IELTS Speaking for Success - 🙏🏻 Saying thank you (Part 1 ) + Transcript

Episode Date: June 16, 2025

Get access to our episode archive: https://www.patreon.com/ieltssfs Why do people need to say 'thank you'? On what occasions do you say 'thank you'? Do people in your country often say 'thank you'? Have you ever sent a thank-you card to others? 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/s12e11 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

When you're flying Emirates business class, relaxing in an exclusive airport lounge, you'll see that your vacation isn't really over until your flight is over. Fly Emirates, fly better. Hello, Sunshine, I'm Maria. And my name is Rory, and we are the hosts of the IEL Speaking for Success podcast, the official band nine podcast that aims to help you 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 IELS score,

Band 9 score. And then Rory got Ben 9 for speaking. And before that, I got a band 9 score for speaking. So, Rory, you have Band 9 and I have Band 9. So, we're the only podcast on the internet for IELTS with two IELTS band 9 speakers. Oh, Rory, today we're going to discuss a new topic. We've never had this topic before. Oh, wow. Wow. What's the topic? It's saying thank you.

Can you imagine, dear listener, the first time in history, we have a topic of saying thank you. Ah, so cute and nice. Let's talk about saying thank you. Why do people need to say thank you? Well, I suppose it's a nice way to show you appreciate something that someone's done for you but without the commitment of buying something like a gift but not everything has to be so resource intensive, does it? I don't know if they need to do it,

but it's certainly expected. On what occasions do you say thank you? Oh wow. It would be easier to say when I don't, to be honest. I always try to be polite to people, especially if they help me out, even in a minor way. And so that could be anything like when they hold a door or let me pass them in a street with minimal fuss. Do people in your country often say thank you?

I think so. They certainly seem to, when I make the effort to give them a hand, although certain older people seem to think that people in general are less thankful than before. maybe it was different back then, I have no idea. Have you ever sent a thank you card to others? Oh God, well, I must have at some point, I suppose, though I can't remember exactly when.

I think it might have been when I left. Yeah, I left one of my friends after she let me stay with her for a few weeks. And that was really nice of her. So I think I probably sent something then. And if I didn't, I would have at least given her a good five present. And if not, then I can say it now. Thank you, Chiu-A for letting me stay with you

when I was in Kyrgyzstan doing different things. 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. So, dear listener, yeah, thank you. Do you like this topic?

A very interesting topic. It's a weird one. It is a weird one, yeah. But it's universal, and I think everybody all over the world says thank you, at least once in their life, right? I think we do say thank you. Every day? We do it every day. Do you, dear listener?

Actually, it's a good meditation practice before you go to sleep. You should thank somebody or like be thankful for what you have and pronounce it out loud or to yourself. Yeah, so we say thank you. And an adjective, Rory, what's an adjective from thank? To be thankful. Yeah, we are thankful and the proposition for something. Yeah. You could also be grateful and show gratitude for something.

It occurs to me that I didn't quite say that. Another synonym is be grateful. So I'm so grateful to you. I'm so thankful for. And thanks is an expression of gratitude. So when you say thank you, you express your gratitude to someone. It's a nice way to show that you appreciate something. So you like something, you value something, you appreciate something or someone.

So someone has this. done something for you and you appreciate it. So you are grateful and you express your gratitude. Okay. And without any commitment of buying something like a gift. So no gifts. Just we say we use words. On what occasions do you say thank you? Like on like when, like after what do you usually say thank you? Occasions like events or situations. And Rory, lives in Scotland. He's from Scotland, so he's pretty much British. So, and we know that in those countries, people usually say, thank you, thank you, thank you, sorry, sorry, sorry. So these are like two words, thank you, and sorry that they might overuse. They use it far too often. How often is too often?

Hmm, a good question. Yeah, but it's, it depends on the country, right? In certain countries, people say thank you all the time for nothing, right, also. But in other countries, they don't. And I'm usually quite, I find it rude if a person doesn't say thank you when I give a present, for example. Yeah, you should say thank you. Yeah, but some people don't. It's just rude. Like, what? Like, I give you something, even if you don't like it, like at least say thank you. So don't do that, de list. If someone gives you something, just say. thank you. To be polite, you see, to be nice, to be friendly. So if a person helps out, so if a person helps me out, helps me, I usually say thank you. And then you can give some examples. If a person

holds a door for me. So you are entering a shop and then a person holds the door for you, you say thank you. Or if they let me pass them. Right? Yeah, if you let me go past. You are on the street and if you let me past them, so I kind of go past them on the street. So I say thank you. For presents, like what else? Compliments, all right?

