📙 Part 2: Describe a time when you worked with other people in a group

This episode's vocabulary

Frankly (adverb) - in an honest and direct way.

Decidedly (adverb) - certainly and obviously.

Silt (noun) - sand or soil that is carried along by flowing water and then dropped, especially at a bend in a river or at a river's opening.

Close-knit - if a group of people are close-knit, they all help and support each other.

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Questions and Answers

M: Rory, darling, are you all ready?

R: Mm hmm.

M: He was born ready. OK, tell us your story.

R: Well, I'm not a great fan of teamwork, frankly, but one time when it was particularly important was when I worked in Fiji on this Marine research project. It was based on a small island, I think it was in the south of the archipelago, when I went there in 2010. I think they've actually moved to a different place now. Regardless, we were essentially counting fish as part of the project, and that sounds decidedly less romantic, but that's life. And in order to be able to do that, we had to learn how to navigate underwater together. And we did this using maps for underwater orienteering courses and on live dives, which were supervised by, well, trained diving instructors. We didn't get to do that by ourselves. And we were reasonably successful in terms of the live and open dives because, like I said, there was always an expert there to help out. But the more independent orienteering courses were way more difficult. We would frequently wind up, of course, due to things like adverse weather conditions or too much silt in the water. And then when you're underwater, your sense of direction kind of goes as well. So that's not very helpful. So while we weren't the best at navigating, we did make some progress and I liked most of the people I was with. We made quite a close-knit group at the end of the day and no wonder our lives depended on each other. If no one had been able to do their job properly, then things could have gone horribly wrong. So I think this sort of, even though I'm not the biggest fan of teamwork, like I said, it does sort of highlight how teamwork can be useful in certain situations. Especially when you have to not just take your life into your own hands, but when other people have their lives and yours and you have yours and theirs.

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Discussion

M: Oh, that's a nice story.

R: It is it's a nice story involving sharks and jellyfish.

M: And counting fish.

R: Yes.

M: Wow. So on that boat, you did count fish?

R: No, we were underwater counting the fish.

M: You were underwater counting fish.

R: It's actually extraordinarily difficult to do.

M: So the task is to describe a time when you worked with other people in a group. And here we have synonyms like team work. And you can say I'm not a great fan of teamwork or I'm a big fan of teamwork, I enjoy teamwork.

R: You don't have to be happy about it either. You can say I'm not a big fan of this, frankly speaking.

M: Frankly speaking, yeah. Or to be honest.

R: And actually that's frankly speaking or just frankly, is like good for pronunciation, because then you have to, like, lower your tone. Like, I'm not a big fan of this, frankly, but. And then go on.

M: Yeah. Yeah. You're using the past tense when you tell this story because, well, the story happened in the past. And that's why when I was working, when we were doing once I went to... So all past simple tense please and also past continues to give a range.

R: Did I use your past passive as well? It was based on a small island.

M: Nice, past passive. Yeah. It was done by a team of engineers or whatever. Plus you can use some modal verbs in the past. You don't say can. No, you say like had to. We had to learn, we had to collaborate, we had to work together. Yeah, collaborate is another synonym for working together. And for example, you said like we did make some progress. That's a good one in terms of pronunciation.

R: Yes. Moving back from pronunciation towards useful phrases for structuring your answer, you can give a little bit of background. So I described where it was and I said, I think it's moved, but I wasn't sure. And then moving away to break away from that subject, I can just say regardless and then describe what we were actually doing there.

M: Oh yeah, regardless is a good one. It's actually also good for the essay.

R: Yeah. But what's better with speaking and not so much with the essay you can also say anyway and then talk about what, well, the next point is yeah.

M: So in this context regardless is kind of moving away. So regardless we were essentially counting fish. Wow, nice one.

R: And then paraphrasing, we were reasonably successful while we weren't the best at something.

M: Yeah. Because the prompt gives you a question how successful the group was. So you said we were reasonably successful in terms of something.

R: In terms of as a good expression, just for clarifying things as well. So it doesn't have to be just about diving. Like we were reasonably successful in terms of presenting the podcast.

M: Yeah, we were successful in terms of delivering the podcast, in terms of making you remember the words. And then Rory used a very good structure,

R: Quality structure.

M: Band nine quality structure. He says, we would frequently wind up off course. We would, and now you're thinking, what? Future in the past? Why are you using would? Because like the story was in the past. So you should say, like, we went, off course. Right? So we would go off course. Why.

R: Why?

M: Why, why? Why, why? Why, why? Why?

R: Why, Maria?

M: Why? Well, because.

R: Please explain why my useful grammar.

M: Because... So they did go off course, and it happened several times. And to show that this was a kind of a habit in the past, we can use this would. The same, for example, like, oh, you know, when I was at school, I would go to my country cottage. My mother would bake cakes, would bake cakes.

R: Did you have to work on a team for that, too?

M: She made me bake cakes. No, no, no. So basically she would bake cakes. Meaning like she baked cakes. And it was a habit. It was happening several times.

R: Yeah. But here we would go off course. I'm just thinking like it's a general phrase that you could fit into any speaking like any topic like this. You could say, oh, we would frequently go off the work or go off the rails, but then we would come back to it and like that would just like a general sentence you could use in any context. And that would be good for any speaking answer.

M: True. Or you're talking about working in a group so you can say, oh, we would meet together after the work was done or we would always get coffees, we would get pizza. So as you're listening to this, I want you to now think of a sentence about you with this would, because really this is high level and it does give variety to your grammar structures. So what can you say about your teamwork, about the time you were working in the team with this would. What would you do? Yeah? So we would talk about it after or we would, I don't know. Do it. Yeah. And also you can say like we made quite a close knit group. Knit group?

R: Close knit just means that you're close together in terms of interpersonal relationships.

M: Yeah. Very careful with the article here. We made quite a. Quite a. So we made quite a group. We don't say we made a quite group. No.

R: Yeah. But you could make quite the close knit group, which is another way of drawing attention to the fact that it's like a really good example of having a close knit group. God, that's band nine.

M: Oh, yeah, we were the group. He's the Rory. Are you the Rory?

R: I'm the only Rory. There's only one of me. And thank God for that.

M: The Rory. Yeah. So we can call Rory the Rory now. Hello, my name is the Rory.

R: And you can move on from there and say and no wonder because our lives depended on each other or and I wonder because our jobs depended on each other. If you want to talk about teamwork in a group.

M: Yeah. Yeah. So when you talk about like working in the groups, basically you were a close knit group. So you were all together, you depended on each other. And I enjoyed this togetherness. Together. Togetherness. Yeah. Again, these are specific words about working in a group.

R: Exactly. Working in a group is fun sometimes.

M: Sometimes.

R: Not always.

M: Not always, no. Thank you very much for listening. If you're listening to this on Patreon comment your questions and comments. Yeah. In the episode comment section. Yes, we have a comment section. So and we'll see you in the next episode.

R: Bye!

M: Bye!

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