📙 Part 2: Describe your favourite place in your home where you can relax

This episode's vocabulary

To chill out (ph. verb) - relax completely.

To switch off (ph. verb) - to stop giving your attention to someone or something.

To take it easy (idiom) - rest, relax, or be calm.

Interchangeable (adj.) - able to be exchanged with each other without making any difference or without being noticed.

To break out (something) (ph. verb) - to begin, or to begin using or doing something.

Ease (noun) - the state of being comfortable or relaxed.

Broad (adj.) - very wide.

Bog-standard (adj.) - completely ordinary, without anything special added

Soundproof (noun) - special material put in a room or building in order to prevent sound from passing out of or into it, or the act of putting in this material.

Skylight (noun) - a window built into a roof to allow light in.

To crane (verb) - to stretch in order to look at something.

To mutate (verb) - to change from one thing or type of thing into another.

To glance (verb) - to give a quick short look.

Posture (noun) - the way in which someone usually holds their shoulders, neck, and back, or a particular position in which someone stands, sits, etc.

To slouch (verb) - to stand, sit, or walk with the shoulders and head bent forward.

Insulate (verb) - to cover and surround something with a material or substance in order to stop heat, sound, or electricity from escaping or entering.

Familiarity (noun) - a good knowledge of something, or the fact that you know it so well.

Bored to death (idiom) - completely bored.

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Questions and Answers

M: Tell us your story.

R: I'll have to be honest and say, while I love my house and where it's located. I never really managed to completely chill out and switch off in any one place these days. Because I was working so much, I never really found the time to make any space for relaxation or taking it easy. I imagine it'll be different in the future, but for now, my rooms are rather interchangeable, to be honest with you. If I had to pick one though, I would choose my office, which is quite ironic, since I do almost all of my work from it. And not many people associate work with relaxation. However, it's also where I keep all my books and video games so I can break them out in there and tidy up with relative ease. Compared to anywhere else, I suppose. It's a pretty simple affair, with a broad desk and a chair. Not even a nice office chair either. To be honest, just a bog standard sitting chair and a whole load of soundproofing panels on the corner walls. There is a skylight in the ceiling directly above where I sit. So you can see the stars at night and the sky in the daytime if you sort of crane your neck back. It's not very comfortable, but it is at least a nice view. This is all in addition to a mirrored wardrobe, which is pretty much identical to the one in my bedroom. Though that might be because it started out as the bedroom and then mutated into the office over time. It's good to have, though, because when I'm sitting and working, I can glance in the mirror and check my posture and make sure that I'm not slouching too much. And there's nothing I can do in my office that I can't do anywhere else in the house, to be honest. Since there are places to sit all over the place. But I think I do all my reading, writing and working, well, I do it there because it's convenient and easy to warm up, since it's relatively well-insulated. And that's an important consideration when energy prices are so high. Overall, it seems more about the familiarity of the tasks I can do, rather than anything special about the place that relaxes me. However, maybe I'll change my mind when I finally get around to decorating, if I ever do.

M: And have you told your friends about this place?

R: No, I've not. It would probably have bored them to death.

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Discussion

M: Hey, Rory, thank you for your nice story! So the topic is describe your favourite place in your home where you can relax. So, like, some special room where you can relax or maybe where you have your bed and you can relax there. But it should be somewhere in your home, okay? And, dear listener, you can lie, all right? So you can imagine that you have a special room to relax in your home and just, like, lie about. Rory, you told us about your house.

R: Yes, my office, specifically.

M: So you just tell the examiner from the get-go. I'll have to be honest, I never really manage to chill out there, right? So chill out is a good synonym for relax, right? I can chill out there and switch off, right? If we say, like, I usually switch off. What? What do I switch off?

R: Well, switch off is another word for relax. I thought, since I'm not going to be able to say anything interesting, I should at least use some nice idiomatic language to describe relaxing. So switch off is another one. If you switch off from things, then you're not switched on, you're not engaged with them. You're relaxed, you're chilled out.

M: So if I relax in my kitchen, I can say that, ooh, I can completely chill out in my kitchen and this is a place where I switch off.

R: Is that where you switch off?

M: Oh, for example. No, no, no... Let's imagine that it's the kitchen.

R: Where do you relax?

M: In expensive hotels?

R: But that's not in your home.

M: Oh, but in my home, I think, the bed.

R: Yeah, I think most people would talk about their bedroom. But there's not like any good language to describe your bedroom, is there?

M: Well, chill out, switch off.

R: That's what you do, but to describe the actual place. But we're getting ahead of ourselves. We should keep focusing on the language for relaxing.

M: Yeah, you can just describe the bed, right?

R: It's a bed. It's big and square.

M: It's in a room.

R: It's in a room with lights.

