Shadowing Practice: English Listening Practice #1 - Real Native Conversation (B2-C1) - Learn English Speaking with Video
Les maken...
1
Good morning, good afternoon and good evening.
2
Welcome to a very different setup.
3
Today we're doing something a little bit different.
4
We're just going to have a chat.
5
We're not going to try to be clear.
6
We're going to talk to each other exactly as we would in a kitchen.
7
We've got a random question generator.
8
We're going to ask each other some questions, have a bit of a chat, have a bit of a laugh.
9
Exactly, because so many of our students say, you are so clear when you teach me but as soon as I try to listen to real people having a conversation,
10
I don't understand it.
11
So we're going to have a really real conversation and we will, if we say anything a bit strange or a bit different, it will come up on the screen,
12
I'll tell you what it means and hopefully this will be a really good way for you to practice your listening.
13
So we'll see you on the other side.
14
Bez, how you been?
15
How was your Christmas?
16
You were there.
17
You were there the whole time.
18
Did you have a nice Christmas?
19
I had a lovely time.
20
What was your favourite bit about Christmas?
21
My favourite part about Christmas was.. me being there.
22
Probably.
23
Um, Boxing Day?
24
I liked Boxing Day, that was a good day.
25
What did you like about Boxing Day?
26
so it's like it's like christmas day
27
but it's more football there's more football exactly i knew you're gonna say
28
that played chess with your dad did you win no oh yes i did
29
but it didn't feel like a win
30
because he said he said he was only trying about 30 percent oh
31
so that was do you think you'll ever beat him genuinely no i think he's very good
32
but he'll just keep getting older and you've still got young sharp rim.
33
Well that's what I'm hoping for.
34
Maybe when he's 90 I might beat him.
35
That's what you gotta wait for.
36
We played chess a couple times didn't we?
37
And I can like...
38
I know what the pieces do and I can put it in places
39
but I'm not very good at thinking far enough ahead to be like okay.
40
You're getting better.
41
I think the first time...
42
I do make some moves that that make you think.
43
Make me think but that's...
44
I'd be worried if you didn't make me think.
45
No but No, but that's a success for me considering the only chess I've ever played was Simpsons chess when I was a kid.
46
And Simpsons chess is not any different rules.
47
It's still the same rules, but they all look like the Simpsons.
48
So you have like Marge was the queen and Homer was the king.
49
So I still don't know the names of the real chess pieces because I just called them Maggies and Barts.
50
I played chess last night. Did you? With who? With Harry. On Xbox?
51
No, we finished playing Xbox and then...
52
Is it chess online or something?
53
Yeah, on Discord.
54
There's like a chess thing now.
55
Did you win?
56
And I heard him clicking away.
57
We were like, what are you doing?
58
This is a quarter to one in the morning.
59
And then he said, I'm playing chess.
60
And I joined.
61
And I accidentally joined his game.
62
And I played against him.
63
Did you win?
64
I won, yeah.
65
Of course you did.
66
Well done.
67
Well, should we do our first question?
68
Okay, fine.
69
Let's have a look here.
70
It's an interesting question, actually.
71
Lovely tea, by the way.
72
I've recently started not having sugar in my tea.
73
I'm doing well with it aren't I?
74
You're doing well with the coffee.
75
I don't want a coffee without sugar but a tea, I'm still getting used to it.
76
It's not my cup of tea.
77
This is my cup of tea but it's not my cup of tea.
78
This is an interesting question.
79
Okay so what we're gonna do is we're gonna generate some random questions.
80
I've generated them.
81
And answer them.
82
Okay what's the first question?
83
Hit me.
84
The first question is this.
85
What doesn't exist but should?
86
Now you're good at this, you've got a whole list of inventions.
87
I know, yeah.
88
You love inventing.
89
That could take the whole time.
90
What doesn't exist but should?
91
Well, I could be really like Miss World about it and say World Peace, you know, like that's something that you could say.
92
Yeah, come to that.
93
Okay, I would love...
