0:03

Welcome to my IELTS classroom,

0:06

the podcast where two English experts

0:08

talk all things IELTS. I'm

0:10

Shelley Cornick. And I'm Nick Long. And

0:13

today we're going to discuss learning

0:16

vocabulary, in particular how

0:18

do you learn idioms. What

0:21

is the usual process or order

0:24

that people learn vocabulary in?

0:27

What makes learning idioms particularly

0:29

difficult? And what would our advice be

0:32

if you want to learn idioms specifically

0:33

for the IELTS

0:35

test? Good

0:40

evening Nick. How are you? Good, thank

0:42

you. How are you today? I am very

0:44

good. Summer, I feel

0:46

like summer has definitely arrived in the UK. I've

0:50

had a swim yesterday. The water temperature

0:52

was 16.7 degrees. Sounds a bit chilly. Well,

0:56

it's three degrees higher than the first one

0:59

I had a few weeks ago. So it already

1:02

feels less painful.

1:05

Let's put it like that. So I just think, yeah,

1:07

I don't know about you, but I find that once

1:09

the weather is a bit sunnier, just my

1:11

energy levels are so much

1:14

better. Yeah,

1:14

same. Yeah, it does help, doesn't

1:16

it? Having a bit of sun, a bit

1:19

of warm air. Exactly.

1:21

My hip continues to be pretty good.

1:24

So I've been in less pain again this week and I've

1:26

been, in terms of motivation, I'm

1:29

still doing my exercises

1:32

for a rehabilitating athlete,

1:34

which is why the way I'm now seeing myself.

1:37

So yeah, all in all, pretty good, mate. How are you?

1:40

Yeah, I'm

1:40

good. I haven't

1:42

been doing my exercises as much as I should

1:44

have, to be honest. Yeah, I've

1:47

been a little bit slacking on

1:49

the old gym.

1:52

Well, you've been quite consistently good for

1:54

a little bit of time. One thing we didn't speak about

1:56

is that how I think

1:57

motivation naturally drifts.

2:00

drops a little bit. It does. It's peaks and troughs,

2:02

isn't it? There are. So taking a break

2:04

sometimes is not always a bad thing. The key

2:06

thing is if you get back up again. Yes.

2:09

That's where I tend to go a bit wrong sometimes.

2:11

But anyway, right

2:13

now I am swimming twice

2:15

a week or three times a week and

2:17

I'm feeling good. So it's good. So

2:20

this week, as promised, we are going

2:22

to be looking at vocabulary.

2:26

But I'm going to be honest, it might not

2:28

be exactly the lesson that we promised

2:30

last week, Nick. Because last week

2:32

I very cavalier

2:35

like at the end of the

2:37

episode said, next week we

2:39

will be looking at some idioms which will help

2:41

you with your IELTS

2:44

vocabulary. So let's start from

2:46

the very

2:47

beginning. Why Nick would we

2:49

be talking about using idiomatic language

2:52

in particularly the speaking test?

2:54

Why is that a useful thing to be able

2:56

to do? Because if you look at the

2:59

band descriptors, to get

3:01

seven, you need to use some

3:03

idiomatic language. Right.

3:06

And you just very cleverly stressed

3:08

the word. Some. Some.

3:11

So I think probably

3:13

this is where the most confusion comes I

3:16

think is because students read that

3:18

and quite rightly, as students, your job

3:20

is to

3:22

maximise your chance of getting a high score

3:25

and as teachers, that's the same thing. So

3:27

I can understand why students

3:30

are interested in adding this elusive

3:33

idiomatic language. The thing is

3:35

though, of all of the

3:36

points of the band descriptors, I guess that

3:39

one is the one that causes

3:41

the most trouble because I think the word some

3:45

is quite, what's the word when

3:47

something doesn't have a clear meaning? It

3:49

can be interpreted in different ways. For

3:52

me, I mean, when you sum, is

3:54

it the majority

3:55

when we read some? Well, definitely not the majority

3:57

now. No, you know, I would say

3:59

for a really good student, a seven, we're looking for, you

4:02

know, and this is the other thing, it's hard to quantify.

4:04

Students always say to me things like, how many

4:06

mistakes can I make in grammar to get a seven?

4:09

It doesn't work like that, does it? No, it doesn't. It

4:11

depends on what type of mistakes you're making,

4:14

the level. So I don't want to put a

4:17

number out and then that become, well,

4:19

Shelley said if I use three idiomatic

4:21

pieces of languages, I would get a seven

4:23

because it doesn't work like that. But you know, generally

4:26

when it says sum, what would that be an

4:28

indication of?

4:29

Well, I would say it's somebody

4:32

who understands what it is and can

4:34

use it when it's necessary.

4:36

Okay, I think that is the perfect answer.

4:38

I think that's exactly right. And I think

4:42

that's what I really want to focus on today because

4:44

I think the danger and the

4:46

truth is I sat down and I thought, okay, students

4:49

are always asking me for idiomatic language that

4:51

they

4:51

can use in speaking. I

4:53

thought I would sit down and I would try to pick out

4:56

some phrases or some idioms

4:58

that could be used in a wide range

5:00

of contexts and therefore,

5:03

you know, in a test may be likely

5:06

to be used. Now, I'm

5:08

not joking, I sat down and I looked through a book,

5:11

it's actually a very good book and I would like to recommend

5:14

it to higher level

5:15

students. It's called Collins, what

5:17

is it called exactly? Let

5:19

me have a look.

5:20

It's a Collins book, work

5:23

on your idioms, master the 300 most

5:26

common idioms. It's

5:28

published by as I said, Collins and

5:30

it was written by Sandra Anderson and Cheryl

5:33

Peltret. So there were 300

5:35

idioms there. I have to say Nick, they are actually

5:37

idioms which are commonly used but

5:40

I went through all of them and at the end, I

5:42

honestly thought

5:44

that there's not really any here

5:48

which I could definitively say

5:50

could be used in any IELTS exam

5:52

and I got the fear and whenever

5:54

people talk about idioms, that is the feeling

5:57

that I have, it is the fear and what would the fear be

5:59

as a teacher?

5:59

of teaching idioms? Probably

6:02

the fear that they're gonna use them completely inappropriately.

6:06

Yeah, and I think that is what happens exactly.

6:09

Once you give students, it's a bit like when you teach

6:11

inversion as a grammar point. Students

6:14

wanna use it all day, every

6:16

day. It becomes their best friend, right? It's like,

6:18

not only will I drink a cup of tea

6:20

this morning, but I will also have a slice

6:22

of toast, right? And unfortunately,

6:25

inversion is not suitable

6:27

in every situation

6:29

because it's very formal, just as

6:31

idioms are there to

6:34

be used in extremely

6:36

unique circumstances.

