IELTS Speaking for Success - 📚 Libraries (Part 1) + Transcript

Episode Date: September 1, 2025

Get our premium episode archive: https://www.patreon.com/ieltssfs Do you often go to the library? What do you usually do in the library? Did you go to the library when you were a kid? Do kids in your country often go to the library? 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/s12e22 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, and Maria. And my name is Rory, and we are the hosts of the A-Halt 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 gorgeous grammar and fabulous vocabulary for your high-eyed school. Your bad nine score, which Maria and I have in speaking. Oh, Rory, what's that pile of books behind you?

Oh, they're the one. I borrowed from the library. The library? Online library. No, a physical library. There's one next to my house. Seriously, Rory, you go to a library, you go to your local library? Huh?

Yeah, I mean, my local library is probably fewer than 250 meters from my home, so I think there's no excuse not to visit it. Shall we talk about libraries? Let's talk about libraries. Do you often go to the library? Do you often go to the library? Well, not as much as I used to, sadly. I have a big backlog of books of my own to work through, so I don't really have the time to add even more to that.

When I have got through them all, though, then I might go. It's cheaper than buying new books. And probably more sustainable than getting secondhand fonts too now that I think about it. What do you usually do in the library? Well, whenever I've gone, it's almost always been to pick up books I've reserved or to check out a particular genre that I'm interested in, though I know that a lot of them act like community hubs. So I could go there for different events and services,

like citizens' advice or local history talks, as well as various leaflets about other services elsewhere. Did you go to the library when you were a kid? Well, I must have done, though I don't really remember it. Oh, no, that's actually a lie. We went a fair bit when I was in primary school. I think my parents thought it would be a good idea to learn where to take out books and support use of libraries in general.

Do children in your country often go to the library? Nowadays, I don't think it's a very common thing. I mean, for one, you have most information at your fingertips these days, including things like e-books, so there's a reduced need to have physical book access. That's a shame, though, since libraries can offer more things. than that, but it's the most obvious reason that might serve as a gateway to other things. And they'll miss out on that, perhaps. 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. When was the last time you went to a library, like a physical library? Where is your local library? Yeah, where is your local library? Exactly. Because usually we just take books from online, or we listen to books, we read them on our phones. Oh, libraries, wow.

I know the last time I went to a physical library was, I think, at university. Oh, wow. Ages ago. Now everything is digitalized, you know? You have a massive library in the middle of Moscow. Would you not go there? Yeah, I went there, but it was like ages ago. Yeah, it's like a museum. And then I went there on an excursion,

because our library is so massive, and it's like a museum. So at night, you can go there and visit all the bookstores and halls and what do you call the collection, the rooms where books are stored. would you call them collections? I think so. Archives?

Archives, yeah, there you go. Archives. So we say go to the library. Right, can I say go to a library or go to library or I should always use a library with an article? I'm trying to think of a time when you might not use it with an article when I cannot think of one. So I think it's always the library or a library,

unless it's an adjective. Adjective from a library? Yeah. You talk about library time or library opening hours, for example. Oh, okay. Yeah. So we say, I went to the library or I often go to the library or I never go to the library. Or you can say I go to my local library.

I go to a local library. A local library. Or you can say I used to go to a library or to the library when I was at university, when I was at school. It's cheaper than buying new books. Yeah. These days, books are pretty expensive. So you can say it's much cheaper and more sustainable than getting secondhand books. So you can get secondhand books or you can just go to the library, be more sustainable,

so more environmentally friendly, and reuse the books. We usually say I get through books. So I read books or I get through books. through books. For example, you borrow three books from a library, borrow books from a library, and when I get through them, I go there again. A funny question like, what do you usually do in the library? Rory, what do you do that? You take out books or check them out? Take out books, borrow books, check them out. You can just go to a library to check out books. Oh, you may have reserved a book.

Ooh, reserve a book. Book a book. Yeah. So if, for example, a book is super popular, so you can reserve it. Yeah, I'm reserving this book. I'm going to take it out like next week. And you choose a book,

you pick up some books. Or you actually take books from a library. Like, I go there to pick up some books or to check out new books. new books or check out new journals, magazines, for example. I don't know who does it these days, seriously. You know me. Yeah, Rory does it. Wow.

Okay, I know one person who does it. That's all you need. No, no, no, I know you and another person, so I know two people who actually go to physical libraries. Wow. And also, you can say that my local library is a community hub. Hub is like this place where people go to, to have fun, to talk to each other. They have some events. So it's kind of like a hub, a central part of something where people go to.

Usually we say an airport hub, hub airport. That's one of the central airports. So you can say that sometimes I visit different events. They organize some talks and. concerts. Well, I don't know about concerts, but they definitely have free events of like certain kinds. Yeah, like reading clubs, for example. Or they invite different speakers and everything's for free.

So like local libraries serve as community hubs. For locals. When you talk about the past, you say, I used to go to a library when I was a child. Or as a child, I used to go to, library. When I was in primary school or when I was in secondary school, when I was at university, and it was a good idea to take books out. Oh, I just realized there we have school libraries as well. So maybe that counts. Yeah. Actually, yeah, school libraries and also university libraries. Yeah. I think every university has a physical library. So yeah, I took books out from our university library.

