Hello, lovely.
I'm Maria.
And my name is Rory, and we are the hosts of the IELTS Speaking for Success podcast.
The podcast aims to help you improve your speaking skills, as well as your listening skills, along the way.
We started this podcast because we want you to use high-level words and gorgeous grammar in your IELTS speaking and in your English life.
No, Vanya is crawling on the floor right here, right now.
We're not just laughing for no reason.
Our producer is currently crawling around the floor.
You can't see it on camera, but we can and it's rather amusing.
Oh.
He thought he was being subtle as well.
Such a joy.
Yeah.
Anyway, Maria, what brings joy to your life?
Well, Vanya, our producer, crawling on the floor brings a lot of joy to my life and dancing.
Really?
Oh, cool.
Should we talk about dancing?
Let's talk about dancing, Rory.
Dancing, Rory.
Scotchish dancing.
Rory, do you enjoy dancing?
In my own limited way.
Yes, actually.
So whenever I listen to music in the gym or the metro, I usually tap my feet and sort of bounce along to it.
But I'm not a great fan of dancing wildly at clubs or doing the tango, for example.
First of all, it takes too much coordination and I'm really clumsy.
It's like I have two left feet or something.
So it's not something that I do to a great extent, I suppose.
When was the last time you danced?
Probably ironically in the club, actually.
I can't remember.
I hardly ever dance these days.
Well, not when I'm sober, at least.
I think I went on a date once, actually, and we danced doing that.
That was quite nice.
It was a little bit awkward because, of course, I can't dance, but it was nice.
I've not done anything like that before.
Has anyone ever taught you how to dance?
Many have tried, but all of them have failed.
You'd have more luck probably teaching me advanced physics, I think.
I think some people have this natural rhythm, but I just don't.
So if you like sort of statistics and tasks, then why not try?
Why do you think some or many people like dancing?
Ah, lots of reasons.
It's a good way to exercise and it's like a mode of self-expression.
People use it to attract people they're interested in.
Although admittedly, I can't remember finding anyone enticing based solely on their dance skills alone.
Although it's possibly because I don't share that trait.
What kind of dancing do people in your country like?
Well, I don't think there's a limit.
I suppose in clubs there's like the usual tunes that people dance along to in their own way.
But I think people dance to anything, don't they?
Tell me about any traditional dancing in your country.
Oh God, Highland dancing.
Okay, I should explain for people who don't know about this.
First of all, Google it.
It's fun.
And try.
But Highland dancing is like folk or traditional dancing well, like how it is everywhere in terms of the complexity and coordination.
I think it's quite well known, relatively.
They force us to do it at school, which creates a great deal of resentment, though it does come in handy at weddings and other events, if you can recall it well enough.
Do you think traditional dancing will be popular in the future?
I certainly hope so.
I like the idea of future generations enjoying it.
I just hope there's a way of teaching it that's less forceful and more fun than the way we do it at school.
So if any Scottish high school teachers are listening or watching, could you...
Could you try and find a way of making it more fun for students, please?
I would appreciate that, I think.
My past self would.
Rory, thank you so much.
It's okay.
Hopefully we led our listeners on a merry dance.
Rory, you need to show us some traditional Scottish Highland dancing moves.
I would sooner face first into a volcano.
Maybe on Instagram.
We could do an Instagram story about it sometime.
Yes, you should put your kilt on and do some Highland dancing moves.
Have it with me.
Do you want to see?
You're killed?
Yeah.
Oh my god.
Yes, absolutely.
Oh, wow.
This is a legendary moment.
Rory is taking out his kilt.
We're not going to talk about underwear and kilts and Scottish people wearing or not wearing underwear.
I won't I won't put it on, but I will show people because I was wearing it at a party this week.
So here it is.
Here's my kilt.
It's handmade.
It is handmade.
Yeah, it cost a fortune.
Ta-ta.
I absolutely love my tartan kilt and I recommend that everybody get one.
So here's what it looks like.
Beautiful.
If you go to my Instagram, there's a video of my colleague and I John, playing billiards, which some people watched live the other night.
And you can see it in its full glory there.
So check it out.
Amazing.
Yeah, you look really handsome and gorgeous in that tartan skirt.
Only in the kilt, like not in normal life.
No, no, no.
Some torn jeans, no.
But the kilt, yes, this is the thing, the real thing.
Okay, when we talk about dancing, so you can say dancing or dancing.
We say dancing because we are for British English, right?
We do.
Do I say dancing?
Dancing.
Dancing, yeah.
I don't really think about that pronunciation.
Dancing is American.
Is it?
Yeah.
Cool.
