Shadowing Practice: New Year’s Resolutions┃Learn American English Pronunciation On the Go - Learn English Speaking with Video
Les maken...
1
Welcome to the Rachel's English podcast.
2
I'm Rachel and this podcast is made especially for non -native speakers, where we try to reveal the idioms,
3
phrasal verbs, and interesting vocabulary words that Americans use in everyday conversational English.
4
If you'd like a free copy of the transcript for this podcast, visit rachelsenglish .com slash podcast and search for this episode.
5
This week, it is the final podcast of 2017, the final week, and we're talking about New Year's resolutions,
6
goals that you make for yourself to achieve in the upcoming year.
7
So I'm sitting down with my husband, David, and we're talking about any New Year's resolutions that we are making this year.
8
Let's get started.
9
New Year's resolutions.
10
David, do you make them?
11
I do make them almost every year.
12
Do you really?
13
Yeah, I don't keep them, but I make them.
14
I feel like you also don't tell them because I didn't know that you've made New Year's resolutions.
15
Well, then maybe I haven't in the last three or four years.
16
Okay, but previously you would say you have made them.
17
I feel like I often have in my adult life.
18
Okay, And as a kid as well?
19
No, I don't think so.
20
I think it was more maybe mid -20s to mid -30s.
21
How old was I when we met?
22
Geez, I don't know.
23
Great.
24
30 -something.
25
Upper 30s.
26
So, okay, so you've been making New Year's resolutions.
27
What are you resolving to do?
28
I feel like there have been some common themes for me.
29
Things like exercise on a regular basis or do daily meditation practice.
30
So there are things that you already did, but your goal was for more consistency.
31
Yeah, that's accurate.
32
How did you do with meeting those resolutions?
33
Not well.
34
That's not strong enough.
35
Horribly.
36
I think it's interesting.
37
We make resolutions to try to do things better.
38
I wonder, do we ever look at why we don't do things well?
39
Like, why aren't you consistent in working out?
40
Well, because it gets really cold out and you don't like to run when it's cold.
41
Like, I wonder
42
if you came up with looking at the why you haven't been able to do it yet
43
and then came up with strategies to count to attack
44
that doubt or that I can't do it today because it's too cold.
45
If you had a list of strategies as planned as part of your resolution, if it would help people keep them more.
46
I think it probably would.
47
Okay, let's come up with a strategy right now exercise more in 2018.
48
Would you say that would be a New Year's resolution for you this year?
49
Yeah.
50
Okay.
51
Why do you think you don't exercise consistently now?
52
Well, laziness.
53
Okay.
54
Inertia.
55
Inertia meaning?
56
Like I'm in a pattern of not doing it, so it's hard to start a new pattern.
57
Yeah, exactly.
58
Good definition of inertia.
59
A body Well, yeah, it gets cold.
60
But there have been winters where I've run almost every day right through the winter.
61
So that's not a good excuse.
62
Well, let's look at the inertia and the laziness.
63
I mean, how this is really the question that everyone has.
64
If anyone could solve this, they'd make billions of dollars.
65
Yeah.
66
Everyone tries to solve it and they all make some money.
67
Right.
68
But then everyone drops out.
69
I wonder if there's an app for this.
70
There probably is.
71
I actually saw, you know, audible .com.
72
for those of you who don't know audible .com sponsors a
73
ton of website a ton of podcasts they have not sponsored this podcast
74
but uh it's an audiobook uh database you can download all sorts of different books read by people famous people
75
and voiceover artists and um one time i must have been searching something about them
76
because they started targeting ads at me and one One of the books
77
that they were recommending was How to Stay Motivated for Exercise.
78
And I thought, oh, wow, they know me.
79
Yeah.
80
They know what I need.
81
So there is stuff out there on how to stay motivated.
82
It just made me curious in the moment.
83
I hadn't thought about this before.
84
But if there was an app, and maybe it exists, called New Year's Resolutions that had a social component and,
85
you know, gave you a reminder every other day that said, go running.
86
Yeah.
87
You've missed one, better do two in a row.
88
Stuff like that.
