Shadowing Practice: Best IELTS Speaking Test? - Learn English Speaking with Video

Good morning, my name is Eli Howes.

Can you please tell me your full name?

My full name is Sae Kedzirari, but you can call me by my first name, Sae.

In this first part, I'd like to ask you some questions about yourself.

Let's talk about where you're living at the moment.

Where are you living at the moment?

I'm residing in the south capital of Kazakhstan.

In my subjective opinion, the most beautiful city in the world, Almaty, in a two-bedroom apartment with my mom.

What do you like most about the area you're living in?

Oh, there are many different perks of the area that I live in.

But the one that springs to my mind immediately is probably the amounts of greenery that we have.

Like there are a lot of trees in my neighborhood and that gives us fresh air.

Also, if we talk about fresh air, I live in the area that is closest to mountains.

So we get to have this quite cold and fresh air that other areas don't.

And the third and I think last thing

that I love about my area is the peace of mind

that you can get there because it's not as densely populated as other suburban areas.

Do you know many other people who live nearby?

Yeah, in fact, most of my friends live in the same area, which is a great advantage because you can meet up anytime.

Despite all of us having a hectic schedule and insane ambitions,

we manage to meet once or twice a week because we live in the same neighborhood.

Also, I've heard that many celebrities, like really famous singers or actors, live in my area and I've actually met some of them

but because of my shy nature I was too shy

and embarrassed to say hi to them but I've seen many of them in my neighborhood.

Let's move on let's talk about what you usually do in the morning.

Is breakfast an important meal for you?

Yeah the morning meal is the most vital food intake throughout my day I'd say

because I could be a little careless with my lunch or skip dinner overall but never with breakfast.

A key to a productive

and full of energy day for me is a really good breakfast that's full of protein

because I find that the human body produces a lot of natural cortisol

when it wakes up and in order to lower that cortisol you have to have a good breakfast.

Do you like to have the same routine every morning?

Definitely.

My days are full of decision-making processes and many of the decisions that I make are quite high stake.

So I like to have chunks of my day, such as morning and evenings, to be systematic and to be repetitive.

So I do not have to think about what I'm going to do right now, like we're in five minutes every single time.

And my brain can relax from operating full mode.

Was your morning routine very different when you were younger?

I wouldn't really say so, because I've been sticking to the same routine for the last five years, I've perfected it and maximized the productivity of my morning routine.

And my refined morning routine has not really changed except one minor detail is

that right now I spend one hour deep working since I have a full-time business that I'm working on.

But when I used to go to school, I used to spend that one hour deep studying, either doing my homework, preparing for exams, or just generally with a book in hand.

Is there anything you would still like to change about your morning routine?

Despite being generally satisfied with how my mornings look, I think that in the next like 10 or 15 years, I'd like them to be a lot slower.

I mean like waking up with no alarm clock

and not having millions of chats pile up in the morning

and not thinking about deadlines that are burning or decisions

that I have to make the second that I wake up and probably just living a slower life.

But due to my crazy ambitions and my workload that's not possible right now

but I think that in the next 15 or 10 years I'll be able to achieve that unthinkable luxury.

Let's move on let's talk about going to the cinema.

Did you often go to the cinema when you were a child?

Yes that was my favorite part of the week.

When I performed well in school or

if my mom saw me studying really hard she'd take me out to the movie theaters.

In a day we could watch up to four different movies like cartoons

and even we had times when there were no new movies for us to watch

so yeah that was my favorite part of being a child I think watching movies.

Have the kind of films you like changed over the years?

I definitely say so because when I was a child and

when I was younger I used to watch cartoons

and surprisingly documentaries for example like National Geographic

that features the livelihood of animals and tells us about how different animals live in their natural habitat.

And also I really enjoyed long explanatory documentaries about how the world works or how economies run in different countries.

For now, I prefer psychological thrillers that leave you thinking even after the movie is finished.

How often do you go to the cinema now?

Without like even a single gram of exaggeration, I'd probably say that once in two years, not because I enjoy watching movies less now,

but simply because I have this hectic schedule and I never have time to go out and watch a movie.

Also, I find it a lot more pleasurable to watch movies at home

because you can cuddle with your dog and you can order any food

that you want and eat it while watching your favourite movie.

