📙 Part 2: Describe an activity you enjoyed most in your primary school

You should say: what the activity was, how often you did it, who you did it with, and explain why it was your favourite activity.

This episode's vocabulary

Progressively (adverb) - gradually.

Frequent (adj.) - happening often.

Limitless (adj.) - without limit.

To doodle (verb) - to draw pictures or patterns while thinking about something else or when you are bored.

To look back (phrasal verb) - to think about something that happened in the past.

To draw (verb) - to attract attention or interest.

Downside (noun) - a disadvantage of a situation.

To carry (something) on (phrasal verb) - to continue doing something, or to cause something to continue.

Questions and Answers

M: Rory, give us your story!

R: I actually really liked drawing when I was younger. It didn't matter what kind we were doing, just the act of creating something for our imaginations on paper was enough to get my attention. We used to do it all the time at the start of school. But it became progressively less frequent the older I got, since it was seen as something childish, that you did on your own time. Not a skill to be developed in school. And that was sort of a shame since I was pretty good at reproducing things I could see or had seen on paper. Or even if it was just something I'd created from nothing in my own head. We would have these competitions together to see who could draw something like a dinosaur model the most accurately, or who could make the most violent scene from some made up storyline or video game. And by we, I just mean people in my class at school, who would hang out together. We didn't really have a lot of tight-knit friendship groups at that point, because we were so young, everyone just hung out together and moved from one group to the next. It was quite fun because the possibilities were pretty much limitless. And you could doodle whatever you wanted in little to no time at all. I always used to look forward to finishing things I'd started once I got through my schoolwork, which admittedly was almost never, but it was nice when it did happen. And then I could get back to drawing. It's all a bit unfortunate and sad, however, looking back on it now, because school wasn't quite made for that sort of thing. And you had to do work on specific things in a particular way, rather than do what you were naturally drawn to. If you'll pardon the pun. And even at break times, which would have been ideal for the sort of thing, you didn't get given anything to draw with or even access to something like that. I think that's why I gave up in the end, since there wasn't much opportunity to do it and develop naturally. However, despite that downside to things, or to how things were done at the time, I'm really grateful to have had the chance I did get to draw at school. If I could do it again, I think I might have taken a few more chances to carry on with it.

M: And do you draw now?

R: Sometimes, but not as... Not in as much detail as I used to.

Discussion

M: Right, dear listener, you should make a choice about an activity you enjoyed most in your primary school. Rory told us about drawing, like "draw a picture". Maybe it was swimming for you, playing tennis, learning English, cooking, sleeping, I don't know, but you should choose an activity you can talk about. Yeah, can you imagine, like, oh, I enjoyed sleeping in my primary school and then you talk about sleeping, your bed, your dreams, how you snore. Snore, like... Do you snore, Rory? Do you know?

R: I tell people I don't but other opinions are available.

M: Yeah, you see, dear listener? Make sure you choose to talk about an activity you can talk about. So, an easy activity. Rory started off with "I actually really liked drawing when I was younger". So "when I was at primary school", here we're gonna use Past Simple and maybe Past Perfect. So just past tenses, because the story is in the past. So I liked swimming when I was younger or when I was at primary school. It didn't matter what we were doing. Past Continuous. But the act of creating something was amazing. So I enjoyed the act of creating something from my imagination, on paper. And then we use "used to". So I used to do it in primary school, but now I don't do it. So when I was in primary school, I used to draw a lot, or I used to go swimming, or I used to cook, I don't know, pasta. But now I don't do it anymore. So you can use this I used to or we used to, we used to go swimming every weekend. The older I got, the less interested I was in drawing, for example.

R: Or the older I got, the less interested the teachers were in letting you have time to draw.

M: Then this activity became less frequent. So like we didn't draw as often as we used to. And Rory said it was such a shame. So kind of it was a pity that they kind of stopped drawing at school. So that was sort of a shame. Because or since I was pretty good at drawing. I became pretty good at drawing. Or at reproducing things. Reproducing things on paper.

R: Yeah. But that just means drawing things.

M: So they would give you a picture and then like you could draw the same picture. Yeah?

R: Reasonably well. Yeah.

M: Nice. What else happened at primary school on a regular basis? We would have these competitions together. Like, drawing competitions. And here Rory used would. You can say we had drawing competitions. Or if you want to be super cool, band nine, you say we will have these competitions. And what does it mean?

R: It's another way of saying that we did it regularly in the past, we would have these competitions. We used to have these competitions.

M: So we would have competitions to see who could draw something like a dinosaur the most accurately. So draw it accurately? Draw it well. Dinosaur. Aw, cute.

R: It doesn't have to be a dinosaur. It could have been anything.

