IELTS Speaking part 3-follow up questions-Volume 1- (Page 21-30)

• Who do you think should pay for the services that are available to the people in a community? Should it be the government or individual people?

Well, this is an important aspect of living in a community. Usually, a community is a space where some people live together in a locality and they pay a notable amount to the government in the form of taxes. So, to have the common services, the government should take necessary steps. It is the government which is receiving the taxes from its citizens and in return, it should execute the duties and responsibilities it promised to the citizens. There is no need for a government if all the activities are done by the citizens. Rather, the citizens elect a government to take care of themselves and provide them with the necessary services and facilities required to live in a community or society.

• Do people in your country enjoy going to open-air markets that sell things like food or clothes or old objects? Which type of market is more popular? Why?

Thank you for allowing me to answer this important question. The number of open-air markets in Australia is limited and in fact, there are no such notable markets at all where people could go for a large-scale shopping. Most of the people prefer visiting the shopping malls and even they get their everyday stuff from the shopping malls. Shopping malls are more popular than the open-air markets (though few in number) as the shopping malls are located at convenient places with modern amenities. Besides, the shopping malls also provide with the quality products. But sometimes, the people who go out for evening walk prefer to have some light snacks or foods from the roadside vendors at the open-air markets. The foods sold there are healthy and tasty too.

• Do you think markets are more suitable places for selling certain types of things? Which ones? Why do you think this is?

Yup! I think the markets are suitable for trading certain types of things and I think electronic gadgets and equipment are most suited for this purpose. For instance, if you need to buy a computer or a cellular phone, you need to go to a market where you will have several options and price range. Besides, purchasing the electronic gadgets from the market is also beneficial to some extent that you are having the intact product or some quality product. The stuff you are buying must have some sort of guarantees. But if you purchase the things from an individual, you are expected not to get the quality product in exchange for your payment. The individual may sell a defective product and importantly there are no guarantees or warranties in this case. So, I think it is better to get such things from markets.

• Do you think young people feel the same about shopping at markets as older people? Why is that?
Well, I disagree with the statement to many extents. Usually, the older people and the younger have some differences regarding the selection of necessary items. The older people are matured and skilled in shopping. So, they feel something different. They feel that they should have something durable and the product must be of a standard quality. On the other point, the young people are immature and they do not think deeply about the items they are going to have or buy. When they buy the required items, they, in fact, do not think about the quality or durability of the product. Instead, they think how important the product is and seek if there is any alternative to the product as if that particular product gets damaged in some way, they could replace that. But when they grow older, their thoughts get changed to the great level and feel heartbreaking with their past experiences. This is natural and happens for the age difference with the matured people.

• What do you think are the advantages of buying things from shops rather than markets?

Ummm! This is a critical question. However, I think certainly there are some advantages of shops than the markets. Usually, you will have the chance to bargain with the shopkeeper about the price and may negotiate over any specific price. But in markets, there are no such chances of bargaining. The prices of almost all the products are fixed. Besides, you have the chance to pick the products by yourself and by this way one can get the comparatively good products. But in markets, there are some sales assistants who will help you in the selection and sometimes may serve you with defective products without informing you about the disadvantages. One more important thing, if the shopkeeper is in your locality, you may get occasional help from him/ her. For instance, the shopkeeper may lend you any product and you will pay back later. But you cannot imagine such a flexible system in a market.

• How does advertising influence what people choose to buy? Is this true for everyone?

The advertisement has many things to do to influence people but in the current days, the scenario has been changed. The people are not that much influenced by the advertisement. Rather they rely on their own experience. But the importance of advertisement should be acknowledged. Once it was the advertisement which helped to direct the people to have their necessary products and with the change of time people are not picking their own products by their past experiences. On the other side, it should also be acknowledged that the advertised products are not always better and may prove ineffective as well. So, the idea of relying on advertisement has been changed a lot. When people buy a product by being influenced by the advertisement and get cheated, they never buy the product and discourage others as well from keeping away from that specific product.

• Do you think that any recent changes in the way people live have affected general shopping trends?

