IELTS Speaking for Success - 🧹 Tidiness (S03E25) + Transcript

Episode Date: July 30, 2020

Should you force yourself to be tidy? Is a bit of chaos good for creativity? What's the difference between vacuuming and hoovering?  Tune in and have a great day! - IELTS Speaking for Success PREMIUM: https://linktr.ee/sfspremium Transcript: https://successwithielts.com/s03e25 Our social media: https://linktr.ee/successwithielts © 2020 Success with IELTS Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Commission's fees and expenses may apply. Read the funds or ETF's prospectus before investing. Funds and ETFs are not guaranteed. Their values change and past performance may not be repeated. Hello, lovely people of the world, I'm Maria. And my name is Rory, and we are the hosts of the AIL Speaking for Success podcasts. The podcast that aims to help you improve your speaking skills, as well as your listening skills along the way. We started this super podcast because we want you to use high-level words, phrasal verbs,

and gorgeous grammar in your everyday English and in your IELT speaking exam. Rory, so you work very hard, you slave away every day. What do you do in the evening? I'm probably tidy everything up after I'm done because I make quite a mess during the day while I'm working. Wow, what a coincidence. Today we're going to be talking about being tidy. We have lots of coincidences on this podcast. Yes, in AILD speaking part one, they can ask you questions about being tidy.

Rory, are you a tidy person? Usually. Though right now my laundry paper, pile leaves something to be desired. But in the main, yeah, I'm quite good at having everything in its place and tidying up and cleaning dishes and things. So yeah, I'm pretty good at that. What do you do to be tidy? Well, I like everything to be in its place. So everything has a place that it should be in, or at the very least it's out of the way, and I know where it is. So that's just one way of doing it. The other thing is just making sure that everything is organized. So once

like let's talk about clothes like I have drawers for different clothes so if we have all the socks in the sock drawer then they're all in the right place it's not just like a mess for example do you think that it's necessary to be tidy well because I'm a tidy person I suppose I'm meant to say yes

but actually no I don't think so I think it's actually a personality thing most people think it's like the key to being the best at everything to be tidy and organised but like I say if you're a person personality is not like that, then you shouldn't force yourself to be because you just make yourself miserable. So if you're an orderly person, then, yeah, you should definitely try.

But if you're not, then don't worry, it's not the end of the world, just find someone that understands why you're untidy. Do you think that people should be tidy all the time? No, I think like a little chaos can be a good thing, actually, because it forces you to think creatively about, well, how to solve the problem of chaos, I suppose. So in this sense, it's not something that you have to 100% be all the time, but it is something that I try to be most of the time. Do you keep your workplace tidy? Well, I definitely try to, but it feels like a losing battle sometimes because the work often piles up and then I've got to get through everything,

and so the focus is on the work more than the being tidy. But then I'll come back to the tidiness, so it's not like I completely give up. What about your house? Yeah, it's quite tidy. Like I say, apart from the laundry pile, but it's a laundry pile, so it doesn't have to be tidy. It is my logic at the very least. When was the last time you cleaned up? Like, you mean everything? Yes.

Well, oh God, well, it's called spring cleaning, but to be honest, I did it before I went on holiday in the summer. So I guess that would be about a month ago. But then I do like little bits and pieces of tidying every day. And what did you do during this spring cleaning? Oh, God, everything. Like I cleaned the dishes. all of the surfaces in the kitchen, swept the floor, did the vacuuming, even the parts of the apartment that I'm never usually in, I was vacuuming.

So, yeah, I just went on a bit of a cleaning frenzy, I suppose. Nice. Can I invite you over to my house so you can do the same? It's okay. No, hire a cleaner. I have work to do. You can do this spring cleaning in summer, you know, every month. No, no, I have work to do.

Get your own cleaner. You always say no to me. I don't know how old you are. I don't know your birthday. Now you refuse to clean my flat. I know. Oh yeah. That is a tragedy that I don't clean your flat for you.

Yes. Thank you, Rory, for your answers. No problem. Now, Rory, so tidy. What does it mean tidy? Is it the same as clean? What is it? I think people use them interchangeably,

but they do actually mean different things. So, for example, tidying is more about organizing or reorganizing things, so physically moving them. Whereas cleaning is more like the act of making sure that there's no dirt on them. So there is a difference between the two. But if you're using them naturally and interchangeably, then it shouldn't be such a huge problem. Oh, this is so confusing. So, can I say that I'm a tidy person? Yeah.

