Shadowing Practice: Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown | Punjab, India | S03 E01 | All Documentary - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello,
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hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello,
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I took a while Through this beautiful world Felt the cool rain on my shoulder
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Bouncing in here In this beautiful world I felt the rain getting colder Sha -la -la -la,
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Sha -la -la -la, Sha -la -la -la, Sha -la -la -la, Sha -la -la -la, Sha -la -la -la, Sha -la -la -la, Sha -la -la -la, Sha -la -la -la,
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Sha -la -la -la, Sha -la -la -la, Sha -la -la -la, Sha -la -la -la, Sha -la -la -la, Sha -la -la -la, Sha -la -la -la, Sha -la -la -la, Sha -la -la -la, Sha -la -la -la, Sha -la -la -la, Sha -la -la -la, Sha -la -la, Sha -la -la -la, Sha -la -la, Sha -la -la, Sha -la -la, Sha -la -la,
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Sha -la -la, Sha -la -la,
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Sha -la -la
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This house came to be built by Dr. Blake, who was in the East India Company service.
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My grandfather came to be nominated to the body called the Council of State, which used to be a part of British India.
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It was another time.
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one that few still remember the india before partition when these rooms this house was part of the seat of power
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i had the privilege of being born in this house upstairs
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this was the maharaj's bed i mean his chambers at present
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and it was the routine
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that we'd all parade up into my grandfather's room to wish him good morning
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and then we'd all come down for breakfast the walls tell
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a story many stories they used to be a lot of animosity they were two very divided classes in india
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so there was a lot of tension between the ruled and the rulers But that was a different time, you know.
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Now I think back and it's more like a fairy tale.
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Day one in northern India, near the Pakistan border.
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This is Amritsar, the Indian Punjab's largest city.
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Population, about a million.
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This is a part of India I've never seen, a place I've always been curious about.
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Home to some pretty legendary cuisine.
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In Amritsar they have a say.
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The best food isn't cooked in people's homes.
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You find it on the streets.
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Punjabis are known for their adventurous spirit as brave warriors who spread throughout the world bringing great food with them.
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In fact, much of the good stuff we refer to simply as Indian food comes from here.
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the punjab of the early 20th century saw some of the most violent resistance to british rule
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and when the british finally cashed out in 1947 they carved off a huge piece what is now Pakistan.
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And it remains a potential flashpoint for conflict.
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But that's easy to forget when you first smell the food.
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Good.
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There we go.
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Qasar da Daba.
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Daba meaning side -of -the -road food stall.
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And there are, like, countless Dabas to choose from in this town.
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But this one is legendary.
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Let's see Tony eat vegetables and like it.
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You eat around this part of the world, Punjab in particular, get used to eating a lot of vegetarian.
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Chickpeas, doug.
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And India is one of the few places on earth where even for me, that's not a burden.
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Ooh, what's that?
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Oh, I'll take that.
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Yeah, right here, my good man.
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Mmm, that's good sod.
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In the Punjab meat or no meat, you're almost guaranteed a free -for -all of intense colors, flavors, and spices.
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Unlike some of the joyless vegetarian restaurants, in my sad experience, the vegetables here are actually spicy, all taste different, different textures,
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and served with extraordinarily good bread.
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It's got this multi -tiered crispy on the outside, chewy in the middle.
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It's a whole different experience.
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If this was what vegetarianism meant in most of the places
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that practice it in the west i'd be at least half
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as much less of a dick about the subject look hippie
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if you made bread this good i might eat at your restaurant
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Around here, one of the first things you notice that's different from the rest of India, turbans.
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Everywhere.
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The symbol of self -respect, bravery, and spirituality for Sikh men.
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Amritsar is the home, the spiritual center of the Sikh faith, the world's fifth largest and maybe most misunderstood religion.
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In the heart of Amritsar stands the majestic golden temple, the Sikh equivalent of the Vatican.
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Sikhs are fundamentally against any caste system, believers in religious tolerance.
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But they are just as fundamentally warlike when it comes to defending their principles and what they see as their territory.
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Welcome to Golden Temple.
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Thank you.
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Today is a Guru Pura, one of the most auspicious days of the Sikh calendar.
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Pilgrims from all over the world come to worship, walk the perimeter, and bathe in the holy pool.
