Hello lovely, I'm Maria and my name is Rory and we're 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're starting this podcast to give you super grammar and gorgeous vocabulary for high IELTS school.
Hello. Your Band 9 score.
Band 9 score? Band 9!
Rory, what's that? What's that?
Oh, sorry, I'm just moving some coins off my desk.
Shall we talk about coins?
Yeah. Coins, dear listener.
Yes, coins is a new speaking part 1 topic.
Money, money. Give us the money sound again, Rory.
Oh yeah, my favorite sound.
It makes the world go round.
Yeah, it doesn't matter, like these are coins, but you know, still money.
Do you use coins in your daily life?
If I'm honest, I can barely recall the last time I used notes in my country, let alone metal coins.
It's all been superseded by cashless payments these days.
Do you from carry coins with you?
Not really, aside from when I won holiday and I always seem to get them back whenever I use paper currency.
Have you ever collected coins?
I have and I still do from the different countries I've been to over the years.
I have said E from Ghana and dollars from the US and now Psalms from Kyrgyzstan, just to name a few.
It's a nice little souvenir that costs next to nothing and doesn't take up too much space in my luggage.
Is it convenient to use coins?
Not these days, unless cashless payments aren't an option.
Why would you haul around a load of metal with you when you can pay for everything via credit or debit card?
There's not much point in it, at least in the short term.
Did you use coins as a child?
Definitely more compared to now.
I think we were given ยฃ1 a week as pocket money, or on the loans.
It's not worth much now, but back then for a child that would buy you a lot of things to make your weekend more fun.
Right there listener, coins.
What a topic. When was the last time you held a coin in your hand?
Dylistne? Huh? Ooh la la.
Actually, today I found a bag full of coins and I was thinking, well, I should use them to buy maybe like an ice cream or some chewing gum, just you know, to pay everything with these coins, just to get rid of them.
Yeah Dylistne. So coins, if you don't remember when you lost head coins in your hand, well, this is for you to lie, to imagine, or just to tell the truth.
Like I never use coins and explain why.
It's also okay. So we say coins and the paper money, we call them notes.
Can I say bank notes?
You could say bank notes.
I think most people just call it notes these days or call them notes.
Yeah. So paper money.
Notes, coins are coins, like metal coins.
And you can say, like, if I'm honest, like, come on, examine it, I want to be honest with you.
I want to tell you the truth.
So you say, if I'm honest, I can barely recall.
I can barely remember the last time I used notes or coins, barely?
Like, oh, hardly, like, I can't even remember.
And Dylistne, we pronounce, coins, Z, Z, Zโฆ Rory, how do you say coins?
Yeah. Because NZ, and maybe in your language, it's like, coins, Z, Z, no, coins, Z, Z, Z, coins.
Say it. Say it now, Dylistne.
After me, coins, coins, NZ.
So metal coins. And we use metal coins and we don't use notes, for example, use is the verb.
And what's this verb?
It's all been superseded.
Oh, superseded just means it's being replaced by something better.
Well, at least in theory, cashless payments that you make with your various cards or with your phone are better than carrying metal coins with you.
So most people do that in my country, so it's been superseded.
Supercede, Dylistne, a verb to replace something, especially something older or more old -fashioned into something new.
What could be superseded?
Well, landlines, landline telephones have been superseded by mobile phones, mostly.
Yeah, or replaced if you want.
We say cashless payments, Dylistne.
So no notes, no coins, everything is, you know, online.
We don't see the real money anymore.
So cashless, no cash.
And we also can say pay by cash or use cashless payments, make cashless payments.
Rory, do you use your phone to make a payment?
Just like, you know, you touch it.
I don't, but I'm seriously thinking that I might start doing that.
And what do you call it in English?
When you go like. And money is gone.
Oh, it's just tapping your phone.
Call contactless, make a contactless payment.
Contactless payment, Dylistne.
We don't even need cards anymore.
We carry coins. So I carry coins.
Well, I don't carry, I can have them with me.
Well, I can have coins in my, where?
Where do you usually keep coins?
In your wallet if you're a man and in your purse if you're a lady.
Exactly. Yeah, maybe in your pocket.
And no, we usually don't.
Well, maybe do you, Dylistne, do you carry coins with you?
When I'm on holiday, yeah, when I change money and then I'm stuck with all these coins, I bring them home.
And then never use them again.
Exactly. I prefer using the paper currency.
Again, notes, bank notes, like not coins.
Or, for example, many people give coins to the homeless or, you know, to people asking for money.
You can, as a good way to get rid of all your coins.
Some people collect coins.
What do we call them?
A numismatist. Numismatist.
Yeah, someone who studies or collects coins, paper money or medals.
Also medals, a numismatist.
So, Dylistne, if you can remember this numismatist, you can say, well, I'm not, I've never been a numismatist.
Does that mean I'm an amateur numismatist then?
Oh, yeah. Because you do collect coins.
Yeah. So you can say I don't collect coins, but I have different coins from different countries because I changed money and now I'm stuck with them.
Yeah, I just have a few from different countries.
It's a nice little souvenir.
Okay, souvenir. And they take up not too much space.
But actually, if a person is a numismatist, yeah, then kind of they have special bags for coins.
And you know, they hold coins in a special way because we kind of put our fingers all over the coin.
But to a true numismatist, it's just like, oh, they go, no, no, don't do that.
And they're kind of like very careful they take a coin and they hold it.
What do you call it?
I guess they hold it between their fingers, their index finger and their thumb.
Yeah, yeah, like this, you know, and they put don't put the fingers on the face.
What a truly bizarre thing to do.
Okay, everybody needs a hobby.
