How to upgrade your English level from B2 to C1
2025-01-12 25 min
Description & Show Notes
Looking to improve your English skills in 2025? In the latest Three English Experts episode, we explore advanced speaking tips, mastering conversations/small talk, and whether a C1 level is really necessary for success. Plus, discover a cool tool in our very 1st ‘Golden Nugget’ segment – a tech treat you’ll be happy you didn’t miss.
- Upgrading your English (0:30 - 1:07)
- Understanding the CEFR language levels (1:08 - 3:49)
- Key grammar and skills for advancing to C1 (3:49 - 7:29)
- Expanding vocabulary and communication strategies (7:29 - 9:52)
- Listening skills and resource recommendations (9:53 - 12:36)
- Advanced speaking skills (13:09 - 16:56)
- Is achieving C1 necessary? (16:56 - 21:18)
- The Introduction into the new “Golden Nuggets” segment (21:44 - 23:32)
Here's a link to a free CEFR English test Einstufungstest - Birgit Kasimirski
You could also try the one from the British Council. However, you will need to give an email address so you can start the quiz.
You could also try the one from the British Council. However, you will need to give an email address so you can start the quiz.
Möchten Sie Ihre Englischkenntnisse im Jahr 2025 verbessern? In der neuesten Folge von Three English Experts beschäftigen wir uns mit Tipps für fortgeschrittenes Sprechen, dem Meistern von Konversationen/Small Talk und der Frage, ob ein C1-Niveau für den Erfolg wirklich notwendig ist. Außerdem entdecken wir in unserem allerersten „Golden Nugget“-Segment ein cool Tool - ein technischer Leckerbissen, den Sie sich nicht entgehen lassen sollten.
- Verbessern Sie Ihr Englisch (0:30 - 1:07)
- Verstehen der CEFR-Sprachstufen (1:08 - 3:49)
- Schlüsselgrammatik und -fertigkeiten für den Aufstieg auf C1 (3:49 - 7:29)
- Wortschatzerweiterung und Kommunikationsstrategien (7:29 - 9:52)
- Hörverstehen und Empfehlungen für Hilfsmittel (9:53 - 12:36)
- Fortgeschrittene Sprechfertigkeiten (13:09 - 16:56)
- Ist das Erreichen von C1 notwendig? (16:56 - 21:18)
- Die Einführung in das neue Segment „Golden Nuggets“ (21:44 - 23:32)
Transcript
(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) Hi and welcome to the 3 English Experts.
I'm Birgit.
I'm Dave.
And I'm Rebecca.
And welcome to this episode.
3 English Experts is your English podcast to help you speak better English and create a positive and happy mindset for your English learning journey.
Hi everyone and Happy New Year.
Happy New Year 2025.
We are back and it is 2025.
Happy that everybody is listening again and looking forward to another year with the 3 English Experts.
Our topic today is we're talking about how to upgrade your English.
So often people get stuck at around a certain level, specifically intermediate.
And often people come and they ask, how can I upgrade to advanced?
How can I make the move to the next level?
So that's going to be our topic today.
So first of all, we're going to talk about what are these levels?
Dave, you know something about these levels?
Where does it start?
Where does it end?
Yes, yes.
They have a very helpful using letters of the alphabet, starting at A and ending up at C, which is the more advanced levels.
A2, I believe, and then A1 are the sort of beginner levels going up to B1 and B2, which are the more intermediate levels.
And then the C1 and C2 then are the more advanced levels.
Yeah, exactly.
And Birgit, where would you say most of your clients, where do they come in?
Do you get a mix or what kind of level are they?
I have a mix, but most of them, the majority really is on a B2 level and they want to get on to the next stage, which is the C1 level.
But I do have learners who are on a lower level, B1 maybe.
So first of all, if anyone's wondering what are we talking about, it's called the CEFR, which is the Common European Framework Reference.
And it was created to basically put languages into categories so that people could establish where am I?
I'm learning Spanish.
What level am I?
And it was basically tried to standardise language levels.
We are going to share in the show notes some tests, some links where you can check your level.
I would advise, to be honest, if you have a teacher or a trainer, ask your teacher.
If your teacher's any good, they should be able to tell you after 10 minutes of conversation.
