My name is Eli House. Can you please tell me your full name?

Good morning, sir. My name is Fu, but you can just call me Zane.

Zane. In this first part, I'd like to ask you some questions about yourself.

Let's talk about where you live. Do you live in a small town or a big city?

Right now, I'm actually living in this big city, which is right next to the mega city, Shanghai. Um, where it only takes around like uh half an hour's train ride to get there. Yeah, it's called Sujo.

What do you like most about living there?

Um, I like the, you know, I I like the facilities it offers. Um, you know, the malls. Um, sometimes when you get bored, you can just, um, wandering around and doing some window shopping and also the parks, you know, everything. I I love it here.

Do you think you would like to stay in this place for a long time?

Um, yes. Uh I'll probably stay here for um one or two more years, you know, just try to save up some money and then I'll eventually thinking about doing my PhD.

Yeah, that's something on my list.

Let's move on. Let's talk about borrowing and lending. Have you ever borrowed books from other people?

Yes, I have. Uh but many just uh it was in the past, you know, when I was like a primary school student. uh we would go to the library, the school libraries to borrow some books from um librarians in the school and we would read those um uh translated version um of those great literatures. I remember we got some books from the Russian um Russian literatures and also English ones. Yeah.

But they were all in Chinese.

And has anyone ever borrowed money from you?

Yes. It uh doesn't really happen that often, but I did actually borrow some money um back when I was I think when we were like in in college where we're kind of like broke and sometimes, you know, a friend of mine would borrow some money to buy something and I would just, you know, lend them some.

Do you like to lend things to other people?

Well, it really depends on what kind of thing we're talking about here. If it's something that is too personal, for example, a foam, I wouldn't I wouldn't necessarily want to do that. But if it's something that is not that personal, um, why not? Yeah, I like to help people.

And how do you feel when people don't return things that they've borrowed from you?

Well, definitely I would feel annoyed. I think it's not nice. Um, and then I I don't like confrontation, so I would just subtly kind of like hinting them that they need to return something they borrow from me. Um, yeah, I wouldn't like say it like directly like, "Hey, you know, uh, you need to return something or no, I wouldn't do that." Let's move on. Let's talk about stories.

Um, did you like listening to stories when you were a child?

Yes, I did. Uh, back when I was a little kid. Um, my parents were pretty busy, but I had an older sister who would uh, you know, uh, read some bedtime stories to me. You know, those Chinese folk stories that she would read to me and um, yeah, I love it.

And nowadays, do you prefer listening to stories or reading them?

Good question. I love listening to audiobooks. Um, I feel like it's it I don't know. I feel like it requires a lot if you have to sit down and read a book yourself, but while you're listening to audiobooks, you get to do some other things. You can multitask like cleaning your room and stuff. Um, I just feel like I I I can't really sit down for a while and just read. It would be a little bit um boring for me.

Would you ever consider writing a book?

Wow. No, I would never really consider that. I think being a writer you sort of have to be very observant and you have to sort of like sensitive to the environment and also you have to be critical. Those are things that I I think I I would need to work on. You know I'm very very gullible person. I easily get influenced by people. We're going to move on to part two. And in this part I'm going to give you a topic and I'd like you to talk about it for 1 to 2 minutes. All right. Remember you have 1 to 2 minutes for this. So don't worry if I stop you. I'll tell you when the time is up. Can you start speaking now, please?

Sure. So the country I would like to visit in the future um it would definitely be Spain. Um the reason why I chose Spain is because um I heard I've heard great things about that country.

You know, I have some friends traveled there and they said the people are really nice there. They would go out to go out of their way to help you. Um and also the food. They talk about the ham and how healthy they are. Um, you know, compared with uh the food that we have here, you know, in most cities in China, I would consider it's very greasy. Um, but yeah. Um, and also um this, you know, the the buildings there, the architecture is there. One of my friends actually went there and she talked about how beautiful, you know, the Gothic area uh in in Spain. I think it it's in Boston. No, I'm not sure. Um, but yeah.

uh you know the food um the people the weather uh I've heard that it's a great destination for not just um you know European people but also people around the world although I've heard that you know now they they have like a protest against the tourist but I'm actually quite um I'm actually not against that because when I whenever I go traveling I try to avoid going to those you know u tourist traps or like tourist destination I would go those offbeaten path area where I could actually talk to local people and I believe that by talking to local people and contri contributing to uh the local community uh by choosing stay maybe in a lovely home stay instead of like a big chain hotel uh in that way I think we can contribute to the local economy so eventually it's it's a win-win idea because on one hand I can learn something and also uh you know local people could actually benefit from the tourism Um, that's that's that's what I kind of like wanted to go and also I also want to learn about Okay.

