IELTS Speaking for Success - 🚶‍♀️ Walking (Part 1) + Transcript

Episode Date: March 12, 2026

Get access to our episode archive: https://www.patreon.com/ieltssfs Do you walk a lot? Where did you go for a walk lately? Did you often go outside to have a walk when you were a child? Where would you like to take a long walk if you had the chance? Why do people like to walk in parks? 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/ 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 and Maria. My name is Rory, and we're the host of the AILD 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 this podcast to give you super grammar and fabulous vocabulary for your high ILD score. Your bad night score. Oh, Rory, you look exhausted.

Aw. Yeah, I went for a walk earlier and it turned in. into a bit of a track. Ah, what a coincidence. Because today we are going to be talking about walking, walking, walk, walk. Let's wander through some walking vocabulary. Yeah, when Rory says that it turned into a bit of a track, a track is like a long walk. He went for a walk, but he ended up spending like five hours walking.

long distance. Yeah, like over the mountains and hills because Rory lives in the middle of nowhere in Scotland. I don't live in the middle of nowhere, but there's no convincing Maria otherwise. Do you know where Scotland is? Exactly, that's what I'm talking about. Do you walk a lot?

Not as much as I used to, now that I think about it. I think the most steps I get in these days are clocked up I walked at the shops. I'd like to walk about a bit more though, and I should probably make the time for it. When did you go for a walk lately? Oh, my friend and I wandered around a museum in my hometown recently, and we had to stroll through the city centre to get there. Nothing else stands out apart from that, unfortunately. Did you often go outside to have a walk when you were a child? Oh yeah, we would wander about the local neighbourhood all the time. Um, there are a lot of wasn't much else to do apart from that, sadly.

Thankfully, there were lots of places to go, like, along the beaches or through some of the parks. Where would you like to take a long walk if you had the chance? I don't know. I quite like walks on the beach, so that would be good to do again in the summer when it's warmer. Oh, other than that, I'm not really sure. Why do people like to walk in parks? Well, if they're anything like me, I suppose they like to get. out and about and enjoy the fresh air. It's also good exercise, isn't it?

And it's a good chance to enjoy the sun when it's out. Like what I said about the summer earlier. 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, walking. Walking is like when you go out for a walk. Go for a walk. You use your feet, you know. These days we use all kinds of devices and machines like cars, electric scooters, but do you use your legs? Do you? No, you don't. Well, maybe you walk from the fridge to your coffee machine. That's also walking. That's that counts and then you walk to your bed. Yeah, that also counts. So, you can say I don't walk as much as I used to. Ten years ago, I walked a lot, but not now. No, I'm a couch potato.

I'm a couch potato, yeah. That means that you stay on your couch at home, no walking. Or I drive. Not as much as I used to. I drive these days, or I take the metro, or I go out and about by bicycle, for example. I walk to the shops, I walk to work, I walk to, I don't know, where do you walk, dear listener? I walk my dog. If you have a dog, you take your dog out for a walk. I walk with my dog and I count the steps. My daily steps. So usually the steps are clocked up by your phone, by your watch, I don't know, by some device, by a ring you're wearing. Yeah, so maybe you have an Apple watch. You can say my watch counts the steps.

I'd like to walk a bit more, but I should make the time for it. We make time to do things. Yeah, like plan time for walking. Some people do, like, a plan. They're walking. They kind of have to walk, I know, 30,000 steps a day. No, maybe that's a lot. Maybe 10,000 steps a day.

And that's like a good exercise, actually. One of the best exercises ever, just walking. Not running, walking. Oh. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because, like, you know, there's certain energy that our body produces while walking. And that's like simple walking. And for the elderly, they also tell them, like, okay, if you can't do anything, just walk.

Just use your feet. My friend and I wandered around. So when you wander around, you just walk without a specific aim. That's a good synonym. Wander around. Well, you can say, like, oh, last week I wandered around a park. I just like, I walked. Walked slowly in a relaxed way.

you don't have a clear purpose or direction. So I was wandering around a park, I was wandering the streets, my friends and I were having a walk in the park. But yeah, like I went for a walk or I wandered around a museum, for example. I wandered around a park. And we had a stroll through the city center, another synonym for taking in a walk is have a stroll. And to stroll is C1 is advanced. Where is it? It is like C1, band 8. Walk in a slow, relaxed way for pleasure. So I strolled along the beach or I strolled in the park.

I had a stroll in the park. So I kind of walked in a relaxed way for pleasure. So two synonyms. I wandered around in a museum, in a park. I had a stroll through the city center. I had a stroll through the park or I strolled through the city center. When I was a child, I used to wander around the local neighborhood. So we all did that. Yes, children. We just walked around in our neighborhood.

Neighborhoods, like the area close to where you live. So you can say, yeah, I used to wonder about my neighborhood, wonder about or wander around. Or Rory uses wood, but it's not the future, it's about the past. Tell us nice, see too, benign grammar. And now Rory explains grammar to us. Just tell us, like, why did you use wood? It's just about what we always did in the past. Yeah.

