Hello, Sunshine.
I'm Maria.
And my name is Rory, and we are the hosts of the IELTS Speaking for Success podcast.
The podcast 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.
Dear listener, if you want transcripts for our episodes, you can find them on our website.
Go to successwithilescom, check out podcasts and click on transcripts and you'll see the scripts for our episodes.
So the transcripts are on our website, successwithiots.com.
Rory, what's that special Scottish word which means something when it's cold grey, gloomy and raining?
I don't know.
What is it?
Summer!
Aww, that's so mean.
Yes, dear listener, so as you know, in Scotland they don't have any summer.
Shall we talk about the weather?
Yes, let's.
What's the weather like in your country?
I suppose the stereotype is that Scottish weather is quite dismal, since we're in the north and we're surrounded by two seas and an ocean.
But actually, it's quite varied.
We have sunny days in the summer, with the occasional chilly breeze, I'll concede, and snowy winters, though I suppose, with climate change, they're less common now, but we still have them.
Do you like the weather in your country?
Well, I'm not overly fussed about it because I live in Russia.
It's not like in Russia where, you know, weather can seriously mess up your day.
You just need to be a little bit more prepared since it can be changeable, at least in Scotland.
In Russia, you've got to be super prepared, don't you?
This is where they affect your mood.
I suppose it depends on how sleepy I am.
It's quite cosy when the rain is battering down and you're in bed and you're away to sleep.
Of course, if I were out in it, I would feel completely differently.
So I suppose the general principle is it affects my mood in proportion or relation to how much it wrecks the peace and quiet of my life.
What do you usually do on sunny days?
I like to go for walks and listen to music by myself.
It's nice to just enjoy the sunshine and the rare well the rare opportunity to get a tan when you can, whether it's in Scotland or Russia.
Of course some people go overboard and take their tops off with no protection and then they get horribly burned.
But I think I tan quite well.
Do you often use sunscreen?
Actually, not at all.
But please don't do that if you're listening to this.
And do not do as I do, but rather do as I say and wear sunscreen.
I'm actually the only person in my family that could tan well for some reason.
Everyone else I know gets horribly burned or they get burned quite badly.
And they need a high SP factor cream.
I don't know why that is.
It must be some sort of genetic anomaly.
But I don't advise people to go out without any sunscreen because it's quite dangerous, actually.
Do you like rainy days?
If I'm inside and not out in the rain, then it's not so bad.
Usually, these days are for sitting inside and doing something spiritual or intellectual, like meditating or writing, for example.
Does rain ever affect transportation in your hometown?
Not generally, though.
There is a bridge near my house in Scotland that gets partially flooded in the rain, and cars have to drive through it really carefully.
Or, well, their engines will get flooded as well.
Other things like getting a bit muddy can be a problem.
It's usually not a big deal, though, unless it's like torrential rain.
And even then, the worst we've had is some water in the kitchen.
We live near a river so maybe the har in the morning in the summer might affect boats' ability to navigate.
But it's never caused significant problems before, so not really is the answer.
Rory, thank you so much for your answers.
Dear listener, we have an episode about seasons.
So if you are into the weather topic, could you check out our episode about seasons?
Because in IELTS Speaking Part 1, they can ask you questions about seasons and the weather.
So, Rory, four seasons on one day.
Does it sound like Scotland?
Four seasons in one day.
Stop making fun of my country.
Well, yeah, in Moscow, actually, we have winter.
Ever-ending, never-ending.
I was going to say I never make fun of Russia for it always being cold and frozen, even though it's not in the summer.
But that's not the point.
Do you know how many hours of sunshine do we have in December in Moscow?
In December?
In December, yeah.
I have absolutely no idea.
14 hours.
Seriously?
Yeah, yeah.
This year?
I've checked up.
No, just usually like according to the statistics I saw on the internet, like 14 hours of sunshine in December and this is the most depressing month ever.
Oh.
Yeah, but it's almost over.
It's going to be Christmas soon.
Christmas woo, it's Christmas in.
Oh wow, it's going to be Christmas in six days.
Have you done your shopping?
Not yet.
So yeah, we are recording on the 19th of December.
So, okay.
Rory, you've used the adjective dismal about the Scottish weather.
Yeah, dismal is like really sad and not very pleasant.
It's a bit miserable.
So the weather can be dismal.
A person can be dismal.
My life is dismal without you and Vanya in it.
Or it was.
It's not now.
Or the weather can be varied.
It can.
Or it can be changeable.
Changeable.
