IELTS Speaking for Success - 🥩 Food and meals (Part 3) + Transcript

Episode Date: October 6, 2025

Get our premium episode archive: https://www.patreon.com/ieltssfs People are spending less and less time having meals with their families these days. Is this good or bad? What do people often talk about during meals? Is it inconvenient to prepare a meal at home? Why do people like to have meals together during important festivals? What food do people eat on special occasions in your country? Do people prefer to eat out at restaurants or eat at home during festivals? 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://linktr.ee/sfspremium 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 three. We're discussing what meals and foods and having meals together. A meal is dinner, lunch, breakfast. Rory, hello. Hello. In this episode, we're doing something very special. In the answer to each question, I'm going to use a special phrase or a word to talk about things in general. see if you can spot the words and phrases, and at the end, I will reveal them to you if you have

not found them already. Speaking in general is important, because in part three, we look for answers about people in general, not about yourself. People are spending less and less time having meals with their families these days. Is this good or bad? Well, if you don't like your family, it's probably amazing. I'm serious, though, it's a very individual thing. Generally speaking, meal times are good opportunities to communicate and reinforce family bonds. So fewer opportunities to do that might be detrimental, though I doubt it's catastrophic.

It's not like the only time you see and speak to people you live with, so there will be other times you can do this. What do people often talk about during meals? Whatever's culturally appropriate, I suppose. generally that could include things like the work day and what you've been getting up to at school if you're younger. If you're older, it could also be local gossip and funny stories. People also used to watch the news together, but I don't know how common that is now. Is it convenient to prepare a meal at home? Well, most people know how to cook these days, so I imagine in general It's not a huge issue, though if work hours increase or the availability of goods decreases,

then it might become more difficult to get everything together. Then there's the cleanup afterwards. If you don't have a dishwasher, that could be a real pain. Why do people like to have meals together during important festivals? Wasn't aware that they did, actually. But maybe it's a good excuse to have a get-together with your loved ones. In the main, people travel home for these kinds of events. Like holidays around them tend to break up the calendar year.

So it makes sense they take advantage of that time to touch base. What food do people eat on special occasions in your country? Well, that's contingent on the festival or the occasion, I suppose. For most, Christmas is the time of Turkey and Brussels sprouts. While in January on Burns night, people tend to tear into haggis. It's a local awful and oat dish and turnips and potatoes. I think it even has its own name and song and poem, actually. Of course, the food supply is pretty varied,

so alternatives for vegetarians and vegans are always available too. Do people prefer to eat out at restaurants or eat at home during festivals? I don't really know. By and large, I'd say they'd eat things at home, since it's probably cheaper and there's more sense. space and familiarity that allows people to chill out a bit, but that's just a guess. 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, dear listen, these questions are about meals and families eating together. And you can read about it why it's important to eat together and what to do during meals. The first question could be a topic for an essay, actually. You can say that it's a very individual thing. So not to say it depends on a person. It's a very individual thing because people are different and depends on people, you know.

And meal times are good opportunities to communicate. We talk to each other when we have a meal together and reinforce family bonds. Bonds like connections. And usually we talk about family bones. Well, I hope people talk to each other when they have a meal. Can you imagine if they didn't and they just sat there in silence? Yeah, some families do that. But you know, they say that it's not good to talk while you're chewing.

But, you know, like some conversation. It's nice. And when we reinforce bonds, we make them stronger. So we make family connections stronger. Oh, two collocations there. Family bonds and reinforce bonds. And that's C2. Ooh.

Actually, a verb, no, a verb to bond is C2. Can we use it in a sentence? Like, to bond, yeah, to make connections, C2. To bond with somebody? Eating together is a good chance to bond with your family. Yes, sweet, ben-nine. Yeah, so eating together with your family is a good way. Well, a good way to reinforce family connections.

Yeah, family connections. Not eating together could be detrimental for family bonds or even catastrophic. Well, it might be detrimental, but I doubt it was catastrophic. There are other times you can talk to your family. Ah, you doubted, okay. However, other opinions are available. Someone might be more pessimistic than me and say, it's not only is it detrimental, it's catastrophic.

