Shadowing Practice: 2700 - What Would You Do for a Million Dollars? - Learn English Speaking with Video

Hello, Lindsay.

How are you?

I'm doing great today, Aubrey.

I have a question for you, though, I'd like to start with.

Let's hear it.

Would you ever shave your head, even for a million dollars?

Like if I were to give you a million dollars to shave your head, would you do it?

Absolutely.

In a heartbeat.

I would shave my head.

But the question is, would you have this beautiful hair?

Your hair is like, there's mine, isn't it?

Nothing to write home about

but for a million bucks I think I still would honestly

just retire I'll have a shaved head you know it grows

back it's fine I'll take the money I agree I'm really

curious everyone out there you know how would you answer questions

like these are asked often in American culture I wonder

if it's popular as well around the world um where you'll

ask like what would you do for a million dollars

or something like this would you shave your head for a million dollars right

but crazily it's becoming less of a hypothetical there are these new bounty websites

that are starting where you know prices are put on risky

actions like for example getting a tattoo advertisement on your forehead

something really it's like that's a tough choice to make no

even for a million dollars I wouldn't tattoo something on my

forehead no tattoos are semi -permanent I mean you have to

and it's expensive to get them removed and on your face

when there could be scarring and it's extremely painful

so yeah it's interesting we're gonna dive into this what is

a bounty how else does it come up in culture

and kind of talk about the ethics of this

because it's very controversial yes yeah and we have a couple of examples of bounties

when it comes to wildlife and that kind of thing

so every what is a bounty let's get started there right

so this is a monetary reward offered by a government corporation

or an individual and in this case it's cryptocurrency that's being paid

so that's kind of interesting as well

but traditionally bounties have existed for a long time um there's the newest star wars film the mandalorian

and grogu is about a bounty hunter the mandalorian right so he's offered money to like bring in a criminal.

Okay.

Yeah.

That's how you hear about it the most, the term bounty when they're looking for a person, right?

Or dog, the bounty hunter.

Have you ever seen that show?

That's an older show.

It's someone who would go and find people who had skipped bail and they would be paid bounty money for that.

Interesting.

And now there is some more examples here.

I know down in Florida to shift over to wildlife right now, there's an overpopulation of Burmese pythons.

So a few years ago this was i saw this on

some documentary on tv once um they have a bounty on python

so they're going out and paying citizens that are just brave enough

and have a big enough i don't know machete

or whatever they need to to go

and bring in your recovered bring in dead pythons

and i think i think they're paying around a grand per python

but these are like huge snakes right they're earning their money to put their life at risk to try

and catch those snakes yeah

and that's also existed in the mountain west in idaho montana maybe colorado there have been bounties on wolves back

when there was a extreme overpopulation of wolves

and it was about a thousand dollars fifteen hundred dollars for someone to kill a wolf

but now they've over hunted them and they're endangered now

so it's kind of it can swing either way right yeah in colorado they're repopulating the wolves now

and this was a ballot issue in the last couple of years bringing the wolves back

and it becomes very political right when you get into these wildlife issues

but that's one way

that bounty is applied what else do we need to know

here well this is interesting for anyone out there who watches

the show black mirror on netflix i'm a huge fan myself

but in the most recent season season seven episode one this

what has sort of come to life here is uh fictional in

that show where there are these bounties for risky actions, right?

And someone would claim it online and be paid to do that.

And now this is really crazy that you're seeing that this could actually happen in real life, right?

So there was a CNN article we saw called The Website Where Crypto Promoters Pay People to Tattoo Ads on Themselves.

This was by TM Brown in June of 2026.

And we kind of looked in this and sort of wanted to share about it.

there's a chance that this could become popular

and there could be more sites

or maybe it'll go away that's my hope I'm not really

in support of this it seems no very like a terrible idea

yeah it does seem kind of I don't know like it belongs in a movie

or something honestly right let's keep it in black mirror

and not in real life yeah please yeah along with all

of the technology in black mirror it's better to have it be in a tv show

and not actually real I still haven't seen black mirror i'm gonna have to see

that that's every episode is different technology

and how it affects like people in society and relationships

but usually by the end you're like this technology should never

exist okay good to know do you have any quotes from

i mean like what are people what do academics think about this yeah this is interesting

so in that article they had interviewed a couple of different people

and one of them was william william cavanaugh so he's a theologian

and a professor of catholic studies at de paul university in

chicago what did he say lindsey okay well he said this

is the clear case where people are being instrumentalized instrumentalized

and dehumanized for the sake of personal profit yeah i mean pretty much right i really agree

that it's the dehumanization right you're treating someone like a product like a pawn

