IELTS Speaking Conversation with Tips

- This is a lovely IELTS Speaking conversation

with a student from Bangladesh, giving you phrases and tips

to make your IELTS Speaking answers more effective.

(upbeat music)

Hello, this is Keith from English Speaking Success

on the website, Keith Speaking Academy,

helping you speak better English, give better answers,

and get a higher score on IELTS Speaking.

Today, I'm delighted to share this conversation with you.

It's a student called Abir.

He's from Bangladesh.

And in this conversation, we want to show you

some lovely phrases that Abir uses and also some tips

to help you prepare for IELTS Speaking.

Do note at times, I also give my opinion

because it's a conversation.

Of course, in the real IELTS Speaking test,

the examiner asks, you answer.

The examiner does not give their opinion.

That's up to you to give the answers.

Okay.

So in this video, we'll go through the conversation.

We're gonna talk about, well, introductions, transport,

technology, and business.

And also after each clip, I'll just do a small analysis

of some of the language that you can also learn

from Abir and practice and start to use as well.

At the very end in the conversation we talk about tips

and tricks to help you learn English

and prepare better for the IELTS Speaking Test.

Right, without further ado, let's jump in.

Right.

Hello, Abir.

Hi.

- Yeah, hello.

How are you doing?

- I'm really good, thank you.

I'm very, very well.

What about you?

- I'm doing great.

I mean today I'm really excited about today's session.

- Right.

Listen, it's great to see you here.

Thank you so much for joining me today.

And we're gonna have a conversation

and talk about some different topics.

I'd like to begin with you, Abir.

Tell us a bit about you and where you are from.

- Well, my full name is Abir Ahmed.

You can also call me Abir.

And I'm from Bangladesh, South Asia.

And I live in the city called Khulna,

which is in the southern part of my country.

And you can say this an industrial area also.

- Right.

Okay.

And what do you do in Khulna?

- Well, presently,

I'm a first-year undergraduate student and I'm studying

in the Department of Business Administration.

And that's really great to listen Khulna from you.

- Right.

Right, first-year undergraduate student, so,

and you're doing business administration.

Why did you choose that subject?

- Well, I'm really passionate about that.

Down the road, I have a plan to be an entrepreneur

and that's why,

if I'm doing business administration right now,

maybe that will help me a bit.

And that's why I chose that.

I'm really passionate about that, basically.

- Do you enjoy your classes?

- Yeah, all the time.

I mean, if I need to speak specifically, then marketing.

Marketing fascinates me a lot.

And for this reason, I chose business administration.

- Right, fantastic.

That's great.

Let's look at some really useful phrases Abir uses.

When I ask him, why did you choose that subject?

He said, "I'm really passionate about that."

Right.

To be passionate about something is to love something.

Right.

Can be a hobby, subject, work, study.

You can have different phrases going up in strength.

You can say, I like that, I'm into that.

I'm passionate about that.

I'm mad about that.

He also says, "Marketing fascinates me."

Something fascinates me.

It interests me a lot.

Really a lot.

Right.

We could say education fascinates me.

Teaching fascinates me.

Can you say that, fascinates?

Great.

What fascinates you?

Lovely.

Another beautiful phrase.

It's idiomatic that Abir uses is, "Down the road,

I have a plan to," do something.

Down the road doesn't mean, well, there.

It means in the future, right.

Down the road, in the future.

"Down the road, I want to be an entrepreneur."

An entrepreneur, somebody who works for themself

and starts a business, right.

Down the road I want to do something.

What do you want to do down the road?

Lovely.

Let's move on.

Now you mentioned you are from Khulna

which is in the south.

Did you say it was in the south of Bangladesh?

- For sure, south.

- Okay.

I'm interested about transport in your city.

What kind of public transport do you have?

- Well, in my country, basically,

if I talk about public transports,

then we have buses and trains.

And our government has already introduced MRT and LRT.

And those are pretty convenient means of travel,

I would say.

- Right.

And what about you?

How do you get around the city?

- Well, it depends.

I mean, when I just need to get around my city

or there's a short distance, then I choose public transport.

And when I just need to get away from it

or I'm traveling somewhere else,

I choose private transportation

because it's really comfortable I will say.

