IELTS Speaking for Success - 📜 History (Part 1 ) + Transcript

Episode Date: May 12, 2025

Get access to our episode archive: https://www.patreon.com/ieltssfs Do you like history? Did you like history when you were young? When was the last time you read about history? Have you ever been to historical museums? 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/s12e06 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

When you fly in Emirates business class and you're picked up by your private, luxury, chauffeur-driven car, you'll see that your vacation isn't really over until your flight is over. Fly Emirates, fly better. Hello, lovely. I'm Maria. And my name is Rory. I'm the hosts of the IELT Speaking for 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 vocabulary.

For your high-eyed school. You're a bad nine score. Nine score. Oh, Rory, what's that book behind you? What is it? Oh, it's a history book. I just finished reading it. History?

Are you reading history? I am. Shall we talk about history? Oh my God, let's talk about history. It's another coincidence. History, you'll listen. Yes, they can ask you questions about history. Let's talk about history.

Do you like history? Yeah, I love it. To the extent I actually studied it at university and a lot of the books I read for pleasure now are historical accounts. I'm not sure why I like it so much, though. It's just something that clicked with me when I was at school. Did you like history when you were young? Yeah, absolutely.

History was one of my favorite classes, and I absolutely excelled at it when we wrote essays on it, regardless of the historical topic. Except for the history of agriculture, I have absolutely no idea why we had to learn about that, or at least learn about it in such an off-puting manner. It lacked any energy whatsoever. When was the last time you read about history? Well, that would be the last time I picked up the book I'm reading now.

It's a kind of almost revisionist history of the world and how indigenous Americans contributed to enlightenment thinking and subsequent modes of thought in the West. Have you ever been to historical museums? Not recently, but I have been to quite a few, like the McMannas galleries in Dundee, which has a historical art collection, and the Natural History Museum in Oxford.

It also has this massive collection of artwork and cultural artefacts that were produced by native people from across the world. And they're of great interests to me on a personal and professional level, since I like learning about them, but I also have to teach students about culture at times. 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, de listener, history. Yeah, we study history at school. Usually you study the history of your country, the history of other countries, but as a subject, it's just like, I love, history. I hate history. I can't stand history. Like, I really dislike it, right? Or you're like,

yeah, I love it. Or I don't. It's not my thing. Like, oh, no, history is not for me. So you can say, it's not my thing. History is exciting. You can say that I actually studied history at university or I loved it at school. I read a lot of books on history. And when a book is about history, it a historical book. I think a historical book refers more to how old the book is, whereas a history book is on the subject of history. We can also call it a historical account. Yeah. So we just say books on history. And you can say that history clicked with me when I was at school. That just means it was like a natural connection. Clicked with me. It's informal. You can say that I didn't really click with my boss.

So, like, I didn't like my boss the first time we met. I studied history when I was at school, when I was at primary school, secondary school, high school. Actually, we study history all the time at school. Yeah, we are living in history. It was one of my favorite classes or it was one of my least favorite classes. Like, I absolutely hated history, all the dates to remember. all the names, geographical names, ooh la la. An important thing to point out now is the grammar here.

It's not one of my favorite class, it's always one of my favorite classes. Remember the plural even though it's one of. I always had bad marks at history or I excelled at this subject. So I got excellent marks. Is it a band nine collocation? Oh, let's check Excel at. So be excellent at something. Let's check what Cambridge Online Dictionary says C2, absolutely.

But, yay! Cambridge Online Dictionary says it's Excel in. Oh, okay. I think you could Excel at something as well. Hi there. Chat GPT here. The correct phrase is Excel at. For example, she excels at mathematics. He excels at public speaking.

However, Excel in can also be used, but it's typically followed by a field or area rather than a specific skill. For example, she excels in the field of neuroscience. He excels in sports. So use Excel at for specific activities or skills and Excel in for broader areas or disciplines. It's like succeed in or succeed at. All right, okay. And then you can say, like, I particularly enjoyed the history of... Oh, God, it could be the history of anything.

It could be military history. I already talked about agricultural history. It could also be the history of something, the history of World War II, for example, or political history. Or, for example, ancient history, early modern history, or just modern history than Chinese. history, Japanese history, African history. If history is taught in an off-putting manner. It means you don't want to talk about it because it's not interesting or exciting.

If you don't like, if you didn't like the teacher, the classes were boring, so you can say that history was taught in an off-putting manner. Unplained. Unplaced. Boring. Not engaging. Boring, yeah, dull. So I didn't like history school because it was taught in an off-puting manner or it was off-puting. Like, no, like, unpleasant. Actually, see, too.

Oh, nice. Nice. Ben nine off-puting. For example, people could be off-putting. Oh, like, he's off-puting. He's unpleasant. or he worries all the time. Or like, I didn't agree to take this job because the salary was off-puting.

