Shadowing Practice: 10 MINUTE American English Conversation | Learn American English | Go Natural English - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
1
Hey guys, how's it going? I'm Gabby from Go Natural English and this is Shayna from EspressoEnglish.net.
2
You know, the holidays are coming up, in particular Thanksgiving is coming up next week and we wanted to talk a little bit about it. Hey Shayna, how's it going? Hey Gabby I'm looking forward to the holidays. Yeah, me too.
3
What do you usually do for Thanksgiving?
4
I'm usually together with my family. My family is really close.
5
That's my parents, my brother, my grandparents and various aunts and uncles and cousins. We all just get along really well. Family time. There's no conflicts. We love to laugh together, just hang out, eat a lot. Yeah! What kinds of foods do you guys usually make? Well, my grandmother is an excellent cook, so is my mom, so there's always turkey. There's soup. There's salad.
6
There's ham. Various snack-type things. I just eat it. I don't have to cook it.
7
That's good. I'm trying to remember what my mom used to make when we had a big family celebration. It's been a while since we had a big family celebration but when I was younger we used to all get together. Definitely turkey.
8
That's the thing you have to have. Unless you're vegetarian. Then you could do a tofu-turkey. That's a thing. It is.
9
Cranberry sauce.
10
Mashed potatoes. Sweet potatoes. A lot of potatoes.
11
Starches. Green beans. Corn maybe.
12
I'm trying to think what else is traditional Thanksgiving food. Definitely for desserts pumpkin pie. I love pumpkin pie.
13
A lot of food. When I think of Thanksgiving I think of my stomach being very full to the point of feeling like I'm going to burst. They call it a food coma.
14
You feel really sleepy like after you eat a really big meal.
15
You know, I'm not such a big sports person, but isn't there always the football or something around Thanksgiving? Yeah, American football. I think so. That's when the season kicks off or something.
16
Yeah. I just remember people eating Thanksgiving and then maybe it wasn't even the same day but watching football around that time as well so that's a big thing, American football. American tradition. Yeah.
17
Besides Thanksgiving, what other holidays do you like? You know, I'll take any holiday. I love holidays. But I really love New Years because I've started making it kind of a period not only for celebration but also to slow down at the end of the year and reflect back on the year that has passed so quickly.
18
Make plans for the new year. So I really like that. I like that for about a week in the US at least it just feels like everyone slows down and relaxes and you can breathe and you can just spend time with family and friends or maybe travel. A lot of people travel for New Years. Actually last year I was in Mexico and the year before, Brazil, and before that I was probably in Japan, I want to say. I've traveled a lot for New Year's.
19
I just like the feeling that I get where I can stop reflect and plan a new beginning, so to speak.
20
What about you? What do you look forward to?
21
I really like that period as well for exactly the reasons you said.
22
A chance to slow down, because I think we're always rushing around in the US and especially as entrepreneurs you know we have a lot of stuff to do. I love reflecting as well. I write a summary of my year, like how it went.
23
New Year's itself we always spend with my best friend's family in their beach house, but don't get too excited because the beach house is in New Jersey so there is snow on the beach.
24
No swimming, no... No. Ok.
25
I've seen a guy in a wet suit braving the waves for surfing.
26
But it's cold. It's really cold. But we have fun just enjoying each other's company.
27
Enjoying hopefully the end of the year that we lived well.
28
We accomplished some things and also looking forward to that new beginnings.
29
I love that. I'm really looking forward to it now. It's coming soon!
30
Are you spending New Year's in Brazil this year? I think so. I think I'm going to go to Brazil, because, well for a few reasons. It's a lot warmer than New York. I'm jealous. Yes, well New York City is an amazing place to be for New Year's.
31
You probably know the ball drops in Time's Square.
32
There's that. But I really love the beach and I love warm weather and I think it will be fun and it'll be fun to get away for a little bit and be in a different environment where I can just pause and reflect.
33
Maybe do some journaling, reflecting on my year. When I'm in New York I feel like there's always things I want to go out and do. Yes.
34
It'll be really nice. That's the plan anyway. What about you?
35
Where are you thinking of spending New Year's? You know, I'm honestly not even sure this year.
36
Plans are all up in the air. Maybe with your friends in the beach house. Actually they're traveling right now, so they're out of the country, so no luck there, but we'll figure out something.
37
Yeah, there's still time. We always do. I feel like in the US we don't have that many holidays though. Maybe as some other countries. Yeah, I know. Well I think that there's a few, very few big ones, where they're federal nation-wide holidays where you know that the bank's going to close and everybody stays, well not everybody, some people have the day off, we'll say. What would that be?
