Hello Sunshine, I'm Maria.
My name is Rory and we are the hosts of the IOT 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've started this podcast to give you gorgeous grandma, fabulous vocabulary and good
boo-hoo-ood.
I, Rory, we've had a break, are you ready to restart and work and record?
Yeah, it'll be like riding a bike.
Oh, riding a bike, let's talk about riding bicycles and cycling, delisene, yes, in
speaking but one, they can ask you questions about riding a bike and cycling.
Do you like cycling?
I certainly used to and probably would if I did it again.
It's difficult to do in a city though, there's lots of traffic on the roads so it makes
it very difficult.
How often do you ride a bicycle?
Hardly ever these days to be honest, I live in the middle of a city so there's not much
need to hop on a bike.
If I ever live in the countryside again though it'll be a completely different story.
Like I said, there's just not much need now.
Did you have a bike when you were a child?
Yeah, I remember it was like a status symbol to have a bike with the highest number of
gears although unfortunately my poultry six didn't quite cut it.
I used to go out on them all the time, all the way up until high school I think.
When was the last time you used your bicycle?
Well, I got shot of my old one in April 2023 just before I moved so probably way before
that maybe in September 2022 so a long time ago.
There was a pretty sorry site to be honest with you, the chain was coming off and I think
I don't think the gears worked very well and the handlebars were quite loose so whoever
I sold it to I think they got a pretty raw deal.
Is it difficult to learn to ride a bike?
Well, if you start off sensibly enough with like a tricycle and then onto stabilizers
and then moving further or down the road to being able to balance it by yourself then
I don't think it's that difficult.
Admittedly though I had a little bit of difficulty working my hands and legs simultaneously but
I got the hang of it in the end.
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So do you listen to cycling and people who cycle?
Cyclists.
So you can say oh I enjoy cycling, I enjoy riding a bicycle or a bike.
And I'm an amateur cyclist.
Can you say that Rory?
If I enjoy cycling I'm an amateur cyclist.
I don't think it's an amateur cyclist, maybe an avid cyclist if you really enjoy it and
you do it all the time.
You do get professional cyclists though but I don't think you really get amateur cyclists
because so many people ride bikes.
It's such a common thing that you wouldn't really get people trying to do it semi professionally.
Evid cyclists.
So if you are into cycling, if you ride your bike every day or if you just enjoy it you
can say I'm an avid cyclist like I'm an enthusiastic cyclist.
Also if you don't just say it.
Even if you don't lie, it will be fine.
Do like cycling.
Oh yes I'm an avid cyclist.
Oh yes I'm a very avid cyclist all the time, me cycling.
This was a difficult one for me actually because I hardly cycle at all or well I hardly
ever cycle at all these days.
There's like I say there was no need.
If it's true about you you can say I used to cycle so in my childhood I used to cycle
and then the second conditional delisner.
So I would enjoy it if I lived in the countryside for example or I would enjoy cycling if I
lived in Amsterdam.
Or I would enjoy it if I did it again but I don't plan to.
The second conditional.
Is it the second conditional?
Oh amazing look at me using the conditionals.
Yeah this traffic on the road to the proposition there's too much traffic on the roads that's
why I prefer cycling.
Although can we linger with on the road for a moment because I discovered something the
other day one of my students was getting confused between the difference of in the road and
on the road.
So if they're in the road it's like they occupy the closed space of the road but if they're
on the road if the traffic is on the road then it's in contact with the surface.
Both of them are correct but it's a small difference in meaning.
Roy what about Scotland and where you live do people cycle there?
People do yeah it's ironic actually we were walking the dog the other day and there
was somebody cycling on a path that said please do not cycle on this path.
So yes people are very keen on it so keen that they will break the rules completely.
And do people cycle to work?
I used to know someone that did that but I think these days it's not a very common thing
mostly because people live so far away from their workplaces it's not well it's impractical
it's not practical it's not feasible to do.
How often do you do it is a very common question so hardly ever like almost never or you can
say rarely if you can pronounce it rarely like also almost never or frequently often once
a week twice a week so really hardly ever cycles you can lie about this okay maybe a cycle
everyday as an avid cyclist like hey cycling up hill down hill and then the second
conditional again DLSN if I lived in the countryside so if I lived in the countryside
but Roy doesn't it would be or I would cycle everyday okay I don't I'm in a setting
now or you can say it's easy to get around using a bicycle so it's easy to get around
your area on a bike so it's on a bike right or by bike and how do you get on a bike you
hop on a bike so it's easier to hop on a bike and get to work so hop on a bike but I
say travel by bike or travel on a bike I mean I would say I go by bike but some people
can say they travel on a bike and it's just as valid it's just not very common that's
all yeah usually we say travel by bicycle or I use a bicycle to get to work.
