📙 Part 2: Describe a popular or well-known person in your country

This episode's vocabulary

Oversimplification (noun) - the action of describing or explaining something in such a simple way that it is no longer correct or true.

Constituency (noun) - one of the official areas of a country that elects someone to represent it in a parliament or legislature.

To preside (verb) - to be in charge of a formal meeting, ceremony, or trial.

To implement (verb) - to start using a plan or system.

Shortcoming (noun) - a fault or a failure to reach a particular standard.

The brunt of something - the main force of something unpleasant.

Incumbent (adj.) - officially having the named position.

Rife with something - full of something unpleasant.

Well-intentioned (adj.) - wanting to have good effects, but sometimes having bad effects that were not expected.

Resourcefulness (noun) - the ability to make decisions and act on your own.

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Questions and Answers

M: Hello! It's us, and our premium, speaking part two. Hello! Surprise, suprise. Rory is going to describe a popular or well-known person in his country. He's going to say who this person is, what they do, what he or she has done, actually, why he or she is popular, and he's going to explain how he feels about this person. So a well-known person in Scotland. Rory, are you ready, Rory?

R: Yes. Well, it would be difficult to talk about Scotland and how it's run without making mention of Nicola Sturgeon, our current first minister. It's very similar to the role of Prime Minister, but she's responsible for the domestic governance of Scotland in particular, whereas the Prime Minister focuses on the United Kingdom as a whole. And our official external relations are handled through the Foreign Office. I should say that's a gross oversimplification. But I can't think of another way to summarise it any more effectively. So while her job description basically applies to the whole country of Scotland, she also represents her constituency in a place called Govan, which is in Glasgow. And I think she's presided over quite a long period of her party, which is the Scottish National Party. And she's been very popular and she's succeeded in implementing a variety of programmes that have helped people. For example, the pandemic recovery programme. Obviously being a politician, she isn't without her failures and shortcomings as well. Most recently, her government has been dealing with a conflict with rail workers that's resulted in significant delays to train services. As always in government, though, it's a bit complicated. But she's seen as the face of the whole thing. So I suppose she gets the brunt of the criticism. I think she's so highly regarded for a variety of reasons. In the first place, she's, well, she has the incumbent privilege, so people easily recognise and associate her with the governance of the country. And secondly, many of the other politicians in our country are not exactly inspiring. Our large opposition parties are rife with corruption and immorality. So it's little wonder people support the woman at the head of the only party that has relatively low corruption. Though they're far from perfect themselves. When it comes to my own thoughts and feelings. Well, I actually rarely agree with her decisions. I can certainly see that she's coming from a well-intentioned place, and it isn't easy being in charge of a whole country. It takes a great deal of courage and resourcefulness to do what she's done, and I hope she inspires our opposition to a higher standard of work.

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

R: I think it's pretty split, to be honest. She's one of these people that you either love or hate.

M: Thank you, Rory, for your answer!

R: It's okay.

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Discussion

M: Right, dear listener, you should put Nicola Sturgeon into Google and look at images. So go Google image. Nicola Sturgeon. Sturgeon. And look at this nice lady. Oh, she's so cute. Such a lovely face. Hey. Yeah, an interesting face. He-hey. I thought, I thought you were going to be talking about a man for some reason. Nicola. Such a nice name.

R: Oh, okay. Because it's very similar to a Russian name. Yeah. No, Nicola is very much a woman.

M: Yeah. And Rory started with it will be difficult to talk about Scotland and how it is run without making mention of Nicola Sturgeon, our current first minister. Oh, so Scotland has their own minister. So you have Boris Johnson, who is Prime Minister of the...

R: United Kingdom.

M: United Kingdom. Okay. United Kingdom. Yeah. Boris Johnson is the prime minister of the United Kingdom. Then you have the Queen. Elizabeth the second. And also England, Scotland, Wales have their own ministers, which are called first ministers. They are not called Prime Minister.

R: Hmm. I don't know about Wales. There is definitely an equivalent position. I think it's leader of the Assembly. But that might be a Welsh title as well, because they have their own language in Wales.

M: Oh, wow. Interesting. And Rory talked about, well, pretty much their prime minister in Scotland, which is called the first minister. Who can you talk about? A popular person in your country. Again, it could be a politician. It could be a famous singer or a writer or, I don't know, your favourite blogger. It could be Rory. But yeah, Rory is not from your country. Well, Scottish listeners, do we have any Scottish listeners, I wonder?

