Hello, everyone.
I'm Maria.
And my name is Rory, and we are the hosts of the IELTS Speaking for Success podcast, the podcast that aims to help you develop your speaking skills, as well as your listening skills, along the way.
We started this super podcast to give you a look at how a native, super-duper English speaker would answer some of the most common IELTS speaking questions.
I ask questions, Rory is answering them using good grammar and high-level vocabulary.
Rory, it's my turn to crack a joke now, so I have a riddle for you.
Black as the devil, hot as hell.
Pure as an angel, sweet as love.
What is it, Rory?
Are we going to talk about coffee?
Yes, we are talking about coffee.
Dear listeners, we are going to celebrate our true unconditional love for coffee.
Now, I have something to tell the world.
Dear ladies, behind every successful woman is a substantial amount of coffee.
And behind every successful man is a woman with a substantial amount of coffee.
Now Rory, before we start this IELTS speaking, coffee questions.
Could you tell us are you a coffee expert or like?
Why should we trust your opinion on coffee?
Well, until recently I wasn't a coffee expert, but I recently started drinking quite a lot of it and going to different coffee shops.
So maybe I'm not a connoisseur, but I can give people some advice about coffee and talk about it at length.
But would you be like when you take your cup of coffee?
Would you go something in the lines of hmm, this coffee has a crisp, bright flavor with subtle hints of rich chocolate?
No, I think I would be grateful that it was just waking me up.
Ah, so you are one of these people for who you know, a bad cup of coffee is better than no coffee at all.
Yeah, but I rarely have a bad cup of coffee, so it's not such a problem for me.
Lovely.
Rory, do people in your country like to drink coffee or tea?
Well, I think there's this sort of stereotype of people in Britain drinking lots of tea.
And we cultivate that stereotype to some extent.
But coffee seems no more or less popular than tea.
They're kind of equal, actually.
If we're more specific...
Scottish tea seems to have a particular flavour and is quite popular in Scotland.
So maybe there it's more popular than coffee.
But I think in general, for the whole of the UK, they're on the same level, to be honest.
Which do you prefer drinking, tea or coffee?
Well, up until recently, I might have said tea.
However, I haven't actually had a cup of tea in quite some time.
I used to drink tea religiously, but then I switched.
I met my partner and we drink a lot of coffee together.
So that's been one of the recent changes in my life.
Can you say that your life begins after coffee?
Absolutely.
Actually, it's part of my morning ritual at the weekend.
So only after coffee you have this ability to speak in full sentences, Rari?
Definitely.
After a hard week and then I spend the weekend kind of recovering.
I need coffee to kind of function in the morning.
I like the taste.
It's quite sharp since it's black and since I only drink it with milk preserves the taste, so it really wakes me up.
So you drink coffee, like black coffee, regular coffee?
Yeah, usually it's like Americano or cappuccino style, but I don't usually have sugar in it.
I don't think that's very good for me.
Rory, do you sometimes go out for a coffee or tea?
I go out for coffee, definitely.
Usually, when I was drinking coffee, I drank it at home.
It's not really something I would go out and drink.
But definitely, people go out for coffee in general, and I'm one of them.
I fit into that trend.
Wait, wait.
So, when you used to drink tea, you would take it at home?
Yeah, uh-huh.
Whereas now with coffee, I buy into this kind of coffee culture where people go out and have coffee.
I think it's healthier than drinking culture.
When did you last drink coffee or tea?
Actually, it was just before we started doing this podcast.
I went to have coffee with one of my friends and it was just down the road.
So it was convenient for the both of us.
It was probably a bit of a mistake though, because I'm a bit wired from the coffee now, but such is life.
Does coffee help you to unwind, to calm your nerves?
Not quite.
The effects are well.
It doesn't make me hyperactive so much, but it definitely makes me more energetic.
So it wouldn't do much to set my mind at ease, or ease my nerves at all.
Would you offer tea or coffee to someone who visited your home?
I have a story about this, actually.
Would you like to hear it?
Yes.
Well, my aunt, when she was younger, she was living with my grandmother.
And they had a guest around for just for lunch.
And so my aunt being quite old fashioned, this was decades and decades ago in the 60s.
So whenever an older person would come around, you would offer them something.
And she spoke to the visitor and she said, oh, would you like tea or would you like coffee?
And the visitor replied in a really condescending way, saying, Nancy.
It's coffee in the morning and tea in the afternoon.
So I think for some people, there are definitely some rules about this.
So I would say for older people, if they came to visit me then I would definitely offer them coffee in the morning and tea in the afternoon.
Five o'clock tea.
But yes, I should say that's probably not something you want to say quite widely.
It's a bit of a rude thing to say.
You should just say what you want rather than lecture people about their manners.
Wow.
