S04 - 10 Future

Native English speakers answer questions about the future from previous B2, C1, C2 and IELTS  exam papers.

This topic is one that often comes up in exams. You can be asked about your personal plans or goals, or about predictions for the future, regarding things like jobs, Artificial Intelligence or maybe the environment. 

In this episode we’ll hear some great ways to express what you would like to do, we’ll hear what skills will be useful for the future, we have some nice adverbs, phrasal verbs and some top-class vocabulary too, including some super-useful idioms. 

For classes or transcripts go to https://realexamenglish.com/

Music: Wholesome by Kevin MacLeod
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5050-wholesome
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Thanks to all of the contributors, including  Matt, Leah Ann, Stephanie, Loli, Richard, Ofordi, Emma and Leanne from the Beach Travel Wine podcast.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to the Real Exam English podcast, this episode is about the future. This topic is one that often comes up in exams. You can be asked about your personal plans or goals, or about predictions for the future, regarding things like jobs, Artificial Intelligence or maybe the environment. So in this episode we’ll hear some great ways to express what you would like to do, we’ll hear what skills will be useful for the future, we have some nice adverbs, phrasal verbs and some top-class vocabulary too, including some super-useful idioms.

If you have difficulties following any of the speakers, or me for that matter, then you can find details of how to get the transcript for this episode on the website, realexamenglish.com

Righto, here we go with the first question:

Is there anything you would love to do able to do in the future?

Is there anything I'd love to do in the future? Yeah, I'd like to retire right now, in the future, in the next two days. That'd be great and have free time to do what I like. Yeah, but apart from that, uh, no, I think you get to a stage where you think well, you know, I would have liked to have done a parachute jump, but I don't really think I fancy doing that anymore. That's something, you know, mad. …I would like to travel actually in the future, further away, like maybe go to Japan or go to Australia, Hawaii, places like that, that I haven't been to. That would be nice, if I could do that, if I had enough money, I would like to do that. Have a nice long trip somewhere for a month or two. 

What are you going to do this weekend?

This weekend I've got some friends coming over from the UK. If they manage to get here because there are strikes, aren't there? And they're flying with EasyJet, so we are keeping our fingers and toes crossed because we don't know whether they're going to be able to make it or not. So if they do come, what we're going to do is we're going to take them round, we're going to take them to the touristy sites, Alicante, Elche, Santa Paula, and we'll be doing a lot more boozing and in general having a good time.

Sounds like good fun. She really expressed her likes well here, in a variety of ways, I´d love to do, I´d like to, that’d be great, I would have liked to have done, I don´t really think I fancy doing, that would be nice if I could do that. This last one expresses ability, using could. She also expresses ability in her second answer using manage to and able to. She said I´ve got some friends coming over from the UK, if my friends manage to get here, because there are strikes. We use manage to when we succeed in doing something difficult, like her friends here who are trying to come to visit her but because of airline strikes might not make it. That’s the reason she went with, if they manage to get here.

She then said we don´t know whether they’re going to be able to make it or not. So after going to it is not possible to use the modal verb can to talk about ability, going to can, nah, not good. So after modal auxiliary verbs we use to be able to, I haven´t been able to practice English today, she won’t be able to come tomorrow, they should be able to help you. 

Her next sentence then was If they do come, what we’re going to do is we are going to take them around the touristy sites. Really nice, we have a conditional, if they do come, combined with a cleft sentence, what we´re going to do is…and a correct piece of vocabulary in take them to the touristy sites, note she didn´t say touristic, which is technically not incorrect, but just isn´t really used much in modern English(except by Spanish and Italian speakers, haha).

She had this great expression we are keeping our fingers and toes crossed. Ok, so you probably already know the expression to keep your fingers crossed, which is hoping for good luck. Well, if you have your fingers and toes crossed then you are hoping for even more good luck!

Which skills will be essential in the future to be able to find a job in the coming years?

