IELTS Speaking for Success - 🏛️ Rules, laws, and social behavior (Part 3) + Transcript

Episode Date: September 18, 2026

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Hello, hello, dear listener and welcome into IEL speaking part three. We are talking about laws, rules and regulations in general. What rules should students follow at school? Well, ideally all of them, but in reality it's probably the ones they consider to have the most value in a being. And can you explain it further? Yeah, for example, you're less likely to get a severe punishment or caught for dropping litter compared to flagrantly bullying another student, so you'd probably find the majority choosing to go along with that one most of the time. Do people in your country usually obey the law?

Well, I would certainly say so. We're a pretty law-abiding bunch, and not many people are proud of being seen to flout the various rules and regulations. Well, regardless of how many there are, or if they make sense even. And what evidence do you have for that? Well, we haven't descended into anarchy yet, so that probably means people are rubbing along quite nicely. What kinds of behaviour are considered as good behaviour? I'd imagine the ones that conform to various norms of what's considered respectful,

or at least not discourteous to others, but that varies based on where you are, doesn't it? Has that always been true? It must have been, yeah. People have always tried to get along to make society work and they've always varied between groups. Do you think children can learn about the law outside of school? Probably, yeah. There are things on the news about various rules and regulations all the time, as well as social media. So assuming they're literate, they'll be able to read and hear about them. And we have almost constant internet access in most places so they can read.

read up on things there too. And how likely is that? I'd say it depends on how close that you follow the news about the law or how much you care about knowing about such things. Most people seem fine with following the rules, though, so it seems likely they'll at least tangentially be aware. What are the benefits of obeying rules? Well, not being charged with an offence for starters, but if everyone accepts the same behavioral norms, then it becomes easier to maintain law and order and it makes getting things

done much easier. Do you think that can change in the future? Well, the benefits won't, but we will lose them at least in part of people no longer agree on what's acceptable and what constitutes a serious breach of the social contract. How can parents teach children to obey rules? Well, I suppose they could at least tell them when they're being ignorant of basic etiquette. and putting her foot in it, at least on reflection. If they do a good job of it, they might even tell them about what a typical faux pa, or what typical faux pa look like,

and how they might be avoided, or how to get away with being a bit cheeky instead of downright rude. And will that also be true in the future? That's hard to say. Being a parent and raising a family is becoming increasingly difficult for a lot of people, but assuming parents are invested in their children's success, then it's likely to continue,

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So, dear listener, a very common topic, laws, regulations, rules, and we follow rules at school, at work, We break rules if we don't follow them. We obey the law. Obey the law. Like follow the law. Obey the law. Like act according to the rules. Obey orders.

Obey the rules. Obey the law. Get a severe punishment. If people don't obey the rules, they sometimes get punished. And if it's severe, it's very, very, well, harsh, I suppose, or it's a big punishment. Yeah, severe punishment. Like, causing great pain, damage, like serious punishment.

Severe difficulties, like serious difficulties. You can have severe pain. And when people get caught for doing something, so get caught for using drugs, get caught for dropping litter, like throwing rubbish in the street. They can get a severe punishment. When you speak about rules at school, you can mention bullying. When people bully each other. And if they flagrantly do it, then they're doing it so it's obvious for everybody, even the teachers.

So bully somebody, see one, eight, you know, that's an advanced word. So hurt somebody over a period of time. Usually, like, we have bullying at school, at work, in the army. And people who bully other people are called bullies. And you can say, like, many students are bullied at school. And there are rules against bullying or there are rules for bullying. What's the proposition? about the rules about bullying?

It could be the rules about bullying or the rules for bullying. Although the rules for bullying makes it seem like there are rules that make it okay. Yeah, like they're allowed. Yeah, bullying is allowed. Okay, you can hurt each other. But, yeah, there are some rules. Yeah, yeah, so there are rules about bullying. Don't do it in the first one.