94
see I always come across these things but then I never remember what they are something that
95
okay I know it is something that doesn't exist but should
96
and it might exist in some places rules in high schools of absolutely no phones ever for high school kids.
97
See in my school we didn't have yeah but that was before they were so like all over the place.
98
But you've but you're in your school you could you know in the classes, so in the classes you couldn't have your phones out but at lunchtime you could do what you want, you could just have your phones out.
99
But I like if I'm sending my kids to school
100
because I don't want to give my kid a phone until they're about 15
101
but I don't want my kid in year 7 going to school and everyone's bullying them because they haven't got a phone.
102
But if there was a rule of like you're not even allowed, if you if a teacher sees a phone we're gonna take it off you.
103
Yeah, in my school that was it.
104
Well that's why, okay I want that to be in most schools then because it wasn't in my one.
105
I remember I had my phone in my, oh I I remember I had my phone, we weren't allowed to take it to school and I never did
106
because there was no point because I could never go on it.
107
But one day I did for some reason and I didn't, I panicked.
108
I was like, what am I going to do with it?
109
Why do I, what am I doing?
110
And it was in my pencil case in maths and my...
111
What kind of a phone would fit in a pencil case?
112
It was one of those ones with the typey ones.
113
Oh, the teeny weeny ones.
114
Not an iPhone.
115
Not an iPhone, yeah.
116
and it had headphones plugged into it right
117
so I had headphones plugged into it as phone does
118
and then somehow music started playing through my head
119
so you know you can hear someone else's headphones very very
120
quietly yeah that's what happened I don't know probably I as replay maybe yeah
121
and then I remember the maths teacher walking past
122
and I couldn't read I didn't know it was mine either for a bit
123
but I was like I can hear very very faintly some music and then he stopped next to my desk,
124
kind of looked down and I looked up at him and he moved on.
125
And he killed you.
126
I'm a ghost.
127
So yeah but that was very tense.
128
I just.. one of my biggest stresses for the future, and I stress a lot about the future because you know that's just who I am,
129
but one of my biggest stresses is I have a certain way that I want to raise my children.
130
I don't know why I'm thinking about this like i'm only 25
131
but i just i know how i want to parent children
132
and one of the things
133
that stresses me out the most is like i have a view on how they should use technology
134
and stuff but i don't know how possible
135
that is once they leave my house do you know what i mean
136
and other kids yeah well a lot of parents say
137
that don't they they say that that kids the worst thing
138
that happens to your kids is like other kids i know
139
because they they ruin it for you
140
because you're raising your child in this perfect way and then other children come in and like ruin it.
141
But maybe that's good.
142
No, but then because the other option people would say like, oh, homeschool your kids, but I don't want to homeschool my kids.
143
I want my kids to have social skills.
144
I'm not saying that all homeschool kids don't have social skills, but I think it's the easiest way to
145
get social skills is by going to school because.. and high school's hard and you have to go through difficult times, but that's also important.
146
I don't know.
147
I don't know why I'm stressing about this now.
148
I'm not having a baby.
149
So what should exist but that doesn't exist?
150
No phones in schools.
151
There we go.
152
Okay.
153
The next one is this.
154
This is interesting.
155
What's your opinion on tipping?
156
As in tipping in restaurants, giving money...
157
I've got some big old opinions on tipping.
158
Interesting.
159
Because it's not a thing here, is it?
160
In the UK, you get tipped if you give some exceptional service.
161
Even then?
162
Even then you feel like, okay.
163
But what is exceptional service?
164
I would say if there's a big group of you
165
if there's like more than eight and they've been on time
166
and everything's come and they've made sure that everyone's got what they need
167
because that's hard because I've been a waiter
168
and it's really hard to have a big table so I think
169
if you have a big table it's kind of courteous to give a tip
170
but I went to the States recently
171
and it's mental I went to a buffet and it's a buffet the concept of a buffet is you serve yourself.
172
Oh you have to tip in a buffet?
173
I had to tip the person who literally took my card at the till.