Yeah or I go to work by bike like by car by taxi by metro by bike a bicycle can be a
status symbol status like your status you know symbol yeah like a Gucci bag or what oh
anything expensive maybe an expensive phone is a status symbol for example I'll at least
amongst a lot of people these days bikes are pretty expensive these days and if you have
this you know whoa an amazing bicycle which costs I don't know like a car so oh yes like
for me it's like a status symbol a bicycle has gears yes you know on the things like you
change gears I change gears now what kind of gears do we have this is amazing because I it occurred
to me even when I was younger people used to talk about the number of gears their bike had as if
it was this amazing thing but to this day I still don't actually understand what a gear is
and what it does my guess would be it increases your ability to move as the as the incline of
the road gets steeper but I don't know much about gears to be honest with you it was the same
with cars we talked about it with cars and I still don't know what it does I know you have to
change them but what does that mean no idea Rory is not an avid cyclist so you can say my bicycle
has six gears or the more the better yeah with like a bike with the most gears so you mean
that a bicycle with many gears yes some kids used to have bikes with 16 gears or 32 and I know
reflecting on it think what was the point in that we all lived in the suburbs what we weren't going
up any mountains or anything like that so it was all just to see who could have the biggest number
it doesn't make sense it's just something people say to look good my poultry poultry on the subject
of the number of gears poultry just means not that much compared to other people so my poultry
six gears means I didn't have that many gears compared to other people which was sad at the time
but looking back on it I'm so glad my parents didn't waste money on something so completely
frivolous would you give us an example with poultry well if you have very low wages then maybe you make
a poultry five dollars an hour that's quite low I think at least it's definitely low for this
country it might even be illegal and poultry is an adjective it is so poultry about the amount
of money for example very small very little for example student grants these days are poultry
so like very little or a poultry sum sum of money so like a small sum of money or for example
she made some poultry excuse like nail or quality like lame excuse what else can we use poultry with
like a strange word poultry it's not that strange it just means not much yeah like for example so
about money I would say it's got a very negative connotation it's not used to mean something positive
you wouldn't say for example a writing or speaking check with success by odds is a poultry 999 if
you check out the link in the description no it's a very well priced 999 yes a little bit of
advertising there or I paid a poultry sum for your premium episodes so just like a small sum
of money for the premium episodes the link is in the description yeah but it's it makes it
siren like it's not worth much whereas it is worth a lot okay okay that's where the negativity comes in
oh no no so we can't use poultry about our premium because our premium is pretty much quality
the best quality ever so it's competitively priced oh yes I got shot of my old bicycle before I
moved out I think that might be a little bit colloquial for iots to be honest with you most people
would say I got rid of if you get shot of something it means the same thing it's like to remove it
from your life yeah very informal but again it's possible right so I got rid of my bicycle and I
sold it or I threw it away or I got shot of my old bicycle and Roy doesn't use bicycle he said
I got shot of my old one one bicycle and what do we call that when we replace one word with another
like that referencing yes and if you want to learn about referencing sign up for my classes the
link is in the description so wait before that like long ago and Roy stressed way before how did
you do it so way before that so like a long time ago way way so like yeah it's a very long time
ago I owe that to my one my students actually we were looking at idioms for emphasis and ways
to emphasize things and this was one of the examples or it's close to one of the examples that
came up so it reminded me that I should probably try to use this a little bit more so we should
probably do an episode on that idioms for emphasis just thinking about it and they were banned
nine level idioms so there you go so you can say I used to ride a bicycle way before I went to school
way my old bicycle was a pretty sorry site yeah so if it's a sorry site it's a it's a mess basically
my garden was a sorry site before I had it tidy up my bike was a sorry site before I sold it
that's kind of why I sold it because it was just a mess or maybe the bicycle you have today is a
sorry site so you can say oh yeah I have an all-by-scone was a pretty sorry site to be honest with you
to be honest with you and then specific ben 9 vocabulary the bars are loose the handlebars
that the things that you hold on to the bars not the bar like a pub the bars the handlebars
were loose loose like literally and they were not tight speaking of drinking and cycling do you
know if you rode a bike and you're drunk and you kill somebody in the UK do you know what the
maximum penalty is or was maybe it's changed now oh what it used to be just like a 1,000 pound fine
and that was all a sign yeah you could kill someone riding a bike and it would be totally fine
well I mean no pun intended but yeah you wouldn't have to pay that much I'm pretty sure they changed
the law now though because there were some really famous cases and now it's much the harsher
the punishment is much archer and we are continuing with specific vocabulary about bicycles
