Shadowing Practice: what does 'posh' really mean? - Learn English Speaking with Video

Elige un modo de práctica

Cada modo abre una sala de práctica a pantalla completa.

243 oraciones

Si las oraciones son demasiado cortas o largas, haz clic en Editar para ajustarlas.

What is posh?

What does posh even mean?

This is a really, really interesting word in the English language

because it doesn't really translate outside of English or maybe even it doesn't really translate out of British English very easily.

I really wanted to explore this with you today

i wanted to tell you where this word apparently comes from what it really means how to tell

if somebody is or is not posh we're going to be exploring all of these things today

and am i posh is my accent posh i'm going to tell you why it is

or isn't we're going to be exploring that today.

Hi, my name is Evie and you are listening to the English podcast,

a podcast designed for English learners to help them practice their listening comprehension.

This podcast is designed for you to listen to as you water your plants, while you go bungee jumping,

I don't care, do what you want.

If you are watching this on YouTube, please like and comment, it really, really helps me and

if you are watching on Spotify please leave a review it actually really helps

if you have not done

that already anyway let's get back to this this topic of posh poshness

and being posh all right I think we should probably start with the origins of the word right um

or the alleged origins.

This is where this word posh apparently comes from, but it is disputed.

It's disputed.

So people disagree over whether or not this origin is true or not.

But I think it's a really good story to tell you

because I think it sets you up in the right direction as to what this word means, what are the implications of this word,

what sort of person are we talking about when we refer to something as posh.

We are going back, okay,

to the British Empire where British military men or governors or political officials were going to India,

a colony in the British Empire.

And when you would go to India, you would go by boat.

Okay, you're not flying.

There's no planes.

So people were traveling to India by boat.

And in order to get there, you're going right down by the equator.

The journey was incredibly, incredibly hot.

And the most expensive bedrooms on the boat were on the shady side of the ship,

which would be on the port side going out to India, which I think is the left,

and on the starboard side going back home.

And I think starboard is right, but I have no idea.

Okay.

And this is what the rich people would pay extra to do.

It was almost like first class.

And when they would buy their return ticket,

allegedly it would say on their ticket port outwards starboard home p -o -s -h

posh right it was almost the sign for first class

now this is the rumor um apparently this is contested very heavily people disagree with this

because nobody has found a ticket that says posh port outward starboard home

so it's probably just a rumor

but I thought this was a really good story to tell you

because it really sets the scene as to what sort of person we are talking about

when we refer to somebody as being posh this idea of like British colonialism the idea of Britain as the gentleman's country.

If you are not watching the video, I'm doing quotation signs, okay?

Don't agree with it.

But it has connections to this sort of old British imperial way, okay?

But this word is still in use.

In fact, it's commonly used in the UK.

We will describe people as posh we will describe cafes as posh coffees as posh clothes as posh

so what does that mean nowadays how do we know

if somebody is posh and what are we actually looking for um i know

that when you hear this word as an english learner and And...

If you are listening to this podcast and you are not an English learner, this is a podcast for English learners.

So we're looking at this word from an English learner perspective.

Okay.

It's more about looking at the UK as an outsider,

as opposed to a deep dive into class in the UK.

Like I'm not doing that and I'm not qualified to do that.

And I think that when English learners or when many English learners hear this word posh for the first time,

they think, oh, a posh person is somebody who is either just any British person or somebody who is rich.

And I wanted to debunk this.

I wanted to tell you why that's not true, in particular with this one about money.

OK, so not everybody rich is posh.

And I have an example of two imaginary people to explain who is posh and who isn't.

OK, you could have a old man living in a mansion

that is literally a wreck it could be moldy

it could be damp it could stink it could be full of rats it could be falling down around him

but if his family have owned that mansion for generations like

if his father gave him the mansion and

that was given to him by his grandfather and his grandfather and this guy is called like

Lord Wellington he is posh like

that is a posh man even though he has no money okay meanwhile

you could have somebody who is literally a multi -millionaire

you could have somebody who uh I'm not gonna say billionaire

but you could have like a multi -millionaire right but

that man in a crumbling mansion could look at the

multi -millionaire who maybe grew up in a working -class family

and then gained that money he is not posh he is new money

and this comes down to this really honestly I think

I think this phrase is vile this idea of old money and new money.

