Hello, lovely, I'm Maria.
And my name is Rory, and we are 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.
It's getting cold, Rory.
And Russian Christmas is coming in January.
Ah, yes, but in Scotland it's going to be in December.
Oh, Scotland.
Let's talk about your country, shall we?
Tell me about your country.
Scotland, freedom.
No, actually, I'm not sure what to tell people when they ask me about my homeland.
I'm sure they get a pretty good idea about it from all the media around it, which is probably just as diverse and varied as the country itself right now, when I think about it place relative to somewhere like Russia or America.
But I think we make up for it by our character and cultural contributions to the world.
I suppose you could say it's quite a rugged place, a bit like the people as well.
That's probably enabled us to make all of these contributions in the first place.
Where's your country located?
It's in the north of the island of Great Britain, which itself is in Western Europe.
And we're part of a union of countries which share the same island.
I suppose it's one of the furthest west countries in Western Europe, the western most country maybe, apart from Iceland, of course.
Which part of your country do most people live in?
Well, most people live in cities and other population centres in what's called the Central Belt.
So that's close to the border with England.
Actually it's north of the border with England, but it's located deeper into the country than the Highlands and Islands.
And...
All of the major cities are near the coasts, although I think that's a common trait in just about every country.
To be honest, every country with a coastline.
What are the main industries in your country?
Well, until recently, the hospitality industry was probably our mainstay, along with tourism.
Everybody wants to see the highlands and islands and take pictures next to people wearing kilts.
I think We have some significant exports in terms of food and beverages as well.
Like everybody has heard of whiskey and haggis and Scottish fudge, for example.
So those are the main ones, but you can see they're quite varied.
What are some of the good things about living in your country?
Well, for all the jokes that we tell about freedom, we have a lot of freedom and wealth.
For all the people who complain that we don't, I think our country is actually quite prosperous.
It's not perfect and it's not prosperous and great all the time.
But we do a pretty good job of striking a good balance between constraining and encouraging people.
It could always be improved, but I think there are a few other places that do a better job than how we do it.
What are some of the bad things about living in your country?
I suppose one of the downsides of people having so much opportunity is that they do things that aren't always beneficial for society.
We have problems with people having terrible health conditions, for example mentally and physically.
A lot of the time though, these detrimental sides to things come about as a result of poor personal choices.
So, in the same way, they can be fixed by people making the right ones which they've got the opportunity to make.
Is your country popular with tourists?
Well, I think so, compared to a lot of other places in the global south, for example.
Yeah, lots of for example, lots of American tourists have.
I imagine London and England as a whole might be more popular, but Scotland gets its fair share of tourists.
Rory, thank you so much for your really Scottish answers.
No problem.
Let's discuss Scotland.
Scotland freedom!
And, oh, dear listener, I love Scotland.
Seriously, I've been to Scotland.
I love Edinburgh.
Edinburgh is in Scotland, right?
I'm joking, I'm joking.
I know it's in Scotland.
Yeah, I really love Scottish food and Scottish people.
I don't like your language, Rory.
I thought you were going to say you don't like me.
No, I like you.
I like your accent, actually.
I love Scottish people, I just don't like you.
Yeah, some people have horrid accents in Scotland.
And if you have been learning English for ages, for all your life, and then you go to Scotland and then you feel horrible because you can't understand people, and it's okay.
Maybe Rory can't understand his own people.
Well, that's true.
There are places in Scotland where I don't understand half of the things people say, but it's not because they've got a horrible accent.
Maybe a difficult one is a better way of describing it.
It's difficult to understand, but they're probably nice people.
They just speak really...
Oh, it's very broad.
Anyway, we should talk about the, well, we should talk about the language itself.
Yes.
And first of all, the topic, they can ask you to talk about your country and your country.
It means like where you were born.
Right.
So I can say I'm from Russia, i come from russia, i was born in russia and russia is my mother motherland whoa, yeah.
I can't say russia, freedom.
Well, you can say it's your homeland as well.
