Pratique du Shadowing: What to do when you don't understand someone in English - a British Council English podcast - Apprendre l'anglais à l'oral avec YouTube

What's your go-to strategy when you're in a place where you don't speak the language?

⏸ En pause

Vitesse :

351 phrases

Si les phrases sont trop courtes ou trop longues, cliquez sur Edit pour les ajuster.

What's your go-to strategy when you're in a place where you don't speak the language?

My strategy is kind of my strategy for life, which is just smile.

There's a way to be a foreigner in a country to ingratiate yourself.

What about what?

Nottails, that's rude.

You're listening to the British Council English Podcast,

brought to you by the world's English experts.

Perfect.

Hello, everyone.

Thank you so much for watching our English for Life podcast.

Today we're going to talk about techniques and methods

or different ways to say that you don't really understand something

and you're asking the person to repeat their sentence or their question.

I am here today with Mirage and Joe.

Thank you so much for joining us.

Thank you for having us.

All right, well, let's get into it.

Today we're going to talk about your own personal experiences.

and the first question is okay so what's your go-to strategy

when you're in a place where you don't speak the language

well my strategy is kind of my strategy for life especially

if i have any problems it is just smile a lot

and not try to be pleasant try to be helpful

and it depends on the situation

if you want to get something in a restaurant you can always point yeah you know If there's pictures, that's helpful.

Using translator, that's really helpful.

Okay, all right.

Or if you're trying to be nice to people and show that you're a nice person,

but you can't speak their language,

I try to do things for people.

So I'm looking for things that I can help them lift or looking for ways that I can...

Being really physical.

Yeah, but not in a slapstick way.

But just ways that I can be kind to people without words.

Yeah.

Okay, all right.

Yeah, I think you hit the nail on the head there, Joe.

It depends on the situation.

There isn't like, I would say for me personally, a single go-to strategy.

It really depends.

So if I'm, let's say,

in a longer conversation, or I'm thinking about my situation where I'm in Spain.

I mean, I do speak Spanish,

but there might be some concepts or things that I don't get.

So I just keep listening,

and maybe they clarify with a bit more information.

I wouldn't interrupt and say,

sorry, I don't understand at that moment.

I'll let them speak a bit more,

see what I can catch.

But I remember a time when I went to Japan and I was traveling there and I don't speak any Japanese,

just except for a few words I'd got out the guidebook and I did the same thing there.

And I was surprised by how much I could understand from railway announcements

or being in a bar and I got some of the stuff just by being patient and listening to a bit more.

really interesting even in japanese even in japanese

and i remember i had a meal with a with an elderly couple sat next to me in a bar

and they bought me a round of drinks

and i don't know how we sat with each other for over an hour eating

and drinking and i didn't speak japanese

that is amazing

so you basically don't need any techniques i don't know what

it is maybe is this i exude an energy of like

um you can just talk to me whatever language you want

and he'll kind of get it oh wow oh lovely lovely okay okay great

So can you share a time when you were in a foreign country and totally misunderstood something?

And what did you do to get out of that situation?

Should I go first?

Yeah.

Go for it.

Yeah.

Well, I've got a situation when I was in my 20s,

me and my friend, my first big traveling backpacking adventure,

we decided to travel through Europe.

And one of our stops was in Poland.

And we arrived on the train very early in the morning we hadn't slept well

because we were sleeping on the train with these big heavy backpacks

and we wanted to get to our hostel

and we had to get a tram from the train station to the hostel

and so we saw a tram just arriving at the station

so we jumped onto it

and then realized oh my god we haven't bought any tickets we couldn't find a ticket machine on the tram

or we couldn't find

and we couldn't we remember we didn't see a ticket machine outside at the tram stop

but we got on it anyway and we thought okay well we'll deal with this

when we get to the station or we might be lucky and not have to buy a ticket.

As luck would have it a ticket inspector got on at the very next stop.

I started asking everyone for their tickets and we started biting our fingernails

and he stopped when he got to us and started making a big scene.

Obviously we don't speak Polish and he made us get off the tram

and asked us for money and when we showed him that we didn't have money we had travelers checks,

all of this without speaking any Polish.

He got frustrated and asked for our passports

and only then did he realize our stories were true

that we were traveling and we kept explaining to him in english

that we were just traveling we'd come from the uk

after looking at our passports deliberating for several minutes i let them go okay all right um

but yeah we we basically had uh we did our best in english

and he didn't really understand but he kind of understood from the context

that we were traveling and all right did you try to use any gestures or facial expressions to communicate.

