Pratica di Shadowing: 2.04d Meddling Mother-In-Law Vocab - Effortless Original English - Impara a parlare inglese con i video

Creazione lezione...
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Okay, welcome to the first Dear Abby letter.
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And this one is called Meddling Mother-in-Law.
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Let's get started.
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This is the vocabulary lesson for Meddling Mother-in-Law, Dear Abby.
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Okay, Meddling Mother-in-Law.
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Meddling, what does meddling mean?
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Meddling means to interfere or to cause a problem for somebody else.
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It means you get involved with another person's life when you shouldn't.
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So, for example, the mother-in-law is causing problems for the wife.
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She's doing things the wife should be doing.
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She's causing problems for the wife's life.
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She's interfering.
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She's sticking, we say sticking her nose in, sticking her nose in.
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It means she shouldn't be worried about this.
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She shouldn't be doing something, but she does it anyway.
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So it's a meddling mother-in-law.
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Mother-in-law, of course, means the mother of your husband or wife.
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In this case, mother of the husband. So it's about laundry.
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So the mother-in-law is doing the wife's laundry, right?
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This is none of her business.
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She should not be doing the wife's laundry.
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It's not her own laundry.
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Since it's not her own laundry, she's meddling.
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She's meddling with the wife.
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She's interfering with the wife.
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She's doing things.
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She's doing the wife's job.
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Okay.
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And the title says, Wife Ready to Wash Her Hands of Meddling Mother-in-Law.
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Okay.
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That's another common phrase, to wash her hands of or to wash your hands of.
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To wash your hands of something or to wash your hands of somebody means you're totally finished with them.
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You will never do anything for them again.
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You will never talk to them again.
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You don't want to deal with them at all.
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You're totally finished with them.
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So wash her hands of mother-in-law means the wife is ready to completely forget the mother-in-law,
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break her relationship, not talk to her anymore, not see her anymore, nothing.
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She wants to wash her hands of the mother-in-law.
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You could say maybe you're tired of English, right?
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You're sick of English.
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You say, I wash my hands of English.
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It means you will never study English again.
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You're totally sick of English, you will never do it again, never speak it again, never study it again.
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Hopefully, that's not true.
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Don't wash your hands of English.
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Okay, wife ready to wash her hands of meddling mother-in-law.
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And then down in the first sentence is Dear Abby, the first line.
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It says, the mother-in-law is doing my laundry.
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Laundry means dirty clothes, right?
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Laundry, dirty clothes that need to be washed.
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So, if you do the laundry or do my laundry or do your laundry, It means you wash your dirty clothes.
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So doing the laundry means washing clothes.
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So the mother-in-law is washing the wife's family's clothes.
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And she said it started when she was on bed rest.
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That's a common phrase.
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To be on bed rest.
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To be on bed rest.
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It's a phrase.
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You have to learn the whole phrase.
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To be on bed rest means you must rest in your bed all day.
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You must stay in bed all day.
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Usually because you're sick or you have some physical problem, some problem with your body, the doctor says, you need to be on bed rest.
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It means the doctor tells you, stay in bed, rest in your bed all day.
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That's what on bed rest means.
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And she was on bed rest due to her pregnancy.
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Due to means because.
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So that little phrase, two word phrase, due to her pregnancy.
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means because of her pregnancy.
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Due to means because or because of.
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So she was on bed rest.
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Her doctor said, you're pregnant.
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You need to stay in bed and rest.
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You're on bed rest.
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Okay.
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She said she didn't mind her mother-in-law would do an occasional load to help her out.
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A load means an amount.
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A load is an amount.
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In this case, a load of laundry, it means it's the amount of clothes you put into the washer, right?
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So if you have some clothes, you put one group of clothes into the washing machine.
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That is one load of laundry.
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After you wash it, maybe you have more dirty clothes.
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You put more clothes in the washing machine.
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That's your second load, right?
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Load number two.
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If you have more clothes after that, you put another one in.
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Now you have three loads of laundry.
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So it's the amount of laundry that goes into the washing machine at one time.
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That's a load of laundry.
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But then the wife said, I didn't mind that, but now she does it anytime she's over to watch the kids.
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So when she's over to watch the kids, when she's over means when she's visiting.
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We say, hey, come over to my house.
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Come over to my house means visit my house.
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So if the mother-in-law says she's over to watch the kids, it means she's visiting to watch the kids, to help watch the kids.
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So come over or to be over means to visit.
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Okay, and then the woman says, I'm very picky about my laundry.
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Picky, that's with a CK sound, kuh, picky.
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But don't say piggy with a G, then that's a little animal, right?
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Don't say that.
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You have to say picky with a strong K sound, picky.
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She's very picky about her laundry.
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It means she has very, very specific ideas about how to do laundry.
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It means the laundry must be perfect, must be done exactly one way.
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So, for example, if I am picky about food, it means I will only eat certain kinds of food.
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The food must be exactly like I want it.
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Let's say I'm picky about spaghetti.
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If they bring some spaghetti, some noodles, right?
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And I eat it and I say, oh, this noodle, it's too hard.
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It's too hard.
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And then the restaurant brings me more noodles.
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And I say, oh, these noodles are too soft.
