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 started this podcast to show you how a qualified, educated and experienced native speaker would answer some of the most common IELTS speaking questions.
I ask Rory these questions.
He gives answers using vocabulary and grammar for a high score.
A band 9 score.
Dear listeners, welcome to the first episode of season four.
How the time flies, Rory, huh?
I know, I can't believe it.
It seems like just yesterday we were recording season one.
And now we're on season four.
Are you okay?
How are you?
I've been better, to be honest.
My favourite football team lost the other day, so I'm not feeling very happy about that.
We didn't score many goals, I'm afraid.
Oh, what a coincidence.
We're going to be talking about goals today.
Not football goals, but other goals, like goals and success.
And in speaking part three, they can ask you questions about your achievements and about your goals.
Rory, do you think people should set personal goals?
Definitely.
I think it's quite a good way of organizing your life.
You have something to aim for and work towards, as opposed to just I don't know floating and doing nothing really.
If you're not moving forwards to something, then you're moving backwards, aren't you, really?
You're stagnating.
What personal goals will people normally set?
I think probably getting in shape is a big one for people.
Anything that involves major lifestyle changes.
So I think getting in shape, going to the gym is probably one of them.
Another one might be giving up smoking, for example.
So they're quite common ones.
Some goals seem to be built into people as well, like having a family or getting promotions.
They seem to be something that people sort of naturally do, as opposed to things that people strive for like changing their lifestyle.
Do people set long-term goals or short-term goals?
I think they're interdependent, really, aren't they?
I think it's usually a good idea to have long-term goals and then to have the short ones to help you get there.
For example, in the long term, I want to be a primary teacher, but in the short term, in order to achieve this, I'll read about child psychology and take preparatory courses for my final qualification in this.
What kind of personal goals do people usually set in their life?
Well, I think people want to be healthier, broadly speaking.
And the shape that takes could be losing weight or improving their mental health.
So it can be physical or psychological.
It all seems to come back to being better and having a more stable life.
Do you think that personal goals are more important than other kinds of goals?
I think it depends on what you want from life, really.
If you want to spend your life accumulating more and more money and things to enjoy in your twilight years, then that's the tradeoff that you agree to.
I think most people probably focus more on personal goals, which is why there are so few millionaires, I'd imagine.
Why is it important to set goals at work?
Well, if you don't have goals at work, then you're just sort of moving blindly from task to task and there's no end in sight.
And I think that can be very demoralizing for people.
So that's one thing.
The other thing is it can help people manage their time better.
So there are lots of advantages, though it's important not to get demoralized too, overly focused on meeting the goals.
Obviously you should be enjoying the experience along the way.
Do you think that old people and young people have the same goals?
I don't know.
But generally, no.
Young people are usually just beginning to work out what they want from life, whereas older people have all of the life experience that they need probably, and they normally have a clearer idea about what they want.
This is most of the time, obviously.
You can have very immature adults and very mature children.
What about children?
Do children set goals?
I think children probably have more... There's a word for it.
Immediate goals, I think.
So they focus more on what can be done in the short term, like getting food, getting attention, this kind of thing.
Do you think that in the future people will set some other kinds of goals?
Some goals will change in the future?
Probably the details will change, but in the long term, The nature of the goals will be the same.
It's all about improving yourself somehow.
But the improvements that people want to make to their life specifically, probably well, they might change a little bit.
But I think most of them, if it's like being healthier, for example, like.
I doubt that's going to change anytime soon.
Rory, thank you very much for your speaking part three answers.
No problem.
Okay, let's take a look at the vocab and grammar for a high score.
So first of all, Rory, tell us, goals, aims, targets, any other synonyms which mean the same thing?
Probably there are lots of words like this, but for the purposes of our conversation they all mean the same thing.
They're all things that you're working towards the completion of.
I think in certain scientific perhaps or educational circle goals and aims are subdivided, but for us it means the same thing in general conversation.
Yeah, we can say goals, aims, or targets, the same.
Objectives also, yeah.