It's my home, sweetheart.
You've got a lot of freedom in Russia.
We do, we do.
You can do a lot of things in Russia.
It's not as restrictive as some people believe.
Yeah, but Mel Gibson didn't star in a film about Russia.
Didn't he?
He was in a film about Scotland.
He was.
Is a country only truly free if Mel Gibson is in a film about it?
Yes.
That's true.
That's a really high-level litmus test.
You should watch The Patriot.
Okay, The Patriot with Mel Gibson, where he is shouting his call on freedom.
Yes.
Okay, Motherland, My Motherland.
And Homeland, Rory, you've used the word Homeland.
Yeah, so...
I think motherland is a common expression.
Motherland or fatherland is a common expression outside of europe, western europe in particular.
Russia's my fatherland yeah, but it's not.
It's not so common these days.
It's an older expression.
Most people say homeland or home country or the place where i'm from.
When you talk about when your country is located, you should use specific language.
For example, it's located in the north of...
It's situated in the northern hemisphere.
Or it's part of something.
It's bordered by blah blah blah in the south.
Then you describe your country, and Rory, you've mentioned cultural contribution.
Yeah, to be honest with you, cultural contributions is a great collocation, but I probably should have followed up with some examples.
So, some Scottish cultural contributions are...
Well, in terms of philosophy, we have the Scottish Enlightenment.
Probably more recently, there are actors like James McAvoy.
And in between those two things there are inventions like I think it was the television.
Didn't Alexander Graham Bell invent the television?
And he was from Scotland.
Oh gosh, you've got so many Scottish inventors.
Scottish people invented a toaster.
Scottish people invented a fridge and an ATM.
ATM machine yeah, where you take your.
You put your bank cards and you take the money.
Well, this is.
This makes a lot of sense because Scottish people are infamous for holding onto their money, so no wonder that we invented something that you know is difficult to use to prevent you from getting hold of it.
Scottish invented disposable contact lenses and Nessie the Loch Ness monster.
And penicillin.
Rory, come on.
Alexander Flemings invented penicillin.
He was Scottish.
He did.
Although, it's an interesting point to make.
Are these Scottish inventions or are they British inventions?
Oh, it's a political question on this normally very politically neutral podcast.
No, but if you Google Scottish inventions, all things that I've mentioned, now they're going to be on the page as Scottish.
So it's good to know what your country invented.
All countries have made some sort of contribution to the world.
It doesn't need to be a huge one like penicillin.
So, dear listener, you should Google something about your country and about cultural contributions.
Rory, you've also mentioned the word rugged.
Yeah.
So rugged can be used to describe both people and places.
It's probably best to talk about the places first.
So rugged terrain is like sort of open and difficult to traverse, like difficult to travel through.
Like mountains.
For example, mountain ranges in Scotland are very difficult to travel, but they're not impossible.
Rugged.
To describe people is people who can live in difficult conditions, for example, or it usually means they're quite strong.
If we talk about men, then rugged men are usually quite, I don't know muscular hairy, that kind of thing.
So just imagine everything that I'm not is basically what Scottish men should be.
So if I have mountains in my country, I can say my country is quite rugged.
Yeah.
Well yeah, you could say Russia is quite a rugged country because, especially like east of the Urals, there's lots of places that are difficult to live in and people do.
So, yeah.
Mm hmm.
Right.
Then we talk about major cities of our country.
So the main cities, the most important cities.
And one of the questions is about industries.
So what are the main industries?
And here we can talk about inputs and exports.
And Rory said a good word.
The hospitality industry, so basically hotels, all this tourism, was our mainstay.
Yeah, so if something is the mainstay, it's just the, well, the core of something.
So, well, there's lots of places that tourists want to go in Scotland.
So lots of hotels exist because of this.
And that's where we make a lot of money.
So that's why it's the mainstay.
And then you talk about food and beverages.
And surely Scottish whiskey and haggis.
And Rory goes like, everyone has heard of haggis.
