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Hello, hello, dear listener, and welcome into IELTS Speaking Park 2.
Describe a foreign country you'd like to go to in the future.
You should say where it is, what it's famous for, what you can do there and explain why you want to go there.
Rory here is a super traveller, right Rory?
He's been out and about.
I have but now we're going to talk about the places I've not been out and about to.
Give us your story.
I'd like to talk about Slovenia which is an almost landlocked country in Europe that I've always wanted to visit it's hard to pinpoint exactly where it is because well these things are very subjective but I would say it's in southern central Europe and close to the Balkans so that means it's to the east of Italy but north of Croatia I think it has a tiny sliver of coast on the Adriatic but I'm terrible with place names so I don't know if I've got the name of the sea right.
Well I don't think it's had the same global impact as a large country like Russia or the USA I think I can still lay claim to some pretty notable things like being the homeland of Donald Trump's wife Melania and Slavois Yizhek who's this rather notorious philosopher and not only does it have all these famous people but it also played a key role in in history of the region by being the first state to secede from Yugoslavia, and at least what I think was a relatively peaceful transition.
And while all countries have beautiful landscapes, Slovenian ones have a reputation for being particularly beautiful, even the coastline, which is absolutely tiny compared to the nearby countries like the Croatian or Italian coasts.
In terms of what it's possible for people to do there, I mean, since it's a fairly modern country in the European Union, the sky is pretty much the limit and you can do all kinds of things but I think the most noteworthy things are enjoying the scenery, architecture and culture which are all rather unique in my opinion.
For example, there's this seaside town called Piran that I've been longing to visit for a while now and it has this amazing town square that doesn't seem to have changed much since the middle ages and it's got very well preserved churches and city walls, that's just part of the reason I'd like to go there.
I've also gotten to know a few Slovenians in my time and, well they're obviously all individuals.
They always seem like some of the most brilliant people I'd ever met and I'd like to see if that's true for the whole country.
There's a little bit of kinship there too, since I'm also from a small European country and I think it's important that we celebrate and appreciate such places to keep them alive and thriving.
If I haven't visited before I'm much older I think I'll have really missed out, since I've been meaning to go for ages and I don't want to lack the energy for such an experience.
Do you think you'll go there any time soon?
I really wanted to go there for my birthday this year so fingers crossed!
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See you soon! talked about Slovenia so if you don't know where Slovenia is you can Google it Slovenia the capital of Slovenia is Rory.
Lupeana well I pronounce it that way I'm sorry if you're Slovenian then you're thinking you've just butchered the name of my hometown or my country's capital city.
Well done you and I've already googled what you should eat there Rory.
So local traditional food local cheese nice yum yum yum dumplings Rory interesting yum yum yum and some Slovenian honey Rory is supposed to be very good sausages mashed beans yeah no that's a new one I know sauerkraut and sausage So there are different kinds of sausages perhaps like in Germany Hmm soups traditional soups and stews Rory case of Indian stews sauerkraut which is this Cabbage you know German sauerkraut in Slovenia and civilian wine or a while.
Oh, yes I remember someone mentioning this now the wine not the sauerkraut.
I never heard of that before or not coming from Slovenia.
So that's a new one for me.
So dear listener, you should choose a country that you can talk about.
Or Google it to find out some interesting facts about this country, and speak about it.
Or you can talk about a country you've been to, OK?
But say that, oh, I'd like to go to Italy.
But you've already been to Italy.
You know stuff. You see, that's the trick.
Or you could just have a country that you really wanted to go to.
yeah or you can just lie a little bit so I've always wanted to visit Peru for example so present perfect right I've always been to Peru yeah I've been to Peru so you see this is the trick, do you listen?
so you pick some exotic country you've been to and you say that you want to go there and it's gonna be easy because so you've been to this country so you know what to say I've always wanted to visit...blah -blah -blah.
It's hard to pinpoint exactly where it is.
So, when you pinpoint, you can few points to where this country is in the world, somewhere in Europe.
And this is quite difficult to do because where countries are located is very much a matter of opinion in some cases.
Hmm, okay. So people can get very annoyed if you put the country in the wrong place?
Oh, that's true. Where is Scotland?
Like we don't know.
Somewhere there, you know?
Well, this is it. Some people say that my country is in the north of England, which could be extremely offensive to some people, because this country is not England.
It's a tiny coast. Slovenia has a tiny coast on the Adriatic.
So, it's Adriatic Sea.
Is it the Adriatic Sea?
I don't know. Let's have a look at a map.
It is! Oh ok, good.
So if you don't remember the places or place names you can always say I am terrible with place names.
So if you don't remember the name, you forgot the capital, you forgot the name of the country even.
Where you wanna go.
You say Oh, you're not like...
I'm terrible with place names.
I'm a bit nervous now and I forgot where I want to go.
Somewhere in Europe.
Slovenia is the homeland of Donald Trump's wife.
His second wife. Let us not dwell on that too long.
So some famous people were born in this country.
And this country has beautiful landscapes.
I think that's a fairly safe one.
You can say that for just about any country though.
The landscapes are beautiful, the scenery is magnificent.
Yeah. So a beautiful coast, and Slovenian people or the people in this country have a reputation for being beautiful, friendly, hospitable, so they welcome you to this country.
Or this country has a reputation for da -da -da, so for a beautiful coastline, for example.
As for the activities, you can say, well the sky is pretty much the limit.
See, so there are so many things to do, limitless things to do, and you can say well.
In terms of what to do there the sky is the limit.
So there is no limit, so many activities, but then you can name a few activities, you can do all kinds of things, you can do all different things, but the most noteworthy things.
