20 chủ đề IELTS Speaking Part 1, 2, 3 phổ biến thường gặp nhất

I'm currently living with my girlfriend. She moved in with me a few months ago. I have to say that she's a really good housemate - she keeps things clean and always follows the rules in the house.

I have to say black. I mean, you can never go wrong with black! This colour shows confidence and maturity and is very easy to be mixed and matched with other colours. I always have at least 5-6 black items in my closet.

I originally come from Ho Chi Minh city. It is located in the Southern part of Vietnam, next to other towns like Long An or Ca Mau. I don't think it is the biggest city in Vietnam but it sure is the most populated!

Oh, for sure. I easily get bored and lose motivation if I feel like things are getting too dull. That's why I always try to make life more exciting by changing things up once in a while. One example is to ask for a day off work to go on a holiday with my family!

Not really. I mean, I consider it to be more like a chore than a hobby. That being said, sometimes shopping can be enjoyable, especially when you're out buying presents for your loved ones. Only in that way do I find this activity to be meaningful.

I enjoy my own company when I read. I find it difficult to focus when there are other people around me. Not to mention that they always have something to say about the book and I really hate having to listen to their opinions!

My neighbourhood is quite peaceful since there are not many houses here. The atmosphere in the area is fresh compared to other nearby areas. This makes it a great place to raise kids in my opinion.

Well, I'm not that good of a singer to be honest. I mean, I can sing a few simple tunes but most of the time I struggle to reach high notes or to do more complex techniques such as belting. I guess this is why I don't usually sing in public but mostly sing for myself.

The reason why I chose to be working in this field is because this profession is thriving in my country and being good at it can help me earn a lot of cash to sustain a good life. In fact, if you're among the top in marketing you can earn up to $6000 a month which is nearly 6 times higher than other professions.

The reason why I chose to be working in this field is because this profession is thriving in my country and being good at it can help me earn a lot of cash to sustain a good life. In fact, if you're among the top in marketing you can earn up to $6000 a month which is nearly 6 times higher than other professions.

I’m quite a shopaholic so I don’t think I could keep track of things I bought, but I’d say one of my proudest purchases recently is a pair of Sony headphones.

I bought these headphones around 3-4 months ago, when I started having to work at home more. I regretted a lot at first because it was quite pricey, nearly one fourth of my monthly salary, but after a while, I felt so glad that I made the decision to buy it. I basically have it on all the time these days. To tell you more about these headphones, they are the active noise cancelling kind, the latest model even. I bought the black one, and one of the things I love most about it is that it has these rose bronze accents, which made the headphones look futuristic and a touch of classy as well. It also came with a very sturdy headphone case, which allows me to bring the headphones everywhere without worrying about damaging them.

Back to headphones, they hug my ears very snugly, I can wear them for a very long time without hurting my ears. But, the one element that is worth my money the most is of course, the sound quality. I still remember playing my favorite song on these headphones for the first time, my jaw was on the ground, and I remember thinking “Oh my god, is this how it is supposed to sound like the whole time?”. It felt heavenly, every single beat and note was crystal clear, and combined with the noise cancelling, the song sounded so pure and flawless, like it was flowing straight from the pearly gates of heaven itself.

I think I can go on about these headphones for days, but all in all, I really hope God is gonna guide my hands to more satisfying purchases like this in the future.

A lyric from a song that stuck with me as soon as I heard it was from “Already Gone” by Kelly Clarkson. It goes like “Perfect couldn’t keep this love alive”.

I remember hearing this song the first time way back in High school, just when I was going through my first heartbreak so I really took that line to heart. Nearly a decade later and of course, many more heartbreaks, I relate to it even more.

There are so many things I love about that line. First of all, it’s the way she used an adjective in the place of a subject. Back then, I found it very fascinating because I thought “Oh my even famous Western singers make grammatical mistakes”, but actually the official lyrics put the word “perfect” in quotation marks so I realized that it is actually an artistic choice, a very nice one at that. Kelly Clarkson never really explained it and left it up for interpretation, so I interpreted it in two ways, each relating to a different traumatic relationship that I had. The first one, I think is closest to the spirit of the song, is that, the relationship she had was already perfect, and since it is perfect, it is not anyone’s fault that it fell apart, it was just destined to fail.