- Right.

When you mentioned public transport then,

so does that mean that you take the bus,

do you take the train?

- It depends.

I mean, sometimes I take the bus or sometimes the train

and it depends on the purpose I'm dealing with basically.

- Right, okay.

Here where I live in Santander,

we have quite a good public transport system.

We have buses.

The only problem with buses

is they do get very, very crowded,

especially in the rush hour.

What's it like in your city?

- Well, the same here,

because our country is an overpopulated country

and you know public transport is pretty affordable

and for this reason, it's a bustling city

and sometimes people get crowded there as well,

We face the same issue.

- Right.

The same thing.

And here, the government's investing a lot

in improving the transport.

How do you think the transport system will change

in the future in your city?

- I have been mulling over this a lot recently

and I guess, I mean the way people are gathering

in different public transportation or public places,

the government can introduce some flyovers.

They can also impose strict laws

just to decrease unlicensed vehicles.

That will be pretty convenient for the pedestrians

or the people who are traveling.

And another thing I will say, our government has taken

some of the initiatives and we are waiting

for when they will get on with all this.

- Hoping that it happens sooner rather than later, right?

Right, talking about transport,

Abir uses some really nice phrases.

I asked him, how do you get around your city?

Right.

How do you move around the city?

He said, "If I need to get away from it all,

then I," da da da da.

He takes the bus or takes the train.

To get away from it all is idiomatic

and it means really to escape the noise and activity

of a city, to get away from it all.

Nice expression.

He then uses adverbs really well.

He says something is, "Really comfortable."

He said the price is, "Pretty affordable," really nice.

It's a simple way to make your answers more beautiful.

Right.

Use adverbs really comfortable instead of very comfortable,

instead of very affordable, it's pretty affordable.

You can say it's fairly affordable,

it's quite affordable, or even it's reasonably affordable.

These adverbs are really good.

He also uses adjectives really effectively.

He talks about, "It's a bustling city," bustling.

There's a T but you don't pronounce the T, bustling.

This means to be very busy and active in a positive way.

Right.

You can also say it's a buzzing city, bustling, S,

buzzing with a Z, a voiced Z, a buzzing city,

like the buzz of the bee.

Or even it's a vibrant city.

Very nice.

Be careful if you say it's a crowded city

or it's a noisy city.

These are both slightly negative.

Right.

Whereas bustling, buzzing, and vibrant are positive.

Great.

I go on to ask Abir how will public transport

change in the future, down the road?

Right.

He says, "I've been mulling over this a lot recently."

To mull over something

is to think about something carefully.

Right.

And he uses the present perfect continuous.

Very nice.

I've been mulling over this a lot recently.

I've been thinking about it.

Lovely.

He then uses some expressions

'cause he's talking about the government.

Very often when we are asked about changes in the future,

you may talk about what the government is doing.

He says, "The government should impose strict laws."

Very nice collocation, impose strict laws,

which is to establish some strong laws.

He says, "The government has taken some initiatives,"

so to take an initiative is to begin to do something

that they should do.

Right.

The government has taken some initiatives.

Very nice.

Let's carry on.

Fantastic.

I guess, in most cities a key part of transportation

in the future is investing in technology

and I'm interested in technology in your country.

Have there been many changes in technology in recent years?

- Yeah, there is already changes because I mean,

for the last two years, we have been running up

against great difficulties in terms of education

because after COVID what happened

that all the education system is now online based

and our teachers were not that much capable

because that was in the earlier stage

when we faced great amount of issues

and our government currently is working.

As the students, we are also working to skill up

our technological knowledge and other things

because this is the era of cutting-edge technologies.

Without technology, you cannot go a single day.

- And how do you hone your skills around technology?

- Well, what I do, I take different kind of online courses.

That's the first thing.

And sometimes to brush up on my skills I practice,

I try to make some tutorials on YouTube.

I try by my own and sometimes I also try to teach my friends

because teaching is the best way to practice

and I'm trying to do that.

- Oh, that's fantastic.

I totally agree.

The best way to learn something is actually to teach it.

Very, very true.

- Yeah.

- Do you think that technology

makes our lives easier or harder?