I'm a clean person. Yeah. Although that could have two meanings, couldn't it? Because it could mean that you are physically clean. Ah, right. So I'm a clean. It means like I, okay, I've washed my body. Is that a bad thing either?

No. I don't think so. I think it should be clear from the context what you're talking about. So it shouldn't be something you have a breakdown about. Yeah. So when I say, I'm a tidy person, I'm an organized person, which means I clean things up, right? Yeah. Or can I say I tidy up, right?

Yes. Yes. So tidy up, like clean your flat. What about nouns? So tidiness, right? Cleanliness? Oh, cleanliness. Wow.

But that's about our body and soul cleanliness. No, no. Cleanliness is about, what's the word? It's a character trait. Oh, or it's actually a state of being as well. How can you use it in a sentence? People frequently question my cleanliness. Wow.

If my apartment hasn't been tidied. Yeah, antonyms would be untit. so some people are untidy or messy right? Mm-hmm. Or disorganized, right? When we talk about not being clean, we can say like something is dirty or filthy. That's a strong word, filthy. It is. It's also not a way that I would describe any of the places I have lived because I like to keep them tidy and clean. Maybe at university. Right. And we can say, yes, keep things organized. I enjoy keeping things organized. I enjoy keeping things. things clean, keeping things tidy. And you said that you prefer to have things in their places, right? Yes. So if everything is in its place, it's in the, well, it's in the place it's supposed to be in.

And out of the way. You mentioned drawers, so you keep your things in drawers, right? Yes. So that's just, well, it's something that you pull out and put things in and then you put the drawer back in. I think everybody, hopefully everybody knows what a drawer is. Drawer, yep. I can't think of any other ways it's described, actually. There must be an American word for it that I'm not thinking of right now. So you keep your socks in drawers? Yes.

I keep my socks in a sock drawer, and I have a place from my shirts. Sock drawer. And how do you fold your socks? Do you kind of, like, fold them in half, or what do you do with you? Oh, I'm awful, apparently. I iron my socks, and then I fold them. But I'm told that almost nobody does this these days. Rory irons, his socks, ladies and gents.

Wow. Why do you do that? I think it's just part of being disciplined. It's funny because actually my dad does the same thing as soon as my mom. But a lot of the people that we know, in fact, I would say almost 100% of the other people I know do not do this. Oh my God. Okay, dear listeners, do we have anybody who irons their socks? I don't do that. It's crazy for me.

So, like, if you iron your socks, could you keep Rory company? Go to our social media and give us a shout out. Yay! I iron my socks. Nice to me, orderly people. All right. You've mentioned your laundry pile. Laundry.

What is laundry? Oh, laundry pile is just, well, laundry is the clothes that need to be cleaned. And if you do the laundry, then you're cleaning them. And if you're organizing the laundry, then they are cleaned. And you have, you're putting it back in its right place. Could you use it in a sentence? laundry? I do my laundry once a week. You do your laundry once a week, you clean all the surfaces surfaces in your house, right? Yeah, ideally once a week, but it's more like once every two weeks

now that I think about it. You sweep the floors. That's more like once a month, but it still gets done. And you do the vacuuming. Again, more like once a month. Vacuuming or hoovering? Hoovering in the UK, vacuuming in the US, but they're used so interchangeably again that it doesn't matter. Yeah, so all these things, like sweeping the floor, doing the vacuuming, we call them chores, household chores. Yes. And you can say, like, I try to keep up with daily housekeeping or household chores. I liked it when you mentioned a little chaos. So a little chaos is fine, so this creative chaos, yeah.

But sometimes you lose battle. You lose battle with what? Oh, it's a losing battle. So it's like something that you're trying to accomplish, but it's not working for you. Although I just said it's not that it's not working for me. It just feels like a losing battle because there's just so much work to be done and there's only so much time to be tidy. And in spring you have this spring cleaning. So is it like a massive cleaning?

You clean everything like crazy. I think that's the idea. Although in my family, spring cleaning seems to happen once a month when everybody just goes crazy and starts cleaning things. In spring. I think in Russia also we do this massive cleaning. So there's like two days we clean everything. You've mentioned a nice phrase to go on a cleaning frenzy.

Well, that's just when you do a lot of cleaning, to be honest. A frenzy is like a lot of activity happening at once. So you can have a cleaning frenzy when you do a lot of cleaning at the one time. or if you watch any documentaries about animals and you see wolves or sharks going crazy trying to eat whatever it is that they're eating, and that's called a feeding frenzy. But it's something negative, right? It's kind of overwhelming. Well, it depends. If you're the one being eaten, then it's negative. I think, I don't know, for cleaning, it's more like positive because you're cleaning and you're going crazy about cleaning. So that's okay.

