IELTS Speaking for Success - 👯‍♀️ Describe your favourite childhood friend (Part 2) + Transcript

Episode Date: July 31, 2026

Get access to our premium episode archive: https://successwithielts.com ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 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, dear listener and welcome into IEL speaking part two. Describe your favorite childhood friend. You should say who he or she is, where you met each other, what you often did together and explain what made you like them. Rory, give us your story. See, this is hard because I had loads of friends, I was younger and I don't really want to single one out as my favorite one ever. But I suppose if I absolutely have to, then the one that immediately comes to mind is Madeline, or Maddie,

as I called her. That was her nickname, who I was friends with for a lot of my high school years. Speaking about exactly who she is, well, we moved in the same friendship circles in primary school, but we never really clicked with each other until we were older and discovered we had the same sense of humor and comedic timing, along with a very healthy disregard for authority, which I'm sure our teachers were just thrilled about. If we consider where we met exactly, well, we bumped into each other numerous times over the years, but only really became friends when we were at a party together, when we were older kids. I don't really remember much of the party itself, but I do recall that we got on, like a house on fire, and we were inseparable,

for the next several years. When I think about what we did, most of the time it was just hanging out and enjoying each other's company and sharing stories about our lives. Oh, not only that, but we would also sometimes go shopping together or share ideas for homework, which was quite handy.

And we'd talk about our future life plans as well. We thought we knew it all, like a lot of kids, but obviously there was a bit of a gap between theory and practice there, or at least experience, and actually doing things. A lot of the things we talked about never came to pass, but we didn't know that at the time. How could we?

As far as why I liked her as concerned, I think it was mostly a case of our shared humor, like I said. But it might also have been because we both had a bit of her off time growing up and we bonded over her shared trauma or something like that. Regardless of the reasons why, I'm very glad to have had her in my life. She was a clever, loyal and a great friend and a good laugh as well. 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, the listener. So, the topic is your childhood friend. So maybe a friend from school, from before school, you can make them up. Or still, Rory's story.

The story is going to be in the past because you met each other, you did something together, you liked this person. Maybe you are friends with them now. You can start off with I had loads of friends when I was younger. Loads of means lots of. Lots of friends or loads of friends. When I was younger, so when I used to go to school, I had this friend. To single out is a nice phrase of verb.

So I had a lot of friends. And if I had to single out one friend, this would be Bob, Rory, Maria. So single out one friend. So single out one friend out of many friends. And it's a very good strategy to start it off with like, oh, I had many friends when I was a child. It's difficult for me to single out one person, but I'd like to talk about Bob. To single out to choose one person or one thing from a group. Or for example, we have a lot of episodes, so it's very difficult to single out one

episode that you really like. But you could talk about your friend Bob, but that would be their nickname. They would be called Robert. So you can talk about the full name and the nickname, the name that you give someone close to you. Yeah, and like one person that immediately comes to mind is Robert. I was friends with him for many years. I was friends with her for five years in high school, in primary school, in primary school. at school, in a nursery school, like before school, you go to some, you know, place.

So, yeah. But you can talk about your school years. Why not? Primary school? Like the first years at school. Speaking about who she is, just a girl. Who is she? That's a good question.

Like, you should say who she is. Well, okay. Well, you can describe the person, like how you know each. other, what they look like. I didn't say what she looks like actually, or what she looked like. That would have been helpful or described her character as well. Yeah, character. Like, okay, we had common friends. Like, we, she was older than me or she was the same age as me. We had the same friends. We had the same sense of human. And we had a disregard for authority.

Means we were disrespectful. Yeah, disrespectful of teachers. So Rory was a rebel at school. He did what he wanted. There's an irony. You wind up disregarding authority and then turn into a teacher later on in life. Where we met, we bumped into each other. Bumped into is like meet somebody.

