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 with your speaking skills, as well as your listening skills, along the way.
We've started this podcast to give you gorgeous grammar and fabulous vocabulary for your high school band 9 school.
So, Rory, what have you been up to?
What's going on with you and your life?
Well, I suppose we've been watching the local team a lot on TV.
They're getting quite popular.
Well, one of the local teams has anyway.
Oh, on TV?
Sport?
You mean sport?
Yeah.
Did you watch football?
I've watched it in the passing.
Oh, shall we talk about sports programs?
We must.
Yes, we must because sports programs is a fresh IELTS speaking topic, part one.
But what if I don't like sports?
I never watch TV.
I never watch sport programs and I've never watched anything.
What do I do?
You listen to our answers and you use them to help you.
Yes, dear listener, you can just copy Rory's answers.
Rory, do you like watching sports programs on TV?
I'm afraid not.
Though if I had to watch something, it would be something like I don't know, mixed martial arts or rugby.
It's not something I have a lot of time to get emotionally invested in.
Sorry.
Do you like to watch live sport games?
I think I've been to the sum total of one in my entire life, if we exclude the ones I've seen on TV.
I'd rather be reading or writing, I think.
Who do you like to watch sports with?
Well, whenever I have, it's been friends and family.
I couldn't say in any greater detail because it doesn't really stick out in my memory, to be honest.
What was your favourite sport when you were a child?
Oh, I was probably the least athletic child in the universe.
I didn't play any sports at all and I actually made an active effort to get out of PE class when I could.
That's a bit unfortunate really, since I really liked exercise in later life, but our PE classes were pretty dire, so I usually gave them the body swerve.
What's the difference between watching sports live at the stadium and watching it on TV at home?
But from my perspective, they're both equally boring.
But if you're someone who's into those things, then I suppose being in a stadium allows you to feel part of the crowd and access the rush of seeing things with your own eyes.
Whereas if something is on TV, the environment might be more comfortable and the view less easily obscured.
Thank you, Rory, for your sporty answers.
Hopefully they give people a sporting chance in the exam.
Sorry.
We have super-duper premium episodes for you.
Speaking part two and speaking part three.
This week, Rory is going to describe something he does that can help him to concentrate on work or studies.
And in speaking part three, we're discussing concentration in general.
We're using fresh IELTS speaking topics, so do check it out.
The link is in the description.
The description go to the link in the description.
There are transcripts there.
There are useful news there, just the description for this episode.
Oh, a sporting chance.
What does it mean, a sporting chance?
Just a fair opportunity to win.
So, sports programs.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, anything that you watch about sports is a sports program.
Okay, on TV, on Netflix.
Where else can you watch stuff?
On your phone?
On somebody else's phone?
On your tablet?
Sometimes.
Do they not have those screens in the metro where you can look at them while they're being played?
Oh, yeah.
I don't know.
I think I've seen that.
I think.
I don't know for sure.
I can't really remember.
Yeah, yeah.
They show some games or some news about, I don't know, sports.
And Rory doesn't watch sports programs, so he goes like, well, I...
I'm afraid not, right?
So do you like watching sports programs?
I'm afraid no, like I don't watch them.
If I had to watch it, I'd watch rugby.
You see?
So this if I had strategy.
So, if I had to do it, I'd watch this or it would be this.
So, this strategy is true for any question.
For example, Rory, what's your favorite sport program on Netflix?
Oh, I don't really watch sport programs, but if I had to watch one, then I'd probably watch a documentary about them, because at least then I'd be learning something.
Rory, what's your favorite?
Yellow bananas or green bananas?
Well, I don't really like either of them, but if I had to pick one, I'd pick green bananas, because they're apparently sweeter.
Yeah, fried green bananas.
Rory hates bananas, and also he doesn't like raisins.
Yeah.
Some of our listeners think it's very strange, Rory, that you don't like bananas.
Well, they can have fun being wrong.
