Describe your best friend - IETLS speaking

Bài viết 1

You should say:

- What this person looks like;

- When and where you met this person;

- What you do when you are together.

And explain why he/she is your best friend

Sample

    Well, when it comes to my closest friend, off the top of my head, I would say it’s Tina. We go back a long way. In fact, we have been friends since my first year at university. To this day, I still remember vividly the first time I met her was in grammar class. At first, I thought she was a talkative and graceless girl. However, as I got to know her more, I realized that Tina was a very lovable person and in fact we shared a lot in common.

    When it comes to personality, I and Tina are complete opposites. While she is very approachable and patient, I am rather bad-tempered and reserved. To me, one of Tina’s most admirable personality traits is that she has good communication skills. I mean, she can easily strike up a conversation with anyone that she’s just met. As different as our personalities are, we see eye to eye with each other about a lot of things such as marriage, work and viewpoint of life

  Back in the days when we’re still at college, we hung out with each other every other week, mostly to the cinema or to the food stalls near our school. Now that we’ve graduated, she and I no longer see each other as regularly as we used to because both of us are always occupied with work. I only see her once every other month so we always have a lot of catching up to do.

   I consider Tina my best friend for a couple reasons. Firstly, she really respects me and loves me for who I am. Secondly, despite having a hectic schedule, she‘s always willing to lend a sympathetic ear whenever I have problems or feel demotivated.

Vocabulary highlights

+ loveable: đáng yêu, dễ thương

+ are complete opposites: hoàn toàn đối lập nhau

+ strike up a conversation with: bắt chuyện với ai

+ occupied with work: bận bịu với công việc

+ lend a sympathetic ear: lắng nghe chăm chú

Bài viết 2

  I’m going to talk about Hazel, who is one of my closest friends ever.

   Actually, Hazel is her English name; her Vietnamese name is Ly. But I’ll use Hazel because I know she likes that. She’s one year younger than me. We used to live next door, but now we live in the same flat.

 I want to talk about Hazel for several reasons.

   First, she’s very kind. She’s willing to give others a hand, and she always stands by me whenever I need help. Last year, I had a high fever and had to be hospitalised for a week. She took a week off to take care of me.

   Second, she’s a patient person. Unlike me who can get angry very easily, Hazel’s able to stay calm in almost every situation. In terms of being patient, I am learning a lot from her. I remember last week, both of us had to wait for another friend for nearly two hours because he got up late and got stuck in traffic. During those two hours, I kind of lost my temper and constantly complained. I was pacing back and forth, while Hazel was just sitting there reading a book. At first, I was really jealous and wondered why she was so relaxed in that situation, but afterwards, she said to me: ‘You need to learn how to enjoy every minute of your life’. Then, I realised that I was wasting my time doing pointless things, and from that moment, I knew that I needed to learn to control my temper so that I could enjoy little things in life.

   I’m so lucky to have a friend like her.

   So, if I had to talk about one of my best friends, it would have to be Hazel.

Từ vựng và cấu trúc cho chủ đề Describe your best friend

1. Intro

- The friend that I would like to tell you today is …..

- The person that I considered my best friend is …….

- When it comes to my closest friend, off the top of my head, I would say it’s….

2. Mình gặp người đó như thế nào? Mình biết người đó bao lâu?

- We go way back: chúng tôi đã quen nhau rất lâu rồi

- I’ve known him/ her for ….. years hoặc I’ve known him/her since …..: tôi đã biết anh ấy/ cô ấy được …năm hoặc tôi quen biết anh ấy/ cô ấy từ …

- To this day, I still remember vividly the first time we met was in …….: cho đến bây giờ, tôi vẫn nhớ rõ lần đầu tiên chúng tôi gặp nhau là …..

3. Ấn tượng đầu tiên của mình khi gặp người đó như thế nào?

