Shadowing Practice: Day in the Life as a Doctor - Learn English Speaking with Video
Choose a practice mode
Each mode opens a full-screen practice room.
78 sentences
If sentences are too short or too long, click Edit to adjust them.
1
Hey friends, welcome back to the channel.
2
If you're new here, my name is Ali, I'm a doctor working in Cambridge, and this is a day in my life.
3
It's a Saturday, and I'm on call at the hospital, so I get up at 6 .30
4
and take half an hour for general life maintenance before setting up my camera stuff to film a video before work.
5
From 7am to 10 past 8, I stumble my way through this video wishing that I'd scripted it better.
6
This 70 minutes of filming later turns into a 22 minute
7
video with the hopefully clickbait title of How to Rank First at Medical School
8
and then I rush out of the door and drive 45 minutes to work.
9
During the commute if I'm feeling productive I listen to podcasts
10
or if I'm feeling lazy I listen to audiobooks on audible
11
or if I'm feeling reflective I drive in silence with my thoughts which is what I do today.
12
I get into the hospital by 9am and get a handover from the doctor who was on call overnight.
13
She tells me there's a new patient who needs to have a physical examination done
14
and another patient who needs a blood test.
15
This is admittedly quite a light list of jobs so I'm happy
16
and feel optimistic that I'll be able to get some studying done that day as well.
17
We chat for a bit until 9 .30
18
when I get a phone call from the nurse asking for a prescription for some medication.
19
While I'm on the ward I do a few other bits of paperwork
20
that needed doing and then at 10am I go and see one of the patients to take their blood.
21
Because I'm a pro and she had good veins I get it on my first attempt.
22
After sending the blood to the lab for testing I head over to the hospital's restaurant to grab some breakfast
23
and while I'm there I run into a friend who's very confused as to why I'm filming food.
24
She films me pouring ketchup onto my plate and then at 11am I head back to the ward.
25
I turn on the bluetooth speaker that I brought into the office, I play my Spotify playlist from my first year of university
26
and then get started on some discharge letters for patients that had gone home that week.
27
At 11 .30 I get two calls in a row, one to see a patient with painful knees and another to prescribe various medications for various patients on the ward.
28
Sorting this stuff takes around an hour and I get back to the doctor's office at 12 .40.
29
I spend the next 20 minutes continuing with my discharge letters, and then head back to the restaurant at 1pm to grab some lunch.
30
I happen to run into colleagues from other specialties who are also on call that day, and so we chat for half an hour over lunch, and then one of them visits my ward afterwards,
31
and we play some cheeky table tennis in the gym for about 20 minutes.
32
At 1 .50 I head back to the office to continue working on these discharge letters.
33
On psychiatry the discharge letters are super long and complicated, and so I finish the first one at half past two, and then pop down to the ward to rewrite a drug chart,
34
then take a toilet break where I scroll through Twitter on my phone for a few minutes
35
and finally I finish the second discharge letter at 3 .40pm.
36
At this point my day is looking reasonably free and so I decide to do some studying.
37
I get started on lecture 4 in the heart and circulation series in human physiology, the subject that I'm supervising some medical students in at Cambridge University.
38
I only manage this for around half an hour before losing concentration, realising that the early start this morning to film the video meant that I only got around 5 hours of sleep.
39
So I head down to the on -call junior doctor's room to have a quick nap.
40
I manage to sleep for a few minutes
41
but at quarter to five I get woken up to review a patient who was having an anxiety attack.
42
I get back to bed but over the next hour every time I do a job
43
and think I'm finally done for the day I get called again to do something else.
44
Eventually I give up on the thought of having a nap
45
and I head back to the doctor's office to do some more studying.
46
I spend half an hour doing some more cardiovascular physiology and planning out my teaching session for the medical students.
47
From 7 to 8 p .m I grab dinner again at
48
the hospital restaurant with some colleagues who happen to be there at the same time.
