‫Hello and welcome back to another alts speaking lesson.
‫So this is a new updated lesson and thank you for the feedback from you guys.
‫I've asked you before what sort of lessons you would like and some of the feedback I got was for extra
‫alt speaking lessons.
‫So here it is.
‫Now, if you'd like more lessons in different sections or for different things, please do let me know.
‫I do try and update the course as much as I can.
‫And yeah, so this is our first speaking lesson where I'm going to do some live part to speaking topics.
‫So we're going to focus on just a few part two speaking topics.
‫We can take a look at the cards.
‫I'm going to show you my quick plan as well, and which I think will be useful for you to see how I
‫would write my plan.
‫And then I'm going to do two or three minute answers for you.
‫So I hope that you enjoy it.
‫We'll go through these different answers.
‫I would definitely recommend using the subtitles on this video.
‫So if you go to the video toolbar, go and click the subtitles button and you can read along.
‫Okay, let's get started then.
‫Let's have a look at our first task two cue card.
‫Okay, so this first task to cue card is about text messages.
‫And this is quite a common phrase, especially within British English texting, which means to send
‫messages between phones.
‫And I explain that because not all cultures actually use that sort of text feature on the phones.
‫And also commonly now people don't really text messages as much as they used to, although it's still
‫pretty popular in the UK instead of say using WhatsApp or similar messaging services.
‫So first up, this is going to be a bit of a strange one.
‫So I have noted down I've got the plan in my hand here, I've noted down that I don't really text message
‫any more.
‫So it's a bit of a hard one to answer in all honesty, because I don't really text message much these
‫days, but it's worth saying that why not say I don't text, I email.
‫You can talk about that for a little bit to really try and tell the whole story.
‫And then obviously I've got some more notes on the actual text message that I find important and useful,
‫which is build reminders.
‫Lucky me.
‫And yeah, so that's it really.
‫You can see the plan here.
‫Apologies if the handwriting's not great, but it gives you a real idea about how I run a plan.
‫So let's begin.
‫Here's my 2 to 3 minute answer.
‫Well, in actual fact, I don't really text message that often these days, although when I had my phone
‫say ten, 15 years ago, I definitely did text message a lot more then I guess text messaging really
‫isn't that important these days because there are other applications that people use.
‫So it's a little bit difficult for me to think about the most important text because in all honesty,
‫it was a long time ago since I use that feature on a phone, but I would say that one of the most important
‫text messages that I receive on a monthly basis is about my bills, and it's actually about my phone
‫bill.
‫So the company that I use, oh to which is a really famous and large telecommunication company in the
‫UK, they have a service where you can ask them to send you a text message every month because to be
‫honest, I'm kind of forgetful.
‫It's really useful for me because yeah, I definitely do forget to pay my bills sometimes.
‫So at the end of every month they sort of drop me a text and tell me that my bill is due and the amount
‫I owe.
‫I have like a basic package.
‫And then on top of that, I sometimes use extra money, safer data if I'm using the Internet a lot or
‫maybe some extra calls as well.
‫So the amount they tell me at the end of the month is really useful because then I know exactly what
‫I need to pay with the add ons.
‫So when I get the text message, I go on to the online payment system and then I just make my payment
‫there for whatever the amount is.
‫I'm pretty sure without this important text message I'd forget and probably get the service cut off
‫from me.
‫Yeah.
‫So even though I don't really text people any more, I'd say one of the most useful services I have
‫is from O2 for my monthly reminders.
‫Okay.
‫Let's move on to our second test to cue card.
‫And this is about describing a challenging thing that I have done or you have done a few answering the
‫question.
‫It's a little bit easier to answer this and think about personal experiences and just note as well,
‫I'm really going to try and describe everything in detail and really try and push the storytelling so
‫you can see my plan on the screen.
‫I'm going to talk about my teaching qualification.
‫So I've got my phone here.
‫I'm going to set it off for 3 minutes.
‫It's a good way that you can do this as well.
‫Set the timer for 3 minutes and see if you can talk that long.
‫It might be 2 to 3 minutes, but anyway, let's begin.
‫Well, I'd say this is actually a bit of an easier question to answer than some of the other two cue
‫cards I'd practiced with.
‫So one of the most challenging things I've ever done, and there are a few different ideas that I was
‫thinking of, is probably my pgce qualification.
‫Now, if you're not sure what that is, that actually means postgraduate certificate in education.
‫So it's a degree that you do after your bachelor's degree.
‫So a postgraduate degree and it's in education.
‫So my bachelor's degree was in music and new media production, those types of things.
‫And I really enjoyed it, but I really wanted to teach and also some of the opportunities that teaching
‫gives you like traveling.
‫So I decided to go back to university and do my postgraduate certificate in education and this actually
‫gives you the qualifications to teach in UK schools.
‫I'm actually primary school teacher and I generally teach year six now, which is actually grade five,
‫but I teach adults as well.
‫So I did the postgraduate certificate in education, the PGCE and I found the first couple of months
‫were quite easy because it was more theory based and it was university based.
‫Then after that it was a one year qualification after that came placements.
‫So I had to go into schools and take over the class and teach.
