Shadowing Practice: 30 Days of English: Family Conversations (Day 2) - Learn English Speaking with YouTube

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Hi and welcome to day two of 30 Days of English.
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Hi and welcome to day two of 30 Days of English.
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This week we're talking about relationships.
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First we're going to talk about family, then friends, then romantic relationships.
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So today we're talking about family memories.
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Are you ready?
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Let's get started.
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Today, I have a special guest to introduce you to.
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This is my husband, Daniel.
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Hello.
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Or do you want to go by Dan?
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You can call me Dan.
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You would know.
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Okay.
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Okay.
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So today, Dan is going to share some stories about his family with us, and then throughout the course.
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He's going to also take part in our conversation lessons.
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Are you ready?
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I'm ready.
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All right.
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So today we're going to talk about family.
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And are there any interesting, fun, scary, strange family memories that you have that you'd like to share with everyone?
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Sure.
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I have a memory of when I was a child.
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So when I was maybe nine years old or so, my mother told my brother and I to go to bed, and we went to bed, but just like most children, we wanted to play a lot.
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So we had a bunk bed, so that's a bed below and a bed on top, and we were playing on the bunk bed, and on the bunk bed, there's a railing, and the railing was loose, so you could kind of swing it back and forth and it would make a loud sound and we thought that was funny so the scary part of this story is that the railing had nails at the end of it so when my brother was swinging the the railing back and forth my face somehow got in the way and the railing smacked me in the face with the nail so in my bed I was lying down with blood rolling down my face and my mom she thought we were just playing you were screaming and yeah mom help me right so I was like mommy mommy and my mom said be quiet up there so she wanted us to go to sleep still.
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So like a good child, I went to sleep with blood on my face.
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So then later that night when I was sleeping, my mom came upstairs and saw me sleeping, but I had dried blood all over my face and she was like, ah!
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So that was a scary story for my mom, especially, I think.
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Yeah, but were you hurt badly?
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Were you hurt permanently?
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Was it okay?
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No, I don't even think there's a scar or anything.
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It's just, it must have been like a very little nail hit my face.
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You're lucky it didn't hit your eye.
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Yes, I'm very lucky, but it was a very funny story in hindsight, but for my mother, it was not very funny.
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Sure, in hindsight, it's okay, but not at the moment.
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Exactly.
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oh sure so how about for you do you have any stories um yes so one of the stories about my family is also from my childhood and so i have uh some of you might know i have a sister a younger sister and when we were younger of course like every child at christmas we didn't want to wait for christmas to find out what our Christmas presents were so sometimes we would scheme and plan and try to find a way where we could open our Christmas presents before Christmas so sometimes a few days before Christmas our parents would put Christmas presents under the tree just to tempt us but while they were outside doing something or asleep at night my sister and I would go downstairs and open just one or two Christmas presents but we'd carefully pry open the tape and they'll peek inside and sometimes we pulled it out like oh and then we put it carefully back.
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Wait, you took out the whole present sometimes?
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Sometimes we did if it was possible to not mess up the wrapping.
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Oh very sneaky.
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Yes but we had to satisfy our curiosity so we would put them carefully back into the wrapping and then put the tape down but we were worried that maybe on Christmas morning our parents would think oh why aren't they surprised about their presence so my sister and I would practice making surprised faces so that evening when we were secretly opening them we'd practice pretending to open them like oh whoa just to practice ridiculous surprise faces because we didn't want anyone to find out that we'd really seen the present ahead of time and it worked well Wow.
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The surprised faces worked.
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Yes, yes.
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So it worked.
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And Christmas morning, my sister and I just laughed and laughed because we knew that each other's surprise faces were just fake.
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Right.
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Did your parents think you were seriously laughing?
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Like just excited?
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Oh, of course, of course.
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They were completely naive and had no idea.
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Wow.
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I think maybe later in life we confessed and told them, oh, back when we were younger, we used to secretly open the presents.
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but I don't even know if they were upset.
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It's one of those funny stories.
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Right, yeah.
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Oh, yes.
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Probably not upset anymore.
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Yeah, they probably didn't care.
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So thank you for sharing a story about your family.
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You're welcome.
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And I hope you enjoyed my story about my childhood as well.
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And today, thank you for watching day two.
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It's day two today.
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And if you are a super English member, make sure that you watch this week's bonus video about family.
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And now for everyone, I have a question that I want you to answer out loud as best as you can.
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What is a good memory from your childhood?
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Or a bad memory or a scary memory like Dan's.
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And I'll talk to you later.
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Goodbye.
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Bye-bye.

Why practice speaking with this video?

In today's interconnected world, the ability to converse confidently about personal experiences is essential. This 30 Days of English video uses relatable family stories to inspire learners to engage in meaningful conversations. By listening to authentic dialogues about family memories, you can practice your speaking skills while connecting emotionally to the content. This context helps to improve English pronunciation and promotes effective communication, making it a perfect choice for those preparing for IELTS speaking practice. Repeating phrases and shadowspeaking these stories through active participation can reinforce vocabulary and familiar expressions.

Grammar & Expressions in Context

Several key grammatical structures and expressions emerge from the conversations in this video, enhancing your understanding of everyday English. Here are a few examples:

  • Past Simple Tense: Used to describe completed actions, such as "I went to bed" or "My mother told us." Practicing these structures can help you recount personal stories effectively.
  • Question Forms: Observations such as "Do you have any stories?" empower learners to ask open-ended questions, crucial for maintaining conversations.
  • Use of Conditionals: The phrase "if it was possible" showcases the conditional form, helping you understand hypothetical scenarios in storytelling.
  • Inversion for Emphasis: Expressions like "But I was worried” highlight emotions, allowing you to create more engaging narratives.

Understanding these structures arms learners with the tools to express thoughts and feelings clearly, promoting smoother interactions that resonate with listeners.

Common Pronunciation Traps

While practicing with this video, you'll encounter several pronunciation challenges that learners often face. These include:

  • Familiarity with Hidden Sounds: Words like "Christmas" may be pronounced quickly, leading to dropped sounds. The practice of shadow speech can help you catch these nuances and improve clarity.
  • Contractions: The use of contractions such as "you'd" and "it's" is common in spoken English, and mispronouncing these can lead to misunderstandings. Focus on the natural flow of these phrases as you listen to the conversation.
  • Word Stress: Key phrases like "blood rolling down my face" highlight the importance of stressing the right words in a sentence. Emphasizing the right syllables can significantly improve your overall improve English pronunciation.

By concentrating on these aspects during your practice, you move closer to mastering the subtleties of spoken English, making your conversations more authentic and engaging.

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.

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