- I'll say easier

because due to the blessings of technology,

I mean we're having different things automated

and that's why we don't need to think much.

And once in a blue moon nowadays I just take notes

or note down my to-do list.

Now I'm doing that due to the blessings of technology.

I have online to-do list planner.

And that's the way technology is helping us,

I mean it's reducing our stress and workload.

We can just make things done

or we can get things done easily than before, I will say.

- Right.

Now earlier we were talking about technology

and older people, I was saying I'm 55,

I'm getting on, I'm not a spring chicken.

Do you think that technology poses challenges

for older people?

- Obviously, it is.

I mean older people find it really difficult.

As I have mentioned that it's kinda rocket science for them

because they are from an age

where they didn't face that kind of technology.

Their upbringing wasn't like that.

And now they have to adapt all the new things.

They have to adapt all these and you are a smart guy,

that's why you could do that.

In our country, there are some silver surfers

in our country.

They're trying to do that.

But I will not say they're an expert about it.

They're trying really hard.

- Right, right.

I'm very proud to be a silver surfer, almost.

Yeah.

I'm not sure if I'm smart.

I think I'm very persistent.

Right.

I just carry on, and carry on, and carry on.

- Yeah.

Whatever I'm doing at the age of 20,

you're doing at the age of 55.

It's really great, I would say.

- Right.

Thank you.

What about computers?

Do you use computers a lot?

What do you use them for?

- Well, I use computer a lot

because what happens that all the activities

that I'm doing right now is based on computer.

Without computer it's like I cannot do a single day.

I cannot take a single step without computer.

Presently, we're shooting,

I also take online classes of mine and through computer

and also, I'm brushing up my skills

as I have mentioned before, through computer.

I'm really into marketing.

So I need to design.

Yeah.

Also, I'm doing that using softwares and computers.

So totally, I'm wrapped with technology, I will say.

- Right, interesting.

Let's continue looking at some really nice phrases

on the topic of technology.

Again, I asked the question, have there been changes

in technology in recent years, right?

Have there been changes?

So something happening in the past up until today

and Abir says, "We have been running up against

great difficulties in terms of education."

To run up against a problem is to face a problem

or to hit a problem, right?

We can say to run up against.

Run up against a problem, run up against a difficulty,

run up against a challenge.

I love that.

Run up against, it should be a song.

So he says, we've been running up against

great difficulties.

Notice the tense, right, present perfect continuous.

We have been, plus the verb, I-N-G,

we have been doing, the present perfect continuous,

is to describe an activity that began in the past

and is happening again and again up until the present.

Lovely.

Very nice.

We have been running up against some difficulties

in terms of education.

Nice.

He goes on to talk about skills and improving skills.

He actually says, "They are working to skill up."

Now, it's okay, but in fact, it's much more common

to say to upskill.

So people are working to upskill.

Right.

That would be the better verb, to upskill,

to improve your skills.

Okay.

On a similar idea, he talks about brushing up on my skills.

I said, how do you hone your skills

around technology, right?

To hone, to improve your skills.

He says, "I take some online courses

to brush up on my skills."

Brush up on, three words, right, one sound.

Brush up on my skills.

To brush up on something is to refresh and improve

a skill that you've learned but probably forgotten,

brush up on.

Can you say that?

Brush up on, right.

So maybe you want to brush up on your English

or brush up on your typing skills.

I don't know.

Another question I ask is, do you think technology

makes our lives easier or harder?

Very common IELTS question, right?

And he says, "Well, due to the blessings of technology,"

the blessings is an interesting word.

It's often used around religion to pray or to give a prayer.

But here it means the help, right?

Due to the blessings of technology

is really thanks to the help of technology.

Nice expression.

Just to remind you, if you want a summary

of all of this language, useful phrases,

and the tips that come up in this lesson,

you can download the PDF for free of this lesson.

Just click on the link down in the description below

and put in your name, your email

and then you'll get the PDF.

And also I can send you more information about,

well, other resources and tips, lessons,

all for free to help you prepare for IELTS Speaking.

I'd like to come back to a topic we talked about earlier.

You've talked about being a student studying an MBA

and you mentioned about becoming an entrepreneur,

so on under this topic of business, right?

