📙 Part 2: Describe a quiet place you like to go

This episode's vocabulary

Stretch out (phrasal verb) – to extend your limbs or body to their full length. → My bedroom has a lot of space to stretch out in after a long day.

Unwind (verb) – to relax after a period of work or tension. → It's a great place to unwind and forget about my worries.

Integral part (collocation) – an essential or necessary part of something. → My bedroom is an integral part of my home; I couldn't imagine the house without it.

On a daily basis (idiom) – every day. → I go to my bedroom on a daily basis, since that's where I sleep.

Stay over (phrasal verb) – to sleep at someone else's house for one night. → I'm almost always in my room unless I'm staying over at a friend's house.

A clear distinction (collocation) – a clear difference between two similar things. → I like to have a clear distinction between my workspace and my rest areas.

Chill out (phrasal verb) – to relax completely, often by doing nothing. → Sometimes it's just nice to chill out on the bed and read a book.

Work your way through (phrasal verb) – to deal with or finish a large or difficult task. → I have a pile of unread books that I'm slowly working my way through.

Have (something) all to myself (phrase) – to not have to share something with anyone else. → I'm glad I have the space all to myself where I can be alone with my thoughts.

Overwhelmed (adjective) – feeling that something is too much to deal with. → When I feel overwhelmed with work, I go to my quiet place to calm down.

Peace and quiet (binomial pair/idiom) – a state of calm and tranquility. → I go to the library when I need some peace and quiet to study.

Stand out (phrasal verb) – to be very noticeable or much better than other similar things or people. → Of all the quiet places I know, my bedroom is the one that stands out the most.

Questions and Answers

Maria: Describe a quiet place you like to go. You should say where it is, how you knew about the place, how often you go there, and what you do there. Also explain how you feel about the place. Rory, give us your story.

Rory: Well, my whole house is pretty quiet, but the place I like to go to the most to relax is definitely my bedroom. In terms of where it is, I think it's on the west side of my house, or at least the end that's furthest away from the front door. Not only that, but it's the second largest room, too. So it's away from the noise outside on the stairs and it's got a lot of space to stretch out in and just unwind. When it comes to how I knew of it, well, it's impossible to miss since it's a pretty integral part of my home. It's right down the main corridor. So I don't have far to go if I ever need to be there. With regards to how often I go there, I'm pretty much there on a daily basis, since my bed is in there, and I almost always sleep there, unless I'm staying over somewhere else. Sometimes during the day, I'll also go there and sit on my bed to work or read. Although I am trying to do that less these days since I like a clear distinction between my work space and my rest areas. But still, it's nice to know I can go there if I need it. To tell you a bit more about what I do there, it's just nice to chill out on the bed sometimes, and it's quite a large one, so it's fairly easy to do that. And I have all my unread books that I'm working my way through next to my bed or on bookshelves. So I can get to them easily enough. And as for how I feel about it, I'm quite glad I have the space all to myself, because I like having a place to go when I feel overwhelmed that's away from people and work. If I didn't have it, I think life would be a bit more stressful and I don't think anybody really wants that, especially in the context of quiet places that we like to go to.

Discussion

Maria: So, dear listener, the task is describe a quiet place. A quiet place is a place which is not noisy, right? Rory told us about his bedroom, but it could be a park, a museum, a library, a cafe you enjoy going to, okay? This is a quiet place you enjoy working in. Why not? Or some place in your house, like your office, kind of if you have a special room where you work or study, it's an office or a study. Okay? So, Rory's bedroom. Right. Rory, we need pictures. Could you post pictures on your Instagram? We need to see it. Maybe a video, a video tour of Rory's bedroom. Yes, dear listener.

Rory: That would be the shortest video tour in history.

Maria: Yeah, this is a bed. This is four walls, a window. Thank you.

Rory: I sleep here. Job done.

Maria: Bye. So, dear listener, you can start with, my house is pretty quiet. So I'm gonna tell you about my bedroom, which is the quietest place. Quiet and the quietest place in the world. I go there to relax, obviously.

Rory: Why else would you be in a quiet space?

Maria: To enjoy the quiet, the peace and quiet. When you change the topic, you use "in terms of where it is." It's in my house. It's on the west side of my house.

Rory: I don't know that for a fact, by the way. I was just guessing. I think it's on the west side of my house, but if it's not, then it's on some other side, the north or the east or the south side.

Maria: You can say that it's far from the front door. So your front door, you enter the house through your front door. And you can say it's far from my front door. It's next to my kitchen. It's close to my dining room, kitchen, bathroom. And it's the second largest room in the house. Or it's the largest room or it's the smallest room in my house. It's away from the noise outside. So this is what we want.

Rory: That's why it's quiet.

Maria: It's away from the noise outside. It's away from the stairs. Yeah, because usually people go up and down the stairs, so it's quite noisy. So it's away from the stairs. The room has a lot of space to stretch out in. So Rory stretches his body in this room. Stretching, if you go to the gym, you can go to stretching classes. So to stretch your legs, to kind of do, okay, we usually stretch in the morning. You can also say that this place is spacious. It has a lot of space. It's large. It's spacious. It's bright and shiny. Then the question, how did you know about this place? Well, it's out of the question because it's Rory's bedroom. So it's ridiculous. Oh yeah, I found out that I have a bedroom in my house.

Rory: I've found out I have a bedroom that I've been staying in just recently.