100

Yes, yes, yes.

101

Everything we were explaining was accompanied by gestures,

102

things like, no money, no money,

103

ticket, I'm so sorry, that kind of thing, you know.

104

Okay.

105

All right.

106

Yes, yeah, I mean, we managed to get out of it.

107

Yay.

108

Yeah, lucky for you.

109

Yes, what about you, Jo?

110

Well, yeah, I think that happens often when traveling with,

111

like, directions and things, especially for me,

112

because I'm so bad at directions.

113

Mm-hmm but i have another story

114

that i was in egypt last year at one of the markets yeah

115

and i'm so bad like i don't really understand how markets work

116

because when i see something i'm like oh my god look

117

and my husband is always like no you're supposed to pretend

118

you don't want to exactly yeah yeah like how much is this oh it's 90 euros is it really

119

and then you know i was tried to be cool

120

and like no no no you know i'll i'll walk away

121

and then of course they they follow you yeah they're like you

122

but you're not leaving the shop without buying something you love

123

that thing i don't know why you're leaving and

124

so i was offered it a little gift yeah

125

and i didn't realize you're not supposed to take the gift

126

you're shaking your head yeah oh my god thank you

127

so much

128

but you know it's it's through i'm speaking english like your strategy too i don't know what they understand

129

but still like just try to communicate in some way okay all right

130

and i took the gift and then i tried to leave

131

and then he's like what do you think you're doing leaving

132

but he you know i didn't understand him

133

but he put his body in the way of the exit so i was like oh okay clearly i'm not leaving

134

until I buy something.

135

But luckily I wasn't a woman on my own

136

because I was there with my husband

137

so they were able to leave without buying something

138

and I don't really like that sort of sales tactic so I didn't buy anything.

139

A hard sell.

140

Yeah, I bought something somewhere else.

141

So you were speaking in English when you went to Egypt.

142

Yeah.

143

And you were using facial expressions and body language.

144

Yeah, a combination of facial expressions,

145

body language, anguish, look on my face.

146

Okay.

147

Now let's just think about our viewers who are watching or listening to this podcast.

148

And let's say that English is their second language.

149

So, and let's say that someone right now,

150

or they're talking to someone and they don't really understand what that person is saying to them.

151

And they can't use English perfectly to,

152

you know, to ask that question or to say,

153

can you please repeat that question?

154

So what are some expressions or what are some sentences that they can use?

155

In English.

156

In English, yeah.

157

Yeah, I mean, asking the person to speak a bit more slowly.

158

This is a technique that I used a lot when I was learning Spanish when I was recently arrived.

159

And I got into the habit,

160

because at first I felt really embarrassed about asking people to speak slowly.

161

I thought, well, why should they speak slowly for me?

162

But then I just got into the habit of asking,

163

would you mind saying that?

164

And I always prefaced it with,

165

I'm sorry, I don't speak very good Spanish.

166

Could you please speak slower? and then they kind of took pity on me

167

and said okay well at least he said that in spanish

168

so he's trying yeah

169

and i think that's that's a key to to is it

170

something i said to to our colleagues earlier saying there's a

171

way to be a foreigner in the country to to ingratiate yourself with local people

172

so if you say

173

that you know you apologize for not being able to speak

174

their language perfectly um you get a better result absolutely absolutely I forgot the question.

175

It's okay.

176

So expressions or?

177

Oh, yeah.

178

Yeah.

179

What I learned as well,

180

because I have also lived in different countries where I'm learning the language.

181

And one of my top tips is not just to ask them to repeat,

182

but to say from where,

183

because if you don't say from where,

184

people tend to repeat everything.

185

And it's so nice of them,

186

but it's sometimes like a waste of time.

187

So if I say, I didn't understand the part after,

188

or what did you say about X?

189

So that they can repeat just the relevant part,

190

the part that you didn't understand.

191

And then it eases communication.

192

It's not so, you know, stilted.

