Hello, lovely people of the world.
I'm Maria.
And my name is Rory.
And we are the hosts of the IELTS Speaking for Success podcast.
The podcast aims to help you improve your speaking skills, as well as your listening skills, along the way.
We started this podcast to give you a look at how a native English speaker would answer some of the most common IELTS speaking questions.
I ask Rory questions, he gives answers using grammar and vocabulary for a high score.
Band 9 super score.
Rory, are you ready to answer some questions today?
Rory?
Rory!
Rory, come on!
Oh, sorry.
I was daydreaming.
Were you?
Because, dear listeners, we're going to be talking about dreams today.
Rory, are you ready to go all Sigmund Freud?
Maybe.
Maybe.
Are you afraid?
Are you a Freud?
Are you a Freud, Rory?
Are you a Freud?
Are you afraid of answering questions?
The more you ask that question, the more a Freud I feel.
Dear listeners, did you get the joke?
Okay, Sigmund Freud.
And then you go, are you afraid?
Are you afraid?
Are you afraid?
If you don't get the joke, people, don't worry.
It just means that you're normal.
It's fine, but sometimes on this podcast we should explain the joke.
And explaining the joke is like dissecting a frog.
It dies in the process.
On the subject of which, what do friends and balloons have in common?
They die when you stab them.
Anyway, perhaps we should get on with talking about dreams before we give everybody nightmares.
Rory, do you often have dreams?
I probably do every time I sleep, but whenever I wake up, I can never quite recall the exact details.
It's always just out of reach for me.
But how often do you have dreams?
Every day?
Well, like I say, I probably have dreams every time I'm asleep.
Do you usually remember your dreams?
Sort of.
Like I say, they're always a bit vague and hazy.
But I get the sort of emotional imprint.
I know, for example, when I've had a nightmare and when I've had a dream.
Do you think we can learn something from dreams?
I'm not so sure.
I know there are people who believe in that, but I don't.
I think they're too random and too chaotic.
You might not learn something about yourself or your psychology, but you could learn something about your health.
I often find when I have nightmares, I'm not feeling very well and that can be a sign that I'm unwell.
So you could learn something, but it won't be anything deep or profound.
Do you share your dreams with other people?
Only if I have a nightmare.
I usually share that information.
I don't know why.
Maybe it's like a sort of automatic response, like you seek comfort from your nightmares with other people.
But yeah, normally there's that.
Or if it's like a lucid dream, that's always fun.
So this is like if you have a dream where you can control everything and you have a lot of fun, and you wake up and you want to tell people what you did in your dream.
Do you think dreams affect life?
I think it's like everything else.
It will affect life if you let it affect your life.
I try not to let my dreams affect my life.
Usually I bounce back pretty quickly from having a nightmare, for example.
So if I have one, then I'll tell someone about it and be like, oh God, that was really bad.
And then I'll move on very quickly from that, usually because there's something else to focus on.
Do you believe that dreams have a meaning?
Not really.
I think it's just your brain's way of processing and relaxing after a hard day.
Some people think that your brain uses the dream time to solve problems.
I don't know.
Usually I solve most of my problems like a lot of other people do.
When I'm standing in the shower, the solutions to my problems come to me.
It doesn't really happen when I'm dreaming.
Can I maybe also stand in your shower and then solutions come to me?
Or maybe some listeners have some problems, they can come in and stand in your shower.
Not when I'm there.
No.
Okay, so the answer is no, unfortunately.
We should have our own solution showers.
All right?
Rory, shall we go over the words?
Yes.
Right.
So, first of all, we talk about dreams and we don't talk about what we want to do in life.
We talk about dreams we have while sleeping, right?
But it's the same word.
What?
I wasn't listening.
Sorry.
He's sleeping.
He's sleeping on me.
Right, so Rory has just been daydreaming.
Okay, so daydreaming when what?
During a lecture, you start thinking of Hawaii, of Fiji Islands.
Yeah.
It's a daydream, is exactly what Rory is doing now.
Daydreaming.
Was that seriously what you were asking me about beforehand?
What?
Never mind.
So we can have dreams, we can daydream and also to dream is a verb, right?
So I was dreaming or I saw a dream.
What about if I see you in my dream, what do I say?
You could say I saw you in my dreams.
Yeah.
See something in your dreams.
Or to dream about, right?
So, can you say I was dreaming about Fiji Island?
Yeah.
While sleeping.
Right.
Rory, you've mentioned a horrible dream.
What do you call this?
Yeah, a bad dream is called a nightmare.
Yeah, nightmare.
Nightmare, horrible dream, or you said a lucid dream.
Yeah.
Lucid.
A lucid dream is basically a dream that you have, where you can control everything, because you realize that you're dreaming.
So my lucid dreams usually start with me bouncing up and down on a trampoline, and then I realize what I'm doing and I realize that I can control how high I go.
So then I have fun with that.
It seems to be a recurring one for me.
Recurring means that you have something again and again.
Going back to nightmares, though it's probably a good idea to talk about how bad your nightmares are.
You could talk about having a bad nightmare, but we already know nightmares are bad.
So you could say a nightmare is vivid, meaning it's very realistic.
Yeah, we can say vivid, disturbing, disturbing dreams, vivid dreams, bizarre dreams.
Dreams.
Just don't use the word nice.
Everybody uses that word.
Oh, it was a nice dream.
Yeah, use some synonyms.
You can say positive, entertaining dreams.
Yeah, bizarre means like strange, right?
