📙 Part 2: Describe a time when people (or something else) near you made a lot of noise

You should say: where you heard the noise, who made the noise, how you reacted to the noise, and explain how you felt about the noise.

This episode's vocabulary

Horrendous (adj.) - extremely unpleasant or bad.

Racket (noun) - an unpleasant loud continuous noise.

To storm (verb) - to attack a place or building by entering suddenly in great numbers.

To quieten (verb) - to (cause someone to) become calmer or less noisy.

Boisterous (adj.) - noisy, energetic, and rough.

Hacked off (adj.) - unhappy, tired, or annoyed, especially because of the situation you are in.

Silver lining (noun) - an advantage that comes from a difficult or unpleasant situation.

Quietness (noun) - the quality of making very little noise.

Questions and Answers

R: Oh, wow. Well, I was staying at this place in Italy called Aversa. Quite recently, actually. Because I was working in a school there. While I was teaching an online class in a room just next to the dinner hall. There was this horrendous racket from a bunch of kids storming down the stairs from the upper levels, shouting and screaming at the top of their lungs. I was about to get up to tell them off when I actually realized it was lunchtime. So the whole school was actually in the process of making its way down for the usual pasta and whatever else they had with pasta. Once I had that realization, I just sort of calmed down and let it happen, really. The acoustics in the school were and, as far as I know, still are horrendous. So even if you tell the kids to quieten down, even the collective footsteps would create a huge amount of noise just filling the air. Also, there's very little point in just standing and telling kids to be quiet on their lunch break. It's like the one time they have to move around and play and be boisterous. So I just tried to be more understanding about the whole thing. Despite having that mindset about it and while maintaining my calm demeanour I was a bit hacked off, actually. It made teaching a lot more difficult and I struggled to concentrate and focus on what my student was actually saying. Thank heavens, she is clever and didn't need much repetition. Plus, she was still able to find the silver lining that she could cope quite well with learning in such a situation. I'm not sure even I would have spotted that eventually. And usually, I'm quite good at that sort of thing. If I do find myself in a similar situation in the future, though, I think I'd try and have a backup plan and move to a quieter place. Well, in as much as it's possible to find a quiet place in a place like that school. Like I said, the building is not really designed for quietness in mind or designed with quietness in mind. But regardless, I wouldn't be making that mistake again.

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

Discussion

M: Right, dear listener. Somebody made a lot of noise. Okay? You should choose what you're going to be talking about. Well, maybe your neighbours because this is like an ordinary situation. Your neighbours made a lot of noise, or maybe some construction site is next to your house. Okay? Maybe children. You're travelling somewhere and then like, there was a crowd of noisy children. So Rory started off with, oh, wow. Yeah, the last time he just went haha. Now like, oh, wow. I was staying at this place in Italy. Okay? Past Continuous. I was staying in a hotel. I was staying with my friends or, well, I live on the fourth floor in my flat. While I was teaching an online class, I heard a horrible noise.

R: That's not what I said. I said a horrendous racket. That's worse than a horrible noise.

M: Yeah, like a terrible noise or I heard a horrendous racket. Racket? Like noise. Horrendous? Like horrible, loud. So in a room next to me. Okay? Or like I was sleeping. But then I heard this horrendous racket from next door. Okay? Like a typical situation. There was this horrendous racket from a bunch of kids. A bunch of? Some kids.

R: Well, I say a bunch. I should have said a large bunch of kids because it was the whole school coming down.

M: And a bunch of kids were storming down the stairs. So, you know, the stairs? So they were going down the stairs and they were kind of like, like wild animals storming down the stairs. You know? Like kids do. Yeah, as if like they were, they're massive hippos, hippopotamuses.

R: Or just very wild children.

M: Yeah, wild children. And usually, kind of like children are the ones who make noise. Not drunk adults. No, no. Adults never make any noise. No, just children.

R: No, no. It's always children.

M: So the children were shouting and screaming at the top of their lungs. So if I shout at the top of my lungs, I shout really loudly, dear listener, okay? At the top of their, children, lungs.

R: That's what they do.

M: I was about to get up and tell them off. Tell them off? Like you just tell children, like, oh, stop making such noises, be good, children. So you tell them off, like teachers usually tell children off or parents do that. But unfortunately for Rory, it was lunchtime.

R: So there was nothing I could do about it.

M: Yeah, like children were having lunch. So they were making this horrible noise. And we say like make a noise. So children were making noises. So what about the article, Rory? What do I say? Like they made, they were making a noise? Making noise?

