--- title: "Speaking Study Notes" description: "Documenting the five stages of my English speaking learning journey, this post organizes the PCRE answer framework, categorizes common connecting words, and provides practical conversation examples to help you break through speaking plateaus." canonical_url: "https://blog.markkulab.net/en/post/speaking-study-notes" author: "Mark Ku" author_url: "https://blog.markkulab.net/en/author/mark-ku" site: "Mark Ku's Tech Notes" date_published: "2025-03-21 01:01:02 +0800" category: "Learning" tags: ["english", "speaking", "learning", "language school", "baguio", "communication"] language: "en" license: "CC BY 4.0" license_url: "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" attribution: "when reusing or quoting, credit the author and link back to the original" --- # Speaking Study Notes ## My Speaking Journey Two years ago, I went on a business trip to the U.S., but I couldn't say anything. So, I started learning English. ### **Stage 1: Single Words** At first, I could only piece together single words to answer a question. ### **Stage 2: Thinking and Translating** Then, I slowly improved to the point where I could think in Chinese and translate it into English as I spoke. ### **Stage 3: Speaking with Mistakes** Next, I could think in English, and my answers became more intuitive. I could express an idea directly using multiple sentences, but I often forgot about tenses, grammar, and conjunctions. ### **Stage 4: Stuck and Stopping** After studying at a language school for a while, I realized my speaking progress had hit a bottleneck. ### **Stage 5: Better Answers** So, I spoke with my teacher and we adjusted my learning approach. Instead of focusing on the number of answers, I began practicing how to give more complete, content-rich, and natural responses. This article lays out the thought structures, types of conjunctions, and common question examples I've gathered along the way. I hope it helps you, too, break through your speaking bottleneck! Since a lot of this material is still saved in my photos, I'll be organizing and adding it gradually. ## Useful Tools for Deeper Speaking Practice Here are a few useful tools to help you practice English speaking more deeply: ICEBREAKER's Deep Talk cards have many kinds of English questions. Since I often finished my lessons early, my teacher and I would use the Deep Talk cards to practice answering questions more deeply. It was very helpful for improving my English speaking. ![Icebreaker Deep Talk card with a self-awareness question](https://blog.markkulab.net/content/markku/posts/speaking-study-notes/images/Icebreak-card.jpg) ## How to Structure Your Answer 1. **Point**: - Identify the key point of the topic and state your main idea clearly. 2. **Consider**: - Think about the reasons behind the topic, its causes, and its possible effects to make your answer more comprehensive. 3. **Reason**: - Explain why you hold this opinion or why the point matters to make your answer more persuasive. 4. **Example**: - Provide a specific, relatable example from your past experiences to support your idea and make it more persuasive. 5. **Conjunctions**: - Use appropriate conjunctions to make your sentences flow smoothly and sound more natural. ## Common Question Categories ## 1. Questions About You (Hobbies / Opinions / Thoughts) ### What kind of food do you like? I love xiao long bao because they look appetizing, taste delicious, and are easy to eat. The meat filling is fresh and juicy. Eating xiao long bao makes me feel really happy. In fact, I could eat them every day for a whole week! ### Could you show me how to eat the soup dumpling? Of course! The first step is to place the soup dumpling on your spoon. Then, poke a small hole in it to let the soup flow out. Sip the hot soup carefully, and finally, enjoy the dumpling. In addition, it’s also delicious with a bit of soy sauce and shredded ginger. ### What kind of sport do you like? I love doing triathlons because the challenge keeps me healthy. Moreover, triathlons help me find balance in life. When I’m training, I learn to manage my time and push my limits. ### How does fashion affect our lives? Fashion is like a silent language. It lets you express your personality without saying a word. Dressing stylishly can make you feel more confident. Even if you wear a sweatsuit, it still reflects your mood. For example, dark, deep colors can make people feel calm, while bright, light colors feel energetic. ### Are you a shopping addict? Not really, but when my stress level is too high, I tend to overspend. For example, after working overtime during a system launch, I bought a lot of unnecessary stuff. ### What do you think of body piercing and tattoos? I don't like either, but if someone gets a tattoo or piercing, it's none of my business. People used to think tattoos meant someone was a gangster, but now it's the opposite. More young people see tattoos as a form of fashion. Personally, I agree with this. ### Did you grow up with pets in your home? When I was a child, I lived in the countryside. I raised two dogs and a few Japanese chickens. Sometimes the chickens would lay eggs for my breakfast. I loved my dogs because they were very affectionate and easily understood my commands. However, now I can't have any pets because I live in the city. ### How was your weekend? I had a relaxing weekend. I went to San Juan to surf by myself for two days and one night. The ocean was very clean, and I