6:36

And when they're used

6:39

outside of those, they don't

6:41

actually add to your score, do they? They kind

6:43

of detract. No, they couldn't even detract from your score, yeah.

6:45

They really can. So I am

6:49

still today gonna present a few

6:51

idioms, right? But I thought

6:54

to help students understand a bit more about vocabulary

6:57

and how it works and the type of vocabulary

6:59

we're sort of looking for. I thought we could

7:01

just do a brief history

7:04

of studying vocabulary. Or more

7:06

importantly, let's look at the

7:09

types of Lexus that we teach

7:11

students at different levels. So

7:14

students sort of listening can understand what we're

7:16

kind of expecting for

7:19

the different bands, right? So if

7:21

we go right back to elementary,

7:24

or even beginner, I guess, and

7:26

probably even into pre-intermediate. So in

7:28

IELTS terms or language, they are

7:31

students who are like three, four,

7:33

maybe 4.5. What

7:36

are the first types of words that we learn?

7:38

If you walk into an English classroom, imagine,

7:42

in England, you are an 11

7:43

year old and you're about to learn French

7:45

for the first time. It'll be the same, except

7:47

we're learning the French words, not the English words. What

7:50

type of vocabulary sets do we focus

7:52

on

7:52

early in a student's learning

7:55

path? Family. Family.

7:58

Where you live. Absolutely. How old you are?

8:00

Hobbies maybe a little

8:03

bit? Yes, describing the hobbies

8:05

that you've got, definitely. Food maybe.

8:09

Maybe food, yeah, a few bits of food. Things

8:11

you eat, clothes, the things that you wear.

8:14

Essentially, and it's kind of obvious,

8:16

but if you are, you know, a lot of people

8:19

ask me, how do you teach elementary

8:20

students when you don't

8:23

speak the language? Well, the

8:25

reason you can teach elementary students is everything

8:27

you teach in elementary is just something

8:29

you can usually see in the real

8:32

world, right? So if you're teaching

8:34

food, you can just point to a banana and say,

8:36

banana, apple, cherries,

8:39

right?

8:41

That is what basic vocabulary

8:43

is. It's just literally being able to describe

8:45

the world around you. And if you look in

8:48

any elementary book, it could be English file,

8:50

it could be the BBC ones. Oh, what are

8:52

those? Speak out. Speak out. It

8:56

could be my other favourite ones. Solutions.

9:00

No, I've just forgotten the name. Cutting

9:04

Edge. Cutting Edge, that's a good one. They were always my

9:06

favourite books. You're just going to find

9:08

those basic vocabulary sets. And to

9:10

be honest, you don't really need a teacher to

9:13

learn those things. It is purely about

9:15

memory, isn't it?

9:16

It's just, here is something I know. Here

9:19

is the English translation of that word. Right,

9:22

so that is where we begin.

9:25

Once you get up to intermediate, which

9:28

is like a five on

9:31

the IELTS bands, you

9:33

start to sort of move away, I think, from things

9:35

that you can sort of physically see in the

9:37

real world to more

9:41

abstract ideas. Not very abstract, but

9:43

for example, is it intermediate, we start

9:45

to introduce feelings

9:46

or

9:49

attitude. So you might, for example,

9:51

learn some basic words to describe people's

9:53

personality. So how to

9:56

look in our intermediate book, it teaches

9:58

simple, ones

10:00

I would say like kind or selfish

10:03

but also a few more difficult ones like bossy. Nice

10:06

one. Charming. How would you describe

10:09

someone who was charming Nick? Charming.

10:12

Yeah I think that's difficult to understand. It's quite

10:14

I would say that's quite a high level word actually but yeah

10:16

it's like somebody who's very

10:18

very pleasant and maybe

10:21

quite good looking. Yes. With

10:23

a very sort of friendly demeanor, good

10:25

manners.

10:26

Yes. Yes. Maybe

10:28

a little glitter

10:30

in the eye or something as well. That's

10:32

hard to explain to an intermediate student.

10:35

I would usually say it's when I think of someone charming

10:37

it's usually always a man. It

10:38

is a word to

10:40

describe males usually isn't it? Yeah

10:42

and it's usually a man who's very uses

10:45

very nice words that makes the

10:47

ladies around him aspire and feel

10:50

good about themselves. Hugh Grant is very charming.

10:53

Yeah. Manipulatives. As you can see

10:55

these are not words now like if I'm trying to explain

10:57

that word to a student I can't just point.

10:59

I mean I could point to Hugh

11:01

Grant but that can be many things. So

11:06

the sort of words that we learn start to be a little

11:08

bit more abstract. We also start to understand

11:10

that you know there are lots

11:13

of different words in English for particular topics

11:15

or so you know if you think about

11:17

ways of getting money for example

11:20

right. Well you

11:22

can earn money you can

11:24

inherit money when somebody dies

11:27

you can borrow money you

11:29

can invest money. You

11:30

can steal money. You could steal

11:33

money exactly right. So

11:37

again we start to get into these what

11:39

I would call shades of meaning. Like

11:41

it's not just now big we've

11:43

got loads of words in English sometimes in English because

11:46

we have got

11:48

words which are taken from many

11:51

other languages right. So we've got Greek words

11:53

with Greek roots Latin roots French roots

11:56

because of that we have ended up with

11:59

duplicates, I guess, right?

12:02

Big and large, students will say, what's the

12:04

difference? I mean, in 99% of the time,

12:06

there is no difference, really. However,

12:09

we do have many,

12:11

many words that do show small differences

12:13

in meaning. The other thing that we start

12:15

to do when we get up to intermediate is we start

12:17

to learn the importance of chunks

12:20

of language. So quite often vocabulary

12:23

is not just learning one word, it's learning

12:25

groups of words together. And in

12:27

particular, you know, I would say this

12:30

is where as a teacher, we would start

12:32

to introduce the students to the idea of prepositions

12:36

and how important they can be in

12:38

a sentence. So you know, if we were talking about

12:40

money, I've got this from an intermediate

12:42

book. So I will read a sentence and

12:44

say, and your job,

12:47

listeners and Nick, will be to say which

12:49

preposition should go in this space, right? So

12:53

I paid the

12:54

dinner last night. For?

12:58

Thank you. When can you pay

13:00

me the money I

13:03

lent you? Pay me back. Right.

13:05

So we've got pay for something, pay

13:08

somebody back when you've borrowed. What about this

13:10

one? Would you like to pay cash

13:13

or credit

13:15

card? Would you like to pay in cash

13:18

or buy credit card? Fantastic.

13:21

So you can see one verb, pay

13:24

for prepositions. Right. The

13:26

next one, I spent 50 euros, books

13:29

yesterday. On.