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And then they bring me more noodles.
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I say, these noodles are too hot.
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And then they bring me more.
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These noodles are too cold.
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Okay, it means I am very, very picky, right, about noodles.
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The noodles must be perfect for me.
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It means they must be one way only.
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They must be exactly how I want them.
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That means I am very picky about noodles.
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If I say, oh, I don't care, hard or soft, hot or cold, I don't care, doesn't matter, then I'm not picky.
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Okay, this woman is picky about her laundry.
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It must be washed exactly like she wants it, a certain way.
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Maybe all the white clothes together, all the red clothes together, all the dark clothes together.
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It must be this way.
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She's very picky.
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All right, and then in the next little paragraph of the letter, she says, one time I told her not to do the laundry because I wasn't done sorting it.
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to sort, S-O-R-T, to sort means to organize.
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So it means you have a group of things and you separate them and organize.
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So separate and organize equals sort.
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Okay, separating plus organizing, both.
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So you can imagine with clothes, you have a big group of clothes, a lot of clothes, a load of clothes.
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And you look at them, you say, oh, this is a red one, and you put it to the left.
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And oh, this is a black one, you put it to the right.
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And oh, this is white, and you put it in another pile.
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You are sorting them, right?
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You're sorting them by color.
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The white ones together, the red ones together, the black ones together, etc. So that means you're sorting,
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you're separating them and you're organizing them.
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That's to sort.
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You can sort by size.
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All the big ones on the left side, all the small ones on the right side, separating and organizing by size.
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Usually with laundry, we sort by color.
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All right.
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And then she said, my mother-in-law took it upon herself to do the laundry anyway, to take it upon yourself or take it upon herself,
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take it upon himself.
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It means you decide to do something without asking.
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You don't ask permission.
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You don't ask if it's okay.
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You just do it yourself without asking.
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So she took it herself.
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She took it upon herself to do the laundry.
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It means she did the laundry.
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She decided to do the laundry, but she never asked the wife, is it okay?
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Is it okay?
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Can I do the laundry?
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Can I do your laundry?
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She never did that.
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She just decided and she did it.
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She took it upon herself without asking.
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And then the wife says the mother-in-law is very strong-willed.
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Strong-willed means a very strong mind.
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It means you make a strong decision.
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When you decide to do something, you won't change your mind.
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Nobody can change your decision.
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So if I decide I will eat pizza tonight and maybe you want to eat hamburgers and you say,
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no, no, AJ, let's eat hamburgers.
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I say, no, pizza.
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You say, please, come on, maybe let's eat something else.
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Maybe we can eat Italian.
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I say, okay, but only pizza.
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And you say, well, how about spaghetti?
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And I say, no, pizza, pizza, pizza, only pizza.
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Right?
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I will not change.
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I will not change my mind.
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I am strong-willed.
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We sometimes say stubborn.
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Stubborn is another word that's very similar.
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Stubborn or strong-willed.
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All right.
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And the next sentence, she says, the mother-in-law does not respect our parenting.
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Our parenting.
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Parenting, what does that mean?
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Parenting means how you take care of your children.
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The rules you have for your children, how you punish them, how you teach them, all of that.
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raising a child, we call that parenting.
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You can use it as a verb, to parent.
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And it can also be a noun, parenting.
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So she's saying the mother-in-law does not respect their parenting.
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It means the mother-in-law does not respect their rules with the children, their rules for the children.
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She does not respect how they teach their children.
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So the mother-in-law does not respect that.
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She does not follow their rules.
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Okay, and then finally, the mother-in-law often takes things the wrong way.
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To take something the wrong way means to misunderstand it, usually in a negative way.
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For example, if you say, AJ, don't take this the wrong way,
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but your English class is a little boring.
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right?
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And then I get angry.
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What?
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What?
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Why are you criticizing me?
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Why do you hate me?
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Right?
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I take it the wrong way.
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You don't hate me.
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You don't want to be bad to me.
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You're just suggesting something politely.
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But I get angry.
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I misunderstand, right?
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I don't understand what you're telling me.
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I decide that you hate me.
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I take it the wrong way.
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So she's worried, this wife is worried, if she says something to the mother-in-law, if she says, please don't do my laundry,
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she's afraid the mother-in-law will take it the wrong way.
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The mother-in-law will think she's attacking her.
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She's criticizing her.
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She doesn't like her, She will have a negative idea.
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She will take it the wrong way.
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She doesn't want the mother-in-law to take it the wrong way.
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Okay, that is all of the vocabulary for this Dear Abby letter.
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I like the Dear Abby letters because they're very short, but they have a lot of idioms, a lot of common conversational phrases,
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a lot of phrases you never see in textbooks or learn in school.
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but we use them every day in speech.
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So learn them.
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See you next time.
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Bye-bye.

