📙 Part 2: Describe an interesting older person

This episode's vocabulary

To build (someone/something) up (phrasal verb) - to increase or become larger or stronger, or to cause someone or something to do this.

Sheltered (adj.) - if you have a sheltered life, you are protected from harmful, unpleasant, or frightening experiences.

Engaging (adj.) - pleasant, attractive, and charming.

Evacuee (noun) - someone who is evacuated from a dangerous place, especially during a war.

Fearless (adj.) - having no fear.

Fiercely (adverb) - extremely.

Radically (adverb) - completely or extremely.

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Questions and Answers

M: Off you go. Give us a Rory story.

R: I think all old people are interesting, don't you? All that life experience and knowledge built up over time. You'd have to have led a very sheltered life to live that long and not be at least a little bit engaging. One particular person who sticks out in my mind is my late grandmother on my mother's side and Goodwillie. Clearly, I know her through my mom, though, it helps that we have a close family, and she lived nearby, so I could spend a lot of time with her when I was younger. We would have days out, long chats in the garden at her house. And we would make things for each other. It was a pretty good relationship, I think. I always used to look up to my grandmother. But all of the really interesting stuff about her life actually came out after she died, which makes sense, I suppose, since in some ways she was a rather private person. I learned that she was an ambulance driver in the second World War after marrying my grandfather. A few weeks after it started. Lots of people got married back then early on, since they never knew if or even when or if they would see each other again. While granddad was off fighting in Asia, granny opened her home to a range of evacuees from all over the place, including a man called Harry Goodwin, who would later make a fortune photographing famous bands like The Beatles, although at the time, he was doing a lot of war photography for various media outlets and the propaganda officers. It's funny actually, he kept offering to marry her after my grandfather passed away. But she said he had to be completely insane, since she likes being able to do whatever she wanted. I think that was something I really liked about her, that she was very independent and fearless in that way. And she had quite a sense of humour as well. My mum asked if she ever missed her husband, but granny used to say that she did sometimes, but then she remembered that there were always sandwiches and brandy that would help her through that. And come to think of it. She never did go anywhere without them. She was also fiercely protective of her family. Apparently one time a friend of hers was rude to my aunt and was told never to speak to her in such a way again. That was quite impressive. I think if I'd never met my grandmother, I'd have had a radically different childhood. It's hard to say if that would have been better or worse, but I don't think it would have been as rich. So I'm very grateful for having had her in my life. And I hope she's as proud of me as I am of her.

M: And have you talked to your friends about this person?

R: I haven't recently. No.

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Discussion

M: Hey! Thank you, Rory, for your story! Yes. So that's a recent IELTS speaking part two topic. Describe an interesting, older person. So older person could be your grandmother, your grandfather. Could it be your aunt or uncle? What do you think?

R: If they're older. But I don't think my aunties and uncles would like me to draw attention to how old they are.

M: Yeah, like older person. But what do you mean, like how old this person? How old should this person be?

R: How long is a piece of string? I think as long as they're older than you because older is a comparative adjective. So as long as they are someone who is older than you, then you can talk about them.

M: Yeah, but usually we think about like older people. Grandparents, my grandma, my grandfather. Yeah, or you can talk about your parents. They're older than you. So dear listener, it's your choice. Okay? Or it could not be your parents or relatives. It could be just a random older person, I don't know, in your house, in your building where you live or in your neighbourhood. So yeah. Rory started it off with "I think all old people are interesting". Yeah. So all old people are interesting because they build up knowledge. Okay? So all this life experience and knowledge built up over time. So if you build up knowledge, like you have been collecting all this knowledge over the years, and now you have it. Yeah. What did you mean by a very sheltered life?

R: Well, if you think about a shelter, it's supposed to keep you safe and protected. So a sheltered life is just one that's been safe and boring. Nothing's really happened to you or nothing interesting has really happened to you.

M: Another synonym for interesting is engaging. So this person's life is interesting, or this person's life is engaging. So it engages you, you can start this talk by saying like one particular person who sticks out in my mind is my grandmother, or my grandfather. Yeah? So one particular person who sticks out in my mind. Stick out? Like you remember this person really well, kind of you close your eyes, you think about older people and bam, this person appears in your mind, in your head. And Rory said that my late grandmother.

R: So late just means that the person you're talking about is dead.

M: Right.

R: They're no longer with us.

M: So you can talk about a person who is alive, or a person who's dead.

R: There's not really an adjective, though, to add for if someone's still alive. You wouldn't say, my early grandmother. It's always late. But I think that's because, at least in English, there's lots of different ways to talk about people being dead without actually saying it because people don't like talking about death.