Posh people are old money.

They are people who come from, this is another disgusting word, pedigree.

It's people who come from, you know, generational wealth in some way.

And this is kind of what we think of as posh.

Whereas somebody who is new money, they would be maybe looked down upon by posh people

because they were not born with that wealth um

so this is one of the reasons why being posh is not necessarily it's not just somebody who's rich

or something that's expensive or something that is even like designer

or middle class or upper middle class it's it's kind of a little bit more complicated than

that um and actually the other thing that I think English learners think of

when they hear posh is just British people in general

and I find that very interesting

100

because I'm wondering whether they think whether you guys for example think

101

that British people are posh compared to Americans or whether the word posh is just associated to Britain in another way.

102

And I was thinking about this.

103

I think one reason why

104

Britain is associated with poshness is because of this idea of like the gentleman's country.

105

I think that prevails in a way.

106

I also think it's because this word posh, I don't think

107

Americans really use it.

108

So it's not something that you hear very often in American media.

109

I don't know about Canada or Australia, actually, but in America, I feel like they're more likely to say classy,

110

fancy, bougie before they would say pash.

111

But I am no expert on what

112

Americans do or don't do because I've lived in America

113

but I'm not an American so I don't know 100 %

114

and I think that's really interesting

115

because what has now happened is basically a lot of English learners will associate any British accent with

116

posh so I've had students send me videos of accents

117

that they like in English

118

that are actually more considered to be like I don't know more regional accents accents

119

that are not in the UK considered to be posh

120

but they will send me accents

121

that are really really strong such as they'll send me like a pretty strong cockney accent

122

and be like oh my god this is so posh I love it

123

and I'm like that is not posh you can tell

124

if someone is posh by the way they speak a lot of the time um

125

and I know

126

that a lot of you guys are obsessed with modern RP you like the British pronunciation in particular modern RP

127

and that is posh posh posh posh posh like if you meet somebody who speaks English with modern RP,

128

they are posh, posh, posh.

129

Maybe, I don't know if you can tell, I'm not a very big fan of modern RP.

130

I don't really like it very much, but the way you can tell if somebody is speaking modern RP,

131

it comes down to a few things really.

132

One of them is the way

133

that people will say a like an a sound for example in grass you know

134

that grows in gardens on the floor the green stuff grass instead of grass

135

so modern rp would only ever be grass they would say bath not bath bath

136

and they would say i don't know what else

137

they would also say their teas um this is something

138

that I sometimes do I do this for videos

139

and sometimes I drop it it really depends

140

but for example let's go for this word

141

that people love to say about Brits or at British people

142

which is bottle of water okay and when people take the piss out of Brits for this.

143

They do something that we call the guttural stop, which is like this bottle of water, a bottle of water.

144

I've got a bottle of water.

145

You hear how I'm not saying the T in the middle, but somebody who is RP,

146

she would say a bottle of water, a bottle of water.

147

Uh, and she hits the T.

148

She hits the T and people who speak RP will always, always hit the t it's not super common as an accent

149

because it's typically the pronunciation used by a lot of like elites in our country

150

so people who went to private school were privately educated through private

151

or public schools and i'm going to explain the british education system later

152

but people who have enough money to go to private school

153

are more likely to speak with this kind of pronunciation right

154

so we've covered a little bit like what is what is like posh

155

it's people who come from money basically it's people

156

that come from money they have sort of family ties they probably went to private school

157

and something that's really key is they're probably probably probably going to have the modern rp accent

158

so am i posh am i posh because I know a lot of people, this is a really big compliment,

159

but lots of people compliment my accent.

160

And I get lots of comments of people saying, I like your British accent.

161

I want to learn the modern RP accent.

162

And I found that really interesting

163

because I don't have a modern RP accent in my opinion um in my opinion

164

I have like a very generic southern English accent

165

and I think it's fairly close to modern RP like it's close

166

I'm not gonna lie it's close um a lot of and speak more clearly in these videos.

167

So typically I would say like, but all better, get on.

168

Like I do it all the time and that's not very posh.