If they can't, I would be worried.
I can always tell after about 10 minutes of conversation, you get a good idea.
Is someone B1, B2?
I mean, yeah, roundabout.
And the tests, of course, don't include speaking.
I think that's the big point.
So what you are maybe on a test might not be the same in a speaking scenario.
So according to what I read today, C1, if you want to be C1, your listening skills, you should be really listening to very quite high level, complex material.
You should be able to watch TV without much effort, listen to different dialects.
Doesn't mean you're perfect and you have to understand 100% of everything, but you should be able to listen to quite complicated or different regional accents, for example.
Same with reading.
You should be able to read stuff like the classics in English, proper literature, academic things, speaking, obviously, fluent.
That doesn't mean, again, fluent is not perfect.
Fluent means speaking fluently without too many gaps.
You shouldn't be searching for many words and spontaneously and also in different contexts, so business and social, not just only business or only social.
So listening, reading, writing as well, again, like the reading and the listening at a high level using certain grammar tenses, certain linking words.
So I'm going to pass over to the grammar queen, Birgit.
She's here.
I might start thinking this year that I am a grammar queen.
I don't know.
Yeah, we're going to buy you a crown.
You only have to repeat it more often.
Grammar queen, in your opinion, if someone wanted to upgrade from B2 to C1, what do they need to look at?
What do they need to focus on?
What's important?
From a grammatical point of view, what we would need to look at is some types of the conditional clauses.
If clauses, hypothetical sentences is important here, you should be able to use them correctly.
If clause two and if clause three, so the rather complicated things.
Rebecca, you said something about academic.
That's what, for example, schools also offer, gymnasiums in Germany.
They do school in the Oberstufe, in the higher level to prepare for universities because very often that's what universities internationally require is C1 level at least.
Then you should be able to know and have heard about the gerund constructions, substantivierung, substantivation, use of different I-N-G, continuous forms in the past tense, probably as a future tense also.
Passive, passive constructions, which is not too complicated, but you should know the difference between an active and a passive sentence.
Phrases you mentioned before and reported speech.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
Reported speech, which I believe maybe we don't use too often, but in a business context that comes into, it's important.
I didn't mention all the basic grammar tenses because I believe you should look at something you should have looked at on a B2 level.
That doesn't mean you necessarily say everything 100% correctly by then, so that would be repeating.
I work with the material from the Cambridge University.
You can find books online to buy for each level, and that's a wonderful tool to find out where you are.
Also, you try and do some test papers, and then you can see.
I think for each level, I believe you need to pass.
You have to have 65% correct, and then you would pass the level.
If you don't pass, obviously, you get the one below, so if you wanted to take part or pass an exam, that's also a good idea to train yourself and to prepare for such an exam.
You would really have to look into grammar, then you could use that.
Yeah.
I think the other point is, obviously, you can do all these tests and fill in all these tests, but it's also applying your grammar, so this is the speaking thing.
Depends what you're doing.
Of course, if you only have to do a written test to get your certificate, that's nice, but if you really want to be C1 and to sound like a C1, you've got to not only know this grammar, you've got to apply the grammar, and I think that's the big problem.
Some people, they know if you give them an exercise, they'll get it all right.
Yeah, I can do present perfect, continuous, no problem, but actually applying it in conversation, to me, that's also, that really shows someone you are really C1.
You're not just on paper, you are actually C1.
Yeah, and people usually, we get you and Dave and I in the training, because they realise in international meetings, they don't feel confident enough, and maybe they have never applied it in speaking, no matter how much theoretical background they have, but usually also their theoretical knowledge is not on that level.
So that goes hand in hand a little bit also.
I think there's one or two other things to add on to what you said, Birgit.
For example, phrasal verbs, this is a very interesting part of grammar.
In actual fact, we covered an episode about phrasal verbs.
It's episode 24, so go back and listen to it, all about phrasal verbs.
So what are they?
It's where you have a verb, and then it looks like a preposition, so on, under, over, and these are usually replaced, or they replace other, maybe more common words, like, for example, if you have cancel, instead of saying cancel, you say call off.
Often the natives use these regularly in conversation or in writing emails, but if you don't know what they mean, then, of course, you can't understand the sentence.
