Hello, lovely.
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 podcast to give you super vocabulary and gorgeous grammar for your high IELTS score.
Which score, Rory?
Is it a band 9 score?
Band 9 score!
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So quite literally by learning English with italki, you're supporting us and this podcast.
It's a win-win.
In any case, it's better than looking or talking to yourself in the mirror.
Shall we talk about mirrors?
Is it another coincidence?
It's another coincidence.
Ha ha ha ha.
Dilys, now you're laughing.
Ha ha.
Yes, it's a ha ha joke and another ha ha coincidence on this podcast.
Let's talk about mirrors.
Let's talk about mirrors.
How often do you look at yourself in the mirror?
Well, I have to every day, when I fix my hair and put on moisturiser, to make sure everything is evened out and in the right place.
And then, I suppose inadvertently, whenever I've been to the bathroom, since there are mirrors on the walls and you can't really avoid them when you have to wash your hands.
Do you have mirrors in your home?
I have a wall mirror in the bathroom and a full body one in my home in Scotland.
It's set into the wardrobe, so it's quite handy when you're getting dressed, actually.
Do you think mirrors are a necessary decoration?
Well, I've never really thought about it until now, but I suppose you're right.
Many people have them in their entrance halls at home, in the bathroom and the bedroom.
Some people have them on their desks, I suppose.
It's a bit like curtains, really, when you think about it.
You don't really focus on them much, but you would notice if they weren't there.
Do you often buy mirrors?
Stop drinking your coffee, answer the question.
I've never bought one in my life, actually.
They always seem to come with the places that I've stayed in.
I don't know where you would even buy one, like a specific mirror shop?
Probably a furniture store or something like that?
Where do you put mirrors?
Well, it's probably easier to say where you don't put them, really.
They should be at eye level and in rooms or places where inspecting your face is part of the routine there.
So the bathroom and the bedroom are the most obvious, so you can check when you go out, and the vestibules or the foyers so you can check yourself out before entering a place with other people.
There are places that break with this conventional, like shoe shops, for example, where they have mirrors at foot level so you can look at your well, you can see how your new footwear looks.
Rory, do you have a mirror in your bag?
No, I don't.
I have my phone.
I can look at the reflection in my phone if I need to.
Do you think you should have a mirror in your bag or in your pocket?
Well, for me personally, no.
But I suppose for other people, if they feel like they need to check their face or their makeup regularly, then they can.
Would you give a mirror as a gift, Rory?
Not as a sort of generic present, no.
I guess if someone was really into mirrors, then if there was a particularly ornate one, then that might be a good gift for them.
But it seems it's a strange gift to give, isn't it?
Shall we give a mirror to Vanya?
No, he doesn't need that kind of torture.
Looking at yourself every day.
Thank you very much, Rory, for your answers.
They are a mirror to our vocabulary.
No?
A mirror to our... Maybe they reflect positively on our podcast.
There we go.
So mirrors.
First of all, you should pronounce this word as a mirror, not mirror or mirror, mirror, mirror.
Give me a mirror.
Yeah, and there are some good phrases that Rory surprisingly used.
Wow.
For example, I fix my hair.
Yeah, well, but it's not.
It's something that once you describe it, everyone understands they do it.
Like fixing your hair is just making sure your hair isn't untidy.
Yeah, or messy.
So I look in the mirror every day to fix my hair or when I fix my hair.
And we look at ourselves in the mirror, right?
In the mirror.
Yes.
So look at myself in the mirror.
Yeah.
You can also glance in the mirror.
Just like take a quick look.
And exactly like you do like this.
This is the sound.
That's the sound that you make when you glance in the mirror, so you can examine yourself in the mirror.
Rory, you've said you check yourself out in the mirror.
Yes, i loved it.
Well, it's like when you look at how good you are in the mirror.
Yeah, something else you've said about it.
Check yourself out before you go somewhere.
Oh, yes, you said inspect your face.
Yeah.
So inspect your faces.
Glancing is a quick look, but an inspection is longer and more detailed.
It's the same for examining.
If you examine yourself in the mirror, usually you're looking for something wrong.
And if you're inspecting yourself, it's making sure that everything is correct.
Yeah, like when you go to the bathroom you look at yourself in the mirror and then you start examining or inspecting your face for these little spots that you should squeeze in, squeeze out.
Well, you shouldn't do that.
No, but everybody does it.
