Shadowing Practice: Growing Up POOR in AMERICA - Learn English Speaking with Video

Creando lección...
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Growing up, my family was broke.
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And before anybody comments, Oh my god, Sam, my family only went to Disneyland once again.
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I mean, broke broke, as in, Let me count these coins and see if I can afford school lunch tomorrow, kind of broke.
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$1.50.
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I spent the first year of my life in the Philippines
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because my parents were struggling to keep everything together financially in the state.
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Then we came back and spent the next 10 years living in a one-bedroom apartment in LA with my mom, my dad, my sister, me,
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our soon-to-be little brother, and then like two emotionally supportive cockroaches.
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And as a kid, of course, I wanted toys, especially Moonsand.
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But my parents always looked stressed.
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Like, you know when you're a kid and your parents are talking about bills or whatever and money, looking all stressed out, and suddenly you develop financial anxiety before you even know how to count.
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So yeah, I learned not to ask for things, which was It's really unfortunate because I grew up during the era of kids saying
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Because these poor kids weren't wearing Nikes They were not wearing Adidas, Vans They were wearing Adidas,
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Mike Adidin And you know who else was wearing these?
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Me!
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I was wearing them!
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While other kids were shopping at Forever 21, Abercrombie and Fetch And I don't know,
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Gucci or whatever brand was picking that era I was at Didi's discount Ross,
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Goodwill, my older cousin's bag of old hand-me-downs The stores where your mom would say, Pick wisely.
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You will be wearing these for the next three years.
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And you'd find that one pair of shoes that looked like Vans, but weren't actually Vans.
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You know, the bootleg ones that looked super fat, stiff, and heavy.
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But I didn't care.
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Like, who would actually notice?
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On rare occasions, my mom would take us out to the mall.
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But the moment we walked in, straight to the clearance section.
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Everything else in the store, I don't know what you're talking about.
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If we found a $5 shirt, perfect.
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$12 dress, perfect.
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Anything above $15, no. At school, I wore the same pair of shoes for years.
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And eventually, I'd be like, Mother, I believe I need new shoes.
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Go.
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And she'd hit me with a Y.
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What's wrong with your old ones?
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They're okay.
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No, they were not okay.
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You know, in the Philippines, we didn't even have shoes.
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And I didn't even push for new ones because I was such an anxious little empath child.
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My parents probably would have bought me new bootleg shoes, But instead my brain was like,
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no, I'll just continue walking through these puddles in my decaying footwear Lunchtime was the worst
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because this is where you'd see who was rich and who was poor The rich kids had cute lunchboxes, lunchables, Gatorade, branded chip bags,
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and a handwritten note from their mom saying You can do hard things xoxo mom Meanwhile, my lunch?
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First of all, no lunchbox,
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just grocery bag Then Tupperware of sweaty Vienna sausages and rice Asterius chips in a folded plastic bag Fruit snacks,
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if we were feeling wealthy that week And then water from the water fountain.
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My mom would sometimes send me to school with coins in an envelope, literally just coins, like, ah, the sound of poverty.
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And most days it worked, but on the days when I happened to be short, even a little, so bad, but what's for you?
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And you're humiliated in front of all your peers, then handed an apple and a milk, like the filthy poor peasant you were.
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And the crazy part was that they throw away The food right in front of you.
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They throw it away.
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Bro, if you're just gonna throw it away, why can't I just eat it?
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So I'd sit down with my apple and milk, trying not to cry as I watched everyone else eat their Lunchables and Gatorade, all happy.
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Field trip days, everyone else would be like, And then there was me.
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Because I already knew we probably couldn't afford it.
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And even if we somehow could, asking would just make me feel guilty.
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So I would just pretend it didn't exist.
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Boom, problem solved.
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Except not really because then field trip day would arrive
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and everyone would be lining up to get on the bus
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and I'd be standing there with a work packet like I had again committed a federal crime.
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The teacher would be like, okay, sweetie, you're gonna be staying with Mrs. Johnson's class today, okay?
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Then I'd spend the entire rest of the day in the back of some other classroom trying not to cry again.
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Home life was another experience.
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Touch the thermostat, you die.
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So in the summers, I'd open the fridge and just stand there.
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Another cooling strategy was wet arms, wet legs, stand directly in front of the fan.
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Sometimes I'd get a little bucket of water and pour it over myself in bed.
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Yes, I would sleep in a puddle of water when it was hot.
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No, this is not a lie or exaggeration.
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I am aware this was disgusting.
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Anyways, grocery shopping was done at Dollar Tree or the 99 cent store, Food for Less, Walmart, Food Drives, which by the way, if you live in the US,
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you can look up the nearest food drive near you
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and what days they operate to get yourself a box of free groceries.
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Shampoo bottles were half shampoo, half water.
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Dish soap was half dish soap, half water.
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And hand soap was probably just water with a molecule of soap.
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Struggle meals were things like microwaved cupped noodles.
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Oh, cancer.
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Raw Vienna sausages.
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Hot dogs and rice.
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Bologna and rice.
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Microwave TV dinners.
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And if I was really struggling, I'd watch mukbangs or literally google pictures of food while chewing on air Growing up,
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I was embarrassed thinking everyone else had more than me And honestly, most of them did But looking back now as an adult,
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it really wasn't that bad We always had a roof over our heads There was always food Maybe not the healthiest, but food
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And my parents worked really hard Like ridiculously hard My mom
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would sometimes sacrifice eating lunch for the day at work
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So she could give us what we needed These hardships taught
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me how to be kind to others who didn't have as much as me
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And how to be responsible with money So yeah, growing up poor was humbling But also kind of funny