Maybe some of our listeners haven't.
Haggis.
Well, if they haven't, then they've at least heard of the present perfect, which is what I use to describe it.
So I get a point for grammar at least.
Yay, two points.
Everyone has heard of something, right?
So everyone has heard of Thai food.
Everyone has heard of Vietnamese delicious coffee.
Yum, yum, yum.
Really?
Oh, yes.
I haven't heard of it.
Delicious.
Oh my God, Rory, how do you live your life?
Well, we'll talk about... How many years have you been living your life?
We'll talk about Vietnamese coffee next time then.
Focus on Scotland.
We've got whiskey and haggis.
Yes, so if you have no idea what haggis is, could you please Google it right now?
Haggis, traditional Scottish dish.
Could you spell it, Roy?
How do you spell it?
H-A-G-G-I-S.
Yes.
Yum, yum, yum.
Haggis.
Then we can talk about different adjectives to describe our countries.
So, for example, like some negative adjectives.
You can say, like, it's quite corrupt.
Starving.
Right.
They're like pro-problems.
I didn't use any of those words to describe Scotland though.
I said it was prosperous.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's true.
But then kind of the question could be like, what are some of the bad things?
And then we can kind of use this negative adjectives.
You've mentioned terrible health conditions, for example.
Yeah, but well, and again, I probably should have been more specific, like things like obesity, for example.
It seems like people have a lot of problems with allergies as well.
You know, that worries me a lot.
I should say that most people in Scotland are quite healthy and normal.
It's just like we seem to have a disproportionate number of people who are not healthy compared to other countries.
Yeah, and here you can mention like corruption.
A good adjective to use is detrimental.
Yes.
Ben 9 score.
Detrimental.
I need to use a preposition with it.
Detrimental to something.
Yeah, or it has a detrimental effect, these detrimental sides to things.
And we can use the word downside.
You can say, like, one of the downsides is that people have terrible health conditions.
On the bright side, we can say that my country is welcoming, friendly.
Developing wealthy Rugged is not quite positive, right.
Or it's kind of neutral?
Oh, rugged is very positive if you're describing a person.
I think most women and a certain percentage of men would probably agree that a rugged male partner is quite a good thing.
Maybe not so much for women.
If you say a woman is rugged, it's probably not such a nice expression. this woman is quite rugged.
No, no, she has like a beard or something.
Yeah, Rory has also used the good word prosperous.
We are a really...
We really are a prosperous country.
So kind of wealthy.
At least I think so.
You know, in comparison to a lot of the other countries I lived in, Scotland's quite good.
I'm not saying it's the best country in the world, but we're doing good.
We're okay.
I thought Russia is the best country in the world.
Every Russian thinks Russia is the best country in the world, even if they don't live there anymore.
Yes, and one thing about the experts.
You said that one of the most significant experts Oh no no, no.
We have some significant experts in terms of food and beverages.
This is a good collocation, in terms of...
Well, in terms of highlighting how important it is, yeah.
I think, for example, whiskey is quite significant, not for general consumption, but it's a sign that someone's wealthy if they have some, especially in a foreign country.
You can also talk about some landmarks from your country, like Rory has Stonehenge in Great Britain.
We do, but it's not in Scotland.
Yeah, but if you talk about the whole country.
Yeah, but it's a separate country.
That's in England.
That's part of their cultural heritage.
Mine is like... geographical features.
Well, in my hometown, we have an extinct volcano called the Law Hill, for example.
It's kind of a symbol of our city.
Further north they have the Highlands Ben Nevis, which is the highest mountain in the UK actually.
Yeah, landmarks.
Yeah, so they're all landmarks that you could mention.
I didn't because I was busy focusing on the cultural aspects, but both of these things are equally valid.
Yeah, surely there are a lot of stereotypes around Scotland and Scottish people.
Scottish are walking around wearing kilts, drinking whiskey, playing bagpipes.
Constantly.
It's all we ever do at high school.
It's probably why we never get much done in that respect.
