Hi guys!
Welcome to this speaking practice session.
We're looking at part 2 of the IELTS test today.
My name is Chris, the IELTS expert
and I'm here with my producer Fiona.
Hi Fiona!
Hi Chris!
Hi everybody!
Today, we are going to do some practice where Fiona sends a question to my screen.
Which is a part 2 question.
And I have one minute to prepare.
And I'm going to generate some ideas and talk about those ideas with you.
It's a nervous...it's a nerve wracking part of the exam.
So Fiona, if you can do me a favor and send that question to my screen, and read it out to me.
Right, here you go!
And your question is: Talk about the national food of your country.
You should say what this food is,
who orders this food the most,
And why it is popular.
You have one minute to prepare starting now.
OK.
I'm going to talk about...I'm from the UK originally so I'll talk about fish and chips.
And remember in part 2 of the test, you don't need to answer all of those specific questions.
They are there just to help you.
So I'll talk about how often people ate it.
I tend to eat it twice a year.
But some people have it every Friday.
I want to talk about whether it's healthy or unhealthy.
It's not part of the question but I think that's useful.
And we could talk about whether...what people eat with it.
So they have some peas or some different sauces.
And it's quite a famous dish,
so I might talk about the history of that.
The UK is an island.
So we talk about lots of...have lots of sea food.
I think that's enough for me to talk for over one minute.
You may want to think about other ideas in your test.
But that's enough for me.
So I'll wait for Fiona to tell me.
Time's up!
Great!
Here we go! All right!
You can begin your answer now!
I'm from the UK, and probably the most famous dish in the UK is fish and chips.
Lots of people eat fish and chips.
However, I tend to eat only maybe once or twice a year.
I actually think that fish and chips isn't very healthy because it's fried.
It's covered in something called batter
The fish is covered in batter,
and the chips are fried.
So, really not very healthy.
People tend to eat fish and chips with peas.
And there's a dish called mushy peas.
Mushy peas is when the peas are squashed.
And they might have some different types of sauces,
ketchup or tartar sauce.
The UK is an island, so we're surrounded by the sea.
So there's plenty of access to fresh fish.
And I think that's maybe one of the reasons why fish and chips became so popular.
Personally, as I said,
I eat it maybe twice a year.
It's something that is quite heavy on the stomach.
So I tend not to eat it too much, because I feel a little bit bloated afterwards.
Ok, you just got over a minute there.
Ok.
So if you'd stop talking any sooner than that,
you might not have reached a minute.
But you are very good at estimating that I mean.
Remember in the test, if you speak for one minute, that's fine.
You have to stop and give the examiner three seconds.
The examiner will wait for you to finish.
So I was about one minute and one second or how long?
I stopped it on one minute eight seconds.
Ok, one minute and eight seconds is perfectly fine.
The examiner will ask you a question afterwards.
They may ask you something about that particular topic very quickly.
So, what's another dish in your country that you like?
Those were my ideas.
Fiona, what did you think of my answer?
Was it good enough?
I thought it was good!
You were very fluent.
And you had lots of things you talked about there.
You talked about how often you ate fish and chips.
The fact that it's not very healthy because it's fried in batter.
Ok, so let's talk about that word "batter".
It's a useful word because it talks about flour and water.
Basically, that's what batter is.
Maybe you might have some milk in there too.
If you eat pancakes in your country,
the name of the mixture is called pancake batter.
It's flour, water and milk, sometimes eggs.
It's a liquid based on flour.
What other things come with batter?
Can you think of anything?
I know that in Japan, if you have tempura...
Tempura, that's exactly what I thought of.
But mainly in Australia or in England, it's in fast food restaurant isn't it?
Chips...fish and chip shops.
We have potato cakes, those sorts of things.
Exactly.
And another thing that I thought about was a famous dish from the UK called Yorkshire Pudding.
Yorkshire Pudding is a particular, it's almost like a cake.
You...it's...
It's a batter actually.
It's batter and it rises in the oven because it's very hot.
And then you have it with meat such as beef or chicken.
And you put gravy on it.
So if you ever visit the UK, you have to try a Yorkshire pudding.
What else did you like?
Well, you talked about what you, what people tend to eat with the fish and chips.
And something that's very British, mushy peas.
And you actually explained what that was and different sauces.
Yeah, so when you are talking in a test,
think about what you might eat with it.
You could talk about who eats it,
how often you eat it.
Because I said that many people tend to eat it more regularly than I do.
I don't eat it so often because it's so unhealthy.
Have you ever tried fish and chips?
What the national dish from your country?
What's the national dish in Australia?
Oh, that's an interesting one
because Australia is very multicultural.
They say our national dishes: The meat pie,
which I think we don't actually have very good pies here.
That's something that's eaten at the football quite often.
Australian rules footy.
What about a lamington?
And we may have talked about this in a previous video.
So if you've seen that video,
can you tell us what a lamington is?
I remember you did talk about that.
A lamington is a cake, like a sponge cake.
And there's two layers with jam in the middle.
And it's dipped in chocolate and then covered in coconut.
So great for a diet.
Yes, I'm afraid it doesn't tend to be very good for your weight.
But actually, I think Australian food is very very multicultural.
I ate a lot of Asian food here
Diverse, would you say?
Diverse, yes.
I liked that you said "because Britain is an island, that you have lots of access to fresh fish",
so explaining why it's a popular dish there.
Yeah, I told Fiona this story actually.
Because I live in Australia.
I rarely eat fish and chips,
and recently I went to a fish and chip shop here in Australia.
And I was really surprised that I had to wait thirty minutes to get fish and chips.
In the UK, a fish and chip shop is a fast food takeaway place where you go in.
They scoop the chips,
they give you a fish,
and you are out within three or four minutes.
I had to wait for thirty minutes!
I had to walk away in the end.
And it's so much better in England as well.
But let's face it, that's where it comes from isn't it?
Chips, the good old English chip.
Did you enjoy our conversation today?
Did it give you some ideas for what you could say in part 2 of the test?
Remember talk between one and two minutes.
Simple ideas on your, on your piece of paper when you're in the exam.
Remember, you don't need to cover all those points.
It's a really key point for you to remember.
You just need to talk.
Alright, good luck if you are taking the test soon.
Fiona, thanks very much for today!
See you next time!
And I'll see you all soon!
Bye bye!
Bye!