📘 Part 3: Travelling and tourism

This episode's vocabulary

Dependent (adj.) - needing the support of something or someone in order to continue existing or operating.

Service-based (adj.) - used to describe an activity that is based on services (= doing things for customers) rather than on manufacturing.

Vital (adj.) - necessary for the success or continued existence of something; extremely important.

To preserve (verb) - to keep something as it is, especially in order to prevent it from decaying or being damaged or destroyed.

To export (verb) - to send goods to another country for sale.

Pedantic (adj.) - giving too much attention to formal rules or small details.

To channel (verb) - to direct something into a particular place or situation.

To refine (verb) - to improve an idea, method, system, etc. by making small changes.

Comprehensible (adj.) - able to be understood; intelligible.

Be-all and end-all - the most important thing.

To hold a candle to (idiom) - to compare favourably with (usually used in the negative).

Interactivity (noun) - the involvement of users in the exchange of information with computers and the degree to which this happens.

Double-edged sword (noun) - something that acts in two ways, often with one negative and one positive effect.

Сohesion (noun) - the situation when the members of a group or society are united.

In-group (noun) - a social group whose members are very loyal to each other and share a lot of interests, and who usually try to keep other people out of the group.

By default - happening or existing unless some action is taken.

Out-group (noun) - those people who do not belong to a specific in-group.

The sky is the limit (idiom) - there is no limit.

To consolidate (verb) - to become, or cause something to become, stronger, and more certain.

To dictate (verb) - to influence something or make it necessary.

Questions and Answers

M: What's the importance of the travel and tourism industry?

R: Oh, wow. I mean, that's highly dependent on the country, I suppose. If your economy is largely service-based and focused on selling the history and culture of where you live, then it will be vital to have a well-developed tourist sector. It's not only about money, though. People... Tourism could also be crucial for preserving and exporting your culture, since the more people you get to see it, the more aware people are, or people become of it, and so they might be more likely to take an interest.

M: What do you think is the function of tourist guides?

R: Well, literally, to guide tourists, but to be less pedantic about it, they should ideally channel the culture and refine the experience for guests in a country to make things more comprehensible and highlight features they've never considered. For example, in my country, there are many obscure cultural practices and places that only someone with in-depth knowledge of those places might know about and be able to bring to light.

M: Is reading a good way to get to know other countries?

R: Well, it's a good start, at least, but it's not the be-all and end-all. You can learn facts, understand stories and national myths, and of course, look at the pictures of the places there. But it's important to remember these are real living places, and almost nothing holds a candle to standing in the place and experiencing the atmosphere for yourself, if you can. I think that adds a whole other layer of reality on top of all those supporting aspects that you get from reading.

M: How do people get information about other countries?

R: Well, we already talked about reading, but there's also talking and listening to consider. Being able to get knowledge of a place from people who have been there or who live there can make the information more tangible. Plus you can ask people questions. You can't really do that with the book, although maybe in the age of AI, that will change as the potential for interactivity grows.

M: How does travelling abroad affect young people?

R: Well, I mean, the romantic ideal is that it gives them perspective on how other people live and other ways of living. But obviously, not all young people are in possession of the ability or desire to do that. It could at least give them some experience of independence and planning their lives, though, which could be useful for the future.

M: What do you think of national identity?

R: Well, that's kind of a double-edged sword, really. Since, on the one hand, it can be used to generate national cohesion through a common set of values and ideals, but on the other hand, it creates this in-group and then, by default, out-group concept, and that sort of thinking can lead you down a very dark path when it comes to deciding who the heroes and villains are in a national story.

M: Is it important to have a national identity?

R: Well, on a practical level, yes, because how are you supposed to travel without documentation that proves that you're someone coming from the outside into a country? So it works from that practical and I suppose, administrative perspective as well.

M: And how can people develop national identity?

R: Oh, gosh, well, the sky is pretty much the limit, isn't it? Because there's this idea of the national story or struggle where it struggles to emerge. So war tends to play a factor in this development of a national identity. And then once that's been established, it's consolidated further by the creation or highlighting of various figures and texts. So national poets are a big feature. National authors as well are also used in this manner. That's just a few examples, though, because of course, all the people that live in a country contribute to the national identity in some way, even if it's just by living the values that have been dictated by the wider culture.

