Hello, Sunshine.
I'm Maria.
And my name is Rory.
We're the hosts of the IELTS Speaking for Success podcast, the podcast that aims to improve your speaking skills as well as your listening skills along the way.
We've started this podcast to bring happiness and joy into your life, together with gorgeous grammar and fabulous vocabulary for your high IELTS score.
Band 9 score.
I really like your wallpaper and books, by the way.
Actually, your home is quite well decorated.
Shall we talk about decorations?
Shall we?
So, in speaking part one, the examiner can ask you questions about home decorations.
It could be a separate topic or they can ask you questions about decorations as part of the topic of accommodation.
So do you live in a house or a flat, and then they can ask you questions about decorations in your home.
Rory, are you all ready?
Are you all decorated for today?
Well, hopefully my answers will be suitably decorative.
What kind of decoration do you prefer?
To be honest, I wasn't aware there were different kinds until you asked that question.
I'm a very go with the flow person.
So provided that decorations aren't too gaudy or in your face, then I really don't mind them, or whatever style they are.
Is there any artwork on the wall in your room?
Yeah, there's some in my bedroom.
I have a caricature of myself by a local artist and there are three panels from a locally produced comic strip.
And then there's various pieces of artwork or artefacts on display from various places I've been to as well.
Would you use mirrors to decorate your room?
Oh my God, mirrors again.
I don't think I'm that much of a narcissist that I need mirrors everywhere.
One is probably enough to check my outfit in the morning and that's about it.
When was the last time you redecorated your home?
Don't think I've ever decorated in order to redecorate, to be honest.
My parents have made a lot of changes to my childhood home over the years, which makes sense, since the previous decor was done by a voodoo priestess.
And I'm not even making that up.
We used to find doll's heads in the walls and in the garden.
Will you redecorate it in the future?
I don't have any plans to.
I'm like the least aesthetically oriented person you've ever met.
So I imagine my future home will be adorned with endless bookshelves and storage space.
Anything else would be the responsibility of whatever poor unfortunate is living with me.
Do people in your country enjoy redecorating their homes?
I have absolutely no idea.
I would imagine so, given how often people post about things like that on social media.
But that's just a few hundred people I know.
I suppose it's better to be house proud than not, though, so I would say yes.
Thank you, Rory, for your decorative answers.
If you love our part one stuff, then I've got some good news for you, because we also do part two and part three.
Answers on our premium.
So you get the whole IELTS speaking experience.
You find it with the link in the description.
The description is usually below, but it could be to the site.
It could be above.
It could be somewhere else.
Who knows?
It's definitely on our website, though.
Shall we talk about our decorative vocabulary and grammar?
Yes, so you said that decorations shouldn't be too gaudy.
Yeah, but that just means they're not very...
They're just over the top, too flashy, or in your face, like I said.
What else could be gaudy?
For example, can my clothes be gaudy?
Gaudy clothes.
Your clothes specifically, no.
People who show off too much, yes, they have gaudy clothes.
Yeah, it's kind of like a yellow jacket, I don't know, a red dress, green shoes, blue hair.
So, yeah, that would be gaudy, you know, like too bright and not really positive.
And Rory said that, you know, I'm a very go with the flow person.
Which means what?
You go with the flow?
That just means that I don't get overly stressed about things.
I just see what's happening and where things are going and follow on from that.
So you feel the flow and just go with it.
Yeah.
You feel the universe and just decorate the house.
You know, just, okay, like I'm not overly fussed about it.
So yeah, it happens, it happens.
Maria gives me her painting.
Okay, I just put it on the wall.
Maria doesn't give me her painting.
I don't put it on the wall.
If you did give me the painting, that would be good.
No.
What's the word?
There could be like quite a mishmash of styles going on.
A mishmash of styles.
Yeah.
So if you have like modern art and cubism and some ancient artifacts and everything in one place, it's a mishmash of styles.
Yeah, that's a nice one.
A mishmash.
So, for example yeah, at home I have a mishmash of different styles because people give me things and I just keep everything.
So it's a mishmash.
It's fine, you know.
Yeah, I have a little bit of a mishmash.
Oh, it is a mishmash.
But I like this mishmash.
And then what artwork do you have on the wall in your room?
And Rory said that I have a caricature of myself.
Yeah, so caricature, like a picture, you know, a funny picture of Rory.
How selfish and narcissist.
It's not.
It wasn't me that asked for it.
It was a gift for my birthday.
So this one's not on me.
And also, Rory has three panels from a local comic strip, right?
Yeah.
So a panel is like a section of the comic and the comic strip is the whole thing.
So you can have different artifacts, photographs, paintings, drawings.
Again, if you don't have anything, you can just use some of Rory's ideas and just say okay, I have a caricature of myself or I have some pictures.
I have some... handmade stuff.
And then the question is, would you use mirrors to decorate your room?
Mirrors again!
Yay!
And Roy said, I don't think I'm that much of a narcissist.
Narcissist, yeah?
That just means someone who's obsessed with their appearance, it's not a nice thing to be.
But yes, if you've got mirrors all over your house so you can check your appearance, that's how you look then.
But it's not so great.
Can you imagine a room decorated with mirrors?
Mirrors everywhere, on the ceiling, on the floor, on the walls.
But maybe you do have many mirrors.
So it's okay.
I would like to have lots of different mirrors, ornated mirrors, mirrors of different shapes and color and glass.
So yeah, go ahead and say that.