That's a good word.
Changeable weather.
Which is, that word really used to annoy me because it really just means anything can happen.
But as I get older, I'm starting to use it more and more.
So you can use it too.
I'm not going to ask you how old you are because... We know how old I am.
Yeah, so we are over with this joke.
Yeah, we have to find something else to reveal.
I don't know where you get your hair dyed.
This is the part where you say, I don't get my hair dyed.
I'm a natural blonde.
I'm not going to lie to our listeners.
Right.
We also say snowy winter.
Yes.
So, well, you do have a snowy winter.
It's a winter with snow.
You could have a warm winter or a failed winter if you expect snow and you're not getting what you want.
And the snow can fail to come.
Wow, snow failed to come.
Wow.
You've said something about occasional chilly breeze.
Chilly.
Chilly.
Like cool.
Yeah, cold.
Well, actually it's more than cool.
It's chilly, is something that it makes you shiver, which is also another good word to use um.
So just it helps give um an effective description of what exactly the cold is like.
So don't say it's cold, say it's chilly Chili yeah.
But chili is negative, right?
No, it's chili.
Well, yeah, but not majorly negative.
It's just like it's a bit chili in here or it's a bit chili out there.
Mm-hmm.
I really enjoyed when you said, I'm not overly fussed about it.
So Rory is not overly fussed about the weather.
I'm not overly fussed about anything these days.
It's really bad.
I'm so relaxed.
I'm almost horizontal.
Rory's horizontal.
Yeah, like Rory is a really laid-back person.
Sorry, I'm so laid-back I'm almost horizontal.
That's not the right phrase at all, is it?
So if you are not overly fussed about something...
Yeah, if you're not overly fussed about something, then you're not particularly bothered about it.
Although what I am bothered about is the fact that Vanya, our producer, is texting us asking if everything is going well.
And we can say that everything is going well, Vanya.
I'm going to record a message for him now.
Hello, Vanya.
We're recording now.
Oh, no, we're recording now.
Hello, Vanya.
We are recording now.
Everything is going just fine.
See you soon.
What was the question?
Yes, could you tell us what...
If you say I'm not overly fussed about something, it means Yeah, if I'm not overly fussed about something, it means I don't really care about it.
But it's so easy to say that you don't care.
But I'm not overly fussed is longer and it's less common.
And it's so much more relaxing to say.
Yeah, so just say like, I'm not overly fussed about the weather.
I'm okay with it.
But the weather can mess up your day.
Exactly.
So, for example... Oh, it's a good phrasal verb to mess something up in the first place.
So, you can mess up your day, mess up your life, mess up an activity...
But let's talk about how the weather can do that.
So if it snows really heavily in Moscow, all of a sudden it can mess up your day by killing you if you're not dressed appropriately.
So please dress carefully and appropriately for the weather in Moscow.
Yeah, just for the weather everywhere, yeah.
Yeah, but in Russia in particular, the winter here is absolutely deadly.
People have died.
Oh, come on, people die everywhere.
It's fine, dear listener.
Moscow is fine.
Yeah, it gets cold, but, you know.
Maria, people die in winter.
Only if they're not prepared or if they're drunk and fall asleep on the bench.
And no one that listens to this podcast is going to do that.
Yes, it's a very positive podcast, okay?
So we're talking about the weather and now we're talking about people dying in Moscow in winter.
Right, we can say that the rain... Sorry.
Can you really hear that?
Yes.
Wow.
That's cool.
It's ASMR.
The rain.
The rain, yes.
It's raining heavily or Rory has said the rain is battering down.
It is, yes.
So, well, if it's battering down, it's quite heavy.
But instead of saying heavy rain, which is the common collocation, we say the rain is battering down.
It's also less formal.
Heavy rain is formal.
Rain battering down, less formal.
And you can also use the scientific term, which is torrential rain.
So it sounds like torrent, and a torrent of water is like a lot of water, usually at quite high pressure.
And...
Then we can talk about torrential rain, which is a lot of water coming down at one time.
It's usually not a very good thing.
It happens in Scotland quite often.
And actually it happens everywhere when you have, like this, really heavy rain that washes away important things and causes all kinds of damage to stuff.
So that's something to be aware of.
Yeah, in Thailand, they have this horizontal rain.
They do?
For like five minutes, and then it's over, and as if nothing has ever happened.
Horizontal rain.
For our Indian listeners, because we're number one in India.
You have the monsoon, which is like when there's lots of torrential rain.
