Hello Sunshine, I'm Maria.
My name is Rory, I'm here to host the IELTS speaking for Success Podcast.
The podcast names help you improve your speaking skills, as well as your listing skills along the way.
We've started this podcast to give you gorgeous grammar and super vocabulary.
For your high IELTS score?
Bandnight score.
Oh Rory, we don't have a joke for this episode.
We don't have any...
Yes.
...queensidences like nothing.
But that is because the episode is a joke.
Ta-da!
Oh, are we talking about hobbies?
Yes, because everyone is expected to be able to talk about their hobbies.
It's like a clichรฉ topic in English language learning.
And here we are feeding this clichรฉ in as nice a way as possible.
It's like when you meet a person, the second question you ask them is,
Oh, what are your hobbies?
What's your hobby?
Let's talk about hobbies.
A perfectly normal set of questions to ask people when you meet them the first time.
Oh, you go to a bar and they go, okay, what's your name? Hello? And what's your hobby?
Do you actually use the word hobby? Do you kind of do you ask people? And what are your hobbies?
No, I was talking to someone about this recently because they're like,
do you... I don't really think I have any hobbies?
And they're like, yes you do. You do a lot of things in your free time and I was thinking,
you do, yeah, but I wouldn't call them my hobbies. I would call them like my free time activities
or things I do in my free time.
So, it's a better question than what are your hobbies?
What do you like to do in your free time?
So, do you listen to it? And we're going to talk about hobbies.
Or free time activities for the more modern listener.
What do you like to do in your free time?
I wouldn't say I had a hobby really unless my job teaching really counts.
I do a lot of things in my free time though. I like to read and write fiction and some short articles on teaching.
And I do different sports like wild swimming, jujitsu and yoga.
Do you need any special equipment for it or them?
Well, I think terribly out of the ordinary. I mean, to read you need to have a book, clearly.
And similarly for swimming you need shorts and yoga studio requires you to bring your augment.
But outside of this, I think it's all pretty run-of-the-mill stuff. Nothing special.
I think the most special is equipment I need is the ghee that I wear for jujitsu.
And a ghee is like a kind of uniform that you have to wear for this martial art.
Do you share your hobbies or activities with others?
So for yoga, swimming and martial arts, I definitely need partners for those things since it's safer.
And well, even necessary for the development of some positions and moves and concepts.
But for reading and writing, those are pretty much solitary activities.
And I just spend time doing them by myself.
Did you have a hobby as a child?
I mean, I used to collect these plastic models of various military craft from around the world.
That was quite fun.
Other than that, not really. I only have a red, a red and played video games that are went out with my friends.
That's just standard stuff that you do when you're a young person, really.
What would you like to do with your free time in the future?
I quite like the things I do already, to be honest.
I recently got into rope climbing. So maybe when I'm back to Oxford and I have more time,
I'll get into that even more.
What are the most popular hobbies or pastimes in your country?
Oh, wow, that's a good question, actually.
I think a lot of people go walkie running and jogging outdoors,
especially since we have a special law in our country that allows this to happen anywhere.
Now, I think that outdoor activities in general are quite common since we have so much free space for use.
So why not use it for those ends?
Dillis, now we do have our premium episodes for you,
where Rory and I are discussing fresh topics, speaking about two and three.
This week, in our premium episodes, Rory is describing a person he knows who likes to cook for others.
Yam Yam Yam.
And then speaking about three, we're discussing cooking.
We give you grammar, vocabulary, super ideas and band-night language.
To check them up, the links are in the description.
So hobbies.
We can also use pastimes, right?
So pastimes like free time activities.
Yeah.
Can I say leisure activities?
This leisure is my free time, so leisure activities.
I think so, that should be okay.
Like, thanks for your time.
Yeah, so in this episode, we used the word hobby a lot of times.
But Dillis and I again don't use it in real life.
And in IELTS, it's better to use the free time activities, leisure activities.
Or just like, I do this in my freedom.
And then you say, I do different sports like yoga, I do different sports like swimming,
but Rory does wild swimming.
Like a true Scottish person like, ha, freedom, wild swimming.
All it is is cold or open water swimming.
Probably it's very popular elsewhere in the world too.
Yeah, it's very boring to swim in a swimming pool.
Like, Rory does wild swimming in the open ocean.
Well, it's also expensive.
You have to pay to get into these things.
Why would you pay to get into a swimming pool and you can go in the like water for free?
So Rory also does Joe Jitsu.
So I do karate.
I do martial arts.
You know, all this like karate, Joe Jitsu.
Sometimes we do need special equipment.
So special like devices or you can call it gear.
Special gear, for example, if you enjoy diving, you need diving gear.
So like an oxygen tank, a special suit.
Rory goes like nothing terribly out of the origin.
Yeah, that just means nothing unusual.
Yeah, like I need a book to read obviously, swimming shorts to swim,
and also DLSN to meditate.
You do need specific equipment.
Did you know that?
So there's a special meditation pillow.
And you can't meditate without it, DLSN.
That sounds like some sort of late stage capitalist ploy to make people buy stuff they don't need.
That's ridiculous.
Oh, it's called meditation cushion.
Oh, there you go.
Or take a look, take a look.
Organic, cotton, chumbre, zufu meditation cushion, 40 pounds.
Rory, four colors, okay.
Let's choose.
Yes, I'm sure when the Buddhist monks who came up with the concept of mindfulness were, you know,
investing all this time meditating and developing their minds, they were thinking,
yes, what this meditation really needs is some organic cotton.
Well, a lot of DLSN go to yogametas.com
and take a look at this beautiful meditation cushions.
