📙 Part 2: Describe a competition (e.g. music, cooking, or sports competition) you took part in

You should say: what the competition was, when and where it was held, what you did in the competition, and explain what you learned from the competition

This episode's vocabulary

Compete (verb) – to take part in a contest or game. → She loves to compete in spelling bees and science fairs.

Exception (noun) – something that does not follow a rule or pattern. → Everyone passed the test, with one exception.

Contest (noun) – a competition or event where people try to win. → He entered a cooking contest and won first prize.

General knowledge (noun) – information about many different subjects. → Quiz shows often test your general knowledge.

Association (noun) – a group of people organized for a shared purpose. → The Parent-Teacher Association meets monthly.

Charity (noun) – an organization that helps people in need. → They raised money for a children’s charity.

Fortunately (adverb) – luckily; by good fortune. → Fortunately, the rain stopped before the match started.

Schedule (noun) – a plan of activities and times. → I checked my schedule and saw I was free on Friday.

Demonstrate (verb) – to show something clearly. → He demonstrated his skills during the presentation.

Round (noun) – a stage or part of a competition. → We reached the final round of the tournament.

Trophy (noun) – a prize, often a cup or statue, awarded in competitions. → They proudly displayed their football trophy.

Prize (noun) – something given to the winner of a contest. → The top prize was a trip to Paris.

Ignorant (adjective) – lacking knowledge or awareness. → I was ignorant of the rule and broke it by mistake.

Be the wiser (phrase) – to be more informed or aware of something. → No one noticed the mistake, so no one was the wiser.

Questions and Answers

Rory: Well, hardly ever have I competed in anything, frankly. The only exception I can think of is the one time at primary school when we had something called the Rotary Club Quiz, or at least I think it was called that. We are talking about something that happened almost 30 years ago now, so my memory is not the best. So I apologise for that. However, as near as I can remember, this contest was between local school teams. The teams were of about four students and they had to answer general knowledge questions posed by the leadership of Dundee's Rotary Club, which is a sort of social club or association crossed with a charity organisation. You have them in different parts of the UK. Fortunately for our team, the big event was held at our school, so we didn't have to travel very far for it. I think it must have been a Friday, though that's just a guess based on how cheerful everyone was and the fact that they would have had to clear their schedules, which is easier to do on Fridays compared to busier school days.

I was picked for the quiz along with my teammates because we read and knew a lot and demonstrated that in different classes. I've no idea how many rounds there were, but it seemed to go on forever. We actually did quite well. We came second and only because we messed up a question about the capital of Australia. I was convinced it was Melbourne and no one challenged me on it, so we went with that. Of course, it's actually Canberra, but none of us were the wiser at the time, so we missed out on the trophy and the prizes by one point. That was a bit sad, but it was hardly the end of the world. Coming in second is still pretty good, I think.

And after that whole experience, I never forgot the Australian capital again. If I hadn't entered the quiz, I'd be just as ignorant of that fact now.

Maria: Thank you, Rory, for your story.

Rory: No worries. Thank you for listening.

Discussion

Maria: So, dear listener, describe a competition. Competition is, you know, like a race, like a sports competition, or when you compete against another team. You want to win. You cook some biscuits, and then you want your biscuits to be the best. Or, for example, there's a music competition. You compete, and you come in, like, the champion, yay. So we take part in competitions, and it could be any competition. Remember something from school, or university, or make it up.

Rory: Or reach back into the mists of time, like I did. Oh, wow…

Maria: So you can say that once I took part in a sports competition at school, or I took part in a drawing competition. So you drew some flowers, and then you won. Or you composed a poem, and then you won. So, win a competition. In the past, I won a competition. So I was the winner. And the competition was held. So it took place in New York, for example. So where the competition was held means where it was, where it happened. All right? Rory had a very strong Band 9 start. Rory, what did you say, and how did you say it? Your first sentence?

Rory: Well, hardly ever have I competed in anything.

Maria: Ooh la la, Band 9 grammar. But, dear listener, it's used accurately, emotionally, and correctly. Rory used inversion.

Rory: Yes I did.

Maria: C2 grammar structure. Rory is quite emotional. And he means like, whoa, I've never competed in anything. So we are emotional. We can say like, hardly ever have I competed in anything, you know?

Rory: I should point out, I've been on a mission to use inversion in every single one of my previous answers as well. Why am I doing that, you might ask? Well, you will find out. Maybe. But not today.

Maria: You can say that I've never competed in anything or I've rarely competed in anything, present perfect, and then turn to the past. The only exception, like only once I took part in ta-ta-ta, OK, or when I was at primary school, or secondary school, or high school, I took part in ta-ta-ta quiz. Yeah, and quiz is just like, you are asked questions, you answer questions, so yeah. And then you can say that it happened more than 30 years ago, it happened a long time ago, and my memory isn't the best, so I forgot pretty much everything, and I'm gonna just lie to you, dear examiner. And then you go like, as far as I can remember, or as near as I can remember. Like I can't remember everything, but, well, I have some memories. A good synonym for a competition is “contest”. And really, what kind of contests can we have, like a musical or music contest, what do we say? Musical? Music?

Rory: I have absolutely no idea, because I don't take part in many competitions. I don't know, what are musical competitions called? Let's have a look. Google is our friend.

