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Hello,lovely. I'mMaria.
I'm my name isRory, and we are the host of the IELTS Speaking for Successpodcast, the podcast that helps you improve your speakingskills, as well as your listening skills along theway.
We started this podcast to give you gorgeous grammar and fabulous vocabulary for a high-IELTSscore.
Your band-nightscore.
Oh,Rory. You looktired,Rory.
Yeah, we have a Galawik in my hometown, so it's been verylively.
AGalawik. A Galawik ofRory.
A Galawik of myhometown.
Oh,okay. Shall we talk about yourcity?
Yourhometown?Okay.Yes, there is an in-speaking part one that can ask you questions about yourcity, yourhometown.
Usually, the examiner asks you about your work or studies or aboutaccommodation, delivering a house or aflat, but sometimes the first couple of questions could be about your city orhometown.
And Rory here is fromScotland.
Youremember? He lives now in the middle ofScotland.
In acity, not avillage, and Rory is super happy to tell us all aboutit.
If I live in the fourth largest city in mycountry, it's still acity.
In the middle ofnowhere.
It's not a city in the middle ofnowhere.
It's north of thecapital.
It's notfar. Where isScotland,Rory?
Like, where isScotland?
Most people don't evenknow, or they doknow, because ofyou.
Everybody listens to our podcast around theworld.
So, kindof, people know aboutScotland, thanks toyou.
Or just thanks to a regularmap.
You can find Scotland on mostmaps.
What do you like most about yourcity?
Imean, what's not to like really the cost of living is quitereasonable.
We have good transport links to all the major cities in mycountry.
I have a variety of entertainment and sports venues for pretty much alltastes.
All but is within a stone store of the citycentre,actually, so that's pretty goodtoo.
Is there anything you don't like about your town orcity?
Sometimes people here can be a bit much in terms of theirattitude.
Like, Dundee is the be all and end all ofplaces.
Which, it most certainly isnot.
We have ourissues, and it would help if we focused on fixingthem, rather than all the pomp that goes onsometimes.
Also, it would be great if the local council would maintain theroads.
Has your city changed much in recentyears?
Well, the waterfront area has just been through a majorredevelopment, which is nice to see finished atlast.
And there's been a huge influx of foreign people inuniversities, and the population is more diverse thanever.
Aside fromthat,though, especially in the more deprivedareas, not much has changedsadly.
Do you expect to continue living in the town for a longtime?
I thinkso. Imean, I just bought a househere, and that was a hassle that I wouldn't like to repeat anytimesoon.
I might move to a bigger city in thefuture, but that's a long wayoff.
What can be improved in the area where youlive?
Well, I wish people would keep the front gardens of the tenement blocks in bettercondition.
Right now they're a bitovergrown, andwell, what of them even has a bath tub init?
Which is a bit unsightly when you compare it to these glorious old Victorian tenementbuildings.
And then you see this bathtub sittingthere,lonely, and someone'sgarden.
It'sfunny, but it should beremoved, Ithink.
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It's just like people are too free inScotland,Delicenasy.
That's why they haveissues.
They havestructure. They need structure anddiscipline.
Absolutely donot. We need roads that workproperly.
Yousee,Delicenna.Like, Rory's answers areamazing.
Like, what should be improved in the area welive?
Just remove this guy's bathtub from thegarden.
It'sjust, youknow, beautiful littleScotland.
Well, it's onebathtub, I shouldsay, but it still stands out a little bit in ourneighbourhood.
I'm justlike, why is it stillhere?
There are no trafficproblems.
Migration doesn'texist.
Youknow,like, air isfresh.
Everybody'shappy. It's just like thebathtub.
Well, we have a migrantpopulation.
The parking could definitely beimproved, but I don'tdrive, so I wouldn't talk aboutthis.
Sohere, the examiner will ask questions about your city orhometown.
So,Delicenna, where do youlive?
Do you live in a city or atown?
So, a city is bigger than atown.
Rory was talking about a city because he lives inDandy, which is what the fourth largestcity...
It's the fourth largest city inScotland.
Okay, so it's acity. It's also thebest?
