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This would really help us move forward and stop Vania complaining all the time.
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Terms apply. Hello, lovely.
I'm Mariam. And my name is Rory.
And we're the hosts of the IELTS Speaking for Success podcast, A 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 grammar and fabulous vocabulary for your high IELTS school.
You're a bad 9 score.
Oh, I'm worried. There's no joke for this episode.
I know, I'm sorry, I can't write jokes.
I'm not very talented at that.
Let's talk about talents.
Oh wow, maybe I am good at this.
Yes, there is a speaking part one, talents.
Do you have a talent or something you are good at?
I'm not sure you could call it a talent in the artistic sense.
But I am phenomenally well organized.
It wasn't always like that, though.
So, I'm not sure if it's a gift or just something that I built up over time.
Do you think anyone in your family has the same talent?
Erm, well, my dad has a great head for different facts about the world.
Erm, honestly he's like a human encyclopedia and...
I'm a little bit like that myself.
I'm, of course, my brother and my mother are quite gifted in the kitchen so they share that trait as well.
Do you think your talent can be useful for your future work?
I mean, well being a teacher usually calls her being reasonably well organized but it's not the be all and end all, you also need to be good at talking to people and forming relationships.
I'd like to think I'm rather adept at those too but who isn't going to say that?
Have you mastered it recently or when you were young?
Well, it's definitely more of a recent development than something I did when I was younger.
It's definitely something I'd say I've built up over time, and I wasn't very organized when I was younger.
I didn't used to be.
Also, although other skills that have been blunted are like my drawing ability, I used to be really good at drawing, but that particular skill is being blunted now, so I suppose that's the trade -off for being better organized.
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Talent!!! So we are talented dear listener and we have a talent for something right yeah yeah I have a talent for music oh I have a talent for cooking.
I'm talented. You do have a talent for music, you can play the ukulele.
Yeah, or you can say I am a multi -talented person.
I have lots of talents, like I'm a multi -talented singer and musician.
Nice. We can also say I'm very good at cooking.
I'm very good at languages and Rory's talent is being phenomenally well -organized.
So as you know the listener Rory is super organized like band 9 organized band 15 organized.
I don't know if that counts as a talent though.
Yeah it is a talent.
I'm phenomenally well -organized like exceptional like really super organized.
Or you can say I'm phenomenally good at driving.
I am good at cooking.
Alright, I'm good at writing essays.
You can say that I'm gifted, like you were born with it, for example, or you can say I'm not sure it's a gift. Or it is a real gift that I have. So I'm very good at sports, and this is my gift. I'm gifted or you can say that I've built it up over time so you're born and you're not well organized and you're just like bit by bit you live your life and you train yourself to be well organized so you can say I've built it up over time so we can build something up over time or over the years another the synonym for being talented is to have a great head for something.
For example, Rory's dad has a great head for different facts, so to have a head for something.
What about your brother?
He's a dab hand in the kitchen I suppose, and so is my mum, but then this is compared to me.
I'm completely useless in the kitchen.
So you could say that they're quite gifted in the kitchen, they're good at cooking.
Yeah, like she's quite gifted in the kitchen or she's good at cooking.
What else can I have a head for?
I've only heard it used to describe facts and numbers but that could also relate to things like knowledge about sports but that's still facts.
I'm trying to think what else you could have a great head for.
I'm sure there are other examples I just can't think of any.
If you don't have a great head you could have a good eye for something which means you're good at noticing patterns for example.
Have a good head for something.
To have a natural ability to do something.
And usually we say it about numbers, about mathematics, about facts.
So he has a head for numbers.
Can you say I don't have a head for numbers?
Yes. Although we were talking about what people are talented at this time.
And people who are very good at numbers and facts, you can say that they are walking encyclopedias, or like he is like a human encyclopedia full of different facts.
Then you can say my parents are quite gifted in the kitchen, they're super good at cooking, or I'm gifted in the kitchen.
Rory, you've used a good idiom โ it's not the be -all and end -all.
Yes, it's not the most important thing.
So it's good to be well organized, but it's not the only thing you need.
The be -all and end -all โ the most important thing.
For example, winning is not the be -all and end -all.
All winning in a competition is not the most important thing.
There are other important things, usually.
Unless you're very competitive like me.
And being talented is not the be all and end all, for example.
So if you are adept at talking to people, this means that you have a natural ability to talk to people.
For example, like she's very adept at dealing with the media, like she does it very well.
Or she's very adept at playing the piano, right?
What else can I say?
You could be adept at writing, or adept at numbers.
Adept at doing something.
Adept at writing books for example.
like be gifted, be very talented in writing then the question could be about like have you mastered this skill recently so I've mastered something like I have become very good at it for example I've mastered cooking, I've mastered I've mastered English right so I'm very good at English in the examiner asks you like have you mastered it recently have you become so good at it it recently or as a child.
Perhaps you can say well.
I've mastered it recently.
It's a recent development.
So I've started learning English.