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All are welcome, of any faith or caste, to remove their shoes, wash their feet,
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cover their heads, and take part in a simple meal.
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This is the langar, a free vegetarian meal served to many thousands of visitors from every walk of life, every day of the year.
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They serve 16 hours a day?
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16 hours a day.
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For how many years?
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Continuously.
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300 years?
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300 years.
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Everyone doing the cooking, the serving, the washing of thousands and thousands of metal plates and utensils, are volunteers.
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The sound is extraordinary.
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we have a teaching that everyone should serve all three things money mind
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and body right should be served to other people free of cost
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and that's what we do walking me through it all today don't want singh now for a religion that's
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so concerned with tolerance where does the grand punjab military tradition come from, because it's a very, very powerful one.
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So powerful people, so hard -working people.
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Every Sikh you see, if he's baptized, he wears a small sword.
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In our Prophet, when we get baptized, he says, you must protect yourself, you must protect others, and you must protect your country, so that makes us what we are.
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Morning.
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The smoke from countless burning fields covers Amritsar in a thick haze.
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the ancient art of pilwani evolved from indian wrestling techniques that date back to the 5th century bc Ready, start.
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Training is rigid, as this is not just a sport, but a way of life.
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Wrestlers live and train together and have strict rules of diet and personal conduct.
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No smoking, no drinking, no contact with women.
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Here we go.
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I took high school wrestling, actually, so that I could get out of gym class.
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I was a dirty, dirty fighter.
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it is an all too natural segue between the aggressive posturing of opposing bodies of
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and this the entire border between india and pakistan has only one crossing
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here at Wagam.
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Every sunset, the border is officially closed with this bit of national theater.
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Wearing nearly duplicate uniforms, the Indian military and Pakistani rangers partake in a game of theatrical contempt.
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Clearly, it's a popular show. So, where are we?
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We are right next to Pakistan.
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India and Pakistan were once one country, ripped apart in one of the hastiest, ill -considered partitions imaginable.
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Beyond there, no more fence?
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No more fences.
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So, once you get past there, you can go straight into Pakistan if you want.
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See, the problem is, the thing is, India is trying to stop people from coming in.
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The infiltrators, you know, drug dealers and treasurers.
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Uday is working on a documentary about the India -Pakistan border.
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No one wants to go into Pakistan.
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No one wants to go into Pakistan.
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No one wants to, in their right mind, wants to go into Pakistan.
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Well, really?
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That's a fairly decisive statement.
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So they put up the fence, but the fence is on the Indian side.
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Yeah, it's 150 meters from the border.
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Right, so beyond that fence, still Indian farmland.
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Yes.
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So people who live over here can farm over there.
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Can farm over there.
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The Punjab is a fertile region in an otherwise very dry country.
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This is India's bread basket.
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With over a billion people currently residing in India, every inch of fertile Punjabi soil has great value.
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These are people who owned land over there.
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Yes.
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Then they put the fence.
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Yes.
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Suddenly your life became difficult.
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Exactly.
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They are restricted by many things.
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They can only grow some kind of crops, and they can't farm more than eight hours in a day.
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How long does it take to get back and forth?
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The border security force mans these gates, so they have times, you know, when they can enter and come out.
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How much farther can we go before they start to get worried?
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Yeah, I think we can just go to the pole.
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When India and Pakistan were separated, the attempt was to try to draw a line across religious lines.
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Exactly.
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Drained by the colossal task of fighting two world wars, in 1947, Great Britain decided to end their nearly 200 -year rule over India.
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In an attempt to prevent what the colonials saw as an inevitable civil war between Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs, the British commissioned Sir Cyril Radcliffe,
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a lawyer from Wales, to draw up a new border.
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He was given two months, you know.
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Two months to divide.
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Two months to divide.
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Create a new country, basically.
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So he took the map and just did a line.
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You know, people died because of the displacement.
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Unofficially, they say it's two million people.
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You know, when Jains fight, the minos get trampled upon.
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In one of the largest exchanges of populations in history, many millions of people fled their homes.
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Almost immediately, religious violence broke out on a mass scale.
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This is exactly what the partition had been intended to avoid.
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Do people here still have families over there?
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Yeah, they do.
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When the line was drawn, there were villages which were split into halves.
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There are some houses where you enter from India and you exit from Pakistan.
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Really?
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Yes.
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Wow.
