Shadowing Practice: STOP Making These CRINGE English Mistakes - Learn English Speaking with Video

Hello, welcome to possibly the best video I've ever made on the channel.

I don't know.

Maybe I'm being dramatic, but I'm excited.

It's a really good one.

All right, buckle up.

We're going for a ride.

By the way, sorry about the noises.

Okay, I'm in Guadalajara, Mexico.

There's trucks.

I'm right near a busy road.

There's construction.

There's music, ambulances, dogs barking.

You know the deal.

You know the drill.

This video is worth watching, I promise.

All right, enough said.

Let's get into it.

The first thing I want to talk about is something

that I see all the time in the comment section of my videos.

It's an extremely common mistake and confusion because of other English teachers telling you that you can use get,

the word get, instead of understand.

I've talked about this briefly before in a video that I made in Spanish,

but I really want to talk about this topic more completely this time and in English so that there's no confusion.

And also because I got a lot of new students that don't know about this.

So here's the truth.

Get and understand are not interchangeable.

You cannot just replace understand with get.

It only works in very specific contexts.

And honestly, it's difficult to explain.

So I'm going to generalize and simplify it for you.

In general, when we use get in the context of understanding,

it's more about understanding the point of what somebody is saying or understanding the point of something.

For example, we use it a lot with jokes.

Did you get the joke?

It's like, did you understand the point of the joke?

Did you understand why the joke is funny?

Did you get it?

No, I didn't get it.

I didn't get the joke.

When somebody says, I don't get what you're saying.

I didn't get what you said.

It's that they didn't understand the point.

They didn't understand what you are really communicating, what you are saying.

But here's the thing.

And this is where I see all the mistakes in my comment section.

When we talk about understanding a language, like for example, understanding the language that you're speaking,

understanding the English that I'm speaking, the words that I'm saying.

When we talk about understanding a language, we use understand.

And if you use get, a lot of the time it's going to seem very strange and not like a native speaker.

So this is the problem.

I make videos talking in English and you guys want to tell me in the comments that you understand my English.

You understand me talking.

And so I see comments like, I got you completely.

Thank you.

Native speakers from the U.S probably wouldn't say that.

I got you also has a whole different meaning that we use nowadays, especially in my generation.

Nowadays, when somebody my age tells you, I got you, it's like, what kind of music do you like?

Oh, I like rock music.

Okay, I got you.

And I put on rock music.

It's like, okay, I'm going to do what will be good for you.

It's a totally different meaning.

If we want to say that we understand the language that you're speaking, we would just use understand.

We would say, I understood everything you said.

I understand your English perfectly.

I understand your videos.

I understand you when you talk.

Here's another comment I saw.

I got the class perfectly.

That sounds like you bought the class or you obtained the class.

That doesn't sound like you understood the class.

See, this is the problem.

GET has so many meanings.

So if you don't use GET exactly the way that native speakers use GET, it's very ambiguous.

It's not so clear what you mean.

Obviously, because I'm an English teacher and I understand that there's this confusion and based on the context, I understand what this person is trying to say.

I understand that they're trying to say that they understood the class.

They understood my English.

But I'm trying to help you actually talk like native speakers

so that you avoid confusion with other people and so that you can sound better in English.

So in this case, it would be so much better to just say, I understood the class perfectly.

I totally understood the class.

Here's another example.

Someone said that they sometimes use subtitles when the accent is hard to get.

That is very strange.

Native speakers wouldn't say that.

We wouldn't say your accent is hard to get.

We would say your accent is hard to understand.

It's hard to understand your accent because accent is like part of language.

It's a part of speaking a language.

For example, if somebody starts speaking Japanese and I don't know Japanese, I'm not going to say I don't get you

or I don't get what you're saying or I didn't get that because that sounds like it means something else.

I would say, sorry, I don't understand you because I don't know Japanese.

I don't understand Japanese.

Okay, so bottom line, what I want you to take away from this is understand is a totally normal word to use.

There is nothing formal or robotic about the word understand.

I use understand all the time.

