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The Level Up English Podcast

Michael Lavers

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🇬🇧 I'm Michael Lavers and this podcast will help you improve your English. I'm an online English teacher for students learning as a second language. In this podcast, I answer your questions about learning and help you achieve your goals in British English. Once a month I talk to a teacher or expert on topics related to language.
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Acronyms are words that use the first letter of each word in a phrase. NASA and LOL are two common examples from very different areas. In the age of the internet, acronyms are now a part of everyday writing and reading, but did you know some are also used in speech? In this episode, I go through some really common everyday acronyms that you need to…
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In this episode, Clare from the Smart English Coach podcast joins us for a fun chat about confidence, limiting beliefs, and language learning. We explore how confidence is so important in language learning and the steps you can take to improve this skill. We also cover interesting stories from our own language-learning experiences and answer the qu…
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Do you love the rambling episodes? Well this might be for you! Today, I go over my recent trip to Japan and discuss some of the things I did, but mostly reflect on the language experience I had there. Learning Japanese, it was great to go back and practice. In this episode, I share the positives and the negatives and tie it up into some takeaways t…
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Textbook English is different from spoken English, and a big part of this comes down to pronunciation and how things are said in real conversations. This is Part 2 in my series on pronunciation, where we first looked at Linking in Episode 255, and now we're looking at Elision. These are both features of connected speech that share some similarities…
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I get a few requests to continue my series on Phrasal Verbs, and specifically, I had one recently to cover phrasal verbs that use the verb 'turn'. I thought of as many common ones as I could and made a list, and then I went through my memories to recount some memorable travel stories from my life. While doing so, I used these 'turn' phrasal verbs i…
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Dylan (from the YouTube channel British Education) joined me for a fun games session today. We're using games to have a conversation and practice English, and we encourage you to play along too. If you have a teacher or language partner, we also encourage you to try these games for yourself. We actually recorded for about 2 hours together, but I cu…
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Since this episode falls on Valentine's Day, let's discuss the topic of Love and Relationships. I'll be basing this episode around a group class I taught before where we discuss some questions related to relationships, such as having a long and happy marriage, and how to break up with someone. I also have the help of Chat GPT who gives some brillia…
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Just a few days into 2024, I already made 2 very big and expensive mistakes. In this episode, I share what happened and exactly why I made these mistakes, and then I talk about some possible lessons that I should learn from these mistakes. I also spend a bit more time discussing the importance of making mistakes and the right mindset to have when i…
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In this episode, we're taking a deep dive into Blue Zones - 5 areas around the world where people live a long time with great health. I'll be sharing my uneducated views on why this might be, but also looking at the Power 9 - 9 reasons why researchers believe life expectancy is so long in these places. For those of you who want to learn some new En…
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Bree Aesie from Into The Stories Podcast joins us today for a conversation about meditation and stories. This was one of my favourite conversations yet, packed with lots of life lessons as well as English learning tips and motivation. Since Bree's podcast is all about looking at stories, we start by turning the tables on Bree and I ask her to share…
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Textbook English is different from spoken English, and a big part of this comes down to pronunciation and how things are said in real conversations. You may understand English learner material easily, but then really struggle when it comes to watching TV or movies. What I discuss in this episode may be the reason why. This is the first part of a se…
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I answer listener questions on all sorts of topics - ranging from British culture to the fairness of life! And of course, English language questions too. It was a fun episode and you all gave great questions. I always enjoy these episodes because they feel a bit more casual and laid-back compared to the usual ones. If you want to ask a question for…
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Let's look at some conjunctions (also known as connectives) to help improve your conversation and debating skills in English. Conjunctions are an effective way to make your sentences more complex and sound much more natural - rather than simply using a string of short, simple sentences. We'll also be looking at more phrases, such as adverbs. In thi…
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Welcome back to one of my favourite episodes of the year - one filled with reflections and goal-setting at the end of the year. I love this time of year because it's a natural rest point for thinking about how the previous year has gone, and what we'd like to change going forward. It's a great time to think about your goals and progress with your E…
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Gregory Diehl is an English teacher and author of the new book: Our Global Lingua Franca: An Educator’s Guide to Spreading English Where EFL Doesn’t Work. It's a fascinating book looking at Gregory's experience teaching in many countries all around the world from Thailand to Iran, and we talk about this extensively in this episode. We talk about wh…
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Let's learn to use hypothetical situations with confidence in this episode on Mixed Conditionals. It's been a long-time suggestion from listeners, and I've finally decided to get to it. I cover some different types of conditional structures in a casual way, and ask you questions to think about making your own sentences. I hope you find this episode…
