शैडोइंग अभ्यास: ⚽️ Childhood activities | IELTS Speaking Part 1 | Model Answers and Vocabulary (2026) - वीडियो के साथ अंग्रेजी बोलना सीखें

Hello, lovely.

I'm Maria.

And I am private detective Rory Fergus Duncan.

And we are the hosts of the IELTS Speaking for Success podcast,

the podcast that aims to help you improve your speaking skills,

as well as your listening skills along the way.

We started this podcast to give you super grammar and gorgeous vocabulary for your high IELTS school.

A bad nine score.

So you're a private detective now, Rory.

Yeah, I'm a private detective and I help people hunt down Band 9 vocabulary and grammar.

Wow.

I didn't make that up in advance,

I just came up with that there.

Were you playing that private detective thing when you were a child, Rory?

No, but I'm sure we made up other games when we were children.

Hmm, shall we talk about childhood activities?

Oh yes, let's do that.

What were your favourite activities when you were a child?

I can't really remember, to be honest.

It was quite a while ago.

But I suppose it must have been the usual things like hide-and-seek

or going for walks and wandering about with my friends and probably getting up to no good.

If reading counts, I did a lot of that when I was younger too.

Did you prefer to do activities alone or with a group of people?

I suppose it would have depended on the kind of activity,

to be honest, and my mood.

If it were a more active thing,

like going out or playing video games,

then I'd have done that with people.

But you can't really read a book together, can you?

Especially if you don't have a lot of energy and can't be bothered with people.

Are there any differences between the activities you liked when you were a child and activities you like now?

Oh, definitely.

I'm a lot more active than I used to be.

I used to loathe exercise,

and now I do it all the time.

Well, for example, I do things like yoga now,

which I wouldn't have been caught dead doing as a child.

I still like reading though,

just at a more measured pace than before.

What are your favourite activities now?

Apart from reading and exercise?

I'm not sure, No really,

I like going climbing and I like doing yoga but I see that as closer to exercise.

I've obviously not changed too much over the years aside from that. in the description below.

See you soon!

So dear listener, do you remember what you did when you were a child?

Or are you an old man like me and you cannot remember anything?

Yeah, and actually there is a good joke about childhood and remembering at the end of the episode, dear listener.

And a nice one, I promise.

And Rory, how old is a child?

So are we talking like two years old, like one year old?

I don't know.

I think childhood, as far as I'm aware,

is defined as between zero and 18 years old.

And so you're not legally responsible for certain things until you're 18 or 16,

in my country anyway.

Oh, okay.

So I can speak about things that I did when I was like 15,

14, like a child.

I think so, yeah.

Yeah, like I say, at least this is according to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The definition covers everyone up until their 18th birthday.

So, dear listener, you can say, I can't really remember.

Okay?

Like, to be honest with you, I can't really remember.

Like, don't say, like, to my mind or as far as I'm concerned.

No, no, no, no, no. Just say,

to be honest, I don't really remember.

Or, to be honest with you,

I really enjoyed playing with Lego.

Hide and seek is a really popular activity,

or like used to be super popular.

Hide and seek, a children's game in which a person

or a group of people hide and another person has to find them.

Play hide and seek.

I played hide and seek outside,

or you can play hide and seek at home.

Or when you're a child,

you could play hide and seek.

you maybe don't do it now

that you're an adult although oh why not can you imagine

like a group of like 30 year olds like six 30 year olds

or six like 35 or 40 year olds like yeah yeah let's play hide and seek

that would be awesome actually um yeah i was gonna say

i'm sorely tempted to do this i know just like running around looking for each other wow

and you kind of you play in teams if we have a holiday, Maria?

If we go on holiday together,

can we play hide and seek?

Totally, let's do that.

Yeah, I can get my brother, his girlfriend.

Then I can get some strange people.

Just people we don't know.

Want to play hide and seek?

Because the usual situation is like you get bored just sitting there where you are.

And even if it's a great place to hide,

you just have to stay there,

you know, for several hours.

And what do people do?

100

they just get out and then they get caught yeah they have to wait for everybody

101

or they could join the seekers yes seekers like hide

102

and seek you hide

103

and then you seek people you have to find them look

104

for them yeah seek seekers are people who have to find you so i went for walks or

105

I went wandering about with my friends.

106

So to wander about, to just walk somewhere.

107

But with no end goal in mind.

108

Yeah, just you know, I wondered about the neighborhood.

109

I wondered about with my friends.

110

I went for walks with no purpose in particular.

111

I did reading.

112

So reading was my favorite activity.

113

It's a very boring child.

114

I know, Rory.

115

You didn't say anything.