No,no, it'snot. It's the best at the end ofScotland.
How would youknow?Well, Iknow.
I've never been toDandy, but Iknow.
I've been to Glasgow toEdinburgh.
I think Dandy is pretty muchsimilar.
No,no, it'snot. It's a horrible thing tosay.
Okay,anyway, I'm sure it'slovely.
Thankyou. Sohere, you can say that the cost of living is prettyreasonable.
So, the prices arereasonable.
They are nothigh, notlow.
They areokay. You can alsosay, I like good transport links to all majorcities.
Okay, so this is what I like about myplace.
So, a good transportation system or good transport links like connections to all majorcities.
Also, a variety of entertainmentvenues.
Vénuze meansplaces.So, a variety of funvenues.
And sports venues likegyms, swimmingpools, for alltastes.
Okay, so foreverybody.
And then Rory uses anidiom.
Within a stone's throw of thecentre.
Rory what does itmean?So, if it's within a stone'sthrow, it's just veryclose.
Could you give us another example with this about yourcity?
Yes, there's a shop that's within a stone's throw of myhouse.
There are severalactually.
So, within a stone's throw of thecentre.
Very close to thecentre.
And we say it ratherfast.
Rory say itagain. Likethis.
Within a stone's throw of the city'scentre.
Yeah, so careful with a stone'sthrow.
Yeah, repeated 50 timesdelis.
Within a stone's throw of the city'scentre.
What we don'tlike. You can say Idislike.
I can't standit. I hateit.
I can't stand like I reallydislike.
Forexample, people can be a bit much in terms of theirattitude.
Rory what do youmean?So, people in your city have a somethingattitude.
It's a much than it'soverwhelming.
What isoverwhelming? The attitude is like negativepositive.
Yeah, the way thatpeople...
Well, either way I'm talking about it rightnow.
It's a negative thing because people getvery, very passionate about mytown.
And it's place inScotland, even though it's a very small town compared to theothers.
And it is a great place tolive.
It's not like the best place in the world tolive.
And we shouldn't treat it like it's so amazing that nothing needs to befixed.
We should be thinkingcritically.
So people get passionate as theysay,like, then this is thebest.
It's everything's ideal and perfecthere.
Yes, that's about the just ofit.
So you cansay,like, we have ourissues.
Okay. But we should fixthem.
Andalso, the local council or the local administration could maintain theroads.
So could take care of theroads.
So kind of like gentleadvice.
Or kind of like asuggestion.
Orlike, you could improve theroads.
But we maintain theroads.
Like, maintain yourcar, maintain yourhouse.
Take care of your house or your car or theroads.
You can use the present perfect about your city inDielysna.
My city has changed in recent years or hasn'tchanged.
Or they have been changing lots ofthings.
And Rory here talked aboutwhat?
I talked about ourwaterfront, which is the part of the town that's next to the sea or next to theriver.
And I did use the presentperfect, but I said it has just beenthrough.
Which is also mixing it with a phrasal verb to go throughsomething, to be throughsomething.
Go through a majorredevelopment.
So forexample, the city center has just been through a majorredevelopment.
So they've changedit. They've improvedit.
Or you can saylike, our waterfront or ourembankment, embankment is this place next to the river where you canwalk,cycle,sun,bays.
So like the embankment has just been through someredevelopment.
Or someareas, some old areas have been throughredevelopments.
But if we want to talk about it in negativeterms, we could say some parts of the town have degenerated ordeteriorated.
And of course it's not just thewaterfront, you also have a citycenter.
Let me have the suburbs aswell.
Yeah, deteriorated like have becomeworse.
And what was anotherone?
Degenia.Degenerated.
What is an influx of foreign people inuniversities?
That just means that there's lots of people from abroad coming touniversities.
In my hometown there are twouniversities.
Most cities haveone. And of course just across the water or across theriver, a differentcounty.
There's anotheruniversity, a world famous university called StAndrews.
And lots of people go there aswell.
So we're getting lots and lots of people from all over the worldcoming, even more thanbefore.
Can I use this word aboutmigrants?
Well, youmight, although you probably want to talk about students in terms of theuniversities.
