Shadowing Practice: Becoming Yourself in Paris | Parisian Conversations - Learn English Speaking with Video
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349 sentences
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Every month we sit down with our favorite Parisian, shamelessly looking through the personal belongings of her bag.
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But what happens before the camera starts rolling?
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What's the article you're talking about?
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I think it's called something like having a boyfriend is embarrassing.
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Hair was such a naturally feminine part of me and now it's gone.
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You sound like you've lived few lives.
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I feel like I have.
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Hello Parisian Vibe, I'm Grace Brosnan, I'm a young creative living in Paris.
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I can try your sunglasses.
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Yes, oh very chic.
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Wow, love those.
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Yeah.
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Ah yeah, they're not bad actually.
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Voilà, hello.
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Hello.
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Well without the sunglasses, no?
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Welcome home, right?
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Thank you.
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Here's a coffee.
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Well, it's not my home.
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It's yours, right?
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Mine.
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Yes.
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And I'm so happy to be here.
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I end up drinking my coffee cold, but that's the worst.
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It can be warm.
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It's the worst when it was vomi and now it's not.
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No. It just makes me sad.
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I've run out of coffee at my apartment, so I have my hojicha.
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Yes which is a little bit of a task to make
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but it's okay because and you're drinking it in a very interesting yes
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because i was like i can mom finish it later
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if i feel but maybe i'll drink the whole thing
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so this is a little coffee chat before we actually get
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in rod everything into everything yes into the bag into the
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bag into the apartment into the article hub stack yes which i'm
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so excited about your arrival to paris there was drama there was a lot of drama there was
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so much drama well okay
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so for background i've been here for four years now this is my first year living alone
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and this is my first year being in this apartment as well of course
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which is beautiful and i'm so happy to be here
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and i swear to god i manifested this i was like
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i want one long studio i want a bed on the
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floor i want a lot of light i want a lot of beans
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and that is everything that this is
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so even the romantic rain in paris rain and
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when it rains the other night it was hailing and it was
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so loud and I was just like I'm so safe I'm so happy
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but it wasn't always this beautiful it was definitely really difficult
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a lack of knowing my surroundings it was a new culture
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it was new people I grew up in a really small town
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and then I moved here knowing nobody barely speaking the language
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not confident in what I wanted to do not confident in myself
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so the first apartment that I mean you did enroll into the school yeah right and
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that was great no the school was great no the school
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is great I did end up switching my major I started in fashion design
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and I started in a random apartment probably you know the size of half of this place
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which is double 15 square meters yeah this place is tiny
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so imagine like four girls in you were four girls
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and 15 square meters 15 square meters mold so far out of the 17th i took argentine to tulari
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chaque jour for l'école whoa i i couldn't i was nowhere you know and i i didn't know that
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The first time I remember walking in the third was that year.
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And I had no idea of like the geography of Paris.
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So I had no idea where I was.
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You know, one of my roommates was like, let's go to this bar.
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And it was Le Progrès, which is so funny.
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But I remember walking down the main street and just being like, what is this place?
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Like, this is a wonderland.
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Yeah.
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Yeah, but I understood that it wasn't easy with the girls, right?
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So it was random.
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Yes, it was random.
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And it was kind of okay the first year.
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We had, you know, cleaners and stuff and everything.
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But then I lived with them a second year and it was not the same.
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That was definitely the hardest year for me because of that
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and also because of being in fashion design and how hard I was working on something that I hated, frankly.
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Ah, yeah, because you've changed after, yeah.
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Yeah.
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Why did you hate it so much?
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I didn't like it.
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That program took every ounce of love for creating away from me that I have for design in general.
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Is it not supposed to make you more creative?
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It's supposed to teach you the technicalities before you can get creative.
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I had so much confidence issues of like, oh my God, if I'm leaving, then I've failed.
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And then I am doing nothing and I can't finish anything.
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And on top of that, you had your roommate situation in Paris.
