This is an All Ears English podcast episode 125.
What's my English level?
Welcome to the All Ears English podcast where you'll finally get real native English conversation and fluency for business and life.
We believe in connection, not perfection, when it comes to learning English.
Now here are your hosts Lindsay McMahon, the English adventurer, and Aubrey Carter, the IELTS whiz, coming to you from Arizona and Boston, USA.
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Hey, Aubrey.
How's it going?
I'm great.
How are you?
Good.
So you're learning Spanish.
I know that.
You were just in Mexico traveling a little bit with the family.
What's your Spanish level, by the way?
I think I'm intermediate.
It's been exciting just based on how well I can communicate with other people and carry on a conversation.
I've definitely pushed past that beginner phase and it's very exciting.
Actually, that is so exciting.
I love it.
So the intermediate is a fun place to be because you can actually start to have conversations right.
Exactly the average podcast i listen to that's made for natives.
I can understand probably 80 of it, so that's exciting.
I don't have to just listen to podcasts that are made for Spanish language learners.
Oh, good.
I like that.
I love that.
We always encourage our listeners to try to get to that place right where you don't need to listen to an ESL podcast anymore.
You can listen to a fun comedy podcast 100% in native English made for native speakers.
That's where we want to get.
Yes, exactly.
Then you can listen to everything that really engages you as far as content.
Maybe you like true crime.
Maybe it's comedy.
Like you said, there's so much out there.
And it sometimes depends on the hosts.
I feel like some hosts speak so clearly and others, man, they speak so fast.
There's one I really wish I could understand a little better.
That's like a sort of a cranky. news podcast, but they just speak so fast.
Yeah, it can be really hard.
It's nice and encouraging when you find clear speaking hosts, right?
Things are very clear.
That's so important.
Well, all right.
So a lot of our listeners do come to us though, and they say, what's my level?
What's my English level?
How do I know my English level?
How would you answer this question?
High level.
Aubrey.
Yeah, it's tricky.
I think it's going to be interesting to talk about.
It's not always about your level.
It's a little more about why you're learning English, right?
So sometimes if you're preparing to take an exam.
Yes, you need to know what you would score if you took that exam today, so that you can be confident that you're going to get the score you need.
Or if you're preparing for a job, for business English yes, you need to know your level of business English so that you can feel ready, feel confident.
But sometimes, depending on why you're learning English like my Spanish, I'm just learning to be able to communicate with others in Spanish.
So I'm not really concerned about my level.
I'm more concerned about making connections, you know, trying to be comfortable while speaking, instead of having a goal of a specific level.
Yeah, it's so true.
In some ways, if you get stuck in this whole thing about your level, you're keeping English very academic.
And at All Ears English, we like to bring English to life, right?
It's a human skill.
It's a connection skill.
It's not about your level.
Level is just a number.
And of course, let's go back to the test scenario.
We do a lot of IELTS training.
We have the IELTS Energy Podcast.
Aubrey, you're over there.
What is the typical level or score that most people are trying to achieve?
Most students need an overall seven to study to do a master's degree in another country.
Sometimes for immigration purposes, you need more specific scores like permanent residency in Canada is 8777.
So often students know the exact scores they need to get on the individual tests.
And that's often why they need a study system.
They need to know, So they need feedback on what they're doing right now so that they can get their scores.
They don't want to have to take the exam again.
It's very expensive.
So that's the kind of situation where, yes, you need to know your level.
You need to know what score you would get if you took it today.
Yeah, exactly.
But even then, you know, we want to keep things in perspective.
You know, let's say you score your band eight seven seven seven, that you go to Canada with your family a year later.
You're not going to care.
You're not going to tell anyone you scored that it doesn't mean anything because you've achieved a larger goal.
You're not going to tell anyone, hey, I scored an eight in speaking.
You're going to care a lot more like, am I able to have a conversation with my neighbors?
Can I talk to my daughter's friends and their parents?
That's going to be a lot more important to you.
Right.
So as soon as you do immigrate, that's when the way of measuring your skill, your level, has to change.
And then it becomes, as you said, Aubrey, about kind of about tasks.
What are tasks that you can accomplish?
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So what are some other examples of these that we could think about?
I think about phone calls a lot.
I feel like it's a totally different level to be able to understand a second language when you have no visual cues.
You can't see their face or read their lips or see their.
All you have is the connection on the phone, which sometimes that's problematic if it's not the best connection or there's background noise.
So this sometimes I think about my level in the language based on how well I can understand someone on the phone.
That's a good one.
Let's say you're in a coffee shop or you're at a dinner party and we talk about our experiences at dinner parties in foreign countries, right?
On our web classes and things.
You're at a dinner party with native speakers of the language and people are just telling jokes and talking over each other, interrupting.
But if you can hang in there, you can respond to the jokes.
Then that is another level.
That is when you feel like you can follow that conversation and contribute, right?
Be a part of that conversation.
That does feel like, okay, I've made it.
I know.
And then the next, next level, if we, if we stick with that scenario is if can, you can tell the joke and people would laugh like you understand the context.
People are telling jokes, the kind of jokes they're telling.
Then you tell the joke.
People listen to you and then they laugh.
The room erupts in laughter.
That's where we're all trying to get.
It's so true, right?
To be funny because word stress and syllable stress often really plays a big part in a joke.
So when you're watching that stand-up comedy, you got to pay attention to that.
Because that's a big part of that.
And as you're reaching that native level fluency, where you can, you can be the funny one, the center of the crowd, especially if that's in your personality that you love, that you thrive off of that.
That's an amazing feeling when you hit that in another language.
I love that.
That's so good.
So part of knowing your level quote unquote is understanding what's ahead and getting excited about that, because that brought a smile to my face.
Just the idea of being in a group of people you know in Argentina and I'm there, I'm having dinner and I'm telling the jokes in Spanish.
Wow.
That would be amazing to be at that level.
Exactly.
Right.
You could know thousands and thousands of vocabulary words, phrasal verbs, idioms but if you don't practice using them, then when you're in that situation you won't be comfortable using them.
And what a missed opportunity, right?
But if you're practicing, if you're ready, prepared in advance and you'll be able to use those just like a native, that's when you really feel like okay, I'm at the level I want to be.
Yes, I love it.
I love it.
So guys, there are some limitations when it comes to finding a level, putting yourself into a box and don't get stuck there.
Always keep in mind the larger goal.
It's never about a number.
It's never about a letter.
It's never about anything like that.
But we do have...
To finish up the episode Aubrey, if they do want to get a sense of their level.
We do have a little tool, a fun little quiz that our listeners can use.
And yeah, sometimes it's just reassuring to know to like, where am I?
You know, what types of resources should I be using?
Because a lot of it's about that.
We share free resources at your level.
So you know that you're spending your time the most efficiently possible.
Yeah.
So go over there, guys.
Check it out.
But again, you know, remember, it's a starting point, right?
It's where you start.
It's how you know what you should focus on.
It is not the end all be all.
I love that expression, by the way, Aubrey, the end all be all.
Yeah, that's a really fun phrase.
We use that a lot for like, that's the end goal.
The end all be all is where you want to end up.
And yeah, that's true.
Just finding out your level today.
That's not the end.
That's a jumping off point.
You got it.
All right.
This has been great, guys.
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I think that's it for today, Aubrey.
Thanks for hanging out.
That's awesome.
Thanks, Lindsay.
See ya.
Take care.
Bye.
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