M: Thank you, Rory, for your answers!

R: Well, that's okay. Talking about nationalism is fun, isn't it?

Discussion

M: Right, dear listener, some questions could be about national identity. So if you have zero knowledge what national identity is, could you please read about it in your mother tongue, in your native language. So just to be in the know.

R: Or talk to me because I studied political science.

M: Ooh, look at you. Educated native speaker. So dear listener, like read in your native language. Okay? What national identity is, how to develop it? Like you need a couple of ideas. Also, it's useful for essays.

R: Tourism is nicer to talk about, though.

M: The economy of a country could be service-based. So people in this country sell their history, their culture, and depend on tourism. So their economy is service-based. They sell different services. And in this case, it's vital, it's super important to have a well-developed tourist sector. So we can say the tourism industry or tourist sector, which should be well developed. Don't forget to paraphrase. If the examiner asks you, what's the importance of or how important something is? You say it's vital, or it's crucial, or it's essential to do something.

R: Or it is of great import. That's super fancy, though.

M: Tourism could also be crucial for preserving culture.

R: Although it could just as well play a role in its erosion as well.

M: Yeah, tourism could destroy or preserve culture.

R: For example, in northern Iraq or Kurdistan, depending on how you view it, there's the oldest continuously inhabited human settlement in the world. People have been living there for something like 6000 years, and it's covered in graffiti. So all people have gone there, and they have... Some people say they've vandalized it. To be honest with you, I think they've actually contributed to it. But I can see both sides of this argument. I like graffiti, though.

M: Yeah, especially on ancient walls. Modern art, ancient art.

R: Well, in the ruins of Pompeii, archaeologists have been studying the ancient graffiti there to learn more about the social norms of the time. So I wonder if in a few 1000 years, they'll be doing the same thing with this building.

M: If you visit a place you may have a guide. So we call these people tourist guides. They tell you different things about history. They make you bored to death.

R: If they don't do their job properly.

M: Yeah, but usually, you know, they kind of... Oh, come on, not interested.

R: Yeah, you need to be fun.

M: So tourist guides guide tourists. Okay? They provide some guidance to tourists. They make things more comprehensible for people. Well, usually. Comprehensible? So you can understand the history the culture better. So if I make something comprehensible, I make you completely understand something. Comprehend. And usually, tourist guides have in-depth knowledge of these places. So they know stuff. Well, hopefully. And they might bring light to certain places. So you go to a country you have zero knowledge of what's going on, and tourist guides bring light to it. Reading is a good start, but it's not the be-all and end-all.

R: Yay. I've used it again. I couldn't help myself.

M: Yeah, it's not the most important thing. But dear listener, you should use an idiom only once in your speaking test. So if you use it's not the be-all and end-all in speaking part two, and also you use it again in speaking part three, no, no, no, no. Do not use any idiom twice, dear listener, only once. Because it's going to be very strange. The examiner will not be impressed. They will look at you like, ah, what? You are saying this for the second time?

R: Get some originality.

M: Yeah. Rory is using this idiom to show you how it can be used.

R: Yes, the transfer.

M: Yep. So you can say, like, reading is a good start, but it's not the most important thing. It's not the be-all and end-all. Nothing holds a candle. Rory, what's, what's, what are you talking about?

R: Nothing holds a candle to. Nothing compares to something.

M: Really?

R: Yeah, if something doesn't hold a candle to something, it's like, it's not even close to the experience.

M: We need an example.

R: Well, watching videos of rock climbing doesn't hold a candle to the actual experience of rock climbing. You don't get the same thrill, or you don't learn to work out how to climb up things in the same way, in my opinion.

M: Yeah. So watch... What did you say, mountain climbing?

R: Well, climbing, wall climbing, rock climbing. Any kind of climbing. Not be the same on videos is in real life.

M: So you do climbing yourself or you watch climbing. So these two activities are different, and doing climbing yourself is not as good as watching how other people do climbing. So we say that it can't hold a candle to it. So watching it can't hold a candle to actually doing it. So reading can't hold a candle to actually being in the place, experiencing the atmosphere of the place yourself. If we make the information more tangible, the information becomes like a little bit more real to us. For example, you want to go to Peru, you talk to me. I've been to Peru, you know? For about two months. I went to Machu Picchu on foot for about a week in the mountains, with my legs. And I tell you stories, and the information becomes more tangible, real, not imaginary. And tangible is, a C-2 word, dear listener. C-2, band nine.