169

I do say bath, I think, but I'm from a place called Cornwall where we say like bath and grass.

170

And if I'm in Cornwall, I change my accent a little bit to say like bath or grass or, you know, my accent changes

171

when I'm home only a tiny bit it's not a big change

172

but it changes a little bit when I'm home compared to when I was living in London for university

173

But I don't believe that my accent is super posh.

174

Somebody with a thicker regional accent might think that my accent is posh.

175

Like a Southern English accent, like I said, it's very, very close to modern RP.

176

So I do think many people would consider my accent to be posh compared to like Glaswegian up in Glasgow.

177

um not that a scottish accent cannot be posh it's not just modern rp

178

that is posh it's more than that

179

but i really wanted to talk about this um

180

because it's interesting for you guys i think

181

but also i gotta i gotta hate comment

182

and you know i get hate comments

183

i just delete them like i don't whatever there's a thing on youtube you might not know this

184

but if you leave hate comments the creator can just like block you

185

and I recently had a video go viral on like just regular

186

YouTube so I made a video of me speaking at like native speed right it was for my students

187

because I changed the way I speak for you guys

188

so for my 100k special I filmed a video of me speaking without changing my speech.

189

And I got a lot of attention from people who are not English learners.

190

And I got one comment and it really bugged me.

191

And he said, I can't believe that people are learning English from this state school educated tramp.

192

I can't believe people are learning English from this state school educated tramp.

193

And that's because this guy, who is probably incredibly posh, thinks that my English is working class.

194

He thinks that my English is not refined.

195

He thinks that my English is like uneducated.

196

And he's a he's a but he's not wrong.

197

I did go to state school, whereas a lot of posh people will have gone to private schools and been privately educated.

198

And this is kind of one of the big divides between posh

199

and not posh is the way that you were brought up

200

and how much access to money that your family had

201

and things like this but he could tell that I was not posh

202

because I say like when I speak

203

because I'm 25 you know I'm not like a 60 year old man in my rotten rat infested mansion

204

oh it actually offended me but anyway um I'm 25

205

so I have a younger way of speaking and part of that is I say like all the time.

206

It's kind of a bad habit, but it's what I do.

207

And it is not very posh.

208

But I hope that if you hear my accent and you like the way I speak, this is another accent in the UK that is very,

209

very common and it's not modern RP.

210

If you learn a really, really good modern RP accent, it does slightly have this connotation of being posh,

211

of being maybe a bit privileged or a bit like snooty.

212

You might be somebody that looks down on people.

213

I'm not saying that is what all posh people are like.

214

I have posh friends and they're lovely.

215

But that is always going to be the first impression

216

that this kind of modern RP accent gives off is this idea that you are somebody that is very,

217

very classy and refined and posh and you come from money.

218

And, you know, that's just kind of what the accent is like.

219

I am going to film an extension for this podcast

220

so I mentioned a little bit in this video state school

221

and private school and these are the different education systems

222

that we have here in the UK

223

and I am going to be explaining these speaking at here we go native speed

224

so I'm going to be filming a podcast extension where I

225

just basically speak without trying to be clear for anyone

226

I'm just going to speak normally not in like teacher talk

227

which is what I'm doing right now if you would like to watch

228

that it's going to be over on my school over on Evie's English Club

229

which I will link down in the description

230

I just made this school about a month ago and we've been running live classes.

231

I have a course on there.

232

We have speaking events as well and a book club.

233

There's loads over there, but I also film extensions to these podcast episodes at native speed.

234

The majority of my audience here on YouTube has an English level between B1 and B2.

235

So everything over on my school is to help you move beyond B1

236

and B2 and reach C1

237

because I think comprehensible input it will get you to B1 B2 that's fine

238

but if you want to go further than

239

that you need to work more you need to work on specific things

240

and that's what my school is for basically so

241

if you would like to get involved over there I would love to have you

242

and anyway that's enough promotion I think I just wanted to say to you thank you

243

so much for watching this video once again and I'm so excited to see you in the next video bye

Descargar app

Todo lo que necesitas para hablar con fluidez

Pronunciación con IAEvalúa cada oración

Práctica de IPADomina cada sonido

VocabularioConstruye tu banco de palabras

Juego de vocabularioAprende mientras juegas

Escanea el QR

Download on theApp Store Get it onGoogle Play

Mismo canal

FOR YOU

Recomendar Video

296 oraciones

What does 'posh' actually mean in British English?

