📕 Part 1: Mirrors

Rory, do you like looking at yourself in the mirror?

Well, it's hard to answer that question without sounding narcissistic or self-hating, isn't it? I don't particularly enjoy it, but I don't mind doing it to check that I'm presentable.

Have you ever bought mirrors?

Well, luckily, my apartment came with its own, so really I shouldn't have had to, but I did have to buy a small vanity mirror for the bathroom and a full body one for my bedroom, just to make getting dressed slightly easier.

Do you usually take a mirror with you?

Not really. I can always quickly check my appearance in the reflection of windows or other surfaces, and it's not a big deal, but then I don't wear makeup or anything that needs a bit more precision, so it's easy for me.

Would you like to use mirrors to decorate your room?

I wouldn't say they were decorative things, to be honest, I'm a more practical person, so I have one opposite my wardrobe to make it easier to see how an outfit is working. I have seen ornate mirrors, but they've been in museums or other public places like that, not in homes.

Hey! Mirrors. So dear listener, what a strange topic. So welcome into the weird world of IELTS topics. Mirrors. Do we have any synonyms for a mirror?

No, I think, I think that's all it is. It's like the concrete object. What else could you have? I don't know.

But we can use different names for mirrors, like we have different types of mirrors.

Yes. We've got full body mirrors, vanity mirrors. What other ones? I think you can have mirrored doors to different wardrobes, for example. So you can see yourself after you take the clothes out.

Wall mirrors, also like a wall and a mirror, and also like over-the-door mirrors. Like mirrors on doors.

Yes.

Yeah. We can also have, like custom-designed mirrors. Like beautiful mirrors. Yeah. And what is a vanity mirror?

Um, I think... Well, the way I see it, it's just a mirror that you use to check your appearance when you apply makeup, or it's, it's directed at the face or the upper part of the body. So I have a small one in my bathroom and a large one, now that I think about it, actually.

So dear listener, you can go to the IKEA website and take a look at different types of mirrors. All right? Remember, well, one or two names. Maybe you have, like, elegant furniture mirrors, or at home, you have antique mirrors. You know, like old, beautiful mirrors. Or maybe walnut mirror. Walnut is this nut, the kind of material that your mirror has or doesn't have, you can imagine. And when we talk about mirrors, we look at ourselves in the mirror. Okay? So I look at myself in the mirror. And if you do it too often, you could sound narcissistic.

Yeah, but that's just a way of describing people who are obsessed with the, well, the external appearance rather than, well, not obsessed with but balancing that with being a good person internally as well.

So a narcissistic personality has too much interest in themselves. So they admire themselves. A person is a narcissist. Someone who has too much admiration for themselves. Okay? Well, it's kind of like a negative thing.

Well, it's definitely a negative thing.

And we can say that, well, yes, I use a mirror to check if I'm presentable. So I look at myself in the mirror to check if I'm presentable. Presentable? Like, do I look okay?

Yeah, reasonable. Not like fabulous, not...

Yeah.

Beautiful or gorgeous, but just presentable. You can go out in public and it's okay. You don't have messy hair, or maybe your makeup is on your face. I don't know how that works.

Yeah, I look at myself in the mirror to check if I don't have messy hair, or to make sure I look presentable. So I'm good enough in the way I'm dressed. So I make myself presentable in front of a mirror. We buy mirrors for our apartments, flats, houses. And here you can say something about a small vanity mirror in the bathroom, a full body mirror in your bedroom, even if you don't have any mirrors at home, just lie. And you can say, when I get dressed, it's easier to look at myself in the mirror. And then you can say that, ooh, I have some round mirrors. So like shapes. You know? Maybe framed mirrors. Like a mirror, and then there's a beautiful frame, okay? Or maybe, a rectangle mirror. So what is a rectangle mirror?

It's in the shape of rectangle. But you are the resident mirror expert, because I didn't know that was the thing until you said it.

Yeah, like different shapes. Like round, rectangular, square. Also, like you can mention antique mirrors. And very often we have door mirrors, so if you have a wardrobe, so the full door is a mirror. Ooh, a thing now is like to have lighted mirrors. Is when kind of your mirror is, you know, is lit, so you have some light in the mirror.

Some people have Bluetooth mirrors with speakers, and they play music through them. And I was just thinking, who is this for? How much time are you spending looking in the mirror?

Yeah, you can also have a magnifying mirror, dear listener. Maybe it's more for ladies. So ladies, we have a mirror, and then it's kind of like, it provides a close-up view, okay? Or it's like a double-sided mirror for makeup, so one has a close-up view, it kind of enlarges your face, and the other side is a usual mirror. So a magnifying mirror, dear listener, okay? Yeah. We can also have a floor mirror. Floor mirrors are very large. They are kind of like stand-alone mirrors. So kind of there's a massive mirror, full body, and you can kind of put it there, just, you know, like a painting.

I would be so scared of knocking that kind of thing over.

Ooh, can you imagine that? So they are ideal for checking your full reflection. So your kind of full body, your full look, so a full length reflection of yourself, like floor mirrors or full length mirrors, it doesn't mean that they are on the floor. No, they're just large. Yeah, and compact mirrors, compact mirrors. Kind of portable mirrors. They are small. You put them in your purse or pocket. So compact mirrors. I have a compact mirror. Do you usually take a mirror with you? What a strange question! And actually, Rory like, what about men? Like, do men carry mirrors?