100

and even if it's for money they need it's still you're taking their dignity from them for

101

that payment yes mm -hmm yeah

102

and then they also interviewed yeah new york governor kathy hochel well

103

so she had been she had publicly written on x this

104

she wrote offering a bounty on the first bill introduced to ban this dystopian nightmare i loved this phrase like

105

so she clearly really doesn't she'll pay for it yeah

106

and then making kind of a joke here

107

but she's using the term bounty to make a joke of it exactly she's joking

108

and saying she'll give a bony to bounty to anyone who can shut this down right

109

and then a spokesperson for her office said any business model

110

that rewards people for targeting harassing or endangering others should alarm everyone

111

and I really loved that statement because that's the thing even

112

if you're paying someone to do it to themselves you're still

113

endangering people right getting someone to harm someone else themselves and

114

that really should alarm us all

115

that really should you're making the suggestion you're putting the idea in their head oh my gosh so

116

when we come back from our break we're going to talk

117

about what does this mean for our listeners in terms of

118

a connection topic of a conversation topic i could very easily

119

see this coming up in a conversation with a friend with

120

a native speaking friend yes i've already spoken to people about as soon as i saw

121

that article i'm like oh this is interesting And it's going to be, I don't know how controversial it'll be, but there will be some people who agree

122

that people should be free to do things like this if they choose for a payment.

123

So you're definitely not going to, you might be surprised even what some of your friends think.

124

Yeah, exactly.

125

People would have different opinions on it.

126

So we're going to take a quick break and come back

127

and we'll get into how do you form questions to talk about this?

128

Yes.

129

Okay, good.

130

Hey, quick question.

131

Do you want to feel more confident when you speak English?

132

If so, we made a free guide for you.

133

It'll help you avoid those common mistakes and start speaking more naturally in real conversations.

134

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135

And if this is helpful for you, make sure that you like and subscribe.

136

We're here five times a week to help you connect in English.

137

All right, Aubrey, we're back from break.

138

So what would be some conversation starters

139

if we do want to tell our friends about this and have a conversation to see what they think?

140

Yeah.

141

So we have offered this sort of pro tip in the past that now that you've heard this episode, you can say, you know, I heard about this.

142

I listened to a podcast and that's such a great entry point.

143

So for example, you could say, I heard a new website allows people to offer a bounty for risky actions.

144

What do you think about that?

145

And then if they haven't heard anything, they might just say, what?

146

I haven't heard about that.

147

And you could provide a little more detail.

148

Or if they have, then that's the beginning of a really interesting discussion.

149

And the next one is, have you heard it on a podcast?

150

You heard about it here.

151

Yeah.

152

And this is incredibly common.

153

A couple of constructions around something you heard on a podcast.

154

First one is, I listened to a podcast about a website where people pay cryptocurrency for tattoos.

155

Have you heard about that?

156

But Aubrey, I also hear people saying, I was listening to a podcast and blah, blah, blah.

157

X, Y, Z.

158

I hear a lot of people use that construction.

159

I was listening to a podcast and I heard this or I learned this.

160

And they talked about this new website offering bounties.

161

And I love, I have a lot of friends who that is how they start their conversation.

162

Either I read an article or I was listening to a podcast and often the best way to bring up something that,

163

and you don't have to share your opinion right away or commit either way.

164

You're just asking what they know about it, what they think.

165

Yes.

166

So that's a really natural way to start this topic.

167

But what else?

168

We have this other interesting thing.

169

So questions about extreme things you might do for money are also fun conversation starters.

170

We do this a lot in American English, right?

171

So we're going to share a few that are pretty benign, you know, pretty harmless that you could potentially ask someone.

172

And these always lead to interesting conversations.

173

Thank you.

174

Yeah.

175

I mean, I'll just start it off with a question.

176

Aubrey, would you hunt for pythons for a thousand dollars each?

177

Would you do that?

178

No, I wouldn't even do that for a million.

179

I think I would definitely probably lose my life.

180

I mean, I'm not an expert.

181

I would very likely just be like drowned.

182

Death by python.

183

Yeah.

