Name: TOEFL Talk With Rohit & Omar
Uploaded: 2026-01-12T17:35:41.000Z
Duration: 17 min 47 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Welcome back to another episode of Breaking Boundaries, the world's premier podcast for international students.

Or at least that's what I tell these guys.

I am joined today by two esteemed colleagues, Rohit and Omar, who lead the TOEFL exam.

So they are the brains behind the entire TOEFL operation.

And, and this week we've announced really exciting updates to TOEFL that will kick into gear in January.

But before we talk about the TOEFL updates, I want to take a moment just to introduce the world to Rohit and Omar, both of whom have super interesting backgrounds.

So I grew up in India and we had the benefit of the British colonial past where English was part of the fabric of society.

we had people spoke English and I had the benefit of attending a school that was English medium.

So we learned different subjects, whether it was history, geography, science in English and that continued even in my undergrad as engineering.

But as all of us know that developing any skills, especially communication skills, it's all about practice.

So while there was an element of learning and doing my formal education in English, but.

But the moment you stepped out of the classroom, you were speaking in Hindi or your local language in India.

And so it was perhaps not until the time I entered the professional part of my career, but

also got the opportunity to come to the US and study in a fully native English speaking environment where English was spoken not just inside the classroom, but

also interacting in day to day life that, that muscle strengthened.

And then after that I feel privileged to have had the benefit and opportunity of living and working in many different parts of the world where English was the de facto language of business.

And Rohit, that's a nice bit of foreshadowing.

We'll discuss in a bit how we're modifying the TOEFL exam to capture English speaking on campus both in the classroom and in the cafeteria.

And I enjoy hearing you say that was a key part of your own study abroad experience.

Omar speaks English better than a native speaker, just like Rohit.

But Omar, I know you didn't start speaking English, so tell us about how you learned to speak this strange language.

I immigrated to Canada, Montreal, you know, French speaking part of Montreal, went to high school in French.

I was in beginner's English throughout my high school.

And you know, being In Montreal to immigrant parents are quite strict.

So TV was an absolute no, no at home until I found an angle, as I usually do, where my teacher required us to watch a 30 minute, one hour episode of anything in English and summarize it as homework daily.

And so I discovered Fresh Prince of Bel Air.

And so that was my golden excuse to watch television during the week.

And even as a 16 or 17 year old back in the day, again, to immigrant parents, it was a little bit more of a no screen policy during the week, irrespective of your age.

And so I started watching TV in English and this is how it all started.

You know, I was allowed to watch television in English and so I started doing that during the week.

Of course, they didn't know that I only had to watch 30 minutes.

I ended up watching three, four hours of English television every night.

But that also gave me the ability to kind of familiarize myself with the language, be a lot more comfortable with it.

Repeat after someone, you know, sing the Fresh Prince of Bel Air jingle alongside Will Smith.

And then one thing led to another and obviously, you know, here we are.

For our Gen Z listeners, Fresh Prince was this first star vehicle for Will Smith, who is now a mega star.

But it was set in West Philadelphia and it was a really important sort of cultural touchstone in the us.

I also grew up watching the Fresh Prince.

Now, Rohit, I know that you took TOEFL in the past and perhaps taking over TOEFL now was your act of revenge.

But tell me about your experience taking toefl, what I imagine was a few months ago.

Yes, just a few months and a couple of decades back, if you add to that.

But just like many other people who are preparing to study abroad, that becomes almost a requisite at that time.

So you approach it as one of the things that you have to do.

But as I evaluated the options and it was clear that TOEFL was the right assessment for me to take at that time.

And as I dug into it, like I mentioned before, having had the benefit of having my formal education in English medium educational institutions, there was an element of digging deep into certain aspects.

You know, coming from India, I think we are generally good at listening and reading and perhaps not as a tribe in terms of the production skills, as we call it, in terms of speaking and writing.

So that was where I ended up spending a bit More of my time and focus in making sure that I enhanced those aspects of my application and ultimately putting in the right effort going through the test script materials that TOEFL had put out, as well as using the opportunity.

At that time, I was living in Singapore and practicing with other colleagues who were native English speakers as, as well as other people who were preparing for the TOEFL helped me prepare for it.

And ultimately I gave a test that got me admitted to my institution of choice.

You've lived all around the world, including your current domicile in Dubai.

There's the Canada connection now in Paris.

And when we schedule calls here, we have to use complex time zone instruments to ensure that we're actually scheduling a time when someone is awake.

But Omar, I'm curious, beyond your English language journey, what was your favorite place to live and why?

Because you've been all around the world.

An amazing melting pot where the UAE has about 10 million people that live there, of which only 1 million are from there.

You have people from India, from the Philippines, from the US From Italy, from France, from Japan, from China, et cetera, et cetera, all kind of living together.

Obviously people spoke Arabic, but the common language is English.

That's how 100 plus nationalities communicate for the most part.

One last question for you both before we talk about the TOEFL exam itself.

You have very diverse experiences from West Philadelphia to the uae.

Any tips for students who are adapting to a new culture, whether it's a European destination or in Southeast Asia.

Any tips you have for students as they try to hit the ground running when they begin their studies in a place that's often foreign?

Yeah, I think first and foremost is to shed any inhibitions that are there.

Oftentimes in a foreign place, you tend to also sometimes be hesitant in reaching out lest you make a fool of yourself.

So, you know, I think I would say number one, shed any inhibitions.

You know, any kind of learning only happens when you have an immersive mindset.