No one should like bananas.
They're awful.
What about banana ice cream?
Banana pie?
No.
Banana milkshake?
It's anything with bananas.
I just can't.
Sorry, people.
But that's just one shortcoming that I have.
One of the many.
Yeah, Rory is weird.
Thank you.
Yeah, it's just like a fact.
So if I had to watch something, it would be rugby or martial arts.
Mixed martial arts where people want to inflict pain on each other.
No, they use different martial arts techniques to subdue their opponents.
That is very different to just inflicting as much pain as possible.
As anyone who has seen that will know.
I thought they wanted to knock them down, like to knock down the opponent.
If you knock someone down, then you subdue them.
Oh, okay.
So if they beat the stuffing out of them, that's also the subdue, right?
No, that's not the point.
No?
Oh, come on, but you have like two people.
One needs to win, so the winner will beat the stuffing out of the other one.
That's the point.
No, that is not the point.
That is only the point if you are a very violent person.
No, the point is to make sure that your opponent doesn't win by subduing them, by preventing them from fighting further.
I mean, the easiest way to do that would be knocking someone out, but...
That's not the best way of doing it.
That certainly wouldn't win you the most points in any sort of match, to be honest.
But when a person goes to martial arts or when a person watches martial arts, they are quite violent and aggressive, right.
No, because I do that and I'm not a violent or aggressive person.
Oh.
Maybe deep inside, Rory.
No.
Maybe, like, it's your dark side.
It's too much work.
Okay, sweet.
So, you see, if I had to watch something, it would be mixed martial arts rugby swimming, the Olympic Games.
The Olympic Games?
Yep.
And Rory says that, no, I'd rather read or write, right?
So I'd rather, instead of watching stupid sports programs, I'd rather read or write, or I'd rather play computer games.
So you see, I'd rather do this because I don't like your sports programs.
And that's fine to say that I don't like them.
Just explain why you don't like them.
And the examiner will ask you some strange questions.
And Rory goes like, well, it doesn't really stick out in my memory.
It doesn't really stick out in my memory.
Rory, what does it mean?
Yeah, so something doesn't stick out.
It just means that it's not something that you readily notice when you remember it, to be honest.
So it's like well, every single lesson that you had when you were a child probably doesn't stick out in your memory, because you don't have that much memory.
You only remember the big things.
So if the examiner asks you a really bizarre question and you go, like you know, I really don't remember.
When I was a child, maybe I watched some sport programs.
Maybe I used to have this favorite chair.
I used to sit on the floor.
It doesn't really stick out in my memory.
And now we know that in terms of evening time, Rory is a boring person.
Rory was also the least athletic child.
But that's just another way of saying I wasn't very athletic or very sporty.
Yes.
And by the way, I joined the gym for the first time in my life.
Maria, this Maria, joined the gym.
I don't really understand why you need to if you've been cycling across Europe.
Cycling across Europe, nice.
Yes, I was for four months.
Yes, exactly.
If you did that, then how much do you need to join a gym?
Seriously.
No, just, you know, for fun, just to check out all these machines which are from space.
They are like aliens, you know, standing there looking at me like, Maria, you need to do this.
Oh, boy.
Oh, gyms are funny.
The gym is a funny place.
Okay, okay, back to the athletic thing.
So, athletes, so sportsmen or sportswomen, sportspeople, athletes, or you can say, like, I wasn't athletic.
And P.E., P.E. stands for what?
Physical education.
Yeah.
So Rory said that, oh, I made an active effort to get out of PE classes.
But that just means I didn't like going and I didn't want to go.
Because those classes were pretty dire.
Dire.
Dire just means, like, really bad.
Usually people talk about a dire situation when everything looks a bit hopeless.
But a PE class can be dire because it's boring or because it's badly taught, or it's a waste of time or all of these things really.
You know, the same like watching sports live at the stadium, at the stadium or on TV.
They are equally boring.
