Describe an older person you enjoy talking to.
A card about a grandparent, neighbour or former teacher whose company you value. The pleasure of the conversations is the point, so let the person speak in your answer.
The task card
Describe an older person you enjoy talking to.
You should say:
- who the person is
- how you got to know them
- what you usually talk about
and explain why you enjoy your conversations.
Now say it yourself
Record your own two minutes on this card and have it transcribed and marked against the Speaking criteria. Practising is free; the band estimate is part of Pro.
Record my answerHow long you have
- 1 minute
Preparation
The examiner hands you the card, paper and a pencil. Make notes — a few words per cue point, never sentences.
- 1–2 minutes
Your long turn
Speak until the examiner stops you at two minutes. Finishing early is the most common self-inflicted problem in Part 2.
- 1–2 questions
Rounding off
The examiner may ask one or two short follow-up questions, then moves straight into the Part 3 discussion on the same theme.
Part 2 takes three to four minutes in total. The whole Speaking test runs 11 to 14 minutes across three parts, and Part 3 that follows lasts four to five minutes.
How to approach this card
Introduce the person with one defining detail — a retired engineer who grew up by the sea, a neighbour who has lived in the same flat for forty years. Then cover 'how you got to know them' as a mini-story: meeting over a broken fence, being paired at a community event. Context here makes everything after it believable.
'What you usually talk about' should range wider than one topic: their working life, how the area has changed, your plans, their quietly strong opinions. A strong answer quotes or paraphrases something the person actually said, because reported speech shows real listening and naturally raises your grammatical range.
The common mistake is turning the answer into a biography — dates, jobs, children — with no warmth in it. The card asks why you enjoy the conversations, so end on what they give you: perspective, patience, the feeling that some problems are not new.
Ideas you can actually use
Three angles on this card. Pick the one closest to something real in your own life — invented material is what makes candidates hesitate at ninety seconds.
What makes the conversation good
- They ask questions instead of giving advice, which is rarer than it sounds
- They have a first-hand account of something you have only read about
- They are funny about their own past rather than reverent about it
The setting of the conversations
- Where you talk and what you are usually doing — cooking, walking, sitting in a shop
- How often, and whether it is arranged or accidental
- One phrase or piece of vocabulary they use that nobody your age uses
What you take from it
- A specific thing you now do differently because of something they said
- A sense of proportion about things that felt urgent at the time
- The awareness that these conversations are finite, which you do not need to overstate
What your one minute of notes should look like
Not sentences — a few words per cue point. This is the level of detail sixty seconds actually buys you, and it is enough to speak from for two minutes.
- WHO — Mrs Idowu, neighbour, late 80s, 40 yrs in the street
- HOW — Thurs afternoons, tea, no arrangement
- WHAT ABOUT — the street then vs now, her nursing career
- WHY ENJOY — she asks about me first; never gives advice unasked
Model answer
Speak your own answer first. Examiners are trained to spot memorised speeches and mark them down — use this to study structure, pacing and naturalness, never to recite.
Show the model answer
The person I want to talk about is my downstairs neighbour, Harold, who's eighty-two and has lived in our building since it went up in the seventies. He's a retired railway engineer, and he's easily the best conversation on the whole street. I got to know him about four years ago, in the least glamorous way possible — his kitchen tap was leaking, the landlord wasn't answering, and I went down with a spanner and a lot of misplaced confidence. He ended up fixing it himself while I passed him tools, and somewhere in that half hour we became friends. Now I drop in most Sunday afternoons, usually with biscuits, because he'll make the tea regardless. What do we talk about? Honestly, everything. He tells me about the night trains he used to maintain, and how our high street looked when it still had three butchers. But he's just as curious the other way — he asks me proper questions about my work, my phone, what my generation actually worries about, and he listens to the answers, which is rarer than it sounds. Why do I enjoy it? Partly the stories, obviously. But mainly it's the perspective. Whenever I arrive stressed about something, he has this way of showing me it isn't new — 'we panicked about exactly that in 1974,' he'll say, halfway through pouring. An hour with Harold shrinks my problems back to their actual size, and I always leave lighter than I came.
Why this works: The leaking-tap mini-story makes the friendship believable, and the quoted line of Harold's speech is precisely the reported-speech move the strategy recommends. Each cue point gets its own paragraph, and the ending answers 'why you enjoy it' with what the conversations give the speaker, not a biography.
Useful vocabulary for this topic
- a good listener
Someone who pays genuine attention; simple but precise.
- a wealth of experience
Standard collocation for knowledge gained over a long life.
- to see things in perspective
To judge problems calmly; fits the final bullet well.
- a different generation
Natural way to frame the age gap without repeating 'old'.
- old-fashioned values
Useful for attitudes from another era; always pair it with a specific example.
- to look up to someone
To admire and respect a person.
The same phrases in a full sentence
A phrase list is only useful if you know how the words sit around it. Say each of these aloud once before you attempt the card.
- she has seen it all before
- “She has seen it all before, which is why nothing I tell her seems to alarm her.”
- a wealth of experience
- “There is a wealth of experience there that simply is not written down anywhere.”
- to put things in perspective
- “Twenty minutes with her puts things in perspective better than anything else I do.”
- she does not mince her words
- “She does not mince her words, and honestly that is half the appeal.”
Part 3 discussion
After your long turn the examiner moves into a four to five minute discussion on the same theme, working from two related discussion topics with about three questions each. The first stays close to your own experience; the second widens out. Answer with reasons and examples, not one-line replies.
Older people
Example questions
- 1How much contact do young and old people have in your country?
- 2What can younger people learn from older generations?
- 3Do you think older people are respected as much as they once were?
Generations
Example questions
- 1Can you suggest why the generations sometimes find it hard to understand each other?
- 2Should families live close together?
- 3How might an ageing population change life in your country?
More on how this family of cards is discussed: People and relationships. Model answers for Part 3: Part 3 questions and answers.