IELTS Speaking for Success - 🏝️ Islands (S06E10)

Episode Date: September 6, 2021

Do you like islands? Are there any islands in your country? Do you want to live on an island? What would you like to do if you were on an island? Tune in and have a great day! - Get exclusive episodes on IELTS Speaking parts 1, 2, and 3: https://linktr.ee/sfspremium Transcript: https://successwithielts.com/s06e10 Find an IELTS Speaking Partner: https://links.successwithielts.com/ieltspartner Our social media: https://linktr.ee/successwithielts © 2021 Success with IELTS 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 IELT Speaking for Success podcast. The podcast is the name is to help you improve your speaking skills as well as your listening skills along the way. That is the first time I've said that in three months. Yay! Woo-hoo! We've started this podcast to give you gorgeous vocabulary and super-duper grammar for your English life and for your high. IELD score.

Is it a band nine score? A band nine score? Sure. way, Bad Night's God. Rory, where are we recording? Because we have a new thing. We are recording. On the internet, it's very modern. I know. I just like, no, it's not.

This is how we started. No, no, but we started face to face, right? Now we're recording. Well, yeah, but I'm assuming we were working for that dumpster fire. Then we moved online when the pandemic hit. Yeah. So, do you listen. Now Rory is in Scotland, recording from Scotland.

I'm in Moscow, recording from Moscow. This is how we marry Moscow and Scotland. Oh, by the way, if you're looking for more model answers and vocabulary for all three parts of the IOT speaking exam, check out our premium podcast, where this week we're talking about Rory. We are talking about a company where I live that employs a lot of people in part two, and in part three we're talking about big companies in general. Yuppie. But check out as a phrasal verb. Oh, oh, there's. opportunity to shill for our other course.

That's also online, our phrasal verbs course. www. www.success.com forward slash podcourses. Thank you, Rorya. That's so unique. It is. It's never been done. It's never been done in Scotland.

So what are we going to do in our first online recording, Scotland-Moscow recording? Which topic? We're going to have a coincidence. Let's go. Right. I'm dreaming about going. No, we need to say I'm looking very calm. which is totally the opposite of what I am right now.

Rory, you look so calm. Thank you. My home is an island of tranquility. Oh, an island of tranquility. I see. Shall we talk about islands then? Yes, that is the coincidence today. Is it not?

A marvelous coincidence on this podcast. We need a t-shirt saying, what are coincidence on this podcast again? Rory, do you like islands? Oh yeah, very much so. I love being near the sea and there's this sort of romantic notion of isolation and discovering a new world when you're on an island. You don't really get that if you're on the mainland, do you? Have you ever been to an island? Actually, I've lived on quite a few islands in my time. I worked on a small island which is like sort of nestled among the coral reefs in Fiji, although that's not saying much because many of them are. And I also lived on the much bigger island of Timor, which is, it's divided between East Timor and Indonesia. Are there any islands in your country? Oh, God, there are hundreds of individual islands, and they're part of sort of larger island chains in the archipelagos.

I'd say the most famous are the Archer Hebrides and the Shetland Islands, which are the most easterly and northerly, respectively. Do you want to live on an island? Well, given that I've already lived on a few, I think I've kind of had my fill of them, though I suppose if there were no alternatives I could do it again without much complaint I'm quite self-sufficient so it would hardly be a disaster

What would you like to do if you were on an island I quite fancy going sailing since I've done just about everything else you could do near the coast of an island and obviously exploring the interior is always unique because islands are seldom the same Do you think you'll go to an island soon? Not in the near future

maybe if I have to get a job I'm far away then there's lots of islands with schools that I could go to. Thank you, Rory, for your island questions. It's okay. I'm an island of vocabulary. Rory is an island of vocabulary. That doesn't make sense. That's not a thing. No, no. You know what? Dave told me that you should be very careful

creating the language in your IOT speaking exam. because like, I'm an island of vocabulary. It's not something people would say, right? So Rory has just created this phrase. It doesn't exist, which is creative use of language. So Rory, what do you think? In the exam, can our listener make things up, being creative with the language and just, you know, create stuff?

Or it's better not to do that. Well, it's an interesting question, because if you start pausing because you forget words, then that can affect your score for band eight and band nine, can't it? So you could say the phrase, the made-up phrase, and then the phrase in a manner of speaking, or so to speak, or to coin a phrase, which is something people do when they can't really think of a way to explain it clearly. So what I should have said is like, I'm an island of vocabulary to coin a phrase or in a manner of speaking, or so to speak. Yeah, to coin a phrase, like to make a phrase. So to speak. If I can say so, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, true. again, be very careful, right?

So if you are creating something, just tell the examiner that, oh, I've just made it up, you know. Yeah. Anyway, so islands. First of all, the pronunciation. We say island. It's like island. Yeah, island.

It's the land of me. Yeah, but we write ISL, right? We never say Iceland. No, no, no, no. We write, we say islands. islands. What about the article, Rory, do I say the Fiji islands or Fiji islands? No, there. Oh, you need to have the because you're talking about a specific group of islands. Yeah, so the Fiji Islands, but if you talk about one island, do I need an article?