Yes, the most notable, the most, the ones that stand out the most. Yeah.
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noteworthy deserving attention because they are important or interesting so the most the most noteworthy things are enjoying the scenery scenery like landscapes nature enjoying the architecture and culture and of course food which Rory hasn't mentioned because I didn't know much about Slovenia and Philte I just want to go to piran and have a nice time with sausages and local cheeses, local wine, and sauerkraut.
That's gonna be so much fun.
I actually cannot wait, that's gonna be amazing.
Yeah. You can say that enjoying unique architecture, unique cuisine, like food of the country.
I've been longing to visit this place for a while now.
So I have really wanted to go there for a long time we can say I've been longing to visit so long to do something and here President Buffett continues Dallas now I really wanted to visit this this town has well preserved churches so the churches are well saved to their well preserved maybe some ancient churches, or ancient city walls, any kind of fortification?
I mean, anywhere in Europe you're going to find something like that, so most European countries you could say this about, like, it's got well preserved ancient buildings, or well preserved fortifications, even though the only reason I want to go there is to enjoy the beach, to the nice wine and So, I haven't been there yet, so you can say I've been meaning to go there for ages.
So, I've wanted to go there many times, but still I haven't gone there.
So, I've been meaning to go there for ages, but I just don't have the time.
Never got around to it.
Yeah, I've never got around to doing it.
I didn't have much time, I was busy.
but hopefully this year for my birthday I'll go there yeah and now Rory's vocabulary show yes it's the part of the episode where I asked Maria questions about the vocabulary and grammar and occasionally pronunciation that I used in the episode you can play along so let's talk about this start Maria I described Slovenia and I used a particular word to say it's got very very little access to the sea it's surrounded by other countries almost. Slovenia is an almost landlocked country.
So if a country is landlocked, it means it has no access to the sea and that is true for Slovenia except for their tiny coast. Then in the next part I was talking about some people that are from there and I highlighted some individuals but I used a particular word to describe them it's like being famous but in a slightly negative or risky way.
A notorious philosopher.
Yes if you are notorious it's like being infamous so people hear this name it's associated with controversy.
Yeah like a notorious criminal.
Speaking of things we can highlight I also talked about the activities that you could highlight about the area or the country.
But I used another word!
It's similar to notorious but it's not quite this controversial meaning.
The most noteworthy things are enjoying the scenery, architecture and culture.
Noteworthy, amazing.
And then, towards the end, I was explaining why I like the country so much. And I talked about the people there, why I like them, but I also spoke about this feeling of connection with the country as well because it's small and my country is also quite small we have roughly the same number of people and so I feel this kind of connection.
I didn't say I feel a connection I said something different there's a kinship yes so to have kinship or to have a little bit of kinship is to feel connected in some way almost like a family and we're I have a family of many small countries in Europe right now but well done Maria 100 % nicely done yay so do this now after you've chosen a country you want to visit for example Argentina you can go to TripAdvisor and Google for example like top activities in Argentina and usually TripAdvisor pops up and you can go there and take a look at the activities for example I've googled Slovenia and TripAdvisor popped
up so top attractions in Slovenia for example visit mountain lakes go to a spacious cave this a cave Rory.
Oh my, is that on the coast?
No no no somewhere there or like visit the largest natural lake in Slovenia go to a national park you see there are pictures they're activities and there are beautiful words for example go to a brewery brewery where they make beer Oh I like that idea or visit the castle panoramic views you see to enjoy panoramic views so now you have beautiful words and pictures and activities, okay?
You just need the three activities, Dalla Sona.
Thank you. Thank you very much for listening.
Let's go to Slovenia.
Oh my God, let's. Bye.
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Describe a foreign country you'd like to go to in the future.
you should say where it is, what it's famous for, what you can do there and explain why you want to go there.
I'd like to talk about Slovenia, which is an almost landlocked country in Europe that I've always wanted to visit.
It's hard to pinpoint exactly where it is because, well, these things are very subjective but I would say it's in southern central Europe and close to the Balkans.
So that means it's to the East of Italy but north of Croatia.
I think it has a tiny sliver of cost on the Adriatic but I'm terrible with place names so I don't know if I've got the name of the sea right.
Well I don't think it's had the same global impact as a large country like Russia or the USA, I think I can still lay claim to some pretty notable things like being the homeland of Donald Trump's wife Melania and Slavoj Zizek who is this famous people, but it also played a key role in history of the region by being the first state to secede from Yugoslavia, in at least what I think was a relatively peaceful transition.
And while all countries have beautiful landscapes, Slovenian ones have a reputation for being particularly beautiful, even the coastline, which is absolutely tiny compared to the nearby countries like the Croatian or Italian coasts.
In terms of what it's possible for people to do there, i mean since it's a fairly modern country in the European Union the sky is pretty much the limit and you can do all kinds of things but i think the most noteworthy things are enjoying the scenery, architecture and culture which are all rather unique in my opinion.
For example there's this seaside town called Puran that I've been longing to visit for a while now and it has this amazing town square that doesn't seem to have changed much since the middle ages and that's got very well preserved churches and city walls, and that's just part of the reason I'd like to go there.
I've also gotten to know a few Slovenian's in my time and well they're obviously all individuals they always seemed like some of the most brilliant people I'd ever met and I'd like to see if that's true for the whole country.
There's a little bit of kinship there too since I'm also from a small European country and I think it's important that we celebrate and appreciate such places to keep them alive and thriving.
If I haven't visited before I'm much older I think i'll have really missed out since I've been meaning to go for ages and I don't want to lack the energy for such an experience.
Do you think you'll go there anytime soon?
I really want to go there for my birthday this year so fingers crossed!