Hi everyone, it's Rory with a quick message to say my schedule for classes has re -opened.
So, if you need help to prepare for your exams or just want to improve your general English, check out successwithihalts .com forward slash Rory or click the link in the description.
See you soon! Hello, hello dear listeners and welcome into IELTS Speaking Part 3 we are talking about science, making things by hand, traditional handicrafts, and Rory here is our Super Expert because he makes all the things by hand, right Rory?
No, I'm completely useless so all of my answers will be absolute speculation.
Yeah, and this is a very interesting thing dear listener because you can talk about something you don't do yourself but just like you have some knowledge of it and our Rory is an educated native speaker and even if he doesn't do anything by hand he knows something about other people who make things
by hand, okay? Rory is it a difficult topic for you?
It's a very difficult topic so bear with me!
Are traditional handicrafts important for tourism?
Well, I think that comes down to the type of economy we're talking about here.
I mean, it might in less developed places with fewer service industries like guided tours and hotels and the like since they'll have fewer things to sell for the local economy.
In more developed economies though, they would have to compete with other goods and services so that might dilute their importance.
What are the benefits of people learning to make things by hand?
Well, they would rely less on technology which could break down more easily over time and be quite costly to replace.
I imagine it might improve their manual dexterity too assuming any injuries they received while doing that were not too severe.
Why might some children like to make things by hand?
I'm not sure if they like doing it so much as it is just the only option.
I mean, they lack the knowledge and skills to be aware of other methods let alone use them safely.
Plus at that stage, it might be too boring to learn.
Ignorance is bliss as they say.
Are there any traditional handicrafts in your country?
Well, depending on how we define it, quite a few.
Lots of people make artworks by hand and we have a thriving, kilt weaving industry of course.
Aside from that, there are other handmade clothes available like sweaters or woodcrafts like small toys and furniture since we have these extensive forests.
Is it reasonable to charge a high price for handmade things?
Given the amount of time and effort people have to put in, yes!
I mean, it can take hours for someone to produce something quite high quality for sale.
So they should be compensated for that accordingly, I think that's fair.
How might modern technology change the handicraft industry?
Well, if the goods are made to the same quality by technology as they are by people, then it might massively impact the pricing of goods since there's no reason to charge high amounts for handmade things anymore if they can be more easily produced and on mass.
On the other hand, assuming that modern ones are safer, it might reduce the number of injuries people suffer if they choose those methods over less safe ones.
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See you soon! But if you don't feel confident about this topic, about like handicrafts, traditional handicrafts in your country, could you please Google it?
Maybe in your native language, in your mother tongue, in your first language, read about traditional handicrafts, what people make by hand in your country and then to learn English words for it, maybe like special names.
And about this like, you know, handicrafts industry.
First of all, a handicraft.
What is a handicraft?
Very loosely speaking, it's the skilled use of the hands to produce something that other people can buy or use.
Yeah, and just handicraft is an activity in which something is made in a traditional way, with the hands.
So not machines, not chat GPT, not a factory but hands.
Handy, that's why it's handy, handicraft.
And we can use kind of traditional handicrafts.
So traditional things made by hand in your country.
And we can say that in less developed places, in villages, in small towns, handicrafts are important for tourism, so they have for you things to sell.
I think so. So they can sell only things they make by hand.
Mind you, for you, what things not less things, no, no, no, for you, what things?
Well, if you want to say less things, you probably could.
I mean, that's a native level mistake that you'd expect at band nine.
But if you can avoid it, then do.
Yeah, just to be on the safe.
Just to make Rory happy.
Specifically me happy.
In more developed economies, so some countries are more developed, but they have more things to sell.
So handicrafts may not be that important.
And, Rory, you said something like blah, blah, the importance.
Oh, dilute the importance.
Yes, I've just remembered there.
But if you dilute something, you just reduce its strength.
Or here you reduce its importance.
So if you dilute the importance, that it just becomes less important.
Yeah, people benefit from making things by hand.
So we use make things by hand.
You do it yourself, but you make create things by hand.
And people rely less on technology.
So we use our smartphones everywhere, our computers, but here we rely less on technology.
This improves our manual dexterity, dear listener.
Maybe. It's the word.
But the manual dexterity is just how good you are with moving your hands in an accurate manner.
The ability to perform a difficult action quickly and skillfully with hands.
Dexterity is all about making things by hand.
And manual dexterity.
Your ability to use the hands to perform something skillfully.
Could you give us an example with manual dexterity?
Well, learning to write by hand often improves your manual dexterity.
Anything that involves exercising your hands regularly in a principled way would do that.
Children usually enjoy making things by hand.
They are doing different crafts and we do crafts, right?
I think so. I'm trying to think of another verb that might collocate, but you basically do handicrafts.
Am I right? Yeah, absolutely.
You can tell I don't think about the subject very often.
And you said that children may not like it so much, but children often make things by hand.
They touch everything, they create stuff.
During lessons, they do different crafts.
I know, but I don't know if that's to do with liking it and making it an active choice.
I think the choices are more limited when you're a child.
It's difficult to distinguish these things.
I know that. I work with young people.
So yes, I definitely am aware of this part, at least.
And what can you say that children, what do children usually make by hand?
What do they make by hand?
All kinds of things.
They make models. They make, well, they could make different dolls and hand puppets.
I suppose they could draw pictures.
Popular activity when I was younger was, I don't know if it was when I was younger or just before that, was to make ashtrays for your parents out of your handprints in clay.
I'm not so sure that that's something that, well, it's definitely not encouraged nowadays.
