a way which was so rare and the way he treated his enemies is something extraordinary. I would like to know what inspired him to keep on winning battles after battles and how he coped with conspiracies and politics all around him. With his great leadership quality, he had been one of the most prominent personalities in world history and I want to learn everything about him and his life.
Part 2 – Cue Card/ Candidate Task Card
Topic:
Describe a person who is special or means a lot to you.
You should say:
- how you meet him/her
- describe this person
- what you usually do together
and explain why this person is so special to you.
[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 1:
One of the special persons for me would be my wife. I met my wife in a church in the year 2000. We were Sunday school teachers back then, but we taught different classes. I was a teacher for the 5th and 6th grades in this school while she was teaching in the middle classes, which were the 3rd and 4th grades. During our Sunday school teaching era, there was a gathering, and I happened to be in the same group with her, and from there we started to have a lot of conversations together and we made phone calls every day.
My wife is a kind and friendly woman, as she likes to talk and make friends with many people. She likes travelling a lot and she was a former crew member of a local airline here in Indonesia. She had worked for about 10 years in the Company, but unfortunately, the Company was broke and decided to shut down the Airline. Besides travelling, my wife also has a passion for beauty and fashion, therefore she is planning to enroll in a Beauty and makeup class in the future.
There are a lot of things that we usually do together as a family. On the weekend, we usually go to the gym together. I like jogging on the treadmill while she prefers to exercise with the static bicycle. And we usually exercise for about one or two hours. And then both of us are movie lovers, therefore we like going to the Cinema together. We usually do it for about once or twice in a month, since we have a child these days, but before that, we routinely watched movies for about once or twice in a week. And lastly, we enjoy raising our child together, as we love little children. I believe that having a child for a young couple like us is just like being given the greatest gift in our lives.
She has a special place in my heart. I love her because she knows me better than anyone else in the world. She is a compassionate woman and loves me a lot. We spent time together, we share everything and she will be there for me no matter what. For the love and passion I feel for her and the way she loves me back make her a very special person in my life who means a lot to me indeed.
Sample Answer 2:
My mother is the most important and special person in my life. She is the only one whom I adore most in my family for many reasons. She is really a wonderful woman I have ever seen. She is a very special one to me and I love her too much.
I am familiar with her since after my birth. She is the one who is taking care of me and my entire family. She is also responsible for many other relevant and irrelevant tasks of the family. Besides, she often needs to take care of the business of my dad. As a result, sometimes she also needs to move in places for out of home activities. But she is extremely careful in executing all her responsibilities. She took great care for me and other family members in the past and also now playing her role as an affectionate mother despite her thousands of business.
My mum is around 45 years old. But she still looks beautiful in her middle age. She was more beautiful in her early days. She got married to my dad at the age of 21 and they are still continuing the family for the long years without any serious troubles. She is an extremely kind lady and loves to socialise with people. She is well educated but I was amazed at the information that she completed the remaining part of her education after the marriage. My dad helped her greatly in completing the academic activities. I really wonder about this issue. However, my mum also loves to cook. In fact, she took training of three months on cooking numerous cuisine. She allows us to test her foods and when we nod at the cooking, she feels glad.
My mum is a busy woman. She has to remain busy round the day. But I am lucky enough that she manages half an hour time for me in the evening after I return home from college. She takes me beside her and feeds me like a kid of under 10 years. This is really an interesting event for me every day. This has become a daily routine for me and her. But if she is out of home for any purpose, she makes a phone call to me and informs me about her absence. Later, when she comes back, she feeds me the supper. In that time, she also enjoys television shows with me as well. I am matured enough to take my own care, but my mum still treats me like her underage son. I enjoy this thing much.
My mum is special to me from many aspects. She is the only one who knows me very well. She understands my needs and tries her best to fill them up. Though I have two other siblings, she is more affectionate with me for I am the youngest of her children. When I was a kid, they said that I used to move with my mum like her shadow. Besides, she also loved me more than any other thing in the world. But she also did not compromise with her other relevant activities. it was really difficult to maintain everything equally but she did so. Hence, she has occupied a respectable position in my mind and this has made her special to me.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE : PUBLIC SPEAKING
Part 3: Details Discussion
Topic: Family and relationship:
Q. How is our family special to us?
A. Family is special to us because family is from where we begin our lives and family is where we always like to come back to at the end of the day no matter where we are. Family is what supports us financially, psychologically, socially and emotionally in order to help us grow and become responsible citizens. Finally, the family is what provides us with a sense of “belongingness” into this world to carry on with our lives when everybody else “pushes” us aside.
Q. How has the size of the average family changed in your country in the last few decades?
A. In the last few decades, the size of the average family has decreased remarkably in Indonesia. There are several reasons for this change. The first reason is the city-centric lifestyle and the rise in expenses. The second reason is that the women in the last few decades have become more interested in pursuing their career than getting married and starting a family at an “early” age. With an average of only 2 children per family, elder grandparents or unmarried siblings, of course, can join the “nuclear” family today, but it is certainly not as common as it used to be before a few decades.
Q. How do you think families will change in the future?
A. In the future, families will get smaller and smaller with fewer children. There will be even more single-parent families. More and more children will have stepbrothers and sisters as the number of divorces will increase due to the changes in socio-economic conditions of the families. Besides, because of better living standards along with better health and medical technologies, people will live longer and therefore most children will get to see their great-grandparents (and even great-great-grandparents) and live with them. Finally, it can also happen that due to the increase in living expenses, different generations of people will live under the same roof in future.
Topic: Meeting people:
Q. How do people in your country usually make friends?
A. People in my country are generally very friendly, and therefore, it doesn’t exactly take much of an effort to make friends in Indonesia. Young people in my country usually make friends in their schools and universities, and some of them make new friends on the internet these days. Some people also make friends at their workplaces while others make friends at the places of worship such as mosques and churches. We can even make friends at shops and markets in Indonesia, and all we need for that is to just say a sincere “hello” and pleasant behaviour.
Q. Is it easy to make new friends these days than they were in the past? Why?/why not?
A. I would say that it is easier to make friends these days than it was in the past mainly because more and more people are getting outside of their homes and towns in order to explore the unknown world around them and earn their livings which almost inevitably results in meeting with more and more people. Besides, mobile phone technologies and the internet today have also made it rather easy to make friends because with the help of them, people today can communicate with each other very easily and almost instantaneously.
Q. What qualities are generally required to become good friends?
A. A good friend should have many different good qualities, but generally speaking, one should be respectful, honest, loyal and trustworthy in order to be considered as a good friend. Besides, one should also be “dependable” so that others can rely upon him or her during the time of dire stress and needs. Finally, in order to be considered as a good friend, a person should also be patient and intelligent so that he or doesn’t become angry or mad when any misunderstanding or unpleasant situation threaten the friendship.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE : SPOKEN ENGLISH TRAINING