📙 Part 2: Describe a special day out that cost you little money/did not cost you much

This episode's vocabulary

So-called (adj.) - used to show that you think a word that is used to describe someone or something is not suitable or not correct.

To hang out (phrasal verb) - to spend a lot of time in a place or with someone.

Lend itself to something - if something lends itself to something else, it is suitable for that thing or can be considered in that way.

Memorable (adj.) - likely to be remembered or worth remembering.

Regardless (adverb) - despite; not being affected by something.

-

Questions and Answers

M: Hello-hello, dear premium listener. Are you happy to be the super-premium listener? You should be. Because now it's speaking part two and Rory here, the super duper educated native speaker, is going to describe a special day out that cost him little money. So a day out that cost Rory not really much. He's going to say when the day was, where he went, how much he spent, and he's going to explain how he felt about the day.

R: It's not terribly exciting, but I remember a time we had time off in 2021, early 2021, actually, when I lived in Russia. And I went out with my friend John. It was a national holiday and it was only for a short period. So there wasn't much to do in terms of big plans. We agreed that we would meet near the south of a place that roughly translates as the Silver Forest. So it's so-called because of the bark of the trees there. And we walked through it towards where I lived at the time, which is a district called Strogino. That's in the north of Moscow. I think we spent next to nothing aside from the cost of the monthly transport card, but that was paid for by our company and was relatively inexpensive, so it was basically for free. Other than that, we only paid for lunch at the end of the whole thing in a small café just next to my apartment. It was a good day. Not just because we spent so little, but because it wasn't common for us to enjoy the fresh air and each other's company. Since we started working in the place that we were at at the time. It's not stopped because it was a bad place to work, but just whenever we hung out there, it was usually indoors with lots of alcohol. So not exactly an environment that lends itself to deep conversation. The most memorable part, aside from the fact we were walking around, was taking our lives into our hands while crossing this frozen lake. It was a bit risky, but definitely not something you'd forget any time soon. My heart rate still hasn't forgiven me for the experience, actually, because I kept worrying that I would fall into the water. And you really don't want that to happen, when it's cold in Russia, for sure. Regardless, I'm still glad that we had the chance to do it. It was a nice change of pace and probably healthier in the long run. If we hadn't done it, we wouldn't have had such pleasant surroundings and it would have just been another typical day indoors, which isn't really good for you, although I suppose we might have been warmer.

M: And what about your friend? Did he enjoy it?

R: Well, I certainly hope so.

M: Thank you, Rory, for your story!

-

Discussion

M: Oh, such a nice story! Wait, wait, so it was in winter, right? Because the frozen lake. You mentioned the frozen lake. So you had a walk in winter and you say that we enjoyed the fresh air? In winter?

R: Yeah.

M: Excuse me, how cold was it?

R: It was the fresh air... Well, for me, if it's outdoors and it's in the forest, then the air's fresh.

M: Oh, okay. So pretty much you froze to death, right?

R: No, we were fine.

M: You were fine. Oh, okay, interesting.

R: It wasn't that cold.

M: Wow. Because for me, like, oh, yeah, we just had a walk in winter. I'm just thinking of this cold, freezing cold and cold again. There's no sun and there's just this blizzard and rain together.

R: It didn't snow. It wasn't rainy. It was fine.

M: Oh, nice. So the topic is about a special day out. A day out meaning it's outdoors. Alright? So we can have time indoors and outdoors. So at home or outside. Okay? So you should talk about some day that you went out. To a forest or to a park. Again, it could be you went to a restaurant or, I don't know, to a circus, theatre. Something. It should be a special day. So maybe your birthday, maybe... Yeah, but on your birthday you usually spend money.

R: Well, you do. In most countries, people have money spent on them.