Vivid is a nice one.
I like vivid.
It's vivid, like very close to real life.
Very sort of clear and realistic almost.
You've also said a couple of nice adjectives.
Vague.
Vague dreams.
Yeah, it's funny because we had Vivid, where everything is clear and like real life, but then we have Vague, where everything is fuzzy and you cannot see it clearly.
Yeah, it sounds like vogue, like vogue.
Vogue or fog?
Vogue, yeah, the magazine.
Oh, really?
Oh, yeah, it does, doesn't it?
In Russian, I think it's vogue, but it's vague, right?
Another one, which was good, hazy.
Yes.
Hazy.
Which is almost exactly the same as vague, to be honest with you.
We can remember our dreams.
Also, we can say recall.
Recall exact details.
Or it could be hard to recall exact details.
Recall is the same as remember.
Um, essentially, yes.
There's probably a small difference in meaning but, to be honest, it's good to just avoid reusing the word remember.
Like, I remember this, I remember that.
No, I can't recall.
I can't remember.
You kept talking about dreams and you mentioned some dreams are random and chaotic, right?
Yes.
Random dreams?
Yeah, random.
Just like there is no order, there is no logic, there is no sense to them.
Yes, and chaos, we can say like an adjective, like chaotic.
Yes.
Yeah, random and chaotic.
Also profound.
Yeah.
That's a good word.
So random and chaotic, there's no logic, there's no sense, but profound, like there is a sense there, there is a meaning.
Yeah.
Can you say, like, my dream had a profound meaning?
Yes, or my dream had a profound effect on me.
And actually, about the effect, you said, like, I don't usually have any emotional imprint.
Right?
Yeah.
Emotional imprint.
I have an emotional imprint, but I can't recall the details.
So, like, I know that something is bad or something that's good.
Yeah.
Imprint.
Like print and like imprint on you.
Yeah.
The question was about the effect that dreams may have.
So dreams may affect our life, affect like with an A, right?
Or may have an effect on our life.
Rory has told us that he bounces back quickly.
You bounce back quickly like a ball?
Almost exactly like that, yeah.
Bounce back is just another way of saying you recover from something.
It's a more informal way of talking about it, but it's still valid and you want to show that you can use the grammar and vocabulary flexibly.
Could you give me another example with bounce back?
Whenever bad things happen, I usually bounce back fairly quickly.
And you move on.
Yeah.
Right?
So, you kind of get over it and move on.
So, bounce back is to recover.
Move on is to continue.
You also said that dreams, when we dream, we process information, right?
Yeah, so processing is just like thinking about information or considering something, putting it in order.
Yeah, and we can say like during dreams we process emotions.
Absolutely.
Dreams help to incorporate memories also.
Apparently, yeah.
Or about the solutions, right?
Like you go to bed with a troubling thought and then you get up with a solution.
Now we know that Rory's shower provides all the solutions.
The verbs that we can use about dreams.
For example, dreams can reveal our unconscious desires.
Well, according to Sigmund Freud.
Yeah, like you mentioned at the beginning.
Yeah, or reflect.
So dreams reflect our deepest thoughts, right?
Mm-hmm.
And we've already used some phrasal verbs like we bounce back quickly after a nightmare.
You can also say that I usually come up with some good ideas while dreaming.
Yes.
Dear listeners, now you can listen to Rory's answers again and notice all the precise adjectives, vocabulary phrases, phrasal verbs and grammar he's just used for the highest score band 9 score.
Rory, do you often have dreams?
I probably do every time I sleep, but whenever I wake up, I can never quite recall the exact details.
It's always just out of reach for me.
But how often do you have dreams?
Every day?
Well, like I say, I probably have dreams every time I'm asleep.
Do you usually remember your dreams?
Sort of.
Like I say, they're always a bit vague and hazy but I get the sort of emotional imprint.
I know, for example, when I've had a nightmare and when I've had a dream.
Do you think we can learn something from dreams?
I'm not so sure.
I know there are people who believe in that, but I don't.
I think they're too random and too chaotic.
You might not learn something about yourself or your psychology, but you could learn something about your health.
Like I often find when I have nightmares, I'm not feeling very well.
And that can be a sign that I'm unwell.
So you could learn something, but it won't be anything deep or profound.
Do you share your dreams with other people?
Only if I have a nightmare.
I usually share that information.
I don't know why.
Maybe it's like a sort of automatic response, like you seek comfort from your nightmares with other people.
But yeah, normally there's that.
Or if it's like a lucid dream, that's always fun.
So this is like if you have a dream where you can control everything and you have a lot of fun, then you wake up and you want to tell people what you did in your dream.
Do you think dreams affect life?
I think it's like everything else.
It will affect life if you let it affect your life.
I try not to let my dreams affect my life.
Usually I bounce back pretty quickly from having a nightmare, for example.
So, if I have one, then I'll tell someone about it and be like, oh God, that was really bad.
And then I'll move on very quickly from that, usually because there's something else to focus on.
Do you believe that dreams have a meaning?
Not really.
I think it's just your brain's way of processing and relaxing after a hard day.
Some people think that your brain uses the dream time to solve problems.
I don't know.
Usually I solve most of my problems like a lot of other people do.
When I'm standing in the shower, the solutions to my problems come to me.
It doesn't really happen when I'm dreaming.
Thank you very much for listening.
Sweet dreams.
Yeah.
Don't have any nightmares or let the bedbugs bite.
Dream with IELTS or without it.
Bye-bye.
Bye.