M: Yes, dear listener, you should choose a place that you can describe and you have enough language for you to describe it, right? And then we know that Rory is working very hard. And then you said that "I never really found the time to make any place for relaxation". So you can just say like, okay, I didn't have any space for relaxation. Like I don't have any space for relaxation or I don't have time to make any space for relaxation in my home. Like a special place for relaxation, because some people do have a special place for doing yoga or they have, I don't know, their special pillows and maybe their special armchair in the corner. In their relaxing corner. And then you go with "if I had to pick one". So if I had, the second conditional, if I had to choose one place where I relax, I would choose my office. So it's fine to relax in your office, but the office is in Rory's home, okay, everybody? Yeah? So it's in his home. If you don't have a home office, you can imagine that you do have your office in your house. So if I had to choose, I'd choose my home office. And Rory, so you work in the office and you relax in the same office?

R: Yes. It sounds strange, but I did go on to explain why this was. Because it's not to do with the place. It's to do with the tasks that I do there and being familiar with everything that's there. It's not about the actual office itself, it's just what I can do there. I could do it anywhere, but I just do it in the office, because it's convenient. It's a strange answer, but all of the language that we're talking about could be used to talk about a normal place as well.

M: Normal place, which is not your office. Yeah, and Rory kind of like admits it. Like, okay, it's quite ironic, it's strange because not many people associate work with relaxation. Yeah, that's true. But I relax in my office. Why not? And then Rory told us that it's where I keep all my books. So Rory keeps all his books. And literally, his books that he has written himself, right?

R: You can see them in the background of our videos.

M: Yeah. So he keeps all his books, his video games, so I can break them out in there. What did you mean by this? I can break them out in there.

R: Yeah, it just means to get them out and have them ready for use, basically.

M: And tidy up with relative ease, right?

R: Yeah.

M: So tidy up like you clean your office. So do you clean your office yourself?

R: Well, yes, but there's not much to clean, really. It's just a table and a chair.

M: Oh, and nothing else? You don't have like a special chair or a special couch where you can just lie down? No? Nothing?

R: No, I really, like, I would love to move things into the... Well into the office, but I just can't find the time and don't have the patience for it. And I'm only going to live in that place for another month and a half now. So it's not worth doing anything special now.

M: Yeah and then Rory describes the place, like it's a pretty simple affair. So it's a pretty simple place with a broad desk. What's a broad desk? Like a wide desk?

R: A wide desk, yes.

M: A broad desk, it's not a table in the office, it's a desk, right? A table is in your bedroom, perhaps, or in your dining room if you have one. So Rory just has a desk and a chair. Our simple Scottish Rory, aren't you lovely?

R: Well, I'm just really cheap and simple, to be honest with you.

M: So not even a nice office chair. Just a bag standard sitting chair.

R: Oh, a bog standard sitting chair.

M: Oh, sorry, yeah. A bag standard... Yeah, a bog standard. So if something is bog standard, what is it?

R: It just means that it's the usual standard. It's not anything special. Bog standard, bog standard chair.

M: If I have like a standard desk, what do I say?

R: Um, just a bog standard desk. It's a normal desk, nothing special.

M: Yeah, you see, so it's a good idea to describe some furniture and a whole load of soundproofing panels. Rory is a podcaster, so he has this podcasting office. So soundproof panels that he had to install on his walls for recording episodes. What did you say about the ceiling?

R: Oh, well, the ceiling is the part of the room that's above your head, but my ceiling has a skylight, so that means there is a hole in the ceiling that's covered over by a window and you can see outside and it lets in the natural light, which is good for you. You shouldn't be exposed to artificial light all the time.

M: Nice, yeah. But if you have a window, so you say, okay, there's a window and I have a view over something, right? I have a view over the forest. I can see the forest from my window. And Rory also has a mirrored wardrobe. So a wardrobe, well, usually you put your clothes there. And a mirrored wardrobe. Like a mirror. A mirror. You look at yourself at the mirror. So you have this mirror on your wardrobe as a kind of a door, right?

R: Yeah. It's just you look at the doors and you can see yourself.

M: So interesting. You have a wardrobe in your office, like for clothes?

R: Yes, I have a wardrobe for clothes. Although, it's what it's originally designed for. I mean, right now it's a storage space for all of my paperwork.

M: And then Rory told us that the office, the room, it started out as a bedroom and then mutated into an office. So it was like, turned into an office. But a nice word you've used. Mutated. Because a mutant, like if we watch some films about mutants, like who is a mutant?

R: It's something that changes to match the new environment, usually, or changes because... How best to describe it? It's something that... It changes, it's not normal.

M: Yeah. If we talk about like, mutant superheroes. For example, like X-Men, Wolverine.

R: Well, those are mutants that are superheroes. Like a mutant in real life would be something that changes itself, usually to match the environment, but definitely deviating from the norm.

M: Yeah, yeah. Some mutants. And we can use it as a verb. So to mutate.

R: Yeah.

M: So mutate, kind of like, to turn into. So mutate, to develop new physical characteristics. Mutate into forms, mutate into something, right? And Rory's office, oh, sorry, like a bedroom, mutated into an office. So kind of it turned into an office. So that's like a nice verb to use here. It started out as a blah but then mutated into something else. For example, like a kitchen. It started out as a kitchen and then mutated into a bedroom, you know, why not? You changed the kitchen into a bedroom. There are places to sit all over the place. So in your home, like outside your home office, yeah?