Ooh so for me I think an essential part of everyone's job is good communication skills and good personal skills and in order to be able to work in any industry and in any role, and being able to be kind and considerate and have strong communication skills to be able to verbalize and articulate what you want to explain to people, whether you are in IT as a developer, whether you are an engineer or a doctor, uhm, it really doesn't matter or a cleaning lady, anybody, to know exactly what people need from you is very important, so I think communication and good interpersonal skills will always be required.

Is there anything you'd love to be able to do in the future?

I would love to be able to go down to a three or four day working week and use, uh, the rest of the time for personal learning and development of something else. So I would love to not have to spend all my time five days a week working at a desk on a laptop. I would love to enjoy something that I'll appreciate. So now that I'm at the age that I am, I think I'll be able to do that, possibly in the next year or two, which I really look forward to. 

Ok, this first question was about skills, which is something you are very often asked about in speaking exams, like what skills are needed for different jobs, or what skills should they teach in school, or like in this case, what skills will be essential for the future. She gave a fantastic answer. To start off she had oo, so for me…which is a perfect way to give your personal opinion. Then check out the variety of different ways she said more or less the same thing, good communication skills, good personal skills, strong communication skills to be able to verbalize and articulate what you want to explain to people, good interpersonal skills will always be required, nice passive voice there too. For me, that´s a top answer, good length, well explained, super examples, nice variety of language, and well organized too, with in order to be to able to work in any industry, whether you are an engineer or a doctor, so I think this will always be required. Excellent.

Which skills will be essential in the future to be able to find a job in the coming years?

This is a tricky one because I'm keeping my eye on AI at the moment and the developments, especially in my industry, in the media industry with a…I think you know with a lot of editing tasks and things are going to, you know, podcasters such as yourself won't have to do much editing at all very, very soon. But I think, still knowing your way around the computer, I don't think, I think you know, things like coding that the kids are gonna learn, I think that the kids are learning at the moment. I think any job like that is going to be, is going to be lost. So it's a strange time and I realize I'm a bit of a Luddite. You know I've got this, we should you know, down with the AI because I'm going to lose work. And what skills should people be using? I don't know right now. I would have answered this differently, maybe five or six years ago. But I think with AI a lot of jobs are going to change drastically very soon. I don't necessarily think for some people it's going to be brilliant. For me, not so much. 

Alright, so this guy is keeping an eye on AI at the moment, meaning he is paying close attention to it. You might also keep an eye on your kids to make sure they don´t hurt themselves or keep an eye on the time so that you aren´t late. He said that he is a bit of a Luddite. So a Luddite is someone who is opposed to new technology and its uses, it´s quite a negative term. Like my dad is such a Luddite, he won´t even use a mobile phone! We had some nice adverb usage too, some jobs are going to change drastically, which kind of means significantly, but more negative. Like we drastically need to cut down our expenditure, or humans have drastically altered the Earth’s atmosphere and we are all doomed to die!

If you would like to improve your English, before we kill the planet earth, then hurry up and get in touch for some classes! You can find the details on the website, realexamenglish.com

Is there anything you'd love to be able to do in the future?

I'd love to have a long and healthy existence, life. You know, the older I can get, would be great to enjoy the family and the grandkids and things, but I want to be healthy doing it. I don't want to be ill, so I'm quite into that side of things trying to get my life on track for when I am getting older, as we all are, and just making sure that I'm still able, physically and also mentally. So that's what I'm striving for.

What are you going to do this weekend?

Well, Saturday morning, we'll be running at the track, as normal, with our triathlon club and then we go for breakfast, so that'll be that. Then we'll take our dog out for a walk, and then we'll probably just have a look around the market in the town and then Sunday we usually go for a group ride, bike ride, but I think the weather's not going to be great so that we'll, yeah, we'll probably just have to adjust and then obviously see family as well. My son’s just moved back from Northampton up to Lincolnshire. So yeah, we'll probably get in touch and see him.

Wow, so many phrasal verbs here, look around the market, my son’s just moved back from Northampton, we’ll get in touch and hang out. Nice. I think you guys know all of these already, but it´s a good illustration of how frequently native English speakers use phrasal verbs, without most of them even knowing what a phrasal verb is! 