‫Now one of the real difficulties was my mentor, my first mentor at this time, the school that I had
‫was I don't want to sound mean, pretty awful.
‫She was not supportive at all.
‫In fact, she came back from her holiday and this is a true story early.
‫She came back from Portugal to meet me.
‫She wasn't scheduled to meet me and she said to me, to my face, I want to fail you.
‫I don't want a student teacher.
‫So that really didn't start things off well.
‫And then for the next three months, I was basically given a really difficult time.
‫I taught everything and the mentor was really negative about the whole experience.
‫However, I passed everything well.
‫I got support from another teacher at the school and I eventually did get through that placement.
‫The second placement that I had was way better, but it was also a very difficult school in a challenging
‫area.
‫So there were a lot of needs that the families and the students.
‫But my mentor at the next school was amazing and taught me so much about teaching.
‫I really it was worth it, even though it was difficult to make my way through this situation because
‫I've been teaching for years and years now and both in the UK and I've travelled doing this and I've
‫had some fantastic experiences.
‫So even though it was such a stressful, difficult time, it was well worth the experience.
‫Okay, you can hear my alarms going off there.
‫So I made it to 3 minutes and in fact I could probably talk longer for this tattoo cue card.
‫And you will find that sometimes the different tasks to cue cards, you'll find a little bit easier
‫to answer.
‫But just remember to try and story, tell and give as much description using slow, well, pronounced
‫language.
‫You'll be fine.
‫Okay.
‫Let's move on to the third question.
‫This is about a job that you would not like to do.
‫And interesting, because you would have thought that they would have said, what job would you most
‫like to do?
‫So kind of interesting that this is how to answer this one.
‫Thinking about a job that you definitely don't want to do.
‫And you can see my plan here.
‫Now, again, apologies for the handwriting, but I'm actually going to talk about being a taxi driver.
‫Nothing wrong with being a taxi driver.
‫Please don't take offence if that's something that you do or a family member does.
‫It's the traffic for me that I couldn't deal with.
‫So I'm going to talk about this.
‫I think I'm going to find it a bit more challenging to do the full 3 minutes, but I'll try and slow
‫my speaking down and give loads of extra details that are of course relevant to the question.
‫So let's begin.
‫Well, in actual fact, there are lots of jobs that I would like to do, and I think all jobs have their
‫own importance.
‫So, you know, I'll give you the answer, of course, but I don't want to sound demeaning or offensive
‫to anybody or in particular this type of job.
‫However, a job that I really would not like to do is being a taxi driver.
‫Now, taxi drivers, you know, it can be a pretty cool job, I suppose, because you get to meet lots
‫of different people, you get to have lots of different experiences and you get to learn a lot about
‫your community.
‫However, I live in a busy city and there's something that I cannot stand and that is traffic.
‫Now I'm a pretty patient guy, especially with friends and family and kids.
‫However, I don't have any patience.
‫I have zero patience for sitting in traffic.
‫So when I do get a taxi, which I actually often do, I'm sat in traffic and I just feel so bad for
‫the taxi driver.
‫It must be so stressful to spend 12 hours of your working.
‫Woke day sat in traffic which in the city I live there is always heavy traffic, but I suppose, you
‫know, it's an easy job in terms of just being sat down.
‫But I would find it so frustrating and also quite boring too.
‫Also, there are a few of the things about being a taxi driver that I'm not sure I quite like.
‫The first one being that the hours can be very unsociable, which means that a lot of the taxi drivers
‫that I've spoken to, they're sometimes working really late into the night.
‫Sometimes they might have scheduled jobs that are in the middle of the night, you know, three, 4:00,
‫something like that.
‫And also, they often work very long hours.
‫Now, I'm not saying it's always the case, but sometimes for all those long hours and the hard work,
‫maybe the pay, the salary isn't quite matched with the amount of work and stress that it involves.
‫However, to be honest, I think it can be a pretty well paid job.
‫The main thing for me is the traffic, though I just could not stand to be sat in traffic all the time.
‫Another issue as well is that you can never guarantee that you would have a nice customer and remember
‫that sometimes you're going to be sat with them for quite a long time.
‫I know that in the UK often taxi drivers get a little bit sick of picking up drunk customers who can
‫be a real handful for the taxi driver.
‫So that's something that I definitely wouldn't enjoy.
‫And I know that a lot of taxi drivers try to avoid city centres because of this.
‫Yeah.
‫So I suppose the taxi driver, although it is a pretty great job, it's definitely not for me.
‫Okay, so I'll stop there and let me stop that.
‫The examiner would say there's no alarm, so it's not going to put you off.
‫The examiner would probably he will or she will sort of say, okay, that's that's enough.
‫Thank you for the answer.
‫They'll prompt you when it's time.
‫I'm surprised I made it to 3 minutes there because I wasn't convinced I was going to have enough to
‫talk about.
‫But again, just going in detail, stick to the question and really try and explain everything.
‫And just a storyteller, be confident, enjoy it and practice with different cue cards.
‫Okay, so I hope you've enjoyed this lesson.
‫Please do drop me a message if you want more lessons like this and feel free to listen to it through
‫again and again and write down some of the language I've used and try and use it yourself.