Hello, everyone.
I'm Maria.
And hi, my name's Joe.
And we're the hosts of 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're doing this podcast to give you a look at how a native English speaker would answer some of the IELTS speaking questions.
We have Joe with us today.
Rory is on holiday with Robert, thinking about his age.
So Joe will be answering some of the most common IELTS speaking questions.
The examiners have two topics to start off with.
They are accommodation or work or studies.
So, in the exam, you will have one of these topics – accommodation or work or studies.
The secret is that these are the only topics you can actually prepare for.
Joe, are you ready to talk about accommodation?
Yes, I am.
So the first question is, Joe, do you live in a house or an apartment?
I live in an apartment.
I've been living there for about three months now.
And it's fantastic.
I really enjoy it.
What do you like about living there?
I think the most important thing is location.
I'm only about a five minute walk from the metro.
And for someone like me who has a very busy schedule, the convenience of living so close to the metro is probably the most important thing.
Which is your favorite room in your home?
I don't have a very big home, so unfortunately I don't have much of a choice.
I love to get home and take a hot shower at night before I go to bed.
So, although I don't have much of a choice, I would probably say that my bathroom is my favorite room.
Would you change anything about your home?
Why, why not?
You know, that's a really good question.
Unfortunately, when I moved into my home, there was a lot of junk and rubbish in my house, in my home already, especially on the balcony, things that belong to the owner and he just never took out.
So unfortunately, my balcony is very crowded now.
It would be great if he would take those things away and I could have the balcony to myself.
Would you like to move to a different home in the future?
I'm not the type of person that really thinks about the future.
I mostly live in the present.
I suppose in the near future I would like to stay in my home because, as I said, the location is perfect.
In the distant future, I suppose that would depend on a lot of factors.
As I mentioned previously, it's a quite small, So if I happen to have a family in the future, I would have to move, of course.
But for the time being, no, my apartment is perfectly fine.
What sort of accommodation would you most like to live in?
Well, you know, to be honest, this changes every day.
It really depends on my mood or how I'm feeling.
For example, sometimes in the middle of our Moscow winters, I really picture myself living in a tropical bungalow in some sort of warmer climate.
But on the other hand, on most days I'm perfectly fine living where I am now.
So like I said, it really depends on my mood.
Now, Joe has just used gorgeous vocabulary.
Let's have a look at it now.
So Joe, you said that your home is a five-minute walk from the metro, right?
Yes.
Could you give me another example with this phrase?
Sure.
So this this means that it only takes me five minutes to walk somewhere.
So so I live about a two minute walk from a supermarket.
I live about a 20 minute drive from my from my work place.
So we would have a plus a unit of time plus either a walk or a drive or a flight.
Then from and the location.
Exactly.
Yeah, that's a lovely phrase.
Also, you've mentioned that you have a busy schedule, right?
What else can you say?
I've got a busy schedule, like timetable.
Yes.
Or...
We could say my day is packed or I have a heavy load.
Yes, yeah, like my day is packed, like I have a lot of work to do, absolutely.
You also mentioned the word convenience.
Yeah, I think I mentioned that the location is very convenient and then I paraphrased it, I turned that word into a noun and I said that the convenience of my location is really important to me.
Exactly, yeah, like convenient, like we say comfortable, but we say like comfortable clothes, right?
Yeah, I'm sorry.
Yeah, I think this is difficult for some Russian speakers because I believe you only have one word for this.
Exactly.
Convenience talks about how easy something is, whereas comfort or comfortable talks about It might feel physically comfortable or emotionally comfortable.
Convenience means if something is easy to do.
Yes, exactly.
And about the location, we say the location is convenient.
Exactly.
Whereas a chair, for example, would be...
Comfortable.
Yay.
Joe, you've used a lot of phrasal verbs.
One of them was walk through.
What did you say about walk through?
I believe I mentioned walking through Moscow.
Exactly.
We could also walk through a park, walk through a building.
Yes?
Also, you've said that when I moved into my apartment, Oh yeah, this means I changed locations.
I changed my accommodation.
I moved from my old house to a new apartment.
Yeah, so we say, oh, yesterday I moved into my new home.
And when we leave a place, we move back.
Out of.
Yes, I moved out of my old flat.
My old home and I moved into my new one.
Exactly.
About the junk, you said you have some junk on your balcony, like some rubbish.
So the previous person didn't take it out.
Yes.
So take out.
Junk is an informal word, and we have a lot of other ways to say it.
We can say, as you said, rubbish.
Maybe trash.
Garbage.
Yep.
And just generally, this means... useless things, things I don't need.
Yeah, and we say, like, take out the rubbish.
