Hello, everyone.
I'm Lorraine.
And my name is Rory, and we are the hosts of the IELTS 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 started this podcast to give you a look at how a native English speaker would answer some of the most common IELTS speaking questions.
I ask Rory questions and he gives answers using vocabulary and grammar for a high score.
Band 9 score.
Rory, are you watching the clock?
No, I'm not that bored.
Oh, we're gonna talk about boredom and getting bored today.
Okay, stay tuned.
Rory, we'll start off with speaking part two.
Oh, again?
Yes, again.
And could you tell the world what happens in speaking part two?
Of course.
So in speaking part two, the examiner will give you a piece of paper and explain that you have one minute to prepare some notes or some thoughts about your topic.
And then at the end of the minute, you will be asked to speak for one to two minutes about your topic.
I'm going to give Rory a topic which says describe an experience when you were with people and you got bored.
I chose this topic because one of our listeners, Irina Irina hello, if you're listening asked us to talk about boredom.
So, here you are, Irina, we're gonna talk about boredom.
Okay, Rory, are you ready?
Now you have one minute to prepare.
Rory, I'd like you to describe an experience when you were with people and you got bored.
Could you start speaking now, please?
Yes.
So, it was actually...
About two weeks ago or so, I was in a meeting at work and it wasn't really to decide anything major.
It was just to exchange some information.
So already I didn't see the point on being there.
And it didn't really help matters that we were in a small and cramped room in the office.
So that didn't really do anything to help my mood either.
I think I didn't get bored initially, because it's always nice at the start of the meeting when you see everyone and you're just welcoming people to the meeting and then you get down to business.
But, to be honest, as things progressed and we were just working through material that was completely irrelevant to me and I was waiting for my turn to speak and I kind of realized that I wasn't interested in what other people were saying.
Because I'd heard it all before and I just didn't have anything to contribute at that particular point.
So I was just bored.
I was paying attention to what people were saying, but there was nothing really to hang on to in the sense of anything that would catch my attention, for example, because if you've heard things before, then you're not really particularly interested in them.
Anyway, We got to the end of the meeting and I was quite happy to leave at that point, but I decided that in the future I would only have meetings when absolutely necessary, if there was some really new information to be presented.
Information can be exchanged in so many ways, but I feel like meetings are not the most efficient way to be honest with you, especially not when it's just old information being rehashed again and again.
It's not a good use of people's time, and I think it's important to value people's time, don't you?
Absolutely.
Rory, let's talk about boredom in general.
How often do you get bored?
Not too often, I suppose.
I suppose I'm too busy being buried under work, but it does happen from time to time.
What activity do you do when you are bored?
I suppose it depends what I'm doing at the time.
So, for example, it sounds weird, but sometimes I'm playing video games and I just get bored of playing them.
So if I get bored of playing video games, then I'll write.
But if I'm writing and I'm bored of writing, then I'll play video games.
And then, of course, the weapon of last resort in this sense is reading or going for a walk.
I quite like going for a walk, actually.
I like being around people.
Do you get bored more now compared to when you were younger?
I think so.
For example, when you're young, everything is a novelty, isn't it?
So obviously everything is new and exciting and interesting.
And I think actually, as people get older, they can fall into a kind of trap where they're constantly chasing that same experience of novelty, although it can't come back to you because you're not a child anymore.
I try to be more content with what I have now, but I still find myself getting more bored than when I was younger.
How do most people in your country deal with boredom?
I think they deal with it in the same way that a lot of other people do.
I think everyone's first stop in this day and age is probably social media.
I don't know why, because I don't have any social media myself, so I do not see why it's attractive, but it seems to be what everyone does.
He doesn't have a Facebook account.
I know, I'm boring, but such is life.
But, you know, social media is just one thing.
I also think that people in Scotland and everywhere else like to socialise more generally with their friends.
I personally find myself browsing the internet, and I think a lot of people do the same thing.
It's just random browsing.
There's not really any rhyme or reason behind it, to be honest with you.
Thank you, Rory, so much.
No problem.
Rory, when we talk about being bored, well, we say, like, I'm bored of doing something, right?
