📙 Part 2: Describe a time when you met a friend by surprise

This episode's vocabulary

Schedule (noun) – a plan for carrying out tasks or activities. → My schedule is so well-organised that I rarely miss appointments.

Bump into (phrasal verb) – to meet someone unexpectedly. → I bumped into an old friend at the grocery store.

Idly (adverb) – without any particular purpose or focus. → He was idly scrolling through his phone while waiting.

Speculate (verb) – to form guesses without solid evidence. → Without updates, I can only speculate about her plans.

Clarity (noun) – clearness in understanding. → The meeting provided clarity on the new policy.

Get up to (phrasal verb) – to be involved in (often something unusual or secretive). → I wonder what he’s been getting up to lately.

Exchange (verb) – to give and receive information. → We exchanged phone numbers before parting ways.

Rude (adj.) – impolite or offensive. → It would be rude to ignore my friends for too long.

Hometown (noun) – the town where one grew up. → She moved back to her hometown after college.

Run into (phrasal verb) – to meet someone by chance. → I ran into my neighbor at the café yesterday.

Reunion (noun) – a gathering of people after being apart. → Our high school reunion is next month.

Catch up (phrasal verb) – to update someone on recent events. → Let’s meet for coffee and catch up!

Coincidence (noun) – an unplanned, surprising occurrence. → Running into her was such a coincidence!

Lost touch (phrase) – to no longer communicate with someone. → We lost touch after graduation.

Reminisce (verb) – to recall past experiences fondly. → We spent hours reminiscing about our school days.

Questions and Answers

Maria: Describe a time when you met a friend by surprise. You should say when and where you met him or her, who he or she was, what you did together, and explain how you felt about the experience.

Rory: Well, generally, my schedule is so well-organised that this rarely happens. But I did bump into one of my old classmates from university while we were both climbing a few months back, although we were with other people. I was with some friends at this climbing centre where I live, and it turned out that she went to the exact same place. The only reason we ran into each other, actually, was because my group of friends and I had changed our usual day from Wednesday to Tuesday. And this was the day that she normally went.

It was funny, actually, because, like I said, we were at university together and I hadn't seen her in ages. And I was just idly thinking, hmm, I wonder what became of Holly, actually. And then, just a few days later, there she was, saying hello and getting me caught up on all her experiences, the teaching and what she'd been getting up to since university. It was just a short time we spent talking since we were both with people that wanted to climb. And really, I didn't want to be rude to my friends and I didn't want to take her away from her friends. So we just exchanged some basic information. But it was nice seeing her again and finding out how she was getting on. If I hadn't run into her, I think I'd still be speculating wildly about what she was doing. So it was good to have that clarity, and it still is. Although, now that I think about it, I haven't actually seen her since then, so I wonder what she's up to now.

To give you a little bit more detail about the kind of person that she is, she's actually not from my country. She's from Ireland, which is a different part of this country, although she lives in Scotland now. And she also lives in my hometown, although I'm not quite sure where. But it must be close by, since she's so close to… well, she was able to go to that particular place.

Maria: And do you often meet this person?

Rory: No, not regularly. Not anymore, at least.

Discussion

Maria: Yay! Thank you, Rory, for your story. So, dear listener, you should lie or make something up. Like a friend you met by surprise. And usually, we can meet people by surprise. Where? Like...

Rory: Oh, anywhere…

Maria: In a restaurant? On the street? In a museum?

Rory: I think those are the big things, to be honest. I can't think of anything else.

Maria: I was walking down the street, and then I saw my friend. Wow! Surprise, surprise. Here, dear listener, it's very important for you to use synonyms. So, I bumped into my friend. Bump into somebody is a synonym to meet somebody by surprise. You bump into people. Like, oh, wow! Like, I was walking down the street, downtown, and then I saw Rory. Wow, Rory!

Rory: This has happened on numerous occasions.

Maria: So, I bumped into my old classmate or my old friend. Maybe you met your classmate. Okay? So, you went to school together. So, it was my classmate. Or from university, for example. From school, from university. And usually we use the past continuous. So, I was walking. I was sitting on a bench in a park when I bumped into my friend. And then more details to the story. I was with some other friends. Or I was alone. I was at a climbing centre. So, a climbing centre is where you climb. Like, mountain climbing. And Rory does climbing really well, actually.