Do you prefer to go to the cinema with a lot of friends or on your own?

Even though I enjoy the company of my friends, I usually choose going to the movie theaters alone because I can spend some quality alone time.

I usually spend a lot of my time working with other people, whether it's my team, my students, or generally just my family.

And as an introspective, extremely introverted person, I like to enjoy some time that I spend alone

and I like to analyze the movie thoroughly

when I go to the movie theater with having nobody around me so definitely alone.

We're going to move on to part two

and in this part I'm going to give you a topic

and I'd like you to talk about it for one to two minutes.

Before you talk you'll have one minute to think about what you're going to say

and you can make some notes if you wish.

Do you understand?

Yes.

All right remember you have one to two minutes for this

so don't worry if I stop you I'll tell you when the time is up.

Can you start speaking now please?

Of course even though there are many cities

that are known for their picture skewed scenery I'd like to talk about my hometown Almaty

which in my subjective opinion is the most beautiful city in the world though it is relatively small

and unknown though in the last few years it has been gaining insane popularity

because allegedly Kesson has been in its prime era.

We've been having global celebrities, stars, singers come over to our country and perform for us, which has increased our popularity.

If I were to describe Almaty's beauty in one word, I'd call it multifacaded because if you look at it in different angles,

you can find things that are so beautiful about my city.

You can find cloud-piercing glass skyscrapers that give the vibe of a big city,

New York-style, futuristic, modern city kind of vibes.

But on the other hand, you can also find older buildings that give a vintage feel to my city

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and it's great to stroll to have a walk in these vintage neighborhoods

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because most of the buildings were built 50 60

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or sometimes even hundreds of years ago and it's really nice

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that they reserved them

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but what is even more beautiful about my hometown other than the city life is its pictures skew

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and gorgeous nature we're usually known for our mountains by the foreign visitors

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which i would argue

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that they are the most beautiful mountains in the whole world even more maybe than the swiss alps

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but it's a total bummer that people only concentrate on the mountains

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and they miss out of sight things like waterfalls

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or dramatic canyons we have beautiful deserts lush meadows

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and clear um crystal clear lakes and a lot of people do not visit them

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but they're absolutely breathtaking and And the most interesting thing is

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that most of these pictures skewed views are within like one or two hours.

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Thank you.

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Do you think in the future more people will visit this city?

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Yes, I do think that the population will boom in the next 50 years

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because Almaty is becoming a lot more futuristic and a lot of foreign visitors are being attracted to it.

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We've been talking about a place that you think is beautiful, and I'd like to discuss with you one or two more general questions related to this.

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Let's consider, first of all, modern towns and cities.

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Now, you mentioned that Almaty has a lot of skyscrapers.

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Why do you think so many modern towns and cities have tall buildings?

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Well, a lot of cities right now are into building these multi-story buildings for several reasons.

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One that jumps to my mind immediately is probably the futuristic look that the city gets after having many skyscrapers.

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But if we think beyond the aesthetic advantage that the city might gain from these buildings,

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it probably is the capacity that it can hold.

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I mean, like the population might boom.

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There might be a lot of more people moving into the city

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and in order to facilitate jobs and living areas for those people, probably cities are keen to building these tall buildings.

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Nowadays, some people say that modern towns and cities all look the same precisely

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because most of them have these kind of tall buildings.

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What do you think about that?

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I think that it's a double-edged sword, sort of.

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I mean, like we have very progressed and improved architecture

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that allows us to build any building of our minds in different totally shapes,

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not only rectangle, but also circular or sphere-like buildings.

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But on the other hand, I do understand people's concerns

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because usually architects' main references are the large metropolitan areas such as the New York City or Dubai,

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and they usually take inspiration from those cities and try to recreate the same buildings in their cities.

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How do you think modern cities will look in the future?

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Oh that's a really interesting question.

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I think that they'll be more packed, that's definitely, because there are going to be a lot more people

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and cities will have a lot more skyscrapers and I think

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that since there are going to be more people living in the cities, the living space of every person will be decreased

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and they will not have luxurious flats like they do now for example in Almaty

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and they will have tighter personal spaces like for example in China

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and I also think that cities will have more

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and more of the same identical look and people will not be able to differentiate which city they're in.

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Let's move on.

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Let's talk about city and countryside living.