Vocabulario y notas de pronunciación para esta lección

Esta lección de conversación de nivel B1 se basa en el vídeo “Growing Up POOR in AMERICA”. Las palabras que más se repiten: mom, wearing, kid, shoes, parents. Este vídeo tiene 89 frases y 1101 palabras para practicar shadowing. La parte hablada dura 5:56. El hablante habla rápido, unas 185 palabras por minuto, así que espera sonidos enlazados y reducidos. El 83 % de las palabras está entre las 3.000 más comunes del inglés; conviene repasar el resto antes de empezar.

Vocabulario clave de este vídeo

Las 15 palabras más avanzadas del vídeo, con su pronunciación y significado:

PalabraPronunciaciónSignificado
shoe sustantivo/ˈʃu/zapato, taba
soap sustantivo/soʊp/jabón, sopín
coin sustantivo/ˈkoɪ̯n/moneda, numerario
lunchbox sustantivo/ˈlʌntʃˌbɒks/fiambrera, tartera
puddle sustantivo/ˈpʌdəl/charco, poza
shampoo sustantivo/ʃæmˈpuː/champú, shampú
sausage sustantivo/ˈsɔsɪd͡ʒ/embutido, salchicha
microwave sustantivo/ˈmaɪkɹoʊˌweɪv/microonda
dish sustantivo/dɪʃ/vajilla
chip sustantivo/t͡ʃɪp/astilla, cepa
empath sustantivo/ˈɛm.pæθ/émpata, zahorí
exaggeration sustantivo/ɪɡˌzæd͡ʒəˈɹeɪʃən/exageración
footwear sustantivo/ˈfʊtwɛə(ɹ)/calzado
humiliate verbo/hjuːˈmɪliˌeɪt/humillar, papear
microgram sustantivo/ˈmaɪ.kɹəˌɡɹæm/microgramo

Phrasal verbs que vas a escuchar

PalabraPronunciaciónSignificado
grow up verbocrecer
look back verborecordar, volver la cabeza
look up verbo/ˌlʊk ˈʌp/mejorar
stress out verboagobiar, estresar
throw away verbotirar, echar
walk through verboexplicar paso a paso, enseñar

Gramática en este vídeo

Las estructuras que más usa el hablante, con las palabras exactas del vídeo:

EstructuraEn el vídeo
Oraciones condicionales if + oración, will/would + verbo — una condición y su resultadoif we somehow could, asking would just · if I was really struggling, I'd watch
Past continuous was/were + -ing — una acción en curso en un momento del pasadowere struggling · weren't wearing · was wearing
Superlativos the -est / the most … — lo más alto o lo más bajo de un grupothe worst · the nearest · the healthiest
Present continuous am/is/are + -ing — algo que ocurre ahora o en estos díasare talking · you're talking

Pronunciación a tener en cuenta

El hablante usa 31 contracciones y formas reducidas, como I'd, didn't, you're. Dilas en su forma corta, tal como las oyes.

  • Los sonidos de “th”: empath /ˈɛm.pæθ/, thermostat /ˈθɝməstæt/, filthy /ˈfɪlθi/, wealthy /ˈwɛl.θi/
  • Los sonidos de “sh” y “zh”: shoe /ˈʃu/, shampoo /ʃæmˈpuː/, dish /dɪʃ/, exaggeration /ɪɡˌzæd͡ʒəˈɹeɪʃən/, hardship /ˈhɑɹdˌʃɪp/
  • Palabras largas — cuida el acento: exaggeration /ɪɡˌzæd͡ʒəˈɹeɪʃən/, humiliate /hjuːˈmɪliˌeɪt/, ridiculously /ɹɪˈdɪk.jə.ləs.li/, emotionally /ɪˈməʊʃənəli/, unfortunate /ʌnˈfɔː.t͡ʃə.nɪt/

Cómo practicar con este vídeo

  1. Escucha el vídeo entero una vez sin hablar y anota las palabras que no conoces.
  2. Empieza a velocidad 0,75×, haz shadowing frase por frase y vuelve a la velocidad normal cuando te resulte fácil.
  3. Grábate y compara con el original, prestando atención a palabras como shoe, soap, coin.

¿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.

Técnica de shadowing: lee la guía completa paso a paso →