IELTS Speaking for Success - 🛒 Online shopping (S10E18) + Transcript

Episode Date: May 12, 2024

How often do you buy things online? Why? What was the last thing you bought online? Do you ever see things in shops and then buy them online? Why/Why not? Do you think the popularity of online shops is changing your town or city center? Why/Why not?  Tune in and have a great day! - Get exclusive episodes on IELTS Speaking parts 1, 2, and 3: https://linktr.ee/sfspremium Book a class with Rory here: https://successwithielts.com/rory Our course on Phrasal Verbs: https://successwithielts.com/podcourses Transcript: https://successwithielts.com/s10e18 Find an IELTS Speaking Partner: https://links.successwithielts.com/ieltspartner Our social media: https://linktr.ee/successwithielts © 2024 Podcourses 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 AIL 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 in this podcast to give you fabulous vocabulary and gorgeous grammar. For your higher IEL score. Your bad nine score. Rory.

Rory, pay attention. Sorry, Maria. I was just finishing my online shopping order. Oh, I just. I see. Well, hurry up. We're going to talk about shopping. Online shopping. Of course we are. What a coincidence, the listener. And you know, Rory, I have a black belt in shopping.

It means like I was super professional in shopping. You know, a black belt. We usually use this about karate. I have a black belt in karate, right? Yes. And I have a black belt in shopping. But a belt is also something you can buy. So it's a pun as well. Oh my God, can we get on with the episode? It's an ad to cut kind of day.

Add to cut, the listener online shopping, your ad product to your card. You know, cut? Help! How often do you buy things online? Well, a lot more than I used to because I'm still buying things for the house and now I'm a responsible adult.

I need to do things like, order decorations and materials to make repairs to the place. What was the last thing you bought online? I have to check my phone to be sure, but off the top of my head, I think it was a set of casters for my bed. There are these tiny things that stop the bed wheels from moving and damaging things now that the bed is where it should be. Do you ever see things in shops and then buy them online?

Sometimes, especially books, you can usually get them online second-hand and for a way better price than in the brick-and-mortar stores. I'm not sure I'd get my food shopping order online. I think the quality is a bit suspect. Do you think the popularity of online shops is changing your town or city centre? Oh, it's absolutely exploded since the pandemic. People order things in all the time, from takeaways to their regular weekly shop. It sort of gutted the high street, which is a bit sad.

but people have access to a wider range of goods and services than before and things are moving in to replace what has been lost so it's not a complete disaster this week in our premium episodes rory is describing a goal he would like to achieve in speaking part two and in speaking part three we're discussing setting goals and achievements in general the link is in the description so make sure you check it out You know, Rory, what's the worst part of online shopping? You know? What is it?

The waiting? No, Rory. The worst part of online shopping is having to get up and get your cards out of your purse. This is the worst thing. Well, you might not even have to do that if you have like an auto film. Sorry, am I treating the joke seriously again? Yeah, but sometimes you still need this, you know, like the, um, like three numbers and maybe you forget them, you don't remember them.

So you kind of have to get up. Right, you listen. So how can we paraphrase shopping online or online shopping? Buying things online? Buying things on the internet or the net? On the internet, yeah. How often we can say more often now than I used to? Please make sure you say used to.

Like before I did that, but not anymore. like more often now than I used to. I order things online. I order decorations, materials for the house online. I order materials to make repairs. Make repairs in your house. So a nice collocation. I order materials to make repairs online. And you can say that I order decorations for my house on Amazon. Yeah? How much are Amazon paying you to advertise? No, I'm interested in the proposition. Is it on or in or at Amazon?

It's on Amazon. Yeah, Amazon people. Pay us money for advertising. We can say that Amazon is a marketplace or a marketplace shop. So I usually buy things on marketplace shops such as Amazon, for example, or I shop online using different marketplaces. you can also say that I shop directly so I shop, I go shopping I shop directly on social media

and Roy did you know that actually in the US lots of people buy things on Instagram or TikTok or just directly on social media yeah I heard about this there's a special kind of link that you can have I briefly contemplated doing it myself

but you don't do it no I didn't I don't know why I don't don't do it, probably because I don't produce enough products. If you don't remember, a good phrase to use is, off the top of my head. Off the top of my head. It's kind of like, kind of, oh, I can't give you the answer now, but it's this. Well, if someone asks you randomly, like, what the last thing you bought was,

some people do this all the time. How are they supposed to remember? And in the exam you don't have your phone. So off the top of my head, as near as I can remember, or as best I can remember. However, I am checking my phone now. And the last thing I bought was actually not the casters for the floor. It was, in fact, a very, very small bag to take with me to a music festival I'm going to. Oh, okay.

Nice. Yeah, so you can say, like, what was the last thing you bought online? Oh, I... Of the top of my head, maybe it was a bag. Maybe it was, I know, milk. Yeah, or like, I would have to check my phone to find out. I would have to do it, yeah. I'd have to check my phone to find out, off the top of my head, I think it was.

Yeah, but the contraction is better. Hmm. And Rory said, castors, what did you say? Casters are a thing that you put under wheels to stop them from moving. around. So it's like a small bowl with rubber on the bottom. And when the wheels move, they only move in the bowl. They don't move the whole bed, for example,

if you've got a bed on wheels. Go to Google Images and type in Casters, C-A-S-T-O-R-S, and you'll see the pictures. Rory here used a very good strategy. He used a very specific word. To answer this question, what was the last thing you bought online? You, dear listener, can choose a very specific item, like a sophisticated benign word, and say it. So, for example, Rory, what else can we say?