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This part of Punjab and that part of Punjab, they're one state.
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So the culture, the eating habits, it was very similar.
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Well, that's a popular metaphor for India.
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Pakistan is twins separated at birth.
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They were never twins.
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I mean, it was one country.
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You can say dismembered.
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If you cut a body in two, they're not going to become twins.
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Right.
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it's sad you know you you can see them i mean they're doing the same work as you're doing
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they dress the same they look the same
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but then you can't talk to them it is an ongoing
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struggle an enduring cause of paranoia visible all across the region two nations with atomic arsenals who have showed if nothing else,
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a terrifying willingness to use them.
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From the horrific 2006 train bombings to the militant attacks in Mumbai.
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The threat of terrorism along this border is a daily concern.
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want something good really really good
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when an amretzer something local regional iconically wonderful you can't say
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you've had the amretzer experience until you've had a little culture
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in your life kocha this is the iconic dish of punjab yes that's the speciality here
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kocha a perfect little flavor bomb of wheat dough pressed against
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the side of a very very hot clay oven slathered with butter
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and served with a spicy chole a chickpea curry on the side did i mention the butter
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delicious everyone in amritzer seems to be an expert on culture
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including this lady navroop very very very good generally speaking Punjabis are famous for being a warrior class.
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Taller?
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Bigger?
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Yes, they're big.
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Still, maybe not fighters so much, but still eaters.
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Oh, yeah.
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Big time, yes.
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The religion doesn't matter.
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Food is religion here.
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Checking off my list of things to do in the Punjab, I got to score some animal protein.
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It's time.
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I've been going all Morrissey for like two days now, and frankly, that's enough.
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I need chicken.
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Like, we are in the ass, end of nowhere here.
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Where am I?
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It's known as veera chicken.
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It's very famous for chicken.
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When we're talking must -haves, tandoori chicken is just that.
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Add some lemon in this.
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You'll enjoy it.
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Oh, man, it's delicious.
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This type of establishment, dhaba?
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Dhaba.
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It's called dhaba.
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You know, this is the most successful business here.
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Anybody, you open a dava tomorrow, it will be a success.
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But if you're going to do chicken, you better be good.
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Yeah, it's a good place for that.
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Would you like to have something else?
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There's like a roti with a ground mutton or a ground...
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That's called naan.
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That's butter naan.
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Kima naan.
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Mutton ball, dough.
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And the special ingredients, magic hands.
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and believe me when i tell you this shit is good
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so good that people snap it up the second it comes out of the tandoor up hey that's mine
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is it good it's sensational wow people do love their food definitely i love eating
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The movies and television in this country is fantastic.
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Thousands of films are made per year.
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I don't even understand why, what's going on.
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I mean, everybody dances and sings.
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I don't get it.
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Would you like to have something else?
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Oh, this is good.
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Mmm.
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Mmm.
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Oh, yeah.
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Mmm.
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Wow.
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Oh, yeah.
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La cevabah.
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Mmm, that's good.
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Thank you.
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No, nothing.
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Thank you.
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It's delicious. So good.
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Leaving the fertile plains of the Punjab behind, I'm headed out towards the Himalayas.
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And getting here, at least the way I'm going, hasn't changed much in the last hundred years.
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All aboard.
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Oh, this is going to be suboptimal seating.
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Yeah, I don't think this reclines.
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Thank God they have relaxed attitudes towards prescription drugs.
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Before you enter the gateway to the Himalayas, you better self -medicate.
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Meanwhile, I've been like 24 hours without a bite of food.
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I arrive, it's like, oh, well, there's snacks on the way.
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Great.
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Get a bag of peanuts.
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Truth be told, I'm an angry, bitter man when I board.
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I'm guessing there ain't a Shonies or a P .F.
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Chang on the way.
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It's kind of cute.
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A little train.
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It's so little.
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It's the Universal Tours.
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I'm going to King Kong ride.
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While my stomach growls, I become the kind of traveller I warn against.
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gripey, self -absorbed, immune to my surroundings.
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But as my brightly colored little train heads up into the hills from Kalka Station, known as the gateway to the Himalayas, my worldview starts to improve.
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The unnaturally bright colors of India start to pleasurably saturate my brain.
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The views from the window of ridiculously deep valleys, hundred -year -old bridges.
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It's well...