Yeah, like don't bully each other. Some people obey the law, other people break the law. Some people follow the law, like follow, obey, and we can use an adjective, law abiding. So if people follow the law, they are law-abiding citizens. So they obey the law, they follow the rules, law-abiding citizens. And you can say there are many law-abiding citizens, in my country, but there are some hooligans, there are some bandits. I love that.

Hooligans. Like, yeah, Rory is from Scotland. Like, yeah, like, and actually a hooligan is a surname. Well, was a surname. Is it? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's a surname. Wow. Yeah, yeah.

And the word hooligan came to us from a surname. Interesting. Yeah, I think this person lived in England. Oh, wow. Well, you know, English people. Hooligans. They are football hooligans, there you. Oh, well, there definitely are football hooligans, that's for sure.

Yeah, oh, sorry, not English, Irish. Ah, I wouldn't know anything about that. People are proud to be law-abiding citizens. Or people are proud to kind of like to follow regulations, to follow rules. Or Rory, you said, like, flout. Yes, if you flout the rules, then you don't follow them. Ooh. So we can break rules or we can flout. Flout. If you're tired of saying break rules, break the law, you can say flout. Intentionally not obey a rule, a law or some customs. Flout the law, flout a rule. Flout tradition. Yeah, usually we say break, but flout would be a nice synonym. Good behavior and bad behavior. So if people conform to various norms.

Again, norms, regulations. And here conform is a verb. When people conform, they behave according to the usual standards. Right. And here we talk about society, many people. So people behave as everybody else. So people behave according to the standards in this society. they like I behave like everybody else so I conform to the rules I conform to tradition and it's negative sometimes

because you are not unique you don't follow your own desires but you do what is expected from you by society conform you conform to the norms this family is on the brink of civil Mopland, the hit original series is now streaming on Paramount Plus. We are the Harrogans. Don't know than it? And Google us. From the underworld of Guy Ritchie. Do you want to step up the ladder? I won't call him dead.

Starring Tom Hardy, Pierce Brosnan and Helen Mirren. Do I have to do everything myself? You want to want! I'll give you a more! Moblad, new season is now streaming on Paramount Plus. Most of us conform to the norms, most of the time. but when we don't and we are rude to people, we might not be respectful, or we might be discourteous. So both of those are ways of talking about being rude.

Discortious, de listen, yeah. It's a formal word. Discourteous. rude. I don't consider other people's feelings. I'm discurteous. Disrespectful. You can use present perfect, like people have always tried to get along. People have always broken the law. People have always lied about all sorts of things. People have always committed different crimes. Yeah, so that has always been true. It started, it is true now, and it will be in the future. So we can use present perfect with always. It's the same as like, I've always wanted to be a doctor, for example. Oh, but if everybody breaks the rules and society stops working, then we might descend into anarchy,

which means there are no rules, no laws. It's a disaster. If people don't obey rules, they can be charged with something. So if a person steals stuff, so they are caught by the police, and then they are charged with this crime. to be charged with a crime by the police, by the authorities.

So when they make a formal statement saying that, okay, you are accused of a crime. You stole this burger from a shop. You are charged with theft. Theft is a crime. And another synonym for a crime is offense. An offense. Yes, you can be charged with an offense.

commit an offense. Commit is like do an offense, but we don't say do and offense. We say commit an offense. An offense is an illegal act, a crime. It could be a serious offense, a minor offense. If I steal a burger, it's a minor offense. But if a person kills another person, it's a serious offense. Well, it's a murder.

That's a very serious offense. Yeah. Yeah, well, a murder or manslaughter. Yeah, there are different terms. Commit an offense, commit a crime, so commit. So it's easier to maintain law, to obey the law, rather than get a severe punishment. To maintain law and order, the binomial. Oh, so many binomials, rules and regulations, peace and harmony, law and order.

Parents teach children to obey the rules. Hopefully, but how and when? And they teach them some etiquette. Yes, deal is an etiquette. You know, like... The ways to properly behave, maybe. Yeah, during dinner, during, you know, parties. So the set of rules, etiquette, etiquette.