But, my personal interpretation is that, sometimes, there are relationships that, even though the two have really grown sick of each other, still stayed together because they are afraid of starting over, but then no matter how much you both bend over backwards to maintain this perfect facade, that love is already dead and gone. One final thing I love about that line was the way she sang it. It was very airy, like a whisper, like you can feel that she was already too tired from holding the relationship together and that she accepts that it is done, but there is still a hint of regret. I think you should really hear it for yourself.

So all in all, even though I have listened through thousands of tear jerking ballads, no other line has been able to strike me the way this does.

The drama started when both of them showed up at our dinner with very fancy gifts, one brought a Macbook while the other got me a Cartier watch. I was totally blown away by these gifts that I did not realize right away that two of them were exchanging very weird looks with each other. The night was going fine until they admitted to me about their plan: Lily was going to prepare a gift, while Macy would book and pay for an extravagant hotel room for me to stay in the entire weekend. But due to some miscommunication, both of them thought the other party was going to book the hotel.

Of course I was totally fine with either option, in fact I was glad that anyone remembered my birthday at all, but then Lily started complaining about Macy’s forgetfulness, and Macy retaliated by mocking Lily’s habit of always gifting people watches. Then all of a sudden it erupted into a battle where both of them nitpicked each other on past mistakes, and before I know it they already started insulting each other with very vile words, and as sudden as how the fight started, they just both picked up their purse and stormed out of the restaurant, leaving me all dazed and confused.

As I was going to pay for the meal and leave, the lights in the restaurant suddenly dimmed, and then a person appeared, carrying a huge birthday cake. To my surprise, it was my big sister, who flew back to Vietnam from Norway to surprise me, and there was Lily and Macy by her side, holding firecrackers, singing Happy Birthday.

Turns out, my twisted sister arranged that little fight between my friends to make me sad, and her appearance would really be a plot twist for my night. I had a good laugh out of that, and afterwards we all went to the hotel room which my sister booked and had an amazing slumber party there.

All in all, I’m so glad to have such amazing close ones, but in hindsight it is also a little bit scary how they schemed all that behind my back, not to mention the insults that Lily and Macy threw at each other was a little bit too vicious so I definitely would not want to get on their bad side.

This is not only one time, but a thing that I did continuously when I was in 5th grade.

To give you a little background, back when I was in elementary school, I did not get to play any video games because my mom considered video games and comic books to be useless distractions and therefore, she only allowed me to play chess and crossword puzzles. But then at school, almost all of my classmates had consoles like the Playstation, and they would all gather during break time to chat about the games that they played so I felt really left behind and left out

And back then, there weren’t any video game streamers or playthroughs. So what I did was, I would go on to YouTube, watch a lot of video game trailers and note down the parts that I liked from each game, and from those notes, I created an entire imaginary video game for myself. I crafted characters in my head, Then I went on to make up the game’s mechanics, different chapters of the adventure, even different enemies and bosses.

And then one day, I joined in one of those break time convos, and told my friends about my video game. Of course I did not tell them it was all in my head, in fact, I told them that my game is only in its trial stage and isn't officially sold on the market yet. They ate up everything, and they loved the stories so much that from then on, every recess, all the boys would gather at my table to hear my progression in the game. This went on for nearly a whole school year, and when it reached the point where I ran out of inspiration, I just told them that I accidentally spilled milk on my console and it exploded.

In hindsight, I think that event has awakened the pathological liar in me, but until now, none of them really questioned me about this mysterious video game, so maybe they forgot about it, or they knew but still let it slide, or maybe they had all lied to me about something as well. Either way, it was still a great memory for me, and I think it’s all that matters.

A person I know who wears quite unusual clothes is my coworker, An.

Even though we work in different departments, we talk a lot since we are the only ones who bring our own lunch to work, when everybody else usually eats out. I actually remember the first time we talked was the time when we made the same dish to bring to work, we even decorated our lunch boxes the same way, and I think we bonded over our love for cutely-decorated food.

To tell you more about her, she is much older than me, but while I always appear gloomy and depressed, she is always very hyper and animated. Sometimes I find her positivity a little bit too much to handle, especially in the morning. But it kinda rubbed off on me, and I noticed that I have really become more positive since I started hanging out with her, so I really thank her for that.