193

It's not so hard on the person who's trying to speak to you

194

or on you who's trying to speak in a different language

195

and it also shows them that you are you're actively listening

196

and you want to understand and you're making the effort

197

and you just want you did not understand or didn't get that last part

198

wonderful okay um next question ever mispronounced something in another language

199

and it led to a funny situation now i'm gonna start off with my example i was in spain

200

and i instead of saying uh buenas noches i said bonas nachos

201

and you live in spain right and you guys and i think

202

that

203

that is did you get off a nice cold a glass

204

of beer afterwards no i just i was just laughed at

205

but that was okay

206

and what about you guys okay i guess i guess nachos is just a word that's in your head yeah

207

so just nachos and nachos yeah they sound

208

so similar don't they yeah my story is kind of similar to

209

that because i was in italy where i live now

210

and i wanted to order pancakes with maple syrup

211

and the word for syrup in italian is shiroppo

212

but i'd never said that word before i only read it on menus

213

and so instead a word that i was familiar with came out which was shopper which Italian speakers,

214

if you're listening, will be laughing right now because siopro means strike,

215

like to go on protest and not work.

216

Okay.

217

So I asked for the waiter,

218

the worker at the restaurant,

219

if I could have my pancakes with no work,

220

basically telling him to go on strike.

221

Like, pancakes con siopro.

222

And he went, okay.

223

And he's like, siopro, siroppo.

224

And he left the restaurant.

225

Yeah, he left the restaurant.

226

I did not get my pancakes.

227

No, no. I think they're similar enough that he understood.

228

He was like, okay, this is a foreigner.

229

Okay, I'm not going to make her feel bad.

230

So I did get my pancakes.

231

It's funny, your story was about work because my experience of messing up a word or mangling the language was,

232

again, it was Spanish.

233

And it was quite early on and I was translating a lot of English directly into Spanish.

234

I think what a lot of people do is very natural when you're learning a language to translate word for word.

235

And so where I was living,

236

the building, the lift had broken

237

and I was waiting around at the bottom of the lift and the neighbor passed me and said, what's up?

238

I said, because in English,

239

when we say something's not working,

240

we use the word work,

241

whereas in Spanish, they don't use the word work,

242

they use function, something doesn't function.

243

And so I literally translated, this doesn't work.

244

And he said, yes, because it's a Sunday today,

245

making a joke, you know,

246

and I just didn't get it at the time.

247

I thought, why is he making jokes with me about this?

248

The lift doesn't work.

249

I'm going to have to climb up six floors.

250

Then later it dawned on me,

251

some languages just use a completely different word.

252

yeah okay well um we're going to also we're going to do like a mini game right now okay

253

so i'm gonna ask you a couple of questions

254

or say a couple of expressions actually and you need to decide

255

if it's a rude way to ask someone to say something again

256

or if it's chill and acceptable okay so for example let's start with

257

and this is you can play with us

258

and you can comment um all right so what about could you say

259

that again please very polite acceptable acceptable in practically every situation

260

yeah very polite yeah what about huh huh not chill yeah yeah you definitely don't want to say

261

that to people who you don't know it's a bit it's

262

a bit rude could be it could even be a bit aggressive

263

absolutely yeah yeah yeah okay what about say that again

264

i think it depends again on how well you know a person maybe

265

but yeah i probably wouldn't say that to many people

266

but then why because the words say

267

that again you're asking someone to repeat something okay yeah it's too direct

268

and it's like a command right

269

and in english we generally don't tend to use commands especially

270

with people we don't know we tend to use indirect questions

271

or just like uh you know could you say that again please would be more likely okay what about pardon

272

um that's that's something you hear all the time especially in

273

british english pardon um a little bit old-fashioned i don't use it myself

274

but i was gonna say i don't use it but i I thought that's because I'm Irish.

275

Irish.

276

Yeah, I think it's old-fashioned.

277

I think it's not as common as it once used to be.

278

Yeah, it's true.

279

I certainly don't use it.

280

When I want somebody to repeat, I'd say sorry.

281

Sorry.

282

Standard thing, but it's acceptable and it's very polite, yeah.

283

Okay, okay.

284

We have two more.

285

What about what?

286

Nuttails.

287

That's rude.

288

Yeah.