38
New Years, Christmas, New Year's, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's, 4th of July, we skip all those, January, February, March, April, May. There might be one... isn't President's Day or Martin Luther King Day some people celebrate. There's a lot of gray area.
39
It depends on your job and even the city you live in.
40
What's going to be a big holiday or not. Actually when I was living in Brazil it was sometimes frustrating. I was living in Bahia, the state of Bahia in Brazil.
41
There were actually too many holidays. For example, Carnival would be at least a week, maybe 10 days, and then there would be all sorts of days for the Catholic saints, religious holidays. Things would close and I would actually be frustrated. I mean I love celebration. I love all the different kinds of celebration that you have, but sometimes it would be frustrating because I felt like you said, the bank is closed. How do you get stuff done? I don't know.
42
It's interesting because here we don't really have saint's days. We I mean I guess Christmas is a time, a day about a week depending on where you work, but they take that time off, but we don't really have the saint's days like you have in Brazil.
43
That's interesting. There's a lot of good holidays coming up. That's why we call this period of time the holidays. We can look forward to definitely having some holidays coming up.
44
Yeah. I would love to hear from actually people who are watching what holidays you have in your country because there are some that we don't even know about and we'd love to learn! If you have a holiday in your home country that's unique or you just really enjoy then leave a comment!
45
Right? Yeah! And if I can ask another question, I'm curious if you celebrate any American holidays. Do you celebrate Thanksgiving? Do you celebrate Halloween in your country? I would be interested to know both of these things. Not the 4th of July, right? Because that's American independence.
46
Yeah, well, if you celebrate that, that's kind of interesting, but you probably don't.
47
Right? That's ok. Well, great. This is our third conversation of four. Next week you can join us again on Friday for another conversation. We're going to be talking about a really special project that we've worked on together three times now going into now what, almost two years. No, about one year. This will be the one-year anniversary.
48
Wow, yeah! We're going to be talking about how the English Power Pack came about, why we do it and just having a conversation about what we're excited about in that. I'm excited. Me too! Awesome. Awesome. If you want to learn more about Shayna, she's at EspressoEnglish.net and I'm Gabby at GoNaturalEnglish.com. We'll see you next week! See you! Bye!
About This Lesson
In this lesson, you'll practice casual American English conversation, focusing on holiday traditions, family gatherings, and food. By listening to this dialogue, you’ll enhance your understanding of spoken English while learning how native speakers interact about common cultural events like Thanksgiving and New Year's. This practice session will help you in your IELTS speaking practice by exposing you to natural rhythms and expressions used in everyday conversations. The lively discussions between the speakers will allow you to identify and recreate their speech patterns, which is essential for fluency and confidence in english speaking practice.
Key Vocabulary & Phrases
- Thanksgiving - A significant American holiday celebrated with family and traditional meals.
- Food coma - A slang term for the drowsiness one feels after eating a large meal.
- Reflect - To think deeply or carefully about past experiences, especially at year-end.
- Cranberry sauce - A common Thanksgiving dish made from cranberries.
- Tofu-turkey - A vegetarian alternative to turkey, especially popular among non-meat eaters.
- Aunts and uncles - Extended family members; there is a bond often emphasized during family gatherings.
- New Year's - The first day of the year, often celebrated with gatherings, resolutions, and reflections.
- Celebrate - To observe or commemorate an event with festivities and social gatherings.
Practice Tips
To effectively practice your speaking and improve your english pronunciation, follow these shadowing techniques while watching the video:
- Shadow Speak: Pay careful attention to the speakers’ intonation and rhythm. Try to imitate not just their words, but how they express emotions through their voice.
- Slow it Down: Use playback features to slow down the video, allowing you to catch every word and pronunciation nuance. As you become more comfortable, gradually return to normal speed.
- Pause & Repeat: After each sentence or phrase, pause the video and repeat what you heard. This will help you internalize sentence structure and vocabulary.
- Record Yourself: Use your phone or computer to record your voice as you practice. Listen to the playback to identify areas for improvement.
- Combine Techniques: Engage in exercises where you respond to questions from the video by creating your own sentences, including your thoughts on Thanksgiving or New Year traditions.
By employing these strategies, you'll be well on your way to achieving greater fluency and comfort in speaking English. Embrace the opportunity to shadow the speakers and watch your language skills grow!
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.