But without any purpose, just like, oh, wow, okay, that's you. Surprise, surprise. Bump into someone, it's C1. It's eight out of nine. Meet someone, you know, when you have not planned it. So you don't have any plan to meet them, but for some reason like, oh, wow, Amy, it's you. Like, I bumped into Rory suddenly, you know, we didn't plan it, but I bumped into him. in Dublin, for example.

In an I old center, I went to take the test and I go, wow, Rory, hello, what are you doing here? I bumped into Rory. So you can say, like, we bumped into each other many times during our first school year. We met each other without any planning. So kind of like, you see, you saw this person on numerous occasions, like numerous, many times. but we became friends later. So we became friends at a party.

We met at a party. Or you can say like, oh, we bumped into each other lots of times at school, but we became friends after school. Or we became friends when we were older kids. We got on like a house on fire. There we go, DeLisena, another idiot. for you. So one phrase of verb, single out. I can't single out one friend. The one that immediately comes to mind. And then we got on like a house on fire. We got on well. Like you met,

you meet this person and you get on well. You become friends very quickly. Get on like a house on fire is an idiom informal. People like each other. They become friends very quickly. So when I met Rory, we got on like a house on fire, which is a lie because I think we didn't. I insulted Rory. Are you wearing those jeans, seriously? What are you wearing? Oh, it was horrible. I was seriously horrible.

I love how you said that with a big smile on your face as well. Oh, God. No, because I just like, the only thing which is left for me now is just to laugh at myself. get on like a house on fire. Write it down. 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. Now streaming on Disney Plus, the Hulu original series Furious follows FBI agent Alice Black, played by Emmy Rossum,

on the hunt for a mysterious and calculating serial killer. Both walk their own paths toward justice, and as their lives start to intertwine, the line between right and wrong begins to blur. New episodes week over week, watch the Hulu original series Furious, Now streaming only on Hulu on Disney Plus. Yeah, and another phrase of VOP is we bumped into each other lots of times.

We became friends later. And I do remember that we got on like a house on fire. We were inseparable. Okay, dear listener, people couldn't separate us. We were inseparable. So, like, we were like real friends, inseparable. is band 9, C2. Is it?

Oh, it is. Careful, it's inseparable. Not un, not dis, so inseparable. If two or more people are inseparable, they are good friends. They spend a lot of time together, so they kind of like hang out together very often. When we were children, Amy and I were inseparable. But inseparable, de listening, careful. So we were inseparable for the next several years, like at school, right?

We were hanging out. So hang out. We spent time together. We were hanging out enjoying each other's company. But continuous, when I think about what we did, most of the time it was just hanging out and enjoying each other's company. So this sentence, you can just learn it by heart. This is a good one. We shared stories about our life.

And then Rory uses wood when he talks about the past. Super Band 9. Usually we say we went shopping, we shared ideas. We used to. We used to go shopping. But here Rory is super cool. So he says, we would go shopping. We would go shopping.

We would share stories. We would play games together. Yeah, which is very nice. It means we went shopping. regularly. So we went shopping or we would go shopping. So it was like a regular action. We went shopping every week.

So we can use wood. But it's about the past. Very strange. I liked her because, blah, blah, blah. Or I liked him because we had a similar sense of humor. And we bonded over our traumas. Bonded. Although it could also be over our shared interests.

If you didn't have a rough time growing up, so if you had a nice childhood, then you could say, we had a nice time growing up, and we bonded over our shared interests, things we have in common. If something is shared, you have it in common. Bond means to have a close connection with somebody.

So a bond or like connection or to bond to connect. So we bonded because we had shared. shared interest. And actually, bond in this context is C2 make connection. Really? Yeah, like mothers bonded with their babies. That's amazing. Yeah, but in this meaning, you know, it's C2. It's almost like, this is my job. Yeah. So you see, Rory intuitively knows which C2 words to use. Yeah, you're an educated native speaker. There we go. I'm just using the words that I use every day. I've never really thought about that before. Oh, wow. Yeah, you see.

