IELTS Speaking for Success - 🏅 Challenges (Part 1) + Transcript

Episode Date: December 30, 2024

Our New Year Sale is live: https://successwithielts.com/sale Do you like to challenge yourself? What subject do you think is the most challenging at school? Do you like to live a life that has a lot of challenges? How do you usually deal with challenges in daily life? Tune in and have a great day! - Book a class with Rory here: https://successwithielts.com/rory Our course on Phrasal Verbs: https://successwithielts.com/podcourses Transcript: https://successwithielts.com/s11e17 Find an IELTS Speaking Partner: https://links.successwithielts.com/ieltspartner Our social media: https://linktr.ee/successwithielts © 2024 Podcourses Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, lovely, I'm Maria. And my name is Rory, and we're the host of the AILT Speaking for Success Podcasts, the podcast that aims to help you improve your speaking skills, as well as your listening skills along the way. We've started this podcast to give you gorgeous grammar and fabulous vocabulary for your high AILD score. Your Band-Intyne score. Oh, sorry, I'm late. I needed to do all of these things, and it was a real challenge.

Oh, a challenge. Hmm, I see. Shall we talk about challenges? Let's talk about challenges, de listener, challenges. Do you like to challenge yourself? Well, when I was getting started out in work and at the gym, I used to love a challenge, but now I'm quite content to just coast through life most of the time. I feel like I've made a huge amount of personal and professional progress,

so I don't need to go above and beyond all the time now. What subject do you think is the most challenging at school? In my case it was mathematics, which is ironic because the only A grade I've ever been given in my life was for that subject. I don't think it was maths itself that was the issue. It was just the way it was taught and the conditions it was taught in that put me off and made me see it as a chore. Do you like to live a life that has a lot of challenges? I certainly used to when I was younger and had more energy and wanted to get a lot done, but now I have a rather well-balanced existence.

my only real challenges come from organizing my time around my various work commitments and goals. So I wouldn't say it's overly challenging. If anything, it's a pretty easy life. How do you usually deal with challenges in daily life? Well, I won't lie. I often like to have a little bit of a rant to myself for my friends to express my annoyance whenever I'm faced with something challenging. And then I just get down to business and deal with it.

So usually when a problem comes in, I'll sigh and make his night remark. And then I'll start on the solution to overcome the issue or challenge. That's just my process. 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. Right, dear listener, what about you? Do you enjoy challenges? No, not so much. And there is a verb to challenge. So we can challenge ourselves. So not to be like all lazy and do nothing, but to do new stuff. Like, yay, I'm going to learn how to speak Chinese. I'm going to climb mountains and swim under ice in icy.

waters. And you can say I used to love a challenge, but not anymore. So in the past, I loved challenges, but now not so much. I'm quite content with what I have now. I'm quite glad with what I have now. Coast through life, Rory, coast. Coast is like the ocean, ocean coast. Well, it can be, but also if you're coasting, it just means that you're going by just on inertia or the energy that you built up beforehand without making any effort yourself. So to coast is to move down a hill or a slope without making any effort. Yeah.

So the situation is carrying you rather than anything you do. And you can say that I feel like I've made a huge amount of personal and professional progress. I've made some progress. So I think I don't want to any more chat. in my life. I don't need to go above and beyond all the time. So I don't need to challenge myself all the time to do something like crazy all the time, to do something new. So go above and beyond. It's an idiom, which means to do more or better than would usually be expected of someone. For example, you go to work and your colleagues go above and beyond.

So they do their work super well. So they do more than is expected of them. Or usually in sport. So I play football and my teammates go above and beyond. Rory, could you give us another example with this go above and beyond? Now, people frequently go above and beyond their work just by working longer hours because that's more than is expected of them. Subjects at school

Hmm Maybe mathematics was the most challenging the most difficult the most dreadful ever or biology or literature dear listener so here depends on your chemistry

or just say any subject you want just feel free to lie but careful mathematics or maths maths was really difficult I struggled with maths it was difficult for me or maths was the issue

and maybe the way biology was taught was the issue, was the problem. So the way literature was taught or the teacher was the issue. And it put me off. Like I started disliking it. So it put me off. And that would be good. If you're put off something, then you don't want to do it. So that can be, that can also be a response to a challenge.

