Hello, Sunshine.
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 because we want you to use high-level words and gorgeous grammar in your IELTS speaking and in your English life.
Maria, what's the best thing you've ever worn?
A smile, Rory.
Oh, God.
Let's just get on with the episode, shall we?
Let's talk about smiling.
Rory, do you like smiling?
Does anyone not like smiling?
Of course I do.
And it's probably a good thing since people say I have a nice smile.
I'm not entirely sold on that compliment, but I like to be happy and I like to express that fact at least.
When do you usually smile?
Probably when people do the right thing or when they say something that I find amusing.
I should say it doesn't have to be something morally right.
Just like something like whenever a student can produce a flawless, error-free sentence, or at least tries hard, then that's a cause for a small celebration.
So I'll smile.
Similarly, when I say amusing, it doesn't have to be something hilarious or intentionally funny, but I think it's important and interesting to show people when you notice these things.
Well, other people smiling is good for that.
Likewise, when somebody does a good job of something, like I said before.
Or compliments.
Everybody loves compliments, don't they?
And whenever I see food, I like particularly pizza, though maybe that's more of a predatory smile in the case of pizza.
Can you identify a fake smile?
I think so.
Apparently, people have this built-in mechanism to detect fake smiles.
It's not something conscious.
It's like an unconscious thing.
I think it's.
I think it's something to do with only moving your mouth and not your eyes when you smile.
You'd probably have to check that, but I think that's what I remember from the thing that I was reading.
It's When was the last time you saw a lot of people smiling?
I think it was when I was at the speaking club thing last weekend.
So I went to help out a friend of mine and it was a really difficult few hours with squawking and squabbling children, reluctant students, awkward moments.
But by the end of the lesson, the students were happy.
They had a lot of pronunciation practice and they got to speak to a foreigner.
And of course, we had wine, which is always helpful for making people smile in these situations.
So everyone was happy and smiling by the end, even though it didn't start that way.
It certainly finished that way.
Do you often smile when people take photos of you?
Probably almost always, unless I'm being ironic or unless I see someone out of the corner of my eye who's annoyed me.
I think it's...
Could we hurry up and take the picture, please?
Because my face is beginning to hurt.
So I do smile, but it's probably, what's the word?
It's probably more of a curse than a blessing.
Rory, thank you so much for being all smileys, answering the questions.
So basically, from this episode, you now know that wine helps smiling.
Well, if you're good with wine.
Some people are not so good with wine, as I found out.
Rory, how many times a day do you think a typical adult smiles?
If they have lessons with me, then they're smiling all the time.
No, seriously.
A typical adult smiles 20 times a day.
Oh, my God.
Now, how many times a day do you think an average happy adult smiles?
Oh God, it's going to be something like 120 or something.
No, 40 or 50 times a day.
Now, how many times a day does a child smile, Rory?
Come on.
I have no idea.
Tell me.
400 times a day on average.
Oh my God.
How could you be bothered?
That's a lot of effort.
This is some very useful statistics for our dear listener.
When we talk about smiling, we can use to smile as a verb, right?
So we smile or we wear. a smile, have a smile.
Also we can hide a smile, force a smile.
So if we force a smile, what happens?
Well, you force a smile then you make yourself smile despite not feeling like doing it.
Can we fake a smile?
Yes, I often fake smiles when I'm having conversations with people I don't like, although that doesn't happen very often.
Yeah, fake, basically not real.
Then we say smile at people.
So I usually smile at children.
We smile with pleasure.
And something makes you smile.
Not makes you to smile, but makes you smile.
Kids make me smile.
Then Rory used different adjectives to describe a smile.
For example, he said that he has a nice smile.
If the smile is real Rory, which adjective have you used?
Genuine smile, like the real deal.
You could say that if your smile is the real deal.
And it's going to be part of a conditional sentence as well if you use if.
Or your smile can be a fake.
A fake smile.
Or a disingenuous smile.
What is the word?
Disingenuous.
Disingenuous.
Oh, God.
It's just like not being genuine.
I've used it before, I think.
Hmm.
I could use it to speak about certain language schools in Moscow, for example.
Sorry, Maria, you were saying something.
I'd say also a forced smile or a fixed smile.
Like a fixed, you're waiting for the photo to be taken.
Yeah, in my case, waiting a very long time for the photo to be taken.
But on the bright side, a smile can be a happy, a warm smile, a charming smile or an enigmatic smile.
Radiant smile, that's also a very good collocation.
Roy, tell us about a radiant smile.
I think the opposite of my smile, basically.
So I suppose a radiant smile shows your emotions clearly.
It's very attractive and people are drawn towards you because of your smile.
It just makes people feel good about themselves.
Rory, when you were talking about pizza, you've mentioned a predatory smile.
A predator, like a tiger smile.
A predatory smile.
When we talk about people is usually used to mean like if somebody really wants something, I'll leave whatever it is you want to your imagination.
And then it's like how they it's like how a wolf looks at food or how a bear looks at food.
It's like all the teeth and salivating kind of thing.
So sometimes it's not a nice thing, but you can make a joke with it.
Can imagine a hungry Rory who hasn't eaten the whole day and then we kind of we show him pizza.
It's like like a warm, delicious pizza fresh from the oven and then we show it to Rory and Rory goes like yeah, give it to me.
So this would be a predatory smile.
We sometimes pay compliments to different people.
And Rory, you've said that I'm not sold on compliments.
I'm not sold on compliments about my smile.
I don't think I have a particularly nice smile, but it is nice to get compliments, isn't it?
So in that sense, thank you.
