📕 Part 1: Working with old people

Have you ever worked with older people?

Well, I suppose that depends on how we define old people, doesn't it? I've certainly worked with people at least one or two decades older than me. But not with anyone who would qualify as a pensioner. At least, not at the time.

Are you happy to work with people who are older than you?

I'll work with anyone, as long as they are competent, frankly. I suppose older teachers might have more experience. Which might make that more likely. At least now that I think about it. Though that's not necessarily guaranteed.

What are the advantages of working with older people?

Well, I've already said they might be more competent and experienced. Which might make work a bit less stressful. Since you can draw on, well, all of that, potentially. As for other things, I would hope that might make them a bit more patient and understanding. Since they've theoretically seen it all before. Though in life, there are no guarantees of that.

Are there any disadvantages?

Well, it's not set in stone. But older people might be more set in their ways. Since they've had a long time to develop specific methods of doing things. Or ways of doing things. And that might have crystallised. So that might make them a bit inflexible. I say that some elderly people are quite pleasant and keen on change.

Do you enjoy spending time with older people?

I've no issue being around anyone, as long as they're nice to me. No one wants to be around awful people, do they? So it's less about age and more about personality for me.

Yay! Thank you, Rory, for super polite answers.

Well, I'm old. I need to represent.

No, you're not old. 36. Come on, Rory.

36 at the time of recording.

If you were kind of like 96. 96. Okay, that's pretty old. The body. The body is old. But again, your soul could still be 26. Or even younger. So, how do you feel about this topic? Are you okay? Because I'm worried about you, right? IELTS people, they come up with such topics… We say older people to be polite. But the examiner can say old people. But we say kind of older people. The elderly. Also pensioners. How old is a pensioner?

Well, it varies from country to country. Because the law that determines when you get your pension will be different, and have different age requirements. On average, it's between 60 and 70 years old. So anyone of that age should be getting a pension. Of course, given how the economy is these days, I will never see a pension. And neither will you, Maria. We're going to be working for a very long time.

A pensioner. Pensioner or old-age pensioner. Is a C1 word, dear listeners, so band 8. A person who receives a pension.

Are you kidding me?

Yeah, C1. According to the Cambridge Online Dictionary. Hello, Cambridge. You can talk about pensioners. I worked with pensioners. I'm fine with working with pensioners. Or I've never worked with pensioners. So, 60-70-year-old people. And then you can express your disappointment about this topic. Well, that depends on how we define older people. How do we define old people. What do you mean old people? How old? How old are they? Rory is 36, and he thinks he's old.

Am I old?

I don't even know how old I am. I want to forget how old I am. So I think I'm old. What about you? Maybe, dear listeners, you are 27 and you think you are old. Define old. Give a definition. And you can say that I've worked with people older than me. Or much older than me. I've worked with people who are my parents' age, for example. Or my grandmother's age. Or you can say, well, if you mean somebody who is a pensioner. Then I've never worked with such people. And here you can focus on character traits rather than age. And say that I'll work with everyone as long as they are competent, knowledgeable, and nice people. And Rory works with people, students, and teachers. So age doesn't matter to him.

Well, yes. Because it's not about how old you are. It's about how well you can collaborate with other people, surely. Just because you are young does not mean you can't collaborate.

Rory, are you a yoga instructor now, officially?

I'm halfway through becoming a yoga teacher. Tune in for March 2026 when the training is finished. Then I will be.

Yay, congratulations to Rory. So our Rory will be a yoga teacher. Can you imagine this? So Rory, tell us. Does it matter how old the person is when they come to you to learn yoga? Because our bodies may be flexible, or not flexible.

No, if you can breathe, you can do yoga. So flexibility isn't necessarily a part of it.

You see! No age in dancing, in yoga, in learning. No age. We say this because we are old, dear listener.

No, we say it because it is true.

Yeah, it is true. Of course, it's true. If you feel young, then you are young. Forever young. And older people are usually more patient. They are more understanding, they are more experienced. Because they've been through difficult times in their life. They've seen a lot. They've seen more than young people. And these are the advantages. But the disadvantages are not set in stone, dear listener. That's an interesting idiom to use. It's not set in stone. So not set or carved in stone. So it can change. It's able to be changed. For example, the strategies, the speaking strategies we are giving you are not set in stone. So you might change them. You may use some other strategies. Older people might be set in their ways. That's another idiomatic expression from Rory.

From the English language. Through me. But if you're set in your ways, then you have your way of doing things. And you don't want to change. Or you find change very difficult.

Yeah, some people are very set in their ways. They always have dinner at 6 p.m. and that's it. And actually, that could be true that older people might be more set in their ways. They are unlikely to change, learn something new, or do crazy things. And this makes them a bit inflexible. We talked about flexible bodies when you do yoga. But people might be inflexible in life, not necessarily in sports. It's kind of like if a person is inflexible, they are fixed, unable, or unwilling to change. We should be flexible, dear listener. Change.

Embrace change.

But some elderly people are quite keen on change. So they embrace change. They like change. And then a strange question. Do you enjoy spending time with older people? What kind of question is this?

I don't know what the answer to this is supposed to be. No, I hate older people.

What's going on? I don't know. Listen, what? You can talk about your parents, for example, if they are 70 or older. You can talk about, I don't know, your grandmothers, grandfathers, family members, colleagues. Our Rory has no issue being around anyone. Again, the best strategy is, I don't have any issue being around anyone. And also, dear listener, if your examiner is old, if you see that they are much older than you, then you should say only good things about older people, dear listener. If you say like, Oh, old people are stupid, they are slow, they don't remember anything, they are inflexible. No, no, no, no, no. Just no, dear listener, forget it. It's just no.

And so do not insult the examiner.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, don't do this. And you can just complain about the question, like, what kind of question is this? Like, I'm fine being with anyone, as long as they are nice to me.

I love everybody.

Yeah, love and joy. And again, Rory gives us tag questions everywhere. No one wants to be around awful people. Young people, babies. No, but babies are not awful; they are cute and cuddly. Awful people.

Oh, some babies are awful. Noise that they make.

Ah, the noise, but they are noisy. But again, awful and noisy are different things, Rory. Come on.

I know, I know, I know. I'm being mean to babies.

Now we are insulting babies. Dear listener, we love babies. Yeah, so it's less about age and more about personality. And I think these are the key words from this episode that you should remember. It's less about age, so it's not about age. It's more about the personality of a person. Rory, would you like to live until you are, like, 130 years old?

If I have more vitality, if I can keep my vitality at that age, then it's okay. But if I'm, like, falling to pieces and I'm very unwell, then no, I don't want to live until I'm so old. It's not about living as long as possible; it's about living as well as possible.

Yeah, fair enough. If you're kind of 130 years old, then you can walk, you can, you know, take care of yourself. You can, I don't know, breathe, eat, move, dance. Why not?

I think that's quite enough discussion of being old. Now let's talk about something else that's more interesting.

Thank you very much for being with us during this difficult topic. Dear listener, thank you for your support.

I thought you were going to say, thank you for being with us during this difficult time, talking about ageing.

Yeah. Hugs, love, health, and joy. Okay? Bye!

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