didn't see any trash on the beach. I hired a surfing instructor. It was my first time trying to surf. On my first day, the waves were very big, so I swallowed some seawater. Even though it was a bit of a mess, it was still a very nice experience. According to my surfing instructor, the best time to surf is around 7 a.m., so even though I was experiencing muscle pain, I still went surfing because it’s really exciting. Finally, when I went back to my dormitory, my roommate was gone, but they had removed my name from the door instead of my roommate's. I immediately told the manager. It was so funny. ### Do you think the 7 wonders of the world deserve their ranking? Yes, I partially agree. The official list is important because it makes me curious about why a particular attraction was chosen. For example, I visited Vigan. Knowing it was one of the New7Wonders Cities made me appreciate its magnificent architecture even more. But I think personal taste varies, and not everyone might feel the same way. ### Do you think manners are affected by income and social status? I agree that manners can be affected by income and social status. In reality, everyone prefers to get along with people who have good manners. When you can build good relationships with everyone, it's easier to succeed in your career. When you communicate with others politely, it's easier to build long-term friendships. ### How is reality different from virtual reality? In reality, we can touch, smell, and taste everything. However, in virtual reality, everything is virtual, so we need to use technology to perform any action. In addition, it's impossible to physically touch anything. ### How will new innovations change the way people live, work, and interact in the future? In my experience, when we tried to create a 3D showroom, we ran into bottlenecks with the iPhone's memory limits, and downloading the 3D model files took a long time. Because of memory and network limitations, we had to reduce the level of detail. I think in the future, as these limits are removed from phones and network speeds increase, virtual reality will become more popular. In the future, people will be able to view realistic product models online before buying them. ## 2. Comparison Questions ### Do you prefer renting a house in the countryside or an apartment in the city? I prefer living in the city because it offers more opportunities. Moreover, life in the city is more convenient. However, living in the countryside has its perks, like peace and space. ## 3. Agree or Disagree Questions ### Do you think experience is the best teacher? I agree. When I started my first job, I learned more from mistakes than from training. Experience teaches you lessons that books can’t. ### "Watching TV is a waste of time." Do you agree or disagree? Right now, I agree with that idea. Watching TV is a waste of time for me because I have other priorities. For example, learning English, studying AI, and exercising are more important to me. Also, TV topics often focus on politics, which isn't really helpful for me. However, I still watch movies on the internet. Movies help me relax and give me an opportunity to practice my English. However, when I was a child, watching TV helped me kill time. ### Which would you prefer to see, a man-made or a natural wonder of the world? I prefer to see natural wonders because when I go hiking, it helps me relax. Even if I've visited a place many times, it has a different vibe depending on the weather. Moreover, when you visit at different times, you can see the beauty of a sunrise or sunset and the sea of clouds. In my country, we have a mountain called Yushan, which is considered one of the natural wonders. When I went there, dark clouds followed us. Just as we arrived at the mountain cabin, it started to rain. On the other hand, man-made wonders are also worth visiting because we can learn about the culture and lifestyle of people from the past through these historical attractions. ## 4. Look at the Picture and Describe ### What do you see in this picture? ### Please describe this situation On a sunny day, a mother took her son to the SM mall to buy clothes. While the mother was busy looking at clothes, her son wandered off to the toy store. After a few minutes, her son realized he was lost. So, he started crying and looking for his mother. He went to the information desk and told them he was looking for his mother. Then, the staff at the desk made an announcement about a missing child. Finally, the mother heard the announcement and immediately went to the information desk to get her son. (todo) ## Common Conjunctions by Category ### **Cause and Effect** - Because - Since - As - So - Therefore - Consequently ### **Adding Information** - Moreover - Furthermore - In addition - Not only... but also... - What's more - Besides ### **Contrast and Opposition** - However - On the other hand - While - But - Yet - Although / Though / Even though - Despite / In spite of - Whereas - Nevertheless / Nonetheless - Conversely - On the contrary - Instead - Rather ### **Giving Examples** - For example - For instance - Such as - Like ### **Expressing Opinions / Experience** - In my opinion - For me - From my point of view --- ## About this article and its author Originally published on [Mark Ku's Tech Notes](https://blog.markkulab.net/en/post/speaking-study-notes) License: [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) — when reusing or quoting, credit the author and link