So I think in terms of grammar, that's a useful thing to get a higher level to understand these.
I think I often call them the secret language of the natives, because it's own language, in a way.
The more of these you know, firstly, the more you'll understand, and secondly, of course, the better your English will be, if you can use them.
As you said, Rebecca, it's about also using it and not just knowing it.
So that's one.
I think connocations, where you're matching up maybe a verb on the one side and a noun on the other, knowing all these different types of things, which fit together, are also quite useful, little grammar or vocab hacks for getting a higher level.
I think that's the point, isn't it?
It's upgrading your vocabulary as well.
So it's a combination of these words and connections, but this upgrade in your vocab, of course, you have to do that at a higher level.
You're expected to use better words, more stronger verbs than you might use at, say, a B1 level.
Yeah, I think for me, it's also about being able to talk around a topic.
So we all have those moments where you can't find the right word.
You know the verb, or you know the word, and you can't find it.
And I think the ability to explain yourself in another way, I also think that's a skill that, for me, upgrades you from...
People think it's about always finding the right word, and I would say, no, it's not.
Being really good at a language is able to talk around a word and explain it in a different way if you have a blank.
That's also a very good skill.
So at C1, I don't want to hear a word.
If you can't find the right word, say it in another way.
For me, that's a C1 skill.
Exactly right.
I love to train the game taboo in my sessions.
So once a month, we have some of the most important vocab that we try to play taboo with.
They're not allowed to mention the word, but they have to try and speak around it, which is actually called paraphrasing.
Right, exactly.
Paraphrase is when you speak around.
Thank you, Dave.
You upgraded my vocabulary there.
You're welcome.
There you go.
You upgraded me to paraphrasing.
Thank you.
Okay, so you were going to tell us as well, Dave, about...
So we talked about listening.
Obviously, you've got to be able to understand higher level, more complex listening.
You had some ideas there, Dave, resources that you could recommend.
Yeah, absolutely.
Thanks.
I'm noticing it with my Spanish.
My listening is, for me, important when I try and understand a language, and listening is often the most difficult one, especially when it comes to accents and different types of Englishes in this context.
Of course, anything you can listen to is going to help you improve.
YouTube, audible books in English, as opposed to in German.
At the moment, I like a guy called James Sinclair on YouTube, for example.
It's a business thing.
He talks about business issues, building and growing businesses.
So it's more aimed at the business topics, but he's a British guy.
He speaks relatively quickly.
It's a nice sound accent, but fast, and also sometimes with the odd slang word, idiomatic, very, very good in that respect.
Also, for example, Dragon's Den or Shark's Tank, if you prefer the American version.
I also have a little course on my website about Dragon's Den, so I can leave a link to that.
And I suppose my last one is, of course, ChatGPT, looking at texts and then seeing what they would look like in a different level.
So if you've got some text that is already at B1, and you ask with a prompt, ChatGPT, to change this text or rewrite the text in a C2 level, for example, then, of course, you can see the differences in the vocab and how it's written.
And I actually do that sometimes, ask ChatGPT to create a text at a certain level.
It's not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but I think it gives you an idea, a rough idea of the differences in levels.
And from there, you can do whatever you want to do.
Maybe learn some of the synonyms, which were at B1 and then at C2.
And it's great also for the more advanced grammar, of course.
I quite like the idea.
Thank you for introducing this.
I hadn't thought of that, but that's a good tip for learners even to use for their email communication, maybe.
So if they feel they're not on the best level or they want to upgrade, put it into the AI and have it checked.
Can you upgrade the level?
Yeah, that's a good idea.
I think it's also learning.
Wonderful.
Rebecca, you said you had something in for the listeners for speaking.
What tips have you got if they want to level up?
Exactly.
People think it's all just about pronunciation, and I don't think that's absolutely right.
For me, it's not just about, of course, pronunciation is important.
It's also, I think, when you're at a higher level, the rhythm of the language and the way things flow together, I think, is something that's worth listening to and working on.
I think using your listening skills to listen to how do people actually speak is very important.
I think we tend to put words together.
Oh, they're here.
They're here.
They're here.
But it actually means they are here.
They're here.
