Hello, Lolly.
I'm Maria.
And my name is Rory.
We're the hosts of the I Am 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've started this podcast to give you gorgeous vocabulary and fabulous grammar for your high IELTS score.
Your band 9th score.
Oh, Rory, do you have new shoes?
Yeah, I bought a few pairs recently, actually.
Excellent.
Let's talk about shoes.
Yes, dear listener. shoes.
We've talked about shoes before.
So could you please Google our episode about shoes?
Just Google IELTS speaking for success shoes and listen to that episode and also to this episode.
So like double joy for you.
Okay, double shoes.
Rory is super passionate about shoes.
Um, maybe.
Not as passionate about shoes as Maria is.
However, Maria does know a lot about shoes, so can you make a few predictions about what I will talk about, Maria.
Well, Rory...
Nothing really interesting, you know, just the same boring stuff.
That well, you have one pair of shoes and that's all.
They're black.
One of Maria's predictions is that I will only have one pair of shoes to talk about.
A bold prediction.
Any other predictions?
Maybe two pairs.
Okay, so a small number of shoes will be mentioned.
Yeah, maybe like that you buy functional shoes.
You don't care about any trends and fashion, so cheap, practical shoes.
No heels.
Let's see if Maria is right.
Do you like buying shoes?
Uh, not really, no.
I just like to go in, get the shoes, ideally in the appropriate size, and get out again.
Actually the last time I bought shoes, I just logged on, bought the ones I wanted and then logged out again.
It took about five minutes.
How often do you buy shoes?
I think once or twice a year, maybe.
I try to do it before my current pairs fall to pieces, which isn't terribly often, because I look after them very well.
What kind of shoes do you like to wear?
Usually trainers, especially the slip-on ones with the bungee cord laces.
Then you don't have to mess around with tying up or just tying laces and things.
It sounds lazy, but it's a real time saver, especially in the cold or in the morning.
Have you ever bought shoes online?
Yeah, I do it all the time now.
It was a bit hit and miss at first, but now I have a brand I like and I'm familiar with how they size things.
It's very easy to buy things from them.
Which do you prefer, fashionable or comfortable shoes?
I definitely pick comfort over fashion.
Every time though, I like to think my shoes are pretty fancy as well.
I have been told however, that that's not true and they're not particularly cool.
How much money do you usually spend on shoes?
More than most, I think.
But the ones I buy are pretty durable and they're built to last.
So I think it's worth the extra cost.
I remember I had one pair that basically went around the world with me in all kinds of terrain for a year and they were great.
I was really sad to throw them out, actually.
Although they were falling apart at the end, so I kind of had to do that.
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And now, woohoo, yay, another shoe episode.
You know the song, Walk a Mile in My Shoes?
I know there's a saying that's walk a mile in my shoes, but I didn't know there was a song.
Yeah, walk a mile in my shoes.
Yeah, this is an idiom, right, Rory?
Walk a mile in my shoes.
Or it's not an idiom, it's just words from a song.
A proverb, maybe?
Proverb.
It's just about seeing things from the other person's perspective.
So, dear listener, you can listen to the song Walk a Mile in My Shoes.
I think there are a couple of songs and one of them is like a jazz version.
So...
I like buying shoes.
I hate buying shoes.
I just go in, go into a shop, get the shoes means buy the shoes and get out.
So go in, get the shoes, get out.
Well, if you are a man, Maybe that's true for you.
But ladies, if you're a lady, no, no, no, no, no, no.
What do ladies do?
Do you shop around?
Which is a phrasal verb, I think.
We shop around for shoes.
We do the window shopping.
We look at the shoes.
We get in there.
We walk around.
We admire the shoes.
We see that we don't have money for all the shoes.
And then we buy them anyway.
We buy them anyway.
Why you said that i just logged on.
Ah, you logged on like the internet onto your computer.
Yes well, to the website yeah.
So the last time i bought shoes, i just logged on.
I switched on my computer, bought the ones i wanted the ones meaning the shoes and logged out again.
So you can say like well, it's easy for me, i log in, I buy the shoes, I log out.
Log out.
I mean, this is me describing the buying of the shoes.
The process of finding the shoes is obviously much more complex than that.
Sometimes I take a very long time to make a decision.
It could be time consuming to make a decision about the shoes that you want.
It is time consuming.
How often you can say once a month, twice a year, once a year, every month, every week dillis, i don't know.
You know twice a week, every day, but usually we buy shoes several times a year.
My shoes fall to pieces.
That's a situation when your shoes get destroyed because you wear them every day.
So I usually buy a new pair of shoes or just a new pair before my current shoes.