Thank you. And do you think you will go to Spain in the future?

Yes, I'm actually considering doing a SELTA certificate there. Yeah.

Okay. So, we've been talking about a foreign country that you would like to visit and I'd like to discuss with you one or two more general questions related to this. Let's consider first of all traveling. Some people say that um old people are kind of boring because they always go to the same areas, places they've already been to that they feel familiar with. What do you think about that?

I think it's certainly true. You know, there there are quite a lot of old senior citizens uh would prefer to travel to an area where they feel familiar with. I think uh on one hand it's it's it's sort of like give them a feeling of being nostalgic, you know. I I think it's a feeling that everybody sort of wanted to experience from time to time. So I wouldn't think that just old people's thing. I think everybody wants to go somewhere that they feel most familiar with. Um but I I I do think that there are some other old people like to try new things. You've heard people maybe travel to a new country without really knowing about the language. Um that's not just young people's privilege. I think nowadays older people are still kind of like trying to think outside of the box and you know trying trying to do something new. Yeah.

You know one thing I see regularly for example part of the year I spend time in Barcelona and I see large um tour buses full of lots and lots of old people traveling together. What do you think are the pros and cons of traveling in a large group? Okay, the pros are I hate using the word, but it's it's sort of like efficient. If you want to stay being traveling, if you want to, you know, want to experience all of those tourist destinations in one day or in a very tight schedule, that would definitely help you um to fulfill that that that that goals that you have. I have not I have nothing against that.

But um but for me or for some people like me or a lot of people I think they would prefer something that is more individual. They wouldn't want to cause them a tourist. They want to call them a traveler. So by doing that they sort of uh cut themselves off uh you know with the the chance of talking to local people or going to those hidden gems or like offbeaten path like I mentioned and they would lost a lot tremendously a lot I mean if they just you know hop on a tourist bus and going to those tourist destinations um it's a little it's a shame. Yeah. How do you think tourism traveling will change in the future?

I think it will probably become more and more personal tailored. Um where people might hire a personal guy. Now it's still it's kind of like picking it up, but I think it will become a new norm where people would hire a a personal guy who live in a local and actually showing them around you know the the the restaurant that no local people go or even have the so-called eco tourism or the um nowadays they even invite them to local community to contribute you know thinking about a person who is from China going to Spain and stay in local community maybe have like a you Chinese or language exchange meetup and things like that. That would be cool. I think it's still picking up. I think in the future it will become a new norm especially for Chinese people. I think a lot of Chinese people are still trying to you know when they go traveling they still sort of like going to the tourist destinations but I think I I' I've seen people are doing a little bit of change of that and you know having an individual trip or or even just like I said traveling abroad and experience a different culture and stuff.

Let's move on. Let's talk about hosting large international events. Um, one large international sporting event is the World Cup. Um, what do you think are the advantages for a country of hosting such a large sporting event? The advantage is is definitely by you know hosting those events you get to um show people um you know how you know the it's it's it's a way of showing your strength as a nation you know and and then show people you know the great infrastructure that you have or um how how you know united the a country is you know towards a certain goal and and in a solidified um a country's ambition. Um but I would argue that um it if we if we always uh using this kind of way to sort of show off there's a fine nine I mean on one hand the great instructure infrastructure that you have can definitely show the the strength the econ economic uh growth that you have but on the other hand uh we should also consider about the environmental issue and also um a lot of whole saloo of issues that related to that. It's just one part of showing that how great the country is.

Okay. Thank you very much. That is the end of the speaking test.

Thank you, Zane. Wonderful speaking test. How are you feeling now? You mentioned you were nervous. I feel nervous.

I was nervous as hell. Sorry.

Really? That's so funny. I I didn't pick up on you feeling nervous. I thought you were totally relaxed, you know. Just No, I was I was nervous. Now I feel a little bit more relaxed. Wait, were you good at hiding those nerves? I had no idea. I thought you were just kind of in your flow state, you know, considering the questions, answering them.

I was thinking about which big word I should use, you know. I was thinking about maybe I should throw some English idioms. But it's hard. You have to think on your feet. You have to think about this and that. And it's just like so hard.

Sure. But you know, you know, you used plenty of idioms. You know, you just used an idiom right there. You have to think on your feet. That's an idiom.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, you know, you're definitely someone that doesn't need to try and insert more large vocabulary into your speech.