Yeah, I guess if we really want to talk about it, objectives are more well.
That's like a formal way of talking about it.
Like you have a military objective, for example.
And then, if we talk about targets again, target is less something that you set for yourself and something that's set for you.
Aims are... broader, and I think goals are more specific things if I remember correctly.
But in the context that we're talking about them, they all kind of mean the same thing.
So they're good synonyms.
Yeah, and we can use aim as a verb, like I'm aiming for something, right?
Yep, absolutely.
Or aim to do something.
Or you can aim at something.
At something, right.
And we can have long-term goals and short-term goals.
And also about children, you said immediate goals.
Yeah.
Hmm.
Immediate goals.
Okay.
You've said a good one, built into people.
So goals, some goals seem to be built into people.
Yeah.
By that, I mean, it just seems to be a natural part of who they are.
Could you give us another example with this built-in stuff?
Well, maybe not so much with people, but computers have a lot of things built into them.
Like my computer has lots of USB ports, for example, built into it.
So they're just a part of it.
It was there at the beginning.
And with goals, you can move forward, right, something?
Or we can move backwards or backwards.
Yeah, hopefully you're usually moving forward towards your goals.
Yeah, I prefer moving forward towards my goals.
Yeah, and given examples of different goals, we can say like personal goals.
You've mentioned lifestyle changes such as giving up smoking, give up smoking.
Can I give up drinking?
Okay.
Can I give up on you, Rory?
Can I give up on people?
You can give up on people.
I don't know if that's a lifestyle change or not, or if it's a desirable goal to have.
I'll never give up on you, Rory.
Oh, thank you, Maria.
It's not failed so far.
How old are you?
When's your birthday?
Where do you live?
What's your phone number?
Okay, so maybe sometimes it will fail.
Yes.
Goals.
Yeah, we can say that goals can be common.
Some common goals.
Mm-hmm.
So that's like when you share goals with other people?
Yep, yep.
And goals should be achievable, right?
We should set achievable goals or attainable.
We should set attainable goals, right?
Is it the same, attainable and achievable?
Um again for the purposes of this conversation.
Basically, I think achievable means that you can do something and attainable means that you can achieve something.
And then continue on from there.
I think.
I don't know.
I need to check a dictionary for that one.
But I think for a lot of people, they mean the same thing.
We can also say, like, my primary goal is to accumulate money.
And you've mentioned that word, like, accumulate money, like earning money, right?
Yeah, you can accumulate money or you can accumulate things.
It doesn't matter.
It just means like you collect them together and keep them.
Twilight years.
Twilight?
What?
Like the series?
My twilight years.
It's just a nice way of saying when you're old.
Like me.
Oh, how old are you?
As old as the hills.
No, no, dear listeners, Rory's very young, actually.
I think he's younger than me.
Maybe.
Perhaps.
Okay, but twilight years, that's like people in the 50s, in the 60s, 90s, 100s?
I guess it's towards being older, like towards being dead.
So that's why it's called twilight years.
It's a nicer way of talking about it.
Wow, so when a person can't walk anymore in the 99, You said that it's not a good idea to be overly focused on your goals, right?
Yeah, so overly focused just means that you focus too much on something.
Yeah, and it could be demoralizing.
Demoralizing.
It could be.
Well, if you're overly focused on your goals, it might be demoralizing for other people that you're ignoring.
Like, if you focus so much on your goals, you ignore people that you work with.
We can also talk about mature people and immature, right?
Immature.
Yes.
Not mature.
Can we talk about, for example, mature wine?
What else can be mature?
Cheese.
Oh, mature cheese.
Yes.
Which verbs do we use with goals?
Like, we meet our goals?
We set goals?
Anything else?
So, you set goals when you... Well, before you go to meet them.
And you can meet them or you can reach your goals.
That's all. that I can think of off the top of my head.
Do you always meet your goals, Robbie?
You personally?
Probably no more than I did when I was younger, I think.
You're very productive.
Yay.
I try my best.
Also, Rory, you've used a lot of if structures.