back to the original ### About the author **[Mark Ku](https://blog.markkulab.net/en/author/mark-ku)** — Software Solution Provider - 10+ years senior software engineer, now an AI Builder - Focused on large-platform architecture — North-American e-commerce, AI SaaS subscription billing - Combining AI Agents and automation to build evolvable product foundations ### Free tools built by the author All of these are free to use: - [Free PDF Sign Tool](https://blog.markkulab.net/en/tools/pdf-sign): Online PDF sign tool — draw, type, or upload a signature, then drag, resize, and download. Everything runs in your browser; nothing is uploaded. - [VS Code Refactory](https://blog.markkulab.net/en/tools/refactory): Refactory is a VS Code refactoring extension: 34 actions plus a 37-rule code-smell inspection layer with a Code Health dashboard, across 18 languages, backed by 534 tests. It learns your repo's conventions: where interfaces live, where DI is registered, whether 'use client' belongs. It ranks files by git churn × complexity so you know what to fix first, and hands any smell to the Claude Code already on your machine. Free to use, and your source never leaves your computer. - [DB-Kit Database Manager](https://blog.markkulab.net/en/tools/db-kit): DB-Kit is a lightweight, cross-platform database manager built with Tauri + Rust + React. Manage MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL, SQL Server, Oracle, SQLite, MongoDB, Redis, Kafka, Elasticsearch and RabbitMQ from one consistent interface: passwords encrypted in the OS keychain, SSH tunnels, full CRUD, a visual query builder, stacked multi-statement result sets, cross-connection data transfer and compare/sync, Excel / CSV import & export, visualized execution plans, ER diagrams, scheduled backups, SQL stress testing with p50–p99 latency percentiles, a 15-rule SQL review engine, Kafka message browsing with monitoring & alerts, a bilingual UI (Traditional Chinese / English), a built-in AI assistant (natural-language SQL, AI review and tuning advice) and the dbk CLI. Free and open source (MIT), with installers for Windows, macOS and Linux. - [VS Code Super Mermaid](https://blog.markkulab.net/en/tools/super-mermaid): Super Mermaid is a VS Code extension for beautiful Mermaid diagrams out of the box: auto-colored live preview, mouse pan & zoom, high-res PNG / SVG export, 21 templates and multiple themes. Free and open source (MIT). - [React Super Mermaid](https://blog.markkulab.net/en/tools/react-super-mermaid): react-super-mermaid is an open-source React component library: render beautiful Mermaid diagrams with a single , with built-in colorful / sketch themes, pan & zoom, in-diagram search, and high-res SVG / PNG export. Lightweight, SSR-safe, fully typed. Free and open source (MIT). - [Jira / Confluence Super Mermaid](https://blog.markkulab.net/en/tools/jira-super-mermaid): An Atlassian Forge app: write Mermaid syntax directly inside a Jira issue or a Confluence page and get flowcharts, sequence diagrams, state machines and Gantt charts. 11 diagram types, SVG / PNG export, light and dark themes, full CJK support. Runs on Atlassian: your diagrams live in your own site and the app calls no third-party service. Free, coming soon to the Atlassian Marketplace. - [Mermaid Live Preview](https://blog.markkulab.net/en/tools/mermaid-preview): Write Mermaid in your browser, see it render instantly, and share the whole diagram as a single link. No sign-up, nothing uploaded to a server, and mermaid.live share links work as-is. - [React Intl Phone Number](https://blog.markkulab.net/en/tools/react-intl-phone-number): react-intl-phone-number is an open-source React component: framework-agnostic and antd-free, with E.164 in/out, a searchable flag / country-code dropdown, configurable validation levels (strict / mobile-strict / loose), themeable CSS, and i18n — phone logic powered by google-libphonenumber. Lightweight and fully typed. Free and open source (MIT). - [Uptime Kuma Cluster](https://blog.markkulab.net/en/tools/uptime-kuma-cluster): Turn single-node Uptime Kuma into a highly available cluster: OpenResty + Lua smart load balancing, shared MariaDB state, health checks and automatic failover, plus cluster-management REST APIs. One Docker Compose command to start. Free and open source (MIT). - [Special Education](https://blog.markkulab.net/en/education): Learning materials crafted for special education students ### Daily podcasts - [Mark's Tech Insights — Daily AI News](https://blog.markkulab.net/en/category/tech-news): Daily curated AI and tech trends. Catch the latest developments via audio summaries — covering AI applications, software architecture, DevOps, and engineering practice. — RSS: https://blog.markkulab.net/feed.xml - [AI股市蝦聊](https://blog.markkulab.net/en/category/ai-stock-chat): Every trading day, an AI-analyzed take on the Taiwan stock market, delivered as a two-host conversation covering the session and the next-day outlook. — RSS: https://blog.markkulab.net/ai-stock-chat/feed.xml - [開源好物週報](https://blog.markkulab.net/en/category/open-source-weekly): A weekly two-host pick of free open-source tools surfaced from real Hacker News, GitHub, and Reddit buzz — what pain they solve and the fastest way to get started. — RSS: https://blog.markkulab.net/open-source-weekly/feed.xml ### Newsletter [Subscribe to the newsletter](https://blog.markkulab.net/en/subscribe) — Be the first to know about new posts. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.