Introduce yourself My name is Binh. I am twe nty-eight years old. I am still single. (Im married with .... children).

I am a former student of HCM City University of Economics. I graduated in 2001 majoring in Business Administration. In my free time, I like cycling or playing sports. The activities really help me to keep fit. Im now working for Longan Machinery Industry Joint Stock Company. My company professionally manufactures machines for processing rice. In my job, Im in charge of managing sales team of 4 people. I really like my job because the salary is not too bad, the boss is friendly and most of all my colleagues are helpful. Im taking this post graduate course in the hope to widen my knowledge so that I can work better and get promotion. Besides, only by studying can I see myself younger, more ambitious and more active.

Topic 1: What is important when recruiting new staff? You should say: Qualifications Experience References

When recruiting new staff, I think qualifications are important because they are proof to show that an applicant has basic knowledge for certain training. It helps the employer get a general prospective about the candidate because the employer can learn whether the candidate has tried hare or not during their study. Besides, an applicant with qualifications of a well-known college or university has an advantage. Thus, I think qualifications are one of the important conditions for an applicant to be recruited. Another important factor is work experience. Having experience, an applicant knows ways to solve problem quickly and effectively. Moreover, employers dont have to spend time and money retraining them. They can start work right away when getting employment. Therefore, most employers prefer recruiting applicants with work experience. Nowadays, many employers pay much attention to an applicant references. Reference is a valuable source for recruiters to find out more about an applicant, for example, performance, behavior, etc. It is important because a letter of reference is from a third person whose voice is somehow objective about an applicant and in some aspect, its worth consulting. Besides, an applicant himself must be good so he can get someones reference. In conclusion, when recruiting new staff, it is important to look over his or her qualification, experience and reference.

Topic 2. What is important whe n renting office premises? size location cost

When renting an office premise, I think the size, the location and the cost of an office are all important to a companys budget and employees. Firstly, the size of the office is very important. As you know when people work in a large place, they feel comfortable and fresh. Thus, they can work well and finish their work effectively. Most importantly, their customers or partners may be impressed by the size of the company, so they feel like doing business with them. Secondly, the location of the office is also important. If our office is located in a convenient place, for example, in the city center or on a large avenue, it has more advantages. It is easy for customers to look for you or it is convenient for your employees to commute to work. As a result, you can have more customers and lower staff turnover. Lastly, an office with a large size in a good location is perfect. Not enough to say, if the cost is reasonable. Every business pays much attention to the cost as it directly influences their business profit. If the rent is too high, they may either increase the price of their products or services or cut down some fringe benefits. Either of the measures is not good for the company because they may not remain competitive for the high price. Respectively, their staff may not stay with them long because they are demotivated with fewer allowances. In conclusion, it is ideal if we can rent a large office in a convenient place with a reasonable cost.

TOPIC 5: What is important whe n going for a job intervie w? you should say: Knowledge of company Appearance Arriving on time If you are looking for a new job, here are first job interview tips to make the interview a success. Before your first job interview, you should have knowledge of the company. You should take some time to research the company so that you are familiar with how it operates. This will help you know which skills or experience you need to have in order to work effectively for that company. There is a lot of information about a company available online. Besides, finding out something about the company will also help you ask questions about their business to show them you are interested in their company. Secondly, you should be sure to dress appropriately for the situation. If possible, you should learn about the companys dress code. Bear in mind that you should dress your age. The most popular clothing for a job interview can be a business suit or dress or ao dai. Whatever you wear, be sure to feel comfortable.

Finally, arriving on time is very important and this is probably the biggest issue that most of perspective employees have to keep to. It proves that you are a well-organized person, or you are a good disciplined person, or respect the interviewer. Moreover, if you came late, you may miss the chance to get the job. In conclusion, when going for a job interview, its very important to have knowledge of the company; dress properly and arrive on time.

TOPIC 12: What is important whe n deciding whethe r to apply for a new post? you should say: location career prospects salary Although it is very hard to find a job these days, many people still want to quit their jobs as the company cannot satisfy their needs. Therefore, many people will apply for a new job if they can have the following benefits. Firstly, I will definitely apply for a new job if the new company can offer me a good salary. Although money is not everything, it also plays an important part in ones life. We work to get not only experience but money as well. Besides, good salary also motivates us to work harder. Secondly, a company which offers career opportunities always attracts many employees. Students study hard to get higher education and people work harder to get promotion. Therefore, only company with good career prospects can fulfill our demand. Take my friend as an example; he used to take an English course at a language school in the evening after a hard-working day because he wanted to communicate with foreigners. After few months, he could speak quite fluently and he was promoted to be the companys assistant director. Finally, it is best if I can work near my house. Besides a good salary and career prospects, the companys location is also very important. I might get very tired if I have to travel a long route to the workplace. Furthermore, on the way to work I might get stuck in a traffic jam which is frustrating and stressful. When I get to work, I may get so exhausted or irritable that I can hardly focus on work. Therefore, a company which is near my house will be a good choice once I decide to apply for a new post. In conclusion, it is good if we can have our dream job, which can offer us a good salary, career opportunities and a convenient route to work. Speaking topic 14: What is important when recruiting senior staff? You should say: Age Qualifications Experience

