TOEFL 2026 Speaking Practice — Level Easy (for score 80+) #37

I remember a time when my smartphone was a total lifesaver. I was visiting a small cafe in Seoul, and I really wanted to order this signature dessert, but the menu was entirely in traditional Chinese characters. I felt pretty lost, to be honest. So, I decided to use the camera feature on my phone to translate the text in real-time. It was actually quite **pivotal** because, without it, I would have just ordered a plain coffee. As a result, I was able to enjoy this amazing green tea cake that I never would have found otherwise. Not only that, but it made me feel much more confident about exploring on my own. It’s **inherently** helpful to have that kind of technology in your pocket, and it definitely saved my afternoon that day.

In my daily life, I actually keep my phone on silent most of the time because I find constant buzzing to be incredibly distracting. I mean, I’m a student, so I really need to stay focused when I’m studying in the library. If my phone pings every few minutes, I lose my train of thought, and it becomes a **pivotal** challenge to get back to my work. Instead of checking alerts all day, I set aside specific times, maybe once every two hours, to catch up on messages. This approach has been **profoundly** helpful for my productivity. For instance, last week during my finals, I didn’t get distracted by social media updates at all, which helped me finish my papers early. So yeah, keeping my notifications off is definitely the best way for me to manage my time.

Personally, I strongly believe that smartphones have made our lives way more convenient, even though they can be a bit distracting sometimes. I mean, the ability to access information instantly is just a game changer. For instance, last month I was trying to fix a leaky pipe under my kitchen sink, and honestly, I had no clue what I was doing. So, I just pulled up a quick tutorial video on my phone, and it guided me through the whole process step-by-step. Because of this, I fixed it in like ten minutes without needing a plumber. It was such a **pivotal** moment for me because it saved me a lot of money and time. Not only that, but having maps and banking in my pocket is **inherently** useful for my daily routine. So yeah, the benefits definitely outweigh the drawbacks.

I think it would be a really positive change to have phone-free zones in places like cafeterias. I mean, it’s so common now to walk into a lunchroom and see everyone just staring at their screens instead of talking. Personally, I remember last month at my office, my team went out for lunch, but we were all just checking emails or scrolling through social media. It felt like we were physically present but mentally miles away. If we had a no-phone policy, it would be much easier to have genuine conversations. It’s actually quite profound how much better you connect with people when there aren’t any digital distractions. So, I’m all for it, because these zones could really help us move away from that disproportionate focus on our devices and back toward real human interaction.