IELTS Speaking for Success - 🏛️ Museums (S05E16) + Transcript

Episode Date: March 8, 2021

Are there any museums in your hometown? What's the last time you visited a museum? Did you visit museums when you were a child? Tune in and have a great day! - IELTS Speaking for Success PREMIUM: https://linktr.ee/sfspremium Transcript: https://successwithielts.com/s05e16 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, Sunshine, I'm Maria. And my name is Rory, and we are 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. We started this podcast to bring a smile onto your face and give you gorgeous grammar and high-level words for your high IELS score. Rory, your hair is getting gray? Yeah, it's grayer than it was before. I feel like I belong in a museum. Museum. Hmm, let's talk about museums.

It's another coincidence. On this podcast, yes, in speaking part one, they can ask you questions about museums. Do you like to visit museums? Actually, not overly so. I suppose it might be a fun idea for a date, but I wouldn't go there as part of a hobby or something like that. I think they're a bit boring and dull, to be honest with you. It's not exactly something that I would enjoy doing just by myself. How often do you go to museums?

Like I said, I'm not really very often. I'm not the biggest history buff these days, although I used to be. So I think I went to the last museum was probably in Volgaard or something like that. But I usually prefer books these days. Like I said, I'm not a big fan of museums at all, to be honest with you. Are there many museums in your hometown? Actually, yes. there's loads. There's this old

jute mill called the Verdant Works which showcases how fabric was produced back in the Victorian era and then on the subject of the Victorian era there's the I think it's the RMS Discovery which is an

Antarctic exploration ship which was captained by well Captain Scott it was recovered from Antarctica after they got stranded there so it's a museum now and there's loads of more besides that But that's not such a surprise because it's the fourth largest city, so a concentration of museums is to be expected. When was the last time you visited a museum?

Well, I said it was Volgagrad there, but actually I just realized that after that I went to the State Historical Museum with my friend Lena in, well, the State Historical Museum is in Russia, and I think it was about two years ago now, actually. It was a very poignant experience. On the inside, there are loads and loads of pictures and portraits of monarchs long since past, for example, and members of the royal family and the, well, the aristocracy in general, really.

And the ones that were of the last royal family in Russia were quite, they had quite an emotional impact because, of course, you understand what happened to them. But on the flip side, it was also kind of entertaining because there were translations from Russian to English on the plaques next to them. and that was quite funny because of all the mistranslations that had happened. And to be honest with you, they were really silly mistranslations. Like, if I had been asked to do the translations, I wouldn't have made those mistakes. Did you visit museums when you were a child?

We used to go to the Natural History Museum quite often. And in Scotland, when you're younger, I think it's the same everywhere, to be honest. You have school trips to different museums. So I talked about the Verdant Works before when I was talking about the museums in our hometown. There was lots of excursions there, I suppose. So, yeah, it was definitely a much more common experience when I was younger. Now it's not so much because I have less time and different things to do with that time. Do you think museums are important?

Well, for me, personally, as an individual, no, but they're important storehouses for artefacts and good places to display various exhibits. And they hold a lot of our nation's cultural treasures as well. So while they aren't important to me now that I'm a grown-up, with a job and different interests, they are like key treasure troves to whatever nation they belong to as a whole. Particularly if you talk about children, that's why they exist to impart this knowledge to the kids. Thank you, Rory, for your treasure answers. Hopefully they will be treasured and they don't belong in a museum.

We're going to have a museum of super words and grammar. Rory, would you like to have like Rory Museum? The Museum of Rory. I think it would be the smallest museum in the world. No, we're going to have this solution. Are you filming me? Have you got a license for that camera? Oh my God.

Sorry. Do you listen, we are getting distracted. Vani is he sitting on the floor, filming. And yes, and I'm asking, Rory. So, if we had the museum of Rory, so the solution shower would be there. your pyjamas, your black pajamas would be there, your bottles of whiskey, what else? I don't have bottles of whiskey, I have like one, and I haven't opened it because I don't drink whiskey. Okay, what else would be there?