Daily ConversationWorking Adults

137 oraciones

Ep 4: How India's Diaspora Became the World's Most Powerful | Bharat Bioscope with Palki Sharma |IGR

Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults

188 oraciones

The Victorian Language of Flowers, Explained

Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults

36 oraciones

English Listening Quiz - But, Bought, Boat?

Daily ConversationHigh School StudentsUniversity Students

336 oraciones

Things to Know Before Reading Pride and Prejudice | How to Read Jane Austen for Beginners

Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults

286 oraciones

Learn Idioms & Slang With Fleabag series

Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults

13 oraciones

English in a Minute: Proud as a Peacock

Daily ConversationHigh School StudentsUniversity Students

301 oraciones

English Podcast for Learning English | How Culture Shapes Our Behaviour | English Leap Podcast

Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults

237 oraciones

Learn 21 English Slang Words Native Speakers ACTUALLY Use

TeensDaily ConversationHigh School Students

34 oraciones

Phrasal verb prepositions: ON part 02: ON means ABOUT

Daily ConversationHigh School StudentsUniversity Students

125 oraciones

Buying Things that Cost a Lot | practice English with Spotlight

Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students

60 oraciones

B1 English Listening Practice - Stereotypes

Daily ConversationHigh School StudentsUniversity Students

Vocabulario y notas de pronunciación para esta lección

Esta lección de conversación se basa en el vídeo “what does 'posh' really mean?”. Las palabras que más se repiten: posh, accent, english, somebody, modern. Este vídeo tiene 243 frases y 2907 palabras para practicar shadowing. La parte hablada dura 21:13. El hablante mantiene un ritmo constante de unas 137 palabras por minuto, cómodo para el shadowing. El 82 % de las palabras está entre las 3.000 más comunes del inglés; conviene repasar el resto antes de empezar.

Vocabulario clave de este vídeo

15 palabras del vídeo que vale la pena aprender, con su pronunciación y significado:

Palabra	Pronunciación	Significado
accent sustantivo	/ækˈsɛnt/	acento léxico
podcast sustantivo	/ˈpɑdˌkæst/	podcast, pódcast
bath sustantivo	/bɑːθ/	bañera
grass sustantivo	/ɡɹɑːs/	pasto, hierba
mansion sustantivo	/ˈmæn.ʃən/	mansión, casoplón
educate verbo	/ˈɛd͡ʒ.əˌkeɪt/	educar, instruir
extension sustantivo	/ɪkˈstɛnʃən/	extensión, extendimiento
compare verbo	/kəmˈpɛɚ/	comparar, parangonar
associate sustantivo	/əˈsoʊʃi.ət/	asociado
incredibly adverbio	/ɪŋˈkɹɛdɪbli/	increíblemente
explore verbo	/ɪkˈsploɹ/	explorar
millionaire sustantivo	/ˌmɪl.i.əˈnɛə(ɹ)/	millonario, millonaria
pronunciation sustantivo	/pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/	pronunciación
refer verbo	/ɹɪˈfɜː/	referir, remitir
whereas	/(h)wɛɹˈæz/	mientras que (locution)

Phrasal verbs que vas a escuchar

Palabra	Pronunciación	Significado
bring up verbo		levantar, alzar
get back to verbo		responder / contestar (en un rato), volver / tornar a contactar
give off verbo	/ɡɪv ɒf/	emitir, desprender
look down on verbo		menospreciar, ningunear

Frases que vale la pena repetir

Frases cortas y completas del vídeo que puedes reutilizar en la conversación diaria:

I don't care, do what you want.
I've got a bottle of water.
I have posh friends and they're lovely.

Gramática en este vídeo

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

Estructura	En el vídeo
Oraciones de relativo who / which + oración — información extra sobre una persona o cosa	somebody who is · somebody who uh · people who come
Voz pasiva be + participio pasado — importa lo que ocurre, no quién lo hace	is designed · is disputed · is contested
Present perfect have/has + participio pasado — una acción pasada que sigue importando ahora	have not done · has found · have owned
Past continuous was/were + -ing — una acción en curso en un momento del pasado	were traveling · was thinking · was living

Pronunciación a tener en cuenta

El hablante usa 61 contracciones y formas reducidas, como I'm, don't, I've. Dilas en su forma corta, tal como las oyes.