Yes, there have been slight changes in the shopping trends. The world is moving faster and hence emerged the issue of e-commerce. It refers to commercial activities in electronic manners. Millions of virtual shops have appeared and many of the people are visiting the virtual stores for their needs. They are browsing the online stores (websites decorated with product images) and placing orders, paying through online payment system and the products are being delivered to their home, shortly. But this happens for some specific products and still, people like to visit the market and shops to get their desired products.

• What problems do you have when studying English?

Well, English is a foreign language to me and as a French national this is a bit difficult for me to pronounce the perfect English. When I try to speak English, I cannot make the right pronunciations. Besides, my English reading skills are not up to the mark and filled with some local tones. Besides, during the conversations, I cannot speak fluent English. This is a challenge for me to study English. I cannot participate in the conversations with the native English speakers which is embarrassing for me to a great extent. Moreover, when I am to write something in English, I have grammatical errors in the texts. Sometimes it appears that the meaning is entirely changed when I start writing. So, I try to read some English newspapers and then start writing like them. But all the time I cannot write a good form of English for the grammar issue. Vocabulary plays a great role in studying English. Being a non-native English learner, my vocabulary is so poor that I lost words during the conversation or writing. Sometimes I cannot realise the meaning of the words and then seek the words into English dictionaries and reference books and then get the meaning of the sentences or contexts I go through in different texts. With the extensive vocabulary and complicated grammar system, sometimes I am at a loss what to do or say in ‘situations’. So, I am afraid sometimes that I would not be able to learn English properly. Further, my listening skill is also weak. I cannot differentiate between words pronounced similarly like ‘walk’ or ‘work’, ‘sun’ or ‘son’, ‘to’ and ‘two’ etc. As a result, I often misunderstand the words and it takes more time for me to realise the real meaning. The most troublesome part for me is to reply to someone after hearing any conversation. Whatever the troubles are, I try hard to study English and will never give up trying until I grow the four skills (reading, writing, listening and speaking) perfectly.

• Do you think that English is the most important language in the world?

Ahhh! It’s a difficult question to answer. I think English is one the widely used language among the non-native speakers. This has gained the status of the best language and also is termed as the international language for it is used by millions of speakers around the world. They use English for communication and effectively they are being served for the purpose of communication. When people of different nations come together in a place and they need to communicate with each other, they cannot use any language other than English. Learning English increases your skills as a bilingual and as a result, your acceptance also increases in everywhere. You can use the language in any part of the worlds if you are unaware of the language of that specific region. Almost all the available information in computer and the sector of technology are written in English. Each of the higher study fields is documented in English. This language has been being used for long and I think even before the age of colonisation. In the present world, the people in all parts of the planet are familiar with the language and have adopted it as their second language. So, when the people of different nation meet together, they can share their cultures and values with each other that help people to learn about newer things which one of the important benefits of English language. Besides, if you want to improve yourself in the modern age and want to use science for your betterment, you are to make friendship with the English language.

Further, English is easier to learn than learning most other languages as it has only 26 alphabets. In your private life, English helps you enhance your opportunity to read books, watch movies etc. For instance, if you know English, you can use the social networking websites. If you know English, you would be able to watch movies without subtitles. If you know English you will have the chances to get a better job with a better salary. So, I think for all those reasons, English is considered as the most important language in the world.

• What other languages are taught in your country?

Umm! In France, the government is trying to make it a multilingual country and accordingly has started activities to make people familiar with different languages. Even the educational system of France also encourages learning several languages. Usually, English is preferred everywhere in line with the French language. Since the country is enlisted with some of the international bodies, few other continental languages are also taught here like Italian, German, and Dutch etc. The government is willing to make a country a multicultural one and accordingly tries to promote cultures of different levels. Besides, some other languages like Arabic, Chinese, Turkish, Hindi, Urdu etc. are also exercised in the country due to the populations of those states. Mostly the languages are taught in schools and there are some other language training institutes as well who provide with the service for the people who want to learn. As a result, you can find people speaking different languages and it is not a surprise. But often it becomes a bit of troublesome for the people to communicate with the other nations when they are unaware or unfamiliar with the languages they are asked to use. Interestingly, learning English at the primary level is a must for all the students and it helps to make them stronger in using English in their real-life situations.

