📕 Part 1: Parks and Public Gardens

This episode's vocabulary

A walk in the park (idiom) – Something that is very easy to do. → Example: For a professional chef, making this dish is a walk in the park.

To catch the sun (phrasal verb) – To get a suntan. → Example: I spent the afternoon at the beach and really caught the sun.

To wander about (phrasal verb) – To walk around a place in a relaxed way without a definite route or purpose. → Example: On sunny days, I love to just wander about in the park.

Peace and quiet (binomial/idiom) – A state of calm and tranquility. → Example: After a long week at work, all I want is some peace and quiet.

To decompress (verb) – To relax and reduce stress. → Example: Listening to music helps me decompress after a busy day.

To bother someone (verb) – To annoy or disturb someone. → Example: I chose a private garden so I wouldn't bother anyone with my game.

Off the top of my head (idiom) – Immediately and without much thought. → Example: I can't think of any famous parks off the top of my head, but I'm sure there are many.

Picturesque (adjective) – Visually attractive, like a picture; charming or quaint. → Example: The village is very picturesque, with its old cottages and beautiful gardens.

Therapeutic (adjective) – Having a relaxing and healing effect on the body or mind. → Example: For me, a long walk in nature is very therapeutic.

To be out and about (idiom) – To be active, going to different places. → Example: I enjoy being out and about in the city on weekends.

Semi-wild (adjective) – Not completely domesticated or tamed. → Example: The park is famous for its semi-wild horses that roam freely.

Questions and Answers

Maria: Do you like going to parks?

Rory: Sometimes, yeah, especially if it's a nice day and the sun is out, in the summer when you can just wander about and relax, that's always nice.

Maria: Did you like going to parks as a child?

Rory: I suppose I must have done. Everybody does when they're younger, don't they? You can get outside in the fresh air and run around. What's not to like?

Maria: What do you like to do when visiting a park?

Rory: I've not done it in a while, but when I have in the past, I've enjoyed the peace and quiet and watched kids or dogs playing with each other. That's quite relaxing and helps you decompress.

Maria: Would you prefer to play games in a private or public garden?

Rory: Well, I don't play anything at all these days, but if I did, I suppose it would be in a private garden, just so I didn't bother anyone and, well, they wouldn't bother me.

Maria: Are there any parks you want to go to in the future?

Rory: I can't think of any off the top of my head. Maybe St. James in London. It's quite picturesque, despite all the tourists. Oh, and Port Meadow in Oxford. I absolutely love it there. It's this big open space, and there are these semi-wild horses wandering about freely, which is a lot of fun to watch in the summer.

Discussion

Maria: Right, dear listener. So parks is a popular topic among IELTS people. Parks, gardens, parks and gardens. You can talk about parks or garden, like botanic gardens. And you can also listen to our previous answers about parks and gardens. Just kind of type in Google, "parks and gardens IELTS speaking for success." And Rory, where can our listener listen to our episodes?

Rory: They can listen on our new website. It's been redesigned. SuccesswithIELTS.com. You could even study our vocabulary from the episodes, and you could take a test and see how high your score will be. All on the one website.

Maria: So, dear listener, you can say, I'm into parks, I love parks. I like going to parks, especially if the sun is out. So I enjoy just wander about. Wander about is our favorite phrasal verb. So you just walk, wander about, walk around. I enjoy being out and about.

Rory: Yeah. That's a binomial.

Maria: As a child, you can say, I used to go to parks very often, my parents took me to parks every week. Or I didn't go to any parks.

Rory: I had a terrible childhood.

Maria: Or you can say, I enjoyed running around in a park, or I used to spend a lot of time in a park as a child, so used to. So when you talk about past.

Rory: Or if you don't remember, I must have done. Or I could have done.

Maria: We have public gardens, like the botanic or the botanical gardens. What do you call them? Botanical?

Rory: Botanic or botanical, both are fine.

Maria: Right. So kind of public gardens where everyone can go. And we have some private gardens or private parks. Maybe there's, I don't know, a museum and it has a private garden. Or maybe someone owns a nice house and they have a private garden. So, where would you like to play games, dear listener? I don't know what kind of games, cards, Monopoly, roleplays.

Rory: Hide and seek. I suppose maybe you could play like tennis or badminton in a park, maybe volleyball.