Contesto e Sfondo

Questo video di apprendimento dell'inglese si concentra su una lettera di "Dear Abby", intitolata "Meddling Mother-in-Law" (La suocera che si intromette). In questo contesto, il discorso si sviluppa attorno alle dinamiche familiari e ai conflitti che possono sorgere quando i membri della famiglia, in particolare le suocere, si intromettono nella vita quotidiana di una coppia. La suocera, in questo caso, interferisce con le faccende domestiche, causando tensioni e malintesi. Questo materiale non solo migliora il vocabolario, ma offre anche uno spunto per riflessioni sulle relazioni familiari e sull’importanza del rispetto della privacy.

Le 5 Frasi Chiave per la Comunicazione Quotidiana

  • Meddling - Interferire o causare problemi ad un'altra persona.
  • Sticking your nose in - Intromettersi in questioni che non ti riguardano.
  • Wash your hands of - Rimuoversi completamente da una situazione o da una persona.
  • Doing someone’s laundry - Fare le faccende di qualcun altro, in questo caso specifico, il bucato.
  • None of her business - Non è affar suo; una frase per esprimere che qualcuno non dovrebbe occuparsi di qualcosa.

Guida Passo-passo al Shadowing

Per migliorare le tue abilità di shadow speech attraverso questo video, segui questi passaggi:

  1. Ascolta attentamente - Prima di tutto, ascolta il video senza scrivere nulla. Concentrati sul ritmo e sull'intonazione del parlante.
  2. Ripeti in tempo reale - Usa la tecnica del shadowspeak ripetendo le frasi mentre le ascolti, cercando di imitare il tono e la pronuncia.
  3. Pausa e riascolta - Metti in pausa il video dopo ogni frase chiave e ripeti a voce alta, assicurandoti di comprendere ogni termine.
  4. Scrivi le frasi - Annotare le frasi chiave ti aiuterà a memorizzarle e a riconoscerle più facilmente nella conversazione reale.
  5. Pratica di conversazione in inglese - Integra queste frasi in conversazioni quotidiane con amici o tutor, utilizzando un shadowing site per ulteriori esercizi di live shadowing.

Combinando l'ascolto attivo con la pratica della shadow speak, potrai migliorare notevolmente le tue abilità comunicative in inglese e affrontare con più sicurezza le interazioni quotidiane.

Cos'è la tecnica dello Shadowing?

Shadowing è una tecnica di apprendimento delle lingue supportata da studi scientifici, originariamente sviluppata per la formazione dei traduttori professionisti e resa popolare dal poliglotta Dr. Alexander Arguelles. Il metodo è semplice ma potente: ascolti un audio in inglese di madrelingua e lo ripeti immediatamente ad alta voce — come un'ombra che segue il parlante con un ritardo di solo 1–2 secondi. A differenza dell'ascolto passivo o degli esercizi di grammatica, lo shadowing costringe il tuo cervello e i muscoli della bocca a elaborare e riprodurre simultaneamente i modelli di discorso reale. La ricerca dimostra che migliora significativamente la precisione della pronuncia, l'intonazione, il ritmo, il discorso connesso, la comprensione dell'ascolto e la fluidità del parlato — rendendolo uno dei metodi più efficaci per la preparazione alla prova di speaking dell'IELTS e per la comunicazione reale in inglese.