I know, but they shouldn't do it.
It's really bad for you.
Yeah, like black dots on the nose, so you're inspecting them thoroughly.
They're called black dots in Russia.
Why do you call them that?
We call them blackheads in the UK.
Blackheads?
Oh, like heads.
Oh, we call them black dots.
It's touchik.
Yeah, for dots.
Really?
Because if they're dots, they're heads.
Well, the head is the sort of raised part of the spot.
There's everything underneath as well.
So what you should say is like, I have black heads on my nose.
I have heads on my nose.
I hope you don't have black heads on your nose.
That's disgusting.
No, I have them.
Come on, most people have them.
No, they don't.
Most people clean their faces.
You have a lovely nose.
Vanya, do you have blackheads?
We don't talk about Vanya.
We just discussed we don't talk about how Vanya looks.
We don't talk about Vanya?
No.
Okay, we don't talk about Vanya's nose?
It is forbidden.
Okay, can we talk about Vanya's wife and her nose?
Right, okay, fine, mirrors.
Back to mirrors.
After you've inspected your nose for blackheads.
Apparently they're called you then inadvertently, Inadvertently.
Yeah, inadvertently just means that you're not planning on doing it.
Like, I knocked over the glass inadvertently.
It's like you couldn't avoid doing it.
And then inadvertently, whenever I've been to the bathroom blah blah, I look at myself in the mirror.
Just like that.
Inadvertently.
Well, yeah, like, well, you always inadvertently look at yourself in the mirror in the bathroom.
You don't have a choice.
They're surrounded by mirrors in there.
Yeah, you just can't help it, right?
Then we have different kinds of mirrors.
Rory mentioned a wall mirror in the bathroom or a full body mirror.
Mm-hmm.
So a wall mirror is a mirror on the wall, and a full body mirror is one that you can see your whole body in.
Yeah, we can also have hand mirror.
Yeah.
With a handle, right?
This old fashioned one.
No, we call it a compact mirror.
Yeah.
Handheld?
No.
Compact mirror.
Compact mirror.
Yeah, compact mirror.
Dear ladies, it's like a mirror, a small mirror that we have in our purses or in our pockets.
Well, if you do have a compact mirror, usually we use our phones nowadays, right?
So we just look at ourselves in the mirror.
Oh, I don't know.
I thought like women used compact mirrors more than men.
Yeah true, but we also have mirrors, like we use cosmetics, like makeup, so we have mirrors there.
If you have eyeshadows, so you have a mirror there.
Yes, So makeup mirror.
You can have a mirror, a wardrobe mirror.
So, you stand in front of your wardrobe mirror.
And this is like high-level vocabulary, dear listener, because you talk about mirrors all the time with your friends in English, right?
Hopefully.
Yeah, now you can say, like, what mirror do you prefer?
Okay, so mirrors could be found in entrance halls at home.
Yes.
Entrance halls.
And they're usually at eye level, which just means that they're at the same height as your eyes.
Yes.
In Schuster's, they're at foot level.
Which means they're at the same height as your feet, which is a really strange sentence.
It's just like saying they're on the same level of the planet as your feet so you can see them.
They have mirrors at foot level in stores.
You can have a look at how your new footwear looks.
So you see, footwear, shoes.
Hopefully your footwear looks good.
And a mirror looks very good and is very well decorated.
You can see it's...
Ornate.
Yes, ornate mirrors.
You go to buy a mirror to a specific mirror shop.
Well, I was going to say, I don't think... Hold on a second.
Internet, help me out.
There's a furniture store.
I think you just go to a furniture store to buy a mirror.
I think you buy them there too, but maybe there are mirror shops.
Let me look.
Mirror shop.
Yeah, there should be.
For some, like wardrobe mirrors, like full body mirrors, bathroom mirrors.
Perhaps saying this in Russia was not such a great idea, but there are several online stores which we cannot mention because they're not paying us to advertise for them, but there are.
The top three search results for mirror shop online reveal that there is a swathe of online retailers for mirrors.
So mirrors reflect something and we see our own reflection.
So look at your own reflection.
What does it reflect?
Do you have this mirror at home, Rory, with a magnifying glass?
You know, sometimes in hotels they have this magnifying, so you see all and each of the black hole.
Black heads.
You see?
Well, I don't have black heads, so I don't have to worry about this.
But I don't have one in my home, but my grandmother used to have one.