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Yes.
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On top of that, I had my horrible roommate situation in Paris.
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I just had no other time for anything else.
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And that was the hardest part.
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Then I would work super, super hard so I could maybe go visit my brother on the weekends or, you know, do something and get out of the cycle that I was in.
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And they would sleep in my bed when I would be gone
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and do many other things in my bed that I don't know if I can speak about on here.
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Online.
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But you can understand.
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And it was just, I mean, utter disrespect.
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And I don't ever have to go back there again.
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So I won't.
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What kept you going?
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Because I mean, having that experience and like having all of those thoughts, that's tough.
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And did you speak French by then?
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No. No, I didn't speak French by then
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because I wasn't speaking French with them and they were the only people that I had enough time to be around.
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So I couldn't even, I didn't even have the time to make other French friends or practice if I wanted to.
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Two and a half months of just like this hamster wheel of nightmares, if you will.
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Nightmares.
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A French nightmare.
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A French nightmare.
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You should have gotten a French lover to make it.
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Oh, I wish.
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I wish I did.
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I was like, I have no time.
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But then I switched into fashion business.
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And I was still in that living situation for the rest of the year.
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But I had enough time to get out of the house.
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And that was like phenomenal.
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That was the best thing that could have happened to me.
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And then that semester, I made so many other friends and started to do other things.
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From then on, it was just up.
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changed to a different flat different roommate better better still still not there
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whoops so where do you find all those people i don't know can we just be nice
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can we just you know can we have like nice girls club well i actually it's funny
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because in middle school my best friend and i started a club
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that was called girls supporting girls
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and it was teaching like younger girls how to not compete with each other and like lift each other up instead
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side note but i have definitely realized that i need to live alone i'm
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so particular about the way my things are positioned and the way
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that my cupboard is laid out i have all my little things in my jars
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and if i don't have that you go i'm gonna have an issue yeah i actually i had a
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Danish boy staying with me.
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Oh yes you had your date.
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My friend, my date, my whatever.
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Date?
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What is it?
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Because we did talk about the fact
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that you know you were waiting for the boy that could kind of match your energy.
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Yes.
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I'm definitely in a space right now where I'm dating.
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This guy who came to visit me was Danish, both 21.
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He actually turned 22 when he was here.
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We're enjoying each other's company and that's kind of it.
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You sound like you've lived few lives.
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I feel like I have.
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I really feel like I have.
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A lot of therapy, guys.
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A lot of therapy.
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Oh, yeah.
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Okay.
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And so did you kind of feel that you are on the same level with him?
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I think it was really nice to be around somebody my age
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because in the past I've my ego has always been like you are
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so mature you should be with an older man
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and then it's like okay there's a reason
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that an older man is looking for a younger girl
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and that's not a good reason and from my experience obviously it's different for everybody
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but I definitely feel like living here and having the experience
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that I did made me grow up so fast grow up so much more.
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You know, I was 18 when I moved here and the most like insecure little thing, I cared so much about what people thought of me.
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And that girl now it's like completely different, which is the most relieving, reassuring, fulfilling feeling.
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Like it's the same feeling as like being in this apartment and like having all of these things be mine.
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It's like, this is really like, I have made it and yeah it's just like the best thing ever yeah
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because that's discovering that's what we're gonna write about right is discovering your style
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and discovering and discovering what creativity is and yeah
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and you are asking all of those questions quite early
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because I mean it it can take a lifetime yeah
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and you still don't yeah get there the phase where you tried out long hair Well, I actually had long hair my whole life.
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And then I cut my hair super short.
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And that was, and now it's growing back, of course, but it was like to here.
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And that was such an interesting relationship with femininity.
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As a woman, and the way women are depicted in, you know, Botticelli's Venus, she has this long hair, and all of these women have this beautiful long hair.
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And it's such a symbol of beauty across so many cultures and so many time periods.
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So when I cut my hair, I really struggled with that because it just,
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I wanted, I didn't have a safety blanket.