49
I don't film anything properly here because i don't want them to think i'm weird
50
and then i head back to the office
51
and spend half an hour making a start on the next series of cardiovascular physiology lectures
52
immediately i realized that the lecture notes don't really make sense to me
53
and so i bust out a pdf of a physiology textbook
54
and grapple my way through it
55
while thinking damn this is a really good book i wish
56
i discovered it sooner it hits 8 35 p .m
57
and at this point i've got 25 minutes left in my shift
58
and i'm pretty confident i won't get called so i decide to chill out and watch a documentary about Alzheimer's disease.
59
I'm actually on my old age psychiatry placement at the moment, and we see a lot of patients with advanced Alzheimer's disease, which has actually made me really scared about getting it when I'm older.
60
This documentary goes over the pathophysiology of the disease in a very easy to understand fashion, and discusses some of the ways that researchers are trying to reverse the disease process.
61
I'm watching it on CuriosityStream, who are very kindly sponsoring this video.
62
CuriosityStream is the world's leading documentary streaming subscription platform, founded by John Hendricks, who's the founder of the Discovery channel
63
and they've got thousands of documentaries across all genres from science and history to technology and lifestyle.
64
I quite enjoy watching documentaries as a form of productive procrastination
65
so if you'd like to join me you can sign up to a free trial at curiositystream .com forward slash
66
and if you enter the coupon code ULLI at checkout you'll get a free 30 -day trial in
67
which you can watch any or all of the documentaries that you like.
68
Anyway at 9pm I hand over to the evening on Core Doctor giving her the good news
69
that there's nothing outstanding that needs doing because I've done everything for the day, and wishing her a pleasant night ahead.
70
And so that brings us to the end of this day in the life video.
71
I hope you found it vaguely interesting.
72
I haven't really done one of these videos before, so I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments.
73
Do you want to see more of these?
74
Is there anything else you'd like to see instead?
75
Let me know.
76
But if you like the video, then here is a playlist of some of my other vlog -esque videos.
77
Have a lovely day, and I'll see you hopefully in the next one.
78
Bye -bye.
Download App
Everything you need to speak fluently
AI PronunciationScore every sentence
IPA PracticeMaster every sound
VocabularyBuild your word bank
Vocab GameLearn while playing
Same Channel
B21
How to Stop Procrastinating (Forever)
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B22
How I Manage My Time - The Trident Calendar System
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B25
My Typical Tuesday
Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B12
9 Things I Wish I Knew When I Started YouTube
Daily ConversationUniversity Students
B21
I Read 107 Productivity Books. Here's What Actually Works.
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B22
My 3 pieces of advice for new content creators
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B2Study Tips - How to learn new content
British AccentBusiness EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B25
How to change your life by journaling in 2026
British AccentBusiness EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B22
If I Wanted to Make My First $100K in 12 months, I’d Do This
British AccentBusiness EnglishWorking Adults
B21
Focus on one thing per quarter to succeed faster - click link in bio for my new app :)
British AccentBusiness EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B21
Make 2026 the Best Year of Your Life (Evidence-Based)
British AccentBusiness EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B21
8 Simple Hacks to Improve Your Health
British AccentDaily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B22
I Asked 5 Business Owners How They Got Their First Client
British AccentBusiness EnglishInterview EnglishWorking Adults
B21
What I Actually Do When I’m Not Making YouTube Videos
British AccentBusiness EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B21
If I Was a Student Again, I'd Do This
British AccentBusiness EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
C12
My Top 3 Journaling Prompts
British AccentBusiness EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B24
How to Not Waste Your Life (Stop Getting Distracted)
British AccentBusiness EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B21
i am begging you to try harry potter fan fiction
British AccentDaily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B24
How to Find a Career You Genuinely Love
