IELTS Speaking for Success - 🎩 Hats (Part 1) + Transcript

Episode Date: February 10, 2025

Get access to our episode archive: https://www.patreon.com/ieltssfs Do you like to wear hats? What kind of hats do you like? Are hats popular in your country? Why do people wear hats/caps? Where do you like to buy hats? 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/s11e23 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. I'm the host of the AILT Speaking for Success podcast. The podcast that 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 vocabulary for your high AILT score. Your band nine score. Oh, Maria, I love that hat. Yes, it's cool, isn't it, huh? And today it's our topic. Let's talk about hats.

Finally, hats. Why finally? Have we never done hats before? You know, I was trying to find the episode about hats and I didn't find one. Oh wow, okay. And you know what? At university, they called me a hat lady or a hat girl. Why? Because I just, I wore ten different hats. Like every day I would have a different.

from hat. I was like, like, stylish and super hat. So, all these like hats. So yes, dear listener. If heads are not your thing, well, it should be, because hats are cool. Hats are style. Rory, how many hats do you have? Off the top of my head, I think I have three. I used to have four, but one of them has gone missing. Ooh. Okay. Okay, well done you. Let's talk about hats. Do you like to wear hats? Sometimes if it's freezing or maybe there's an event that has a particular theme or something, but they're not things I would do or wear regularly. What kind of hats do you like?

I have a few baseball caps and I used to have a beanie that I bought a while back, but I've lost it, which is a real shame since it had a lot of sentimental value. Are heads popular in your car? I suppose so, especially in the winter when it's really cold and you need to keep warm. And of course you lose a lot of heat through having exposed heads, so by covering your head, you prevent that from happening. Why do people wear heads or caps? Well, when it's a bit chilly, like I said, and sometimes it can be a fun fashion statement.

Aside from that, I'm not really sure, though I'm sure there are plenty of other reasons. Where do you like to buy hats? I've never gone out of my way to shop at a specific place, just be told, but I liked where I got my beanie in Paris. I think that was just because it was Paris, though. I've never been to a special hat shop or anything like that. 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 listener, hats. Okay, first of all, how do we say this? Hats. Hats. Hats. Hates. Hats. Yes, so this is soft, h, hats. And the sound is like, like, bad.

Like, rat. Hat. hats. I can't you listen? We wear hats. What else do we do with hats? We buy them. We keep them.

I'm trying to think of what else. We display them, perhaps, if they're, like, if they look good. Yeah, dear listener, and if you don't like hats, if you have only one cap, you should say that, yes, I like hats, and then lie, and use all this lovely vocabulary. Because if you say, like, well, I don't have any hats,

I hate hats. Well, like, what will you talk about? The examiner needs vocabulary from you and fluency and English. So here, imagine that you love hats. You're a hat maniac. Like, oh, heads, give me hats. If you're not a hat maniac, then we'll talk about alternative things that you can do. But it would be good to be interested in hats,

or at least look at what you might call some of your hats. So Rory chose a boring approach. So when it's cold, I wear a hat. I didn't say when it's cold though. I said when it's freezing. Ooh, freezing. It's very cold freezing. But hats are for style.

They're not for like, you know, to warm your head. That's not true. You can use them for practical purposes as well. That two purposes, yes. Practical and style. But I don't wear hats regularly. Okay. Oh, also, the third reason is protection from the sun.

Oh, really? Oh, well, I suppose, yeah. People wear, like, wide-brimmed hats for sun protection. So the brim of the hat is the part that sticks out from your head as opposed to the part that covers your head. Yeah, and sometimes we need to cover our face. So you need to have this, like, wide brims. Brims.

They surround the hat. So you can say that in summer I wear what hats? White, hat with wide brims? Yes. Or a sun hat, you could just say. No, no, no, no, deal with this word brim. Okay. A hat with wide brims. And here you can Google.

Just go to Google images and put down B-R-I-M, Brim's. So this is a part of a hat that sticks out. What kinds of hats? So there are different kinds of hats and you should remember maybe two or three types of hats. Not just a cap. I wear a cap. Well, it's boring and simple. Like, okay, Rory told us I have a few baseball caps, like regular caps that boys usually wear.