Or you can say just like, I didn't like history because of the teacher. The teacher was dull. History is boring. To paraphrase the examiner's question, you can say I picked up a book on history. So the last time I picked up a book on history was last year or at school or at university. And the book was about indigenous Americans, dear listener, or indigenous tribes in New Zealand. This is what you should say. Or you can say, oh, actually, I'm reading a book on history now.

I learn a lot of interesting things about indigenous people in Mexico. All right, dear listener, indigenous refers to people who originally lived in this place. So like local people, local tribes, indigenous people of this land. Or you can say the indigenous population. And usually kind of New Zealand, Mexico, Scotland, Rory. Do you have any indigenous tribes? I don't think, well, you could argue that Scottish people are the indigenous people of this country.

Actually, yeah, Scots. Scarpland Freedom. And then you can say, I've recently read a book on the Enlightenment, this period of history. Period of history when everyone turned the lights on, metaphorically speaking. Careful with the pronunciation, we say enlightenment. Yes, enlightenment. If we enlighten, we inform, we illuminate. And people became more informed, allegedly, in this period of. of history, other opinions are available.

The late 17th century to the early 19th century. So either talk about indigenous tribes in Mexico or enlightenment. Or both like me. Thank you very much to my good friend, Elena, for her book that I'm currently reading. That will be very useful for talking about this kind of topic. And it has been very useful as well. We can go to historical museums. Can I say history museum?

I don't see why not. I don't know what other kinds of museum there are. Yeah, different websites say like history museums. Like 12 history museums you should visit at least once. What's number one? What do you think? Is it going to be the Natural History Museum in London? No. Athens, Rory, Greece. Equipolis Museum. Super ancient. The Acropolis Museum. I hear de listeners, museums coming with articles. So the Acropolis Museum in Athens, the second one on this website.

The British Museum. Hagia Sophia Museum in Istanbul, Turkey, the Cathedral Museum. I think I've messed up the pronunciation. Agia Sophia, the Agia or Hagia. I say Hagia Sophia, but I don't know. Some people say Hagia as well. I've heard it said in different ways, if there are any people from Turkey, then please enlighten us.

A lovely place. And then the Army Museum in Paris. So it's like there, you see. And these kinds of museums, dear listeners, so the Asian Civilizations Museum in Singapore, for example. So Asian civilizations. And in China, it's the Museum of Terracotta Warriors. Oh, they're made of...

Oh, is it sound? I thought they were made of pottery, but I don't know much about them. Waris and horses and there's this astonishing army of sculptures. And then the Egyptian Museum in Egypt, obviously. So you can choose one of the museums, learn a fancy name, and say that yes. Rory, nothing about, you know, London, Scotland, nothing. Well, the McMannas Galleries is in Scotland and the Natural History Museum is not just in Oxford. Sorry, it's not just in London, it's also in Oxford.

And you should use the present perfect. So I've been to, I've never been to any museums, any historical places, or I've seen a nice art collection at the Natural History Museum in London, in New York. And you can talk about a massive collection of artwork, like a huge collection of art, different artifacts, so different items. So when you go to a museum, you see different exhibits, items, things, or artifacts. That's just things or items. Sweet.

And we're going to wrap it up with a joke, dear listener. But Rory, you need to teach one word for our listener to understand the joke. Okay? So, Roy, tell me. But don't tell the joke, okay? Okay, fine. So, snakes, you know, we have animals, we have birds, we have snakes, you know, snakes. I am familiar.

What sound do snakes make? They hiss. Yeah. Cats, meow. Cows moo, but snakes make this hissing sound. So the joke, dear listener. What's a snake's favorite subject in school? History.

Thank you for listening to the episode. I will be in a dark room somewhere if anyone needs me. A snake has their favorite subject and it's history. You can stop anytime. Bye. Do you like history? Yeah, I love it. To the extent I actually studied it,

university and a lot of the books I read for pleasure now are historical accounts. I'm not sure why I like it so much, though. It's just something that clicked with me when I was at school. Did you like history when you were young? Yeah, absolutely. History was one of my favorite classes, and I absolutely excelled at it when we wrote essays on it, regardless of the historical topic. Except for the history of agriculture, I have absolutely no idea why we had to learn about that, or at least learn about it in such an off-putting. manner, it lacked any energy whatsoever. When was the last time you read about history? Well, that would be the last time I picked up the book I'm reading now.

It's a kind of almost revisionist history of the world and how indigenous Americans contributed to enlightenment thinking and subsequent modes of thought in the West. Have you ever been to historical museums? Not recently, but I have been to quite a few, like the McMannas galleries and Dundee, which has a historical art collection, and the Natural History Museum in Oxford. It also has this massive collection of artwork and cultural artifacts that were produced by native people from across the world. And they're of great interest to me on a personal and professional level, since I like learning about them. But I also have to teach students

about culture at times.