📙 Part 2: Describe a program or an app on your computer or your phone

This episode's vocabulary

A daily basis (adv phr) – every day. → I check my emails on a daily basis.

Regular occurrence (n) – something that happens often. → Seeing wildlife in this area is a fairly regular occurrence.

Kill time (idiom) – to do something that keeps you busy while you are waiting for something else to happen. → I brought a book to the airport to kill time before my flight.

Motion sickness (n) – the feeling of being unwell when you are travelling in a moving vehicle. → Reading in the car often gives me motion sickness.

Set up a profile (phr v) – to create a personal account on a website or app. → The first thing I did was set up a profile and add a picture.

A mixed bag (idiom) – a range of different things or people of various qualities. → The new restaurant has a mixed bag of reviews; some love it, some hate it.

Misinformation (n) – wrong information, or the fact that people are misinformed. → There is a lot of misinformation about health on the internet.

Be selective (v) – intentionally choosing some things and not others. → You have to be selective about which news sources you trust.

Overload (v) – to give someone more work or problems than they can deal with. → It's easy to overload yourself with information from social media.

Downsides (n) – the disadvantages or negative aspects of a situation. → Despite the downsides, working from home has many benefits.

Stay abreast of (idiom) – to make sure you know all the most recent facts about a subject or situation. → It's important to stay abreast of the latest developments in your field.

Drawbacks (n) – a disadvantage or the negative part of a situation. → One of the drawbacks of living in a big city is the noise.

Questions and Answers

Maria: Describe a program or app, application on your computer or your phone. You should say what it is, how often you use it, when, how you use it, when and how you found it, and explain how you feel about it.

Rory: I'm going to talk about Instagram. When it comes to what it is, it's a social media site with an app that you can download onto your phone so you can connect with your friends and family in a variety of ways. In terms of how often I use it, I think it's pretty much on a daily basis, really. I'm on it when I go to the gym or just walking to and from various places, so checking it is a fairly regular occurrence throughout the day for me. To tell you a bit more about when and how I use it, I like to check it at least once a day to see if I have any messages or share different memes and short films called reels with my friends. Oh, and if I'm ever bored, it can be a fun way to kill time, like if I'm on the bus and reading a book is difficult, because sometimes I get motion sickness. Oh, and, well, like I said, I also look at it at the gym between sets when I'm waiting to use equipment, for example. As for when and how I found it, I think I started using it about six years ago when my friends and colleagues suggested I download it and set up a profile. Since then, it's been a bit of a mixed bag at times. On the one hand, I've been able to meet with people in my life and have fun. But on the other hand, there's a lot of misinformation and weird behavior that I've seen. So, you have to be selective and not overload yourself with it, I think. Or at least that's true for me. So to explain how I feel about it, despite the downsides I mentioned, I'm still reasonably glad I have the app on my phone, since it's still a useful tool for finding out what people close to me are interested in and staying abreast of their personal lives. If I didn't have it, then I'm sure I'd have found a similar app that does similar things, but this is just the easiest one for me to use.

Maria: And what about your friends? Do they use it?

Rory: Oh yeah, I think all of them are on there.

Discussion

Maria: Right, dear listener. So the task is, describe a program or an app, application on your phone or on your computer. The easiest option is to talk about Instagram. The listener, do you have Instagram on your phone? Maybe not on your computer, but definitely on your phone, right? Or Facebook. Okay? Do you have Telegram? But again, you can steal Rory's story and steal all the words about Instagram. All right? Easy. You can talk about your banking app, but then you should use banking vocabulary. All right? You can talk about, I don't know.

Rory: Talk about your calendar app or something like that.

Maria: There we go.

Rory: Your, your email app.

Maria: Email app, Gmail, for example. Or some transport app. But seriously, dear listener, why would you do that? We can talk about Instagram, right? And the ideas will help you for the essays as well. Social media, all right? For speaking in general, in speaking part three. And you can say, I'm gonna talk about Instagram. I'm going to talk about Facebook. We don't read the card, we don't paraphrase the task. We just say, I'm going to tell you about Instagram.

Rory: I'm going to talk about an app that I use all the time, and I'm going to tell you how I feel about it and how I found it.

Maria: When it comes to what it is, it's a social media site with an app. Or it's a social media app, application. So it's an app that you can download onto your phone. You download an app on your phone. So you can connect with your friends. You can keep up with your friends. You can stay in touch with your friends or family. But seriously, Rory, you just don't download Instagram to connect with your friends. You just download Instagram to post, to kind of, to look at stupid reels and stories and...

Rory: Yes, and share them with your friends.

Maria: Okay, yeah, yeah. Yeah, share stupidness, stupid everything and funny, funny things with your friends. Yeah, there we go. And also kind of you follow your friends, you look what they're doing, what they're up to, you know, like, my ex-boyfriend's, what's going on, you know? Do you do that?

Rory: No. I have a life. And I'm not following what any of my former partners are doing.

Maria: No, no, no, but some people do that. Some people, you know, follow...

Rory: I know, some people are crazy.

Maria: This is the part where Maria says this is what she does. In terms of how often I use it. So again, we are changing the topic and we are using a linker. In terms of how often I use it, it's pretty much on a daily basis. So I use it daily, I use it every day. I use it on a daily basis.

