Shadowing Practice: An English Lesson about the Great Outdoors! 🌳🌿🍂 - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Well, hello and welcome to this English lesson where we're going to take some time to walk around in the great outdoors.
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And I'm going to take some time to teach you a few English terms and phrases that we use.
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And I just used the first one.
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The first one is the phrase or the term, the great outdoors.
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Right now I am in the great outdoors.
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This is kind of a fun phrase that we use to talk about places like this.
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As you can see, there are trees all around me.
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You can see that there's a nice path.
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You can see that the trees are also turning color.
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And so I am out in nature.
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I'm out in the great outdoors.
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And it's kind of a fun term, I always think.
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When you say the great outdoors, sorry, let me switch hands here for a sec.
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When you say the great outdoors, it is great.
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It's awesome.
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It's fun.
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It's cool to be out in nature.
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It's fun to be in the great outdoors.
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And then the second term or phrase I wanted to teach you is the phrase mother nature.
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So we use mother nature when we talk about nature as if nature is a person.
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Let's say for instance it was raining today.
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I might say oh mother nature is angry today.
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Let's say the sun is shining.
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I might say, oh, mother nature is happy today.
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And so the sun is shining.
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So we sometimes refer to nature as mother nature, as if it is a person.
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And if you're wondering, what about father?
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What does he get if mother represents nature?
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Well, we sometimes say father time.
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So mother nature is about nature and father time is about time.
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But I'll explain more about father time in another lesson.
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And then also I'm out here because I enjoy the fresh air.
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You can actually see the leaves moving in the breeze.
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It's quite nice out here today.
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So I'm enjoying the fresh air as opposed to if I was in the city.
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If I was in the city there would probably be some pollution, the air would probably smell funny, but out here everything smells great,
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out here there is a lot of fresh air.
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We sometimes use this phrase when we're talking about our houses, sometimes we open our windows to get some fresh air.
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So that's kind of another thing, another reason why you might come outside.
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I'm sorry I had to move my camera around
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because I didn't want to accidentally get those people on camera without their permission.
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So fresh air, lots of fresh air.
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We're coming up to a clearing here.
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And that kind of reminds me of the phrase wide open spaces.
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So one of the things that I really enjoy about being in the great outdoors is
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that you have lots of trees and lots of beauty, but sometimes you also have wide open spaces like this one.
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Kind of a cool place to hang out.
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Maybe you want to bring your dog here as long as your dog is on a leash.
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I actually think there's a dog at the top of
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that little lookout and I wanted to show you that lookout
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because someone asked in a live stream recently
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if I had ever been to a lookout and we would call that a lookout.
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I think people come to that lookout in this wide open space to do some bird watching.
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So as we move along here I wanted to talk about the term the wilderness.
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So the wilderness is a term we use to refer to a place where no one lives, a place where there are no houses,
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but I wouldn't describe this area as the wilderness.
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If you walked to the north or to the west, or if you walked south, or if you walked east,
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you would very quickly find houses.
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So this is not the wilderness.
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When we talk about the wilderness, we're talking about a place where if you walked for several days in one direction,
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you would still not find any any houses or any people living there.
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So this is definitely not the wilderness, although it is beautiful, but it's not even really big enough to get lost in.
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If you went into the trees, if you went down all the paths, it's actually pretty easy to find your way back out.
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You wouldn't get lost very easily at all.
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So you can pretend this is a wilderness, but it's really not.
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It's just a small conservation area.
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And you can actually, you probably can't hear it, but I can actually hear the cars on the highway to the north of here.
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So not really the wilderness.
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What it is though is a natural habitat.
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So in English when we say something is a natural habitat
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that would mean that certain types of animals live in that area.
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So this is a natural habitat for these three types of birds.
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The falcon, there's a hawk there, a kestrel.
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You'll have to read these names.
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I'm not a bird expert but this is their natural habitat.
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That means, let's look again.
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So that means that they live in this area.
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By the way I live right here and I'm right here where this red dot is right now.
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As you can see I live close to the Great Lakes, which is really cool because it's like living close to the ocean,
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except it's not salt water.
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So natural habitat.
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This is a natural habitat, not for dogs, but this is a natural habitat for things like squirrels and raccoons.
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And you can even use it to talk about the trees that are growing here.
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So these are maple trees.
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You can see the maple leaf right there.
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It's actually getting a little dark out here.
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I hope it's not going to rain.
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I hope Mother Nature doesn't get angry at me while I'm out here.
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But we refer to the animals and the trees as flora and fauna.
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Now I've actually flipped that.
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Flora refers to all of the plants.
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So the trees and the bushes and all of those things we would call flora.
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And then fauna refers to all of the animals, like the squirrels and the chipmunks and all of the different birds that live here.
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There are a lot of different flora and fauna in this little forest area, so that's kind of cool.
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So yes, flora refers to plants, fauna refers to all of the animals.
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And then I wanted to talk about the elements.
