📙 Part 2: Describe a place you've been to where you can see wild animals

You should say: where it is, when you went there, what animals you saw, and explain how you felt about the place.

This episode's vocabulary

To wander (verb) - to walk around slowly in a relaxed way or without any clear purpose or direction.

To interfere with something (verb) - to prevent something from working effectively or from developing successfully.

To leap at something (phrasal verb) - to eagerly accept the chance to do or have something.

Treacherous (adj.) - if the ground or sea is treacherous, it is extremely dangerous, especially because of bad weather conditions.

Snorkel (noun) - a tube that you hold in your mouth to help you breathe if you are swimming with your face underwater.

Up close and personal (adverb) - intimately.

To take a chance (collocation) - to take a risk.

Privileged (adj.) - having or showing a special advantage.

Questions and Answers

R: Well, I'm pretty sure you can just wander outside of any developed area and come across wildlife. But one thing that sticks out in my mind in particular is Jaco Island in East Timor. It's an island, but it's also a marine reserve that's located in the country's most Eastern point. There's only a small village and hotel next to the harbour there, and no one actually lives on the island, which I suppose makes it an ideal place for such a reserve, because you don't want people interfering with the... With, with, with what's there. And I went there in mid-2015 when I was an English teacher, travelling around the country, going from school to school to teach. And while there wasn't a school in this part of the country, I had heard about the place with the marine reserve, and I always wanted to visit, since I learned of it. So I practically leapt at the chance, when someone suggested going. They just said it randomly, they didn't know that I really wanted to go. And we had to climb over a mountain on a really treacherous trail to get there, but it was absolutely worth it, and I would happily do it again. While we were staying there, we went swimming and snorkelling. We were able to see things you usually only get to see up close and personal in an aquarium or something like that in colder countries like mine. I think the species that stand out the most in my mind were barracuda and lionfish, which should have been scary, since these are predators in the wild and just in general, to be honest. But they seemed quite calm about having humans around and weren't really threatening. Of course, despite that, we made sure to keep our distance. I'm not sure where the nearest hospital was, but I didn't feel like taking any chances. It was an absolutely magical experience, and I feel really privileged to have been able to go there. It definitely made me appreciate nature more, and quite literally, took my breath away. It's definitely up there in terms of one of the best things I've ever done in my life. If I hadn't gone there, I'd definitely be poorer for it.

M: Do you think you can go there again?

R: I think anybody could go there if they wanted to. If they had the money. It's expensive to get there.

M: Hey, thank you, Rory, for your story!

Discussion

M: So dear listener, you can talk about a zoo, for example. All right? If you've never been to Africa or any islands, any wild places. Like, yeah, I've never been in such a place, but I've been to a zoo and I saw wild animals. And also, you can talk about a forest, for example, next to your house or in your city, in your country. Wildlife. So, wildlife? Where do we have wildlife? In a forest, in a big park, in a wild area where we don't have a city, okay? And if I talk about a forest, um, can I talk about some like birds? No, wild animals. Birds are not animals.

R: Yes, they are.

M: Really? Birds are animals?

R: Birds are animals. Yeah.

M: Really? Oh, wow, okay. Birds are animals? What?

R: What? What do you mean? Like, you have birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians and fish. They're all different kinds of animals. In fact, I think I know the name for this. I think they're called domains. Animal domains. Let me just check that.

M: Wow. Dear listener, birds are animals. You see? So you can talk about a forest or a big park, and then you you talk about birds, squirrels. You know, like this little animal, you know? Yeah. No. No need to talk about some Africa or islands.

R: Ah, no, beg my pardon. Domains are even... There's only three domains when we talk about animals, and there are bacteria, archaea and eukaryota. And then, ah, yes, Animalia is the name of the kingdom. There we go. Sorry, this is a brief lecture on animal taxonomy, which is how we identify different kinds of animals. It's amazing. Oh, it's fantastic. Sorry. I just love this.

M: So dear listener, you can say that, oh, like, I'm gonna tell you about a forest that is in my city. I came across different kinds of birds. I came across? So I saw. I came across wildlife. Wildlife? Like wild animals, wild birds, wild people. And one thing that sticks out in my mind is a forest near my house, for example. So one thing that sticks out in my mind, one thing that I remember very well, or one place that sticks out in my mind is an island in Thailand, or is an island in East Timor and this island is... Where is it, Rory?

R: It's between Australia and Indonesia. It's one of the newest countries in the world.

M: Wow. You see? Kind of Australia, dear listener. It's just way up there, far, far away. Wow. So it's an island and marine reserve. A marine reserve is like a protected area with marine wildlife. So the different fish, corals, sharks, oh, and no one lives there, wow. So it's like a very small village, and pretty much only wild animals and fish, right?

R: Yeah. I think there are some sheep on the island, but I think that's the only non-native species that's there.

M: Wow. Yeah. So I went there when I was travelling around the country. Or for example, I went to this forest when I was having a holiday, or I visited this place when I was travelling around. So past continuous, dear listener. Use past continuous. Imagine, lie, but use past continuous. Or, for example, I went there when the weather was good, the sun was shining. Hey! And I saw a crocodile.

R: Have you seen a crocodile?

M: Yeah, I saw, I saw many crocodiles in Thailand, but not into the wild, you know, in the wild. I was walking, you know, in the jungles and then like, oh, hello crocodile. Yum, yum, yum

R: It happens. When I lived in Ghana, we had crocodiles that came into the school.

