IELTS Speaking Test Part 3 | Hobbies in the Past and Future
Do you think you can still do this hobby now? How about in the future?
Yes, I could but I'm not as fanatical about soccer as I used to be. I can still play for fun and sometimes do, but that's about it nowadays.
In the future I think I'll probably play less although I have been approached about a coaching position by a local school so maybe soccer will still be important for me but in a different way in the future.
What were some hobbies of past generations?
Well, apart from sports like in my case, I know that many people used to have different hobbies such as collecting things, gardening, craft work and so on.
My grandfather used to collect stamps and I used to have an uncle who made things from wood, all kinds of things such as chairs and tables, all as a hobby, he was an electrical engineer not a carpenter, but that was his hobby.
I think many traditional hobbies are disappearing, or have already disappeared, as technology and entertainment seem to have taken over our leisure and free time.
What do you think will be the hobbies in the future?
That's almost impossible to say. The way things are developing I don't think we will have hobbies in the future or we won't call them hobbies. We seem to be moving towards a lifestyle where we just have many different activities which all blend together to form our life.
It's like the changes you can see happening in the way we work. People used to leave home and arrive at the factory or office and then start work. Then they would leave work and go home and they had their home life.
Nowadays work follows people around, thanks to cell phones and the internet, you see people talking about work in the car, at lunch and at the weekend; they never seem to stop.
I think in the future we will do less things that are not necessary, like hobbies, and we will be occupied doing more things that are necessary.
That means that the division between free time and work time will become very difficult to distinguish in some cases. Maybe we will stop calling sport a free time activity and start considering it to be an essential activity so that we can be healthy to do all the other activities that are necessary.
How can you bridge the gap between the hobbies of different generations?
Seriously? I don't think you can or need to. Each generation has its 'things' and I don't see any need to pass them all on to the next generation.
Some things transfer naturally, but take stamp collecting as an example, we hardly use stamps nowadays thanks to email and SMS so why would it be important to teach someone about stamp collecting unless they have a real passion for it, in which case they will learn all about it by themselves.
What can you suggest to working people regarding hobbies?
I think the easy answer to that one is to just do whatever it is you like. Everybody needs a break from their other normal activities, so as long as it's something which you enjoy it's got to be good for you.
If it's something that relaxes you or is really interesting then all the better, but it's nice to have something special and different to focus your mind and energy on for a while.
How would you answer these IELTS speaking questions?