Hello, lovely.
I'm Maria.
And I'm Rory.
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 super podcast because we want you to know high-level vocabulary and common IELTS speaking topics.
We want you to speak naturally using good grammar and super vocabulary for a high score.
Which one is score?
Band 9 score!
Band 9 score!
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Rory, are you still not on Instagram and Telegram?
Not yet.
I've organized my pictures, though.
I should have Instagram by next week, if all goes according to plan.
I still don't know what an Instagram is, but it sounds like it's going to be fun.
Rory, your beard is terrible.
I know.
I'm glad we're not being filmed, to be honest.
It's getting a bit out of control.
But Maria, your beard is also terrible.
We're going to be talking about films today.
Rory, do you enjoy watching films?
Actually, probably not as much as I used to.
I think my attention span has probably become a lot shorter in recent times.
Or maybe it's just that I have less time.
Either way, I don't really enjoy them as much as I used to, but I still kind of enjoy them.
What kinds of movies do you like best?
Oh, that's an easy one.
Anything to do with science fiction or horror or dark or black comedy.
So anything that fires my imagination or rewards or justifies my terrible sense of humor.
I thought your sense of humor is excellent, awesome, and you're a bit sarky.
Are you sarky, Rory?
I am quite sarcastic, but that feeds into this idea of dark humor.
I have a very dark sense of humor.
I won't lie.
It's a major part.
Perhaps I've not mentioned it before, but I'm mentioning it now.
I have a dark sense of humor.
But it's typical for British people, right?
We do have a lot of humor that's based around sarcasm, yes.
It's not so much dark, though.
It's more about irony.
I think it's more.
It's like the further east you go in the world, the darker the comedy tends to get.
Rory, do you prefer foreign films or films made in your country?
It's funny because when people talk about foreign films where I'm from, they usually mean films that are made in Europe or Asia, but they don't mean films that are made in Hollywood.
So in this way, I only...
Well, I can only enjoy foreign films because the Scottish film industry isn't that big.
So the short answer is, well, foreign films.
But the longer answer is because it's the only option for me.
There are not that many films that are made in Scotland by a Scottish film industry.
So that's for sure because it's a small country.
Who's your favourite film star?
Oh, that's not fair because you can have like, there are male film stars and female film stars.
So my favorite male film star is Chris Hemsworth and my favorite female film star is Emily Blunt.
It's usually because I like the way that they portray the roles that they're playing, basically.
I don't think it's anything to do with their actual personalities.
I just think it's connected to how well they do their jobs basically, and the characters they're playing.
What's your favourite film with Emily Blunt?
The Devil Wears Prada.
Yeah, nice.
And with Chris Hemsworth?
Anything with Chris Hemsworth in it, to be honest with you, is worth a watch.
The Avengers?
Yes, absolutely.
Like I say, anything.
He was in this film recently.
It was called Extraction, I think, which was action-packed.
That was quite good.
Would you like to be a film star?
I think everybody's knee-jerk reaction to this is probably yes, but no, definitely not.
On reflection, for me, certainly it's no.
It's like a really demanding and quite high-pressure job, almost too much pressure.
I don't think I'd be able to handle that quite well.
I kind of like the job that I have now.
It's...
It's not very demanding.
Well, it is demanding, but it's not as demanding as being a film star.
It is high pressure, but it's not as high pressure again as being a film star.
So I'm quite comfortable where I am.
Have you ever met a film star in person?
I don't think so.
You'd think I'd remember if I had.
They usually make quite an impression.
No, no, I've not.
Sorry.
My life's not that exciting.
But would you like to meet Emily Blunt?
Yeah, I think everybody would like to meet Emily Blunt.
She's so nice.
Or at least she seems very nice in the roles that she plays.
What would you do?
Let's imagine you just bump into Emily Blunt and what would you do?
I don't know.
I'd be surprised if Emily Blunt was walking around in Moscow, first of all.
It's probably not where she spends most of her time.
But yeah, it would be cool.
You'd just say like, hello, are you who I think you are?
And then obviously she would be like, yes, I get asked this question a lot.
And then you just say like, OK, well, you're good in the movies that you're in.
Thank you.
And stop bothering her, probably like they get bothered by people all the time.
So if you have that kind of awareness, you don't want to bother film stars too much if you accidentally bump into them.
So no selfies, no autographs nothing um, but the memory is enough for me to be honest.
Um, i don't like bothering people for that kind of thing.
Are film stars popular in your country?
