What’s Your English Level? Take This Test | A1–C2 Engli… — Transcript

In this episode, you will learn your English level, beginner, elementary, intermediate, upper intermediate, advanced, or expert.

You don't need a test, you don't need a teacher. You just need your ears and a little focus.

You will listen to six short stories, one for each level.

If one story feels easy and the next one feels difficult, that's perfect.

That's how you find your level.

The first level is A1 or beginner.

In this level, English is simple and clear.

The sentences are short, the words are common and easy.

If you can understand this easily, you are at least A1.

My name is Anna. I am 26 years old.

I live with my parents.

We have a small dog.

His name is Max.

I like my dog very much.

We live in a small house.

The house has three rooms, a living room, a kitchen, and a bedroom.

Our house is clean and quiet.

There is a park near the house.

I go to the park every evening I walk with my dog.

He runs and plays with other dogs.

I sit on a bench and watch him.

The park is green and beautiful.

Every morning I wake up at seven o'clock.

I get up.

I eat breakfast in the kitchen.

I drink tea.

After breakfast, I brush my teeth, then I go to work.

I work in a small shop.

It is near my home.

I walk to work.

It takes 10 minutes.

In the shop I sell food and drinks.

I help customers.

I take money and give change.

My boss is kind.

My work is easy.

At 12 o'clock I eat lunch.

I eat rice or a sandwich.

Sometimes I drink coffee.

At five o'clock, I finish work.

I go home.

I am tired but happy.

I cook dinner for my parents.

We eat together.

We talk and laugh.

After dinner, I wash the dishes.

In the evening, I watch TV.

Sometimes I listen to music.

Sometimes I read a small book.

At 10 o'clock I go to bed.

I am sleepy.

My dog sleeps next to me.

Before I sleep, I think about my day.

I feel good.

My life is simple, but I am happy every day.

Alright.

If you understood this story easily, congratulations.

Your English is at least A1.

You can understand short sentences and familiar topics.

Now let's move on to A2: elementary level.

Here English becomes a little richer and more connected.

Sentences are longer, and you'll hear more about routines, plans, and daily activities.

If you can understand this story without much effort, you are at least A2 level.

My name is Mark.

I live in a small apartment near the city.

It is not big, but it's comfortable for me.

There is a small kitchen, a bedroom, and a living room.

From my window, I can see a park and some tall trees.

In the morning, I often hear birds singing.

I work in an office not far from home.

I usually walk to work because it only takes 10 minutes.

When the weather is bad, I take the bus.

I start work at 8:30 and finish at five.

I answer phone calls, send emails, and help my manager with small jobs.

My colleagues are friendly.

We often talk during our lunch break.

At lunchtime, I go to a small cafe with two coworkers.

We sit near the window and talk about our families or our weekend plans.

Sometimes we laugh a lot because one of my coworkers tells funny stories.

After work, I don't go home right away.

I usually go to the gym for one hour.

I do some exercise and listen to music on my phone.

When I finish, I feel tired, but good.

Exercise helps me relax after a long day.

At around seven o'clock I go home.

Before dinner, I take a shower and change my clothes.

Then I cook something simple.

Sometimes I eat while watching my favorite TV show.

On weekends, my routine is different.

I meet my friends in the city center.

We go for coffee, walk around and sometimes watch a movie.

If the weather is nice, we sit in the park and talk for hours.

Okay, well done.

If this story felt easy to follow, your English is A2 or higher.

You can understand short connected sentences about real life, work, and free time.

Now get ready for B1: intermediate level.

If you can follow the whole story and understand the message, you are around B1 or higher.

My name is Liam, and I work as a computer technician.

I fix laptops, install new programs, and help people when their devices don't work.

I've done this job for almost six years now, and I still enjoy it.

I like my job because it's a mix of logic and creativity.

Every problem is different, and finding the right solution feels like solving a puzzle.

I start work at eight o'clock in the morning.

When I arrive, I make a cup of coffee and check the list of repairs for the day.

Sometimes the problems are small, a keyboard that doesn't work, or a slow system.

But sometimes they're bigger and I have to spend hours testing every part of a computer.

It can be frustrating, but when I finally fix something, I feel proud and satisfied.

My colleagues are friendly.

We often help each other when someone has a difficult case.

I think teamwork is one of the most important parts of any job.

You can learn a lot from people who think differently from you.

After work, I like to clean my head.

I don't go home right away.

Instead, I walk to the park near my office.

I listen to music or just enjoy the quiet.

When I get home, I cook dinner and watch something online.

Usually a documentary or a short film in English.

In the evenings, I study online.

I take a course about new computer systems because I want to open my own business in the future.

