Shadowing Practice: Eating Every Asian Fried Chicken!! - Learn English Speaking with Video
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This is Korean fried chicken.
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And it might just be the best thing Americans never invented.
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American Southern fried chicken is iconic.
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There's no debate.
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But nearly every country in Asia has its own version of fried chicken.
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And many of them would bring the colonel to shame.
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Some look familiar.
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This isn't just called chicken, it's called chicken joy.
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And some end up like nothing you've ever seen before.
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In the USA, if you received chicken wings and they were wrapped in vegetables, there would be a lawsuit.
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In this video, we're taking on eight countries in Asia.
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Eight completely different takes on fried chicken, and only one can win.
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This chicken may not be for everybody.
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It all starts here, where we meet Vietnam's answer to traditional fried chicken.
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For a dish to qualify for this episode, it must be chicken and it must be deep fried, with one exception.
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This right here, this is oil shower chicken.
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Here, there's no submerging.
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There's no deep frying.
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Instead, 390 degree oil rains down from above, drenching the chicken until it's done.
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And the owner of this machine was kind enough to let me have a go.
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Or maybe he's looking for free labor.
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The move was to keep it rotating and moving around constantly.
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Seeing this in the video doesn't do it justice.
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This is so hot, this oil falling from above, and you can hear the chicken absolutely crackling.
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At first I thought this was a repurposed dishwasher.
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Turns out this machine is the owner's own invention.
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A mad food scientist who spent 18 years tinkering, testing, and probably picking up a few burns along the way.
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Whew!
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For the average American, their concept of fried chicken would be something that is breaded and deep fried.
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This is not breaded.
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There's no batter and it's not deep fried.
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So I'm really curious to see how this changes the fried chicken experience.
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I guess we're gonna find out soon.
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Here they're serving two different cuts of chicken.
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They have the breast and the wing together and they have the drumstick
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and the thigh together because these are more Vietnamese sized chickens.
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You can see immediately when you check out that side profile, it's not a massive chicken.
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Ooh.
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That is looking nice and juicy.
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Now, before frying, the chicken is marinated and boiled.
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So, it seems like the oil shower, the only purpose of it is to give that nice final crisp.
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Right here I have the chicken skin.
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Let's give it a shot.
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It's so thin, it's so brittle, it's oily, it's delicious.
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A little bit of protein and some very crispy skin.
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I am genuinely impressed.
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I think the only reason this works is because of the ratios.
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They have a smaller chicken, a smaller amount of protein, so it's more surface area.
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If you have some brittle, crispy skin on the outside, but an inch or two of chicken meat, you're not gonna get that satisfying feeling after taking a bite.
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Beyond the chicken, it also comes with rice.
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Fried rice that was made by.. a robot. And a guy.
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If I'm honest, a guy helped the robot quite a bit.
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This fried rice-making machine that the owner insists on calling a robot, was also built by the man himself.
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Beyond that, the mad food scientist who opened this restaurant created his own sauce.
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It tastes like a soy-based sauce, but it tastes meaty.
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It's a delicious combination, especially with all these heavy, heavy flavors.
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From Vietnam, we're heading to our next country, the Philippines.
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When you think the Philippines and fried chicken, there's only one name that comes to mind.
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Jollibee.
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It's a bee that's Jolli.
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When it comes to national symbols, the USA has a Statue of Liberty and the Philippines has that damn bee.
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Founded some 50 years ago, Jollibee now has over 1800 stores across 17 countries worldwide.
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This is Asia's KFC, except Filipinos would argue it's even better.
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Immediately I noticed spaghetti.
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What?
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Am I in a fine dining Italian restaurant?
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Beyond the fried chicken, you're not gonna find mashed potatoes, but instead the carbohydrate of choice here in Asia, it's gonna be rice.
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Time to order and try it out for ourselves.
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At Jollibee, this isn't just called chicken, it's called chicken joy with an emphasis on feeling the joy.
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Joy!
