Shadowing Practice: BoJack's Eulogy At His Mother's Funeral "Becker" - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
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My mom died and all I got was this free churro.
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You know the shittiest thing about all of this?
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Is when that stranger behind the counter gave me that free churro, that small act of kindness showed more compassion than my mother gave me her entire goddamn life.
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Like how hard is it to do something nice for a person?
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This woman at the Jack in the Box didn't even know me.
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I'm your son.
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All I had was you.
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I have this friend, and right around when I first met her, her dad died.
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And I actually went with her to the funeral.
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And months later, she told me that she didn't understand why she was still upset, because she never even liked her father.
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It made sense to me, because I went through the same thing when my dad died, and I'm going through the same thing now.
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You know what it's like?
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It's like that show Becker, you know, with Ted Danson.
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I watched the entire run of that show, hoping that it would get better, and it never did.
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It had all the right pieces, but it just, it could have put them together.
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And when it got canceled, I was really bummed out.
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Not because I liked the show, but because I knew it could be so much better, and now it never would be.
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And that's what losing a parent is like.
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It's like Becker.
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Suddenly you realize you'll never have the good relationship you wanted, and as long as they were alive, even though you'd never admit it, part of you, the stupidest goddamn part of you,
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was still holding on to that chance and he didn't even realize it until that chance went away.
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My mother is dead and everything is worse now
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because now I know I will never have a mother who looks at me from across the room and says, BoJack Horseman, I see you.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This video has 23 sentences and 327 words to shadow. The speech runs for 1:43. The speaker talks fast, about 191 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 88% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is easy to follow.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| funeral noun | /ˈfju.nəɹ.əl/ | A ceremony to honor and remember a deceased person, often distinguished from a memorial service by the presence of the body of the deceased. |
| cancel verb | /ˈkæn.sl̩/ | To cross out something with lines etc. |
| kindness noun | /ˈkaɪnd.nəs/ | The state of being kind. |
| compassion noun | /kəmˈpæʃ.ən/ | Deep awareness of the suffering of others that people have to the point of them being motivated to relieve such states. |
| churro noun | /ˈt͡ʃʊɹoʊ/ | A fried pastry from Spain, typically eaten as a dessert and with chocolate beverage. |
| suddenly adverb | /ˈsʌd.ən.li/ | Happening quickly and with little or no warning; in a sudden manner. |
| strange adjective | /stɹeɪnd͡ʒ/ | Not normal; odd, unusual, surprising, out of the ordinary, often with a negative connotation. |
| upset verb | /ʌpˈsɛt/ | To make (a person) angry, distressed, or unhappy. |
| admit verb | /ədˈmɪt/ | To allow to enter; to grant entrance (to), whether into a place, into the mind, or into consideration. |
| parent noun | /ˈpɛəɹənt/ | A person who raises a child (which they have made, adopted, fostered, taken as their own, etc.). |
| counter noun | /ˈkaʊn.tɚ/ | One who counts. |
| realize verb | /ˈɹi(.ə)ˌlaɪz/ | To become aware of, understand, or appreciate (a fact or situation, especially something which has been true for some time). |
| stupid adjective | /ˈstjuːpɪd/ | Lacking in intelligence. |
| alive adjective | /əˈlaɪv/ | Having life; living; not dead. |
| ill adjective | /ɪl/ | Indicative of unkind or malevolent intentions; harsh, cruel. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| go through verb | To travel from one end of something to the other. |
| go away verb | To depart or leave a place. |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 7 contractions and reduced forms, such as didn't, I'm, you'd. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
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 funeral, cancel, kindness.
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Superlatives the -est / the most … — the top or bottom of a group | the shittiest · the stupidest |
| Future with “will” will + verb — a decision, promise or prediction | you'll never have · will never have |
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.