Hello, everybody.
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 improve your speaking skills, as well as your listening skills along the way.
Right.
We started this podcast to give you a look at how a native English speaker would answer some of the most common IELTS speaking test questions.
I ask Rory these questions.
He answers using grammar and vocabulary for high score.
Today is a very special episode because Rory will be under lots of pressure.
We'll have a full speaking test today, like exactly as it is in the exam.
Three parts, about 11 to 14 minutes.
Everything will be exactly as in the speaking exam.
Rory, are you ready?
I hope you're not going to walk all over me.
Oh, that seems to be a cracker joke.
A Christmas cracker joke.
Because that's interesting.
We're going to be talking about shoes today.
Now in this first part, I'd like to ask you a few questions about yourself.
Let's talk about work or studies.
Do you work or are you a student?
I work, actually, as a teacher.
Do you like it?
I love it.
It's one of the best things I've ever done with my life.
What would you like to do in the future?
Well, I work as a teacher.
Actually, also, I'm a director of studies as well.
Both of these are quite high pressure jobs.
So hopefully in the future, I'll work less than I do now, just so there's not so much pressure.
But I still want to work in education because it's one of the best things that you could ever do, at least in my case.
Let's talk about shoes now.
What kind of shoes do you usually wear?
Usually I wear trainers in the summer and boots in the winter, so it really does depend on the weather.
Something more casual in the summer, something lighter and something more hardy in the winter.
Do you have a favourite pair of shoes?
I don't know.
I had a favorite pair of shoes.
They were a one of a kind red pair of Skechers shoes.
There was a factory error that meant that instead of the usual blue, they came out red.
And I really loved them because they were one of a kind.
Unfortunately, a year ago, my mother threw them out because they were kind of falling to pieces.
I was a bit upset because I was thinking about taking them to a cobbler, but they never made it that far.
The closest thing to a favorite pair of shoes I have now is probably my blue Skechers, but they're not the same as the red ones because they're like everyone else's.
How often do you buy shoes?
I think I buy them roughly once or twice a year.
I always buy my boots from a shoe shop because I think it's important to check the size and the fit.
So in that sense, I always have to go to a shoe shop, which I'm rarely able to do because I don't live in the UK these days.
Do you like expensive shoes?
I think it depends what you mean by expensive, really.
Yeah, kind of.
I buy, like I say, Skechers and they're roughly that price.
So I like those kinds of expensive shoes, but it's not because they're expensive.
Would you ever spend a lot of money on shoes?
Well, it's like I said before, it depends on how you define a lot of money.
I think I would.
And I think the shoes I buy now are quite high quality, but I don't buy them very often.
So I think that justifies the expenditure.
Yeah.
So yes, I would spend a lot of money on shoes but not because they're expensive.
Have you ever bought shoes online?
Yes, once, and it was a disaster.
I told you before, my mother destroyed my one-of-a-kind red Skechers, and I was very upset.
And I thought I'd found a pair online.
They were bright red, but it's okay.
It's not as bad as it looked.
And I... ordered them, and then when they arrived, they weren't red, they were green.
And I don't like the colour green, so that was quite disappointing for me.
So I have ordered online, but I'm never doing it again.
Now I'm going to give you a topic and I'd like you to talk about it for one or two minutes.
Before you talk, you have one minute to think of what you're going to say.
You can make some notes if you wish.
Do you understand?
Yes.
Here's some paper and a pencil for making notes and here's your topic.
I'd like you to describe a situation that made you laugh.
Now, dear listeners, Rory has one minute to think of what he's going to say and take some notes, if he wishes.
Let me just give you a topic, right?
So Rory has to talk about a situation that made him laugh.
In the task, it says, please say what the situation was, when it was.
He also should answer the question, who was there with him and say why it made him laugh.
Everything is written on the card which the examiner gives you in the exam.
All right?
Remember, you have one to two minutes for this.
Don't worry if I stop you.
I'll tell you when the time is up.
Could you start speaking now, please?
Of course.
The first thing that comes to mind, I think, of a humorous situation I've been in, is one time I was working at a summer camp with my friend John, and I was giving a briefing to him and the other teachers there.
And I thought it would be a good idea if I got the teachers to pretend that they were a class of young people so that they could see how the activities were being done.
And that would hopefully make them appreciate the instructions a lot better than if I just told them straight.
However, what I didn't reckon with was the fact that one of my friends John, in this case in particular, decided to take the roleplay too far and he, instead of completing the task, drew a funny picture of a cat.
And he held it up for everybody to see.
And at that point, everyone in the room just burst out laughing.
It was like we were hysterical.
It was absolutely ridiculous.
I think the main reason is because well, we'd been working together for a long time, so we bonded and we were all very comfortable with each other at that point.
But in addition to that, we were working hard and I think a lot of us had sleep deprivation and we were really looking to release the stress and tension we were feeling.
So...
That it all just started coming out of people and we were laughing for like about five minutes straight before we could recover control of ourselves.
I think.
One of the other reasons that it really got to me in that sense was also just the contrast with normality.
We'd been working quite professionally with each other for, oh gosh, about two weeks at that point.
And then the contrast with normality just made everybody laugh, in addition to all of the other reasons beforehand.
Okay, thank you.
Now we've been talking about a funny situation and I'd like to discuss with you one or two more general questions related to this.
Let's talk about...
Do you think a sense of humour is important?
Oh yes, it's absolutely crucial.
It helps you cope with stress and I really think it helps people regulate their emotions.
If you never laugh, then you suppress a lot of these feelings, and that can be quite damaging actually.
Another reason is that it helps you find common ground with people if you can share a laugh together.
Is humour easy to translate from one language to another?
I think practical jokes and almost slapstick comedy, because everyone can see it and appreciate it.
That's easy to translate.
It's not something that I like, but I think a lot of people can understand it.
But for other elements of humor, like dark humor, not every culture can get that.
And so that can sometimes be something that's lost in translation, I think.
Can humor be useful in learning another language?
I think, in terms of teaching the language, it's good if your teacher has a sense of humor, because you relax more and then you'll be more receptive.
But as a learner...
I don't know.
I suppose it would take the edge off being stressed, definitely.
Do you think that when people laugh, it's always genuine, or sometimes people can even fake it?
I think people do put on their laughter sometimes.
I think you can tell, because it seems to me that the pitch of people's laughter can tell you a lot about how genuine it is.
If it's like a really really high pitch, almost unnatural, then it seems to me like it's fake or less genuine.
How do you think laughter can be used in a negative way?
I think if it's combined with bullying for example, if you're laughing at someone as opposed to laughing with them then you can use it in a very negative way, almost to lower someone's self-esteem.
And that's not very nice.
Do you think that the less people laugh, the older they get?
Maybe not older, but certainly they seem to become more serious or behave in a more mature way.
We usually associate people laughing and joking around with being less mature, maybe more childish and younger.
However, I suppose...
Laughter also decreases stress in people as well, doesn't it?
So if you decrease the stress which can cause you to age, then actually maybe it would make you seem a little bit younger.
Thank you very much, Rory.
That's the end of the speaking test.
Thank you.