M: Draw a dinosaur. Quickly. And like 10 kids drawing a dinosaur. Very cute.

R: But I realized at that point, I hadn't actually said who I did it with. And that was one of the things I should talk about during the task. So I said, and by we, I just mean the people in my class. So that was who I did it with.

M: Yeah, I did it with my peers, with my classmates, with my friends. And we were hanging out together. So you were spending time with your classmates. It was great fun. So kind of like drawing competitions were great fun. It was great fun. Rory, we don't use any articles here. Yeah? It was great fun. No, no, no. It was great fun.

R: No, no. It was a great time.

M: But it was like great fun. The possibilities were pretty much limitless. So there was no limit to what you could draw, or you could say doodle. So we draw or we doodle. What's the difference between "to draw" and "to doodle"?

R: I mean, I'm using them interchangeably here. But to doodle is a lot less serious than drawing. Dawing is concentrated and focused. Doodling is just sort of, mindless and in the moment.

M: Yeah, when you kind of, when you talk on the phone, and then kind of you just doodle something, just, you know, randomly. But like when you draw you draw, like a dinosaur. Doodling. I always used to look forward to finishing things. Or like I used to look forward to these classes. Or kind of like I wanted this thing in the past. Yeah, like I enjoyed swimming. So I always used to look forward to swimming, or I always used to look forward to cooking. "Looking back on it now" is a nice phrase. So when you think about your primary school, when you think about the past, looking back on it now, it's a bit sad that it's kind of finished. Yeah? Or it's a bit unfortunate. It's not fortunate. Because my school stopped this activity, for example, or you can say looking back on it now, I remember how I enjoyed these days, how I enjoyed something, how much fun I had.

R: But all of that is about being retrospective and looking back into the past. Now I'm looking back on it, looking back at it now. Now I think about it.

M: I'm drawn to things. So I'm naturally drawn to something. So to be drawn to something? Like to pay more attention to something, to enjoy something. For example, I am naturally drawn to food. So I like food. And food attracts me. You know? Like food, food. Yeah. Rory is naturally drawn to...

R: What am I naturally drawn to?

M: Sports, sports.

R: Really?

M: No?

R: No.

M: Books. Readin. Writing. Creating things. You wrote books, you created classes.

R: Maybe reading would be a better way to talk about being naturally drawn to things.

M: And here it's funny because Rory talked about drawing, and then he uses this to be naturally drawn to things and then he comments on the pun because it is a pun.

R: Well, even as it left my mouth, I was like, oh, drawing, and you're drawn to things.

M: Yeah. If you pardon the pun. So if you make this pun, you can then comment, like if you'll pardon the pun, so sorry for the pun. And then you can say like, that's why I gave it up. So if you stopped doing this activity at primary school, you can say I gave it up, or I stopped doing it. Or maybe you're still doing it. Yeah? But it's much better to talk about something that you did in primary school, but not anymore. So you can use "used to". At primary school, I used to go swimming, but now you go dancing. So I gave it up. Or I stopped, I quit. Because there wasn't much opportunity to do this. No article, dear listener, okay? So like, I couldn't do this, or the school didn't have any classes or the school like, stopped doing it. So there wasn't much opportunity for me to do it. So like, we had classes for swimming, but then, like, I changed schools, and there wasn't much opportunity for me to go swimming despite that downside. So the downside is the disadvantage. For example, the school stopped having these classes. And you can say that despite that downside, I enjoyed the classes. I'm really grateful to teachers, for example.

R: I wasn't grateful to my teachers at the time.

M: And I wish I could carry on with it. Carry on with it? To continue doing this, or kind of I didn't carry on with it, I gave it up. Like I stopped doing this. Like I stopped cooking, I stopped swimming. Or I wish I could carry on with it. Rory, what helped you to organize this answer?

R: Well, I did it very much on the fly, because I ran through what the activity was in a lot of detail. And I didn't spend too much time talking about how often I did it and who I did it with. I only spent a couple of lines. And that was it. But I think that's enough. I've answered the criteria of the task, I'd have liked to spend more time talking about what the activity was, and describing it in detail, because I think that's more appropriate for this kind of task. If someone asks you about an activity, and you spend a lot of time talking about the people you did it with, that doesn't really focus too much on the activity, which is not very realistic. So yes, if it seems like I didn't focus on things as much as others. That is why that happened. But I still managed to talk about the alternative. If I could do it again, I think I might have taken a few more chances to carry it on. And I still managed to introduce it in a unique way. I actually really liked drawing. I didn't say I'm going to talk about drawing. Something interesting for the examiner.

M: Thank you very much for listening! And we'll get back to you in our next episode about children and activities! Bye!

R: Bye!

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