Your museum? I don't know. Like, I'm not very interesting. Your backpack? You can see from the examples that you're coming out with now that I'm really boring. What about all the cans of energy drinks? So different cans of energy drinks. If we had all of the cans of energy drinks.

We had all of the cans of energy drinks that I have drunk in my entire life in the museum. We could just make the museum out of them. Yes, so the museum of Rory's energy drink cans. The museum of Rory destroying his heart, basically. Wow. That's really sad now that I think about it. So the examiner won't know if there is the museum of Rory. They won't know if you have a heart either.

They would hope you do. You can say, I often go to the museum of Rory. Okay, anyway, Rory. You've mentioned the historical museum, right? And historical, museums can also be like local museums, um, archaeological museums, um, archaeological museums, folk, uh, military museums, science museums, war museums. Yes.

Can you spell archaeological? No. I probably, I can spell it. Do you know, there must be a word for this phenomenon that, do you know when you can spell a word, but you can only spell it while you're writing it? Yeah, yeah. Like, I can spell it. most words just by saying them, but like some words like archaeology, I'd need to write.

There must be a word for that. Yes, de listen, so if you feel bad that you can't spell words in English, it's okay. Native speakers can't spell words in their mother tongue. I can spell the words. I just can't spell it without a pen and paper. Okay, okay, I'm joking. You're so mean to me. I am nice and sweet, aren't I? Okay, museums. So museums can also be local, fascinating, public,

private and Rory you said a nice one I'm not the best history buff well I'm not a big history buff I'm not the biggest history yeah but a buff used to be a buff

history buff is someone that knows a lot about history buff oh you can be a history buff or a signed buff that's kind of thing usually it's history buff that's the collocation oh but can I can I be a films buff and when you talk about museums we say we go to museums or we go to a museum.

Do we need an article or no article? Well, you go to a museum, but you go to museums, plural. Okay. Visit museums? Yeah. And if you've only got one museum in your hometown, which is highly likely, most hometowns are not like mine. They maybe have one or even zero museums. Then you would say visit the museum

because there's only one in the universe that is your hometown. But when you give the name of your favorite museum, you should use the definite article. For example, Rory said, The Natural History Museum. Because there's only one. Yeah, the museum. The museum.

At a museum or in a museum. Both are possible. If you're using museum as an adjective, then you don't need an article. Like at museum exhibits, for example. But that's like, well, that would be like band nine level article control. Ooh.

Because most people would just say, the museum exhibits. And that's correct. This is not very common. A museum exhibit. Well, or the. It doesn't matter. But you could say at museum exhibits to speak generally. Okay. But we're talking about grammar. We need to talk more about museums.

And the kind of experiences you have there. So talking about grammar is boring, but a museum can be a poignant experience. Yeah, what is a disappointment? So it's actually not very positive, unfortunately. It just means like it's something that causes you to feel very sad about something. If you see pictures of the old Russian royal family, you feel sad because at the time they were having their portrait taken, they didn't know they were all going to be horribly murdered by communists.

So that wasn't very nice. Or if you go to the Museum of Titanic, you can experience this poignant. Poignant. Poignant. Poignant. Poignant. P-O-I-G-N-A-N-D. Oh, look at him. See, I can spell that word.

I can't spell archaeology, but I can spell the word poignant. Yes, you guys. So make sure that you do know what your favorite museum is, and then you do know how to talk about your feelings as well. Yeah, inside this museum. In general. For example, while speaking about his favorite museum, Rory used a very specific vocabulary, like old jute male, fabric, Victorian era. Wow. You can have a Victorian era, the Roman era.

