welcome entire team to ielts energy how are you guys great great how are you great um
we are having a group conversation today guys this is amazing listening practice not just for
the exam but for real life and we're going to talk about an actual topic that is on ielts all
the time and it's kind of a rare topic right um this isn't something i talk about all the time
but you might be asked about it on ielts aubrey what are we talking about today
yes there's a question asking what handmade gifts you've received and i have
asked this in mock speaking tests and students are like i've never received a handmade gift
that doesn't work that can't be your answer not work not long enough
exactly and i think come on like everybody has i think maybe we are interpreting this too narrowly
like nobody's ever made me a piece of furniture by hand or something but everybody's had like a card
or a note even right so yes what are some examples of handmade gifts that you guys have received yeah
i think you're right that to think about what kids have made you because that's exactly what
they do they don't have that's what i was thinking they make something handmade they draw you a card
they make you something out of cardboard right all of that counts if you have a niece a nephew
a grandkid yes that counts yep that's exactly what i was gonna say it's when my niece makes
a little drawing or used to when she was younger on construction paper and crayons it's actually
really nice i never thought it would be but i love it it's so sweet right so cute also i think
just for students this is a strategy where like if you can't automatic like immediately think of
a handmade gift you've received just think back what have you made like what have you written or
drawn and given somebody and then you could just pretend somebody gave it to you like at least it's
something to talk about so here's the question um when you guys were little did you guys ever like
make like handwritten coupons for your oh yeah yeah yeah yeah okay i wonder if this is something
that happens in all cultures michelle can you tell us about that it's basically like you know we'll
give you like one hug like one like early bedtime and like it's like tickets and you can like give
them you know something and then your parents can use it or i mean i know i haven't done it
but like in relationships people can also do you know it can do this or i i mean i guess you could
really do it with anybody but uh why not did you guys do that when you were little lindsay did you
ever do that for your parents well i still kind of did i like to hand make stuff for my family
not exactly the same thing but i made them like a gratitude jar i mean you buy the jar obviously
they're not making a jar but then like create the thing and construction paper so that they can
make their own so kind of involving a little bit of handmade and a little bit of commercial
to create a personalized get i still like to do that kind of thing for my parents some of that
yeah oh that's wonderful that's all you know what i know they were thinking of so many things yeah
yeah yeah i did the coupons for james last easter i put um because i cuz he gets so much candy right
so instead of putting candy in every little egg you hide around the house i put like coupons like
that like 30 minutes of youtube whatever you want or like one chance to say no if i tell you to turn
off the tv that's really oh that's so fun i bet he loves that we did that in a nativity once we
had this like house at christmas time when it's like counting down until christmas and usually
they open the little pocket and there's a candy and we did stuff like that where it was like go
see christmas lights as a family or whatever it would be like events or activities on each little
paper it was so fun to make it and they were so excited to open it every night it was so fun so
do people use it do kids end up do people remember that they have this gift in like july let's say
it's a christmas gift they have it in july does it get lost somewhere under the bed or did kids
remember they have it and bring it out and use it all year that's my question i do have coupon
books that are unused from years and years ago it's like to you know clear the table or do the
dishes for mom and they made it like 10 years ago and it's still on me cash in on that go find it
but that's such a good question lindsay i think i never followed through with my own coupons or
other people's coupons past like a week like i don't remember my parents ever actually using
any of the little coupons i gave them it's the thought that counts but also great goods right
if you think about if you've ever made cookies to give to someone that's a handmade gift right
yeah that's a good point or you know if you've ever received that that totally counts too or even
if it counts like a lot of like photo things now and you know like there's so many things
i got a photo on a blanket i've done that for your family and things like that like it doesn't have
to be that you like knitted everything and you know it can be something like that as well yep
i think um are you guys crafty like are you good at like making things to give to people no way
i have done that i've made um i used to make these toys i would sew fabric to make like
this round ball and put jingle bells in it and then it had like ribbons on it to grab oh that's
cool back when i was like home with a million kids and had time to sew while they're napping
okay so that's the next question right because like if you if students get this
topic in part two and they have to speak about this gift for two minutes you can't
only describe the gift for two minutes like that's only gonna take you so far so where else can we
move from that i think an interesting direction would be to talk about why this matters like
why do we speak so fondly about these presents that nobody used right like i got so excited