Well, no, this is it. I was just thinking about my experience, and I was thinking, I just have a quick look in the reflection of a window or maybe some kind of reflective surface, and that's enough for me. But then, of course, I don't do anything with my appearance that requires something to be exactly in place. I imagine if you're wearing makeup, then you probably do have to carry a compact mirror, like you said, but that's not really something I worry about.

So I wrote this question on the internet. So do you think it's okay for men to use a pocket mirror? And actually, people asked this question on some forums. Is it okay?

And what was the response?

Okay, okay, check it out. So alpha male, never.

Oh, okay.

Regular masculine man, no. Office workers, yes. So for office workers, yes, you do need a mirror to check yourself.

You're in office.

Narcissist, yes. Yes, like narcissists love themselves very much, so they, yes. Teenagers, yes. You see? So depending on like, what kind of men are you, dear listener? What about you? Like if you're a man, have you ever had a mirror? Like, maybe in your car, you look at yourself in your car and then, kind of like...

Oh, yeah, I was thinking about that.

Check it out. Amazon.com. Mirrors for men.

How, what? How does that differentiate? Or sorry, how does that differ from like the mirrors that women use? Surely, this is a fairly unisex experience.

No, no, it's different. Because like male mirrors... Now they're black, like no design, usually.

How imaginative?

Gray. Yeah, grey, black. But for ladies, we have all different designs. Pink with pearls, with, I don't know, yeah, but... And when you go to the Amazon page with mirrors for men, you have a lot of knives, razors and knives. So, yeah, interesting.

Okay.

We usually decorate our rooms with mirrors. So mirrors are a kind of decoration, right? Or accessor.

Oh, or they could be decorative.

Decorative mirrors. Just, you know, like for the interior design. And again, we can talk about antique mirrors. If you don't have anything, you can say, oh, I wish I had an antique mirror to improve my interior design. Or if I could, I'd buy an antique mirror. So you can kind of speculate about the future. Use the second conditional and the structure I wish I had like a floor mirror, right? So as a kind of like design. But Rory is more practical. So you can say, like, I'm a practical person. I don't need any decorations, so I use a mirror to check if my outfit is okay, if I look presentable. So I have some mirrors in my wardrobe, okay? But just that's it. And you mentioned ornate mirrors. What are they?

Yes, ornamental mirrors. But that's basically the same as decorative, to be honest.

Yeah, like ornate - having complicated decorations. For example, a room with an ornate ceiling and gold mirrors.

I thought you were going to say a ceiling mirror there.

Ornate mirror has some beautiful decorations, dear listener. Gold, silver ornate mirrors. Beautiful. Like we see them in the museums, right? We see them in museums, right? And you can say, like, ooh, like, I don't want my house to look like a museum, so I don't have any decorative mirrors. Right, Rory, would you like to know the about the most expensive mirror in the world?

Can we talk about the grammar first?

Oh, yes, go ahead.

Oh, I just wanted to highlight. People... Sometimes you're asked if you enjoy something unusual, like, do you like looking at yourself in the mirror? Which is a strange question. So you could say, I don't mind doing, don't mind, plus -ing. And then there was another one, yes, I said, my apartment has its own mirrors, so I shouldn't have had to. So there we go. Modal verb shouldn't with the past. And what was the other one that I really liked as well? Yes, there we go. Another unusual question, would you use mirrors to decorate your room? And then here, I wouldn't say, or I wouldn't say that they were. So here again, modal verb wouldn't just to express the opinion. I wouldn't say so, or I wouldn't say they were, and then giving your opinion. So there we have some more complex grammar as well. Now the expensive mirror, tell us more. M, So the most expensive mirrors are in museums, dear listener. And according to some websites, the most expensive mirror is in the Louvre, in Paris.

Oh. And it's how expensive?

And it costs like 10 million euros.

Woah.

Yeah. So European monarchs used to look at themselves in that mirror in the 17th century. Yeah, dear listener. But some mirrors are kind of like, like a piece of art, really. Like, wow, like jewellery. So we have, like, fixed stand mirrors. So we can just, like, put them on the table. Or hanging mirrors. So you hang them on the wall, and they're like beautiful, wow. And they're like, like, jewellery, like, I don't know, like piece of painting. Something like Mona Lisa kind of mirror.

That's crazy. So basically, just because this thing is old. And I assume it's quite big. How big is it?

Yeah. 17th century. Ooh, I don't know. It's 14 and 16 centimeters.

What? It's 14 by 16 centimetres? That's tiny.

Yeah, 14 by 16, yeah. Tiny, yeah?

Oh, but then the Mona Lisa's tiny and is worth a fortune as well.

Yeah, dear listener. So now you know, everything about mirrors, okay? Yeah, if you're interested, just Google the most expensive mirrors in the world and then educate your examiner. Okay? And just don't be boring. Don't just go like, I don't like mirrors, I don't have any mirrors in my house. Just like imagine, like, what if you lived in a museum, you know? Like... Ooh, imagine that your house is surrounded by different mirrors, and just tell the story, and the examiner is going to be like, whoa, really? You have this like antique mirrors? And ornate mirrors? And floor mirrors? Whoa. And magnifying mirrors. So pretty much, you will educate the examiner on different types of mirrors. And then, after you, the next candidate will take the exam, the examiner will ask them about mirrors, and they will go, like... Like, I don't look at myself in the mirror, mirrors, mirrors. And the examiner will give them a lower score, because the examiner will know now. Like different kinds of mirrors. Okay? Do you get the point? You get the point? Rory, do you?

I get the point. But I still think this is a crazy topic.

Thank you very much for listening! We'll get back to you in our next episode with a crazy topic. Bye!

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