📙 Part 2: Describe a person who always has strong opinions

You should say: who this person is, how you knew him/her, why you think he/she is an opinionated person, and explain how you feel about him/her.

This episode's vocabulary

Unshakable (adj.) - if someone's trust or belief is unshakeable, it is firm and cannot be made weaker or destroyed.

Opinionated (adj.) - an opinionated person is certain about their beliefs, and expresses their ideas strongly and often.

Uncompromising (adj.) - if people or their beliefs are uncompromising, they are fixed and do not change, especially when faced with opposition.

Committed (adj.) - loyal and willing to give your time and energy to something that you believe in.

Explicitly (adverb) - in a way that is clear and exact.

Implacable (adj.) - used to describe (someone who has) strong opinions or feelings that are impossible to change.

To stick to your gun (phrase) - if you stick to your guns, you continue to have your own opinion about something even though other people are trying to tell you that you are wrong.

To press your point (phrase) - to insist that the issue be discussed, even though others may not want to discuss them.

Perspective (noun) - a particular way of considering something.

Wishy-washy (adj.) - having no colour, firm ideas, principles, or noticeable qualities of any type.

Questions and Answers

R: Well, I'm a bit spoiled for choice, to be honest, since I know a lot of people like this, but my best friend Rob has some pretty unshakable positions on a variety of things. We've known each other for well over 15 years now. When it comes to his being opinionated, it's a hard thing to miss with him. He's a good listener but is pretty uncompromising about what he thinks is the correct way of going about things. I can remember one time we were talking about work, and he was pretty committed to the view that people in a particular situation were just being lazy and not thinking clearly, and had to be told explicitly what to do correctly. And while I could see where he was coming from, I felt there might be other things to consider about this situation. Nevertheless, he was completely implacable and stuck to his gun. So I didn't press my point, and I just left him to have this point of view. And I'm quite fine with that, to be honest. I'm not of the opinion that you need to win every argument to have an impact in the world. It's much easier if you just live your values and your truth rather than ram it down someone's throat. It's also less stressful and requires much less effort as well. At least from my point of view or perspective, even though we didn't agree on that particular point, I haven't changed my mind at all about our friendship or anything like that. I mean, if anything, it's important to be friends with people who are consistent in terms of their values and not wishy-washy. I think it's something that makes for a good friend, or at least a consistent one. Still, if he had changed his mind, I also wouldn't have thought any less of him. People are allowed to change their minds. And like I say, they don't need to win every argument to be thought of as good or worthwhile people in the world.

M: And what about your friends? What do they think of this person?

R: Well, I think pretty much everyone is of the view that he's a good person. So regardless of whether they agree or not.

M: Yay! Thank you, Rory, for your story!

Discussion

M: So dear listener, describe a person who always has strong opinions. Well, Rory, tell us, is it like negative or still positive? Is it a positive thing to have strong opinion?

R: I don't know. I was thinking about it when you were talking about it being a negative thing. I quite like opinionated people. I love listening to people with strong opinions and hear them articulate their position. So I'm not sure I agree about this. I think it sometimes is quite a good thing to have strong opinions, especially for an IELTS task and you need someone to talk about.

M: Yeah. What I meant was opinionated as a word is disapproving. Like the connotation of the word.

R: Is it?

M: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Opinionated.

R: Ah, okay.

M: It's disapproving. Because some words have positive connotations. Some words have positive meaning, but some words are negative in nature. Like what? For example, notorious. Like, famous is good, notorious is bad. When you use the word notorious, you usually talk about, like, criminals.

R: Ooh, yes.

M: So opinionated is like disapproving. But if you want to talk about, like positive things, you can just say a person with strong opinions, right? But don't use the word opinionated. All right? So when you use the word opinionated, it's about something negative. For example, a person knows, thinks they know everything about the world, and they kind of, are very strong about it. They kind of express their ideas strongly. You can say, I know a lot of people like this, and my best friend Rob, or my best friend Rory. And yes, dear listener, you can use Rory for all your answers if the task is to describe a person. It's gonna be fun and will relax you during the exam because you will have Rory in your.. Or me. You can say, oh, Maria. Yep. So feel free to use our names, haha. Rory, and when you say, I'm a bit spoiled for choice. What does it mean?

R: It just means that there are too many people in my life that have strong opinions about things.

M: And you can say my friend has unshakable positions on different things.

R: Positions on.

M: Unshakable? Very strong. Like they cannot be, what, shaken.

R: Like a cocktail.

M: Yeah. So my friend has very strong positions on things, or my friend has pretty unshakable positions on different things. We've known each other for a long time. Like we have known each other for a long time. You can say we met through mutual friends. We had some friends, we knew the same people. So we met through mutual, the same friends. And we've been inseparable ever since. So if you are inseparable from somebody, you cannot be separated. Inseparable. C2.