Do you think that it's better to work for a company

or to be an entrepreneur?

- Well, it depends.

When we are starting in our early age,

then we obviously can work for a company.

We can have lots of knowledge from them.

And it happens that when we are working for a company,

they already have different kind of connections.

So it's easy to talk with people, learn from them.

But in this today's age, I mean it's really,

I mean I will say if someone is just relying on job,

they're not playing a safe bet because you know,

few days ago Meta laid off their 11,000 plus employees.

So it's really risky and in today's time, in our country,

all over the world they're trained,

it's a great practice that youngsters

are coming up with great ideas.

They're working their butt off to make something new,

bring about changes to bring about breakthrough.

So to my way of thinking,

or maybe it differs from person to person,

but I'm really a great fan of being an entrepreneur.

- Right.

Very interesting.

And what about family businesses?

Are there many family businesses where you live?

- Yeah, obviously.

I mean in my country what happens

the youngsters are not that much likely

to start something by their own.

There are few.

So I would consider them a minority.

And in our country, I mean there are some big businesses

and they're really from,

I mean they have a great family background.

They have been doing that for 100 years or 50, 60 years.

So yeah, family businesses, I mean I are really here,

I would say.

- I'm curious what kind of family businesses you have?

I mean, where I live we have typically the small shops

and the bakers and the butchers, the fishmongers,

all of these are typically family businesses.

What about in Khulna?

- It's really great to hear my city's name by you.

And the thing is that in my country

there are big corporations, they're run by family.

I will mention one of them and that's Bashundhara Group,

there's Bashundhara Group.

They're providing us all the basic commodities

like tissue, paper, and other basic stuffs.

And another thing is that I will say they still

are the business of construction,

infrastructure development is really a good practice here.

We are a developing country and different kind of groups

like Akis or others are really doing great.

I mean they're running their business

like it's a family legacy I would say.

- Right.

Interesting.

Very interesting.

That's great.

Now, we talk about the topic of business

and we talked about whether you should work

for a company or be an entrepreneur.

Abir said that people are laid off, nice expression, right?

To be laid off is to lose your job

because of hard economic times, right?

Different from, "To be fired",

which means you lose your job because you are not good at it

or you've done something wrong.

To be laid off is just that the company

cannot afford to keep you.

He then said something that made me smile

because it's very colloquial and that was,

"They are working their butt off to learn something new."

To work your butt off is to work very hard.

I smile because butt is your bum or your ass.

So to work your ass off, it means to work very hard.

I prefer working your butt off.

Right?

Butt, double T, it's a nice expression.

I think it's acceptable in IELTS Speaking,

it is very colloquial.

I think it'll make your examiner smile as it did me.

We moved on to talk about family businesses

in your country, in Bangladesh.

Now he says something interesting

and what I liked was the word stress.

He said, "They are not that likely

to start something by their own."

The stress on that, they are not that likely.

Meaning they're not very likely,

They're not that likely to start something by their own.

He said, "By their own," it should be on their own, right?

To do something on your own

is to do it without help from other people.

But nice.

He then said talking about family businesses

or I think or entrepreneurs, "I consider them a minority."

This is very, very nice, right?

I consider is, I think they are a minority.

Okay.

It means that, it's similar to I think,

but it really means, I've thought about it

and I've decided that this is like this.

So you could say instead of I think it's important,

I consider it important.

Okay.

Very, very nice.

We carried on to talk about family businesses

and he said, "These businesses are run by families."

So to be run by or to be run is to be managed by, nice.

I also like the fact he's using the passive, right?

So here we've got the subject plus to be,

plus the past participant, by somebody, right, to be run by.

So the businesses are run by families,

meaning the businesses are managed by families.

Lovely.

Finally, he talks about,

"It's a family legacy, I would say."

So a family legacy is typically the money,

or maybe the business, or the assets,

or even the values that are passed down

to the next generation.

So often, a family business gets passed down

to the sons and their children.

It's a family legacy.

Lovely.

And I also love the fact he said, "It's a family legacy,

I would say," meaning in my opinion.

It's very simple English,

but putting that at the end

is actually very, very natural English.

It's a family legacy, I would say.

Beautiful.

