This is an IELTS Energy Podcast, Episode 1516.
How's your service? Band 9 Internet Vocabulary. welcome to the ielts energy podcast from all ears english downloaded more than 35 million times with examiner-trained IELTS whiz Aubrey Carter and Lindsay McMahon, the English adventurer.
If you are stuck with a low score, our insider method will help you get the score you need to unlock your dreams.
Get your estimated band score now with our two-minute quiz at allearsenglish.com slash myscore.
A common IELTS speaking question is about internet connectivity.
You have real life experience with this.
So today find out how to translate your experience into a high score.
So good, so good, so good. It's time to save.
Clear the Rack is on at your Nordstrom Rack store.
Now through Monday, take an extra 25% off clearance.
Hurry, the best stuff goes fast. All sales final.
Please see NordstromRack.com or ask a store associate for details.
Hello, Lindsay. How are you? Good, Aubrey.
How are you doing? I'm excellent. I have a question for you.
Okay. When's the last time you had a bad internet connection?
Oh, unfortunately, as recently as today, Aubrey, I don't know what it is.
Ever since I got my new laptop in January...
My connection's worse. It's very weird. Oh, strange.
You think it has something to do with the laptop?
I do actually. Yeah. Yeah, it's a new laptop, so you would think it would be better, but it's a slight downgrade from the model that I had before.
So now I still use my old laptop sometimes when the internet goes out from 2019.
Wow. Yeah. Oh, this is so interesting. Everything Lindsay just said could be a perfect part one answer if you were asked about internet connectivity or new technology.
There are so many answers you could give that information for.
I'm excited to dive into this today. Interesting, high-scoring vocabulary about Internet connectivity issues inspired by something that was sent in by a Spotify listener.
Do you want to read it for us, Lindsay? our listeners over on Spotify because they get to participate in our polls and our quizzes.
So here is, oh, okay. The name is Angel, right?
Angel Rodriguez Zelaya. So hello, my name is Angel and I just moved to the US from Honduras. and I'm studying for the IELTS test I love your podcast it's really interesting I downloaded the podcast to listen to at my job I work as a machine operator.
I do this because I have signal in my work area, but I don't Sorry, I don't have a signal in my work area, but I do everything possible to listen to your podcast.
Thanks and keep going. Well, that's great.
We love it. Awesome. Thank you, Angel. We love hearing this.
So glad that you love the podcast. Yes. Reading this review inspired me to prepare this vocabulary episode about related terms.
And he was saying he doesn't have... Signal at work says to download the podcast ahead of time.
There are so many questions that might come up on IELTS where you would need high-scoring vocabulary to describe issues with internet connection, internet service.
And by the way, that is the cool thing about podcasts.
I don't know if you can even do that on YouTube.
I don't think you can. But with podcasting, you can download the episode while you're in service and then listen to it later because it sits on your device.
Exactly, right? And if you subscribe to the podcast, then it automatically downloads it.
This is so helpful for me because I'll find myself... on a drive and I didn't think to, you know, I'm not thinking ahead like Angel is, you're better than me to, you know, have things downloaded ahead of time.
So if I've subscribed to a podcast, then they're already there in my queue and I don't have a service and I'm always so grateful.
And you're right. The last thing you want to do is get into a dead zone where you're You just can't download anything.
Not good. Not good. So great. Glad we're here.
So hit follow. Another reason to hit follow Aubrey would be what?
And also because we have two new episodes every week with strategies, vocabulary that you need for the IELTS exam.
So be sure to hit follow so you don't miss any of these great episodes.
All right. So what are some of the questions when it comes to internet connections?
On aisle, Sabri. There are so many questions that you might end up talking about technology and internet service.
For example, you might be asked, do you often experience problems with your internet connection?
Or what do you usually do when your internet stops working?
Or has poor internet service affected your work or studies?
Do people in your country often complain about internet service?
Or have you ever changed your internet service provider because of poor service?
So you could be asked about this on part one.
Or part three, right? We could definitely be asked about our country or our culture in general and how important the internet is, what happens if there are internet outages, And also part two, you might need to describe technology or describe a problem you have had to deal with.
And this would be perfect. Nice. It can cover all three parts of the exam.
It's just that the way we approach it is slightly different, right?
So let's get some vocabulary out there for our listeners.
Yes, and be sure to stay to the end. We're going to provide sample part three answers for two more questions that might come up.
So first of all... Poor service or spotty service, right?
This means bad cell surface. Maybe it's cutting in and out.
This could be for a cell phone or for Wi-Fi.