Rory: I do not do climbing really well. My friends are much better than I am.

Maria: Yeah, but you have spectacular photos, Rory. With all your arms and stuff. And you are kind of like Spiderman. Like this, you do like this.

Rory: Maria has a very liberal interpretation of how good my climbing skills are. They are not that good. I just go casually. My friends are much more serious about it than I am.

Maria: And another synonym is: We ran into each other. So, I bumped into my friend. We ran into each other. Run into somebody is to meet somebody by surprise. So, I ran into her at a climbing test centre. Test centre, yes. Test centre. IELTS test centre. So, at a climbing centre. Or we ran into each other in a cafe when I was buying a latte. And the reason why we ran into each other was because my group of friends had changed our usual day. So, we had done something before and that's why we ran into each other. Nice. Past perfect. It was funny. It was fun. It was unexpected. You met a friend by surprise. I haven't seen you for years. How are you? So, it was funny. For Rory it was funny, but maybe... Talk about a pleasant meeting. Don't talk about something strange or unpleasant with people you don't like. Imagine that it was a nice meeting. The examiner doesn't want to hear your stories when you cried and when you were unhappy. It might be difficult for an examiner to hear this story. It's gotta be neutral. Or it could be a dramatic story. And then I saw my ex-boyfriend. But if you can do it. You have two minutes. But usually it's difficult. So, it was funny. It was a nice meeting. I didn't expect her to be there. We were at university together and I hadn't seen her for ages. So, I hadn't seen her before we met by surprise. And there she was.There he was, my friend. And we caught up on our life. So, to catch up on something. Pretty much talk about the events from our life. Just talk about our life. So, we caught up on our life. Gave each other the latest news or information. It was a nice chat. We chatted about our university life. About our school days. I don't know… It was just a short time we spent talking. Because I had to go. So, it was nice seeing her again. So, it was nice talking to her or him. It was nice meeting her again. It was nice finding out how she was getting on. So, to get on, pretty much you live your life. How are you getting on? So, it was nice to find out how she was getting on in life. And you can say that I haven't seen her since then. So, we haven't met after the meeting. So, I bumped into her and we haven't seen each other since then. We haven't talked to each other since then. Rory, do you have any other synonyms that we could use about meeting a friend by surprise?

Rory: I was really struggling here. Run into. Bumped into. Came across, maybe. But usually we come across things rather than people.

Maria: Yeah, we come across different things like information. But yeah, just two synonyms. And how you felt about the experience? I was surprised. I was shocked to meet her at such a strange place. Maybe you went to sauna and then you bumped into your friend in a sauna, in a swimming pool. Or you went travelling to Africa and then you met your friend there in the jungle, and then you say, Oh my God! Hello! What about feelings? When we are surprised, how do we usually feel?

Rory: Well, surprised? I think that's it, really. Surprised. Shocked, perhaps, to see someone unexpectedly.

Maria: Yeah, I was really shocked to see her. It was an unexpected meeting. I didn't expect to see her or him. To my surprise, I saw my classmate. Rory, what helped you organise this answer?

Rory: I mostly followed the prompt, to be honest with you. However, I did struggle towards the end to come up with things to say. So I just said: Now I think about it. I haven't seen her since then. I wonder what she's up to now. However, she must be living close by, and then just talking about her as the person as well. So just adding more detail about who that person is and perhaps trying to find an explanation for how we met each other. So that's a good thing to do. If you still have time and the examiner hasn't said stop, you could just go back to things in the prompt and give more information. And you can even say that. Just say, I forgot to tell you that… And then tell them what you forgot.

Maria: And this answer is in the past, right? So when you met a friend by surprise. So make sure you're using past continuous. I met her when I was doing something. And also you can use past perfect. So we ran into each other but we hadn't seen each other for a long time before. And at the end of the talk you can use the present perfect. And I haven't seen her ever since. Nice grammar. Thank you very much for listening. Love and hugs. And we'll get back to you in our next episode Speaking part 3 about meeting friends.

Rory: Bye!

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