Hello, love.
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 because we want you to use high-level words and gorgeous grammar in your IELTS speaking and in your English life.
Rory, are you excited about Christmas?
Yeah, I love a good public holiday.
Let's talk about public holidays, shall we?
Rory, what public holidays do you celebrate in your country?
I think there are more public holidays in Scotland than in England actually since, if I'm correct, I think each region in Scotland sets its own holidays.
At least I think that's how it works.
But the main ones are obviously Christmas and New Year.
We call New Year Hogmanay.
And then we have St.
Andrew's Day, which is like the day for our national saint, our patron saint.
May Day, which you have in Russia also.
In January we have Burns Night when we celebrate I think we celebrate the birth of our national poet, Robert Burns.
I'm sure it's his birthday.
And then we have something called the Tati Holidays, which is well, it's a break in about October time, where people used to go and pick potatoes.
It sounds strange, but it makes sense in context.
Which public holiday do you like the most?
When I was younger, I used to like the tatty holidays when we got a break from school late in the calendar year.
But now I'm all about Christmas.
I love the idea of being together with my family and sharing that time together.
It's a shame it won't happen this year, but I'm compensating with a combination of online conferencing and face-to-face well-wishing with friends.
What do you do during public holidays?
Well, unless it's Christmas, I'm usually chilling out and forgetting the world exists and resisting the urge to go out and get absolutely leathered.
I think it's important to have time to relax.
Well, and like, when I say relax well, I mean actually relax, not do things like people do things in public holidays and sometimes they shouldn't, they should just chill.
Do you think these holidays are important?
Absolutely.
I mean, like I said, people need time off to decompress and let themselves recharge after long periods of consistent work.
Sometimes weekends just aren't enough and you need a real break from the grind, and public holidays enable this.
Do you think there should be more public holidays in your country?
It's a good question.
I think we have enough, but people should use them more effectively to relax de-stress and reconnect with themselves, rather than fill their lives with more things.
So no, we should use what we have.
Rory, thank you so much for your festive answers.
Hopefully it was a holiday in terms of vocabulary.
It's been a holiday to our ears.
Oh God, we're really struggling now.
Okay, so first of all, a public holiday.
What is a public holiday?
A public holiday is a time when the members of the public in every country have time off.
Yeah, it's nationally recognized holiday, right?
So, everything is closed.
So, it's a holiday by law and a non-working day or days for the whole country.
So, for example, did you know that India has 21 public holidays?
Yes.
No, I did not.
Now you do.
And dear listener, now you know that it's a very important fact.
Yeah, so remember it.
Use it in your IELTS speaking exam.
All right, so public holidays or national holidays?
Yes.
So, well, they're the same thing, aren't they, basically?
We also have a day off and the weekend or a time off.
Be very careful not to confuse these things because we have holidays, a holiday, a public holiday.
What's the difference?
Hmm, so if we talk about holidays, for example, school holidays right, or a holiday like the 8th of march, new year's day, they are holidays.
We all public holidays, right.
The weekend is the weekend, Saturday and Sunday.
Yeah.
And we can say a day off if you just have a day off, you know, you just, you don't want to work.
Yeah.
Take a day off work.
And you've said that people need time off.
Yeah, I mean, time off in general, like usually we mean time off, time away from work.
But you can use this when you refer to holidays, or you can use it when you refer to any time spent away from work and relaxing.
That's the most important thing.
And to listen up, make sure that you do know the names of your public holidays in your country.
Rory has mentioned Christmas, New Year, Hogmanay.
Hogmanay.
Hogmanay.
It's the Scottish word for New Year.
And then I explained what the other days were as well.
Although I should explain what the tatty holidays are, because I feel like this is an important thing that people should understand about Scotland.
Tatty holidays.
Tatty in Scottish is the word for potato.
And what happened was about a long time ago when rights for children were not a thing.
They used to send children to the fields for two weeks to pick potatoes and harvest them, because we didn't have well grown-ups to do it for us.
Child labor.
Yeah, basically child labor.
Although I think a lot of people look back on Tati Haldi's quite fondly.
It's hard work, or it was hard work.
I don't think children do it now.
It was hard work, but I think it built a lot of character around...
And I feel like we've lost something in some way.
I mean, obviously, children shouldn't be forced to do work, but they should be helping.
I think that's important.
I love the word teddy.
It's so cute.
Teddy holidays.
Yes, you see very specific names for specific public holidays.
In Russia, for example, you can talk about the Defender of the Motherland Day, which is for soldiers, although it's like for men in general.
Yeah, for men.
Yeah, we have the 8th of march and um, that's women's day.
Women's day yes, and the defender of the motherland day of fatherland.
You can have labor days, like the first of May.
Yeah, I think most countries have that day.
Yeah, like Thailand, Vietnam.
If you are from these countries, you have labor days, right?
Halloween and St.
Valentine's Day, are they public holidays?
I think for the vast majority of people, no.
I can't think of a single country which allows people time off on Valentine's Day.
Yeah, I don't think so.
That would be so sweet though.
If you let people have time, like a day off to spend with the person they love.
Although it might end up annoying a lot of single people.
But, you know.
Yeah, you see, so there's a difference.
Halloween, St.
Valentine's Day, just holidays, right?
But New Year, the 8th of March, Labor Day, the 1st of May, so these are public holidays.
What day is the 14th?
If I'm in a relationship, then I think I might take that day off.
I like this idea.
Hold on, when is the 14th?
It's a Sunday.
He's organizing his private life on the podcast.
You know, we're recording in the studio.
