Shadowing Practice: AEE - Do Aliens Exist? How to Connect Over Extraterrestrial Life - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Hello, Lindsay.
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How are you?
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Hello, Aubrey.
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How are you doing today?
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I'm excellent.
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I'm excited to talk about extraterrestrials with you today, Lindsay.
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Do you believe in aliens?
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Do I believe in aliens?
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I really don't know what my belief is there.
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I went to Roswell once in New Mexico, which is a place where, I don't know, they're claiming to have seen a lot of crash sites.
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Yes.
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And I left feeling like I did, but now I'm not so sure.
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I've seen several documentaries where I finished it out, like convinced, like someone will be talking about being abducted or something and they seem so believable,
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but then I get on with my life and I'm like, no, right?
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No. You're like, no. So a little wishy -washy.
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We're both a little wishy -washy.
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It sounds like.
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Yeah.
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But this is really a fun and common topic of conversation in American culture.
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I talk to people about this a lot
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and a lot of people have some kind of experience
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or know someone who has seen something my father saw a ufo
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when he was young and my husband and i saw something
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or you know
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because really ufo we're going to talk about what it means
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it just means something unidentified you don't know what it is
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so it could actually be a military aircraft or something from another country
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that you're just not familiar with who knows like there's probably an explanation
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but maybe not it reminds me of the conversation
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that might have about ghosts you know do you believe in ghosts
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because i feel like some of those sightings also could have
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been paranormal right exactly very possible um yeah for sure
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so these are conversations yeah these are you know do you
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believe in ghosts do you believe in aliens these conversations definitely come up in american culture uh with native speakers
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so we're going to learn how to have this conversation today aubrey exactly
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but first we want to thank some reviewers we are
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so grateful for everyone who rates
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and reviews the podcast this it's like a thank you letter to us we read them
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and we try to give you a shout out anyone who leaves a review yeah
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so a huge thank you to milad asampoor uh from india
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who left us a review thank you to sana kaviani uh on june 21st
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and sstt from the uk huge thank you to these amazing listeners for reviewing our show
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so thank you yes and guys leave your review for the show
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if you want to hear your name announced out loud we'll
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do our best to call you out on the show absolutely
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yes leave us a review rate the show it also helps others find the show
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and yeah it's always nice to hear that great feedback
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when anyone leaves a comment for sure all right so there have been some big steven Spielberg films, Aubrey.
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Yeah, we wanted to mention a few.
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So a lot of movies have come out recently that have been really big about aliens, basically.
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Disclosure Day, Steven Spielberg did this film that topped the global box office earlier this summer.
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And Steven Spielberg also did E .T and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, which is an older film from 1977.
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Have you seen both of those, oh i've seen et i remember watching et as a kid it's
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so sweet it's so sweet
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and it holds up i watched it with my kids they loved it of course it looks older right
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but they still loved it because it's a human interest story yeah oh
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and then project hill mary that one that was also yes
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that was a big film in the springtime with ryan gosling
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and that also was you this is not really a spoiler because you see in the preview that he meets this alien.
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And a lot of the story, probably by now you've all seen it.
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If not, you really should.
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It's so great.
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And it's about how they figure out how to communicate and save the world together.
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And it's really sort of an updated ET.
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It's so good.
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Oh, I love that.
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Love it.
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Love it.
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So why are we, why is this kind of a hot topic right now, Aubrey?
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Yeah, this is interesting.
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So in the United States in May of this year, the US government began releasing previously classified files related to UFOs.
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And this was following through on an order from President Trump to make public government documents about unexplained phenomena.
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So they had created a government site where you could see a lot of these, you know, previously classified military documents, videos.
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And there was an article in CBS News about this and about if this is making people believe more in aliens, right?
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And had opinion polls.
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So what were some of the stats from that article, Lindsay?
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So we read that one third of Americans believe that aliens exist, which is pretty high, I think.
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17 % of Americans report having seen a UFO or something they think is a UFO, right?
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Right.
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Well, and that's what's Interesting.
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We're going to get into the vocab here.
