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.
As well as joy, happiness and smiles onto your faces, dear listener, with gorgeous grammar and vocabulary for your high IELTS score band 9 score.
Dear listener, we have our super-duper premium episodes and this week Rory is going to describe a story someone told him.
And in Speaking Part 3, we are discussing, telling stories, stories in general, so lots of stories.
In the description of this episode, you can find a link that will take you to a list of all platforms where you can have our premium episodes.
Oh, Rory, not again.
Oh, yeah, you're late again.
I know, I'm sorry.
I need to manage my time better, don't I?
Hmm.
Shall we talk about time management then?
Let's talk about time management.
It's a pure coincidence.
Rory is late.
Yeah, it's and then he has his special Scottish time.
And then he thinks that my time, my Moscow time is like his Scottish time.
The irony of a Russian lecturing someone about being late.
I'm never late.
Russian people are congenitally late for everything.
No, this word is very strange and it sounds funny.
So that means it's not true.
It's not true.
Yes, because you are using strange words when you speak and you speak too fast and you're late.
Isn't it lovely, dear listener?
So in this episode it's going to be very positive and happy and lots of positive, nice words, as you've noticed already.
Roy, let's talk about time management, shall we?
Do you ever change your plans?
Oh, constantly.
Well, there's an expression about life being what happens when you aren't making plans, or something like that.
So you have to adapt to change, or that could backfire.
What's the hardest thing about making plans?
I think that depends on what you're doing.
If it's something by yourself, then you have to cope with unexpected changes in your schedule.
If it's planning with others, then probably having to deal with conflicting agendas even.
So, in a nutshell, probably just the change in chaos that's part of life in general really, or coping with it.
What's the latest plan you made?
Well, this is exciting actually, because I've organized a trip with some of my friends to the south of Italy for a week.
We had to book flights and, well, book the hotel rooms as well around the same time as each other.
So that was interesting, as was finding out about the different kinds of documents you need.
It's all taken care of now, though.
Is it easy for you to manage time?
Usually.
Though I suppose the thing is, you're never really done with everything, are you?
There's always something to do.
So while it's manageable, for lack of a better word, it can be demanding.
Do you like being busy?
I suppose it helps take your mind off things and focus on the task at hand.
Plus, it's good to get things done.
But I don't like being busy all the time.
It's essential to have some downtime to recuperate from time to time.
Are you ever late for anything?
On occasion, yes, but it's never hugely so.
So maybe like five to ten minutes or fashionably late, as I think it's called.
Usually, it's not more than that though, since it's kind of rude to waste other people's time, isn't it?
Do you think most people can manage their time well?
Unless they're Russian, by and large, yes.
Although some people who aren't very orderly probably struggle more than others.
Then again, they're usually more creative, so there's a trade-off there.
Thank you, Rory, for your... Timely answers?
Timely answers?
Timeless.
Well managed.
Right, Roy, I'm not sure that you are a reliable person to talk about time management.
I'm not sure you're a reliable person to talk about time management.
It's your problem.
To be honest with you, I can't manage my time well.
Yeah, I'm just really bad at time management.
So I'm late and I'm, you know, I'm procrastinating and I don't do things.
Sometimes I forget things.
So yeah, but usually I'm okay.
Usually.
But yeah, things happen.
Life happens.
So when we talk about time management, we talk about our plans and making plans and then adapting plans, changing plans.
And you said that it could backfire.
So that means that if you stick to your original plan without making changes to it, it could go wrong or go in the opposite direction.
Yep.
So if you've been making plans and then you think you are controlling everything yeah, and then it could backfire.
Bam!
Like, you know, mess happens.
Life happens.
And then what's the most difficult part about making plans?
And you said that you have to cope with unexpected changes in your schedule or schedule.
So cope with something.
And then you have to deal with conflicting agendas conflicting, you know, like conflicts, conflicting plans of other people that you have to deal with.
And then, to make it short, Rory goes like oh, in a nutshell, probably you know like to make it short.
Like, in short, just the change and chaos.
That's part of life.
That's part of our life.
Change, chaos.
It always does something to do with plants, usually in a negative way.
And then the question was like, what's the latest plan?
Can I say, what's the last plan you made?
It's a bit strange.
I should say the latest or the last plan.
Well, it would be a bit strange because it's like the last plan.
It's like you're not going to make any other plans after that, are you?
I suppose you could say last and it would be okay.
But latest is much better for this purpose.
And for that reason.
Yeah, so like the latest film, if more films are coming.
And Roy talked about, I've organized a trip.
You can talk about, I don't know.
Maybe you are planning to buy our phrasal verbs course, for example.
SuccessfulIELTS.com forward slash podcourses.
My latest plan is to buy IELTS Speaking for Success course on phrasal verbs, by the way.
And then you educate the examiner and you tell them oh, you know, like this podcast and this Maria and Rory.
Rory is from Scotland.
And then the examiner goes, thank you, thank you, thank you.
I don't need this.
You know, let's keep going.
Yeah, deal listener, make sure you do that.
