Lab · Spoken English: Zero to Fluent
Lab: family, routine, the vegetable market and a dhaba
The brief
You tell a new colleague about your family, describe your weekday from morning to night, buy vegetables and bargain politely at a weekly market, and order a meal at a dhaba. You write each script, say it aloud and record it.
Why it matters
This is the English of everyday life: chatting at lunch with a new colleague, shopping, and eating out with friends or guests. In cities and on highways across India you meet shopkeepers, waiters and colleagues who speak English, and polite, simple phrases make every one of these moments easier.
Skills you practise
- family words
- routine with first, then, after that
- polite bargaining
- ordering food politely
You need
- A phone with a voice recorder app
What you will have at the end
Your daily-life.txt script and four voice recordings: family, weekday routine, the vegetable market and the dhaba order.
How it is marked (rubric, 100 points)
| Polite, natural phrasesRequests use please, "I'd like" and "Can I have"; bargaining is polite. | 35 |
|---|---|
| Correct grammarSimple present for routine, "have lunch", "go home", plurals and quantities are right. | 30 |
| Clear speakingCalm speed, pauses at full stops, and order words that make the routine easy to follow. | 20 |
| Self-reviewYou listened to each recording and improved at least one before finishing. | 15 |
0/4 steps done
Step 1 of 4
Tell a new colleague about your family
You have recorded five sentences about your family that end with a question back.
Fill in part 1, as if a new colleague asks about your family at lunch. Say how many people there are, who you live with and one detail about one or two people. With people from other countries, say "my cousin", not "my cousin brother". End with a question so the talk keeps going.
Your notes: daily-life.txt
Write down each command you ran. It goes into your project summary.