But if it's a feeding frenzy, then it's definitely a negative thing. When we talk about being tidy, we can also say that some people hang on to items, hang on to things, and they prefer hogging things or kind of piling up lots of things. Oh yeah, you mean hoarding? Hoarding, yeah, hogging, right. Well, you could. Hogging is like you're excessively controlling over something. So you could do both of these things, but hoarding is when you keep a lot of things. Yeah, what can I hoard?

What can't you hoard? People hoard everything. Cats? I think, no, no, no, crazy cat ladies do this more than most. I think a lot of people hoard newspapers, and I don't know why. I suppose it's this connection to the past that they quite like. So if they hang on to the past, or if you hoard books, you have so many books in your house. But this could end up with you being overwhelmed by. clutter? Yeah, if you don't

organize yourself, then yeah, it's going to be a bit of a disaster. Yeah, and clutter, we mean, again, like old newspapers, all this, you know, rubbish, right? Yes. And then it's spring cleaning time and you need to declutter your house. Declutter. I need to try and declutter my house. It's not always

successful, but I do try. Roy, do you hoard anything? Tell the truth. No, I keep, I have keepsakes, which are like small, things that people have given to me over the years and have a lot of sentimental value, but I don't keep anything, maybe books, but does that count? I don't know. I don't think people consider it hoarding of its books. Do you save our photos and selfies? Yes, absolutely, and then I post them on

Instagram. Yes, you post them on Instagram. Have you printed them off and put up your ceiling or on the wall? Not quite, although I do have a collection of photos that I keep on my wall, so I should probably start adding to them because they finished around about last year and somewhat just happened this year. So I'm not on your wall, yet. Yet. Again, no. Everyone's everywhere no. What part of the word yet did you not get?

I don't get anything. You're so rude to me. No, I'm very polite. I'm fluffy. Do nothing but worship the ground that you walk on and you're just... I'm worshipping the ground I'm working on. Dear listener, this is all from us. We hope that you've learned some new words, phrases, adjectives, verbs, phrasal verbs, grammar structures.

So thank you very much and stay tidy. Bye. Bye. Rory, are you a tidy person? Usually, though right now my laundry pile leaves something to be desired. But in the main, yeah, I'm quite good at having everything in its place and tidying up and cleaning dishes and things. So yeah, I'm pretty good at that. What do you do to be tidy?

Well, I like everything to be in its place. So everything has a place that it should be in, or at the very least, it's out of the way, and I know where it is. So that's just one way of doing it. The other thing is just making sure that everything is organized. So once, like, let's talk, if we talk about clothes, like I have drawers for different clothes. So if we have all the socks in the sock drawer, then they're all in the right place. It's not just like a mess, for example. Do you think that it's necessary to be tidy?

Well, because I'm a tidy person, I suppose I'm. I meant to say yes, but actually, no, I don't think so. I think it's actually a personality thing. Most people think it's like the key to being the best at everything, to be tidy and organized. But like I say, if your personality is not like that, then you shouldn't force yourself to be because you just make yourself miserable. So if you're an orderly person, then, yeah, you should definitely try. But if you're not, then don't worry, it's not the end of the world. Just find someone that understands why you're untidy. Do you think that people should be tidy all the time?

No, I think like a little chaos can be a good thing actually because it forces you to think creatively about, well, how to solve the problem of chaos, I suppose. So in this sense, it's not something that you have to 100% be all the time, but it is something that I try to be most of the time. Do you keep your workplace tidy? Well, I definitely try to, but it feels like a losing battle sometimes because the work often piles up and then I've got to get through everything

and so the focus is on the work more than the being tidy but then I'll come back to the tidiness so it's not like I completely give up. What about your house? Yeah it's quite tidy like I say apart from the laundry pile but it's a laundry pile so it doesn't have to be tidy it is my logic at the very least.

When was the last time you cleaned up? Like you mean everything? Yes. Well oh god well it's called spring cleaning but to be honest I did it before before I went on holiday in the summer. So I guess that would be about a month ago. But then I do like little bits and pieces of tidying every day. And what did you do during this spring cleaning?

Oh God, everything. Like I cleaned the dishes, all of the surfaces in the kitchen, swept the floor, did the vacuuming, even the parts of the apartment that I'm never usually in I was vacuuming. So yeah, I just went on a bit of a, or a cleaning frenzy, I suppose.