IELTS Speaking for Success - 🎧 Headphones (Part 1) + Transcript

Episode Date: September 21, 2026

Get access to our premium episode archive: https://successwithielts.com ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Rory explains why chunky devices just get in the way, but Maria reveals a C1 word that describes the opposite. Is everything really portable these days? Listen in for key phrasal verbs and collocations! 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, lovely. I'm Maria. And I am Scottish Mafia Kingpin, Rory Fergus Duncan. And we are the hosts 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've started this podcast to give you super grammar and fabulous vocabulary for your high IEL school. Your band night's score.

Rory, what are you today? I'm a Scottish Mafia Kingpin. A kingpin is like the head of the mafia. Do you listen, our Rory is Joe King. So he's like, yeah, he is from Scotland. He's Scottish. But every episode he makes up something ridiculous about himself. Today he's a mafia king.

Pin. King, like king and pin, king, king. Why can't you say something, you know, normal? Like, okay, I'm a mafioso or I. I don't know. Why should you say kingpin? Because mafia kingpin is a collocation. It is, yeah. It is a good collocation, dear listener. Yeah, the most important person in a particular organization.

It's a great collocation for AIL speaking. Yeah, like he's the kingpin of a criminal gang. Right, okay, but we're not discussing kings, nor are we discussing mafia. No. We're discussing. Headphones, the listener, yes, headphones is a random topic for today. Headphones. We talked about headphones, so please Google IELTS.

Speaking for success, headphones, and listen to our previous episode about headphones. Do you use headphones? I actually can't remember the last time I used headphones. I usually stick to earbuds these days. When would you use headphones? Maybe if I was in a recording studio or something like that, but I wouldn't buy my own set. They're a bit, well, chunky and clunky, and they get in the way.

Not only that, but they're also not very portable as well. What type of headphones do you usually use? Just Bluetooth earbuds, really. Like I said, they're easy to carry around and they're compatible with my phone and my laptop so I can use them when I'm working or when I listen to music at the gym. Oh, they also have noise cancelling or a noise cancelling option to block out sound, which is handy when I want to work or ignore people. In what situations would you not use headphones? Probably not when I'm with people. It's a bit rude when you're trying to spend time together and someone puts their headphones on or their earbuds in, isn't it? Apart from that, maybe if I'm meant to be working, I find it difficult to listen to music.

when I'm working. I don't know how other people can be good at that, but I've never got the hang of it. 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. headphones and when you think about headphones what is it headphones

earbuds what's the difference well earbuds are smaller and they go in your ear and headphones are larger and they cover your ears and usually they have something that goes over the top of your head it's not a strap but it's something like that yeah so you can say like oh i usually use earbuds ear buds. I usually use

headphones or I use headphones and earbuds. Wireless earbuds, obviously. So there are no wires. They just like these little thing is in a house. How is this is boxy? Yeah, or just buds.

Earbuds. Or your AirPods if you're an Apple user, I suppose. And you listen to noise cancelling. Headphones are popular. these days. Because we don't want to listen to people. Yeah, the latest generation headphones are noise-canceling headphones, so they cancel all the noise.

But do they cancel really like all the noise? Well, I mean, if a car was coming towards you, then you would probably hear it, but for the most part, you wouldn't hear lots of distractions. Especially if you have them on all the time because you like them. And if you have them, if you do something all the time because you like it, then you stick to them. So for me, I stick to earbuds,

because I like them. I stick to headphones. I stick to noise-canceling headphones. I stick to earbuds. I stick to wireless earbuds. My own set. Set a set of headphones. Or a pair of earbuds.

Headphones are a bit clunky. Or chunky. Clunky. Like they're big. You know, earbuds are small. So you can put them anywhere. but if something is clunky, it's negative, heavy, maybe ugly, old-fashioned. So, yeah, like a clunky ring, like a huge heavy ring, for example.