R: Have Scottish people taken IELTS? No, I mean, really, all of the structures here could be used to describe a politician in any country. Like let's take a country like India. Like it would be difficult to talk about India and how it's run without making mention of whoever is in charge of India.

M: Yeah. Dear listener, you can speak about the leader of your country. Right? So this is pretty much the most popular person in your country. Hopefully, maybe, I don't know. But again, please choose one person now that you will speak about. If you don't know much about their life, please go to Google, Wikipedia online and write out several facts about their life because this is helpful for your answer. All right, so do it now. Just Google. Write out a couple of sentences about their life. You can also write out some adjectives. And when we describe a person, we usually use adjectives. So what adjectives did Rory use about their first minister? So you said that... So she's responsible for the domestic governance.

R: So talking about what she's responsible for and then expanding on that. Well, her job description applies to this. She also does blah, blah, blah.

M: But did you use any adjectives to describe her? Like she's generous or she's confident, she's a charismatic leader, for example?

R: Well, it's more about describing what she does. So coming from a well-intentioned place, that's a good phrase for describing someone that has, they're not evil, they're just trying their best and they have good intentions. And then I talked about it takes a great deal of courage and resourcefulness to do what she's done. So that describes personality traits, but you could say that someone is courageous and resourceful. But that's about it, really. I was more talking about what she does and why she's popular, to be honest.

M: Yeah. Yeah. You can say she inspires people. Again, she's courageous, like she's brave, she's resourceful. She's full of resources. She knows what to do. Yeah. Resourcefulness, courage and resourcefulness. Right. But you can also use some other adjectives like handsome, beautiful, charismatic.

R: She's a very handsome woman.

M: Popular. Well known. She's a very handsome woman. Well, she's like a man. Yeah. Then you can say that people are fond of her or people are not fond of her. You can say she's not evil or this person is not evil.

R: She is highly regarded.

M: Oh, yes, that's a good one. She's highly regarded. So like people respect her. Right? So she's a respectable woman?

R: Yes, I think she's a lawyer as well, actually, now that I think about it.

M: Yes. So like she is so highly regarded for a variety of reasons or this person is so famous for a variety of reasons. And then why? But to be honest with you, dear listener, to talk about this famous person you should know something about their life. Yeah? Again, if you speak about a person and you have no idea what they do, like you can just speak in general. I don't know, but yeah, it's going to be difficult to speak for about 2 minutes about something you don't know.

R: But most people know a famous person from their country.

M: I think so, yeah. Oh, can I talk about a person who is dead? So somebody from the past.

R: Well, let's look at the grammar of the task.

M: Yeah. So here, dear listener, attention.

R: You should say who the person... Yeah, look, describe a popular, well-known person in your country. Who this person is.

M: Is. Yeah.

R: Is popular. Yes. So you maybe could. But I don't think.

M: Yeah. If you have no ideas about people who are alive and if you speak about somebody who is dead, yes, it is possible. It is possible, because, again, we don't have any information in the criteria that gives us something like, oh, you should speak only on topic and you can't go off-topic. No, it's possible, dear listener. So yeah, you can. But again, I think it's just better to speak about somebody who is alive and use the present. That's why Present. Perfect. So she's done. She's responsible for. Right? So she represents somebody. Right? So she's married. He's married. She has done something. She has written books. Yeah. And then when Rory talked about his own feelings...

R: When it comes to my own thoughts and feelings.

M: And Rory gives a contrast, while I rarely agree with her decisions, I see that she's coming from a well-intentioned place, which means that like, she means well. Right? She's not evil for the country and it isn't easy to be in charge of a whole country. So she's in charge of something. She's responsible for something.

R: It's a shame she'll never hear this.

M: Yes. Nicola Sturgeon, if you do want to support your almost local podcast, you know. Because one of your law-abiding citizens, Rory Fergus Duncan, something else, and something else, is doing this podcast. So please, Nicola, if you want to, you know, support us, go ahead.

R: She's probably very busy now focusing on...

M: And also Apple, and Elon Musk and McDonald's, and Nike, and especially Manolo Blahnik shoes. So if you want to support our podcast. Yeah, lovely. So dear listener, please decide on the person. Do your research. Use some of the adjectives and phrases and we're gonna see you. And hear you in speaking part three, where we're going to be talking about popularity. Bye!

R: Bye!

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