13:31

Yeah, exactly. They charged

13:34

us 60 euros, a

13:36

bottle of wine. For? For

13:39

a bottle of wine. Have I ever told you about that

13:41

story about my uncle's friends who went to that restaurant

13:43

in Spain? I

13:46

will make it very quick.

13:48

They, it's my favorite ever story. They

13:51

went to a Michelin style restaurant. It's just people

13:53

he knew in his town. There was a waiting

13:56

list of three years to go to that restaurant.

13:58

And they got a phone call that said, if you

13:59

can be here tomorrow, you've got a table. So

14:02

all of them could manage to get last minute flights went

14:05

there. It was one of those, you know, 12 course,

14:08

try everything meals about 250 euros.

14:10

They ordered

14:12

a bottle of wine. That was 400 euros.

14:14

But between the 12 of them,

14:17

they thought, you know, come on, it's a once in a lifetime experience

14:20

between 12 of us do the math, ever,

14:22

ever, ever was that like 30 quid or something

14:24

each 30 euros. So they

14:26

ordered it. And they were like, okay.

14:30

And they enjoyed it. And they thought, okay, another one.

14:32

And then they came back and said, if you buy this second

14:34

bottle, we'll give you the meal for free.

14:36

And they were like, this is incredible, because it's 250 euros each

14:40

for the meal. And the wines 400.

14:42

So we're going to save loads of money

14:44

by getting the second bottle. Got the

14:46

second bottle when,

14:48

when the bill came, Nick, how

14:50

much do you think they paid for the

14:52

bottles of wine? A lot.

14:55

It was not 400 euros. It was 4000. Oh, dear.

15:00

A bottle. The two bottles

15:02

of wine costs 8000 euros.

15:04

Well between 12 people,

15:06

that's what's still a lot of money, isn't it? It's still

15:08

almost it's like 700 euros each. It was

15:12

unbelievable. So it was just, and

15:14

they paid it. I mean, anyway, but

15:17

this is the point is prepositions

15:21

are important, right? They're small words, but

15:23

they do make a big difference, you know, in

15:25

terms of as you get better. And

15:27

actually, as you get higher and higher, there are more and more prepositions

15:30

added. So that is something we add at

15:32

intermediate level.

15:34

Upper intermediate level, we

15:36

now start to introduce not just sort of nouns

15:39

and verbs, but this is where, and actually,

15:41

this was interesting today, Nick, because I had a look, if

15:43

you look at the upper intermediate English file

15:45

book,

15:47

at the vocabulary bank at the back,

15:49

almost all of it now is adjectives

15:52

or adverbs.

15:52

So it's sort

15:54

of adding words that give your sentences

15:57

more colour and more meaning.

15:59

So, you know,

15:59

One of my favorite examples with adjectives

16:02

I love, if you're talking about weather, we've

16:05

got lots and lots of adjectives that describe

16:07

when things are bad, but they

16:10

change depending on what we're describing.

16:12

So let's imagine it's really, really raining

16:14

outside. How would you describe

16:17

really, really,

16:18

I'm gonna say big rain?

16:21

Pouring. Oh, you could say

16:23

pouring, but what would be an adjective? If

16:25

you kept saying- Oh, an adjective. Yes, and

16:27

before rain,

16:29

it's- Oh, look at it. It's really beep

16:32

rain. Heavy rain. Heavy

16:35

rain, right? If I looked outside

16:37

and said, oh my goodness, look at the trees, it's

16:39

a really beep wind.

16:41

Strong. So it's not a heavy wind, is

16:43

it? It's a strong wind. And if I said,

16:46

oh my goodness, look outside, I can't see anything,

16:48

there's a really fog. Thick.

16:52

Thick fog, right? So they are basic

16:54

examples of

16:56

adjectives. But as I said, these are the sorts

16:58

of words we start adding in at Upper

17:00

Intermedia. So if I said

17:02

to you the words, I'll say four words,

17:04

and you're gonna try and guess what

17:07

topic these come from in the book. Okay.

17:09

Okay. If I said, so these are adjective,

17:11

biased,

17:13

accurate, sensational,

17:15

censored. So that's gonna be a topic about

17:18

the media. The media, exactly,

17:20

right? So you can already see these

17:22

sorts of words, biased, accurate, sensational,

17:25

censored. These are

17:27

already, I think, if I asked

17:29

a student questions about the news in their

17:31

country or the media, and they

17:34

were using these, I think these are already

17:36

kind of

17:37

band seven. Yeah, yeah, definitely, yeah, 100%.

17:41

Bias, sensational, brilliant.

17:43

So you know, already we're

17:46

up to sort of band seven without really

17:48

having touched on any

17:51

idioms. And it's interesting that

17:53

in the Upper Intermedia book, they do

17:55

start to introduce idioms, but they are

17:57

just

17:59

three. or four idioms at

18:02

the end of a unit.

18:04

So they'll teach all of the important stuff,

18:06

like the adjectives and the nouns and the verbs,

18:09

and then they almost are upper intermediate, just give

18:11

you a little bit of a flavour. A little taste,

18:13

yeah. A little taste. Now, already,

18:15

I think

18:17

this is where we come into problems, right? So I've taken

18:19

these idioms, Nick. These appeared in

18:23

a unit about personality. Okay.

18:25

So, the student's

18:27

job was to match the

18:30

idioms with their meanings. Right.

18:33

Right? So the first one is, my

18:36

boss is rather a cold fish. I

18:39

don't even know if he likes me or not. So

18:42

first of all, what is the idiom there? We've got to recognise

18:44

the

18:44

idiom. A cold fish. A cold

18:46

fish. Nick, how many times as

18:49

a red-blooded English man have you heard

18:51

anybody use the expression cold fish? Never.

18:54

I don't think ever. No,

18:57

yeah, it's not a good one, is it?

18:58

It's not a good one. I'm just like, why is that the

19:00

first thing you're introducing students to?

19:03

If someone is a cold fish, are they A,

19:05

annoying and difficult, B, very kind

19:07

and generous, C, distant and unfriendly,

19:10

or D, do they show no sympathy

19:12

or fear? Distant and unfriendly. Distant

19:15

and unfriendly. Not

19:18

very common. Yeah. No.

19:20

Do you want to know the second one? She

19:23

has a heart of gold. She always

19:25

helps anyone with anything. That

19:28

one is common. Right? So if someone, what's

19:31

the idiom there? Heart of gold.

19:33

If they have a heart of gold, yeah, what is the meaning

19:36

of that one?

19:37

It was very,

19:39

sort of very, very kind and loving and caring

19:41

and always, always

19:44

giving it, like, taking time for somebody else.

19:47

It's interesting because just read, again,

19:49

the description for cold fish. Distant

19:52

and...

19:53

Unfriendly. See, if you said

19:55

that in the exam, the

19:59

examiner would probably... think, yeah, that's pretty good language.