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Look at these little fried bits and doodads.
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To me, that is what it's all about.
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I want extra, extra crunch.
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Double crunch.
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Maybe even...
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Triple crunch.
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A chicken breast could be very dry and unpleasant.
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But here the chicken breast has been brined, so it absorbs moisture.
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Mmm-hmm-hmm-hmm.
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I love it.
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Chicken joy lasts about five minutes, but real-life joy takes a little more work.
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That's where BetterHelp comes in.
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I went to my first therapy session at the age of 20.
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I had a brutally bad breakup.
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The kind of breakup only a 20 year old could have.
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And I needed to talk to someone who wouldn't just tell me everything would be fine.
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Back then, finding a therapist meant flipping through a phone book.
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Cold calls to people you've never met before.
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Then waiting in a room full of even more people.
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None of it was built for someone who was actually struggling.
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It was made for somebody with time to burn.
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But these days, it's different.
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And that's why I've been leaning on our paid partner, BetterHelp.
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You open the app, answer a few questions, and you're matched with someone who actually fits what you're dealing with.
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No waiting room or small talk with strangers before you even get to a real conversation.
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I wish I'd had that when I was 20.
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It probably would have saved me a lot of headache and a lot of heartache too.
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Now, after therapy, I catch myself faster.
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I notice the patterns before they turn into a spiral, and that's the real value.
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Not just having someone to talk to when things fall apart, but building the habit of checking in before they do.
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If you've got something you've been carrying around, don't wait for a bad breakup or a bad year to take action.
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Head to betterhealth.com slash besteverfood to get 10% off your first month.
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The link is in the description, the QR code is on the screen, and now, back to the show.
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The batter is certainly umami.
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It's well seasoned.
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The meat is juicy, it's tender, it's very satisfying.
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That is not just chicken, that is chicken joy.
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But tragically, that chicken joy could easily elevate into chicken excitement, then a chicken panic attack, and eventually, a chicken stroke.
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In the USA, the best thing to eat fried chicken with is more fried chicken.
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But in the Philippines and you're trying to stretch out your pesos, you get three pieces of rice per one piece of chicken.
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What I like about it is it's served kind of like a hockey puck and it keeps this beautiful, perfect form.
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So you take a little bite of chicken, get the flavor in your mouth and then fill your mouth with more carbohydrates.
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That way you get the flavor of chicken joy, but you get a full stomach mostly full of rice.
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From the Philippines, we're heading to the land of precision and a meticulous attention to detail.
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Welcome to Japan.
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This here is a dish known as Karaage.
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So when you look at classic American fried chicken, in some ways it feels like it's about abundance.
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Just having giant pieces of greasy chicken.
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Karaage feels like Japan looked at American chicken and thought, What if we respected this more?
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The recipe starts with boneless chicken thighs cut into bite-sized pieces.
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While Americans fry just about any part of the chicken, the thigh is Japan's favorite.
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The meat draws flavor from a Japanese marinade, vinegar, salt, brown sugar, beaten egg, and minced ginger.
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In the U.S we focus on seasoning the batter itself, but here it's all about marinating that meat before any flour ever touches it.
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Each flavor-packed piece is then coated in equal parts dry flour and cornstarch.
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When it comes to fried chicken, there's always one topic that's very controversial, and that is batter or no batter.
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Is it better to go like our first location?
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Or is it better to put a ton of batter on top and make it super crispy?
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But there's a third option, and that's what we have right here.
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This dry flour and cornstarch mixture offers a lighter, less greasy crust than what you'd find on an American fried chicken.
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Take a look at that.
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Nice, oily, dark meat.
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Still steaming, still hot.
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On the side here, they have a little dollop of cupy mayonnaise.
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Simple and delicious.
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Flavors are super savory, it's delicate, it's tender, it's juicy.
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It's not a thick batter, it's just a little bit of flour, but it's enough to give it that nice, crispy, shattering crunch.
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What's nice is that they're working with small meat.