That's a good story.
Thank you.
Rory, let's go over the vocabulary you've just used, yeah?
Coffee.
When you describe coffee, you mentioned like a sharp flavor, right?
Yes, and like uh, coffee has a flavor right, taste right, but also the aroma it does.
Yeah um, we can add that in.
We should mention, though taste can apply to many different things.
It can apply to, well, how anything tastes, really.
But if we want to talk about flavour, then we're really talking about food and drink here.
So it's much more topic-specific vocabulary.
Yes.
And we can say that coffee has a sharp taste.
It does.
Or flavor.
Or it's bitter.
Yes.
Bitter.
Sweet.
If you have it with sugar, yes.
Soft, for example.
I prefer soft coffee or mild.
If you don't like strong coffee, then it's soft.
Yeah, like me, for example.
I prefer, you know, my latte or cappuccino.
Oh, okay.
So I prefer, like, mild coffee, right?
Can I say mellow?
Mellow taste.
You could talk about the taste being mellow, but you could also talk about how that makes you feel, if it calms you down.
Like I'm in a very mellow mood because I had my coffee.
Yeah, this is like a bad nine vocab here.
So I prefer smooth and mellow coffee.
And about aroma, we can talk about, oh, I really enjoy flowery aroma.
I think that might apply more for tea, but you could maybe have it with coffee too, but I don't think that's so usual.
What about like citrus?
For coffee or for tea?
For coffee.
Maybe.
There's lots of different combinations and kinds.
Nutty, nutty.
Nutty coffee, for sure.
From nuts, right?
So I really enjoy this nutty aroma or smoky.
No, chocolate tea, right?
So I prefer chocolate tea.
Yeah, if you have a mocha, that's got a chocolate flavor.
Me too.
It's not good for you, though.
It's got so many calories.
Oh, that's true.
Or you can actually take regular coffee.
So regular coffee would be...
I think regular coffee is just black, isn't it?
No sugar, no... Americano, maybe.
Americano, right.
Coffee could be also decaffeinated.
It can be if caffeine makes you nervous or anxious, then you have the choice, decaffeinated coffee.
Right, and coffee contains caffeine.
It does, yeah.
Right, so we say caffeine.
Can I say decaf?
I prefer decaf.
Yeah, absolutely.
Like to shorten the word, caffeinated is far too long.
What about instant coffee?
I don't drink instant coffee because I have taste.
Right.
So some of you may turn your nose up at instant coffee.
And if you don't like instant coffee, then you're right.
Instant coffee is the devil.
Don't drink it.
No, maybe sometimes instant coffee could be good when, I don't know, you're on holiday and there's no coffee at all.
In a hostel in the middle of woods.
You shouldn't go on holiday anywhere where they don't have real coffee.
Come on.
Yes, humanity runs on coffee.
Real coffee.
Real coffee, right.
You said that I've become a coffee connoisseur.
Well, maybe not.
Vous parlez français, connoisseur.
How do you say this in English?
Connoisseur.
Yeah, I think French people say it in a much softer way.
Connoisseur.
Yeah, like that.
So a connoisseur is really like an experienced expert in a subject.
I'm not a coffee connoisseur because I don't have all of this knowledge about where the coffee is from.
Oh, come on, come on.
We know that you are cultured.
You have books at home.
You wear expensive jeans.
From Paris, by the way, dear listeners.
I try to be cultured.
If you don't know, you can listen to our podcasts and Rory reveals all the truth.
So maybe not a connoisseur, but maybe a coffee snob.
Coffee snob, right, who would turn his nose up at instant coffee.
Right, you said that you used to drink tea religiously, right?
Or you drink coffee religiously?
I used to drink tea religiously, but now I drink coffee religiously.
Yeah, that's a nice one.
Like, what else can you do religiously?
It's basically a lot, right?
Yeah, different habits.
Like, something that you do all the time is part of your routine.
You don't really think about it.
It's just part of your life, almost like religion would be.
Yeah, like follow the rules religiously.
Absolutely, yeah.
So it's very strict for you.
You've got to have this thing.
When you talked about the effects coffee has on you, you said that you are wired.
Wired, like W-I-R-E-D.
Wired?
Yeah.
What does it mean, wired?
It's more like, how best to describe this?
It's not hyperactive, but it's like really, really focused, very energetic.
So why are just like describing this experience or the sensation you have?
Come on, I can do things.
Exactly.
Yeah, you're very motivated.
You can also say that coffee helps me to stay alert.
Absolutely, yeah.
Maybe it's better to be alert than wired.
I think if you're wired too much, then people can find it a little bit annoying.
Right.
You can also say that it helps me to be energized.
Absolutely.
Or it makes you energetic.
Or hyperactive.
That might be more negative than energized.
Hyperactive is negative.