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Breathtaking.
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My fellow passengers, too, are irresistibly charming.
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The school kids in their uniforms cheer in unison every time we pass through one of the tunnels.
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I'd pretty much forgotten about my hunger until the whistles stopped at Barog.
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One of those and two of these.
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This place is named for a Colonel Barog, the British engineer tasked with building the line up to Shimla.
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Thank you.
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The station and the adjacent tunnel bearing his name are rumored to be haunted.
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It's delicious.
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Already behind schedule and plagued by cost overruns, Barogh screwed up.
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When he realized the two ends of this tunnel didn't meet in the middle, he shot himself.
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It's the kind of personal accountability I'd like to see more of, frankly.
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Or is that just me?
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But all my snarkiness fades as I reflect, and one can't help but reflect, on what it took to dig, drag, blast, and tunnel one's way up this route back in the day.
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Back in the beginning, making the trip to Shimla required a somewhat uncomfortable three -day trek up the mountain by foot, or horse, or hand -carried palanquin.
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The stats are impressive.
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The climb of around 5 ,000 feet.
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Over 100 tunnels.
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More than 800 bridges.
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An engineering feat, a job that when you consider the time, defies imagining.
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In the building of this railroad, many died.
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Many, many died.
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When you look at that painting When you stand out front in the garden and look out at the view,
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can you picture the way it was?
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I've been to many places where it reminded me of what similar it had been
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when the British first came and settled there.
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I have a penchant for such places.
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it is a kind of a throb
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that i feel fond memories of british rule maybe not what you'd expect to hear
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but kawaratinjit singh that's reggie for short his family was different
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indian royalty with palaces the one percent of the one percent
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so life for reggie as a young boy was relative to the millions and millions of others his age, enchanted.
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Shimla is from a time before partition, when nearly the entire ruling class of British India would move to hill stations in the hotter months.
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Shimla was once known as the queen of all hill stations.
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Here the colonials created England in miniature,
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complete with Tudor architecture, rose gardens, afternoon tea.
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My grandfather.
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It's very difficult to describe what did he do.
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Well, quite frankly, he did nothing.
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But he entertained hugely.
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Garden parties, fancy dress balls, elephant hunts.
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The remnants of British rule can still be seen and felt.
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This is particularly true of one house, Chapsley.
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The house was purchased by Reggie's grandfather, the last Maharaja of Kapoorthala.
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Those Brits really left beautiful buildings.
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From a distance, it looks much the same as it must have when the Maharaja slept here.
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Check out the tub.
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Locked in a constant battle against time and nature, barbed wire does little to keep Shimla's ever -encroaching monkey population at bay.
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Stripped of their wealth and their kingdoms, the one -time royals all across India have had to either sell their estates or,
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like Reggie, turn them into hotels and guest houses in order to hold on.
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Ring a buzzer, and a servant appears.
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Then they bring hot water bottles at night, put them under the covers.
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Butters keep popping in, build a nice fire.
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Man.
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A great facet of my childhood was how my grandfather entertained.
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His table came to be known as perhaps the most famous in northern India because he was a gourmet connoisseur of food.
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Tonight, dinner at Chapsley, an elaborate Anglo -Indian menu from Reggie's childhood.
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I'll put on my apron first.
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My fellow guests, two of Reggie's friends, Raja Basin, a historian on the subject of Shimla, and Rakesh Varlalsud, the barrister.
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There's so much history here.
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I mean, while I take a dim view of colonialization, it's very hard to resist the charms of a house like this.
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That's quite understandable, actually.
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You've got 100 years of very, very intense history funneled into a very small place
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and this house used to house the secretary of state to the crowd what am i eating this is eggs of florentine
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oh that's good this was a small town a small town
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with a very very big government Simla enjoys the unique distinction of having been the summer capital of India and,
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surprisingly, it was the capital of Burma during the war days.
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So here you have this tiny little village up on the
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hill connected to the rest of the world by a narrow mountain path
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and they rule approximately a fifth of the human race for eight months every year.
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In today's context, it would almost seem bizarre.
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Mulgatani soup, classic example of what we think of as Indian food in the West, but not at all.
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This was originally a soup made by Indian chefs to accommodate British tastes, is that correct?
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It was something what you would call halfway between a regular dal, a lentil, which you would eat, and a broth.
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Glassy chops.