Maria: Ping-pong.

Rory: Yeah. So there are some things that you can do in the park.

Maria: You can say, well, actually, I don't play these days, or I don't enjoy outdoor games. I play poker inside with a bottle of whiskey and my friends. Yeah, whiskey is very important. You play poker and you drink alcohol, okay? So poker without the alcohol is like, no, no, you can't, you can't do it.

Rory: I'll, I'll take your word for it, Maria. I don't know anything about that.

Maria: I've never played poker. It's just from the movies. So here you can use the second conditional. If I had to play a game, it would be in a private garden. So, if I did, if I had time for a game, if I had to choose, it would be, okay? Because I don't want to bother anyone else. So bother, like to be annoying to people. So I don't want to bother people.

Rory: But maybe you do want to bother people.

Maria: Or you're okay with bothering people. Yeah, then you go to a public garden and you start screaming, shouting, running around, annoying everyone. What you do when you visit a park? Well, that's a good question for ChatGPT. And dear listener, you can ask ChatGPT. So, what do people do when they visit a park?

Rory: And what did ChatGPT say?

Maria: I don't know. I usually ask Google. "Twenty ways to enjoy a park." It's some boring activities like take a break, go on an adventure. Okay, an adventure in a park. Take a deep breath. All right. Observe wildlife. So you notice birds and squirrels, go bird watching. So you can say, oh, I enjoy bird watching. I do outdoor yoga. Go for a picnic, dear listener. So, yeah, not kind of usual activities. And Rory told us, just enjoy the peace and quiet.

Rory: Which is a binomial. It's not quiet and peace, peace and quiet.

Maria: I just enjoy the peace and quiet. I watch kids play. I watch kids and dogs playing with each other. Nice structure. So I watch people doing sports. I watch kids playing with each other. It's quite relaxing and it helps me decompress. Decompress means to unwind, to relax. But if you say relax, you shouldn't say relaxing because it's kind of the same word. So it's quite relaxing and it helps me to kind of reduce pressure.

Rory: You can also say it's therapeutic for me.

Maria: Ooh, it's like therapy. Go to a park wearing some strange clothes. Like a onesie. So you just dress up like a unicorn. You have a one suit and it's a unicorn onesie. Onesie means like a costume, like one piece of clothes. That's very strange.

Rory: Yeah, that does sound very strange.

Maria: It's not normal, yeah, but it's fun.

Rory: Do you know that for a fact?

Maria: No, I haven't done it yet.

Rory: Soon you will see Maria dressed up as a, a cat. You've dressed up as a unicorn before.

Maria: Yeah, yeah, I did, yeah, but I didn't go to a park, so I should. Let people see my unicorn image. Yeah, yeah, it's fun. Yeah, can you imagine me running around in the park like a unicorn? And it has like its horn and the tail and everything. So it's, it's fun. Right. Dear listener, maybe there's a park that you want to go in the future. You can choose a famous park, or maybe not a famous park.

Rory: Say the park near your home.

Maria: Yeah, just my local garden, okay? Or a local park. But you can start off with, I don't know. Or I can't think of any off the top of my head. At the moment, I don't have the answer. I don't know. Rory, could you pronounce this sentence, how you say it with intonation?

Rory: I can't think of any off the top of my head.

Maria: Yeah. In London, for example, we have Hyde Park, which is quite famous. Or, for example, oh, Central Park in New York, for example, Hyde Park. Okay. Or a park in Barcelona. Or a park in Tokyo. There we go. Or you can say, "Oh, I'd like to visit Hyde Park in London. I'd like to visit Central Park in New York." It's quite picturesque, like beautiful, full of nature. It's pretty, pleasant, picturesque, attractive, despite the tourists. I'd love to go there, and there's plenty of space, there's a lot of space, and there's wildlife. So, yeah, choose a park you want to visit, dear listener, all right? Maybe it's a national park, it could be quite huge. And which park would you like to visit outside your country?

Rory: Well, these places are outside my country. I live in England. I don't live in England, I live in Scotland.

Maria: Not the same country?

Rory: No, they're not the same country. You stop that now.

Maria: Okay, I'm joking. They are different places, dear listener. Lovely. Thank you very much for listening and we'll get back to you in our next episode, okay? Bye.