The Level Up English Podcast (Natural British English)

The goal of this episode is to share as many useful healthcare vocabulary as I can think of. I first begin by comparing my medical experiences in the UK and in Thailand, and then go through some of my specific medical problems and injuries in each country where I go through my symptoms and share my views. Show notes page  - https://levelupenglish.school/podcast310 ➡️ Join the Free Mini Course - ht...

Cleft Sentences are an area of English grammar that is used in daily conversation, but isn't often taught. I don't know many things, but what I am knowledgable about is English! (There's an example!) In this episode, I first explain two of these grammar patterns that you can follow, and then I go through some questions about travel, life experience, and work while answering using th...

Ben Gill from To The Point English joins us today for a great, detailed overview of the Cambridge English exams. Ben covers all sorts of topics and questions related to these exams on his YouTube channel (particularly B2, C1, and C2 levels).  The exams are huge and we could talk about them for days, so in today's episode, I try to ask Ben a couple of common questions for each paper of the exa...

For the past 6 months, I've been noting down the most common mistakes I see English learners make in preparation for this episode. I go through them one by one and give examples from my own life to give you some context for each one and show you how they're used. Some of these are simple mistakes, and others look at the subtle differences between two similar phrases. Show notes page  - h...

I've been tracking my own language learning for over a year and it's amazing to see my progress and time invested over that period. In this episode, I share with you the lessons from tracking all this data every day for one year, the benefits of doing so, and why doing something similar might be beneficial to you. Don't forget to join the discussion by leaving a comment in the shown...

As an annual tradition here on the podcast, let's talk about New Year Resolutions! I'll be talking about how 2024 went for me - looking at work goals, personal goals, and bucket list goals. I then move onto looking ahead to 2025 and plan for the year ahead. A lot can change, but I'm discussing some goals I have for the upcoming year with the goal of enjoying the year and learning mo...

In this episode, we'll be going around the world to 5 different countries and looking at their different Christmas traditions. While doing this, I'll be sharing one expression with each one that you can use in daily conversations at any time of the year. I also talk a little bit about the differences in my experience between Christmas in Thailand and the UK. Merry Christmas and Happy New...

Today I'm joined by Emma ( Adventure into English ) for a conversation about group vs solo activities. Emma has been helping with the group classes at Level Up English for some time now, so it's an appropriate topic for today. We start by discussing some Would You Rather questions for activities that can be done as a group or on your own. We then move onto some English expressions around...

Mental Health is something we should all take seriously and I believe there's a lot of crossover between language learning and having a healthy mindset. This was a request from a listener to cover this topic. Although I am of course, not a professional, I do love the topic, so I share 18 different methods that I used to improve my own mental health and bring happiness into my life. I hope you...

You may know that British people are famous for using the word 'sorry' all the time. In this episode, I talk about this habit and how much truth is behind it, but I also share the different situations in which we would say 'sorry' in the UK - and maybe more generally in the English-speaking world too. Sorry is so much more than a word used when you make a mistake and it can hav...

In Episode 300 of the podcast, Akari from the Nihongo For You podcast joins me today for a chat about teaching languages, moving abroad, and learning English. In the second half of the episode, we talk about life experiences where I ask Akari questions using the present perfect tense about things she has done before. It's a great opportunity to practice the grammar and see it used in the cont...

In my last episode, I spoke about my cycling trip to Taiwan. While there, I had a lot of time alone to think to myself with no distractions. In this episode today, I'm going to share some of the things I was thinking about. One of these was the idea of Hedonic Adaptation (also known as the Hedonic Treadmill). This is something that we all face as humans and might just be the key to understand...

I took 2 weeks off in October to ride a bicycle around the whole of Taiwan. It was over 1000km and took about 2 weeks to complete. Along the way, I had both good and bad experiences and there's a lot I'd love to share! I also filmed a lot of videos of my cycle, so if you'd like to see, you can watch this episode on YouTube - The Level Up English Podcast . This is perhaps the longest...

The Comparison Trap is when we get stuck comparing our lives to other people and feeling worse as a result. It's a common problem in language learning, and this is something that I often experience too since I was inspired to make this episode after a moment of comparison made me feel worse. We often compare ourselves to others in many ways, such as income, appearance, skills, and on social m...

Curiosity is an important thing to practice to be better English language learners and enjoy your life more. When we start learning a language, we’re naturally very open and curious to learning new things. It can be an amazing feeling when you’re really into something and you’re looking up every little detail. However, along the way, we naturally get more complacent and we begin to take things for...

Megan is a teacher from Manchester, UK who has been teaching for 10 years and recently made the move to online classes. Megan specialises in Business English for professionals and improving spoken fluency, so in this episode, we talk all about jobs. We start out discussing dream jobs and finding the right job for you. I then quiz Megan on some really useful English business expressions that you ca...

Let's look at 3 ways we can use 'used to' in English. We'll look at the different grammar and way we structure these terms while answering fun and interesting questions on these topics. I encourage you to answer these questions either in your personal studies or by leaving a comment in the shownotes below. Show notes page - https://levelupenglish.school/podcast294 ➡️ Join the F...

This is a really fun episode all about the recent progress of AI (Artificial Intelligence) - specifically in the area of audio and music. I share a few songs that were made by AI about this podcast that I think will blow your mind. I had a lot of fun with it. I also share my thoughts on the future changes that AI will bring to the world, some jobs that will be lost and others that will be safe fro...

I'm exploring a topic I truly love today and looking at the most unusual and strange places on our planet. I'll be talking about the highest cities, hottest places, coldest places, and much more in today's episode. This is a great opportunity to practice your knowledge of superlatives (using EST to talk about the most of something). Check the shownotes page below for more informatio...

In today's episode, we're exploring the topics of optimism, pessimism, and realism. These are different attitudes towards life and the future and can have a massive impact on your happiness and mental health. I go over the definitions and words, discuss some possible benefits of being pessimistic, and give many tips on how and why you can be more optimistic in life. A really fun episode...

Paola from the Talaera Talks podcast and I are doing a cross-post episode today. You can also find this episode and many more over on their podcast. The topic is all about jobs, careers, and business English expression. We start by asking questions to each other, using our own work experience to give examples of when to use these expressions. We then talk about advice on how to get a job when Engl...

One of the listeners suggested I talk about the topic of work-life balance. This is something I've been working on in my own life for many years, and I feel like I might have something useful to share on this topic. So in this episode, I talk about a few tips that you can implement to have a better sense of work-life balance and enjoy your life more, regardless of how many hours you have to w...

I recently went back to my home country - the UK - for the first time in a quite a while and was fascinated by how the UK appeared to me after being away for a while. There was a lot that I found strange, unusual, and interesting that I wasn't really aware of while I was still living in England. In this episode, I discuss some of my feelings and culture shock experiences, and perhaps some of...

I just came back from a trip in Europe and I thought I'd get on the microphone today and review some of the good and bad experiences I had there. I made the adventurous decision to travel from London all the way to Istanbul by train (listen to the episode to see why I didn't make it all the way!)  In this episode, I talk about my experience sleeping on trains, my time in each country, an...

Fran from Step Up Japanese and I discuss a few different topics in today's episode, including: The Shikoku 88 Pilgrimage (walking around the Japanese island of Shikoku) The Tadoku reading method for languages An embarrassing language mistake on TV And more! If you're a fan of hearing casual British English conversations, and also finding out something new about language learning, then th...