M: Oh, wow.

R: Yeah. It was wild.

M: You can use Past Perfect here. For example, I went there when I was travelling around the country, I had always wanted to visit this place before, yeah, you went there. And you can say I practically leapt at the chance to go there. So leap at the chance. So I just, like, took the chance, I used this opportunity and went there. It was absolutely worth it. It was worth it.

R: But that just means that it was worth spending the time doing.

M: Yeah, Like it was worth it, it was enjoyable and useful, despite the fact that I made some effort, maybe I paid a lot of money, or it was difficult to get there. So it was worth it. I would happily do it again. We can use would. So if I had another chance, I would go there again. About the activities that you did there. If, I don't know, it was a zoo, then, okay, I saw wild animals. I took photos, you know, I ate a hot dog. Rory told us about a reserve on an island, right? We went swimming, and snorkelling. We went snorkelling, you know, with a mask and tube, not diving, but snorkelling.

R: What do you call the tube? The snorkel.

M: Ah, snorkel, yeah. A mask and a snorkel. And we were able to see different wild animals. Like we could see, we were able to see, and we could get to see them up close. So when you kind of see them very close to you, you can say, I could see wild animals up close.

R: Up close and personal.

M: Personal? What did you mean by personal?

R: Up close and personal just means, like, close and you can see them...

M: In a personal kind of way, right?

R: No, no, just up close and personal. I think it's an idiom, to be honest. It just means that you're very means that you're very close to them.

M: Oh, give us another sentence.

R: I have also seen crocodiles up close and personal. That's got to be C2, surely.

M: Cambridge online dictionary doesn't know such an expression.

R: Really?

M: Yeah.

R: But Collins dictionary does. It means intimately, intimate. It's also the name of a film, but that's irrelevant.

M: Yeah, up close and personal, intimately, you know, very closely. Up close and personal interaction, like intimate communication, or, for example, you saw them in an aquarium, like in a water tank, in a zoo, for example. You can talk about species. So different kinds of wild animals, we use the word species. I saw different species of crocodiles, different species of snakes and barracuda. Fish. Yeah, you can actually name some interesting species. Any interesting animals, Rory? Like wild animals, like with interesting names.

R: Capybaraas. That's it. That's all. That's all you need.

M: Well, for example, like rhinoceros, right, dear listener? Gorillas, I don't know, Google some interesting wild animals and imagine that you saw them. Well, okay? Giant pandas. There you go! Just to show off your animal vocabulary, or like leopards, ooh, I like snow leopards. They're my favourite.

R: They're also extremely endangered, think,

M: Oh yeah, yeah. There are kind of, like, I don't know, a couple of 1000.

R: Oh, they are rare or endangered. Nice, that's got to be C2-level word, surely.

M: Yeah. But if you say kind of, oh, yeah, I saw a snow leopard. Like, where did you see it? Come on. They're super rare. Like, in a photo, maybe?

R: Well, no, I think you get them in zoos.

M: In some zoos, but they are super rare.

R: But of course, we know how I feel about zoos. Don't go to them. Go out in nature. Talk about the wild animals you see there. In my country, you can see squirrels and birds. What else can you say? Maybe the occasional rat, probably... Oh, badgers, we have badgers.

M: You can also use the word predators. And a predator is an animal who eats other animals. So pretty much tigers, lions are predators. And you can say, oh, I saw big predators. You can say that I kept my distance. So when I saw that kangaroo jumping across the road, I kept my distance, so I stayed away.

R: So it's like the opposite of up close and personal.

M: Yeah, you can say like, oh, I saw different animals up close and personal, but then when I saw a tiger, I kept my distance, or when I saw a bear. Yeah, bears I saw bears in the wild. Like not on a zoo, they were just very up close and personal. It was really scary, but very interesting experience. Actually, it's fascinating to see this, like wildlife up close and personal. When you see this wild animal looking at you, you know, in the wild, and there is no net, there is no fence, nothing between you two. It's just... And then Rory told us, like, I'm not sure where the nearest hospital was.

R: Well, if you get stabbed by a lionfish, then you're in big trouble. So... I imagine if you get bitten by a barracuda, then that's not a great experience either.

M: To wrap it up, to sum it up, you can say it was an absolutely magical experience. So it was absolutely fascinating. Fascinating, incredible, unforgettable, something like so exciting, like fascinating. Magical. It was magic. And I feel really privileged to have been there. So now I feel privileged to have been there in the past, right? Or you can say that I felt privileged that I was able to see such wild animals. It made me appreciate nature more. Appreciate? Like value nature more. And it took my breath away, because here we're talking about wildlife, and it's amazing. So it was breathtaking. It took my breath away.

R: But also we were underwater, and the air was running out.

M: Oh yeah, yeah. Like Rory was underwater and was running out, yes. So literally, took my breath away. And we can finish off with the third conditional in the past, unimaginative situation. If I hadn't gone there, I would not have seen such beauty, for example. Okay? Yeah, dear listener, if you've never been to such a place, you can talk about a zoo, or you can talk about just a forest. A park where you saw birds. Okay? Just as simple as this, or imagine, imagine the situation when you went to on a safari. Oh, last year I went on a safari and I saw giraffes, you know, up close and personal. So you are free to lie, dear listener, right? Just make sure that you learn some interesting animal names, like rhinoceros, snow leopards, cheetah, eagles. You know an impressed examiner with your animal vocabulary. Thank you very much, dear listener!

R: We'll see you next time! Bye!

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