Good afternoon.

Good afternoon.

My name is Dominic Bullock.

Can you tell me your full name please?

My name is Philipp Geissen.

And can you tell me where you're from?

I'm from Germany from the north west.

I live in North Rembrandt failure in a very small town so I think you maybe won't know it.

May I see your identification please?

Yes of course.

Thank you.

That's fine.

Now in this first part, I'd like to ask you some questions about yourself.

Let's talk about where you're living now.

Tell me about the town or city where you're living at the moment.

At the moment I'm here in Oxford in the UK.

So yeah I'm living in Oxford in a homestay with a host family and yeah I really like the city it's really nice and yeah I'm in Oxford for three more weeks and then I will go home to Germany again.

Do you think you will move to a different place in the near future?

Yeah I will definitely.

I will have an internship in a law office in Schwerin in the north east of Germany so quite far away from home and yeah I will move there for another four weeks and yeah in July August I will move to Hamburg also in the north for my studies so there will be a lot of changing in the next few months.

Let's talk about email.

What kinds of emails do you receive about your work or studies?

Oh many different kinds.

So first of all of course private emails from friends maybe with photos maybe WhatsApp is a little bit more popular at the moment but yeah also we have some emails from time to time from university also receive emails for example for tests that I had to take or for some documents that I still need from the A levels for example and for work I'm currently working in a language school as interns so I have several different emails there for example for homestay when new students have to be allocated to other host families from the other staff members when they need information from the students themselves if they have a problem a problem for example and don't know my telephone number then they write an email.

Do you prefer to emailphone or text your friends?

Depends on the friends to be honest so really good friends I often call them so I'm here now for seven weeks in Oxford and my really good friends I have like once a week a little chat on thephone I think it's more personal than WhatsApp or than emails or something like that so that's what I really like for short messages just to get information I would rather prefer WhatsApp but yeah good family members good friends I would always prefer a phone call but I don't really like emails so emails are kind of not very personal and really it's like distance when you write an email to your friends so.

Do you reply to emails and messages as soon as you receive them?

Also depends on a message to be honest so yeah when it's really urgent then I reply very soon as possible whenever I have time and when there are emails that are not really urgent not really important to me then I maybe I don't answer them maybe I answer them a few days later a few hours later always depends on the situation.

Are you happy to receive emails that are advertising things?

Oh no I hate it it's really it's really annoying if you have all these spam emails with people trying to advertise things to make you buy things I really don't like it always delete these emails soon as I get them to clear everything and to have the really important emails.

Let's talk about cars and driving how often do you travel by car?

Back in Germany quite often and I really must say in Oxford I'm only using buses since I don't have my car here I came here by plane so I really miss driving to be honest.

Why?

Because it's freedom I think I think for Germany in particular most people like their cars most people it's like a symbol for for some Germans of freedom and I really like to go on the autobahn to go on the highway to go fast I really enjoy that it's there and I really can relax while driving hear music and of course stay concentrated but I really like that and I'm coming from from an area where you need to drive there's no good bus transfer because it's very rural area so you need a car to get to your friends and to go shopping or anything.

Who in your family drives the most?

My father I think because he's working 50 kilometers from where we live in Münster and he has to drive like one hour a day so I think he's driving the most.

What kind of car would you like to own one day?

That's an interesting question since there are many so many different cars and maybe a fast sports car a cabriolet so where you can open the top for driving in summer when it's warm you have the wind around your face that's like maybe the real feeling of freedom then when you're having a car like that so a cabriolet yeah would be cool.

Would you like to travel in a driverless car?

In a driverless car where I can still influence the driving so I still need a steering wheel to actually have influence on the on the drive itself but would be really nice I think most people who are.

Now I'm going to give you a topic and I'd like you to talk about it for one to two minutes.

Before you talk you'll have one minute to think about what you're going to say.

You can make some notes if you wish.

Do you understand?

Yep.

Here's some paper and a pencil for making notes and here's your topic.

Please don't write anything on the booklet.

I'd like you to describe a hotel that you know.

[pause] [pause] [pause] [pause] [pause] [pause] All right remember you have one to two minutes for this so don't worry if I stop you.

I'll tell you when the time is up.

Can you start speaking now please?

Okay this hotel I'm describing is in Greece more particularly on Crete so on the island it's a foster hotel where I've been with my family a few years ago so with my brother and my mother and father and really close to the sea what I really like because I like to go swimming I like to wake up and have a look on the ocean so that's really really nice the Mediterranean Sea so good weather is always a nice thing.

We were there in summer it has 30 to 35 degrees really nice not too hot we were quite lucky because usually they have like 40 degrees.