But you can say like dancing, dancing, doesn't matter.
No one cares.
Yeah.
It's clear.
Okay, so we say go dancing, or you can say take dancing lessons, right?
When we talk about different kinds of dancing, we can say hip-hop belly, dancing belly, you kind of dance with your belly.
Do you?
Can you?
No, I can't do ballet dancing.
I can do tango.
I dance tango.
But again, different types of dancing, right?
For Russian listeners, you can say ballet.
It's not ballet.
It's ballet, right?
Or maybe it's easier to say the tango.
The tango, yes.
The Argentinian tango.
You do that though, don't you?
Yeah, I've been doing it for quite a while.
That's cool.
I wish I could dance.
It's a super cool thing.
I've seen you on Instagram doing it.
It looks nice.
Then you can mention like flamenco, salsa, stupid dancing is also dancing.
Wild dancing.
Wild dancing.
And Roy, you've said that I'm good at wild dancing.
It's pretty much like stupid dancing in a club.
But also some questions could be about like folk dancing or traditional dancing.
Yes.
And make sure that you do know some folk dancing.
Well, or at least try.
I mean, does every country have a traditional dance?
Yes.
I know that Russia does.
And also like the girls do like ta-ta-ta, la-la-la, like this.
Do they?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
We do have some traditional dancing.
But for Russian learners, you can mention ballet.
Yeah.
Or if you don't know, then you could say, my country doesn't have a tradition of dancing.
And then at least you've used some high-level vocabulary.
Yeah, and then you can say, many people are into hip-hop, into salsa, flamenco, and then bachata.
So, yeah.
Rory, you've said that you tap your feet and bounce along to the music.
Yeah, if anyone sees me on the metro with my earphones in, then they'll understand like I'm sort of just like doing this, bouncing from side to side and tapping my feet.
That's the closest you'll probably see me to doing full dancing.
If you're not into dancing, you can say, I'm not a great fan of dancing.
It's okay.
Or if you can't dance, then you could say I have two left feet, which is an idiomatic expression for I can't dance.
So pretty much like I have two left feet.
Yeah, I'm clumsy.
Well, in my case, it's like i have no feet because i just fall around like it's not, it's not attractive.
Some people look really good when they're dancing and i just look like yeah, i look good, you look great when you're doing it.
Rory has never seen me uh tangoing, but i'm sure i've seen pictures on instagram of you doing it.
You look good.
Yeah, i need to upload the video.
Okay, you can also say that I'm a bit awkward when I'm dancing awkward again.
It's like you can dance wildly or dance awkwardly yeah, awkwardly.
And for a great example of that, just watch me on the metro.
Some people just have this natural rhythm.
Yes.
So you have a natural rhythm.
It's like your body just naturally follows the beat of the music.
I do not have this.
I have a natural, I don't know, disharmony.
Charisma.
You have a natural Scottish charisma.
Does that make up for being a terrible dancer?
I don't know.
No, I'm pretty sure that you are very good at wild dancing and stupid dancing.
Are you sure about that?
I don't know.
I just feel your dancing vibes, Rory.
Okay.
Yeah.
Dancing could be a good way to exercise.
It is a good way to exercise.
So you can stay fit.
So you can stay in shape.
In shape.
And it's a mode of self-expression, you said.
Yeah, so it's just saying it's a way of expressing yourself.
But instead of saying a way, you say a mode which is a higher level piece of well vocabulary is part of an idiomatic expression.
Dancing is also the language of the soul.
Did you know that?
It is?
It is.
Oh, I thought music was the language of the soul.
Dancing is the language of the soul.
Okay, I've been corrected.
You can talk about your dancing skills.
Or your lack of dancing skills, in my case.
You can say like, I'm an excellent dancer.
I'm not a great dancer.
I'm a professional dancer.
I'm a brilliant dancer.
Or you can say, I'm not a brilliant dancer, you know.
We also said, oh, actually, can we talk about grammar for a second?
Yes, let's talk about grammar, dancing grammar.
Yes.
In particular, and most people, well, some people might have noticed this in our other episodes.
I use question tags.
Can we talk about question tags?
Yep.
So.
A question tag.
Now, this is where I do grammar.
So if I don't explain it well, Maria is going to yell at me.
So a question tag is where if you have a positive part of, if your first part of your sentence is positive, then the ending will be a negative question.
So it's like saying you're good at dancing, aren't you um?
And then that's first of all, it's good for grammar structures uh, it's quite an advanced grammar structure, actually.
And the second thing is it gives you a chance to express your ability to use pronunciation flexibly as well, So you can have upward intonation, like aren't you?
Or downward intonation aren't you.