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But so UFO just means unidentified flying object.
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So we also refer to these informally as a flying saucer.
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But anyone, you could see a plane and call it a UFO because to you it's unidentified.
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You can't look into the sky and know what it is, right?
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But if it's like a government document and they're calling it a UFO, then it's like, okay, this is officially,
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if the American government is saying they don't know what that was and it's not military spacecraft, then it's like, no one in this country knows what this was.
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Right.
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I haven't heard the term flying saucer in so long.
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I feel like that term was used a lot in, I don't know, in the 80s, the 90s, but I haven't heard it in a while.
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That's so funny.
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It is funny, right?
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A flying saucer we hear this in older movies about extraterrestrials life on other planets, but yeah, it's very informal, right?
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You would never see in these official government documents, they would never be called flying saucers.
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This is like a term we used as kids more, right?
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Yeah, for sure.
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So some conversation starters, have you ever seen a UFO?
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I mean, let's just be direct and obvious about it, right?
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Upfront.
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Yeah.
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So when my husband and I were just dating, we saw this row of lights in the sky like hovering
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at a distance it would have had to be something very big
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and we were headed to his parents house
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so we wanted them to come out and see it
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and see if we could you know we're like this may be military
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but nothing we know of that could have
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that could just be hovering like that right
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and in Arizona there have been a lot of sightings
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and photographs of they call them the like Sonoran lights
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or something I don't know and then
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when we went in there were these military jets
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that flew overhead more like the top gun jets right those jets oh right
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and then it was just gone
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so it was just strange like to us definitely a ufo
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because we could not identify what
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that is like we don't know of any military aircraft
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that is that big or capable of just hovering like
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that right but it's of course always possible
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that there's just some kind of military intelligence
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that we don't know about sure well it's funny
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because i i feel like i recently saw saw someone being interviewed about this
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and he was like a NASA scientist or something.
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And I feel like, uh, what he said was it's possible that they exist because, you know, when you know so much about space and science and things,
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you know, enough to know you can't know everything.
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There's so how vast it is and how little we can actually know about the vastness what's actually out there.
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He's like, I'm not about to make any kind of comment about what's out there in the unknowable space right exactly yeah
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that was kind of what he said so yeah interesting yeah
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and so then it's also an interesting conversation to talk about whether you know aliens extraterrestrials have potentially visited earth
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so you might want to ask if someone has ever seen a ufo
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or if they've seen you know anything they couldn't explain
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but you might also want to ask
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if they believe aliens either have visited our planet some people believe they are here living among us, hidden, like on Men in Black, right?
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Hiding as humans.
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Yes.
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So what does this mean, alien, Lindsay, that word?
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Alien, kind of, we use the term extraterrestrial, like E .T., the movie, right?
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Basically, just a being from outside of the earth that might show up on earth or may not,
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may remain in their place in outer space.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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So relating to life beyond Earth.
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Right.
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And so, for example, you could ask someone, do you believe that aliens have visited our planet?
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And you could say extraterrestrial or you could say just do you believe aliens exist?
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Right.
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And it's interesting, this word alien, this is just kind of a note here.
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It has historically been used to refer to immigrants, to anyone, to, and this is really,
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as language has evolved, we have started to believe that this is problematic because it is used to create,
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to make someone other, right? a being from outside earth to to increase the gap of difference so more
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and more that's not really considered correct to call a person you know an illegal alien for example
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and we use terminology that is more inclusive now yeah yeah that's a really good point aubrey
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and often you'll maybe you'll have an intergenerational conversation someone our age might be talking to our parents
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or grandparents or something and they might use the term illegal alien and we'd correct them we'd say, you can't, you can't say that anymore.
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Give them a better term, right?
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Yes.
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Yes.
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So that's not what, obviously that's not what we're talking about here.
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Completely different, but it is interesting when people hear the word alien, right?
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And we're talking about extraterrestrials that you may have heard the word alien used that way as well.
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And you might've been wondering like, why don't we use it that way anymore?
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Right.
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Yeah.
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Good point.
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Hey, quick question.
