Pratica di Shadowing: Learn Real British English in a British Town - Impara a parlare inglese con i video

Creazione lezione...
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Thank you.
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Keep the chair.
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Hi.
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Just done, please.
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I don't know what that means.
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Today, you're coming with me to learn lots of everyday English expressions as I take you around a typical town in England.
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Hi, I'm Steve.
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Let's do this.
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I'm driving into town and heading for a multi-storey car park.
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Multi-storey just means there are several levels or floors.
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On a Saturday this is free.
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But since it's Tuesday, I have to get a ticket.
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I'll just press the button to get the barrier to go up.
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I've parked on the third floor, which is also the top deck.
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I knew I'd have my pick of spaces up here.
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There's hardly a soul about it.
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But it does mean I have to take the lift down.
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Press the button to call the lift.
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I have the lift all to myself.
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You can see that there are doors on both sides in this particular lift.
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So sometimes you get in one set of doors and you go out the other way.
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I don't want level 2, so I'll hang on while the doors shut again.
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I think it's nice that they've made the lift doors look like a spaceship for the children.
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I think I have to press for my floor again.
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At last, this is me.
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Just squeeze past this chair and I'm on the ground floor.
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In the USA they'd call this the first floor, but here in England it's the ground floor.
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I've parked on the top floor
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because as you can see the ground floor is heaving which is another way of saying it's very busy.
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It's heaving.
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Let's walk past the parked cars and get outside.
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Outside, into the bitterly cold wind, I know you can't feel it, but it's perishing.
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We're in the English town of Warrington.
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Now England is divided up into 48 areas called counties and this town Warrington is in the county of Cheshire.
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And a long time ago I used to live here.
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Past these empty tables, it's far too chilly for anyone to sit outside today.
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My friend owns this cafe, Alma, so if you ever find yourself in Warrington, pop in for a quick bite.
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This postman has a tough job today, but he's well wrapped up.
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Let's have a peek in this estate agent's window.
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It's full of property, houses and flats for sale in the town.
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It's winter time at the moment and you can see all the trees have shed their leaves.
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As you can see, buses here are yellow, not the usual red.
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And they're single-deckers, not like our logo, which is a double-decker.
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I'm crossing here at the Pelican Crossing to give you the best view of Warrington's spectacular landmark.
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Wait for the beep and nip across the road.
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And here they are, the magnificent golden gates of Warrington.
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They were originally destined for a royal palace over a hundred years ago,
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but somehow they ended up here in front of the town hall and yes that is really gold on them.
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If you look carefully you can see a camera that the police watch to make sure no one pinches them.
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Now we're walking by the side of a former post office but these days it's been converted into flats.
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I had a look at buying one a few years ago.
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Now the only place left to post your letters is this red pillar box.
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Next we're heading into a little park which is called Queen's Gardens.
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because of the weather.
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I expect it will be deserted.
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But in the summer, this area is teeming with people, especially at lunchtime when they all come to sit on these benches,
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eat their sandwiches and chat.
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Here you can see the flats I was just talking about.
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Past a little white Victorian arch.
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Victorian means that it comes from the time of Queen Victoria and it's her who this park is named after.
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This statue is called a memorial.
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And it honours British soldiers who fought and died in wars around the world.
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This one is for a war in Africa that happened ages ago.
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This is a grid which drains rainwater from the road and stops it flooding.
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If you've wasted money, you can use the English expression, it's down the grid.
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Past the rubbish bin.
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There are some lovely old buildings along here that have been repurposed from homes into businesses.
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Large paintings on walls like this are called murals.
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My home city of Liverpool has tons of them.
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Now we are in a pedestrian area, which means the vehicles aren't normally allowed to drive here.
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Whilst I'm freezing my socks off, look at this guy in shorts.
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Notice how these benches are rounded, that's to stop homeless people from sleeping on them, which is really sad.
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Passing a nice couple holding hands.
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On the right is a bank.
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It's almost unusual to see actual banks these days as internet banking seems to have taken over
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and lots of high street banks have closed down.
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This store as you can see is called Poundland because until recently every single thing in there cost exactly £1.
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But because of inflation prices have crept up.
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Now lots of things for sale in there cost more than that.
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They should rename it really.
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I thought that young lady gasped because of me, but it was because of the people behind me.
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me.
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This is the town centre.
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When I first came here, this is where two main roads crossed, so this would have been full of traffic.
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Down here, and this is the scene of a tragedy.
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That happened on a Saturday afternoon in 1993.
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When ordinary people were doing their shopping, a bomb exploded, killing and injuring many.
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The bombs had exploded inside metal waste bins
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and many people running from the first explosion were caught by the blast of the second less than a minute later.
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47 people were taken to hospital, their injuries ranging from shock to severe cuts and wounds.
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This fountain was put up in memory of those terrible events.
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For people like me who were here that day, it's still etched in our minds.
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Let's get out of the cold and into the indoor market.
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You can see it's very modern and full of stalls selling everything from shoes to food.
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Past a place that sells pizza where my friend works part time.
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This place sells Korean food which I've never tried, but I really should.
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It smells delicious.
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This market has an upstairs, so let's ride up the escalator and see what's up there.
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Well Christmas is over, but there are still some Santa Clauses and Christmas trees around.
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From here you get a bird's eye view of the whole place.
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You know that this is a barber shop because it has a traditional pole outside.
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They must have bought a job lot of these slanters, there are so many.
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Let's go back down.
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There only seems to be hairdressers up here. And back outside.
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In front of us is a huge cinema.
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This type is called a multiplex because it has lots of screens and can show many movies at the same time.
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Again it's that word multi meaning many.
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I parked in a multi-storey car park which has many floors.
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This is a multiplex meaning it has lots of plexes.
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I don't know what that means.
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These metal poles are bike racks.
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They're for securing your bike if you ride into town.
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Because Christmas is over and it's January, there are sales in full swing.
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And if you want to buy something really expensive, now is the best time.
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You should strike while the iron's hot.
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As you can see, the town centre is quiet, except for the cafes which are rampacked.
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This is a betting shop which is commonly called a bookies in the UK.
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It's where you can bet money on sports like horse racing or football.
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Here is a travel agent with adverts in the window for holidays to places warm and far away.
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where you live right now.
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Over there we can see a couple of old-fashioned red telephone boxes
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but when we take a closer look I think you'll be surprised.
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No phone, but instead a defibrillator.
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A medical device for restarting people's hearts if they've stopped.
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Anyone can use these in an emergency.
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And they are really easy to use.
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Now we've come into where years ago they used to sell fish
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but now it's just a nice square where the local council sometimes puts on shows that are free to watch.
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If you've ever read the book Alice in Wonderland
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or seen the film then you'll recognize these characters and they're here
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because the author of the book Lewis Carroll used to live and work here in a local church.
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Now it's time to head back inside.
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I'm going into this shop to buy some candles to make my house feel cosy in the evenings.
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These are what I want.
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Can you just have these, love, please?
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Do you need a bag?
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Er, no, but they're in your pocket.
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Thanks.
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All right.
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Three...
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Is that just £9.99 to buy cash?
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Yeah.
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Oops.
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There you go.
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Thank you.
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Keep the chair.
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Come on, it's absolutely great.
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In the charity.
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Do you want your receipt?
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Yeah, thanks.
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Cheers, love.
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Bye-bye.
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Have a good one.
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I've got just one more thing to get before I go back to the car and that's socks.
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This is one of the cheapest department stores that there is in the UK.
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You can watch me walk around one of the more expensive ones in another video on this channel.
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Through here into the menswear department.
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Passed some t-shirts and pairs of jeans.
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Okay got them.
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And they were in the sale, so a proper bargain.
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Let's go to the checkout and pay.
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Oh blooming heck, there's a bit of a queue.
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I'll have to wait my turn.
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Typical, they only have one checkout open.
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Behind the lady you can see different types of perfume and aftershave.
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They put them there because they are so often stolen by shoplifters.
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When you buy clothes here, if it's on a clothes hanger, the shop assistants will ask if you want it,
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a hanger that is, and if you don't, they will remove the clothes from it.
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This lady just did.
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I'm going to fast forward a little so you don't have to wait with me.
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Hi, just down place. Did it work?
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Erm...
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You look frozen, love.
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It's not so warm, is it?
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It's no heat.
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Cheers, thanks.
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Bye.
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I'm thankful that I've been in the middle of a country.
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Perfect.
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Now back to the left.
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Sorry.
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I'm sorry, that's me.
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Is it going up first?
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I hope so.
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Now you're up and down.
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Yeah, I'll be living in the afternoon.
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Come back to the floor.
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Cheers.
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Click here for another great English video, and I'll see you there.

