I asked a native English speaker VERY DIFFICULT QUESTIONS in the IELTS speaking test

Added: 2026-05-13

[00:00:00]She didn't say anything for the whole show.

[00:00:02]>> [laughter] >> Are women better than men at recognizing emotions?

[00:00:09]>> [laughter] >> This is an interesting topic. Can you please introduce your background? Uh yes, my name's Lewis. Um I'm from England, a place called Bristol in the Midwest, and I run bars.

[00:00:22]>> Run what? Bars, nightclubs, bars.

[00:00:25]>> Ah, bars. Yes, dance clubs. There are four criteria the examiner will base on to give you a score. They are fluency, pronunciation, vocabulary, and the last one is grammar range and accuracy. Let's start with part one. Let's talk about friends. Do you have a lot of friends? I would say I have a lot of friends, yes.

[00:00:44]Is it? You want me to elaborate? Well, this is an English language test, right?

[00:00:50]So, yeah, the examiner expect you to give longer answers so that you can give him more information. So, let's do it again.

[00:00:58]>> I'll do it again.

[00:00:58]>> Do you have a lot of friends? Uh I would definitely say I have a lot of friends.

[00:01:02]Um most of my friends come from my high school.

[00:01:06]Uh that was a roughly 15 years ago now. Um but we still keep in contact very often. We often go out for drinks together. We go to parties together. We like to go and see football games together.

[00:01:22]Um we all support Manchester United. Um so, we're big fans of that football club. Is there a difference between where you meet your friends now and where you used to meet them in the past?

[00:01:33]Uh yes, definitely I would I I would say so. Uh that would mostly be because I've moved town. So, I don't live where I grew up anymore. I now live in a city roughly 2 hours away. So, most of my friends in the recent years have been through work or through clubs or through social events. Now, Now move on and talk about chatting.

[00:01:57]Do you like chatting with friends?

[00:01:59]Yes, I think chatting with friends is one of the best hobbies everyone should have.

[00:02:04]Um the reason is because your friends know you most, they know what you're like, they are normally have the same humor to you, they normally have the same interest to you. So chatting is is both exciting but expected as well. Do you prefer to chat with a group of people or with only one friend?

[00:02:25]Uh it depends on the situation. Um I like a a good mix of both. There are many times where if we're in a group environment chatting together all together is much better. Uh it's much more fun. But every now and then you will go to the store with a friend, just you and him or you and her, and it's more of an intimate experience, which is is really fun to do. Um so a great mixture is important.

[00:02:55]>> Do you prefer to communicate face-to-face or via social media?

[00:02:59]I personally prefer to communicate face-to-face. Um maybe it's because I'm slightly older um and I'm not maybe the younger generation prefer chatting on social media.

[00:03:10]Um but no, social media would mostly be to organize events with your friends. Um or maybe group group conversations on WhatsApp or Instagram would would be fun, but no, I prefer face-to-face. Now let's move on and talk about growing vegetables and fruits.

[00:03:29]Are you interested in growing vegetables and fruits?

[00:03:32]Uh personally not really, but my girlfriend is. She loves growing vegetables and fruits.

[00:03:38]Um her favorites would probably be strawberries, mangoes, and bananas, but she doesn't grow bananas too much.

[00:03:47]Um but yeah, my my grandmother has a garden full of oranges and lemon trees and things like that. So, yeah. Is growing vegetables popular in your country?

[00:03:59]I wouldn't say so. No, actually. It's more something you do when you retire.

[00:04:04]In our country where in England we usually just buy them at a store.

[00:04:08]They're fresher that way. Should schools teach students how to grow vegetables?

[00:04:14]Should they? It's a good question.

[00:04:17]Probably not.

[00:04:19]But, unless it's important in your culture. If it's if most families in your culture grow fruit and vegetables because it's part of the environment, then yes, I would say you should.

[00:04:31]But, if you're like very developed perhaps in your developed area, then perhaps no. Now, let's move on to talk about staying with old people. Okay. All right. Have you ever worked with old people? Uh yes, actually. I did some volunteering at an old people's home in England where it's just one facility that's full of um retired people who need care. Um and so, they accept volunteers, which I was one when I was a when I was 18 I went um to help and volunteer.

[00:05:04]And you just help them. You you just socialize mostly with them because the biggest issue of old people um outside of health is social. So, they sometimes they're lonely. Sometimes their families don't visit them as often. So, volunteers like us help them socialize more, which makes them very happy. Do you enjoy spending time with old people?

[00:05:25]Uh relatively, yes. Um I spend plenty of time with my grandparents. Oh, and my friend's grandparents in fact. So, I would say so, yes. That's the end of part one. Let's move on to part two.

[00:05:35]Okay. In this part, I would like you to describe a time when someone apologized to you.

[00:05:42]Oh. You should say when it was, who this person is, why he or she apologized to you, and how you felt about this. Okay.

[00:05:50]So, these are just suggestions. You follow the hints or you can just create your own story. Oh, okay. Also, you don't need to be honest as well. You can make up a story. I'll just make up a story. Yeah, because this is a language test, right?

[00:06:00]>> it doesn't matter.

[00:06:00]>> All right. So, in the exam room, you will be given 1 minute to prepare. Mhm.

[00:06:04]Or can you just talk about it now?

[00:06:06]>> I could just talk. I think it'd be fine.

[00:06:08]I'll just make something up. Okay. All right.

