📕 Part 1: Skills and abilities

Have you ever had any experience of doing something well?

Yeah, there's lots of things I'm pretty good at. If I might blow my own trumpet for a moment, I'm a good storyteller and I frequently make people laugh and I'm a fairly competent teacher and teacher trainer. Otherwise, I'm not sure why people would keep turning to me for advice and for lessons.

What things can you do well?

Other than what I said. Well, at the risk of seeming to have unwarranted overconfidence, I know a fair amount about languages and exercise, especially after spending so long learning about both of these things. I also think I'm a pretty good friend. I'm always trying to help out people as much as I can.

Is there anything you don't do well?

Yes, I've always been a terrible cook and I think the ship has sailed on being able to do anything about that. And while I know how to drive, I'm not particularly gifted at that either. Or raising plants, because they always die on me.

How do you feel when you do something well?

I think it depends on the context, really. It's a very warm feeling when students leave class and I feel like they've learned something. And other times when people heap positive praise on me, it's almost overwhelming. I don't really like it when that happens, even though it's obviously very well-intentioned.

Have you ever had a situation when your teacher thought you did a good job?

At school? Not particularly. I was an awful student and I still am, probably. I think the closest I've ever come to that was when a professor at university said I was the only one in my cohort that she'd ever given an A grade to. And my yoga teacher praised me for a pose that I pulled off once. That was a really great day.

Do you often tell your friends something when they do something well?

Probably not often enough, now that I think about it, actually. Heaping praise on people isn't something widely done in my culture, though it's about time. I think that changed and I think I'll make more of an effort to do it more often in the future.

We say do something well. You drive well. You cook well.

Or in my case, I don't drive well and I don't cook well.

And you can paraphrase, I'm pretty good at. So I'm pretty good at cooking, at dancing. I'm good at dancing. I'm good at swimming. If I blow my own trumpet, an idiom!

Might blow my own trumpet.

Rory, what does it mean?

It means that you show off and you tell people how amazing you are.

Blow your own trumpet. A trumpet is a musical instrument, so you can google it. And blow your own trumpet means to tell people about your achievements, especially in a way that makes you appear too proud of yourself. So is it negative, Rory?

Well, normally, if we talk about it for other people, then it's not a compliment. It's usually highlighting something you don't want people to do, which is be overconfident and talking about themselves positively all the time.

So I hate to blow my own trumpet, but I think I did pretty well there. Or you can say like, I don't want to blow my own trumpet, but I'm pretty good at dancing.

And it's always blow my own trumpet. You don't blow someone else's trumpet. Yeah, it's your trumpet.

I'm a good storyteller. I tell stories very well and I frequently make people laugh. I'm a fairly competent dancer, teacher, swimmer. You see, so you can paraphrase. Not just like, I swim well, I dance well, but I'm a competent teacher. I'm a good storyteller. So instead of a verb, swim, dance, cook, you can use a noun, dancer, swimmer.

Juggler, ballet dancer, windsurfer.

And people keep turning to me for advice. So people come up to me and ask for advice. Turn to me for advice. You can also say like, I don't want to be overconfident. Because you know, like when we say I do something well, it might sound like, oh, I'm so cool. Yeah, I'm good at this. I'm good at that. So I don't want to sound overconfident. So to be too certain of my abilities and success. So you can say like, I don't want to sound overconfident. But I'm pretty good at languages. I'm good at yoga. Can you say I'm good at yoga?

Saying that someone is good at yoga is a bit problematic. Because how do you determine that? You could say you're good at it though. But that's all a matter of opinion. Yoga is for everybody. If you can breathe, you can do yoga and be good at yoga.

Yeah, my favourite position is shavasana. When you just lie down there.

You have to be able to adjust your position. And then you have to think about meditating as well.

Oh, yeah, yeah. How do you pronounce it? Shavasana?

Well, this is it. You see there, I think it's not clear on whether there's a sound for sh or s in Sanskrit. So some people call it shavasana and other people call it savasana. Because no one really speaks Sanskrit anymore outside of the yoga world. We don't really know much about the pronunciation. You see the things I have learned over the course of the last year.

You can say I'm a pretty good friend. I'm very good at friendship. I'm always trying to help people out. Nice. Help or help out. Help people out.