289

I'm always teaching my students about not saying what

290

because they translate directly for Spanish where the word is acceptable to get somebody to repeat

291

or como and then they think it's what

292

and I have to keep telling you'd only say that

293

if you're very close to the person you know them very well you know family member

294

or a close friend you say what what did you say it's short for what did you say what

295

but with somebody you don't know

296

or maybe somebody who you should give some respect to like a teacher

297

or a boss you wouldn't use the word what isn't this really interesting though

298

because we know these rules these you can't find these rules

299

in a certain book maybe you can find them online of course you can find them online

300

but it's the fact that we know that it's impolite to say what

301

or how cultural information exactly exactly these rules unwritten rules of cultural communication yeah

302

because if you're learning a language and let's say

303

that again then you know you should be able to say it

304

and have the person repeat themselves but it's not really polite

305

so why do people get it into their minds that it's acceptable to say what

306

because it we often hear learners saying what inappropriately right i

307

don't know in your experience also yeah it's the same with italian they say cosa

308

but it's just like what as well

309

so they would automatically say what do you think they're translating

310

or maybe they've seen it or heard it in some other place in English and they're using that experience?

311

I think they're using something that's more similar to their first language.

312

But also, I think, I don't know,

313

I may be wrong, but I feel like you see it in films.

314

Maybe it's a more American thing.

315

Maybe social media as well has an impact.

316

They're seeing the usage of what on TikTok and media where the kind of style of talking is very personal.

317

Yeah.

318

one more sorry I missed that can you repeat it

319

very good nice it's very elegant yeah it's that one

320

do you have any other expressions that our viewers and listeners can use

321

so we did can you say that again please yeah sorry I missed it anything else what about

322

excuse me could you repeat that

323

do you like that one you could say that

324

but i don't know how often i would actually say

325

that could you repeat that the whole phrase i'd say

326

so it's not really natural

327

or very natural to say it's quite formal yeah um would you mind saying

328

that again again it's it's a bit more formal

329

but um i have used it in the past uh would you mind saying that again maybe maybe over the telephone

330

maybe what was that last bit again yeah that

331

that is really nice yes exactly and there's also uh another technique

332

that we were talking about in your house uh off camera

333

yeah yeah uh where you recap what you've understood yeah okay

334

so um yeah you interject at the correct moment

335

if somebody's telling you a long story and you want to check

336

that you've understood before they go on a bit more and

337

so you just say so if I understood correctly

338

and then you tell them the main details a bit of

339

summary of what they've said just to get confirmation from them

340

that you've understood the key details I use that a lot when I'm following a long story in in Spanish

341

and it's also a great way to show

342

that you're listening actively again participating in the conversation all right well thank you guys

343

so much thank you Niraj thank you Joe for being a

344

part of today's podcast thank you um thank you our viewers uh for tuning in

345

and for watching this uh podcast if you're watching it on youtube

346

or if you're listening on spotify make sure to like this video subscribe

347

and we have lots of uh new content coming out every week

348

or so

349

so um make sure you subscribe to watch all of it

350

bye bye bye thanks for listening we really care about your english

351

so if you like this episode make sure you subscribe because we've got lots more great content for you to explore

TRENDING

Populaires

Qu'est-ce que la technique du Shadowing ?

Le Shadowing est une technique d'apprentissage des langues fondée sur la science, développée à l'origine pour la formation des interprètes professionnels. Le principe est simple mais puissant : vous écoutez de l'anglais natif et le répétez immédiatement à voix haute — comme une ombre suivant le locuteur avec un décalage de 1 à 2 secondes. Les recherches montrent une amélioration significative de la précision de la prononciation, de l'intonation, du rythme, des liaisons, de la compréhension orale et de la fluidité.

☕ Offrez-nous un café

ShadowingEnglish reste 100% gratuit grâce à votre soutien. Les coûts des serveurs et de l'IA sont élevés — votre café nous aide à continuer ! 🙏

Faire un don via PayPal

ShadowingEnglish.com – Pratique du Shadowing en Anglais

Parlez anglais couramment grâce au Shadowing. Écoutez des vidéos YouTube de locuteurs natifs, répétez phrase par phrase et développez une vraie prononciation et fluidité — utilisé par les candidats IELTS du monde entier.

Pratique du Shadowing: What to do when you don't understand someone in English - a British Council English podcast - Apprendre l'anglais à l'oral avec YouTube

Populaires

Why practice speaking with this video?

Grammar & Expressions in Context

Common Pronunciation Traps

Qu'est-ce que la technique du Shadowing ?

Pratique du Shadowing: What to do when you don't understand someone in English - a British Council English podcast - Apprendre l'anglais à l'oral avec YouTube

Télécharger l'application

Why practice speaking with this video?

Grammar & Expressions in Context

Common Pronunciation Traps

Qu'est-ce que la technique du Shadowing ?