And a beanie. Roy, what's a beanie? Well, if a baseball cap is something that's tight fitting and has something sticking at the front of it, like in one direction, And a beanie is just something that is a bit looser, it's thicker material, and it sits over your head. It's usually used to keep your head warm, I think. Some people wear it as a fashion statement, though. Yeah, a very popular kind of hat. A beanie or a beanie hat.

Please Google it, you need to see a picture, okay, a beanie, B-E-A-N-I-E, a beanie hat or a beanie cap. A small hat. It fits closely to the head and sometimes it's made from wool. It can be warm or it could be just, you know, like a hat and you wear it as a fashion statement like, yeah, you're super hat, you know, and then you go inside and you keep the hat on inside. Like indoor glasses, your indoor hat. Okay. And your hat could have a lot of sentimental value. Rory, sentimental value, meaning. Just it brings up memories or reminds you of a particular time in your life. Maybe it's important for not the money that you can sell it for or the money that you paid for it, but it's important for how it fits into your life and what it reminds you of. Right, de Lisztain. You should also go to Google and Google types of hats,

and there you have some pictures of different heads types of types. and you should choose maybe like two, three words. For example, you can say that I usually wear a beret. Roy, what's a berry? I think it's tight around the sides of the head, but it's looser on top. Yeah, it's kind of like you go to France and this is like a stereotype. Like, ooh, you wear a beret. A beret is not just a French thing, though.

It's also something that you see people in the military wearing. Oh, that's true. That's true. B-E-R-E-T, but it's a French word so we don't pronounce T at the end, so the pronunciation is wild and crazy, Barry, your listener. Well, it's for men as well, why not? Is it? Oh, okay. Okay.

Then we can say like a floppy hat. I wear a floppy hat or a straw hat. This hat, which is made from straw. Maybe you have this derby hat. Even if you don't wear any hats, you just say, oh yeah, I have a derby hat. What's that? It's a hat with a narrow brim. Oh, okay, I didn't know that.

I've never felt the need to wear one before. You can also say that I wear beach hats. Okay. With wide brims, which are made from straw. You see so I sometimes wear berries and I have a boater hat. A boater hat, Roy. Have you ever... What's that? I've never heard of that either. But then I, like I say, I don't usually buy hats like probably most people. Kind of like a type of a summer hat, but you can wear it in autumn as well. Sometimes it's warm or sometimes it's not for style. Really nice. Boater hat.

bucket hats ladies are quite popular bucket like a bucket of water bucket hat I assume that's because it's shaped like a bucket yes heads are popular

especially in winter people usually wear woolly hats beanie hats to keep warm because you lose a lot of heat through having an exposed

head. So if I don't wear a hat, my head is exposed. It's not covered. So you should cover your head in winter and you should cover your head in summer to protect your head from the sun. So your head should not be exposed. Another synonym for cold is chili. So when it's like chili. It's cold or it's chilly, like a little bit cold. So I usually wear a hat when it's chilly. And I think that heads are a fun fashion statement. Well, they could be. But if it's a fashion statement, when you wear a hat, you kind of, you tell people, okay, look at me, I'm cool. I'm in the fashion, so it's style, you know, like sunglasses, like heads are. And, you know, and, you know, and, you're nice accessory. We buy hats at a special hat shop, right? Yes, it's called a millner. However,

most people don't know what that is. So if you just say a special hat shop, then you will be fine. Milna? A milliner, yeah. What? How do you spell it? Oh, God, good question. That's a hard one, isn't it? I'm pretty sure a Milner is the person, but a millinery is the name of a shop. Is the name of the shop, yeah. So, M-I-L-L-I-N-E-R-Y. Yeah, it's too difficult. So it's just like, hats.com deal with sen. That's mental. Why would anyone say that?

No, it's crazy. I don't buy it from a special hat shop. Yeah, like... I briefly thought about saying it, but I was just like, when is anyone going to need that word, really? You say, is there a hat shop nearby or a place I can buy a hat? Hat shop. Yeah.

Or just like a hat store. Or maybe you buy hats at the market. Like every weekend you have a market, you go there and you buy a hat. Or, for example, at an exhibition, like a fashion exhibition. All right. Or just at a local shop at a local store. Or online, dear listener. And Roy told us that I've never gone out of my way to shop for hats.

