IELTS Speaking for Success - 🧘‍♂️ Taking a break (Part 1) + Transcript

Episode Date: November 7, 2025

Get our premium episode archive: https://www.patreon.com/ieltssfs How do you feel after taking a nap? Do you take a nap when you have a rest? What do you usually do when you are resting? How often do you take a rest or take a break? 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/s13e01 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

Hello, lovely, I'm Maria. And my name is Rory, and we are the host of the AILT Speaking for Success podcast, a podcast that aims to help you improve your speaking skills, as well as your listening skills along the way. We've started this podcast to give you gorgeous grammar and fabulous vocabulary for your high ILD score. Your band 9th score. Oh, wow, are you tired?

Yeah, I probably need a nap. and I'll be fine. Can we talk about having naps and taking breaks before that? Let's talk about taking a break. Having a nap. Yay, this is what we all love. Dear listener, right? Having a break, taking a nap.

A nap is just this short period of sleep for like 15 minutes. Any predictions for having a nap? For the episode. Maybe you will say that you are super productive and you sleep during the night. night and everything is scheduled, like you get up at freaking 5.30 in the morning, then you function and then at 8pm you go to sleep. That's all. No siesta. You function and then you go to sleep. You wake up, you function and you go to sleep. The predictions are, I will mention being productive,

I will not take naps. Anything else? You might take a nap on the weekend. So those are Maria's predictions. I mention being productive, I will say no naps, and I will maybe take a nap on the weekend. How do you feel after taking a nap? I don't really do that, to be honest. To the extent that I can't even remember the last time I did, it must have been, oh God, years ago when I dosed off at summer school, because I was knackard, and I doubt it made me feel much better, to be honest. I remember feeling pretty groggy after doing that sort of thing in the past. Do you take a nap when you have a rest?

No, usually I just chill out with a book or a video game or something like that. I like having a defined period for sleep and don't get much out of taking naps. What do you usually do when you are resting? Other than what I said before, not much really. I'm not very original in that regard. That being said, do I need to be productive and creative when I'm having a break? How often do you take a rest or take a break? Well, probably more now than I used to, though I'm far from indolent just yet.

I remember working for hours on end when I first started working, and I didn't really think much of resting. Nowadays, I'm much better at that sort of thing, and I think I have a rest in the mid-morning after my initial classes. And then before yoga or climbing in the evenings, I like to decompress and read a book then. 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. Yuhoooo, the listener taking a break.

Yeah, so an nap is a C1 word, a short sleep, especially during the day. We take a nap or we have a nap after lunch. Okay. Band 8 vocabulary. So you can say that I feel great after taking a nap or I feel even more tired after taking a nap. And you can say like, to be honest, I can't even remember the last time I took a nap. Yay! I was right.

did I say that Rory never takes naps See Rory I know you I know you No naps Any other Any other predictions that came true Did I mention having a nap at the weekend

Wait wait wait well we'll come to that No we're checking the predictions now Ah okay okay when I dozed off At summer school Yay But I never said anything about the weekend That doesn't count Summer school is like in the week

No, no, no, I meant holidays. No, no, no. No, well, I was thinking holidays. I didn't say it out loud. Uh-huh, sure. And then did I mention being productive? Sort of, working hours on end. Maybe that's part of being productive.

I guessed it all right. No, you didn't. You'd guess some of it, right, but not all of it. So, de listener, if you can't remember the last time when you took a nap, you can say, it must have been years ago. which means probably it was a long time ago. I don't even remember. So it must have been, it must have been.

It must have been years ago when I took a nap or when I dozed off. Doze off means take a nap or have a nap. Just sleep for some time. When I dozed off during holidays or at the weekend, why? because I was naked. I was exhausted. I was really tired. I was just like,

so I was naked. But I doubt that it made me feel much better. So Rory is the same as me, you know, if I take a nap during the day, I'm done. Zombie wakes up, you know? Seriously, I just, you know, just let me sleep forever then. So I never take a nap during the day. Only if I'm ill and if I sleep all day.

Other than that, I feel horrible. No, it's just like, after a nap I'm in a zombie mood. You know, like, zombies are coming. Burns, yeah. Rory, it's funny. Aren't you laughing with my zombie explanation? Because it's not funny. Not funny?

Well. Sorry. Maria turns, or you can say like I turn into a zombie. after a nap. I could say that. But I felt groggy. Groggy. What's that?

Groggy. Feeling like a zombie. Weak, unable to think clearly or walk correctly. So pretty much, yeah, like you wake up a zombie. You can go like, where are my legs? So you can say I usually feel a bit groggy after taking a nap. Can you say dazed? I usually feel quite dazed.

after a nap. You might feel quite dazed, or lightheaded, I suppose. Lightheaded. Yeah, because dazed is C2. It's Ben 9. Ooh, is it? Could you use it in a sentence about naps? Dazed.

Oh, God, no, I couldn't, because usually I associate dazed with being confused and not very, not feeling very well. I prefer groggy. It's connected to being tired and not thinking clearly. Hmm, okay. Sorry, dear listener. Don't use dazed in this context, okay?

Sorry. Can, but it's not what I do. I can't think of one. Every time I think of dazed, I just think of dazed and confused, which is a binomial. Like, after taking an IEL test, I felt dazed. Confused, unable to think clearly. Or after the accident, I was dazed. Like in a shock.