R: Yes. I've got, like, chairs to sit in the living room. And of course, in my actual bedroom you can sit on my bed. So it's not like I'm just in the office because it's comfortable to sit in. I could go anywhere, but I just choose the office because it's the most emotionally comfortable place.

M: Yeah, it's a good one. Like it's the most emotionally comfortable place. So my office is the most emotionally comfortable place and that's why I feel relaxed there. It's the place of relaxation for me. I can chill out there, I can switch off. And, Rory, you said that "I do all my reading, writing and working there". So to do all my reading, to do all my writing, to do all my working, to do all my relaxing there and it's convenient and it's easy to warm up, yeah? Because in cold Scotland, in cold, snowy Scotland, the room is easy to warm up.

R: Well, it's easy to warm up this room because it's small and it's well insulated. Although, now that I think about it, I'm not sure how well insulated it is because we have two holes in the ceiling for the skylight, but still.

M: Insulated, you mean, it doesn't have any winds? It doesn't have any... What do you call it? Draughts.

R: Yeah. Like for the, like winds or, well, sort of slight breeze coming in.

M: And for Rory, it's more about the tasks he does in this place rather than the physical place itself. You see? So the tasks that he does in this place relax him, right? You could apply the same strategy. Right, so I do this and that in this room and that's why it's relaxing for me. It's not about like, this physical room, but it's about what I do there. I think it's an interesting strategy, right? Or imagine a dream room where you can relax or maybe that you would like to have such room in the future, but now you don't have it. But still, you can imagine that you do have this room now and tell the examiner about it. Or maybe you have the room, I don't know, dear listener. And then maybe I'll change my mind when I get round to decorating. So Rory, when you get round to doing something, what do you do?

R: It means when I have that time on my schedule to do something, then that's when I do it or when I can do it.

M: When I get round to working, I usually start with...

R: Something easy.

M: Yeah.

R: When I get round to working, I usually decide not to work and procrastinate even more.

M: When I get round to working, I usually drink a cup of coffee.

R: Drink alcohol.

M: Drink alcohol to relax me, before work. What helped you organise your answer?

R: What did help me organise my answer? Well, I think I've got this habit now of giving a kind of preamble, which is like a little story before the story. Before I actually get into the main thing. So I talked about why my answer would not be very good because... Or at least it wouldn't be very interesting, because my place doesn't have much... Like that would help people relax for example or is very unusual. And then I launched into the main part.

M: Yeah, yeah, sorry to interrupt you, but, dear listener, be very careful about this story, before the story. Rory told us three sentences. Why his answer is not kind of... It doesn't really match the topic. So if you're gonna be talking about something different or something strange, you just explain why you're going to say this to the examiner just for it to make sense, to prepare the examiner for your strange story. But if you know that you usually say a lot of things, you need like 5 minutes to tell the story. Don't do it. Start with the main topic. So with this answer, Rory could have started, wow, if I had to pick one place, I'd choose my office. I know it's strange, but still it's a place of relaxation for me, you see? So if you do know that you have a lot to say, start with the main idea, okay? If you're okay managing your time, you can give the explanation and then move to the direct answer to the question. Okay, dear listener? Just be very careful because you have 2 minutes and if you speak for more time, the examiner will stop you. And that's okay. Rory, yeah.

R: So I did my little preamble and like you say, I made it quite short, but it was just to say, this is going to sound weird, but bear with me. And then I used that as a platform for the good vocabulary, like chilling out and switching off. And then I launched into my main story, but I also took that chance to use some advanced grammar. So if I had to pick one, I would or I'd choose. And then what I chose. And then I moved into describing in a bit more detail with the phrase "it's a pretty simple affair". Now, a pretty simple affair can describe a location or a situation or a thing or clothes or an outfit. So it's quite a good general-purpose expression. It's a pretty simple affair or it's a pretty complex affair or it's a pretty interesting affair. And then I used the rest of the task to guide me. What I enjoy doing there and explain why I feel relaxed in this place. But all the while explaining, why this is an unusual answer because I said there's nothing I can do in my office that I can't do elsewhere. But I've chosen this because it's relatively well-insulated and it's convenient for me. It's not anything terribly deep, but it does the job just fine. And then rounding off with overall it seems more about the familiarity. So it's not about the place, it's about the familiarity with the things I can do, not the place itself, but it's the place where I relax. And it's not because it's relaxing, it's just because it's convenient. So I did answer the task, but in a very unusual way. However, just because I did it in an unusual way doesn't mean that you have to. But you can still use words like chill out, unwind, decompress. All of these things that are connected to relaxation. All of the words that I used in my explanation as well. In the same way, you can also use the expressions I used to describe the room. It doesn't have to be a particularly interesting or boring room. You could use them to describe any.

M: Sweet. Thank you, Rory! So now, dear listener, make your choice. Which place you'd like to talk about, okay? And we'll get back to you with our speaking part three about relaxation. Bye!

R: Bye!

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