IELTS Speaking for Success - ✍️ Making lists (Part 1 ) + Transcript

Episode Date: July 1, 2025

Get access to our episode archive: https://www.patreon.com/ieltssfs Do you make a list when you shop? Do you prefer to make a list on paper or your phone? Do you make a list for your work? Why don't some people like making lists? 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/s12e13 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

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Hello, lovely. I'm Maria. And my name is Rory, and we are the hosts of the AIL Speaking Per Success podcast. The podcast, oh no, the official band nine podcast that aims to help 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 aisle school. Your band's nine score. Like me.

Rory, what have you got planned for today? Let's see. Oh, let me check the to-do list. It's very long, actually. What a list? Just for one day? It's like for a month. I know.

Shall we talk about lists? Let's talk about making lists. And we're going to start it off with a joke. You've been waiting for my jokes, right? Yes, you have. Of course you have. Rory adores my jokes. So,

Maria, I love Maria's delusions. I tell the joke you just keep silent and then you laugh. Okay, you laugh at the end of the joke. Come on, Roy. So, my husband asked me to put ketchup on the shopping list. Now, I can't read any of it. How are you? Are you okay? I, yeah, I'll be fine.

Do you make a list when you shop? Oh, I make them for everything, so don't forget. And it's no different when I go shopping. I have a pretty fixed one, since I tend to buy the same things every week. You'd think that would make it easier to remember, but I always have it on hand just in case. Do you prefer to make a list on paper or your phone? It depends what it's for.

If it's shopping, then my phone is fine, since I have to carry that around with me and have a free hand for picking up what I'm shopping for. But for things like travel, I prefer to have it written out by hand in my diary so I can refer to it as I go. I think that also makes it easier to remember.

Do you make a list for your work? Yeah, I mean, I write lesson plans, which are essentially checklists of things that I need to remember when I'm working with students. They're pretty basic, but it helps me keep track of everything to, well, just to make sure we can work work together effectively.

Why don't some people like making lists? Well, you'd have to ask them. But if I were to speculate, I suppose they might not like the accountability or the mental heavy lifting that comes with doing something they're not used to. No one likes difficult things, do they? When you're flying Emirates business class,

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See you soon. So, dear listener, we make lists, and a list is short pieces of information. it's not a piece of paper, no. It's kind of a list of different things, a shopping list, for example. And the preposition is on, something is on the list. Is my name on the list or you are on the list, not in the list? What other verbs do we use? Like make lists, write up lists.

Put a list together? Put a list together. Yeah. You can have a fixed list. I have a fixed shopping list and I tend to buy the same things every week. And I have a fixed shopping list on hand. So I have it handy, I have it clothes, I always have it with me. We can make a list on paper or I can make a list on my phone.

Or I have a digital list, for example. I used to write down lists on the back of my hand so I wouldn't forget things. things. You can also say this. I used to write lists on the back of my hand. Yeah, so if I go shopping, I have a shopping list on my phone, on my phone. Or sometimes I prefer it written out. So I prefer to write down things. I prefer to write it in my diary or in my daily planner. I prefer to write it down. I prefer to have it written out for me. I usually make a list for work or I have different lists for my work and I usually write up checklists of things I need to remember. So I usually have a checklist for different things or a list for each day of the week, for example, a list for my life.

and they help me keep track of everything that I should do. So keep track of things. So these lists help me to keep track of my work. And if you keep track of things, you understand where they are and what's happening with them. Some people dislike making lists. And also, the listener, you can say that I dislike making lists or I never make any lists. But the topic here is about making lists. so you'd better like it.

Or you lie. You say like, yeah, I usually make lists for everything. People could think that making lists is mental heavy lifting. Roy, what did you mean by mental heavy lifting? It just means that it's difficult to, or something that's difficult to do with your brain. So if it's a challenge for you to organize your thoughts and ideas, you might consider that mental heavy lifting because it's hard for you. So in the gym, you do weight lifting.

You go to the gym and you kind of like you lift the weights. And here, Roy talks about mental heavy lifting. But do you mean that writing lists is mental heavy lifting? It's kind of it's mentally difficult. Yeah, well, the idea of organizing what you need to do in your head might be difficult. Some people really struggle with this. I don't, well, I don't know. I think I did when I was younger.

because I didn't really understand what to do. And some people never get past that experience of finding it difficult to organize things. So they just don't. That doesn't make them bad people. It just means they're a bit disorganized. You can also say that some people find it tedious, like boring. They don't like to be restricted. Because when you write a police, you kind of restrict yourself.