184

Death by python.

185

I think if I were like a large man and I had, you know, I had skills like outdoor, outdoors, I might do it.

186

Maybe.

187

I don't know i don't know for a million yes maybe

188

for a million i would maybe try for a billion oh

189

interesting what about eyebrows this comes back to the hair thing

190

would you shave your eyebrows for a million dollars yes again

191

i know it really yeah i would too you know it's not the end of the world

192

and more and more these days yes eyebrows grow back you can draw on eyebrows

193

so absolutely totally draw them on i'd probably do that for a hundred dollars maybe a thousand

194

yeah everyone has their own you know threshold here

195

but I would probably do it for a million

196

or a thousand maybe a thousand and then take some time off

197

so I wouldn't have to be on camera yes exactly

198

and we also leave these more open -ended you could say

199

something like what would they have to pay you to wear the same outfit every day for a year

200

or something like that and it's just more hypothetical

201

and then we my friends

202

and I do this fun thing where someone will throw out a number

203

and then someone else will say oh I'd do it for

204

this much you like go down until you get as low

205

as you're willing you start to understand people's standards right what they'll tolerate someone says a million

206

and someone else says I'd do that for a thousand

207

yeah yeah for sure well how into coffee are you these

208

days Aubrey would you give up coffee for a million dollars forever I love coffee

209

that would be hard

210

but maybe maybe for a million dollars I could be a

211

tea drinker for a month I think I would absolutely forever

212

would be oh yeah a month a year I probably would I would probably just get into like matcha

213

or green tea or something

214

and just call it a day you know just fine exactly

215

let's do a role play here where we're showing how this might look in a full conversation you

216

and I are meeting for coffee here actually

217

oh well there you go we can't give up coffee in

218

that case right um all right I heard a new website allows people to offer a bounty for risky actions.

219

What do you think about that?

220

Oh man, like on that Black Mirror episode?

221

That definitely didn't go well.

222

Yeah, definitely concerning that people are taking unnecessary risks just for money or maybe for internet fame.

223

Hey, what about you?

224

How much would they have to pay you to get an advertisement tattooed on your face? On my face?

225

Wow.

226

I don't think they could pay me enough.

227

Same here.

228

Even if it were temporary, I'd have to think long and hard about it.

229

yeah clearly we have standards they're maybe not the highest

230

but they're there yeah yeah

231

so yeah this first phrase you used right i heard a

232

new website allows people to offer a bounty for risky actions

233

so or you could use one of these others i was listening to a podcast

234

and they were sharing

235

that bounties are being offered right lots of ways you could

236

lead into this conversation yes exactly any other key phrases we

237

need to take away from this role play i said what

238

about you how much would they have to pay you to get an advertisement on your face

239

and there are a few ways to construct this right we

240

also shared i could say for a million dollars would you do

241

that right there's a lot of interesting things to ask

242

but it's interesting because depending on the relationship

243

and how well you know your friends some people will get

244

more personal with these the ones we've shared today are really safe are not going to offend to anyone, right?

245

Yeah.

246

Yeah, for sure. For sure.

247

So the point is here, guys, it's a connection topic.

248

So it's kind of controversial.

249

You'll learn a lot about your friends, about their ideas, right?

250

In terms of, I guess, their standards, or maybe they're just joking when they give their answer anyways.

251

But check it out as a connection topic.

252

Bring up these interesting things that you read in the news, because this is what we talk about as native speakers.

253

Anything that's a little bit controversial is always going to make for a better conversation, not everyone will agree here so it is interesting to find out what your friends think

254

and be ready to pivot away if someone's uncomfortable

255

if you both really disagree you never know right be ready to change the subject

256

if necessary and it could potentially turn into a more interesting conversation around personal freedom right definitely

257

because you know guaranteed some friends are going to say you

258

know personal freedom that's what that's a big part of American

259

culture that's a big theme in our politics right being able to do what you want

260

and then you might get into you know the founding of our country i mean

261

or what what are the laws in your country and the rules

262

and the values so there's a lot here aubrey beyond just the exact website.

263

Absolutely.

264

That's such a good point.

265

Whenever there's something controversial, it can easily link to other controversial issues, depending on how deep you want to go, how much you want to get into it with that person and how comfortable you are,

266

uh, with controversial issues.

267

Yes.

268

Good stuff.