British AccentBusiness EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B23
My INSANELY Productive Morning Routine
British AccentBusiness EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
FOR YOU
Recommend Video
A11,078
26 sentences
A Day in My Life 1: Getting Up
American AccentDaily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B22
256 sentences
Medical Memes Doctors Actually Like
American AccentDaily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B21
148 sentences
the person i want to be is not the person i am
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B22
48 sentences
YouTube Saved My Medical Career | A Cinematic Short Film
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B24
29 sentences
UNIT 11 CD2 TRACK 14 COMPLETE FIRST
Daily ConversationHigh School StudentsUniversity Students
B24
103 sentences
Day in my life as a Doctor in my 20s | Full-Time in the UK
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B23
191 sentences
What I eat in a day (macro tracking)
Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B24
313 sentences
3AM Study Vlog📚💤: work hard play hard life of a London medical student
Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B13
62 sentences
Day In my Life as a Software Engineering Intern at Google
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B21
955 sentences
The Best of the Tenth Doctor (Part One) | Doctor Who
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “Day in the Life as a Doctor”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: patient, hour, discharge, ward, letter. This video has 78 sentences and 1229 words to shadow. The speech runs for 5:05. The speaker talks fast, about 242 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. Only 79% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| documentary noun | /ˌdɒk.jʊˈmɛn.tɹi/ | A film, TV program, publication etc. which presents a social, political, scientific or historical subject in a factual or informative manner. |
| ward noun | /wɔɹd/ | The action of a watchman; monitoring, surveillance (usually in phrases keep ward etc.) |
| discharge verb | /dɪsˈtʃɑɹdʒ/ | To accomplish or complete, as an obligation. |
| physiology noun | /ˌfɪziˈɑ.lə.d͡ʒi/ | A branch of biology that deals with the functions and activities of life or of living matter (as organs, tissues, or cells) and of the physical and chemical… |
| lecture noun | /ˈlɛk.t͡ʃə/ | A spoken lesson or exposition, usually delivered to a group. |
| productive adjective | /pɹəˈdʌk.tɪv/ | Capable of producing something, especially in abundance; fertile. |
| medication noun | /mɛdɪˈkeɪʃən/ | A medicine, or all the medicines regularly taken by a patient. |
| colleague noun | /ˈkɒliːɡ/ | A fellow member of a profession, staff, academic faculty or other organization; an associate, a workmate. |
| cardiovascular adjective | /ˌkɑːdi.əʊˈvæskjʊlə(ɹ)/ | Relating to the circulatory system, that is the heart and blood vessels. |
| playlist noun | /ˈpleɪˌlɪst/ | A list of recorded songs scheduled to be played on a radio station. |
| psychiatry noun | /saɪˈkaɪ.əˌtɹi/ | The branch of medicine that focuses on mental and behavioral health by subjectively diagnosing, treating, or preventing mental disorders (mental illnesses) and… |
| rush verb | /ɹʌʃ/ | To hurry; to perform a task with great haste, often not properly or without thinking carefully. |
| chart noun | /t͡ʃɑɹt/ | A map illustrating the geography of a specific phenomenon. |
| complicated adjective | /ˈkɑm.plɪˌkeɪ.tɪd/ | Difficult or convoluted. |
| confused adjective | /kənˈfjuːzd/ | unable to think clearly or understand |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| get back to verb | Return to (an activity) | |
| get around verb | To move to the other side of (something, such as an obstruction) by deviating from a direct course or following a curved path. | |
| go over verb | To look at carefully; to scrutinize; to analyze. | |
| plan out verb | to plan, organize, make a plan for something | |
| set up verb | /ˌsɛt ˈʌp/ | To make ready for use. |
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | has actually made · I've done · haven't really done |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | thoughts which is · disease, which has |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 33 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, don't, I'd. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: medication /mɛdɪˈkeɪʃən/, rush /ɹʌʃ/, concentration /ˌkɑn.sənˈtɹeɪ.ʃən/, examination /ɪɡˌzæm.ɪˈneɪ.ʃən/, genre /ˈ(d)ʒɑnɹə/
- Long words — get the stress right: documentary /ˌdɒk.jʊˈmɛn.tɹi/, physiology /ˌfɪziˈɑ.lə.d͡ʒi/, medication /mɛdɪˈkeɪʃən/, cardiovascular /ˌkɑːdi.əʊˈvæskjʊlə(ɹ)/, psychiatry /saɪˈkaɪ.əˌtɹi/
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 documentary, ward, discharge.
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.