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You know, there was nothing that I could kind of like hide behind or do anything like that.
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And two, it was like, my hair was such a naturally feminine part of me and now it's gone.
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How do I find that without it?
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And I didn't even realize it would go away when I cut my hair, but it definitely is.
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Why did you cut the hair?
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I cut my hair because there was just so much bad energy attached to the bottom and I could feel it.
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Really?
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And I actually cut my hair like a week before I moved out of that apartment, the first horrible apartment.
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And then I cut it and it really did feel like a weight lifted.
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But did you feel that you want to be more feminine in other ways or you just embrace the new you?
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Yeah.
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Which in your head meant like shorter hair, less feminine.
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Yeah, I think my style definitely changed a little bit in relation to proportion,
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but not necessarily in relation to the way that I would play between like masculinity and femininity.
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because something that might look beautiful with long hair looks a little different with short hair.
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Like it's everything fits like a puzzle piece, you know, so obviously that's a huge puzzle piece.
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But I can't really remember wearing different things.
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I don't really think I did or like trying to like overcompensate for like the femininity that I felt was lost.
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I was putting my hair up all the time because I was just like, if it's up, you don't know if it's short or long.
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And I just didn't like it.
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So I kind of just ignored it and let it grow out.
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I think femininity is so important to me.
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Masculinity is just as important.
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And for me, that comes from my parents and they are the living,
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breathing beings of both of those words.
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My mother is the epitome of femininity to me and my father's the epitome of masculinity to me.
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And that translates so much into my creative identity.
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I feel that my life has always been two extremes, You know, take my parents and then take the places that I live.
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Montauk is a really small beach town.
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Paris is a huge city across an ocean.
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Everything that I do with my style and the way
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that I write and the way
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that I create is either speaking on those two extremes or trying to find a balance between both of them.
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And I always try to find a balance between my mom
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and my dad in my clothing and my style and the way that I wear things.
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And it makes me feel incredible when like I have like my dad is this triumph motorcycle belt.
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And I'm like wearing that with like my mom's like little white dress.
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Like it's like the juxtaposition between this like masculine leather belt and like this little prairie dress.
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I grew up doing ballet and I was like to think about things as like a dance.
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It's this constant push and puller like it's two magnets.
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Like I'm constantly refining my taste as is anyone.
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I feel like the more I come to understand that relationship of masculinity and femininity and my mother and my father,
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the closer I am to getting.
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I guess the femininity of your mother is not necessarily the same.
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It's not the same iteration of the femininity that you represent, I guess.
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I don't know if you ever thought about it.
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Yes, actually so much so because that woman has no agenda.
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She has no bad bone in her body.
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She is all giving and all loving and only seeing the good in people.
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I feel like she's almost a younger soul than I am because sometimes she'll be like, oh, that's no friend of yours.
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Like, what are you doing?
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Like, wow, they want something out of you.
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And she's like, what?
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What do you mean?
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Like, they're so nice to me.
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I'm like, they want something from you.
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That's why, you know, and that's the dad in me.
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That's like my father in me.
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Oh, wow.
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Because he's so wise with that stuff.
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Like he always can seek out, you know, and read people.
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Big passion business student in you.
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Super.
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That's the logic in me.
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No. Yeah.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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Can I see it down? Of course.
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What article you're talking about?
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So it's called, I think it's called something like having a boyfriend is embarrassing.
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And it was a Vogue article.
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A long time ago or recently, three months ago?
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Yeah, pretty recent.
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And it was basically talking about how the standards of having a boyfriend
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or having a man in your life as a woman has really changed
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because we as women can work now and make so much more money, almost equivalent to men.
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Probably not equivalent, but in some places.
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In some ways.