[00:06:10]>> [laughter] >> So, let's skip that 1 minute. Yeah, skip the 1 minute. All right. I'll just start. And you can start speaking now.

[00:06:17]Okay. So, one of the biggest times someone apologized to me was my wife.

[00:06:22]She Normally, she's right about everything.

[00:06:26]You know what they say, a happy wife, happy life.

[00:06:30]But, she is normally correct on everything. She likes to organize everything we do on our vacations, on our weekends, when we don't work.

[00:06:40]And normally, she's very good at it.

[00:06:42]But, one time we decided to go and see a show at the local theater.

[00:06:47]And she was adamant that it started at 10:00 p.m. at 8:00 p.m.

[00:06:54]I tried to tell her that I walked past it earlier that day, and it was It said it started at 7:00 p.m. So, we would have been 1 hour late if she didn't listen to me.

[00:07:10]When I told her that, however, she didn't listen to me.

[00:07:13]So, I had to spend 10 minutes to going back down there. I took a photo of the starting time outside, and then I went back home to show her Okay.

[00:07:27]of which she then even then didn't admit defeat.

[00:07:32]>> [laughter] >> So, I had to explain to her I had to persuade her, excuse me, to go early to the bar so that that wouldn't be late. Yeah.

[00:07:41]We then went early to the bar, and as we walked to the bar past the theater, we I showed her that the sign that said 7:00 p.m. start.

[00:07:51]She didn't say anything for the whole show.

[00:07:54]>> [laughter] >> You enjoyed the show in silence? Yes. We enjoyed the show in silence. It was actually It was a very good show.

[00:08:03]So, at the at the end of it, she pretended it didn't happen, and we just discussed how good the show was.

[00:08:09]>> [laughter] >> And the time is up. Very good. Very good story. You are going to answer some questions about this topic. Do you think every sorry is from the bottom of the heart?

[00:08:19]Every story from the bottom of the heart? Do I? Every sorry. Every sorry.

[00:08:23]>> Oh, every sorry. Every Okay, I see.

[00:08:27]No, I don't think every sorry is from the bottom of a person's heart. Um but, I don't think it needs to be.

[00:08:35]I think sometimes people say sorry because they're compelled to by an elder or a boss at work. Um sometimes saying sorry is easier than the truth. Um which if it makes the person and you generally better off, isn't a bad thing.

[00:08:58]So, I would I would say definitely that sorry a genuine sorry doesn't always have to be from the bottom of your heart. Are women better than men at recognizing emotions?

[00:09:14]This is an interesting topic. Um I would say generally yes. I would say generally yes. Um are they better at dealing with the emotions?

[00:09:25]Uh I'm not sure.

[00:09:27]Possibly.

[00:09:28]But, identifying an emotion for sure, I would say. Men generally feel like they don't have time for those emotions, so they forget they exist. Um so, I think it's I think that's why women and men are so well balanced uh because women can show the emotion, and then men can help deal with the emotion.

[00:09:54]That's a very good answer.

[00:09:55]>> Thank you. On what occasion do people usually apologize to each other? I think there are many different occasions. I think the most common one is a light-hearted apology if you accidentally bump someone in the road, or if you make a mistake, a small mistake that could get in the way of other people. Uh but then you could be larger. It could be you've maybe made a really big mistake.

[00:10:25]You've lost money.

[00:10:27]Um you missed a deadline, which is now is going to cost all of your family. You might have to apologize then. So, I think I think it's situational. Do people in your country like to say sorry? They do. Yes, English people are renowned for overuse of sorry for any reason.

[00:10:46]Any sort of miscommunication, any sort of mishap, any slightly or minor inconvenience is always followed by sorry.

[00:10:59]But it's it's just politeness. We're just trying to be polite. Um maybe over polite.

[00:11:05]>> [laughter] >> Um sometimes we say sorry even when we know it's not our fault. It's just an easier way to deal with the situation, you know? Maybe someone barges you on the metro, and they didn't notice. You just say sorry anyway, just in case it was your fault. It probably wasn't, but when they you both say sorry, you know you just leave it there, and you move on. Do you think people should apologize for anything wrong they do? I think it would probably be nice to do that. Yes, I think so, but I wouldn't say it's totally necessary. I think as long as you learn from the mistakes you make in your own way, then it's good for you overall. But there's nothing wrong with saying a quick sorry, just just to make the other person feel better, you know?

[00:11:50]There's nothing wrong with trying to make the other person feel a bit better.

[00:11:53]Now let's come to the last question. Why do some people refuse to say sorry to others? Ah, yes. This is This happens sometimes. There are some cultures in Europe that don't like to say sorry.

[00:12:06]Um, but I would say it's probably because things like ego, pride that get in the way. You could probably commonly see it in people who think of themselves higher um, than others, which isn't very nice. But you can also see this in people who perhaps a bit sad inside, people who are missing something in their lives. So they lash out rather than understand. So I think it would just be your job in in that situation to give them the benefit of the doubt and just be humble.

[00:12:39]>> That's the answer to the end of the speaking test. Thank you very much for your time.

[00:12:43]>> I score? What is your opinion about the questions in the test?

[00:12:46]>> Um, I think they were I think they were good questions. They were They weren't just basic questions. They were quite mind related questions, questions you had to think about a little bit, which I think's really good because it shows you trying to communicate your personality um, and your beliefs, which is very important for everyone to do. But yeah, I think that was a really intelligent test.