It depends. Is it the first time you've mentioned it? Hmm. Because remember, the first time you talk about something, you say, I lived on an island, and then the island was part of Fiji. But what about geographical names, if I mean like different islands? What islands do we have in the world? I forgot all islands. Oh, my God, I just give you a list. If we talk about like...

Oh, Maldives. Maldives, for example. So I say the Maldives, right? You can't, yeah. You could also say the Maldives' archipelago. Yes, archipelago, do you listen. Can you repeat after us? Archipelago.

Archipelago. Archipelago That is a band-nine word Not many people know what the word Archipelago means And if that's difficult to remember Then you could just say Island Chain

Because they both mean A group of islands There's probably a small difference Between these But really It's still good words Your examiner's probably not going to know the difference Between these things

Hold on a minute What is the difference between an island chain And archipelago Oh there we go There we go He's getting a dim But if I want to say only one island, for example, Santorini in Greece, do I say this

Santorini, the Santorini island or just Santorini? Oh, Santorini is fine. Yeah, so no article if you say like one island, but the Cook Islands, the Fiji, the Maldives. Bora Bora. Bora. Bora is the name of the island. The borobara.

Yeah, just like this borah borah. An Aripelago is an area that contains. a chain or a group of islands scattered in lakes, rivers or the ocean? Yes, now we know. Thank you. So the archipelago is the area and a chain is the actual thing of islands. But frankly speaking, your examiner's not going to know that unless they were a geography teacher. And if they're a geography teacher, then they're not an English teacher, so it's fine.

Yeah. So the examiner asks you, are there any islands in your country? And you go, yeah, there are hundreds of individual islands which are part of. larger island chains and archipelagos. Although it's important to point out that we said the word island a lot, but here it's used as a noun and as an adjective,

island chain. Yeah, yeah. If you don't live on an island, you live on the mainland. Yes. Which is funny because when you think about it, most like land masses are surrounded by the ocean. So,

the mainland is the large, larger area of land that is closest to the island that we are talking about and probably part of the same country. So, for example, Scotland is the mainland, but we have Shetland, which is the island group. But there are bigger islands in Shetland than, and smaller islands. So the smaller islands are the islands, and then they talk about mainland Shetland because they're the bigger islands. It's all to do with relative size. Yeah. So if you live in a city, you live on the mainland. But if it's an island, then it's an island.

This is my explanation. I can add to your explanation. There we go. And island is an island. Yeah, don't forget to say something about the coral reefs. Well, if you have them. So I like islands because of the coral reefs. Yes.

That's in tropical places, though. If we talk about islands in Russia, what do they have? No, we just, there are some islands, and for example, in the north, there is an island where they tested bombs. Yeah. So you could talk about, there's residual radioactivity left over from all the bomb testing. Yeah, and bears. Yeah, they just, they have bears walking into villages or like the small towns there. No, I don't think so.

I think bears are okay. But it's funny that my friend has been there and he told me that you just you wake up and then you hear a siren going, attention, attention, there is a bear, there is a bear in this. And then they name the area where the bear is. And it's the whole, everybody can hear this. So, yeah, it's funny. Oh my God, that's amazing. You switch on your TV and then there is a bear, there is a bear next to the shop.

Don't go there. Yep. Did you realize that was a song? What? There is a bear. There's a bear. Next to the shop. Don't go there.

Oh, really? Oh, wow. No. Anyway, let's get back to what we can do. Now, I said sailing for activities that you can do on an island. And you say, I fancy. You say, I fancy. Yes.

Sailing is pretty basic, but you can say quite fancy, which is like another way of saying I would like to. Yeah. So I fancy. sailing or I fancy sunbathing fancy I like doing something. I really liked how you said the word nestled. Yes, nestled is just a way of saying it's in a place, close to other places, almost like it's cozy. Yeah, like I worked on a small island, nestled among the coral reefs. Very nice.

What else can you say? How else can you use this nestled? Maybe about cities or... Eggs. in anything else. Eggs are nestled in a nest. Yeah.

We have this word nest, nest. It's like saying it's inside something, but it's cozy and closed. Yeah, cool. When the examiner asks you, do you want to live on an island? Rory, he's full of islands.

You know, he's been to places, so he goes like, nah, not really. I think I've had my fill of them. Yeah. So if you've had your fill of something, it just means I've had enough of them. yeah I've had my fill of them

can you use it about other words like what about hmm what well if we talked about ice cream and they asked you like oh um what would you what flavor of ice cream would you have in the future and you're just like

well given that I've had all of this given that I've spent so much time eating ice cream I've kind of had my fill of it so I don't really want to have any more or try any new flavors yeah that's a really terrible example, but it's just the one way of saying like, I don't want to do it anymore.

So would you like to live on an island? No, I had my fill of them. Well, I do, I do live on an island now. The United Kingdom, Great Britain is an island. Hmm. It is. Oh, yeah, actually. Rory lives on an island now.

Wow. It's not a big island. I don't think it counts. And do you live near the coast? Yes. Basically on the coast. Yeah. the coast or near the coast. So the coast, the coast, the sea.