We've invested money in the studio and he's just organizing his private life.
Yep, I'm having fun.
You know, he's multitasking.
Oh, Rory, Scottish Rory.
Freedom everywhere.
Right, when we talk about what people usually do during public holidays, we say they relax, they chill out.
And I'm chilling out on public holidays, so during, while...
What?
You see, he's not even listening to me.
I don't understand what the hell you're talking about.
He's planning his Valentine's Day, which is not a public holiday.
So I'm talking about the activities.
So what do you usually do during public holidays?
I'm chilling out.
Or you can say, I'm decompressing.
Yeah, decompressing sounds much better, doesn't it?
Emotionally decompressing.
So decompress means relax.
Or you can say, let's yourself recharge your batteries.
Yes.
Yeah, but you can say just like, oh, I'm recharging myself or I usually recharge myself or unwind.
I usually unwind and I take a break from the grind.
Rory, what does the grind mean in this context?
Daily grind of working 9 to 5.
What a way to make a living.
Yeah, so we should take a break from the daily grind.
Or de-stress.
We de-stress.
We de-stress.
No stress.
No stress.
Yeah, let's have some music in the podcast.
Rory, sometimes on public holidays, you get leathered.
Yeah, leathered.
Oh, my God.
Leathered is a euphemism.
It's a metaphor for getting drunk, which people do on public holidays.
Like, why not?
Yeah, half of the country gets leathered.
In Russia, the entire country gets leathered, especially on National Unity Day.
New Year in Russia lasts for 10 days.
Yes, it's officially by law.
So during 10 days, people get leathered.
The entire country shuts down.
If you're ever thinking of invading Russia, then do it in those 10 days because no one can stop you.
Yeah, so pretty much from the 31st of December till the 10th of January, we are done.
And then the first working day in January is just the worst day of your life.
Right.
So you can say people get drunk, people get plastered, wasted or leathered.
They are really informal words.
Don't use them talking to your boss.
But you can use them when you're talking about drinking.
In your IELTS speaking, why not?
An interesting word is tipsy.
People get tipsy.
So the difference between tipsy and all of those other words is that tipsy is just slightly drunk, but um, getting wasted is like getting so drunk you can't stand.
Yeah, you can also.
You can tell which one i'm a bigger fan of.
I really don't like it when people get unbelievably hammered another word for hammered yeah, but these are british words, though.
Right, The Americans say that all the time.
And then there's a variety of swear words which we're not going to use on this sensible, mature podcast.
Yeah, it's really professional.
Yes, very professional.
Except for when I'm organizing my dating life.
While we're recording in the studio.
Why not?
And also public holidays, this is the time to reconnect with yourself.
Yes.
So if you reconnect with yourself, then you just do the things that you want to do, rather than doing work things.
And you can fill your life with more things.
Yes.
Although, try not to fill your life with more things.
You should ideally be filling your life with fewer things.
Not less.
Fewer.
Fewer.
But you can say people saying less things, because it's just like it's easier to pronounce less things, but it's grammatically incorrect.
Yes, so correct uh, correct.
All the native speakers who say less people, you say oh no no no no, you got it wrong, baby.
We also say that we celebrate public holidays and we have celebrations on public holidays.
We do have celebrations on public holidays.
For example, in Hogmanay, we have fireworks at Christmas.
Bonfires.
Well, we don't have bonfires at Christmas.
We have bonfire night in... Oh my God, I forgot.
Bonfire night in...
He has forgotten his public holidays.
I taught a lesson about Bonfire Night and I've totally forgotten.
But you have bonfires on Bonfire Night.
Yeah.
And we can say that the government should provide more public holidays for citizens, for example.
Or not.
Or not.
Just make better use of what you have.
Thank you very much for listening and do switch on your holiday rest mode.
And remember to switch off at the same time.
Bye.
Bye.
Rory, what public holidays do you celebrate in your country?
I think there are more public holidays in Scotland than in England, actually.
If I'm correct, I think each region in Scotland sets its own holidays.
At least I think that's how it works.
But the main ones are obviously Christmas and New Year.
We call New Year Hogmanay.
And then we have St.
Andrew's Day, which is like the day for our national saint, our patron saint.
May Day, which you have in Russia also.
In January we have Burns Night when we celebrate I think we celebrate the birth of our national poet, Robert Burns.
I'm sure it's his birthday.
And then we have something called the Tati Holidays, which is well, it's a break in about October time, where people used to go and pick potatoes.
It sounds strange, but it makes sense in context.
Which public holiday do you like the most?
Well, when I was younger, I used to like the tatty holidays when we got a break from school late in the calendar year.
But now I'm all about Christmas.
I love the idea of being together with my family and sharing that time together.
It's a shame it won't happen this year, but I'm compensating with a combination of online conferencing and face-to-face well-wishing with friends.
What do you do during public holidays?
Well, unless it's Christmas, I'm usually chilling out and forgetting the world exists and resisting the urge to go out and get absolutely leathered.
I think it's important to have time to relax well.
And when I say relax well, I mean actually relax, not do things.
People do things in public holidays, and sometimes they shouldn't.
They should just chill.
Do you think these holidays are important?
Absolutely.
I mean, like I said, people need time off to decompress and let themselves recharge after long periods of consistent work.
Sometimes weekends just aren't enough and you need a real break from the grind, and public holidays enable this.
Do you think there should be more public holidays in your country?
It's a good question.
I think we have enough, but people should use them more effectively to relax de-stress and reconnect with themselves, rather than fill their lives with more things.
So no, we should use what we have.
