IELTS Plus: Episode 71 - Smartphones

Welcome back everyone, this is the IELTS Plus English podcast and today we're going to be talking all about smartphones. I think today's topic is one that we all know about. we can all talk about, so perhaps it gives us a bit of an opportunity to try different language today. What I'd like to start by doing is I'm going to give you three fancy adverbs you can stick into any IELTS exam. Not just today's topic, but really flexible, high-level adverbs that you can use freely. So I've...

Written down three here. I'd like to have a quick chat about them. And as much as possible, I will try to use them in today's episode. The first adverb is predominantly. Predominantly. Predominantly is a word I do use in my speaking in regular life. And it just means mostly. So if I say to you, I predominantly eat chicken. I mostly eat chicken. Sounds fancy, but the meaning is very simple. The next one is unequivocally. Unequivocally. Now, by the way, do notice this is British pronunciation.

So if you are someone who follows US American pronunciation, please check up on these words because I do believe the pronunciation can be a little different. But for me, unequivocally. And unequivocally means... Without doubt. Without doubt. So if I say that, and this is not true, but if I say that Apple phones are unequivocally better than Samsung phones.

then without doubt they are absolutely better than Samsung phones. That is not my official stance, but it's a good example. Finally, we've got admittedly. Admittedly. I would say this is probably the adverb you are most familiar with today. And I tell you this because I think we overuse, me too, I overuse the word honestly. Perhaps you use frankly, but a nice word is admittedly, which is when you are saying something honestly. So...

In one of the questions today, it asks me about the future of smartphones. So I could say, admittedly, I don't know a great deal about this subject, but... That's a lovely pattern, by the way, if you're going to use this adverb, is with any question that's really hard, you can say, admittedly, I don't know a great deal about this subject, but, and then give your answer. So those are three high-level, wonderful, beautiful adverbs that you can put into your next exam regardless of the topic.

So listen to me today. I'll try to use each one at some point. And most importantly for you, remember, was it last week or a couple of weeks ago, I told you, you need 10. high-level general-use words that you can drop into any exam. If you decide these three are part of that 10, take them away. and drill. Really practice those words so that you can start using them freely in your speaking without too much thinking.

Excellent. Well, talking about words, we've got a nice set of vocabulary today. Very topic specific, smartphones. So we're talking about versatile, durable, face ID. So some easier ones and some harder ones. And that's all available in the IELTS Plus Total Speaking Textbook, which is available at www.britplus.net.

Let's get started. So, smartphones. What do you mainly use your smartphone for? I use my smartphone far too much and for a wide variety of tasks. but I predominantly use my smartphone for listening to podcasts and... Messaging students. Mostly it's for managing my business and getting in touch with students via Kakao Talk. Okay, just...

In case you're wondering, what was that you said at the end there, Jack? It's Kakao Talk. That's the Korean version of WhatsApp or whatever messaging service you use. Kakao Talk is the main one here. Next question. It's hard to say there are disadvantages to using smartphones. I suppose we could talk about the detrimental effects of smartphones.

for example, being addictive. Maybe that's a downside of smartphones. It stops us interacting with people face to face so much. So there are definitely detrimental effects, but...

disadvantages are quite hard to find because they're such useful items. Okay, so that is part one done and we'll go on to part two. I'm putting two minutes on the clock and today's... Part two is describe a smartphone application you find useful. Okay, so... Not going to be talking so much about smartphone, I guess, but one application I find useful. Well, I suppose, yeah, I know what I'm going to talk about. Let's just put two minutes on the clock and see how we do.

My time starts now. I'd like to tell you about Apple podcasts. I... I first started listening to podcasts maybe 10 years ago, so it's been a big part of my life for a long time, and it inspired me to make my own podcast. About a year ago, actually, not that long ago, Google Podcasts, which was my main platform, the one that I used the most, switched to... They stopped.

running. They shut down the platform. So I had to switch to something and I found Apple Podcasts and I was really impressed. I think it's a very nice, clean app. They have all the podcasts I want. They give me notifications when my podcast has come up. And yeah, I'm just really happy with that platform. So I made the switch and I've been very satisfied. So let me tell you a little more about Apple Podcasts. It's, as I said, a very clean app. It has all the podcasts you could think or want.