What kind of mirrors did you say?
Ornate.
Oh, ornate.
Okay ornate yeah yeah, so different, you know, and different shapes.
I just think they like, look like ornaments.
To be honest, i don't think there's a specific style, is there?
No, no.
So kind of a mirror with ornaments.
Yeah.
With different patterns.
Yeah.
And yeah, so we can check out our outfit in the morning or just use them for decoration.
Why not?
And then there's a verb.
So we decorate our house with different things.
We put things on the walls and also we redecorate our home.
So what does it mean if we redecorate our home?
It just means that you've had it decorated and then you do something different with it.
You change the decorations or you change the style of the decoration.
So it doesn't mean that I change the wallpaper.
I change colors.
Well, probably not everything.
It could be everything all at once, but it could also just be a certain thing that you're having done.
Like you could just be changing the wallpaper. or you could be changing all of the pictures.
Redecoration is like a... There are different kinds of redecoration.
It could be really comprehensive, or it could just focus on one thing.
Yeah, if you change the furniture, if you change your carpets or sofas, also the wallpaper yeah, you can say like all right yeah, redecorate my house.
Or if you pay other people to redecorate your house, you can say I'd like to have my house redecorated.
Yeah, you pay a decorator.
The previous decor.
We've talked about this before, I think.
The decor, it's just like another way of talking about aspects of decoration in the house.
You can also speak about interior design.
So the interior design of my house is simplistic.
I prefer minimalism.
Yeah, so there's no artwork anywhere.
So it's just me and the furniture.
And then what would you like to do in the future?
You can say, okay, I'd like to have my house redecorated.
I'd like to change the wallpaper or to add some I don't know wooden sculptures or artwork on the walls.
So you can say that.
If no, then Rory said that I'm the least...
Aesthetically oriented.
That just means someone who focuses on the design and the look of something.
And I don't focus on this at all.
I don't care.
Aesthetically.
Aesthetically.
Aesthetics.
Aesthetics is how something looks.
Aesthetically.
Aesthetics.
Aesthetically oriented person.
So Rory doesn't care about... Aesthetics.
Aesthetics. aesthetics.
He really doesn't care about cars, about advertisements, about what?
Any other of this late-stage capitalist nonsense.
I don't care about it.
Which you will know about if you subscribe to our premium.
There's an episode where we talk about this in a lot of detail.
Nice, nice one.
Yeah, and you said that my future home will be adorned with.
So my future flat will be adorned with what?
With bookshelves.
But that just means like it's covered, like that's the decoration that I'm going for.
It's a bit ironic, of course, because how decorative can your bookshelves be?
But that is what I will have.
I'll have lots of books and then I don't care what anything else looks like.
It will be fine.
Yeah, so you can say that my future house will be adorned with books, or I would like to decorate my future house with nice books written by Rory.
If you are house proud, what are you?
That just means you're proud of your home, and so you want it to look nice.
But I am not house proud.
I don't really focus on how things look.
I mean, it will be tidy and clean, but it's not going to be looking particularly outstanding.
What else do usually people use to decorate their homes and their flats?
What else can you use?
Like plants?
It's usually like, yeah, plants, photographs.
Paintings.
Yeah, ornaments.
Souvenirs, so I have different souvenirs and also I have candles, for example.
And what do you call this thing?
That you put a candle, so you put it inside candle holder?
Yeah, so candle holders, anything else autographs.
You could decorate your home with anything and provided you've done it to improve the look of the place anything, anything you've added to improve how it looks for other people is decoration.
And also, if you don't, then you can say I wish I could decorate my house with, or I wish my house were brighter, or I wish I could have money to buy a new wallpaper, or I wish I could redecorate my house.
So, you see, and also kind of negative.
My house is not decorated with or my flat is not adorned with something.
Right, dear listener, thank you very much.
Now you do know what to say.
If you don't, just candle holders.
And if you don't like decorating, well, just listen to my answers.
It'll be fine because I don't like decorating either.
Thank you so much.
We love you.
Bye.
Bye.
See you next week.
What kind of decoration do you prefer?
To be honest, I wasn't aware there were different kinds until you asked that question.
I'm a very go with the flow person.
So provided that decorations aren't too gaudy or in your face, then I really don't mind them, or whatever style they are.
Is there any artwork on the wall in your room?
Yeah, there's some in my bedroom.
I have a caricature of myself by a local artist and there are three panels from a locally produced comic strip.
And then there's various pieces of artwork or artifacts on display from various places I've been to as well.
Would you use mirrors to decorate your room?
I don't think I'm that much of a narcissist that I need mirrors everywhere.
One is probably enough to check my outfit in the morning and that's about it.
When was the last time you redecorated your home?
Don't think I've ever decorated in order to redecorate, to be honest.
My parents have made a lot of changes to my childhood home over the years, which makes sense, since the previous decor was done by a voodoo priestess.
And I'm not even making that up.
We used to find doll's heads in the walls and in the garden.
Will you redecorate it in the future?
I don't have any plans to.
I'm like the least aesthetically oriented person you've ever met.
So I imagine my future home will be adorned with endless bookshelves and storage space.
Anything else would be the responsibility of whatever poor unfortunate is living with me.
Do people in your country enjoy redecorating their homes?
I have absolutely no idea.
I would imagine so, given how often people post about things like that on social media.
But that's just a few hundred people I know.
I suppose it's better to be house proud than not, though.
So I would say yes.
