Shadowing Practice: I Built a GIANT LEGO Castle… - Learn English Speaking with Video

This is a LEGO castle.

It has a working portcullis and drawbridge, dungeons, kitchens, cottages, and not one, not two, but three LEGO frogs.

And this… is 10 of them.

I also have a ton of extra bricks, including a thousand of… this brick, this brick, this brick, this brick, this brick, this brick, this brick, French stick, this brick, that brick, those bricks, these bricks, and take a look at all of… these frogs!

The plan is quite simply to build until I run out of pieces, and hopefully that should make a pretty big castle, big enough, jelly-beans crossed, for my two cats, Ralph and Bella.

I’ve previously built Château de Ralph, multi-tiered and much-ignored, followed by Boxingham Palace, much larger but largely boring.

This LEGO castle therefore will complete the trilogy, and since my cats are generally rather fond of my LEGO creations, insert footage of Bella head-butting every LEGO set I’ve ever made here, I’m hoping I can trick them into actually liking this one.

But then the weirdest thing happened.

I laid the first brick, and as if by magic the castle started building itself.

I’m kidding, it was a painfully meticulous process, but with the initial footprint locked in place, building upwards was incredibly satisfying, and very soon, the towers were joined together.

So the towers are connected, I’ve built a portcullis although it’s fixed in position, and I’ve added all these arrow-slits and the used masonry bricks to give it some kind of texture, you can really get a feel for how it’s gonna look now.

Next I built a dining hall, complete with a comically long table, Christmas decorations and a suit of armour, as well as a kitchen in one turret and a drink storage room in the other.

The kitchen has all manner of cooking utensils, but only enough ingredients to make carrot sandwiches.

Deeeeelicious!

The drinks room sees barrels, bottles and goblets galore, and has a very long ladder leading down to the bottom of the castle.

Now you might have noticed that both rooms have an umbrella, and the kitchen even has a mop and bucket in there, and that is because I forgot to build a roof.

Yeah. Lack of roof aside, I was incredibly pleased with how this first section turned out, but it was about to get a whole lot bigger.

First was a simple square tower, built in a spellbindingly spinny timelapse that unfortunately stopped recording halfway through.

Yup, how unsatisfying is that?!

This is what the finished tower looks like anyway, and I gave it a rooftop garden, with a fountain, beehive and tons of overgrown plants.

I then built an identical tower, but this time with two rooms inside.

The lower room is the castle Treasury, overflowing with gold coins, gold bars, and solid gold frogs.

The upper room is a study, including a globe, grandfather clock, cartographer’s writing desk and bookshelf.

I’m really happy with how it turned out, and there’s even a colony of seagulls nesting on the roof.

How cute is that?

So we’re up to an entranceway and two towers, but I think it’s time we build the biggest part of the castle, the keep.

This section alone is already the biggest thing I’ve ever made from LEGO.

It’s huge, and features a cat tunnel through the middle, as well as two rooms, an armoury on one side and a bedroom on the other.

You can probably tell from the cobwebs and bright green carpet that was outdated even in medieval times that the armoury hasn’t been used in a very long time, and that’s because the castle’s occupants are pacifists.

The bedroom sees all the normal furniture, plus the original Van Gogh’s Starry Night painting, a shelf of weird and wonderful artefacts, and a pen with twin lambs who are being hand-reared.

There are then also these thatched cottage sections, adapted from the original castle, and two bell towers.

Now I ran out of windows as I was building this, so I’ve had to use ivy to tactically cover the caps, but other than that I’m delighted with it, it’s enormous!

It finally felt like I was getting somewhere, especially once I built the walls and connected all the sections together.

But before the grand reveal, it’s time for some finishing touches.

I built stables, home to the castle’s horses, plus a farm, with cows, pigs, chickens, and sheep, as well as lots of babies.

I added crops, such as corn, pumpkins, and a hopeful prize-winning carrot, a market, selling fresh produce and baked goods, and the fountain of youth, which appears to have worked a little too well.

Then I built a dragon, and placed him on the roof of the keep.

He’s incredibly fragile and flimsy, which aren’t exactly desirable qualities when describing your castle’s fierce defender.

Next is probably the most important part of the entire castle, a time traveller.

You see being YouTube, some people watching will inevitably have felt the overwhelming urge to smugly point out that for instance, teddy bears weren’t invented until 1902, so how could there possibly be one in a medieval castle?

Well it was the time traveller of course.

Or maybe they can’t resist informing me that Van Gogh didn’t in fact paint starry night until 1889, so I’m wrong.

Nope, they’re wrong, there’s a time traveller, in fact Van Gogh is the time traveller.

Verrassing!

Or that Christmas trees weren’t a thing until the 16th century, nor were pumpkins or sweetcorn grown in Europe, or carrots coloured orange nor did they start growing vertically out of the ground like this until 2064.

It was the time traveller mate, didn’t you see him?

For once, this video is entirely free of inaccuracies- ah, he’s gone.

Well I guess it’s time for that grand reveal then.

It’s crazy to think something this big is made entirely from LEGO, Bella was first, wasting no time in rubbing up against the castle.

And once inside the castle walls, promptly set about attacking the crowd of innocent villagers.

She soon discovered the treats I’d put in the cat tunnel, and that it made a wonderful place to scratch.

But the spikes on the portcullis proved to be an even more satisfying place to scratch her head.

And the rest of her body.

She then attacked the villagers some more, and sat down to admire her destruction.

All in all, I don’t think Bella was too impressed, I know the poor villagers certainly weren’t anyway.

But what would Ralph make of the castle?

He immediately started rubbing his head on the portcullis, with a little too much force.

Why must you destroy the things I love?

