good morning aubry how are you i'm great how are you jessica
i am wonderful i have had such a fantastic week i'm just gonna um put out my like greatest news
right now because i'm so excited about this aubrey i told you before we recorded but guys
you might not know that i write a lot of textbooks and right now i'm working on
a textbook series for young learners in taiwan so i'm writing all these kids books it's super fun
and i get to fly out to taiwan and do like a book tour next march so guys if you're already english
fans ielts energy fans and you're in taiwan send me an email jessica alliersenglish.com
because i totally want to arrange like a meetup i want to meet all of our taiwanese fans i
cannot wait for photos of you meeting up with our taiwanese listeners like i'm sad i won't be there
but i'm going to live it vicariously through you so i need to see lots of photos it's gonna
be amazing i'm so stoked so guys actually that story does connect to our topic today
um because i did live in taiwan for seven years so i'm familiar with some of the language and
culture and that does help us answer our question today so aubrey what are we focusing on yes we're
talking about how to greet the examiner today we had this really interesting question i'll
just summarize it for you guys a cool question it is a cool question where our students said
that they were living in singapore and evidently in singapore sometimes you will be greeted with
have you eaten and this listener is a little torn about how do i respond to this just do i
just say i'm well thank you because it seems like they just mean hello how are you right so you're
not really sure how to answer and we started thinking if that is a typical greeting for you
there would be a chance you would think that you should say that to the examiner
totally a little tricky so we want to talk about that like how should you treat how should you
greet the examiner and what are those processes for the very beginning of the speaking test
yes there is so much insider information today guys so you don't have to guess i feel like
this is this is an opportunity to sort of panic and throw things off from the get-go on the on the
speaking exam you know um what if you're like trying to be cool and nice and relaxed and so
you like translate this local expression into english and you think it's you know
chummy or whatever and the examiner's like what what what does that what is that in english yes
i have eaten and that's weird i don't like a native would have no idea how to answer that
it'd be so weird um so yeah um and i i totally get this because in taiwan they do the same
thing in chinese when they say hello they say have you eaten rice yet they say ciao fan ma
and um it's just hello it's not like literally tell me about your rice eating thus far today
that would that would be weird for anybody exactly right and so if you did translate something like
that directly you would start off on the wrong foot with the examiner it would exercise them
even if they're familiar with that meaning hello it would still sound weird coming out in english
and you don't want to start off in this sour note where you're both a little awkward and okay let's
get to where we're supposed to be you want to make sure you understand how the speaking test is going
to begin and like we say control what you can do create awkwardness that is not going to help you
yeah totally and don't put your effort into a place where it's not gonna help you either
right um yeah i mean no like you're not scored on how you say hello okay obviously
not that's not you know oh that's a bam six hello like that's not part of your score but it still
matters guys ev all of this matters to how you feel about your performance to how the examiner's
state of mind is beginning right because as the examiner is hearing you speak from beginning to
end we're always calculating in our heads i i hope you guys can watch this on youtube because
i'm like showing you with my hands and my on my mind this is the ielts calculator in my head
so it's like you say one thing and i'm like oh maybe closer to a seven and then like i
hear something really weird and i'm like oh maybe six and like that's what's happening
i'm doing math the entire time i'm listening to you so if you greet the examiner with a uh poor
translation from your first language that does not exist in english that's that's not pushing
that calculator up at all right yes exactly right and we we often talk about you know what do you
do if something does happen that potentially could throw you off we want you to be prepared
for those times right you don't want to be like and now i'm thrown off and i don't know what to
say and i'm getting through so why create that type of situation for yourself that's difficult
to sometimes pull out of right you need strategies to pull out of it and you also need the strategies
of trying not to create them in the first place exactly we need to know where to put our energies
i mean i i feel like that's one of um that's one of the greatest things we help you guys with on
uh on this podcast on ielts energy if you're not subscribed or following us guys hit that button
right now because we are all about efficiency i mean aubrey and i are both moms we're hard working
we really care and love language and we care about teaching language and ielts right and so
everything we do is about how to do your best with as little effort as possible you know so it's like
this is one of those things like you don't don't put your effort into this into creating some you
know amazing greeting yes exactly so we want to break down some insider information especially
if you have not taken the ielts exam before but even if you have these there are little changes
right which we want to make sure you know about our free ebook go to allayersenglish.com new ielts
jessica has created an ebook with a lot of the newest changes for the on the ielts exam
newest updated information so be sure to go and get that but also we want to go through
exactly what happens when you first start your speaking exam so you know what to expect
exactly yeah so um the procedure that the examiner has to follow on the speaking exam
is very very regimented you guys the examiner has to account for every second of this exam i mean
you'll find out when you guys get that ebook all there's english.com new ielts that this has become
even stricter for the examiner so it's like don't don't throw stuff at them that they don't need
you know like they have enough to take care of so in the beginning what happens is you are waiting
outside the room when the examiner is ready for you um because what is happening in that room
while you're outside i'll tell you um the examiner is marking the last person that he or she examined
that's what's happening they're thinking about the scores they're looking at the rubrics they're
writing the the marks and then when they're ready they come out they open the door and they'll
be like you know come on in whatever they say welcome um now here's the greeting part you know
what are you supposed to say the examiner has already turned on the recorder so in essence
that exam has already started the examiner's already recording you um so when they say hello
or whatever they say just say hello nice to meet you pleased to meet you it's a pleasure like one
of those things that's it yes right keep it very simple don't say have you eaten don't don't get
cute and creative and ask them about their family this is not a time to start a conversation you are
just greeting them because they're very limited on time they need to get right into starting the exam
yes that is the most important thing to remember about all of this advice is that um
don't start a conversation with the examiner because they're not going to
respond they're literally not allowed to um they're not allowed to be like real people
i mean like it sucks it's kind of hard on the examiner but i mean that's the way
it is you know um so if you're like hey how are ya um the examiner isn't
gonna be like oh you know well i didn't sleep well and like i'm kind of tired
oh i need coffee am i right like we can't joke around i know so unfortunately the more you treat
them as just an examiner instead of a real person the easier it is for them to dive right into the
questions that aubry i could not have summed it up better myself i what i said in so many words you
made short and sweet and that is perfect yes um okay guys so remember to uh follow
or subscribe to this podcast wherever you're listening to new shows every week and we are uh
bringing you some uh new episodes of all ears english over here too so listen out for that guys
uh and remember go to aliasenglish.com new ielts to get that ebook i just wrote it's free it's 55
pages just tons of information the latest most updated news on ielts guys um alerseenglish.com
new ielts yeah if i haven't done this before i want to thank you on behalf of our listeners
jessica for making that ebook because that's so useful if you guys haven't gotten it yet do not
miss out on this it's free aldersenglish.com new ielts yeah this is information nobody else
has guys like i spoke to my examiner friends from around the world including taiwan and uh
i got the insider scoop guys okay awesome well aubry thank you for chatting today this was
such a great episode i know really fun awesome i'll see you next time alright bye bye