Maybe you're from Russian. You could talk about the Romanov era. Sorry, we keep circling back to the royal family. but that's fine. The communist era, the current era, whatever that's being called, post-communist era. And then, well, it's just used. An era is a different period of time that's dominated by a particular idea or group of people. And then you talked about artifact, facts, facts, artifacts. Artifacts are usually old things, like old objects, which are connected with a particular period. In a museum we have exhibitions. An exhibits.

Yeah, like an art exhibition, right? And you see exhibits. So there are basically objects which are being exhibited. Oh, God. Which are being shown exhibits. And museums hold our nation's treasures. Cultural treasures. Cultural treasures.

So obviously treasure is something that pirates have and it's very valuable. Cultural treasure. On the other hand, is something that is very important to a nation's culture. So, for example, if we talk about Scotland, we have the Stone of Destiny. Oh, yes. That's the thing that all the Scottish kings are crowned on. And that is an important cultural treasure, because without it, we don't know who the king is. Okay.

Amongst other things, it's like... They have a king in Scotland now, right? Well, it's more egalitarian now. We have a queen. How old is the queen? That is a very good question. She's old. If a person is very old, you can say they're ancient.

That's why at the beginning of the episode, Roy, what did you say about yourself? Nothing positive. I said that your hair is getting great. I said my hair is getting gray, and I say, I belong in a museum because I'm so old. Some people say the royal family belongs in a museum because it's a very old institution, but I disagree. So if I say, like, I belong to a museum, it means that I'm very old. I belong in a museum. Oh, actually, that's a good point.

You can belong to a museum in terms of being a member of staff or society there. So you need to be careful with that. It's belong in a museum. I belong in a museum. Well, you don't, but I do. You're young and I'm dying. Dorying a museum. So he's old or he's very old.

He's ancient. Okay. Yeah, come on. Stop drinking those energy drinks. I can't help it. It's a problem. Okay, hypnosis could solve all your problems. Okay, we are going off on a tangent here.

You're not, you've just spent the last minute talking about, like, talking to yourself. I'm waiting here for you to finish. Okay, right, you guys. So we have exhibitions in museums, and also we have collections of something. So a museum can hold a collection of... Things, artifacts. Don't say things. Say artifacts, objects.

But it can also hold treasures or be a treasure trove, which is another kind of collection. What is a trove? A trove. It's a collocation, treasure trove. It just means, well, a place where the treasure is. Give us a sentence, please, an example, with this trove thing. No. I can't think of one. You said, like, is there a key treasure troves? Yeah, like, it was a, like, for example, yeah, there we go. The Russian State Historical Museum is a real treasure trove of art from

the pre-revolutionary period. Yes, bravo. And you can use that in your speaking test if they ask you about art or revolutions, which is unlikely, but you know, it happened. No, they won't ask you about revolutions, come on. They will ask you about museums. And, Roy, when you went to this museum,

you had fun with translations, and translations were written on plaques. Yeah, I don't know if that's the right word, to be honest with you. Maybe placard is a better one, but basically what I meant was these small squares, that are under pictures or exhibits or whatever is there that explain what the thing is. I'm pretty sure I would call it a plaque, but you could call it a placard or an information card if you want it to be very boring.

But this is a very specific word that you can use. Like, I always read plaques. I always read information on plaques. Yes. Now, Rory, I have a quiz for you. Are you ready? A pop quiz on this podcast. There's a pop quiz.

There's a pop quiz. Do, do, do, do. Right, so I give you the city, the name of the city, and you give me the museum. Oh, God. Okay. Three, two, one, go. Paris. Wait, that's the name of the city, but there's lots of museums in Paris.

Okay, okay, once again. So I give you the name of the city, and you give me the name of the museum. Paris, go. Deluve. Bravo. New York. The Guggenheim? No.

Oh, what else is there? Metra. Oh, the Metropolitan. Museum of Arts. Well done. London. But the government is also... Keep going.

London. Natural History Museum. One more. In London? Yes. The science museum. No. Why?

The British Museum. Oh, well, there's a science museum there too. Yeah, but the British Museum is the... Right. St. Petersburg. Um... Oh, the Hermitage. Yes.