20:02

If you said, my boss is a bit of

20:04

a cold fish, the examiner

20:07

would be like, what?

20:09

That is the best example you

20:11

can give. Distant is a

20:13

really, in itself,

20:16

actually is an idiomatic expression because it's

20:19

being used not for

20:21

its direct meaning. Exactly. Yeah.

20:24

My boss is kind of distant. Yeah.

20:26

But if you said, yeah, my boss is a cold fish, I'd

20:28

be like, oh God, here we go. Exactly.

20:30

Heart of gold, though, I think is actually

20:34

quite good. Heart of gold is very commonly

20:37

used by native speakers. For that reason,

20:39

yes. Yeah. And that's why

20:41

it's good to use in the exam.

20:43

And it's easy to, I think, as we'll

20:45

talk about later, it's got a very

20:47

clear distinct meaning,

20:49

which I think most people understand. She's

20:51

generous. I mean, even the

20:53

idiom, heart of gold, obviously

20:55

represents something warm and positive,

20:58

connected to your feelings, doesn't it? Number

21:00

three, I mean, again,

21:02

she's as hard as nails. She doesn't

21:05

care who she hurts. So

21:09

if you're hard as nails, Nick, we've got

21:11

left annoying and difficult or

21:13

shows no sympathy or fear. It's the

21:15

second one. Shows

21:17

no sympathy or fear. But I

21:21

mean, when I read hard as nails, I

21:23

think of, I can't think, what's that old guy,

21:25

that guy who used to be a football player? Vinnie

21:28

Jones. Yeah. Who's

21:30

now like a movie star. I imagine if someone says,

21:32

oh, my sister's hard as nails, I imagine

21:35

that their sister has stood with a baseball bat.

21:37

And a Staffordshire

21:39

ball terrier and a tracksuit. Exactly.

21:43

And a face that looks like it's been stung by a wasp.

21:46

Exactly. That's a better idiom, right?

21:48

So then the last one, I hope

21:50

Jack doesn't come tonight. He's such a pain in

21:52

the neck. Pain

21:55

in the neck is a good one. And it's very commonly used. We don't use

21:57

the word neck usually, but no. actually,

22:00

you might use another part of the body. Yeah,

22:02

someone who's difficult or annoying, not

22:05

even for a person that, I would say I use that more

22:07

for... It could be used for a thing, couldn't it? Yeah,

22:10

I use that more for like activities, which I

22:12

find annoying. Like, oh, when

22:14

you're a teacher, filling out the register is

22:16

a pain in the neck, or having

22:18

to walk 20 minutes

22:21

to the supermarket is a pain in the neck. It's

22:23

just annoying

22:23

and difficult.

22:26

But you can see, I mean, in that lesson,

22:28

there were probably 25 personality words

22:32

and just four idioms at the end, of

22:34

which... Not all of them are great. Two.

22:37

No. But that's the kind of thing that

22:39

we've got

22:40

at upper intermediate level. But I would say,

22:42

as Nick said, actually learning

22:45

the nouns, the

22:47

adjectives at that level is

22:49

far more beneficial. Yes. So calling your boss

22:51

distant... Would be good, yeah.

22:54

Much better than a cold fish, right? Once

22:57

you get to advanced level, believe

22:59

it or not, there is actually quite a big jump up. Next,

23:03

we start looking at

23:06

the formality of language, right?

23:08

So we spoke a lot, if you are a

23:10

general training student, about

23:13

language which is formal and

23:15

informal. So words that have got the same meaning,

23:18

so like ask or request. Ask

23:21

is informal, request is more formal. This

23:24

is sort of the letters of language a lot. So

23:27

knowing when something's formal or informal, knowing

23:29

as well when it's British English or American

23:31

English. True, yeah.

23:35

I think the big thing

23:37

when you start getting really good is understanding

23:39

that language has got different connotations.

23:41

So connotations are like the feelings

23:44

that we connect to particular

23:46

words. So words which might

23:48

have, if you look in the dictionary, the same meaning,

23:52

sometimes they might

23:54

have a positive connotation so that they

23:56

sort of feel like you're praising someone. Sometimes

23:58

they've got a negative one.

23:59

So I was doing a lesson today

24:02

with a student and we were looking at language

24:04

for when someone pays a lot of attention

24:06

to detail. So if

24:08

I tell you, I mean, obviously Nick, I'm saying you,

24:11

but I really mean the listener, three words

24:13

which all sort of adjective

24:15

to show that someone pays attention to detail,

24:18

to a positive one is negative, which

24:21

one is the negative one. So we've got meticulous,

24:25

systematic, nitpicking.

24:29

It's nitpicking is the negative one,

24:31

of course. It is nitpicking.

24:33

I mean, and again, right? Nits,

24:36

I mean, that's nitpicking is what monkeys

24:38

do to each other, isn't it? Like literally, it's when they pick

24:41

insects from each other's fur.

24:44

A nitpicker, I'm not a

24:46

nitpicking, does have attention to detail,

24:49

but why does that feel negative? Because they're

24:51

picking you up on small details that

24:53

are maybe unimportant. To be

24:55

annoying. To be annoying, yeah. Yeah, usually.

24:58

So it's probably like, I don't know, we

25:00

work in a business and I

25:03

wanted a contract, you didn't want the contract.

25:05

Now it's time to do the work. So every

25:08

time I give you a document, you come back and say,

25:10

oh, there's a mistake there. Oh, that's difficult. You're

25:12

doing everything you can, you're finding tiny small

25:14

mistakes.

25:16

But again, if you look in the dictionary,

25:19

you're going to find all of those words in the

25:21

same place. You also, when you get

25:23

to advanced level, you start looking at much

25:26

more abstract topics, which ding,

25:28

ding, ding, Nick, how does that connect to the exact

25:30

part three of the speaking test? Exactly.

25:33

So I had a look again. So this is in our

25:35

advanced book, maybe the advanced plus book,

25:38

there are units on creativity,

25:40

working to deadlines, time management, like things

25:43

which actually do appear a

25:45

lot in part three. And

25:47

you know, this is a vocabulary

25:50

activity vocabulary. That's not how

25:52

you pronounce it. So there

25:54

are just, we're not going to do all of them, but there are, so

25:56

this is all about creativity, right? And

25:59

so there were

25:59

pairs of expressions and we have to say

26:02

do these things mean the same

26:04

or are they opposites

26:06

or are they similar but have small

26:08

differences. So this is just to give you

26:10

an idea of the sort of

26:12

language that you know if you really are advanced

26:15

you know this is what Cambridge or

26:18

Oxford are teaching in their advanced book so

26:20

this is the sort of thing examiners would recognise

26:23

as high level right. So we have

26:25

got stifle the imagination

26:27

versus fire the imagination.

26:30

They're opposites. They

26:32

are opposites aren't they? So what would if something fires

26:34

your imagination what does it do?