He then headed inside, to sit unamusedly in the courtyard, before showing no regard whatsoever for the castle walls and hopping straight over them.

On second thought, I don’t want this to be a cat castle anymore.

I want it to be a Chris castle.

I repaired the damage, rescued the villagers, and enjoyed the castle for myself.

The cats are more than happy with their many other toys, and I was unquestionably delighted with mine.

✨ Aanbevolen Video

162 zinnen

Woordenschat en spreektips bij deze les

Deze spreekles op niveau B1 is gebaseerd op de video “I Built a GIANT LEGO Castle…”. Deze woorden komen het vaakst terug: castle, brick, built, Lego, tower. Deze video bevat 63 zinnen en 1215 woorden om na te spreken. Het gesproken deel duurt 6:47. De spreker praat in een natuurlijk tempo van ongeveer 179 woorden per minuut, dicht bij een alledaags gesprek. Slechts 71% van de woorden hoort bij de 3.000 meest gebruikte Engelse woorden, dus de woordenschat is pittig.

Belangrijke woorden in deze video

De 15 moeilijkste woorden uit de video, met uitspraak en betekenis:

Woord	Uitspraak	Betekenis
brick zelfstandig naamwoord	/ˈbɹɪk/	baksteen
traveller zelfstandig naamwoord	/ˈtɹævəlɚ/	reiziger, reizigster
portcullis zelfstandig naamwoord	/pɔɹtˈkʌl.ɪs/	valhek, valpoort
villager zelfstandig naamwoord	/ˈvɪlɪd͡ʒɚ/	dorpsbewoner, dorpsbewoonster
carrot zelfstandig naamwoord	/ˈkæɹət/	wortel, peen
medieval bijvoeglijk naamwoord	/mɪdˈi.vəl/	middeleeuws, (mediaevaal) mediëvaal
starry bijvoeglijk naamwoord	/ˈstɑɹ.i/	stervormig
pumpkin zelfstandig naamwoord	/ˈpʌm(p).kɪn/	pompoen
fountain zelfstandig naamwoord	/ˈfaʊn.tɪn/	fontein
rub werkwoord	/ɹʌb/	wrijven
delight zelfstandig naamwoord	/dəˈlaɪt/	vreugde, plezier
satisfy werkwoord	/ˈsætɪsfaɪ/	voldoen, voldoende zijn
scratch werkwoord	/skɹæt͡ʃ/	krassen, krabben
tunnel zelfstandig naamwoord	/ˈtʌn(ə)l/	tunnel
beehive zelfstandig naamwoord	/ˈbiːhaɪv/	bijenkorf, bijenhuif

Phrasal verbs die je zult horen

Woord	Betekenis
turn out werkwoord	uitvallen, resulteren
point out werkwoord	aanwijzen, aanduiden

Grammatica in deze video

De structuren die de spreker het meest gebruikt, met de exacte woorden uit de video:

Structuur	In de video
Present perfect have/has + voltooid deelwoord — iets uit het verleden dat nu nog telt	I've ever made · I've built · hasn't been
Lijdende vorm be + voltooid deelwoord — het gaat om wat er gebeurt, niet om wie het doet	were joined · are connected · was outdated
Overtreffende trap the -est / the most … — het hoogste of laagste van een groep	the weirdest · the biggest · the most important
Werkwoord + -ing enjoy, keep, stop… + -ing — werkwoorden die door de -ing-vorm worden gevolgd	started building · stopped recording · start growing

Uitspraak om op te letten

De spreker gebruikt 25 samentrekkingen en verkorte vormen, zoals I've, I'm, weren't. Spreek ze kort uit, zoals je ze hoort.

De “th”-klanken: thatch /θæt͡ʃ/, grandfather /ˈɡɹæn(d)ˌfɑðɚ/
De klanken “sh” en “zh”: bookshelf /ˈbʊkˌʃɛlf/, decoration /ˌdɛkəˈɹeɪʃən/, shelf /ʃɛlf/, sheep /ˈʃiːp/
Lange woorden — let op de klemtoon: comically /ˈkɑmɪk(ə)li/, inaccuracy /ɪnˈæk.jɚ.ə.si/, meticulous /mɪˈtɪkjɪlɪs/, unquestionably /ʌnˈkwɛs.t͡ʃən.ə.bli/, vertically /ˈvɝ.tɪ.kəli/

Klanken die Nederlandstaligen lastig vinden:

Stemhebbende eindmedeklinker — /b/, /d/, /g/, /z/, /v/ niet verscherpen: rub /ɹʌb/, cottage /ˈkɒt.ɪd͡ʒ/, beehive /ˈbiːhaɪv/, cobweb /ˈkɒbwɛb/, drawbridge /ˈdɹɔːbɹɪd͡ʒ/
/æ/ — opener dan de Nederlandse “e”: traveller /ˈtɹævəlɚ/, carrot /ˈkæɹət/, satisfy /ˈsætɪsfaɪ/, scratch /skɹæt͡ʃ/, inaccuracy /ɪnˈæk.jɚ.ə.si/
/g/ — een harde plofklank, geen Nederlandse “g”: galore /ɡəˈloɹ/, goblet /ˈɡɒblət/, seagull /ˈsiː.ɡʌl/, ingredient /ɪnˈɡɹiːdi.ənt/, pig /ˈpɪɡ/

Zo oefen je met deze video

Luister de hele video één keer zonder te spreken en noteer de woorden die je niet kent.
Begin op 0,75× snelheid, spreek zin voor zin na en ga terug naar normale snelheid zodra het makkelijk gaat.
Neem jezelf op en vergelijk met het origineel; let daarbij op woorden als brick, traveller, portcullis.

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.

Shadowing-techniek: lees de volledige stap-voor-stap-gids →

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