IELTS Speaking for Success - 🍅 Growing vegetables and/or fruits (Part 1) + Transcript

Episode Date: September 30, 2025

Get our premium episode archive: https://www.patreon.com/ieltssfs Are you interested in growing vegetables and fruits? Do many people grow vegetables in your city? Is growing vegetables popular in your country? Should schools teach students how to grow vegetables? Do you think it’s easy to grow vegetables? 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/s12e26 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, lovely, I'm Maria. And my name is Rory, and we are the hosts of the AILT Speaking Per Success podcast. The podcast aims to help you improve your speaking skills, as well as your listening skills along the way. We started this podcast to give you gorgeous grammar and fabulous wakindal for your high ILD score. Your bantine score! Rory, Rory, what are you eating? Are you eating something? Oh, this?

It's just a nice. apple. They grow them locally here. I see. Hmm, shall we talk about growing things? Yes, let's talk about growing things. Are you interested in growing vegetables and fruits? Not overly. I barely have an interest in cooking or growing a house plant for that latter, let alone doing anything like, I don't know, cultivating a cucumber or a tomato plant. I just don't have the time or. the patience for that. Do many people grow vegetables in your city? I imagine so.

There are lots of plots of land and allotments on the outskirts and in the suburbs, so they must be growing something there. Is growing vegetables popular in your country? I'm not sure. Well, it might be less common than before, since people usually just go to the supermarket. But when it comes to how popular it is, I have no idea. I'm not sure it's something that you can derive that much pleasure from,

so I'd say no, but that could just be my own bias talking there. Should schools teach students how to grow vegetables? I don't see the harm in it. It might be a nice way to bring together different concepts and subjects like biology for learning about growth and maths for calculating how much water they need, for example, and how much soil. Do you think it's easy to grow vegetables? For me personally, no, it would be a nightmare.

I know nothing about it and it would be such a waste of money to attempt it now. I used to think it was all just soil and seeds and water, but it's way more complex than that and I just don't have the willpower. Other people might be fine though. 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. Yay, thank you very for your answers. So do you listen to me are growing vegetables and fruits.

This is a brand new topic, okay? We haven't had it before. So yeah, is it strange for you? Well it would be strange for me to grow anything. Yeah, you're plant murderer. You just murder anything. As we speak the big plant in my house, it is withering away which would also be a good way to talk about growing things actually. If something

is withering, it means it is well its condition is getting worse and worse and it's slowly dying. And Rory's plants are like, Rory, please give us water, water, Rory. I do give them water, but it doesn't seem to make a difference. Yeah, you should talk to them.

Hug them, touch them, talk to them, love them. Come on. Oh, that's crazy. So dear, listen, growing vegetables or veg or fruits. Fruits. You're not fruit, but fruits, because lots of different kinds of fruits. And Rory told us that I barely have an interest in growing something. So barely, look, I have no interest or very little interest in growing something. You said growing a house plant. No, so pretty much like a plant or vegetables. Well, this is just to say what would be even less work, really. I don't have an interest in growing a house plant and then let alone the other things as well. So compared to growing fruit and vegetables, I think a house plant is quite easy to grow, but you have to put in much

more effort to grow a cucumber or a tomato. So I wouldn't put in any effort for that either. And I said let alone, which is highlighting the fact that these things are much more difficult. We can also say cultivate. Caltivate a cucumber, cultivate a tomato or a tomato plant, right? Cultivate or grow. Like, when you cultivate, you take care of it, you grow it. You can say that I don't have patience for that. I don't have enough patience for growing vegetables. Usually people grow plants, vegetables on the outskirts or in the suburbs, so it on the outskirts, but in the suburbs. More than the city, but outside the city where we have beautiful fields and people have special I know vegetable gardens, special spots where vegetables grow, and you can say,

Like, people usually have plots of land or allotments. Allotments, it's just land? Well, it's an area of land used for something. It's usually something small and personal. Growing vegetables is not really popular in Scotland, in the Middle East country for some reason. So, no, but you said, like, I'm not sure. I know. I don't know either. I said it might be less common.

Oh, but I used a modal verb. That's nice. Yeah, maybe. Maybe it's common, but today it's less common than before. People just go to the supermarket. And Rory has no idea. I have no idea. It's okay to say that.

I think that's something important to highlight for any kind of topic. If you don't know, you can just say, I have no idea. And then speculate. But maybe, or it might be the case that. People derive pleasure from something. You can say, I derive pleasure from growing fruits. I derive pleasure from growing cucumbers, potatoes, and people in my country derive pleasure from growing vegetables, different... What do you call this, lettuce, herbs?

