IELTS Speaking Part 2 & 3 Sample – Topic: A time someone visited your home

IELTS Speaking Part 2

Describe a time when someone visited your home
You should say:
• Who he or she was
• When it happened
• What you did
• How you felt about the visit

Sample Answer:
So it was around 4 months ago since I invited one of my very close friends to come over to my house for dinner. It was Christmas Eve, and my friend is an expat living far away from home. As I didn’t want him to spend his Christmas alone, I asked him to join my family for a special family dinner. My friend is an American, and since he couldn’t have turkey on Thanksgiving that year, my mom decided to make turkey for him that night.

One of the funny things I remember about that night was that pretty much all the cooking appliances in my house were electrical, even the stove and all of a sudden it was a blackout an hour right before dinner time so by the time my friend got to my house, none of the food was ready. I was a quite embarrassed, but my friend was pretty cool about it. We lit up the candles and my dad went out to buy some bread and ham. We were talking and eating while waiting for the power to turn back on. We had an absolutely amazing time talking about the cultural differences, how hospitable Vietnamese people are, and how the language barrier didn’t stop him from getting to know the locals.

Anyway, we got to eat the turkey after a 2 hour delay. Even though my mother made it quite differently from the way my friend’s family did, he really enjoyed it. And I must say that my parents absolutely adored him after that night. Since then, he has been coming over more often and becoming a very close friend to our family.

Vocabulary highlights:
• An expat: a person living outside their own country
• A blackout: a period when there is no light as a result of an electrical power failure
• The cultural differences: the differences between 2 cultures
• The language barrier: the difficulties in communication experienced by people or
groups speaking different languages
• Adore: love someone very much

IELTS Speaking Part 3

 Do young people like to visit their friends nowadays?
Yeah…, I guess. But I think this question is really awkwardly phrased. Like visiting here you mean visit them when they’re sick, or just simply meeting up with friends? If you mean meeting up with friends, then yes. And I think not only the young but also the old also like to visit their friends as well. It’s just youngsters have more time to do it. And as they do not have to spare so much of their energy or time for family, or children yet, they can spend their time with their friends.

 What do people usually do when hanging out together?
There’re tons of activities we often do together like going to the coffee shop, and shooting the breeze there. Just look at the increasing number of coffee shops and tea houses here, we can see how much people like to spend their time there. We also like to go to the movie theater, catching up with some of the latest entertainment or maybe simply chilling at home and listening to music.

 Do you think technology has brought us closer or not?
I mean, technology is a double-edged sword. It can go both ways. On the one hand, things like Facebook and Instagram help us to keep in touch with our friends in this hectic life. We can also find people who share the same interest on these social media platforms. On the other hand, using phones and other devices has created a self-imposed isolation. This is proven in the most obvious way when we go to a coffee shop and see so many groups of teenagers sitting together but they all have their eyes stuck to their phones instead of talking to each other

 What time do you think is suitable for visiting?
Any time we are invited to come, obviously. But if we decide to show up to visit someone out of the blue then I think we shouldn’t come too early in the morning or too late at night. We don’t want to wake them up to open the door for us or keep them from going to bed. And another unsuitable time I can think of is meal times like lunch or dinner, as in our culture it’s quite impolite to show up at someone’s door around this time. You know, you never wanna interrupt people while they’re eating.

 How do you make new friends?
Me, personally, I’m going with the conventional ways, making friends with my classmates or colleagues. I don’t like making friends through social networking websites, though I know it’s pretty common nowadays. I guess because I’m often paranoid about talking to strangers, and any of these people can turn out to be serial killers maybe. Gosh, I know I’m watching too many psychological movies.