Hi, this is IELTS speaking part 3 episode came out as part of our premium subscription.
If you'd like to access more of these premium episodes and support us further,
please consider becoming one of our premium subscribers.
They are the one to make our free podcast possible. Thank you.
Hello, hello, our dear premium listener and welcome into our speaking part 3,
visiting others. Rory, are you excited about the topic?
Yeah, we're like talking about visiting people.
Do people in your country often invite others to their homes?
I mean, how often is often? It depends so much on where you live,
and how far your friends are, and how sociable you are.
Generally, though, I'd say they probably do, since I often see pictures of people hanging out
with each other and various other homes. So some people must be throwing these parties.
I think people here are pretty sociable, and they have large friendship groups,
so it makes sense they all want to mix and see each other.
What do you think of serving food to visitors?
It's nice to have, and if you're arranged to have people over for a meal,
then it's pretty much obligatory. But outside of this, I don't think it's fair to expect people
to provide you with food, let alone serve it to you. You have a cost of living crisis now,
and not everyone has the sort of money to throw around on things like that,
not to mention the energy of making the food.
What kind of people do you think are more likely to invite others to their homes?
Other than the ones who are socialising with people,
good question. I suppose if you have lots of friends and are particularly
house-prior with the resources to accommodate everyone and cater to them, then you might
be better placed to have people around. Who got more likely to invite others to their homes?
People in the countryside or people in the city?
Well, I was thinking about that there, actually. I mean, at first it makes sense to say
you would be more likely to have people in your home if you're in a city, because there are
loads more people, and so more opportunities to have larger social networks and gatherings.
But now I think about it in more depth. Social bonds and traditions are more important in the
countryside, where there are fewer resources and people rely on each other more.
What traditions are there when visiting other people's homes?
In my country, I don't think there are many really. It's pretty common place to bring
thank you, Presents, but there are no set rules about what to bring.
The one exception might be a bit for something like a housewarming, and you want to get
someone something useful for their home. But that is very broad, and I don't think there are
traditions governing that. Do people usually bring a gift? Like I said, it's a common thing to
take something the first time you head over to someone's place, but after that you usually
just bring things for yourself. Maybe a bottle of wine or something like that for the host.
Unless of course it's a birthing, but that's the nature of the celebration and not connected to
visiting someone per se. How do people entertain friends at their home?
Oh all kinds of ways. They share stories and watch things on TV together. Some people
host dinner parties and play parlor games as well. I think they're making something of a
comeback in my country at least, but yeah, the sky is pretty much the limit in terms of what's
possible to be honest. Are people more hospitable now than the past? I mean where? I imagine it shifts
all the time. I would say in my country at least people are probably more open than they were.
Since there are lots more newcomers and people need support and will hopefully return the favor one
day, I imagine if you're living in a war zone people will be decidedly less hospitable.
Hey, thank you Rory for your answers. No worries.
So, Jo, it's not we invite people to our house or home invite people to my place, okay?
And we visit people. Even their houses where we was the proposition.
Oh, you can visit people in their houses or at their houses and their homes at their homes.
Just not on. When you invite others to your house, you are so
shabble and hospitable. Hopefully you're so shabble. You might just be, um, you know, I don't know,
a big show off and you want people to see your home. So shabble like you will enjoy chatting to people
and you are hospitable. So you enjoy welcoming guests. Hang out with your friends. So people enjoy
hanging out with each other spending time with each other and throw parties. So throw a party.
Yes, but I don't know much about that. And because I just don't go out that often, but when I,
when I look at Instagram, for example, I see people doing this. So I make a logical deduction.
Someone must be throwing these parties. Must be for the logical conclusion.
So people invite others to their homes because they enjoy mixing with each other.
So hanging out with each other or mix, mix kind of like talk to people, yeah, spend time with them.
We usually serve food to visitors. Do we? Oh, yes. No, we don't. Yeah, kind of it's a common thing to serve.