About her style of clothing, even though I said that it’s unusual, I actually mean it in a good way. To be more specific, she loves knitting, and she’s masterful at it. An knits a lot of her own clothes, and no matter what she wears, there always has to be something she knitted on her. The things she knits are also very unique and somewhat whimsical. You would always spot very fun details on them, for example, she has a pair of pants with rows of little birds on the cuffs, a shirt that is heart-shaped, and there’s also this item she knitted recently, which I really want to steal. At first glance, it just seems like a regular cream-colored sweatshirt, but if you stand close enough, you can see so many little butterflies and flowers sewn on in silver threads.

Normal people would call her sense of fashion weird, but I think people who actually have taste would consider her a quirky fashionista.

A person who has great manners that I know is a kid that I tutored. His name is Martin.

He studied with me around 5 years ago, when his mom hired me to help prepare him for secondary school. And until now, even though I no longer tutor him, we still talk a lot, mostly about his preparations for college.

To tell you more about him, he’s a very unique individual. If I’m not wrong, I think he’s 17 this year, but he’s as tall as professional basketball players. Back when I tutored him, we were around the same height, but after not meeting for a while, he’s now towering over me. And since he’s living with just his mom, I think she doesn’t teach him how to shave, so he has a whole mustache, which makes him look like a grown man. But contrary to his brute appearance, he talks very softly, and in fact he stutters a lot, not to mention his personality is also quite timid and reserved. I usually joke around and call him Forrest, since “Forrest Gump” is his favorite movie and he’s somewhat similar to the main character of that movie.

One thing I really like about him is that he is so respectful to those around him. To be more specific, he always uses honorifics when talking to those around him, no matter if they are younger or older than him, and even to animals he spots on the street. In fact, he even addresses my two cats as “Mr Cat” and “Mrs Cat”, which I find very endearing. Martin is also very thoughtful. Whenever the trashman comes by, he would never just stand inside the house and toss the trash bags into the garbage truck like most people, and always walk to the truck and lightly throw the bags in to make sure it doesn’t break and spill.

All in all, I think he has such a good heart, and watching him preparing to be a young adult, I really hope the ways of the world don't taint him like it does to many people.

A home that I visited but definitely would not want to live in is this serviced apartment that I actually lived in a few years ago.

If my memory serves my right, I lived there around 3-4 years ago, when my house was under renovation. I only lived there for barely a month but the vibe there was so weird that I still have chills down my spine whenever I think about it.

In all fairness, it was actually a beautiful place. It is a duplex located in a skyscraper right in the center of D1. The apartment is very spacious, with a fancy master bedroom that has a view over Saigon’s financial district. And if I’m being honest, I really adored the fully equipped kitchen, with a marble island which doubles as a bar. But even with all the extravagance, I would not like to spend another night there.

One thing that felt really off about the place was the lighting.

In some parts of the place, particularly the corridor from the bedroom to the bathroom, the lighting is ambient, but not the cozy kind, but the kind that feels very hazy and otherworldly. Sometimes during the night when I go to the bathroom, the lighting would make the corridor seem longer than it actually is, and I keep feeling like there was someone, or something waiting for me at the other end of the corridor.

In contrast, in some other rooms, like the laundry room and storage room, they were lit by fluorescent bulbs, which were not only out of place, but also felt very cold and lifeless. The pipes in the laundry room also emit this whirring sound, and when I do my laundry late at night, it sounded almost identical to the sound of someone with asthma.

I felt so relieved the day I got to move out of that place. Even though nothing scary actually happened, I still just can’t shake this feeling that something sinister happened, or even, was happening there.

A quiet place I love spending time in is a tea room named “Teaspoon”.

It is located right in the center of District 1, really close to plenty of shopping malls and office buildings, but it is tucked away in an old apartment complex, away from the main bustling streets. The doors and windows are even sound-proof, so when you enter the shop, it feels like a completely different world. They have an amazing mix of music playing all the time, from old-timer jazz, acoustic piano, and even some chill lo-fi beats. Sometimes, if the shop is not too crowded, the shop owner would break out her guitar. She does no songs in particular, just some mindless strumming, but it feels very fitting. Even though there are no “Keep silent” signs, the patrons always know to keep their volume down, and the loudest noise would probably be the bells and chimes that twinkle a little when someone enters the shop. Most of the furniture are pretty much British-inspired, with very comfy sofas and the chaise lounge there has the most fluffy cushions I’ve ever laid my hands on. And don’t get me started on the teas there. Their floral and dried fruit teas are so refreshing to drink, whether hot or cold. Even their Oolong or Earl Grey tea taste, and smell, much better than other expensive tea brands. The entire atmosphere is so relaxing, that sometimes I’d even doze off when reading a book here.

