📕 Part 1: Colours

What colours do you like to wear?

Oh, think I always prefer shades of red and blue hues, really. Never any tints, to be honest. I wonder if that's a reflection of my personality?

What colour do you friends like?

I can't say I've paid any particular attention to it, really. I do have one friend who's a bit Gothic, and he is really into dark tones. Although recently, his fashion sense has taken a turn for the brighter with more patterns using primary colours, and even some texture in the shirts, actually, which is nice.

What colour was important to you when you were a child?

I think I had a pretty simple grasp of colours if I'm honest. Probably just primary and secondary ones, like the national colours and those embellishing the emblems of our country.

Do people in your country like to wear bright colours?

I think they tend to be darker actually, if we consider like, for example, most tartans are on the darker end of the colour spectrum. So lots of darker tertiary colours. Then again, if you saw our family tartan, you would think the opposite.

What colours would you never use in your home?

I was thinking about this recently, actually. And I think the really bright ones like almost luminescent would make me feel ill. But most colours, most other colours would be welcome as long as they match the decor. So a mix of warm and tranquil hues would be good for wallpaper and paint, I think.

Do you think colours influence you?

Well, apparently, there's a thing called colour therapy, which is based around this theory of colours representing things to people and being able to influence your mood. So I think there is something, there is certainly something to that idea. Yes. But at the same time, it also depends on the culture because black and white represent polar opposite ideas in eastern and western cultures, for example.

Rory, thank you so much for your colourful answers. You're bringing colour into our lives. -

So we've talked about colours before. So this is our second episode on colours. Why? Why are we repeating episodes and topics? Well, we're not repeating episodes, we're repeating some topics. Because now in IELTS speaking part one, you can get asked about colours. This is fresh IELTS speaking topics. Well, sometimes certain topics have a comeback. All right? For example, we used to have this topic about handwriting. And now it's a comeback, they can ask you questions about handwriting again. The same with colours and pets. And also the weather, for example. Yeah? That's why we're doing it again. I mean, this topic, but we have slightly different questions. All right? Because the questions do vary. So, Rory, you said that you prefer shades of red and blue hues.

Yes. So a hue is the name of the colour. It's the colour itself. Whereas the shade is the colour with black added to it. Varying amounts of black to make it darker.

So I love blue hues? So I love the colour blue? Oh, okay, if I like red, I can say I prefer shades of red hues?

Yes.

Or I prefer, I prefer shades of pink hues. Nice. And then never any tints, to be honest.

Yes. Tints is when it's like the opposite of shades. Shades have black added to them, but tense have had white added to them.

Oh.

So that makes them lighter. So for example, light red is a tint of the hue red, because it's had white added to it to make it lighter. Okay, if you don't believe me, then look it up on a colour chart.

Oh, I do believe you. So if I enjoy darker colours, I prefer shades of red hues. If I like lighter colours, then I prefer shades of red tints. Okay, God, wow. And then your friends could be into dark tones. Or if you prefer dark colours, I guess you can say I'm into dark tones. Tones like colours?

Yes.

Cool. You mentioned primary colours and secondary colours.

So primary colours are, well, red, blue, and yellow. And they get mixed together to create secondary colours. So any of these original three colours get mixed together to create that.

Hmm, yeah. So you can say, well, I prefer primary colours, secondary colours are also fine. Or just primary colours. Were colours important to you when you were a child? And you said I think I had a pretty simple grasp of colors when I was a child.

Yeah, so a grasp is like your understanding of something.

Yeah, well, I don't have a pretty good grasp of colours.

Well, you can have a good grasp or a poor one.

I have a poor grasp of colours. I can't tell the difference between yellow or green. They're all the same to me, to be honest with you. Okay. Then we go to the colour spectrum, which is another precise word. Well, collocation about colours. The end of the colour spectrum.

Yes. So the colour spectrum is just like a range of colours from like white, which is no colour all the way to black, which is all the colours mixed together.

And then we have tertiary colours.

Yeah, tertiary colours is a mixture of one primary colour and one secondary colour, at least.

Wow. Dear listener, how are you? Are you okay? Are you taking in all this colour vocabulary? Because if you aren't taking in any of this, well, you can just say, okay, I like red. I hate blue. But that's going to be too simple, right? That's why you should say, oh, I prefer shades of red and blue hues. Even if you don't, okay? So make sure that you do use some phrases, not all of them, some phrases, and surely, luminescent.

Luminescent is just like, bright, they almost glow in the dark.

So it's kind of like toxic green or toxic yellow. Yeah, luminescent colours. Rory would never use anything luminescent in his home.

It's not my style.

Not his style, no. The colours he wants to use in his home should match the decor.

So the deco, we've talked about this before, it just is how your house is decorated. And then if something matches it means that it goes with, it doesn't stand out. They blend together naturally.

Yeah, you can say I wouldn't use any colours which stand out. But as long as they match the decor, why not? I wouldn't use luminescent colours. But a mix of warm and tranquil hues would be good. A mix of warm and tranquil hues.

Yes, so warm colours are like connected to red but tranquil colours are blue, I suppose. So warm, makes you feel good inside and tranquil calms you down.

Then you talked about colour therapy. We have cat therapy. We have yoga therapy. What else do we have? Maybe hugging therapy, Scottish therapy, Russian therapy.

Puppy therapy.

Puppy. Oh, yeah. There we go. Dolphins? Dolphins therapy? We have what? Paint a picture with your body, kind of like paint therapy. Where they give you paints and you just go over all around and about using this massive poster and you paint with your body. Anyway, colour therapy. Yeah.

Colors are used to help your mood.

Yeah, you can cheer up wearing bright colours. And if you, if you feel blue, you can just put on some grey, or black and feel even more depressed. But if you want to cheer yourself up, you can put on some yellow or orange. Yeah, they say orange is a colour for crazy people, for some reason.

Is it?

Yeah, I've read somewhere that orange is like, is crazy. I love orange. Do you love orange, Rory? That's a simple test.

I am not a fan of oranges.

They say purple is a luxury colour. And navy blue is what politicians wear. So you said that black and white can represent polar opposite ideas. Polar. Polar opposite.

Yeah, so that just means that they're located on opposite and equal sides of the spectrum.

Of the spectrum. And if you were to buy a car, what colour would it be? Your car?

That's a very good question. I'd probably rather not buy a car in general, to be honest with you. Probably something blue. I'm a very blue person.

Okay, so a blue car. Alright, cool. And what about the colour of the walls? What colour would you choose to paint the walls in your room?

Well, since we're sticking to the subject of blue, I think something like dark blue, maybe even navy blue just to dump and dirt any fiery feelings at the end of the day before bed.

Oh, that's nice. So to dampen down any fiery feelings. So when Rory is on fire, literally, he needs to just call down. That's why he would use navy blue to just chill, to dampen down. Right. How are you, listener? Are you okay? Are you done with these colours? So we have two episodes on colours for you. I'm sure it will be enough for you to know the words, synonyms, some good precise vocabulary about colours. Rory, if you were a colour, which colour would you be?

I would be blue. What colour would you be?

Pinky, pinky, I'd be pinky. Pink, pink, pink, pink, pink, pinky pink. Thank you very much for listening! We love you and hug you! Bye.

Bye! - Make sure to subscribe to our social media to see some of the “behind the scenes” stuff: Our Instagram: bit.ly/instagramswi Our Telegram: bit.ly/telegramswi