This doesn't mean it's cut off entirely.
It means it's spotty. It's not always consistent.
Yeah. And it still kind of shocks me when this happens in 2025, because we've had phone lines for a long time.
We've had Wi-Fi for quite a while, but it still happens.
Especially in a big city. In Denver, you wouldn't expect to have spotty service.
This is expected when we're traveling across country.
We're in the middle of nowhere. We expect to have connectivity issues.
But usually in a big city, we wouldn't expect that.
And it does still happen. It does still happen.
And then we could say dead zone is that location where there's no internet service. which is where you need those podcasts, right, Aubrey?
Exactly, right? You might say, I tried to work while on vacation, but the whole area was a dead zone.
So we describe an area. If you can't get Wi-Fi, you can't get cell service.
We call it a dead zone. And then you could say no bars or no signal, which is, again, a common way to describe that you don't have cell phone service, implying there's just no internet there.
You're looking down at your phone online.
I've got no bars. Right. Exactly. Right.
If you there's you have to give it a reason for not calling someone.
Oh, I couldn't call you. I had no bars. Yeah.
Right. It means the same as no service. Yeah.
And then the fourth one we take from Spanish.
I love it. Exactly. Incommunicado, right?
We use this to mean that you're without means of communication.
So this could be due to a lack of internet or a lack of cell service.
Maybe on a hike in the middle of nowhere, you might say, on our hike, we were totally incommunicado since there was no service at all.
I'm surprised there's no acronym that's developed for this that you could say even on your like away message or something at work.
I mean, I know people say. I'll be out of internet service or away from email.
That's true. There isn't an acronym. And it seems like there should be.
This happens often enough that we need a shorter way to say it.
You might hear someone say, I'll have limited internet service or limited email. access, something like that.
Yeah. So maybe LIS for limited internet service.
Oh, we could start that, Aubrey. Let's start a trend.
Hashtag LIS. All right. Meeting new people just got way more fun because now you don't have to do it alone.
With Tinder's new double date feature, you and your bestie can match together.
Tap the double date icon to see profiles built for two.
When two pairs match, the group chat kicks off.
Scope the profiles, send memes, flirt a little, maybe plan a hang.
It's always better when you're in it together.
Try the new Tinder Double Date. Explore all the possibilities.
Tinder. It starts with a swipe. Download Tinder today.
Okay, Aubrey, it is time for our part three speaking examples.
Shall we do it? Our sample answers. Yes, exactly.
We are going to give two sample answers using some of this vocabulary.
This could come up anywhere on the exam.
These are part three questions. So the answer will be about a minute.
But remember, for part three, the examiner has to ask you a certain amount of questions.
So if you haven't spoken yet for a minute and they interrupt you, remember that you should not stress about that.
Don't let it throw you off. Just know they are interrupting you because. they've got to get through a certain amount of questions.
Yeah. And as we said last week, it's really never bad to be interrupted on IELTS.
Right, Aubrey? Is there any scenario where it would be bad?
No, never. Right. It shows. your fluency that you could speak about something even longer.
The only reason it would be bad is if you're repeating yourself, right?
If you're just kind of rambling and repeating yourself and not ending an answer.
You don't want to do that. But if you're always providing new details, new information, it's never a bad thing for the examiner to have to interrupt you.
Okay, I love that. All right, so who's going first here, Aubrey?
All right, I'll go first if you'd like to ask anyone and then you can give me feedback on my answer.
Okay, here we go. So should I time this or you'll go ahead and know more or less.
Yeah, I need to time it. I'll try to speak for about a minute.
Okay. So what do you think causes poor internet connection in some areas?
Where I live, it's usually about being in the middle of nowhere.
If I'm in the desert on a hike, I know that I likely will have no bars.
There might be really spotty service. I'm certainly not going to try to take a work call when I know there are no cell towers nearby.
But surprisingly, even in a metropolis, this can happen.
I could be on a call maybe over Zoom, recording a podcast and the internet just goes out.
We might lose Wi-Fi. have to reset the router.
You never know what's going to happen. Unfortunately, we just can't always rely on technology working like we want it to.
Nice, Aubrey. I like it. Some of the things that I liked that I heard, you said, I will likely have no bars.
And I kind of like the intonation on that.
I will likely have no bars. You can hear my frustration.
I know I'm going to have no bars. Right, right.
And then you also... use the phrase surprisingly a nice linking phrase high level i like that surprisingly even in a metropolis right like your city you still lose connection right And then you use the phrase reset the router, which we hadn't taught in the episode, but it's also, I imagine, a good useful phrase for our listeners for these questions.