116

I went climbing, I destroyed people's toys.

117

Oh, that's rude.

118

And mean and cruel, in fact.

119

That wouldn't be a favorite childhood activity, unless you're a sociopath.

120

Other things that people could talk about

121

if they were a more active child could be going to the park and climbing on climbing frames.

122

That's quite a popular thing.

123

What about crafts and art?

124

I don't know anything about that because I'm the least creative person on the planet.

125

Yeah, but as a child,

126

didn't you do some crafts,

127

you know, like creating and all?

128

Just if I was forced to at school,

129

I wouldn't say that was like my favorite thing to do.

130

Favorite means I liked it.

131

Yeah, listen, you can say like,

132

oh, I did crafts or I made crafts.

133

Well, it would be I did craft and I made things.

134

Yeah, so you can say like, I built houses.

135

Toy houses.

136

Toy houses, yeah.

137

It used to be really popular.

138

It's probably not popular now,

139

but kids used to make ashtrays for their parents in school.

140

And I just think that's really funny because it's so wildly inappropriate.

141

Yeah, I did a lot of drawing.

142

I drew when I was a child.

143

I played board games.

144

Yeah, I just like I played outside with my friends.

145

Important to point out, though, you play with people.

146

You do it together.

147

play on a climbing frame

148

because you're on it it's the position now i'm reading this website

149

and it has seven childhood activities and one of them is like napping without guilt

150

so napping is like to have a nap to just to sleep for a

151

while in the middle of the day to nap

152

so napping without feeling guilty oh i think that adults do that now you know like oh For example,

153

you've eaten something sweet and then you say,

154

oh, I shouldn't have done it, no, I'm bad.

155

So you feel guilt.

156

This feeling of worry and unhappiness.

157

But like you nap without feeling guilty.

158

I did those activities alone on my own or with my friends.

159

And I played video games alone or on my own.

160

Or sometimes I would play video games with my friends.

161

And sometimes I couldn't be bothered with people.

162

So, I can't be bothered with people.

163

So, you're just like, I want to do something alone.

164

Like, to be bothered, to kind of...

165

Well, to not want to do something, basically.

166

It's like a more advanced way of saying I didn't want to do something.

167

Or I don't have the energy to do it.

168

You can say that now I'm a lot more active than I used to be.

169

So, about the past, you use used to.

170

Oh, I used to be passive.

171

I didn't do anything.

172

But now I'm more active or I'm a lot more active.

173

Like I'm much more active.

174

I'm far more active.

175

You know, to say that I'm super active now,

176

but I used to be quite passive.

177

So when you talk about the past,

178

make sure you use this used term.

179

About activities you did in the past, but not anymore.

180

I used to play football, but now I don't.

181

Or I used to be quite passive.

182

Now I'm far more active, yeah.

183

Well, we talk about the grammar.

184

If you are old like me and you're not so sure about things,

185

you might have to say, it must have been.

186

And it would have depended on.

187

Because we are deducing logically what would be the case.

188

Advanced grammar.

189

I used to hate exercises or I used to loathe exercises.

190

That's a nice synonym to hate.

191

Like I really disliked exercises like sport or I used to loathe exercises.

192

And loathe, C2.

193

Yes, that's what I like to hear.

194

Normally people say I hate sports or I hate swimming,

195

but you can say I loathe.

196

the pronunciation is crazy.

197

I loathe.

198

Like, Rory, how do you say it?

199

Loathe.

200

Or here, I used to loathe.

201

Yeah, like I loathe doing homework.

202

Oh, again, we are talking about the past.

203

So, what did you do as a child?

204

I used to loathe exercise.

205

Or I used to loathe school.

206

Now, I enjoy climbing, yoga, I enjoy reading.

207

I enjoy exercise.

208

I've changed.

209

Or I haven't changed much over the years.

210

So over the years, during the years, and present perfect.

211

I've changed much.

212

I haven't changed much.

213

Or my activities haven't changed much.

214

Yeah, let's Google adult activities.

215

Let's not Google adult activities.

216

No, no,

217

no. we are googling like top adult activities okay oh there

218

we go oh wow i wonder what's gonna come from this

219

what are good activities for adults the first link on google a deal is okay

220

so okay adult hobbies okay they are called adult hobbies for relaxation and personal growth

221

sometimes homemade.com okay there you go like it should be a list of creative oh yeah this is a list Painting,

222

drawing, sculpting, dear listener Photography Oh,

223

sculpting, very, very fancy Like when you make sculptures Creative writing,

224

you know, like writing a novel Like Rory,

225

you're fond of this

226

Playing a musical instrument Pottery or ceramics

227

So kind of you use your hands You get them dirty and you create something Jewelry making,

228

there we go Candle making,

229

actually that's very trendy now, candles, to make candles.