Or you can get one form.
Or you can get like some special,
meditation kit for 140 pounds.
Kit is like, you know, like, yeah, it's a collection of objects needed to do something.
So a toolkit is a collection of tools needed to make repairs.
You see DLSN a beautiful language.
So even if you don't like meditation, you can say, oh, yeah, sometimes I do meditation.
And I have my meditation kit with a cushion and a buck with bolster.
What's the bolster?
Okay, DLSN now you know where to go.
yogametas.com.
It's a very good idea to look at the products.
Look at the language they use and choose maybe like two words you can remember to name specific things.
And you can use them about anything.
For example, the examiner asks you, what's your favorite object?
You say, oh, my meditation kit with a cushion made out of organic cotton.
There you go. You see, what would you like to buy?
Of course, an organic meditation, a cushion.
And then the examiner will give you like a five for being foolish.
Oh my god.
Oh, they have like different fragrances and candles because you can't meditate without a candle.
DLSN.
I am not hearing any of this right now.
This is crazy.
But our worry is super simple.
He only needs a mat.
But also, Rory, you mentioned some strange words.
You need for a yogi zu.
Oh, a ghee.
A ghee is just the uniform that you use for jiu-jitsu.
Typically, at least in a white country they are white.
I imagine they could be other colors too if they wanted them to be.
But usually they're white.
But yes, that's like I say, that's the closest thing to something very special that I have.
So the closest thing to something special or the closest thing to special equipment.
But for the rest of it, there's this expression.
Nothing terribly out of the ordinary, which is connected to just saying nothing unusual or nothing terribly special.
So DLSN, this is your chance to use super topic specific vocabulary.
So you should choose an activity and then choose a word.
You can remember something very specific like a thing you used to do this or you can lie.
Okay? If DLSN are you enjoy climbing?
Even if you don't enjoy it.
For example, you are into rock climbing or what specific words can we use?
I don't know if you need it for rock climbing.
But when I go rope climbing, I need a harness to hold everything in place so I don't fall.
Very good. So you need a harness to do it.
So just choose an activity.
You can choose a strange activity like a digital art pottery.
Be keeping maybe you enjoy keeping bees.
But even if you don't just lie.
Choose a strange activity and then choose one word which is about some devices, some tools you need to do this.
Okay? To impress the examiner with your topic specific vocabulary.
In some activities we need partners.
So we need other people.
Some activities are solitary.
That just means you do them by yourself. And actually doing something by myself is an expression that you could use not just for your hobbies but for anything.
Like I work by myself or I can't work by myself because I need other people in the team to help me.
When I was a child I used to collect plastic models of military craft.
Military craft like soldiers.
Yeah, like aircraft or whatever.
You know, different machines. Air planes.
Yeah.
When you speak about new hobbies activities you can say I recently got into rope climbing.
I recently got into swimming.
I recently got into painting.
Or you can say I recently took up gardening or took up walking.
I started doing something.
So in your country what do people usually do?
And here you can say well I think a lot of people go walking.
So go walking, go running, go jogging outdoors.
But do sports.
Do you listen and care for with go and do.
So what else do we do?
Like do yoga, do karate, do sports.
Well thinking about it now you go plus ING don't you?
I do.
The things don't usually end with ING do they?
For example camping, like to stay in a tent.
I go camping.
You don't do camping.
Riding.
You go riding.
Yeah.
What about football?
You play football but you play rugby and you play golf but all of those involve balls.
So that's why they are play.
You do need balls to do this.
What about gymnastics?
You do gymnastics.
So I'm thinking we're spotting a pattern here.
What pattern?
Go plus ING and do plus not ING.
And play for ball sports.
Or just like well I suppose you can play chess as well.
So it's like a game, play a game.
And you can speak about outdoor activities, indoor activities.
And you know what they say Rory about hobbies?
They say make your hobby your job.
And you never have to work a day in your life.
Well that's complete nonsense because my hobby is my job.
And I still work every day.
Thank you very much for listening.
And we'll get back to you in our next episode.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.
What do you like to do in your free time?
I wouldn't say I had a hobby really unless my job teaching really counts.
I do a lot of things in my free time though.
I like to read and write fiction and some short articles on teaching.
And I do different sports like wild swimming, jujitsu and yoga.
Do you need any special equipment for it or them?
Well I think terribly out of the ordinary.
I mean to read you need to have a book clearly.
And similarly for swimming you need shorts and yoga studio requires you to bring your own mat.
But outside of this I think it's all pretty run of the mill stuff.
Nothing special.
I think the most special is equipment I need is the ghee that I wear for jujitsu.
And ghee is like a kind of uniform that you have to wear for this martial art.
Do you share your hobbies or activities with others?
So for yoga, swimming and martial arts I definitely need partners for those things since it's safer.
And well even necessary for the development of some positions and moves and concepts.
But for reading and writing those are pretty much solitary activities and I just spend time doing them by myself.
Did you have a hobby as a child?
I mean I used to collect these plastic models of various military craft from around the world.
That was quite fun.
Other than that not really.
I only have a red, a red and played video games that are went out with my friends.
But that's just standard stuff that you do when you're a young person really.
What would you like to do with your free time in the future?
I quite like the things I do.
I'm ready to be honest.
I recently got into rope climbing so maybe when I'm back to Oxford and I have more time I'll get into that even more.
What are the most popular hobbies or pastimes in your country?
Oh wow that's a good question actually.
I think a lot of people go walkie running and jogging outdoors, especially since we have a special law in our country that allows this to happen anywhere.
I think that outdoor activities in general are quite common since we have so much free space for use.
So why not use it for those ends?