Very nice.

I'm very interested to learn a bit about you

and learning English as well.

I mean you, you speak excellent English.

It's very clear, you have a beautiful use of vocabulary.

How did you learn English?

- Well, I will say I learned all this from YouTube

and listening to other speakers because yeah,

as I have mentioned, I'm a great fan of speaking,

or providing, or giving speeches.

Down the road, it's like my dream

that I will talk in front of millions of people.

- Right.

- For this reason, I follow different kind of YouTubers,

and you are one of them.

You speak really great, the way you us understand

it is amazing.

So yeah, I've also listened and I have lots of podcasts

in my phone, all the time, I keep listening to that.

And every now and then

I also visit different kind of English seminars.

I try to participate in English competitions

and that's the combined package I will say.

- That's interesting.

So you're surrounding yourself with English,

but you are also actively practicing,

like in competitions and things like that.

What about on a day-to-day basis,

How do you practice speaking day by day?

- We talk about a day-to-day basis

then I'm practicing, I have one English partner, yeah,

she is my companion and with her all the time,

whenever I get some time for myself,

we love, well, I love the time for practicing

because we belong from Bangladesh

and our native language is Bengali.

So to keep our practicing every day,

we obviously need a partner and yeah,

if we are not practicing every day

because environment is the invisible hand

that shapes our behavior.

So without practice I may lose my skill,

what I have right now.

That's why I have to do that.

And I also listen a lot of English songs

and podcasts as well.

- Interesting, right.

Yeah.

I mean we say in English, if you don't use it, you lose it.

It's very true.

- Yeah.

- Right.

Yeah.

- I also believe one of the mantra

which is execution is everything.

- Yeah, that's so, so true.

I mean it's lovely to hear you

'cause you obviously have a lot of knowledge

but if people don't activate the knowledge,

if they don't use it, it just sits there

and they can't speak

because it's not coming out of the mouth.

So the activation's really important.

Yeah, I agree.

Now, you mentioned earlier when we were chatting

that you've taken the IELT test.

Why did you do that and how did it go?

- Well, I did that because I have already mentioned,

because of my dream, I wanna speak a lot.

I wanna speak English in front of millions of people

and I'm from Bangladesh and it's really hard

to hold up that accent when you are in an environment

you can do that easily.

But for me it's like I have to work really hard

for making things pan out without that, it's not possible.

And I have taken efforts to make sure

that I'm doing great and I have learned about that.

That's an international standard test.

And if I'm doing that, that's the first stage

and that will be really good for me in the future.

And in our country it also happens that,

I mean like if you have a good efficiency in English,

you can have a good job as well.

So yeah.

So I have taken that and I made a score of 7.5 overall

and in terms of English, oh sorry, in terms of speaking,

which is very dear to my heart, that was eight.

Band eight.

- Well done, you, congratulations.

I'm not surprised, actually.

That's great.

You have great fluidity and lovely vocabulary.

It's so interesting to listen how he learned English.

And let me just summarize, right,

how he has become such a confident speaker.

For me there are three things that are clear, right?

They jump out, that he has done.

First, he uses a wide range of resources.

He mentioned he uses YouTube, listens to podcasts,

he goes to English seminars.

Absolutely brilliant.

Second, he's highly motivated.

Incredibly motivated, right?

He says he wants to become a public speaker.

He wants to speak in front of hundreds, thousands of people.

He also mentioned to me that he does like

and wants to teach other people,

teaching is the best way to learn something.

So his is motivation is key.

And that's so important

because sometimes work and study gets so difficult.

If you are not motivated, you will give up.

So that high motivation makes him a good speaker.

Finally, number three, he practices a lot, right?

He practices with a partner every day,

he goes to these competitions and takes part in them.

And he also told me, outside the conversation,

that he practices until the language becomes automatic

and the ideas just flow.

So the practice is all important and all of this

for me makes him such a confident speaker.

I didn't feel like he was a student trying to speak English.

He was just a confident speaker.

Could you share some tips, right?

For students who are just starting to prepare for IELTS,

especially IELTS Speaking,

are there any tips that you could share?

- Well, I mean, I have developed myself

from the very scratch.

That's why I can also share some of my experiences.