- When I first met X, I was very impressed by his/her appearance/ voice/ style: Khi tôi lần đầu gặp X, tôi bị ấn tượng bởi ngoại hình/ giọng nói/ phong cách thời trang của anh ấy/ cô ấy

- My first impression X was that …: Ấn tượng đầu tiên của tôi về X đó là …

4. Tuổi tác

- X is the same age with me: X bằng tuổi với tôi

- X is + SỐ + years younger/ older than me: X thì nhỏ hơn/ lớn hơn tôi …tuổi

- X is in her teenage years: X đang trong độ tuổi thanh niên

- X is in his /her + early/ mid/ late + twenties/ thirties/ forties ….: X đang ở những năm đầu/giữa/cuối hai mươi/ ba mươi/ bốn mươi…

- X is ….. years old but he/she is still very young at heart: X đã…. tuổi rồi nhưng tâm hồn thì vẫn rất trẻ trung

5. Ngoại hình

Chiều cao	– Tall (cao) – Of medium height (có chiều cao trung bình) – Short (thấp, lùn) – Much/ a little bit taller/ shorter than me  (cao hơn/ thấp hơn tôi rất nhiều/ một chút)
Dáng người	– slender (mảnh khảnh) – chubby (mũm mĩm) – well-built (vạm vỡ) – thin (ốm, gầy) – petite (nhỏ nhắn) – skinny (gầy trơ xương)
Tóc	– Straight hair (tóc thẳng) – Curly hair (tóc xoăn) – Wavy hair (tóc gợn sóng) – Blonde hair (tóc vàng) – Dyed hair (tóc nhuộm)
Làn da	– Has dark/ fair complexion/skin (có nước da đen/ trắng) – Tanned skin (làn da rám nắng)

6. Tính cách

   *Lưu ý: các bạn không nên chỉ liệt kê một loạt các tính cách của người bạn mình mà hãy đi sâu diễn giải cụ thể hơn nói về một hoặc hai các tính cách nổi bật của người bạn đó

Ví dụ:

  Không nên: She is very humorous, talented, straightforward, sociable and generous

  Nên: She has a great sense of humour. (Diễn giải) I mean she usually cracks me up with her jokes everytime we hang out together. Beside that, I really admire her because she can play the piano very well. (Diễn giải)She took up this musical instrument when she was a little kid and has won plenty of national and international awards.

Một số các nét tính cách thường gặp:

absent-minded	đãng trí, hay quên
ambitious	tham vọng, nhiều hoài bão
approachable = friendly	thân thiện, dễ gần
bad-tempered	nóng tính
conservative	bảo thủ
creative	sáng tạo
down-to-earth	thực
dreamy	mơ mộng
generous	rộng lượng, hào phóng
hard-working	chăm chỉ
honest	chân thật, thật thà
humorous	vui tính
open-minded	cởi mở
reliable = trustworthy	đáng tin cậy
reserved	kín đáo, dè dặt
responsible	có trách nhiệm
self- confident	tự tin
shy	nhút nhát
sociable	hoà đồng
strict	khó tính, nghiêm
studious	chăm học
talented	tài năng
talkative	nói nhiều
thoughtful	tâm lý
witty	dí dỏm

Một số các cụm từ để mở đầu phần diễn giải về tính cách của bạn mình:

- For example/ For instance, …

- I remember one time +S +V2/ed: Tôi nhớ có lần …

- The personality trait that I like most is that …: nét tính cách tôi thích nhất là …

- What I like most about X’s personality is that ….: điều tôi thích nhất về tính cách của X đó là …

- I mean …..: ý tôi là …

7. Cách chuyển ý

   Với chủ đề Describe your best friend, khi các bạn muốn chuyển sang nói về một khía cạnh mới của người bạn của mình như tính cách, ngoại hình, cảm nhận của mình, hãy sử dụng những cụm từ sau để bài nói mạch lạc hơn

- Moving on to talking about his/her personality/ appearance, S + V

- Speaking of his/ her personality trait/ appearance, S + V

- Talking a little bit about ….., S + V 

8. Một số các từ vựng khác

be there for me = have my back	giúp đỡ tôi
know me inside out	hiểu tôi rất rõ
share a lot of common interests with me	share a lot of common interests with me
we have a lot in common	chúng tôi có nhiều điểm chung
see eye to eye with SB about ST	có đồng quan điểm với ai về
hang out	đi chơi
have a argument	có một trận cãi nhau
lose touch	mất liên lạc
keep in touch with	giữ liên lạc