Shadowing Practice: Can I fit an ENTIRE HOUSE in only a 2x2 square? - Learn English Speaking with YouTube

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For some reason, I have been hit with a burst of inspiration to build a really, really tiny house in The Sims.

And I've built my fair share of tiny houses over the years, but I don't mean a regular tiny house.

I don't even mean a regular microhome -- one of those 32 tile houses.

I want to build a four tile house.

I want it to be only 2x2 and somehow still be functional.

I've also never done one of these on the beach.

It is technically possible, but you have to do a lot of messing around with move objects and like sticking things halfway into a wall, so I've got Stanley Humphrey here so he can test it out for us.

He's going to be our little guinea pig.

And the rules I'm giving myself today are pretty simple.

We can only have these four walls.

It has to be fully functional, so he has to be able to fix all of his needs inside of this space.

That includes sleep, hygiene. He needs to be able to eat, preferably not just quick meals. He needs to be able to actually cook something.

His fun need needs to go up.

And I guess like he can't really do his social need in there, so he might get a free pass on that one, but everything else.

Oh, and his bladder. He needs to have a toilet. Sorry, I failed to mention that one.

I think we are allowed to put things outside. Like, if I wanted to have a telescope or something outdoors, but we can't have his main needs be met outside.

Like, it would be cheating if I put the bed outside, for example.

Anything outside is just bonus stuff in my mind.

Okay, well that's enough stalling. I think I should probably get started.

I'm going to give him a little staircase. Maybe we can make his house be kind of high up.

I actually don't know if it'll work like this, but wouldn't it be kind of fun if it did?

I know that he can get into the house like this, I just mean like if the bed is floating, I don't know if he can handle that.

Also, is there even a door that's this small from Island Living?

Oh my god. I'd have to put it like that, and it would be like kind of clipping.

Oh dear. Okay.

I'm getting kind of nervous.

Luckily, I think his shower can go there in front of the door, and he'll be able to get past it still.

I'm also kind of hoping that -- I was going to try and give him a loft bed.

I just don't know if he's going to be able to use it.

Is it worth us trying to pick out a cute one before we actually place it in there?

Probably not.

Let me see if we can do this.

Honestly, you would be surprised, like sometimes they can actually use this stuff.

Come on, Stanley.

Oh my god, he can.

How? How can he use that?

Okay, let me see how far we can push that. Like, how can we scoot it and have it still work?

Because if I can do more, I will.

I wonder if we can have the whole ladder visible.

Surely that won't work, right?

What? I mean, his head's cut off, but it still works technically.

How is that possible?

Okay, that's fine by me. I'll use it like that.

I don't even know if I need to put it any further.

Wow. Okay, we're off to a good start.

Let me change the color of it.

I guess that one kind of matches what we're going for here.

What if the doorway was a little bit wider? Like, would that maybe be nicer for the house?

What if the -- That's so ridiculous and so unnecessary.

But doesn't it make it look like the house is a lot bigger than it actually is?

So in that way, maybe this is fun.

Oh, can you not -- Oh, it doesn't let me have the fence there. Really?

Doesn't that seem kind of weird?

I mean, I guess if it doesn't want to have the fence there, it doesn't want to have the fence there. I just wasn't expecting that.

Oh, I probably can't put a column. Do you think that's going to break his ability to sleep in that bed if I put a column there?

Oh, apparently not. Let me just leave them there for now.

I guess maybe if we put enough extra columns...

Because we could maybe have these kind of there, and then we have the roof on top of it somehow.

That might be okay.

I think I want to have it have quite the overhang.

I'm kind of imagining it being kind of like that.

It makes it look like it's bigger.

Yeah, that's cool. Okay.

So maybe the door could be right there.

Um... No. You know what? The door needs to be on this side, I think.

Well -- Well, I don't know.

Oh my god. Okay, put that there.

Okay, in terms of kitchen, I'm imagining there being a mini fridge.

I don't know how far you can scoot the mini fridge and have it still work, but I think we need to have one of those.

And then I'm picturing maybe he could have like a waffle maker because the waffle maker lets him cook real meals, and he can get quick meals out, and he doesn't need to have like just a microwave or something, you know? Like, this seems a little bit more practical.

Look at the desk.

We're going to have to really figure something out for this side bit.

That is a mess.

Can you fit a dining table under it?

