Skills & Learning Topic
Part 1 Questions
Short, personal questions. Answer directly, then add one extra sentence to extend your answer naturally.
1. Have you learned a new skill recently?
"Yes, I started learning to cook properly last year. I had relied on very basic meals before that, so it was overdue."
2. Do you find it easy to learn new things?
"It depends on the skill. Anything practical I pick up reasonably quickly, whereas anything requiring patience takes me considerably longer."
3. Do you prefer learning alone or with other people?
"With others, generally. Having someone slightly ahead of me keeps me motivated, and I find spoken explanations easier to follow than written instructions."
4. What skill would you like to learn in the future?
"I would like to learn to swim properly. I can manage, but my technique is poor and I tire far too quickly."
5. Is it harder to learn new skills as an adult?
"In some ways. Adults have less time and more self-consciousness, though they are usually better at organising their practice than children are."
6. Do you learn skills from the internet?
"Frequently. Most of what I know about cooking came from videos, which is remarkable given that I never took a single class."
Part 2 Cue Card
You get 1 minute to prepare, then speak for up to 2 minutes.
Describe a useful skill you learned
You should say:
- What the skill was
- When and how you learned it
- How difficult it was to learn
- And explain why it has been useful
Full model answer
I would like to talk about learning to touch-type, which sounds rather unglamorous but has probably saved me more time than anything else I have ever learned.
I taught myself about six years ago, when I was starting a job that involved a great deal of writing. I had been typing with two fingers for years, looking down at the keyboard constantly, and I gradually realised I was losing an enormous amount of time without ever noticing it.
I used a free website that gave short daily exercises, and I committed to twenty minutes every evening. The first fortnight was genuinely frustrating. My speed dropped to roughly a third of what it had been, because I was forcing myself not to look down, and there was a strong temptation to give up and return to the old method.
What got me through was tracking my speed. Watching the number climb week by week made the difficulty feel temporary rather than permanent. After about six weeks I was faster than I had ever been before, and after three months it had become completely automatic.
It has been useful in an obvious practical sense, since I write considerably faster now. The less obvious benefit, though, is that I can think while writing rather than hunting for keys, so the quality of my writing has improved as well.
The wider lesson has stayed with me too. Getting temporarily worse at something before getting better is a normal part of learning, and I am far more patient with that stage than I used to be.
Part 3 Discussion
Deeper, more abstract questions. Give your opinion and explain your reasoning with an example.
1. Why do some people find it harder to learn new skills?
Confidence plays a large part. People who expect to struggle often interpret early mistakes as proof that they cannot do it, and give up before any improvement begins. Available time and access to good instruction matter considerably too.
2. Should schools teach practical skills as well as academic subjects?
I would argue strongly that they should. Skills such as managing money or basic cooking are needed by everyone, whereas a good deal of academic content is only ever used by a minority. A balance between the two seems sensible.
3. Do people learn better from the internet or from teachers?
Both have clear advantages. Online material is flexible and inexpensive, which suits motivated learners. A teacher, however, can notice mistakes that the learner cannot see themselves, and that feedback is difficult to replicate online.
4. Are older people less willing to learn new skills?
Less willing is probably unfair. They often face genuine constraints, particularly time and existing responsibilities. Where technology is concerned there can also be a confidence barrier, though that tends to disappear once someone has a clear reason to learn.
5. How has technology changed the way people learn skills?
It has removed most of the barriers to starting. Anyone can find instruction on almost any subject within minutes and at no cost. The difficulty has shifted from access to persistence, since nobody is ensuring the learner continues.
6. Will workers need to learn new skills more often in the future?
Almost certainly. Automation is changing what jobs involve at considerable speed, so the idea of training once and then working for forty years is disappearing. Continuous retraining is likely to become an ordinary part of working life.
Useful vocabulary for this topic
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