Airport taxi
You just landed at the airport and need to take a taxi to your hotel. Negotiate the fare and give directions.
An intermediate-level session of about 5 minutes.
The engine is already running and someone has picked up your suitcase without being asked. By the time the bags are in the boot you are negotiating from inside a moving car, which is a much weaker place to stand. This driver talks fast, rounds numbers upward, and keeps going so there is never a clean gap to interrupt; understanding them is a listening problem before it is a speaking one, and an answer often arrives for a question you did not ask. The exchange has three real pressure points — when a figure is first named, when the route goes somewhere you did not expect, and when you arrive and the total is recalculated. Practise the version where you are tired, it is late, and you still hold the conversation at your own pace.
Angles worth taking
- Settle the terms while you are still standing outside the car; once the boot is shut your position quietly weakens.
- If the answer you get belongs to a different question, repeat yours in the same words instead of rephrasing it.
- When the figure keeps moving, say the number back slowly and wait for a clear yes before getting in.
- Asking for something to be repeated twice is normal, and it slows the whole exchange to a speed you can handle.
- On arrival, name the agreed figure out loud before any new arithmetic starts.
Who is in the room
You play
A traveler arriving at an unfamiliar airport
You speak with
A taxi driver who speaks fast and tries to charge extra
Phrases to reach for
These are shown to you before the session starts. They are what you are asked to use, not a list the scorer is checking off.
Ready to speak?
Free to start. You need a TalkDrill account to speak — reading this page does not.
Browse all roleplay scenariosThe format
Modes
Learn (guided) · Mock (exam-real)
How a roleplay session works
Read your brief
Your role, the situation, and what a good outcome looks like. The counterpart has their own brief, and you do not get to read it.
Open the conversation
You speak first in most scenarios. How you open sets what you can ask for later, which is most of the exercise.
Handle the turn
Somewhere in the middle it stops going your way — a refusal, a counter-offer, a rebuttal you did not prepare for. That moment is the scenario.
Read the report
Outcome, the phrases you used and the ones you missed, fluency and clarity, and the specific line worth rewriting.
What you're scored on
Across every roleplay, the report looks at the same four things — because they are what makes a real conversation work or fail.
Get to your hotel at a fair price without getting lost.
Task outcome
Whether you got what the brief asked for: the refund, the extension, the concession, the point conceded.
Appropriacy
Whether the register fits. A complaint that is too soft gets nothing; the same complaint too hard gets a manager and no refund.
Recovery
What you do with the unexpected turn — repair, rephrase, push back, or stall. This is where most of the marks move.
Delivery
Fluency, pronunciation and pace, judged in conversation rather than in a prepared monologue.
More roleplay scenarios
All roleplay scenarios · Travel scenarios · All speaking practice