📙 Part 2: Describe a famous person you are interested in

This episode's vocabulary

Resistance (noun) - the act of fighting against something that is attacking you, or refusing to accept something.

Infringe on/upon sth (phrase) - if something infringes on/upon someone's rights or freedom, it takes away some of their rights or limits their freedom.

Blow up (phrasal verb) - to become popular.

Notorious (adj.) - famous for something bad.

Grossly (adj.) - extremely.

Fleeting (adj.) - short or quick.

Schadenfreude (noun) - (from German) a feeling of pleasure or satisfaction when something bad happens to someone else.

Entitled (adj.) - feeling that you have the right to do or have what you want without having to work for it or deserve it, just because of who you are.

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Questions and Answers

M: Rory will describe a famous person he is interested in. He will say who he/she is, how he knew about this person, what he/she was like before he/she became famous, and explain why he is interested in this person. Rory, are you ready?

R: Yes.

M: Fire away.

R: I'd like to talk about Jordan Peterson, actually, or I should say Dr. Jordan Peterson. He's a Canadian psychologist and professor. I first discovered him in the summer of I think it was 2016. And I think, well, at least I think it was then. He started posting about his resistance to speech laws in Canada that would infringe on people's right to express themselves openly. This is important because in order for the world to function properly, people need to be able to state their ideas clearly and these kind of laws would prevent that from happening. So it is quite important. I haven't been to Canada, so I first heard of him through some of my favorite youtubers, and I went to go and have a look at his videos. And I really liked what he had to say and his mode of delivery. He's a very calm speaker, but he organizes views in a very logical way. And it's really easy to follow what he's saying. Since that time he's really blown up on social media and the media more generally doing news, interviews, including one notorious one with the UK interviewer that went viral itself. In terms of what he was like before going viral, prior to that, you can see for yourself. He recorded all of his old lectures and put them on YouTube. I'll grossly oversimplify and say that he tells well-known stories and highlights how elements of them relate to the field of psychology and how people operate in the world. The general idea isn't about being happy all the time because happiness is fleeting. Rather, it's about finding meaning and what you do to carry you through the hard times. And all of this is very interesting to me because I like people who have positive messages like that for the world to hear. And on a more sort of schadenfreude related note, he was annoying all of the people I generally dislike, so that's entitled college students and social justice warriors and ideological extremists. And it was great seeing them get what was coming to them. And all the while I learned something along the way and I couldn't think of a better person to spend my time listening to. Except maybe you, Maria.

M: What about your friends, do they like this person?

R: Um, some of them do and some of them don't. It's OK to have different tastes in that respect.

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Discussion

M: What about me? Do your friends like me?

R: My friends love you. My mother likes you in particular. She thinks you've got great hair. And of course, I told her about the shoes.

M: Sweet. Right, so the task is to describe a famous person. A famous person or celebrity. So you can talk about any famous person. You can talk about Rory, actually.

R: Could you?

M: Yes, you're famous. I'm going to talk about Rory Fergus... Wait, wait, wait. I have it written down. OK, wait.

R: You said that you'd remember my name.

M: Rory Fergus Duncan-Goodwilly. Oh. Maybe, maybe. OK, the next step is going to be RFDG.

R: Yeah. In all of the communications it was RFDG because they couldn't fit my name into a piece of paper.

M: Oh, this company. Yes. So you guys, you should now have a famous person that you are interested in and you should be able to talk about him or her. So Google now this person. Again, if you have no idea, you can talk about Rory. Rory, so you talked about this Canadian psychologist and the professor and you can start off your talk by I'd like to talk about or I'm going to talk about.

R: Yeah. And I think that's quite a good expression isn't iT. I would like to talk about and I will.

M: Yeah. Or there are many famous people I'm interested in and if I had to choose I'd bla bla bla.

R: So you could do use the contraction I'd or I'm gonna.

M: I'm gonna.

R: I'm gonna to talk about it.

M: Speaking is informal so feel free to use this I'm gonna, I wanna. If I were to meet this person. Oh, if you were to meet this person, what would you ask him? This Professor?

R: Um, I don't think I'd ask him anything. Probably just would like to say thank you for all the hard work he does.

M: That's nice. And you should know some facts about this person, so you should kind of describe this person and maybe just learn when they were born.

R: Well, you should learn where they were born because you can practice your present perfect simple. I haven't been to Canada.

M: Or I haven't seen this person. I haven't met him.

R: So. And then you introduce how you met them, how you know who they are.

M: Yeah, but if this... Can you actually in this situation, can you describe a person who is dead?

R: You can be interested in a dead person. Yeah.

M: Yeah, like Pushkin, Dostoevskiy, Tolstoi. Yeah.

R: Chaikovskiy.

M: Yeah, but if you talk about somebody who is alive, you're going to use present perfect. OK, so he's starred in this and this film. Or he's written several books if this person is alive. But if this person is dead, you're going to use only the past simple or past perfect.

