Практика Shadowing: IELTS Conversation about Happiness - Изучайте разговорный английский с YouTube

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Hello everybody and welcome.

And today it's a really special video because today I have a collaboration with somebody very special in the world of IELTS.

And if you saw the last video,

you may know who it is.

If not, stick around, because you're gonna learn a lot more about how to improve your IELTS preparation.

Let's go.

Hello, everybody.

This is Keith from English Speaking Success.

And as I mentioned today,

it's a special video because we're collaborating.

And today, I'm delighted to introduce Chris from IELTS Daily,

who is here today to share some ideas about our IELTS speaking skills.

Hello, Chris.

Hello there, Keith.

Thank you so much for having me on your channel.

It's a privilege.

Oh, it's a pleasure for you to be here.

I'm really excited about collaborating with you.

I think your channel is amazing,

the things that you're doing.

You've grown so quickly, and you,

I mean, you not only help students with IELTS speaking,

but the full range of IELTS skills.

So that's great.

Maybe we can kick off.

Tell me a little bit about IELTS Daily, Chris.

So IELTS Daily, by the way, you made me blush.

Sorry.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for the wonderful words.

IELTS Daily is a fairly new channel, you're right.

We've been going for about two years and we're based in Australia and quite far from where you live.

I really am passionate about helping people pass the test for

the first time with the kind of the most knowledge

that they could possibly have and so that they're not wasting their time,

their money and make sure that they feel confident

when they go into the test because there's no need to be nervous going into the IELTS test.

Would you agree?

Oh, totally.

It's all about mindset.

It's all about being relaxed and comfortable.

And I think that helps a lot.

Yeah.

And so feeling like you can talk naturally is a really important thing.

And I think that's what we just want to teach the students today,

that a conversation between two people, that's all it is.

An IELTS examiner is just a person.

So, thanks for letting me have this opportunity.

Not at all.

I mean, we're delighted.

And I totally agree.

I mean it is very much about being relaxed and I love the way that you create videos that help students relax.

You give them lots of visual support.

It's really nice.

So we're going to go straight in.

We're here today.

We're going to be looking at a topic.

This is a topic that very often comes up.

It's quite a common topic and we're going to look at

how some questions around this topic and how we might answer it and some ideas and vocabulary.

right?

So the topic is happiness.

So it's IELTS speaking, we're looking at the topic of happiness.

I'm going to begin by putting Chris on the hotspot and ask you the first question here, Chris.

So are you generally a happy person?

On the whole, I'm a pretty optimistic and happy person.

I I'm a fairly happy-go-lucky person actually.

So whenever I approach a task or if I meet somebody for the first time,

I would like to think that my overall demeanour is a fairly positive one.

Sometimes behind closed doors though,

that I do have days when I feel kind of down

or maybe I don't want to talk to too many people but on the whole,

in general, by and large, I'm a happy person.

That's nice.

That's lovely.

I love that answer because I like the way you've talked about the happy side and the sad side.

You've kind of talked about optimistic and the feeling down or feeling sad as well.

I think that's something that students could benefit from in the test.

When they are approaching a topic,

one thing that they should always remember is that there is no right

or wrong answer in the speaking test and there's actually no marks really deducted if you go a little bit off topic.

So if you talk about happiness and sadness, totally reasonable, right?

Absolutely.

I mean, they are the brother and sister.

I mean, they're opposites, but they're so connected and it felt very natural.

That's what you would say in a natural conversation.

And the other thing I liked,

which sometimes students forget, is in a question,

especially in part one, you want to talk about you, right?

So you weren't talking about the abstract notion of happiness,

you were talking about you and your feelings and that's really, really important.

Yeah.

There were actually three constructions that I put in there on purpose

and they were ways that people can talk about something generally.

And I said, in general,

by and large and on the whole.

Those three terms you can use interchangeably and you can say,

it just means generally and you can choose

which one you want to use at any one time and I thought that they would be useful for you guys.

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Fantastic, love it.

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Next question.

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Chris, is it important to be happy?

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Ooh, that's a tricky question and I would say that it's quite important to be happy,

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but it's also not a problem if you're not happy.

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If, let me explain that a little bit more.

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So when you approach a task,

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it's generally seen or we would say that a task is kind of more fun to do if you are feeling positive,

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if you look on the bright side of life and if you're a glass half full person,

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if you're positive about something,

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the results are usually, they tend to be more positive,

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you know, as a result.

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If somebody approaches something with a negative mindset,

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if they kind of look on the gloomy side,

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you tend to expect that a project or a piece of work probably wouldn't have the same outcome.

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Would you agree?

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Oh, absolutely.

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Yes.

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I think the way that we think

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and the happiness you have influences things around you and how successful you do things, you know?

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I mean, if you're in a bad mood,

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if you're in a bad mood,

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it's like hitting your head against a brick wall.

