Shadowing Practice: I Left The U.S. For Japan — Here's How Much It Costs - Learn English Speaking with Video
בחר מצב תרגול
כל מצב פותח חדר תרגול במסך מלא.
119 משפטים
אם המשפטים קצרים או ארוכים מדי, לחץ על ערוך כדי להתאים אותם.
1
When I landed in Tokyo for the first time, something about it felt right.
2
What surprised me the most about the cost of living in Japan is being able to afford everything on my own.
3
What's a Japanese 7-Eleven without a giant variety of cup ramen?
4
That's like 80 cents.
5
I mean, I'm living alone.
6
Like, I've never been able to live alone.
7
That was my dream.
8
Welcome to my Japanese apartment.
9
Hello.
10
There's a lot of space out here.
11
I just don't really know what to do with it.
12
It's too hot to go outside.
13
No. I'm Ashley Peters.
14
I'm 23 years old, and I moved to Tokyo, Japan in January, 2025.
15
Shibuya.
16
Currently, I live in Kanagawa.
17
My city is Nakahara.
18
From Shibuya, it's about a 15-minute train ride.
19
So it's really close to the center of Tokyo.
20
I grew up in Irvine, California, in Southern California.
21
Until high school, I never really had interest in travel at all, actually.
22
I thought that I wanted to stay in America my entire life.
23
Going abroad didn't even occur to me until after I graduated college, and I found that I could become an English teacher in Japan.
24
I saw a TikTok, I looked up teaching English in Japan, and then I applied to the first one that I saw.
25
And that same weekend I interviewed, and then a week after, I got the job.
26
My mom actually helped me move to Japan.
27
She said she wants to go home, we just got here.
28
I was working as an English teacher from February to August.
29
I was making 277,000 yen a month.
30
The hours were a little difficult, and then I quit.
31
Now I'm doing social media content for a language app.
32
I'm also working as a digital marketing assistant as a freelancer.
33
So right now we're in Shibuya, and we're on top of this building called the Yashira Park.
34
And my favorite Starbucks is here.
35
Ta-da!
36
For the social media content with the language app, I make $175 a week, so $700 a month.
37
For the digital marketing assistant, I make $25 an hour.
38
It ranges from 10 hours to 20 hours a week.
39
In California, I was living in a one bedroom apartment with my boyfriend
40
and I believe our rent was close to $2,800 split between the two of us.
41
But in Japan, I pay 74,460 yen a month.
42
Welcome to my Japanese apartment.
43
There's no stove, but that's okay.
44
I have an electric stove right.
45
Here in Japan, you need to separate your trash.
46
So I bought this thing from Amazon to separate all of my trash.
47
Very convenient.
48
I can only take cardboard boxes out on Saturdays, and it's Thursday.
49
So these boxes will be in my apartment for two more days, and I can't do anything about it.
50
Bathroom area.
51
Their bathrooms always include a bath because it is very prominent in Japanese culture to take a hot bath every single night.
52
Next is my separate toilet from the sink.
53
Laundry machine right here.
54
I installed a pole to hang dry since it's really uncommon for Japanese apartments to have dryers.
55
Next, coming through my sliding doors is the living area.
56
If you follow me to the balcony.
57
Something that is different in Japan I'm not used to.
58
Metal panels for blocking out sunlight since Japanese summers are extremely hot.
59
And then my favorite part of the apartment, the reason that I bought it, was because of the tatami room.
60
Usually these rooms are used for tea ceremonies, but I wanted to feel like I was living the Japanese anime life, so I put my bed in here.
61
For electricity, it depends on the season.
62
In the winter, I was paying like 1,500 yen, but now it's closer to 5,000 yen.
63
For gas, I pay 1,200 yen a month.
64
For Wi-Fi, I pay around 5,910 yen a month.
65
In California, I budget tracked like crazy.
66
I literally wrote down every single expense.
67
I would limit how often I eat out.
68
Sometimes I avoid, I didn't like, I'm not gonna say, I just like don't eat because I didn't want to pay.
69
But here, if I'm hungry, like I just eat.
70
Salmon, avocado, onions, mayo.
71
Limited area special.
72
Salty pork ribs and tuna.
73
Another thing that I really like about living in Japan is the convenience store culture.
74
They have packaged chicken and produce.
75
Now we're at one of the most popular convenience stores in Japan, which is none other than 7-Eleven.
76
What's a Japanese 7-Eleven without a giant variety of cup ramen?
77
Most of these sandwiches range from $2.50 and anywhere to $4.10.
78
You can really make an entire meal just off of convenience store foods.
79
Okay, here's everything that we got from 7-Eleven.