174
So you're queuing up, someone sat at the till and they go, that'll be $30 for the buffet.
175
And I said, thank you very much, handed my card over.
176
And then she said, you can add your tip now?
177
I said, can I? Did you?
178
No, I didn't.
179
You didn't?
180
No. And I know that all those Americans hated me, but it's just mental.
181
I'm literally at a buffet.
182
I do the work myself and they want me to sit, But they have to because they pay American servers, like, pittance.
183
They pay them so little because they know they're going to get loads of tips.
184
Isn't that mental?
185
But do they get loads of tips?
186
Yeah, because Americans have such a tipping culture put into them because they know that the servers don't get a lot, so they have to.
187
But if they paid them fairly, then people wouldn't have to tip.
188
I know, I know.
189
And then that would help people.
190
They would go out for food more because they would be less expensive.
191
I know.
192
Isn't that insane?
193
They're basically putting the financial stress on the customers rather than on themselves by paying the staff fairly.
194
Yeah.
195
Exactly.
196
Isn't that just awful?
197
In other countries?
198
Do they have that in other countries?
199
I don't know about other countries.
200
I think America is...
201
Sorry.
202
The States.
203
I think the States are the biggest sort of tippers in the UK.
204
Don't have to worry about tipping at all.
205
But I saw...
206
I follow someone who lives in Las Vegas and they work on Instagram who works as a waiter.
207
and over Christmas he was taking pictures of bills, like cheques, that he'd given people when they'd left no tip and was writing like, Merry Christmas.
208
I can't believe I had customers like this, like really complaining about it.
209
And I was like, that was me when I was there.
210
I wasn't leaving any tips.
211
In my opinion, I think, I agree with you if it's exceptional, but I don't know what people would have to do to do that.
212
Like, to achieve exceptional service.
213
I don't know what they would have to do if the can you give me a situation
214
we're eating somewhere and the waiters being extra friendly asking us how our day's gone
215
and something's gone wrong with the food
216
but they've really apologetic they said I'll get your free drink
217
but the waiters yeah really trying
218
but then the waiter that's their job I know that's their
219
job we have very different views in the UK about how to tip things so.
220
Like, like, I would say, like, if somebody, if somebody, if somebody gives, if they say you can have a free drink, yeah, a drink on the house,
221
as they say, yeah, then that's not the waiter doing that, no, that's the, that's the boss telling the waiter offer them free drinks,
222
yeah, so it's, yeah, no,
223
you're right, I think I tip for five percent of my meals out, Probably, yeah.
224
I would round it up.
225
Do you know what I mean?
226
Oh, yeah.
227
So imagine it's £73 for food.
228
Yeah.
229
I maybe will round it up to £80, depending on how many drinks I've had.
230
And I feel very generous.
231
But usually I don't tip because it's expensive already.
232
It is already expensive.
233
Do you want the next question?
234
Yes, please.
235
Oh, this is an interesting one.
236
um what food do you used to like
237
but don't anymore bacon yeah i'm well off bacon i don't
238
know why i think i had a really bad fatty bacon sandwich
239
and i know the bacon sandwich you're talking about
240
and at the time at the time you said it was
241
lovely no you did the bacon itself was it was a bit wet is a bit wet
242
and that's why like bacon unless it's burnt i don't like it i don't like floppy fatty bacon.
243
It really put me off here a lot.
244
So I've gone off bacon a lot.
245
I could never eat bacon again.
246
Same.
247
I like it though, but I think that's a reflection on me because I'm not a food person. In general.
248
I'm not a food person.
249
Cheese I couldn't live without.
250
You're not a food person, you're a cheese person.
251
Cheese guy.
252
What's a food that I used to like but don't anymore?
253
that's rare for you if you like to be your lawyer.
254
Probably, do you know what?
255
Probably...
256
I've gone off...
257
soups.
258
You have soup every day.
259
No, no, no, no. As in, so I like tomato soup.
260
I've gone off, like, meaty soups.
261
I used to.. any soup, I could have it.