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Mutton, glassy chops.
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Basically meat cooked in its own fat, and it would have a lot of curry on it.
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It's a misnomer, this meat is not actually mutton, it's a chevron.
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Here, back before the rail line, it would be a difficult trip.
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Yes.
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But once they were up and running, I mean there were many servants to look after your every
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need you had a fireplace a hearth in every room
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and people on the regular payrolls whose only job was to
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shoo monkeys off the grounds wow you would be carried around in palanquins little box in
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which you sat in a curtained box this man would go stamping his staff in the ground
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and the bells would jingle and the common folk would give way
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and normally they were not even supposed to look in the
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direction it was bad manners right it wasn't easy for the people who built the town it was india
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that paid the bill for all this grandeur for all this
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pump for all the show they did it at our expense and with our money
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at the end of the meal there's coffee brandy and cigars in the sitting room as one does or once did
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I hope you enjoyed the dinner too.
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Oh, very much.
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It was delicious.
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Really wonderful.
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Lot of history in this house.
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And one can be forgiven for maybe briefly forgetting what it took to build this lost kingdom.
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And how much the world has changed around it.
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The monkey temple looks down on Shimla, overrun by its namesakes.
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Twisting up further into the Himalayas, I find myself at a place known as the Land of the Gods, nearly every village credited with having its own deity.
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Getting there, you might well have an opportunity to meet one of those deities as you tear around narrow,
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guardrail -free mountain roads overlooking terrifying drop -offs.
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I could do heights, like, you know, I've done the jumping out of planes thing a number of times.
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But I feel it, you know, like, looking over a precipice like that one, I feel it on my knees.
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You know, like, if my knees could vomit with terror, they would be.
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They'd be vomiting with terror right now.
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They should have little underwear stops on this road, you know, where you could, like, get a fresh pair.
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Every couple of miles, it's like, ooh, that was scary.
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Overloaded buses, water trucks with worn brake pads, aggressive truck drivers can come wailing around the corner at any time.
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And they do, about every two minutes.
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Squeeze your cheeks tight and close your eyes.
376
Oh, the enchantment of India.
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The remote locations of these isolated mountain villages has kept old traditions alive.
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Village fairs serve as an opportunity for families who live very far apart to get together,
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play games, eat, and partake in religious rites honoring local deities.
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Quite a ride getting here.
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Yeah.
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How do you enjoy that road?
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White knuckles.
384
Meet Hashim.
385
He runs motorcycle tours through these parts.
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The Himalayas is the holy grail of motorcycling.
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You're traveling almost 1 ,500 kilometers on a trip.
388
It's so unbelievably beautiful and diverse.
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So what do we got here, vegetable curry?
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Yogurt -based curry, quite typical in these parts.
391
Vegetables, again?
392
Surprisingly, not a problem.
393
That was good.
394
This is one of the few places in the world that I could eat vegetarian every day.
395
Yeah?
396
I'd still be happy.
397
Most of the people in this community, farmers, farming, agricultural?
398
What are they growing?
399
They do a lot of corn, potatoes, peas.
400
And weed, people growing marijuana.
401
Yes, loads of it.
402
As an export product or for personal use?
403
Everything, mix of everything.
404
So you think you want to go check out the fair a little?
405
Yeah, let's take a walk through town and see what's going on.
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Predominantly an occasion for all these mountain villages to come together, and, you know, specialize because, I mean, people are busy in their farms.
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They're not going to come and walk down and socialize with people.
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But this, you know, because it's.. autumn everyone is done with all the agriculture now
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they're just bedding down for winter there's a lot of romance
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in the air i've been to mumbai kolkata sandra bonds rajasthan
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kerala this is a part of india it's different than any other part look it's it's fascinating and beautiful
412
Oh, yeah.
413
Sweet.
414
Yeah.
415
Wow.
416
It's moving.