R: Or past perfect.

M: By 2000, he had written many books. Yeah? OK. In terms of linking, Rory.

R: We said in terms of.

M: In terms of, oh yeah. You did use this "in terms of".

R: In like, in terms of what he was like prior to. Yeah. So it's always like I like this expression just "in terms of". Because it's sort of semi-paraphrasing, but it's not like copying exactly what you had in the task before. So it's quite useful, actually.

M: It's good for you "in terms of". And like when you don't know how to start the sentence because kind of you're in the exam, you're looking at this prompt card. The prompt card has these bullet points. Right. And then you have oh, how you knew about this person? In terms of how I...

R: In terms of how I'm supposed to have heard of this person. I heard of them on YouTube.

M: Yeah. And then you've used the word since to connect.

R: Since that time. So from the previous time.

M: Also since can be used as because. I've chosen to talk about this person since this Canadian professor is bla bla bla.

R: And usually people move from general to specific. But I did it in reverse this time to make it more interesting. So I said since then he's blowing up on social media. But then I used the connecting. It's like a pattern and in media more generally. So you can replate this idea, but you can broaden the scope from social media to all kinds of media.

M: Yeah. And you should use specific vocabulary about this person. So if his professors like psychologist, professor, like a renowned professor, for example.

R: Mm. Well known.

M: Well known. And then the the video of him went viral.

R: Yeah.

M: That's a nice word. Viral.

R: It is. Especially if you talk about a famous person. Famous people blow up, they go viral.

M: Um can actually a person blow up?

R: Yeah, they can. You can blow up on social media, for example.

M: He blew up on social media. Nice. Or his videos went viral. You can talk about a blogger, youtuber.

R: Yeah. Anyone who's well become famous very suddenly.

M: Podcaster, you can talk about podcaster.

R: Famous podcasters. We're not quite there yet.

M: Famous podcaster. Rory. From Scotland. I'm going to talk about one podcaster from Scotland. He is quite famous.

R: The only podcast from Scotland.

M: The only... No. Come on. Yes, OK. The only one, the only podcaster. Dear listener.

R: The only podcaster from Scotland in Russia. There we go. There's only one Rory in Russia.

M: There's only one Rory in Russia. Wow. We should start our museum, the museum of Rory.

R: But before we start that, we should talk about how to finish the story.

M: Yes. How do you finish the story?

R: And you're asked to say why it's interesting for you. And I didn't say just this is interesting to me because. I said all of this is very interesting to me.

M: Or what is interesting for me is that.

R: Yes. Inversion? What is interesting for me is.

M: Uh, no.

R: What is that? That's a something. What is interesting about this is.

M: It is a cleft.

R: Sentence, isn't it? Yeah.

M: What I need is love? Cleft sentence, I think.

R: Which is a kind of inversion.

M: No, inversion is something else.

R: Is it? Oh, well, anyway.

M: Have I never been born, blah, blah, blah. Inversion when you put the auxiliary verd before like in a question. Anyway, it's a good structure. Like what I find interesting about this person is ta ta ta or...

R: Either way, you'd like one of these two things. So it doesn't matter. It's still an advanced grammar structure.

M: Yeah, but then you can just to finish it up you can say, oh, I think that's all I can say. Goodbye. And then the examiner will ask you a short question.

R: Yes. And the way you can finish up by saying is I couldn't think of a better person to spend my time listening to. But then you don't say like unless it's Maria because Maria will not be there. Just don't say anything.

M: Yeah. And if you are nervous in your IELTS exam, you can always imagine that there is Rory next to your IELTS speaking exam.

R: I thought you wanted them to not be nervous.

M: In order not to be nervous.

R: How would that help?

M: Imagining you in the exam?

R: That would scare me.

M: No, but look like many people listen to you, right? To us. And they have you in their heads. You are inside people's heads.

R: Those poor, poor people.

M: They just go to the exam and they hear your voice, Rory. Do you realize how this works?

R: I think I need to drink.

M: What are you doing? Yes. So , dear listener, it's OK to have Rori inside your head. Believe me, he has, he's educated, he is qualified, he knows what he is doing, he's quite professional. So it's nice to have Rory, same words in your head when you go to your IELTS speaking exam.

R: Not just words, cleft sentences also.

M: Conditionals. Band nine phrases.

R: Who knows what kind of conditionals, but there's conditionals in there.

M: Yeah, you can have also me screaming Scotland freedom. Yeah, you can have this from me to brighten you up.

R: This might be somewhat less useful.

M: Right. Thank you so much for listening and supporting us on our premium. Feel free to make comments about this episode and tell us what vocabulary, linking phrases and inversion cleft sentences you find useful.

R: But that's enough from us being famous.

M: Bye!

R: Bye!

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