I love serving my guests. They can get their own. Yeah, you don't serve them,
but you serve food. Kind of you give them food. Yes. Or the meaning is like you actually like a waiter.
That's how I understood the question. Like you're like a waiter and you bring a
really to them. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I suppose now that you point that out, it could be to prepare
food for people. Either way, good luck if you ever come to visit me because all I have is a few
crisps and olives and maybe a pizza. Well, but that's food. You seem like. I know. But when you talk
about serving food to people who have this image in their head. So like three course meals and things.
Yes, do you listen? So if the question is about serving food, it can mean like giving food to
people or actually organizing like a dinner when you do serve like all this is my soup.
That I you know, like you like a host you serve food to your guests. It's possible. I enjoy doing that,
for example. Once I serve a party and I actually served food to my guests like I enjoy cooking and
feeding people around me. If you arranged to have people over for a meal, it's obligatory to serve
food. So arrange to have people over like over to your place for a meal. Have people over for a
meal, a meal like dinner lunch. And this is obligatory. Blegatory like it's a must. Well, it's
pretty much obligatory, which means it's not exactly obligatory, but people expect it. Like, oh,
Rory, come over for dinner and then kind of like, oh yeah, some olives, some water. Like what is dinner?
And people usually expect some food. Yeah, people expect you to provide them with food.
And the host can serve the food to you. So the host serves food to visitors like other
themselves, yeah? Or they could just put the plates on the table and let people help themselves.
Now I think about it. People who enjoy socializing with people invite others to their homes.
And also a person who is house proud, usually invites people to their home, so to be house proud.
Well, it just means you're focused on your home and having it presentable for other people.
So I'm happy with my home, so I want to show my house to everybody.
Yeah, it's less about how you feel and more about the actions that you take to present the home to
other people. Hmm, it's kind of like, I clean my house, I decorate my house, yeah? Yeah.
I'm house proud. And also people who have the resources to accommodate everyone.
So for example, it's a big house. I have the money to buy food. I have the money to buy drinks. I have
I don't know, motivation to organize activities. So I have the resources to accommodate everyone.
Oh God, I'm getting tired just thinking about that. And also like,
like who is this person who invites others to their homes, a person who has the resources to cater
to their guests needs. So to cater to their needs to kind of meet their needs.
The host or hostess? Yeah, a hostess. Yeah, a hostess is a hostess is ish.
Who invites people to the homes, people in the countryside or people in the cities?
That's a weird question. But it's funny because even as I was answering
people who are more likely to invite their homes, I was thinking, well, kind of people would do that.
Where would they live? And I was thinking about the countryside. And then you ask that question.
It's like, oh, okay. Yeah. And then you think more deeply about it. And you're like, oh, well,
actually, there's lots of things that could influence this decision. And it's not as
immediately obvious as people in the city are more likely to do something just because there
are more people. Yeah. So you can answer that people in the city are more likely are more likely
to have people in their home because there are more people in a city. Okay. Or we said that there
are loads more people in a city like loads more like a lot more people in the city than in the country.
And we have social gatherings, right? When people invite each other to their homes, kind of for
parties, social gatherings, where everyone networks like talk to each other, you know, has a drink.
But now I'm thinking about it or but now I think about it. And actually, I think that people in
the countryside can. Yes. So you could change your mind halfway through what you're saying.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's okay. But you should signal it like, but now I think about it in more
depth. And actually in the countryside, we have social bonds, social connections, traditions. So
people kind of visit each other in their homes, perhaps in your culture. And there are fewer resources.
So if people live in a village, there are fewer resources than in a city. In a few shops,
fewer petrol stations, shops, banks. Yeah. So you kind of need people to look after you and
look after them too. So in a village, in the countryside, people tend to rely on each other. So they
need each other. They depend on each other, especially if you live in the middle of nowhere,
like in the middle of a forest in a small village, for example. And Roy, you live in the middle
of nowhere, right? I don't live in the middle of nowhere. I live in the fourth largest city in this
country. Oh, good. Okay. So you have like facilities and shops around you. Yes. There's like,
it's a 10 minute walk from the city center. I have lots of things near me. Yes,
there is so our royal lives in the Scotland in the fourth largest city in Scotland, downtown.