to remember the coupons and then lindsay said does anybody use them i'm not like no
then why are they so special like why are these handmade gifts so special
it's true because you feel so special you feel really cared about it's the same with like a
surprise party someone puts in all this effort you feel so much more loved and cared about
when someone's making you handmade gifts right and then you guys can use great idioms like to feel on
cloud nine you just feel so great because someone took that extra time it's easy to buy a present
it takes a lot of time sometimes to make something handmade yeah and i think that you can also like
share a story like if you're the one who made it like how did you make it or why did you make it or
like i mean for me i mean i'm also thinking like my mom uh made for my like every time she has a
grandchild a new grandchild she makes like do you know those like cross stitch things yeah yeah like
no no no not cross stitch latch hook rug oh yeah yeah she always like makes one of those so like
for my son she made one look like trains and cars and like because he loves that and like
and uh for my other nephew when he was uh my yeah he went when my nephew on that side when he was
born she made him a thing with like penguins because they always talked about penguins and
oh like that's so cute you can share like you know the story like why why did she make it of penguins
and like why did the end like how did she make it and like my mom is it's funny because she's
she would laugh hysterically if i called her crafty i mean there are stories like
there are so many stories that are like epic my mom's stories about like not being good at craft
sorry mom but she's good at this and so it really shows a lot that when she like makes it so like
there you go like i've told a story with willing to talk about keepsakes like why do the why do you
keep certain things and why are we more likely to want to keep something that someone made by hand
yes i just thought of a really cool example of this actually because this is something that i
just saw yesterday that i'd forgotten about um when when james and i went to see my parents
um my stepdad has this really adorable habit of like writing little notes on post-its
and putting them around the house and so like he did this because he wasn't going to be home when
james and i got there so he wrote like six different messages all around the house and
one of them was like see you tomorrow for waffles and oh that's so cute it's so cute and so i saved
all of these post-it notes and like i kept them in my jewelry box upstairs like i just saw them
yesterday and when you see this like something again all of a sudden you experience the same
warm fuzzies yeah right yeah and i think because we're all in line all the time nowadays emailing
everything is so broad and kind of impersonal that's why it's so much more special now than
maybe in the 80s or the 70s that it would have been when it was more common yeah yeah exactly
yeah that's true yeah like don't get a gift card don't you know buy a you know a gift
card or whatever have something sent from amazon that you never even see in person
but if somebody takes the time to like color one little picture for you it means so much more
than like a hundred dollar gift yeah that's why i always get that for my parents because they don't
want stuff like they don't care they really it means nothing to them to get a new lamp or
a new bra like they don't care they would much rather have something what do you make for them
did you i can't remember all sorts of little like i mentioned a gratitude
type of jar just different like little projects little crafts that are sentimental
or any photo combination of things they just don't want stuff you know they don't need any more stuff
who does yeah like yeah my my uh my best friend uh she made uh she was asking us to be a it's a group
of three of us and she was asking us to be like the maid and matron of honor at her wedding and
she made us like uh like instead of just asking us she made us like a little photo book with like
i mean we grew up together so she made us this whole book and at the end you know she asked them
like obviously i'm never gonna throw that away it was very sweet like the warm fuzzy feeling i've i
i myself may have made a handmade gift or two like i'm okay because
because katana and i like to travel and like i got like a fake a fake little passport and i
put it in a jar and i decorated the jar and then i took like a deck of cards and i like
wrote nice things about him on every card and like so i'm not crafty but i'm not crafty but
i'm nice and like i'm thoughtful yeah i i can think of things like that so i like
you know native but it's funny because it the passport is very realistic looking so i remember
that's awesome once my mom was over and she was like you really shouldn't leave your passport out
i just want to call students attention to all of the amazing vocabulary words that we have
used naturally in this conversation students are always asking how can i get amazing vocabulary
for a seven or higher on ielts and it's from unscripted natural conversations like this
whether even if you're like watching tv and movies those are scripted but it's a great
way to get vocabulary unscripted stuff like this though is golden guys and we actually have this
whole service conversations and coffee it's amazing you have a lesson every week we pull
out vocabulary from every conversation with definitions and sentences and there's listening
quizzes so guys this will definitely help you on ielts it'll give you that vocab you need for a
seven or higher and it's awesome for listening so guys check out conversations and coffee go to all
ears english dot com slash fast that's f-a-s-t all right guys thank you for talking about
this weird about common ielts topic today great topic today thanks guys take care next time bye