M: Do you have a talent or something you are good at?

R: I'm not sure you could call it a talent in the artistic sense, but I am phenomenally well-organized. It wasn't always like that, though. So I'm not sure if it's a gift or just something that I built up over time.

M: Do you think anyone in your family has the same talent?

R: Well, my dad has a great head for different facts about the world. Honestly, he's like a human encyclopedia. And I'm a little bit like that myself. And of course, my brother and my mother are quite gifted in the kitchen, so they share that trait as well.

M: Do you think your talent can be useful for your future work?

R: I mean, well, being a teacher usually calls for being reasonably well organized, but it's not the be-all and end-all. You also need to be good at talking to people and forming relationships. I like to think I'm rather adept at those too. But who isn't going to say that?

M: Have you mastered it recently or when you were young?

R: Well, it's definitely more of a recent development than something I did when I was younger. It's definitely something I'd say I've built up over time, and I wasn't very organized when I was younger. I didn't used to be. Also, although other skills that have been blunted are, like my drawing ability, I used to be really good at drawing, but that particular skill has been blunted now, so I suppose that's the trade-off for being better organized.

M: Yay, talents! So we are talented, dear listener, and we have a talent for something, right?

R: Yeah.

M: Yeah, I have a talent for music or I have a talent for cooking. I'm talented.

R: You do have a talent for music. You can play the ukulele.

M: Yeah, or you can say I am a multi-talented person, I have lots of talents. Like, I'm a multi-talented singer and musician.

R: Nice.

M: We can also say I'm very good at cooking. I'm very good at languages. And Rory's talent is being phenomenally well organized. So as you know, dear listener, Rory is super organized, like band 9 organized, band 15 organized.

R: I don't know if that counts as a talent, though.

M: Yeah, it is a talent. I'm phenomenally well organized, like exceptional, like really super organized. Or you can say I'm phenomenally good at driving. I'm good at cooking, all right? I'm good at writing essays. You can say that I'm gifted, like you were born with it, for example. Or you can say, I'm not sure it's a gift, or it is a real gift that I have. So I'm very good at sports, and this is my gift. I'm gifted, or you can say that I've built it up over time. So you're born and you are not well organized, and you're just like bit by bit, you live your life and you train yourself to be well organized. So you can say, I've built it up over time. So we can build something up over time or over the years. Another synonym for being talented is to have a great head for something. For example, Rory's dad has a great head for different facts. So to have a head for something. What about your brother?

R: Well, he's a dab hand in the kitchen, I suppose. So is my mom. But then this is compared to me, I'm completely useless in the kitchen. So you could say that they're quite gifted in the kitchen. They're good at cooking.

M: Yeah, like she's quite gifted in the kitchen, or she's good at cooking. What else can I have a head for?

R: I've only heard it used to describe facts and numbers, but that could also relate to things like knowledge about sports, but that's still facts. I'm trying to think, what else you could have a great head for? I'm sure there are other examples. I just can't think of any. If you don't have a great head, you could have a good eye for something, which means you're good at noticing patterns, for example.

M: Have a good head for something, to have a natural ability to do something. And usually, we say it about numbers, about mathematics, about facts. So he has a head for numbers. Can I say, like, I don't have a headphone numbers?

R: Yes, although we were talking about what people are talented at this time.

M: And people who are very good at numbers and facts, you can say that they are walking encyclopedias, or like, he's like a human encyclopedia, full of different facts. And you can say my parents are quite gifted in the kitchen. They're super good at cooking. Or I'm gifted in the kitchen. Rory, you've used a good idiom. It's not the be-all and end-all.

R: Yes, it's not the most important thing. So it's good to be well organized, but it's not the only thing that you need.

M: The be-all and end-all. The most important thing. For example, winning is not the be-all and end-all. Winning in a competition is not the most important thing. There are other important things, usually.

R: Unless you're very competitive like me.

M: Yeah. And like, being talented is not the be-all and end-all, for example. So if you are adept at talking to people. This means that you have a natural ability to talk to people. For example, like she's very adept at dealing with the media, like she does it very well, or she's very adept at playing the piano, right? What else can I say?

R: You could be adept at writing, or adept with numbers.