I think when recruiting senior staff, age is very important. There is a saying Youre good enough if you are old enough. There are three reasons for my choice. Firstly, older employees often have relationships in the community. They can take advantage of these relations in their business. Therefore, its easy for them to work

and bring a lot of benefits to the company. Secondly, when they are old, which means they have a lot of experience in life and in work. This helps them make cautious and right decisions. Thirdly, because of their old age, they have an advantage over young managers. They can be more respected and listened because of Vietnamese cultural background. In my opinion, qualification is also an important factor when recruiting senior staff. We often assume that a persons abilities are based on the qualifications s/he has got. Its obvious that qualifications show a persons possible capability to perform a certain job. A real certificate truly verifies ones abilities if he/she has really studied courses hard for many years. Senior staffs with qualifications of a well-known college or university have an advantage. The other important factor is also working experience. Experience is something you have gained through your working time. Again, the saying If youre good enough, youre old enough. is true. Having working experience, senior staffs know ways to solve problems quickly and effectively. With entry-level positions, employers may choose applicants without experience, as they think the applicants can learn later in their work life. However, with senior posts, applicants are hired because of their experience. Employers expect them to start work right away and the applicants work is management, not an apprentice. Topic 18: What is important when deciding whether to obtain a further qualification? After working for many years in my area (Information technology), I know what I need for the current job, what I need for a future one, and I also consider obtaining a further qualification. In my opinion, time commitment, career benefits, and interests are all important when we think of getting a higher degree. Firstly, time commitment is important. As you know, when I consider obtaining a further qualification, I have a job in which I have to try to do to get a promotion, I have a family to take care, and I have friends to keep contact with. If time commitment is too long, I may miss those opportunities. Secondly, career benefits are also important. Once I get an age of 30 or 40, its difficult for me to have creativity to continue the job. As you see, I work in the field of information technology which requires me to be creative all the time. When I consider obtaining a higher qualification related to economics, I see that its an investigation for the future. I want to major in business which can win me a manage ment position in the company. Of course, a management job requires me to have other qualities such as good judgment, vision, or clear strategies. Creativity is important but not a vital factor. Finally, the last important factor is interests. When I do something, I have to have interest in it. That helps me have more energy to do it, or make me create more. Most importantly, with great interest in the post graduate course, which seems rather hard, I can overcome difficult exams or invest much of my time and money in it. In my opinion, time commitment, career benefits, and interests are all important when I decide to obtain a further qualification.

Writing 1: WOULD YOU RATHER BE SELF-EMPLOYED, WORK FOR SOMEONE ELSE OR OWN A BUSINESS?

There is many choices for jobs when someone is old enough to come to employment. Some people want to become owners who run their own business while others believe they will have a safer life when they work as employees. In my opinion, I would rather work for someone else than be an employer. Firstly, self-employment requires a lot of criteria such as creativity, responsibilities, management ability, and capital, so it produces a lot of stress. It is a difficult task to become a director who has to take responsibilities for all the fates of his employees of a company. That is the reason why bosses are always bad-tempered. Their hearts and minds are controlled by their business. Most of their time is at work, so they dont have enough time for family. They become exhausted after coming home because of overnight parties to entertain new contracts. Although they are sometimes very tired, they have to run with their business. If they stop working, their company may go bankrupt. Secondly, self-employment may bear high risk rates. In fact, it can be seen that so many people who have prepared carefully their business. They do market survey, produce good products or employ excellent sales teams. However, there are cases that market turns against them. Take the case of 11 September in the US as a typical example. Of course, businesses working there at the time had had a lot of experience. They had been in operation for a long time. They had had good staff and good reputation. They even had had measures to protect themselves to manage risk. However, they had not survived the disastrous attack, which had caused them completely collapse. In conclusion, I would prefer to work for someone else because I cant work under pressure or bear high risk rates that self-employment has to face.

Writing topic 2: Do you agree or disagree with the following state ment? Face to face communication is better than other types of communication, such as letters, email, or telephone calls. Use specific reasons and details to support your ans wer.

