In this IELTS speaking test, we answer the cue card "Describe a person you spend a lot of time with" and other questions about where you grew up, hometown, handwriting, parents, children, and old age.
IELTS Speaking Test Part 1
Do you work or study?
I work. I’m a research assistant at the moment.
Where did you grow up?
I grew up in [name of village/town/city]
Is the place where you grew up a good place to live?
Yes, well, I think so. It was nice to grow up there. It’s a place where I was friends with everybody and my family has lived there for a long time. It’s not too small or too big, and it has everything you could need in terms of facilities and things like that.
What do you think about your hometown’s future?
It’ll probably still be a popular place to live in the future. The standard of living there is good, especially for young families; there are good schools and it’s considered a safe place for children.
In recent years there has been a growing trend of people moving out from the city to live in my hometown because the quality of life is considered to be better.
You can but a bigger house for less money than it would cost in the city and yet still be close enough to the city to travel there for work if you need to.
So it’s a good option for a lot of young couples who are thinking about starting a family, for example.
Do you think handwriting is important? Why?
Handwriting? No, not really. Or certainly less important than it was because nowadays a lot of communication is done through computers and other internet-enabled devices, so there’s no handwriting involved.
What are the main differences between handwriting and writing on a computer?
Nowadays, it’s probably more common to communicate by computer, if you include laptops, tablets, and mobile phones as computers because you can write on all of them.
I think writing a letter or message by hand is not a common thing anymore – I can’t remember the last time I sent someone a message in handwritten form, it would have been a long, long time ago.
I suppose the main difference, apart from which is more common, is that writing something on a computer is generally faster than writing by hand.
And if you want to send a message to another person, then using a computer or other device to send the message is much quicker than writing something by hand and then mailing it or hand delivering it.
Do you prefer to write by hand or type on a computer? Why?
Personally, I use my phone nearly all the time to communicate with other people. And I use my laptop for work and study related writing, so I definitely prefer to use those methods rather than writing something by hand.
IELTS Speaking Test Part 2
Describe a person that you spend a lot of time with
You should say:
- Who is he/she?
- What is your relationship with him/her?
- What kind of activities do you do together?
and say why you enjoy spending time with this person.
Sample Answer - Describe a person that you spend a lot of time with
Recently I’ve been spending a lot of time with my mother because she was diagnosed with cancer. It’s been a difficult time for our family and so we have all been trying to support her and make sure she will be okay.
We’ve always been a close family, and I’ve always had a good relationship with both of my parents, but since my mother told us the bad news I’ve definitely become much closer to her - she's the only person I can really think about at the moment.
I try to spend as much time as possible with her and accompany her to her medical appointments and treatment sessions. It’s a very stressful experience for all of us and we still don’t know what the final outcome will be but we’re being positive, optimistic and praying for her and making sure she is well taken care of.
It’s strange, but since she was diagnosed with cancer, even the smallest little activities have become important, such as drinking a cup of tea together and just talking about things, helping her do some things around the home, and just spending time with her. We also enjoy reading together - just being in each other's company doing something we both love.
It really doesn’t matter how insignificant the activity is – it’s become super special and important to just share as much time with her as possible.
I’ve also made an effort, as has my brother and sister, to get home on a regular basis and eat lunch together or spend whatever spare time we have with our favourite person - my mother. Luckily, we run our own company, so it's easy for us to plan time away from the office.
It’s early in the treatment process at the moment, but we hope soon to have some good news about her condition, and that’s what keeps us going.
The doctors were very encouraged by her progress when we went to the latest treatment session and they seem to think that she will be okay, but it’s still an extremely stressful experience just thinking about her being sick – sometimes it’s difficult to deal with it.
And, so that's the person I spend the most time with at the moment.
IELTS Speaking Test Part 3
What are parents’ responsibilities for their children?
Primarily, they are responsible for the safety and upbringing of their children, in their own particular way.
Obviously, that includes a lot of things, such as feeding them, clothing them and looking after them in general.
They need to make sure that their children have everything they need and are well looked after, and have opportunities to learn about things and grow and develop as individuals.
Who should take care of them (children)?
Well, it’s usually family, isn’t it? Although I knew a family which had a nanny when I was growing up and their daughter was my best friend. We used to spend a lot of our free time together.
When I was growing up my parents and my grandparent all helped look after me. It was good because I got to spend time with more people because your grandparents can be more fun and interesting than your parents sometimes.
I think the most important thing is that it’s not so much who looks after children, for example, the mother, the father, grandparents, or other family members of even a nanny – as long at the person really loves the child and does a good job of caring for them; that’s the important thing.
What are children’s responsibilities for parents when they reach old age?
Generally speaking, it’s common for children when they’re grown up to take care of their parents, and even grandparents, as best as they can.
It’s similar in some ways to looking after children, you know like you should make sure they are safe, that they have the important things they need, that they still feel safe and secure wherever they live, either with the family or in a special caring home maybe if they need some special medical care or something like that.
In my family, both my grandparents came to live with us in our parents' home when they were very old and we all helped look after them – sometimes I used to spend hours just talking to them when I was younger.
Oh, and it’s also important to make sure they still feel valuable and important within the family even though they might be old and frail, they need to know that they are still loved and important as people.
How would you answer these IELTS speaking questions about where you grew up, your hometown, handwriting, a person you spend a lot of time with, parents and children?