📕 Part 1: Colours

What's your favourite colour?

I'm a big fan of dark colours, especially blue. Although I've been known to wear brighter things on occasion, I quite like black as well. Even though I know that's a shade, I'd still consider it a colour.

Do you prefer bright colours or dark colours?

Oh, definitely dark ones. I have a huge collection of black and navy blue shirts. I have a nice dark green one too, actually. I'm not sure why. It just comes more naturally to me.

Are there any colours that you dislike?

I wouldn't say I hated any colours in particular. Though I'm not a huge fan of fluorescent colours in any great amount. I just find it a bit overwhelming. It's nice when it's just a hint of colour, though, to catch the eye, like at an event, for example.

Are colours important to you?

I mean, I have my preferences, but I wouldn't have a nervous breakdown if I didn't get to wear or see a particular colour. I sometimes coordinate colours or colour-code things. That's helpful, but it's not the be-all and end-all.

What's the colour of your room?

Which one? Most of the rooms in my home are magnolia, or at least the walls are, but the walls in my bedroom I had painted Oxford blue to let me relax and sleep better. The only exceptions are the window frames and the shelves, which are sheer white.

Right, dear listener, colours. Hey! They are back.

They are. Again.

Yeah, quite a common topic. You know, in IELTS, speaking part one. Colours, your favourite colour. And Rory is a big fan of dark colours. He is in the dark, this Rory boy. I'm a big fan of dark colours. I'm a big fan of bright colours. I'm a big fan of yellow. Or what other colours do we have? I'm a big fan of pale.

Magenta.

Magenta. What's magenta?

Purple. It's just a fancy way of saying purple. No, I think magenta, as far as I'm aware, is bright purple. I could be wrong though, I'm not a big colour buff.

It's reddish purple, magenta. Nice. You can say like, ooh, I'm a big fan of magenta colours. Or you can say that I'm not a big buff. What did you say? I'm not a big...

Not a big colour buff. It just means that I'm not into colours.

Yeah, because I'm not into colours, I just, I just wear black, that's all. And grey. You can say I enjoy different colours, especially blue or navy blue, or I've been known to wear brighter colours. So people know me and I wear brighter colours. I like different shades of black or different shades of grey. Remember the film? Or different shades of pink or red. We have bright colours and we have dark colours. All right?

So if they're closer to black, then they are darker colours, but if they're closer to white, then they are lighter colours or brighter colours.

And you can say that I have a huge collection of black and navy shirts.

But that just means I have a lot of them. Navy blue.

Yeah, like navy blue. So don't say just like blue, I like blue, say, like, okay, I like navy blue. Don't say that, oh, I like red or pink. Say I like magenta. And then you can say, like, I enjoy dark green or dark yellow, dark red. And I don't know why I like this colour. It comes more naturally to me.

So that just means it feels natural.

You can also say like this colour suits my face colour. It matches my face colour, or it matches the colour of my skin. I'm not a huge fan of fluorescent colours. You can say I'm not a huge fan of black or I'm not a huge fan of yellow. Or Rory told us about these fluorescent colours. This, you know, like bright...

Neon pink or neon yellow. But even then, I just don't think, like having a lot of it is very pleasant to look at. That's just my opinion, though.

I find such colours a bit overwhelming. Overwhelming? They're a bit, you know, too much, like all this pink and green and red. They're a bit overwhelming. It's nice when it's just a hint of colour, like not too bright, not too dark, a hint of colour to catch the eye. So colours catch the eye of other people.

But that just means they get the attention of them.

Yeah. Can I say, if I want to catch the eye of people, the eye of the public, people's eye?

You could, I suppose.

So, if I want to be the centre of attention, if I want to catch the eye, I would wear pink or red or different colours, different bright colours. I have my preferences, so I prefer dark colours. I have my colour preferences. But Rory is not like super enthusiastic about colours, so I wouldn't have a nervous breakdown if I didn't get to wear my favourite colour. Okay? So I'm just okay with colours. It's a nice phrase, like I wouldn't have another breakdown if I didn't wear my favourite colour all the time. I coordinate colours. So what do you do when you coordinate colors?

It just means that you match them or use them in a particular way with purpose.

And you can say that I sometimes coordinate colours or colour-code things. So when you colour-code things, what do you do?

Oh, it just means that you associate a particular colour with a particular meaning. So some things in my diary are marked in black, which means they're just normal things. Others are marked in blue, which means they need special attention. And something in red is something that really needs to be thought about.

