Shadowing Practice: 916 - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
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Hi, I'm Ron from Hawaii.
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I'm here with Mari from Japan.
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Today we'll be talking about abilities.
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So Mari, are you a good cook?
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I like to cook.
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More specifically, I like to cook for people.
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I like to have people over and eat with people.
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I don't really like to eat alone, so I don't like to cook for myself.
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I like to cook for other people.
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but more than cooking I like to bake.
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Baking?
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What do you like to bake?
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Cookies and brownies and cake.
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That sounds very good.
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I would like to eat one of your brownies.
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Okay next, are you a good singer?
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I am terrible at singing.
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I don't like going to karaoke and I I don't like to sing.
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I like music, but I can't sing for my life.
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I, yesterday, or I guess in class, it was a student's birthday, and I made my students sing Happy Birthday,
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but they wouldn't start, so I had to start them off singing, and my voice was so bad that they started laughing at me.
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I'm just a terrible singer.
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That's funny.
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Okay, next.
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Are you a good dancer?
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No, I'm not a good dancer.
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I can't dance at all.
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I used to, when I was younger, my parents enrolled me in ballet classes, so I did ballet for like six years,
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but I am not very good at dancing.
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So you're a teacher now, right?
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So were you a good student when you were a student?
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I was a good student because I'm a dork.
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No, yeah, I think I was a good student.
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I tried hard in all of my classes.
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I always did my homework.
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I was always focused and took notes during class.
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If I didn't understand something, I would either ask questions in class or speak to the teacher or professor after class.
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I always really liked learning, and so I think that's why I was a really good student.
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And athletics, were you a good athlete, and are you a good athlete now?
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That's a tricky question.
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I like sports and I like playing sports.
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I don't think I'm a very good athlete, probably compared to you.
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I'm probably not, but I really enjoy playing sports.
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In high school, I played soccer.
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I ran cross country.
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I played ice hockey and a little bit of lacrosse.
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And which one was your favorite sport?
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My favorite sport was ice hockey.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This video has 48 sentences and 410 words to shadow. The speech runs for 3:04. The speaker talks at a steady 134 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. Only 76% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 less common words from the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
- athlete /ˈæθ.liːt/ (noun) — A participant in any of a group of sporting activities including track and field, road running, cross country running and racewalking.
- bake /beɪk/ (verb) — To cook (something) in an oven (for someone).
- hockey /ˈhɑ.ki/ (noun) — Any of a family of sports in which hockey sticks are used to move a ball or puck into a goal.
- dancer /ˈdænsəɹ/ (noun) — A person who dances, usually as a hobby, an occupation, or a profession.
- ballet /bælˈeɪ/ (noun) — A classical form of dance.
- soccer /ˈsɑk.ɚ/ (noun) — Association football.
- compare /kəmˈpɛɚ/ (verb) — To assess the similarities and differences between two or more things [“to compare X with Y”]. Having made the comparison of X with Y, one might have found it…
- homework /ˈhoʊmˌwɝk/ (noun) — Exercises assigned by a teacher to a student which review concepts studied in class.
- athletic /æθˈlɛt.ɪk/ (adjective) — Having to do with athletes.
- cookie /ˈkʊki/ (noun) — A small, flat, baked good which is either crisp or soft but firm.
- tricky /ˈtɹɪk.i/ (adjective) — Hard to deal with, complicated.
- brownie /ˈbɹaʊni/ (noun) — A small square piece of rich cake, usually made with chocolate.
- enroll /ɪnˈɹəʊl/ (verb) — To enter (a name, etc.) in a register, roll or list
- karaoke /ˈkæ.ɹiˌəʊ.ki/ (noun) — A form of entertainment popular in clubs, at parties, etc, in which individual members of the public sing along to pre-recorded instrumental versions of…
- lacrosse /ləˈkɹɔs/ (noun) — A sport played on a field between two opposing teams using sticks (crosses) and a ball, whereby one team defeats the other by scoring more goals within the…
Phrasal verbs you will hear
- talk about (verb) — Used to draw attention to the speaker's characterization of someone or something.
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 18 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, don't, can't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: athlete /ˈæθ.liːt/, athletic /æθˈlɛt.ɪk/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Shadow it sentence by sentence at normal speed, repeating each one until your rhythm matches the speaker.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like athlete, bake, hockey.
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.