Hello, lovely.
I'm Maria.
And my name is Rory, and we're the hosts of the IELTS Speaking for Success podcast, the podcast that aims to help you improve your speaking skills, as well as your listening skills along the way.
We've started this podcast to give you super IELTS vocabulary for high school, bad night school and also joy and happiness, and what gorgeous grammar.
So, Rory, we're going to start it off with a joke.
All right?
And I'm not asking you.
I'm telling you.
Yeah.
Okay.
What are the two strongest days of the week?
They are Saturday and Sunday.
Because the other days are week days.
Oh, dear, listen, did you get it?
Strong days, like strong, like physically strong.
Saturday and Sunday, they are the weekend.
Other days are week days.
They are week, a week.
Yeah, seven days in a week.
Weak days and weak, like I'm physically weak, they sound the same.
Weak days and weak, physically weak days.
It's a joke.
Shall we talk about days of the week?
Yes, let's talk about days of the week.
Thank you.
What's your favorite day of the week?
I love Fridays.
I know it's typically considered a weekday, but I think of it as a taster of the weekend, especially in the evening.
There's so much optimism and potential in the air.
It just feels nice.
How do you usually spend your time on this day?
I think it's usually a quiet day in terms of work.
So usually I'll just do all of my prep work for the coming week and then chill out with computer games and videos.
It's nice.
I like it.
What's your typical daily routine?
I wake up and work out and have a shake and then get cracking on with the work until the evening when I play video games or go to the gym.
It's a pretty sweet life, to be honest with you.
I wish I could say that there's a lot else that I do, but no, it's pretty run of the mill stuff, but I'm that kind of guy.
Is there anything you do every day?
Breathe?
No, seriously.
Oh, I always practice Russian every day.
I think I'm on day 420 now.
And every weekday I work out.
But apart from that, the other things are pretty flexible.
Well, apart from brushing my teeth and having a shower, of course.
I mean, that's it.
That's something I do every day.
What do you usually do as a weekend?
Oh well, on Saturday in the day, I call my friend Pasha, who lives in Moscow, and then I go to jujitsu, which is a great way to stay in shape and develop odd bruises.
And then I chill out for the rest of the day.
And usually I'll go and see my best friend Rob in the evening.
And Sunday is more of a recovery from Saturday, to be honest with you.
Because after jujitsu, I'm pretty sore.
And I also get ready for the week ahead.
So I'll organize my clothes and just check I've done all of my work, that kind of thing.
Which day is your least favorite day?
Oh, I like all my days, to be honest.
I feel like the problem isn't the day, it's what you do on it.
Although I used to get the fear on Mondays, but now I look forward to seeing my students in the morning.
We always have a great time.
Dear listener, we do have our premium episodes for you for your full IELTS preparation speaking part 2 and 3.
This week in our premium episodes, Rory is describing a happy memory in his childhood.
Yeah.
And in Speaking Part 3, we are discussing memory and memories in general.
Do check them out.
The link is in the description.
So, if you wore a day of the week, which day would you be?
I would be Friday.
There's a song about Friday by Rebecca Black.
Ah, how does it go?
Friday, I'm in love?
No, no, no, let's not go there.
No, come on, how does it go?
I'll leave it to other people to... No, just give us some tune.
Come on, Rory.
Because, well, first of all, I can't give you a tune because it's extremely auto-tuned.
I mean, I think she was 13 when she sang that song and it's also very irritating.
If you Google Friday by Rebecca Black, then you'll relive your trauma from 2011 when it came out.
Fridays.
It's interesting that when you hear Friday, you kind of feel happiness.
Fridays are the happiest days of our working week, yeah?
And some people say that work starts on Monday, life begins on Friday.
Do you like it?
Only if you're a like slave to your job, you could have a nice job and like going to work every day, like me and hopefully you, yeah.
But you know, sometimes i do something fun on a monday and i kind of feel like wow, it's kind of it feels like wrong, kind of to have the time of your life on a monday, But it's great, but still kind of like hmm, it's kind of it seems weird, strange.
And it's interesting that I've read some research and they researched it, the days of the week.