Yeah, but their rules, you know, their rules.
The rules of numismatism.
Interesting, right?
Yeah. It's convenient to use coins or it's not convenient to use coins.
Again, you can say like, well, not convenient, they're heavy.
And if you carry the whole bag of them, your bag is really heavy.
So you can say I use cashless payments.
And then Rory asks the question, why would you haul around a load of metal with you?
Haul around? It would be like to carry something heavy around with you.
Why would you do that?
C2, word listener, band nine.
Haul, haul, et al. Pull something heavy slowly with difficulty.
You know, when there is this heavy boat and you just haul the boat out of the water.
So you can say like, oh, why would you haul around a load of metal?
A load, a load of metal.
A load of metal coins.
You can just pay for everything via credit cards or you can pay using cashless payments, contactless payments.
So there is not much point in it.
Or you can say I love coins.
You can say I am old school, I don't use this high tech stuff, I don't have a smartphone.
So, and coins. Nice.
When you compare the past to now, you can say definitely more than compared to now.
Oh, Rory, you use coins more than compared to now.
Really? No, the question was, did you use coins as a child?
And I said definitely more than compared to now.
So I use them more as a child compared to now when I don't use them at all.
Yeah, you can also say I used to use coins, but not anymore.
Passive voice. We were given one pound a week.
So one pound coin. Oh, I love those coins.
They're so pretty, so nice, like a one pound coin.
Part coins, really?
Yeah. They're very nice.
Why do you think they're so nice?
Because they're heavy and small and also like sick.
They're sick. I love the shape.
And Rory, what do you call these special coins they make on certain occasions?
Like with the Olympic Games or...
Oh, commemorative coins.
Oh, yeah. They listen and they can say, oh, I hate coins, but I love commemorative coins because they're special.
They usually some of them could be quite rare because they issue only 10 coins or like 100 coins in the world.
And if you get it. Oh, I have coins.
The World Cup. With the World Cup.
You do? Yeah. Oh, yeah, because of course the World Cup was in Russia in 2018, I think.
Yes, yeah. So we have like special World Cup coins.
Yeah, and now they listen.
I think you can make a coin with your face on it.
Rory, would you like to have a coin with your face on it?
And like saying like Rory, Duncan, Fergus, and your kind of luck.
It's been almost five years now and Maria still cannot say my name, correct?
Oh, I do listen. What a topic.
Well, now you know the basic vocabulary.
And the vocabulary for band nine, OK, you can use synonyms, just say coins correctly.
Rory, say it again.
Coins, coins, coins.
It's quite difficult.
You might just forget and say.
The word coin is also a verb to coin a phrase.
Oh, really? Yeah. So hopefully we've given you some words to coin for your IELTS exam.
Oh, yes. Oh, and can I use coin as a verb to answer questions about coins?
Rory, come on, come on, we can do it.
I mean, you could if it was a pun.
Yeah. For example, like, oh, like do you use coins?
I'm trying to think of a way to do it, like to make a joke on the fly, but I can't.
Sorry. Oh, come on.
Come on. You can't just say come on and expect it to happen.
Yeah. But maybe I'm like, oh, we can say, do you collect coins?
And you say like, no, I don't.
I used to when I was a child.
If I can coin a phrase and then say a phrase.
Yes, say a phrase, Maria.
We're waiting. Say the phrase, Maria.
Come on. OK, OK, OK.
Wait, you're listening.
Wait. See, this is what it feels like.
OK, OK, OK. I'm doing it.
I'm doing it. Quote about coins.
We need a famous quote from smart famous people about coins.
Time is the coin of life.
Yeah, yeah, this is the phrase.
Time is the coin of life.
Ha, ha. OK, so the listener, check it out.
The examiner asks you, do you use coins in your life?
Well, not much. But you know, if I can coin the phrase, time is the coin of life.
Doesn't make any sense, no.
Please, please don't do that.
Oh, so bad. Are the examiners just going to execute you on the spot?
Yeah, do you listen.
It's quite horrible.
Yeah, maybe you can come up with a phrase.
And maybe you can kind of use it naturally to coin a phrase.
Life is like a coin.
Oh, there you go. You know, I don't normally I never use coins in my life, but you know, if I can coin a phrase, life is like a coin.
So I do have a lot of coins in my life.
Oh, there you go. There you go.
No, I don't think so.
No, banned, disallowed.
No, you must stop now.
If anyone can think of a more natural way to say it, write it in the comment.
Oh, yeah, we can say life is like a coin because what do we do with a coin?
We flip a coin. Which is a boom.
Yes or no? What do I do?
We flip a coin and then we find out the answer.
Thank you very much.
No, no, dear listener, do not do that.
But thank you very much for listening.
Bye. Crazy person. Do you use coins in your daily life?
If I'm honest, I can barely recall the last time I used notes in my country, let alone metal coins.
It's all being superseded by cashless payments these days.
Do you often carry coins with you?
Not really. Aside from when I'm on holiday and I always seem to get them back whenever I use paper currency.
Have you ever collected coins?
I have, and I still do from the different countries I've been to over the years.
I have Sadi from Ghana and dollars from the US and now Soms from Kyrgyzstan, just to name a few.
It's a nice little souvenir that costs next to nothing and doesn't take up too much space in my luggage.
Is it convenient to use coins?
Not these days, unless cashless payments aren't an option.
Why would you haul around a load of metal with you and you can just pay for everything via credit or debit card?
There's not much point in it, at least in the short term.
Did you use coins as a child?
Definitely more compared to now.
I think we were given ยฃ1 a week as pocket money or when the loans.
It's not worth much now, but back then for a child that would buy you a lot of things to make your weekend more fun.