Maria: Oh, there you go, writing contest, photo contest, selfie contest, ooh, selfie contest, yeah, kind of, writing competition, writing contest.

Rory: Ooh, a tournament, a championship, a match, ooh, I like that, that's cool. Okay, so we have some alternative words that I didn't think about before.

Maria: Yeah, but the safest word is competition, because it's good to go for any context.

Rory: Well, that's the word in the text, isn't it?

Maria: Yeah, you can use like a contest, cooking contest, cooking competition, tournament, yeah. And this contest was between my school and other schools, or the competition was among like five teams, for example. And what did you have to do? I had to answer questions, I had to cook, I had to run, to draw, to, I don't know, do a test. What about these, you know, like tests that students do at school, and then they compete to see who is the smartest.

Rory: Oh, are you referring to Olympiads?

Maria: Olympiads, yeah, okay, okay.

Rory: Yeah, although I don't think we really have them in Scotland, or do we? Let's check.

Maria: Really?

Rory: Maybe I'm just not clever enough to be in one.

Maria: You know, dear listener, like a state test that you do, and the government chooses the smartest people from this school.

Rory: I honestly cannot see any at all. Oh, wait, no, there's a Scottish University's mathematics Olympiad. So there are Olympiads, in fact, but they're for universities. Oh, no, junior mathematical Olympiads. But what a weird thing to have. Anyway, but that's me talking as the least competitive person ever. So don't listen to me. If you are competitive, good for you.

Maria: And then you say this event, another synonym, this event was held at our school, or was held in another city, or it was held, I don't know, at a restaurant.

Rory: In a city hall, in the town hall, I'm trying to think where else you can hold events. In the middle of nowhere.

Maria: At school or outside, for example, if it was like a sports competition. And everyone was cheerful, everyone was happy.

Rory: It couldn't be a Scottish event if everyone was cheerful. Just kidding.

Maria: It was a busy school day, and we had to compete. So the verb is to compete; different teams compete against each other. My teammates, so my friends from my team, we call them teammates. If the competition was long, you can say that this event went on forever. So it was very long.

Rory: Or if you still want to use that idiom, you could talk about the opposite. It only lasted a day, so it didn't go on forever. Although from the perspective of nine-year-old me, I felt like I was going to die of boredom, at least if I remember it correctly.

Maria: My team did quite well. And then you should say, did you win or did you lose? You can say we lost. We lost this competition. We didn't win. Or we can say, we came second. So we won second place. Yeah, Rory, can I say place?

Rory: Yeah. You could talk about the scale of the loss as well. We lost by one point, or we lost by one minute. Something like this. How much did you lose by?

Maria: If I say I was a runner-up, what's that?

Rory: That's the people who don't come first in general. It's sometimes used to refer to the person who comes second.

Maria: But if you did win, you can say, I did win this competition, or I was the winner, or I won, I got the first place.

Rory: If you did a really good job, you could say, we won hands down, which means absolute victory, clearly observable.

Maria: But is it correct to say I won the first prize?

Rory: If there is a prize, yes!

Maria: If you lost, you can say, oh, my team messed it up. We messed it up. We lost. We were wrong. We made mistakes. So we were losers. It was challenging for me, or it was very easy for me. It was exciting.

Rory: It was terrifying.

Maria: I was really nervous. I was anxious. And you can say, coming in second was pretty good. And you can lie to the listener. So you can say, yes, I won it. Even if you didn't win it, just say that you won it. You want to seem to be good in front of the examiner. So tell the examiner, yeah, I won it. I got the first place.

Rory: Or make them feel sorry for you and say, I've lost at everything. I need to win. Like a band nine level win.

Maria: I felt like a loser and then kind of you start crying. And you're like, ugh…

Rory: And then the examiner throws you out for being a drama queen.

Maria: What helped you organise this answer, Rory? And what cohesive devices, linky words, have you used naturally and accurately?

Rory: Well, having a meltdown at the beginning helped, saying, hardly ever have I done this kind of thing. And then highlighting the one thing I can think of. And then just saying, listen, this is a long time ago, so my memory is not the best. And then you go into more detail. As near as I can remember, for introducing, well, I used it to introduce the point about where it was and what the common test was, but you could use this for anything. Then we linked with fortunately for our team to talk about what the place was. And so it was fortunate because the place was where we usually were. I didn't do much to introduce why I was picked, to be honest, but I did use some organisational phrases to give more details. For example, I said, it must have been a Friday. And then I explained why. And then everyone had to clear their schedules, which is easier to do. And again, thinking about linking, I've no idea how many rounds, but it seemed to go on forever. And then thinking about giving the answers, I said, of course it's actually to highlight the fact. And in drawing to a close, I said that was a bit sad, but it's hardly the end of the world, which is good when you're talking about a competition in a primary school that no one is going to remember until 30 years later when they have to talk about it on a podcast. And then to end, I said, and after that whole experience, this is what I learned. And I tried my best to end with a conditional. If I hadn't entered this quiz, I'd be just as ignorant of that fact now. Actually, to be honest, it's still a struggle for me to remember capital cities of different countries.

Maria: Thank you very much for listening. And we'll get back to you in our speaking part three episode about competitions. Bye.

Rory: Bye.

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