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connect in english all right aubry we're back from break Let's.. go into a role play here.
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In this role play, we are friends and we're chatting at a party, so aliens are going to come up.
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Exactly.
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I'll start us out.
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Have you seen Disclosure Day?
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I did.
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It was fascinating.
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I couldn't stop thinking about it afterwards.
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Same here.
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It really made me wonder if there's life on other planets.
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Honestly, I think it's plausible.
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The universe is enormous.
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It seems unlikely that Earth is the only planet with life.
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I agree.
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What I'm not sure about is whether aliens have visited Earth.
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I get it.
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Some of those military sightings are super compelling, though.
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I'm sure there's an explanation for all of them, though.
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You're definitely more skeptical than I am.
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Nice.
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This is interesting.
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I love a conversation like this.
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Rarely will two friends be exactly on the same page about something like this.
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One might be more skeptical than the other.
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And we do need this language to be able to respect and recognize validity in each other's beliefs.
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yes for sure so what were some of the phrases
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that we used here aubrey yeah so first of all we're just kind of sharing
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and i love this way to start this conversation you can ask just like do you believe in aliens
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or do you think there's life on other planets
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but you can also enter the conversation this way like i did i said did you see disclosure day
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or have you seen disclosure day and this is a movie that's about aliens and
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if they haven't seen it then you could you ask one
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of these other questions like oh it's actually about aliens visiting earth
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and then you could ask like what do you think do you believe in aliens but
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if they've seen the film then you already have this in
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common this foundation to build on yeah it's a little weird
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if you just completely cold start a conversation by saying do
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you believe in aliens i guess you could with like a close friend right um
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but usually it will have led in from something like this right someone's mentioning a podcast
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or a film or something
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and then then you'll ask yeah exactly uh any other phrases we want to point out here Aubrey yeah
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so when we start talking about our beliefs about whether you know there's my first I said it seems unlikely
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that earth or you said it seems unlikely
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that earth is the only planet with life
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and then I said what I'm not sure about it is whether aliens have visited earth
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so this is interesting this phrase
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that we use at the beginning of an opinion to say what I'm not sure about is, and then, cause I don't know your beliefs yet.
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Right.
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So I'm, I'm throwing out something that I know a lot of people believe, but I'm not sure about.
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And that's such a respectful way to get into that.
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And I'm, I'm opening it for you to share your opinion, but without directly asking for it.
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Right.
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And you're not definitively saying, I don't think this could be true or I think it's true.
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It's just kind of testing the waters exactly
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because i could instead say there something like i really don't think they've visited earth before though
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and then i've created awkwardness if you believe really strongly
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that they have yeah or maybe you like wrote your dissertation on it
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or something exactly
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and we will make this sort of faux pas sometimes at
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parties well like comes out strong with an opinion then find out the other person disagrees
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and if we had known that we probably would have phrased things differently
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or come in a little softer yeah i think this is good advice it applies to this topic
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and a lot of other things.
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Definitely.
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Maybe it's not the best thing to always come in super strong if we do want to build connection, right?
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Exactly.
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And then I love the phrase you used at the end to say, well, you're definitely more skeptical than I am.
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This I feel like is such a great phrase for showing respect
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and acknowledging that you and I clearly see this very differently.
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We're being polite.
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We're having a friendly conversation about it.
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But the more we say, the more we're realizing that we're not really on the same page.
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And this is a great way to say that.
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And then from there we can pivot to something else, or we can continue sharing our opinions, but we're respectfully acknowledging the difference and saying that's okay too.
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It's okay to not agree about this.
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Oh my God.
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There'll be so many things that we won't necessarily fully agree with people on, but we could still find that moment of connection despite that.
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Right.
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Absolutely.
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Um, good topic today.
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Now I'm going to go back and rewatch ET.
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I'll have to go to the movies and watch disclosure day.
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I have a lot to do now.