In my case, it's particularly good because I use all Apple devices. Now, it's not been a conscious decision, but just gradually I've switched to Apple. So this app... Apple Podcasts syncs across all of the different devices. And it's just been very convenient for me. I subscribe to about 15 podcasts. Most of them are related to football or business, some golf and a few other things. There's a bit of politics and society and that kind of thing.

It's become a really a huge part of my life, that application. For me personally, I don't see myself. Oh, OK. So time up. That was OK. I used. A few words in there and I thought the structures were pretty good. You know, it's becoming pretty obvious that my timing is very consistent. Now, I'm not saying that that's my particular ability. It's just something I've developed over time that what you'll notice, and it's pretty surprising, is if you look at the timing, I always put the timer.

in the video and what you'll notice is at one minute almost certainly I will switch to my next part of the structure and you'll at one minute you'll hear me say Let me tell you a little more about blank. And that's, you know, I'm not looking at the timer. That's just my sense, which I've developed over doing these podcasts. So the takeaway for you.

is get a structure you're happy with. Try to have some timing on that structure. This is all provided in my textbook, but you can use whichever structure you like and just... Do a lot of part twos until you sense the time during two minutes and then you will never run out of things to say. You'll always reach two minutes. Okay, let's move on to part three.

How have smartphones impacted social interactions? I think smartphones have had a detrimental effect on social interactions Certainly when it comes to face-to-face interactions, it's obvious with face-to-face interactions that because we are... Carrying this smartphone, we tend to multitask. So while we're talking, while we're with people, we're still doing things on our phone. And that makes the quality of face-to-face interactions worse.

You could argue that social interactions are better because we can contact each other more and more easily through smartphones. But I think because of that, our social interactions, even on smartphones, on communication platforms, are quite light. There's a lot of emojis, which is fine, but perhaps we're not connecting deeply with one another. Okay, next question. Do you think smartphones are addictive? I think smartphones are unequivocally one of the most addictive things in our lives nowadays.

are so convenient you know you have this high-tech device that you can carry with you all the time and they are full of entertainment whether it's your streaming platforms youtube social media games it's almost the perfect device and because it's so accessible

you can carry it in your pocket and you can hold it in your hand. It's just too easy to use and too easy to become addicted. In Korea, one thing I've noticed... is that when I'm walking in the street, particularly on the subway, when we are walking to the next train, we're connecting, a huge number, maybe over 50% of people,

watch their phone while walking and they don't look ahead they don't look around it's just they're still watching their phone watching the movie or whatever it is they're doing while they're walking to the next train. So that's been a big surprise to me. Excellent. Nice. A little bit of a longer part three answer there, but do notice that was a nice direct answer, detail, example, really nice structure. That's what I really aspire to do. And my final question is...

How do you think smartphones will evolve in the next 10 years? Admittedly, I don't know a great deal about the future of technology, but... the smartphones will just keep evolving to become more versatile and perhaps more durable. they will become more convenient to handle, maybe smaller, or perhaps they will become some form of projector or a screen that can fold or roll.

they are always going in the direction of becoming more convenient to use and therefore a more crucial part of our lifestyle. you're starting to see nowadays various changes to smartphones, like the foldable screens. AI is becoming integrated into smartphones. So I think these are quite good indicators of... the future of smartphones okay i'm pretty happy with that uh that and that of course

was another case of using one of the three adverbs I taught you at the start of today's episode. predominantly, unequivocally, and admittedly. I did use all three. I hope you noticed that. I think I used one of them in part one and two of them in part three. So it's up to you. If you like those adverbs...

Get used to them. Start using them in your answers. I think it would be a nice boost to your vocabulary. If not, move on. Find other words you like. You don't need a thousand words. As I say, you only need ten. high-level general-use vocabulary to really boost your vocabulary score. And that's everything I have for you today. And I really feel like we're on a bit of a period of interesting topics.

maybe slightly easier or certainly more relatable topics because next week we're doing social media, which of course, again, massive part of our lives. So I look forward to that. So have a wonderful week this week. study unequivocally harder than last week, and I'll see you next Monday to talk about social media.