I agree with the statement that face to face communication is better than other types of communication, such as letters, email, or telephone calls. Below are some points to support my opinion. First of all, when people communicate with each other in person, they can have instant feedback. Thus, they do not have to wait hours or days to get an answer to their question as it occurs for letters or emails, and the possibilities of misunderstanding will be much less than communication by other ways. Secondly, face to face communication enhances the relationship with other people. It's hard to imagine that family members only communicate with each other through telephone calls or email. Moreover, it is very

difficult to improve friendship or love between people as there is a saying out of sight out of mind. I believe that other types of communication, such as: letter, e- mail and telephone calls have no such advantages. Furthermore, we need also to take into account what the experts call non-verbal communication". People cannot only speak but also use their body languages and face expressions to help to express themselves more clearly. When discussing with a person, we can understand better what a person actually thinks about that a specific argument, thanks to non-verbal messages. These consist of a series of facial expressions or gestures, which help us to comprehend if the messages the person's body are sending us coincide with what the person is actually saying. For instance, to make an easy example, when we tell someone a story, we can easily interpret if s/he is surprised, disappointed, happy or angry through his/her nonverbal responses. An aspect that we can't obviously analyze when talking on the phone or receiving an email. To sum up, face to face communication appears to me to have many advantages. I believe it is the most preferable to those who are eager to know what the interlocutor's feelings are. Writing 3: People have different ways of escaping the stress and difficulties of modern life. Some read; some exercise; others work in their gardens. What do you think are the best ways of reducing stress? Use specific details and examples in your ans wer. Modern life has become so demanding nowadays that everyone is facing the problem of stress. In order to escape the stress due to work pressure, people try out different ways to release it. These include reading, gardening, cycling, playing and many more things depending on their choice. In my opinion, the best ways to escape stress are listening to music, going on a short trip and spending time with family. Here are the reasons for my choices. Firstly, listening to good music is the best way to escape from stress because music takes us into a different world. Also, we can listen to music anywhere with portable systems. While listening to the sweetly composed tunes it makes us forget all the worldly worries. How can anyone feel unmoved when listening to Mozart or Beethovens pieces of music? Or Im so sure that hardly anyone ignores Trinh Cong Sons compositions, simply because of their beautiful words. This helps us reduce stress whenever we feel so. Therefore I think listening music is an excellent way to avoid stress. Secondly, going on a short trip to somewhere peaceful or beautiful is another way to help us become free from stress. When taking a trip, it allows us to enjoy numerous natural beauties and lovely sights around which are incomparable. Therefore, I think it is a good way to get rid of tiredness, overload responsibilities or heavy duties. Finally, playing sports is also the best way to avoid stress. My favorite sport is tennis. I like playing tennis because it keeps me not only fit in my physical body but also fresh in my mind. In fact, when I play sports, this helps us release unpleasant things in my life, and be ready for another new busy day.

In conclusion, I would like to say again that listening to music, going for a trip and taking a trip and playing sports certainly releases stress as supported by the above mentioned points. WRITING 4: people work because they need money to live. What are some other reasons that people work? Discuss one or more of these reasons. Use specific examples and details to support yours ans we r.

People work because they need money to live. Of course, they need money to buy basic necessaries such as food, clothes, housing or some kinds of entertainment as music, movie or traveling. Money helps people to ensure their basic needs of life to enjoy their life. However, they work to define themselves. They work to feel and prove to everyone that they are useful to society. Working is a normal activity that people perform in order to feel useful and important in their life. Our life is meaningless if we dont work. For example, teachers teach their students with the knowledge, or famers grow rice to provide foods for humans Besides working is an activity that people apply theories learned at school to practice. Most of schools in Vietnam offer students little opportunities to practice. Therefore, they need work to understand more the theory that they have learnt at school and gain experience for themselves. Besides, working increases the self-esteem of a person, giving him/her an opportunity to do what s/he can do the best. A person who works knows that s/he is working because s/he has good qualifications to do so. S/he can improve his/her skills every day by doing his/her job and he/she can feel proud of himself/herself. The last reason is that, in my opinion, working helps people to meet others. Through work, people can find friends and share with them everything in their life. This makes everyone happy. Working can enhance the spirit of people because they know that they can do something special in their life. In fact, working is one of the essential activities of human life, no matter how much money you receive, you always have a feeling of being useful. In conclusion, people work not only because of money but also because of gaining experience, self-esteem, and the need to meet others.