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In this week's episode of the Level Up English podcast, we dive into the fascinating world of statistics. Prepare to be amazed by some truly unbelievable facts! I'll start by covering a few random statistics, ranging from sleeping with a teddy bear and not washing your hands. You'll be shocked at some of these! We'll then talk about the UK specific…
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Over the past few months, I've been meticulously tracking my language learning process for Japanese, Thai, and Chinese Mandarin on a Google Sheets doc. In this episode, I discuss the results of this data and we look together at the graphs that represent my study time. There are some really interesting patterns and trends that I can learn from, and …
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Paul Creane joined me today to talk about his exciting lifestyle of being a Digital Nomad. We talk about what this means in the episode as well as lots of other useful terms related to this topic. We also cover what it's like to live in a van, travel in Asia, Housesitting, and all the apps and platforms Paul uses to help him live the life he does. …
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I am a big fan of reading for the purpose of learning a language as well, of course as listening, which is why I make podcasts. If you want to improve both of your listening and reading as well as your vocabulary, then this should be a good resource for you today. In today’s episode, Ariel Goodbody will tell you a story, but pre-teach some of the h…
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In this episode, I will be talking about the IELTS Speaking exam. I know the IELTS exam isn't going to be relevant for everyone, although I always like to mention that preparing for the exam can also be great practice for English in a general sense. I'm sure those who have taken the exam before will agree that their English improved during the proc…
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Over the years doing this podcast, the topic of exercise seems to have come up a lot when making comparisons to language learning, so I thought it was about time I made an episode where I talk all about it. In this episode, I talk about exercise and some of the benefits, teach you some useful expressions, and make some links on how exercise and lan…
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I get comments occasionally from people who say “I want to be like a native speaker” and “I don’t want to learn from non-native speakers. In this episode, I'll argue the benefits of learning from non-native speakers as well as natives, and not closing yourself off from learning. The main thesis here is to stay open-minded in language learning and I…
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In this episode, I have a great and casual chat with Zhifei from​ Xiaogua Chinese about language learning, using flashcards, the best mindset for learners, getting a good English accent, and much more! We also talk about my own Chinese learning methods and share ideas on the best way to learn two languages at once. There's a lot of useful informati…
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For many of us, pets and animals are a huge part of our lives. We spend a lot of time and money looking after our furry friends, and I definitely have a huge soft spot for animals - especially cats! In this episode, I talk about choosing the right pet, dog people vs cat people, my own experiences with pets and vets, dealing with the loss of a pet, …
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I’ve been living in Bangkok, Thailand since the beginning of August, so it’s been over 2 months now. This is the longest I’ve spent in one place outside of my home country before. One of our group class students requested an episode sharing my thoughts and experiences after moving here, and I decided to give it a go. In this episode, I’ll be talkin…
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Memory is something we've covered a few times on the podcast before, but it's always worth coming back to with more ideas and tips. In this episode, I share advice on how you can stop forgetting English vocabulary, 2 methods of learning new vocabulary that suit all types of learners and personality types, expressions related to memory and forgettin…
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Every now and then, I invite the members of Level Up English to join me for a chat about different topics. This time, we spoke about giving advice. In the end, only 3 people joined, which was quite a nice casual group. All members gave some amazing advice and also used some really good vocabulary. I hope you enjoy this episode! In this episode, we …
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Cara Leopold (Leo Listening) joins me once again on the podcast to discuss the benefits of learning English in groups with her experience teaching group classes based around movies, as well as some good movies and TV series she likes to use to practice and teach English. If you've caught this episode in 2023, Cara is relaunching her Movie Club cour…
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In this episode, we'll be talking about some patterns you can remember when adding UP to verbs. Here are some examples: cloud up, clear up, finish up, drink up, break up One of the Level Up Members recently asked about the difficult part of phrasal verbs where we add ‘up’ to a verb and why we do this. I decided to make an entire episode about it be…
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I had a great audio question sent in today about learning with comprehensible input. So in this episode, I cover some of the ideas behind the comprehensible input method, and then explore the input hypothesis from Stephen Krashen and how these ideas might benefit your language learning methods. As always, keep in mind we are all different and learn…
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Steve Kaufmann is a polyglot who has a good level of proficiency in around 20 languages. Steve is well known for his content online and on his YouTube channel, Lingo Steve. You've probably seen him before! Today he joined me for a really fascinating chat about language learning. I cover some of his recent YouTube videos and ask for tips on some of …
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On the private podcast last week, I chatted a bit about my experience in China and then ended on the idea of the benefit of being silly in your language learning. I thought it was a really interesting and potentially useful topic for people to hear, so I decided to turn it into a public podcast episode too. In this episode, I’ll be talking about re…
