Languages Topic
Part 1 Questions
Short, personal questions. Answer directly, then add one extra sentence to extend your answer naturally.
1. How many languages do you speak?
"Two properly, and a little of a third. I would not claim to be fluent in anything beyond my own language and English."
2. When did you start learning English?
"At around eleven, at school. I did not make real progress, though, until I started using it outside the classroom."
3. Is learning a language difficult?
"It depends what you compare it to. The grammar is manageable, whereas building enough vocabulary to speak comfortably takes a very long time."
4. What is the best way to learn a language?
"Using it regularly, I would say. Studying helps, but nothing accelerates progress like being forced to communicate with someone."
5. Do many people in your country speak a second language?
"A reasonable number, particularly among younger people. English is taught throughout school, though confidence in speaking varies enormously."
6. Would you like to learn another language?
"I would, yes. Spanish appeals to me, mainly because it would be genuinely useful in places I would like to visit."
Part 2 Cue Card
You get 1 minute to prepare, then speak for up to 2 minutes.
Describe a language you would like to learn
You should say:
- Which language it is
- Why you want to learn it
- How you would go about learning it
- And explain how it would be useful to you
Full model answer
I would like to talk about Arabic, which I have wanted to learn properly for several years now without ever quite starting.
The reason is partly professional and partly personal. A significant proportion of the people I work with are Arabic speakers, and although we communicate in English perfectly well, I am conscious that the effort is entirely one-sided. They have learned my language and I have learned nothing of theirs, which increasingly seems unreasonable to me.
There is also a straightforward curiosity involved. The writing system is completely unlike anything I know, and I find the idea of learning to read from right to left genuinely appealing rather than intimidating.
If I were to start seriously, I think I would need a teacher rather than an application. My experience with self-study is that it works reasonably well for vocabulary but very badly for pronunciation, and Arabic has sounds that simply do not exist in my own language. I would want someone correcting me from the beginning, before bad habits had a chance to set in.
I would probably begin with the script, spend several months only reading and listening, and delay speaking until I had something worth saying. That is the opposite of the usual advice, but it suits the way I learn.
In terms of usefulness, it would change my working relationships considerably. Being able to greet someone properly, or follow a conversation, communicates a respect that working entirely through English cannot.
I am aware that saying this is considerably easier than doing it, which is precisely why I have not started yet.
Part 3 Discussion
Deeper, more abstract questions. Give your opinion and explain your reasoning with an example.
1. Why do people learn foreign languages?
The reasons vary enormously. Some learn for work or migration, where the motivation is practical and often urgent. Others learn out of genuine interest in a culture, and those learners frequently progress more slowly but sustain the effort far longer.
2. Should children learn a second language at school?
I think there is a strong case for starting early. Young children acquire pronunciation far more easily than adults do, and beginning early gives considerably more time to build vocabulary gradually rather than having to do it intensively later.
3. Will English remain the dominant global language?
Probably for some time, since its position is reinforced by business, science and the internet simultaneously. That said, dominant languages have changed before, and the growing economic weight of other regions may gradually alter the balance.
4. Is translation technology reducing the need to learn languages?
It has certainly reduced the need for basic transactions, and it will improve further. What it handles poorly is nuance, humour and building genuine relationships, so I would expect demand for real fluency to persist rather than disappear.
5. Why do some languages disappear?
Usually because speakers face economic pressure to adopt a dominant language, particularly for education and employment. Once parents stop passing a language on to their children, the decline becomes very difficult to reverse within a single generation.
6. Should governments protect minority languages?
I would say there is a reasonable case, since a language carries knowledge and cultural memory that is lost entirely alongside it. The difficulty is that protection requires sustained funding, and the results are slow and rather hard to measure.
Useful vocabulary for this topic
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