Shadowing Practice: 7-day free trial of semi retirement - Learn English Speaking with Video
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54 sentences
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I'm not crazy rich or anything to be able to retire this young, but I am in Lisbon with my grandfather who is retired, and I'm just spending some time with him for a while.
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And I don't have that many expenses, and I made some money that I saved up from my company that I've run over the past four years.
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And this is basically what it's like, at least right now, to be kind of semi-retired.
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I say semi-retired because I still work because I want to, but there is very little urgency, if that makes sense, at least right now.
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Wait a second.
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My grandfather's outside making a little barbecue.
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I'm gonna try and catch him in this natural element before he notices me with the camera
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Most are you speaking in things?
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I don't really have a plan for the day other than this lunch
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that my friend invited me on Maybe we'll go watch the Odyssey
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because I came out yesterday or before people said it was very good Maybe it's worth watching.
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I like movies a lot.
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So now quickly before I leave I have just bought a little domain I've got my VPS running Claude
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Which now is gonna have access to this domain through for sale
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because of my Claude VPS setup I'm able to text Claude from my phone using Termis.
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So I'm going to connect to it and then keep sending messages during lunch to check that it goes online.
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And then I'll have a project live while I'm eating lunch.
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So that's development in 2026, I guess.
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It's a really like simple little silly project.
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It's like a little AI agent that Undean scrolls for you, basically.
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That's it.
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Anyway, now I got to go.
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I'm going to drag down to the restaurant and then maybe see about the movie later.
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Well, I didn't really record any of the lunch stuff, although we went to a pretty nice restaurant
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but it's now the end of my day i basically went out for my lunch with friends
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and then i watched uh the odyssey
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which was pretty fun i got back about like 7 p.m
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because the movie was at four and three hours long
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and then i had dinner with my grandfather
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and i just chat with him for like two hours i
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like hanging out with him he's like one of my favorite people um to hang out with
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and i know that i don't have you know a forever amount of time with him
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but yeah and then I'm in bed
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and kind of like uh just just hacking away at some stuff
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and I'm gonna be on my laptop for the next couple hours
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and then I'll go to sleep
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and um that's it that's like pretty much my I guess
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what my my seven day free travel semi-retirement looks like I
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spent much more time hanging out with my friends than I
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would usually do most of my days I spend by myself more on my laptop than out
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but this was uh I guess a particular exception this is
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honestly being how I have been spending some of my days here in Lisbon.
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It's like I'm kind of figuring out the next thing
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that I'm working on and so I'm just tinkering a lot more
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and this is what that looks like and I like to joke around
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that it's like semi-retirement because I spend most of my time with my grandfather who is retired.
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Anyway that's it for this video
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which is I guess a lot more informal than I thought it would be
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but it's just I thought it'd be fun to like keep a record of it
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and kind of a day in the books
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that I'll someday look back on and be like oh yeah I remember that time.
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You can have a little window into that.
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Anyway, thank you very much for watching.
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I hope you enjoyed, and hopefully I'll see you in the next one too.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “7-day free trial of semi retirement”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: lunch, retired, semi, guess, Claude. This video has 54 sentences and 681 words to shadow. The speech runs for 2:58. The speaker talks fast, about 230 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 82% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| retire verb | /ɹəˈtaɪɹ/ | To stop working on a permanent basis, usually because of old age or illness. |
| grandfather noun | /ˈɡɹæn(d)ˌfɑðɚ/ | A father of someone's parent. |
| domain noun | /ˌdəʊˈmeɪ̯n/ | A geographic area owned or controlled by a single person or organization. |
| laptop noun | /ˈlæp.tɑp/ | A laptop computer. |
| odyssey noun | /ˈɑ.dɪ.si/ | An extended adventurous voyage, usually in search of home. |
| element noun | /ˈɛləmənt/ | One of the simplest or essential parts or principles of which anything consists, or upon which the constitution or fundamental powers of anything are based. |
| dragon noun | /ˈdɹæɡən/ | In European mythologies, a gigantic beast, typically reptilian with leathery bat-like wings, lion-like claws, scaly skin and a lizard-like body, often a… |
| silly adjective | /ˈsɪl.i/ | Laughable or amusing through foolishness or a foolish appearance. |
| connect verb | /kəˈnɛkt/ | To join (to another object): to attach, or to be intended to attach or capable of attaching, to another object. |
| exception noun | /əkˈsɛpʃən/ | The act of excepting or excluding; exclusion; restriction by taking out something which would otherwise be included, as in a class, statement, rule. |
| invite verb | /ɪnˈvaɪt/ | To ask for the presence or participation of someone or something. |
| expense noun | /ɪkˈspɛns/ | A spending or consuming, often a disbursement of funds. |
| someday adverb | Sometime; at some unspecified time in the future. | |
| informal adjective | /ɪnˈfɔɹ.m(ə)l/ | Not formal or ceremonious. |
| scroll noun | /skɹoʊl/ | A roll of paper or parchment; a writing formed into a roll. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| come out verb | /ˌkʌm ˈaʊt/ | To be discovered; to be revealed. |
| figure out verb | To come to understand; to discover or find a solution; to deduce. | |
| run over verb | To exceed the allotted time. |
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 | I've run · have just bought |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | is retired |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 27 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, I'll, don't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
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 retire, grandfather, domain.
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.