80
So, first things first, onigiri,
81
protein shake, chocolate, bread, piccati sweat to stay hydrated with electrolytes.
82
And I got all of this for $5.95.
83
Pretty good haul if I do say so myself.
84
I would say it's really safe in Japan.
85
When I was working late nights, I would go to the gym after I got home from work.
86
So there's multiple nights that I would get home around 1 a.m.
87
Especially as a woman, I would never do that back home in California.
88
But it's a really safe area where I live.
89
One of the biggest challenges moving here is definitely the language barrier and also adjusting to the difference in bureaucracy.
90
And because I don't speak Japanese and because they're using really specific Japanese words, it makes it really difficult to communicate situations, especially since I left my job.
91
There's also procedures for that.
92
They don't like to leave the mail outside your door if you're not home, but because I don't speak Japanese, it's difficult.
93
There's a lot of procedures for getting a bank account in Japan.
94
Thankfully, my company settled that for me, but there's been already multiple times where like I'll type in my pin code wrong two times
95
and then unless I go to the bank in person
96
and I ask them to fix it I just can't use my card.
97
I'm currently in that situation I haven't been able to pull out cash for like two months
98
because I just don't want to go to the bank because I'm scared.
99
Doctors appointments too.
100
There was a time that I needed to schedule an online phone call with a doctor
101
but that didn't go well because we couldn't understand each other so I just didn't get the medicine.
102
Just a lot of there's actually a lot.
103
Maybe some differences between here and the United States.
104
Bullet points.
105
I rely on AI a lot actually to help me navigate through the language barrier in situations like this
106
and making friends and asking them for help.
107
So there has been times where I've had my Japanese friends like call my phone carrier or call my bank for me.
108
I don't know, I think I just like living here enough to deal with it.
109
Also because it kind of motivates me to learn the language more.
110
When I was working full-time, I never had the time to do that.
111
And now that I have flexible jobs, I can study the language more.
112
My social life here is definitely less than when I was in America, just because it is a little harder to make friends.
113
You have to really go out of your way.
114
And I'm extroverted, so it's okay,
115
but it gets tiring here because I can afford my rent and I can afford living by myself.
116
It's a lot easier to pursue things that I'm interested in, like studying the language and doing my own content, when I'm not constantly worried about, okay, how am I going to pay rent next month?
117
Now that I'm here, I'm just trying to appreciate every single day that I'm here, because unless you're a permanent resident, you kind of have to keep renewing your visa.
118
And I think in the long term, I don't want to keep dealing with those bureaucratic processes, especially since I mentioned that it's really difficult to do if you don't speak the language.
119
That's why I just want to enjoy every single day while I'm here.
הורד אפליקציה
כל מה שאתה צריך כדי לדבר בשטף
הגיית AIציון לכל משפט
תרגול IPAשלוט בכל צליל
אוצר מיליםבנה את מאגר המילים שלך
משחק אוצר מיליםלמד תוך כדי משחק
אותו ערוץ
B21
How I Retired Early At 49 With $1.3 Million In Ohio
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B21
How AI Is Ruining Job Interviews
Interview EnglishWorking Adults
B21
My Pumpkin Farm Brings In $2 Million In Only 7 Weeks
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B21
Crumbl: How We Built A Cookie Company That Brings In $1 Billion A Year
Business EnglishDaily ConversationWorking Adults
B24
I Quit My $250K Tech Job — Now I Make $33K Selling Matcha
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B21
Why Brands Are Getting So Weird Online
Business EnglishWorking Adults
B26
Is Renting Better Than Buying In The U.S.?
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B13
I Left The U.S. For Shenzhen, China – Here's How Much It Costs
Travel EnglishDaily ConversationWorking Adults
B24
How Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream Is Taking Over One Scoop At A Time
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B23
Why Finland And Denmark Are Happier Than The U.S.
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B2Living On $210K A Year In NYC | Millennial Money
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
FOR YOU
המלץ על סרטון
B21,486
25 משפטים
My First Month Living Abroad
American AccentTravel EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B26
156 משפטים
Where's the Best Place to Live in Japan? City vs. Countryside
Travel EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B1245
29 משפטים
Back from Japan: Telling a Friend About My Trip
American AccentBritish AccentTravel EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B21
650 משפטים
I Drove 10,000 Miles Around America Alone | Part 1
Travel EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B21
146 משפטים
【English Podcast】Is a College Degree Still Worth It? — 4 Things to Consider
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B15
40 משפטים
How much does it cost to live in America? 在美国生活，一天花多少钱？
American AccentTravel EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B27
114 משפטים
How I Make a Living as a Minimalist without a 9 to 5 job
American AccentBusiness EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B21
251 משפטים
I Tried Living in the Happiest City in the World
Travel EnglishDaily ConversationWorking Adults
B119
74 משפטים
Tokyo Home | Inside Today's Modern Traditional Japanese House
Travel EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B285 משפטים
就活解禁の３月「超売り手市場」で就活生×採用側のニーズは【ぎゅっと】（2026年3月2日OA）
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B21
114 משפטים
I moved to NYC for a software engineer job...