So if I say like, oh Rory, you look gorgeous today. Maria has never said that in her entire life, but if she did, then I would say thank you. No, come on, I did say that you look stylish. I know, I know, I'm just joking. So yeah, Rory, you look gorgeous and then Rory says, oh, thank you. I appreciate it. Also, we often say, I appreciate it, like thank you. Or cheers, for example. Yeah, people say cheers, like thanks.

Or that's so kind of you. You can also say, like thank you. That's so kind of you. Your support means a lot to me. Such nice things, huh? So in your country, dear listener, how often do people say thank you? Is it in your culture? to thank people to be grateful to other people.

So when I make an effort to give them a hand, give a hand, help people. So when I help people, when I help out, other people, they usually say thank you. Older people are less thankful than before in my country. Well, no, older people think that people in general are less thankful than before. I did say certain older people.

I'm sure some older people don't really care about this kind of thing. But I think it's the opinion of many older people that we are less thankful or less grateful. But I don't know. I don't see this. Yeah, maybe in your country, like young people, teenagers are less thankful than before. Yeah, and the other day, you know, I was sitting on a bench and there were many teenagers around me, like talking, Oh my God, Rory. I was like, I was listening to what they were saying.

I was looking at what they were wearing. Wow. I was a bit scared. Wow, you guys are scary. Oh, because they were talking very loudly and they were using really bad words. Some of them were fighting. Well, that's about being impolite

or not regarding other people's feelings. That's not about saying thank you. We can send a thank you card to other people. So I've never sent any thank you card or a thank you email, for example. So have you ever sent a thank you card? If you've never done it, you can talk about thank you emails or a thank you message because usually we just write messages on Telegram, WhatsApp. So you can say that I've, I usually write to my friends to thank them.

So kind of, oh, I can't remember doing that. Because I think it's kind of, it's a thing of the past, right? When, like, we used to send thank you cards. Well, letter writing in general will be. But just because it's a thing of the past doesn't mean to say people don't do it. I certainly have, but I can't remember when. Yeah, for example, someone helped you out. or someone let you stay with you for some time

and then you left a thank you card for them. And it's a special postcard. Very important to point out the grammar. I said, I must have at some point. And it might have been. So if you're not sure, you can use this more complex grammar to express the idea that we are not so sure about things. Yeah, and you can say that.

Yeah, I wrote to my friends like, thank you for giving me this dress. Thank you for helping me. And Rory, do you remember in a situation when someone thanked you really nicely? Yes, actually, two years ago when I was in the middle of doing my Delta and I did it in a school in Turkey. And a whole load of students came up to me at one point in the middle of the school. and they asked me if I was who I was, and I said yes,

and they're like, thank you so much for the podcast. If we didn't have it, then we wouldn't get the marks that we need. And I was like, oh, thank you. That's really nice to hear. And this was completely unsolicited. I went to that school, and I never told them anything about what I did. I just said, oh, I'm an English teacher. I just want to be here to do my Delta, and that's all. No drama.

And still, the recognition happens, and people come up and say thank you. That's next. It's fame. They recognized your voice. Nice. It was so funny. It was so strange. Nice.

But it was also extremely nice. So if you are the students who thanked me, then you're very welcome. And hopefully things are going well. Yay. So, dear listener, a very nice, cute, warm topic of saying thank you. Yeah, you can read some articles on the internet about gratitude. expressing gratitude and yeah I don't have a thank joke

Rory did you have a thank you joke no but thank you for listening how about thanks a butt load no no buts thank you so much for listening the listener you know thank you for listening to this thank you episode

we are forever thankful for all you're listening bye why do people need to say thank you. Well, I suppose it's a nice way to show you appreciate something that someone's done for you, but without the commitment of buying something, like a gift, but not everything has to be so resource intensive, does it? I don't know if they need to do it, but it's certainly expected. On what occasions do you say thank you? Oh, wow. It would be easier to say when I don't, to be

honest, I always try to be polite to people, especially if they help me out, even in a minor way. And so that could be anything like when they hold a door or let me pass them in a street with minimal fuss. Do people in your country often say thank you? I think so. They certainly seem to, when I make the effort to give them a hand, although certain older people seem to think that people in general are less thankful than before. Maybe it was different back then. I have no idea. Have you ever sent a thank you card to others?

Oh, God. Well, I must have at some point, I suppose, though I can't remember exactly when. I think it might have been when I left. Yeah, I left one of my friends after she let me stay with her for a few weeks. And that was really nice of her. So I think I probably sent something then.

and if I didn't, I would have at least given her a good-fi present. And if not, then I can say it now. Thank you, Chiewee for letting me stay with you when I was in Kyrgyzstan doing different things.