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Sometimes things just don't work out.

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Totally agree.

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We have a funny phrase in English when we say,

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did you get out of the wrong side of the bed this morning?

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And that's something that my parents and my family would often say to me.

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If I got up in the morning and if I was feeling grumpy and not very happy as a teenager,

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my mum would usually say to me,

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did you get out of the wrong side of the bed this morning?

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What does that mean, Keith?

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It does.

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It just means that, well,

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if you've got out of the wrong side of bed,

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you've woken up in a bad mood for no reason.

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no specific reason and things then just start going wrong because you're in a bad mood.

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Yeah and just to elaborate and talk a little bit more about the importance of happiness

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and maybe that's something we can talk about more but working in a team like at work or at school,

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I think it's you know pretty important to generate this motivational kind of atmosphere because because otherwise it just brings people down.

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Would you agree?

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100% yeah it does.

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I think teamwork helps.

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You want to raise the energy,

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raise the dynamics in the office or in a team to make things more successful.

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I think it's a good point actually to talk about things that do make us happy.

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I mean there are so many things you can talk about.

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I think talking about work,

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talking about success and achieving your goals makes people happy.

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maybe it's a nice meal,

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maybe it's a nice drink.

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I don't know.

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What are the things that people could talk about for about happiness?

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Gosh, in the test, there's so many things that you could talk about.

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It might be a memory.

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It could be a date,

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like an anniversary or a time when you met somebody.

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It could be a type of food that you really like that makes you happy.

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So if I go for a nice meal,

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like you say, and I feel positive,

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I could be spending time with friends and family.

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And these relationships, I think that's another important part that makes people happy.

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But one question I have for you,

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Keith, if you don't mind.

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Does money make you happy?

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Money doesn't...

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Does money make me happy?

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Yes, it makes me happy,

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but it's not the source of all happiness.

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I think money makes me happy

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because it may enable me to do certain things like to go and have a nice meal or to go on holiday.

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But I don't see money as the goal.

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Yeah, it's not the be-all and end-all.

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That's a phrase, isn't it?

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Nice phrase, the be-all and end-all.

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What does that mean exactly?

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It's not the ultimate, the final thing.

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It's not the thing which defines you.

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It's quite a tricky one to explain.

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It is, but I think you're absolutely right it's not the final goal.

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So great, I'm going to move on to more questions.

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Just before I do, I was going to pick up on something I really liked about your answer,

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which I think is important for students,

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is that at the start,

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you started giving an answer and then you realised it wasn't very clear and you said,

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let me explain what I mean.

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And I think that's so good and so important for students

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because sometimes students get tongue tied and they realize they've made a mistake and they're not clear.

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It's absolutely fine to just stop and say,

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just a moment, let me explain what I mean.

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And then you say it in a different way.

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It's a great technique.

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So if you missed that,

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go back and listen again to what Chris said.

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Yeah, and I'll just explain that sometimes in the test,

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you might, you might have a question,

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which is really difficult and you might start talking about something and you're trying to buy yourself some time.

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This is a technique that native speakers will do if they're in an interview.

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And this is something that everybody experiences when they go for a job interview.

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The person might say, so do you have any experience in coding?

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And you say, well, a few,

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few, you know, weeks ago,

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I went on a coding course,

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but, and then, oh, let me explain what I mean.

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So it's, it's this kind of going down one track and then explaining your thoughts.

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It's a, a native speaker has to do it every day as well.

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And it's nice because it helps you go deeper and bring out richer vocabulary,

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which is always a bonus.

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Right.

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I've got another question for you,

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Chris, on this topic of happiness.

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Do you have a place that you go to that makes you happy?

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Gosh, I don't have one particular place.

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There are different places that make me happy in different ways.

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One of the places that I love is going for a stroll along a local river.

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I find that going to this place makes me feel kind of at ease.

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I feel at peace.

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I love to listen to the sounds of nature and it just helps me relax.

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But then, kind of on the same token,

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I also love going to these really vibrant places, festivals.

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I like going to kind of a loud restaurant or a bar and spending time with friends.

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So it really depends on my mood.

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And I don't know, what would you say in this question,

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Keith, if you were asked this?

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I would go down a similar path actually,

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because my answer would be that there's a place near where I live,

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right out on the coast,

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and it's a small little beach,

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not very well known, kind of off the beaten track.

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And I often go down there for a walk on the beach,

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and it's just breathtaking.

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The view is gorgeous if the weather's clear,

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and it really relaxes me,

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and it just gives me a feeling of happiness and almost ecstasy.

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Maybe ecstasy is a bit too strong,

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but it's a nice feeling.

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Contentment.

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Contentment, yes.

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All is well with the world, yes.

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Wonderful.

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It's a good point.

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I mean, thinking about synonyms for happy,

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what are the different words we could possibly use?

