Hi there!
I’m about to be doing the last bunch of intermediate lessons and I’ve been glancing over the Upper Intermediate ones as a curiosity on what’s next for me. It seems that there’s a wide gap between Intermediate and Upper Intermediate lessons. Do you all feel the same? If so, how did you cope with it?
I think so, too. The gap is huge. You could:
- Try the older upper int’s. The ones with Jenny Zhu are much easier, I think. (And they have the advantage that they quite often repeat new words in the next podcast as well)
- Take your time. Listen, then read the transcript, work through it, master the new words. Listen again. And so on…
- Start with topics that you are familiar to. Some topics appear in intermediate as well as upper, or at least similar stuff. That might make the transition easier
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We’ve also noticed the jump and would to eventually create some content that can help bridge the gap.
I agree, there’s a big jump. I think there were two main places of difficulty for me going from intermediate to upper intermediate. The first was the fact that upper intermediate lessons have much more advanced grammar, and the second is there is a lot more obscure/specialized vocabulary. For the former I adapted after a while. The latter I have mostly resolved by 1) picking lessons which share vocabulary with other lessons I’ve learned, 2) reading through the vocabulary before listening, and 3) making flashcards to learn some of the vocabulary afterwards
As MisterXia says, the episodes before Fiona/Constance tend to be substantially easier since the dialogues are simpler, there’s more English in the discussion, and Fiona-Constance talk much quicker than Jenny-John. You should adapt fairly quickly to the speed after you learn the common vocabulary, but it might be easier to start with the older lessons
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