Well, I think they're popular in every country.
They seem to have like this real hold on the public consciousness though.
I'm not sure that's warranted to be honest with you.
I think maybe they're too popular and they have too much influence.
Do you like to watch movies alone or with your friends?
I think it depends on the mood that everybody's in, because whenever I'm watching movies with another person or other people, I often have a habit of cracking jokes.
So when I'm watching with friends, they have to be in the same mood as me and they have to be ready to put up with that.
Otherwise, if it's a serious thing and they want to just focus on the film, then maybe it's not such a good idea.
And of course, now we all have like quarantine and self-isolation.
So most of the time I'm watching films and movies by myself.
Oh Rory, have you ever cried while watching a movie, or maybe like a cartoon or something?
Yeah, only one time, though.
Oh no, this is when i was like much younger.
Um, i think the first one was when i was watching mighty joe young.
That's a.
It's a movie about a big um gorilla, and it had quite a sad part in it and i cried at that.
And then there was another time I cried during a movie, but I can't remember.
Titanic?
No, I don't like Titanic.
It's too long and you know what's going to happen.
No, you can't say that you don't like Titanic.
Come on.
Well, I'm not the biggest fan of Titanic then.
How does that sound?
Okay, that's better yeah, that's better.
So mighty joe young made rory cry when i was like now, you know, five or however old i was.
So not now.
I'd just be like, oh god, it's a big gorilla and a bit of a pickle.
I cry all the time.
Just you, give me, give me.
Well, you have to work with me.
I'm emotional.
Between the cartoons and working with Rory, it's quite justified that you'd want to cry.
Right.
Rory, would you like to be in a movie?
Only if it was about something meaningful.
I think there are lots of films that are about like nothing in particular.
But if I was going to be in a movie, it would have to be something that I cared about, like teaching, for example.
What about a horror film?
I find horror entertaining.
I don't find it meaningful.
Those are two very different things.
Rory, what are three films you'd like to recommend everyone to watch?
Oh, that's hard.
Because it's only three.
Okay, so I think we've already talked about one of them, which was The Devil Wears Prada.
So that kind of humour in that movie matches my own and I find that aspects of my life are reflected in it.
But just because I find that... isn't a reason everybody should watch it.
I think that everybody can appreciate the humor and the situations in the movie.
So that's why I think people would enjoy it in particular.
But the reasons I said are why I would enjoy it.
I also really like this movie.
It's from the oh god, I think it's from like the late 90s Starship Troopers.
It's a great film.
It's a, it's an action, it's sort of a sci-fi action flick and it's like it's really good fun.
It's not very serious, but it's filled with um graphic violence and adult content.
So any of our listeners who are under 18 definitely should not be watching that movie.
But i find it really fun and i think um, i think it won an oscar actually for best visual effects.
So even if you don't like the story, then you might find the visual effects quite Nice.
Starship Troopers.
Yep.
And the last one is called Contact, which is a film I've mentioned before.
It's also science fiction and that's got Jodie Foster and she plays the role of a radio telescope operator and she makes contact with aliens.
Basically, and it's not as fast paced Starship Troopers it's quite slow, it's more of a spiritual movie, but it had quite a profound impact on me and I think it has a profound impact on a lot of people that watched it.
So I definitely recommend it to to everybody to watch, but only by themselves.
It's not really a thing that you watch with other people.
Thank you so much Rory, for your recommendations and your super answers.
It's okay.
Now, Rory, shall we go over the vocabulary you've just used?
No, I'm tired.
You do it.
Oh, okay, I'll do it.
No, no, let's go.
Film or movies?
What do you say?
You can say either.
It doesn't matter.
I think it's more common to say film in British English and it's more common to say movie in American English, but really it doesn't matter.
They're used interchangeably and there's lots of British people that say movie.
And there's lots of American people that say vice versa, so it's okay.
Yeah, we can say also like go to the cinema or go to the movies.
Yes.
Although you don't say go to the films.
That would sound really weird.
When you talked about the past, you said I used to right, so I used to be more into films right, so that's a lovely structure.
So, used to.
Like, I used to be a film buff, I used to like films more, right?
I didn't used to have a beard.
Oh, really?
At school you didn't have a beard?
Well, yeah, of course.
I didn't have puberty until I was like, what, 13?
Right, now we know that Ed Schoolroy didn't used to have a beard.
Right, now your attention span is shorter, right?
What is attention span?
Your attention span is just how long you can concentrate on something.