I don't believe it, but it's nice to hear nice things, isn't it?
Yes, everybody, let's comment on social media that, oh, Rory, you have a charming smile.
You have such a Scottish smile, Rory.
Rory smiles when he finds things amusing.
Yes, and it's always to find something amusing.
You can think something is amusing, but to find something amusing is a much higher level collocation.
It doesn't have to be something hilarious.
Hilarious is another good one.
Hilarious is like an adjective for finding something really really funny, like laugh out loud funny.
The question can be about a fake smile.
And here, basically, we say that I can see, I can detect fake smiles.
And Rory, you've used this building mechanism to detect fake smiles.
That's a good one.
Yes, so you can detect something.
Usually you detect something that's not right with the world.
And What was the other thing?
Oh yes, the mechanism.
Mechanism is just well.
You can talk about mechanism to describe a machine, but you also can use a mechanism to describe something that functions inside your body.
So, for example, you've got a biological mechanism that helps you determine if someone's smile is genuine or real.
You've got a mechanism to make your heart pump blood around your body.
Yeah, and usually when we smile genuinely, smile genuinely, yeah, adverb, we smile with our eyes.
Because like when we smile, our eyes are the window to the soul.
So, smile with your eyes.
When you were talking about photos, you said that my face starts to hurt from holding a smile for ages.
Yeah, so this is like connected to the expression to have a fixed smile, isn't it?
And you... If you hold a smile and you keep it on your face, but it's like...
God, it's like whenever you hold any muscle for a prolonged period of time, then it just starts to hurt because it gets tired.
So it's the same with your face muscles.
I think...
Now, hopefully, if any biologists are listening, this is probably a good word to use in your exam.
I didn't use it, but I just thought of it there because I was teaching biology the other day.
I think the muscle in your face that controls everything is called the masseter muscle.
And that's the one that starts to hurt when you're smiling for a prolonged period.
Anyway, if you're a biologist, then correct me.
Or the brain.
The brain starts to hurt.
That's the muscle.
My brain is always hurting.
Rory, you've also used a nice one.
Dimples.
Massive dimples.
Dimples are... How best to describe them?
Cute.
They are cute.
They're like small holes in your face.
Uh, that apparently look quite cute on.
Yes, holes in your face.
Yeah, i've got a story about that, but i'll save it for another day because it's not.
It's uh, it's 18 plus um so, But I think that's the best way to describe it.
It's like holes in your cheeks, basically, isn't it?
It's caused by the muscles.
You have a weakness or something in certain parts of your muscles that causes dimples to happen.
But apparently, even though it's a weakness in the muscles, it's quite endearing and people really like it for some reason.
Yeah, it can be very cute when a person smiles and then you see little things on their cheeks when they smile and it's really cute.
I'll take your word for it.
It's always people that don't have these things that tell me that they're cute and I just don't.
Oh, well, anyway.
Anyway.
If you smile from ear to ear, it is contagious.
And a smile is contagious.
That's another good one.
Contagious like when one person smiles, you start smiling and the world smiles at you.
Thank you very much for listening.
And we hope that all of our vocabulary and grammar has put a smile on your face.
Bye.
Bye, bye, bye.
Bye.
Rory, do you like smiling?
Does anyone not like smiling?
Of course I do.
And it's probably a good thing since people say I have a nice smile.
I'm not entirely sold on that compliment, but I like to be happy and I like to express that fact at least.
When do you usually smile?
Probably when people do the right thing, or when they say something that I find amusing.
I should say it doesn't have to be something morally right, just something like whenever a student can produce a flawless, error-free sentence, or at least tries hard, then that's a cause for a small celebration.
So I'll smile.
Similarly, when I say amusing, it doesn't have to be something hilarious or intentionally funny, but I think it's important and interesting to show people when you notice these things.
Well, other people smiling is good for that.
Likewise, when somebody does a good job of something, like I said before.
Or compliments.
Everybody loves compliments, don't they?
And whenever I see food, I like particularly pizza, though maybe that's more of a predatory smile in the case of pizza.
Can you identify a fake smile?
I think so.
Apparently, people have this built-in mechanism to detect fake smiles.
It's not something conscious.
It's like an unconscious thing.
I think it's.
I think it's something to do with only moving your mouth and not your eyes when you smile.
You'd probably have to check that, but I think that's what I remember from the thing that I was reading.
It's also clear from the context since like, if the situation is serious, then you're less likely to see a genuine smile, for example.
And you could probably make an educated guess as well if someone is known to be a duplicitous person, for example.
When was the last time you saw a lot of people smiling?
I think it was when I was at the speaking club thing last weekend.
So I went to help out a friend of mine and it was a really difficult few hours with squawking and squabbling children, reluctant students, awkward moments.
But by the end of the lesson...
The students were happy.
They had a lot of pronunciation practice and they got to speak to a foreigner.
And of course we had wine, which is always helpful for making people smile in these situations.
So everyone was happy and smiling by the end, even though it didn't start that way.
It certainly finished that way.
Do you often smile when people take photos of you?
Probably almost always, unless I'm being ironic or unless I see someone out of the corner of my eye who's annoyed me.
I think it's...
It's hard though because, first of all, like I, have massive dimples, so whenever I smile, people stop to comment about them, which leads me to the second problem, which is, while people are having these prolonged conversations, my face starts to hurt from holding a smile for ages while people pass these comments, and I'm just sort of like Could we hurry up and take the picture please.
Because my face is beginning to hurt.
So I do smile, but it's probably what's the word?
It's probably more of a curse than a blessing.