- Yeah.

- So the first thing I will try to,

or like to suggest everyone is that create an environment.

Whatever you love, learn from that.

Maybe you love to read books, you can learn from there.

Maybe you love to watch YouTube videos.

I mean learn from there.

They're pretty effective because when you are happy,

your mind will work at its nicest.

And another thing is that practice a lot

because you know a lot of thing

and you are not trying to execute that

on a regular basis you will lose.

As you have mentioned, if you don't use, you will lose.

And that's really true.

Maybe it'll sound a bit cliche, but it's really true.

And the last one, which is my personal tip,

is that don't care a lot about answers, or grammars,

or other things.

Keep practicing.

Okay?

So whatever you have in your mind,

try to just reflect that.

It's like you have creativity in your mind

and just try to reflect that on your canvas.

That will be really effective in the long run

because after all in different situation

we need to deal with different topics

like sometimes technology, sometimes transportation,

or business, or any other thing.

And when you are really likely

to share your own opinion naturally

that will boost up your confidence

and without confidence, you cannot perform.

So that'll be my tips.

And the last one, but not least I will try to mention

is there don't learn huge amount of vocabularies.

Because if I talk about the Asians,

we love to learn maybe 1000 or 2000 vocabularies,

but we cannot use that.

So I sometimes it's like, oh it's puzzle.

I cannot use everything.

I have learned a lot but it's not working.

So don't do that.

Learn little lot of smart amount of vocabularies,

like keep the portion really low in the beginning.

Learn some small things, try to execute that.

Then when you are really okay with all the things you have

then try to scale that.

Over time, learn more and more and use that.

And I guess that's it.

- That's fantastic.

And I'm gonna say I totally agree with what you say.

I love your ideas.

I think the focus on communication and creativity

is really good because so many students block and stop

because they're obsessed with the grammar.

They're trying to think about the grammar

and they can't speak.

And the same problem with too much vocabulary,

they can't speak, and they block, and they stop speaking.

So I think your advice is golden.

Really nice.

Very, very good.

That's excellent.

Abir, I think we're going to wind up.

It's been really interesting conversation.

It's been lovely talking to you,

learning about your ideas on topics

and also about learning English.

And I'm sure you will be an inspiration

for many, many students, not only in Bangladesh,

but I think in many countries around the world

where they don't have an English environment

and sometimes struggle.

I think your advice and your speaking is great.

Great.

Lovely. Well, listen, thank you so much.

It's great to see you.

Let's stay in touch and I wish you all the best.

Okay?

- Yeah.

Yes, thank you too much as well.

And I will ask you to say hi to Bangladesh.

I guess I'm the first one

who is talking with you from Bangladesh.

- I'll say a big hi to all of you

and your family and friends in Khulna

and across Bangladesh as well.

Yes.

Hello, everybody there.

Thank you, so much.

Great, take care.

Bye-bye.

- Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Take care.

- So again, just let me summarize, right,

Abir, who got an eight in IELTS Speaking,

he mentions different tips for IELTS students.

His tips were create an English environment,

learn from things that you love.

Good.

Practice a lot, don't care too much about grammar,

just speak out your ideas.

Okay?

Yes, grammar's important, but don't think too much about it.

And finally, don't learn a huge amount of vocabulary, right?

Get a smaller amount of vocabulary, but activate it,

execute it, use it.

That's the key.

Brilliant.

Well, listen, this brings us towards the end of this video

and this conversation, the IELTS Speaking conversation

with Abir.

A big, big thank you, Abir, for doing this conversation.

I hope it has helped all of you with ideas,

with useful phrases, especially those of you

trying to get up to that band eight level.

And I'm sure it will be an inspiration

not only for the students of Khulna, Bangladesh,

but also the rest of the world.

Thank you all of you for watching.

If you've enjoyed this, please do subscribe to the channel

and turn on notifications.

If you want to find out about more upcoming videos,

my new videos usually come out on Saturdays.

And also, remember, if you want the PDF

with all of this information

and language from today's lesson,

just click on the link down in the description

and you can get that.

In the meantime, I look forward to seeing you

in the next video.

Take care, my friend.

Bye-bye.

(upbeat music)