R: Oh, is it?

M: Band word.

R: Wow.

M: So if two or more people are inseparable, they are very good friends.

R: Nice. He is a good listener. So he listens to you, but he is uncompromising about what he thinks is correct. So he is uncompromising. He doesn't make compromises. So he kind of, he thinks, so this is blue and that's all, you know? There's nothing you can do.

R: That's it. No compromise.

M: No compromise. No, this is blue, and that's all. And for example, his beliefs are uncompromising. They are fixed.

R: Unchanging.

M: Unchanging. Yeah.

R: Like the sun.

M: No, but the sun also, kind of... Does it change?

R: Well, I mean, it will ultimately change, but over the course of billions of years. So it's a fairly apt comparison or simile.

M: So he doesn't compromise. So you can say like, he is uncompromising about what he thinks is the correct way of doing things or the correct way of going about things. Pretty much like doing things. And then you can give an example of a situation when your friend was uncompromising when your friend was very fixed and was not flexible. And you kind of you can say, I remember one time we were talking about... And he was committed to the view that. So he was like, stuck. He was like, fixed on this opinion. So he was committed to the view. He strongly believed that this is the correct answer.

R: Didn't change his mind.

M: He didn't change his mind. Yeah. I thought there might be other things to consider. So I wasn't so fixed, but I could see where he was coming from. So I could understand his opinion, but I'm more flexible, I felt there might be some other things to consider about the situation.

R: That's a good one, though. I felt there might be. So good use of modal verbs to avoid generalizing.

M: Implacable. Implacable is a formal word used to describe someone with strong opinions or feelings which are impossible to change. For example, he was implacable about that. He was completely implacable.

R: Unwilling to listen to compromise.

M: Could you give us an example sentence? For example, like, when we were talking about work and what kind of... Oh, when we were talking about, like, what computer to buy?

R: Yes. So, well, when my colleague was completely implacable and unwilling to listen to alternative suggestions.

M: And we say like he is implacable. He's implacable about something.

R: Yes. Or just implacable. Period.

M: So he stuck to his guns. Again, he didn't change his mind. He didn't compromise. He was fixed. Stick to your guns is an idiom. To continue to have your beliefs, to continue with your plan of action, if people disagree with you, doesn't matter. So, like, stick to your guns on something. So he stuck to his guns on this matter, on this issue, you can say I didn't press my point. I didn't keep going, keep convincing him of my point of view. I'm fine with this, to be honest. Like I'm not opinionated. I don't have strong opinions about this, and I feel you don't need to win every argument.

R: I feel like that's a good piece of advice in general for living in the world, you don't need to win every argument. It's fine.

M: If you ram something down someone's throat.

R: But that just means that you're not listening to what they're saying, and you feel like they have to believe what you think 100%.

M: So the expression is force or ram something down someone's throat. To force someone to listen to opinions and ideas and to try to get him or her to accept them. So you tell somebody something and you want them to accept them, and you kind of keep going and going and going until they agree. So you can say, I really dislike when someone starts ramming their opinions down my throat. And about this person, you can say like, oh, my friend keeps ramming his opinions down everybody's throat. This is very annoying. And you can say, like, we often disagree on different points. I haven't changed my mind about our relationship. We are still friends and like I'm okay with him.

R: Yeah, you don't have to agree with people about everything all the time to be friends.

M: Yeah.

R: If you did, life would be rather boring, and, you know, you wouldn't have anything to talk about.

M: Yeah, it's important to be friends with people who are consistent, who are kind of like, okay, they have strong opinions, and they always have strong opinions. They're consistent, rather than like being wishy-washy. So to be wishy-washy is when you don't have strong opinions and you're kind of like, not this, not that. I don't know. Wishy-washy is informal, and also it's negative. The meaning is negative. So like having no firm ideas, no strong ideas or principles. For example, he gave wishy-washy answers. So his answers were like... Like not strong, not convincing.

R: They were not strong, they were not convincing, I think is the better way of saying it, rather than making the sound.

M: Yeah, sweet. Dear listener, if you don't have a person with strong opinions. You can talk about Rory, okay? Or me. Like, oh, yeah, I know like one person. Maria has very strong opinions, usually about clothes, life, free time.

R: Correct opinions, Maria would say.

M: Correct opinions.

R: I have the correct opinions.

M: Make sure you use these beautiful phrases we've just given you. Stuck to your guns. Ram something down someone's throat. Beautiful language. To be committed to the view. Yeah, excellent synonyms. Thank you very much for listening! And we'll get back to you in our next episode about opinions in general. Bye!

R: Bye!

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