26:36

Means sort of you

26:39

kind of go wild and creative in your brain

26:41

and you get lots of ideas lots of inspiration.

26:45

Yeah it

26:46

starts your imagination in a strong way doesn't

26:48

it whereas what is stifle the imagination.

26:50

Something that kind of blocks the creative process

26:53

from happening. Yeah exactly.

26:55

Stifle I think if you imagine

26:57

a candle if you put your hand over a candle

27:00

that's it would put the candle out it would

27:03

wouldn't it. Stifle extinguishing. It would stifle it's like stifling

27:06

is removing the air or the

27:08

oxygen so it dies. Right

27:10

what about learn by rote or

27:12

learn by heart?

27:15

They're basically the same right?

27:18

They're very similar aren't they?

27:20

Well rote is when you repeat something again

27:23

and again and again and again so you remember it. Yeah

27:25

and usually if you learn something by heart

27:28

you kind of have to do that to remember

27:30

it.

27:30

Yeah I would say it could be like learning

27:32

how it feels. But depending on the situation I guess yeah.

27:35

Yeah I think learn by rote feels more

27:37

like you're learning it without necessarily

27:40

understanding

27:41

it. It's like a process isn't it? Whereas

27:43

you can learn something by heart naturally. Yes

27:47

if you loved a poem or like loved a song

27:49

and you listened to it again and again you could learn it

27:51

by heart which would mean you don't need to look at

27:53

the words anymore but you would still

27:56

understand it. But generally they both

27:57

mean. They're quite similar aren't they? Yeah. Yes you've learnt

28:00

something and don't need to, you

28:02

can repeat it without reading

28:06

it, I guess. What

28:08

about be spontaneous or do something

28:11

on the spur of the moment?

28:12

But they're the same, basically. Yeah, they

28:14

are the same. But again, you know, this

28:17

is the sort of thing where for our students, rather,

28:20

you know, this type of language is

28:24

difficult, right? It's really complex on the spur

28:27

of the moment. That's not something that I would

28:29

hear very often as a language

28:31

teacher from a student. And if I did,

28:33

that's the type of thing that I'd be like, well,

28:35

that's moving you up to

28:38

the band eight kind of thing. Right.

28:40

And so I would say, once you

28:43

get up to these advanced books, these advanced plus

28:45

books, these are the band eight kind of levels,

28:48

the difference, what we're learning is

28:51

the small shades of difference

28:52

between shades

28:55

of expression. So it's, you know, one of the

28:57

key things in

28:59

the band descriptors for Lexis,

29:02

I think it's just, you know, being able to use language

29:05

to give precise

29:06

precise meaning exactly. Yeah.

29:08

So, you know, the more vocabulary

29:11

you have for particular small

29:13

circumstances, the

29:15

higher the chance that you've got, I think, to

29:19

be able to score really well, because you're

29:21

going to be able to give a really precise

29:24

feeling or meaning. So

29:28

I would say, yeah, like, you know, maybe at

29:30

intermediate level, you might have

29:32

one idiom to talk about

29:35

a relationship. You might be able to say that you

29:37

get on well with your boss, right? So

29:39

you've got that. As

29:41

you get better and you start gathering more

29:43

idioms that talk about feelings, you can start

29:46

talking about, you know, particular sort of

29:48

more

29:49

individual types. Granular types of

29:52

things. Yes. So you might want to say, instead

29:54

of you just get on with your boss, you might be able to

29:56

say that, I don't know, you hit it off

29:58

immediately with your boss.

29:59

What does that mean, Nick,

30:02

if you hit it off immediately? That means the

30:04

start of the relationship was very good instantly.

30:07

Yes. Instant good beginning. Maybe

30:09

you had a lot of stuff in common,

30:11

so you... Yeah. Again,

30:14

in common, another idiom. Or you might want

30:16

to say, rather than we get on well, we get on like

30:18

a house on fire. Yeah. Which

30:20

sounds like it's a bad thing, but actually it's a really good

30:22

thing, right?

30:23

It burns very well, doesn't it? It

30:25

does. Or you might want to say that, you know, instead

30:27

of saying, I don't get on well with my boss. You

30:30

know, there's loads of things that you could say which...

30:33

We don't see eye to eye. Oh, we don't

30:35

see eye to eye. Mm-hmm. He

30:37

showed his true colours when he talked

30:39

down to me in a meeting. Mm-hmm. Wow.

30:42

Like showed his real self, you know?

30:45

You know, an easy one. He drives me up the wall

30:47

because he sets unrealistic deadlines.

30:50

Mm-hmm. Irritates me.

30:52

That's the thing, right? So I would say the

30:55

thing with language is the more you

30:57

have, the more

31:00

precise you can be in your

31:02

speech, which is kind of obvious, but I think we forget

31:04

that a little bit. I

31:06

used to always describe it, you know, when I was trying

31:09

to learn Russian, that if you said to me in

31:12

English, can you describe your phone, I

31:14

would be able to speak for about two minutes.

31:17

But in Russian, all I'd be able to say, it's black.

31:19

It's rectangular. I mean,

31:22

it's plastic. Mm-hmm. Is that, you know,

31:24

obviously, I don't have as many words,

31:27

but I think what I'm trying to sort of show in

31:29

this process is that

31:31

you can't run before

31:33

you can walk. True. Ding, ding,

31:35

ding, idiom with vocabulary, right?

31:38

If you're going to start using idiomatic expressions

31:40

correctly, you're going

31:42

to have to know not just all the

31:44

sort of basic vocabulary that goes around

31:46

it, but you're going to have to also know sort of like

31:49

the more basic idioms,

31:52

and then move on to the more difficult ones.

31:56

And, you know, I would say, I don't

31:58

know, if you think about the topic,

31:59

we've got in the exam, Nick, and the fact

32:02

that you're talking for 14 minutes.

32:04

How many isomatic expressions

32:06

do you think you would need to know to be

32:09

able to use three or

32:11

four accurately in the exam?

32:13

In the entire exam. Yeah. Probably 30

32:17

or 40. I think more. Maybe more

32:21

even, yeah. It's going to be at least,

32:23

you're going to be able to use maximum 10%

32:26

of what you know, maximum.

32:28

Oh, well maximum. I

32:30

reckon

32:31

because there's, you know,

32:33

it's all going to be based on the topic. It's

32:35

true. Yeah. You know, like it

32:37

was all based on the topic really. And that's the

32:39

thing, you know, often when I use an idiom, I can't

32:41

remember the last time that I used it,

32:43

right? Because you just did it naturally. You just

32:45

do it naturally. They're just in a bank in my brain,

32:47

ready to be used correctly

32:50

in context. And I think that's the

32:53

problem with idioms. When

32:55

you are learning as an elementary student,

32:58

you know, clothes, t-shirt, jeans,

33:01

scarf, it is always clear when

33:04

you should use the word t-shirt, jeans, and

33:06

scarf, because there is a clear item

33:08

attached to that. When you start

33:10

to use idioms, you've got to make sure

33:13

that you're using them correctly in context.