Some headphones are quite clunky. But earbuds are more portable. Well, some headphones might be portable. Might be. I don't know. Maybe for you. So you can say that I prefer something more portable, something smaller. so I can easily carry it with me

a portable computer, like a small computer. And this is C1, the listener. Really? Yeah, portable, I know, Band-Aid. How is portable is C-1 word? That's crazy. I don't know, because it's like a rare word to use. It's not a rare word.

Everything is portable these days. Yeah, but students normally don't use this word portable. They say small. It's small. Really? Yes. Very few people say portable. Portable, yeah. A portable computer, a portable phone, and I don't know, an e-reader could be portable.

What if you don't have a phone that's not portable? Yeah. Yeah, like maybe like 25 years ago. So earbuds are easy to carry around. This is the phrase of verb, carry around. and I hate carrying around headphones because they are clunky. They're huge and I keep losing them. Earphones, earbuds should be compatible with your phone.

Listen, this is a specific word, which means something is connected to something else. Usually we use it about technology. So it works well with something else. Compatible. Compatible with. Able to be used with a particular device. a machine, computer. So this software may not be compatible with other systems.

It might be incompatible. Incompatible, yeah? Yeah. This printer isn't compatible with my computer. So I can't connect this printer to my computer. They don't work well together, you see? So I usually now listen to music wearing headphones. I like the noise canceling option.

So noise cancelling option blocks out sound. Phrase of a verb, block out sound, which is very useful. So this is useful or handy? It's handy, it's useful. And you use which, blah, blah, blah, which is handy. And I use noise cancelling headphones to ignore people. People put their headphones on. People put their earbuds on.

No, they don't. their earbuds in? In? Oh, so wait, wait, wait. So they put headphones on, but they put earbuds in. In the ears, because they're inside. So I hate it when people put their headphones on and can't hear anything. Or I hate it when people put in their earbuds and can't hear anything.

Then the listener, you can mention some brands like Apple headphones, Sony headphones, like AirPods, pro. I'm using nothing buds, I think. They're from a company called nothing phone. I'm using Samsung. How do you say Samsung? Samsung? Samsung, yeah. If we talk about situations where we don't use our earphones,

we might want to explain why. So I said, I find it hard to listen. That just means it's difficult for me. If you find something hard to do, then it's difficult for you to do. You can also say that earbuds sit comfortably inside my ears. And that's all. That's all, yeah. You can say, like, I prefer headphones because they sit comfortably on my ears.

But, you know, there is a trend that today people avoid using wireless headphones and they prefer, you know, like old-fashioned headphones. like with wires. Like what do you call them? Oh my God. What do you call them? I just call them earphones. Oh, yeah.

Okay. Like wired earbuds or earphones with with the wires. They have wires, right? So we just don't have, today usually we have just two things like earbuds without any connection to the computer, physical connection. But sometimes they are unreliable because you lose the connection, Bluetooth doesn't work

and then like your battery is low so they just die on you and some people if they have negotiations some important meetings they prefer to use wired earbuds with wires

and if you go to Amazon and you Google eBads they will have this name wired ebuds nice with wires A little bit of a nostalgia trip. Right.

Thank you very much for listening. We'll get back to you in our next episode, which you can listen to while you have your earbuds in or your headphones on. Bye. Do you use headphones? I actually can't remember the last time I used headphones. I usually stick to earbuds these days. When would you use headphones? Maybe if I was in a recording studio or something like that, but I wouldn't buy my...

my own set. They're a bit, well, chunky and clunky, and they get in the way. Not only that, but they're also not very portable as well. What type of headphones do you usually use? Just Bluetooth earbuds, really. Like I said, they're easy to carry around, and they're compatible with my phone and my laptop, so I can use them for when I'm working or when I listen to music at the gym. Oh, they also have noise cancelling or a noise cancelling option to block out sound, which is handy when I want to work or ignore people. In what situations would you not use headphones? Probably not when I'm with people.

It's a bit rude when you're trying to spend time together and someone puts their headphones on or their earbuds in, isn't it? Apart from that, maybe if I'm meant to be working, I find it difficult to listen to music when I'm working. I don't know how other people can be good at that, but I've never got the hang of it. Thank you. You know.