Shadowing Practice: Celtic's Martin O’Neill is right to be annoyed at VAR! | Hotline Live - Learn English Speaking with Video

Creando lección...
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getting us on to football.
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I think the best way for us to start, Keith, is Celtic.
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Martin O'Neill's been speaking today.
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We've talked about it a lot in the last couple of days.
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The VAR calls against St Mirren at the weekend and he's not a happy bunny.
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No, he is not.
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And I don't know if he was watching Hotline Live, but what he was saying today sounded very familiar.
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Right in line with what Mick's verdict was from St Mirren the other day in terms of HSC, VAR lines getting drawn on, all that sort of stuff.
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So, I mean, Mick called it I was alarmed remember towards the end of last season
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when we were speaking to the Roach man Des Roach
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and he was explaining to us
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because I thought the lines were the kind of black
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and white no grey area part of VAR the one bit that you could actually trust but Des kind of confused me, blinded me with science a little bit
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and left me by the end of the conversation I'm thinking so we can't even trust the lines
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and there was a couple of angles from Duran's goal for Celtic
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that was chopped off that cast a lot of doubt on stuff, didn't it?
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So I can understand if I was Martin O'Neill I'd be asking the same questions
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that one there is the one that makes it look as
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if it was onside That looks onside but the one that gave us looks off Yeah,
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and I did say at real speed to the naked eye I thought it looked offside
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but when I saw that angle the previous one there I'm thinking to myself
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that looks to me as if the pass has been played
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and he's on set I don't know I don't know anymore I thought
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that was the one bit that we could totally rely on I thought
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that was the bit where the science was safe
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and now I'm not sure anymore
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so I can understand why Martin O'Neill was saying something very similar to what Mick said the other day
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Martin did a very classic Martin O'Neill fashion making.
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I had a bit of a moan about it and the end, he went, I'm not complaining.
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He got the camera on early.
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I'm not complaining.
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It gets back to what we're saying.
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We've got a problem in this country.
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I'm not sure if it's actually the technology to blame
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or the fact that we don't have the camera angles in this country.
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You go to England or the World Cups and all that stuff and there's about 180 cameras in the game, every angle, they've got AI, they've got 3D, they've got all that stuff.
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You get four cameras and weird parts of the ground sometimes
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and we've got stadiums that don't have bits of the ground
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that are even on the same bit of the pitch and all that stuff.
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You get some weird angles and it just looks a bit pixelated.
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We've got less, I think we've got less frames
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that we can use as well
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and it's just down to the kind of slightly cheap over version
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that we use in terms of the country in terms of the facilities we've got unfortunately Mike,
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Willie call him and he made a point of going out his way of mentioning at the kind of
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pre-season debrief or briefing to the media and he riled at the suggestion of Poundland
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said that's just not true but it is true, we've seen the World Cup you said it the other day, the World Cup one you've got 3D,
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the whole thing turns around it's like you're playing FIFA
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or something like that and and it clearly shows what part of the body.
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We just don't have nothing like that.
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It's ridiculous to say that we have not got the cheap end of the scale when it comes to VAR.
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I think what I think the get out is, he'll say that it's not the actual VAR technology system we've got, it's the information fed into it.
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So like a Sky game down in England will have 3,000 cameras at every angle, whereas up in Scotland, we don't get that.
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We just don't get it, whether it's Sky or Premier or all that stuff we get four or five different camera angles and that's it.
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Whereas in England, they've got cameras on zip wires, they've got guys with segways flying inside the pitch and all that stuff.
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Drones.
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Drones, all these things we've got we've got about four
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or five camera angles so i think i think
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that might be part of the problem as well the information fed into this var
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that we've got you're not getting the full picture you're not getting all the angles
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that they get down south we don't have this system yeah
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see this is the difference though we are relying on individuals human beings
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drawing these lines on whereas theirs all seemed the best versions all seem automated yeah
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and it's it's done by computer and there's no room for for factual anomalies
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or errors it's just what you see is what you get
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and it's right and you can you can trust it we don't have that
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no no well the world cup had automated blinds or something didn't they it was pretty much
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out the hands of human beings, which is the way it eventually will go.
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I mean, AI is going to take over the whole world anyway, so it won't matter to AI players, never mind officials.
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But we'll be the last ones to get the robot players.
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AI hotly alive.
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We'll still be the last remaining humans in a post-apocalyptic world trying to play football.
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But yeah, it just looks, when you see those two pictures, You go, it all just looks a bit Exa-sketchy,
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a bit kind of Pixelated and it's like Think back to World Cup
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when it basically Would flash around and you see like The part of the body that was offside Yeah,
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it's 3D Even the animated images The player's images in there as well It's like a computer game
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Whereas if it's a computer game you've got Atari 2600 from the 80s still
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Right on the Xbox So I just think I'm just going to have to lump it Unfortunately, because this is the way it is It's funny to say that,
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Mike, because that's one of the comments that have come in just a moment ago.
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Badger says, where is it in fact, if I can find it here.
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He says, it's like playing with Atari while the rest of your mates have got an Xbox.
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John says, what about bringing in Wenger's fresh air gap between the attacker
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and the opponent for offside divisions Green Machine says
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if you buy cheap you get cheap results and McKenna says
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and this is one thing
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that I think all the others kind of agreed on the other night
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which I don't really get why they don't do it this way
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but it's as close as that surely just the on-field decision counts if you can't tell on the screen, right, you gave it offside, it's offside.
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I mean, sort of.
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Yeah, I can't remember.
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They didn't give Turan offside, though, did they?
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No. At real speed.
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So, if they think that the computers are telling them that it's offside, I suppose they've got to go with it.
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The difficulty I think we all had was with the third goal, Celtic's third goal later in the game that didn't stand,
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when the VAR system didn't worked and it was left to a subjective review, pitch side review which seemed to make no sense at all to me
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so yeah I can understand the frustrations
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but I do think there was probably of more interest to everybody
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because I think they're all sick
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and tired of her already this season I think the big news Mick and you had a story about it,
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I think it was online last night half past ten
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Jota ahead of schedule could be back sooner rather than later for Celtic.
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That's big news.
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It is, yeah.
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I mean, long awaited.
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We're getting on for 18 months.
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The word is that he's taking part in kind of small-sided games and he's looking pretty decent.
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Listen, he's not kicked a ball for 18 months than anything else, so he's going to be rusty.
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But I think he's making good progress.
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I think the original, not the original, because the original prognosis was nine months, then it was 12 months, then it was the summer.
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I think in the summer, they felt he'd be back after Halloween.
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I think early November was a kind of target
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They're now kind of thinking That that might actually now be the case
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And I think they're looking at it now after the international break
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Not before then I wouldn't think about it before then But I think they might think they can get