Like upward for if you're asked the question, but down for you already know the answer.
And that's quite important, I think, to show in an IELTS speaking exam, for example.
Yeah, because pronunciation is one of the criteria, so you should show the variety.
Yes, and that is one easy way to do it.
Yeah, and where did you use this tech question?
I can't remember.
I use it all the time, though.
Okay, let's give an example.
For example, do you enjoy dancing?
Well, it would be like, you enjoy dancing, don't you?
Or I could say like, everybody enjoys dancing, don't they?
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah.
So everybody enjoys dancing, don't they?
And it's interesting that everybody is they.
Uh-huh.
Yeah, because we're not sure.
Like, he, she... Yeah, most people just say they.
Some people really do.
They stop themselves to say he or she, and it's, like, really awkward.
Even though it is grammatically correct, I think.
Yeah.
So is dancing popular in your country?
And you go like, whoa, everyone enjoys dancing, don't they?
Yeah.
Oh, and you said I think I said it, for you said you talked about traditional dancing and I was like well, most countries have traditional dances, don't they?
Beautiful.
Band 9.
Yeah.
Or at least on our way to Band 9.
Please don't think that just using question tags will get you Band 9 for pronunciation.
Yeah, you should use them naturally.
But not always.
Not always.
But you can see lots of examples in the recent episodes.
I did it on purpose, but it's the first time we talked about it explicitly.
So you can go back and check how they're used.
Yeah, absolutely Was my grammar explanation good?
Rory, it was fabulous.
Oh, but you do grammar a lot better than I do.
Yes, I do, that's true, But you did very well.
I'm proud of you.
I'm proud of you.
That's my boy.
We mentioned that you can create a great deal of resentment if you're being forced to learn how to dance.
So that's quite a good collocation as well, to create resentment and a great deal of it.
Yeah.
And resentment.
What is it?
You feel unhappy.
It's not like anger or hatred, but it's you still it's like, I don't like this thing.
But instead of saying I don't like it, like I resent it, or I'm resentful or I have resentment about this kind of thing.
But the word is pretty strong.
Um, you stress it for sure, yeah.
But I think we can bring our merry dance to a close, can't we?
Yes, and I have a beautiful quote from Albert Einstein himself we dance for laughter, we dance for tears, we dance for madness, we dance for fears, we dance for hopes, we dance for screams.
We are the dancers, we create the dreams.
I think that's a good note to end on, isn't it?
That's beautiful Rory, do you enjoy dancing?
In my own limited way, yes, actually.
So whenever I listen to music in the gym or the metro, I usually tap my feet and sort of bounce along to it.
But I'm not a great fan of dancing wildly at clubs or doing the tango, for example.
First of all, it takes too much coordination and I'm really clumsy.
It's like I have two left feet or something.
So it's not something that I do to a great extent, I suppose.
When was the last time you danced?
Probably ironically in the club, actually.
I can't remember.
I hardly ever dance these days.
Well, not when I'm sober, at least.
I think I went on a date once, actually, and we danced doing that.
That was quite nice.
It was a little bit awkward because, of course, I can't dance, but it was nice.
I've not done anything like that before.
Has anyone ever taught you how to dance?
Many have tried, but all of them have failed.
You'd have more luck probably teaching me advanced physics, I think.
I think some people have this natural rhythm, but I just don't.
So if you like sort of statistics and tasks, then why not try?
Why do you think some or many people like dancing?
Ah, lots of reasons.
It's a good way to exercise and it's like a mode of self-expression.
People use it to attract people they're interested in.
Although admittedly, I can't remember finding anyone enticing based solely on their dance skills alone.
Although it's possibly because I don't share that trait.
What kind of dancing do people in your country like?
Well, I don't think there's a limit.
I suppose in clubs there's like the usual tunes that people dance along to in their own way.
But I think people dance to anything, don't they?
Tell me about any traditional dancing in your country.
Oh God, Highland dancing.
Okay, I should explain for people who don't know about this.
First of all, Google it.
It's fun.
And try that.
Highland dancing is like folk or traditional dancing well, like how it is everywhere in terms of the complexity and coordination.
I think it's quite well known, relatively.
They force us to do it at school, which creates a great deal of resentment, though it does come in handy at weddings and other events, if you can recall it well enough.
Do you think traditional dancing will be popular in the future?
I certainly hope so.
I like the idea of future generations enjoying it.
I just hope there's a way of teaching it that's less forceful and more fun than the way we do it at school.
So if any Scottish high school teachers are listening or watching, could you try and find a way of making it more fun for students please?
I would appreciate that.
I think my past self would.