M: So. Yeah, kind of like a special day. Even like Rory told us a story when he just took a walk with his friend. So it wasn't kind of actually really special, but for Rory it was special, so that is fine. And then a day out that cost you little money. So dear listener, you should talk about the day when you spent little money. And Rory said, like, I spent a little, right? Or we didn't spend much. But then again, little... How much money is little money? Alright? For me, it's like one sum, for Rory it's another sum. For me, I just go to a Michelin restaurant and that's, you know, little money.

R: That's not so much money.

M: No, no. For me, it's going to be expensive, yeah, Michelin. Especially if I take wine, and all the desserts and, you know, the pasta, pizza. Repeat. So...

R: But you're not paying. A company will be paying.

M: Because I'm a lady. Right? So...

R: Yes.

M: Yes. The common rule, if I go out with a gentleman, he's going to pay for everything I do, right? Not always, dear listener, not always in Russia. Depends on people. Okay, but ladies don't pay. Right? So let them pay.

R: Yeah, exactly.

M: Oh, boy. I'm joking. So, yeah, you didn't. pay much money or it didn't cost you much, or it cost you a little, or you didn't spend money at all. And then Rory paraphrases. So a day out, he said, I remember we had time off. So to have time off, to have a day out, to have, like, like, a day off. Right? And we went out. So I went out with my friend John. And then also you've used a phrasal verb, we hung out. So hung out it means we hang out in the present and then in the past...

R Hung out.

M: In the past it's hung out. We hung out. It's not "hanged out". No.

R: That would be if you were being murdered or executed, I should say.

M: Executed. Yeah. Yeah. So remember, these films when they execute people, so and this rope and yes. So this is like hanging.

R: That's called being hanged.

M: So hangman. And the verb is hang. Hanged. So -ed. But if you hang out with your friends, you hang out. And yesterday I hung out. The same as you hung a picture. You hang a picture on the wall. And yesterday I hung it. So, yeah, a strange verb. Hung. I hung out with Rory's friends yesterday, and then Rory told us we went to a forest that roughly translates as the Silver Forest, not gold, the silver.

R: Do you know where I'm talking about?

M: Oh, yeah, the Silver Forest. Beautiful. And yeah, dear listener, please make sure that you don't use words from your mother tongue. So if you want to... If it's a name, well, you can use a word in your mother tongue. In your native language, but then you should, you better translate it.

R: Can you?

M: So it's better to translate it. Yeah, just to show that, okay, I know English, I can translate names. So just to be on the safe side, use only English, even if it's a name. Yeah, but if it's a name of the metro station or the name of the street. Yes. Then go ahead. Use your native language.

R: Well, I was going to say, what else... I don't... Some of the metro station names are totally untranslatable.

M: True. Yeah, like Strogino, for example.

R: That's just the name of the place.

M: It's the name of the place. Right? So and Rory kind of speaks Russian here in an English way. Strogino. Yeah. But in Russian we say Strogino. Strogino.

R: That's how they announce it on the metro.

M: Yeah. On the metro we have like, the next station is Strogino.

R: There's another one...

M: No...

R: What is it? It's Krasnopresnenskaya. No one knows how to translate that.

M: No, no, it just.

R: It's just Krasnopresnenskaya.

M: Yeah. But for example, Vorobyevi Gori, it's the Sparrow Hills. Hills. Yeah. So it's much better to use English all over the place in your IELTS exam. So we walked through it up towards... Oh, Rory, this is crazy. Crazy propositions. Walk through, up, towards. What's going on?

R: Yeah. You walk through it. Like, what else are you supposed to do in a forest?

M: Yeah, you walk through it. But then what, what does it mean, up towards? Why up?

R: Because we're travelling north.

M: We spent next to nothing, right? So I didn't spend much money. We spend next to nothing aside from the cost of the metro ticket, aside from our lunch. So this is a very nice expression. We spent next to nothing aside from the cost of the transport. We only paid for lunch. So pay for something, for lunch, for drinks. And we spend so little...

R: If memory serves, actually, I paid for the lunch.

M: Of course. You are a sugar daddy. Sugar, sugar, sugar, sugar.

R: No, I'm just very good, friend.