33:16

And to do that, you really do need to be

33:18

getting feedback from

33:21

either a teacher or a native speaker

33:24

to be able to do that. So I would say

33:26

if after everything I've said, you are

33:28

still

33:29

kind of interested in learning some idioms,

33:31

maybe you can get that book, the Collins book, I

33:34

would say the steps to learning a

33:36

good idiom

33:38

or to learning an idiom correctly are

33:41

as follows Nick, right? Firstly,

33:43

I think you absolutely have

33:45

to make sure that you learn

33:47

the form of the idiom. And by that, I mean

33:49

that you learn word by

33:52

word,

33:54

the parts of the idioms, because idioms

33:56

are set phrases. And

33:59

if you miss a word,

33:59

Or

34:02

you change a word or you add a word.

34:05

What happens to that idiom, Nick? It's gone. It's

34:08

just gone, isn't it? Yep. You lost it. You lost a chance.

34:10

The examiner's going to be like, what? Yeah.

34:13

So even that one we said before, get on

34:15

like a house on fire. If

34:18

you said get on like the house on

34:20

fire, gone. Gone. If

34:22

you said get on like a house

34:25

in fire. Gone. Gone. Get

34:27

on

34:28

as a house on fire. Gone. Gone.

34:31

It has to be every single word.

34:34

So you've got to be like, if you are someone

34:36

who just, if you're remembering idioms like,

34:39

oh, something about a house on fire,

34:41

forget it.

34:42

Yeah. It's not going to happen, is it? Idioms

34:45

are only for people who are able

34:47

to learn things precisely, right? Secondly,

34:50

you have to be absolutely

34:52

sure of the meaning. And as much as

34:54

I think that Collins book is quite good, I

34:57

don't think on its own. It's enough. It's

34:59

enough because really, how

35:01

do you get meaning? It comes from context.

35:05

Whenever anyone asked me to describe an idiom,

35:07

I usually start a long story. Imagine,

35:10

it's always start to imagine, imagine you're

35:13

at work. Imagine you're on a bus. Imagine

35:15

you're on a long journey because

35:17

idioms only work in certain circumstances.

35:20

So for example, in that book, they

35:22

have got the idiom to cross

35:24

your mind. And their description

35:27

of to cross your mind is to think about

35:29

something suddenly, or to suddenly

35:32

think about something. So that makes

35:34

it feel like if

35:36

you just have a quick

35:38

idea, suddenly you could use cross

35:40

your mind. But I don't think it's as clear as that.

35:42

No, it needs to go into a bit more detail.

35:45

That's not really what it means, is it? If

35:47

I said, I was trying to sleep

35:49

when John crossed my mind. I don't

35:53

know if that would really work.

35:56

I think that one feels more like it should be like popped

35:58

into my head or something. head would be better

36:00

there definitely in that context 100% I mean it does

36:02

make sense but it's not

36:05

really something that somebody would say in a natural

36:08

setting.

36:08

No I think a much more natural one if

36:10

I read this one which I do think is more natural

36:13

Nick what extra information or what is

36:15

different about this sentence I was listening

36:17

to John when it suddenly crossed my

36:19

mind that he might be lying.

36:23

Now I think that's more natural isn't it? Why

36:27

is that one better because it's not because here

36:29

it suddenly crossed my mind but what

36:31

has happened in this sentence maybe?

36:33

Well based on what he said I guess you've

36:36

sort of thought hang on a minute. Exactly.

36:38

Something's not quite right here.

36:40

Exactly and I think it's the hang

36:43

on a minute right wait a minute

36:46

I've

36:47

suddenly had an idea which kind of

36:49

changes my mind about something or

36:52

yeah so like you know I was going to sell my car

36:54

when it suddenly crossed my mind

36:57

that my sister needs one like oh god

36:59

why would I sell it when my sister needs one?

37:01

There's something when we use

37:03

that incorrectly it's something unexpected

37:06

there isn't there I think. So

37:08

you know that's a simple example of how

37:12

between even native speakers even

37:14

as teachers I was going to that is hard to sometimes

37:17

describe these phrases

37:20

because they just work in particular

37:22

situations and sometimes it's not easy to

37:24

verbalize when that is and when that

37:27

isn't correct.

37:28

Which is why if you just learn three

37:30

idioms and try to use them in the exam you're

37:33

going to sound like a clown to

37:35

be honest. Exactly and

37:37

this is it this is why I think you need to have hundreds

37:39

of idioms to be able to use a few accurately

37:42

because they can only really be used

37:44

in

37:45

very specific situations I think.

37:48

What I would say is the best idioms to

37:50

learn first are the ones that you might have in

37:53

your own language.

37:54

So either pure translations

37:57

or ones which you're like oh we don't say

37:59

that but for that exact situation

38:02

we say this so you've

38:04

got something so you've already got the feeling

38:07

in reference is the perfect word yeah the

38:10

other thing you know when I said before as you

38:12

get better you might need to know when an idiom

38:15

is American English or British English

38:18

even Australian English a couple of weeks ago I said

38:20

to a friend of mine oh but you know what he's

38:22

like I was talking about some guy I know he's

38:24

got tickets and she was like

38:26

I have no idea what that means right she

38:29

was like what you know he's got tickets on himself

38:31

what in Australia there's an idiom

38:34

which is if someone's

38:36

how can I say this without saying that they've got their

38:38

head up their beep if someone is

38:41

very arrogant and they really love themselves

38:44

an Australian idiom is that they've

38:46

got tickets on themselves which means

38:49

they've kind of bought tickets to their own

38:51

performance they see right so they love themselves

38:53

so much that you know like yeah I've got tickets

38:55

on myself so again

38:58

that shows complete breakdown of communication

39:00

because I use an Australian idiom with

39:03

an English friend so you know there's lots of things to talk

39:05

about but I would say the main thing is

39:07

learn all of the words correctly

39:10

and then you've got

39:13

to kind of use them

39:15

to find out when you're using them in the correct

39:18

context and when you're

39:20

not using them in the correct context and very

39:22

often you know I think one

39:24

good way to do that Nick if you haven't got a teacher

39:27

around all the time what could be one way of like learning

39:29

an idiom and seeing it used correctly

39:31

in context

39:33

if you don't have a teacher yeah

39:37

YouTube well I

39:39

was gonna say watching or

39:42

listening to English movies

39:45

yeah definitely because you you will definitely hear

39:47

a lot of them just

39:49

use naturally in conversation won't you yes

39:52

yeah if you're watching British TV series particularly

39:54

first sort of like reality TV shows like MasterChef or something

39:56

or yeah

39:58

something where

40:00

you've got people talking naturally, that

40:03

is probably the best place to

40:06

pick up. And if you keep hearing the same idiom

40:08

again and again,

40:10

that's probably an indication that it is a widely

40:12

used, like heart of gold.