Plants? Plants, like different green stuff, that's, you know, spices like rosemary. Well, I think rosemary is a herb and things like lettuce. like a leafy plant, a leafy vegetable. I don't see the harm in it. Should schools teach students or should students be taught something? And you say, yes, why not? I don't see the harm in it.

There's no harm in it. So I don't see any bad things in this. And children can learn about growth, how things grow, and maths, because they will calculate how much water plants need. I suppose so. This is just when I was a primary school teacher. That's the kind of thing I would consider when I was teaching this kind of subject. You can say that for me, growing vegetables would be a nightmare.

Like a total nightmare, it's of my thing. I'm a plant murderer. I kill everything. So let alone vegetables. Or dear listener, maybe. you are very good at growing stuff. So then you say, I have green fingers, which means I'm very good at growing things. I enjoy growing this and that. I enjoy cultivating this and that. But you should give specific names. So if it's lettuce, rosemary, different herbs,

but please make sure you name at least three different types of vegetables, like an aubergines. No, say something like interesting, not just potatoes, okay? What's the interesting vegetables do you have? Oh my God, what do you mean interesting vegetables? What makes a vegetable interesting? Like less common. Or broccoli, obergen is less common, okay? Or maybe like Brussels Brussels sprouts.

Who is growing obergines? I don't know, nobody. That's why you're going to be interesting. Reddish, there we go, pumpkin. Pumpkin dillies, and you can grow popcorn, corn, okay, cabbage, celery, sweet potato. So, just, I mean, pick something interesting. Spinach. A spinach of vegetable? I thought it was a herb. Yeah, but it's okay to say, well, herbs, vegetables.

You can say growing vegetables is difficult. You might assume that it's just soil, seeds and water, but it's way, more complex. Soil is ground is what a plant lives in. So I don't have the willpower. The willpower means... Well, their motivation. Or I do have a lot of willpower and I'm very good at growing anything. So there are people who are just good at growing. Oh, willpower is C2? Hmm. Bad night is it? Yeah, it is. I know. The ability to control your own thoughts and the way in which you behave. So it's when you control your thoughts and also behavior. Like, it took a lot of willpower to stay calm. Or I don't have the willpower to keep to a diet

when they tell you don't drink Coca-Cola, but you continue drinking Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola, if you want to sponsor this podcast, feel free to contact us, okay, on our website. But McDonald's also, if you want to join in, you know. So willpower, right? So I don't have the willpower to grow anything. Or I have a lot of willpower so I can manage. Now, we focused a lot on the vocabulary there, but shall we go back to Maria's predictions? So Maria said I would not talk about bananas.

I would talk about berries and I would talk about herbs. So, let's see, I didn't talk about bananas. That's right, because why would I grow something that I don't like eating? Well done Maria. However, any mention of any berries? No, nothing, Rory. You gave just boring answers. Nothing.

Is a tomato a berry? According to botany, yes. According to botany, yes, it's a berry. But according to, like, usual people, it's a vegetable. But I didn't talk about herbs. So, two out of three for Maria. Nicely done. What about you, dear listener?

How accurate were your predictions? Did you hear any of these things? And if you didn't this time? Don't worry. We'll try this in the future as well. But for now, Maria, shall we say goodbye? Right. Thank you very much for listening and we'll get back to you in our new episode. Bye-boo-boo. Bye. Are you interested in growing vegetables and fruits? Not overly. I barely have an interest in cooking or growing a house plant for that matter,

let alone doing anything like, I don't know, cultivating a. cucumber or a tomato plant. I just don't have the time or the patience for that. Do many people grow vegetables in your city? I imagine so. There are lots of plots of land and allotments on the outskirts and in the suburbs, so they must be growing something there. Is growing vegetables popular in your country? I'm not sure. Well, it might be less common than before since people usually just go to the supermarket. But when it comes to how popular it is, I have no idea. I'm not sure it's something that you can derive that much pleasure from.

So I'd say no, but that could just be my own bias talking there. Should schools teach students how to grow vegetables? I don't see the harm in it. It might be a nice way to bring together different concepts and subjects like biology for learning about growth and maths for calculating how much water. they need, for example. Mind how much soil. Do you think it's easy to grow vegetables?

For me personally? No, it would be a nightmare. I know nothing about it, and it would be such a waste of money to attempt it now. I used to think it was all just soil and seeds and water, but it's way more complex than that, and I just don't have the willpower. Other people might be fine, though.

Thank you.