IELTS Speaking Part 1
Headphones
Do you use headphones?
Yes, I do. But I don’t use them often. My wife and my son use them most of the time.
What type of headphones do you use?
I use Panasonic Extra Bass headphones that have the super-fine sound quality. When you hear the music, you have the club-like sound quality. And the ear-pads are super soft that gives extra comfort.
When would you use headphones?
I am a huge fan of Indian movie songs. And at night, when I want to enjoy some old movie songs I use headphones. This helps me to enjoy music without disturbing the other family members.
In what conditions you won’t use headphones?
First of all, I won’t use it when we all family members are sitting together in our drawing room. This is the time to talk to each other. If I use headphones and listen to music, then it looks as if I am ignoring my family members.
Secondly, I won’t use them while traveling in a train. Indian trains are very noisy at times. And to hear the music clearly we need to raise the volume. And this will damage our hearing capacity if we keep listening to music at high volumes.
Apps
What Apps have you recently used?
I recently downloaded an App for meditation. It is called MeditationDaily. It is a very useful app. Other than that I have downloaded an app that is for collocations. This App is by Oxford University Press. It’s a very useful app.
What kinds of Apps are you usually interested in?
To be very frank, I don’t like apps very much. There are no specific app that I truly like.
I believe that apps are there to make our tasks easier. But we should not depend upon them too much.
I use social media apps like Facebook, Instagram , and WhatsApp.
But they are just for my convenience and make communications faster.
What was the first App you used?
If I remember it correctly, the first App I used was the Dictionary App. It was a primary version of an ‘English to Gujarati’ dictionary.
Today we use much smarter versions of that App, but during that time, this App was a novelty for us.
What kinds of Apps would you like to use in the future?
Once again I would like to say that I am not very much enthusiastic about apps.
But, I would like to have the apps that can help me in my profession.
I am a banker, and there are apps already available for this banking field.
But I want advanced versions of banking apps that are more user-friendly and have some new features like video calling to your bank, biometric identification of the user ,and so on.
Special Costumes
Do you like to wear special costumes?
Yes, I do. Especially when it suits the occasion. From fancy dress competitions at school to traditional ceremonies, each occasion provides the opportunity to put on special costumes and dressing up for the occasion.
Did you try any special costumes when you were young?
Yes, of course. I can clearly remember the day when I was in Class IV.
It was the month of August, and our school decided to celebrate Janmashtami festival. That festival celebrates the birth of Lord Krishna.
So there was a fancy dress competition at my school. And I dressed up as Lord Krishna. The costume was specially designed by my English teacher Mrs. Diwan.
Mrs. Diwan chose the best imitation jewellery and silk clothes to make that costume. And I still have the photographs of that event. What a happy time it was!
When was the last time you wore special costumes?
Last Navrati, I wore traditional Gujarati costumes for our traditional dance called Garba.
Did you ever buy special costumes?
Actually, I don’t go to by such costumes. People do this for me.
Previously, it was my parents who bought dresses for me.
And nowadays, my wife selects and buys costumes for me.
IELTS Speaking Test - Part 2
Describe a time you saw something interesting on social media
- when it was
- where you saw it
- what you saw
- and explain why you think it was interesting
Usually I don’t use social media that much. It was invented as a means of faster communication.
And another aim was to create an online community of like-minded people.
But, then the invention turned out to be a threat to human relationships.
People started spending too much time on social media and neglecting to talk to their family members.
And this was the case of my family too.
My son was completely addicted to social media, especially Instagram.
He would post his pictures after editing them on his smartphone , and then keep staring at the screen for people to like his pics.
One day he was just following his daily routine of uploading pics on Instagram.
I was very upset and I snatched away his phone and was about to delete his Instagram account when I saw something that made me laugh , and I started laughing so uproariously that my wife suddenly rushed to my son’s room just to check what had happened suddenly.
I saw an Instagram reel – a short video of my neighbor Mr. Satishbhai.
Satishbhai is a respected businessman, and he usually stays very aloof and hardly speaks to anyone in the neighborhood.
This Satishbhai is on Instagram, I came to know on that day. My son follows him so his videos and reels could be seen by my son.
On that day I saw that reel in which Satishbhai was singing the latest song by Arijit Singh.
I was completely surprised as I had never heard Satishbhai’s voice in such a way.
Satishbhai, being a very bad singer, was singing the song in a very funny way.
And he was not satisfied with simply singing the song in his bathroom.
He recorded the song and uploaded it on Instagram.
If you have heard the original song, then you would surely laugh at such a hilarious distortion of this beautiful song.
I saw the full video, and all the while I was laughing a lot.
just a few minutes ago I was very angry with my son, but after Satishbhai’s funny song, I couldn’t control my laughter and I forgave my son.
And I also requested him to inform me whenever Satishbhai uploaded another song on his Instagram account.
Why do people like to use social media?
The answer lies in the inherent tendency of humans to make small groups and form a community of like minded people.
And just a few decades ago it was quite difficult to do this. And there was also a barrier of physical distance.
Social media help people to transcend the boundaries of geography, and there is a possibility of real-time communications.
So it would be difficult to resist the pull of social media. And people would gravitate toward that.
What kind of things are popular on social media?
These days anything that gives instant pleasure or something that strikes people as uproariously funny can be all the rage on social media.
During and after the pandemic, people are hungry for more and more entertainment.
And the rate at which content and its creators are proliferating is putting pandemic to shame. ( This phrase has been taken from this editorial published in Indian Express)
So there is more than enough content to cater to the hungry audience. Hence the rise of social media sensations ranging from popular chefs to meme makers to cover song makers on social media.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of social media?
The striking disadvantage is the breaking of family ties and growing distances between family members.
People care more for their virtual friends of Facebook than their own parents or siblings.
The other disadvantage is the wasting of time that could be allotted to creative activities and learning something new.
Despite all this, social media is not without its unique advantages.
People socialize and find kind and sympathetic friends on these sites.
Even professionals form a community that assist them in their learning journey.
The biggest advantage was during the pandemic period when people isolated themselves. Yet they felt each other’s company only because of the social media.
What do you think about making new friends on Facebook and other online platforms?
I personally recommend making new acquaintances on Facebook. This is because it is the need of the hour.
These social media friends broadens our horizons and helps us see the world in a different way. It shatters our deep-rooted prejudices and makes us more sympathetic to other people’s views.
But, I must stress the fact that we should not throw caution to the wind while accepting or sending friend requests to strangers. It may sound a bit risky , but it is a well established fact that there are many fraudsters whose malicious intents lurk beneath their innocent appearances.