It only has one meaning basically.

So it's very clear what you're trying to say and it's used

100

when we talk about understanding a language and it's also used in any context where you want to use understand.

101

The truth is that you don't actually need to use get.

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You could always use understand in every context even when we're talking about the point of what you're saying.

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You know I don't understand your point.

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You don't actually have to use get.

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Yes, native speakers use get to replace understand sometimes, but in very specific contexts, like I mentioned.

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And it's rarely used when we talk about understanding a language

107

or an accent or pronunciation or anything that has to do with that, because get is more about understanding the point of what you're saying.

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So if you want to avoid mistakes, you could always use understand.

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But if you want to use get, I recommend paying attention to the ways that native speakers use get to replace understand when you consume content in English,

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when you watch and listen to content in English.

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See how they use it and you can copy that.

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I think the problem is that so many of you have learned this not from content in English,

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but from videos of English teachers on the Internet saying you'll sound more like a native speaker

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if you use get instead of understand.

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That is extremely misleading and it's false a lot of the time.

116

It really depends on the context.

117

All right, enough said.

118

Next topic.

119

So for this video, I just took screenshots of random comments that I saw on my videos where there are common mistakes.

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So I'm going to show you what someone said

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and you can pause the video and guess what the mistake is and then I will explain what it is.

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All right, the first one.

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Is amazing, Lau.

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I like so much this kind of videos.

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All right, what are the mistakes here?

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There are more than one.

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The first one is starting a sentence with is that's not a question.

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You're probably only going to start a sentence with is if it's a question.

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Is it amazing?

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I don't know. Is it?

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If you're not asking a question, you're not going to start the sentence with is.

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You're going to start it with it or its because you can put it and is together.

133

It's amazing, Lau.

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You can't have a sentence in English without a subject.

135

You can't say is amazing.

136

Is is the verb.

137

Amazing is the adjective.

138

Where's the subject?

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Where's the thing?

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It.

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It's amazing.

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Thank you very much.

143

But also, it's amazing is very vague.

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This person just wrote that randomly.

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I don't know what they're trying to say.

146

I don't know if they're trying to say that the class was amazing.

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The video is amazing.

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The topic of the video.

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I don't know.

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So it's better to be more specific and write a complete thought, right?

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Like this video was amazing.

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This class is amazing.

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Something like that.

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The next mistake is, I like so much this kind of videos.

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Well, actually there's two here.

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This kind of video, video, this kind of video.

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We don't say this kind of videos.

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We say this kind of video, even though there are many, but you're just saying this kind of video, this type of video.

159

And the other mistake is, I like so much.

160

We don't say I like so much.

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There are two ways that you're going to express that you really like something.

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Well, actually three, if you include saying I love, you can always say I love this kind of video.

163

But if you want to use like, you can say I really like this kind of video.

164

Or you can say I like this kind of video a lot.

165

I like this kind of video a lot.

166

Personally, I think the best one is I really like this kind of video.

167

Super natural, super comfortable, super common native speaker.

168

I really like this kind of video.

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We use this form to express this all the time.

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I really like this.

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I really like it.

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I'm glad you like this kind of video.

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All right, the next one.

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Have you ever been in Colombia?

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Very common mistake.

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And I think there's confusion because been is from the verb to be.

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And so people are thinking about being in a place and that's logical.

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But unfortunately, English is very strange here.

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And when we say, have you been, we're not really talking about being in a place.

180

We're talking about having gone to a place.

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We're really saying, did you go to this place?

182

It's about going to a place, not being in a place.

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I know that we are not using the verb go or gone, but that's the way we think about it.

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That's the way that we use it.

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That's the way that we mean it.

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We're going to say, have you been to Columbia?

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You can think of have you been as just like, have you gone?

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Have you gone to?

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It's the same thing, the same meaning, even though it's the verb to be and not the verb to go.

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So have you ever been to Colombia?

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Yes, I have been to Colombia.

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I went to Medellin for about three months last year.

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And actually, it's funny that you're asking me because I am going back to Colombia in two days.

