IELTS Speaking for Success - 🗼 Describe a tall building you like or dislike (Part 2) + Transcript

Episode Date: July 16, 2026

Get access to our premium episode archive: https://successwithielts.com ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Rory describes a building he hates! Learn how he uses strong descriptive language and clever idioms to explain why a new office block is a total eyesore and has ruined the views in his hometown. 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 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Find an IELTS Speaking Partner: https://links.successwithielts.com/ieltspartner Our social media: https://linktr.ee/successwithielts © 2025 Podcourses Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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You should say what it's used for, where it is, what it looks like, and explain why you like or dislike it. Rory, hello. Hello. Give us your story. Well, normally I don't take notice of buildings, really. but one that does stand out in my mind right now is the one they put up on the waterfront of my hometown. I don't actually know what it's called.

It's just this sort of anonymous-looking block that utterly lacks character and has basically ruined the skyline and the views there. Speaking about what it's used for, specifically, to be honest, your guess would be as good as mine. I don't ever see many people there, and it seems like there's just a cluster of charity offices at the base of the thing,

and not much going on at the higher levels of the place. I think they must run their operations out of there or something, but it's certainly not anything substantive, or at least not whenever I've been there. If we consider exactly where it is, well, not only is it on the waterfront surrounded by all these other much cooler buildings, or at least cooler looking,

it's also a smack bang in the middle of them to the extent that it blocks out the views entirely from some, well, at least from some angles. And that's a real shame because so much effort has been put into with the area, only to have this thing here to wreck it all. So that's not great. When I think about what it looks like, I can't describe it further than just by saying it's this pretty nondescript office block.

I've no idea who approved it, but they must have been bribed or something because it has absolutely no utility, or at least there's no, utility is evident and the design is just dull as dishwater. As far as why I dislike it so much is concerned other than wrecking the waterfront, it's just a huge visual reminder of how our town council is run by people who don't really think about how the area looks or should be managed. It's an absolute eyesore and I hopefully don't approve anything else like that anytime soon. Right now, for a limited time, everyone's part of the Buick team, even you. Buick's employee pricing for you event is on now.

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See you soon. Yay, thank you, Rory, for your story. Right, dear listener. So the task could be describe a tall building you like, describe a tall building you dislike, describe an interesting building, describe a building, I don't know, that you've recently seen.

So, a building, dear listener. Now you should make up a story about a building. Okay. Or could be kind of described an interesting building, unusual building, a famous building. But your story could be about one building. Okay. And then you kind of adapt it to the task.

You can start off with like, oh, I don't really take notice of buildings. I just don't look at buildings. All right. They're not my thing. But one building. that stands out in my mind that I remember vividly is a museum, is a new block of flats, like a house, is a restaurant could be like any building. I don't know what's it called.

You may not know the name. So just an anonymous looking block. There's something looks anonymous. It's like it doesn't have anything that stands out to give it a name. Yeah, it doesn't have a name or I don't know the name. It's just a block of flats. Or maybe it's a skyscraper, like a tall building. We call it a skyscraper, like a skyscraper with offices, like a block of offices.

Rory talks about something that he dislikes. So he uses negative adjectives and phrases. So this building lacks character. So it's just, you know, ordinary. It's not interesting. It's boring. Nothing stands out. Nothing stands out.

The building lacks character. And even worse, the building ruined the skyline and views, you know. So the skyline is this view of the city. And if something sticks out, so it's ugly, it's not pretty. so it just ruins the view. So you can say this building ruined the skyline. Or present perfect has ruined the skyline. Has ruined the view.

Speaking about what it's used for, so we're talking about next, the next bullet point. To be honest, I don't know. Your guest would be as good as mine. Yeah, like you tell me. I don't know. And it's okay to say, I don't know. Or speaking about what it's used for, it's a restaurant, it's a museum.

It's, I know, a library, a bank. A block of flats. If you talk about a usual house with flats, we call it a block of flats. Or it's just a house. But again, you're talking about a tall building, the listener, right? So not like two stories, not two floors, but a tall building. There is not much going on. there, so there is no activity in the building. It's new, it's empty, or you say like, okay,

it's devoid of life. There is no life inside. Maybe only ghosts. Spooky. Yeah, or you can say like it's crowded, it's a big shopping mall. You can imagine, you know, a building. Or you can just steal Rory's story. and talk about this mysterious, anonymous block of something. We don't know. As for where it is, it is in the center. It is in front of my house. It is by the river.

It is, I don't know, in Paris. Actually, it's Louver. No, Louver is not tall. What's a famous building that's tall? No, the Tower of London. Or the Eiffel Tower. Oh, the Eiffel Tower. It's the building.

