📙Part 2: Describe a place that is not visited by many tourists

You should say: what the place is, what people can see there, why only very few people visit there, and explain why you think it is interesting.

This episode's vocabulary

• To frequent (verb) - to be in or visit a particular place often.
• Misleading (adj.) - causing someone to believe something that is not true.
• Artefact (noun) - an object that has been made by a person, such as a tool or a decoration, especially one that is of historical interest.
• Rightly or wrongly (phrase) - used to mean that something may or may not be morally correct, but it is a fact.
• Misnomer (noun) - a name that does not suit what it refers to, or the use of such a name.
• To festoon (verb) - to decorate a room or other place for a special occasion by hanging coloured paper, lights, flowers, etc. around it, especially in curves.
• Exhibit (noun) - a collection of objects that is shown to the public in a museum, etc.
• Outreach (noun) - an effort to bring services or information to people where they live or spend time.
• To draw (verb) - to attract attention or interest.

Questions and Answers

R: I suppose the place that comes to mind most easily is the McManus Galleries in the centre of my hometown Dundee. That's not to say it's not frequented by tourists, it's just that it's not always the first stop whenever they choose to come and visit, even though I think it really should be. Despite the name, it's actually more of a museum than a gallery. And perhaps that's why many people don't go. Since the name is a little bit misleading. It's full of different artefacts from around the world, which makes sense since it was built in Victorian times when the British Empire was a real force in the world, and explorers were bringing back all kinds of things, rightly or wrongly. Like I said, the name is a bit unclear in relation to what it actually offers. But it's not a total misnomer, since the walls are festooned with paintings of all kinds of styles from across history, including modern and classical art. I think there might actually be some postmodern stuff in the new exhibits, but I'm not entirely sure. When it comes to why not many people go, I'm not entirely sure about that either, frankly. It's not like the building is hard to miss. It's like a huge Victorian building done in what I think is called a Neo-Gothic style, but no architecture expert. No, the real reason might be that it's not well-advertised and doesn't seem to do much outreach. Or like I say, it doesn't seem to do this anyway. So it doesn't really draw people in. And that's a real shame. Because I've been a few times this year, and I think it's one of the best things about my hometown. It's got a real sense of history behind it. And it's not like you see buildings or contents like that every day. My favourite one is this necklace that's made of bear claws from the Americas. It's absolutely fascinating. And I have no idea what it's for, or what it symbolizes or anything. I just think it looks really cool. Whatever the reasons for its lack of series popularity, this is the building in general, I hope more people go there more often.

M: And what about your friends? Do they enjoy this place?

R: I don't know many that go, to be honest.

Discussion

M: Hey, thank you, Rory, for your story! McManus Galleries. In Dundee. Dear listener, you can just google this place and look at it. A beautiful place. The McManus, the galleries. There are 8 galleries. Okay? The McManus Dundee's art gallery and museum, dear listener, okay? So here you can talk about a museum, an art gallery, a park, I don't know, a cafe, which is not visited by many tourists. So it's kind of like off the beaten track in your city.

R: Except in this case, it's not because it's in the middle of my town. So I don't know why not many people are going there compared to other places.

M: And here, dear listener, you say like not many people go or few people go there. Few, not many. You don't say less people, okay? You say few people or fewer people go there than to other places. So not many. And we can start that I suppose that the place that comes to mind most easily is the blah, blah museum, or blah, blah, park or blah, blah botanic gardens. Or a swimming pool. I don't know. Maybe a restaurant, which is right in the centre but few people visit. And then Rory uses a synonym. He says it's not frequented by tourists, by many tourists. So frequented, yeah?

R: Yeah, that just means they don't go there very often. But you don't need to frequent a famous place. You could frequent a restaurant or a cafe that you really like.

M: For example? Give us an example.

R: Well, I definitely frequent the cafe up the road because it's so close to where I live. It's easy to go there.

M: But it's very formal, right? Usually, people don't use this word.

R: Well, I use it.

M: Really? How?

R: To talk about a place I go to regularly.

M: What about your gym?

R: Well, I don't frequent a gym because I don't go to one. I have my own.

M: Ah, really? Ah, okay, you have your flat. Yeah, my flat is my gym. Okay? Dear listener, my bed is my gym, my kitchen is my gym, and every room in my house is my gym. Okay? And my bathtub is my swimming pool. Okay? Yeah. And my sauna. Beautiful. So you can say like, okay, it's not always the first stop for tourists to visit. Okay? They don't choose to come and visit. Come and visit. So tourists don't usually choose this place to come and visit. And then you describe the place. So Rory talks about the McManus galleries. So it's more of a museum than a gallery. Because actually, the full name is the McManus, Dundee's art gallery and museum. That's the full name.

R: I don't think you'll find many people using that to describe it, though.

M: And then, because the name is confusing, maybe that's why not many people go there, since, because the name is a little misleading. Or maybe the address is misleading. And here, we use since to mean because. People don't go there, since it's far away. People don't go there, because it's far away. This place is full of loads of different artefacts from all over the world.