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But this time I am going to Bogotá and I'm very excited because I've never been to Bogotá, but I spent some time in the Andes when I lived in Ecuador.

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You know, I went to the capital of Ecuador.

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I went to Quito.

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I went to many cities in the Andes of Ecuador.

198

So I'm familiar with this kind of place, but I've never been to the Andes in Colombia and I'm excited to go back to Colombia in general.

199

So to answer your question, yes, I've been to Colombia and I'm going back.

200

Alright, the next thing I want to talk about is not necessarily a mistake.

201

It's like a personal preference, but it's my recommendation.

202

As a 27-year-old native speaker from the United States who understands the culture

203

and the way that we use English and the way that we have used English over the years.

204

I see a lot of comments with people trying to make words shorter.

205

Like, instead of saying you, they just write the letter you or instead of writing and they just write the letter N.

206

And I also always see people instead of writing thank you or thanks, they try to make that shorter, like THX or something like that.

207

I understand why people are doing this.

208

I understand that they think that this is the way

209

that native speakers use the language and it seems more like a native speaker, more natural, more advanced, whatever.

210

Or it's cool.

211

It's like internet text language.

212

I don't know.

213

But honestly, this is how we texted when it was 2007.

214

And we had those phones that you had to text like this, you know, the flip up phones.

215

And we were just discovering texting for the first time.

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And I mean, I was a kid and it was harder to text then.

217

So we, you know, we created all these like short ways of texting.

218

But nowadays we have the full keyboard with all the letters and texting isn't really like a new thing anymore.

219

And I think that we have matured a bit.

220

And so I currently don't know any native speakers who actually text like that.

221

These things we've kind of stopped doing over the years.

222

We don't do this anymore.

223

And honestly, not only does it look like you're stuck in 2007, but it kind of looks childish.

224

Of course, there are always going to be people that do it.

225

Of course, there are native speakers that do it.

226

And sometimes we do it to be like funny or cute, like kind of like a throwback, like vintage, you know, like this is how we used to do it.

227

But in general, just texting, writing normally, we don't use this stuff very often.

228

What you are going to see all the time, what native speakers do use all the time are the abbreviations for entire phrases.

229

Like instead of by the way, we write BTW or instead of to be honest, we write TBH.

230

We love to abbreviate entire phrases,

231

but it's not so common to shorten individual words unless that word is like really long or annoying.

232

Like for example, sometimes instead of though, I will write just T-H-O, like though, like a short version because the rest of the word is not even pronounced.

233

It's like irrelevant.

234

So yeah, we do that for certain words that are like long and ridiculous, but in general, we usually just abbreviate entire phrases.

235

I write LOL all the time, which stands for laugh out loud.

236

It's just my way of saying like, haha, there are many common abbreviations, but they're usually four entire phrases,

237

not just one three letter word shortened to one letter, like you becoming you.

238

That's like unnecessary.

239

It's like you're doing too much.

240

Like you're trying to be too much in the text slang.

241

It's like just write normally.

242

So once again, it's not a big deal if you write that way.

243

We all understand it.

244

It's not necessarily a mistake if you're just like texting, you know, it's okay.

245

But if you want to seem more like an adult or more mature in English and more normal,

246

I would just write you and and and stuff like that normally just write thank you.

247

So that's just my advice because I see that a lot of my comments too.

248

You know, I'm always keeping it real with you guys.

249

I miss making these videos talking about real English, talking about common mistakes.

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I'm always trying to give you my perspective as a native speaker who uses the language in real life situations

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and tells you how it really is.

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And I think that's about it.

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All right.

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So I'll see you in the next video.

255

Bye bye.

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When I say it like that, that comes from when native speakers talk on the phone in the States, like, yeah, yeah.

257

Bye bye.