M: Yeah, so if you talk about a person who is dead, then you should use past tenses. Okay? So he was, she was, we talked. But if you talk about a person who is alive, then present perfect, present tenses. Okay, dear listener? Careful. So we've known each other. We've met, or I met this person two years ago. Yeah? So careful with the tenses.

R: Although, saying that I said, after that, I was like, clearly I know her through my mom. So I didn't say knew. But I think that's because when we talk about people who are dead, particularly if you're religious, it's difficult to talk about them as if they're not there anymore. There's the part of them living in you. Or if you believe in the afterlife, then they're still present, really. They're just not on this, on this earthly plane.

M: And is it true that English people, when they speak about the Queen, who is dead, they still use, well, some of them, they still use the present like Queen is. And then they kind of correct themselves. Oh, no, no, like, okay, she was.

R: Well, I've heard one or two people doing that. But then you were talking about English people. I don't know. Does the same rule apply to Scottish people?

M: Scottish English... British, British, British.

R: I know, I know, I'm being pedantic.

M: Okay, so yeah, I know her through my mum, or we met through my friends. Yeah? Just my friends introduced us, if you talk about not your relative. We have a close family. Yeah, a close family is like me, my parents, my brothers and sisters.

R: Well, actually, that's one way of thinking about it. But the other way of thinking about it is if you have a close family, it means that you are... I keep wanting to say close. It means that you have good connections with your family, you know each other very well. So if you talk about my close family, that would mean my mother, and father, and brothers. But if I say I have a close family, then it means that we all like each other. And we get along well.

M: Yeah. And you can say that I was close with this person, or I'm close with this person. So we are close. We get along well with each other. We have good relationship, and we're very close. And then Rory told us what he did with his late grandmother. So in the past, because his grandmother's dead, unfortunately. And Rory used this would. Okay, dear listener? And if you talk about an activity that you did on a regular basis, that you often did in the past, you can use wood. So this is like super, kind of advanced, it's advanced grammar.

R: It is. I remember teaching this to people.

M: Oh yeah. It's kind of... It might be difficult to understand why you use would. But just remember that a regular action in the past. So for example, Rory very often spent a lot of time with his grandmother. So he said that we would have days out, kind of you can say that we had days out. We had long chats in the garden. Yeah? We made things for each other. But because it was on a regular basis, it was the past, Rory said we would have days out, we would have long chats in the garden. We would make things for each other. Yeah, so that's kind of like a story in the past. Yeah, really nice.

R: Is there a time when we reduce would instead of used to? Does it only work with certain kinds of verb?

M: Yeah, I can't say that... What was it? You can't use it with be. You can't say like "I would be kind to my friends". No, I used to be kind with my friends and now I'm evil.

R: If we say it like that it's like I wouldn't be kind to my friends but they are horrible, so like it's got more of a conditional meaning if we do it that way.

M: Yeah, so only with action verbs. Action like you did something. Like I would go fishing, I would swim in the lake. Yeah? When I was a child. Every week, yeah? Right, and then Rory used to, right? I always used to look up to my grandmother. And yeah, used to, which means it was in the past. Look up to my grandmother is a phrasal verb. It is a great phrasal verb. So look up to something means respect somebody.

R: A phrasal verb. If only there was someplace that you could go to.

M: Oh, don't start. It's premium.

R: Some sort of course, perhaps, that looked at phrasal verbs. Who can say? successwithielts.com/podcourses.

M: Sorry, I can't stop him. He's like a robot when he...

R: When he speaks.

M: He's out of control. So yeah, I look up to my father, I respect my father. I want to be like my father, or I look up to my grandmother. And all interesting stuff came out... So all interesting stuff about her life came out after she died. So came out is just like appeared. Interesting details about her life appeared when she died. And then, we should describe this person. So she was a rather private person. She was outgoing, she was talkative. This and that. So make sure you do know a couple of adjectives to describe this person. And it was an interesting story about the war and how Rory's late grandmother kind of helped people. She opened your home to a range of evacuees.

R: Yes, evacuees are people that, well, have had to move from a place to avoid the danger of being killed. So evacuees in World War Two would have come from places like London or Manchester, which were being bombed. And they would come to Scotland which didn't get bombed so much.

M: Yeah, and it was an interesting story with Rory's late grandmother and his granddad. So his granddad was off fighting in Asia. So he was a soldier in Asia.

R: We always say they were off fighting in the war.

M: And he kept offering to marry her.

R: Well, no, my granddad only had to ask once, but there was another gentleman who kept asking to marry my grandmother.

M: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. This photographer, right? Ah, okay, okay.

R: Hold on. I wonder if you do a Google search for...