Maria: Oh, look at that.

Rory: However, it could be useful if it's a park or something. I found out about this park when I moved to the area and I looked on a map.

Maria: My friends told me about this place. I found it on the internet, on the internet. I found it on Instagram. You can lie and just say, oh, I found it by myself. Or I don't remember how I found it. That's also okay. So this place is an integral part of my house.

Rory: Yeah, integral.

Maria: Integral meaning it's there. It's necessary and important part of my house.

Rory: Yeah, integral.

Maria: Wow. Cambridge online dictionary says that it's integral.

Rory: I would say integral. I've never heard someone saying integral.

Maria: Really? That's, that's weird, isn't it? Cambridge, what's going on? We think it's weird. No, it's an adjective, yeah. Integral. Wow.

Rory: Ooh, well, I'm not saying integral. That sounds weird.

Maria: It's right down the main corridor. So it's right down the kitchen. Where, where, where is it? It's right down there.

Rory: It's over there, it's very difficult to miss. It's in my home.

Maria: How often do you go there? Yeah, also it's quite weird, okay, I'm talking about my bedroom. How often do you go to your bedroom? Okay. Well, I'm there on a daily basis. Yeah, and Rory gives us a laugh, well, I'm telling you about my bedroom, so yeah, I'm there on a daily basis. Daily basis, every day. Since my bed is there, okay? Because my bed is there, obviously, so I just sleep there. To stay over is to sleep somewhere else. So if your friends invite you to their house, you stay over at your friend's house. So you can say, I'm in my bedroom on a daily basis if I'm not staying over somewhere else. Sometimes I stay over at my friend's house. And during the day, I go there and sit on my bed to work or read. Do you work in your bedroom, Rory?

Rory: Sometimes. I've not done it in a while, but I was running out of things to say, so I just added that.

Maria: Yeah, because your bed should be used only for sleeping, dear listener. Not for work, because it's bad for your sleeping habits. Really bad. I like a clear distinction between my workspaces and my rest areas. So this is my rest area, a place where I relax. I unwind, a synonym for relax, I unwind in my bedroom. I relax in my bedroom. So I enjoy a clear distinction, a clear difference. Aha. So my bed is for relaxing, is for unwinding, but the other rooms are for work, for example. So a distinction means a difference. A clear distinction between. Again, we're changing the topic. To tell you a bit more about what I do there, I chill out on my bed, on my bed. I chill out, or if you are talking about a park or a cafe, I chill out with a cup of coffee. Yum, yum, yum. Yeah, a nice cappuccino with banana milk.

Rory: Oh, are you speaking for yourself?

Maria: No, no, I don't do this. Banana. Yeah, I know banana. So, again, if you talk about a place outside, you can say I meet my friends, I enjoy listening to birds, listen to music. I don't know, what, what, what do you do there? I just, I just do nothing. I just sit there. I feel quite glad. I'm quite glad I have this place to myself. I feel happy. Yeah. Sometimes I feel overwhelmed. So it's a bit too much for me. Everything is too much. I feel overwhelmed by joy or by sadness. So when I feel overwhelmed, I usually go to this place to enjoy the peace and quiet. Or if I'm stressed, for example, I go there. Rory, do we have any synonyms for quiet?

Rory: Well, there's the binomial, peace and quiet. You do not say quiet and peace. You say peace and quiet. The calm, and the quiet as well. Or I like the calm, I like the quiet.

Maria: Yeah. And then you just say it's not noisy. There's no noise there.

Rory: Or you could say it's calm, it's peaceful.

Maria: Ooh, it's peaceful. Yeah, that's nice. It's peaceful. If you think that you should use a lot of synonyms, well, it depends if a word does have a synonym. For example, quiet, a quiet place doesn't have many synonyms, all right, dear listener? So it's okay. You can just paraphrase, like, peace and quiet, not noisy, calm. And you can wrap it up with a conditional. So Rory imagines that if he doesn't have this place, well, let's imagine no bedroom for Rory. If I didn't have it...

Rory: Then I would be very uncomfortable.

Maria: Yeah, I'd be uncomfortable. So if I didn't know about this place, I'd go somewhere else. I would go. For example, you have your quiet cafe. So if it wasn't quiet, I'd go to a park, okay? Or if I didn't have this place, life might be a bit more stressful for me. That is true about any place. So the second conditional, dear listener, okay? Imaginary about the present. If I didn't have this place, I think life might be a bit more stressful for me, or life would be more stressful for me. Okay, Rory, what's your second choice of a quiet place?

Rory: I don't have a second choice. That's it. It used to be my yoga studio, but now, oh, people are very loud in the yoga studio. So it's just my house. Yeah.

Maria: Yoga people are loud?

Rory: Yoga people are very loud and I have no time for it. But, you know, everybody's different and namaste. Moving swiftly on, imagine if you don't want to talk about your bedroom, but there are some useful pieces of vocabulary here. For example, if we talk about the beginning, you can say just about anywhere is quiet, but the one I like to go to most is this, or the one that stands out is this. Then, if we want to talk about where it is, it does not need to be in your house, but you could say it's in the west side of town. It's in the east. It's to the east of my town, to the north, to the south. And then we can always say, when it comes to how I know of it, and then talk about how you know of it. So that phrase is always useful for this one.

Maria: Yay. Thank you very much for listening. We'll get back to you in our speaking Part three about quiet places in general. Okay?

Rory: Bye.