Absolutely.
Like, I'm bored of having pointless meetings.
Yes.
Or I'm getting bored.
When?
You can get bored.
And the noun is boredom.
Absolutely.
What synonyms can we use?
For example, at the beginning of the podcast, I asked you, what did I ask you?
Something about the clock?
Yeah, am I watching the clock?
Yeah, so to watch the clock.
What does it mean?
That's a nice one, huh?
It is, yeah, actually.
I hadn't realized it until just there.
But yeah, so like watching the clock is a great way to describe what you're doing when you're bored, or well.
One way of describing the feeling of being bored without being so rude as to say I'm bored.
Yeah, like I was in this lecture, I was watching the clock.
Absolutely.
Or what else can you say?
Can you say I tire of something?
Um, you could say that.
It's very formal, though, to tire of something, but why not?
Tire of doing something?
Can I say kids tire of playing with wooden toys?
Wooden toys are just not that interesting, are they?
So tie-off is formal.
But informally, what would I say to avoid saying get bored and off time?
Can I say I got fed up with this meeting?
Kind of, yeah.
It's more to do with a combination of boredom and frustration.
But we're talking about boredom, so why not include it in this?
Yeah, like I got fed up of the meeting.
You get fed up of... I was frustrated.
Yeah.
Which is a bit more formal, right?
Yeah.
And you maybe get fed up of me getting all the attention.
Oh, no, I get a lot of attention.
Oh, good.
Right, listeners?
Okay, good.
Thank you.
We can also say I was sick and tired of this lecture.
I do get sick and tired of things.
Right, yeah, so we're like sick and tired, so basically like off, like no more.
No more, basically, yeah.
Right.
But actually, if you say like, I was bored, it conveys this precise meaning of boredom.
Yeah, you can use synonyms, but it's something else, right?
Yeah, absolutely.
However, you know you're probably going to get well, you'll get bored of saying the word, bored all the time.
So why not mix it up with a few other things?
I mean, we can still understand the meaning when we use things, that even if it's slightly different, you can still get away with it.
You said that you didn't see the point in being there.
Yes.
Like, what's the point of doing it?
Yeah, what's the aim?
What's the purpose?
What's the point?
Yeah, I didn't see the point in being there.
And you were in a cramped room.
That's a very nice adjective, cramped.
So it's not the fact that the room is small it's cramped so it's difficult to move around.
You feel trapped almost.
You did use lots of past continuous tense forms.
For example, we were working on something, describing that meeting you were in.
I was waiting for my turn to speak.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
So all of these things are well background actions essentially to this wider story of how bored I was.
So whenever you want to talk about actions happening at the same time or in the background, then past continuous was and were plus ing your best bet.
Yes, I wasn't paying attention, or I was paying attention.
And then you said something like, there wasn't anything to hang on to.
Hang on to, right?
Yes.
What does it mean?
Well, usually we talk about hang on to something when we physically... hold on to something.
But you can also hang on to something in a conversation, like to keep yourself interested in what people are saying.
But of course, if nothing is provided to keep you interested, then it's difficult to hang on to the conversation.
So nothing caught my attention?
Absolutely.
You said something like rehash again.
That was a nice one.
What did you say it about?
Um, it's part of an expression.
Rehash things again and again.
It's just like repeatedly talking about the same thing.
But to be honest with you, rehash is again a much higher level piece of less common vocabulary which is much well more authentic, I suppose.
And it's better than just saying repeat, repeat, repeat again and again and again.
Yeah, you can say like the meeting was dull, boring, because we were rehashing things.
Absolutely.
When you spoke about boredom, you said that the weapon of last resort Yes.
Is the Internet right for you?
The weapon of last resort.
Last resort?
Yeah.
So well, an expression like weapon of last resort is like the weapon that you would use when the situation is like really really dire, really bad.
So for a lot of countries, their weapon of last resort is like nuclear weapons, for example.
But it's the very last weapon that a country will ever use to defend itself.
So the last thing I use to defend myself from boredom is going for a walk or reading, for example.
I always find that the best way of well, the best way of fixing the problem generally.
But there are other steps to take before that.