Los sonidos de “th”: bath /bɑːθ/, grandfather /ˈɡɹæn(d)ˌfɑðɚ/, thick /θɪk/
Los sonidos de “sh” y “zh”: mansion /ˈmæn.ʃən/, extension /ɪkˈstɛnʃən/, associate /əˈsoʊʃi.ət/, pronunciation /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/, promotion /pɹəˈmoʊʃn̩/
Palabras largas — cuida el acento: associate /əˈsoʊʃi.ət/, incredibly /ɪŋˈkɹɛdɪbli/, millionaire /ˌmɪl.i.əˈnɛə(ɹ)/, pronunciation /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/, necessarily /ˌnɛs.əˈsɛɹ.ə.li/

Sonidos difíciles para hispanohablantes:

s + consonante al inicio — sin añadir una “e” delante: starboard /ˈstɑː.bəd/, snooty /ˈsnuti/, stink /stɪŋk/
/v/ — no es /b/: los dientes tocan el labio inferior: privately /ˈpɹaɪvɪtli/, privilege /ˈpɹɪv.(ɪ.)lɪd͡ʒ/, dive /daɪv/, divide /dɪˈvaɪd/, viral /ˈvaɪɹəl/
/z/ — sonora, no /s/: whereas /(h)wɛɹˈæz/, translate /tɹænzˈleɪt/, designer /dɪˈzaɪnɚ/, phrase /ˈfɹeɪ̯z/, nowadays /ˈnaʊ.ə.deɪz/

Cómo practicar con este vídeo

Escucha el vídeo entero una vez sin hablar y anota las palabras que no conoces.
Haz shadowing frase por frase a velocidad normal, repitiendo cada una hasta que tu ritmo coincida con el del hablante.
Grábate y compara con el original, prestando atención a palabras como accent, podcast, bath.

¿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 →

Shadowing Practice: what does 'posh' really mean? - Learn English Speaking with Video

Elige un modo de práctica

Descargar app

my first week living in Canada

Set Up My iPad with Me | Unboxing and Tour

A Stormy Day in England | Slow English Vlog

Watching the Eclipse in Spain

Should you choose an English name? | The English Podcast

A Day in Sweden | Slow British English

pack with me to move abroad 🇨🇦

I Tried New Hobbies for a Week | Slow British English

A Day in The Lizard Village, UK

The best TV shows to learn English

Get Ready with Me for a Date | Slow British English

A Summer Weekend in Cornwall, UK

Is your Accent in English a Problem? | The English Podcast

I went to an Ancient British Festival

I stayed in a 5* hotel in London

I'm moving to Canada

The UK in Spring | Slow British English Vlog

A Day in London during the Heatwave

Can Adults Learn a New Language?

Do Extroverts Speak Better English? | The English Podcast

What does 'posh' actually mean in British English?

Ep 4: How India's Diaspora Became the World's Most Powerful | Bharat Bioscope with Palki Sharma |IGR

The Victorian Language of Flowers, Explained

English Listening Quiz - But, Bought, Boat?

Things to Know Before Reading Pride and Prejudice | How to Read Jane Austen for Beginners

Learn Idioms & Slang With Fleabag series

English in a Minute: Proud as a Peacock

English Podcast for Learning English | How Culture Shapes Our Behaviour | English Leap Podcast

Learn 21 English Slang Words Native Speakers ACTUALLY Use

Phrasal verb prepositions: ON part 02: ON means ABOUT

Buying Things that Cost a Lot | practice English with Spotlight

B1 English Listening Practice - Stereotypes

Vocabulario y notas de pronunciación para esta lección

Vocabulario clave de este vídeo

Phrasal verbs que vas a escuchar

Frases que vale la pena repetir

Gramática en este vídeo

Pronunciación a tener en cuenta

Cómo practicar con este vídeo

¿Qué es la Técnica de Shadowing?