Absolutely. These details you can provide, right?
So often in a home when there's a problem with the Wi-Fi, that's our first solution.
It's just unplug the router, plug it back in, see if that fixes the problem.
Often it does. We call it resetting the router.
So if you have that, that's band nine vocabulary that not... you absolutely know how to say it in your first language, but have you described this in English?
So just to be able to say, first thing I try is resetting the router. the examiners immediately thinking like, wow, bad nine.
That's awesome. I love that. So good. All right, let's do the next one.
All right, Lindsay, ready for your question here?
Yes. Are people in your country willing to pay more for better internet service?
Why or why not? Yeah, I do think they are absolutely.
Sometimes people are surprised to learn that Again, even if they live in a big city, they seem to be in some kind of dead zone And now that we have more common work from home situations going on, I really do think that people tend to be willing to pay more.
But the problem is that often if you go and maximize your package or turbocharge your speed, Sometimes you don't notice a difference and that tends to trouble people quite a bit.
But I do think people will be willing to pay more.
I've seen people even carry with them remote routers or remote hotspots to make sure they aren't out of touch even when they're in more spotty service areas.
So 100%, I think people will pay more and sometimes they should to be able to stay connected.
Amazing, great use of some bonus vocabulary here to say remote routers, remote hotspots. as a solution when we're in this situation when we don't have or we have poor internet service.
This is often what people will do, right?
So Hotspot is creating a Wi-Fi connection.
And there are a lot of companies that provide that service now.
So any details you're able to provide like that, boosting your vocabulary score and also your fluency score.
When you can give a lot of details in English, of course, about this type of problem.
So great use of vocab. Also dead zone when you're saying even in a big city, people might find that they're in a dead zone.
And now they've paid more to turbocharge.
This is another great word to say when you turbocharge your internet, it's you're paying more to have these very fast speeds.
And then sometimes you find that it doesn't help at all.
You don't notice the difference. I know.
I hate that. It's true. That's really from my real life experience.
I'm sure yours as well, right? Yeah, a lot of people.
I think there's definitely, we have students out there with solidarity here, right?
A lot of us have gone through this. And because of that.
Another interesting thing here to point out is pronunciation.
Your intonation, if you're sharing that you've gone through the very frustrating situation of being without service, especially when you really needed it, you want to make sure that that is heard in your tone.
Allow that frustration to come through. and you'll get a higher pronunciation score.
You don't want to use a monotone when you're talking about something very frustrating.
Yeah, it's funny how we've always known there are universal human feelings.
And I think one to be added to the list now is...
Bad internet, right? And that frustration.
Absolutely. Frustration over technology issues.
Absolutely. That's funny. So Aubrey, what's another episode our listeners could check out right now?
Yes, if you missed it, scroll up and listen to 1512, which was Take a Moment to Boost IELTS Vocabulary Scores.
We taught five idioms with the word moment. that are very flexible and you can use all over IELTS speaking and be sure to hit follow for part two of this series.
Nice. I love it. And just as today's takeaway.
This is a very viable potential question on IELTS.
And I also think, Aubrey, it's a very achievable question.
So it's a low hanging fruit, as we say. Absolutely.
But imagine if you've never talked about this in English, I could imagine knowing all of this vocabulary in your first language, but if it just hasn't come up, it would be difficult, right?
A lot of these terms we don't use that much in everyday conversation.
So you definitely want to practice using today's vocabulary in these answers so that you're ready because like we showed, a lot of questions could have to do with the internet.
Yeah, so self-service. You're right. Don't squander the opportunity.
You know the material. You know the feeling when your internet goes out. or doesn't work so well.
So this is a big opportunity for good pronunciation if we learn the vocabulary scores, vocabulary words to use.
Right? Absolutely. Love it. Awesome. Excited for you guys to get the scores you need on IELTS speaking with high scoring vocabulary.
Thanks for joining me today, Lindsay. All right, Aubrey.
Have a great day. Bye. Bye. Thanks for listening to IELTS Energy.
Hit subscribe now and don't forget to find your estimated band score at allearsenglish.com slash my score.
Thank you. Amazon presents Scotty vs. Geology 101 Paper A mountain of an assignment, the Geology 101 Paper can turn an all-dayer into an all-nighter. an all-nighter into an all-morninger.
But Scotty shopped on Amazon and saved on a laptop, sticky notes, and a mini fridge full of energy drinks.
Hey, paper, Scotty's got you on the ropes.
Carbon date that. Save the everyday with college deals on Amazon.
