Speaking Part 2 想學的技能 Band 7+ 範答

Describe a skill you would like to learn in the future.

You should say:

• what the skill is
• why you want to learn it
• how you plan to learn it
• and explain why this skill is important to you.

¹ The skill I'd most like to pick up within the next year or two is scuba diving — specifically the PADI Open Water certification, which is the basic qualification that lets you dive independently down to a depth of about eighteen metres. ² It's been on my mind ever since I went snorkelling off the coast of Green Island last summer and got my first proper glimpse of what was actually happening just below the surface.

³ I'm planning to sign up for a four-day intensive course in Kenting, probably during the Chinese New Year break when I'll have a proper block of time off work. ⁴ The course covers theory — basic physics, safety procedures, hand signals — followed by confined-water sessions in a swimming pool and, finally, four genuine open-water dives in the sea itself. ⁵ If I pass, I'd like to follow it up with an Advanced Open Water certification maybe a year later, which would let me go deeper and also do night dives.

⁶ The main reason I want to learn this skill is honestly a mix of curiosity and fear. ⁷ I've been mildly uncomfortable around deep water since I was a child, and I've reached the point where I'd rather confront that anxiety head-on than spend the rest of my life carefully avoiding it. ⁸ There's also a bigger reason behind it — about seventy per cent of the planet is underwater, and it feels like a real shame to go through an entire lifetime only ever seeing the top three metres of it.

⁹ Long-term, I'd love to dive places like Palau or the Great Barrier Reef before climate change makes them unrecognisable. ¹⁰ But honestly, just being able to float calmly at ten metres and breathe slowly would already feel like a small personal victory to me.

The skill I'd love to learn properly is Spanish. I picked up the basics on Duolingo during lockdown, but I've hit a ceiling where I can read a menu but can't actually hold a conversation.

Something I've wanted to learn for years is the ukulele. It's not a glamorous choice, but it's portable, forgiving for beginners, and — crucially for someone with my attention span — you can play a recognisable song after about two weeks.

The skill on my list is basic welding. It might sound odd coming from someone who works in an office, but I've become interested in fixing and building things myself — and welding is the gateway to a whole category of projects I currently can't attempt.