Shadowing Practice: Day 5 - Food, Cooking & Family Meals | 21days speaking challenge - Learn English Speaking with Video

Creating lesson...
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Hello everyone!
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Today I want to tell you about my favorite food and what my family usually eats.
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My favorite dish is pho.
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On weekdays, I usually cook dinner at home for my family.
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I like buying fresh food at the local market.
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On weekends, we sometimes eat out at a restaurant.
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We usually talk and enjoy our meal together after a long day.
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I prefer home cooked food to fast food because it is healthy.
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What is your favorite food?

Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This video has 9 sentences and 81 words to shadow. The speech runs for 0:35. The speaker talks at a steady 140 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing.

Key vocabulary in this video

12 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:

WordPronunciationMeaning
meal noun/ˈmiːl/Food that is prepared and eaten, usually at a specific time, and usually in a comparatively large quantity.
dish noun/dɪʃ/A vessel such as a plate for holding or serving food, often flat with a depressed region in the middle.
weekday noun/ˈwiːkdeɪ̯/Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday or Friday, but not Saturday or Sunday.
favourite adjective/ˈfeɪv.ɹɪt/Most-liked. (In other words, [person]'s favorite [noun] = the [noun] that [person] likes the most.)
cook verb/kʊk/To prepare food for eating, typically by heating it, combining it with other ingredients, seasoning it, preparing it for serving, etc.
restaurant noun/ˈɹɛst(ə)ˌɹɑnt/An eating establishment in which diners are served food, usually by waiters at their tables but sometimes (as in a fast food restaurant) at a counter.
prefer verb[pɹɪˈfɝ]To be in the habit of choosing something rather than something else; to favor; to like better.
weekend noun/ˈwiˌkɛnd/The break in the working week, usually two days including the traditional holy or sabbath day. Thus in Western countries, Saturday and Sunday.
fresh adjective/fɹɛʃ/Newly produced or obtained; recent.
healthy adjective/ˈhɛl.θi/Enjoying good health; free from disease or disorder.
dinner noun/ˈdɪnɚ/The main meal of the day, often eaten in the evening.
hello/hɛˈloʊ/A greeting (salutation) said when meeting someone or acknowledging someone’s arrival or presence.

Pronunciation to watch

  • The “sh” and “zh” sounds: dish /dɪʃ/, fresh /fɹɛʃ/

How to practise with this video

  1. Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
  2. Shadow it sentence by sentence at normal speed, repeating each one until your rhythm matches the speaker.
  3. Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like meal, dish, weekday.

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 →