Hello, Sunshine.
I'm Maria.
And my name is Rory, and we are the hosts of the IELTS Speaking for Success podcast, the podcast that aims to help you improve your speaking skills, as well as your listening skills along the way.
We started this super podcast to give you good vocabulary and gorgeous grammar for your IELTS speaking exam.
Rory, so you got accepted for this interview at university?
I did, yeah.
So I have my interview a month from today, the 24th of March.
Which means well, it's in the future from now, but maybe it's on the day this podcast gets released.
Who knows?
But yeah, it means they accepted my maths qualification, which is super cool because I worked hard on it.
Your maths qualification.
Shall we talk about maths and mathematics?
Let's hope everything adds up.
Fingers crossed.
Yes, dear listener, in speaking part one, they can ask you questions about maths, mathematics.
Roy, do you like maths?
No, and I probably never will.
I think numbers are just too abstract for me, and I don't really understand them.
I understand that they're important, I get that, but they will never be my thing.
It's something that I share with my mum, not really having a head for numbers.
Is maths difficult to learn?
Extremely.
I can't describe how it feels to any great degree of accuracy, but I can just feel my eyes glazing over and my soul begs for all to end whenever I encounter maths.
I think it's just, or any mathematical equation.
I think it's just the effort of creating the abstractions in my head.
I can do this with words, like I'm good with language, but I can't do it with numbers.
That area of my brain seems to have completely atrophied by now.
Do you think maths is hard?
Well, for me personally, yes.
But I didn't have terribly good maths teachers when I was younger.
That wasn't their fault entirely, because I wasn't a good student either.
And the whole situation of mass education just wasn't well suited to me learning it.
To be honest with you.
More generally though, at least at the basic levels of arithmetic shouldn't be so tortuous for people, especially young people in smaller classes.
Like you can do some sums in your head, for example.
When did you start learning maths?
Oh, primary one, I think that's our equivalent to the first grade.
Um, we had to learn times tables, um, by heart and do long division at not in primary one.
I think times tables came a little bit later but we started doing like basic addition and subtraction, primary one.
Um, But it was all learning by rote and it was all very dull.
And it was useful for basic arithmetic with money and things.
But beyond that, it wasn't terribly, well, it didn't have much utility.
Who taught you math?
Well, my teachers mainly.
My mum and dad tried to help, but I think they were as frustrated as I was by the end of it.
The information just wasn't digestible, no matter which route we took.
So I think this was why rote learning was basically the only route that we could take.
Did you usually use a calculator?
Usually.
I always use one for everything more than basic sums that I can't do in my head.
And I don't even bother with the formula, frankly.
I just sort of...
Either I'll find some sort of equations website online that can do more advanced formula, or I'll ask a friend.
I know a lot of maths teachers.
Every English teacher should know a maths teacher and vice versa.
That's really useful.
Rory, thank you so much for your precise mathematic answers.
Hopefully, hopefully everything adds up or added up.
Yes, dear listeners, so when you talk about math, math or mathematics, what's going on?
Who cares?
It's all the same.
No math in America, maths in the UK, and mathematics is the formal term for everything connected to this.
Okay, so in the UK, what do they say?
Maths.
Maths with the S?
Well yeah, but if you're from certain areas of England, for example, you say maths with F.
Maths.
And it's usually capitalized because of the name of the subject.
Like science, history always capital big letter.
So when you talk about this maths, you should use topical vocabulary, vocabulary specific to mathematics.
For example...
Rory told us equations.
Equations and formula.
Yeah, like many formulas.
Yeah, I'm really the worst person to talk about this at all in general.
No, you took the exam, Rory.
Come on, man up.
You took the exam.
Well, I don't know the difference between equations and formula.
Like, they're things.
I don't know what they are.
I use them to mean a sequence of numbers or characters.
My guess would be that equations are...
Things that you use to make calculations and formula are sort of general algorithms for carrying out equations.
That's my closest guess.
I don't know if that's true.
Yeah, but when you talk about mathematics, we talk about doing sums.
And during your maths classes, you do sums.