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Anybody who is also in the tiny meat gang will also appreciate that.
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Sorry.
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The point is that when I'm drinking, whatever goes in front of me, it's gonna disappear.
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If it's a large pizza, that's going down.
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So small pieces of chicken like this are perfect to pair with booze.
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It's high in protein, but you don't get too full.
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Here, a palate cleanser.
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Oh, that palate's clean, baby.
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From Japan, we're flying to Malaysia.
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Here, they're frying chicken with an ingredient that'll make your eyes water.
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When it comes to Malaysian fried chicken, the go-to is I Am Goreng.
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A fried chicken that uses a batter infused with shredded curry leaves and lemongrass, resulting in chicken that is extremely crunchy and crispy.
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Well, this is not that.
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This is chicken seasoned with fermented shrimp paste.
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Fermented shrimp paste.
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Tiny shrimps and salt, left to ferment for months until it becomes thick and purple.
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People who know it steer clear of its powerful scent.
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It smells completely rotten and pungent.
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They also rarely eat it straight.
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It's super salty and super umami.
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Some people use soy sauce for that umami flavor.
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Well, this is that times a thousand.
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Salt and fermented shrimp paste hit the chicken wings.
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These are the primary flavors behind this unique Malaysian creation.
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Potato starch coats each piece evenly, locking in the moisture.
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The wings are then cut in half and dusted in a mix of wheat and rice flour.
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Then straight into the hot oil.
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But in Malaysia, fried chicken alone is never enough.
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Almost any time you're eating a protein in Malaysia, you're gonna have this.
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Nasi lemak, or coconut rice.
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Nasi lemak is the supercharged version of rice.
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Butter, lemongrass, star anise, cinnamon and ginger, stirred in a wok until fragrant.
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Jasmine rice joins in, absorbing all that goodness.
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Then it's soaked with rich coconut milk and steam.
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The full spread comes together with coconut rice, peanuts, anchovies, hard boiled egg, sambal, cucumber, and finally, that vibrant fried chicken.
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Right here we have two wings and two drummies.
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Now the big question is how much is this chicken gonna smell like decaying shrimp bodies?
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Let's find out.
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Huh, interesting.
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There's nothing off-putting.
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In fact, it smells incredible.
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That is what I call wings with character.
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I thought for sure after taking the bite, it would just be kind of savory.
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I wouldn't really get any essence of this pure shrimp paste. But I was wrong.
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Definitely the presence of the shrimp paste, it is there.
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It's a savory, But still kind of pungent shrimp flavor, but it's subtle and it mixes with everything else Who knew shrimp and chicken could be the ultimate collab the chicken itself.
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It's juicy.
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It's tender on the outside You have a nice crispy exterior now
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if you are a true Malaysian you won't just stop at the chicken
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I love it the rice has so much aroma
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and it's a perfect pairing to that rich crunchy fried chicken earlier
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when we were at Jolly That was just a plain rice hockey puck.
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But this is so fragrant.
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It's a delicious combination of pandan and coconut.
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And lemongrass and ginger too.
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From Malaysia, we're heading to Taiwan.
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This country is obsessed with night markets, the birthplace of many bizarre food creations, including a fried chicken cutlet as big as a human head.
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This thing is absolutely massive.
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I said it was going to be the size of my head.
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I think it might be bigger.
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So how do they make this cutlet so big?
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Perhaps they learned from the Japanese, who have been known to press whole octopuses into flat crackers.
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Time to find out.
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Welcome to Taiwan.
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Here we're going to be focusing on Taiwan's famous fried chicken cutlet.
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A cutlet is any type of thin meat that's been breaded and fried.
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And here when I say thin, I mean thin.
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Right here we have a chicken breast.
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At first glance it seems like a normal chicken breast.
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What's the big deal?
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I'll show you.
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This chicken breast has been butterflied multiple times until it's become this right here.
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Now that is thin.
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This here will be the biggest fried chicken we'll be experiencing today.
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Let's get to it.