For Rory.
Yeah, maybe for you.
They are not.
Have you ever watched a live football match?
Rory, you are British.
You're supposed to love football.
I watched a football match between Croatia and Scotland in like 1997, I'm going to say.
It's quite young.
Okay.
No, probably not.
Maybe it's closer to 2001.
But either way, it was really boring.
And that's why I don't really remember the dates clearly because it doesn't stick out in my head.
Are you British?
I thought most British people enjoy football.
No, I am Scottish.
That is very different.
Yeah, but your friends love football, right?
And they enjoy going to a stadium and to watch a live game.
No, they don't.
No?
They don't?
I think the closest thing to that, and I should be very careful how I say this because I like my cousins, but the closest thing to friends going is my cousins going and they go to football matches.
But that's not, I mean, that's family members, that's relatives.
That's not the same as friends.
Oh, how interesting.
Okay.
So when you go to the stadium, you can feel part of the crowd.
So I feel part of the crowd.
I feel this, you know ecstasy and hey, I can cheer for my team and also i can shout different things and bad words out loud, i can comment on things together with the crowd and actually um, some fans are really cool, like i remember during the world cup brazilian fans.
They would bring special drum And the one person would just like boom boom, boom and they were like cheering.
Oh, wow.
That was spectacular.
Is there not a name for fans like that?
Are they not called Ultras?
I don't know.
Okay.
Well, I don't know why I remember this or where I was reading it, but apparently there's a kind of football fan called Ultra.
And it's an Italian term, but it's used to apply to like really major football fans from of any team.
And they do crazy things like that.
They make banners and things.
Oh, so check it out.
Wikipedia.
Ultras are a type of association football fans who are famous for their fanatical support.
The term originated in Italy.
Oh, hello, Italian listeners.
Are you an ultra?
Yeah, but it's used everywhere to describe predominantly organized fans of association football teams.
Oh, interesting.
So these ultras, oh, they have like flares.
They have this flares, their vocal support in large groups.
So they kind of sing in an organized, nice way and banners they have banners, nice ultra ultras, u-l-t-r-a-s.
So there are many ultras in the uk.
I don't know about that, but there's definitely lots of them in specific sports.
Well, you could say that, actually.
That's another way of saying you don't really like watching sports.
You could say, well, I'm not really an ultra...
Or an ultra fan or a super fan.
Oh, yeah, cool.
Sometimes I'm not really an ultra, but I enjoy going to the stadium to watch a game.
And if you wanted to expand upon that, you could say which is a word used to describe superfans, if your examiner is looking a bit confused.
And then you know more than the examiner does.
Yeah, you educate the examiner.
Sweet.
Thank you very much for listening and watching and liking and subscribing.
I will see you next time.
Bye.
Rory, do you like watching sports programs on TV?
I'm afraid not.
Though if I had to watch something, it would be something like I don't know, mixed martial arts or rugby.
It's not something I have a lot of time to get emotionally invested in.
Sorry.
Do you like to watch live sport games?
I think I've been to the sum total of one in my entire life, if we exclude the ones I've seen on TV.
I'd rather be reading or writing, I think.
Who do you like to watch sports with?
Well, whenever I have, it's been friends and family.
I couldn't say in any greater detail because it doesn't really stick out in my memory, to be honest.
What was your favourite sport when you were a child?
Oh, I was probably the least athletic child in the universe.
I didn't play any sports at all and I actually made an active effort to get out of PE class when I could.
That's a bit unfortunate really, since I really liked exercise in later life, but our PE classes were pretty dire, so I usually gave them the body swerve.
What's the difference between watching sports live at the stadium and watching it on TV at home?
But from my perspective, they're both equally boring.
But if you're someone who's into those things, then I suppose being in a stadium allows you to feel part of the crowd and access the rush of seeing things with your own eyes.
Whereas if something is on TV, the environment might be more comfortable and the view less easily obscured.