89
That was also social.
90
That would be kind of cool.
91
That would be.
92
Could help people keep their resolutions.
93
Any other resolutions you've had as an adult?
94
Anything not related to exercise?
95
No, I'm not thinking of anything.
96
I probably need to be more specific or not more specific, branch out into some other areas.
97
I don't know exactly what that would be, but.
98
You know, I do think actually you're on to something by saying be more specific.
99
What does it mean to be on to something?
100
It's when someone thinks, okay, you've started a good idea.
101
We should take that further.
102
Like if you're brainstorming how to solve a problem.
103
Oh, I think you're on to something.
104
Let's explore that.
105
I think you're on to something with talking about being specific because if your goal is to exercise more, that's very generic.
106
It could be three times a week for a half hour.
107
You could set something more specific that might help you keep the goal.
108
You know, you were talking about the kind of goal to set.
109
Yeah.
110
And you were talking about a SMART goal.
111
SMART here being an acronym.
112
An acronym is when you take the first letter of several words and put them together.
113
That is an acronym.
114
And here, the acronym happens to spell an actual word, and that is SMART.
115
Yeah.
116
What is a SMART acronym and how did you, or sorry, a SMART goal?
117
And how did you learn about these kinds of goals?
118
Right.
119
We were talking about this before the show.
120
So one of my friends, Bradley, brought this up when a group of us a couple years ago, we were talking about New Year's resolutions
121
and we decided to go around the circle and see if anybody wanted to share what their New Year's resolution was.
122
And before we started, he suggested that we all try to do it in SMART format.
123
And SMART stands for specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and what's the T?
124
Timely.
125
Timely so instead of us all going around
126
and saying I want to run more you know I was forced
127
that year at least at the beginning of the year to
128
say you know a little something about each of those areas
129
how you could measure it well you would know by whether
130
or not you ran whether or not it was achievable
131
and realistic right getting specific right with your goal so I remember
132
that being really helpful both for myself as I was thinking about my goal
133
and to hear other people putting their New Year's resolutions into that format was just helpful to,
134
yeah, to use that as a sort of a tool to get more specific.
135
It does force you to be more thoughtful and detailed about your New Year's resolution,
136
I think, when you have to say something that is specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely.
137
Speaking of timely, that brings me to what I've decided to do this year, which is a little bit different.
138
I find that having a goal for a year is not great for me.
139
It's just, it's too much time.
140
So I decided to flip the idea of a New Year's
141
resolution on its head rather than making a goal to do in 2018.
142
I decided towards the end of 2017,
143
I was going to make a goal to do before the year was out because that provided more of a time crunch, more motivation to make it happen.
144
You said flip on its head.
145
Yeah, that means do it the opposite way it's been done.
146
Change it around completely.
147
So I flipped the idea of a New Year's resolution on
148
its head by deciding I had to do it before New Year rather than in the New Year.
149
Got it.
150
Okay, so my goal was to, before the year is out, sign up for and take my first piano lesson.
151
And it looks like I'm going to be able to do that.
152
I have the piano getting tuned next week and then the week after that, just in the nick of time.
153
It's going to be on the 20th of December, I'm going to have my first lesson.
154
We got 10 days to spare.
155
Just in the nick of time.
156
Yep.
157
What does this phrase mean?
158
This means down to the wire.
159
Oop, another idiom.
160
These things mean just before time runs out.
161
Is that another?
162
Yeah, it is.
163
Runs.
164
Runs out.
165
Okay.
166
It becomes so hard sometimes to describe idioms without using other idioms.
167
If it's just in the nick of time, That means you have done something just before the allotted time has ended.
168
Just before the deadline.
169
Just before the deadline.
170
So the phrases we used were just in the nick of time.
171
You could also say it's getting down to the wire.
172
When it's getting down to the wire, that means you are really running out of time on getting something done.
173
What was the other moment used?
174
Oh, time's running out.
175
Almost no time left.
176
Right.
177
Those are fun idioms.
178
So anyway, yeah, I think I'm going to achieve it.