The ones that I wear every day now fall to pieces.
Rory, can I use the phrasal verb wear off?
So my shoes wore off or are wearing off or out.
Well, the color or the covering might get worn off over time.
But I think if we talk about the shoes deteriorating in condition, then they wear out.
So the condition gets worse.
Yeah, wear out.
What else can wear out?
Oh my god, clothes wear out.
I think it's really clothes and shoes that wear out the most, although anything used for a prolonged period of time will wear out eventually.
When something is damaged and can't be used anymore.
So maybe certain computer parts or parts in your car wear out, clothes wear out.
What kinds of shoes?
Usually, Rory wears trainers.
Trainers or sneakers.
And then, Rory, you used some strange words like the slip-on, the bungee cord laces.
What?
We don't understand that at all.
What?
Slip on shoes.
They're shoes that you don't need to tie the laces for.
You just slip them on and they're ready to go.
Some of them have bungee cord laces, which just means that they stretch and you tie the knot one time and then you don't really have to tie them again.
It's very easy and i don't have to mess around tying up laces.
So shoes have laces.
If you don't understand what we mean, go to google images and type laces and you will see pictures and you will clearly understand.
Or just type in l-a-c-e-s in google okay, we tie up laces.
And if you have like um, A lot of laces is just annoying to tie them up.
So I don't have to mess around.
I don't have to waste my time.
I don't have to do it because my shoes are slip-on shoes.
I just like put them on and that's all.
However, maybe you don't have slip-on shoes.
Maybe you have just normal shoes where you have to tie the laces.
And that will be a very specialist piece of vocabulary, because I think only shoes have laces, unless anything else does.
I can't think of anything right now.
And if you don't have any laces on your shoes, if you just put them on, you're put them on.
Put on shoes.
It's a real time saver.
So it saves your time.
We talked about buying shoes being time consuming.
It is time consuming sometimes.
Or you can say that buying shoes online is a real time saver.
I log on, buy the shoes and log out.
Now, dear listener, for kinds of shoes, we need specific vocabulary, maybe one or two words.
You can go to Google and type in shoes common words and you'll have pictures like boots.
For example, sandals, sneakers, slippers, loafers.
But you need to see the pictures, right?
Or the cowboy boots.
Okay, ladies, high-heeled shoes.
We like high heels or I usually wear high-heeled shoes.
Alright, so you should go online and choose one or two words that you can remember.
Or listen to our previous episode about shoes, where we talk more about different kinds of them.
But again, it depends on you.
What words you can remember.
But do remember some interesting ones, okay?
Not just like sneakers.
Some specific kinds of shoes.
There are many to choose from.
There are many to choose from and still I only wear trainers.
Flats, for example, or I usually wear knee boots.
Knee boots, like high boots, right?
Not like they're not short, they're high.
Can I say high boots?
No.
Say knee boots.
Knee high boots.
Knee high, yeah.
Because they go to your knees.
Or, for example, now derby shoes are quite fashionable.
Oh, my God.
What?
What? derby shoes i'm looking at vogue.com 2025 shoe trends brought to you by maria who's fanatical about shoes so derby shoes they're quite pretty you can just google derby shoes leather derby shoes or oxford shoes oh fancy yeah there you go for example lace up flats so flats no heels with laces yeah beautiful knee boots flats so they are Like always, Popula.
I buy shoes online all the time or I purchase shoes online.
It was a bit hit and miss.
Rory, could you explain that?
Oh, just that some things worked well and some things did not.
So if something is hit and miss, then it's not always 100% successful.
But it's not a total disaster either.
And it's a binomial.
So it's hit and miss.
Hit and miss.
Not miss and hit.
Could you use it in a sentence?
Yes.
When I first started being a teacher, about 12 years ago, my lessons were a bit hit and miss.
But now they're never hit and miss.
They're always hits.
Yeah well, for example, trains are usually late, so getting to work on time is a hit and miss situation, or getting to work on time is a bit hit and miss.
You can say that now I have a brand, a shoe brand.
I like, I'm familiar with it, like I know it, so I just order their shoes.
I know how the size works, so I'm familiar with how they size things.
I'm familiar with their sizes.
Shoes could be fashionable, trendy or comfortable, right?
And Rory definitely picks comfort, so you can say I pick comfort over fashion.
So I prefer comfort over fashion.
Or I prefer comfort over trends.
Ay-yi-yi, Rory.
Is that a bad thing?
No, no, no.
That's good.
Yeah, I also prefer comfort, actually.
My shoes are pretty fancy.
If you don't have any stylish shoes, just say that.