Sorry, that's a song. Traditions, we can have certain traditions when we visit other people's
homes. Usually, traditions are about bringing something. So you bring a gift or you bring a
bottle of wine, maybe flowers. So there are certain traditions. Well, I don't know if that's
a tradition though. It's not very organized, at least in my country. Are there traditions for
visiting someone's home in Russia? Yeah, like we usually bring something. You can't just like walk
in, just empty handed. Hello, feed me. You bring something. You bring something, sorry, but you
don't like have specific rules for what you bring, do you? No, but some, no, no, no rules for what
you bring. Usually people bring a cake or some dessert, you know, if you go to dinner, so then you
bring some dessert that you want to eat and then you eat it yourself. Or you bring some wine,
you know, or some some alcohol. So alcohol and dessert. But some people bring flowers,
other people don't show or you can just bring a present or you may not, but it is, it must be
something. So the tradition is like we people usually do not go to other people's homes empty handed.
So without anything at all. Yes, definitely don't turn up empty handed at the door. Turn up empty
handed. Like be there without anything. So it's pretty common place to bring thank you presents.
So it's common or it's pretty common place to bring something. But there are no set rules.
We don't have any specific rules, any set rules. Yeah, so if, if it's common place to do something,
it means you do it frequently. But if there are no set rules, it means like there's nothing that
says the first time you bring this, the second time you bring something else. I wonder if there's
a culture out there that has these specific rules for things that you bring every time.
Well, I don't know, maybe in Asia, they'll listen to what about your country? I don't know anything
about foreign countries. Yeah, me too. Maybe in India, maybe in my knowledge. You can give an example
with a housewarming party. Like I've just bought a new house and I invite you to my new house. So it's
a housewarming party. So if you go to a housewarming party, you usually bring a gift which is useful for
my home. So because my home is new, so something that I can use in my home. Yeah, this is like a
typical tradition. But again, it's not a set rule. Yeah, you can kind of bring me money, for example,
or flowers. Yeah, kind of or maybe a flower in a pot. So I can like put it on my windowsill.
A nice poted plant. I would like that for my home, actually. More money to invest in my house,
also possible. You know, you can't bring someone money as a gift. That's crazy. Why? Why? Why?
Not in an envelope. In a nice envelope. Yeah, people do that. Wow. Okay. Well, they do during a wedding.
Yeah, but now you know, these people today, if it's a birthday of it's a housewarming party,
they create a special website and they put like a wish list. And there's a list of products,
a list of things that I want people to give me. Yeah, I've seen these things and they're
extremely rude. I would never do that. That's horrendous. But people do that, especially for a
wedding, you know, this is a page and like, all like I invite you to my wedding. And here's the
website and you go and you have, okay, a bed, a microwave oven, a kettle, a candle for like a
wall, a list of things. Yeah, I know, I know. Do you have this in your culture? Because I think it's
getting more more popular or once, once I got invited to a birthday party and then the guy just sent
me just a list in in WhatsApp. Just like, oh, if you want to give me a present, give me this,
this, this, this, all this, all this, all this. So just like a list of things. Wow. The level of
entitlement. Yeah. But this is practical because really like if you want to give a present,
how can you guess what a person needs? So the person gives you a list and from this list you choose
and then you buy it or not buy it. Yes, but how do you decide? Because you might buy the same thing
as what other people buy. Yeah, true. But maybe like this person sends different lists to different
people. I don't know. Do you listen, do you do this? Like I never do this to be with you. But, but I know
that if like my partner doesn't want to spend all of time guessing what I want, I just tell my partner,
okay? I want flowers. So if you want to give me something, could you give me flowers? Or if you want
to give me something, give me this, all this. So usually like two choices. But I know that this
person doesn't want to spend time thinking what I want. Yes, ladies, especially for us, ladies.