262
Like, in a restaurant, soup of the day.
263
Do they have that in other countries?
264
Yeah, yeah, soup of the day.
265
Soup du jour.
266
Soup of the day.
267
Yeah.
268
I used to think, whatever the soup of the day is, I will have it.
269
Yeah.
270
Because usually you have to ask, what's the soup of the day?
271
Well, it's this.
272
Now, I feel like I'm getting more picky with my soups.
273
That sounds like a 1975 album name.
274
Yeah, it does.
275
I feel like I'm getting more picky with my soups.
276
I'm more picky with your soups.
277
I used to order soup, now I don't.
278
I go to restaurants and now I sit there, but I don't tip.
279
Yeah.
280
No. This is a big question.
281
Do you want a deep question?
282
Yeah, sure.
283
I'd love one.
284
I feel like crying reading this question out.
285
What are you currently doubting in your life?
286
Wow.
287
What am I doubting?
288
School systems.
289
I'm back to schools, doubting the school system a lot.
290
Yes.
291
In your life though? you're done with school.
292
Well, for my children.
293
For my future children that I'm so worried about.
294
Oh, forget about the children, Laura.
295
Okay, I'm doubting the school system.
296
Yeah.
297
Something in your life, Laura.
298
In my life?
299
Not much.
300
No. Doubting...
301
How much you spend on stuff?
302
What are you trying to say?
303
I don't know.
304
We're going shopping after this yeah um no i feel pretty secure i'm the kind of person though
305
if i if i doubt something or
306
if i have any kind of issue with something i'm i try to fix it straight away
307
so if i was doubting my fitness i'd be on it do you know what i mean like
308
if i thought oh i went up the stairs
309
and i was out of breath i'd be like right okay we exercise then
310
if i thought well i'm doubting my abilities okay well i'm gonna get better then i'll practice
311
so i i like to fix things i don't like just to go
312
well and that's it i like to go no let's solve it
313
so i don't i can't imagine i would sit in doubt
314
for a long time probably not i don't for me i
315
don't i'm first doubting like relationships with people i'd go well
316
okay i'll talk to them i'll talk to them i'll fix it
317
so i don't think i like to i don't like to sit in negativity for a
318
while i fix it do you i try to you try to
319
but i feel like like that stresses you out more sometimes.
320
Do you think?
321
Yeah.
322
Deep?
323
In the search for perfection, you dig your hole deeper.
324
Do you know what I mean?
325
That sounds like a 1975 album.
326
It does.
327
Yeah.
328
Dig, dig, dig, dig.
329
What's the next?
330
Should we have one more question?
331
I don't know how long we've been talking for.
332
I don't know either.
333
Let's do two more.
334
Let's do two more questions.
335
this is an interesting one what app or website completely changed your life google youtube youtube
336
changed my life I would say because it has changed I think youtube is a part of your life exactly youtube
337
not facebook
338
no I don't think it changed my life it might have changed my brain we don't know when we look
339
ahead in future years we might look back at how much
340
of an impact facebook had on our brains we might say yeah it did change me completely
341
and i would have been a different human
342
if it weren't for social media we don't know definitely i
343
think certainly that's too big you can't you can't say like
344
how much do you spend on social media every week yeah
345
it's gonna have an impact let's imagine it's it's probably more than this 15 hours
346
which is horrible right but if it's more than
347
that you can't say to somebody something you do 15 hours minimum a week
348
if you get rid of that has no impact on you
349
and you'd be absolutely fine no like you would be a completely different person
350
if you put 15 hours a week into exercise than social media yeah
351
and the thing is I don't think with social media I
352
go on social media all the time as well I'm not I'm a hypocrite here but there's nothing I I think there's...
353
Social media should be the last thing that you do.
354
Everything else is more productive than going on social media.
355
Cleaning the house.
356
Yeah.
357
Reading a book.
358
Talking to a friend.
359
Going for a walk.
360
Eating a meaty soup.
361
Eating a...
362
Maybe.