No, it doesn't slot. Ugh.

I guess you could have a couch.

Oh, I mean, if you would call it a couch. I'm not sure I would.

Yeah, with the way these things are clipping through, it makes them look more like benches.

Oh my god, you can't see anything on them.

Oh, I kind of like that one color-wise.

Like, that's kind of cute, and it has the extra little blanket -- could be like a towel.

I wonder if it will let me put this plant right here.

Because it's really weird, this game, about putting things underneath the bunk bed unless it's slotting, but.

I was really hoping because that was a wall thing it would be okay.

Yeah. Isn't that so annoying?

You basically can't put anything right there in that corner.

And that would have been so cute.

That's okay. I don't need it.

Alright, so he has a place to sit so he can eat there.

I don't know if I want to use that door.

I'm going to see how far over I can scoot this. I feel like that should still work.

And then you'd be really surprised at how tiny of a space you can have a toilet in and they'll still work.

Like, I've put toilets before like this.

I mean, maybe even further in than that, and he can still use it.

Like, he might even be able to use it like this right now.

Yeah. How? How could he use that? It makes no sense, but technically he can.

Let me see if I could do it maybe next to the fridge.

I don't even necessarily need to have it scooted so bad if he can use it like this.

Oh, he can.

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Can you cook something?

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Like, say you wanted to get some canned water.

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Oh, he's cooking on his own. Well, I think that answers that question.

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He got his canned water. He's making himself some waffles.

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Can I sell that?

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I wonder if we could scoot this even further back then.

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Because if it goes way far back, I don't really mind that.

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I would be okay with trying to cover it.

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No, we can't collect the waffles.

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I feel like it needs to be over half in the room.

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I remember having some really weird difficulties with the fridges.

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Yeah, that's fine. Ever so slightly.

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Can you get leftovers?

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Yes. Okay, good.

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So there's his toilet and his kitchen.

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We could probably have his shower be right there in the kitchen too because he should be able to use that.

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I mean, like, you could even put it like this, and I'm pretty sure he can still use it.

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Can you? Oh, never mind. I lied.

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I mean, this thing could go anywhere. That's not really the biggest of concerns.

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I need to find him a better door and maybe another window.

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This one is Laundry Day.

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It matches okay, but it's also not really in the way of anything, so.

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Let me see about TVs.

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I feel like this one -- It's like I want to use it, but I also feel like maybe it's cheating.

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That's silly though, to say that it's cheating, isn't it?

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I'm trying to look at this and think if there was a way I could get a desk and a computer in here because you could put a TV and a radio on any wall.

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It doesn't necessarily have to be that one, but like could I sneak in this tiny, tiny, tiny desk?

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Oh, you know what actually?

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Let's go back to having the TV because I have a couch.

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We don't need to have a desk.

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We've canceled that. We can watch TV and read and dance and stuff.

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I'm not going to lie, I just had an idea that I thought was genius, and it like poofed out of my mind.

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I was going to put something underneath this, and now I can't remember what it was.

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Oh, a dresser. I was going to get a dresser. There we go.

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I felt like I was losing my mind for a second there.

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Okay, Island Living.

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I want to see -- None of these are going to work, but I just want to see if there's anything from this pack that I might want to add in.

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Oh, actually, these cabinets are -- Well, never mind. That's too big.

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Always a good idea in theory. Doesn't really quite work out in practice.

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Yeah, look. Dresser -- huge. That simply will not do.

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I think one thing that we can do is start getting some shelves to put above the kitchen.

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Oh, that does not work.

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Are those placing on like different walls? What's happening here?

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They're different sizes. That is so weird.

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Okay, I don't know if he can still use this.

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Can you try?

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Oh, yeah. He can. Okay.

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Maybe I'll raise that up a tiny bit more because we can put like some kitchen shelving stuff on this, and I feel like that would be nice for him to have.

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Oh, maybe since I'm using the Sleek Bathroom kit, we could put the Sleek Bathroom kit shower.

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We might as well. It's a little bit fancier.

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Kind of exciting, to be honest.

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Yeah, let's do that in silver.

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The idea of showering right next to your TV.

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I mean, like literally, you may as well be showering inside of your TV at this point.

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I can't imagine that that would be recommended.

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I'm struggling to see how anyone would want you to do that.