And different days evoke different emotions.
So when we think about Mondays, like we can feel, they make us feel blue and we have associations.
Like what associations do you have with Mondays?
So what words pop into your head when you think about Mondays?
Work, probably.
And usually people say boring, hectic, hectic like busy, tired.
But Fridays, what associations do you have about Fridays?
Party, freedom, weekends.
Yeah.
But that's not to do with the day.
That's to do with what you're doing on the day.
Yeah, but it's kind of like the day is associated with these things.
Only if you're a slave to your job.
Free yourself and enjoy every day.
Right, dear listener, so the question could be about day of the week.
So we're talking about weekdays.
And Rory said that I love Fridays because they are considered a weekday, but it's a taster of the weekend.
Yeah, or a taster for the weekend.
Yeah, taster, like you taste the weekend.
For some people, it's already the weekend.
Yeah, like for me.
And on a Friday, we feel that there is so much optimism and potential in the air.
Like mmm Friday hmm, the weekend is coming.
There's so much potential.
Potential like you, you can do a lot of things and optimism.
And also, dear listener, we are talking about weekdays, Or you can call them midweek days.
Oh, well, weekdays from Monday to Friday.
Midweek days.
So, what are midweek days?
Mid, middle.
Like Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, I guess?
Yeah, these are strange days.
Which preposition do we use with weekdays?
Well, on weekdays.
Yeah.
And then in the week.
At the weekend.
On weekdays.
Unless you're American, then it's on the weekend.
Or at the weekend.
But in a week.
Yeah, there are seven days in a week.
If you talk about days, on Monday morning, on Tuesday, on Saturday evening, on Friday night.
Yeah.
Can I say a Friday, a Monday?
Yeah, one of many.
We're talking about what they have in common.
For example, because usually we say, like, I love Mondays.
Like, on Monday, Monday.
But it could be like what you're doing generally.
So like well, you could say on Mondays usually I go to the gym, but it could also be like on a Monday I'll go to whenever, wherever you go to.
But usually it's the plural.
Plural.
Use the plural.
So on Thursdays, on Mondays, on Fridays or on a Tuesday.
Like on any Tuesday.
And we do something on this day.
So what do you usually do on Friday?
What do you usually do on this day?
And Rory gave us his boring answers.
I chill out with computer games.
Well, what would you like to hear?
That I'm a wild party animal at the weekend?
Like, I'm not.
I go out with my friends, but it's not overly wild, I would suggest.
It's not overly wild, okay?
So, it's a quiet day in terms of work, in terms of leisure activities.
And I just usually do all my prep work.
So, Rory prepares his work, chills out, hangs out with his friends.
So yeah, nothing special.
But if you do want some special activities, just to show off your vocabulary to your listener, you can go ahead and do that.
Also, I think going to jiu-jitsu is pretty, you know, wild.
And crazy, yes.
It's really not, to be honest with you.
It is the most run-of-the-mill thing ever, but, you know.
Run-of-the-mill.
Origin.
Nothing special.
And your typical routine wake up, work out, have a shake, shake like a milkshake or whatever you put in there.
Protein shake, not a milkshake, God almighty.
In the morning, vanilla milkshake and then get cracking on with work.
So to get cracking on with work, to continue like to start doing your work yeah, could you use a get cracking on with work in a sentence or get cracking on with something well, other than get cracking on with work yeah Oh, get cracking on with what I need to do.
Mm-hmm.
Yep.
It's usually get cracking on is something that you need to marshal effort for.
Okay, preparing for exams or for your university.
So get cracking on with studies.
Is there anything you do every day?
Here Rory cracks a joke.
Breathe?
Well, we do breathe every day.
Yeah, every hour.
So here Rory talked about his Russian, but you, dear listener, you can Talk about practicing English.
Yeah, I practice my English.
I listen to IELTS Speaking for Success every day.
Every weekday I work out.
So here we use the present simple.
So every day, every weekday or every weekend I work out or I...
Go out to the gym.
And then you can talk about brush.
I brush my teeth.
Not clean, but I brush.
Brush my teeth.
