Hello, lovely, I'm Maria.

And my name is Rory, and we are the host of the IEL Speaking for Success podcast.

The podcast aims to help you improve your speaking skills as well as your listening skills along the way.

We started this podcast because you want you to use high-level words and gorgeous grammar in your

IOT speaking and in your English life.

It's getting cold, Rory.

And Russian Christmas is coming in January.

Ah, yes, but in Scotland, it's going to be in December.

Oh, Scotland.

Let's talk about your country, shall we? Tell me about your country.

Scotland! Freedom! No, actually, I'm not sure what to tell people when they ask me about my

home land. I'm sure they get a pretty good

idea about it from all the media around it, which is probably just as diverse and varied as the

country itself right now when I think about it. It's a small place relative to somewhere like

Russia or America, but I think we make up for it by our character and cultural contributions

to the world. I suppose you could say it's quite a rugged place, a bit like the people as well.

That's probably enabled us to make all of these contributions in the first place.

Where's your country located?

It's in the north of the island of Great Britain, which itself is in Western Europe,

and we're part of a union of countries which share the same island.

I suppose it's one of the furthest west countries in Western Europe, the Westernmost country,

maybe apart from Iceland, of course.

...