IELTS Speaking for Success - ✏️ Borrowing things (Part 3) + Transcript

Episode Date: October 16, 2026

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Uh, hold music. Not exactly what you want to hear when a pipe just burst in your basement is flooding. And your vinyl collection is getting soaked. And your cat just floated by on a sofa cushion? That's why Intact Insurance answers 2 million claim calls per year within 20 seconds. It's their way of going the extra mile to help. So instead of hearing this lovely track, over and over and over, you'll hear this in seconds. Hello, Intact Insurance. Now that's music to your ears. Hello, hello, dear listener and welcome into IEL speaking part three, borrowing things. So kind of taking things from people and then giving them back.

Rory, hello? Hello? Let's talk about borrowing things. What kinds of things do people in your culture often borrow from their neighbors? Oh, good question, actually. I don't think we've borrowed anything from ours apart from their time, to be honest. Like when we've invited them around for parties and things. It's not so common these days, since people are fairly self-sufficient. Why do you think people sometimes prefer to borrow something rather than buy it? It could just be a one-time or short-term need, I suppose, so there's no need to buy something and keep it in the house long term, is there, if it's this kind of thing.

Do you agree that it's never a good idea to borrow money from friends? I can see why people might feel that way, but provided that you're trustworthy and have a plan in place to return the money within an agreed time frame, I don't think there should be any issue with that. Of course, if you're doing it a lot, then that might erode the friendship over time, but that's not the norm in my experience. What problems can occur when people borrow things from other people? Oh, I think the most obvious seems like, well, things get damaged or destroyed, or maybe people doing the borrowing failed to return them for some reason and with no explanation or compensation. Or the people who loaned out the items to begin with

could ask for them back unexpectedly, which might show some pre-arranged or pre-agreed plans. into disarray. What should someone do if a person does not return something they've borrowed? I mean, logically, the first step should be to give a gentle reminder to return the thing and then escalate from there. It could even go all the way up to legal action if things get really hard of hand. But usually people just need to be asked and that's enough. Why can it sometimes be difficult to ask someone to return something they've borrowed?

Well, sometimes people can be shy and unwilling to risk any kind of social conflict at all, so they might hesitate to ask, or the people they loaned their things to could be higher up the social ladder than them, and they might, or they could be afraid to ask as well. Other times they may not just have set out a clear timeline for the thing to be returned, and that can make people wary of asking. How effective are schemes where people pay to use communal cars or bicycles? I've seen them around and they seem fairly popular, especially in this day and age where people might not have enough to make ends meet

and buy their own vehicles too. I haven't seen any articles on them though, so I don't know how good they are on a national or global scale. On the face of it, they seem fine. Why do you think many people are unwilling? to share ownership of things such as cars? Well, that probably depends on the relationships to the people involved. If you own the house or the car itself,

then it's your property, and you might not want all in sundry to have access to them and potentially damage them. A house and a car are sort of extensions of personal space, so I can see how that could get complicated in that regard. Do you think there will be more shared ownership in the future? I would imagine so. It certainly seems like people are moving towards more sustainable ways of living as the climate crisis worsens.

So it makes sense that would include sharing ownership of various things with most people. Some might be pretty restive in that respect, but they'll probably be outliers. It seems like the vast majority will opt for this kind of thing. Hold music. Not exactly what you want to hear when a pipe just burst in your basement is flooding. And your vinyl collection is getting soaked. And your cat just floated by on a sofa cushion? That's why Intact Insurance answers 2 million claim calls per year within 20 seconds.

It's their way of going the extra mile to help. So instead of hearing this lovely track over and over and over, you'll hear this in seconds. Hello, Intact Insurance. Now that's music to your ears. As you know, we now release all of our premium content for free, and it's available for one month. After one month, it goes into our super secret archive. To sign up for the archive, click the link in the description below. See you soon.

So we borrow things from people, from neighbors. Rui said that in my culture, we don't borrow anything from each other, to be honest, because most people are self-sufficient. So self-sufficient, like they have. everything they need, so they don't need to ask for things. Self-sufficiency to UB and 9, self-sufficient, a self-sufficient person can provide everything they need for themselves without the help of other people. So you have everything. I'm self-sufficient and most people are self-sufficient, so they prefer not to borrow things from each other. So you can say that it's not

common in my culture or it is common to borrow things like sugar, salt. No, actually, you just don't borrow. You just take some salt from your neighbors and eat it. Yeah, or maybe like some technology. Like, oh, do you have this? Can I borrow this thing? Can I borrow your dog? You know, just feel lonely. Can I borrow your dog? What was the last thing you borrowed from your neighbors? Oh, I don't know my neighbors, so nothing. I don't trust them. But I borrowed a sleeping bag. There we go.

