English Conversations
Study real interviews in depth — many accents, real vocabulary, no scripts.
Taught by Peter Smissen
or
- 7 hr 5 min of content
- 28 lessons
- Certificate of completion
- Full lifetime access
$129.00
Course Content
18 sections · 28 lessons
What you'll be able to do
- Follow unscripted interviews across a range of English accents
- Cope with natural speech patterns — false starts, interruptions and tangents
- Pick up vocabulary and slang from the way real speakers use it
- Stay with a long conversation instead of losing the thread after a minute
- Recognise how speakers signal opinions, doubt, humour and disagreement
- Train your ear on variety rather than on one familiar voice
Who is this for?
Upper-intermediate and advanced learners who can follow clear English and now want to handle real, unscripted conversation across a range of accents. If you find native speakers easy one-on-one but lose the thread when they get comfortable and speed up, start here.
About this course
In this course we study interviews in depth.
Working through real conversations will improve your listening comprehension of spoken English, because you're exposed to many different accents, a huge range of vocabulary, slang, and the messy reality of how people actually talk — false starts, tangents, jokes and all.
Why interviews
A scripted dialogue is written to be understood. An interview isn't. People talk over each other, drop words, trail off, and reach for expressions they'd never use in writing. That's exactly the English you need to be able to handle — and it's the English a textbook can't give you.
Because every guest is a different person, you get a different accent, a different speed and a different set of habits each time. Your ear stops being tuned to one voice and starts coping with variety.
Who you'll hear from
Conversations with a wide mix of guests — among them Stuart McKenzie, Christian Saunders, James Buchan, Ian Smissen, Oliver Gee, Damian Duffy, Rhys Linnett, Cara Leopold, Raquel Soares, Hugo Groom and historian David Hunt. Some conversations are long enough to be split across several parts, so you can take them in manageable pieces.
How to use the course
Listen once without stopping, even if you miss things — that's the comprehension pass. Then go back and work through it properly. Repeating a single interview three times will do more for your listening than hearing three different ones once each.