R: That just means there's a lot of them.

M: Like art, objects. When you refer to what you're saying, you can say, like I said, the name is a bit unclear, or the address is unclear, or the place is far away from the city centre. That's why it's not visited, or it's not frequented by many tourists. What is a misnomer?

R: Misnomer just means a name that's a bit misleading or poorly chosen. So it's not a complete misnomer, because it does have pictures like you would expect to see in a gallery. But at the same time, this museum aspect is not captured in its name, which people refer to it by, which is the McManus Galleries. You hear the word gallery and you think, oh, pictures, or paintings.

M: And then you said that the walls are festooned with paintings.

R: Just covered, covered with paintings. I love that word. Festooned.

M: Oh, another example with the word, please.

R: Well, walls can be festooned with paintings. I suppose someone could be festooned with jewellery if they have a lot of it on.

M: Yeah, dear listener, so if you talk about a museum or an art gallery, or just the walls in your house, you can say that, oh, the walls are festooned with paintings. Covered in paintings. There is some postmodern staff, different paintings, different styles and lots of exhibits. Exhibits are objects which are exhibited in an exhibition. Dear listener, are you okay?

R: An exhibit could also be a collection of objects with a specific theme, like a Stone Age exhibit or a South American exhibit.

M: When you move to another topic, you can say, when it comes to why not many people go, I am not entirely certain. So when it comes to blah, blah, blah, I'm not sure. And here you can say, well, I'm not sure why people don't go there. Like I'm not entirely certain, I'm not completely sure. To be certain or to be sure. The building is not hard to miss. So people see it, it's right in the centre. So it's not hard to miss. Or you can say it is hard to miss. Because it's located in a small street, it's very hard to find the building, to locate the building. Or maybe like, it doesn't have a name, or the door is hidden. So you can say it's very easy to miss.

R: But this one is not, because it's huge.

M: Yeah, it's huge. And actually, it's quite like a beautiful building.

R: It is, yeah. I don't know what style the building is. I think it's called Neo-Gothic. And if you want to guess about that as well, then you can because no one is an architecture expert, except for actual architecture experts.

M: Yeah, you can say, well, but I'm not an expert. I'm not a tour guide, yeah?

R: I think it's this, but I'm not an expert.

M: And then you can say the real reason might be that this place is not well advertised. Okay? So even if it's a great museum, it's not well promoted. It's not well advertised, so very few people know about it. And this place doesn't do much outreach. What is an outreach?

R: It just means work taken to contact the public and make it aware of the things that are happening at the museum.

M: There are no posters, there are no ads. So we just don't know about this place. They don't have an Instagram account. So like we don't know about it, so very few people know about it. So they don't do much outreach. And they, I mean, people who work for this building, for this museum in this building, so they don't draw people in, okay? So they just like don't attract people inside. So they don't know what blogging is, obviously.

R: Not that I'm aware of. They might have an Instagram page

M: But they don't really know how to promote themselves, how to advertise themselves. Yeah, so they don't draw people in. And that's a real shame. That's a pity because this place is great. I've been there a few times, you can say. Or I haven't been there myself. It's one of the best things in town, you can say. It has a real sense of history behind it. Okay? It's beautiful. And then Rory talks about this necklace made of bear claws, dear listener.

R: Yeah, there's this bear claw necklace. It's so cool. Or at least I think it's cool.

M: It's absolutely fascinating. So you can mention some exhibits that you like in this place if you talk about an art gallery or a museum. So whatever the reasons for its lack of serious popularity, so it's kind of, it's not popular. Rory, how did you structure your answer?

R: Just like how it was in the task, to be honest. Although, I did add a little bit at the end of about my favourite part of it. I don't think that is quite, what the the people were looking for. When, when they were saying explain why you find it so interesting. But I did explain in other places. And I wanted to draw attention to this particular exhibit, which I think is cool. So it's still okay. So I added that little extra bit there. And I guessed a lot about the style because I was talking about what kind of place it is, and what people can see there, not just on the inside, but on the outside, too. So you should mention that as well. When you're describing this place. Of course, you talk about what's available on the inside, but what does it look like? Because that's part of what people can see there as well. But what I didn't do was round off with my usual conditional ending, just instead, I did a little bit of free promotion for them and said, I hope more people go there more often.

M: Yeah, like if they could promote themselves more effectively. More people would go there. Remember, dear listener, fewer people. Few people. Okay? Here like not many people, few people go there. Please make a smart choice about a place. Make sure you can talk about it and describe it. Okay? You know things about it. Or just you can talk about the McManus galleries. Just tell the examiner that you are from Scotland. Okay? You live in Dundee. Your name is Rory. Okay?

R: You transplanted the McManus galleries to a new location.

M: Yeah, my passport it says like, Boris Petroff. But actually my name, everybody calls me Rory. Can you imagine, Rory? Actually, I can do that.

R: I can.

M: Yeah. Thank you very much for listening! And we'll get back to you in our next episode. Bye!

R: Bye!

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