You're naturally using so much brilliant vocabulary when you're genuinely communicating these complex ideas. And by the way, you are the master at part three. You are really good at just signposting your way through lots of logical arguments and explaining your ideas really well.

Thank you. So, thank you.

Some people watching this might be thinking, how has Zayn reached such a high level of English? Because you've got 8.5 in speaking. How have you reached such a high level of English?

For me, cuz a lot of people put a lot of emphasis on, you know, speaking. They would pay a lot of money um practicing their speaking with a native speaker.

Um, I it's it's not it's I I I I I don't against I'm not against that. But for me, I think you should have you should listen a lot for me cuz I listen a lot.

I listen to a lot of podcasts. I listen to a lot of like audio books and it really helps me because um if you have that sort of like confidence when you speak um the the fluency um the grammar it just comes naturally. So I think I would for anyone who want to improve their English I would say input uh listening is really important. Yeah. So listen and and listen to a wide range of accents which would really help you because when you go out and traveling you will find out that not everyone speak the you know the the the very standard receive pron received pronunciation or American English they're hu like a wide range of accents that you will be exposed to. But the thing is, you know, I can imagine with your level of English, you could listen to any podcast on any topic. You could watch any film, you know, probably on double speed and get every single word.

If somebody who's watching this is a sitting at band five, they don't have that same level um of content that they can engage with. So, what about these people?

We all got we all need to start from somewhere. You know, when I first started, when I was in high school, I grew up in a rural area in China. I wasn't exposed to, you know, the the the authentic English materials. But but then I started to watch those TV shows like the, you know, the classic sitcom like um Friends, you know. So I would suggest people who really want to you know who who are who have a lower um level of English proficiency they can start to watch they can start watch something that is maybe easier to understand cartoons animations it's always a good start you know I'm a big fan of Pixar um I think they can start they can always find the English materials that is um you know suit their level so it shouldn't be too difficult and it shouldn't be too easy So they can just adjust what they like to listen to uh listen to or watch. I would suggest uh animations stay away from the Big Ben theory no matter what people say because that those are really difficult and also the two girls and they they keep saying like that's the greatest thing but for me I think it is a good TV show the shows I just list but it might not be really good for you. You know you should watch something that is more um regarding daily lives. I I mean there's a one show called Brothers and Sisters.

I really love that show. Um it's really good. Um yeah. Um you can start um watching those like I said you know more uh life related kind of uh TV series um instead of uh those hot TV shows might not really suit you. Yeah.

So you know one question that I get is um from a lot of students is like there's no native speakers around. There's no one for me to practice with who's a native speaker. And and your advice is well actually you don't need a native speaker. There's a whole world of content at your fingertips. Is is that right?

Yeah. Yeah. Sometimes I even talk to myself. I have this habit of like if I watch something that is really fun or if I listen to a really good podcast, I was I would be I would record myself. I would record like a like a audio. Uh I would be like hey um I just heard this amazing story from this you know podcast where it talks about how we should deal with confrontation or we should how should we be confident or things like that and it really helps and and also um travel you know go traveling and talk to people and even when you go traveling for me the ironic thing is I've never I I met a lot of people who are not actually from the English- speaking country I met a lot of people who are from you know Germany um they speak with a very heavy accent but we can communicate with each other perfectly. Um yeah and and Belgium and Netherlands a lot of people I actually have I have little interaction or in like encounter with a British person or like American person. Yeah.

Right. Okay. Yes. And so what about for example taking these skills about getting better in general English and then applying them to the IELTS exam.

What advice would you get or what advice would you have for for people who are improving their English and now they're getting ready for their IELTS exam and that's their focus?

I think for anyone who wish to get a higher score in IELTS speaking test um this might be as cliche as it sound. I hate memorizing and and and and you know giving a stand so-called quote unquote standard answer. Um I think you should really be able to express yourself and and then and you know sometimes when I tell my students I'll be like in part one you just need to tell the examiner how you feel or if you whether you do the things or not because a lot of times students will be like they will say oh I need a standard answer there's no standard answer just answer the question using two or three sentences and express yourself and that's fine and then for part three I I strongly suggest them to be critical you know I'll be like for each question um you have to think about the pros and cons even though it sounds perfect but you have to talk about reservations or the caution you know or things that you need to be care careful about. So in that way it can make your um uh idea more convincing. the examiner doesn't necessarily need to agree with you, but once they see the logic that in your answer and you're very convinced and you'll be able to expand your ideas, um, chances are you're going to get a higher score.

And you did that so well. Like I said, after the test, you're the master of part three. Really?

Thank you.

So, thank you very much for coming on and doing the speaking test. Me. Thank you.