This is the IELTS Energy Podcast Episode 1610, How to Talk About Taking Risks.
Welcome to the IELTS Energy Podcast from All Ears English.
Downloaded more than 35 million times with examiner trained IELTS whiz Aubrey Carter and Michelle Kaplan, the New York radio girl.
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Are you a risk taker?
Today, you'll learn five high scoring phrases and two bonus idioms to use on IELTS speaking answers about taking risks.
We'll also provide band nine sample answers and issue a challenge to help with your practice.
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M-Y-S-C-O-R-E. Hello, Michelle.
How are you?
I'm good, Aubrey.
How are you?
I'm great.
Are you a risk taker?
I don't...
I don't think I'm really big into like the physical risks.
Like I'm not going to go, you know, climb the highest mountain or I'm not going to go skydiving.
But I have taken, you know, personal risks in my life that, you know, just like moving to different places.
Absolutely.
It's a good point that there's a difference between like professional risks or risks, you know, life decision risks and then like putting your life at risk.
Some people go cliff jumping from 30, 40 foot cliffs.
That might not be us.
I did when I was younger.
I took some real physical risks when I was younger.
Today, I would not.
No, no, thank you.
I have too much to live for.
So it depends on the kind of risk
Um you know i i mean some people i i sing in front of people
I mean some people might say that that's taking a risk you know it
Just it is absolutely a lot of people could never
Yeah i just did stand-up comedy last night actually and a lot of oh my gosh i was telling people i used to do stand-up too
That's so fun.
It's actually crazy that we both did it because so few people do.
And it was just open mic, but so fun.
And a lot of people would not because you are putting yourself out there and it is taking a risk.
Absolutely.
Oh my gosh, exactly.
So guys, maybe you can guess, but today we're going to talk about risk taking, which is a topic that often comes up in speaking part two and part three.
It can also come up on part one about your social life or work.
So what are we going to do today, Aubrey?
You are going to learn five high scoring phrases that will make you sound fluent, natural and impressive because IELTS loves abstract topics like this, taking risks, decision making, your personality.
But students often use really basic language like take a risk.
It was scary.
You need to upgrade that vocabulary.
So we're going to teach you some high scoring phrases.
And then we're going to give you a sample part three and speaking part two.
So stay to the end so you can also get those sample answers.
Definitely, okay.
So let's upgrade your vocabulary now, okay?
So the first one, I love this one, is to step out of your comfort zone.
And this means to do something unfamiliar or challenging.
We all have that place where we're comfortable and sometimes we just want to stick to that, right?
But if you step outside of it, you do something, even if it's just a little bit different, you step outside of your comfort zone.
I hear step out or steps outside.
What do you think, Aubrey?
Both.
Both are correct.
The examiner is not going to bat an eye to either of these.
Step out of your comfort zone or step outside of your comfort zone.
Exactly.
So an example, I decided to step out of my comfort zone and travel alone for the first time.
And this, yeah, I remember when I was 18.
That was definitely stepping outside of my comfort zone to go by myself to Europe.
I was traveling on the trains, backpacking around and I was young and that was out of my comfort zone.
I had grown up in Idaho, like never had traveled alone on my ever.
So that was a new experience for sure.
Kind of scary.
Yeah.
Well, that's incredible.
The second one is weigh the pros and cons.
This means to carefully consider advantages and disadvantages.
So when you're thinking about taking a risk, you will often, you know, actually consider these.
Aubrey, do you ever if you're trying to make a decision, do you ever write a list and then actually go buy it?
Or do you think that some decisions are too?
I do not.
Do you?
Do you ever write a list and follow it?
Sometimes I don't write a list, but like I will mentally have a list.
I've done that.
But there are certain things in my life where it's all signs point to not doing something.
But all, you know, but my heart says differently.
And so you got to follow your heart.
But this could be about work too.
You might say before changing careers, I weighed the pros and cons very carefully.
You will be asked about on part one, either work or study or home or hometown.
You need to practice those answers.
And this is great, right?
If you did have a job change ever, talk about how you weighed the pros and cons.
Yeah, I love it.
And then this next one is take a calculated risk.
Now, this is interesting.
So this is taking a risk after you think carefully about it, right?
So you've kind of thought everything through, you've thought of all the possible outcomes.
So for example, she took a calculated risk by starting her own business.
Yeah, that's not a risk like, you know, just that you can make willy nilly, right?
Take willy nilly.
This means you have thought about all of the possible consequences.
You're aware that this is a risk.
Right.
Yeah.
And then face the consequences is the next one, which is to accept the results of your decisions.
For example, he knew he would have to face the consequences if things went wrong.
So you're taking a calculated risk and you're willing to face the consequences if it doesn't go well.
Yeah, so this is kind of the aftermath of taking the risk when we see what happens.
And then this is another great one, a leap of faith.
So this is doing something without being completely sure it will succeed.
You're just, it's just, yeah, you think of, yeah, this one,
When you think of leap and you think of jump, I mean, yeah, skydiving or, you know, mountain climbing or, you know, you're doing a leap of faith, but it doesn't always have to be about actually jumping.