Like 2 plus 6 equals what?
This is a sum.
20 plus 20, it's a sum.
And we do sums.
So usually it's to talk about the short equations, easy ones to do.
But also, the sum is a technical mathematical term for the total of something.
So actually, when you find the sum of something, that means that you add everything together.
See, I did learn some things on my maths course, but none of it's useful.
But you got accepted, right, for this interview?
I did, but I'm teaching primary school maths, so that's really easy.
Yeah, but you should be beyond their level, so you should know much more than primary kids to teach them right.
And then when you do these sums, we have divisions, additions and subtractions.
So, for example, almost subtractions subtractions, subtractions.
I don't know what subtractions are, but i think they're a little bit different.
Hold on a sec, Subtraction right.
So if I go with 2 plus 2, this is an addition, right?
So additions.
Divisions would be 6 divided by 3, which is 2 divided.
Yeah.
And then subtraction.
It's when you take one amount away from another amount.
So Yes, 6 minus 3.
Yes, 3.
Yeah.
So these are all different sums.
But these are like really basic ones.
You learn how to do this in primary school.
Well, normally.
Except for long division, which is when you divide huge numbers, I think, isn't it?
Or you divide a number by a number that is actually bigger than it.
Something like that.
It's very complicated.
I don't want to do it.
Yeah.
And we're talking about the basic level of arithmetic.
Arithmetic is another synonym for mathematics.
Yeah, it's like doing the numbers in your head, basically.
Yeah.
And you can do the numbers in your head.
Like I'm good at doing the numbers in my head or doing sums in my head.
Or I use a calculator to do basic sums.
Like I always use a calculator.
So you do calculations, you calculate, right?
You can say just, oh, I can't do basic sums in my head.
I have to use a calculator.
I don't even bother with the formula.
Formula, right?
Yes.
And if you don't bother with something, that means you don't do it.
And at school, Rory learned times tables.
Yeah.
Time stables.
Time stables, which is just like you learn, like it's like one times, and then it's usually one to ten.
It used to be one to twelve, I think, because in the UK we used to have a different money system.
And then things changed in the 1970s, I think, and you had to relearn how to do it.
Anyway, just again, go to Google Images and type in timetables.
And the collocation is to learn timetables.
And Roy did it by rote.
Yes, which just means that you learn it by heart and repeating it again, and again, and again until you die from boredom.
Yes, yeah.
Yeah, I think everybody did that at school.
They send you off to summer holidays and they say, oh, you have to learn time stables.
Which was torturous.
Did they do that?
For many people.
Yes.
Oh, yeah.
So if something is... The whole summer.
Yeah.
If something is torturous, it just means that it's like torture.
Yeah, like you torture people, you... inflict pain on them.
So learning timetables by heart is torturous.
Or you can say mathematics is torturous for me.
So this is like, it gives me pain, basically.
And you can say that maths is not my thing, right?
And Roy, you did say that numbers are not my thing.
Yeah, so if something is not your thing, then it just means that you're not into it.
It's not something that's very interesting for you.
Yeah, it's not my thing, you know.
Or you can say, I don't have a head for numbers.
Exactly.
If you don't have a head for numbers, then it means that you're not very good at well making calculations in your head, for lack of a better term.
Yeah, but like saying I'm not good at numbers is boring.
So you can say I don't have a head for numbers.
It's not my thing.
And this part of brain which is responsible for calculations in Roy's head is now atrophied.
So yeah, if something is atrophied, then it just means that it well, what's the word?
It's died basically.
So if your muscles atrophy, it means that they shrink and become, I suppose, less useful than they used to be.
So muscles can atrophy and parts of your brain can atrophy.
Rory said that this area of my brain has atrophied, right?
So present perfect.
Exactly.
And also when you talk about mathematics, you can say that oh, when i was learning maths, i felt my eyes glazing over and my soul was begging for it to end.
This is like where you got very poetical right.
Well, if your eyes glaze over, it just means that you stop paying attention to whatever it is someone is saying to you.
And your eyes just stay in the same position.
They don't move.
They just stay fixed because you're not really looking intently at the other person while they are speaking to you.