Have a shower.
Have a bath, perhaps.
And then on the weekends or at the weekends, on Saturdays, in the day, Rory said.
Or during the day.
Or during the day, yeah.
So I call my friends, I go to jujitsu, karate.
Maybe you go to somewhere, you can just make it up.
You can also say, oh, I go to jujitsu.
Okay.
Or what else?
Tango.
I don't know.
Say something interesting.
Even if you don't do anything, you can just say whatever you want.
You just Google some crazy activities and you just, oh, I go diving.
I go climbing. climbing mountains, yeah, or I go fishing.
And it's a great way to stay in shape, to stay in shape, like to keep fit, to be in a good shape.
But poor Rory develops odd bruises.
Bruises is this thing, usually like purple or blue on your body.
Which is what you get when someone hits you.
Or when you hit the floor repeatedly.
And you develop odd bruises.
Odd because they're strange.
Maybe in strange places.
So poor Rory gets hit.
He falls down all the time.
So yeah.
He is bruised all over.
I am the worst Jujutsu student in the world. and then he chills for the rest of the day.
Yes, I get beaten up and then I chill out.
Yeah, chill out or chill for the rest of the day.
And Sunday is more of a recovery from Saturday.
So he recovers, right?
So he suffers on Saturdays and then he recovers on Sundays.
And I get ready for the week ahead.
Or the coming week.
The next week.
Or get ready for the coming week.
Nice synonyms.
You can say that I hate Mondays.
I can't stand Mondays.
Monday is my least favorite day of the week.
Yeah.
But our Rory likes all days.
Yeah, sorry I'm not more miserable, but you know, I have a pretty good life.
And a good phrase to use is I look forward to Fridays, or I look forward to meeting my friends in the morning, or on Friday mornings or at the weekend.
So I always look forward to the weekend or I look forward to doings.
What adjectives can we use to describe different days of the week?
For example, weekdays are pretty hectic.
Hectic, they're busy, you do stuff, they're hectic.
Lots of activities.
They're chock-a-block.
They're full of things to do.
Yeah, I'm always overwhelmed during mid-days or mid-week days.
Mid-week, middle of the week.
Okay, dear listener?
Mid-week.
So thank you very much for listening, dear listener.
Sending you positive vibes, love and hugs.
And enjoy your weekday.
This episode is coming out on a Monday.
Bye.
Bye.
What's your favorite day of the week?
I love Fridays.
I know it's typically considered a weekday, but I think of it as a taster of the weekend, especially in the evening.
There's so much optimism and potential in the air.
It just feels nice.
How do you usually spend your time on this day?
I think it's usually a quiet day in terms of work.
So usually I'll just do all of my prep work for the coming week and then chill out with computer games and videos.
It's nice.
I like it.
What's your typical daily routine?
I wake up and work out and have a shake and then get cracking on with the work until the evening when I play video games or go to the gym.
It's a pretty sweet life to be honest with you.
I wish I could say that there's a lot else that I do, but no, it's pretty run of the mill stuff, but I'm that kind of guy.
Is there anything you do every day?
Breathe?
No, seriously.
Oh, I always practice Russian every day.
I think I'm on day 420 now.
And every weekday I work out.
But apart from that, the other things are pretty flexible.
Well, apart from brushing my teeth and having a shower, of course.
I mean, that's it.
That's something I do every day.
What do you usually do as a weekend?
Oh well, on Saturday in the day, I call my friend Pasha, who lives in Moscow, and then I go to jujitsu, which is a great way to stay in shape and develop odd bruises.
And then I chill out for the rest of the day.
And usually I'll go and see my best friend Rob in the evening.
And Sunday is more of a recovery from Saturday, to be honest with you.
Because after jujitsu, I'm pretty sore.
And I also get ready for the week ahead.
So I'll organize my clothes and just check I've done all of my work, that kind of thing.
Which day is your least favorite day?
Oh, I like all my days, to be honest.
I feel like the problem isn't the day, it's what you do on it.
Although I used to get the fear on Mondays, but now I look forward to seeing my students in the morning.
We always have a great time.
