/01
“You have the whole conversation in your head afterwards.”
Being caught
You are on the stairs with shopping and no notice. There is no prepared sentence for this, which is why it is worth rehearsing.
The neighbour, rehearsed out loud
1
person runs this conversation
6 min
The shortest conversation
Warm, fast, and impossible to escape without saying something. The conversation you cannot postpone and cannot prepare for.
B1 · workingB2 · confident
What actually happens
Five things people say before they start.
One of them is usually the real reason. What sits underneath it is what actually gets scored.
/02
“You wait for a gap that never comes.”
Speed and overlap
She talks fast, she talks over you, and she is not being rude. Holding a turn in that is a real skill.
/03
“You get the tone right and the facts wrong.”
Small talk with content
The water, the building, the neighbour upstairs. There is real information in it and missing it has consequences.
/04
“You would rather solve it alone than ask.”
Asking for a favour
The second scenario, and a harder one, a package, a key, half an hour. The politeness distance in a second language is genuinely difficult.
Not the situation you need?
Bring the real thing: the job description, the date on the letter, the words the school used. Everyone who runs the neighbour will work from what you actually walked in with.
How a first conversation worksWho you will be talking to
The neighbour, with 1 of these 1.
In whichever order helps. The first 5 minutes with a free partner cost nothing, so you can talk to two of them before you choose.
5 min freeThe neighbourWhat it costs
One price a minute, whoever you talk to.
A harder conversation simply runs longer. The shortest way to rehearse the neighbour is 6 min.
You pay for the seconds you talk, and the minutes come off a balance you already hold. Nothing renews, and you are never sent a bill. Plans and refunds.
B1 · working
9 min
is how long a conversation at this difficulty runs
A neighbour at the warm end of the scale, in Mexican Spanish, who will not slow down.
- Minutes of talking in total
- 54
- What that costs here
- $24
- The same minutes with a tutor
- $300
- You do not spend
- −$276
At $50 an hour, rounded up to the 60-minute booking nobody will sell you less than.
Your first 5 minutes
What 5 free minutes are for.
01
Free, seven minutes
Rosa is one of the free doors and the gentlest room in the Spanish half of the catalog.
The terms, in full
- Free
- 5 minutes
- No card asked for
02
Do not try to be fluent
Try to catch the facts. The rubric weights repair and comprehensibility over range for exactly this reason.
Paid for out of your free minutes
- Being caught
- Speed and overlap
- Small talk with content
- Asking for a favour
Questions
What people ask before they start.
Nearby
What people open next.
The rest of Everyday life first, then everything else at the same difficulty.
All the situationsBehind the counter
B1 · workingB2 · confidentAn order said once, at full speed, with two modifications and a queue.1 personfrom 5 minYour first shift
B1 · workingB2 · confidentA manager explaining a till, once, while three other things need him.1 personfrom 5 minYour child's school
B2 · confidentC1 · advancedTen minutes with a teacher, and everything you did not ask is a year of their schooling.2 peoplefrom 8 min
B1 · workingB2 · confidentAn order said once, at full speed, with two modifications and a queue.1 personfrom 5 minYour first shiftB1 · workingB2 · confidentA manager explaining a till, once, while three other things need him.1 personfrom 5 minYour child's schoolB2 · confidentC1 · advancedTen minutes with a teacher, and everything you did not ask is a year of their schooling.2 peoplefrom 8 min