Coast is the part of the land that's next to the sea, basically. Yep. Yeah, so on the coast, near the coast. And the opposite is the interior, which is like the inside. But of course, inside is very basic. So we say the interior of the island, the part that is inside. Oh, yeah, the interior of the island, like the interior of a cafe or a restaurant. The interior. Yeah. I'd love to live on an island, to be honest with you, Robbie. How can you live on an island already?

Somewhere. I've visited many islands, many Greek islands. Sicily also in Italy. And Cuba, yeah, I've been to Cuba, which is an island, right? Cuba's an island. Tell me it's an island. It is. Okay. Yeah, but I'd like to go to these islands close to New Zealand or Madagascar, for example. Maybe like a half a year? Like plague vaccine before you go there. Plague vaccine.

They have, honestly, they have the plague in Madagascar. They have outbreaks of the plague fairly regularly. Plague? Yeah. Plague, really? I should say Madagascar should not just be known for like diseases happening. It's one of the most biodiverse places in the world. In fact, I think it doesn't have snakes.

Which is the opposite of being biodiverse. Hold on a second. I just want to check that as well. Madagascar has snakes. I'm going there. Yeah, also, do you listen. So if you have never been to an island, you can say that, okay, I've never been to an island, but I'd like to go to the Fiji Islands or I'd like to go to the UK, which is an island, right?

And then you talk about Rory, who lives on the coast. Ah, that's what it is. There are no poisonous snakes of Madagascar. That's what it is. The reason for that is because it's isolated. and we talk about the feeling of isolation, which is when you are far away from other people. Yeah, Madagascar.

It's the name of a movie. It's a funny movie. So, if you've never been to an island, you can mention different activities, again, like sailing, sunbathing, diving. We should delve into that more deeply, though, because, like, if you keep getting bombarded with questions for part one about islands,

because the examiner's not going to stop, then you need to have different ways, like, I imagine, if I were to go to an island, I wish I could say because I haven't been to an island, but if I did go, then, this kind of thing. Yeah. And it works. It works. Well, it's the only alternative.

Like, what happens when you don't know about something because you've never done it? You can't just magically be on an island. You could lie, but many people are not good at lying. They're much better at saying, I don't know in different ways. Yeah. So, as they say, no man is an island. They do say that There's a song, I think

No man is an island of vocabulary either Because I just made it up Poetry, it's a poetry, yeah No man is an island No man is an island entire of itself Every man is a piece of the continent A part of the main Oh, this is so cute

Yes, so no man is an island By John Don Nice Thank you very much for listening Thank you for listening we hope we have provided you an island of lexical and grammatical refuge. An island of refuge. Our podcast is an island.

It's your island of refuge. It's your refuge. It's your English world. Yeah. If you find yourself topped on an island, you might want to take up writing a journal. And how better to learn about writing than from our writing podcast. You should check it out. Maria.

Yeah, it's amazing. Where could we find it? We've launched a writing podcast, and the link is in the description. Go there, click there, check it out. Roy and I are writing things on the spot. So we're writing an IELs essay and an IOT's graph on the spot in this perver moment, focusing on the structure of vocabulary, gorgeous grammar. And Rory is super cool because he's creating the essay on the spot.

And he can do it on the spot because... With you. With me, yeah, with me, surely with you. I can't do it by myself. Because Rory has been trained how to do that. So again, check it out. By Maria. Writing for success.

I was trained by you. You were my teacher trainer for ages. Yeah, yeah, but also you went to university, Rory, where you wrote essays and you kind of know, you have the knowledge of how to write a good essay. I think I learned much more from you than I did from university. Oh, this is so sweet. Okay, my life is complete now.

Anyway, on the subject of things that are worth money. There is a free version of our writing for success, and there is a premium version. Click the link in the description below. Bye. Bye. Roy, do you like islands? Oh, yeah, very much so. I love being near the sea, and there's this sort of romantic notion of isolation and discovering a new world when you're on an island.

You don't really get that if you're on the mainland, do you? Have you ever been to an island? Actually, I've lived on quite a few islands in my time. I worked on a small island, which is like sort of nestled among the coral reefs in Fiji, although that's not saying much because many of them are. And I also lived on the much bigger island of Timor, which is, it's divided between East Timor and Indonesia. Are there any islands in your country?

Oh, God, there are hundreds of individual islands, and they're part of sort of larger island chains and the archipelagos, I'd say the most famous are the Archer Hebrides and the Shetland Islands, which are the most easterly and northerly, respectively. Do you want to live on an island? Well, given that I've already lived on a few, I think I've kind of had my fill of them, though I suppose if there were no alternatives,

I could do it again without much complaint. I'm quite self-sufficient, so it would hardly be a disaster. What would you like to do if you were on an island? I quite fancy going sailing since I've done just about everything else you could do near the coast of an island. And obviously exploring the interior is always unique because islands are seldom the same. Do you think you'll go to an island soon? Not in the near future. Maybe if I have to get a job far away, then there's lots of islands with schools that I could go to.