Speaking
Practice

A piece of good news I heard about someone I know well was that my close friend received a promotion at work. I heard the news about six months ago.

She called me in the evening after finishing work. At first, she sounded unusually excited, and then she told me that her manager had offered her a more senior position. She had been hoping for this opportunity for quite a long time.

Before the promotion, she had taken on extra responsibilities and completed several difficult projects. I knew she had worked late many times and had also attended training courses to improve her skills. When she shared the news, I immediately felt that it was well deserved. We met for dinner that weekend, and a few friends joined us for a small celebration. She was happy about the higher salary, of course, but she was even more pleased that her effort had been recognised.

I was genuinely thrilled for her because I had seen how much work she had put in. The news reminded me that hard work does sometimes pay off, even if the result takes time. It was also nice to celebrate someone else's success without feeling competitive.

A TV programme I like watching is MasterChef. It is a cooking competition in which amateur cooks complete different challenges and try to impress a group of judges.

I first watched the programme because a friend recommended one episode to me. I was not especially interested in cooking competitions at the time, but the format was easy to understand and the contestants had very different personalities.

In a typical episode, contestants may have to cook with a limited set of ingredients, recreate a difficult dish or prepare food for a large group. The judges taste the food, explain what worked and point out mistakes. I like those comments because I can pick up ideas about flavour, timing and presentation even though I am only a basic home cook. The challenges also change regularly, which keeps things interesting. Some episodes are tense, but there are also funny moments when people make unexpected mistakes.

I enjoy the programme because it combines competition with a practical skill. I can relax while watching but still learn something useful. It also makes cooking look creative rather than like a boring household task.

A song I still remember from childhood is a simple Vietnamese lullaby that my mother used to sing to me. I do not know exactly when I first heard it because it was part of my childhood from a very early age.

My mother usually sang it in the evening when I was getting ready to sleep. She did not sing loudly or professionally; she sang very softly while sitting beside me. It became part of my bedtime routine for several years.

The melody is slow and simple, and the lyrics use familiar images from family life and the countryside. As a child, I did not understand every line, but the sound made me feel safe and sleepy. Years later, I heard the same lullaby playing in a television programme, and I recognised it immediately. The melody brought back childhood memories so strongly that I could picture my old room and remember my mother's voice. That surprised me because I had not thought about the song for years.

The song has stuck in my mind because it is connected with comfort and family rather than only music. I rarely listen to it now, but it still gives me a warm feeling whenever I hear it.

A story about space that I found memorable was The Martian, which I first saw as a film several years ago. It is about an astronaut who is accidentally left alone on Mars.

During a dangerous storm, the crew believes that the astronaut, Mark Watney, has died, so they leave the planet. However, he survives and later realises that he must stay alive with limited food, equipment and communication.

What interested me was the way he used scientific problem-solving rather than luck. He grew food inside the base, repaired equipment and found ways to communicate with Earth. Meanwhile, scientists and engineers on Earth worked on rescue plans. The story included serious danger, but many scenes focused on practical problems and small solutions. That made the situation feel realistic even though the setting was another planet. I also liked how the story showed teamwork between people who were extremely far apart.

I think the story still has significance because space exploration is becoming more advanced, and future missions may last much longer. It made me think about how much planning, engineering and cooperation are needed for human space travel. I felt excited by the story, but also more aware of how difficult space missions really are.

An impressive movie I watched was Oppenheimer. I saw it at a cinema with a friend not long after it was released, mainly because we had heard strong reviews about the acting and direction.

The film is a historical drama about J. Robert Oppenheimer and the development of the atomic bomb during the Second World War. It also shows the political and personal consequences that followed his work.

What impressed me most was the way the film made long conversations feel tense. There were many scenes of scientists discussing ideas, government officials questioning people and characters making difficult decisions. Normally, that kind of film could feel slow, but the editing, music and strong performances helped me stay focused. The visual atmosphere also changed between quiet scientific work and much more intense scenes connected with the bomb test. I left the cinema thinking not only about the history but also about responsibility and how scientific discoveries can have consequences far beyond the original goal.

I found the movie demanding but memorable. It made an impact because it did not treat the subject as a simple success story. Instead, it showed achievement, fear and regret at the same time. That complexity is what made it impressive for me.