Yeah, you can go for a walk or browse the internet, socialize with people, you said.
Also you mentioned, some people fall into a trap of a trap.
When we want to catch a bear and we organize a trap, the bear falls into the trap.
And it can't escape.
Yes.
Yes.
In the same way, you can fall into well, you're talking about a physical trap, but you can fall into a mental trap as well, which is when you keep doing something that's not going to work or you do something that is really going to harm you.
Yeah, fall into a trap.
You talked about chasing the experience of novelty.
Yeah.
Novelty is something new, right?
Novelty, new things.
But like chase the experience of novelty.
When we chase something, we kind of like run. for it, right?
Absolutely.
So it's like following something closely like you want to get this thing.
To chase the experience of novelty.
And the last one, which is a really good one, rhyme and reason, right?
Yeah.
So it's just a way of talking about the purpose.
Usually the expression is to do something with no rhyme or reason.
So it just means that there's no pattern and no purpose behind it.
It's one of these things.
It's always rhyme or reason.
It's not reason or rhyme.
It always goes in the pattern of rhyme or reason.
Could you give us a sentence?
Yeah, sure.
Things just continued with no rhyme or reason.
Dear listeners, now you can listen to Rory's answers again, and this time notice all the adjectives, all the grammar structures and vocabulary he's just used for high school okay.
Rory, I'd like you to describe an experience when you were with people and you got bored.
Could you start speaking now, please?
Yes.
So, it was actually...
About two weeks ago or so, I was in a meeting at work and it wasn't really to decide anything major.
It was just to exchange some information.
So already I didn't see the point on being there.
And it didn't really help matters that we were in a small and cramped room in the office.
So that didn't really do anything to help my mood either.
I think I didn't get bored initially, because it's always nice at the start of the meeting when you see everyone and you're just welcoming people to the meeting and then you get down to business.
I just didn't have anything to contribute at that particular point.
So I was just bored.
I was paying attention to what people were saying, but there was nothing really to hang on to in the sense of anything that would catch my attention, for example, because if you've heard things before, then you're not really particularly interested in them.
Anyway.
We got to the end of the meeting and I was quite happy to leave at that point, but I decided that in the future I would only have meetings when absolutely necessary, if there was some really new information to be presented.
Information can be exchanged in so many ways, but I feel like meetings are not the most efficient way to be honest with you, especially not when it's just old information being rehashed again and again.
It's not a good use of people's time, and I think it's important to value people's time, don't you?
Absolutely.
Rory, let's talk about boredom in general.
How often do you get bored?
Not too often, I suppose.
I suppose I'm too busy being buried under work, but it does happen from time to time.
What activity do you do when you are bored?
Um, I suppose it depends what I'm doing at the time.
So, for example, it sounds weird, but sometimes I'm playing video games and I just get bored of playing them.
So if I get bored of playing video games, then I'll write.
But if I'm writing and I'm bored of writing, then I'll play video games um, and then, of course, the weapon of last resort in this sense is reading or going for a walk.
I quite like going for a walk actually, i like being around people.
Do you get bored more now compared to when you were younger?
I think so.
For example, when you're young, everything is a novelty, isn't it?
So obviously everything is new and exciting and interesting.
And I think actually, as people get older, they can fall into a kind of trap where they're constantly chasing that same experience of novelty, although it can't come back to you because you're not a child anymore.
I try to be more content with what I have now, but I still find myself getting more bored than when I was younger.
How do most people in your country deal with boredom?
I think they deal with it in the same way that a lot of other people do.
I think everyone's first stop in this day and age is probably social media.
I don't know why, because I don't have any social media myself, so I do not see why it's attractive, but it seems to be what everyone does.
It doesn't have a Facebook account.
I know I'm boring, but such is life.
But, you know, social media is just one thing.
I also think that people in Scotland and everywhere else like to socialize more generally with their friends.
I personally find myself browsing the internet and I think a lot of people do the same thing.
It's just random browsing.
There's not really any rhyme or reason behind it, to be honest with you.
Dear listeners, thank you very much.
We wish you to have rhymes and reasons.
And not get bored.
Bye.
Bye.