Customs, tradition, set of rules, social etiquette. Children should be taught some social etiquette. Or basic etiquette. But if they don't... If they don't, then... children could make a faux pa, a faux par, tell us the two words. Pho and par, perhaps French, because they are spelled in a very strange way, F-A-U-X, X, tell us in a yes, and par P-A-S, pho-pa.

Words or behavior that are a social mistake that are not polite. For example, during dinner, if a person uses another spoon or, another fork or starts eating with their hands, Rory, will it be a faux par? Oh, yeah, that's a major fopa. And we could say a typical foeper for something that happens regularly, or a major for something that's very serious, or a minor foepa for something that's not serious. Yeah, or when you, during dinner, you make some remarks about somebody's family, you kind of start criticizing someone's clothes, and then everybody just looks,

that you're like, oh, so that's a serious faux par. You go against the rules against etiquette. You don't follow etiquette, so you are rude and you make a social mistake. A very nice thing is to start with ING. Being a parent is difficult. Raising a family is difficult. Having a family is difficult. Being a parent is difficult.

teaching children, etiquette is difficult or is important. And about future, we say it is likely to continue, it's unlikely to continue. Or it's hard to say. Well, you're hard to say. I don't know. Why are you asking me? Yeah, look, it's likely to continue. Yes, I'm pretty sure it will continue or it's unlikely to continue in the future.

I'm sure it won't continue. Thank you very much for listening. You've learned a lot about the rules and regulations. We'll get back to you in our next episode. Bye. Bye. Cyber attacks have changed. Most cyber recovery plans haven't.

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Well, ideally all of them, but in reality it's probably the ones they consider to have the most value in a being. And can you explain it further? Yeah, for example, you're less likely to get a severe punishment or caught for dropping litter compared to flagrantly bullying another student. So you'd probably find the majority choosing to go along with that one most of the time. Do people in your country usually obey the law? Well, I would certainly say so. We're a pretty law-abiding bunch, and not many people are proud of being seen to flout the various rules and regulations, well, regardless of how many there are, or if they make sense, even. And what evidence do you have for that? Well, we haven't

descended into anarchy yet, so that probably means people are rubbing along quite nicely. What kinds of behaviour are considered as good behaviour? I'd imagine the ones that conform to various norms of what's considered respectful, or at least not discourteous to others, but that varies based on where you are, doesn't it? Has that always been true? It must have been, yeah. People have always tried to get along to make society work, and they've always varied between groups. Do you think children can learn about the law outside of school?

Probably, yeah. There are things on the news about various rules and regulations all the time, as well as social media, so assuming they're literate, they'll be able to read and hear about them. And we have almost constant internet access in most places, so they can read up on things there too. And how likely is that? I'd say it depends on how close that you follow the news about the law or how much you care about knowing about such things. Most people seem fine with following the rules, though, so it seems likely they'll at least tangentially be aware.

What are the benefits of obeying rules? Well, not being charged with an offence, for starters, but if everyone accepts the same behavioral norms, then it becomes easier to maintain law and order, and it makes getting things done much easier. Do you think that can change in the future? Well, the benefits won't, but we will lose them at least in part of people no longer agree on what's acceptable and what constitutes a serious breach of the social contract. How can parents teach children to obey rules? I suppose they could at least tell them when they're being ignorant of basic etiquette and putting their foot in it, at least on reflection. If they do a good job of it, they might even tell them about what a typical faux pa, or what typical faux pa look like

and how they might be avoided or how to get away with being a bit cheeky instead of downright rude. And will that also be true in the future? That's hard to say. Being a parent and raising a family is becoming increasingly difficult for a lot of people but assuming parents are invested in their children's success

then it's likely to continue, yes? This family is on the brink of Civil War. Mobland, the hit original series is now streaming on Paramount Plus. We are the Harrogans. Don't know the net? And Google us. From the underworld of Guy Ritchie. Do you want to step up the ladder?

I won't call him dead. Starring Tom Hardy, Pierce Brosnan, and Helen Mirren. Do I have to do everything myself? You want to want! I'll give you a mob. Moblad. New season is now streaming on Paramount Plus.