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And are there any nuances to that?

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There are.

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This is one thing in the test I will really warn students about.

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On Instagram, on social media,

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they will see words which say,

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don't use happy, use ecstatic or use thrilled.

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And they might give some examples.

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Now, the problem with this,

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and Keith will probably agree with me,

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I don't know, is that the word happy and the word ecstatic and the word thrilled don't actually mean the same thing.

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So if I say I am ecstatic,

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that means that I am happy,

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happy, happy, happy, happy, really happy.

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If I say I'm happy,

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it kind of just means that I'm in a good mood.

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One of the criterion is that you have to be able to flexibly use language.

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And if you're not using it appropriately and flexibly,

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then you're going to be restricted from getting to that,

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you know, really high band in the lexical resource.

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Do you see this as a problem within the IELTS preparation world, Keith?

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Oh, it's a huge problem.

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I think you've hit the nail on the head with the difference between social media friendly posts and quality learning materials.

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So as you say, like on Instagram,

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these nice infographics of 20 synonyms, looks lovely, looks great.

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Is it quality learning material?

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No, it's actually negative because it doesn't,

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although students may think it looks nice,

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if you don't know the nuance,

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if you can't use it confidently in the right context,

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it's gonna go against you rather than help you.

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So I think being aware of that difference, yeah, it's really important.

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And the only real way that students can actually learn that,

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And it's probably not through you and I.

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It's probably actually through listening to audio book stories.

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It's listening, watching, you know,

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a TV series which is made in English.

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And you will find that these very specific words will only appear in particular, at particular times.

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So that's my one warning from today that you can learn five or 10 idiomatic phrases.

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That means nothing to you in your test,

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unless you use it correctly.

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Yeah, that's great.

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That's a nice warning, Chris.

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And maybe just let me put a tip on top of that is,

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if you're learning vocabulary then, start from the context.

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Learn vocabulary from context, like podcasts and films.

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Don't learn it from lists because there is no context.

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It's the other way around.

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That's great.

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Really, really nice, Chris.

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And so, yes, we have to be careful with synonyms.

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I mean, we have mentioned you've talked about ecstatic and thrilled and happy and the differences.

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I wonder about idiomatic expressions because there's actually quite a few that pop into my head when we talk about happiness.

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Any that pop into your head?

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Yeah, perfect.

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And this is another point where we should just let the students know that learning idiomatic expressions is important.

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They have to be used appropriately.

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So, for example, and I don't know if you remember,

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when you passed your driving test, Keith.

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Yeah, that's a long time ago.

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Equally long time ago for me.

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And I remember when I passed it, I was really happy.

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Okay.

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And I was over the moon.

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I was completely, you know, I was thrilled.

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I was over the moon that I passed my driving test.

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When I got my exam results from school,

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I was over the moon.

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So, over the moon is a really common phrase that we use in English on a kind of weekly day-to-day basis.

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There are some, however, which we use but probably not as often.

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One of them is, I was on cloud nine.

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Okay, so let's imagine that somebody proposes to their girlfriend or or their boyfriend,

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I think this would be an example when somebody is on cloud nine, would you say?

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Yeah, yeah.

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I was on cloud nine in that situation.

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Again, it's one of those expressions that it's a bit like in seventh heaven, right?

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It's not as common.

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We don't use it as common as other expressions.

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I would probably say I was in heaven.

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You know, it's idiomatic.

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It's obviously not literal.

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That might be slightly more common.

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So there are, yeah, different expressions we can use.

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Thrilled to bits is a nice...

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I was just going to say,

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thrilled to bits, it's like you read my mind.

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Thrilled to bits is maybe more British, would you say?

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I think so, yeah.

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In British English, we have kind of like chuffed to bits and maybe thrilled to bits.

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I mean, when I, gosh,

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when I graduated from university with my master's degree,

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I was thrilled to bits because it was so much work and so much time.

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So that's a nice expression.

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Fantastic, Chris.

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So I think we're going to wind up.

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We've looked at lots of interesting words,

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possible answers and expressions that students can start learning and start practising as well.

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This has been, I think, really valuable, really interesting.

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Thank you so much for coming along today.

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And just to let students know,

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if they want to find out more about you and IELTS Daily,

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where should they go?

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IELTS daily just in YouTube they can come

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and find us on there we've got lots of videos thanks

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so much for having us it's been a pleasure

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and I love to read comments this is a really important thing for me

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so if you have any of your own vocabulary put it in the comments section

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and Keith and I will have a look at that it's it's

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so interesting for us to see how you guys are preparing for your tests

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so thanks Keith absolutely yeah I think we can all learn from each other thank you very much Chris

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and guys go and check out IELTS daily lots of stuff they're not only speaking

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but all of the skills that you need it's been great

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and I look forward to seeing you all very very soon in the next video take care my friends

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