Yeah, I started disliking it. I was discouraged from liking it. like the way biology was taught, put me off. So it was difficult, I struggled with it. I live a life full of challenges. Or maybe you don't, do you? No. If you had many challenges in the past, you can say I used to have many challenges, but now I don't usually go above and beyond all the time.

You can also say that when I was younger, I had more, energy and face many challenges. But now, not so much. I have a rather well-balanced existence. Existence, like life? And Roy, what do you mean by well-balanced? Not too many challenges. Like a good balance between work and life, challenges and like not doing anything. And then we have the real challenges. So if something is a real challenge, challenge, that's like a proper challenge for you. Other things might not seem to be challenges. You can say my real challenges come from doing something. My real challenges come from learning English or come from organizing my time or planning my time or working hard or my only challenges

come from organizing my time around my commitments. My commitment. like my activities, my duties, something that I do every day. Like a commitment is a promise or a decision and could be kind of activities. Something like you should deal with like work commitments, family commitments, something that you do. Or you can also say like my real challenges come from my work goals. So I have like aims, goals. targets at work, but I can't say it's overly challenging. So if something is overly challenging, it's like too challenging. Oh, it's really hard, really difficult. And that's a good one,

like overly, very, like I'm an overly optimistic person, for example, like very optimistic. And you can say like, oh, I have a pretty easy life. Yay. No challenging. easy-peasy. We deal with challenges, Rory, what else? What other verbs do we have? Address challenges. Hmm. What else?

Overcome them as well. Oh, yeah. Or face up to challenges. Yeah, face up to challenges. If you deal with challenges successfully, you can say overcome challenges. If you have a rent, to have a bit of a rent. It just means that you complain about something in a very intense way.

And to rent means to kind of complain like rent about the government usually in an angry way like, I don't like the government like this. And the word renting is also when people start speaking

or writing or shouting in an angry, uncontrolled way. And sometimes Rory complains about challenges in his life. So sometimes I have a bit of a rant about challenges. I express my annoyance to my friends. So I say that I am annoyed. And then I just get down to business.

When you get down to business, you do things. What's a snide remark? Oh, it's just an side remark. You don't make it to anyone in particular. no one's really supposed to hear it. So it's more like something you say to yourself. Hmm. A snide remark contains some unpleasant criticism that is not clearly stated.

And we usually make snide remarks. For example, Roy, could you give us an example? Well, no, because it's not supposed to be something that people can hear. But usually if someone says something silly and you're just thinking that doesn't make any sense, you might say that out loud, you might just think, oh, that's a silly thing to say. And then move on. And I'll start on the solution to overcome the issue.

So I complain, but then I'll start working out the solution to overcome my challenges. Yeah, maybe you'll just will tell the examiner that, hey, examiner, this IOT's exam is quite a challenge, you know? And it's been a challenge for like five years. I've been preparing to take this. the test, so give me band nine. And I'll go.

Yeah, band nine now. I'm not so sure the examiner would be too pleased to hear that. No? You can't just say I've been preparing for five years, so I need a bad night. Why not? You know, like, tell the examiner that you are an ambitious person. Like, you won't ban nine. Hmm?

Right, dear listener, thank you very much for listening and we'll get back to you in our next episode. Okay? Bye. Bye. Do you like to challenge yourself? Well, when I was getting started out in work and at the gym, I used to love a challenge, but now I'm quite content to just coast through life most of the time. I feel like I've made a huge amount of personal and professional progress,

so I don't need to go above and beyond all the time now. What subject do you think is the most challenging at school? In my case, it was mathematics, which is ironic, because the only A grade I've ever been given in my life was for that subject. I don't think it was maths itself that was the issue. It was just the way it was taught and the conditions it was taught in that put me off and made me see it as a chore.

Do you like to live a life that has a lot of challenges? I certainly used to when I was younger and had more energy and wanted to get a lot done, but now I have a rather well-balanced existence. My only real challenges come from organizing my time around my various work commitments and goals. So I wouldn't say it's over.

challenging. If anything, it's a pretty easy life. How do you usually deal with challenges in daily life? Well, I won't lie. I often like to have a little bit of a rant to myself for my friends to express my annoyance whenever I'm faced with something challenging. And then I just get down to business and deal with it. So usually when a problem comes in, I'll sigh and make his night remark. And then I'll start on the solution to overcome the issue or challenge. That's just my process. Thank you.