Rory mentioned a tricycle it's like when there are three people no no a tricycle has three wheels
so there's like one at the front and then two at the back to stabilize it to keep it
balanced some people prefer a tandem bicycle so a tandem bicycle like two people and one bicycle
right tandem yes yes a tandem have you written a tandem before no never so how do you use it like
I prefer riding a tandem bicycle or I prefer tandem bicycles well I mean the what is about the
activity and what is about the physical objects the bike but they're both used for the same thing
unless you're collecting them for some reason what are stabilizers ah okay so a tricycle is designed
to have three wheels but a bicycle only has two however if you're learning to ride one and you're
very young and you don't have a good sense of balance stabilizers are extra wheels that you add
on the back and they keep the bike level and you well work with them until you're ready to not
work with them anymore and then you remove them and you're free to go yeah so you can say that
for people who don't have a sense of balance it could be difficult to what to be balanced on a
bicycle or to stabilize the bicycle by yourself yes yeah to stabilize stabilize stabilize the
bicycle by yourself they can use stabilizers so the bicycle stays level level like no to walk
globally but like level and it could be difficult to work my legs and hands simultaneously well in my
case it was difficult to work the brakes and the brakes are the things that you press when on the
handlebars and they slow the bike down but it was difficult for me to do this and also do everything
else at the same time so it took me some time to learn how to do that and lots of crashes in the
meantime work the brakes you can also pump the brakes but that just means to squeeze them like with
your hand yeah because you usually what do you do you just like turn the handlebar and then your
brake right I don't think you're even turned the handlebar I think you just squeeze the brakes and
bring it to a stop and balance on your legs that's what I would do oh yeah you squeeze oh yeah there's
a little handle see how you just you pump the brakes can also mean to squeeze them rapidly several times
mm-hmm and what else can we say we push the brake you push the brake on a in a car yeah but that's
because there's the pushing action pumping is like both parts of the hand but on a bicycle you
could but it's not the first one you squeeze the brakes or you pump them on a bike squeeze the
brakes or pump the brakes gelisna so it was difficult for me to work the brakes like to work with
the brakes on a bicycle or you have to squeeze the brakes pump the brakes at the right moment I
got the hang of it really quickly to get the hang of something to start being good at it so it
was difficult for me to learn how to ride a bicycle but then I got the hang of it what else
can we use it with like I got the hang of cooking I got the hang of writing an essay Rory what about
you I didn't get the hang of cooking I'm gonna tell you that right now I got the hang of
well teaching English after a few years dealis now do you know what's the hardest part of learning
how to ride a bicycle the pavement I said joke the paper dealis now when you learn how to ride
a bicycle you might fall over you just start again and the payment is pretty hard is this hard
surface the pavement the road so it's just a base pavement it's the hardest part
can I give them something that's less hard to do okay right so our reflection task for this
episode is remembering so I need you to remember three phrases or three bits of vocabulary that
we discussed and I want you to write them in sentences in the comments if you're watching us on
YouTube or you can send them to be on Instagram if you're listening to us on any of the podcast
outlets and I'll give you a little bit of feedback on them when you do let us know what you think
about bicycles I reckon bicycles are great because you you dealis now are the engine of your bicycle
you just control everything so would you like bicycles you like cycling me personally I
traveled by bicycle for about four months in Europe and different countries like that was an
interesting experience would you like to do that maybe you traveled by bicycle before do you have
an expensive bicycle ride in the comments and use some of the vocabulary we've just told you about
okay but it's time for us to ride off now bye bye do you like cycling I certainly used to
and I probably would divide it again it's difficult to do in a city though there's lots of
traffic on the roads so it makes it very difficult how often do you ride a bicycle I'd layer
these days to be honest I live in the middle of a city so there's not much need to hop on a bike
if I ever live in the countryside again though it'll be a completely different story like I said
there's just not much need now did you have a bike when you were a child yeah I remember it was
like a a status symbol to have a bike with the highest number of gears although unfortunately
my poultry six didn't quite cut it I used to go on them all the time all the way up until
until high school I think when was the last time you used your bicycle well I've got shot of
my old one in April that April 2023 just before I moved so probably way before that maybe in
September 2022 so a long time ago it was a pretty sorry site to be honest with you the chain was
coming off and I think I don't think the gears worked very well and the handlebars were quite loose
so whoever I sold it to I think they got a pretty raw deal is it difficult to learn to ride a bike
well if you start off sensibly enough with like a tricycle and then onto stabilizers and then
moving further or down the road to being able to balance it by yourself then I don't think it's
that difficult admittedly though I had a little bit of difficulty working my hands and legs
simultaneously but I got the hang of it in the end