417
Let's do it, let's do it, let's do it, let's do it, let's do it, let's do it, let's do it, let's do it, let's do it, let's do it, let's do it, let's do it, let's do it, let's do it, let's do it, let's do it, let's do it, let's do it, let's do it, let's do it, let's do it, let's do it, let's do it, let's do it, let's do it, let's do it, let's do it, let's do it,
418
let's do it, let's do it, let's do it, let's do it, let's do it, let's do it, let's do it, let's do it, let's do it, let's do it, let's do it, let's do it, let's do it, let's do it, let's do it, let's do it,
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let's do
420
Thank you for listening.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown”. This video has 420 sentences and 4219 words to shadow. The speech runs for 41:28. The speaker talks slowly, about 102 words per minute, so there is time to copy every sound. Only 80% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| delicious adjective | /dɪˈlɪ.ʃəs/ | Pleasing to the sense of taste; tasty. |
| tunnel noun | /ˈtʌn(ə)l/ | An underground or underwater passage. |
| fence noun | /fɛns/ | A thin artificial barrier that separates two pieces of land or forms a perimeter enclosing the lands of a house, building, etc. |
| grandfather noun | /ˈɡɹæn(d)ˌfɑðɚ/ | A father of someone's parent. |
| curry noun | /ˈkʌ.ɹi/ | One of a family of dishes originating from Indian cuisine, flavored by a spiced sauce. |
| vegetarian noun | /vɛ.d͡ʒɪˈtɛ.ɹi.ən/ | A person who does not eat animal flesh, or, in some cases, use any animal products. |
| meal noun | /ˈmiːl/ | Food that is prepared and eaten, usually at a specific time, and usually in a comparatively large quantity. |
| temple noun | /ˈtɛm.pl̩/ | A house of worship dedicated to a polytheistic faith. |
| butter noun | /ˈbʌtɚ/ | A soft, fatty foodstuff made by churning the cream of milk (generally cow's milk). |
| twin noun | /twɪn/ | Either of two people (or, less commonly, animals) who shared the same uterus at the same time; one who was born at the same birth as a sibling. |
| divide verb | /dɪˈvaɪd/ | To split or separate (something) into two or more parts. |
| frankly adverb | /fɹæŋkli/ | In a frank or candid manner, especially in a way that may seem too open, excessively honest, or slightly blunt. |
| vegetable noun | /ˈvɛd͡ʒ.tə.bəl/ | A plant raised for some edible part of it, such as the leaves, roots, fruit or flowers, but excluding any plant considered to be a fruit, grain, herb, or spice… |
| partition noun | /pɑɹˈtɪ.ʃən/ | An action which divides a thing into parts, or separates one thing from another. |
| fertile adjective | /ˈfɝːtəl/ | Of land, etc.: capable of growing abundant crops; productive. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| check out verb | To record the departure or withdrawal of someone or something (such as guests, employees, books, etc.). | |
| check off verb | To mark items on a list (with a checkmark or by crossing them out) that have been chosen for keeping or removal or that have been dealt with (for example… | |
| come out verb | /ˌkʌm ˈaʊt/ | To be discovered; to be revealed. |
| come together verb | /ˈkʌm tʊˈɡɛðɚ/ | To assemble; to congregate; to combine. |
| draw up verb | To compose (a document), especially following a standard form; prepare a plan. | |
| get back verb | Return to where one came from. | |
| get out of verb | To leave, exit or escape from; to become free of. | |
| get past verb | To continue around a blockage; to get around (something); to surpass something that is in the way. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- How much farther can we go before they start to get worried?
- Would you like to have something else?
- I don't even understand why, what's going on.
- I'll put on my apron first.
- How do you enjoy that road?
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| “Used to” used to + verb — a past habit or state that is no longer true | used to be |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | I've never seen · have showed · you've had |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | be built · be nominated · being born |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | people who live · people who owned · villages which were |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 51 contractions and reduced forms, such as I've, they're, I'm. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: grandfather /ˈɡɹæn(d)ˌfɑðɚ/, thick /θɪk/, theater /ˈθi(ə)tɚ/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: delicious /dɪˈlɪ.ʃəs/, partition /pɑɹˈtɪ.ʃən/, wash /wɑʃ/, establishment /ɪˈstæb.lɪʃ.mənt/, occasion /əˈkeɪ̯ʒən/
- Long words — get the stress right: vegetarian /vɛ.d͡ʒɪˈtɛ.ɹi.ən/, legendary /ˈlɛd͡ʒ.ənˌdɛɹ.i/, surprisingly /səˈpɹaɪzɪŋli/, architecture /ˈɑː.kɪˌtɛk.t͡ʃə/, establishment /ɪˈstæb.lɪʃ.mənt/
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 delicious, tunnel, fence.
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.