Now I've been learning it for ten years and I've mastered English or I've mastered driving or what are you good at?
What are you talented at?
A listener. You can also say I've build it up over the years.
So I've built up this skill over the years.
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Rory, you said that it's this skill has been blunted.
What did you mean by this?
Well if it's been blunted, then it's not as good as it used to be.
So it's like less sharp, it's like it's not good anymore.
What can be blunt? Well a knife could be blunt if you've used it too much. Yeah but in terms of skills and things we do with activities.
Well your ability to cook could be blunted if you haven't cooked in a while.
Can my driving become blunted?
I don't think we could talk about driving that way.
Your driving could be rusty though.
Yeah my English could be rusty.
Because you haven't used it in so long.
Yeah, or you can say the listen that this particular skill has been blunted now, so it's not as good as it used to.
So like drawing or cooking or driving.
So just say like this skill has been blunted now.
And you can say that as a child, I used to be very good at riding my bicycle or swimming or doing different sports.
But now this skill has been blunted.
What you can say I'm much better at things related to health.
I'm much better at yoga, at reading, writing, scrolling, buying things online, doing nothing.
Can you be good at doing nothing?
Well, I think you can in fact, now that I've just asked that question.
I have a real talent for sleep.
I'm a talented sleeper.
A person who sleeps very well.
Have you reached the limits of talent?
Yeah, I also do this now.
You can say like, I'm talented, I'm capable of cooking, to be capable of doing things, I have different talents and abilities.
And if you don't, you just lie to the listener.
You can say, well, I'm not a genius, but I have, I'm good at cooking.
Just so you can say something that you are good at.
Or maybe you are super talented.
I don't know. I like the idea of being super talented.
And now I'm reading some quotes about talents.
so one of the so emily said a famous Emily the artist is nothing without the gift but the gift is nothing without work dear listener okay so we need to work work work work work work work talent is a gift there's another quote it's like hard work prevails when talent is lazy so if you're talented and you just rely on that and you don't do anything to develop it, then people who work hard will beat you all the time.
Yeah, and everybody has some special talents, telly -sona, maybe your charisma is your talent, maybe your ability, I don't know, to be organized like Rory or to kind of focus, to do some things in life, okay.
And now Rory's vocabulary show!
It is! It's the part of the episode where I ask Maria questions about the vocabulary and grammar that I used in the episode.
You can play along too!
If you want to answer at the same time or before Maria, then that is a challenge that you are very welcome to take up.
Actually Maria, our first question is really going to be about pronunciation because in And the first question, I was asked if I had a talent or something I was good at.
And I did something with my pronunciation to highlight that I was very good at something.
But what was it that I did?
You said, I am phenomenally well organized.
So you emphasized am.
So this is to show the contrast between what I'm not good at, I'm not talented in the artistic sense but I AM talented in a different sense and if you can use this stress for emphasis it's usually done with things like AM and DO then you can show off your good pronunciation to the examiner.
So there you go a first in the history of this quiz sort of thing that we're doing.
Now let's get back to focusing on vocabulary.
I said that my dad was very good at remembering different things about well, different places and people in the world but I didn't say he was good at that, what did I say?
To be quite gifted in.
Maria, you failed. That was for my mom and my little brother.
To have a head for facts.
Yes, to have a great head for facts.
Then in the next question, which was about if if talent can be useful for my future work.
I used an idiom to say that it's not the most important thing, but what was that idiom?
It's not the be -all and end -all.
Amazing! And our last question, which is about whether I've mastered it recently.
I said that it's something that I have mastered over a period of time, but I didn't say I mastered it over a period of time because I'm not repeating the question in my answer.
What did I say? I've build it up!
Excellent. Remember, build t, not buildy.
That's good for pronunciation as well.
Unfortunately no bonus question this week because Maria failed!
You have failed Maria to get 100 %!
Oh it's tragic! Thank you very much for listening and I'll get back you in our next episode.
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Do you have talent or something you are good at?
I'm not sure you could call it talent in the artistic sense, but I am phenomenally well organised.
It wasn't always like that though, so I'm not sure if it's a gift or just something that I built up over time.
Do you think anyone in your family has the same talent?
Well, my dad has a great head for different facts about the world.
Honestly, he's like a human encyclopedia.
And I'm a little bit like that myself.
And of course my brother and my mother are quite gifted in the kitchen so they share that trait as well.
Do you think your talent can be useful for your future work?
I mean, well, being a teacher usually calls for being reasonably well -organised, but it's It's not the be all and end all.
You also need to be good at talking to people and forming relationships.
I'd like to think I'm rather adept at those too, but who isn't going to say that.
Have you mastered it recently or when you were young?
It's definitely more of a recent development than something I did when I was younger.
It's definitely something I'd say I've built up over time and I wasn't very organised when I was younger.
I didn't used to be.
Also, although other skills that have been blunted are like my drawing ability.
I used to be really good at drawing, but that particular skill has been blunted now, so I suppose that's the trade -off for being better organized.