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This giant chicken breast has already been marinated in a secret sauce.
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Next, it's drenched in egg white and coated in 100% sweet potato starch.
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No flour.
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Very different from what KFC would do.
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This is what gives the cutlet its signature bubbly crust, reported as being crunchy yet a little chewy.
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Let's see if that's true.
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Before the cutlet hits the table, it's dusted heavily with Cajun powder, pepper and salt.
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When you come to this location, they can cut it into little bitty pieces for you if you're a little baby.
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But if you're a man like me, you can just eat it like this.
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Oh, sh.
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This part's falling off.
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Oh no, it's so delicate.
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Oh my lord.
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Very unexpected.
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There's so much flavor.
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The Cajun powder, it's so dynamic.
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It's a little sweet.
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It's a little savory.
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It's a little peppery.
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Beyond that, the meat on the inside has also been marinated.
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So that has flavor too.
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I am in love with this.
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Oh, no. Five second rule.
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What makes us stand apart the most is the texture.
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Wheat flour, something like what we had at Jollibee, that's gonna be extra crunchy.
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But this is something between crunchy and chewy.
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It's almost like eating fried sticky rice.
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I have taken four mammoth bites already, and you can't even see the damage.
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This could feed a family for a week.
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Not actually, it's an exaggeration.
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From Taiwan, we're flying to a country that takes spices very seriously.
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Welcome to India.
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Cumin, turmeric, chili, masala.
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Indian cuisine is bold, complex, and layered.
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And their fried chicken brings all that to the table.
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Today we're gonna be trying two different Indian fried chicken dishes.
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Here we have a dish called Chicken 65, but I want to start with this.
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This is chicken pakora.
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Like most Indian dishes, chicken pakora doesn't hold back on spices.
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Lime juice, salt, red chili powder, ginger garlic paste, and caram seeds.
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But what makes a pakora a pakora is the coating.
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This is graham flour, a type of flour I've never seen being used in American cooking.
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And that's because this comes from ground chickpeas.
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This chickpea flour is gonna join this chicken to make it extra crispy.
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But I'm not sure if this is gonna be good.
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You see, chickpea flour, it has completely different properties than starch or from wheat flour.
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We're gonna give it a shot and see how it tastes.
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You ready?
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Let's do it, big boy.
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Once fried until golden brown, the chicken pecora is plated with raw onion, coriander, and a double dose of chutney.
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Here a green mint chutney, and here a tomato chutney.
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Also known as ketchup.
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Mmm.
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I believe it's of the Heinz variety.
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When it comes to pecora, it is less about crispy breading, and it's more about deeply seasoned batter that becomes crunchy and craggy.
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In the past, I've always appreciated that pecora is very crunchy, but I guess I never registered that it was graham flour.
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Graham flour sounds nice.
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It's chickpea powder.
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Do I like chickpeas?
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Well, they make me gassy.
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So yes, but my wife, she hates them.
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Immediate flavor town.
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It's almost borderline overwhelming.
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It's too much, but then when It's too much, but then when my mouth is empty again, it wants more.
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The crunchy bits are the best.
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Full of seasoning, full of flavor.
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Describing Indian food is the hardest of all the foods, or maybe the easiest, because you could just say, mmm, it tastes like everything.
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Chicken pakora is already flavor-packed, and still, Chicken 65 takes it to a whole new level.
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Boneless chicken pieces are mixed with ginger garlic paste, beaten egg, salt, two types of chili powder, chicken garam masala, and turmeric powder.
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But the spice puree doesn't stop there.
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He adds mustard seeds and chopped curry leaves for aroma.
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Then rice flour and graham flour form the coat.
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Then into the oil.
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While it crisps up, mustard seeds and curry leaves crackle in a separate pan.
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Green chilies, onion, turmeric and chili powder join in, all mixed and ready to welcome the freshly crisped golden chicken.
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Why is chicken 65 called chicken 65?
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One popular theory is that it was the 65th dish on a menu at a military canteen in Chennai.