If you talk about organizing a trip, like you book flights, you book hotels.
When are you going to Italy?
Or when do you think you're going to Italy, mister?
I'm going there in a month.
Well, a month from when we're recording this podcast.
So on the 10th of April, I will go because today's the 12th.
So it's the 12th of March.
Today.
It will be the 10th of April when I go.
So it's possible that this episode will be out the week before I go away.
Or on the week I go away.
And if that's the case, dear listener, hello from Italy.
Oh, that's nice.
And then we talk about managing your time.
It's manageable.
You can say it could also be demanding when you manage your time.
Well, it's be freaking demanding.
When you have to manage your time.
Yeah, and we all know that Rory is really good at managing his time, so... Usually.
Usually, yeah, usually.
And then, like, do you like being busy?
Do we have a synonym of to be busy?
Tied up?
Or being tied down all the time, or...
Or you can say, like, I enjoy having lots of things on my hands, maybe.
A heavy workload.
A heavy workload.
Yeah, I enjoy a heavy workload once in a while.
And then you can say that it helps to take your mind off things.
So if you take your mind off things, what happens?
Well, it means you're not focusing on things that you can't do anything about.
So taking your mind off one thing and putting it on another thing.
And then when you are busy, you get things done.
Or you can say, I don't like being busy all the time, but sometimes it's okay.
And then Rory said something to recuperate.
Recuperate.
Recover.
Recuperate.
Recuperate.
Recover.
Oh.
Such a strange word.
And which word did you say at the beginning?
Something like conjuju something like that?
Oh, congenital.
Congenitally late just means like it's in... It's in your blood to be late.
Congenitally?
Congenitally, yeah.
If you talk about a congenital heart defect, then that's a medical term for something that the child has inherited from their parents.
Oh, wow.
So it's like another way of saying like you're late because your parents didn't raise you correctly.
And then, are you ever late for anything?
And Rory said that it's usually kind of... like i'm fashionably late five ten minutes you know fashionably late i'm a bit late because it's rude to waste other people's time yeah it's uh can i say like um i'm chronically late i'm like It's congenital?
I'm congenitally late.
Yeah, it's just not... It's in my blood.
It's probably not a great thing to say to other people.
You could maybe say it about yourself.
And then, do you think most people can manage their time?
By and large, yes.
So what does it mean by and large?
Mostly, most of the time.
Okay, most of the time.
By and large, yes.
And then some people are not very orderly.
Yeah, so orderly people are quite organized and have a good grasp of what's required in organization.
And then some people struggle more than others.
Well, they struggle with time, obviously.
And you've used this word a trade-off.
There is a trade-off there.
What did you mean by that, a trade-off?
Just that in order to do one thing, you have to, well, you cannot do another thing.
It's like another way of saying side effect.
And could you please give us an example in a sentence?
So buying an expensive phone, it is expensive, but the trade-off is that you have access to more functions and it usually works faster.
There you go.
Mm-hmm.
So, dear listener, hopefully you are managing your time well and you are managing the use of this podcast well, and you are reading our scripts, by the way.
Mm-hmm.
And you want to buy our course on phrasal verbs and subscribe to our premium and blah, blah, blah.
Yeah.
Thank you very much for listening.
Let's stay in touch.
Be...
On time.
Not as on time as Rory, because Rory is on Scottish time.
It's a special time, you know.
It involves whiskey in his cornflakes.
Rude.
In the mornings.
So, yeah.
Thank you very much, Rory.
Say goodbye.
Bye.
Bye.
Do you ever change your plans?
Oh, constantly.
Well, there's an expression about life being what happens when you aren't making plans, or something like that.
So you have to adapt to change or that could backfire.
What's the hardest thing about making plans?
I think that depends on what you're doing.
If it's something by yourself, then you have to cope with unexpected changes in your schedule.
If it's planning with others, then probably having to deal with conflicting agendas even.
So, in a nutshell, probably just the change in chaos that's part of life in general really, or coping with it.
What's the latest plan you made?
Well, this is exciting actually, because I've organized a trip with some of my friends to the south of Italy for a week.
We had to book flights and, well, book the hotel rooms as well around the same time as each other.
So that was interesting, as was finding out about the different kinds of documents you need.
It's all taken care of now, though.
Is it easy for you to manage time?
Usually.
Though I suppose the thing is, you're never really done with everything, are you?
There's always something to do.
So while it's manageable, for lack of a better word, it can be demanding.
Do you like being busy?
I suppose it helps take your mind off things and focus on the task at hand.
Plus, it's good to get things done.
But I don't like being busy all the time.
It's essential to have some downtime to recuperate from time to time.
Are you ever late for anything?
On occasion, yes, but it's never hugely so.
So maybe like five to ten minutes or fashionably late, as I think it's called.
Usually, it's not more than that though, since it's kind of rude to waste other people's time, isn't it?
Do you think most people can manage their time well?
Unless they're Russian, by and large, yes.
Although some people who aren't very orderly probably struggle more than others.
Then again, they're usually more creative, so there's a trade-off there.