Oh, I think my shoes are pretty fancy.
Like, you know, attractive, nice or stylish shoes.
What other adjectives can we use with shoes?
Fashionable, comfortable, fancy, stylish.
What else?
Oh, my God.
I don't know.
I don't know anything about shoes.
Just cool.
That's all I know.
My shoes are not cool, so I don't know.
I educated native speaker.
Educate me, Maria.
Well, casual shoes like sneakers.
All right.
Then we can say like leather shoes or heavy shoes, italian shoes stylish modern, dirty no no, we don't want dirty dirty, that's just per shoe care, expensive shoes, practical shoes also rory used the word durable, durable shoes are the ones that last long.
So you buy the shoes and then you wear them for five years like nike sneakers.
Oh la la, i got like nike sneakers and then i wore them like for good, like eight years.
It was amazing Durable.
So, able to last and be used for a long time.
Durable materials.
My clothes are durable.
My shoes are durable.
The final question is a money question, of course.
And you can say that my shoes are pretty durable.
They are built to last.
It's worth the extra cost.
That means that I pay more for my shoes because they're durable.
I don't change shoes very often, but I just pay and forget about shoes for maybe two years.
But Rory, how long do you usually wear your shoes?
A couple of years?
Oh my god.
Forever.
Like I can wear them for periods of months at a time because I just keep them in a good condition.
So it's not a big deal for me to do that.
So I keep my shoes in a good condition so they last.
And I usually get really sad to throw them out.
You throw out your old shoes.
So you can say that I don't spend much, or I spend quite a lot, because I pay once and then I forget about it for five years.
What about you, dear listener?
How much money do you spend on shoes?
I, you know, like, when we talk about shoes, I remember sex in the city.
With this, what's her face?
Jessica?
No, Jessica.
Sarah Jessica Parker?
Oh, yeah, okay, okay.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So she was crazy about shoes.
Right, Dallas.
Now you can go to Vogue.com and go to the shoe page and have a read about the recent trends.
We are ready for the shoe joke.
Oh no, but we never discussed the shoe predictions.
Were your shoe predictions correct, Maria?
So, did I talk about heels?
Or no, I didn't talk about heels.
No.
Did I talk about any trends?
I think my shoes are on trend.
I think they're cool.
But Maria disagrees.
And did I talk about a small number of shoes?
I didn't actually mention the number of shoes I have.
How many pairs of shoes do you think I own, Maria?
Three.
Four, five.
You're wrong.
I have eight pairs of shoes.
I just counted them there.
Eight?
Yeah, yeah.
No way.
They're all in the same horrible style.
Wow.
They're all the same, yeah.
Okay.
So really, I only have one pair when you think about it.
Wow.
Well, I've got four, so...
Right.
Now the joke, dear listener.
The joke is my shoe collection.
Before you criticize someone, walk a mile in their shoes.
Then you are already a mile away and you have their shoes.
Very funny.
Rory, could you explain the joke?
Walking a mile in someone's shoes means trying to see something from somebody else's perspective.
But literally walking a mile in someone's shoes means you have walked away with their shoes.
So you stole them.
Thank you so much for listening.
Take care of your shoes and your shoes will take care of you, dear listener, okay?
Sending hugs and joy.
Bye.
Do you like buying shoes?
Ah, not really, no.
I just like to go in, get the shoes, ideally in the appropriate size, and get out again.
Actually the last time I bought shoes, I just logged on, bought the ones I wanted and then logged out again.
It took about five minutes.
How often do you buy shoes?
I think once or twice a year, maybe.
I try to do it before my current pairs fall to pieces, which isn't terribly often, because I look after them very well.
What kind of shoes do you like to wear?
Usually trainers, especially the slip-on ones with the bungee cord laces.
Then you don't have to mess around with tying up or just tying laces and things.
It sounds lazy, but it's a real time saver, especially in the cold or in the morning.
Have you ever bought shoes online?
Yeah, I do it all the time now.
It was a bit hit and miss at first, but now I have a brand I like and I'm familiar with how they size things.
It's very easy to buy things from them.
Which do you prefer, fashionable or comfortable shoes?
I definitely pick comfort over fashion.
Every time though, I like to think my shoes are pretty fancy as well.
I have been told however, that that's not true and they're not particularly cool.
How much money do you usually spend on shoes?
More than most, I think.
But the ones I buy are pretty durable and they're built to last.
So I think it's worth the extra cost.
I remember I had one pair that basically went around the world with me in all kinds of terrain for a year and they were great.
I was really sad to throw them out, actually.
Although they were falling apart at the end, so I kind of had to do that.
