IELTS Advanced · Đầu vào · Speaking: Learning and a Changing Place

1. I'm a third-year student at a university in Hanoi, majoring in international business. At the moment I'm also doing a part-time internship at a logistics company, so my weeks are pretty hectic.

2. What I enjoy most is the case-study work. Instead of just memorising theories, we analyse real business problems in small teams, and I find it genuinely satisfying when a discussion suddenly clicks and we arrive at a solution nobody had thought of individually.

3. I'd really like to learn to code properly, probably in Python. So much of business analysis now relies on handling large amounts of data, and I feel that being able to automate some of that work would give me a real edge when I start applying for jobs.

4. It depends on the task, to be honest. For anything that requires deep concentration, like revising for an exam, I need complete silence, so I work alone. But when I'm trying to understand a difficult concept, talking it through with classmates usually helps me see it from a different angle.

The place I'd like to talk about is a small coastal town in central Vietnam where my grandparents used to live. I first went there when I was about seven, and back then it was little more than a fishing village: a single main road, a market that opened at dawn, and a long, almost empty beach lined with wooden boats.

I went back last summer for the first time in nearly ten years, and honestly, I barely recognised it. The beach road has been widened into a four-lane boulevard, and where the fishermen's houses used to be there's now a row of high-rise hotels and seafood restaurants with neon signs. The old market has been replaced by a modern shopping centre, and in the evenings the seafront is packed with tourists rather than local families.

My feelings about it are quite mixed. On the one hand, I can see that tourism has brought real benefits. My cousins, for instance, have found well-paid jobs in hotels rather than having to move to the city, and the roads and hospital are far better than they used to be. On the other hand, I can't help feeling that the town has lost a lot of its character. The slow, quiet atmosphere that I associate with my childhood has more or less vanished, and I noticed that the water near the main beach wasn't nearly as clear as I remembered.

So I suppose I'd say I'm happy for the people who live there, but a little nostalgic for the place it once was.

1. I think the main driver is economic. As countries like Vietnam become wealthier, there's enormous demand for housing, offices and infrastructure, and land in city centres becomes incredibly valuable. On top of that, rural people keep moving to cities in search of work, so authorities are under constant pressure to build upwards and outwards.

2. Generally speaking, yes, although I wouldn't say it's universal. Older people have strong emotional attachments to places as they used to be, so when a familiar street or market disappears, it can feel like losing part of their own history. Younger people, by contrast, tend to see change as normal, partly because they've grown up with it and partly because they benefit more directly from things like new cafés and better transport.

3. It's a difficult balance, but I'd argue that the most significant buildings should be protected. Once a historic building is demolished, it's gone forever, whereas housing can often be built on less sensitive sites, or by converting old buildings rather than knocking them down. That said, I don't think every old building deserves protection; it should depend on its genuine historical or architectural value.

4. If current trends continue, I imagine my city will be far denser, with many more high-rise apartments and probably a proper metro network, which would hopefully ease the traffic congestion. I'd also expect, or at least hope, that there'll be more green space, because people are becoming much more aware of how important parks are for both physical and mental health.