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I wonder if we could also have some -- Do these like work next to each other?

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Yeah, they do. Okay.

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I was going to say, I wonder if -- That's a bit high up. Stanley, can you sleep there?

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No. What about now if it doesn't go all the way across?

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Well, he can watch TV.

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You really cannot sleep there?

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Is it this one?

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Oh. Oh, maybe it's my -- You know what?

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I was testing this stuff with the toilet.

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I didn't test to see if he could get up with the toilet.

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I might need to have the toilet be a little bit closer.

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Stan. Oh no. Is it the toilet?

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Can I put his bed even further over?

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Oh my god. No.

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Is it this? Surely it's not that.

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It must be the toilet.

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No, actually, I don't even -- I don't agree with that.

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I don't think it is the toilet.

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Oh, it was going so well.

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It was the toilet. He can go up now.

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Okay, we're going to need to rethink this.

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I've scooted it over again.

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He can still get up. Okay.

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You stay up there for a second, bestie.

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Well, let me see if I can make the toilet work like this.

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Okay, we need a new toilet solution.

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Perhaps that could be the toilet being over here. Well, that's better.

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Can you still sit on this couch?

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Yeah, okay. Okay.

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Where did my shower go? Oh, back here.

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I wonder if I could have the shower -- Oh, that's like hanging into the toilet.

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Can you shower? No.

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It's worth a shot.

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I don't think he's going to have a sink.

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Well, I mean, maybe we can make a sink work.

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What's the smallest one? Oh my god.

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Sometimes I've used this one and put it like in the wall.

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I'm not sure it's worth it.

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You don't need a sink. He can just shower.

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Can you get upstairs again?

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Yeah, okay.

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"Upstairs." That's one way of putting it.

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I might scoot this way over because I think he should still be able to use it.

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Yeah, okay.

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The more space we have elsewhere, the better, right?

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I wonder if there's some kind of rug that looks like tile that I could put on the floor specifically under the shower and under the kitchen so that we could have it seem like it's something separate.

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I mean, this one's fine, but it's not ideal.

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Sometimes I think about this one, but I don't really like that.

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Does this have the same -- Ugh, I was hoping it'd be like actually orange.

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The swatches on this are so weird. They don't match anything.

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I kind of like that though.

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Does that seem like it could be a tile mat underneath the -- Hey, you know what else we don't have? Any windows.

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We have zero windows anywhere in this whole place.

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Oh dear. Doing this window and then being able to see the rest of the bed that's cut out is terrible.

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Yeah, and like that one, you can see the rest of the sofa.

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Oh my god. I'm wondering about this Businesses and Hobbies window because that might be okay if we put it up above the bed.

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It's kind of pretty honestly.

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I'm trying to think if there's something I can do to cover the rest of the bed.

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Like, do you think if I put that there, he'd still be able to sleep in it?

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Because technically that's in the bed.

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Oh, he's fine. Okay, that would help.

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Because we could maybe build out some kind of like little box for ourselves.

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I'm thinking a lot of landscaping is going to have to be used to hide the weird clipping as well.

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That's alright though. And they have windows now, which is good.

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Okay, I still don't have a dresser.

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I don't think we're going to be able to have one. I can definitely get a mirror though.

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And you can do the same -- Can't you do the same things in them? I don't really remember.

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Oh, these are like way bigger than I thought they would be.

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For some reason, I had in my head that they were going to be really skinny, but I guess the TV is even skinnier.

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I mean, we can at least put one of these shelves right here because it's something to use up the space.

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That is horrible. The mirror being right there.

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Can you practice speech?

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Yep, sure can.

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Can you use the bathroom? Can you sit on the couch?

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Yeah, he can even sit there.

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Okay, well if he needs to, he can stand there and stare at himself while he pees.

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Well, now I'm kind of curious if I can go back to having this shelf again.

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Yes! Okay, so because it was the toilet before, so he can have that back. Perfect.

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Get out again, please. Stanley, sorry.

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I keep the sending him back and forth is so annoying.

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I feel bad for him, but.

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I wonder if we could give him a little pillow.

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Do you think he can still get in the bed if there's a pillow here?

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I feel like if I had to guess, I think I would assume yes on that because they can sit on the couches with the pillows there.

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Yes. The fact that his head's that far out. Don't worry about it. It's fine.

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We mustn't dwell on things that we cannot control.

