IELTS Speaking for Success - 🎞 Describe an interesting video (Part 2) + Transcript

Episode Date: June 30, 2026

Get access to our premium episode archive: https://successwithielts.com ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Rory recounts a hilarious evening watching an off-the-wall music video with friends. Find out how he uses vivid adjectives and handy idioms like 'the name escapes me' to tell a compelling story. 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

Hello, hello and welcome. Inter-Ild speaking part two. Describe an interesting video. You should say when and where you watched it, what it was about, why you watched it, and explain how you felt about it. Rory, give us your story. Well, I seem to spend my life on YouTube watching videos that grabbed my attention,

but one that immediately comes to mind is actually when I saw recently that was a music video we had on at my friend's place. Speaking about the when and where of it all, like I said, it was at my friend's house just last week on Saturday evening and we were having a bit of a get-together and when that happens

we almost always have something on in the background just, well, for background noise and as a conversation piece if the chat ever runs dry. If we consider the subject matter, It was a music video, like I said, but more specifically, it was one of the latest ones from Lady Gaga. I think it's called Runway, and it features her and another singer whose name escapes me just now, actually. And they're basically singing about fashion and other parts of popular culture.

And there's the usual things such videos have, like lots of interesting costume changes and funny references. So all in all, it was just really fun to watch. When I think about the why behind it, I suppose it peaked our interest because it was a very well-done video with the catchy lyrics and equally eye-catching designs. So it sort of made sense we would focus on it more than the other more run-of-the-mill videos. As far as my feelings at the time are concerned, aside from being interested, I found it quite funny as well as interesting, since my friends were providing a running commentary on what they were seeing at the time and making funny remarks about different aspects of it, which makes sense because the video itself was pretty off the wall.

You don't usually see things like that now. If we hadn't seen it, I doubt we'd have missed out on much, but it was a fun way to spend part of the evening, and hopefully there'll be more occasions like it. If you want a $3,000 a month, pay, Payday for life, what would you feel free to do? Maybe take a long weekend, every weekend, or try a bunch of new hobbies. Would you feel free to upgrade and listen ad-free?

Don't worry, we get it. Every $20 ticket could win you $3,000 a month for life and supports life-saving cancer research at the Princess Margaret. Feel free to buy your payday for life ticket today. Raffle number 155-2194. Please play responsibly. 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, do you listen, a video, a video you enjoyed. It could be a video on YouTube, on TikTok, on Instagram, any video. Even if your friend sent you something, a video, you could talk about that, okay? Rory started off with I seem to spend my life on YouTube

So do you listener, yeah Like we spend our life on Instagram On Facebook, on YouTube Why not? On TikTok So you can say, I spend my life on YouTube Watching videos That grab my attention

Grab your attention means it attracted my attention It caught my attention You can start off with One video that grabbed my attention was a video about blah, blah, blah. You can talk about our videos on YouTube. You have many.

I like the one on space the best. I like the one on snacks. Yeah, I enjoy a video about snacks. I'm eating a cucumber there. I'm munching on some crisps as well, so I'm eating different food in that video. Very nice. If you just Google, I OutSpeaking for Success, YouTube snacks.

So that's the video. Very funny. You can look at me eating different food. Yeah, hilarious. Ha ha, hilarious. And you can say, okay, one video that comes to mind is one about ta-t-ta-ta. We watched it at my friend's place, at my friend's place, at my friend's house. You can say, I watched it at my friend's place, at my parents' place, at work, at home.

in a restaurant, in the kitchen and the bathroom. Okay, maybe you enjoy watching videos in the toilet. Why not? To kill two birds with one store. Oh, Maria, come on. That's very funny. And I used an idea in the correct context. Right.

Yes, you did. Let's move swiftly on from there. It was at my friend's house last week on. Saturday or on Sunday. So we were having a bit of a get-together. So when you meet your friends, you have a get-together.

So you can say, we had a bit of a get-together. So we were watching videos, we were talking, you know, chatting, gossiping. And it was a music video. It was the latest video from

Lady Gaga. Hmm. But you could also say it was an old video. There are many kinds of music video. So it was like four minutes long or something like that. And then you described the video, right? So she was singing. There were lots of interesting costume changes. It was fun to watch. If you don't remember the name, if you don't remember something, you can say, oh, the name escapes me now. Or like the title of the video escapes me now. Or it's a video about the video. This person, I don't remember their name.

The name escapes me now. Escapes like runs away from me now. I don't remember. I don't know who they are. It's escaped to my head. And it's okay, you want to talk about the film, but you don't remember the name of the film. So that's fine. You can say, okay, the name of the video escapes me now.

The name of the artist escapes me now. The person in the video, I don't remember their name. It escapes me now. I just don't, I don't remember the video. it escapes me now But if you don't remember the name either Exactly you could say I think it's called And then guess it the name

The examiner is not going to know Yeah but now the listener You should prepare your video Okay what you're going to be talking about Choose something easy Or still Rory's story Talk about Lady Gaga Okay

Yeah Watch this music video Which is called Runway Actually I'm going to check it up Just to make sure that You told the truth, Rory. Maybe you made it all up. Maybe I did.

Ooh, spooky. Music video, run away. Okay, yes, it does exist. It's about three minutes. Yeah, so kind of like crazy costumes. Whoa, lots of crazy costumes. Ooh, la la. This episode is brought to you by Accenture.

