José Cruz: How did your uh, how did your IELTS test go?

Zen Yukin: Ah my IELTS test. Wow. It ah, It’s kind ofpronounced, “KAINDA” (0:08) sticky subject. Ha ha (Wh- why?) Because I- I thought I can get a good score (Uh huh) in the speaking (Uh huh) part, but I didn’t get- I didn’t got, I didn’t get (get) a good score.

José: Well what did you think was the biggest problem?

Yukin: Mm. Let me seeYukin is good at using English filler phrases to maintain her fluency while giving herself time to think (0:32). Um, maybe the topic of my speaking part is “Quiet Place” (What?) Quiet place. (Quiet place?) Yeah (OK) and and I just don’t know quiet place. Mm?

José: Mm, well. I- I can understand something like that because it’s almost like a trick question. It was a difficult topic. So you have to use your imagination (Ah) to make something to say about a quiet place. If I- if I say something like “What do you think about the problem of nuclear war between North Korea and South Korea,” some people could say a lot of things. (Ah yeah) But I think a lot of people would have um, or some people would have a difficult time thinking about something to say about “a quiet place” if they don’t have a good imagination. (Ah) So what they were trying to do was to make sure that you understand how important imagination is to making things to say (Ha ah) So you- you- Well OK what did you try to say when that was your topic?

Yukin: Uh, I- I tried to- Actually I had nothing in my head at that time, and I just said, “uh I think, hospital is a quiet place.” Ha ha.

José: What what is a quiet place? (Hospital ha ha) A hospital is a quiet place. Ha ha. Did you say anything else?

Yukin: Ah and nothing special. Yeah, really I didn’t know what to say. And…

José: Well let’s let’s try, Uh let me help you practice, because you want to take the IELTS test again, right? (Maybe) OK (Maybe someday) Well, let me help you practice. (Uh uh) So, I’m going to give you a couple of topics (OK) And what I want you to do is when I say the topic, imagine (Yeah) that phrase. So if- if the topic was “quiet place” (Yeah) imagine a quiet place, but don’t just imagine the place, imagine things around it, for example (Ahh) a “good” quiet place, a “bad” quiet place, a “big” quiet place, an “expensive” quiet place, so you (Oh) you put all these other um, adjectives onto that (Aha) topic, and and that will give you ideas about how it’s connected to you or in your house there is no quiet place and I wish there was quiet place so that’s why (Aha) I come to the library things like that.

CONTINUED IN PART 2