Education. So we bonded over our shared interests or we bonded over our shared humor or we bonded over our shared traumas. Trauma is like a unpleasant experience. Trauma. Oh, C2. Trauma is C2. Oh my God. Yeah.

There's no joke. But people talk about trauma all the time on Instagram. Yeah, but do they use the word trauma? Yes. Really? Okay. Childhood trauma. Yeah, childhood trauma is a common collocation.

Childhood trauma. It's a C2 collocation. It's a terrible thing to have happened, but it's a C2 level collocation. Yeah, because these days, a lot of people talk about therapy. We have therapy. We go to psychologists, psychiatrists, to have therapy. So usually therapy helps us with our childhood traumas. So trauma is a shock and emotional shock, which lasts for a long time.

Yeah, something bad happened and people have traumas. We spell it like a T-R-A-U-M-A, but we say trauma, childhood trauma. Yeah, so that's a nice one. So we bonded over our shared childhood traumas. I'm very glad to have had her in my life. Because we're talking about the past, so it is a childhood friend. Maybe you don't talk with them anymore. So it's in the past.

You stopped communicating. In this case, you say, I'm very glad, I'm happy to have had her. To have had present perfect, because we talk about the past. It's not true anymore. And then we use some adjectives. She was clever. She was loyal. She was great.

She was generous. She was ambitious. So use some adjectives about the person. He was handsome, ambitious, loyal. oil, great, fun. There we go, dear listener. So, two phrase of ups. It's difficult to single out one person.

We bumped into each other. An idiom, we got on like a house on fire. Yeah, we bonded over our shared traumas. Doesn't matter what you talk about. You use these phrases and bam. You'll have a good score. Okay. For vocabulary.

Ooh, and grammar-wise, use wood. about the past. So instead of saying, we went shopping together, you should say, we would sometimes go shopping, we would go fishing. But now we've got to get to the next episode where we talk about friends or childhood friends in general. Bye. Bye. The first ever all-electric 2026 Subaru Trail Seeker is the EV for the trail obsessed, with up to 444 kilometers on a full charge and DC fast charging from 10 to 80% in about 30 minutes in ideal conditions. Plus, ample ground clearance and symmetrical all-wheel drive

make the 2026 trail seeker the most capable EV Subaru has ever built. Test drive it at your local Subaru dealer or visit Subaru.ca. Describe your favorite childhood friend. You should say who he or she is, where you met each other, what you often did together and explain what made you like them. See, this is hard because I had loads of friends when I was younger and I don't really want to single one out as my favorite one ever. But I suppose if I absolutely have to, then the one that immediately comes to mind is Madeline or Maddie, as I called her. that was her nickname, who I was friends with for a lot of my high school years. Speaking about exactly who she is,

well, we moved in the same friendship circles in primary school, but we never really clicked with each other until we were older and discovered we had the same sense of humor and comedic timing, along with a very healthy disregard for authority, which I'm sure our teachers were just thrilled about. If we consider where we met exactly, we bumped into each other numerous times over the years but only really became friends

when we were at a party together, when we were older kids. I don't really remember much of the party itself, but I do recall that we got on like a house on fire and we were inseparable for the next several years. When I think about what we did, most of the time it was just hanging out and enjoying each other's company and sharing stories about our lives.

Oh, not only that, but we would also sometimes go shopping together or share ideas for homework, which was quite handy. And we'd talk about our future life plans as well. We thought we knew it all like a lot of kids, but obviously there was a bit of a gap between theory and practice there, or at least experience, and actually doing things. A lot of the things we talked about never came to pass,

but we didn't know that at the time. How could we? As far as why I liked her as concerned, I think it was mostly a case of our shared humor, like I said. But it might also have been because we both had a bit of a rough time growing up and we bonded over her shared trauma or something like that. Regardless of the reasons why, I'm very glad to have had her in my life. She was a clever, loyal and a great friend and a good laugh as well.