Like, super... An electron microscope. A nuclear efficient reactor. You could just make something up. Like, that could go really well or, like, horribly wrong for you. Yeah. to like IKEA, IKEA website.

Okay, dear listener, and choose a very specific thing that you can remember. So, like, if you can remember this word, okay, fine. Maybe like choose one or two. Kind of IKEA.com. Something for your house, maybe.

Or I don't know, like, maybe something for the kitchen. Like choose two words, remember them. And, hey, Band 9 vocabulary. See, this is how you create a situation. situation for band nine. Can I say make a purchase? Like, hmm, the last purchase I made or I purchased a painting. Yes.

But the word purchase, is it okay to use? Or is it too formal for speaking? It sounds a bit formal, but I don't see the problem with it apart from that. Just I purchase something online. I purchased these casters. I can get books online. I can get books in. usual stores or shops, so buy them or get them.

You can get books online for a way better price. A way better price, just like for a better price. A much better price or a far better price. Hmm. Way makes it informal and natural. You can get books online for a way better price. Then where? In ordinary shops, in usual,

shops or... Oh, or brick and mortar stores, but that's just the physical stores. Yeah. So we contrast online shops, online stores, and the brick and mortar shops. The brick and mortar, like ordinary offline shops. Yeah, we can call them offline stores or offline shops. So the brick and mortar stores, you can also use this in your essays. You order things online or you make an order, yeah?

Or you place an order. just thinking about it there. Yeah, or you purchase. Rory, what did you mean when you said the quality is a bit suspect? Suspect. It just means that the quality is not guaranteed. It might be really good or it might be very bad.

You don't know. So you're suspect that it might not be so great. And I think with online food orders, it can be very good or it can be very bad depending. But here is an adjective, yeah? Yeah. Like possibly false or dangerous. Like a suspect bag.

Like strange bag suspicious. For example, the results were suspect. And also, your listener, the recent trend is, we call it R-O-P-O. Research online, purchase offline. So it's kind of vice versa. you first do your research online, you check out what's going on with a cattle you want to buy to make the best tea ever. And then you go to a brick and mortar store to offline shops and you purchase the item offline. Yeah, research online, purchase offline.

That's the first time I've ever heard of this. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Interesting. And it's kind of It's now, kind of, people are doing it now. So they don't go to physical stores first, but they research online and then buy the things. Maybe to avoid this craziness with the delivery, because the delivery is just all, off, off. The popularity of online shops could change the shops in city center. And Rory told us, the popularity. the popularity of online shops exploded since the pandemic.

So online shops have started being super popular. Yeah. Well, yeah, ridiculously popular. Lots of people order things online now. People order things in all the time. So people order food at home. Yeah, so people order things in all the time. Yeah.

If you order in, it's usually food. From takeaways to, their regular weekly shop. So people buy groceries, like usual products, like milk, bread, eggs online. They order food from restaurants. And then, Rory, you said,

it's gutted the High Street. First of all, tell us what High Street is and then what got to gut. So the High Street is a specifically, it's a piece of British English, which means that it's talking about the place in tyrants where most of the shops are located. So for most people, this is the city centre.

And so that's when we refer to the high street, we're referring to these places where things are sold in brick-and-mortar stores. If something is gutted, then it means that a big chunk of it is removed, like vital parts. So if the high street is gutted, then there's lots of shops that are closing down. They're leaving this empty space, for example. and there are no new shops taking their place. But they're being replaced by things like coffee shops and charity shops, so that's not necessarily a bad thing.

So the popularity of online shops damaged offline stores in city centres. The popularity of online shops got it the high street. But now people have access to a wider range of goods and services online. So a wide range of goods and services online, meaning lots of things. Any products can be bought online, right, these days, and any service as well, I think. Well, almost any. I'm trying to think of something that you might struggle to buy, but... Maybe to open an account and a bank, in certain banks, you have to go, like, physically go to a bank to get a card,

but some banks just you can open an account online and they can deliver the cards to you so no problem of Rory being a girl is so expensive you know Are you looking at your shopping list? Yeah I just have to buy things

You know perfume cosmetics shoes Do you have to buy them? Absolutely Like you see my face Rory

This look nice look shiny see I believe that your face would be nice even without all of these expensive things Oh Yes dear listen now Avoid getting scammed When you buy things online

So if we speak about dangers Of online shopping So we use the words To be or get scammed And also throads Roy Tell us about scams and frauds While shopping online

What can I say? about that. If something is a scam, then it's something that's sold under false pretenses. So that means that people tell you one thing that it's going to be amazing and it turns out not to work properly, for example. The same thing is true of fraud, actually. It's all about saying things that are amazing about the products that are not true. Thank you very much and we'll get back to you in our next episode. Bye. Bye. Oh, I need new shoes now. do you buy things online? Well, a lot more than I used to because I'm still buying things for the house

and now I'm a responsible adult I need to do things like order decorations and materials to make repairs to the place. What was the last thing you bought online? I have to check my phone to be sure, but off the top of my head, I think it was a set of casters for my bed. There are these tiny things that stop the bed wheels from moving and damaging things now that the bed is where it should be. Do you ever see things in shops and then buy them online?

Sometimes, especially books. You can usually get them online secondhand and for a way better price than in the brick and mortar stores. I'm not sure I'd get my food shopping order online. I think the quality is a bit suspect. Do you think the popularity of online shops is changing your town or city centre? Oh, it's absolutely exploded since the pandemic.

People order things in all the time, from takeaways to their regular weekly shop. It sort of gutted the high street, which is a bit sad. But people have access to a wider range of goods and services than before, and things are moving in to replace what has been lost. So it's not a complete disaster.