363
Maybe eating a meaty soup.
364
Yeah.
365
Recording a podcast.
366
Yeah.
367
Anything.
368
Library.
369
Yeah.
370
There's...
371
Can you name me one thing that social media is more productive than?
372
doing drugs?
373
Yeah.
374
I have to think.
375
Yeah.
376
It's more productive than anything else that's more destructive.
377
You know what I mean?
378
So like, yeah, like, jumping off a cliff.
379
Yeah.
380
Do you know what I mean?
381
Yeah, but drugs is very destructive to you, so yeah, I get what you mean.
382
Destructive, yeah, you're gonna die.
383
There are always things that are more...
384
Yeah, I know what you mean.
385
You're saying dying is less productive than social media, and that's it
386
and that's what we spend 15 hours a week minimum on.
387
Yeah.
388
Yeah.
389
But that's what the world is now.
390
Like, it's...
391
What do you do to manage your social media...
392
Time.
393
Time.
394
Um...
395
Can I say what I've done?
396
What have you done?
397
I've unfollowed a lot of people.
398
Not them.
399
Sorry.
400
I've unfollowed a lot of people...
401
Who don't serve you.
402
Even people who do.
403
Even my friends.
404
My close family and friends.
405
um some of them yeah because because
406
because i realize how much i how much i just go on it
407
and i'm just trying to make instagram for example less
408
and less appealing i don't want instagram to be appealing do you know what i mean
409
because if it is then i will want to go on it more like i
410
my twitter i follow a lot of football accounts who just talk about football right yeah i do um
411
I've unfollowed a lot of them and that's bad for me
412
because I'm like oh they're accounts that I like to read about yeah
413
but by doing by following them I'm giving myself more of a reason to go on Twitter true
414
so I'm trying to just make it make it more boring
415
if anything I don't think it's a bad thing
416
if you don't have anything else to do like I don't think if you're sat waiting for a train
417
and you see I do nothing I do
418
because those are the experiences in the world when we sat at train station
419
you can sit there and you can watch people.
420
Okay, do it for like 10 minutes, but then I also want to have the option of I don't have to sit, because remember when, before we did have that option, you hated it, when you were a kid and you had nothing to do,
421
and you were just sat in a car for like five hours going somewhere, you hated it, and if, and like, yeah.
422
No, but at the time the radio was, radio was there, good old radio.
423
I think it's okay as long as it's not taking, if you're prioritizing it over something else, What annoys me is when people go on it in front of other people.
424
Yeah, I know.
425
That annoys me.
426
Yeah, I know.
427
It really annoys me.
428
And I don't like that people think that I'm boring by saying that.
429
No, I don't think people think you're boring.
430
I think they probably just think you're being a bit of a granddad.
431
Yeah, but why?
432
I know.
433
Because I want to spend time with my friends and family.
434
Well, people don't want to admit that they're being on it.
435
Yeah.
436
And in the future, there will be some etiquette, probably, where people will say oh yeah going on your phone in front of people is rude
437
well it already is it already is but it will become
438
so new and people are still so getting used to it
439
and like humans are still getting used to the fact
440
that we have this thing in our hands
441
and we're just excited to use it like you've given this race of monkeys these you know crazy
442
and we're still going we will get to a point where
443
we're bored with them sometimes i think sometimes i look around
444
and people are on their phones and i'm like oh that's really annoying
445
but then I think if they were all reading books, is that any different?
446
Because we're not talking to each other anyway still.
447
Or if we're all watching the TV, we're not talking to each other, we're just watching the TV.
448
So how is this different?
449
We have the same thing, if books, if phones and books had never been invented
450
and you gave the human race books we'd be doing exactly the same thing you'd see everyone just like
451
because it's anything that's new we just want to digest it and I promise you there'll be a revolution at some point.