It's a nice variation on use to. Exactly. So you can say we wondered about the local neighborhood when I was a child or we would wonder about the local neighborhood. It's just meaning a habit. Thankfully, there were lots of places to go. Rory lived in Scotland and he had the sea, the beaches, you had the mountains, castles with ghosts, you know, hills, hills. and ruins of ancient Scottish people. Ancient Scottish people? Did you have any ancient Scottish people? Probably, yes. Thousands of years ago, people lived in Scotland, so yes.

So thankfully, if you didn't have any places to go, you say, unfortunately, or sadly, I didn't have many places to go, so I had to wander around my neighborhood, not the beaches and mountains and castles with ghosts. If I had the chance, so the phrase is if I had the chance, I'd take a walk in the mountains. If I could, I'd go to the beach. If I could, I'd like to walk or to have a stroll on the beach in summer.

Well, the final question is just so strange. Like, why do people like to walk in parks? Why do people live? Why, yeah, why do people walk? Why do people walk? Why do people breathe? Yeah, do listen, some questions are a bit stupid, you know? They're just, but come on, the examiner wants you to produce English.

So produce English, all right? You can crack a joke, you can, you know, be sarcastic. Produced laughter. That's a dumb question. And if you laugh like this, the examiner will also laugh. You will create positive energy, and the examiner will like you. And because kind of subconsciously, we like people who make us laugh. Because it's all, you know, positive.

You know, we feel relaxed when we laugh. Just like this. Roy, could you give us your stupid laughter? No. But the point is, yes, sometimes you get asked a crazy question, and so you have to think about the answer you should give. So I said, if there are anything like me, and then I talked about how or why I would walk in a park, but in a very general way. We get out and about. I love this phrase.

To get out and about. Oh, it's a binomial. Yeah, get out and about. We don't say about and out. We say out and about. So be active, like do things. You should be out and about. If you feel ill, then you'll get better and you'll be out and about.

So people enjoy walking in parks because they like to get out and about. They enjoy the fresh air. They love nature. They have the chance to enjoy the sun. Very nice. Yeah, but can we get very smart? and bombard the examiner with some scientific knowledge and about walking in the parks.

Oh, God knows. You could talk about nature-connectedness, I suppose. That's a long one. But we've mentioned that previously. Nature-connectedness is this feeling of connection with the world, well, with the natural world that's caused or happens after about 20 minutes. And we know that happens because in brain scans and blood tests, you can see it will stress hormones lower and the brain activity is calmer.

And also, the listener, you can say that according to the research, walking in nature lowers stress levels and blood pressure. Pax could be paraphrased as greenery. So walking in greenery, no. Yes. In greenery, really? In greenery. Oh, okay.

In like in green tree. trees and gardens and parks. Yeah, it's relaxing, dear listener, all right? Yeah, it improves your mental, health and well-being. It lowers your blood pressure, reduces stress, and improves your mood. It also improves your focus. There we go. Some science.

And it is a lovely physical exercise. Right. Rory Elyke, have you ever walked for a long time? Like, what's the longest time you've ever walked? Oh, God, I think we walked for something like six hours once when we were traveling, like, abroad, but that's been a very long time. Six hours nonstop, you're just walking? Yeah, I think so. But this was about ten years ago. I do not remember the fine details. You do more walking than I do. You should have answered these questions. When I traveled in Peru, I think I walked. well we walked in the mountains to

match a picture I think like from early morning till it got dark so like all day all like daylight during the daylight but like we we stopped for dinner we stopped for water but it's just like nonstop you walk usually up and down up and down

and then in the middle of it I started crying because I couldn't do it anymore like ah why am I here it's good you had such a measured reaction to that no because it's physically and difficult you know Like you go up the mountain for a good two hours. Oof. Yeah, but now I understand how beautiful it was.

At that moment, no. Right, listen, on such a lovely note, hopefully you enjoy walking, okay? And you remember two synonyms. Do you? Wander around or about. And to stroll. We'll get back to you in our next episode.

All right? Bye. In communities across Canada, hourly Amazon employees earn an average of over $24.50 an hour. Employees also have the opportunity to grow their skills and their paycheck by enrolling in free skills training programs for in-demand fields like software development and information technology. Learn more at aboutamazon.ca. Do you walk a lot? Not as much as I used to, now that I think about it. I think the most steps I get in these days are clocked up when I walk to the shops.

I'd like to walk about a bit more, though, and I should probably make the time for it. Where did you go for a walk lately? Oh, my friend and I wandered around a museum in my hometown recently, and we had to stroll through the city centre to get there. Nothing else stands out apart from that, unfortunately. Did you often go outside to have a walk when you were a child? Oh, yeah, we would wonder about the local neighborhood all the time. There wasn't much else to do apart from that, sadly. Thankfully, there were lots of places to go, like along the beaches or through some of the parks.

Where would you like to take a long walk if you had the chance? I don't know. I quite like walks on the beach, so that would be good to do again in the summer when it's warmer. other than that, I'm not really sure. Why do people like to walk in the parks? Well, if they're anything like me, I suppose they like to get out and about and enjoy the fresh air. It's also good exercise, isn't it?

And it's a good chance to enjoy the sun when it's out, like what I said about the summer earlier.