Yeah, they've done that.
They've done that.
And I think when I listen to some of my German learners, they tend to separate all the words.
A lot.
And I try to encourage them to, when they get to a higher level, put words together when you can and let them flow into each other.
It doesn't have to be each separated all the time.
So again, listening, but of course, you need a conversation partner for that.
If you're living in the country, obviously, it's easier.
It's a bit more difficult when you're not, but something you can work on with a trainer, perhaps.
My other point would be, make sure you can speak in all types of situations, like you know how to speak in a business scenario, but also how to speak in small talk.
So I've got clients who are like really good at business, but then they take me out for lunch and they're like social muppets.
They have not got the right vocabulary to just have lunch.
And I think it's all really formal and all really stiff.
And they go, Oh, I don't know.
I don't know these phrases.
And I think that's part of being a C1 is being able to communicate well in different scenarios with different types of people.
I think that's quite important.
I think that's a common thing, actually, that people, especially in business, also up at the higher end of business, sometimes they don't know how to have a normal conversation, slang English, idiomatic English.
Not what they learn.
You see, they've been learning business English for so long because that's what they need.
Not what they like.
Germans or the small talk, you're like, Oh, no, no, don't want to do it.
How do we do it?
How do we make small talk?
Let's go down to business.
I always wonder, is Germany the only country in the world where you can buy books on how to make small talk?
I think that's a little hilarious.
That's a good question.
A lot of books on how I don't think.
Are there any in English?
Do you get books on how to make small talk?
I have no, I don't think so.
In Spain, you could find out.
Have a look at Spain.
And they're in German.
It's not like how to do it in English, how to do it in German.
You're right.
I think the other thing is these little phrases.
Again, it tends to be you pick them up when you live in a country.
But it's how to respond in a quick way.
I smell an episode there.
Leave it for later.
Just to give you an example.
So I was in the Apotheker the other day and the lady came to me and just said, are you being served, basically?
And I said, Ja, ich bekomme schon Danke, kind of thing.
And I was thinking, I would never have known that phrase.
Do you know what I mean?
And I know like a German in England would say like, oh, thank you.
I already.
How do you answer that in English?
Good idea.
Yeah.
You know what I mean?
These typical daily situations are sometimes trickier.
Yeah.
Do you need anything else?
Oh, no, that's fine.
I'm just looking like you're in a shop.
Can I help you?
No, I'm just looking.
You're welcome.
Yeah.
All these little kind of bushes, I would say little phrases that just flow out.
And I think, again, that takes your English to a higher level, more authentic kind of level, which also comes from culture.
Of course, if you haven't lived in a country, it does make it more difficult.
It's easier.
My German definitely would not be what it is if I didn't live here.
Sometimes you have to kind of, it's still possible to be C1 without living in the country.
That is just more difficult, I think.
It takes time.
So this is the next question we had.
Do we need to be C1?
Does it matter?
Or is B2 enough to do business, Dave?
What do you think?
I'd say so.
I think it's a mindset thing in a way.
What do you want?
Do you want to make it sound more advanced, more eloquent even?
Oftentimes, even when you're looking at business things, people advise, actually, to not complicate your English too much.
And actually, because maybe you're dealing with other foreigners, and especially maybe with people who possibly don't even speak as good English as you do, that you, in a way, have to dumb your English down.
Global English, yeah.
Is it always really necessary?
And my feeling would be no, not really.
And especially, I wouldn't say you necessarily need to get a certificate in it.
But again, for me, this is the difference in the culture between Germany and the UK, or Anglo-Saxon countries, in the sense that in Germany, I think the certificate, whatever certificate it might be, is much more important in the culture than it would be, for example, in England or something.
They love that sweetness, don't they?
Yeah, right, yeah.
I would say no.
But again, it depends on the person.
If that's what floats your boat, that's a good phrase, isn't it?
That floats your boat, then go for it.
Why not?
Birgit, do you agree?
Do we need C1?
We don't need a certificate nowadays.
That's gone.
Nobody really needs that, not even in Germany.
But there's a big but, because I think a lot of people sense, they get a feeling in meetings that they are on a lower and not so advanced level.
And then if that makes them feel more confident, I think you should work a little on your English and brush up and try to get involved more.