So if you have a long attention span then you can focus for a long period of time.
And if you have a short attention span then you can only focus for a short period of time.
Right.
What do you say, either or either?
It really doesn't matter.
Someone asked me a question about this recently, where it was more common, and I think Well definitely, one is more common in American English and one is more common in British English.
But again, they're used interchangeably so often and the cultures are so close that it really doesn't matter.
And, to be honest with you, even if you change the pronunciation halfway through what you're saying, no one's going to care.
Yeah, I say either.
What do you say?
I think I say either.
Either.
Maybe I say either.
Unless I'm emphasizing something and then I say either.
That might be the distinction.
But again, the both are acceptable, so it really doesn't matter.
Yeah, same as like neither, neither.
When we talk about films, we should talk about genres of different films, like sci-fi, for example, science fiction, horror films.
What other genres do we know?
Horror comedy, romance and fantasy, i think those are like the basic ones about drama, thriller.
Yeah, to be honest with you, for that band nine score.
You have to have much more specific vocabulary.
You can't just say that you like um.
You can't just say oh, i like comedies, for example.
You have to say, like i like dark comedy, i like um Slapstick comedy.
Something like this.
It's got to be like the specific kind of comedy, otherwise you're not going to get very far.
Yeah, super specific words.
Also, it's good to use specific words about films, like plot, for example.
I really enjoy this plot.
Like, plot is the story of the film.
I've completely lost the plot.
Yeah.
For example, the cast, right?
What is the cast?
It's the people that are playing the different roles.
Yeah also, we can say for example, Angelina Jolie stars in Lara Croft films.
Yes, so to star, use it as a verb.
Or, for example, your favorite movie, The Avengers.
Could you give us an example with this star thing?
Well, The Avengers isn't my favorite movie, but Chris Hemsworth stars in The Avengers, which makes it worthwhile anyway.
Yeah.
Or Emily Blunt stars in The Devil Wears Prada.
Rory wears Prada.
Does Rory wear Prada?
Or Gucci?
I do not wear Prada.
I don't make enough money to wear Prada.
Oh, no, no.
You're more into Gucci, right?
No, no.
Plus, I don't really go in for these big brands, to be honest with you.
It's more like mid-level things.
We also can talk about characters.
What's the main... Who is the main character?
Yeah, who is the main character?
And also about scenes.
Like, what's your favorite scene in The Devil Wears Prada?
Yes.
When we describe films, we can use different adjectives, right?
For example, you mentioned meaningful, right?
Films could be meaningful or could be silly or thought-provoking, right?
Moving, so when you cry a lot, this film is moving.
Or they could be mindless, like just mindless entertainment.
Like starship troopers is mindless entertainment.
You don't really think about it, at least initially.
Films could be hilarious like super funny haha, funny.
Like me?
Yes, Rory is hilarious.
And some films could keep you on the edge of your seat.
Yes.
So what does it mean if a film keeps you on the edge of your seat?
It's like super thrilling.
But instead of saying it's thrilling, you could say it keeps me on the edge of my seat.
Films can fire your imagination, right?
Yes.
And you said like, oh, if it fires my imagination, fire is like fire.
No, fire like water.
Yeah, so if your imagination is fired, it's just your imagination is, well, fired up.
You're inspired, you want to use your imagination more and you often do nice grammar structure you've used.
When I asked you, would you like to like, have you ever met a person?
So, and you said I'd remember if I had.
Yes right, so I would remember if I had met them, but I didn't.
Yeah, that's the what.
The third No mixed conditional.
Wow, mixed conditional.
Yeah, I would remember if I had met famous people.
Just going to keep silent throughout that explanation because I hate conditionals.
Yeah, it's just...
Every teacher has the thing that they don't know stuff about, and conditionals is the thing that I don't know much about.
And it's not for any serious reason.
It's just because there's too many different things to remember.
That's why there are two of us on this podcast.
Rory is a super native speaker.
I'm the grammar part of this podcast.
Okay.
Amongst everything else, you're the hair as well.
Yeah, I'm the hair.
I'm the charisma, right?
So, you crack jokes, right, Rory?
I try to.
You can say crack jokes or make jokes.
Romy, now everyone is locked up in their flats, so many people end up binge-watching films, right?
That's a nice verb, to binge-watch.
Could you tell the world what it means?
If you binge watch something, it just means you watched all of the episodes in a row, or you watched one film after the other until the day is over, basically.
I couldn't do that.