It's a lot of work.

But I believe it's worth it.

I want to be independent and help people in my own way.

On weekends, I usually relax.

Sometimes I meet friends or I go hiking in the countryside.

Alright.

If this story made sense and felt natural to you, congratulations.

Your English is at least B1.

Now let's move forward to B2.

Upper intermediate level.

At this stage, you can understand longer stories and detailed ideas.

The speaker sounds more fluent and confident.

You will hear natural expressions, comparisons, and reflections about life and work.

My name is Nina and I'm a freelance graphic designer.

For several years I worked in a big company creating logos and advertisements for clients.

The job was safe.

The people were kind, and the salary was good.

But after a while, I began to feel bored and stuck.

Every day looked exactly the same, the same office, the same projects, the same conversations.

I started to realize that even though everything looked fine from the outside, something important was missing.

I wasn't growing.

I wanted more freedom.

More creativity and more control over my time.

So two years ago, I made one of the biggest decisions of my life.

I left my job and decided to work for myself.

I remember my last day in the office very clearly.

People brought me flowers and said kind things, but inside I was both excited and terrified.

I had no plan, no clients.

I had no idea how to start, but I knew that if I didn't try, I would always wonder what could have happened.

At first.

Life as a freelancer was really hard.

I woke up early every morning, opened my laptop and tried to find work online.

I sent messages to small businesses, emailed old contacts, and made a portfolio website to show my designs.

Some days nobody replied.

Other days, a client would ask me for a project, but offer to pay very little money.

It was difficult to stay motivated.

There were days when I worked 10 hours and earned almost nothing.

I cried a few times and thought about going back to my old job.

But deep down I knew I had to give it time.

I told myself that every small step, every email, every design, every new skill would lead somewhere.

To improve, I started learning again.

I watched free courses online, joined webinars about design, and read articles about marketing and freelancing.

I realized that being a freelancer isn't only about talent, it's also about communication and organization.

You have to learn how to explain your ideas clearly, how to manage your time and how to deal with different types of clients.

Little by little things started to change.

My designs got better, my confidence grew, and new clients started to contact me.

Some of them came from recommendations.

People who liked my work told their friends about me.

That was the moment I knew I was moving in the right direction.

Now my life looks very different.

I usually start my mornings around 8:00.

I make coffee, check my emails, and write down a list of things I need to do.

My living room is also my office.

It's small but comfortable.

There's a big window with lots of light, and I've decorated it with some plants and art prints.

I like working there because it feels calm and personal, not like the old office with gray walls and noisy phones.

When I have a busy day, I can spend hours in front of the screen, completely focused.

But I always try to take short breaks every couple of hours.

I stretch, drink tea or water my plants.

Sometimes I step outside for 10 minutes just to breathe some fresh air.

When the weather is nice, I bring my laptop to a cafe nearby and work from there for a few hours.

Hearing the sound of people talking and cups clinking helps me feel less alone.

The best part of being a freelancer is the freedom it gives me.

I can choose which projects I want to do and how I want to do them.

If I want to take a few days off, I can.

If I want to work late at night, nobody stops me.

This flexibility is something I never had before and it makes a huge difference in how I feel about my work.

I can plan my schedule around my energy, not just around office hours.

That's a kind of freedom I really value.

Of course, it's not always easy.

There are challenges that people don't see.

Working alone means there's no one to give you feedback or to tell you you're doing a good job.

Sometimes I miss having colleagues to laugh with or someone to ask for quick advice, and the money isn't always stable.

One month can be amazing, full of projects and good payments, and the next can be very quiet.

That's stressful.

Especially when you have bills to pay, but I've learned to plan ahead.

When I earn more, I save part of it for slower months.

Freelancing has taught me to be responsible and to think long-term.

I've also learned how to manage clients and how not to take things personally.

In the beginning, I felt bad when someone didn't like my design.

Now I understand that every person sees things differently.

Good communication is everything.

If you listen carefully and ask the right questions, you can usually find a way to make everyone happy.

Another big lesson is about believing in yourself.

When you work alone, no one is there to motivate you.

You have to build that energy from inside.

I remind myself that every project, big or small is a chance to learn and improve.

If something goes wrong, I try to see it as part of the process, not as a failure.

In the evenings, I like to disconnect from work completely.

I close my laptop, put away my phone, and do something that helps me relax.

Sometimes I go for a run.

Sometimes I meet friends for dinner.

And sometimes I just listen to calm music while cooking.

I also like drawing, not for clients, but for myself.

When I draw for fun, I feel like a child again.

There's no pressure, no deadlines, no one watching.

It reminds me why I became a designer in the first place because I love creating things from nothing.