Oh, wow, like some desserts have this glazing.
Yeah, it's kind of a similar description of how your eyes look.
Mm-hmm.
Okay.
Yeah, so my eyes started glazing over.
And my soul begs for it to end.
My soul does beg for it to end.
Yes, we love maths on this podcast.
But again, if you are good at maths, if you enjoy maths, so use some positive language.
I love mathematics.
Mathematics is everywhere.
It's crucially important to every soul on earth.
Yep.
And Rory actually did a very difficult maths exam.
Rory, tell us about it.
Tell us how good you are.
I know, it was horrible.
I didn't like it at all.
I had to do things like It wasn't just long division and calculating percentages, which I can sort of do in my head.
It was also things like algebra. calculating the volume of a cube.
Well no, you can calculate the volume of a cube, that's easy.
But you had to calculate the volume of a cone.
Although admittedly, calculating volumes of things is not difficult because there are formulas for that and they're always the same.
They're unchanging.
But there were other things that were more abstract, like finding out the lengths and directions of lines in 3D shapes and things.
Things that you will never need, basically.
And I was like, why do I need to understand this if I'm going to teach young people?
I don't get it.
But whatever, it's there now.
Yeah, so well done, Rory.
And I remember that you did ask for some help on Facebook.
Like, oh, people, please help me out with this.
It's the only reason I passed is because of help from other people.
So this is, what's the word?
Teamwork.
Yeah, it's like a great example of how teamwork should function.
Yes, so Rory is smart and he's modest.
I'm not smart, I'm really stupid.
He can do basic maths.
Rory, you used to teach GMAT, okay?
And GMAT is the monster of all exams with all this algebra and geometry and difficult sums.
Yeah, but I never...
I never taught people how to do any of that.
I expected them to know that themselves, because they should have learned this in high school sort of like how I should have learned it in high school, but didn't.
And no, I always said, like, you've employed me as an English teacher.
I'm not employed as a math teacher.
Those are two very different things, true?
So we are super enthusiastic about maths and i think, on this high note bye Rory, do you like maths?
No, and I probably never will.
I think numbers are just too abstract for me, and I don't really understand them.
I understand that they're important, I get that, but they will never be my thing.
It's something that I share with my mum, not really having a head for numbers.
Is maths difficult to learn?
Extremely.
I can't describe how it feels to any great degree of accuracy, but I can just feel my eyes glazing over and my soul begs for all to end whenever I encounter maths.
I think it's just, or any mathematical equation.
I think it's just the effort of creating the abstractions in my head.
I can do this with words, like I'm good with language, but I can't do it with numbers.
That area of my brain seems to have completely atrophied by now.
Do you think maths is hard?
Well, for me personally, yes.
But I didn't have terribly good maths teachers when I was younger.
That wasn't their fault entirely, because I wasn't a good student either.
And the whole situation of mass education just wasn't well suited to me learning it.
To be honest with you.
More generally though, at least at the basic levels of arithmetic shouldn't be so tortuous for people, especially young people in smaller classes.
Like you can do some sums in your head, for example.
When did you start learning maths?
Oh, primary one, I think.
That's our equivalent to the first grade.
We had to learn times tables by heart and do long division, not in primary one.
I think times tables came a little bit later but we started doing like basic addition and subtraction in primary one.
But it was all learning by rote and it was all very dull.
And it was useful for basic arithmetic with money and things.
But beyond that, it wasn't terribly, well, it didn't have much utility.
Who taught you math?
Well, my teachers mainly.
My mum and dad tried to help, but I think they were as frustrated as I was by the end of it.
The information just wasn't digestible, no matter which route we took.
So I think this was why rote learning was basically the only route that we could take.
Did you usually use a calculator?
Usually.
I always use one for everything more than basic sums that I can't do in my head.
And I don't even bother with the formula, frankly.
I just sort of...
Either I'll find some sort of equations website online that can do more advanced formula, or I'll ask a friend.
I know a lot of maths teachers.
Every English teacher should know a maths teacher and vice versa.
That's really useful.