Rory: I think people use most of their apps on a daily basis, so that's a fairly safe collocation to use.

Maria: I use it nonstop.

Rory: Ooh, that's good.

Maria: I'm always using it. I'm always using it. I'm scrolling and scrolling. I can't stop scrolling. Is what you do. You scroll. I'm on it. So I'm on Instagram, I'm on Facebook, I'm on Telegram. I'm on it when I go to the gym or when I commute to work, when I'm just walking home. Right, Rory, so you are walking physically and you are using Instagram, right?

Rory: Yes, and I'm just looking at my messages and my reels. That's it.

Maria: Yeah, so I just check, I check my messages, I check what my friends are doing throughout the day. So like during the day, throughout the day.

Rory: This is where I encourage people to follow me on Instagram, but really don't. It's very boring.

Maria: Yeah, do follow Rory on Instagram. Sometimes he posts interesting things about the books he reads. Hardly ever you actually post stories photos.

Rory: No, I don't do that much now. I should probably do it more, but there's nothing interesting happening really.

Maria: You go outside, right? You go shopping. Just take a picture of what what you can buy in a Scottish shop. Like our listeners, I think it would be interesting to know.

Rory: Oh, people don't know what I want to spend my money on. Rubbish. It's all very boring.

Maria: No, but like groceries, you know, like, food like, okay, so this is my breakfast, this is my lunch. Yeah, okay, let's do. I a challenge. Rory, a challenge. You post what you eat.

Rory: I will think about it.

Maria: Breakfast, lunch, dinner. Yeah, dear listener, if you're listening, write a message to Rory and ask him to just post his food. All right?

Rory: And I promise I'll consider it.

Maria: Rory's food. And we're gonna discuss it in the comments on Rory's Instagram. Yes, let's do that. An amazing plan.

Rory: Oh, I can't think of anything worse, but okay.

Maria: I check it at least once a day, or I check it 10,000 times a day. Yes, you can crack jokes, dear listener. You just make jokes, make the examiner laugh. I'm addicted to Instagram, so I check it every five minutes. To see if I have any new messages. I share memes with my friends and strangers. I share memes with people I don't know. I write rude comments or I comment on my friend's stories, posts. Yeah, I share memes and reels with my friends. If I'm bored, I always check Instagram to kill time. So it's a fun way to kill time. If I'm on the bus, if I have nothing to do, if I've left my book at home, I'm on Instagram. I'm on Instagram before I go to bed. So pretty much every hour of my life.

Rory: Well, apparently you shouldn't be doing that.

Maria: No, no, no, no, no.

Rory: You should try to come off social media an hour before bed.

Maria: Yeah, but who does it?

Rory: I do. And then I read a chapter of my book and I go to sleep. It's nice.

Maria: Oh, look at you. Well done you. I started using it about six years ago or 10 years ago. Or I don't remember when I started using it. It was ages ago, a long time ago. One of my colleagues told me to download it. Rory uses suggest, so one of my colleagues suggested that I should download it. And set up a profile. You can say, I set up a profile 10 years ago. Or I don't have a profile. I just have an account and I just like I'm a secret ninja, you know? I just like, I comment or I do nothing. I just, I just look at the photos. I look at the stories and reels and never comment, never like anything. I don't have any pictures of myself, so no pictures, you know? Maybe, maybe you have this account. I try to be selective. So when you choose the material you read or look at on Instagram. So I try to be selective. I don't overload. I don't overload myself.

Rory: But that just means filtering what you see.

Maria: I filter what I see. Yeah. I try not to overload myself with Instagram. So when you overload yourself, it's a bit too much. You put too many things in your head. And that's C2, Band 9.

Rory: Is it?

Maria: It is. Overload. Try like give somebody more work or problems that they can deal with. And we say, don't overload yourself with work. How I feel about it. So despite the downsides I mentioned. So despite some negative things about the Instagram. So is it the Instagram or Instagram?

Rory: Just Instagram or the Instagram app.

Maria: Yeah, the Instagram app. But I use Instagram. I use the Instagram application. So despite the negative sides, despite the drawbacks, despite the downsides, minuses. I'm glad I have the app on my phone. Because it's a useful tool. It's a useful tool. Articles, dear listener. Because it's a tool, you know? It's kind of it helps us to do things, but it's not our life, but now we have turned this tool into our life. And it's a useful tool for finding out what people are doing, what people are interested in, kind of what my friends are into.

Rory: And you can stay abreast of their personal lives. That just means you can stay up to date.

Maria: Yeah, it's a useful tool which helps me to stay abreast of people's personal lives. Nice one. So it's C2?

Rory: I really hope so because I think that's a brilliant word.

Maria: Yeah. So keep, stay, remain abreast of something. To make sure you know all the most recent facts about a subject or a situation. I try to keep abreast of any developments. Right, dear listener. How are you doing? You're okay? Yeah. Are you going to be talking about Instagram? Yes? Good, good for you. If no, then think about what you're going to be talking about. We'll get back to you in our next episode, speaking part three, where we talk about applications, computers, people, likes and dislikes, and all the jazz.

Rory: Bye.

Maria: Bye.