Go.
Good morning.
Welcome to your iPod speaking test.
There are three parts to the test and part one I'm going to be asking you a few questions to get to
know you.
Let us begin.
All right.
Hey thank you very much.
I'm happy to be here.
What is your full name.
My full name is John Markels and my friends just call me Johnny.
So I'm not sure if you want to call me Johnny or Mr. Markels is fine with me.
Either one is good.
OK.
Can I see your I.D..
Yes.
Here is my passport right here.
Where are you from.
Well originally from Mexico but I have lived almost all my life here in the United States.
However I have to still take the Isles exam because of my sins because of my citizenship.
Do you work or study.
Right now I am studying at a university here in the United States and I have to take the exam because
I need to get a higher score in order to be able to move on to a master's program.
What subject are you studying.
I am a psychology student and it's a subject that I really really enjoy a lot.
I've been learning in my bachelor's and I find it very very interesting.
Why do you think people would choose such a subject in your country.
You know what.
I don't think I don't think that a lot of people in my country actually choose this subject.
It's not that often that you hear about people in Mexico that are psychologists you do you do have psychologists
but it's not as popular as it is here in the United States.
But I think what it might become more popular because it's a great way to help people handle and get
better with their individual problems and also societal problems.
Do you think English is good I think is pretty good.
You know I've been I've been living here in the United States for a while and so I've had a chance to
talk to a lot of native speakers.
And by talking to native speakers I've really learned to improve my accent and to learn a lot of vocabulary.
What will you do after studying this language after studying English.
I hope that it can be very useful in my profession but I think will be very good because I'll be able
to meet clients who speak Spanish.
And also if there are any Americans or people from the UK I'll be able to help them as well.
So I think that I'll still be using the language after I have been studying studying it for a while.
OK let's talk about your home.
OK.
Can you describe your home.
Yes.
Right now I'm living in a three bedroom apartment located in a 16 floor apartment building.
My apartment has a living room dining room two bedrooms kitchen and a laundry room.
Do you like it.
It's OK.
I prefer I prefer to live in a house.
But some of the things that I do like about my apartment are the location the availability of a of of
my mass transportation and also my friends are pretty close.
Would you like to change something about your house.
Yeah if I could I would like to change the location of my apartment because I have some next door neighbors
that are pretty loud in terms of playing music and having parties.
So if I could actually change the actual location of my apartment that would be great because I need
to be able to study for my classes.
OK.
Do you like flowers.
Yeah I do.
I do like flowers.
I have grown.
I have I've actually tried to grow my own flowers for a long time.
I'm not very good at it but I love the smell of flowers.
Yes.
Do you have any plants in your home.
As I was saying I have tried to grow flowers myself for a while so I do have some plants inside my home
and I normally keep them near the windows and in the bedroom because it really helps to make the house
smell good.
What kind of plants were they.
Oh wow.
Really I'm not really good with names.
I probably can't tell you the actual names of the plants because normally when I go shopping I just
look for the color of the plant and the smell of the plant.
And if I liked the color I like to smell it up by it.
So I'm not really good at names.
When was the last time you bought a plant.
While I would probably say the last time I purchased a new a new plant was about four or five months
ago I bought a camera the name of it.
It was a big green plant and you're supposed to put it near the window and it grows very very long vines.
But it's a beautiful plant.
On what occasion do you use flowers in your country.
Well in my country we use flowers definitely we use flowers sometimes when there's a funeral weddings
or for some type of romantic situation.
Do you like to travel by bus or by taxi.
I definitely prefer the bus because on the bus you're able to really see the way people are inside of
a country.
You get you see all types of people on the bus some crazy people some funny people.
But I think the bus is more interesting is it easy for you to use such a transportation method.
Definitely definitely.
Because actually on the buses here the signs are in English and also in Spanish.
And so definitely is very very easy.
What's more is that when you are riding the bus the bus driver is normally very helpful in terms of
telling you where you should get off.
Have you ever been on a very long bus journey.
Although I've thought about wanting to travel for extended periods of time on a bus I've never had an
opportunity to do it.
However if I could take a long bus ride somewhere I definitely think I would love to ride a ride from
from where I am now to maybe Oregon or Washington because I've heard it's very beautiful.
Do you like giving presents to people.
Yes yes.
I think that it is very nice to give presses to people especially when they're not expecting it because
it's nice to be able to see their happiness from receiving a present.
So definitely that is something I love to do.
What type of presence do you like to give.
Well I think it's great to be able to give presents that are unique because I think that people will
remember those types of presence a lot more do you give presents.
You made yourself Tany on.
No.
I would have to say I've never done that before since I don't have any artistic talent to make presents.
So I think that the person would find it very funny to receive something made by me.
Do you read magazines.
Yes I have.
I have read I have looked at many many magazines over the years.
I think that reading magazines is very helpful for your knowledge but also for being able to look at
the pictures from many different places.
Which ones do you prefer.
I would have to say my favorite magazine is Discover magazine because in Discover Magazine It tells
you all of the latest scientific discoveries that have happened.
In fact I recently read an article that was talking about or was discussing about the way that Neanderthals
would speak if we actually heard them.
And that was very interesting.
Did it help you to learn English.
Yes definitely.
Because when when looking at Discover Magazine It really gives me an opportunity to learn a lot of vocabulary
that I've never heard of before.
And so I've actually gotten better by reading magazines like that.
Can you tell me the differences between the magazine and the newspaper.
Let's see.
Definitely definitely I can.
I can discuss that.
I can talk about that issue because when you think about a newspaper you know a newspaper is going to
give you very instant right away information that happened the previous day and when it comes to a magazine
they might have articles that contain information that is a month old or two months old because some
magazines come out every month or every other month.
So I think that's one of the major differences between a magazine and a newspaper is that the mag the
magazine covers covers a longer period of time.
And in a newspaper it's more of instant information OK.
When did you get your first mobile phone.
Well I received my my.
I was I received I received a Nokia mobile phone probably about 10 years ago.
And if I remember correctly that was the very first phone in my life in Mobile.
When should a mobile phone not be used.
Well that's that's very controversial.
That's very controversial because some people feel that you should be able to use a mobile phone in
class if it helps you.
But my my feeling is that they should not allow us to use those phones in the classroom because that
can be a distraction to to the student because they won't be listening to the teacher.
Also if the cell phone goes off or makes any noise it will be a huge distraction for the teacher.
So I think that they should not be used definitely in classrooms.
The only other place I can think of would be an airport OK do you like to send or receive postcards.
Actually I like postcards but I don't like to send them.
The main reason why is that my handwriting is not very good.
And so I think if somebody were to try if someone were to receive a postcard from me it may not be very
legible.
What type of cards you use in near friends or family.
Most of the time when I'm traveling to different parts of the world I will get a postcard from the place
that I visit because I think that the people will find it very interesting.
The people will find the photos on the front very interesting.
Did you dance when you were a child.
Probably probably dance when I was a child.
Yeah I think I did.
You know now that I'm thinking about it you know we played a lot of music in the house where I lived
and I can definitely remember getting up and dancing.
Do you like dancing.
I like the idea of dancing.
I've tried the dance off and on over the years but I'm not very good at it.
I would like to learn more so that I could appreciate it better.
Where do you usually dance when I have an opportunity opportunity to dance.
It's normally going to be at someone's wedding or at a party.
Thank you very much.
I will conclude part one.
Thank you.