Prime impressioni: perché questo video è ottimo per parlare inglese

Questo video su una cittadina britannica è un tesoro per chi vuole imparare l'inglese con i video in modo autentico. La lingua usata è quella della vita quotidiana: espressioni colloquiali, frasi brevi e contesti reali (come il parcheggio multi-piano o il caffè di un amico) rendono il materiale immediatamente applicabile. A differenza di lessici formali, qui senti come i britannici parlano veramente, con intonazioni e pause naturali. È il perfetto companion per il shadowspeak, una tecnica efficace per migliorare la pronuncia inglese: ripetendo immediatamente dopo lo speaker, imiti non solo le parole ma anche il ritmo e l'accento.

Analizziamo nel dettaglio: 4 frasi che fanno la differenza

  • "There's hardly a soul about it": "Hardly a soul" è un modo colloquiale per dire "quasi nessuno". È più naturale di "there are very few people" e si usa spesso in contesti come spazi vuoti. Nota la pausa dopo "hardly" per enfatizzare la solitudine.
  • "The ground floor is heaving": "Heaving" significa "pieno a strappo" e trasmette l'idea di affollamento in modo vividissimo. In italiano diresti "il piano terra è pazzo", ma in inglese questa parola è più usata e colloquiale.
  • "Pop in for a quick bite": "Pop in" è un verbo phrasal informale per "entrare un attimo", mentre "quick bite" è un pasto veloce. Combinati, formano una frase che usi tutti i giorni per invitare qualcuno a un caffè o un sandwich.
  • "Nip across the road": "Nip" significa "correre velocemente" e si usa per azioni brevi. "Nip across" è perfetto per descrivere il passaggio stradale in modo naturale, invece di "cross the road quickly".

Una routine di pratica: il loop repeat-and-record per il shadow speak

Per sfruttare al massimo il video, prova questa tecnica: 1) Guarda un frammento di 5-10 secondi e ascolta attentamente l'intonazione e la pronuncia. 2) Ripeti immediatamente dopo, cercando di imitare il tono e la velocità (questo è il shadowspeaks). 3) Registrati mentre ripeti e confronta con l'originale: nota le differenze nella pronuncia di vocali (come "lift" o "floor") o nelle pause. 4) Ripeti il processo finché la tua versione è il più simile possibile. Fare questo per 10-15 minuti al giorno aiuta a internalizzare le frasi colloquiali e a migliorare la pronuncia inglese in modo concreto. Ricorda: la chiave è la costanza, non la durata!

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.

Tecnica dello shadowing: leggi la guida completa passo dopo passo →