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You know, I decided to get rid of that little thing that was down here.

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I think I want to switch this and maybe use a poof or something instead of having the storage.

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Because I like the idea in real life -- I mean, you wouldn't do this in The Sims -- but in real life, you'd be able to pull that out and have extra seating elsewhere.

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Okay, I'm looking at everything from the Party Essentials kit because I would like to give them a little bit of tile.

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Um, never mind.

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What if we used the one? Is it from the Kitchen Clutter kit?

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Yeah, they have tile from this. That might work a little bit better.

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Having a hard time picking up this wall.

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Okay, there we go.

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Let me pick the color separately and then put it back in there.

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Yellow? White?

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Maybe this white color could be good.

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Okay, we just got to really carefully really custom alt-place this stuff.

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Oh. Being really annoying to try and place.

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Why do you think I was able to place it lower but not up here?

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Stanley, can you get out please?

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I cannot see a single thing I'm looking at.

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I'm going to try it again. Maybe without the shelves there.

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Oh, you know what we could do is place it like this and then raise it up.

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I got it. Okay, that's actually really beautiful.

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It is clipping, but that's okay.

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Okay, I'm going to have to cover up so much clipping, like what's a tiny bit more, you know?

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You know, I actually really like this because now I can put other wallpaper inside, and I can even be behind this and still have it look nice. I don't have to have the whole thing be tile.

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I think I'm deciding I don't like the shelf up there.

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I wanted to, but I think I don't.

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Hm. Maybe I'll just do some artwork instead of trying to put more random things.

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Ooh, what about the fish? That's actually so cute.

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Let me put this here, and I'll make sure I raise it up to a good spot.

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And then we can just get some nice kitchen stuff in here.

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Oh, you know what?

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Actually, a little dish rack. That would be so useful.

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Because that kind of doubles both as dish storage and as a place for him to wash his dishes.

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I mean, I suppose he'd have to wash them in the shower and then like climb up and put them all the way up there at the ceiling.

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Okay, I put a little set of utensils here on the counter too.

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And then he's got his storage.

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I think the inside of this might be done.

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It's fully functional. We just got to figure out the outside and how we're going to cover up everything being really weird.

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But this is where the beauty of landscaping comes in.

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This is why I wanted to build it as a beach house because I figured that we would have a lot of stuff from Island Living to cover it up with.

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Okay, I guess I'm putting that all the way under everything.

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Oh, I kind of like it like that. I think that's kind of cool.

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And we could get a couple little bits more over here so we can have more plants elsewhere.

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It's like some of them we kind of need to use to block the front of the house so that you can't see it that well.

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Alright. Can I put one of these over here and maybe size one down to go next to it? Okay.

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And then I think I want to have -- Oh, see? Like this. Sorry, Stanley.

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But this is good because that covers up the clipping of the fridge pretty well.

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It's still there, of course, but you can't really see it.

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Let's do it in orange.

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I might get a palm tree on that side and maybe another palm tree on this side.

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I love this palm tree. Okay, that's beautiful.

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Now, we got to get something tall to hide the back of this.

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It could be bushes. I can't remember...

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How big is -- Oh, that's way too small. That simply won't do.

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That's clipping into the -- Oh, it's actually not clipping into the house.

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How does that look? It covers up a good chunk of it.

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Okay, and maybe the solution is not to cover it perfectly, but to cover it mostly.

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And then maybe as long as there's enough things around, it will distract the eye so much that you won't even realize that we're trying to hide something.

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In some ways, it almost just looks like wall detailing.

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Like, when you look at it from this angle, you think, oh, there's some pretty wood on the outside.

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And almost like this too could just pass as like an outdoor exterior ladder or something.

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Wow, you know what? I'm actually really pleasantly surprised by this.

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When in doubt, just completely cover the whole thing up.

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The solution is just to -- Oh, the toilet is visible.

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Oh, okay. I think we need to try and make it so that this tree is maybe like in there because that hides it pretty well.

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Okay, no more toilet for us. Good.

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These are Jungle Adventure. They're not from Island Living, but they're tropical. We could still use them.

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Nah, I don't like it. I might use some big ones.

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Like, what if I had one of these super tall palm trees?

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I just love the idea of being able to see the ocean from the front of the house still.

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And like with the palm trees there, it doesn't actually block it that much.