Oh my God, it's so serious. People usually talk about the workday, school, so whatever is culturally appropriate. So it's culturally okay. It's okay in your culture, in your country. Some people enjoy gossiping, so we can talk about local gossip or funny stories.

Some people enjoy discussing the news, for example. So it's quite common to discuss the news during meals, during dinner. But generally, we should avoid talking about dangerous topics, like religion, politics. Or maybe people enjoy talking about them. Or football, for example, in different countries. Like, if I support one team, you support another team, oh no, that it's just in Argentina for example

if you are from Argentina you know what I mean right? I'm not from Argentina what do you mean? No because again like if you support one team and I support another team there will be a conflict between us so we just don't discuss it

Oh wow People prepare meals at home or they cook meals at home sometimes it might be difficult to get everything together So this means like to cook everything, to kind of organize everything, to prepare a meal. And also clean up afterwards.

Yeah, the cleanup, oh, off, off. So like there's so many dishes. It's just everywhere all over the place. And you just cooked, I don't know, fried eggs and it's just a boom, you're like an explosion of dirty dishes everywhere. So yeah. The cleanup afterwards is horrible. And if you don't have a dishwasher, a dishwasher is a machine, which helps you to wash your dishes, a dishwasher, and you wash the dishes.

So if you don't have a dishwasher, it could be a real pain. A real pain in the neck are really annoying. Important festivals. Like, Rory, what is a festival? Like, is it a holiday? Is it like a national holiday? the celebration. So an example could be Christmas or Ramadan I think it's a festival. If you're Muslim and it's not then feel free to correct me. Diwali if you're Hindu, Hanukkah if you're Jewish.

All of these are festivals. Oh Christmas. Did you say Christmas? You're religious festivals now that I think about it. Are there any secular ones? Well, various music festivals for example. Yeah, de Liszt. A festival is a popular topic in IOTS in writing as well, so you should know festivals around the world and also festivals in your country. For example, Chinese New Year, like Rio Carnival, it's also a festival, right? Yeah, like, as I said, like music festivals, like October Fest, for example, Holy Festival in India. St. Patrick's Day is a festival, but it's a day, but could be a festival.

Burning Man in the USA is a festival. But there are some local celebrations, like local small festivals. that you might have. And usually people go outside, they cook local food, there's music, like shopping, you know, you just go listen to music, hang out, eat, party, and have a happy life, yeah. Always good to have a happy life.

That's true. It's a good excuse to have a get-together with your loved ones. So it's a good excuse, like a good chance to have a get-together. to meet, to meet up with people, to have a get together with your loved ones. So with people you love. People who are close to you. And you say like take advantage of that time. So people could take advantage of festivals.

Well, take advantage is a collocation, but also the calendar year is a collocation for a specific kind of year. The calendar year is from January to December. The academic year in my country is from August until... June, I think. And of course, you can break it up. So if you break up these things, it means that they're not one solid thing. There are parts that are dedicated to holidays in the middle. To touch base. Oh, Rory, what's touch base? It's an idiom. Isn't to touch base just to catch up on things briefly? Yeah, it's kind of, you know, the nature speaker is all like this, you know. We say, oh, it's an medium, it's an idiom. And Rory goes like, yeah, it's just a phrase, you know, which means, Talk to someone.

I forgot what it means, to be honest. I think the closest thing is to, what's the word? To reconnect with each other. It's not like a particularly long period of time, as far as I'm aware. So touch base, to talk to someone for a short time to find out how they are, what they think about something, touch base with. So people can take advantage of local festivals to touch base with each other or touch base with the loved one.

And festivals could be called special occasions. And what food is eaten? That's contingent on the festival. So that depends on the festival or occasion. Occasion, here we mean festivals, holidays. And then examples. For Christmas. Like people usually eat turkey and Brussels sprouts in these green balls.