R: It could be one or the other. But I would say making a horrendous noise. Even though it's not just one noise. It's a lot.

M: Yeah. So many people were making a horrendous noise or a horrible noise, or they were making noises. So I realized that they were having lunch. So I calmed down and I let it happen.

R: There was no choice.

M: There was no choice. There was nothing I could do. The acoustics were horrendous.

R: Yeah, the acoustics is like how the noise works in a place. They're not well designed at all.

M: So I could hear everything. Yeah? Or, for example, if you're speaking about your flat, so my neighbours were making a horrible noise. They were having a party. The acoustics in my flat are what?

R: Horrendous. Terrible for the purpose. Yeah. Not fit for purpose.

M: And usually when people make horrible noises we tell them to calm down. Or to quieten down. Yeah? This is a verb? To quieten?

R: Yeah, quieten down. Like, pipe down. Just shh. Some people say quiet down.

M: You tell people to be quiet, just be quiet. Shut up.

R: I wouldn't have told them to shut up. I wouldn't be very happy.

M: There was a huge amount of noise filling the air. Okay? So I could feel a huge amount of noise filling the air. Like lots of noise in the air. Be boisterous.

R: A boisterous behaviour is just, well, quasi-wild behaviour that, you know, helps you burn off energy. It's uncontrolled.

M: Boisterous. Children, are noisy, energetic and rough. Right? Or a boisterous game, for example.

R: Yeah.

M: I was trying to maintain my calm. So despite the noise...

R: To keep calm.

M: I was trying to keep calm, I was trying to maintain my calm. So kind of stay calm. Or you can say I was trying to maintain my calm demeanour. Ooh.

R: But that's just the outside appearance of being calm. So inside you're like argh... But outside it's like, ah, everything is fine. You're okay.

M: Like demeanour? A way of looking or behaving. Right? Like, oh, I was surprised by her calm demeanour, by her calm behaviour. I was a bit hacked off, really. So to be hacked off?

R: Annoyed. Very annoyed.

M: I was really annoyed. I was irritated. I was unhappy and tired. I was hacked off. A phrasal verb, informal, usually, used in the UK. So kind of like, you are unhappy, tired or annoyed because of the situation. So it was really noisy and I was a bit hacked off. So I wanted to sleep, it made my attempt to fall asleep more difficult. Like I struggled to get to sleep. I struggled to concentrate. Because usually, people start making noises when you want to sleep. Yeah?

R: Yeah.

M: Like a classical situation. Yeah, like they switch on loud music, heavy metal music, which you don't like. Or some other music which you don't like. So I was struggling to do something. I struggled to concentrate (if you were working). Thank heavens, they stopped. Or maybe they didn't stop. But like luckily. Or, thank heavens, it was over soon.

R: But that's just a way of saying it's a really good thing that they stopped when they did because it was awful. In this case, it was a really good thing that my student was so clever because otherwise, this class would not have happened as I planned it.

M: And you could finish off with like, if I find myself in a similar situation again, I'll have a backup plan. So to have a backup plan? To have Plan B. So kind of like what else can you do? You know? How can you change this situation for the better? Also, you can kind of emphasize things like if I do find myself in a similar situation in the future, I'll try and have a backup plan. Or I'll try and move to a quieter place. So a noisy place. An antonym is a quiet place. And we use a comparative form here, we compare things. So a quieter place, we don't say more quiet, no, no, no, a quieter place. Like a noisier place than some other place or this place is noisy. I'll try to find a quieter place. I won't be making this mistake again.

R: I hope not. Well, no, I was being sure about it. That's why I said I won't.

M: What helped you to organize this answer?

R: I'm quite a fan of starting off with the expression of emotion. So haha, or wow. Just because it was quite a good coincidence. And then I summarized it quite nicely because I said where I was and how I reacted and then explained how I felt. But then I just went into more detail as well. And of course, rounding off with what I would do differently next time in the alternative situation. And another thing, I was trying to move forward with what I was talking about. So I said things like anyway, and once I'd had the realization to move to the next thing. And despite having that mindset, so instead of saying to tell you more about or to focus more on why, I was using these phrases instead to move from one point to the next.

M: Hey! Thank you so much for listening! Choose your noisy situation, dear listener. Okay? And we'll get back to you in speaking part three, where we talk about noise in general.

R: Let's make some noise.

M: Make some noise. Bye!

R: Bye!

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