• Do you think that age is the most important factor of learning English? Why?

Yes, I do think so because age has many things to do with learning a language. Age is considered as the most important factor for learning a language, especially the English language. In general, people learn a language in two ways and one of those is termed as explicit learning while the other one is known as the implicit learning. The implicit learning is the process in which we learn our mother tongue and in the explicit learning process, we need to learn the language consciously. Explicit learning is a conscious process and different approaches are followed to master the language. So, when it is about learning the English language, we need to learn in implicitly which also refers to the natural learning process. In this way, we learn the language like we are taught our mother tongue. But when you have crossed your puberty, it is expected that you would not be able to learn the language in an explicit manner, I mean you cannot learn it naturally. You have to ‘learn’ the language. You have to learn the rules and manners of the language. You are to be aware of the imposing of the rules in the right places, you are to learn about grammar, sentence construction, and more other grammar issues which are in fact hard to maintain in the adult age. As a result, when you are set to use the language in your real life situations, there are chances that you may fail to communicate effectively with your counterparts. So, I think the tender age is the most appropriate time to learn a language and if you want to learn English, you need to start early. Besides, if you have kids under 13, it is imperative to start teaching the language. Whenever they will cross the 13, it would be tougher for them as well to master the language perfectly.

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• What difficulties would a foreigner have when he learns your native language?

Uhh! It’s a great question. It is a bit troublesome for the foreigners to learn French and if they try for a longer period, it is expected that they could learn the language properly. The most common forms of troubles are mispronunciations of the words and spelling of words. Sometimes the non-native speakers cannot get the perfect accent with the words. People who are entirely unskilled and unfamiliar with the alphabets, it is a bit difficult for them to begin with the language. Moreover, being a fluent speaker of French, it takes more time. Whenever you are going to speak the language, you will discover some sort of unintentional mistakes. Making singular and plural in this language may appear a bit interesting to the foreign speakers. The accents may seem harder to them in the beginning unless they are aware of the basics.

• What problems would people in your country have when communicating with foreigners?

Ahhmmm! Actually, there are no notable problems in communicating with the foreigners. Most of the French people are now well aware of the communication with the foreigners and as the second language, they use English to reach the other people. Though a majority of the French people cannot speak the perfect English, they could continue their communication in an effective manner. But there are some other French people who can speak the perfect form of British English and you cannot differentiate if they are British or French when they speak English. The dialect and pronunciation they use belong to the natives British. Sometimes there are few misunderstandings with the people regarding communications but the repetition of the statements twice or thrice makes it clearer and the communication is perfect.

• When would be most suitable for children to learn English?

I think when the children are in their first grade that is the perfect time for to start them teaching English. When they are at their tender age, they can adopt whatever they are taught and language learning methods are most effective when you are a kid. The brain cells are enabled to get the things easily regarding the language learning. So, they can remember the rules and other related issues to learn a language. In English language, it is difficult to some extent to learn it as the learners cannot remember the grammar issues but in the case of the children, they can easily memorise the rules. Sometimes when they memorise, they try to apply the rules in their real life from the memorization and thus they learn how to use a language in the practical situations. So, I think when the children are of six or seven years old, they should be sent to learn the English language.

• How will translation and interpretation develop in the future?

In future, the development of translation and interpretation may experience a change to some extent. Currently, people translate and interpret languages using their own senses, skills and command over the language. But with the change of technology, someday almost all the languages of the world will be available on the internet and then I think the auto-translation will be available. Though some of the languages are available on the internet and the auto-translation is available, I think in future it will be easier comparing the current days. Translation or interpretation will not take so much labour and efforts as it is required today. Moreover, the quality of the translated copies will be more benefitting for the users. They would be able to use the copies immediately without any corrections or amendments. Currently, when the translations are done with the automated software or services, they cannot provide the perfect copy and the users need to amend the copies accordingly after their needs. But in future, I believe, it will be changed entirely.

• Why do people need to travel every day?