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Now, people often say

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that the quality of life in cities is not as good as the quality of life in the countryside.

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Would you agree with that?

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I mean, there are perks to both living in the city and to living in the countryside.

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The ones that I can think of, for example, the countryside is for people that like slow living because there is not much of any kind of pollution.

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You could talk about air, you could talk about soil pollution or even noise pollution.

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We talked about the last, you don't really hear a lot of cars honking, dogs barking or people talking in the streets in the countryside, which gives you peace of mind definitely.

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But I think that the countryside living is definitely not for ambitious people

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that want to climb up the corporate ladder or

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that are aiming to work in international companies such as Apple

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or I don't know any international company that comes into your head

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because usually those global organizations do not open up branches in not so populated towns.

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So I think that one is not better than the other it is just for different people.

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You mentioned that in the countryside there's more nature.

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Do you think that people who live in cities begin to lose touch with nature?

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Definitely, because I find this to be a trend that's becoming more and more popular, especially among the young generation.

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The youth right now prefers to spend their weekends at a shopping mall, for example, or at home rather than reconnecting with nature,

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even if the nature is like within an hour or a two-hour drive away.

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So I do think that it is a trend that is affecting mostly the young generation.

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And how do you think the development of more and more large cities will affect both nature and the world?

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I think that firstly, there are going to be certain advantages and drawbacks.

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The first advantage that comes to my mind is probably the fact

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that all of the cities are going to be more globalized, having more global corporations and more global corporations in them.

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So that creates a lot more job opportunities and it creates opportunities for people to

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achieve all of their ambitious ideas and goals without moving overseas and without losing touch with their family.

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That's one.

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However, this comes at a cost of nature

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because probably we are going to sacrifice a lot of trees

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and we're going to cut them down in order to build those skyscrapers

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or in order to build land for people to reside in.

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Also, this comes with invasion of privacy, I believe, because if the population rates are going to skyrocket,

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there is a chance of increased crime rates.

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And in order not to have that, the government will probably track down every single person, every single movement, which one may argue is a good thing

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because it ensures safety among citizens and it makes sure that crime rates are low.

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But on the other hand, for some concerned individuals, it may mean that probably they are not going to have as much privacy as they did before.

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Okay thank you very much that is the end of the speaking test.

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Saia, that was a phenomenal speaking test.

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Thank you.

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People are going to be watching this and thinking how did she reach such a high level of English?

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So could you tell us a little bit about your experience learning?

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Well I've been studying English since I was six years old so my English learning journey started with mom.

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My mom is an English teacher

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and for the first year she taught me some basic grammatical rules

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and some basic uh she got me to the good b2 level to upper intermediate

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but also i think this couples with my really good concentration as a child not to brag

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but i was able to study for up to 10 hours without standing

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and without the need of going somewhere or getting distracted

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so i think that due to such a good level of concentration coupled of course with efficient techniques.

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I was able to speak fluently in the English language by the age of seven.

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By the age of 11, I took my first IELTS exam and got 6.5 from the first try without preparation

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and 8.5 in speaking because by that time English became such a natural language for me.

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I mean like I would think in English and then translate into Russian

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because I studied in a Russian school in Russian kindergarten and then into Kazakh which was supposed to be my mother tongue.

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So yeah, I think that in order to reach this kind of level, a lot of people need patience and a lot of people consider English to be, you know, like, I don't know,

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they look for kind of life hacks to speak in English fast, but life hacks do not exist.

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English is a skill just like sports, just like science that needs and requires a certain level of patience, a certain level of time and energy,

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coupled, of course, with really good techniques and methodology, and any person will be able to speak in English fluently within a year.

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So you mentioned techniques and methodology.

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Are there any techniques or methods that you find to be extremely helpful?

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One really underestimated technique is probably reading.

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I read a lot and reading in any language enhances one's ability to speak in a really advanced way,

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whether it's English, Russian or Kazakh.

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So I used to read a especially out loud because when you read out loud, you're able to see the word.

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So that's visual learning.

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You're able to hear the word that's learning through audio, and you're able to pronounce the words that you're saying the word

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so it's it triples the effect of learning the information also i think

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that a lot of people they make the process of learning

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english a lot hotter than it should be i mean they start looking for some kind of techniques

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that don't work you should learn any language as you learned your mother tongue

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when you were learning your mother tongue you didn't necessarily need grammatical rules

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or you didn't need to learn like 50 words a day.