230

Origami.

231

Scrap booking, what was scrap booking?

232

That's when you take pieces of things or photographs and put them in a collection together.

233

Although why you would do that instead of just like putting things in a photo album?

234

I don't know.

235

Gardening.

236

Bird watching.

237

Dear listener, you can kind of like...

238

What are your favorite activities?

239

Isn't gardening more of a chore?

240

I think gardening would be more of a chore.

241

some people enjoy creating a garden oasis oasis like you know like in a desert oasis

242

so yeah dear listener you can say like oh now i enjoy bird watching and gardening

243

and rock collecting rock collecting rock collecting yeah beekeeping there we

244

go i keep bees feel free to lie okay all of

245

these seem like very middle class hobbies to be honest with you

246

If you are just a normal person and you like to read books,

247

then talk to the examiner about that.

248

No, there you go.

249

Home brewing.

250

I enjoy home brewing.

251

So I make beer and wine and kombucha at home.

252

What?

253

That's nice, you know.

254

And, dear listener, you become interesting to the examiner.

255

Oh, really?

256

Like, you seriously make beer at home?

257

Oh, wow.

258

The examiner will be like,

259

can you make me some wine?

260

Yeah, yeah.

261

Could you just, you know, get in touch later?

262

Yeah, so 55 activities from sometimeshomemade.com.

263

Thank you very much.

264

Which of them do you do, Maria?

265

Do you make your own wine?

266

You keep your own bees?

267

Not yet, I will.

268

I'll Google it today.

269

Oh, I do dancing.

270

Dancing, you see.

271

I do traveling sometimes.

272

And meditation, there we go.

273

Well, very nice.

274

Very fancy.

275

So, dear listener, here's the joke.

276

Childhood is like getting drunk.

277

everyone remembers what you did except you Rory,

278

could you please explain the joke?

279

Well, apparently if people get drunk and do something embarrassing they don't remember it

280

but obviously everybody else talks to them about it

281

so it would be the same about childhood you never really remember what you did

282

but all your parents and everyone they tell you what you did

283

Very funny Thank you very much for listening we'll get back to you in our next episode What are we talking about?

284

It's a mystery.

285

Do you need a detective to solve your mystery?

286

We're gonna talk about brewing.

287

Home brewing.

288

No, we're absolutely not.

289

Thank you for listening.

290

Bye.

291

Bye.

292

Rory, what were your favorite activities when you were a child?

293

I can't really remember, to be honest.

294

It was quite a while ago.

295

But I suppose it must have been the usual things like hide

296

and seek or going for walks and wandering about with my friends and probably getting up to no good.

297

If reading counts, I did a lot of that when I was younger too.

298

Did you prefer to do activities alone or with a group of people?

299

I suppose it would have depended on the kind of activity,

300

to be honest, and my mood.

301

If it were a more active thing like going out

302

or playing video games then I'd have done that with people

303

but you can't really read a book together can you especially

304

if you don't have a lot of energy

305

and can't be bothered with people are there any differences between the activities you liked

306

when you were a child and activities you like now oh definitely I'm a lot more active than I used to be.

307

I used to loathe exercise and now I do it all the time.

308

Well, for example, I do things like yoga now,

309

which I wouldn't have been caught dead doing as a child.

310

I still like reading though,

311

just at a more measured pace than before.

312

What are your favourite activities now?

313

Apart from reading and exercise?

314

I'm not sure really.

315

I like going climbing and I like doing yoga but I see that as closer to exercise.

316

I've obviously not changed too much over the years aside from that.

शैडोइंग तकनीक क्या है?

शैडोइंग (Shadowing) एक विज्ञान-समर्थित भाषा सीखने की तकनीक है जो मूल रूप से पेशेवर दुभाषिया प्रशिक्षण के लिए विकसित की गई थी। विधि सरल लेकिन शक्तिशाली है: आप मूल अंग्रेज़ी ऑडियो सुनते हैं और तुरंत इसे ज़ोर से दोहराते हैं — जैसे वक्ता की छाया 1-2 सेकंड की देरी से। शोध से पता चलता है कि यह उच्चारण सटीकता, स्वर, लय, जुड़ी हुई ध्वनियाँ, सुनने की समझ और बोलने की प्रवाहशीलता में काफ़ी सुधार करता है।

शैडोइंग अभ्यास: ⚽️ Childhood activities | IELTS Speaking Part 1 | Model Answers and Vocabulary (2026) - वीडियो के साथ अंग्रेजी बोलना सीखें

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