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I recently made a huge change in my life and I'm announcing it to everyone in this episode today. I'm going to talk a little bit about this change, why I made it, and some of my feelings about the future. I then talk about change in a more general sense and give you some tips (inspired by Atomic Habits) to help you in life and language learning, as…
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Do you know how to use the word 'dear'? A lot of people get confused with this term, and honestly the answer isn't as simple as you may think, so let's look into that today. I'll cover the ways in which we use this word and why you might not want to say it to strangers. This is a re-share of a video I posted on the English with Michael YouTube chan…
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A listener requested a topic on the housing market in the UK, so I thought I'd give it a shot and make it as interesting as I can. In this episode, I talk about the housing crisis the UK is currently going through, my own experience with buying a house and share some interesting sayings and idioms too. As always, we look at lots of useful and high-…
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Kevin Stroud from the History of English Podcast joins me for a fascinating discussion and dive into... well, the history of English! In this episode, we talk about a variety of things, including: Why TH doesn't have its own letter In what part of England the language was standardised? When did the first dictionaries come Why there are so many Fren…
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This week I’m beginning to come down with a cold. I can feel my throat getting hoarse and it hurts to swallow, and I probably don’t have much time before I’ll be unable to record a podcast episode, so let’s get this done quickly! Getting sick is something we all have to deal with at some point, so although it’s not the cheeriest of topics, it’s an …
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I had a listener question about Phrasal Verbs and why some of them use prepositions even though the meaning seems to be the same without them. Can we say "Check it" and "Check it out"? What's the difference? I break down this question in detail and also talk about the difference between literal and idiomatic phrasal verbs. I hope you learn a lot to…
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This is the first AMA (Ask Me Anything) episode I have done since #84! It's been a while, but this is where I reach out to Instagram to get some questions for me to answer on the podcast. If you like these episodes or have a question to submit for a future episode, get in touch with me on the website below or on Instagram. Show notes page - https:/…
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Aubrey Carter from All Ears English and IELTS Energy joins me today for a chat about the IELTS English exam, and a few other topics. We discuss tips for the exam as well as some interesting slang and vocabulary that would be useful for all learners! Should you use formal or informal English? Should you improve your English or study the exam structu…
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I got a question about adding "UP" to certain verbs and this learner wanted to know more. As I did more research, I was plunged into a rabbit hole of research and it turned out to be much more complicated than I first realised! I decided to try to tackle this topic in a podcast episode. Because there's a lot to talk about, this is just part 1. If y…
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I see a lot of writing mistakes with learners struggling with parallel structures, or parallelism. This is where features in a sentence have to follow the same grammatical patterns to sound natural. It may sound a bit confusing, but honestly, it's fairly simple once you understand the main idea. In this episode, I go through 7 examples of how to so…
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With the recent coronation of King Charles in the UK, people might be wondering why I haven't posted any content related to the royal family. Well, in this episode I'm going to be exploring the British opinion on the monarchy (based on Reddit posts) and sharing my own opinion at the end too. We explore a lot of vocabulary and I try my best to cover…
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Are you well-rested and ready to begin today's episode? Sleep is a vital part of human health and I explore this a bit in today's episode. I talk about the importance of sleep and how it related to learning and the mind. I explore the idea of comparing sleep to study time. Is it better to study more or sleep more? I share my thoughts and provide so…
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Anna Connelly is known as Anna with 2Ns online and has her own podcast looking at Business English. She joins us today to discuss business English, giving presentations, job interviews, and more! Whether you need business English or not, I think there's a lot to learn from this conversation for general learners too. I hope you enjoy. Show notes pag…
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Are you ready for a laugh? Well, I can't promise that. But I'll do my best! This is Part 2 of learning English with jokes and humour, where I'll be looking at puns you might find amusing while learning some useful vocabulary and expressions hidden within them. My hope is that you'll have fun with me today and learn something new as well. Find part …
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Are you looking for some inspiration this week? Today I look at 4 of the world's most influential people and share some valuable life lessons we can all learn from. I explain how I think these can be applied to language learners too! So if you're struggling with motivation, this is the episode for you. As always, there are lots of great vocabulary …
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Learn about the benefits you can receive from embracing your weirdness - in other words: accepting your uniqueness. There are so many benefits of doing this for your language learning and for your life as a whole and I go through a lot of these today while using some useful and relevant vocabulary to help expand your English knowledge. I LOVED reco…
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Dr. Valerie Fridland is a professor, sociolinguist, author, and public speaker. Her recent book is: Like, Literally, Dude. Arguing for the Good in Bad English. She joins me on the podcast today for a fascinating discussion about aspects of English we often consider to be bad, such as UM and AH. We also talk about the use of "like" and other languag…
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