📕 Part 1: Islands

This episode's vocabulary

Notion (noun) - a belief or idea.

The mainland (noun) - the main part of a country or continent, not including the islands around it.

To nestle (verb) - to be in, or put something in, a protected position, with bigger things around it.

Archipelagos (noun) - a group of small islands or an area of sea in which there are many small islands.

Have your fill of something (idiom) - to have or experience as much as you want of something.

To fancy (verb) - to want to have or do something.

Coast (noun) - the land next to or close to the sea.

Interior (noun) - the land that is furthest away from the outside or coast of a country or continent.

Seldom (adverb) - almost never.

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Questions and Answers

M: Do you like islands?

R: Um, well, yeah, very much so. I love being near the sea. And there's this sort of romantic notion of isolation and discovering a new world when you're on an island. You don't really get that if you're on the mainland, do you?

M: Have you ever been to an island?

R: Actually, I've lived on quite a few islands in my time. I worked on a small island, which is like sort of nestled among the coral reefs in Fiji, although that's not saying much, because many of them are. And I also lived on the much bigger island of Timor, which is, it's divided between East Timor and Indonesia.

M: Are there any islands in your country?

R: Oh, God, there are hundreds of individual islands. And they're part of sort of larger island chains in the archipelagos. I'd say the most famous are the Outer Hebrides and the Shetland Islands, which are the most easterly and northerly, respectively.

M: Do you want to live on an island?

R: Well, given that I've already lived on a few, I think I've kind of had my fill of them. Though I suppose if there were no alternatives, I could do it again, without much complaint. I'm quite self-sufficient. So it would hardly be a disaster.

M: What would you like to do if you were on an island?

R: Oh, I quite fancy going sailing, since I've done just about everything else you could do near the coast of an island. And obviously, exploring the interior is always unique, because islands are seldom the same.

M: Do you think you'll go to an island soon?

R: Not in the near future. Maybe if I have to get a job far away then there's lots of *schools at islands* that I could go to.

M: Thank you, Rory, for your island questions.

R: It's okay. I'm an island of vocabulary.

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Discussion

M: Rory is an island of vocabulary.

R: That doesn't make sense. That's not a thing.

M: No, no. You know what? They've told me that you should be very careful creating the language in your IELTS speaking exam, because like, I'm an island of vocabulary, it's not something people would say, right? So Rory has just created this phrase, it doesn't exist, which is a creative use of language. So Rory, what do you think, in the exam, can our listener make things up, being creative with language, and just, you know, create stuff? Or it's better not to do that?

R: Well, it's an interesting question. Because if you start pausing because you forget words, then that can affect your score for band eight and band nine, can't it? So you could say, the phrase, the made-up phrase, and then the phrase in a manner of speaking or so to speak, or to coin a phrase, which is something people do when they can't really think of a way to explain it clearly. So I should have said is like, I'm an island of vocabulary to coin a phrase, or in a manner of speaking or so to speak.

M: Yeah, to coin a phrase, like to make a phrase, so to speak. If I can say so. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, true. But again, be very careful. Right. So if you're creating something, just tell the examiner that "oh, I've just made it up, you know". Yep. Anyway, so islands. Oh, first of all, the pronunciation. We say island, it's like "iland". Yeah, but we write I S L, right? We never say island. No, no, no. We write, we say, islands, islands. What about the article, Rory? Do I say the Fiji Islands or Fiji islands? No "the"?

R: Oh, you need to have "the" because you're talking about a specific group of islands.

M: Yeah, so the Fiji Islands. But if you talk about one island, do I need an article?

R: It depends. Is it the first time you've mentioned it? Because remember, the first time you talk about something you say I lived on an island, and then the island was part of Fiji.

M: But what about geographical names? If I mean like different islands. What islands do we have in the world? Forgot all.

R: Oh, my God, I just gave you a list. If we talk about like...

M: Oh, Maldives. Maldives for example. So I say the Maldives? Right?

R: You can, yeah. You can also say the Maldives archipelago.

M: Yes. Archipelago, dear listener. Can you repeat after us? Rory, say it again.

R: Archipelago.

M: Archipelago.

R: That's a band nine word. Not many people know what the word archipelago means. And if that's difficult to remember then you could just say island chain because they both mean a group of islands. There's probably a small difference between these. But really, it's just still good words. Your examiner is probably not gonna know the difference between these things. Hold on a minute, what is the difference between an island chain and archipelago?