258

It comes from that like this like bye-bye not like bye-bye but like bye-bye bye-bye all right bye-bye

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Woordenschat en spreektips bij deze les

Deze spreekles op niveau B1 is gebaseerd op de video “STOP Making These CRINGE English Mistakes”. Deze woorden komen het vaakst terug: English, speaker, native, mistake, write. Deze video bevat 258 zinnen en 2662 woorden om na te spreken. Het gesproken deel duurt 14:47. De spreker praat snel, ongeveer 180 woorden per minuut, dus reken op verbonden en ingeslikte klanken. 88% van de woorden hoort bij de 3.000 meest gebruikte Engelse woorden, dus de woordenschat is goed te volgen.

Belangrijke woorden in deze video

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

Woord	Uitspraak	Betekenis
accent zelfstandig naamwoord	/ækˈsɛnt/	accent, klemtoon
verb zelfstandig naamwoord	/vɝb/	werkwoord
confusion zelfstandig naamwoord	/kənˈfjuːʒən/	verwarring, war
litter zelfstandig naamwoord	/ˈlɪt.ɚ/	strooisel
phrase zelfstandig naamwoord	/ˈfɹeɪ̯z/	uitspraak
nowadays bijwoord	/ˈnaʊ.ə.deɪz/	heden, momenteel
abbreviate werkwoord	/əˈbɹi.vi.eɪt/	afkorten, verkorten
abbreviation zelfstandig naamwoord	/əˌbɹi.viˈeɪ.ʃn̩/	afkorting, verkorting
mature bijvoeglijk naamwoord	/məˈt͡ʃʊ(ə)ɹ/	volgroeid, volwassen
adjective zelfstandig naamwoord	/ˈæd͡ʒ.ɪk.tɪv/	bijvoeglijk naamwoord, adjectief
interchangeable bijvoeglijk naamwoord	/ɪntɚˈt͡ʃeɪnd͡ʒəbl̩/	uitwisselbaar
mislead werkwoord	/mɪsˈliːd/	misleiden
simplify werkwoord	/ˈsɪmplɪfaɪ/	vereenvoudigen, versimpelen
subtitle zelfstandig naamwoord	/ˈsʌbtaɪtəl/	ondertiteling, ondertitel
buckle zelfstandig naamwoord	/ˈbʌkəl/	gesp

Phrasal verbs die je zult horen

Woord	Betekenis
go back werkwoord	teruggaan

Zinnen om te herhalen

Korte, volledige zinnen uit de video die je in alledaagse gesprekken kunt gebruiken:

Maybe I'm being dramatic, but I'm excited.
Did you get the joke?
It's like, did you understand the point of the joke?
Did you understand why the joke is funny?
We're really saying, did you go to this place?

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 talked · have learned
Overtreffende trap the -est / the most … — het hoogste of laagste van een groep	the best
Present continuous am/is/are + -ing — iets dat nu of in deze periode gebeurt	I'm being · We're going · is saying
Toekomst met “going to” be going to + werkwoord — een plan of iets dat je ziet aankomen	I'm going to generalize · it's going to seem · I'm going to do

Uitspraak om op te letten

De spreker gebruikt 91 samentrekkingen en verkorte vormen, zoals don't, I'm, you're. Spreek ze kort uit, zoals je ze hoort.

De klanken “sh” en “zh”: confusion /kənˈfjuːʒən/, abbreviation /əˌbɹi.viˈeɪ.ʃn̩/, shorten /ˈʃɔɹtn̩/, pronunciation /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/, childish /ˈt͡ʃaɪldɪʃ/
Lange woorden — let op de klemtoon: abbreviate /əˈbɹi.vi.eɪt/, abbreviation /əˌbɹi.viˈeɪ.ʃn̩/, generalize /ˈd͡ʒɛn.(ə.)ɹə.laɪz/, interchangeable /ɪntɚˈt͡ʃeɪnd͡ʒəbl̩/, pronunciation /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/

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 accent, verb, confusion.

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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Woordenschat en spreektips bij deze les

Belangrijke woorden in deze video

Phrasal verbs die je zult horen

Zinnen om te herhalen

Grammatica in deze video

Uitspraak om op te letten

Zo oefen je met deze video

Wat is de Shadowing-techniek?