I mean, anybody from Asia has the monsoon, but that's...
That's something that's useful for that.
And for our African listeners, there's another kind of weather called the harmatan, which is when you have dust high up in the atmosphere.
It stops planes from flying and blocks out the sun.
It's so cool.
It's extremely dangerous for planes, but it's a weather.
It's an atmospheric phenomenon, which is another cool What do you call it?
It's called the harmatan in Ghana.
I don't know what it's called elsewhere but in Ghana it's called the harmatan and it's just like dust in the atmosphere which disrupts air traffic for example amongst other things.
Yes, dear listener, when the examiner asks you about the rain, you can go ahead and show off your super vocabulary about different types of rain.
And the weather can wreck the peace and quiet of our life.
It can, yes.
So, first of all, if something gets wrecked, it basically gets destroyed or it's disrupted seriously.
And peace and quiet is a nice collocation.
It's...
Is it a binomial expression?
Is that what it's called?
Oh, no, it's too difficult for me.
Bino, what?
It's like fish and chips, peace and quiet.
Oh, I'd say just a collocation, a phrase.
What are they called, though?
What's the name for that?
Oh, there he goes.
There he goes.
Rory is kind of a nerd, you know.
He enjoys these like scientific words, really specific stuff.
I just call like a phrase, a collocation.
And you're just like, why?
Because you just remember it's English.
Done.
Easy.
So you can say that bad weather wrecks the peace and quiet of my life.
We can say that our moods rise on the bright days and we have low moods on rainy days, on grey days.
Now Rory's checking out this word that he wants to use.
Sorry, I want to check if it's called a binomial expression.
I think it is.
Binomial, Teflopedia.
Well, Teflopedia says it's called binomial, although really binomial means...
By no means.
No, no, binomial means two.
But apparently it's called this here.
I'm right.
I'm doing grammar properly.
Look at me in my grammaring.
Yes, you're amazing.
You're amazing.
Your grammar is getting much better.
Okay, well done.
I still can't tell you what conditionals are, but I can tell you what a binomial expression is.
Yeah, for conditionals, you have me.
And some questions could be about sunny days and sunscreen.
So, Rory, tell us, what's this sunscreen, sun cream, sunblock thing?
Yeah.
So I think sunscreen and sunblock are American words, but sun cream is a UK word, but people use them interchangeably all the time.
It's one of these words like airplane that's just merged into both.
And it's not a big deal, to be honest with you.
Usually we say sunscreen.
Do we?
Yeah, sunscreen lotion, sunscreen sprays.
And ladies, it is very important that we wear some sunscreen, you know, to protect our skin from UV rays.
Why is it so important for women?
Men have skin too.
Yeah.
Yeah, but you're kind of rough, right?
So women should wear sunscreen to minimize premature signs of aging.
Oh my god, what happened to feminism?
Yeah.
And we should get some water-resistant sunscreens.
And Rory tells us about this tan and to tan thing.
So if you tan, that's when you go brown in the sun, which is awesome.
Delicious.
It's caused by having... No, hold on a second.
It's caused by having...
A greater production of melanin in your skin.
Melanin is the thing that makes your skin brown, and it's produced by melanocytes, which are small factories in your skin that produce this thing.
It's super cool.
I think.
Yeah, but how do we use this word?
Eten?
To tan?
To tan.
To go tanning.
To be tanned.
For example, I go to the Maldives and I come back and Roy says, oh, Maria, nice tan.
Do you ever get tanned?
Yes, I do.
You're very white.
I'm white, but I get tanned.
Uh-huh.
Oh, great, cool.
That's always awesome when that happens, because obviously most people with I don't know paler skin have sunburned.
So you can say like it's I enjoy having a tan or to tan like as a verb.
Right.
But if you don't put any sunscreen, then you can get burned or you can get a sunburn.
You can.
And that is not a good thing at all.
So you need to make sure that you wear high SP factor cream.
And SP, I think, is short for sun protection.
And if it's high, then it stops the sun from damaging your skin.
And if it's low, then it still stops the damage, but it doesn't stop it as effectively.
But some people go overboard.
Yeah, and if you go overboard with something, you do it too often.
So you can go overboard.
We have this thing called Tap Saf in Dundee, which is when you take your shirt off in the sunshine.
And a lot of people do it, and they do it without putting on any sun cream, and then they get burned, so it's not really good for them.
Rory, did you see a blue sky for the first time when you were a grown-up man already?
Is this one of these terrible jokes?
Yes.
Oh, I mean, what am I going to say?