Yes. Yeah, the Eiffel Tower, de Liszt. Yeah, like tall buildings, yeah, usually like a bourgeois in Dubai, the Empire State Building. Yeah, you can talk about a building, a tall building that you like. But famous tall buildings, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the Empire State Building, Petronas Twin Towers in Kualumpur, Malaysia. But if you don't know any of them, you can talk about a tall building in York City, for example. And you can just say you don't know what it's called, but it's hideous, or it's ugly. Yeah, hideous, like ugly.

Or it is beautiful, spectacular. It's pretty. I just don't know what it's called. An anonymous skyscraper. It's surrounded by other blocks of flats. So pass your voice, it is surrounded by other buildings or it's surrounded by trees. What do you call a building which is not tall? Short. No. It's not very high.

Yeah. It's surrounded by not very high buildings. So high buildings? Smaller buildings? Can I say small buildings? Smaller buildings. There we go. You talk about a building. You dislike so you can say that, oh, that's a real shame they've built it. So that's a shame that, oh, no, it's a pity. Like, I don't like it. It's a shame. It was built. or it has been built. It's disappointing. So it's disappointing that it has been built. Or it was built.

Or it was put up. It was put up. There we go, yeah. There, a phrasal verb. When I think about what it looks like, it's ta-t-ta-ta. So the final question, what it looks like? It could be confusing because you might think, oh, why I like it? No, no, no.

Describe what it looks like. It looks awful. It looks amazing. And we say, when I think about what it looks like, it's a usual office block. It's nondescript. Yeah, it's like it's ordinary. It's hideous, like ugly, hideous, not pretty. It has no utility. So no utility, no use.

Like you utilize something means use something. So it has no utility, like no use, no service. And the design is just dull. The design of the building. Dull means boring, but Rory says the design is just dull as dishwash water. Usually that's used to describe a boring person, but here it's not. Yeah, dull as dish water, dish water. Like, it's tedious, it's boring, like, ooh.

So do I say like, oh, this teacher is dull as dish water? Dish water, okay. So you wash the dishes, the listener, right? You wash the dishes and then the water that comes from dirty dishes. So this is dish water. Dish water. As dull as dish water. Or maybe just say it's dull and that will be enough.

It's dull. Yeah. As far as why I dislike it, it's because. It has no utility, it's ugly, it's hideous, it ruins the skyline. Oh, but consider the grammar to introduce the point. I said other than wrecking the waterfront. So I already mentioned the reason why it's annoying. It's because it ruined the waterfront.

But then I introduced another one. Other than doing this, it's also that. It's an absolute eyesore. So this is a super good word. If you dislike something and something sticks out, it's different in a bad way. It's ugly, unpleasant. You say it's an eyesore. I saw, one word.

You know, as if you look at it and your eyes hurt. It's like, ooh, it's disgusting. I don't like it. So this building is an eyesore. It's a real eyesore. It's horrible to look at. But you can talk about the building you really enjoy delisina, right? So you can prepare your bad story and prepare your good story.

Love Lab. Thank you very much for listening. We'll get back to you with another episode about buildings in general and architecture. Bye. Bye. Hey, y'all. It's Kelly Clarkson with Wayfair. Ever order furniture online and wonder what if, like what if it doesn't hold up. That sofa was four days old. You should have ordered from Wayfair. With Wayfair, there's no

what if. Just style you love and quality you can trust. Visit Wayfair.ca. Wayfair, every style, every home. Describe a tall building you like or dislike. You should say what it's used for, where it is, what it looks like, and explain why you like or dislike it. Well, normally I don't take notice of buildings really, but one that does stand out in my mind right now is the one they put up on the waterfront of my hometown. I don't actually know what it's called. It's just this sort of anonymous looking block that utterly lacks character and has basically ruined the skyline and the views there. Speaking about what it's used for specifically, to be honest, your guess would be as good as mine. I don't ever see many people there. and it seems like there's just a cluster of charity offices at the base of the thing,

and not much going on at the higher levels of the place. I think they must run their operations out of there or something, but it's certainly not anything substantive, or at least not whenever I've been there. If we consider exactly where it is, well, not only is it on the waterfront surrounded by all these other much cooler buildings, or at least cooler looking, It's also a smack bang in the middle of them to the extent that it blocks out the views entirely from some, well, at least from some angles. And that's a real shame because so much effort has been put into with the area only to have this thing here to wreck it all. So that's not great.

When I think about what it looks like, I can't describe it further than just by saying it's this pretty nondescript office block. I've no idea who approved it, but they must have been bribed or something. thing because it has absolutely no utility, or at least no utility is evident, and the design is just dull as dishwater. As far as why I dislike it so much as concerned, other than wrecking the waterfront, it's just a huge visual reminder of how our town council is run by people who don't really think about how the area looks or should be managed. It's an absolute eyesore, and I hopefully don't approve anything else like that any time soon. BATI-B-D-D-D-D-D-B-D-D-D-D-D.