M: Oh, there we go. There we go. He's getting nerdy. But if I want to say only one island, for example, Santorini in Greece, do I say the Santorini? The Santorini island or just Santorini?

R: Santorini is fine.

M: Yeah, so no article if you say like one island, but the Cook Islands, the Fiji, the Maldives. Yeah. Bora Bora?

R: Bora Bora is the name of the island.

M: The Bora Bora? Yeah, just like this, Bora Bora.

R: An archipelago is an area that contains a chain or a group of islands scattered in lakes, rivers, or the ocean.

M: Yes. Now we know. Thank you.

R: So the archipelago is the area and the chain is the actual thing of islands. But frankly speaking, your examiner is not going to know that. Unless they were a geography teacher. And if they're a geography teacher, then they're not an English teacher. So it's fine.

M: Yeah. So the examiner asks you "are there any islands in your country" and you go "yeah, there are hundreds of individual islands, which are part of larger island chains and archipelagos".

R: Yeah. Although it's important to point out that we said the word Island a lot, but here it's used as a noun and as an adjective. Island chain.

M: Yep. Yeah. If you don't live on an island you live on the mainland.

R: Yes. Which is funny because when you think about it, like most like landmass are surrounded by the ocean. So the mainland is the larger area of land that is closest to the island that we are talking about, and probably part of the same country. So for example, Scotland is the mainland but we have Shetland, which is the island group. But there are bigger islands in Shetland and smaller islands. So the smaller islands are the islands and then they talk about mainland Shetland because they're the bigger islands. It's all to do with relative size.

M: Yeah, so if you live in a city - you live on the mainland, but if it's an island, then it's an island. This is my explanation. An island is an island. Yep, don't forget to say something about the coral reefs.

R: Well, if you have them.

M: So I like islands because of the coral reefs.

R: That's in tropical places though. If we talk about islands in Russia, what do they have?

M: No, we just, there are some islands and for example, in the North, there is an island where they tested bombs. Yeah.

R: So you could talk about, there's like x, there's residual radioactivity left over from all the bomb testing.

M: Yeah, and bears. Yeah, they just, they have bears walking.

R: Radioactive bears?

M: No, I don't think so. I think bears are okay. But it's funny that my friend has been there. And he told me that you just, you wake up and then you hear siren going attention, attention, there is a bear, there is a bear in this, and then they name the area where the bear is. And everybody can hear this, so yeah, it's funny.

R: Oh my God, that sounds amazing.

M: You switch on your TV and then "there's a bear, there is a bear next to the shop, don't go there". Yep.

R: Did you realize that was a song?

M: What? What song?

R: There is a bear, there is a bear next to the shop, don't go there.

M: Oh, really? Oh, wow.

R: Yeah. Anyway, let's get back to what we can do. Now, I said sailing for activities that you can do on an island.

M: And you say I fancy, you say I fancy.

R: Yes, sailing is pretty basic, but you could say I quite fancy. Which is like another way of saying I would like to.

M: Yeah, so I fancy sailing, or I fancy sunbathing. Fancy - I like doing something. I really liked how you said the word nestled.

R: Yes, nestled is just a way of saying it's in a place close to other places. Almost like it's cozy.

M: Yep. Like I worked on a small island, nestled among the coral reefs. Very nice. What else can you say? How else can you use this nestled, maybe about cities or...

R: Eggs.

M: Anything else?

R: Eggs are nestled in a nest. It's like saying it's inside something but it's cozy and closed.

M: Cool. When the examiner asks you do you want to live on an island? Rory, he's full of islands. You know, he's been to places so he goes like no, not really, I think I've had my fill of them.

R: Yeah. So if you've had your fill of something, it just means I've had enough of them.

M: Yep. I've had my fill of them. Can you use it about other words? Like what about... What?

R: Well, if we talked about ice cream and they asked you like, oh, what flavor of ice cream would you have in the future? And you're just like, well, given that I've spent so much time eating ice cream, I've kind of had my fill of it. So I don't really want to have any more or try any new flavors.

M: Yeah.

R: That's a really terrible example. But it's just another way of saying like, I don't want to do it anymore.

