Let's talk about what you do.

Do you work or are you a student?

Well, at the moment I'm working.

I'm teaching sports studies in a university.

What do you like about your job?

Well, I like the fact that I can have an imprint on people's lives and teach them valuable skills that they're going to use in life.

I think this is particularly true of teaching at a university.

And I work with a great bunch of people, so, yeah, we have a lot of fun.

Is there anything you don't like about your job?

Not really.

I took up the job of teaching because I needed to fund my PhD.

But now that I'm a teacher, I have less time for my research.

So, what do they say?

It's either time rich and money poor or vice versa.

Yeah, one day I hope to be both time rich and money rich at the same moment.

Would you think about changing your job?

No, I'm happy with where I am at the moment.

I find it really fulfilling, but I don't know where I'm going to be in ten years' time.

But for now, it's OK.

Let's talk about holidays.

Do you prefer holidays near the sea or in the countryside?

Depends, really, both.

I like, yeah, if the weather's great, I like to be by the sea.

I love water sports, but I like walking and hiking as well.

So, a holiday in the countryside is fine as well.

What do you usually do on your holidays?

Well, if I'm by the sea, I like to swim.

I'll do some windsurfing, maybe some sub-aqua, hang around with my mates, play some beach volleyball.

Yeah, just chat over some food and drink, that sort of thing.

But yeah, if I'm in the countryside, then my uncle, he raises cattle.

So, I'll help him out on the farm and I'll do some hiking, trekking and then catch up on some sleep.

Is having a holiday important to you?

Yeah, yeah, I think holidays are important to everyone.

Why?

Just because it's exhausting to be working all the time and teaching is particularly exhausting as well.

I think it's important to get some down time to recharge the batteries and just to get out of the city for a while, it feels good.

Let's talk about current affairs.

How do you get your news of the world events?

I'm a real news junkie.

So, I will watch and read news on my phone a lot, an awful lot.

And I'll watch TV news as well, but not so much nowadays, rarely.

Do you read newspapers?

Not so much.

I might treat myself to a fat paper on a Sunday and have some coffee.

Do your older friends or relatives read newspapers?

Yeah, more than I do.

I think they've just got into the habit of reading the daily papers for years.

And yeah, I've tried to tell my parents to stop reading the dead tree press, but they won't listen to me.

Let's talk about shopping.

Do you shop online?

Yes, I do actually.

I get all of my music and books online.

The range is enormous and it's infinite actually, whereas in town you can only get so much.

Do you shop in meal shops?

Yeah, if I have to.

I don't enjoy shopping, but I don't like shopping for clothes either online because it's just annoying if you have to change the fit or the colour or anything like that, you've got to send it back.

But I'm a very organised person, so I know exactly what I want and where to find it.

I'll go into the shop and I'll try on the fit.

I'll come back and that's it.

I won't spend my time looking around.

Has online shopping affected the shops in your hometown?

Not so much yet.

I think that some of the smaller shops, specialised shops have disappeared.

The bigger global shops, they seem to be surviving okay for the moment, but I'm not sure how long that's going to last.

Yeah, so I think my generation actually, and the coming generation, they're going to see shops disappear a lot more.

I know that some people think that's a shame, and I do as well sometimes, but I don't think things are suddenly going to go into reverse, are they?

Now I'm going to give you a topic, and I would like you to talk about it for one to two minutes.

You'll have one minute to prepare, and you can write some notes if you want to.

Do you understand?

Yes, thank you.

Okay, here's your card and some paper to write some notes.

I would like you to talk about an important invention.

Can you start speaking now, please?

Okay, well this was a really tricky topic because there's so many inventions and innovations that have changed the world.

There's computers, the internet, credit cards, virtual money.

It was really difficult actually to choose just one of them, but in reflection, I think the biggest and most significant invention to have changed the world is social media.

I mean, if you look at Facebook and Twitter and those kinds of platforms, there's no doubt that they've had a huge, profound impact on our lives.

And the good thing is, is that with the coming of a global world, we're now able to communicate with friends and family across the world instantly.

I mean, I think that's wonderful.

And also just for things like birthdays, that's really handy to have as well, just to be updated with things like that.

But I just wonder if in reflection, if the disadvantages and drawbacks to social media aren't outweighing the benefits.

So if you think about the number of people who have posted things online and, you know, comments and photographs, and then as they get older, they suddenly regret that picture of themselves being up there.

So yeah, I think there's definite disadvantages.

Also, it can just be used as a platform for people to get at each other.

So attacking politicians or bullies at school or celebrities based on something that they've said, you know.

So yeah, and then there's the playing around with our personal information to manipulate political elections.

I mean, that is frightening.

Let's talk about mobile phones.

Do you think people spend too much time on their mobile phones, for example?

Definitely.

I mean, the amount of times that I've been in a restaurant and I've seen groups of people at the table not talking to each other or having conversations, and they're usually on their phones.

Any other negative effects?

Yes, but less seriously.

So how many times have you been walking down the street, right, and then you bump into somebody because they've been checking their mobile phone?

How can people limit the time they use on their gadgets?

That's a difficult one to answer because just every single day there seems to be a new app that comes about for people to play with and fiddle around with.

In fact, I think, right, that there should be an app that comes out that stops people and disables their phones after two hours of using them.

Yeah, I don't know.

I think it takes a lot of willpower to do it yourself, but probably it starts at the home.

How?

I just think with parents, you know, parents have to do something to teach their kids to stop using their phones for at least part of the day.

I've got friends who have got kids and they will stop their children using their phones at bedtime, you know, when they're going out to the bedroom, and also at mealtimes, you know, they can't play with their phones at mealtime.

So I think that kind of early training is important.

Do you think the level of quality of communication has improved with the use of mobile phones compared to, say, 50 years ago?

The quantity has increased, but I'm not sure about the quality.

If you look at grandparents who, yeah, they had phones in their house, but bills were really expensive, so they wouldn't just chat on the phone.

They would use their phones in an emergency or, yeah, you know, for important information and messages and that sort of thing.

How is that different from now?

Well, just that mobile phones nowadays are really cheap to use.

So, yeah, I mean, I'm sure you've seen people in supermarkets, usually men, I admit, who will be checking up their something online, you know, usually a packet of cereal or something, which one to have.

And there's the ubiquitous, you know, I'm on the train.

So the quantity of communication has improved.

The quality is difficult to define.

I think, I mean, you could argue that conversation and phones have become more trivial nowadays.

And in the past they were taken more seriously.

But then, I don't know, who's to say, you know, there's no harm in trivia.

And the people that are watching or listening might, you know, they might think that it's trivial, but maybe not to the people who are actually talking.

So, yeah, I think it's a difficult one, but I think that the jury's still out on that one.

Thank you.

That is the end of the speaking test.