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Another story claims it was invented in 1965.
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In reality, the exact reason is a mystery.
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What about chicken 69?
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This thing is a deep, dark, aggressive red.
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It's a hue that taunts you.
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It invites you.
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It challenges you.
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Let's give it a shot.
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Oh, I like that.
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The flavor, you taste it more on the back end, especially the spices.
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Beyond that, it's more juicy and more tender on the inside.
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The outside is fried, but we don't have those big, coarse, craggy chunks of fried goodness.
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Instead, it's more of a thin, brittle, crisp.
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What's fascinating about each chicken dish is that they both taste like Indian food, but in different ways.
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This one has maxed out its cardamom abilities, and this one is crushing it when it comes to chili powder.
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Indian approved.
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And you know who approves of that?
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This guy.
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I just googled him, I mentioned an Indian dude.
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But he looks like a nice guy, I'd hang out with that guy.
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From India, we're flying to Thailand.
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Another country that doesn't hold back on flavor.
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Here we'll try fried chicken that doesn't even look like fried chicken.
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And of all things, it comes wrapped with plants.
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Sawatika, and welcome to Thailand.
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This is a fried chicken dish known in Thai as Gai Tøy And on the side here Gai Tøy So, hey Mark Wiens, how's my pronunciation?
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Fantastic Aw, thanks Mark There's something
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that is distinctly different from this chicken from every other chicken we've tried
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so far And that is what is surrounding the fried chicken This right here is vegetation, a plant known as Panda Right now I'm holding the world's
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saddest bouquet This is what you give your wife right before asking for a divorce
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This is a very fragrant leaf and it's used throughout Southeast Asian cooking.
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In fact, pandan leaf was used earlier in our coconut rice, but we had that Malaysian fried chicken.
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Let me give it a shot and explain the profile.
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Bitter.
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Grassy.
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I think I did it wrong.
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I'm pretty sure pandan has to be cooked or steamed.
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After being steamed, the pandan becomes very fragrant.
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It tastes a little bit flowery and it has some vanilla flavor too.
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Please, show me the way.
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Before they're tucked inside the pandan leaves, the boneless chicken thighs are cubed and marinated with oyster sauce, palm sugar, garlic, coriander root,
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evaporated milk, white pepper, soy sauce, and turmeric powder.
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This is gonna be very impressive because this chicken is looking real slippery
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and somehow he's gonna have to tie that into a leaf.
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He's started already, he creates a loop like tying his shoe.
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He puts the end through the loop, creating a little basket.
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He puts the meat inside the basket and he pulls it shut, creating a gentle knot.
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Then he weaves the leaf through again.
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Anywhere there's exposed chicken, he is trying to drape the leaf over it.
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In the end, almost none of the chicken is exposed.
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The green bundles are steamed until the pandan releases its fragrance into the meat.
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steamer to hot oil.
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Each bundle sizzles until crisp, but the crispy pandan is just the wrapper.
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So does that familiar fried chicken crunch make it all the way inside?
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I guess we'll see.
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I know that the leaves are crispy.
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Fantastic.
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I'm not gonna eat the leaves.
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Oh my god, this is like a Boy Scouts badge.
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I have to unknot this pandan leaf somehow?
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Think of it like Untying a shoe.
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I can do that.
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Wait, my shoes are velcro and I'm 41
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This is a tough one to unwrap because the leaves are kind of sticking to the chicken.
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There we go
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Nice one thing I have noticed is it feels like the
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leaf keeps some of the oil wrapped around the chicken Not necessarily a great thing because it is very greasy.
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Oh That's nice you can see that marinade has really penetrated into the meat.
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There's some turmeric there It's a little bit yellowish.
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It looks greasy.
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It looks delicious This has a lot going for it.
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It's incredibly soft and incredibly juicy, but beyond that the flavor is outstanding
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Usually when I eat Thai food I just feel like I'm getting stabbed in the mouth by the violent chilies
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and other intense spices, but pandan is soothing It's gentle.