M: Adept at doing something, adept at writing books, for example. Like be gifted, be very talented in writing. Then the question could be about, like, have you mastered this skill recently? So I've mastered something, like I have become very good at it. For example, I've mastered cooking. I've mastered... I've mastered English. Right? So I'm very good at English. And the examiner asks you, like, have you mastered it recently? Have you become so good at it recently or as a child, perhaps. And you can say, well, I've mastered it recently. It's a recent development. So I've started learning English. I've been learning it for 10 years, and I've mastered English, or I've mastered driving. Or what are you good at? What are you talented at, dear listener? You can also say, I've built it up over the years. So I've built up this skill over the years. Rory, you said that this skill has been blunted. What did you mean by this?

R: Well, if it's been blunted, then it's not as good as it used to be.

M: So it's like less sharp. It's like... It's... No, not good anymore. What can be blunt?

R: Well, a knife could be blunt if you've used it too much.

M: Yeah. But in terms of, like, skills and things we do, activities.

R: Well, your ability to cook could be blunted if you haven't cooked in a while.

M: Can my driving become blunted?

R: I don't think we could talk about driving that way. Your driving could be rusty, though.

M: Yeah, my English could be rusty.

R: Because you haven't used it in so long.

M: Yeah. Or you can say, dear listener, that this particular skill has been blunted now, so it's not as good as it used to. So like drawing or cooking or driving. So just say, like this skill has been blunted now. And you can say that as a child, I used to be very good at riding my bicycle or swimming or doing different sports, but now this skill has been blunted. Or you can say I'm much better at things related to health. I'm much better at yoga, at reading, writing, scrolling, buying things online, doing nothing.

R: Can you be good at doing nothing? Well, I think you can. In fact, now that I've just asked that question.

M: I have a real talent for sleep. I'm a talented sleeper. A person who sleeps very well.

R: Have we reached the limits of talent?

M: Yeah. Also, dear listener, you can say like, um, I'm talented. I'm capable of cooking, to be capable of doing things. I have different talents and abilities. Okay? And if you don't, you just lie, dear listener. You can say, well, I'm not a genius, but I have... I'm good at cooking, okay? Or just you can say something that you are good at, or maybe you're super talented. I don't know.

R: I like the idea of being super talented.

M: And now I'm reading some quotes about talents. So one of the... So Emily said, famous Emily, the artist is nothing without the gift, but the gift is nothing without work, dear listener. Okay? So we need to work. Work, work, work, work, work, work. Talent is a gift.

R: There's another quote. It's like, hard work prevails when talent is lazy. So if you're talented and you just rely on that and you don't do anything to develop it, then people who work hard will beat you all the time.

M: Yeah, and everybody has some special talents, dear listener. Maybe your charisma is your talent, maybe your ability, I don't know, to be organized like Rory, or to kind of focus, to do some things in life. Okay? And now, Rory's vocabulary show.

R: It is. It's the part of the episode where I ask Maria questions about the vocabulary and grammar that I used in the episode. You can play along, too, if you want to answer at the same time or before Maria, then that is a challenge that you are very welcome to take up. Actually, Maria, our first question is really going to be about pronunciation, because in the first question, I was asked if I had a talent or something I was good at, and I did something with my pronunciation to highlight that I was very good at something, but what was it that I did?

M: You said I am phenomenally well organized. So you emphasized am.

R: So this is to show the contrast between what I'm not good at. I'm not talented in the artistic sense, but I am talented in a different sense. And if you can use this stress for emphasis. It's usually done with things like am and do. Then you can show off your good pronunciation to the examiner. So there you go, a first in the history of this quiz sort of thing that we're doing. Now let's get back to focusing on vocabulary. I said that my dad was very good at remembering different things about, well, different places and people in the world. But I didn't say he was good at that. What did I say?

M: To be quite gifted in.

R: No, Maria, that was for my mom and my little brother.

M: To have a head for facts.

R: Yes, to have a great head for facts. Then in the next question, which was about if talent can be useful for my future work, I used an idiom to say that it's not the most important thing. But what was that idiom?

M: It's not the be-all and end-all.

R: Amazing. And our last question, which is about whether I've mastered it recently. I said that it's something that I have mastered over a period of time, but I didn't say I mastered it over a period of time, because I'm not repeating the question in my answer. What did I say?

M: I've built it up.

R: Excellent. Remember, built, not build. That's good for pronunciation as well. Unfortunately, no bonus question this week, because Maria failed. You have failed Maria to get 100%. Oh, it's tragic.

M: Thank you very much for listening, and we'll get back to you in our next episode. Bye!

R: Bye!

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