Hello lovely, I'm Maria.
And my name is Rory, and we are the hosts of the IELTS Speaking for Success podcast.
Podcasts that aims to help you improve your speaking skills, as well as your listening
skills along the way.
We've started this podcast to give you gorgeous grammar and fabulous vocabulary for your
high-IELTS goal.
Your bad night's score.
Now, Rory, what are you doing, Rory?
What are you doing?
I'm just checking flights for my next holiday.
Shall we talk about traveling?
Yes, let's.
Oh, let's talk about traveling.
Do you listen?
I'm excited.
I'm excited.
Rory is a super traveler here.
And you should listen to this episode till the very end, because at the end of it, Rory
is going to choose a super holiday for himself, because I'm going to tell you about the recent
trends in traveling.
The recent 2024 traveling trends, okay?
So to be the trend and to find out what Rory is going to choose, listen till the very
end.
Do you like traveling?
Well, you would think someone who's been all over the place as much as I have would
enjoy it, but I think I prefer the idea of being in a place more than getting to it,
oh, unless you're including wandering around in the definition of traveling, which can
be fun to do.
How often do you go traveling?
Not as often as I used to.
I'm very much a homebody these days, because I have a house to look after.
I would like to go to a few more places, though.
It's my dream to visit a place called Piran in Slovenia one day.
It looks amazing, and Slovenes are great people I'm told.
And do you usually go traveling?
Good question.
I think I spent a great deal of time poking about Europe, like most Europeans do, but I
wouldn't say I frequently go to any one spot in particular anymore.
What do you enjoy about traveling?
Well, when I was younger, I used to love the novelty of just being in a new place with
news surroundings, but now I'm older.
I like the sense of freedom and adventure.
I can go anywhere I like and do anything.
And I love it.
It's a couple of freedom.
Rory, before we get back into the episode, can I ask you something?
When it comes to learning a language, what's the difference between passive and active
learning?
Passive language learning happens when you learn by only listening or reading.
So listening to this podcast would be a far-re-passive learning, when I think about it.
Active learning is when you're actively using the language, like speaking.
And in fact, the biggest challenge for many language learners is the absence of regular
speaking practice.
Taking lessons with Italkie would be a form of active learning, for example.
And it's not a coincidence we're talking about Italkie.
In case you didn't know, Italkie is a platform where you can book one-on-one IELTS preparation
classes with native English teachers.
Some of them are actually former IELTS examiners.
You can also take mock IELTS speaking tests and get personal feedback on how to perform
better during the actual exam.
All lessons are personalized to your goals and needs.
You can pay for class, book lessons around your busy schedules, and learn from anyway
in the world.
Click the link in the description of this episode to sign up for Italkie.
Use our promo code IELTSuccess and get five extra dollars for free when you spend
your first ten dollars.
The discount is only available for the first fifty people.
Make sure to sign up before the offer runs out.
No, let's get back to the episode.
So, Jillisnut, traveling.
Okay.
Do you like traveling?
Maybe, yes.
Most people like traveling.
I think most people like being on holiday.
I don't know if they like the idea of traveling so much.
But you like being on holiday isn't the same as traveling because like traveling is kind
of, I don't know, like you move, you go from one place to another, you just go to South
America and you travel there.
You know, alone or with friends.
Hmm.
But is that the traveling that you enjoy or is that being with your friends?
Well, I think both.
You always have friends and you travel.
No, you must choose one.
No.
You are going to choose one at the end of this episode, but I can do it till I want.
Okay.
So, Jillisnut, traveling and tourism are two different things.
Okay.
You are are you a traveler or are you a tourist?
Rory here gives us one huge sentence, which is, I wouldn't do that, but Rory is an educated
super native speaker, so he can do whatever he wants with his own language.
English.
That's why here we have a massive sentence from Rory.
Yes, it is one sentence, but Rory made pause this.
So for example, before, somewhere in the middle of this massive sentence, he just made a pause
and kind of started a new sentence, which is a good example of something called chunking,
which native speakers do all the time to break up long sentences into understandable pieces
of information.
We use present perfect here.
I've been all over the place, meaning I've visited many countries.
I've traveled to many countries.
I've been to many countries.
And we can say also, welcome.
Wanda around.
A phrase of up.
What does it mean?
It just means to go around places with no fixed plan, just wandering, seeing what you
can see.
Yeah, I enjoy traveling, I enjoy wandering around.
Like I go to Europe, I wander around different cities, different countries.
Yeah.
If you don't like traveling, you can say, oh, traveling, I can't be bothered.
Like, no, I don't like it.
Or you can say, I prefer a staycation.
For example, what's a staycation, Rory?
Is that when you just stay at home?
Yeah, you stay at home, but also kind of you explore the places in your country, I think.
Yeah, it's kind of like you go somewhere near your home.
Or maybe like you go to the countryside, it's kind of like domestic tourism, okay?
Or you visit places in your country.
So you kind of you stay in your country, but you can go to a different city or town.
And also, if you don't like traveling, you can say, oh, I don't like traveling or I hardly
ever travel because I don't like splashing out on expensive hotels.
Splash out on something.
Rory, tell us what it means.
If you splash out on something, it means you spend a lot of money on it.
So for example, well, if you're splashing out on a hotel, then you spend a lot of money
on it.
Like, my friends are going to a music festival and they splashed out a lot of money on their
hotels.
They spent hundreds of pounds.
I have not though.
I have only spent 200 pounds on my hotel, yes.
Yeah, you see, she can say, yeah, I do love traveling, but I just like splashing out on
expensive hotels.
So I prefer kind of to travel on a tight budget, travel on a tight budget, like don't spend
much money while you are traveling.