M: So would you like to leave it on an island? No. I've had my fill of them?

R: Well, I do. I do live on an island now. The United Kingdom, Great Britain is an island. It is.

M: Oh, yeah, actually. Rory lives on an island now.

R: It's a big island, don't think it counts.

M: And do you live near the coast?

R: Yes. Basically, on the coast. Yeah. on the coast or near the coast. So the coast, the sea.

R: Coast is the part of the land that's next to the sea, basically.

M: Yep. Yes, on the coast, near the coast.

R: And the opposite is the interior, which is like the inside, but of course inside is very basic. So we say the interior of the island, the part that is inside.

M: Oh, yeah. The interior of the island, like the interior of a cafe or a restaurant, the interior. I'd love to live on an island, to be honest with you, Rory.

R: Haven't you lived on an island already?

M: I visited many islands, many Greek islands. Sicily, also, in Italy. And Cuba, yeah, I've been to Cuba, which is an island, right? Cuba is an island, right? Tell me it's an island.

R: It is.

M: Okay. Yeah, but I'd like to go to these islands close to New Zealand, or Madagascar, for example.

R: Well, make sure you get like plague vaccine before you go there.

M: Plague vaccine.

R: Honestly, they have the plague in Madagascar. They have outbreaks with the plague fairly regularly.

M: Plague?

R: Yeah.

M: Plague, really?

R: I should say Madagascar should not just be known for like diseases happening. It's one of the most biodiverse places in the world. In fact, think it doesn't have snakes, which is the opposite of being...

M: Oh good! Good. Yeah, also, dear listener. So if you have never been to an island, you can say that, okay, I've never been to an island. But I'd like to go to the Fiji Islands. Or I like to go to the UK, which is an island, right? And then you talk about Rory, who lives on the coast.

R: That's what it is. There are no poisonous snakes of Madagascar. That's what it is. It's because it's isolated. And we talked about the feeling of isolation, which is when you're far away from other people.

M: Yeah, Madagascar. If you've never been to an island, you can mention different activities. Again, like sailing, sunbathing, diving.

R: We should delve into that more deeply though, because like if you keep getting bombarded with questions for part one about islands because the examiner is not going to stop then you need to have different ways to like, I imagine, if I were to go to an island, I wish I could say because I haven't been to an island, but if I did go then... This kind of thing.

M: And it works. It works.

R: Well. It's the only alternative. Like what happens when you don't know about something because you've never done it? You can't just magically be on an island. Um, you could lie but many people are not good at lying. They're much better at saying I don't know in different ways.

M: Yeah. So, as they say, no man is an island. They do say that. There's a song I think.

R: No man is an island of vocabulary either.

M: Poetry, it's a poetry. Yeah. No man is an island. No man is an island entire of itself. Every man is a piece of the continent. A part of the main. Oh, this is so cute. Yes. So no man is an island by John Donne.

R: Nice.

M: Thank you very much for listening.

R: Thank you for listening, we hope we have provided you an island of lexical and grammatical refuge.

M: An island, is your island of refuge. Yep.

R: If you find yourself trapped on an island, you might want to take up writing a journal, and how better to learn about writing than from our writing podcast? "Success with writing". "IELTS Success with writing". You should check it out. Maria.

M: Yeah. It's amazing.

R: Where can we find it?

M: "Writing for Success", "Success with writing". So, dear listener, we've launched a writing podcast, okay, it's called "Success with writing" and the link is in the description go there, click there, check it out. Rory and I are writing things on the spot. So we are writing an IELTS essay and IELTS graph on the spot in the spur of a moment, focusing on the structure and the vocabulary, gorgeous grammar. And Rory is super cool because he's creating the essay on the spot. And he can do it on the spot because he is with me. Yeah, with me, surely.

R: Only with you. I can't do it by myself.

M: Because Rory has been trained how to do that. So again, check it out. "Writing for Success".

R: I was trained by you. You're my teacher trainer.

M: Yeah, yeah. But also you went to university, Rory, where you wrote essays.

R: I think I learned much more from you than I did at university.

M: Oh, that's so sweet. Okay, my, my life is complete now.

R: Anyway, on the subject of things that are worth money.

M: There's a free version of our "Writing for Success" and there is a premium version.

R: Click the link in the description below!

M: Bye!

R: Bye!

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