Nobody encourages people to smoke and you definitely don't want your kids to be engaged in aiding and enabling that.
But certainly it's something that used to be quite popular.
Wow. Yeah, dear listener.
And now people in general can make candles by hand, different napkin flowers, clothes, pottery, some paper products, even jewelry, and traditional handicrafts, like some leather goods, wood carvings, furniture, even clothes.
Again, traditional clothes.
And now we're coming to traditional handicrafts in your country.
So this would depend on your country because in Rory's country, Scotland, people make artworks by hand and this is about kilt weaving.
So in Scotland, people wear kilts.
So they are traditional Scottish clothes, kilts, and they weave, weave kilts.
They make kilts by hand, some expensive kilts, and the other handmade crafts include clothes, like sweaters, wood crafts, wood crafts, everything which is carved from wood, toys, furniture.
Yeah, I can remember people would make toy trains, for example.
So that's something that you could carve out of wood.
And traditional handicrafts could include pottery, woodwork, leather goods, paintings.
Oh, I never thought about that.
Yes, they could. For example, I have a belt from Australia, which is made of very high grade leather and I'm pretty sure those are manufactured by hand.
Nice. I have several belts, actually.
I will not mention the company's name because they are not sponsoring us, but they should.
Traditional mosaics, for example, and also traditional materials like wool, cotton, silk, for example, well, it depends on the country.
So think about, like, materials.
Think about traditional costumes.
Also jewelry, there is jewelry, very common accessory.
So traditional jewelry with traditional stones, semi -precious stones, all metal, for example.
So costumes, also different woodwork is very popular in different countries.
Also, you can name the specific name of a tree of wood, like walnut or apple tree, a rosewood.
So what kind of wood, like different wooden objects made of like walnut, for example.
Oh, can you have things made of walnut?
Yeah. Oh, cool. But see, I'm learning a lot about handicrafts right now because I don't know much about them.
Yeah, also different embroidery.
Embroidery, like on clothes, we have different designs, like ornaments, like decorative folk, art folk, like a traditional embroidery.
Or, for example, handmade dolls.
Dolls, like puppets.
Dolls are quite popular in some countries.
What kinds of handicrafts industries do you have in Russia?
Oh, people carve matryoshka dolls by hand.
They must do, yes? Yeah, we have traditional Russian dolls, and we have different porcelain.
This kind of material, hand -painted porcelain, woodwork, jewelry, paintings.
We have like different toys and ceramic, for example, different pottery.
People usually charge a high price for handmade things.
So they charge a high price, they take a high price for the handmade things.
Usually, what is handmade is more expensive than prefabricated things.
Things made at a factory.
I mean, I imagine so.
Yeah, because people spend huge amounts of time on this handmade object and effort.
So people put in a lot of effort, so it costs more.
And usually we have a high quality, so they should be compensated for it accordingly.
So they should be paid for it.
We are talking about the handicraft industry.
And what about modern technology?
Well, modern technology is a bit of a double -edged sword, really, isn't it?
Yeah, it means that on one hand it could be good, but on the other hand it's not really good.
We can say that technology impacts the pricing of goods.
So it does have an effect on the price.
And things can be made by technology and they're going to be cheaper.
But things made by hand are usually more expensive, because time costs more.
But you can say if modern methods are safer, so modern methods can be safer, they can save time, they can save the environment.
And technology might reduce the number of injuries people suffer.
So people suffer injuries while making certain things by hand.
And technology might help to reduce the number of injuries.
Well, you would hope so.
I'm not too sure it works quite as smoothly as I make it sound.
Well, right, dear listener, go to Google and research handicrafts in Thailand, handicrafts in Turkey.
So where are you from?
Research the names.
You need maybe like three, four specific names.
Okay? So what is common in your country?
And remember them, right?
Because this is kind of like very specific to your country.
Sweet. Thank you very much for listening, dear listener.
We're sending you hugs, love and joy.
Bye. Are traditional handicrafts important for tourism?
Well, I think that comes down to the type of economy we're talking about here.
I mean, it might in less developed places with fewer service industries like guided tours and hotels and the like, since they'll have fewer things to sell for the local economy.
In more developed economies, though, they would have to compete with other goods and services.
So that might dilute their importance.
What are the benefits of people learning to make things by hand?
Well, they would rely less on technology, which could break down more easily over time and be quite costly to replace.
I imagine it might improve their manual dexterity too, assuming any injuries they received while doing that were not too severe.
Why might some children like to make things by hand?
I'm not sure if they like doing it so much as it is just the only option.
I mean, they lack the knowledge and skills to be aware of other methods, let alone use them safely.
Plus, at that stage, it might be too boring to learn.
Ignorance is bliss, as they say.
Are there any traditional handicrafts in your country?
Well, depending on how we define it, quite a few.
Lots of people make artworks by hand and we have a thriving, kill -tweaving industry, of course.
Aside from that, there are other handmade clothes available, like sweaters or witchcrafts, like small toys and furniture, since we have these extensive forests.
Is it reasonable to charge a high price for handmade things?
Given the amount of time and effort people have to put in, yes.
I mean, it can take hours for someone to produce something quite high -quality for sale.
So, they should be compensated for that accordingly.
I think that's fair.
How might modern technology change the handicraft industry?
Well, if the goods are made to the same quality by technology as they are by people, then it might massively impact the pricing of goods since, well, there's no reason to charge high amounts for handmade things anymore if they can be more easily produced and en masse.
On the other hand, assuming that modern ones are safer, it might reduce the number of injuries people suffer if they choose those methods over less safe ones.