Here you can say not as often as a user, like I used to travel a lot, but now not as often
as I used to.
Rory is a homebody.
Who is a homebody?
Someone who stays at home, I have to, no, this place will not look after itself, you know.
Yeah, you can say I am a homebody, a person who likes spending time at home, rather than
going out with friends or traveling to different places.
So even if you are not a homebody, you can say, well, sometimes I am homebody.
Because I have the house to look after, I have my family to look after, or maybe I have
a crazy cat to look after.
A crazy cat?
Yes, crazy cat.
I need a cat.
And then Rory mentioned a specific place in Slovenia.
Rory, what's the place?
Piron, I feel like I am walking advert for the Slovenian tourist board at this point,
but I am determined to go there and I am determined to go there this year for my birthday, even
if it kills me.
Oh, okay.
Sorry, and what can you say, like this Piron is list.
Oh, Piron is on my bucket list.
Yes, well it is, because it's a place I need to go before I die.
Exactly, do you have a list of places you should go to before you die, dear listener?
Rory does, I do what about you?
I have one.
I have one place.
I have one.
I only have one more place I want to visit.
Really?
Is the whole world?
Yeah.
I only wanted to go to Piron and then I am done.
Are you joking?
Oh, wow.
Okay.
And then you can say, like, well, I will go anywhere.
You can also say that I am always dreaming of my next destination.
So, all the time, I am always dreaming of my next destination, maybe something exotic,
and I will go anywhere if it's adventurous.
So I enjoy adventurous traveling, I enjoy adventures and traveling.
So yeah, adventurous activities.
Reaction to the question is a good strategy.
Like where do you usually go?
Where do you usually go traveling?
So, hmm, a good question.
Macau, where do you ask a tricky question?
A difficult question.
So you react to the question naturally and then you answer the question.
With a phrase of verb, dear listener, poke about.
Yes, but poking about is just having a look in places, not really trying to find anything
in particular, just seeing what happens.
And here you can say, I spend a lot of time poking about Europe.
So kind of like traveling around Europe, looking around.
Poke about means to search for something, but here it just means like to visit a place
to look around a place or a spot.
So if I say I don't usually go to any particular spot, spot like a place, like a city or a
country.
But it could be talking about places in your hometown.
Like go, I prefer to go to spots around my hometown.
Yeah, to visit spots, to visit places in my own country.
Rory, do you ever go to places off the beaten track?
I used to, but I don't know because I'm old.
So kind of we have touristy places, like very popular places, I know like Rome, Paris,
but there are some places off the beaten track.
Places not as popular as the other places.
For example, this Pyran in Slovenia, is it off the beaten track or is it a touristy place?
Super popular place.
Well, it's funny because it might be both.
I think it's off the beaten track for British travelers because not everybody goes to Slovenia.
But I think Slovenia is a very popular tourist destination for lots of people on the continent.
So it's yes and no.
If you are from Slovenia and you have a lot of tourists in Pyran, please feel free to
correct me.
But I think it's both.
I don't think many people from Britain go there, but I think Europeans go there all the
time.
I used to love the novelty of traveling.
So when I was younger, now I'm super old.
I used to love the novelty, like new things about traveling.
Usually when you travel, you see lots of new things, people, food, so the novelty of being
in a new place with new surroundings, what surrounds you.
But now I'm old.
I like the sense of freedom.
So Rory goes to Slovenia and he feels freedom.
But you could go to a different country or actually you could probably go to Slovenia as
well and feel a sense of security also more safety.
So you can feel a sense of lots of things.
I like the sense of a change.
I like the sense of freedom.
Yeah, nice.
You can also say that I love backpacking when you just grab your bag.
Back, not you don't grab your bag, you grab your bag.
You can just say I love backpacking when you take your backpack and your goal traveling
around Europe only with one bag.
Or I love camping in the woods with a tent.
I enjoy sleeping in tents.
I love trying out different foods.
Rory, would you like to comment on anything else from the answers?
I have a couple of favorite phrases.
This is not just about traveling, but this is in general.
So things I say a lot are not as often as I used to.
And I think at this point, everyone is used to me saying, oh, good question.
Do I need an article?
Do you say, oh, good question or a good question?
Do I need an or just like, oh, good question.
A good question.
You can have both.
However, if you say, I could question, it's like the other questions have been bad.
So it could be quite rude.
I would not use the article here with the examiner.
Hmm, just like, good question.
And of course, I also frequently say, I wouldn't say, but that could be for this where I said,
I wouldn't say frequently go somewhere.
But I could also say, oh, I wouldn't say I'm addicted to traveling, but I go travel a lot.
So nothing specific about traveling just lots of small phrases that can be transferred
to different topics, which is useful for your exam because you might not be asked about
traveling.
You might be asked about something else.
Excellent.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.
Well, you would think someone who's been all over the place as much as I have would enjoy
it, but I think I'd prefer the idea of being in a place more than getting to it, oh,
unless you're including wandering around in the definition of traveling, which can be
fun to do.
How often do you go traveling?
Not as often as I used to.
I'm very much a homebody these days because I have a house to look after.
I would like to go to a few more places though.
It's my dream to visit a place called Piran in Slovenia one day.
It looks amazing and Slovenia are great people I'm told.
Where do you usually go traveling?
Good question.
I think I spent a great deal of time poking about Europe, like most Europeans do, but I
wouldn't say I frequently go to any one spot in particular anymore.
What do you enjoy about traveling?
Well, when I was younger, I used to love the novelty of just being in a new place with
new surroundings, but no, I'm older, I like the sense of freedom and adventure.
I can go anywhere I like and do anything.
And I love it.