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It's getting better it's getting better and we can provide so much more for ourselves we don't have
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we don't need the security of a man anymore and
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so it's it's talking about that and it's really interesting to think
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because we're also in such a gender war you know men
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and women are having the least intimacy where like the intimacy
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economy has crashed is what i was no one is having
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sex anymore no one is having sex i mean the also
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the alcohol economy has lost i think billions of dollars like
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people aren't partying like they used to like it's really interesting
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because from my perspective i don't want a boyfriend
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because i love my space and i love who i am
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and i want to keep exploring that and i love that i can provide for myself
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but the only thing that I am missing is that wholehearted security
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that my father gives me you know and it's not the financial security per se no it's definitely not financial it's
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just that complete safeness which I've only felt with one of the boyfriends
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that I've had in the past and I've never felt
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that in any other way and it has been him
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and my father and I think that's a really interesting relationship
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because he provided that same kind of like decision security that my dad provided.
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Yeah, but don't you think that, I mean, it's in a way it's all related, right?
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Like when we have financial security, we also have the confidence with many other things.
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Yeah.
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But then also, aren't we, aren't we as women confusing sometimes?
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That confidence with, I don't know how to express this,
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but what I'm trying to say is having that confidence does not need to mean that we are less feminine.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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And I feel like maybe we are confusing,
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but what you're saying, I feel the only thing you're still missing is that confidence in men or security in men.
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But for that, you also want to feel maybe somehow vulnerable as a woman.
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I don't know if that's clear.
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Yeah, like in the article, they were talking about how if a man is bringing the woman that he's with down in any way,
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there is no reason for him anymore.
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you know because women can give themselves all the things
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that a man used to be able to give themselves
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and I know for me like
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if I'm gonna be with a man I want him to be able to provide anything
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and everything so I can just turn into this flourishing creative orb fairy
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and I'm already that on my own so why would I need
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that and also female friendships my female friendships are the most fulfilling thing in my life
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that when I am with a man I'm like the only thing
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that you can give me that they can't is intimacy and
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that is not something
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that I need all the time right now why do you
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think you don't need it all the time right now don't we need
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that totally totally we 50 shades of gray yes and and I do love that but I think it's also like
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I'm in such a place where I'm working so hard on myself
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that I don't have the energy to put the amount of time
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that that intimacy needs you know which is definitely a fault
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and I need to find a balance in that
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but I think I feel so incredibly fulfilled by myself
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and my female friendships that I am so satisfied and so abundant in that space.
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Well, you see, for me, it's, I mean, it's not easy at all because we're trying to, as women, we're trying to be fulfilled
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and trying to understand how does this fulfillment looks like by doing
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so many things and we're getting so tired because we have no help.
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I mean, if you look back in the 18th century, you had all the help.
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I mean, not everyone, but women had help and they devoted themselves to reading books and the art of leisure.
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But now we're supposed to do all of that and be beautiful
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and independent and confident in order to go back and to be vulnerable.
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Do you see what I mean?
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Yes.
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And it's like, yeah, it should be kind of a fine balance of how much
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do we need to do versus how much of femininity we still have in us.
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Absolutely.
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You know, absolutely.
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And that for me ties back to that idea of how am I balancing the masculinity and femininity in my life?
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How can I balance channeling my mother and my father?
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How can I balance, you know, having intimate relationships and friendships?
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And it's exhausting, honestly.
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So that article of the boy, like coming back, just trying to connect this.
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So the article with the boyfriend, the article was saying we don't need boyfriends anymore.
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Or it's the crisis of...
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It was, yeah, it was more so the crisis of, you know, where we're at with that and as women
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and what we're able to do now as women and whether we need a man or not,
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you know, it's, it was more so the question of where does that lie and where is the balance?
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And if you have a boyfriend, is it embarrassing?