Yeah, I went somewhere. I don't remember where. It was cold there, and I borrowed a sleeping bag because it's quite expensive to buy a new sleeping bag. And that person had a very good sleeping bag, so I borrowed it. Yep. So, people prefer to borrow something rather than buy it. And we usually borrow things because of short-term need.

So you need this object for a short period of time. And then you don't need it. So you don't need to keep it. You use it and that's all. We borrow money from friends or we don't borrow money from friends. And here the adjective is trustworthy. Yes. You can trust people.

So, yeah, advanced. Able to be trusted. So you can borrow money from trustworthy people or if you are trustworthy and you have a plan to return the money. Are you a trustworthy person? Oh, it can be, yeah. Well, but usually, yeah, if I promised something, I usually do it. Deleisner, you can just give me your money and then I buy or I buy. or I invest the money in traveling, in therapy, in myself, yes, in my face, you know, in my hair.

I invest money in training, in dancing, yeah, in tango lessons. Radio is no, where were we? So money. But if you borrow money from friends, this might erode the friendship. erode, that's an interesting verb. Reduce the quality. Usually we use it above the weather. For example, wind and rain erode the statue, the monument, the house. Yeah. Or like slowly reduce or destroy something.

For example, something eroded my confidence. So damaged my confidence. And we say that borrowing money from friends can erode the friendship. Potentially, if you don't plan for it. Things get damaged or destroyed. So when you borrow things, you use them, things get damaged, they get destroyed. And then some people fail to return them back. So people just don't give them back. Is that almost like passive voice? Things get damaged or get destroyed. And if they don't give them back, they fail to return them. If you fail to do something, you don't do it.

Shame. So we borrow things and then we return things. Hopefully. If we are trustworthy. So when a person doesn't return something, they have borrowed from you, the first thing to do is to give them a gentle reminder. So a reminder is when you say like, oh, hello. Do you remember this book, you're born?

borrowed from me. Like a reminder. I thought you were being serious for a moment there and I was like, oh God. Which book? What's going on? So a reminder. A written or spoken message that remind someone to do something. Like, oh, like, buy milk. Kind of don't forget to get up at 7 a.m. a reminder. Oh, that's one thing that you will never be doing. No.

Oh, because you know, like last week I woke up at 6 a.m. Rory. I woke up at 6 a.m. without an alarm, just woke up and couldn't go to sleep anymore. So I had to kind of like get up 6 a.m. That's crazy. I know. And then two days, I had to sleep for about 12 hours for two days to recover. Yeah, horrible life. Right, dear listener. So you give a person a gentle reminder.

Gentle, like a soft, like nice. So give a person. a gentle reminder to return the thing. And if the person doesn't return the thing, then you can take some legal actions. Go to court. Sue the person. Hopefully it doesn't come to that, though.

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Hello, intact insurance. Now that's music to your ears. Unlock unlimited free grocery delivery with PC Express Pass. Shop online and get the same low no frills prices delivered. Get your first year of PC Express Pass for just $2.50 a month. Learn more at Nofrills.ca. People can be shy. They can be unwilling to risk their friendship. Yeah, they might hesitate to ask. Kind of, like, how do I ask my friends to give the book back to me?

Like, so shy, unwilling. They want to keep the friendship. They don't want to erode the friendship by asking. And some people are afraid. to ask? Because people are higher up the social ladder. That means they have higher status than them. We have schemes, communal cars.

So what are communal cars, communal bicycles? Well, it means they don't have one owner. They're owned by the community, I suppose. Yeah, like communal property is owned by a group of people. So a communal bicycle, like everybody can rent this bicycle. everybody can use it. And there are some schemes. Schemes, an organized plan or system.

So basically, like, the system of using bicycles for everybody or cars for everybody. So, like, is this effective? Right. And you say that, yeah, these schemes are pretty popular, especially if people can't make ends meet. There we go, it's an idiom. Make ends. meat if people don't have money. So if you don't have money to buy your own bicycle, you can use

them. So make ends meet to have enough money to pay for the things that you need. For example, you can say it's not easy to make ends meet with a big family. Such schemes are useful, especially for people who can't make ends meet. And buy their own vehicles, because cars, bicycles, they are vehicles. Vehicles. Vehicles. Some people are unwilling to share ownership of things. So some people don't want to share their own things like houses, cars, flats. Yeah, I don't want to share my flat. I don't want to share my car.

Why should I? Hey, darling, can I borrow your car? No. It's mine, my precious. So I'm unwilling to share. And yet, if Maria asked to borrow my car, I would say yes because I don't own a car. You don't own a car, okay. I feel like, yes, of course you can't, Maria.