269

Well, thanks for being on the episode today, Aubrey, and I'll see you next time.

270

Awesome.

271

See you next time.

272

Bye.

273

Okay.

274

Bye.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “2700 - What Would You Do for a Million Dollars?”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: bounty, interesting, dollars, conversation, heard. This video has 274 sentences and 2913 words to shadow. The speech runs for 15:21. The speaker talks fast, about 190 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 84% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.

Key vocabulary in this video

The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
bounty noun	/ˈbaʊn(t)i/	Generosity; also (countable) an act of generosity.
podcast noun	/ˈpɑdˌkæst/	A program, especially an audio program, produced on a regular basis, delivered over the Internet in a compressed digital format and designed for playback on…
shave verb	/ˈʃeɪ̯v/	To make (the head, skin etc.) bald or (the hair) shorter by using a tool such as a razor or electric clippers to cut the hair close to the skin.
tattoo noun	/tæˈtuː/	An image made on a body part, usually the skin with ink and a needle.
risky adjective	/ˈɹɪski/	Dangerous; involving risks.
eyebrow noun	/ˈaɪˌbɹaʊ/	The hair that grows over the bone ridge above the eye socket.
advertisement noun	/ˈædvɚˌtaɪzmənt/	A commercial solicitation designed to sell some commodity, service or similar.
cryptocurrency noun	/ˈkɹɪp.toʊˌkɝ.ən.si/	A digital currency based on a cryptographic system, usually having no central issuing or regulating authority.
endanger verb	/ɛnˈdeɪnd͡ʒɚ/	To put (someone or something) in danger; to risk causing harm to.
instrumentalize verb		To make into an instrument for achieving a goal.
overpopulation noun	/ˌoʊvɚˌpɑpjəˈleɪʃ(ə)n/	An excessive number of occupants (people, animals, plants, etc.) in a particular area; specifically, when the number of occupants exceeds the ability of that…
hypothetical adjective	/ˌhaɪpəˈθɛtɪkəl/	Based upon a hypothesis; conjectural.
forehead noun	/ˈfɔɹ.hɛd/	The part of the face above the eyebrows and below the hairline.
starter noun	/ˈstɑɹ.tɚ/	Someone who starts, or who starts something.
joking verb	/ˈd͡ʒoʊkɪŋ/	Kidding, trying to fool.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Meaning
bring up verb	To mention.
give up verb	To surrender (someone or something); to inform on (someone).
come back verb	To return to a place.
come back from verb	To become successful, confident or effective again after an injury, setback, failure, embarrassment, etc.
find out verb	To discover, as by asking or investigating.
go away verb	To depart or leave a place.
go down verb	To descend; to move from a higher place to a lower one.
go out verb	To leave, especially a building.

Sentences worth repeating

Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:

Would you ever shave your head, even for a million dollars?
Your hair is like, there's mine, isn't it?
Have you ever seen that show?
What do you think about that?
Have you heard about that?

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	have existed · have been · haven't seen
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	are asked · are put · being paid
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	someone who would · anyone who can · people who agree

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 75 contractions and reduced forms, such as you're, they're, don't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “th” sounds: hypothetical /ˌhaɪpəˈθɛtɪkəl/, theologian /ˌθi.əˈloʊd͡ʒən/, threshold /ˈθɹɛʃ(h)oʊld/, ethics /ˈɛθ.ɪks/
The “sh” and “zh” sounds: shave /ˈʃeɪ̯v/, overpopulation /ˌoʊvɚˌpɑpjəˈleɪʃ(ə)n/, dehumanization /diːˌhjuːmənaɪˈzeɪʃən/, machete /məˈʃɛ.ti/, fictional /ˈfɪkʃənəl/
Long words — get the stress right: advertisement /ˈædvɚˌtaɪzmənt/, cryptocurrency /ˈkɹɪp.toʊˌkɝ.ən.si/, overpopulation /ˌoʊvɚˌpɑpjəˈleɪʃ(ə)n/, hypothetical /ˌhaɪpəˈθɛtɪkəl/, dehumanization /diːˌhjuːmənaɪˈzeɪʃən/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like bounty, podcast, shave.

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.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

Shadowing Practice: 2700 - What Would You Do for a Million Dollars? - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

Key vocabulary in this video

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Sentences worth repeating

Grammar in this video

Pronunciation to watch

How to practise with this video

What is the Shadowing Technique?