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So if you're wondering why I keep moving this around, my shoulders mostly healed from when I broke my collarbone,
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but it still feels a little funny to carry the camera.
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Anyways, I wanted to talk about the elements.
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We use the term the elements to refer to things like the sun and rain.
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When you are outside, you are in the elements.
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It could snow, probably not today, it's not that cold, but it could snow, it could rain, there could be hail,
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there could be wind, there could be lots of intense sunshine.
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So when you are in the elements, it means you are outside and you are experiencing all of the things that
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Mother Nature can throw at you, actually.
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So I'll give you one last panning shot.
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So I'm out here in nature, I am out here in the great outdoors, I'm experiencing mother nature and getting lots of fresh air.
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I've been able to see some wide open spaces.
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It kind of looks like the wilderness.
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If you look over here, this looks a lot like the wilderness.
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This is the natural habitat of several different kinds of animals like squirrels
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and chipmunks and sparrows and those would all be fauna
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and these trees are flora and I'm hoping
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that as I'm out here in the elements
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that my jacket is enough to keep me warm and to keep me happy as I'm out here in the great outdoors.
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So anyways a little walk and talk English lesson today.
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I hope you were able to learn some new English words
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and phrases and I hope that at some point today you're able to spend some time in the great outdoors.
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I actually think it's really important to get out in nature as often as you can.
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We usually go for a hike once a week.
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I wish I could go every day.
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Maybe that's something I'll do in 10 years or so when I'm retired.
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Anyways, thanks for watching.
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If you're new here, don't forget to click that red subscribe button that says subscribe.
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It's around here somewhere.
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Leave a comment.
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I do enjoy reading them and I'll see you next week with another English lesson.
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Bye.
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Thank you.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “An English Lesson about the Great Outdoors! 🌳🌿🍂”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: nature, outdoors, wilderness, mother, trees. This video has 132 sentences and 1488 words to shadow. The speech runs for 9:20. The speaker talks at a natural 160 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 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 |
|---|---|---|
| outdoor adjective | /aʊtˈdɔː/ | Situated in, designed to be used in, or carried on in the open air. |
| wilderness noun | /ˈwɪldɚnəs/ | Uncultivated and unsettled land in its natural state inhabited by wild animals and with vegetation growing wild; (countable) a tract of such land; a waste or… |
| refer verb | /ɹɪˈfɜː/ | To direct the attention of (someone toward something). |
| phrase noun | /ˈfɹeɪ̯z/ | A short written or spoken expression. |
| habitat noun | /ˈhæb.ɪ.tæt/ | Conditions suitable for an organism or population of organisms to live. |
| 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. |
| flora noun | /ˈflɔː.ɹə/ | Plants considered as a group, especially those of a particular country, region, time, etc. |
| lookout noun | /ˈlʊkaʊt/ | A vantage point with a view of the surrounding area. |
| fauna noun | /ˈfɔːnə/ | Animals considered as a group; especially those of a particular country, region, time, biological group, etc. |
| lesson noun | /ˈlɛs.ən/ | A section of learning or teaching into which a wider learning content is divided. |
| anyways adverb | /ˈɛn.iˌweɪz/ | Anyway, anyhow, in any case. |
| squirrel noun | /ˈskwɪ.ɹ(ə)l/ | Any of the rodents of the family Sciuridae. |
| leaf noun | /lif/ | The usually green and flat organ that represents the most prominent feature of most vegetative plants. |
| shine verb | /ʃaɪn/ | To emit or reflect light so as to glow. |
| subscribe verb | /səbˈskɹaɪb/ | To write (one’s name) at the bottom of a document; to sign (one's name). |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| back out verb | To reverse (a vehicle) from a confined space. |
| come up to verb | To approach. |
| go down verb | To descend; to move from a higher place to a lower one. |
| look over verb | To check quickly; to make a brief or cursory visual inspection of. |
| move along verb | To continue without being distracted; to keep going. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- You can see that there's a nice path.
- I'm out in the great outdoors.
- Let's say, for instance, it was raining today.
- Let's say the sun is shining.
- And, if you're wondering, what about father?
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 actually flipped · I've been |
| Possibility with “might / may” might/may + verb — something that is possible but not certain | might say · might come |
| Verb + -ing enjoy, keep, stop… + -ing — verbs that are followed by the -ing form | keep moving · enjoy reading |
| Present continuous am/is/are + -ing — something happening right now or around now | are also turning · is shining · you're wondering |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 35 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, I'll, we're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: shine /ʃaɪn/, conservation /ˌkɑnsə(ɹ)ˈveɪʃən/, pollution /pəˈluʃən/, sunshine /ˈsʌnʃaɪn/, leash /liːʃ/
- Long words — get the stress right: conservation /ˌkɑnsə(ɹ)ˈveɪʃən/, accidentally /ˌæk.sɪˈdɛnt(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 outdoor, wilderness, refer.
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.