Maybe you should have this magnifying mirror so you will see blackheads on your nose.
Because I'm sure there are some.
No, there aren't.
I go to a dermatologist for this exact reason.
Really?
Yeah.
To have your nose cleaned?
Well, skin in general.
Nice.
Well done.
You could say that, like...
I don't.
You could say that to the examiner.
Like if the question is like, what do you see in the mirror?
Then you could say well, I know that I don't see blackheads because I go to a dermatologist and that's a band nine level word for somebody who cleans your skin.
So dermatologist and blackheads.
I think blackheads on somebody's nose is the key word, the key phrase collocation from this episode, right.
Is it?
Blackheads.
Oh, I don't really like talking about blackheads.
It's disgusting.
Just wash your face.
It's not difficult.
No, no, but even if you wash your face, they just stay.
You have to do this cleansing procedure.
So we are talking about it, dear listener, because this is far more interesting than mirrors.
I know, but we really should have added that to our episode on cosmetics, because we're talking about mirrors.
And this might poorly reflect on us if we continue to talk about it.
Yeah, once I went to the... I was like, let's stop talking.
And Maria's like, no, let's just keep talking about this.
No, because this is the procedure and this is pretty painful, you know.
And so the doctor, or whatever you call her, squeeze out the out of your nose, but then and you have like some red spots really yeah yeah, they do that i know half a day.
It happens to me once a month.
Once a month you do it.
Well no, once a month, like for uh no, once every two months, let's do.
You have some red spots on your nose after that?
Yeah, but then they go away.
So that was a juicy detail about Rory's cleansing procedures.
It's not that difficult, seriously.
What else do you do to cleanse your body, Rory?
Okay, we stop here, right?
Can you stare at your face in the mirror?
Only if you're a complete narcissist.
Narcissist.
Yeah, that's somebody who's obsessed with how they look.
Yeah, but do you think it's narcissistic to stare at oneself in the mirror?
Well, maybe if you think there's something wrong with your face, but most of the time your face is fine.
Yeah.
Because you wash your face.
Do you wash yourself?
Do you wash yourself?
Oh, so I'm saying black holes instead of blackheads.
Do you wash yourself?
Do you wash your face?
Yeah, dear listener, we hope that you do wash yourself and your face and you don't see black holes in your face even with a magnifying mirror.
That brings us to the end of this episode about mirrors.
Hopefully it's given you a lot to reflect on.
Thank you very much for listening.
Bye-bye.
Well, I have to every day, when I fix my hair and put on moisturiser, to make sure everything is evened out and in the right place.
And then, I suppose inadvertently, whenever I've been to the bathroom, since there are mirrors on the walls and you can't really avoid them when you have to wash your hands.
Do you have mirrors in your home?
I have a wall mirror in the bathroom and a full body one in my home in Scotland.
It's set into the wardrobe, so it's quite handy when you're getting dressed, actually.
Do you think mirrors are a necessary decoration?
Well, I've never really thought about it until now, but I suppose you're right.
Many people have them in their entrance halls at home, in the bathroom and the bedroom.
Some people have them on their desks, I suppose.
It's a bit like curtains, really, when you think about it.
You don't really focus on them much, but you would notice if they weren't there.
Do you often buy mirrors?
Stop drinking your coffee, answer the question.
I've never bought one in my life, actually.
They always seem to come with the places that I've stayed in.
I don't know where you would even buy one, like a specific mirror shop?
Probably a furniture store or something like that?
Where do you put mirrors?
Well, it's probably easier to say where you don't put them, really.
They should be at eye level and in rooms or places where inspecting your face is part of the routine there.
So the bathroom and the bedroom are the most obvious, so you can check when you go out, and the vestibules or the foyers so you can check yourself out before entering a place with other people.
There are places that break with this conventional, like shoe shops, for example, where they have mirrors at foot level so you can look at your well, you can see how your new footwear looks.
Rory, do you have a mirror in your bag?
No, I don't.
I have my phone.
I can look at the reflection in my phone if I need to.
Do you think you should have a mirror in your bag or in your pocket?
Well, for me personally, no.
But I suppose for other people, if they feel like they need to check their face or their makeup regularly, then they can.
Would you give a mirror as a gift, Rory?
Not as a sort of generic present, no.
I guess if someone was really into mirrors, then if there was a particularly ornate one, then that might be a good gift for them.
But it seems it's a strange gift to give, isn't it?