Exactly.
This is very idiomatic, right?
There are times I've taken a leap of faith.
I just I'm not sure exactly what's going to happen.
I know I'm taking a risk and I'm hoping it will go well.
And I know you hear this word faith often associated with religion.
This is idiomatic.
It's nothing about someone's religious beliefs.
Atheists also take leaps of faith.
It just means you don't know what's going to happen.
You're hoping for the best.
You're making a decision without knowing what the consequences will be.
Yeah, so for example, moving to a new country without a job was a leap of faith.
Well, that reminds me, I mean, when I moved to New York, I didn't have a job.
That's a leap of faith for sure.
Yeah, so, but yeah, when I think of, you know, Lindsay and I have talked about this a lot, you know, how the twists and turns that your life goes on.
And yeah, had I not taken that leap of faith, everything in my life would have been different.
Yeah.
And it is interesting, though, you could definitely call that a calculated risk, because there's so much job opportunity in New York City.
It would be a lot.
I mean, it would definitely be a leap of faith to move to my hometown without having a job lined up.
Because unless you want to work for a farmer, there are not a ton of jobs there, right?
There are not as not as much
Opportunity
So it's interesting if it's a big city with lots of jobs
It's still a leap of faith but it's more of a calculated risk because you know like i'm probably going to be able to find a job
Right right right exactly
All right guys we're going to take a break but then we're going to go over some uh some answers in just a minute all right
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All right, let's do a couple of sample answers here, Michelle.
I'm going to ask you a speaking part three question.
Remember, guys, these can be up to about a minute, but need to at least be like three to five sentences.
They don't always have to be that long.
Sometimes they won't be because if the examiner needs to ask a certain amount of questions, they might cut you off early.
So it's okay for some of these to be shorter.
So let's have Michelle give us a little bit of a shorter one on this.
Your question is, do you think people should take risks in life?
Well, absolutely.
Taking risks is essential for personal growth.
However, I also believe it's vital to take calculated risks rather than acting impulsively.
So I try to weigh the pros and cons before making a decision, but sometimes you also need to take a leap of faith to achieve something meaningful.
Perfect.
So much great vocabulary here to say taking risks is essential for personal growth and then vital.
It's vital to take calculated risks.
This is all band nine vocabulary.
Students don't use it very often, so it's much higher scoring.
And to say rather than acting impulsively, what a great chunk.
And then you use try to weigh the pros and cons before making a decision.
And interestingly, if you had time to make this longer, what you could then do is share some kind of personal example when you have taken a risk in life.
You don't have to.
But remember on part three, even though these questions are sort of about society as a whole.
You can still use yourself and the people you know as examples in those questions, as long as you answer directly.
If you just say, well, for me, I think, you know, for me personally, I take risks.
You're not actually answering the question, do you think people in general should take risks?
So remember, you can use personal examples, but you still have to answer the question.
And if it's about society or people in general, you need to answer about society or people in general.
Um, yes, definitely.
So now we are going to let Aubrey answer a question about risk taking.
So this is we're going to do a speaking part two question and answer.
So that means Aubrey, you have two minutes.
Exactly.
So I have to fill two minutes, guys.
So remember our strategy to tell a story.
It would be difficult.
So many part two questions are difficult to talk about to fill the full two minutes without a story.
So I'm definitely going to tell a story here.
I will try to use some of this vocabulary, this higher scoring vocabulary.
Go ahead and give me my question.
And Michelle, be sure to time me for two minutes.
Remember, guys, you hear this from us a lot, but you are going to hear the examiner say to speak about this for one to two minutes.
That is an IELTS trick.
You must speak for the entire two minutes or your fluency score will go down.
That is a sign to the examiner that you don't have more to say.
So don't think, I've spoken for about a minute, I can stop.
Speak until the examiner says thank you, which means the two minutes are up in order to get the highest fluency score.
All right.
My timer is now ready.
So I'm going to ask you your question now.
All right, here we go.
Describe a time when you took a risk.
When I was accepted to do the New York City Teaching Fellows Program, this was definitely stepping out of my comfort zone for a few reasons.
We had to move from Arizona to New York City.
And it absolutely was a leap of faith because we found out we were expecting our second child and that I would have the baby during the training for this Teaching Fellows program.
I called them and asked...
Can I miss any time of the training?
And they said, absolutely not.
If you miss a single day, you are out of the program.
I said, but I'm gonna have a baby in the middle.
They said, sorry, you can't miss any time.
So our only option was to schedule a C-section on Friday after training was over.
And then I had the baby Friday evening.
I was in the hospital Saturday and Sunday, and I was back at training on Monday.
And it was bonkers.
I survived it.
But I was so excited about the program.
It was such a good opportunity that I decided to take this calculated risk.
And it did end up paying off.
I was really, I loved the program.
I'm so glad I did it.
I was able to complete my master's degree while teaching in an inner city school.
It was a fantastic experience, but this was really scary.