The State Hermitage Museum. We're going there. Amsterdam. Amsterdam. There's a... There's the Sex Museum. There is a sex museum in Amsterdam I have been there

It's not very good I'm sorry If you're looking to learn anything What did you see there Rory? Let's talk about it Nothing terribly interesting It was all stuff that I knew about

Already so I don't really I think it was a tourist trap To be honest with you Ah A museum can be a tourist trap Which means that it's designed Just to get tourists in It doesn't actually do anything

Of any note And that's what the sex Museum in Amsterdam does People can disagree with me But I didn't find it particularly enlightening experience. Did you read all the information on Plex? I think that was about

the only thing my eyes could look at that was vaguely interesting. So you guys, if you are in Amsterdam, don't go to the Sex Museum. There's a nice palace in the middle of the city that everyone could go to. And on that note, the Sex Museum might not be interesting,

but our sexy vocabulary should be. Oh, yes. We do have some sexy vocabulary on museums. Which is a phrase that You never thought you would say, but there you go. No, sexy vocabulary. I like it. No, sexy vocabulary about museums. We've said the word sex about 300 times.

Sexy museum vocabulary. There you go. But anyway, everyone, enjoy your, enjoy our museum of vocabulary. Thank you very much for listening for more updates on the podcast and Rory's private life. Follow us on Instagram and Telegram, Success with IOTS. Bye. Bye. Do you like to visit museums?

Actually, not overly so. I suppose it might be a fun idea for a date, but I wouldn't go there as part of a hobby or something like that. I think they're a bit boring and dull, to be honest with you. It's not exactly something that I would enjoy doing just by myself. How often do you go to museums? Like I said, not really very often. I'm not the biggest history buff these days, although I used to be.

So I think I went to the last museum was probably in Volgaard or something like that. But I usually prefer books these days. Like I said, I'm not a big fan of museums at all, to be honest with you. Are there many museums in your hometown? Actually, yes, there's loads. There's this old jute mill called the Verdant Works, which showcases how fabric was produced back in the Victorian era. and then on the subject of the Victorian era

there's the I think it's the RMS discovery which is an Antarctic exploration ship which was captained by well Captain Scott it was recovered from Antarctica after they got stranded there so it's a museum now and there's loads of more besides that but that's not such a surprise because it's the fourth largest city so a concentration of museums is to be expected when was the last time you visited a museum

Well, I said it was Volga Grad there, but actually I just realized that after that I went to the State Historical Museum with my friend Lena in, well, the State Historical Museum is in Russia, and I think it was about two years ago now, actually. It was a very poignant experience. On the inside, there are loads of pictures and portraits of monarchs long since past, for example, and members of the royal family and the aristocracy in general, really. and the ones that were of the last royal family in Russia were quite, they had quite an emotional impact because of course you understand what happened to them. But on the flip side, it was also kind of entertaining because there were translations from Russian to English

on the plaques next to them. And that was quite funny because of all the mistranslations that had happened. And to be honest with you, it was really, they were really silly mistranslations. Like, if I had been asked to do the translations, I wouldn't have made those mistakes. Did you visit museums when you were a child? We used to go to the Natural History Museum quite often.

And in Scotland, when you're younger, I think it's the same everywhere, to be honest. You have school trips to different museums. So I talked about the Verdant Works before when I was talking about the museums in our hometown. There was lots of excursions there, I suppose. So yeah, it was definitely a much more common experience when I was younger. Now it's not so much because I have less time and, different things to do with that time. Do you think museums are important?

Well, for me personally, as an individual, no, but they're important storehouses for artifacts and good places to display various exhibits, and they hold a lot of our nation's cultural treasures as well. So while they aren't important to me, now that I'm a grown-up, with the job and different interests, they are key treasure troves

to whatever nation they belong to. as a whole, particularly if you talk about children. That's why they exist to impart this knowledge to the kids.