Shadowing Practice: Downtown Vocabulary In New York - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Hey guys, it's Arianita La Gringa and welcome back to my YouTube channel.

If you guys don't know anything about me, I am a native English teacher from the United States teaching you guys English at different places.

Can you guys guess where I'm at today just by looking at the beautiful buildings around me?

I am in downtown New York City, but specifically Manhattan.

And in today's video, I am going to teach all of you downtown vocabulary.

And New York City is the best city, the city that never sleeps to teach you guys downtown vocab.

But before starting this video and teaching you guys some downtown vocab, what does the word downtown mean?

Downtown is a part of a city or a town where there are a lot of tall buildings, stores, and offices.

Or it's just the center of the city.

Now let's learn some English vocab in New York.

One of the main characteristics of a downtown area are the tall buildings, like the ones behind me.

But what is a very tall building called, like the one right next to me?

This very tall building located in the center of downtown New York is called One World Trade Center.

This building is called a skyscraper.

Skyscraper.

And why is it called skyscraper?

Well, it's called skyscraper because the building is scraping the sky.

And this skyscraper has many levels or floors.

This skyscraper is so tall that I couldn't even fit it in this video.

This skyscraper is the tallest building in the entire United States of America at 1776 feet.

Now what do you think is inside of a huge skyscraper?

Are there apartments, hotels, offices, businesses?

Actually there's everything.

Some Some skyscrapers have hotels, apartments, offices, businesses, and more things.

Overall, a skyscraper can be used in a variety of ways

and produce a lot of money with the businesses they have inside.

Go ahead and tell me what is the tallest building or skyscraper in your city where you are from.

When you exit a building like this one, the first thing you see is this right here.

This is called a sidewalk and you walk on the sidewalk.

Also, this sidewalk is huge because we are in New York City

and there are over 8.8 million people living in New York.

Can you believe it?

Its population is huge.

This right here that I'm tapping my toe on is called the curb.

This is the curb and it separates the sidewalk from the street.

Another important part of a city are the streets.

This is a street and as I said before New York City has a large population and a bunch of tourists.

As you guys can see behind me, there are so many people walking around and tourists.

These streets are where cars will drive on to get to places like going to work, traveling, or running errands.

You may think that New York City is full of skyscrapers and tall buildings because its nickname is the concrete jungle.

Well, that's all true, but they also have a plaza right behind me full of trees, grass, and green areas.

A plaza is a public square where people can walk around

and enjoy the city

and they can get a breath of fresh air from working all day they can walk their dogs

and hang out with their family this plaza is called the 9 11 memorial

and as you can see behind me it was constructed in memory of the victims from 9 11

and the events of that

but this memorial has a fountain inside of it normally plazas can have fountains

or they can have public figures like statues in the middle of the plaza.

This is a squirrel.

The squirrel is climbing a tree in the plaza.

These are two pigeons.

The pigeons are walking on the sidewalk.

Some downtowns like the one in New York have a lane just for bicyclists.

So this is called a bicycle lane.

Right next to me is the sidewalk

and on the other side this is the street

so the bicyclists can easily ride their bikes in this lane without trying to ride their bike on the street

or in between people walking on the sidewalk let me know down below

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Now let's get back to learning more downtown vocab.

Moving on from talking about skyscrapers, plazas.

This huge building right behind me is a shopping mall or it's called a mall.

Usually a downtown area will have a mall but some may not.

Also this is one of my favorite shopping malls in New York City

because it's huge and below it is a subway station.

Let's go find out and see what the shopping mall has to offer for the customers.

Now you can see why it's one of my favorite malls in the city

because this mall is huge and it's a very touristic part of the city.

There are stores inside on the first level.

Also below the shopping mall is the subway station.

Now let's move to another part of downtown New York

but one of the fastest ways to get there is using the subway which there's one behind me.

We're going to use this crosswalk.

I'm a So I'm going to walk across the crosswalk and enter the subway.

Let's take the subway.

I am walking down the stairs and when you enter the subway, you first need a MetroCard.

This is the card that will let you enter the subway.

You can buy a card right here at this MetroCard vending machine and this costs around $3.

You can enter the subway by paying with Apple Pay, but I already have a MetroCard.

So I'm just gonna swipe through.

Right now, I'm on the subway platform

And I'm waiting for my train to arrive because I am going to take you guys to a special place.

Now I'm going to enter the train.

I'm exiting the train.

I just made it to my stop.

Now let's go upstairs and go to the street.

