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Hello, lovely. I'm Maria.
My name is Rory and we are the host of the IELTS Speaking for Success Podcast.
The podcast that aims to help you improve your speaking skills as well as your listening skills all on the way.
We started this podcast to give you gorgeous grandma and fabulous vocabulary for your high-IELTS score.
Your bad-night score. Oh, Rory, Rory, Rory, Rory, Rory, Rory.
It's a special day for your Rory, isn't it?
It is, yes. It's my birthday and this episode will be released two days after my birthday.
Happy birthday dear Rory.
The Rory is the Rory of all Rorries.
I can't believe that I'm going to be 21 again.
Again, 21. Every year Rory turns 21, Dillisna.
Me too, by the way. I'm always 21.
Yeah, it's magic. Isn't that a brand for every 21?
Sorry what? I think it's a brand.
However, if we're not advertising for them, let's talk about birthdays.
What do you usually do on your birthday?
I mean, I don't think I've had a normal birthday for the last 10 years, frankly.
One thing they've all had in common is that I've had a party with different friends.
But who, the where and the what of it all changes every year?
What did you do on your birthday when you were a child?
The same thing is most people in my country we had a party with cake and party games.
It's all very run of the mill stuff, really.
Nothing particularly exciting.
Is it important for you to celebrate your birthday?
It's important for me to be with my friends, so a birthday is just another ideal excuse for that.
Otherwise, I'm not really fast to be honest.
It's just another day of the year.
Because birthday, do you think is the most important to celebrate in your country?
Hmm. Well, good question.
I honestly couldn't say birthdays are such a personal thing, and there are so many people you could choose.
Some people think it should be their birthday, and other people think it's their mother's birthday, because mothers have a special place in people's hearts.
But I don't think there's a hard and fast rule about this, at least not in my culture.
How do children celebrate birthdays in your country?
That's a good question.
I haven't been to a child's birthday party in my entire life.
Now I think about it. I would imagine, though, that it's probably much more extravagant than the ones that I had.
I think kids are exposed to much more materialism these days.
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CoffeeMate is the world's biggest coffee lover.
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Wait, wait. CoffeeMate can't love coffee more than me.
I'm a foodie. I went to Kyoto just for a nightro matcha latte.
What? Oh, I have to finish to add.
CoffeeMate for the love of coffee.
It's my party and I never want to cry if I want to.
So our birthday, Roy, do you listen?
Roy, how old are you? 21.
Ah, yeah, 21. Ah, okay, you're 21.
Hey, if you want to know how old I am, they can message me on my Instagram or something like that.
Yuh, call to Roy's Instagram and just bombat him with questions.
Unbother me with requests for my age.
Send me the copy of your passport.
So we celebrate our birthdays and we do something on our birthdays, do you listen?
Because on this day, on my birthday, my birthday.
So we say I was born on the 6th of May in like 1990.
That's a good point though.
You should probably practice how to say the dates of things.
Like I was born on the 6th or I was born on the 8th.
Because I think in some countries and cultures, they just say a number.
They don't say the numerical form.
They'd say like the 8th of May or May 8th.
They don't say the 8th. And that's a good thing for pronunciation.
Yeah, in English, we say I was born on the 1st, on the 12th of May.
What's the most difficult one to say in Russian?
Oh, sorry, what's the most difficult one to say if you're a Russian speaker, like the 13th.
It is like a 30th, but also it's true for other speakers.
Yeah, 13th and 30th are hard.
Yeah, the 5th 10th, 13th, 13th, 13th.
Make sure you practice this.
That's important. Yeah.
And so we say do things on your birthday and I was given a present on my birthday, for my birthday or at my birthday.
Well, you not at my birthday, at my birthday party, to describe the place, but I was given a present for my birthday or on my birthday, usually.
Without a present, have you given me, Maria?
I'm your present. I knew you were.
I knew you would say I'm giving you the gift of my presents.
Exactly. I kind of, I think of you every day.
I'm sending you positive vibes.
Think of different ways to kill me every day.
Kill me. Kill me softly with my love.
So present perfect, you know, I've had a normal birthday or I haven't had a normal birthday in the last 10 years.
And, Maria, being normal, says I've had a normal birthday.
I haven't had a normal birthday.
Ah, yeah, like I don't think I've had a normal birthday.
So, but what is a normal birthday?
A normal birthday party.
I think a normal birthday, people usually have either with their friends or with their family, and it's a party with Kate and songs and games, or some celebration.
But in my case, I mean, I'm thinking about my, I'm trying to think about what I did for my last first day.
What did you do? I can't remember what I did for my last first day.
Ah, so you got so drunk, you can't even remember.
I see. No, no, I don't think I, I think I, oh my God, I remember.
I was, someone very nice, who shall remain nameless, paid for an extremely expensive hotel and champagne in one of the larger cities in my country.
So that was very nice. And thank you, you know who you are.
And then the birthday before that, ha, ha, ha.
The birthday before that I was teaching in a primary school and it was one of the worst days of my life.
So you see, these two things are very different experiences.
Yes, do you listen to it?
So you can say like I usually have a normal birthday, or I don't think I have a normal birthday.
And my birthday parties do have something in common, so they're kind of the same.
I usually have a party with friends, but like the place changes every year.
As a child, I used to do this and that.
We had a party with cake, a canned party game.
We would have a party with cake.