It's like about Russia.
Some people think that bears are walking down the streets.
Bears are walking down the street in this country.
Russians are drinking vodka.
Russian people are drinking vodka for breakfast.
And when, you know, when I was traveling in South America and I would say like, oh, no, thank you.
I don't drink.
They just look at me like, what?
Are you Russian?
Come on.
Like, you have to drink.
And they just poured this pisco into my glass.
So people don't accept a Russian person who doesn't drink alcohol.
If the worst thing that you get is free booze from being Russian, then you should be very thankful.
Oh, yeah, I got that in Italy, too.
We went to try out different wines in a local winery.
And then when the owner found out that, oh, I'm from Russia, he would just pour like wine.
And he's like, come on, come on, girl, you're Russian.
Nice.
So, oh, I have a joke about Scotland Rory.
Are you ready?
No, I don't think I'll ever be ready for that kind of thing.
Of course he's ready.
So there we go.
I love Scottish summer.
It's my favorite day of the year.
Oh ha ha, i'll have.
You know, i live in the sunniest city, or sorry, i lived in the sunniest city in scotland and we had 100 days of sunshine, oh wow which, given that there's 365 days in the year, is probably not a very impressive claim to fame, but still, you know, we still have like some good things, some good weather sometimes.
So then I'll change it.
I love Russian summer.
It's my favorite week of the year.
Yeah, we do have kind of a week.
Okay, thank you very much for listening.
We hope that you've learned some good vocabulary, gorgeous grammar about your country.
And if not, you've at least learned some for describing mine.
Bye!
Tell me about your country.
Scotland, freedom.
No, actually, I'm not sure what to tell people when they ask me about my homeland.
I'm sure they get a pretty good idea about it from all the media around it, which is probably just as diverse and varied as the country itself right now, when I think about it small place relative to somewhere like Russia or America.
But I think we make up for it by our character and cultural contributions to the world.
I suppose you could say it's quite a rugged place, a bit like the people as well.
That's probably enabled us to make all of these contributions in the first place.
Where is your country located?
It's in the north of the island of Great Britain, which itself is in Western Europe.
And we're part of a union of countries which share the same island.
I suppose it's one of the furthest west countries in Western Europe, the westernmost country maybe, apart from Iceland, of course.
Which part of your country do most people live in?
Well, most people live in cities and other population centres in what's called the Central Belt.
So that's close to the border with England.
Actually it's north of the border with England, but it's located deeper into the country than the Highlands and Islands.
And...
All of the major cities are near the coasts, although I think that's a common trait in just about every country.
To be honest, every country with a coastline.
What are the main industries in your country?
Well, until recently, the hospitality industry was probably our mainstay, along with tourism.
Everybody wants to see the highlands and islands and take pictures next to people wearing kilts.
We have some significant exports in terms of food and beverages as well.
Everybody has heard of whisky and haggis and Scottish fudge, for example.
Those are the main ones, but you can see they're quite varied.
What are some of the good things about living in your country?
Well, for all the jokes that we tell about freedom, we have a lot of freedom and wealth.
For all the people who complain that we don't, I think our country is actually quite prosperous perfect, and it's not prosperous and great all the time.
But we do a pretty good job of striking a good balance between constraining and encouraging people.
It could always be improved, but I think there are a few other places that do a better job than how we do it.
What are some of the bad things about living in your country?
I suppose one of the downsides of people having so much opportunity is that they do things that aren't always beneficial for society.
We have problems with people having terrible health conditions, for example mentally and physically.
A lot of the time though, these detrimental sides to things come about as a result of poor personal choices.
So, in the same way, they can be fixed by people making the right ones which they've got the opportunity to make.
Is your country popular with tourists?
Well, I think so.
Compared to a lot of other places in the global south, for example.
Yeah, lots of, for example, lots of American tourists have.
They come because they have Scottish roots or they're interested in Scotland, for example.
I imagine London and England as a whole might be more popular, but Scotland gets its fair share of tourists.