I am finally on the street and the subway is definitely one of the fastest ways to move around New York City.

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Let me know if you guys have a subway in your city and let me know where you're from.

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Can you guys guess where the subway took me?

102

Right now, I'm in the middle of Times Square.

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There are so many billboards and huge screens that are displaying ads of different companies and businesses.

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Almost every downtown has a coffee shop.

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Behind me is a Starbucks coffee shop.

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If you're a coffee lover, a coffee shop is something you cannot miss if you're downtown or in the city.

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Also, if you want to learn how to order coffee at a coffee shop, I just recorded a brand new video ordering coffee

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and teaching you guys English on how to order coffee at the coffee shop.

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I just got to the final part of this video.

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Right now, I am in Central Park.

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This park is in the middle of downtown New York City.

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Behind me, you can see the skyline of the beautiful skyscrapers.

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Also, I just got my hot dog and this hot dog costs $4.50 cents.

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Normally where I'm from, Cincinnati, Ohio, these hot dogs would normally cost on the street around $2.50.

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This is the hot dog bun.

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I have the hot dog and ketchup and mustard.

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If you guys made it to the end of this video, thank you for following along.

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I'm really hungry so I'm gonna finish eating my hot dog.

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Don't forget to like, subscribe, and give me a super thanks if you enjoy my videos.

120

Bye!

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This video has 120 sentences and 1473 words to shadow. The speech runs for 9:05. The speaker talks at a natural 162 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 83% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.

Key vocabulary in this video

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

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
downtown noun	/ˈdaʊ̯nˌtaʊ̯n/	The main business part of a city or town, usually located at or near its center.
subway noun	/ˈsʌbˌweɪ/	An underground railway, especially for mass transit of people in urban areas.
mall noun	/mɔːl/	A pedestrianised street, especially a shopping precinct.
plaza noun	/ˈplɑːzə/	A town's public square.
sidewalk noun	/ˈsaɪdwɔk/	A paved footpath located at the side of a road, for the use of pedestrians.
memorial noun	/məˈmɔːɹi.əl/	Something, such as a monument, by which someone or something is remembered.
exit noun	/ˈɛɡzət/	An act of going out or going away, or leaving; a departure.
sponsor noun	/ˈspɒn.səː/	A person or organization with some sort of responsibility for another person or organization, especially where the responsibility has a religious, legal, or…
fountain noun	/ˈfaʊn.tɪn/	A natural source of water; a spring.
vocabulary noun	/vəˈkæb.jə.lə.ɹi/	A usually alphabetized and explained collection of words e.g. of a particular field, or prepared for a specific purpose, often for learning.
curb noun	/kɝb/	A concrete margin along the edge of a road; a kerb (UK, Australia, New Zealand).
squirrel noun	/ˈskwɪ.ɹ(ə)l/	Any of the rodents of the family Sciuridae.
pigeon noun	/ˈpɪ.dʒɪn/	One of several birds of the family Columbidae within the order Columbiformes.
hungry adjective	/ˈhʌŋ.ɡɹi/	Affected by hunger; having the physical need for food.
concrete adjective	/ˌkɑnˈkɹit/	Real, actual, tangible.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
walk around verb		To walk with no planned destination; to meander.
find out verb		To discover, as by asking or investigating.
following along		Keeping up with; understanding.
get back to verb		Return to (an activity)
go ahead verb	/ˌɡoʊ əˈhɛd/	To proceed with; to begin.
move around verb		To relocate to new homes repeatedly; to not live in any one place for long.
walk down verb		To continually advance (on an opponent) and punch (the opponent) in order to control the fight and dominate the opponent, while shrugging off the opponent's…

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	is called · was constructed
Superlatives the -est / the most … — the top or bottom of a group	the best · the tallest · the fastest
Present continuous am/is/are + -ing — something happening right now or around now	is scraping · I'm tapping · is climbing
Future with “going to” be going to + verb — a plan or something you can see coming	am going to teach · We're going to use · I'm going to walk

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 23 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, you're, don't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

Long words — get the stress right: memorial /məˈmɔːɹi.əl/, vocabulary /vəˈkæb.jə.lə.ɹi/, communicate /kəˈmjuːnɪkeɪt/, characteristic /ˌkæɹ(ə)ktəˈɹɪstɪk/

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 downtown, subway, mall.

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: Downtown Vocabulary In New York - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Phrasal verbs you will hear

Grammar in this video

Pronunciation to watch

How to practise with this video

What is the Shadowing Technique?