International English

Teaching language for communication or using the communicative approach used to be two of the most frequently used mantras in the realm of foreign language teaching. The power of simply communicating (no matter how) has been partially debunked. It may be a gross oversimplification, but the truth is that, for a number of years most foreign language instructors were obsessed with the idea that anything goes as long as a student gets the message across. Mistakes are unavoidable, accuracy is not critical providing that your interlocutors understand what you mean. Yes. I won’t deny that all that is true. As a matter of fact that's what so-called international English is all about: an imperfect, simple, un-idiomatic "dialect" which is clearly non-native but practical nonetheless. However, it must be pointed out that international English is only acceptable for a student until they reach the B1 level.

The B2 level requires an increasingly high degree of lexical accuracy (kill > murder > assassinate). A person, for example, can be a patient at the doctor’s practice but a client in a lawyer’s office and a contestant in a TV quiz show. Using basic terms such as person, man or woman in every context tends to be annoying to say the least. Still, even the B2 level is, for the most part, descriptive and therefore not too exciting.

The C1 level, of course, is slightly more demanding. As we have seen, a C1 speaker is expected to use colorful expressions, idioms, proverbs, phrasal verbs, similes, nuanced words that show an attitude, etc. Why? Just compare a cold boring expression like former lover with the more idiomatic old flame or the rather flippant ex. Do you feel the difference? I bet you do.

It goes without saying, the more you know, the wider your range of options is. Let’s suppose, for instance, you have walked in on someone stabbing another person. How do you refer to that (horrific) situation? You can say you caught the criminal red-handed (idiomatic), in the act (neutral) or in flagrante delicto (very formal). Since the nuances are different, your listener’s reaction will of necessity be different. For similar examples check out the following chart:

Plain	Colorful option # 1	Colorful option # 2
I was surprised	I got the shock of my life	I was caught off guard
Never	When pigs fly	When hell freezes over
No matter what	Come rain or shine	Come hell or high water
There’s no more to say	Period	End of story

All this comes to prove that, while communication remains a respectable aim, there comes a point in a language student’s life when relaying the message is just not good enough. That’s when you realize you want to be able to sound funny, folksy, agressive, elegant or distant. In other words, you want to be an advanced speaker.