179
And I'm looking forward to having that first lesson.
180
I decided to have the person come to the house just because I'm a little bit lazy.
181
No, it's not that, right?
182
I'm not lazy.
183
No, no, no, no. It just had to do with spending time.
184
I would rather spend the time that I would be commuting to the lesson on practicing.
185
You know, time, time is finite.
186
It is not unlimited.
187
So I feel like with Stoney, with running Rachel's English, I have to,
188
I tend now to make many more choices based on what will save time.
189
Whereas I used to make choices based on what will save money.
190
Time has become more precious to me than anything now.
191
So they're going to come to my house.
192
I don't know who it is yet.
193
It's going to be a half hour lesson.
194
And I'm hoping that in the evenings before dinner, when David's the cook in our family, when David's in the kitchen and Stoney and I are playing downstairs,
195
that I can be at the piano
196
practicing and that he can hopefully start to get the idea
197
that music and making music is an enjoyable way to spend time, is a fun way to be together.
198
And I just hope that that starts to become more of a central part of our household.
199
And really, I'm prepping him for a desire to study the piano as well, because I would really like to give him lessons in a couple of years.
200
Yeah, definitely.
201
David, did you have any kind of music lesson growing up?
202
No, I didn't.
203
So I really think it's great
204
that he's going to have piano lessons at the very least
205
at the very least I'm also kind of drawn to the
206
violin I don't know I think there are definitely people out there who have studied both
207
but I might have to choose there between the two
208
if you had to choose between piano and violin for Stoney right now which would you choose
209
oh well this is a non -musical person saying this
210
but I feel like I would say piano
211
because I feel like I've heard people say that that is a really generalizable instrument to learn.
212
Generalizable.
213
That's not a word.
214
I don't think so.
215
General?
216
What do you mean by that?
217
Like versatile?
218
Well, learning that specific instrument gives you a broad general knowledge of music
219
and sight reading and gives you a sense for how other instruments work.
220
Okay.
221
It gives you a general sense of musical knowledge.
222
I don't know if that's true or not.
223
The thing I like about piano is I do think it's very versatile.
224
It can be used for solo performance, and then it's used a lot in ensemble, and it's used a lot in accompanying.
225
So accompanying a singer or a whole chorus or a violinist or that kind of thing.
226
It appeals to me a lot.
227
So if you listened to last week's podcast, where we were talking about a memorable gift that we've received,
228
you know that I had clips from two friends that have been on past podcasts, actually, asking them.
229
And so I asked them not only their most memorable gift, but I also asked them about New Year's resolutions.
230
So let's first listen to Elliot, my friend Elliot, and let's see what Elliot has to say about his New Year's resolutions?
231
I think there was a period in my life where I thought I probably should.
232
I've never been one to make a lot of ones that I actually, as I was making them, I seriously planned on following through with.
233
But I will say last year I made a resolution to run a half marathon, which is something I'd never done before.
234
I'm actually not much of a runner.
235
I don't enjoy it as much as I do other kinds of exercises, but I signed up for it and followed through with it and completed it.
236
And so I was really proud of that as sort of one of the successful examples of a resolution I've made.
237
I would say most of them have sort of been something I intended to do, and then they kind of went by the wayside pretty quickly.
238
Okay.
239
So David, he just said went by the wayside.
240
Yeah.
241
I thought about that too.
242
When something goes to the wayside or goes by the wayside, I guess we use by with that.
243
Uh -huh.
244
That went by the wayside.
245
That means you meant to do it, you wanted to do it, you intended to do it,
246
but for whatever reason, it became less important and you didn't do it.
247
Right.
248
You've moved on.
249
You moved on.
250
Yeah, you know, I meant to mow the lawn, but...
251
The day got really busy, so that went to the wayside.
252
Yep.
253
He also was talking about, I was thinking about the idea of a smart goal.
254
And he made it very measurable.
255
It was very specific.
256
It was to do one half marathon that year.
257
Right.
258
So that does make the goal.
259
That's a much better goal than run more.
260
Right.
261
Choose a specific race and aim to do it.