Oh, yeah, definitely.
Would you say that you are a coffee-holic?
We have alcoholics, we have chocoholics, shopaholics, coffee-holics.
We do, yeah.
I've not heard it before, but it might be a good word to use, actually.
We can make up words.
Yeah.
Shakespeare made up words.
Exactly.
Right.
What about this?
We have this word procrastinate.
Dear listeners, do you know this?
Procrastinate?
What is procrastinate?
It's what I do when I can't think of what I'm going to do for the podcast.
Yeah, where you kind of like put things off, delay things.
We can say procoffinate.
Yeah, so drinking coffee instead of working.
Exactly.
I like that idea.
Yeah.
Prokrofinate.
Are you prokrofinate?
Procafinating.
Procofinate.
Procofinating.
Yeah, because coffee.
So like procrastinate.
I think we should make up this word like procofinate.
I like to procrastinate.
Procrastinate, yes.
Are you procrastinating?
Not right now.
I think I'm going to after the podcast, though.
No, because like in the workplace, we do drink coffee, right?
When we have these moments of downtime.
Yeah.
We go, oh, let's have a coffee.
Let's have a conversation.
Coffee also could set your mind at ease.
What does it mean?
At ease?
Set your mind at ease.
It's just like to calm you down.
But of course, to set something at ease is more flexibly used.
And of course, you can set your mind at ease, you can set someone at ease.
So really, when you want a higher score, this is something that you would expect somebody to say.
Also, you can say ease my mind, to ease.
Yeah, put my mind at ease.
Dear listeners, you can now listen to Rory's answers again and notice all the precise vocabulary he's just used.
Make sure you have your coffee beforehand, because this one's a long one.
Rory, do people in your country like to drink coffee or tea?
Well, I think there's this sort of stereotype of people in Britain drinking lots of tea.
And we cultivate that stereotype to some extent.
But coffee seems no more or less popular than tea.
They're kind of equal, actually.
If we're more specific, scottish tea seems to have a particular flavor and is quite popular in scotland, so maybe there it's more popular than coffee, but i think in general for the whole of the uk they're on the same level.
To be honest, Which do you prefer, drinking tea or coffee?
Well, up until recently, I might have said tea.
However, I haven't actually had a cup of tea in quite some time.
I used to drink tea religiously, but then I switched.
I met my partner and we drink a lot of coffee together.
So that's been one of the recent changes in my life.
Can you say that your life begins after coffee?
Absolutely.
Actually, it's part of my morning ritual at the weekend.
So only after coffee you have this ability to speak in full sentences, right?
Definitely.
After a hard week and then I spend the weekend kind of recovering.
I need coffee to kind of function in the morning.
I like the taste.
It's quite sharp, since it's black and since I only drink it with milk deserves the taste, so it really wakes me up.
So you drink coffee, like black coffee, regular coffee?
Yeah, usually it's like Americano or cappuccino style, but I don't usually have sugar in it.
I don't think that's very good for me.
Rory, do you sometimes go out for a coffee or tea?
I go out for coffee, definitely.
Usually, when I was drinking coffee, I drank it at home.
It's not really something I would go out and drink.
But definitely, people go out for coffee in general, and I'm one of them.
I fit into that trend.
Wait, wait.
So, when you used to drink tea, you would take it at home?
Yeah, whereas now, with coffee, I buy into this kind of coffee culture where people go out and have coffee.
I think it's healthier than drinking culture.
When did you last drink coffee or tea?
Actually, it was just before we started doing this podcast.
I went to have coffee with one of my friends and it was just down the road so it was convenient for the both of us.
It was probably a bit of a mistake though, because I'm a bit wired from the coffee now, but such is life.
Does coffee help you to unwind, to calm your nerves?
Not quite.
The effects are well.
It doesn't make me hyperactive so much, but it definitely makes me more energetic.
So it wouldn't do much to set my mind at ease or ease my nerves at all.
Would you offer tea or coffee to someone who visited your home?
I have a story about this, actually.
Would you like to hear it?
Yes.
Well, my aunt, when she was younger, she was living with my grandmother.
And they had a guest around for, well, just for lunch.
And so my aunt, being quite old fashioned, this was decades and decades ago in the 60s.
So whenever an older person would come around, you would offer them something.
And she spoke to the visitor and she said, oh, would you like tea or would you like coffee?
And the visitor replied in a really condescending way saying Nancy, it's coffee in the morning and tea in the afternoon.
So I think for some people, there are definitely some rules about this.
So I would say for older people, if they came to visit me then I would definitely offer them coffee in the morning and tea in the afternoon.
Five o'clock tea.
But yes, I should say that's probably not something you want to say quite widely.
It's a bit of a rude thing to say.
You should just say what you want rather than