I was petrified that something would go wrong with the birth of
That something would happen and I would have to stay in the hospital longer because by then I had already completed a couple of months of training and we had moved from Arizona to New York.
So we would have really been in hot water already.
If it didn't work out, we would have been up a creek without a paddle and had no idea what to do.
It would have been really tricky, especially because at that time, my husband was a teacher as well.
And he could not have gotten a job as a teacher in New York because there was a hiring freeze.
Schools were only allowed to hire teachers that were already on payroll.
Thank you.
Ooh, I could talk forever about that.
Seems like you could.
And it's so hard for me when we're doing these because it's so hard for me not to react to these stories if I don't know that much about them.
I want to be like, what?
That's great you know
Good job playing the examiner
Like I cannot react thank you
But yeah I wonder if examiners ever have a hard time
I'm sure they do
Right if you guys say really interesting stories or say something kind of shocking it might be hard for the examiner not to react and they might
Every now and then they might forget they're not supposed to react and react in
But if they don't, it's because they are being very careful, like Michelle just was, to not respond because they're not supposed to.
Yeah, yeah.
So I really loved this.
It was a great story.
So you used a lot of the vocabulary we talked about.
You said you had to step out of your comfort zone.
You talked about this...
Decision being a leap of faith.
I mean, you were moving to New York City and then certainly, you know, being pregnant with this was your first child.
No, we did already have Adeline was two when we found out we were expecting Penelope.
So I actually I worked.
I did my master's degree and I worked full time.
And my husband, Cole, was a stay at home dad the whole time we lived in New York City.
So he had Addy.
She was two and a brand new baby.
The whole two years that I was teaching.
And it actually was great because it gave him perspective of how difficult it is to be a stay-at-home parent.
So he is so helpful around the house, always has been.
It's been fantastic for us.
But also...
It's so hard to have really small children in New York.
We lived in Manhattan.
He has stories.
He also had a lot of fun, but it was difficult getting the stroller up and down the subway stairs and traveling.
Get to the grocery store and to target the first year we didn't have a car.
And he was just figuring it out.
He had the baby in the baby Bjorn and Addie in a stroller.
And you know, you've been there.
It's tough.
It's a lot of work.
It was much easier for me teaching in an inner city school in the Bronx and doing night school for my master's degree than for him home with two children.
It is really hard.
But yeah, I just loved how you told this story.
I mean, you talked about, you know, thinking about, you know, you talked about the conversation you had.
Oh, I tried to say, can I miss any of the program?
And they said, absolutely not.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But I'm having a baby.
And they said no.
And yeah.
And then I believe that you use calculated risk.
Yeah.
And I'm saying it was a calculated risk because I did think through all of the I know what could possibly happen.
I'm prepared.
I understand.
We'll figure it out if it doesn't work out.
And then did you talk about facing the consequences?
Yeah, I was like, you know, I was prepared to face the consequences if things didn't work out.
And that is great vocab, this very topic-specific vocabulary to use when you're talking about taking risks.
And remember, this doesn't have to be specifically about something that you've already thought was a big risk.
It could be pretty minor, right?
It could be asking someone out on a date or going to a restaurant you've never been about.
It could be things that are very low stakes.
And you could still use this vocabulary, especially where we love to exaggerate, use hyperbole and talk about that, trying a new restaurant.
I was prepared to face the consequences if it wasn't as good as I expected.
That's still really fun.
Yeah.
And then I think, didn't you say something like you would have been in hot water?
Yes.
I said we'd be in hot water.
And I said up a creek without a paddle.
That's what it was.
Those were both great.
I'm glad you remembered those because that you need idiomatic language on the IELTS exam.
You need to throw in idioms like that.
And these are great ones when you're talking about risks that you might be in trouble, that things might go badly.
Use those idioms.
Yeah.
And then, of course, I loved how naturally then you moved into your situation with Cole and the teachers, the hiring freeze.
So it's just great that you are able to just keep on going.
So...
Uh until the examiner says thank you so guys that's really important again it doesn't
You can start flowing into different things you know sharing more about the story just getting deeper into it
If you need to use more time that's fine if you have answered the question talk about anything related
You might think isn't this off topic that her husband couldn't get a job absolutely not i
Answered the question, I could start talking about my Aunt Virginia and how she used to live in New York.
It doesn't matter.
It can be totally off topic as long as you have answered the question.
Yeah.
So I love that.
So do we have a listener challenge for today?
Yes.
We want you guys to answer this question out loud using at least two of the phrases you learned today.
Is it better to play it safe or take risks in your career?
So practice answering that question.
Record yourself.
You could write it out first.
Practice answering.
Don't memorize it.
Practice using it without learning it word for word using this vocabulary.
Yes.
Love it.
Guys, if you haven't already, check out episode 1608 of the IELTS Energy podcast.
That is who inspires you how to nail this common IELTS question.
So check that one out as well.
Yes.
Awesome.
Thanks, Michelle.
Super fun today.
I will see you next time.
Bye, guys.
All right.
See you.
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.