You can find it for me too. Oh, thank you, Rory. You're far so kind. So unwilling, unwilling, I don't want to do it. Not willing, unwilling. I am unwilling to do something. I'm unwilling to share my car or my house. And you can say that it depends on the relationships of the people.

like if they are family then it's one thing but if like you are a distant friend then it's strange to to borrow a flat or a car like it's your property like your house is your property so you might not want to do this because some people might damage the property and it's your personal space so my flat is my personal space i don't want it to be this. I don't want it to be damaged and also a car. Yeah. I don't want my car to be destroyed. I don't want other people to destroy

my car. That's why I keep it to myself. But you can drive. You have a driving license. Why don't you buy a car? Why don't I drive? Because everything is within walking distance. Oh, okay. All right. Rory lives in the middle of

Scotland somewhere in the mountains, hills of Scotland. It's not in the mountains. It's next to the sea. No. No next to the sea. Okay, right. Shed ownership.

So what's shared ownership? Sharing your property. And in the future, maybe people will own more things, like shared cars, shared bicycles. Or you can say this might be pretty useful.

So it might be, it will probably be, or people will probably share more things in the future. Right, dear listener, thank you very much for listening and we'll get back to you in our next episode. Bye. Old music. Not exactly what you want to hear

when a pipe just burst in your basement is flooding. And your vinyl collection is getting soaked. And your cat just floated by on a sofa cushion? That's why intact insurance answers 2 million claim calls per year within 20 seconds. It's their way of going the extra mile to help. So instead of hearing this lovely track, over and over and over, you'll hear this in seconds. Hello, intact insurance.

Now that's music to your ears. What kinds of things do people in your culture often borrow from their neighbors? Good question, actually. I don't think we've borrowed anything from hours apart from their time, to be honest. Like when we've invited them around for parties and things. It's not so common these days since people are fairly self-sufficient. Why do you think people sometimes prefer to borrow something rather than buy it? It could just be a one-time or short-term needs, I suppose, so there's no need to buy something and keep it in the house long term, is there,

if it's this kind of thing? Do you agree that it's never a good idea to borrow money from friends? I can see why people might feel that way, but provided that you're trustworthy and have a plan in place to return the money, within an agreed timeframe. I don't think there should be any issue with that. Of course, if you're doing it a lot, then that might erode the friendship over time,

but that's not the norm in my experience. What problems can occur when people borrow things from other people? Oh, I think the most obvious seems like, well, things get damaged or destroyed, or maybe people doing the borrowing failed to return them for some reason and with no explanation or compensation

or the people who loaned out the items to begin with could ask for them back unexpectedly, which might show some pre-arranged or pre-agreed plans into disarray. What should someone do if a person does not return something they've borrowed? I mean, logically, the first step should be to give a gentle reminder to return the thing and then escalate from there. It could even go all the way up to legal action if things get really out of hand. But usually people just need to be asked and that's enough.

Why can it sometimes be difficult to ask someone to return something they've borrowed? Well, sometimes people can be shy and unwilling to risk any kind of social conflict at all. So they might hesitate to ask or the people they loaned their things to could be higher up the social ladder than them. And they might or they could be afraid to ask as well. Other times they may not just have set out a clear type. for the thing to be returned and that can make people wary of asking. How effective are schemes where people pay to use communal cars or bicycles?

I've seen them around and they seem fairly popular, especially in this day and age where people might not have enough to make ends meet and buy their own vehicles too. I haven't seen any articles on them though, so I don't know how good they are on a national or global scale. On the face of it, they seem fine. Why do you think many people are unwilling to share ownership of things such as cars? Well, that probably depends on the relationships to the people involved. If you own the house or the car itself, then it's your property and you might not want all in sundry to have access to them and potentially damage them. A house and a car are sort of extensions of personal space. So I can see how that could get complicated in that regard.

Do you think there will be more shared ownership in the future? I would imagine so. It certainly seems like people are moving towards more sustainable ways of living as the climate crisis worsens. So it makes sense that would include sharing ownership of various things with most people. Some might be pretty restive in that respect, but they'll probably be outliers. It seems like the vast majority will opt for this kind of thing. Hold music. Not exactly what you want to hear when a pipe just burst and your basement is flooding. And your vinyl collection is getting soaked. And your cat just floated by on a sofa cushion? That's why Intact Insurance answers 2 million claim calls per year within 20 seconds.

It's their way of going the extra mile to help. So instead of hearing this lovely track over and over and over, you'll hear this in seconds. Hello, intact insurance. Now that's music to your ears.