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B25
152 משפטים
Moving to Tokyo alone for Medical School | UK to Japan
Travel EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “I Left The U.S. For Japan — Here's How Much It Costs”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: Japanese, Japan, language, month, yen. This video has 119 sentences and 1368 words to shadow. The speech runs for 9:43. The speaker talks at a steady 141 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. Only 80% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.
Key vocabulary in this video
The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| convenience noun | /kənˈvinjəns/ | The quality of being convenient. |
| ramen noun | /ˈɹɑːmən/ | Soup noodles of wheat, with various ingredients (Japanese-Chinese style). |
| stove noun | /stoʊv/ | A heater, a closed apparatus to burn fuel for the warming of a room. |
| barrier noun | /ˈbæɹi.ə/ | A structure that bars passage. |
| avocado noun | /ˌɑvəˈkɑdoʊ/ | The large, usually yellowish-green or black, savory fruit of the avocado tree. |
| bureaucratic adjective | /ˌbjʊəɹəˈkɹætɪk/ | Of or pertaining to bureaucracy or the actions of bureaucrats. |
| electrolyte noun | /ɪˈlɛk.tɹəˌlaɪt/ | A substance that, in solution or when molten, ionizes and conducts electricity. |
| extroverted adjective | /ˈɛkstɹəˌvəɹtɪd/ | Turned or thrust outwards, especially |
| freelancer noun | /ˈfɹiˌlæn.səɹ/ | Someone who freelances. |
| hydrate noun | /haɪˈdɹeɪt/ | A solid compound containing or linked to water molecules. |
| onigiri noun | /ˌoʊ.nɪˈɡɪɹ.i/ | A Japanese food made by putting ingredients into white rice, wrapping the outside with laver, and shaping it into a triangle. |
| tatami noun | /təˈtɑːmi/ | Straw matting, in a standard size, used as a floor covering in Japanese houses. |
| dryer noun | /ˈdɹaɪɚ/ | One who, or that which, dries; any device or facility employed to remove water or humidity, e.g. a desiccative |
| bureaucracy noun | /bjʊˈɹɑ.kɹə.si/ | Government by bureaus or their administrators or officers. |
| rib noun | /ɹɪb/ | Any of a series of long curved bones occurring in 12 pairs in humans and other animals and extending from the spine to or toward the sternum. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| come through verb | To come into a room or other space through a door or passageway. | |
| look up verb | /ˌlʊk ˈʌp/ | To have better prospects. |
| pull out verb | To withdraw; especially of military forces; to retreat. | |
| write down verb | To produce or set (something) down in writing; to record something. |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 45 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, don't, didn't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- Long words — get the stress right: avocado /ˌɑvəˈkɑdoʊ/, bureaucratic /ˌbjʊəɹəˈkɹætɪk/, electrolyte /ɪˈlɛk.tɹəˌlaɪt/, extroverted /ˈɛkstɹəˌvəɹtɪd/, onigiri /ˌoʊ.nɪˈɡɪɹ.i/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Shadow it sentence by sentence at normal speed, repeating each one until your rhythm matches the speaker.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like convenience, ramen, stove.
מהי טכניקת השאדואינג?
שאדואינג היא טכניקת למידת שפה מבוססת מדע שפותחה במקור להכשרת מתורגמנים מקצועיים ופופולרית על ידי הפוליגלוט ד"ר אלכסנדר ארגואלס. השיטה פשוטה אך עוצמתית: אתה מקשיב לאודיו באנגלית ילידית וחוזר עליו בקול רם מיד — כמו צל העוקב אחרי הדובר עם עיכוב של 1–2 שניות בלבד. בניגוד להאזנה פסיבית או תרגילי דקדוק, שאדואינג מכריח את המוח והשרירים בפה לעבד ולשחזר דפוסי דיבור אמיתיים בו זמנית. מחקרים מראים שזה משפר משמעותית את דיוק ההגייה, האינטונציה, הקצב, הדיבור המחובר, הבנת השמיעה ושטף הדיבור — מה שהופך אותו לאחת השיטות היעילות ביותר להכנה לIELTS Speaking ולתקשורת באנגלית בעולם האמיתי.