40:14

And it's going to give you the context as well. See

40:17

the situation, understand when it was used, why it was

40:19

used and how it fits to the situation so

40:21

that you can use it naturally.

40:24

Exactly. I would almost say you probably want

40:26

to be able to... Before you start

40:28

using idioms, you probably want to learn

40:30

it and then recognise

40:31

it and then check

40:34

yourself, would I have used it there? Does

40:36

that use confirm the way I think

40:38

this idiom should be used? And once you've heard

40:40

it a couple of times,

40:42

boom, then go forward. That's if you

40:44

haven't got a teacher. If you've got a teacher, you're

40:46

paying them to check. So feel

40:49

free to use it. So for

40:51

all of these reasons, Nick, when I went

40:53

through the Collins working on

40:55

your idioms book, the 300 most common

40:57

idioms, it is perhaps less

41:00

surprising that I found... That

41:01

I wasn't really able

41:04

to find

41:06

idioms which could be used in

41:08

any IELTS exam because

41:10

as we've just said, context is

41:12

so important. And the types of questions

41:14

you've got, the topics make it almost impossible.

41:17

However, what I thought you might... One

41:19

of the only areas where a

41:21

student might be able to learn a few basic

41:23

idioms, and they are basic,

41:27

which could be useful

41:30

or more useful than others, was I

41:32

thought we could learn just a few idioms to describe

41:34

feelings. Because quite often

41:36

in part one, you're asked about your own life, aren't

41:39

you? And different things, you might be able

41:41

to give a simple

41:43

idiom. So the first idiom,

41:45

we're only going to learn five. That

41:49

is more than enough. The

41:51

first one is, well, if I said

41:53

to you this idiom,

41:57

what is... I've got to think of something that's true. So

41:59

something... is not my cup of tea.

42:02

Is that an idiom which people actually use in

42:04

England really? Not as much

42:07

as IELTS students use it. Exactly,

42:09

right. So,

42:10

if something is not your cup of tea,

42:12

what does it mean? If I said, oh,

42:14

the opera is not my cup of tea, what does it

42:16

really

42:16

mean? I'm not a big fan

42:19

of the opera. I'm not a big fan. I'm not very

42:21

interested in it. Yeah, I'm not keen on

42:23

it. See, there are better words than... Right.

42:25

So, what I would say is, rather than saying

42:27

the opera is not my cup of tea, it might be more

42:29

modern to say, well, the opera is not really my

42:32

thing. Not my thing, yeah. Yeah, not

42:34

my thing would be better. So, if you want to say,

42:36

oh, I don't really do it, if...

42:39

I was thinking there's a lot of questions in IELTS, isn't there,

42:41

in part one, do you often

42:43

go to art museums or something? It's

42:46

not really my thing. It would be quite naturally.

42:48

Yeah, it's not really my thing. Do you know what? Any

42:50

time any

42:51

of my students, and when I was

42:53

an examiner as well, whenever somebody said,

42:55

not my cup of tea in the exam, instantly,

42:58

I was like, you learn that to use it in

43:00

the exam. Exactly. It

43:02

just doesn't sound natural, do it? It sounds

43:04

silly. Yeah. Not my thing is much

43:06

better, actually, yeah. Yeah, it's not my thing is much better. So,

43:09

in a similar way, so

43:10

if you want to say that you're really happy... Mm-hmm.

43:13

Over the moon. You could... I could say I was over

43:15

the moon. Mm-hmm. Right? So, I was over the

43:17

moon when... Can we think of a better

43:20

one for over the moon?

43:21

Mm-hmm. I

43:24

don't know. I was blown away. Blown away is

43:26

a good one, yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So, if

43:28

you're really happy... And it's usually you're

43:30

really happy because something

43:33

unexpected happened, right? So, you

43:35

know, maybe you've got a really high score

43:37

in an exam when you're expecting to do really

43:40

badly or something, or someone

43:42

gives you an incredible

43:43

gift. I'm over the moon. Yeah.

43:47

It really gets on my nerves...

43:49

Mm-hmm. When

43:52

people email me at five o'clock on

43:54

a Friday... Mm-hmm. What does get on

43:56

your nerves mean, then? Something

43:59

that's annoying. super

44:01

annoying yeah now we've actually got

44:03

loads of expressions for annoyance and we do

44:05

teach these what and now

44:07

which ones could we use

44:10

I really like gets my goat

44:14

is get my goat commonly used

44:17

is my dad used to use that I

44:19

remember when I was when I was younger maybe

44:22

drives me up the wall drives me up the wall my

44:24

mom and dad said that all the time yeah

44:27

drives me up the wall like annoys me makes

44:29

me angry so that's gonna be quite good one if

44:32

you're feeling a little bit poorly you might

44:34

say I'm feeling quite under

44:36

the weather

44:37

yeah that's a fairly common

44:39

one yeah under the weather

44:41

so not feel very good and if you find something

44:44

really boring instead of saying it

44:46

was really boring you could say I was

44:48

bored to tears oh

44:51

to tears as well

44:52

yeah bored to death bored to tears like that's

44:54

a good one I forgot about that so yes

44:57

rather than just saying I was bored God I was bored to death

44:59

bored to death yeah so you know

45:02

having even these you might say well there's nothing

45:04

particularly complicated there well that's not the point is

45:06

it in your exam you shouldn't be worried

45:08

too much about idioms you should be focused more

45:10

on addressing the question extending

45:12

your answers

45:16

showing your fluency but just as

45:18

a little practice to finish I will ask you a question

45:20

Nick and at home listeners you can

45:22

pause and answer it which will give

45:24

you a chance to use one of these idioms okay

45:27

so what is something that

45:30

most of your friends

45:30

like mm-hmm but you

45:33

do not like something

45:36

that most of my friends like that I don't like yeah

45:39

it's quite a tricky one probably

45:47

struggling now you put me on the spot yeah

45:50

I tried to just do something that was a little bit more

45:52

targeted or what about something your family

45:54

likes that well

45:57

my family I can talk about when I was younger

46:00

My mum used to be

46:02

obsessed with going for a walk in the countryside

46:04

every Sunday. And

46:07

she would always say, come on boys, we're going for a walk.

46:10

And we would go to Fountain Zabi, or we would

46:12

go to Brim and Rock, or somewhere like that.

46:15

Or go to Fylie, maybe,

46:17

or Skabra, Skabados. So

46:22

I guess when I was young, it wasn't really

46:25

my thing. I just wanted

46:27

to sit at home and play Super

46:29

Nintendo.