M: I will always remember the 8th of March when you bought the ladies champagne and roses. I wasn't there, but you told me the story, and I really loved it. And I kind of, I kind of, I imagined you like, you know, like throwing your money on champagne and roses. And, dear listener, because they didn't have glasses, Rory also bought glasses for everybody.

R: Oh, that reminds me actually.

M: It was so expensive. He bought glasses.

R: They've smashed all of them now, though, unfortunately. They're a bit clumsy. However, I'm arranging with Vanya to send new champagne flutes. Because I remember them... I don't know if we talked about this before. They said, oh, we're going to drink champagne out of like the plastic cups next to the water cooler. And I was like, are you?

M: No. No, you don't do that. You don't do that.

R: So I went to buy champagne flutes for the whole office. And I don't know if I told you about the other time when I got paid a lot of money for doing next to nothing. And I thought, I'm just going to only buy a bottle of Dom Perignon. And walked off. And came back with this £250 bottle of champagne. Yeah, we're just going to drink this now. I've never spent £250 on booze before, but here we go. I didn't tell you about that time, did I?

M: I love you, Rory.

R: Well, I had a particularly good day. And then because I'd bought this insane bottle of champagne, the Armenian people that run the store gave me a special black members card, and that meant I could just go in and get special discounts because they thought I was some sort of millionaire. And I was like, no, I just worked really hard for a month, and I thought I'd celebrate.

M: Nice. Sweet. So, yeah, but now we're talking about something that Rory didn't spend much money on, so yeah. Yeah. And you can say, the most memorable part was when we were taking our lives into our hands and crossed that frozen lake. Rory, you remember your Scottish people swimming in lakes?

R: We walked past warning signs that said, do not walk on the frozen lake. And there were hundreds of Russian people standing on the lake. And I was like, yeah, this is Russia.

M: Yeah, we do that. It's frozen. It's frozen, like, you know...

R: What else was I supposed to do? Like, no. Get with it.

M: Of course.

R: You want me to follow the rules?

M: What Romans do? What do they say? This proverb. When in Rome, do what Romans do. Right? This is how you say it?

R: Yes. Or do what the Russians do, which is break every single rule you possibly imagine even and even make up some rules that you can also break.

M: So wild, crazy Scottish guys were swimming in Scottish lakes, not being able to swim. Scottish Rory crossed frozen lakes in Russia. Yeah.

R: All the while being told not to by the local government.

M: And then, of course, the third conditional, dear listener. If we hadn't done it, we wouldn't have seen such pleasant surroundings. So if we hadn't done it, we wouldn't have seen such pleasant surroundings. But they did it. They saw pleasant scenery, pleasant surroundings, pleasant views. And this is in the past and we are imagining this situation. The third conditional. Hey, hey. Hurray! Hurray! Yay! Or we would have had. The third conditional. We would have had another typical day indoors. Beautiful. And what linking phrases helped you to organise the answer?

R: There aren't really that many. However, I did set up the story in a nice way, I hope anyway, by saying it's not terribly exciting, but I remember when and so I launched into the story that way. In the same way, you don't start off with I want to talk to you about a time when I didn't pay so much money, so this is much better. And then I used the first part to describe where we were. Then I launched into how much it cost. So I think we spent next to nothing. And then summarising how the day went, it was a good day and then explaining why and then rounding off with my favourite regardless. Blah blah blah blah blah. I like regardless.

M: Yeah, regardless is cool. Yeah, it's also great for an essay. Regardless of blah blah blah. Yeah. So everybody, regardless of their age or abilities, could create art, for example. Yeah, a nice one. Excellent, sweet. Such a nice story! Thank you very much for listening! And we'll get back to you with leisure time and speaking part three. Bye-bye-bye-bye!

R: Bye!

M: Bye!

-

Make sure to subscribe to our social media to see some of the “behind the scenes” stuff:

Our Instagram: bit.ly/instagramswi

Our Telegram: bit.ly/telegramswi