But they want to be free. Do what I want to do. So they don't want. They want to be spontaneous. There you go. And if you make a list of things, you kind of have to do it. And you can also say that people dislike to-do lists. So a shopping list, a to-do list.

So a list of things to do. So kind of, which is a reminder for you to do something. And also we have the phrase, a bucket list. Or is it their bucket list? Individual bucket lists would be. our bucket list, but if you talk about a specific one, then it will be the. So my bucket list, a list of things that I would like to do before I die. Yeah, Roy, do you have a bucket list?

No, because I've done everything that I wanted to do. I have one last thing to do, and that's it, really. What is it? I want to go to Stavigno to visit Piran, and that's all. Oh, yeah. Oh, la la. Oh, nice. If you're from Slovenia and you would like to invite me to come and stay in Piran,

I'd be very happy to do that because every year, for the last, what, six years, I think I've had the money and promised myself that I would go there. But it never happened. So I would love to go. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, Slovenia people, if you are in Slovenia, like, a ride to Rory. Like, he has to go to Slovenia already because I've been listening to Slovenia for five years. And he never went, this Rory guy.

I know. So, Slovenia people, Slovenia people, if you are from Piran, or if you want to go to Slovenia with Rory, go together. Your task, dear listener, would be, well, to find a person in Slovenia, so Rory can go with them. And the second task is to watch The Bucket List film. 2007, it's a comedy. Brilliant. A brilliant film, The Bucketlist. list. Yeah, with, what's his face? Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson. Aye, aye, aye. Amazing people.

Right, Rory, you've done everything on your bucket list, but now you need to choose. Now I need to add more things to it. Yes, you need to choose two options for your bucket list. Dear listener, also, listen to my ideas and choose one or two activities that you would like to Add to your bucket list. Roy, are you ready? Okay, go. Eat shark in Iceland. Go camping in the desert.

Sleep at an ice hotel. So you go and you stay at an ice hotel. Hotel made of ice. Take a cruise, like a cruise on this nice ship, which is like a six-star hotel. Start woodworking, wood, like to make something from wood, swim with dolphins, or start an annual community clean-up event in your local park.

Rory, what would you choose? So start a clean-up community. So, like, Rory is the head of this community and they go and clean parks. Swim with dolphins, start woodworking, so make something out of wood, take a cruise, sleep in an ice hotel, go can't. camping in the desert, eat shark in Iceland. Probably the shark eating because it's the most novel one and it's probably the easiest to do. The other things just require too much work and I'm timed.

Right. So Rory chooses eating shark. Shark soup. Yummerian, in Iceland. Rory has swam with sharks. Rory, where was it? in Ghana? No, Fiji.

Oh, Fiji, yes. You know, like sharks were swimming and Rory was swimming there with them. We're talking about this as if it's remotely dangerous. For context, these are black-tip reef sharks, which are not a threat to human beings. They're more of a danger to the other fish on the reef than they are to the people there.

They just bite off your leg and that's all. They're not dangerous, these sharks. No, they can't. They're too small. What have you chosen? Dear listener, maybe sleeping in an ice hotel now? Swimming with dolphins could be quite nice. Yeah, and if you want to create your own bucket list,

you can include travel destinations, career goals. Foods you want to try. You can have your bucket list with food you want to try in the world. Skills are hobbies, life goals or fears to overcome, actually. We can create a bucket list with fears. Thank you very much for listening. We'll get back to you in our next episode. Bye.

Bye. Do you make a list when you shop? Oh, I make them for everything, so don't forget. And it's no different when I go shopping. I have a pretty fixed one, since I tend to buy the same things every week. You'd think that would make it easier to remember, but I always have it on hand just in case. Do you prefer to make a list on paper or your phone? It depends what it's for.

If it's shopping, then my phone is fine, since I have to carry that around with me and have a free hand for picking up what I'm shopping for. But for things like travel, I prefer to have it written out by hand in my diary so I can refer to it as I go. I think that also makes it easier to remember. Do you make a list for your work?

Yeah, I mean, I write lesson plans, which are essentially checklists of things that I need to remember when I'm working with students. They're pretty basic, but it helps me keep track of everything to, well, just to make sure we can work together effectively. Why don't some people like making lists? Well, you'd have to ask them, but if I were to speculate, I suppose they might not like the accountability or the mental heavy lifting that comes with doing something they're not used to. No one likes difficult things, do they?