IELTS Speaking for Success - 🧹 Housework (Part 1 ) + Transcript

Episode Date: April 28, 2025

Get access to our episode archive: https://www.patreon.com/ieltssfs Is your home clean? Do you like housework? What housework do you dislike? How often do you do housework? Will you do more housework in the future? 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/s12e04 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're the host of the IEL Speaking for Success podcast. The podcast that aims to help you improve your speaking skills, as well as your listening skills along the way. But not your coincidence skills, because there are no coincidences in this episode. Kill Joy. Sorry, I forgot to write one. It's about housework.

How can we make housework funny? Well, but come on. Like, no. Even Maria is struggling. Shall we talk about housework? Dear listener, yeah, this episode with housework, yeah, it's strange and some questions are quite bizarre. Is your home clean? Who says no to that?

Oh my God. No, my home is dirty. It's so dirty, you can't even imagine. No, my home is absolutely filthy. Do you like housework? I love it. housework wow my favorite thing on earth yeah you might like housework but well not every day not I don't know too much or like maybe there are people what do you call people who love cleaning everything all the time crazy people people with obsessive compulsive disorder yeah actually that's a that's a fairly broad generalization maybe there are people who like to clean things that

are not suffering from a mental illness. Let's talk about housework deal with snowy. So, Rory, is your home clean? Um, isn't everyone's? Um, yeah, I do some dusting and clean the dishes fairly regularly. Uh, though for bigger cleaning jobs, I usually hire a cleaner to get the place in the good condition before I have company you've earned or something like that. Do you like housework?

I like it when it's done. I'm not a great fan of the actual process of it. eats into time I could be spending on something else, like reading, or just relaxing. What housework do you dislike? I'm not a huge fan of cleaning the kitchen or the bathroom, really. The moment you're done, people are using those rooms and making the messy again, so it seems rather pointless. Of course, a home isn't always in the perfect state of homeostasis, so that's not true, but it definitely feels like a waste of time, at least from time to time. How often do you do housework?

It depends on the job we're talking about, I suppose. If it's a whole house clean, then that happens every few months or so. But I do things like sweep the floors every week and doing the dishes is a daily task. Will you do more housework in the future? Oh, God, I hope not. I'm not a big fan of it now and I hardly do anything. Could you imagine what I'd be like if I had more to do? ideally I'll have a few robots or machines to take care of all but the most finicky tasks which they can't do and that will be 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 So do you listener housework or what's a website? the synonym for housework? Chores? Domestic chores. Chores, yes. Or household chores. Ooh, fancy. And Roy, what verb do we usually use? Do we do, make, chores? We do the chores. Yeah, do household chores. Or housework, do housework. Okay, so do housework, do household chores. Is your home clean?

You can say yes, it's quite tidy. That's none of your business. So like, the examna looks at you like, you know, like, um, is your home clean? They look you up and down and they're like, is your home clean? I see how dirty you are. I wonder what your floors are like. So you can say yes, it's quite tidy. Tidy, like clean. It's quite clean. It's quite tidy. Sometimes it's a bit messy.

You can say messy. I have a messy flat. I do some dusting, and then you kind of say what chores you do. Do some dusting. Dust is this thingy that is everywhere in your house, two minutes after you've cleaned everything, you have dust already. And clean the dishes, for example. If I have bigger cleaning jobs, I usually hire a cleaner.

So what do we call people? who clean our flats? Cleaners? Domestic servants. I have a cleaner. I would not call Angela my domestic servant. That's crazy. Yeah, or you can say that I have my house cleaned, which means that you don't clean it, you hire some people.

And like I pay to get my house cleaned. Then you can say that I do the laundry, when you wash your clothes, I do the laundry. the laundry. I enjoy vacuum cleaning, like hoovering when you hover, and all this, you know, all the dirt is sucked into the sky. That's the sound to Hoover makes. Why is the hoover crossed or the cow? Have you just totally lost it? Yeah. Okay. Now that we've established that. Maybe you do the gardening and it could be considered as a household chore. You clean the floors, you do the dishes.

You can say, I like housework. I hate housework. I can't stand housework. I absolutely hate it. I'm not a great fan of housework. Well, like, I'm not a fan of it. That's a nice phrase. Please don't say I like.

If the examiner asks you, do you like? Well, yes I do. Or I'm not a great fan. Or I hate it. I can't stand it. I'm not into it. It's not my thing. Talking of not being a fan of things, how many permutations of fan did I use in my answers?

Yeah. I use different ones. I said, not a great fan, not a huge fan, not a big fan. I do not recommend doing this for your answers. It's just showing what can be done. Yeah. Yeah. And to show you what phrases we can use with fan.

It eats into time. Housework eats into time. It takes a lot of time. Yeah, and if you live in a large flat or a house, it takes so much time to clean up, especially after a big party. And you can say that it eats into time I could be spending on studying, working, relaxing.

I'm not a huge fan of cleaning the kitchen. Ooh, I'm not a huge fan of cleaning the bathroom. Like, oh, what else do people do when they do housework? They might mop the floors. I don't do that. That's the cleaner's job. Yeah, but usually it's kind of like clean the bathroom. I ironing.

There you go. You iron your clothes. I don't iron my clothes. Yeah. Oh, I hate that. Ooh. Some people iron bed sheets. The bedding.