262
Let's keep listening to
263
that conversation now will you do a second half marathon i am happy to report
264
that i'm signed up for one in november of this year
265
and i'm doing it actually with my company with magoosh a bunch of people are doing it
266
so there's some some good pressure at work from people to keep me motivated
267
and so yes i'm i'm planning to do another one this year uh and
268
so we'll see it's great you know uh though i guess
269
it's harder to find ways to do things like team sports and play basketball and other things so maybe with enough time,
270
I'll, I'll develop a love for running that I didn't have before.
271
We'll see.
272
Is the half marathon in November in the San Francisco area?
273
It's in Berkeley.
274
Actually, it's the Berkeley half marathon at the end of November.
275
And so I've, I've started, I took some time off.
276
Actually, I got a little injury from running in the spring.
277
So I took a little time away and, and for the last few weeks, I've started my training program again.
278
So I'm excited to do that.
279
The, the one I did before the first one I did was in San Francisco.
280
And part of the motivational aspect of that was we got to run along the coastline.
281
It was a beautiful day with the Pacific ocean off to our side.
282
And so that was a nice setting to do this in Berkeley.
283
It will also be special, but maybe not quite as dramatic, but it'll still be rewarding to finish.
284
Yeah.
285
The location makes a huge difference.
286
Yeah.
287
I want to do the, I have it in mind that sometime I'm going to do the Disney world marathon.
288
Yeah, that would be great.
289
I never will.
290
Cause I'm not going to run that far, but if I could be anywhere like to run a marathon, Disney world would be it.
291
You never know.
292
That's exactly the way I sounded a little over a year ago that I would never do this kind of thing.
293
I don't know.
294
When I finished the race, I told myself I'm never doing this again.
295
Uh, and here I am signed up for another one.
296
It's, uh, I I've heard from other runners that kind of happens too.
297
So we'll see, maybe this will become a habit.
298
Now, would you ever do a marathon?
299
No, that I have decided I will not do.
300
What I've learned about training for a half marathon is that, and a full marathon is that at least for me, a full marathon would be completely different.
301
It takes a different kind of training.
302
And I, you know, I'm, I'm, your listeners won't know this, but I'm a tall guy.
303
I'm not, I wouldn't say that my body type is one that's really set up for long distance running, I think probably you end up developing knee problems or something like that.
304
So I think keeping it to a half marathon is ambitious enough for me at this point.
305
That sounds smart.
306
Wow.
307
Marathons, half marathons.
308
David, what's the longest run you've ever done?
309
The longest race?
310
I did a 10 mile run, the Broad Street run in Philadelphia, which is starts from the north,
311
um, North end of the city and run straight down Broad Street.
312
It's a really fun race.
313
Okay, so I actually would have thought that might be kind of boring because it's just on one street the whole time.
314
There's not much elevation change.
315
There's not a lot of nature.
316
Is that right?
317
No, no, it's pointedly not nature -y.
318
But it's great because you run down a street that's the city's most iconic street and is usually obviously packed with traffic.
319
And people line the street and you end up down by all the sports stadiums
320
and it's just it's a great it's a great race
321
so not boring at all urban urban energy urban energy tons
322
of people just you know walking out their front door
323
and cheering and yelling it's great is this something
324
that you will do again no i would love to all
325
right hey maybe that's your gonna be your news resolution for this year maybe
326
that is it that race has gotten so popular that You can't just decide to sign up.
327
You have to win the lottery to get a bib.
328
Okay.
329
A bib is what you wear on the front of your shirt when you're in a race.
330
Right. So when is it?
331
Is it March?
332
It's May. May.
333
I think you should try to enter the lottery.
334
Try to get that.
335
It's true.
336
Go down to the lottery.
337
See if I get it.
338
It could be a really measurable goal for this year.
339
Quite.
340
You know, another thing
341
that I think would be fun is there is a half marathon in Manhattan that talk about urban energy.
342
I think that would be really fun.
343
Yeah.
344
Is that the same day as the New York marathon?
345
No. Okay.
346
I think it's like.. one of the runs people use sometimes to qualify for the New York Marathon.