Yeah, so you can say we would have a party with cake, which means I had a party with cake.
It was a regular thing, like every year.
I had a party with cake, so as a child, I would have a party with cake.
We would play party games.
But now you can say like I can't pick out anything significant.
So pick out shoes, okay?
And if you usually do ordinary stuff, you can say all very run of the mill stuff, run of the mill, which means like ordinary nothing special.
Could you give us another sentence with run of the mill?
My fashion sense is pretty run of the mill, especially in comparison to Maria.
There's nothing very extravagant or flamboyant about it.
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We can say that it's important for me to celebrate my birthday or my friends' birthdays.
I'm not really fast, to be honest.
This is a good expression, which means I don't bother not really important.
I celebrate it, but I'm not really fast.
Some people make, I don't know, they are obsessed with the birthday.
It's like a massive party and they plan it for a year.
Some people make a huge deal of their birthdays.
Yeah, or you can say, I make a huge deal out of my birthday.
Or I'm not really fast. Like, I have a party, but I don't really care.
And you know, Rory, this year, I celebrate my birthday and I got into hospital.
It was one of the worst moments in my life, can you imagine?
Were you partying too hard?
No, like my body was spiting too hard way before my birthday.
So, Dalyse, stay healthy.
OK, especially for your birthday and the night after your birthday and just every day.
Then a strange question.
Whose birthday in your country is it important to celebrate?
Yeah, I never got that question.
I was like, what do you mean?
Like, is there a special birthday that everybody celebrates?
Yeah, let's think about it.
Maybe like some famous people and they celebrate their birthdays.
Maybe like, president, but not really.
Maybe the birthday of your city.
Oh, there you go. But the question is, who's birthday?
So maybe like parents. Like my birthday, my parents' birthday, my friends' birthday, my relatives' birthday.
OK, Dalyse, now maybe you have your favorite grandmother.
Allegedly or apparently the king's birthday is celebrated in this country, which I didn't know about until somebody mentioned it to me.
And it's like, really? So I wonder if you are from a place like Thailand or Japan where you have a monarch or an emperor.
Do you have a day off for their birthday?
I don't think so. Maybe they do.
Yes, Dalyse, now you can say like, we usually celebrate our monarch's birthday so queen or king's birthday.
With national celebrations and it's a national holiday or a day off.
OK. Do you have anything like that in Russia?
No. I think you have like Russia day, which is the day that Russia got its constitution.
That's kind of like a birthday for the country.
You also celebrate our city's birthday, like Moscow's birthday.
And Dalyse, now children these days are materialistic.
OK, so they are in some materialism, some material values like both phones.
Well, I don't think the children are.
I think they're exposed to it.
It'd be very difficult to encounter a child that was like, yeah, I'm very into my things.
But I think parents often confuse being a good parent with having lots of stuff for their children.
So you can say that children's birthday parties these days are more extravagant than they used to be.
Extravagant and usual.
Because they do crazy things, these children and the materialism.
Like what did you say they kind of have turned to materialism?
They're exposed to materialism more these days.
I would say so anyway. This is what I see on the internet.
I don't know if it's true or not.
I hope it's not true. And also you can say that I haven't been to a child's birthday my entire life, like my whole life, all my life.
I've never been to a child's birthday.
That might be a bit of an exaggeration.
My entire adult life, I haven't been to them when I was a child obviously.
But like as an adult, why would I go?
I don't have my own children.
Or you can say that I've recently been to a child's birthday and it was this and that.
Children were absolutely crazy.
Right, Dalysnah, are we ready for a birthday joke from Maria?
Rory is super excited. Rory, this joke is like a nice present for you.
What type of birthday cake do monsters eat?
Ice cream cake. Dalysnah, did you get that?
So ice cream cake, monsters, when you see a monster you scream and you eat ice cream.
Rory is it funny? Are you laughing?
Your head also? I'm laughing politely.
Right. Happy birthday Rory.
We love you. We hug you. Okay, we are happy to have you.
Yes, Dalysnah, all our listeners agree.
I hope so. But even if you don't, hopefully our episode gave you some nice vocabulary to help you out.
A gift on my birthday from me to you.
Happy birthday to us. Bye bye.
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What do you usually do on your birthday?
I mean, I don't think I've had a normal birthday for the last 10 years.
Frankly, one thing they've all had in common is that I've had a party with different friends.
But who, the where and the what of it all changes every year.
What did you do on your birthday when you were a child?
The same thing is, most people in my country, we had a party with cake and party games.
It's all very run-of-the-mill stuff, really.
Nothing particularly exciting.
Is it important for you to celebrate your birthday?
It's important for me to be with my friends, so a birthday is just another ideal excuse for that.
Otherwise, I'm not really fussed to be honest.
It's just another day of the year.
Who's birthday do you think is the most important to celebrate in your country?
Hmm. Well, good question.
I honestly couldn't say.
Birthdays are such a personal thing and there are so many people you could choose.
Some people think it should be their birthday and other people think it's their mother's birthday because mothers have a special place in people's hearts.
But I don't think there's a hard and fast rule about this, at least not in my culture.
How do children celebrate birthdays in your country?
That's a good question.
I haven't been to a child's birthday party in my entire life.
Now I think about it. I would imagine though that it's probably much more extravagant than the ones that I had.
Kids are exposed to much more materialism these days.