If you have migrant workerscoming, then that's to do withjobs.
But can I say like there has been a huge influx of migrants in mycity?
Yes, youcould. So lots of people from different countries move to mycity.
But it's important to point out thepronunciation.
It's notmigrants. It'smigrants.
Orimmigrants,right?Immigrants?
Migrants.Yeah, I used to know the difference between immigrants andmigrants.
And now I'm not really sure what it isanymore.
You can also say the population is morediverse.
So people are from all over theworld, forexample.
Deprived areas are poorareas.
So you can saylike, deprived areas havechanged.
Or haven'tchanged. The town has become moretouristy.
Or what hasn't become has become lesstouristy.
More buildings have beenconstructed.
You can say that I've been living here for a longtime, or I've just moved into thetown.
Or I've been living here all mylife, forexample.
I bought a house and it was ahassle.
So if it was ahassle, kindof,oh, I had somedifficulties.
Yeah, you had some difficulties while you imagined buying ahouse.
I might move to a bigger city in thefuture.
So Imight. Or you can use the secondconditional.
If I had moremoney, I'd move toLondon.
Or I might move to thesea.
But that's a long wayoff.
It means it's a long time fromnow.
Sometime in thefuture, I don't knowwhen.
It's a long wayoff. Or maybe nextyear, I'm moving if you've planned italready.
And my favorite role is answer is like what can be improved in yourarea.
And he just talks about gardens andbathtubs.
A bathtub is something we have in abathroom, tellus.
We have a bath in abathtub.
But there is some specific grammar forthis, what you would like to haveimproved.
I wish I wish pluswood. I wish peoplewould.
And then whatever you would like tohappen.
And ofcourse, the bathtub is a unique thing tome.
But to describe something that you don't like in yourarea, you can say it'suncycly.
It does not look verynice.
What could beuncycly? The bathtub in yourgarden.
Or just a building that's got damage that hasn't beenrepaired.
Or maybe there's too much litter on the streets or too muchtrash.
Here. And it looksuncycly.
Yes. And also thisstructure, I wish peoplewood.
It means that worry is annoyed byit.
He doesn't like it and he is prettyannoyed.
He'slike,eh, likethis.
So, I wish people would stop smoking in publicareas.
Because you breathe in all thissmoke.
So you're kind oflike, you areannoyed.
You really don't likeit.
So it's connected toworries,emotions, negativeemotions.
Yeah. It's notneutral.
Well, I wish you would stopcrying.
You would just cry all thetime.
Eh, like a smallbaby. So it kind of annoysme.
Yeah, you can saylike, I wish people would stoplittering, like dropping litter in thestreets, dropping all the McDonald'sbags.
I want you to McDonald'snow.
Burger and Frenchfries.
No,no,no,no,no. No free advertising for McDonald's unless they'repaying.
Okay,okay.No,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no, no To sayplease, Google information about yourplace.
Thank you very much for listening and we'll see you nexttime.
Bye bye What do you like most about yourcity?
Imean, what's not to like really the cost of living is quite reasonable We have good transport links to all the major cities in my country I had a variety of entertainment and sports venues for pretty much all tastes all of it is within a stone store of the city centre actually So that's pretty goodtoo.
Is there anything you don't like about your town orcity?
Sometimes people here can be a bit much in terms of the attitude like Dundee is the be all and end all of places Which it most certainly is not We have our issues and it would help if we focused on fixing them rather than all the pomp that goes on sometimesAlso, it would be great if the local council would maintain theroads.
Has your city changed much in recentyears?
Well, the waterfront area has just been through major redevelopments which is nice to see finished at last And there's been a huge influx of foreign people in universities so the population is more diverse than ever Aside from thatthough, especially in the more deprivedareas, not much has changed sadly Do you expect to continue living in this town for a longtime?
I thinkso. Imean, I just bought a house here and that was a hassle that I wouldn't like to repeat anytime soon I might move to a bigger city in the future but that's a long way off What can be improved in the area where youlive?
Well, I wish people would keep the front gardens of the tenement blocks in better condition Right now they're a bit overgrown andwell, what of them even has a bath to up init?