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
Yes, dear listeners, it's a joke, because in Scotland, pretty much, they don't get sunny days.
That's why, like, did you see a blue sky for the first time when you were 30?
At least we have freedom.
Scotland!
Freedom!
Dear listener, if you enjoy what we are doing, could you give us five stars on Apple Podcasts please?
It will really help us out.
But now we're going to talk about some five-star vocabulary, because we're still not finished with the vocabulary, Maria.
What?
What vocabulary?
What?
What?
Tell me.
When you asked if rain ever stops or affects transportation in my hometown, I talked about engines being flooded, and we should talk about flooding.
In particular because it's a topic-specific word and you can talk about things being flooded or partially flooded, which is when they're not completely flooded.
The other thing I mentioned was the har, which is a kind of fog, actually.
I used it when we were talking about the rain, but I did that specifically so we could talk about it.
Because sometimes you're not asked about rain.
Sometimes you're asked about different kinds of weather.
The har is a kind of fog that comes in from the water in the mornings, usually, in Scotland.
And you can see it in my hometown sometimes.
How do you spell it?
Har.
Har.
H-A...
R. I think.
One second.
Let me just double check.
Ha.
R. Fog.
No, I'm wrong.
It's H-A-A-R.
Is it only about Scotland or about other countries too?
Oh, it's a thing.
It's a thing in Scotland only.
Or well, actually, it's a thing in the north of the UK.
So I'm looking at Wikipedia now.
And it occurs most often on the east coast of England or Scotland between April and September, when warm air passes over the North Sea.
So this is completely useless because most people in Scotland will not be taking an IELTS exam.
But now you know what that weird fog is if you live in Scotland and you see this coming.
Just forget about the Scottish stuff and just say foggy or fog.
Yeah, we are getting too nerdy on this podcast.
How rude.
People are interested in our countries.
Thank you very much for listening.
Remember you have your inner sun which shines every day.
And hopefully our great vocabulary has put some wind. beneath your wings.
Hopefully it is the wind beneath your wings.
Oh crap, I'm not very good at these.
Let's just finish this, shall we?
Bye!
Bye!
What's the weather like in your country?
I suppose the stereotype is that Scottish weather is quite dismal, since we're in the north and we're surrounded by two seas and an ocean.
But actually, it's quite varied.
We have sunny days in the summer, with the occasional chilly breeze, I'll concede, and snowy winters, though I suppose, with climate change, they're less common now, but we still have them.
Do you like the weather in your country?
Well, I'm not overly fussed about it because I live in Russia.
It's not like in Russia where, you know, weather can seriously mess up your day.
You just need to be a little bit more prepared since it can be changeable, at least in Scotland.
In Russia, you've got to be super prepared, don't you?
Does the weather affect your mood?
I suppose it depends on how sleepy I am.
It's quite cosy when the rain is battering down and you're in bed and you're away to sleep.
Of course, if I were out in it, I would feel completely differently.
So I suppose the general principle is it affects my mood in proportion or relation to how much it wrecks the peace and quiet of my life.
What do you usually do on sunny days?
I like to go for walks and listen to music by myself.
It's nice to just enjoy the sunshine and the rare well the rare opportunity to get a tan when you can, whether it's in Scotland or Russia.
Of course some people go overboard and take their tops off with no protection and then they get horribly burned.
But I think I tan quite well.
Do you often use sunscreen?
Actually, not at all.
But please don't do that if you're listening to this.
And do not do as I do.
But rather do as I say and wear sunscreen.
I'm actually the only person in my family that could tan well for some reason.
Everyone else I know gets horribly burned or they get burned quite badly and they need a high SP factor cream.
I don't know why that is.
It must be some sort of genetic anomaly.
But I don't advise people to go out without any sunscreen because it's quite dangerous actually.
Do you like rainy days?
If I'm inside and not out in the rain, then it's not so bad.
Usually, these days are for sitting inside and doing something spiritual or intellectual, like meditating or writing, for example.
Does rain ever affect transportation in your hometown?
Not generally, though.
There is a bridge near my house in Scotland that gets partially flooded in the rain, and cars have to drive through it really carefully.
Or, well, their engines will get flooded as well.
Other things like getting a bit muddy can be a problem.
It's usually not a big deal, though, unless it's like torrential rain.
And even then, the worst we've had is some water in the kitchen.
We live near a river so maybe the har in the morning in the summer might affect boats' ability to navigate, but it's never caused significant problems before, so not really is the answer.