When your advertising operations fall out of sync, everything else follows. Spotify and Accenture are working together to reinvent the rhythm of ad sales, using automation, analytics and smarter workflows to simplify campaign delivery and access better data across the business. The result? Less time spent on operations, more time connecting brands with the moments and fandoms that matter most. Learn more at Accenture.com slash Spotify. Okay, lots of people, lots of women and men, they're running around.

And Lady Gaga is just nuts. Wow. That doesn't differentiate it from any. any other video, to be honest. Yeah, the costumes are just insane. They're black and white and they're red and they're strange. Yeah. So spectacular, the listener.

It is a very well-done video with catchy lyrics. Because Lady Gaga is singing, obviously, in the video. So it's a well-done video with the catchy lyrics. So catchy means like you start singing the words. And eye-catching designs. So the designs of the costumes, catch your eyes. Eye-catching designs. Eye-catching dresses, eye-catching costumes.

They are so bright, so unusual, they catch your eye. And also, Rory used a very nice verb, peek. Hmm, piqued our interest. Picked my interest. Picked. Not like P-E-A-K, but P-I-Q-U-E. It's crazy. P-I-Q. Like excite or cause interest. This piqued my interest because it's a strange video. It's not that one, it's not that run-of-the-mill videos. Run of the Mill means ordinary, something, usual, run-of-the-mill, not special, it's just a run-of-the-mill film. It's a run-of-the-mill video. But Lady Gaga's video is really special. It's really bright with different colors and costumes, and Lady Gaga is just like there, you know? Wow.

By contrast, all these other normal videos are just run-of-the-mill things. I was really interested, interested in the video. It was quite funny. So my friend, were commenting on the video so they were providing a running commentary on what they were seeing at the time very nice so they were watching the video and pass continuous right so they were watching the video they were providing a running commentary they were commenting on what they were watching so they were making funny remarks so they were making funny comments make comments about different aspects of the video. I laughed a lot.

It was very funny. I felt happy. Rolling on the floor. Laughing. Can you imagine? Rory on the floor. Or we could just say it was hilarious. It was hilarious.

Yes, it was hilarious. And then Rory finishes off with the third conditional again. Oh, Rory, come on. Is it that bad? You explain the conditional. I'm, yes, it is that bad. It's the third conditional. So what?

I said, if we hadn't seen it, I doubt we'd have missed out on much. Meaning, if we hadn't seen it, so in a different time when we didn't see it, then it wouldn't be a problem. But we did see it. So it doesn't matter. Or you can use the second conditional. Or if I had more time, I'd watch it again some other time. Maybe I'll watch it again in the future. Yeah, sometime in the future.

What adjectives can we use to describe a video? Eye-catching. Interesting. Attention grabbing. It grabs your attention. It takes your attention. It catches your attention. So it's attention grabbing. Grabbing.

If it's not a music video, it could be any video, like an ad, something on TikTok. But your explanation of the video, what's happening, it should be about, I don't know, three, four sentences. That's audio listener. You don't have time for detail. You have two minutes. So Rory described the video in a very concise way, like shortly. Like one, two, actually three, four sentences, you know. Like what was going on in the video.

So be brief. You might want to write it down. Because if the task says describe a film, you start, oh, this film is about, do, do, do, do. And then, bam, thank you very much. You should finish. So you only have about 30 seconds to actually describe what's in that video. Okay? You can watch our video on snacks on YouTube and then describe it if you wish.

Thank you very much for listening. We'll get back to you in our next episode. About videos in general. Ooh. Bye. Bye. Describe an interesting. video. You should say, when and where you watched it, what it was about, why you watched it, and

explain how you felt about it. Well, I seem to spend my life on YouTube watching videos that grab my attention, but one that immediately comes to mind is actually when I saw recently that was a music video we had on at my friend's place. Speaking about the when and where of it all, like I said, it was at my friend's house just last week on Saturday evening. and we were having a bit of a get-together, and when that happens, we almost always have something on in the background, just, well, for background noise,

and as a conversation piece, if the chat ever runs dry, if we consider the subject matter, it was a music video, like I said, but more specifically, it was one of the latest ones from Lady Gaga. I think it's called Runway, and it features her and another singer,

whose name escapes me just now, actually. and they're basically singing about fashion and other parts of popular culture. And there's the usual things such videos have like lots of interesting costume changes and funny references. So all in all, it was just really fun to watch. When I think about the why behind it, I suppose it piqued our interest because it was a very well-done video with the catchy lyrics and equally eye-catching designs. So it sort of made sense we would focus on it,

more than the other more run-of-the-mill videos. As far as my feelings at the time are concerned, aside from being interested, I found it quite funny as well as interesting, since my friends were providing a running commentary on what they were seeing at the time and making funny remarks about different aspects of it, which makes sense because the video itself was pretty off the wall. You don't usually see things like that now. If we hadn't seen it, I doubt we'd have missed out on much, but it was a fun way to spend part of the evening. And hopefully there'll be more occasions like it.

Are you one of those media strategy people clicking through slides, scrolling spreadsheets? Yes? Good. This is for you. Because on Spotify, there's an audience that's different, locked in, loyal, invested. They're called fans. Fans don't just listen to music. They feel seen by it, like it belongs to them. So when your brand shows up on Spotify, that's who you're talking to. And you're right next to artists like me, Lizzo. So, are you ready to talk to fans? Spotify Advertising.

You're among fans.