[The examiner asks the candidate about him/herself, his/her home, work or studies and other familiar topics.]
Topic: Food and cooking
Q. What kinds of food do you like to eat?
A. I like to eat almost all sorts of food which are tasty and are not unhealthy. For instance, I like to try pizza once in a month but not more than that as they are saturated with fat and not a healthy diet. Besides, I like to eat all the fruits and vegetable available in the market as they are rich in vitamins and minerals. Ice-cream and chocolates are two of my favourite items, despite some of their health-related issues.
Q. What kind of new food would you like to try? [Why?]
A. I would like to try Star Apple, a fruit available in Central America, the West Indies and Southeast Asia. I have heard about this delicious and low-calory fruit from one of my aunts and ever since wanted to try it. I would also like to eat the Lobster Roll from an American restaurant as they are gratifying. Finally, Avocado is a rare fruit in my county and I would like to eat it whenever possible.
Q. Do you like cooking? [Why/Why not?]
A. I am not a huge fan of cooking but it does not mean that I do not enjoy cooking at all. I am one of those persons who hate to cook every single day but enjoy doing it once in a while. I love the idea of preparing a meal for me and for the family, but I would not agree to do it twice or thrice a day as I have more important things to do. We have a home-maid who most of the time does the cooking or helps my mom to prepare meals.
Q. What was the last meal you cooked?
A. Well, interestingly I cooked a meal at the end of the last month. I am not sure about the exact date but I was home on that day and in the evening I cooked fried rice, vegetable soup and chicken curry.
Q. Do you prefer home-cooked food or food from restaurants? [Why?]
A. I always prefer home-made food as they are more hygienic, made of fresh ingredients and do not contain any harmful ingredients unlike the food from the restaurants. Once in a while, I take a meal at a restaurant to celebrate an occasion with my family or friends but those are exceptions. Most of the time I try to avoid dining at a restaurant and take home-cooked food.
[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.]
You should say:
and explain what benefits you get from this interest or hobby.
Cue Card Answer:
Not sure how many people like me think about the status of their mental and physical health, but I like to believe that it is absolutely imperative to remain healthy if we were to succeed in our lives. So, understanding how important it is to remain in prime health condition after learning about different health tips in some famous health journals, I have been hitting the gym for the last 5 years every once in a while whenever I get an opportunity. In fact, I consider going to a gym as one of my most favourite hobbies. I enjoy this activity so much and I would like to thank you for the opportunity to let me talk about it.
Well, the primary reason for going to a gym for me is that the gym is where I get to become a “man” as it allows me to look at my “cool” body (yes… I think that I have a nice toned body). Besides, going to the gym pushes me to do “better” than the next person. I enjoy going to the gym also because it allows me to socialise and mingle with my “gym friends” so that we can share and exchange our views on our overall health situations. In fact, at a gym, we men enjoy sharing health tips with each other more than talking about our jobs and the “new cars”.
The main benefit of going to a gym is that, of course, I get to stay fit with a better-shaped body, and the more fit I get, the more productive I become at my work. Another great benefit of hitting the gym is that it provides a boost to our confidence level which in turns ensures better mental health. And with a better physical and mental health, it is fair to suggest that I have a more positive view about my life and surroundings. Finally, hitting to a gym helps me relieve my stress by clearing up my mind and thoughts as I become too busy with lifting weights and punching big bags.
Discussion topics: The social benefits of hobbies
Q. Do you think having a hobby is good for people’s social life? In what way?
Answer: To a certain extent, it depends on the type of hobby we are considering. For instance, if someone’s hobby is reading books, listening to music, creating a piece of artwork or collecting coins, he or she usually does it alone. But eventually, these hobbies bring like-minded people together in the long run and promote social relationship. On the contrary, playing soccer or cricket and going to a gym or doing charity works, require interactions with others and it helps us make new friends. Such hobbies are beneficial for exchanging ideas and opinions and more importantly work as a team.
Hobbies are a great stress reliever and stop us from wasting time and building bad habits. Thus we can become more aware of our talent and contribute to our community. Once we find a hobby we feel passionate about, we usually share it with loved ones and spend more time together. Thus our hobbies are good for our personal and social life.
Q. Are there any negative effects of a person spending too much time on their hobby? What are they?
Answer: I believe spending many hours each day on a hobby for a long has some downsides that we should be aware of. If someone becomes obsessed with a hobby and spend too much time on it, he/she may perform poorly in academic and professional life. Eventually, he/she will become isolated and feel depressed. For instance, one of my cousin’s favourite hobby was playing computer games and it seriously affected his relationship with others and he ended up performing badly in his school. His relationship with his family and friends deteriorated and he was upset about it. Now that he has more healthy hobbies, he enjoys a better personal and social life.
Q. Why do you think people need to have an interest or hobby?
Answer: When our daily routine gets tedious and overly predictable, we lose focus and become pessimistic. To enjoy our life, to rediscover ourselves, to reduce our stress and to have new challenges and experiences in life, we need hobbies and personal interests. Spending time doing an enjoyable activity that is not attached to our work or other commitments will help us become happy and satisfied in life.
Besides, hobbies allow us to explore hidden talents in us that can be beneficial to our further learning and career. It also prevents us from wasting our valuable time and creating bad habits. Finally, some hobbies keep us physically fit and spiritually uplifted. Thus for a balanced life, everyone needs at least one hobby.
Discussion topics: Leisure time
Q. In your country, how much time do people spend on work and how much time on leisure? Is this a good balance, do you think?
Answer: The work-life balance and time spent on leisure activities greatly vary based on people’s profession in my country. A higher office executive in a large city scarcely have time to pursue personal interests and they are highly focused on their job and career growth. However, small percentages of them, despite a busy schedule, manage time to read books, enjoy social events and get engaged in outdoor activities. Students, elderly and children have enough time to do what they enjoy in their leisure time, and finally, females mostly socialise with other women and do arts or crafts when they have time.
I believe the time spent in the office is much higher these days for many employees in private organisations and they should rethink about their work-life balance. Females should take more outdoor activities and children’s free time activities should be more productive and guided by their parents.
Q. Would you say the amount of free time has changed much in the last fifty years?
Answer: I definitely believe that people these days have fewer hours for their leisure activities than the past generations. If we compare our freedom and time to have leisure activities than those of five decades earlier, we are much busy and less fortunate these days. The increasing population, per capita resource, demanding job requirements and our expectation to gain worldly success have changed the fact that we used to have enough time to pursue activities which are not related to education, job or other commitments in the past. Sadly enough, we spend our free time staying home or browsing the internet and this is even worse.
Q. Do you think people will have more or less free time in the future? Why?
Answer: I believe people will get busier in their workplace and spend more time on the road due to traffic congestion in the future. As a result, they will have fewer hours per week to pursue their interests and many of them would be forced to take a second job to support the family. During the economic recession, the condition would be worse. Children and the elderly will have fewer places to go to and city life would be more mechanical than today. Thus the free time people have these days, which is by the way not enough according to many, would shrink further.
This post was last modified on 11th April 2019 12:41 pm