452
A revolution but maybe I think our generation
453
or maybe Gen Z maybe not Gen Z they'll love it
454
but like one of the generations is going to decide I can't do this anymore
455
and people are going to start buying like old there's going to be this need for these retro
456
like just texty phones no touchscreen no anything
457
and yeah people realize not want to detach man just like
458
you know unplug they're gonna have another 70s hippie movement you watch I agree because I agree last question here is this
459
before one question is what do you spend too much time doing yeah we know
460
that um what about give us a good one to end
461
on this one's an interesting go on you pick one you
462
pick one you pick one from there um what are the
463
top three characteristics you feel are important for a person in
464
general just a person i'll choose one you choose one then
465
we'll agree on okay i think decency what do you mean by
466
that no not decency sorry common sense because i think
467
that can be the same common sense i think is vital
468
too many people lack common sense can you give me an example
469
just being able to show can i change it again i mean like um common sense decency
470
but i think what i mean is critical thinking i think being able to think about something
471
and not just go okay because people who just hear something
472
and just go yeah those are the people
473
that mean nasty people can control and manipulate so like
474
if everyone just hears something and goes yeah i believe
475
that without taking the time to research
476
and think oh is it this is it this it is it means you can control
477
and manipulate that people whereas if everyone was able to look through these lies
478
and look through things then people horrible people wouldn't rise to
479
power as easy as easy yeah we're definitely living through a time where lots of people are like that now, probably because of phones.
480
Exactly.
481
So yeah, so people on Facebook and they see like a headline that says like, there's been a big argument between these two people and they just read that and go,
482
okay, yeah, rather than click on it.
483
Or they just scroll to the next thing and all they remember is big argument.
484
Yeah, but then if they actually clicked on it, it would say something like, someone has reported that this person left the room a bit earlier than the other person.
485
It's just nothing, less of nothing.
486
They're not doing that crit- so I think critical thinking that's my vote.
487
Critical thinking, that's a good one.
488
And also with that, what people would in the past would do is they would read a newspaper, for example, they see something, maybe they read the whole article, but even if they don't,
489
they probably did read the whole article.
490
They read the whole article and then they are sitting at the train station with nothing to do, and what do they do?
491
They start thinking about things, they start thinking, how do I feel about that story, that news story, blah blah blah, but now we don't give ourselves time to think about how
492
we feel at the city deep we don't have enough time
493
anymore to think about how we feel about things we just get given information
494
and think now yeah yeah exactly the hokey-cokey in your turn so that's
495
if we're designing the perfect human i'd say they need to
496
have some critical thinking what else do they need to have what's the word
497
when you think when you care about other people empathy empathy empathy is massive
498
so critical thinking and empathy so for example empathy Can you give me an example of empathy?
499
So for example somebody...
500
There's no way how to act around.
501
Somebody's cat has died.
502
They come to your house and you want to buy a cat.
503
But these people are at your house who.. a cat just died, RIP.
504
RIP, which is...
505
Somebody empathetic would not talk about getting a cat in front of
506
that person that's not like a small scale
507
but think that's very small on a big scale think about like someone wants to do evil deeds
508
but then they just have that thing of how would i feel
509
if if that was being done to me do you know what i mean stop how would i feel
510
if somebody robbed my house exactly if you if you are
511
if your empathy like is
512
so strong then it will stop a lot of bad things from happening
513
because people just can't bring themselves to do evil stuff so critical thing of empathy
514
what else for like a good that's really good for a
515
good person i'm thinking about who i'd like to be friends with.
516
I was gonna say patient but not...
517
I think that comes with empathy.
518
I don't think patience is that important either because sometimes it's good to be impatient and just do something.
519
What about.. passion?
520
Care?
521
Passion's good.
522
Passion's good.
523
Passion about something.
524
Because what really annoys me is when you ask people what's your favorite film
525
and they say I don't really have a favorite film?
526
and then you say what's your favorite song? don't really have
527
one what's your favorite food? don't really have one what's your
528
hobbies? they say oh whatever's on yeah whatever's on the radio whatever
529
if you want passionate about anything is very frustrating yeah like choose something even
530
if it's like cake just be passionate about something do you know what i mean?