When I finish a small drawing that I actually like, I feel free.

That simple joy is exactly what I was looking for when I decided to leave my old job.

Looking back now, I'm proud of the risk I took.

It wasn't easy.

In fact, it was one of the hardest things I've done.

But it changed me in ways I didn't expect.

I've become more organized, more patient, and much more confident.

Most importantly, I've learned that independence doesn't mean being alone.

It means taking responsibility for your choices and trusting yourself enough to build your own path.

You have to be patient.

You have to walk slowly, step by step, and believe that the road you are on will take you somewhere meaningful.

And it has.

I may not earn as much as before and I don't have a big team around me, but I wake up every morning feeling proud of what I do.

I've created a life that feels like mine.

And every time I finish a project or hear that a client is happy with my work, I smile and think, yes, this is exactly where I'm meant to be.

Perfect.

If that story felt natural and clear, your English is at least C1.

Next, you will reach C2.

The expert level here.

Language sounds effortless, elegant and emotional.

You will hear subtle ideas, rare words, and gentle rhythm.

My name is Eleanor, and over the years I've realized that the hardest part of life isn't making decisions.

It's understanding what they mean.

When we're young, we imagine that every choice is a doorway to something better, a better job, a better city, a better version of ourselves.

We walk through those doors one after another, rarely stopping to notice what we leave behind.

But eventually, you look back and see that every decision carries both gain and loss.

Something found something left.

For a long time, I chased progress without direction.

I changed jobs, changed cities, changed dreams, always telling myself I was moving forward, but sometimes I wasn't moving toward anything.

I was just running away from stillness.

There's a strange fear in stillness as if silence might reveal what we've tried to hide from ourselves.

It took me years to understand that silence isn't empty.

It's full of resonance, quiet truths that only emerge when the noise finally fades.

These days, I live differently.

My mornings are slow.

I make coffee.

Open the window and let the light spill across the floor.

That small moment, gentle, ephemeral.

Feels like the most honest part of my day.

I don't rush to check messages or plans.

I just sit there and listen to the hum of the world to my own thoughts, to whatever speaks in the space between things.

I used to think, meaning came from action.

Now I know it grows out of reflection.

I still work.

I'm a consultant, but my relationship with work has changed.

What once felt like pressure, now feels like practice.

Yes, it's technical and logical, but I try to find the human part inside all that structure.

Real progress I think isn't when systems become faster.

It's when people inside them begin to feel understood.

You can redesign a whole organization.

But if you don't transform the metamorphosis within its people, how they see themselves, how they connect, then nothing truly changes.

Outside of work, I write.

Not for an audience for awareness.

Writing is a mirror that doesn't flatter.

It tells the truth.

It shows me where my thoughts begin and where they resist ending.

Some days I write about the past.

Not to live there, but to learn.

Other days I write about the future, not to predict, but to make peace with not knowing.

Sometimes words bring a sense of ineffable clarity, a feeling that can't be captured, but can still be felt.

Lately, I've been thinking about time, not as something that passes, but as something we move through.

Some moments feel wide and endless.

Others disappear before we even notice.

I've realized that the quality of time depends less on what we do and more on how awake we are while we do it.

A single moment of presence can last longer than an entire day spent rushing.

I used to think growth meant collecting things, achievements, recognition, experience.

Now I see it differently.

Growth to me is subtraction.

The art of letting go.

It's choosing what to release so that what matters has room to remain.

We live in a world that worships addition, more goals, more motion, more noise.

But true wisdom lies in knowing when to stop, when to rest, when to say, this is enough.

Maybe that's what freedom really is.

Not doing whatever we want, but knowing we don't need to.

Freedom to me is the quiet equanimity that comes when you no longer measure life by how much you can hold, but by how much you can appreciate.

The older I get, the more I see that peace isn't something waiting at the end of the road.

It's something that walks beside us.

In the rhythm of our own footsteps, in the warmth of early sunlight, in the silent certainty that life is happening right now, and that right now is already enough.

Alright, if you understood this story easily, congratulations.

Your English is near native level.

You can follow complex arguments and emotional expression with ease.

But remember, fluency isn't an ending even at C2.

There is always something new to explore.

New stories to hear and new ways to express who you are.

And that brings us to the end of today's journey from A1 to C2.

You've listened, reflected, and tested your understanding through six different levels of English.

Maybe you found one level easy.

Another a little challenging.

That's completely normal.

Language learning isn't a straight line.

It's a process of growth.

Thank you so much for listening to another episode of English Unleashed.

I'm Tom, and until next time, keep going.

Keep learning.

And remember, fluency isn't a finish line.

It's a way of life.

Bye for now.