347
I see.
348
I'm not sure.
349
New York Marathon is something that happens right around my birthday.
350
It's usually the first Sunday.
351
It's the first Sunday of November, right?
352
Mm -hmm.
353
And we a couple times have gone, and before I met David, I went quite a bit.
354
It's just so much fun to watch that.
355
I love seeing the elite racers go by.
356
Oh, yeah.
357
And then when the elite racers are done and it's just all your other more average marathoners, A lot of them have their names written somewhere,
358
so you can shout to them individually.
359
I love doing that.
360
Yeah, that's fun.
361
Cheering people on.
362
That's a lot of fun.
363
All right.
364
Well, I'm going to make it my New Year's resolution to watch the New York City Marathon again this year.
365
Because we missed it.
366
We missed it this year.
367
That's a great goal.
368
I completely agree.
369
So rather than run a marathon, my New Year's resolution is to watch the New York City Marathon.
370
It's measurable.
371
Either we'll be there or we won't.
372
Yep.
373
I'll know if I reach that one.
374
Okay, when I was with my cousin Brooke recently, I also asked her about New Year's resolutions.
375
Let's see what she had to say.
376
Yes, so Brooke, do you make New Year's resolutions?
377
If you do, do you keep them?
378
Yes, I typically do make maybe one New Year's resolution.
379
And my husband and my three children also make resolutions.
380
And we make them public to one another.
381
We write them down and we typically post them in our room.
382
so we can all see what the other folks are working on.
383
And I would say, I mean, it's not high stakes.
384
It's not like if you don't do this, you fail.
385
But it's just a goal that we're trying to aspire to in the new year.
386
So do you keep it posted the whole year?
387
Yes, we do.
388
And generally, does everyone meet their New Year's resolution?
389
They make progress toward their New Year's resolution.
390
So as long as there's growth, that's what we're working for.
391
So what have some of your New Year's resolutions been in the past?
392
Um, my personal New Year's resolutions typically are around wellness and taking care of myself.
393
So maybe like taking time in the morning to do a little bit of yoga each day or, um, reserving like 15 or 20 minutes in my calendar,
394
in my schedule every day to like go on a walk.
395
Um, or like even just take a little time where I don't do anything.
396
Um, so that's typically what, what might have been.
397
What about your kids?
398
Are theirs focusing on wellness or what tends to be the focus of their resolutions?
399
Xavier, who is 12, his New Year's resolution for this year was to eat more vegetables.
400
And we actually didn't coach him on that.
401
He came up with that on his own because he tends to have a sweet tooth and he loves candy.
402
And so he was trying to kind of, you know, counteract his sweet tooth with some more vegetables in his life
403
and my daughter who is nine her new year's resolution was to be able to do the splits this year
404
and she's making good progress wow so she's working on her flexibility yes her flexibility i like that resolution
405
david i have another idea for a new year's resolution for you this year and it is to do the splits.
406
Ouch.
407
How close are you to doing a split?
408
It's physiologically not going to happen.
409
I'm nowhere.
410
I'm so not close that I would harm myself if I tried to even make progress.
411
I think actually we might need to define it just in case that's not clear.
412
A split is something that like a gymnast
413
or a very flexible person would do where you're sitting on the ground
414
and one leg is directly forward and one leg is directly backward, but you are completely down on the floor.
415
Yeah.
416
Ouch.
417
I was never able to do a split.
418
No, not even close.
419
And I mean, I took dance.
420
Like I was sort of supposed to be able to do one.
421
Oh, okay.
422
But I couldn't.
423
I never quite got there.
424
No. Maybe if I'd made it a New Year's resolution.
425
Maybe.
426
I don't know if that would be realistic though.
427
The R in smart.
428
Yeah, it would maybe not be a smart goal.
429
But I love this about Brooks family.
430
I love the public aspect so that people can look over your shoulder.
431
That's a real motivator.
432
So I'm thinking
433
that our family should use your flipped on the head idea of it's due by January 1
434
and combine it with the public thing that Brooks family does
435
and every year that anyone in our world mentions New Year's resolutions,
436
all of us have to make one that's due January 1 and we post them on the fridge.
