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Splendid Speaking Interview 15: Spontaneous Talks

Comprehension Questions

As you listen, decide whether according to Solange, the following questions are true or false.

1) Travel helps you develop your intellect.
2) You need to watch your behaviour when dealing with different religions.
3) Experiences of travel can help you deal with people better in certain working situations.
4) Tolerant people are more likely to enjoy traveling.
5) Travel will help you agree more with other people’s beliefs.

Transcript

Welcome to the Splendid Speaking podcast. My name’s Pete Travis and this week we’re listening to Solange from Brazil

Solange has already appeared in a couple of podcasts and this week we focus on making a spontaneous 2-minute talk. Shortly before the interview Solange was sent the following question:

How does travel abroad benefit an individual? Here are some ideas which Solange was told she could include if she wished.
Culture
Mutual understanding
Leisure opportunities

Before the interview Solange explained that she was most concerned about her ability to order her thoughts coherently given that she had virtually no time to prepare. As you listen, decide how well Solange organizes her ideas, and if she’s able to express herself clearly in appropriate language in the 2-minute time limit. If you have access to the transcript, listen a second time and answer the comprehension questions. Finally, make a note of Solange’s use of English, which we’ll look at in the feedback session.

Let’s listen to Solange.

“OK, so I believe that travelling abroad is … 100 per cent beneficial to any individual because you can learn lots of different things from what you leave inside of your territory. So you can get to know different ideas you can … have lots of fun talking about the leisure opportunities … you see many different things and different people beliefs and these improves a lot the self … yourself … your intellectual part … and … it makes you … more open to understand … differences … I mean colour, religion and … different ways of behaving … so I think I believe it’s very beneficial for any person … in the area of working because if you’re working for example with … customer service you will meet different people all the time and knowing different cultures for being there before … you are able to deal much better with … different kinds of people and … mutual understanding would be wonderful because you have tolerance you know that people are different and … you can understand why because … there are so many different places in the world and although we are all human beings we have different kinds of beliefs and if you really go into that culture and you will start … living with the people who believe in a certain thing you will start … even if you don’t believe in the same thing … you will start to understand them. So in my view 100 per cent beneficial and I would … suggest to everybody who has the chance to go abroad to try it. It’s really, really important.”

Feedback

First of all, thanks to Solange for taking part in this Skype interview. If you go to the Splendid Speaking website you can leave your own comments on her talk.

Now for some feedback. Solange managed to complete her talk more or less within the two minute time limit, dealt with the subject in question appropriately and used language that was both fluent and easily understood. Making a spontaneous talk of this kind is very challenging. On the one hand it’s necessary to keep talking and to avoid long pauses but at the same time the talk needs to be coherent and not flit from one subject to the next as the thoughts enter the speaker’s head. In the main, Solange managed to do this well. She started by making her point of view clear:

“OK, so I believe that travelling abroad is … 100 per cent beneficial to any individual…”

During the first minute of the talk she gave reasons to back up her opinion, listing several general points without going into too much detail. This is a useful strategy to help you get started, so long as the points you make are clear and don’t leave the listener trying to work out what the speaker means such as here:

“…you can … have lots of fun talking about the leisure opportunities …”

From about half-way into her talk Solange focused on two specific points dealing with the importance of travel for work and then how it can help mutual understanding. Here she developed each point, giving examples to support her main statements. Solange also signaled the end of her talk well by returning to her original statement and making a recommendation to the listener.

“…So in my view 100 per cent beneficial and I would … suggest to everybody who has the chance to go abroad to try it. It’s really, really important…”

Finally, listen to the following extracts from Solange’s talk. Can you spot the mistakes in each one?

“… because you can learn lots of different things from what you leave inside of your territory…”
… you see many different things and different people beliefs …”
“… your intellectual part …” “… In the area of working …”
“… and knowing different cultures for being there before …”
“… if you really go into that culture and you will start … living with the people …”

So, did you spot the mistakes?

“… because you can learn lots of different things from what you leave inside of your territory…”

This would be expressed better as ‘because you can learn lots of different things compared to what you’re used to back home.’

“… you see many different things and different people beliefs …”

This should be ‘people’s beliefs’.

“… your intellectual part …”

This could be expressed as ‘your intellect’ or your ‘intellectual side’

“… In the area of working …”

This should be, ‘In the area of work’.

“… and knowing different cultures for being there before …”

This would be better as ‘knowing different cultures as a consequence or because of having been there.’

“…and sometimes … I try to teach others English who knows less than me…”

This would be better as ‘knowing different cultures as a consequence or because of having been there.’

“… if you really go into that culture and you will start … living with the people …”

This should be ‘if you go into that culture and you start living with the people’. No ‘will’.

OK. That’s the end of this podcast. Once again, many thanks to Solange. Until next week it’s ‘bye’ from me Pete Travis. Bye!

Answers to comprehension questions

1) Travel helps you develop your intellect.
Ans: True
2) You need to watch your behaviour when dealing with different religions.
Ans: False
3) Experiences of travel can help you deal with people better in certain working situations.
Ans: True
4) Tolerant people are more likely to enjoy traveling.
Ans: False
5) Travel will help you agree more with other people’s beliefs.
Ans: False

Filed Under: Splendid Speaking Interviews

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