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The only thing that you needed was constant practice.

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You were emerged in the environment and you kept practicing, you kept speaking.

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So the order of learning any language in their mother tongue was listening.

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A person heard something like people talking in the language that they imitated through speaking.

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And after that, they learned writing, they learned reading and then writing

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but since now people learn people know how to read I would say

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that the most effective way of learning any language is listening plus reading and after that producing the language.

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You mentioned that you started learning English when you were six years old, how old are you now?

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I am 19 years old now.

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And what's your plan at this stage in your life?

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My English school is five years old, I refer to it like five years old because for me it's like a baby.

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I founded my own school when I was 14 years old

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and we have had over hundreds of thousands of students who have successfully taken their IELTS exam.

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We have nine students who achieved a score of 8.5

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and you may know that it is a score

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that only one percent of students all over the world get so we're extremely proud.

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The average score of our students is 7.5

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and my goal in the future is to keep developing my project

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because I see that it has a real value for especially students from Kazakhstan,

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Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and many other CIS countries

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because for them English is not a second

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but a foreign language it's usually a third language

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that comes after their mother tongue Russian and only English

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and our methodology has been really effective in helping not only taking the IELTS exam successful

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but also in acquiring the English language and speaking in it fluently.

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I got into top 10 universities in the world this year, which is UCL.

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It's located in London.

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But I decided to write a deferral and I'm going next year.

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So probably my future plans are pursuing my bachelor's and probably master's degree while also improving my project.

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How exciting.

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Now, people watching this will think okay she's got brilliant English

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but she's also able to think about a lot of complex ideas very quickly would you agree with

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that yes and I do think that how have you been able to do

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that um I think it's a skill set

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that you can acquire really easily you just have to read a lot

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and be curious about the world um since I was a

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child I was curious about every single thing I look at

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a bottle of water I think like wow this is made out of plastic like I see

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so many things that are made out of plastic.

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Let me learn about plastic.

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And I think that this sense of sincere curiosity leads to the ability to explain complex ideas in simple words,

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which is one of the skill sets that you really need in order to score high, like eight or above in the IELTS exam,

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because you'll need to be able to think of complex ideas and contrasting ideas in a blink of an eye.

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And in order to do that, there is no shortcut and there is no magic pill.

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You just have to read and you have to be able to be curious about a lot of different things.

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But if we talk about the IELTS exam specifically, you don't have to prepare for the IELTS exam for years and years.

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Three months is like it's more than enough to get your score that you need if you already have a good foundation.

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But one of the best ways of creating these complex ideas and, you know, like creating different ideas in the IELTS exam is,

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for example, whenever a person is sitting down, they look around and they think about, for example, table, and they start creating a lot of different questions from the word table.

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Like, how often do I use tables?

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Or how many tables do I have?

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Or why are tables important in my culture?

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Or they, for example, see like a water bottle, the same thing with a water bottle.

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Then, for example, a phone, etc. And these are creating so many different questions, so many different answers that are impromptu.

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And that's 100% going to make their mind sharper, which is a really important skill in the IELTS exam

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and it's going to make them prepared for nearly any topic

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because I took the exam over like 20 times

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and I had the most absurd different like absurd questions I

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was asked about like pens what was your favorite pen

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and like it would be a question

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that would um you know like surprise any candidate but not me

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because I was already prepared for the question I remember

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when I was an examiner one of the questions

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that I asked regularly was what is your favorite pair of

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shoes I always used to think it's quite of a bizarre question

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because it's a question you would never really ask in day to day life.

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But usually you've kind of got a favorite pair of shoes or a pair of shoes that you like wearing especially.

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And so people were able to kind of engage with that particular question.

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Yeah.

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So how can people learn more about you?

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I have a very active Instagram and TikTok page.

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I remember that I said in the last video

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that I'm going to start my YouTube page still hasn't been going

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but I'm still planning on it and hopefully I'll open up my YouTube page

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and we'll start actively leading that as well

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but you can find me on Instagram and TikTok or threads if you have threads.

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Okay Sia thank you so much for coming on and doing this phenomenal speaking test with me.

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Thank you so much for the invitation.

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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.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

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