So give some choices to your men. If you don't want to end up with something that you hate.
Speaking of choices, there's a choice about what you can do at people's homes.
The host usually entertains their friends. Intertains, so kind of like the host organizes some fun
activities, does something to make other people happy and kind of involved and entertained. So,
share stories. Tell stories, share stories, watch things on TV. Catch up on gossip. Catch up on gossip.
Yeah, like discuss the recent gossip. People can host dinner parties. So people can
throw dinner parties like organize, have dinner parties or host dinner parties. What did you
mean when you said play parlor games? Oh, parlor games are just fun party games. In fact, you
probably better off calling them party games, I suppose. Play party games or play parlor games.
It's like a word game. Something that you play indoors. Like how do people entertain friends at
their home? They drink to death. They dance to death. So yeah. People today can be more
hospitable than people in the past. For example, hospitable, welcoming new people or kind of friends
or just guests in their houses. And you can say that today people are more open, like more friendly,
more open, more sociable than people in the past. Or vice versa, people in the past were, but now
everybody is closed, reserved. Only some people are more hospitable, other people are less hospitable.
But how do you work that out? Which is why it's a strange question. Yeah, you can say like, I don't
know, but select people in my country. Yeah, like, where do you mean by people, are they people in
my country or people in your country or people in general? And then you could talk about people in
your country. People in my country are like this. Right. How are you? Delis Num. Me an interesting
topic about this hospitality, visiting other people. Thank you very much for listening and we'll
get back to you in our next episode. Okay? Bye.
Do people in your country often invite others to their homes? I mean, how often is often?
It depends on so much like where you live and how far where your friends are and how sociable you are.
And generally though, I'd say they probably do since I often see pictures of people hanging out
with each other and various other homes. So some people must be throwing these parties. I think
people here are pretty sociable and they have large friendship groups, so it makes sense they all
want to mix and see each other. What do you think of serving food to visitors? It's nice to have.
And if you're arranged to have people over for a meal, then it's pretty much obligatory.
But outside of this, I don't think it's fair to expect people to provide you with food, let alone
serve it to you. You have a cost of living crisis now and not everyone has the sort of money to
throw around on things like that, not to mention the energy of making the food.
What kind of people do you think are more likely to invite others to their homes?
Other than the ones who like socializing with people, good question. I suppose if you have
lots of friends and are particularly house proud with the resources to accommodate everyone and
cater to them, then you might be better placed to have people around. Who got more likely to invite
others to their homes? People in the countryside or people in the city? Well, I was thinking about that
there, actually. I mean, at first it makes sense to say you would be more likely to have people in
your home if you're in a city because there are loads more people and so more opportunities
have larger social networks and gatherings. But now I think about it in more depth. Social bonds
and traditions are more important in the countryside where there are fewer resources and people
rely on each other more. What traditions are there when visiting other people's homes?
In my country, I don't think there are many really. It's pretty commonplace to bring thank you
presents, but there are no set rules about what to bring. The one exception might be of it's for
something like a housewarming and you want to get someone something useful for their home.
But that is very broad and I don't think there are traditions governing that.
To people usually bring a gift? Like I said, it's a common thing to take something the first time
you head over to someone's place, but after that you usually just bring things for yourself.
It may be a bottle of wine or something like that for the host. Unless of course it's a birthing,
but that's the nature of the celebration and not connected to visiting someone per se.
How do people entertain friends at their home?
Oh all kinds of ways. They share stories and watch things on TV together. Some people
host dinner parties and play parlor games as well. I think they're making something of a
comeback in my country at least, but yeah, the sky is pretty much the limit in terms of what's
possible to be honest. Are people more hospitable now than the past? I mean where? I imagine it shifts
all the time. I would say in my country at least people are probably more open than they were.
Since there are lots more newcomers and people need support and will hopefully return to favor one
day, I imagine if you're living in a war zone people will be decidedly less hospitable.