A lot of these phrasal verbs are very informal and there's usually a formal, So instead of if I wanted, if I was writing, for example, a formal letter, instead of take out, I could write remove.
Exactly.
But especially in the speaking part of the test, take out is perfectly fine.
Yeah, speaking is informal.
So phrasal verbs, yeah, are perfectly fine.
When you talked about Moscow's weather, you said that on a bitterly cold day.
Bitterly cold.
What does it mean?
What do you think?
In Moscow in winter, are the winters very cold or a little cold?
Very cold.
Yeah, and bitterly means very, very cold.
Super cold.
Super duper cold.
Bitterly cold.
All right.
Now, Joe, let's talk about the grammar that you've used.
So, for example, you said, I've been living there for... For how long?
About three months now.
Yes, I've been living there for three months.
Present perfect continues.
A nice structure to use.
That means that Joel started living there, is living there now and will continue to live there in the future.
So I've been living there for five years.
I'm talking about both the past and right now.
Exactly, right.
You also, you've used some second conditional sentences.
Wow, yes.
Like, it would be great if I could, for example.
Could you give me an example?
Yeah, I mentioned that.
It would be great if the owner of the apartment would come and take all the junk out of my balcony.
Exactly.
So, of course, unfortunately, this is not a very realistic scenario.
I don't think he's going to do this.
No.
So, unfortunately...
But hypothetically, yes, so like if, and to use this structure, you can say that.
Yeah, so if something's not very realistic or I don't think there's a good chance it will happen, I can use this structure.
You also, you've used it about your future home.
So like, if I had a family, I'd move to a new home, for example, right?
So if I had a family, do you have a family now?
No, I don't.
Not yet, not yet.
So we are imagining, so if I had a family, I'd move, I would move, right?
Or for example, if I had more money, I'd buy a house in the center of Moscow.
Would you buy a house in Moscow?
If you had a lot of cash?
Probably no, because I don't like very crowded places.
My area now has a lot of trees and I know my neighbors.
But if you had lots of money, where would you buy a house?
Actually, if I had a lot of money, I definitely would live right in the center of Moscow, maybe right on the Moscow River.
Kropotkinskaya Street?
I'd say maybe... Next to the Kremlin?
I'd say right next to the Kremlin, so I could keep an eye out on what's happening over there.
Perfect.
Joe, you've also used a nice structure.
I picture myself living in a bungalow.
A very complex construction with a precise word bungalow.
So not a building, not a house, but a bungalow.
A bungalow has one floor or like a...
A bungalow only has one floor, and it's common in very tropical countries.
Exactly.
So it's a very precise word, and I picture myself living.
Yeah, we could also say I view myself, or I imagine myself living in this place in the future.
Joe, thank you very much for your answers.
Absolutely my pleasure.
Yeah, we give you a high score for your speaking.
Band 9, yes.
Excellent to hear.
Dear listeners, now you can listen to Joe's answers again and notice all the beautiful words and grammar structures he's used.
Joe, do you live in a house or an apartment?
I live in an apartment.
I've been living there for about three months now and it's fantastic.
I really enjoy it.
What do you like about living there?
I think the most important thing is location.
I'm only about a five minute walk from the metro.
And for someone like me who has a very busy schedule, the convenience of living so close to the metro is probably the most important thing.
Which is your favorite room in your home?
I don't have a very big home, so unfortunately I don't have much of a choice.
I love to get home and take a hot shower at night before I go to bed.
So, although I don't have much of a choice, I would probably say that my bathroom is my favorite room.
Would you change anything about your home why?
Why not?
You know that's a really good question.
I unfortunately, when i moved into my home, there was a lot of junk and rubbish in my in my home already, especially on the balcony, things that belong to the owner and he just never took out.
So unfortunately, my balcony is very crowded now.
It would be great if he would take those things away and I could have the balcony to myself.
Would you like to move to a different home in the future?
You know, I'm not the type of person that really thinks about the future.
I mostly live in the present.
But no, I suppose in the near future I would like to stay in my home because, as I said, the location is perfect.
In the distant future, well, I suppose that would depend on a lot of factors.
As I mentioned previously, it's a quite small apartment.
So if I happen to have a family in the future, I would have to move, of course.
But for the time being...
No, my apartment is perfectly fine.
What sort of accommodation would you most like to live in?
Well, to be honest, this changes every day.
It really depends on my mood or how I'm feeling.
For example, sometimes in the middle of our Moscow winters, I really picture myself living in a tropical bungalow in some sort of warmer climate.
But on the other hand, on most days, I'm perfectly fine living where I am now.
So like I said, it really depends on my mood.
Thank you very much for listening.
And see you soon.
Bye.
Bye-bye.