Writing 5: Which would you choose: a high-paying job with long hours that would give you little time with family and friends or a lowe r paying job with shorter hours that would give you or time with family and friends, explain your choice, using specific reasons and details

Nowadays, most of people like doing for a big company, because big companies pay them high salary. However, they have to work long hours and have no tie for their family and friends. On the contrary, others like working for a small company which offers them a lower paying job, but more time for their personal life. I prefer having a low paid job, but in return, I can have more time for my family. Here are the reasons for my choice. Firstly, all high-paying jobs with long hours put too much relentless pressure on people, causing harm to their mind and body. People who pursue high-paying jobs always care fringe benefits that their jobs offer, such as good salary, generous bonus, high social status and a sense of achievement. We, of course, have to sacrifice our health and love or time for our family and friends for these advantages. For me, it is not worth doing this. We all agree that money can purchase many things, and make our life better; however, we cant buy a good health or love from family and friends with money. A lower-paying job with shorter hours gives us more time to accompany my friends and family to somewhere. Then we can have more fun or more good time together. This will forever be a good memory in our life. Shorter hours work helps us have more time to communicate with my family and friends to share with sorrow as well as happiness. This can pacify our mind in the thought that we have someone to care for and to be cared. In short, even though a lower-paying job cant provide us with enough money to satisfy our material needs, I think it can give us more time with our family and friends. What is better, we dont need to sacrifice our health and our time from developing close relationships with my family and friends.

Topic 6: We all work or will work in our jobs with many different kinds of people. In your opinion, what are some important characteristics of a co-worker (someone you work closely with)?

I have been working for my company since I graduated three years ago, and considered it as my second family. I have worked with many different kinds of people; and each of them has individual characteristics. In my opinion, an ideal co-worker is the one who is well-qualified, helpful to others and cheerful. I highly appreciate a well-qualified co-worker because s/he contributes a lot to both his/her colleagues and the companys progress. A co-worker with good knowledge and skills means that s/he knows what she is doing and what can be a possible result. S/he also knows the solutions to problems pending appearing at work. A wellqualified co-worker is very comfortable to work with because I can rest believed that the work is finished on time and its quality is ensured.

Another important quality is the helpfulness to others. I felt happy when I was a junior in my company because I was helped so much by the older. They were always willing to give me complete answers and enthusiastic guide. It is very glad to work with a helpful coworker because s/he is mostly liked. Moreover, with his or her help we can get the work done by mutual contribution. And the last important property, which I would like from a co-worker, is cheerfulness. Sometimes there is hard time you feel that your project will be crashed but a cheerful and self- confident person could help you get over it. A cheerful co-worker doesnt mean that s/he has to laugh all day long but in time jokes might be very delighting and encouraging. In conclusion, in my point of view, I think the above characteristics of a co-worker will help create a good, healthy and productive environment at job.

TOPIC 7: Some people prefer to work for a large company. Others prefer to work for a small company. Which would you prefer? Use specific reasons and details to support your choice.

Some people prefer to work for a large company and others prefer to work for a small company. In my opinion, I prefer to work to work for a large company for the following reasons: more opportunities for career advancement, challenging issues and confidence build-up. Firstly, working for a large company can give us with some opportunities in our career advancement. Working for a large and famous company after a while we will get a lot of good experience and have a good history in our resume. Moreover, most of large companies include various departments and we may have chance to move from one department to another and get a higher position. This may be possible because of the internal job postings or recommendations from the management who knows our abilities from those who pay attention to optimize the productivity of the company. Secondly, working for a large company can help us handle complex issues. Working for a large company is a big pressure because of a large number of employees, huge information that we have to learn and the complexity of the work itself. However, when we get used to it, we will find it really exciting to have an opportunity to deal with various people and cope with different issues while interacting with co-workers and clients. Last but not least, working for a large company may help us build up our confidence. Dealing with a huge amount of work and a large number of people help us get rid of fear and shyness. We feel more confident in performing at work, even in our private life, and then we will be more successful. In conclusion, working for a large company will give us many advantages such as career advancement, dealing with various people and different issues and building up our confidence. For these above reasons, I would prefer to work for a large company.

Writing 8: Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? The most important aspect of a job is the money a person earns, use specific reasons and examples to support your ans wer.

After I graduated from university, I had an ambition to work as an accountant for a big company because I would learn more about high technology, the latest software or upgraded accounting procedures, etc. I have never thought that the money would be my first choice when choosing a job. Therefore, I totally disagree with the statement that the most important aspect of a job is the money a person earns. People work because of many other important factors. The first factor is the working environment. If we work in a company with a good working environment, we will feel happy and make the most contribution to our company A good environment includes a good boss, wonderful colleagues or it may include the IT network, machine maintenance, or the pay system, all of which can make us happy. The second factor is the opportunities to learn new things. Having a lot of chances to approach new technologies, to update our knowledge will make our work life more productive. This ensures us a good promotion sooner. The last factor is our satisfaction of the job. We need to enjoy the job in order to get satisfactio n from it. If we earn a lot of money, however, we have no interests in the job we are doing, we are like a machine. We dont really have an exciting feeling to look forward to another working day. We cant have any initiatives to improve ourselves. We just work watching the clock and wishing that the time would pass faster. In conclusion, personally I think the most important aspect of a job is not the money a person earns. When I look for a new job, I always choose a job that suits me, a job that can give me satisfaction, a job that offers me more chances to improve myself, a job that I have no difficulty doing it and a job that I have to insist on doing it for free.