Shadowing Practice: Do The Numbers On Toaster Dials Mean Minutes? - Learn English Speaking with Video

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There is some rubbish going around on the internet about how the numbers on these toaster dials are actually minutes.

And it is completely, utterly untrue, and I shall now prove it.

All these four toasters are set to two on each of their dials.

We have the cheap toaster, beloved students everywhere.

We have the not -so -cheap toaster, beloved of people who have just stopped being students and thought, I shouldn't buy the cheapest toaster.

And we have the slightly more expensive toaster, for people who think that adjustable, removable crumb tray is a good feature.

We also have the office toaster, which I've nicked from the office next door.

All of them set to tomb, and I guarantee you none of them will pop up in exactly two minutes.

Why?

Because toasters don't have timing chips on them.

They're far too cheap for that.

What these have is a bimetallic strip.

Two bits of metal, back to back, that heat up and expand at different rates, so the strip slowly curves.

What you're changing with these dials is how far

that strip has to curve before it triggers the thing that pops the toast up again.

There we go, nowhere near two minutes, and at a completely different time to all these other toasters.

Two minutes on the toaster's arms is absolutely rubbish, and here's the thing, it doesn't even make sense, because even if there were minutes,

what would that do to help you?

You still have to experiment through trial

and error to find out how many minutes your particular type of bread needs to be in there for,

and I'll tell you, it's way more than we've currently got.

The office toaster?

The one that is apparently this kind of enterprise -grade thing designed to toast your factory?

Toast your toast quickly?

No. Nothing at all.

What we have here are four completely different toasters, all set to the same dial number, none of them popping up in two minutes.

Someone is wrong on the internet, and now you can correct them.

Where anyone like some toast?

That's not very well done.

It's not actually done so, is it?

That's parable.

Well, I'm still wrong, this toaster still hasn't popped up.

That's how different the the dials are.

We are literally waiting for toast to pop up now.

There we go.

Tom?

Yeah?

I think that one was two minutes.

What, on the nose?

I think so.

Okay, so maybe expensive ones do have chives in them.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This speaking lesson is built on the video “Do The Numbers On Toaster Dials Mean Minutes?”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: toaster, toast, dial, strip, cheap. This video has 41 sentences and 423 words to shadow. The speech runs for 2:10. The speaker talks fast, about 196 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 83% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start. 10 of its 41 sentences are questions, so it is good practice for question intonation and short answers.

Key vocabulary in this video

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

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
toast noun	/toʊst/	Bread that has been toasted (cooked lightly by browning).
dial noun	/ˈdaɪ.əl/	A graduated, circular scale over which a needle moves to show a measurement (such as speed).
strip verb	/ˈstɹɪp/	To remove or take away, often in strips or stripes.
beloved adjective	/bɪˈlʌvd/	Much loved, dearly loved.
curve noun	/kɚv/	A bend, such as in a road.
rubbish noun	/ˈɹʌbɪʃ/	Refuse, waste, garbage, junk, trash.
guarantee noun	/ˌɡæɹ.ənˈtiː/	Anything that assures a certain outcome.
nowhere adverb	/ˈnoʊ.(h)wɛɹ/	In no place.
enterprise noun	/ˈɛntəˌpɹaɪz/	A company, business, organization, or other purposeful endeavor.
experiment noun	/ɪkˈspɛɹ.ə.mənt/	A test under controlled conditions made to either demonstrate a known truth, examine the validity of a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of…
expand verb	/ɪkˈspænd/	To change (something) from a smaller form or size to a larger one; to spread out or lay open.
chip noun	/t͡ʃɪp/	A small piece broken from a larger piece of solid material.
trigger noun	/ˈtɹɪɡɚ/	A finger-operated lever used to fire a gun.
utterly adverb	/ˈʌtɚli/	Completely; entirely; to the fullest extent.
tomb noun	/tum/	A small building, or a room within one, for the remains of the dead, with walls, a roof, and (if it is to be used for more than one corpse) a door. It may be…

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Meaning
pop up verb	To come up with a "pop" sound.
find out verb	To discover, as by asking or investigating.
heat up verb	To heat, to cause to become hotter.

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	have just stopped · I've nicked · hasn't popped
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	people who have · people who think · one that is
Obligation: must / have to / need to saying that something is necessary	has to curve · have to experiment · needs to be
Present continuous am/is/are + -ing — something happening right now or around now	you're changing · are literally waiting

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 10 contractions and reduced forms, such as doesn't, don't, hasn't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

Long words — get the stress right: experiment /ɪkˈspɛɹ.ə.mənt/, adjustable /əˈd͡ʒʌstəbəl/, bimetallic /baɪmɪˈtælɪk/

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 toast, dial, strip.

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 →

Shadowing Practice: Do The Numbers On Toaster Dials Mean Minutes? - Learn English Speaking with Video

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