M: Interesting. So this Harry Godwin.

R: I think it's Harry Godwin or Harry Goodwin. Hold on. Harry. There we go. Yep. Harry Goodwin. Harry Goodwin, the photographer. Yep. On Google.

M: Oh, wow. Interesting. So he made a fortune, he made a lot of money photographing famous bands like The Beatles. Wow. So our Rory, our sir Duncan, Rory, God... Something tequila-Godzilla. He has some, you know, interesting people in his family. The Scottish clans. Duncan.

R: Well, I mean, I think probably if you look hard enough, probably most people have had some sort of connection to famous people somewhere. You've met famous people.

M: Well, I've met them, but I don't think I had somebody famous in my family. I don;t know. Maybe, maybe. Who knows. And this photographer kept offering to marry Rory's grandmother after his grandfather passed away. So to pass away is to die. Yeah? But she said he had to be insane. Rory's grandmother told him he was crazy. So she, kind of, she rejected him, yeah?

R: Yeah, she said, I think she told my mom later, she was like, I can do what I like, for the first time in my life. I make that sound like my granddad wasn't a very pleasant person to be around. But obviously, when you're married, you have to compromise with the other person. And obviously, it was, well, a long time ago. So obviously, women didn't have as many rights and freedoms as they do now. So I think that she was quite happy to be independent in that sense.

M: And I think that was something I really liked about her. So that's a nice sentence. Yeah? She was really independent and fearless. So she had no fear. Fearless. Yeah. One word, fearless. She had quite a sense of humour as well. And we know that our Rory does have a sense of humour.

R: Yes, this must be where I get it from.

M: So I you can say I take after my grandmother. I have the same qualities as her. Maybe looks, character traits.

R: Well, I hope I don't work the same way as my grandmother did.

M: Well, no, but maybe like, okay, if you're talking about your father or mother, like I take after my father, because I'm also independent as my father, yeah? So yeah, she had a sense of humour, or she has a sense of humour if you're talking about a person who is alive.

R: Or if you just think of them as still being alive.

M: And she used to have sandwiches with brandy, yeah?

R: Yes. Well, no, not sandwiches with brandy. Like, that sounds like the sandwiches are getting dipped in the brandy. But yeah, she'd always have like sandwiches and brandy in her bag. It was really strange, because of course, like you can get food anywhere now. But I guess for her that was the kind of thing that kept her comforted.

M: Rory, which word did you use about your grandmother being protective?

R: I said that she was fiercely protective, which is another way of saying very protective.

M: Yeah. And to be protective of something. Yeah, like extremely protective of her family. And then we use the same strategy, the third conditional strategy, because the story was the past. So if I had never met my grandmother, I would have had a radically different childhood. Nice. So we imagine that, okay, what if I had never met her? But this is wrong, Rory did meet his grandmother. So the third conditional, and then continue with the third conditional, it's hard to say, if it would have been better. You see? Would have been better. The third conditional. And then I'm very grateful for having had her in my life. Here, like I'm grateful for doing something, right/ I'm grateful for her. For her advice, for example. And we need present perfect because we talk about something in the past, so I'm very grateful for having had her. To have had her because it's in the past. Oh, how are you, dear listener? Are you okay?

R: It's like saying I'm grateful for the situation of having her in my life.

M: Yeah. And because I had her in my life, in the past. We just use present perfect. Why -ing? Grateful for having because grateful for doing something. Okay?

R: Sort of like I'm grateful for having met Maria and Vanya.

M: Yeah.

R: Together in this podcast.

M: Rory met us in the past. Now I'm grateful for having met us. You can also say I'm proud of her. And she was proud of me. Sweet, what helped you organize your answer?

R: Well, the task, really. Although, I did go with an unconventional introduction, just because I wanted to use that question tag for don't you. I think all people or old, people are interesting, don't you? And then just explaining why. And then launching into my one person in particular who sticks out in my mind, so I could get that idiomatic language in. And then moving on into what we did together and why I think that she was interesting. And then rounding off by saying, if I'd never met her, so using that tried and tested strategy of using getting this conditional ending in. Because again, if you can vary your grammar, then your score is going to get bumped up.

M: Yep. So, dear listener, choose your older person. You can actually talk about Rory.

R: No, you can't.

M: No, no, no, if kind of, if we imagine that you are 60 years old. Could you imagine that our Scottish Rory, 60 years old, with his whiskey and cornflakes. Scottish Highlands. Yeah, dear listener, you can do that. You know, imagine that Rory is 60 and then you can talk about Rory, you know him very well. Thank you very much for listening! And we'll get back to you in speaking part three, where we talk about older people in general, okay? Bye!

R: Bye!

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