And another argument for this is so easy nowadays.
There's English everywhere, and you will need that in the future.
So I would really recommend and motivate these people to try and get better if it bothers them.
If it doesn't bother you and you can feel, OK, oh, I can't really get involved in every conversation.
I can't really bring all my arguments across, but that's OK.
I'll send an email later.
Doesn't matter.
You're not a head of, you're not a leader.
Maybe that's OK.
I think a lot of people are bothered.
They really bother.
They don't like it.
Yeah, sure.
Do something about it, yeah.
Yeah.
I think you can do business in B2.
B2 is upper intermediate, just to clarify.
So you can also be a manager.
You can be a CEO.
And I know people, they're still B2 and they're absolutely fine.
But again, I think like you said, it's what's your motivation.
If you are bothered and it makes you uncomfortable and you're not participating because you're B2, then do something about it.
Upgrade.
But if you're comfortable with B2, don't worry about it too much.
It's not essential.
I think it's hard to go from, that's the other point, to go from B2 to C1 is difficult.
It's not an easy thing to do in a language.
I think it's much easier to go from B1 to B2 than to go from B2 to C1.
I think that's the point.
So don't put too much pressure on yourself.
I think the why has to be quite big.
Why are you doing this?
If it's just because, oh, well, it just sounds really great.
That's not a very big why.
And that's not going to be enough to motivate you to put in the work to get to C1, I think.
I would absolutely love to be B2 in Japanese.
That would be amazing.
It's hard, isn't it?
It'd be so hard.
And I just think, really?
Why?
Do I need to do that?
No, I don't.
And I think, why are you doing it?
As long as your why is motivating enough, that's the most important thing.
The funny thing is the Japanese certificate.
So the highest level certificate you can do, which is JLPT-1, I think.
Five is the lowest one and one is the top one.
That's the other thing.
There's no speaking test.
So I think it's just ridiculous.
So you can read, write, you can do all this stuff.
No one's actually testing your speaking.
So that's the other thing where people say, I've had clients said, well, I did a test online and I'm B2.
And I listened to them for 10 minutes.
And I think, no, you're not.
Maybe you were on paper.
This is why I'm going back to this on paper.
It's a whole different thing.
So I would rather have a B1 on paper and in person than a B2 on paper, but a B1 in person.
You know what I mean?
Definitely.
What are you presenting?
Because no one's going to read your test results.
They're listening to how you present yourself.
Oh, that's giving me hope because I just recently did a test on the Dutch.
Where are you?
I don't think I was on B1.
No, my Japanese, I'm A2.
I'm A2.
Yeah, I believe my speaking should be on B1 if I'm able to have conversation, a little conversation with Dutch people.
So I don't know.
Doesn't really matter to me.
And that's the point.
That's the point.
I can have a small conversation and that's it.
Yeah.
Okay.
Today we are going to introduce a new thing for 2025 here on Three English Experts.
So we have a new section called, what is it called?
The Golden Nuggets.
And it's over to me for the first one in 2025.
And as you can probably imagine, it's tech based.
It's online.
So grab a piece of paper to write it down if you haven't already.
But it will be in the show notes.
It's called naturalreaders.com, naturalreaders.com.
And it does what it says.
It reads things out to you in a natural way.
So whatever you want to be read out, whether you want a PDF text to be read out, whether you want a text that you've written to be read out, whatever it might be, you can put it, drag it and drop it into a natural reader and have it read out at different speeds.
So firstly, maybe slowly, if you're still working on understanding individual words or even faster, if you want to just get through a text.
Of course, you can have it in different languages.
You can have it, of course, in the various Englishes, British English, American English, Australian English, et cetera, et cetera.
I think it's just a great tool just to listen to things while maybe you're working or just to listen and read.
Of course, it's AI voices.
It's not always perfect.
But there again, sometimes when people read things out, it's not always perfect.
So I think it's a cool golden nugget to start with, naturalreaders.com.
OK, so this was the very first episode of 2025.
And the next episode, we're going to talk about agreeing, disagreeing, expressing opinions.
That's important if you want to get involved in the conversation at work, whatever.
So the two natives will have a lot of very natural expressions for you.
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