Yeah, we can also colour-code clothes. That's super interesting, and it's about like discovering your emotional connection to different colours. Because when you wear a certain colour, you kind of, you feel certain emotions, you feel good or not so good. You are sure of yourself, you are not sure. So, yeah, the colours are connected to our feelings and emotions. Sometimes you are in the mood of wearing happy colors. Sometimes not. And you can get a consultation on different colours and style for just like 250 pounds. One hour and a half. Rory, what do you reckon?

I'm not paying for that. That's crazy.

A colour analyst will focus on your personal style and would give you advice on colour and style. Video consultation. One-half hours, 250 pounds, dear listener. Yeah.

Okay.

So colour styling is a good business, dear listener. What's the colour of your room? And Rory goes like, which one? I have a house with a lot of rooms? Usually, the examiner means like your room, your bedroom, where you spend most of your time, for example. Maybe it's a toilet, maybe it's your kitchen that you pretty much sleep in. Rory told us about most of the rooms in his house which are magnolia. Magnolia. Previously we had magenta, but magnolia is a tree, and the flowers of this tree are kind of like pinky. So it's like a pale cream colour, actually. It's not pinky. Magnolia colour. Dear listener, we need to Google it. Like go to Google Images and just type magnolia colour.

It's just a plain white colour. It's like the standard colour for most rooms, to be honest. I am not very imaginative.

Yeah, magnolia, it's kind of like a beige kind of colour. Really nice one, pleasant. Magnolias. You can say, like most of the rooms in my house are magnolia, but the walls in my bedroom are painted blue. So what do I say? The walls are painted in blue. The walls are painted blue, or just the walls are blue.

Well, I had the walls painted so it wasn't me that did it. It was someone else.

So you say that I had my walls painted Oxford blue?

Yes.

I had my walls painted Oxford blue. I hired special people, and they painted my walls. Oxford blue is just this, like dark blue colour, very nice one. Not too dark, Rory?

Yeah, it's on the darker side, probably, I would say.

Okay. And also, if you have white, you can say that some walls are sheer white. Sheer meaning like they are only white.

Almost brilliant white.

Yeah, they're like super white, white, white, white. You know? They used to... Sheer is used to emphasize how very great, important or powerful a quality or a feeling is. It's kind of, it's sheer nonsense. It's like true nonsense. It was sheer coincidence that we met. Like I was walking in Rome. And then, like, whoa, Rory. Hey! Hello, Rory!

You could just say that about our normal workplace. It was a sheer coincidence that we met, because it was huge.

Right, dear listener, now, Rory's show time. Rory's vocabulary show.

Yes, it's the part of the episode where I asked Maria questions about the grammar and vocabulary I used. You can play along. We'll leave a pause before Maria answers, and you'll find out if you're right. So an easy start, Maria, what did I say or what phrase did I use to show that I really liked something in the first question about my favourite colour?

I'm a big fan of dark colours.

Yep. So if you're a big fan, then you really like it. Then in the next one, there was a special collocation that I used to say instead of a lot of something.

I have a huge collection of.

Fantastic. We're back on track. In the third question about the colours that I dislike, I mentioned that sometimes colours can be too much. But I didn't say they were too much. I used a different word.

I just find some colours a bit overwhelming.

Yes. And then we talked about if colours were important to me, and I again, used another special collocation to describe what might happen if I thought it was too much and I really hated the situation and I was emotionally unstable about it.

To have a nervous breakdown.

Yep. But I wouldn't have a nervous breakdown. And in the last one, I talked about my room, which is almost all Oxford blue, but there are some parts that are not. But I used a special word to talk about the parts that are not blue. What did I call them?

They are sheer white.

Oh, no. No, Maria. You have fallen at the final hurdle. What word did I use to describe the ones which are not blue?

Frames and shelves.

No, that's three words.

Exception.

Exception. Oh... But you've got most of them right, which is the most important thing. So we have recovered from our previous disaster. However, that's it for today. Thank you for listening to our colourful answers...

No, no, no, no. The joke, the colour joke.

Oh, now it is my turn to suffer. Oh, okay.

Okay, okay, again, like two jokes for you and, Rory, your job is to assess them IELTS style. So from band one to band nine. The first joke. What's a cat's favourite colour? "Purrple".

Oh, my god. Uh, band five, Maria. That was cringe. It made me laugh, but only because it was so bad.

Oh, okay, okay. Here's another one. What colour is the wind? The wind, you know?

What colour is it?

What colour is the wind? Shush, what colour is the wind? Blue.

Okay, that's like a band six, because that's a funny language joke. That's a pun.

Yeah, because we know that the wind blows, dear listener. And in the past, yesterday, the wind blew, and the wind blew, sounds like blue. Blue colour. Hey, yeah, hey! So what colour is the wind? Blue. Ha-ha-ha. Thank you very much for listening! We'll get back to you in another episode! Bye!

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