Describe A person who is good at learning

♻️ Retained👨‍👩‍👧 Person

Describe a person who is good at learning and speaking new languages.

You should say:

• How you got to know him/her

• How he/she learns a new language

• What languages he/she can speak

• And explain how you feel about him/her

You will have to talk about the topic for 1 to 2 minutes. You have 1 minute to think about what you are going to say. You can make some notes to help you if you wish.

I’d like to talk about Lina, my former college roommate and a gifted polyglot I met during our first week of university, when we were randomly assigned to the same dorm room. A native Mandarin speaker, she’s fluent in English, Japanese and Korean, and is currently picking up conversational Spanish – she once ordered street food entirely in Korean during our Seoul trip, which completely blew my mind. Unlike most language learners who rely on rote memorisation of word lists, she swears by immersive learning strategies. She does 20 minutes of shadowing with authentic podcast clips every morning to nail pronunciation, and joins weekly language exchange sessions with native speakers online to practice casual speech. She even sticks vocabulary notes on her fridge to reinforce new terms while grabbing snacks. I find her truly awe-inspiring, because she’s proven that language mastery isn’t just about raw talent – it’s about consistent, strategic practice. She’s actually inspired me to start learning basic Japanese, which I’d always dismissed as too difficult before.

rote memorisation /rəʊt ˌmeməraɪˈzeɪʃn/:死记硬背

language exchange /ˈlæŋɡwɪdʒ ɪksˈtʃeɪndʒ/:语言交换活动

awe-inspiring /ɔː ɪnˈspaɪərɪŋ/:令人敬佩的

immersive /ɪˈmɜːsɪv/:沉浸式的

shadowing /ˈʃædəʊɪŋ/:(语言学习的)影子跟读法

polyglot /ˈpɒliɡlɒt/:通晓多种语言的人

Part 3 Discussion