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Should we put a couple beach towels on the floor outside?

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I do really like them.

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Oh, I love that with the flamingo. That's so cute!

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Okay. Huh. I think maybe we could use a little bit more color back here in a couple of places.

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Maybe that comes from another one of these fluffy orange trees.

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Okay, I think that's better.

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Wow, that's a 2x2 tiny house.

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I'm going to do one final triple check that he can use everything.

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I'll make him like use the bathroom, take a shower.

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Oh my god. What do you mean? Why can't you come inside?

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Locked? I don't know what this lock business means. Oh my god.

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What if it doesn't work?

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It worked before.

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I'm going to reload it and see if that helps.

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Stanley, if you don't walk inside right now, I might actually start crying.

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Oh. Oh, I thought he was going to do it.

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Why can't he get inside?

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Is it the -- like, did the landscaping stop it?

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Is it because I put stuff too close underneath the stairs?

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Surely that's not it. I've done this kind of thing before.

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Oh. Oh my god, it actually was.

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Okay, well let's just make sure it's not too close then.

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We'll leave it at that possibly.

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Alright. Toilet.

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No, that's in the way again. Oh my god.

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Also, this is clipping.

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Wow. Toilet?

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It's the plants?

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I am like so surprised by that development.

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I never would have expected the plants under the house to do that.

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Okay, he can use the bathroom now.

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Shower successfully.

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He can get into his bed.

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Let's see if he can get some leftovers.

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Oh, you can't get to the fridge?

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Oh, no. Do you think it's from this?

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Uh-oh. I think maybe I had these rotated a weird way.

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Like, maybe when they were rotated this way before it was better.

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Can you cook?

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Alright, Stanley my dear, you might not be able to have shelves anymore.

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Oh, it wasn't the shelves.

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Is it just this fridge in general?

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Why? There's not even really any plants in it.

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Like, I mean, the big orange tree technically is, but the footprint of this is really small.

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Like, the game only thinks that it's as big as that green tile, so that shouldn't be blocking anything.

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The only other thing that I feel like could be impacting it since I changed everything around is the tile, but I can't imagine the tile would be doing it, right?

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Like, that would be so weird.

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No. Now I've just broken everything.

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I'll try and scoot the tree just in case that is actually it.

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And it was the tree. Okay.

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Well, I really didn't think that was going to be it.

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I felt really confident that it was not the tree.

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And now I've gone and ruined everything.

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Well, now I'm going to try and put some of my decor back because if I had known I'd be able to keep them, I would have.

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Oh, we could use a different dish rack this time. I kind of prefer that one.

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Watch. Now it's going to break again.

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Oh, never mind. I lied. It's fine.

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You know what? I don't even want to put tile back.

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I don't even care about that. I'm going to leave it like this.

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This was such a journey, wasn't it?

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But we managed. We made a 2x2 house that is functional.

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I'm going to put it on the gallery for you.

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I would hesitate to say it's one bedroom or one bathroom.

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I might leave it at zero for both of those.

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2x2 micro home.

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Okay, I am uploading it now.

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I hope that you enjoyed this video. This was actually fun for me.

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I know I might have seemed like I was stressed, and I was a little bit, but I like to be stressed doing a build challenge.

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I just love this kind of thing.

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It's like my favorite thing to do in The Sims. I love a build challenge.

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Well, I said that, but it's been spinning for a while.

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It's kind of starting to make me nervous.

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Timed out during upload. Weird.

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Okay, I'll try again. I should have saved before I tried again.

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Alright. Well, it doesn't want to be uploaded.

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So maybe I'll just stop trying right now and try again later.

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Hopefully, I'll have it up by the time this video is posted, but if it's not, don't blame me. You blame the game, okay?

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But thank you so much for hanging out with me today. Thank you for watching.

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And with that, I'm going to go, and I will catch you all tomorrow, okay?

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Bye everybody.

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You know, I love building these kind of tiny houses.

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I would never play in this house.

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Honestly, I would never.

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Wait, I -- Oh my god, I forgot a trash can.

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Maybe it's a good thing the house isn't uploaded yet. I can fix that now.

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Don't worry, I put one down. It's fine. Everything's fine.

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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 Practice: Can I fit an ENTIRE HOUSE in only a 2x2 square? - Learn English Speaking with YouTube

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