Well, people are in need of travel for numerous purposes. The first and most important cause of the travel is communication. Without a perfect communication, it becomes difficult to do everyday tasks. So, communication over a telephone or by other means is less effective than the physical presence of any individual or party. If you are present in somewhere where you are supposed to be, you can make the issues clearer than communicating by the other means. But to be physically present there, you are to travel. Besides, people also travel for some leisure purposes as well. For instance, immediately after the marriage, the newlywed couple goes to visit some distant places or travel to discover something new in a foreign land. The trip- they are undertaking is only for pleasure. Thereby, it appears that travelling is one of the important parts of human in the current days and they undertake it to meet their respective purposes.

• What problems can people have when they are on their journey, for example to work or school? Why is this?

People may experience several problems during their travels to offices or to schools. Traffic congestion is a common issue for all and it kills time unusually. When they get stuck in a traffic jam, they are to sit idly and it happens mostly when narrow roads are to accommodate more vehicle than it could do actually. Besides, they also may face the gas shortage in the vehicle. It is natural that the driver did not check the gas level and it ends in the middle of the destination. So, they are to change vehicles. Thirdly and most importantly, they may also experience some accidents regardless of large or minor. Usually, accidents occur for several reasons and the most prominent reason is the violation of the traffic guidelines. Often vehicle drivers start racing against time or each other and finally lose control over the vehicle resulting in an unwanted accident.

• Some people say that daily journeys like these will not be so common in the future. Do you agree or disagree? Why?

Thank you for the interesting question. I completely disagree with the statement. In the past days, the daily journeys were almost the same as they are today. There has been no notable change found yet. Moreover, the number of vehicles has increased and numerous destination routes have been created. As a result, people are travelling more and more comparing the past. Most of the people travel to meet their needs and in the future, the need will grow more. As a consequence, the number of the daily journeys will increase. To accommodate the growing passengers, the number of vehicles will be increased by both public and private sector. In addition, I think the transportation system will be made developed than the current days. Traffic congestion will be removed and thus transportation will be smoother.

• What do you think people can learn from travelling to other countries? Why?

Umm! Learning is an interesting issue but one cannot learn everything s/he wants. So, when people travel in foreign countries, they visit the historical places or pass some special moments in the tourist places where they have nothing much to learn actually. However, they could learn about the culture and customs of the place, partially. It is impossible to learn all the things within a short time. Mostly, people visiting a foreign country could learn about the eating habits, most famous customs, traditional issues etc. because the heritages are always prioritised before the tourists so that they could get a positive impression over the tourist spot or about the nation. However, some of the learning is helpful indeed. One may have heard about the Eiffel Tower but has not seen that. The trip to France will bear a great importance on the individual to learn about and observe the structure in real life.

• Can travel make a positive difference to the economy of a country? How?

Yes, travelling can make a positive difference to some extent. When the travellers arrive at a different place, they are to get the necessary things in exchange for local currency. By this way, the local economy gets boosted. It receives the extra currency from the travellers and gradually the domestic production level increases. Besides, the travellers are always ready to visit the tourist spots and when they spend currency for visiting the places, it opens the earning sources for the local people. Moreover, when the foreigners come to visit any country, they made different plans and often it has been found that they are in professional relations with the people of the host country. It is really helpful for expanding the economy of a country by both formal and informal means.

• Do you think a society can benefit if its members have experience of travelling to other countries? In what ways?

Definitely, a society could be benefitted from the members who have travelling experiences. Usually, the people who have travelled in different parts of the globe are aware of many issues which are beyond to the limit of the ordinary people. The majority of the people grow idea about something by secondary perception. So, they clearly lack the inner and outer aspects of the issue. But when someone travels, s/ he own the chance to see and know about the things clearly and when they return to the native land, they share the experiences with the fellow men or in their community. As a result, a type of informal awareness is created in that specific society which is beneficial for them to a great extent. Besides, knowledge has no boundary and it could be transmitted to anyone by any forms. So, when the people return to their native land, they subconsciously try to spread the earned knowledge from the trip. By this way, the society could be benefitted.

• Why do people need to travel every day?

• What problems can people have when they are on their journey, for example to work or school? Why is this?

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