Yeah, I think most people are good friends. So if you cannot think of anything, you can say I'm a pretty good friend.

Finally, a question about things you don't do well. And pretty much dear listener, just feel free everything else. I'm a terrible cook. I'm a terrible son. I'm a terrible worker. I'm a terrible learner, a driver, you know, like just name everything. To kind of show the examiner that, you know, you are a real person. And it will sound as if the examiner is much better than you. And this is very good psychologically. The ship has sailed. Rory, it's an idiom. What idiom is it?

The ship has sailed. It means that there is no turning back and nothing can be done to improve the situation. So the ship has sailed on me improving my cooking ability. At least that's the excuse I'm using because I cannot be bothered to learn how to cook. Fling everything on a grill and grill everything. Thank you, George Foreman.

Rory grills everything. Well, that's much better than putting freaking eggs in a microwave. Well, thank you, dear listener. If you wrote to Rory saying that Rory can't microwave his eggs, thank you very much because Rory used to put eggs in a microwave. So if you've been a long-term listener, you know that we moved Rory away from this activity, which is dangerous for eggs, for the microwave and Rory.

I moved myself away from it because I couldn't be bothered anymore.

Oh, thank you. Thank you. So the ship has sailed is an idiom. That means an opportunity has passed or it's now too late to do something. For example, could you give us a sentence with driving and the ship has sailed.

The ship has sailed on me being a better driver because I don't want to be able to drive anymore. I can drive in an emergency, but I will not be driving as a regular thing because the way that people drive on the roads in my country is crazy and I'm not risking my life.

You can also say I'm not particularly gifted at. So I'm not good at or I'm not particularly gifted at raising plants, growing plants. Everybody knows that Rory is a plant murderer. So plants die on Rory.

If something dies on you, it means they die in your care. Not they literally sit on you and die.

So you can say just plants die on me. Or you can say I'm not particularly gifted at dancing, explaining things, at writing, learning languages.

Well, maybe don't say you're not gifted at learning languages if you're taking an IELTS test.

Oh, yeah, that's true. Yeah, like we usually talk about skills, right? It's just kind of like drawing, painting, maybe like data analysis, problem solving, teamwork, time management. So I'm not a good leader managing my time. Right, dear listeners, communication skills, something like this, like about money. I'm not very good at what?

I'm not good with money.

And usually we use a verb, right? So I'm not good at, I'm not particularly gifted at doing something. It's a very warm feeling when I do something well. I feel ecstatic, very happy. You can say it's overwhelming. Overwhelming, like a lot of emotions, but in a positive way. Rory, you've used an interesting word, which is something... Cohort.

A cohort is just a group of people. But in particular, a group of people in an educational context.

So at university, I was the only one in my cohort who got an A, for example. So in my group, yeah, in my class.

Yes.

And you can say that my yoga teacher, my school teachers praised me for something. I was praised for doing something. And when people do something well, we usually praise them. We praise them, we say like, well done, bravo. But it depends on the culture. If you feel that you don't praise people enough, you can say that I should praise people more in the future. Or I'll make more of an effort. Make an effort. Make more of an effort. So make more effort to do so in the future.

Talking about more things, we also talked about heaping praise on people, which means giving people lots of praise. It could also be seen as unnecessary, positive praise, like too much.

And we usually pay compliments to people, like make compliments to people.

Give people a compliment.

Yeah, give people a compliment, like you've written a nice poem. And we praise people for their accomplishments, what they've achieved, for their qualities, character, for their support. And which words do we usually use?

What words do we usually use for praise?

Usually, we just say, like, well done.

Congratulations. Or nicely done.

Yeah, and you can say, like, I try to be sincere. Like, I try to be open and tell the truth. Right, dear listener, how are we doing? So Rory, like, what's one activity that you want to do well? Something interesting.

I'd like to get better at being able to do a handstand. That would be cool.

Oh, that's the yoga stuff.

It could be yoga or it could just be gymnastics, I suppose.

Yeah, and I'd like, hmm, I'd like to listen to my body. Well, you know, when your body tells you something and you're just like, yeah, okay, I understand you, my body, and you do something accordingly. I think that's a very important skill. Thank you very much for listening. And we'll get back to you in our next epilogue. Okay, dear listener? Bye

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