My attention span wouldn't let me, but it seems to be something that a lot of people do.
Yes, for example, the Game of Thrones, you just end up binge-watching all the episodes, right?
Not yet.
I haven't gotten around to it, but I will, I will watch it.
Oh, you've never binged watched the Game of Thrones, Rory?
What's your problem?
Okay, I could watch it tomorrow.
I have nothing to do tomorrow.
Binge watch tomorrow.
Can you watch all of Game of Thrones in a day?
Maybe two days.
Okay.
Well, I have the weekend free, so it's not actually that big of a deal.
Dear listeners, do we have some super binge watchers?
So can you actually binge watch the Game of Thrones?
To be honest with you, the listeners could actually just say what they want me to binge watch, and then I can binge watch it and pass comments on their favourite TV shows.
Yes, dear listeners, could you post on Instagram what should Rory binge watch?
Okay, your recommendations.
It's got to be decent though.
I'm not spending my day watching something that's got like two stars on IMDB or something like that.
Yeah, with graphic violence and adult content for Rory.
We never actually talked about what graphic violence means, you know.
Rory, what does graphic violence mean?
I think violence means like realistic depictions of violence.
So if in some films if someone is shot, then it doesn't show you the blood or anything like that, because maybe it's trying to be a family movie and then or a family friendly movie, but you can have films with graphic violence that show realistic depictions of people dying and people being injured and gunshot wounds, things like this.
Rory, you've mentioned adult content.
What does it mean?
Yeah, adult content is things for adults.
So like bad language or really bad behaviour or people taking drugs, things like this.
This is all adult content and it's not suitable for young people to watch.
So we just call it adult content and make sure they don't get their hands on it.
Precise.
Quality.
Rory, thank you very much!
Now you can listen to Rory's answers again and this time notice all the gorgeous vocabulary and grammar he's using.
Rory, do you enjoy watching films?
Actually, probably not as much as I used to.
I think my attention span has probably become a lot shorter in recent times.
Or maybe it's just that I have less time.
Either way, I don't really enjoy them as much as I used to, but I still kind of enjoy them.
What kinds of movies do you like best?
Oh, that's an easy one.
Anything to do with science fiction or horror or dark or black comedy.
So anything that fires my imagination or rewards or justifies my terrible sense of humor.
I thought your sense of humor is excellent, awesome, and you're a bit sarky.
Are you sarky, Rory?
I am quite sarcastic, but that feeds into this idea of dark humor.
I have a very dark sense of humor.
I won't lie.
It's a major part.
Perhaps I've not mentioned it before, but I'm mentioning it now.
I have a dark sense of humor.
But it's typical for British people, right?
We do have a lot of humour that's based around sarcasm, yes.
It's not so much dark, though.
It's more about irony.
I think it's like the further east you go in the world, the darker the comedy tends to get.
Rory, do you prefer foreign films or films made in your country?
It's funny because when people talk about foreign films where I'm from, they usually mean films that are made in Europe or Asia, but they don't mean films that are made in Hollywood.
So in this way I only well, I can only enjoy foreign films, because the Scottish film industry isn't that big.
So the short answer is well, foreign films, but the longer answer is because it's the only option for me.
There are not that many films that are made in Scotland by a Scottish film industry.
So that's for sure because it's a small country.
Who's your favourite film star?
Oh, that's not fair because you can have like there are male film stars and female film stars.
So my favorite male film star is Chris Hemsworth and my favorite female film star is Emily Blunt.
It's usually because I like the way that they portray the roles that they're playing, basically.
I don't think it's anything to do with their actual personalities.
I just think it's connected to how well they do their jobs basically, and the characters they're playing.
What's your favourite film with Emily Blunt?
The Devil Wears Prada.
Yeah, nice.
And with Chris Hemsworth?
Anything with Chris Hemsworth in it, to be honest with you, is worth a watch.
The Avengers?
Yes, absolutely.
Like I say, anything.
He was in this film recently.
It was called Extraction, I think, which was action-packed.
That was quite good.
Would you like to be a film star?
I think everybody's knee jerk reaction to this is probably yes, but no, definitely not.
On reflection for me, certainly it's no.
It's like a really demanding and quite high pressure job, almost too much pressure.
I don't think I'd be able to handle that quite well.
I kind of like the job that I have now.
It's not very demanding.
Well, it is demanding, but it's not as demanding as being a film star.
It is high pressure, but it's not as high pressure again as being a film star.
