5 min freeYour first shift
Ben Carter
Product Manager, the other team
Runs rooms pitched at working fluency and confident fluency
American EnglishEither way. You pick before you start, from Atlanta, GARemembers your past conversations
5.0(3)
From 10 min
A session of any length
First 5 minutes free
In Ben’s words
Ben's team shipped a change on Thursday that broke yours on Friday, and the message you sent about it was read by nine people.
He asked for this call. He is not angry, exactly; he is defensive, which is harder to talk to, because every explanation you offer sounds to him like an attack. He is thirty-one, has been a PM for four years, and is privately worried that the breakage was his fault. He will not say that unless you make it safe to. What thaws him is hearing you own your tone before you say anything about his change. What freezes him is 'I was just being direct.' Get past the first two minutes and he becomes the most reasonable person on the floor; fail to and the call ends with both of you agreeing to 'sync later', which means never.
1min
They speak first, about a second after you press start. There is no press-to-talk and no waiting for your turn.
4min
Four minutes of the real thing, at the real pace, with the interruptions where a real one would put them.
1min
Your pace, your pauses and your filler words are counted within a second, and the score follows. Nobody asks for a card to hear it.
What a score from Ben is worth
How the score is worked out here
Three things, and you can read what each one actually means. None of them turn this into an exam: talk to this person as often as you like, and the score is there only if you want it.
Run on Ben
Cleared
Published criteria
The criteria and their weights are visible before you speak.
- Here
- The post-breakage conversation nobody trains for: two people who both have a point, one of whom wrote something they regret.
- Held by
- Published in advance; changes go through review
- Method
- Before you speak you can see what is being measured and how much each thing is worth, as percentages that add up to a hundred. That is checked automatically: a set whose percentages do not add up never reaches the site.
Situations and levels
What Ben runs, and what a fortnight of it costs
A minute costs the same whoever you talk to: the expensive part is the model, not the person. Move the sliders to match the two weeks you actually have.
Situations
Difficulty
What it costs to rehearse this properly
Three runs across a week is what changes an answer. Move the sliders to your own plan. Nothing renews, and nothing is charged until you buy minutes.
- Minutes of talking in total
- 60
- What that costs here
- $26
- The same conversations with a native speaker
- $300
- You do not spend
- −$274
Ratings
What 3 people made of Ben
Every one of them finished a conversation with Ben before they could leave a rating. One conversation, one rating — the rule is in the database, not in a form. That is why the number under the stars means something.
5.0
3 ratings
- 53
- 40
- 30
- 20
- 10
Every one left after a session with Ben
Ben got defensive as soon as I explained the technical cause. I had to acknowledge the impact before talking about the fix.
After a session with Ben
1 person has talked to Ben, rated it and written about it. Ratings left through the product will join these, and only a finished conversation can leave one.
Compared with a live native speaker
11 conversations with Ben for the price of one with a native speaker
Talking with a live native speaker is the best practice there is, and it is priced like it: from $50 a conversation, at a time that suits them. Here a conversation costs $4.40, starts when you press the button, and can be had again tomorrow.
A conversation with a native speaker
$50
A conversation here
$4.40
Nothing to book, and the same conversation can be had as many times as you like.
| A live native speaker | Reallang | |
|---|---|---|
| What one conversation costs | From $50 | $4.40 |
| When you can talk | When they have a slot | Now, or at six in the morning |
| Who is across the table | The same person every time | A recruiter, a doctor, a neighbour: 56 people |
| Will they interrupt you | Rarely. You are the one paying | Yes, like in real life |
| Feedback in writing | Usually none | 60 seconds later, quoting you |
| A real person across the table | Yes | No, an AI person |
The last row is the honest one: a real person is a real person, and nothing replaces that. But getting comfortable speaking takes dozens of conversations, not one a week at $50. Your teacher teaches you the language; this is the practice in between.
Start a session
Pick the meeting, and Ben starts talking
There is no calendar, because there is nothing to wait for. Choose which conversation it is, allow the microphone, and a second later you are talking.
Which conversation are you having?
Ben Carter runs one meeting. They are different conversations, not easy and hard versions of one, and each has its own criteria.
What counts as going well
Own your tone first, then get to the actual process problem, and leave with something you both agreed to.
Tell Ben Carter one or two things about your situation and the conversation will be about it.
0/280
Ben Carter
American English · cold
Remembers your past calls
How they speak
- The score
- 60 seconds after
- This one
- Free
- After that
- $4.40
- The first 5 minutes cost nothing and no card is asked for.
- We ask for your microphone before the conversation starts, never after.
- Audio is not stored. The written record of the conversation is, because the score quotes from it.
Also free the first time
Who to talk to after Ben
Ranked against Ben on whichever line you are choosing by. Save two or three and read them side by side.
- 5 min freeYour first shift
5 min freeBehind the counter
5 min freeNeighbours
5 min freeNeighbours