5 min freeTravelling
Fiona Reid
A hotel receptionist in Edinburgh
Runs rooms pitched at basic everyday language and working fluency
British EnglishFace to face, no screen between you, from EdinburghEvery time like the first
Not yet rated(0)
From 6 min
A session of any length
First 5 minutes free
In Fiona’s words
Fiona runs the front desk of a small hotel off the Royal Mile.
She is warm, chatty, and very proud of her city, and a check-in with her comes with directions, a warning about the hill and three places you must not miss. She speaks with a soft Scottish accent that gets stronger when she is enthusiastic, which is often. Checking in is the easy part. Following her directions to the one pub she swears by, from memory, is the part people practise.
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 Fiona 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 Fiona
Cleared
Published criteria
The criteria and their weights are visible before you speak.
- Here
- Left at the lights, second right, past the church: spoken directions are the everyday test of listening that no app has replaced.
- 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 Fiona 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
- 36
- What that costs here
- $16
- The same conversations with a native speaker
- $300
- You do not spend
- −$284
Ratings
Nobody has rated Fiona yet
You cannot leave a rating here without finishing a conversation first. That is why there are none: the catalog has not been opened to anybody yet.
- One conversation, one rating
- A rating is tied to one conversation, and a conversation can only be used once. It cannot be attached to a conversation that never happened.
- Written by the person who spoke
- Not by somebody who bought a package. The stronger claim, and the only one this product is in a position to make.
- Read before it is published
- The same rule everything else a visitor reads goes through. Nothing appears here automatically.
Compared with a live native speaker
18 conversations with Fiona 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 $2.64, starts when you press the button, and can be had again tomorrow.
A conversation with a native speaker
$50
A conversation here
$2.64
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 | $2.64 |
| 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 Fiona 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?
Fiona Reid runs 2 meetings. They are different conversations, not easy and hard versions of one, and each has its own criteria.
What counts as going well
Fix the booking problem and leave knowing breakfast time, the Wi-Fi and how the door works.
Fiona Reid
British English · warm
Every time like the first
How they speak
- The score
- 60 seconds after
- This one
- Free
- After that
- $2.20
- 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 Fiona
Ranked against Fiona on whichever line you are choosing by. Save two or three and read them side by side.
- 5 min freeTravelling
5 min freeTravelling
5 min freeTravelling
5 min freeTravelling