So, dear listener, now when you listen to Rory's answers again, you can actually notice all these if sentences.
There were lots of them, like if blah, blah, blah, blah, and then if again.
They do add to your grammatical range and are complex structures.
Rory, what's your primary goal now at the moment?
Could you tell the world?
What are you aiming at in your life?
God, there's so many things.
I guess the primary goal is getting this university qualification.
But that's going to take about two years.
A master's?
No, it's a postgraduate.
Sorry, it's a postgraduate certificate.
No, it's a postgraduate certificate, not a PhD.
Not quite that prestigious, but still important for me.
Okay.
So are you studying now?
Are you kind of doing something now?
I'm doing the preparatory work for it, yeah.
Good luck with your goal, Rory.
No problem.
On the subject of preparation, we're also preparing the speaking course for IELTS, aren't we?
Oh, yes, our speaking course, yes.
With three Rorys.
Yes, so keep your ears open for more information about that when it comes.
IELTS Speaking for Success writing course or writing course, speaking course.
Remember, we have stuff for speaking too.
So there's lots of advertising coming out for all the services we offer.
That's all from us about goals.
Thank you very much for listening.
You can listen to Rory's answers again and notice if structures and different synonyms and vocabulary he's using.
And good luck with meeting your goal of getting a high score.
Bye.
Bye.
Rory, do you think people should set personal goals?
Definitely.
I think it's quite a good way of organizing your life.
You have something to aim for and work towards, as opposed to just I don't know floating and doing nothing really.
If you're not moving forwards to something, then you're moving backwards, aren't you, really?
You're stagnating.
What personal goals will people normally set?
I think probably getting in shape is a big one for people.
Anything that involves major lifestyle changes.
So I think getting in shape, going to the gym is probably one of them.
Another one might be giving up smoking, for example.
So they're quite common ones.
Some goals seem to be built into people as well, like having a family or getting promotions.
They seem to be something that people sort of naturally do, as opposed to things that people strive for like changing their lifestyle.
Do people set long-term goals or short-term goals?
I think they're interdependent, really, aren't they?
I think it's usually a good idea to have long-term goals and then to have the short ones to help you get there.
For example, in the long term, I want to be a primary teacher, but in the short term, in order to achieve this, I'll read about child psychology and take preparatory courses for my final qualification in this.
What kind of personal goals do people usually set in their life?
Well, I think people want to be healthier, broadly speaking.
And the shape that takes could be losing weight or improving their mental health.
So it can be physical or psychological.
It all seems to come back to being better and having a more stable life.
Do you think that personal goals are more important than other kinds of goals?
I think it depends on what you want from life, really.
If you want to spend your life accumulating more and more money and things to enjoy in your twilight years, then that's the tradeoff that you agree to.
I think most people probably focus more on personal goals, which is why there are so few millionaires, I'd imagine.
Why is it important to set goals at work?
Well, if you don't have goals at work, then you're just sort of moving blindly from task to task and there's no end in sight.
And I think that can be very demoralizing for people.
So that's one thing.
The other thing is it can help people manage their time better.
So there are lots of advantages, though it's important not to get demoralized too, overly focused on meeting the goals.
Obviously, you should be enjoying the experience along the way.
Do you think that old people and young people have the same goals?
I don't know.
Generally, no.
Young people are usually just beginning to work out what they want from life, whereas older people have all of the life experience that they need probably, and they normally have a clearer idea about what they want.
This is most of the time, obviously.
You can have very immature adults and very mature children.
What about children?
Do children set goals?
I think children probably have more... There's a word for it.
Immediate goals, I think.
So they focus more on what can be done in the short term, like getting food, getting attention, this kind of thing.
Do you think that in the future people will set some other kinds of goals?
Some goals will change in the future?
Probably the details will change, but in the long term... the nature of the goals will be the same.
It's all about improving yourself somehow, but the improvements that people want to make to their life specifically, probably well, they might change a little bit, but I think most of them, if it's like being healthier, for example, like I don't that's going to change anytime soon.