R: Is it?

M: Yeah, super cool. We have tangible benefits. So we have tangible evidence, tangible information. Travelling abroad affects young people, okay? Or it influences, or it makes, or it has an influence on people.

R: Maybe. I'm not so sure about that.

M: You can say that travelling gives young people a perspective on how other people live. So a perspective like a view, an idea of how other people live. And then, Rory, you've used the word possession. So not all people want to do that. So not all people are in possession.

R: Or not all people can. I mean all young people. Some young people are much wilder and more dysregulated than others.

M: So pretty much like not all people can travel abroad or not all young people are in possession of the ability. They don't have the ability to go abroad. And then, dear listener, national identity. Yeah. Rory, what's national identity in two words for our listener who doesn't understand what national identity is?

R: A complete pain. But you can't describe it in two words.

M: Yes, you can.

R: It's a pain for me to talk about. Because, well, what do I... What do you mean?

M: National identity is...

R: In two words?

M: Well, in a sentence.

R: It just describes how you feel about where you come from. But that doesn't help.

M: So national identity is a person's identity or sense of belonging to one or more states or nations, dear listener, okay? So if you feel that, for example, you were born in Peru. So if you feel Peruvian, you belong to this country, so you have this national identity as a Peruvian from Peru. Yeah, there you go. But Rory says that it's a double-edged sword. Yeah, a very good idiom. So if something is a double-edged sword, something has...

R: Positive and negative features.

M: Exactly, yeah, two features. So on the one hand, it's good, on the other it's not good. So something negative and something positive. For example, fame, being famous can be a double-edged sword. It's good and bad at the same time. Like artificial intelligence is a double-edged sword. And then you explain, like, on the one hand

R: It's this, and on the other hand it's that.

M: Yeah, like, it's good to have a set of values, ideals and belong to one country or to several countries. But on the other hand, people can be divided. People can be like enemies to each other. You don't belong to my country, so you are an enemy, for example. So people can view this situation like this or may not. And how can we develop national identity? Literature helps, famous people help, different texts, like architecture, culture, they also help. And now Rory's vocabulary show.

R: Yes, it's the part of the show where I ask Maria questions about the vocabulary I used in the episode. You can follow along and try and beat Maria. So, Maria, the first question was about the importance of travel and the tourism industry. And I said that tourism was important, but I didn't say it's important, I used a different word.

M: Crucial, it's crucial.

R: Then we talked about what tourist guides are for, and I suggested some of the things that they could be helpful for, including highlighting some strange things that people do in my country. But I didn't say strange things people do. I used a slightly more, well, a very more advanced term for this.

M: Obscure cultural practices. So obscure, strange.

R: Then we talked about reading and getting to know countries, and I said that they don't really compare to each other. The idea of reading and actually being in a country. And I didn't say they don't compare to each other. I said something else.

M: Nothing holds a candle to it.

R: Yes, excellent, so far. Then we talked about how people could get information about countries, and I said it makes the information more real if you are standing in the place, but I didn't say it makes it more real. What did I say?

M: The information becomes more tangible.

R: Yes, excellent. Then we talked about the effects that travelling could have on young people. And I said that there's this idea that people think is true, but is probably not in reality. But I didn't say that. What did I say?

M: The romantic ideal.

R: Excellent. Then Maria asked me what I thought of national identity, and I used an expression to say that it's got both positive and negative features. But what was that?

M: It's a double-edged sword.

R: Nice, 100%, Maria! Well done! There is no bonus question. The bonus is not talking about nationalism, because I just don't want to talk about that subject.

M: Well, yeah, dear listener, but national identity could be in speaking questions. It could also be part of your writing, in IELTS essays. So read about it, and be neutral, be neutral, like, be nice, be polite. Politically correct. Okay? So we are like, we are soft and cuddly, dear listener, towards the examiner, okay? We don't know what's in there in the examiner's head. So be nice and polite. Thank you very much for listening! We'll get back to you in our next episode! Bye!

R: Bye!

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