437
I think that'd be good.
438
Okay.
439
So by public, you mean sort of within the family, putting it up somewhere, rather than just saying it, you write it down.
440
Yeah, written down in Sharpie and stuck with a magnet to the fridge.
441
Sharpie is a brand of.. permanent marker.
442
So David's saying you can't make it in pencil where you would maybe erase and change it.
443
It has to be in Sharpie on the fridge.
444
In smart format.
445
In smart format.
446
Wow.
447
He's making a lot of rules here for resolutions, y 'all.
448
Okay, guys, that wraps up this episode.
449
And actually, it may wrap up the podcast.
450
David and I have decided here it is the end of 2017.
451
This is the last podcast of the year.
452
And we've decided that we're going to take a break.
453
We're not planning on recording in January.
454
And this is one of those things where I don't know
455
if it's a break where we will then record again in February, or if it's one of the things where we never record again, or maybe in a year.
456
I don't know, David, what's your gut telling you on the fate of this podcast?
457
Well, I don't know.
458
We may be back.
459
I think it's been a lot of fun, but it is a lot of work.
460
So we have to figure that out.
461
Yeah, basically, it's become a bigger time commitment than I expected it would with the audio editing and the podcast transcript
462
and the artwork for each episode.
463
And it's, yeah, it's a little bit of a bigger commitment than I thought it would be when I started out.
464
So for now, it's going to fall by the wayside.
465
There you go.
466
To use the idiom from earlier in the podcast.
467
So if you've been just loving the podcast, I do apologize.
468
It's gotten some positive feedback and I hate to take away a resource that I've been offering for free.
469
And so it may come back, but in the meantime, there will be a new YouTube video every week as always.
470
And follow me on Instagram and Facebook.
471
And this is just a way you can keep up with us in general, me and David both.
472
Sometimes David and Stoney also make it into photos on the Instagram feed.
473
So there are ways to keep up.
474
And I appreciate all of you listeners out there who have since July been faithfully downloading and listening to the podcast.
475
You are the reason why we are doing this.
476
I'm wishing everyone out there the best in 2018.
477
I hope that you reach all of your English goals.
478
That's it, guys.
479
And until the future, this is Rachel and David.
480
And we're signing out from Philadelphia.
481
See you later, guys.
482
Thank you.
Real-Life Conversation: New Year's Resolutions
The video captures a casual chat between Rachel and her husband David about New Year's resolutions—an everyday topic that’s perfect for english speaking practice. Their dialogue reflects natural speech patterns, including pauses, follow-up questions, and relatable struggles (like failing to keep resolutions). This scenario is ideal for learning how to discuss goals, habits, and challenges in American English, making it a great resource for improving both pronunciation and conversational flow.
Useful Chunks & Collocations to Memorize
- Make New Year's resolutions: The common phrase for setting annual goals ("I do make them almost every year").
- Keep a resolution: To successfully follow through on a goal ("I don't keep them, but I make them").
- Common themes: Recurring topics in goals ("There have been some common themes, like exercise").
- Attack that doubt: To address and overcome uncertainty ("Come up with strategies to attack that doubt").
- On a regular basis: Consistently ("Exercise on a regular basis").
Your Shadowing Challenge: Improve English Pronunciation Now
The shadowing technique (or shadow speech) is a proven way to boost pronunciation and fluency. Here’s your task: Play a 30-second clip of the dialogue, pause, and repeat it immediately, mimicking the rhythm, stress, and intonation. Focus on David’s casual tone when he says, "Not well. That's not strong enough. Horribly." Notice how he shortens "that's" and emphasizes "horribly" for effect. Repeat this 5 times, then record yourself. Compare your version to the original—you’ll start to hear improvements in your ability to match natural American English patterns. This shadowspeak practice trains your mouth and brain to work together, making real-world conversations feel easier.
By practicing with this relatable dialogue, you’ll not only learn useful vocabulary but also master the nuances of everyday speech—key for confident English communication.
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.