Or you can say, like, I was so happy, I was in a daze. You know, after a long walk, I felt dazed, kind of confused, unable to think, clearly. I usually take a nap during the day or at the weekend. Or you can say I usually take a nap before going out. Ladies, we do have our beauty sleep. It's called, you know, to take a nap, to have some beauty sleep before going out.

Like we take a nap and then we get dressed and do the makeup and we go out. You can also say like have a break. or have a rest. Decompress. Decompress. Yeah, like, what does it mean to decompress? It just means to come out of a stressful situation. It, technically, it's for when you take the pressure off something.

But it can also mean to just come out of a stressful situation as well. De-stress yourself. To relax. Yeah, I need a week to decompress. You can say that I usually chill out with a book. So when I have a rest, When I'm resting, I usually chill out with a book or I usually read or chill out with a video game. Yeah, Rory's a gamer.

I am not a gamer. I don't really play many video games like religiously. Yes, you are. How? How much time do you spend playing video games, Rory? Every day. How much time do I spend playing video games? Yes. I don't know.

Like maybe an hour? Like a day, maybe. Oh, an hour a day. Well, when you think about what other things I spend my time doing, which is much more, then that's not that much time, is it? So if you don't like taking naps, you can say, I like having a defined time for sleep at night, which means that I have like eight hours of sleep every night,

and I don't take naps during the day. So you can say that I don't get much out of taking naps. audio listening. I enjoy taking naps. I get a lot. I get a lot of rest out of taking naps. I am not very original in that regard. So I'm not really creative when it comes to resting. So I just do boring things like read a book, sleep. No, no, Rory doesn't sleep. I do sleep. I go to bed at 10 o'clock and I wake up at 6 o'clock. Every day, six o'clock. My goodness gracious. Almost every day. Rory's like a robot. When I do yoga teacher training, I wake up at half past five in the morning.

That's fun. Oh, it's painful. I feel pain. Wait, wait, I feel pain. Oh, 530. And then you do three hours of yoga from 6 o'clock until 9 o'clock. It's amazing. Whoa, whoa, whoa, what did I say?

That you get up at freaking 5.30? Not every day. Not every day. Oh, that's... No, but I do. I did mention 5.30 and exactly 530, Roy. Only when I do teach your training. Only when I do teacher training.

Not at exactly 530. Like at 2, I have an alarm set for 520 and 525 so that it's like a precursor alarm. So, Dele listen, you can say, I'm productive without naps. When I take a rest or when I take a break or when I have a rest or when I have a break, I usually read. I usually cook. And then Rory used this interesting adjective, Rory. You said something indolent.

Oh, indolent. Everybody knows what that means. No. What do you mean? You don't know what it means. Because it's literary. It's used in literature. Is it literary?

No, it's not. Yes, according to Cambridge Online Dictionary. It's an adjective. It means you want to avoid activity or working hard. It's like it means you're lazy. You're lazy, I should say. For example. What? Like, just talking about people being indolent. That just means they're lazy. It's maybe a polite way of saying it.

For example, I'm an indolent creature. I am an indolent woman. I remember working for hours on end. Working non-stop. Working for hours on end. Without much resting. In the evenings, I like to decompress and read. So, decompress to relax. So in the evening, I like to decompress. I'd like to decompress with a book. Oh, yeah, the predictions. So, Rory, I was all correct all the way. I disagree. I think that you didn't.

You weren't right all the way. Oh, come on. Feel free to comment on the episode, everybody. Do you think Maria was correct with all of her predictions? Or do you think that she could be better with some of them? We are ready for a joke. Is the joke your lack of being able to predict things correct? No.

What do you call a male cow who is taking a nap? A bulldozer! Well, that was terrible. Rory, now you explain the joke. A bull is the word for a male cow and doze is the word for taking asleep. So a dozer will be a person that dozes. Do you remember we mentioned this phrase of verb, dose off?

Oh, yes. So does. means to fall asleep. And a person who does it, right, like teach teacher, doze, dozer. Right, but here we have a noun, bulldozer. What is a bulldozer? It's a construction machinery that demolishes or could demolish buildings. A heavy vehicle with a large blade. So kind of like a piece of machinery. Thank you very much for listening. Hopefully you had a love. And if you didn't, don't worry about it. Bye.

How do you feel after taking a nap? I don't really do that, to be honest. To the extent that I can't even remember the last time I did, it must have been, oh God, years ago when I dosed off at summer school, because I was knackard, and I doubt it made me feel much better, to be honest. I remember feeling pretty groggy after doing that sort of thing in the past. Do you take a nap when you have a rest? No, usually I just chill out with a book or a video game or something like that.

I like having a defined period for sleep and don't get much out of taking naps. What do you usually do when you are resting? Other than what I said before, not much really. I'm not very original in that regard. That being said, do I need to be productive and creative when I'm having a break? How often do you take a rest or take a break? Well, probably more now than I used to, though I'm far from indolent just yet. I remember working for hours on end when I first started working,

and I didn't really think much of resting. Nowadays, I'm much better at that sort of thing, and I think I have a rest in the mid-morning after my initial classes, and then before yoga or climbing in the evenings, I like to decompress and read a book then. I'm BLEENI-D-B-D-B-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D.