You might take a book out to get ready for your IELTS exam? Really? And what book would it be? I wonder. Any book, I think. I feel like any exposure to reading will be useful for building up your vocabulary, for reading skill practice, maybe even for pronunciation as well, if you have to think about how the words are said. Rory, would you like to have your books in a library? Rory has written like five books? I think I do already In your local library, really?

I know, I... I... maybe. I think it's a legal thing that there must be a copy of every book that's ever made stored. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, we have that too, yeah. Yeah, so I don't know, maybe. I'd like to...

I think I hope that's true. If it's not true, I will not be too disappointed. Find Rory's books in the central library of Scotland. Oh, there is a queue. You know, you have to reserve one of his books to take it out. Or you could buy a copy. Just go to my Instagram. Children often go to the library.

Or I don't know, in your country, dear listener. Do children go to the library? Maybe to their school library, university, but, well, you know, I don't know. What about you, dear listener? How many people do you know who actually go to physical libraries? Also, you can talk about online libraries, because universities and schools, they do have their online libraries. Well, university, for sure.

I'm not sure about schools, though. And you can say that in my country, it's a very common thing. So it's common. Many people do it. You have most information at your fingertips. So to have something at your fingertips. Like, what did you mean here? It's easy to access. If something is at your fingertips.

At your fingertips is an idiom. And what level is this? Is it C2? It is C2. Ben 9, Ben 9. Yes, we have our Ben 9 moment. So, at your fingertips, if you have information at your fingertips,

you can get it and use it very easily. So you go to a library and you have everything at your fingertips. Could you give us another example? Of my fingertips? Well, I mean, almost all the information in the world is on our fingertips because we have phones which are connected to the internet. Yeah, it means that something is convenient and easy to find. Like we have all the facts at our fingertips. You can say that today there is a reduced need to have physical book access. So fewer people prefer to have physical books. books. Physical books or printed books or hard copies. We usually read e-books. We read books online.

So we have, can I say soft copies? No, they're hard copies. You have hard copies of books when you can physically touch them. I don't think we call them soft copies. I think it's digital copies. Yeah, exactly. Digital copies, okay? So hard copies or physical books or digital copies. or electronic books, e-books, the same as digital libraries, for example, online libraries. Miss out on something is a nice phrase of verb. How did you use the phrase of a word miss out on something? Oh, okay. Well, here I talk about young people missing out on the experience of, well, being able to access a library

and all the things that you might be able to access through it. Miss out on something means fail to use an opportunity to enjoy something. So don't miss out on this sale, all right? Or, oh, I missed your birthday party, I missed out. So I didn't have an opportunity to enjoy this event or a show or some experience. And many people these days are afraid of missing, they have a fear of missing out. A formal. Yeah, like if they don't go somewhere, if they don't see something, they have this, oh, I'm missing out on many things.

I don't have any opportunities to enjoy these things. And you can say that, well, these days, people in my country don't go to the library and they miss out on lots of things. Oh, yeah. Maria doesn't seem to think this is very exciting. No, no, actually, I've been thinking about going to my local local. library because, you know, they've digitalized everything. And I remember times when they didn't have any computers. Those were the days. And our local libraries were very, you know, like old and poor and yeah, but now everything is like digitalized, new buildings, like new things,

new books. So I wonder how it's all organized now. So I might go. Are we ready for A joke. Very. Yeah. Do listen, are you ready? Okay, here it is. Roy, you don't interrupt the joke. You just listen and laugh.

I just do as I'm told. A man walks into a library. He sees the most beautiful librarian lady behind the counter. And he says, will you go on a date with me? She answers back. Sorry, no. I'm fully booked. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha very funny thank you very much Maria thank you for listening and we'll see you next time

we'll come back to you in our next episode bye bye do you often go to the library well not as much as I used to sadly I have a big backlog of books of my own to work through so I don't really have the time to add even more to that when I have got through them all though then I might go It's cheaper than buying new books, and probably more sustainable than getting secondhand fonts too now that I think about it. What do you usually do in the library?

Well, whenever I've gone, it's almost always been to pick up books I've reserved or to check out a particular genre that I'm interested in, though I know that a lot of them act like community hubs. So I could go there for different events and services like citizens' advice or local history talks, as well as various leaflets about other services elsewhere. Did you go to the library when you were a kid? Well, I must have done, though I don't really remember it. Oh no, that's actually a lie. We went a fair bit when I was in primary school.

I think my parents thought it would be a good idea to learn where to take out books and support use of libraries in general. Do children in your country often go to the library? Nowadays, I don't think it's a very common thing. I mean, for one, you have most information at your fingertips these days, including things like e-books, so there's a reduced need to have physical book access. That's a shame, though, since libraries can offer more things than that, but it's the most obvious reason that might serve as a gateway to other things,

and they'll miss out on that, perhaps.