They have really good food they had a really good kitchen it was a nice thing so there was always different food in the afternoon the breakfast was really good and they had a really nice pool area so they had like three different pools some for children and then pools that the adults could use that was really nice and because I really like to go swimming just standing up going off bed going in the pool that's really what I really enjoy and because close to the sea we also were allowed to go fishing there so they offered like fishing trips because I'm also fishing in Germany I really enjoyed that and what's also cool they had a gym there in the hotel which is rather big so just standing up going to the gym training maybe have a little swim in the pool and then get back to the family have breakfast that's really nice and they also had some bars there I was not allowed to drink at the time but maybe if I would go there again we would have some fun drinking but it was rather big hotel so I would today I would prefer a smaller hotel withless people so that was like the disadvantage with this particular hotel so yeah I would I would prefer a smaller one but it was really nice because it was really in the center of the of the island so we're close to different historic cities rodders and other islands to visit in Greece so yeah and as I as I told you the weather was perfect so I would I would really like to go there again not maybe in that particular hotel have you ever recommended this hotel to anyone um actually I didn't but my mother did so my uncle was there with his wife and my cousin so yeah they went there thank you can I have the booklet and the paper and pencil back please thank you thank you we've been talking about a hotel that you know and I'd like to discuss with you one or two more general questions related to this let's consider first of all staying in hotels but what are the sorts of things that are important when people are choosing a hotel oh several things um first of all I think the location is very important so of course the area where you want to travel to what important sites are there different cities museums cultural things to do um it's close to the sea if you have maybe nice view from your room so these are first of all I think the location the country of course that's maybe the first thing that you ask yourself which country do I want to travel to um and the other thing of course then is the hotel itself so how big is it how many people are there it's maybe more entertaining yourself for little children where lots of people are is it like um very small one in the in an old town of a city um and why do you think is is it that some people just don't like staying in hotels because it's maybe a bit unpersonal so maybe that's why most people they go for like these um flat sharing platforms so that they kind of rent a private flat for a week or for two weeks for holidays because it's more personal because you're staying really in the old town because you don't have to stick to certain times for breakfast so it's a little bit you have your own time management you don't have to stick to it and you have more more privacy as well maybe because you don't have to I don't know look at the other visitors all the time staying with you for breakfast in the dining room so and um thinking more about luxury hotels did you think that staying in a luxury hotel is a waste of money depends on the hotel and where it is so if you have like a luxury hotel in the middle of Norway of course that's I would consider that as waste of money um actually I don't really have to go to luxury hotels I could say in a really normal hotel more important for me would of course be what city it is in where it is how fast I can travel to the city centre and to the sites that I want to see want to visit so um staying in a luxury hotel can be cool could be can be interesting and really really enjoyable for a few days but I'm considering there are other things that are more important to me than really staying in a luxurious hotel and from staying in a hotel let's think about working in a hotel do you think that working in a hotel is a good career for life um a completely different topic um depends on the job that you do there so um for example um a manager there in a really big hotel with lots of people staying there could of course promote and push or improve your career so when you really have to deal with a lot of people you have to manage have a good overview over the whole hotel I think that is really really good good thing to to learn multitasking there the other thing is if you're for example a cook so if you're really in a small hotel where you can really work on um so in a five star hotel a four star hotel you can really deliver good food that the customers appreciate so really you can concentrate on the quality of the food create something new create something special of course and if it's a really famous hotel in a big city of course that will promote your career sure and after that do you think that um working in a hotel in a really big hotel whether it's luxury or not is a very different experience to working in a small hotel again that depends on the job that you're doing there for example if you're a manager then of course it's completely different because you have umless people but you can also if you're in a smaller hotel you can concentrate in the people you have really take care of them like um another private person that kind of um advises them on their trip on the things to do so you can really um get in touch with the customers that's maybe one advantage in a really small hotel because you don't have to spend that much time on dealing with everything else i know with the the amount of people coming the food the cleaning because everything is smaller you can really concentrate and deliver better um product in general so everything would there would be an improved quality maybe then a really big hotel you don't have to deal with lots of people and i think that's very very different because you can't really get in touch with them and thinking about being a successful hotel manager um what sort of skills do you need do you think to to become a really successful hotel manager yeah i already mentioned having an overview so really um managing people managing everything you need to beable to um and you need to beable to multitask so you have to deal with lots of things at the time so how many people are coming how many are leaving what's the staff doing so the people that you have to give the tasks to other tasks okay how do they interact with each other is everything working other people staying do they have the rooms the room free is the room cleaned what food do we offer the next weeks what do we have to buy for that the social activities maybe that the hotel offers so there's a lot there are lots of things that you have to uh keep in mind at the time i think that's really the most difficult thing and that's really the skill that you need when you're a manager thank you very much that is the end of the speaking test okay thank you