IELTS Speaking Test #4

Good afternoon. My name is Deborah. Could you tell me your full name please?
My full name is Pilar Montesdeoca.

May I check your identification please?
Will you like to see my passport?

Thank You. Do you work or are you a student?
I’m a student.

And what are you studying at the moment?
At the moment I’m studying theatre studies.

And why did you choose to study theatre studies?
Because I arrived here five years ago and my background is in theatre. In my home country in Ecuador I was studying theatre and I was also working as an actor and as a director. And then I had the opportunity to go overseas to England and study theatre there. But once I moved to Australia, I thought it was going to be a good idea to get into the profession again and to start all over again from the basics so I thought it would be good to do some drama studies. And that’s why I joined it and I’m learning so much at the moment, I’m very excited about all these amazing teachers I have and I can understand now how the business works. And the main things about my theatre studies is that after that it’s going to lead me to the- a real theatre. I have to see how it works in real life in Australia. And I thought that was going to be important for me.

Ok. And ah what do you hope to do when you’ve finished your current studies?
I really would like to finish in the area. Because I’m also a teacher so I would like to combine my teaching skills with my theatre skills. I know it’s hard to get a job as a theatre director or as an actor anywhere in the world and in Australia as well.
So I’m hoping that of course once I’ve finished to be able to direct plays, and to work on projects to work for the community and with the community. But I’m also hoping perhaps to get some work as a –as a teacher where I can combine also my skills in theatre.

Mm. And how do you spend your spare time?
Ooh I love swimming and I love dancing so those are the two activities I mainly do when I have the opportunity. But then, sometimes when I’m at home I love reading, I love to read novels or poetry or theatre as well.

And when you go out, do you usually go out alone or with others?
Mm It depends. Australian life is very busy, so ah sometimes I have to go on my own. Usually if I go swimming I go on my own, if I go to the beach sometimes I go with friends, so it depends. But I don’t mind being on my own.

And is there a particular time in the week where you prefer to go out?
Mm not really, mainly in the afternoon. Depends on the season. Sometimes in the morning, early morning, I love walking as well. So sometimes I tend to do that at around 6 o’clock in the afternoon.

Do you think it is important to do regular exercise?
I think it is vital for everyone. I think it is part of life and the good thing about Australia- I wish there were less cars- but also because I love walking it’s ok, I can do a lot of exercise. We should do that really. We all should go out and enjoy ourselves and do a bit of exercise because this society is getting bigger as well. You know the size, people are getting bigger and bigger so I think it is important to do it- you know jogging or walking or swimming, it’s important.

Why?
Because if you are not happy with your body it’s very hard to be happy with everything else. I think your body is the base of your life. Mind and body are always connected and if you do not exercise your body you won’t exercise your mind. And I think once you walk or once you swim, it’s a good chance to really think who you are and what you want in life and what things can you do.

Thank you.
You’re welcome.

Topic: I’d like you to describe someone you admire very much.
I have a person who I really admire and she’s an ex-teacher from university. Her name is [inaudible]. She’s a wonderful, talented lady. She’s around 60. She’s married and has four kids. What I admire about her is that she has time to look after her family and at the same time to teach kids at school, and to teach kids at primary school as well and then she went on and was teaching at university. And I had the privilege to meet her when I was fifteen and when I was twenty I went to uni and she really encouraged me to write. She opened a lot of windows for me through the literature and she taught me how to analyse texts and she made me love literature- that’s something really hard. Because when you are at the school, you don’t really want to learn a lot about literature, you just want to play around with your friends. But she was a teacher that really really kept us captivated by all these stories and all these composers and songwriters, and writers in general. And she played us some music and she read poems for us, and we watched films and we discussed. And I think it was so important to have her as a teacher because she really made us see the world in a different way. We were studying mainly in a catholic school and we couldn’t analyse things but once we had our literature teacher, we were able to expand our whole world. And I think what she really brought us it’s these differences in life. Literature and life, in a way they are very similar but in a way are very different. So we interpreted life in a different way from that point.

Thank You. Is this person admired by others do you think?
Yes definitely. I think she made a huge mark in this group that had the opportunity to have her as a teacher. We were like fifty of us and she did it for many many years.

What makes a person famous?
Mm I think there are different ways to see what makes a person famous. One is the machinery behind the publicity and the marketing around the person, but I don’t think that’s a real honest way to be famous. I think if I have to choose I’d rather be famous for being honest, for being kind, and for trying to help and solve conflicts or problems in the world instead of being in a magazine, in the cover of a magazine…so my characteristics for a famous person I would go for honesty and kindness.

What kinds of people were famous in your grandparent’s time?
In my home country we had different, mainly two political parties and the heads of those political parties were very famous. Especially one guy called [inaudible] and he made a lot of changes in Ecuador during my grandparent’s time because he gave the vote to women and he also made it compulsory, the vote for all the citizens in my home country. And he worked for the
Liberal education, not ties with the religious or anything like that but very open to everyone.

In your opinion, is being well known easy to live with?
No I don’t think so. I think well known…. It’s…It can be hard. I think to be famous sometimes you pay a price for it. So I’d rather be anonymous I think.

What kinds of people will be famous in the future?
Mm. Ah it’s hard to say, but I guess the famous people are the ones that people create. And you know the media has so much impact on that, and it has so much influence on who is famous or who is not famous, who is good or who is bad. The media made us see- makes us see the world and the people in different ways. So I guess, yeh, if you have machinery behind, you will be famous.

What responsibility to society do famous people have?
They have a huge responsibility because people really look up on them. You know they look upon and they want to copy models. I think we are a very sensitive society and we would like just to copy. And if someone is famous they should have- they should use this power to give things back to the community. Like you know, like for example, the Tsunami Disaster or things like that… you to use this power to call for people to stop children detention, things like that you know, they should use that in order to make people aware of what’s going on. Not just to be part of entertainment, but I think they should have a political voice in the community.

Do you think that the children of famous people have an easy time?
No, I don’t think so. It must be very very hard. Ah…you know, to live in, in my home country I know a lot of famous people, and they always have to have bodyguards, or they have to live behind bars, you know or behind big walls.
And children are always protected and they don’t have the freedom, it’s a big price to pay, I don’t know why.

W-Would you like to be famous?
No, not really no.

Would- would being famous change you?
Yeah I’m sure it will. But I like to be popular, but I don’t like to be famous. And I think that’s good. You know, I can be popular with my students, with my actors, you know, that’s what I’m like, and I’m happy with that.

And should the media be able to invade the privacy of famous people?
No, I think there should be a very strong and tough code that they shouldn’t allowed to interfere in other people’s lives, even if they are famous.

Thank you. That is the end of the speaking test.


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