Unfortunately, I haven’t been there for a while now due to the pandemic. I hope the place isn’t too affected by all this fiasco, and I can’t wait to spend an afternoon there again.

I volunteered at a nursing home when I was in college, and all the old people there told me two things. First of all: Don’t take things too seriously. A lot of them told me they ended up there because they were very harsh on their friends, their children, even themselves. They wanted everything their way, so much that they shunned away people who couldn’t uphold that standard, and now they are here, alone. Another thing that a lot of them told me was to live to my heart’s content. Almost every single elder I talked to told me they have so many regrets. They regret that there are so many things they should have done but didn’t, sometimes because of a sense of responsibility towards their family, sometimes because of their ego. A grandma even told me that if young people are haunted by the “What ifs” only at night, then when they are old, it would haunt them at every waking moment. I don’t know about you, but I find that very educational and scary at the same time.

From what I have seen, it's saying “Thank you”. We were all raised to say “thank you” to those who have helped us, no matter how big or small that support is. But that really depends on what each person considers “help” and “support”. What I mean is that nowadays, I have noticed that many people do not consider service workers like cashiers, or coffee shop baristas to be “help” and that it is a service that they paid for, thus they don’t see the need to thank those people. That way of thinking is something I really fail to understand, since for me, saying thank you is also a way to really express your gratitude for simple things in life, and also I would always thank my baristas so they would never secretly spit in my drink.

Well from what I have seen, I think an expensive thing that people nowadays really like to buy is exotic houseplants. To be more specific, I've noticed that locals started collecting them since the beginning of the pandemic, when they are looking for healthy hobbies to do during lockdown. Even though some of them are quite affordable, a lot of them are really costly, up to even hundreds million VND, the rarer the breed, the higher the price. Of course I believe that planting is a healthy hobby, but those foreign plants are extremely complicated to take care of, and I've seen many people give up halfway and just let them rot. Therefore I hope that people can do more careful research before picking such an extravagant thing to collect, otherwise it'll be such a waste!

Unfortunately, in this day and age, I think not. For example, some singers in Vietnam have very few to none notable works, and yet they remain extremely popular for many years. To be more specific, they would get really popular by one or two hits, and then maintain their relevance by creating scandals after scandals, and before releasing a new song or body of work, they would disappear for a few months to let things die down a bit, then return to promote their new work like nothing happened, and after promotion had wrapped up, that cycle begins anew. Oddly enough, even though the quality of their work is just barely acceptable, the general public doesn’t seem to mind, and in fact those singers still have an army of fans waiting to defend them. So all in all, I think that in this age where any publicity is good publicity, what celebrities need isn’t talent, but a really good PR team.

I personally think that the best way to learn foreign culture is reading, especially news about what’s going on in that country. People tend to only Google “What is the culture of x country”, go through a few travel articles then call it a day. Of course any amount of reading is good, but those articles can only provide a fleeting glance, and can even be very stereotypical. So I think reading news can help put those knowledge into context, like, it would help you to really understand how those customs and cultural norms are affecting the people there, and I think it is sometimes even more beneficial than travelling to a country, staying in a fancy hotel for a few days and then call it “learning”.

Honestly, I had my doubts before, but now I totally think that it’s amazing, particularly with the lockdown going on due to Covid-19. People can have fresh groceries, electronics, books and whatnot delivered straight to their home, sometimes only within 30 mins after you ordered. And with contactless delivery procedures, online shopping is really helping to reduce the risk of getting the virus. Before, I had my worries about product quality, but now almost all online shopping apps have very strict screening for merchants as well as product, and even if you unfortunately got scammed, most app offer really great after-sale service to help you get your money’s worth, whether by refund or guiding you to better product alternatives. What’s not to like?