531
but sometimes i feel like people are but they think
532
so for example maybe they're embarrassed about their favorite film
533
or they um they they think this is their favorite film but they don't love it that much.
534
Well maybe that is still your favourite film even though you don't love that film.
535
Maybe it's your favourite.
536
So someone who is passionate, empathetic and has good critical thinking.
537
What a great human.
538
Yeah probably.
539
I think so too.
540
The quietest Hattie Five.
541
Well I've thoroughly enjoyed discussing this with you today.
542
Do you have anything else you want to say before we go?
543
Not really.
544
We're gonna go shopping in a bit.
545
You need to buy some waterproof shoes.
546
I'm gonna buy it.
547
We are so cool.
548
Yeah, gonna buy some waterproof shoes in the January sales.
549
Gonna buy some slippers as well.
550
I do have slippers in my calendar to maybe buy.
551
You've put in your calendar that you want to buy some slippers?
552
Yeah, because, okay, no, because what would you do?
553
You would put it in a list, would you?
554
Yeah.
555
Shopping list.
556
Yeah.
557
Whereas I'm just putting it in exactly the same place as
558
my my sort of shopping shopping center waterproof shoes plus slippers
559
that's in my calendar you are adorable there you go awesome
560
and then we're going to go and see matilda yes we are thank you
561
so much for joining us i've been very sat back i
562
hope i've been in frame i'm sure i have been i'll be frightened we've been thank you
563
so much thank you so much for joining us we'll be back next time bye
About This Lesson
Practice real-life English listening and speaking with this casual, unscripted conversation between two native speakers. You’ll hear natural pacing, slang, and everyday topics—perfect for bridging the gap between classroom clarity and real-world communication. Use this video to sharpen your listening skills and try the shadowing technique to boost your speaking fluency. It’s great for IELTS speaking practice too, as it mirrors how people actually talk!
Key Vocabulary & Phrases
- "It's not my cup of tea": A common way to say you don’t like something (e.g., "I tried rock climbing, but it’s not my cup of tea").
- "On the house": Free, provided by the business (e.g., "The manager gave us a dessert on the house").
- "Round it up": To increase a bill to the nearest whole number when tipping (e.g., "The total was £73, so I rounded it up to £80").
- "Critical thinking": Analyzing information carefully instead of believing it immediately (e.g., "Critical thinking helps you spot fake news").
- "Unfollow": To stop seeing someone’s posts on social media (e.g., "I unfollowed that account because it was too negative").
Practice Tips: Master the Shadowing Technique
This video’s relaxed tone and conversational speed make it ideal for shadowing—repeat the speakers’ words *immediately* after they say them. Here’s how:
- Play a 5-second clip, pause, and repeat it, mimicking their intonation and rhythm. Focus on phrases like "It’s not my cup of tea" to sound natural.
- For faster parts (e.g., the chat about social media), slow the video down at first. Shadowspeaks work best when you match the energy of the speakers—don’t worry about perfection, just flow.
- After practicing, try answering the same questions aloud. This helps with both listening and speaking, making it a powerful tool for IELTS preparation.
Wat is de Shadowing-techniek?
Shadowing is een wetenschappelijk onderbouwde taalleermethode die oorspronkelijk is ontwikkeld voor professionele tolkentraining en gepopulariseerd door polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. De methode is eenvoudig maar krachtig: je luistert naar native Engelse audio en herhaalt het onmiddellijk hardop — als een schaduw die de spreker volgt met slechts 1–2 seconden vertraging. In tegenstelling tot passief luisteren of grammaticadrills, dwingt shadowing je hersenen en mondspieren om echte spraakpatronen tegelijkertijd te verwerken en te reproduceren. Onderzoek toont aan dat het de uitspraaknauwkeurigheid, intonatie, ritme, verbonden spraak, luisterbegrip en spreekvaardigheid aanzienlijk verbetert — waardoor het een van de meest effectieve methoden is voor IELTS Speaking-voorbereiding en echte Engelse communicatie.