So I'm quite comfortable where I am.
Have you ever met a film star in person?
I don't think so.
You'd think I'd remember if I had.
They usually make quite an impression.
No, no, I've not.
Sorry.
My life's not that exciting.
Would you like to meet Emily Blunt?
Yeah, I think everybody would like to meet Emily Blunt.
She's so nice.
Or at least she seems very nice in the roles that she plays.
What would you do?
Let's imagine you just bump into Emily Blunt and what would you do?
I'd be surprised if Emily Blunt was walking around in Moscow, first of all.
It's probably not where she spends most of her time.
But yeah, it would be cool.
You'd just say like, hello, are you who I think you are?
And then obviously she would be like, yes, I get asked this question a lot.
And then you just say like, OK, well, you're good in the movies that you're in.
Thank you.
And stop bothering her.
Probably like they get bothered by people all the time.
So if you have that kind of awareness, you don't want to bother film stars too much if you accidentally bump into them.
So no selfies, no autographs, nothing?
The memory is enough for me, to be honest.
I don't like bothering people for that kind of thing.
Are film stars popular in your country?
Well, I think they're popular in every country.
They seem to have like this real hold on the public consciousness though.
I'm not sure that's warranted to be honest with you.
I think maybe they're too popular and they have too much influence.
Do you like to watch movies alone or with your friends?
I think it depends on the mood that everybody's in, because whenever I'm watching movies with another person or other people, I often have a habit of cracking jokes.
So when I'm watching with friends they have to be in the same mood as me and they have to be ready to put up with that.
Otherwise if it's a serious thing and they want to just focus on the film, then maybe it's not such a good idea.
And of course now we all have like quarantine and self-isolation.
So most of the time I'm watching films and movies by myself.
Oh Rory, have you ever cried while watching a movie?
Or maybe like a cartoon or something?
Yeah, only one time though.
No, two times.
This is when I was much younger.
I think the first one was when I was watching Mighty Joe Young.
It's a movie about a big gorilla and it had quite a sad part in it and I cried at that.
And then there was another time I cried during a movie, but I can't remember.
Titanic?
No, I don't like Titanic.
It's too long.
And you know what's going to happen.
No, you can't say that you don't like Titanic.
Come on.
Well, I'm not the biggest fan of Titanic then.
How does that sound?
Okay, that's better yeah, that's better.
So mighty joe young made rory cry when i was like now, you know, five or however old i was.
So not now.
I'd just be like, oh god, it's a big gorilla and a bit of a pickle.
I cry all the time.
Just you, give me, give me.
Well, you have to work with me.
I'm emotional.
Between the cartoons and working with Rory, it's quite justified that you'd want to cry.
Right.
Rory, would you like to be in a movie?
Only if it was about something meaningful.
I think there are lots of films that are about Nothing in particular.
But if I was going to be in a movie, it would have to be something that I cared about, like teaching, for example.
What about a horror film?
I find horror entertaining.
I don't find it meaningful.
Those are two very different things.
Rory, what are three films you'd like to recommend everyone to watch?
Oh, that's hard because it's only three.
But OK, so I think I think we've already talked about one of them, which was The Devil Wears Prada.
So that that kind of humor in that movie matches my own.
And I find the aspects of my life are reflected in it.
But just because I find that isn't a reason everybody should watch it.
I think that everybody can appreciate the humor and the situations in the movie.
So that's why I think people would enjoy it in particular.
But the reasons I said are why I would enjoy it.
I also really like this movie.
It's from the oh god, I think it's from the late 90s Starship Troopers.
It's a great film.
It's an action, it's sort of a sci-fi action flick and it's like it's really good fun.
It's not very serious, but it's filled with graphic violence and adult content.
So any of our listeners who are under 18 definitely should not be watching that movie.
But I find it really fun.
And I think I
I think it won an Oscar actually for best visual effects.
So even if you don't like the story, then you might find the visual effects quite nice.
Starship Troopers.
Yep.
And the last one is called Contact, which is a film I've mentioned before.
It's also science fiction.
And that's got Jodie Foster and she plays the role of a radio telescope operator and she makes contact with aliens.
Basically, and it's not as fast-paced as Starship Troopers.
It's quite slow, it's more of a spiritual movie, but it had quite a profound impact on me and I think it has a profound impact on a lot of people that watched it.
So I definitely recommend it to everyone.
Watch, but only by themselves.
It's not really a thing that you watch with other people.
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Bye-bye.
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