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Cause I know, I mean, connecting it to some of my friends, I have a, one of my really close friends just broke up with her boyfriend
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because he was bringing her down and why would she want to be in
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that kind of relationship if all it does is bring negativity
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and more pressure and guilt and less vulnerability
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and more anxiety like there is no need for
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that especially in your 20s when you're trying to figure things out
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and trying to understand yourself it's where you are yeah
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so having a boyfriend is embarrassing interesting i would say having
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a boyfriend isn't embarrassing i would say it's definitely not embarrassing
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and i would argue that if you have a boyfriend
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that helps you become the most feminine version of yourself the
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fees laundry yeah the best version then that's not embarrassing but if he brings you down in any way, then yes, that is embarrassing.
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Wow, what a huge thought.
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Huge thought.
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Yeah.
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Okay, let's go.
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Oh my god, how embarrassing.
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How embarrassing.
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How embarrassing.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This video has 349 sentences and 3675 words to shadow. The speech runs for 23:30. The speaker talks at a natural 156 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 |
|---|---|---|
| feminine adjective | /ˈfɛmɪnɪn/ | Of or pertaining to the female gender. |
| discover verb | /dɪˈskʌvə/ | To find or learn something for the first time. |
| friendship noun | /ˈfɹɛn(d)ʃɪp/ | The condition of being friends. |
| nightmare noun | /ˈnaɪt.mɛɚ/ | A very unpleasant or frightening dream. |
| fulfill verb | /fʊlˈfɪl/ | To satisfy, carry out, bring to completion (an obligation, a requirement, etc.). |
| roommate noun | /ˈɹu(m)ˌmeɪt/ | A person with whom one shares a room, as in a dormitory, barracks, rooming house, or apartment. |
| intimacy noun | /ˈɪn.tɪ.mə.si/ | Intimate relationship. |
| meter noun | /ˈmitəɹ/ | A device that measures things. |
| naturally adverb | /ˈnæt͡ʃ.(ə.)ɹə.li/ | In a natural manner. |
| necessarily adverb | /ˌnɛs.əˈsɛɹ.ə.li/ | Inevitably; of necessity. |
| horrible adjective | /ˈhɔɹ.ɪ.bəl/ | Causing horror; terrible; shocking. |
| belt noun | /ˈbɛlt/ | A band worn around the waist to hold clothing to one's body (usually pants), hold weapons (such as a gun or sword), or serve as a decorative piece of clothing. |
| connect verb | /kəˈnɛkt/ | To join (to another object): to attach, or to be intended to attach or capable of attaching, to another object. |
| relation noun | /ɹɪˈleɪʃ(ə)n/ | The manner in which two things may be associated. |
| vulnerable adjective | /ˈvʌln(ə)ɹəbl̩/ | More or most likely to be exposed to the chance of being attacked or harmed, either physically or emotionally. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| grow up verb | To mature and become an adult. | |
| end up verb | To bring to a conclusion. | |
| get out of verb | To leave, exit or escape from; to become free of. | |
| go back verb | To return to a place or state after having been there at a previous time. | |
| come back verb | To return to a place. | |
| go away verb | To depart or leave a place. | |
| grow out verb | To allow (something, often hair) to grow unimpeded. | |
| lay out verb | /ˌleɪ ˈaʊt/ | To expend or contribute money to an expense or purchase. |
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 like · used to be |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | you've lived · I've run · i've been |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | was called · are positioned · is laid |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | Yes which is · Progrès, which is · guy who came |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 91 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, don't, we're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: clothing /ˈkloʊðɪŋ/, leather /ˈlɛðɚ/, breathe /bɹiːð/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: friendship /ˈfɹɛn(d)ʃɪp/, relation /ɹɪˈleɪʃ(ə)n/, passion /ˈpæʃən/, shade /ʃeɪd/, proportion /pɹəˈpɔɹʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: intimacy /ˈɪn.tɪ.mə.si/, naturally /ˈnæt͡ʃ.(ə.)ɹə.li/, necessarily /ˌnɛs.əˈsɛɹ.ə.li/, anxiety /æŋˈzaɪ.əti/, incredibly /ɪŋˈkɹɛdɪbli/
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 feminine, discover, friendship.
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.