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I'll bring you to, we've given you a laundry list
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and project hail mary you've got a whole list of movies
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you need to see all right good stuff guys go over
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to 2689 don't want to sound harsh soften the blow with these phrases
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so get some great phrases to not sound too harsh aubrey
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any final takeaway i think we hit some important stuff here this is a cultural topic
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and what else anything else yeah this comes up a lot
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in american culture be ready with these phrases these questions
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but this is so important for connection to acknowledge and recognize from the outset that you might not agree.
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You can still have the conversation, but we do want to be careful to, like we said, don't come in too hard and fast with opinions that sort of stop the conversation before it can get started.
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I also think we could do another episode one day on how to articulate
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that you don't quite have you're not quite sure about something
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right it's a complex topic maybe this could be for another day
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so I love that idea yes like you started
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or you're sort of saying like I'm not sure I'm kind of undecided
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and that happens right you need phrases for that as well
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so we don't want to have to just go silent we want to say something we'll come up to
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that episode we'll come out with that episode soon guys
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so hit the follow button
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and Aubrey I'll see you another day awesome see you guys next time all right take care bye
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This video has 272 sentences and 2986 words to shadow. The speech runs for 15:30. The speaker talks fast, about 193 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 86% 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
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| phrase noun | /ˈfɹeɪ̯z/ | A short written or spoken expression. |
| topic noun | /ˈtɑpɪk/ | A subject; a theme; a category or general area of interest. |
| disclosure noun | /dɪsˈkləʊʒə(ɹ)/ | The act of revealing something. |
| belief noun | /bɪˈliːf/ | Mental acceptance of a claim as true. |
| ghost noun | /ɡoʊst/ | A disembodied soul; a soul or spirit of a deceased person; a spirit appearing after death. |
| unlikely adjective | /ʌnˈlaɪkli/ | Not likely; improbable; not to be reasonably expected. |
| jet noun | /ˈd͡ʒɛt/ | A collimated stream, spurt or flow of liquid or gas from a pressurized container, an engine, etc. |
| steven noun | /ˈstiːvən/ | Voice, especially when loud or strong. |
| acknowledge verb | /əkˈnɑ.lɪd͡ʒ/ | To admit the knowledge of; to recognize as a fact or truth; to declare one's belief in. |
| skeptical adjective | /ˈskɛptɪkəl/ | Having, or expressing doubt; questioning. |
| unidentified adjective | /ˌʌnaɪˈdɛntɪfaɪd/ | Not identified; having an unknown or unnamed identity. |
| refer verb | /ɹɪˈfɜː/ | To direct the attention of (someone toward something). |
| explanation noun | /ˌɛkspləˈneɪʃən/ | The act or process of explaining. |
| marry verb | /ˈmæɹi/ | To enter into the conjugal or connubial state; to take a husband or a wife. |
| differently adverb | /ˈdɪf.ə.ɹənt.li/ | In a different way. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| come out verb | /ˌkʌm ˈaʊt/ | To be discovered; to be revealed. |
| come up verb | To emerge or become known, especially unexpectedly. | |
| come out with verb | To say (something) unexpectedly. | |
| come up to verb | To approach. | |
| figure out verb | To come to understand; to discover or find a solution; to deduce. | |
| find out verb | To discover, as by asking or investigating. | |
| get on with verb | To proceed with; to begin or continue, especially after an interruption. | |
| go back verb | To return to a place or state after having been there at a previous 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 seen · has seen · have been |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | Mexico, which is · someone who has · everyone who rates |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | being abducted · be called · were headed |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 92 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, don't, we're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: disclosure /dɪsˈkləʊʒə(ɹ)/, explanation /ˌɛkspləˈneɪʃən/, harsh /ˈhɑɹʃ/, potentially /pəˈtɛnʃ(ə)li/, shout /ʃaʊt/
- Long words — get the stress right: unidentified /ˌʌnaɪˈdɛntɪfaɪd/, explanation /ˌɛkspləˈneɪʃən/, differently /ˈdɪf.ə.ɹənt.li/, naturally /ˈnæt͡ʃ.(ə.)ɹə.li/, necessarily /ˌnɛs.əˈsɛɹ.ə.li/
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 phrase, topic, disclosure.
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.