What? Yeah, but it's nice when all, you know, your sheet and everything is ironed, but all it takes so much time. You need to hire a special person. Snap-up Ancestry DNA's lowest price ever in our incredible cyber sale. With 50% off Ancestry DNA kits, it's the perfect time to help a loved one unwrap the past. And with their latest update, they out-discover their family origins like never before, with even more precise regions and new and...

exclusive features. Their best gift, our lowest price. 50% off Ancestry DNA, only until December 2nd. Visit Ancestry.ca for more details. Terms apply. Yeah, then kind of you wash the dishes. If you don't have a dishwasher, I dislike doing the dishes. I dislike going shopping, for example, for food. I don't know, dear listener. Oh, when I take out my rubbish, what do you call it? I hate taking out my rubbish. Taking out the rubbish, that's it. Throwing the trash out. Yeah, throw the trash out. So cleaning, vacuuming, mopping, gardening, the listener. So that's the main ones, you know, like nothing too fancy, doing the dusting.

Cleaning toilets. How much effort does cleaning a toilet really take, though? You just put some bleach down there. Depends how dirty the toilet is and whose toilet it is. It is. Look at us talking about dirty toilets as if any of this is going in the episode. Oh no, you can't discuss dirty toilets? No. Nope. So, what housework do you dislike?

You know, I really dislike cleaning dirty toilets, especially not in my house. I hate all of it. The worst thing about housework is that the moment you're done, it's dirty again. It's all messy. Again, like five minutes and that's it. This hair everywhere, fur, you know, water, dust. It's, well, oh my God, what's going on? I've just cleaned everything and it's dirty. Oh, yeah.

Roy, you've said a strange word. Homeostasis is like a disease? No, homeostasis is like a state of equilibrium. Everything is in balance. Really? Yes. So if your house is in homeostasis it means that it's always in a good condition

It's always in a balanced condition But I pointed out that's not true I just said Doing these things seems pointless But a house is not always Unoccupied and in balance So it's not really a waste of time It just feels like a waste of time

There's a difference between feelings and reality Perhaps someone could talk to the president to the United States about that When the examiner asks you how often, so you should say like, rarely, usually, hardly ever, once a week, twice a week, or not often, I sweep the floors every week. But doing the dishes is a daily task. Oh, Rory, so you don't have a dishwasher? You do the dishes yourself? Yeah, but I only, I like, use one dish a day, so it's hardly a big deal.

So you don't cook? No. Well, I do cook in the evening. That's when I need the plate. Yeah, but to do the cooking, you need supports and pans. No, don't tell me you're using a microwave. No, you don't. You just fling the steak on the grill and then grill it for about 10 minutes. Put it on the plate, clean the grill, eat from the plate, and then clean the plate. Easy. Okay. So you don't cook the veggies, potatoes, no? Just the steak? No, just the stick.

Interesting. Or for example, sweeping the floors is a daily task. I do the dusting daily, like every day. Oof. I'm not a big fan of doing housework. So in the future, I'll have a few robots, like all machines, to take care of my housework. What do you call this robots who cleans the floor?

Hoover, robots? Robot Hoover. Some people call them Roombos, but that's a specific brand of robot Hoover. And we are not being paid to advertise. Yeah, like, robot vacuum cleaner. Robotic, or you can say robotic vacuum cleaners. Or robotic vacuums. So you can say like, oh, I'm, if I had more money, I'd buy a robotic vacuum cleaner.

And robots or machines can take care of it. and I can spend this time on studying and now are we ready for housework jokes oh will we ever be ready for housework jokes no no no we need some pre-teaching so some like Roy tell me

if I want to clean my floors what equipment do I usually use in my hands that goes like oh the mop the mop or another one a mop is usually wet but if I love how you're talking to me about these things as if I have a clue what any of them are.

Oh my God. A broom. A broom. Oh, okay. I need a broom. Like a witch. Yeah, a witch, exactly. A witch has a broom. Like a broom, a brush with a long handle. So you kind of like sweep the floor.

And if I sweep the floor, what do I do? Foh. I don't know. My God. I sweep the floor. I clean. the floor by using a brush to collect the dirt. Okay.

But sweep is a specific verb, dear listener. So you clean the floor, but with a broom, you sweep the floor, all right? So, the joke. Why was the broom late? I was the broom late. It overswept. It overswept. Thank you, everyone for joining this wonderful episode on us.

When you get up late, then usually you oversleep. And you can say, why was the broom late? It overswept. And then we all died of crudy. I have another one. No, I'm so, I know you do, but we don't have the time. Have a nice day, everyone. Bye.

Thank you very much for listening. Craig jokes. Oh my God. Goodbye. So, Rory, is your home clean? Um, isn't everyone's? Um, yeah, I do some dusting and clean the dishes fairly regularly. Uh, though for bigger cleaning jobs, I usually hire a cleaner to get the place in the good

condition before I have company you burned or something like that. Do you like housework? I like it when it's done. I'm not a great fan of the actual process of it. It eats into time I could be spending on something else, like reading or just relaxing. What housework do you dislike? I'm not a huge fan of cleaning the kids. kitchen or the bathroom, really. The moment you're done, people are using those rooms and making

the messy again, so it seems rather pointless. Of course, a home isn't always in a perfect state of homeostasis, so that's not true, but it definitely feels like a waste of time, at least from time to time. How often do you do housework? It depends on the job we're talking about, I suppose. If it's a whole house clean, then that happens every few months or so, but I do things like sweep the floors every week and doing the dishes is a daily task. Will you do more housework in the future? Oh, God, I hope not. I'm not a big fan of it now and I hardly do anything.

Could you imagine what I'd be like if I had more to do? Ideally, I'll have a few robots or machines to take care of all but the most finicky tasks, which they can't do, and that will be it.