Which I'm pretty sure is an idiom. But either way, it's an expression that means to, make a special effort to do something. Because I do go out of my way to shop for hats. I search for interesting hat shops. I travel for a long time to get there. And I know some designers who design nice hats. I pay out of money for hats, you know.

So I search for hats. I go out of my way. Truth be told. That's a nice one. But that's just saying, to be honest. Yeah, if you want to say to be honest, in a band nine way, you say like, well, truth be told, I'm not a fan of hats. Truth be told, truth be told, I don't wear hats every day. Or, for example, truth be told, I'm addicted to hats.

Okay, oh, hats, hats, oh. So truth be told is an idiom, and we use it just like this, truth be told. I've never been to a special head shop. There you, dear listener. Or I've been to a special head shop thousands of times, or I go to a special head shop every week. I'd love to meet the person who is like this.

And now, dear listener, Rory's show. Yes, I have a quiz for you. So, let's go through my answers and I'll ask you some questions about the grammar or the vocabulary. Starting off with question number one, what's the word I used to describe very cold temperatures? It's freezing. It is, yeah.

Then with question number two, what's the phrase I use to comment on something being important, not because it costs a lot of money, but because it's got special personal or emotional connections. It has a lot of sentimental value. And then, when we were talking about if hats are popular, I used a special word to describe something which is uncovered and vulnerable

To be exposed or to have an exposed head. Yes. Then getting back to words to describe the cold. In the next question, I used another word to describe the cold, but it was not freezing. What was it? It's chilly. Perfect. And then the very last one was a special phrase that I used to say that I never make a special effort to do something,

or I have never made a special effort to do something. I've never gone out of my own. way to do something. Perfect. Well done, Maria. 100%. Good for you. Congratulations. And we should wrap it up with a joke. Come on. It's like a hat episode without a joke. What? No, no, no. And actually, I have two jokes, right? And I want you to grade the joke. So do you give it like band seven, band nine, zero, band one, according to IEL's, well, band scores? Okay, so maximum? Okay. It's ben nine.

Minimum it's zero. So if you don't go to the test, you just get zero. So, the first joke. What a strange day. First, I found a hat full of money. Then I was followed around by some guy with a guitar. Okay, that's quite good. Oh, it's a good one.

So, do you listener. So, you know, when you see musicians playing in the stage, So you see a guy with a guitar who is singing, who is playing, and then in front of him, usually there is a hat for money or there is something where people put money in. And usually it's a hat. Or like people go around and collecting money using a hat. So I found a hat full of money. So some guy was walking and just took the hat, but it was the musician's hat where he was collecting money. Ha, ha, ha.

So I was followed around by some guy with a guitar. So the musician was like, ah, wait, it's my hat. Just keep it back, put it down. So how would you assess this joke, Rory? Well, I don't think that's like a band seven or a band eight joke, because I always think the funniest jokes are based in real life, whereas that's obviously just a funny story,

but it's still funny, so that works. Okay. Well, Delysonai, now you can tell a joke about a hat. So you can say like, oh, like the examiner goes, like, do you like to wear hats? You know, truth be told, I don't wear hats, but I know a joke. And you just crack a joke. The examiner loves his head off and you bam, band nine, you know, because you're natural, you're funny, you made the examiner laugh. Ha ha ha ha. Thank you very much for listening. And we'll get back to you in our next episode.

Bye. Do you like to wear hats? Sometimes if it's freezing or maybe there's an event that has a particular theme or something, but they're not things I would do or wear regularly. What kind of hats do you like? I have a few baseball caps and I used to have a beanie that I bought a while back, but I've lost it, which is a real shame since it had a lot of sentimental value. Are heads popular in your country?

I suppose so, especially in the winter when it's really cold and you need to keep warm. And of course, you lose a lot of heat through having exposed heads. So by covering your head, you prevent that from happening. Why do people wear heads or caps? Well, when it's a bit chilly, like I said, and sometimes it can be a fun fashion statement. Aside from that, I'm not really sure. though I'm sure there are plenty of other reasons. Where do you like to buy hats?

I've never gone out of my way to shop at a specific place, just be told, but I liked where I got my beanie in Paris. I think that was just because it was Paris, though. I've never been to a special hat shop or anything like that.