He had two different uses of the word track in his answers. The first one was that he was trying to get his life on track for when he is older. So imagine a train that is off its tracks, if it gets back on track then it´s going to get successfully to its destination. Same here, if he gets his life on track then it is on the correct path to having a healthy life, which kind of implies that he was not as healthy as he would have liked in the past. In the second answer he has a more literal meaning of the word track, he said he is going running at the track with his triathlon club, the track being the circuit that athletes run around. So, he is going running at the track in order to get his life on track for when he is older, good for him!

Which skills will be essential in the future to be able to find a job in the coming years?

I think for the immediate future, I think there's probably 2 main areas that will be important. I think that's kind of anything to do with sort of the greening of technology and energy. So skills that focus on, sort of, climate change adaptation. So I think those will be very helpful. And then also technology skills because we are becoming more and more technologically advanced as a society. And I think that those, those skills, I think for the majority of people in terms of looking for a job are very important, but that's not to say that, you know, we should jettison many of the other skills we have, I think creativity remains incredibly important, I think, sort of skills…… I mean, we call them traits, but I think there is a skill to compassion and to empathy as well. And I think that those are becoming increasingly important as well. So you know, I think it's a, it's a mixture of sort of technological skills and sort of social skills and understanding are going to be the most important sort of things that we need to progress because we're going to need to become more adaptive to our changing situation in terms of what climate change does to us and also in terms of how much technology advances and you know, as there are many things like chat GPT and various other AI tools, you know there are becoming increasing concerns you know that are being sort of played out, in the media at any rate, about traditional…..certain types of traditional jobs no longer being, you know, or becoming defunct, so no longer being necessary. So you know it's sort of understanding what we can do instead or how we can find a niche and sort of exploit that for human beings to work.

Is there anything you'd love to be able to do in the future?

I think I'd love to be able to do a PhD at some point in the future, that'd be really nice. 

A short and sweet one there. She said she would like to do a PhD at some point in the future. This is a useful expression to talk about the future, when the exact moment is not important. Like, at some point in the future we’ll have to buy a new car. Or I´d like to have children at some point in the future. On the other hand, in her first answer she said I think for the immediate future there are 2 important skills. So, the immediate future here obviously talks about the period of time that is coming next, right after now. 

She had some super vocabulary in this first answer too. For instance, the greening of technology and energy. The greening here refers to the process of becoming green, which of course is more environmentally friendly.

She also said we shouldn´t jettison our old skills, to jettison something means to get rid of it. Like the school has jettisoned computer programming classes. Or the company has jettisoned its top executives to save some money.

Then we had some jobs are becoming defunct, or no longer necessary. Like, with the advent of smart phones the camera repair shop became defunct.

We had a lovely idiom in this answer too: but that’s not to say. She said that these new skills are important, but that’s not to say that we should jettison the old ones. So we use but that’s not to say to clarify something we just said, it means that doesn´t mean. For example, a parent might say to their teenager “I will allow you go out tonight, but that’s not to say that you can come home drunk”. Or mums have a difficult time juggling work life and family life. However, that isn’t to say that dads have it easy. Or I think I´m getting the hang of the Cambridge C1 grammar, but that´s not the say I think I´ll pass the exam.

We had another useful phrase for clarifying what you think, and that was at any rate. She said these concerns are being played out, in the media at any rate. Meaning in the media at least, or in the media to be more exact. Another example would be, this grammar exercise is really hard, for me at any rate. Or that painting must be priceless, or worth a few million at any rate. Or this is the end of the podcast, or the last example at any rate. 

And it is indeed the end of the episode, as well as the end of season 4, which took way too long in the end, but we got there! So speaking of the future, in the next episodes I’m going to change the formula, a little bit at any rate. We’re gonna have some interviews with people who have passed their C1 and C2 exams, we’re gonna chat with some examiners, we might have some debates, some monologues, plenty of advice as usual. So watch this space, keep an eye out for those episodes.

And I just want to thank you all for listening and for your feedback, which is very much appreciated. Thanks also to everyone who has bought transcripts and made donations. Your support has been fantastic, thanks a million.

Ok guys, till next time, take it easy,

Trevor