Here's a checklist of the kinds of tasks you might already know how to do in English, if you travel to or live in an English-speaking place.

• I can buy my basic food, rent a hotel room, and bargain (discuss the price of things) when appropriate.
• I can talk about my favorite sports or hobbies.
• I can describe how to get to places like the post office, a restaurant, or a local tourist attraction.
• I can talk about things that happened in the past or might happen in the future.
• I can carry on simple conversations with native speakers who are used to dealing with foreigners.

The Half Moon Café story was written to be most helpful to adults who can do some of these things, at what is sometimes called the high intermediate level.

This checklist comes from a book called The Whole World Guide to Language Learning: How to live and learn any foreign language, by Terry Marshall, published by Intercultural Press, Inc., Yarmouth, Maine, USA 1989.