Speaking Goals for This Clip

This video is perfect for practicing conversational fluency and natural debate flow. The hosts discuss a controversial football topic with casual energy, using real-time reactions and back-and-forth exchanges. It’s ideal for mastering how to express doubt ("I don't know anymore"), agree ("sounded very familiar"), and soften complaints ("I'm not complaining"). These skills are key for everyday English interactions, whether you’re chatting about sports or sharing opinions.

Phrase Bank

  • "not a happy bunny" – to be clearly annoyed
  • "blinded me with science" – to confuse someone with complex details
  • "cast a lot of doubt on" – to make something seem uncertain
  • "classic [name] fashion" – in a typical way someone behaves
  • "riled at the suggestion" – to get upset by an idea

These phrases are reusable in daily conversations. Try dropping "not a happy bunny" when talking about a friend’s bad day, or "cast doubt on" when discussing a news story.

Fix Your Weak Spots

The dialogue’s casual rhythm and colloquial contractions (e.g., "he's", "don't", "I'm") make it great for practicing natural pronunciation. Many learners struggle with linking words in fast speech—this clip helps with that. Use the shadowing technique: play a short line, pause, and repeat it immediately, mimicking the tone and pace. A good shadowing site can help you slow down the audio, but even repeating directly from the video works. Focus on phrases like "I thought that was the one bit we could totally rely on"—notice how "could totally" links smoothly. This practice, sometimes called shadowspeak or shadow speak, will make your English sound more natural. Keep at it, and you’ll soon feel confident joining lively discussions like this one!

¿Qué es la Técnica de Shadowing?

Shadowing es una técnica de aprendizaje de idiomas respaldada por la ciencia, desarrollada originalmente para la formación de intérpretes profesionales y popularizada por el políglota Dr. Alexander Arguelles. El método es simple pero poderoso: escuchas audio en inglés nativo y lo repites en voz alta de inmediato, como una sombra que sigue al hablante con solo 1-2 segundos de retraso. A diferencia de la escucha pasiva o los ejercicios de gramática, el shadowing obliga a tu cerebro y músculos de la boca a procesar y reproducir simultáneamente patrones de habla reales. Las investigaciones muestran que mejora significativamente la precisión de la pronunciación, la entonación, el ritmo, el habla conectada, la comprensión auditiva y la fluidez al hablar, convirtiéndola en una de las metodologías más efectivas para la preparación del IELTS Speaking y la comunicación en inglés en el mundo real.