46:29

You just wanted to be on your Nintendo, didn't you?

46:31

Exactly, yes. But I'm grateful

46:34

that we did that, because it was actually fun. And I

46:36

have much better memories of going for walks

46:39

with family than I do of sitting and playing games. Well,

46:42

I think you just have memories. I think the

46:44

problem when you just sit and play a game is you can

46:46

sort of remember that you liked the game, but you don't

46:48

really

46:48

remember the process. Yeah. No.

46:52

Oh, I'm deep into playing that God of War Ragnarok

46:54

now. But it's just

46:57

a time killer. Okay, when was the last

46:59

time you felt over the moon with a gift

47:02

that someone gave

47:02

you? Over

47:04

the moon with a gift. Yeah. Probably.

47:07

Or you were blown away by a gift. I

47:09

think probably the only time. Well,

47:11

two times, actually. So the

47:14

first time was when I got a Nintendo 64

47:16

for Christmas. I knew you were going to

47:17

say that. And

47:19

then the second time was probably when I got

47:23

my own car on my 18th birthday. Wow.

47:27

You must have been totally blown away by that. Yeah,

47:29

it was completely over the moon. You

47:31

didn't expect it at all. You

47:35

didn't expect it? Nope. It was a surprise. Okay,

47:38

that's incredibly good. Right.

47:40

And that connects very well to the next question, which

47:43

is, what gets on your nerves

47:45

when you are driving?

47:47

People on their

47:49

phones. Oh,

47:51

is that a problem? Do people do that? It's

47:54

just it's the worst thing. I hate seeing

47:56

it and it really, really makes me angry. And

47:59

when I'm driving.

47:59

I mean, it's bad, but when I'm a pedestrian,

48:02

I see it even more. Um,

48:04

so I just, I don't understand why can't you put the phone

48:06

down for, I mean, like people sat on,

48:09

on social media, traffic lights and stuff

48:11

like that. It's just, it's

48:14

insanity. I could never imagine driving

48:17

and being on my phone at the same time.

48:20

So it just, yeah, that really good. That

48:22

really winds me up. There's another one. Good.

48:25

Yeah. What does my head do? Which is my favourite

48:27

one is when people,

48:30

I don't mind people, you know, I don't

48:32

want people to drive really quickly, but when people

48:34

are driving 10 or 20 miles

48:37

and like an hour under the speed,

48:38

under the speed limit is worse than over

48:42

when it should be 60. And I'm just like, what

48:44

on earth are you doing? Come on. Yeah.

48:47

Come on, granddad. Yeah. I

48:49

find myself getting a bit road ragey then I wanted

48:51

to beat the horn. All right. What, so then

48:53

Nick, what do you do when you're feeling a bit

48:56

under the weather? Do

48:57

you have any remedies or anything that helps you

48:59

feel better?

49:00

I do. I mean, it depends what's wrong with me.

49:02

If it's just, if it's a headache,

49:04

then it's sleep. Yeah. If it's

49:07

a tummy bug, then

49:09

it's just lying in bed and hope it goes away. But if it's

49:11

a sore throat, I usually have a lot

49:14

of tea with lemon and honey. It seems to do the

49:16

trick after a few hours. Yeah.

49:18

So that's good. Cause basically feeling under

49:20

the weather, it's not seriously ill, is it? It's

49:23

just a, if you got cancer, you're

49:25

not feeling under the weather. If you are

49:27

just a little illness. Yeah. I think resting,

49:29

having an app,

49:31

just sort of taking it easy, really. Taking it

49:34

easy. Yeah. All right. My last

49:36

favorite question. What do you do when you're bored to

49:38

tears at a family event?

49:40

So my answer is drink and

49:43

drink. Yeah. Drink. I mean,

49:45

I haven't been to a family event for years, so.

49:48

And to be honest, I don't really get bored at family events.

49:52

I don't either. I always pray fun

49:55

usually. Like being

49:57

with my brothers is always hilarious. So,

50:01

and winding up my mum. Winding

50:04

up, that's another great idiom, right? Embarrassing

50:07

her in front of people. Trying to push

50:09

your mum. Push her buttons. Have an emotional

50:11

reaction. Yeah, I don't know why, but every

50:13

time there's one of these events, we always

50:16

put on Scottish accents around

50:18

my mum. It's really annoying.

50:20

That's funny. So,

50:25

I'm sure that some people listening today will

50:27

be a little bit disappointed because they were like, I thought

50:30

I was going to come and I was going to

50:32

learn the magic idioms that will help

50:34

me in the exam. And the thing is,

50:37

I've kind of saved the best bit till last night because

50:39

I would say that when

50:41

we talk about idiomatic language, we

50:44

focus far too much on

50:46

pure idioms.

50:48

But there are other ways

50:50

that we can be idiomatic in the way that we speak,

50:52

in particular by using

50:55

phrasal

50:55

verbs, which are much

50:57

more common, are much

51:00

more easy to insert into

51:02

every exam. And

51:05

I would say a much better sort of

51:09

like place to focus your energy

51:12

if you're interested in improving

51:15

your score for Lexus. So

51:18

that, dear listener, is where we end

51:21

this week's lesson

51:23

and where we will pick up... A

51:25

who? That's a phrasal

51:27

verb on next week's lesson. So

51:30

until then, have a lovely week. Tell

51:33

us if you've got any idioms that you think

51:35

you're able to use naturally in most exams.

51:37

Come on, let's put a bank together. Maybe Nick and I are wrong. Maybe

51:40

there are some other ones out there. The

51:42

idiom bank. Something you can count

51:44

on.

51:46

Ding, ding, ding. Phrasal verb

51:49

in any exam. Until then, have a

51:51

lovely week. We will see you next week. It's a bank

51:53

holiday, but we will still be here. Bye-bye.

51:56

Bye.

52:02

My IELTS Classroom podcast is a production

52:05

of My IELTS Classroom Limited. Nick

52:08

and I do not represent IELTS

52:10

and everything you heard in this episode

52:13

is our own personal

52:14

opinion. You can

52:16

find the show notes and transcript

52:18

for this episode on our blog, that's

52:22

blog.myieltsclassroom.com and

52:25

if you're looking for our video courses,

52:27

speaking lessons and marking

52:29

service, you can find that at

52:32

www.myieltsclassroom.com.

52:36

If you have a question or query or

52:38

just want to chat, you can email

52:40

Nick and I at hello at myieltsclassroom.com.

52:45

Our theme music

52:45

is by Heartbeat and our artwork

52:48

is produced by David Brown.

52:51

Have a great week, study hard and

52:53

remember, this is my

52:56

IELTS classroom. Thanks for listening,

52:58

we'll see you next week.