I love them. They're actually pretty tasty. while in January on Burns Night, Burns Night is a celebration in England, people tend to eat haggis. Yeah. And this turnips with potatoes. It's difficult to have a conversation about Scottish festivals

without mentioning haggis. Huggis. Yeah, haggis is this national dish. Yeah, turnips with potatoes. So if you Google turnip, it's going to be like a rounded white root. So it's kind of like a vegetable. Is she like very specific.

And in your country, so also think for specific dishes that are usually eaten during your festivals. And there are different alternatives, you can mention. You can say like there are different alternatives for vegetarians, for vegans, which are available. The food is pretty varied. So different dishes are available. People eat out at restaurants or they eat at home. And Rory says like, by and large. It's a binomial.

Binomial. But do listen, we don't care. If it's binomial, we... Yes, you do. Binomial is good. But what is binomial? Come on. Binomial comes in two parts.

We say fish and chips. Buy and large. We don't say large and by or chips and fish. So it's got a fixed pattern to it. And being able to use them is a sign of an advanced grasp of English, which is why it's a C1. phrase. Yes, very useful to know. It's C2, DeLis. 8.5. When everything about the situation is considered together. Yeah, so by and large, that means generally. So by and large, people, blah, blah, blah.

And Maria talked about that meaning generally. But at the beginning of the episode, I said I was using phrases in every single answer for talking about people and things in general. So by and is one of them but did you hear the others let's work from the very start when I said generally speaking yes so just adding generally and speaking together to show that we are talking about people and things in general then in the next one I just said generally and in the following question oh what did I say in the following question oh I said in general so there you go three and they're very easy to use and we're just describing things in general and then next up

was in the main. So that just means mainly or generally or often. And or my next one, what was it? Hmm. For most, for most people. And the last one, of course, was by and large. There you go. Different ways to talk about things and people in general. You are welcome. Please use them. Don't talk about yourself. Do use them not in every answer, okay? But maybe like two, three phrases, in Speaking Part 3. Okay? Thank you very much for listening. Thank you very much for listening. We hope that our episode will help you, generally speaking, to talk about things in general, as well as meal times. Bye-law. Bye. People are spending less and less time having meals with their families these days. Is this good

or bad? Well, if you don't like your family, it's probably amazing. I'm serious, though. It's a very individual thing. Generally speaking, meal times are good opportunities to communicate and reinforce family bonds. So fewer opportunities to do that might be detrimental, though I doubt it's catastrophic. It's not like the only time you see and speak to people you live with, so there will be other times you can do this. What do people often talk about during meals? Whatever's culturally appropriate, I suppose. Generally, that could include things like the workday. and what you've been getting up to at school if you're younger. If you're older, it could also be local gossip and funny stories.

People also used to watch the news together, but I don't know how common that is now. Is it convenient to prepare a meal at home? Well, most people know how to cook these days, so I imagine, in general, it's not a huge issue. Though if work hours increase or the availability of goods decreases, then it might become more difficult to get everything together. Then there's the cleanup afterwards. If you don't have a dishwasher, that could be a real pain. Why do people like to have meals together during important festivals?

Wasn't aware that they did, actually. But maybe it's a good excuse to have a get-together with your loved ones. In the main, people travel home for these kinds of events. Like, holidays around them tend to break up the calendar year. So it makes sense they take advantage of that time to touch base. What food do people eat on special occasions in your country? Well, that's contingent on the festival or the occasion, I suppose. For most, Christmas is the time of turkey and Brussels sprouts.

While in January on Burns night, people tend to tear into haggis. It's a local awful and oat dish and turnips and potatoes. I think it even has its own name and song and post. actually. Of course, the food supply is pretty varied, so alternatives for vegetarians and vegans are always available too. Do people prefer to eat out at restaurants or eat at home during festivals? I don't really know. By and large, I'd say they'd eat things at home, since it's probably cheaper and there's more space and familiarity that allows people to chill out a bit, but that's just a guess.

You know,