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It's delicate, but if you ever feel like you're lacking some flavor This is Southeast Asia
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and there's always some sauce on the side.
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So this is a sauce comprised of oyster sauce and mushroom soy sauce.
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Oh my god, eating the chicken alone, it's like eating a bowl of cereal and forgetting to put in the milk.
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This alone, good.
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But if you really want to pack in some flavor, this is the perfect combination of very sweet, almost syrupy, and a little bit savory.
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That's my happy place right there.
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From Thailand, we're flying to our final destination, South Korea where fried chicken doesn't just compete with fast food, it dominates it.
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Right here we have Korea's iconic Yangnyeom chicken.
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Of all the Asian fried chicken we've tried today, this is the one that has broken through to the USA.
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Yangnyeom fried chicken is known for two things.
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Its signature sweet, spicy and sour sauce, and a heated debate about where it actually came from.
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First, the sauce.
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Cinnamon, garlic, sugar, chili powder, ketchup, oyster sauce and corn syrup mixed together and simmered until thick.
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While that happens, the overnight brined chicken is cut, coated in seasoned flour and starch, and dropped into hot oil.
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Here's where the debate starts.
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Some historians say Korea learned deep brine from black American soldiers in the 1950s during the Korean War,
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making yong-yong a product of that cultural exchange.
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The counter-argument lies in the next step.
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The chicken comes out golden and crispy, tossed straight into the sauce until every piece is glossy and sticky.
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This technique is strikingly similar to poge, a 15th century Korean dish, where chicken is stir-fried in sauce until the skin crisps and the sauce reduces.
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500 years before American soldiers ever arrived.
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As you can see, there is no kimchi on the table, and that is because these establishments are all about beer and fried food.
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This is a Korean-style hof-brot.
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That is a German word that means tavern, but they've adopted these in Korea.
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In Korea, they call it simply hopu or hof, but in Korean, they don't have an F.
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So they can't tell you to go F yourself.
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Kinda nice.
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Before I eat it, I wanna give it a sniff.
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It's garlicky, tangy.
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Ooh, so much tang.
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Ooh, yeah.
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Look at this nice thick pieces of skin absolutely doused in that sauce.
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This is so addictive.
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This is crack in the form of chicken.
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Because of that thick sugary glaze that's on there, that covering, the crust on the outside, it's nice, but it's not super crunchy.
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My other favorite part about the fact that it's battered is
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that it's just so much more surface area for that clingy glaze to stick onto.
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Now gochujong, it's made from tons and tons of chilies, but when you temper it with a lot of sugar, it's not really spicy at all.
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Maybe like a two out of ten.
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That said, it gives the chicken so much flavor.
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If the Japanese said, how do we give chicken more respect?
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The Koreans said, how do we turn this into a nori bong or a karaoke bar?
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It's loud.
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It's unapologetic.
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It's delicious.
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I'm very happy.
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It's very nice.
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Today we tried nine different types of Asian chicken from eight different countries.
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When it comes to covering the chicken, folks are using everything from starch to flour to leaves.
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When it comes to frying, many are deep frying, but some are frying with oil dropping from the heavens.
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But at the end of the day, there can only be one best Asian fried chicken.
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For me, as much as I want to say it's this one, because the owner is behind the camera staring at me with a lung knife.
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I have to admit that my favorite chicken from this entire episode was the Taiwanese chicken.
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They took the most challenging part of the chicken's body, the potentially driest part, and they butterflied it.
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They covered it in starch, and after frying it, it was giant and crispy.
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So that was my absolute favorite.
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This right here, a solid second place, but...
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The karaoke's so loud!
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I want to hear it from you guys.
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If you could try one of the nine Asian chicken recipes from this video, which would it be?
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Let me know downstairs in the comments down below.
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Otherwise, that is it for this one.
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Thank you so much for watching.
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I'll see you next time.
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Peace.
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Bye.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “Eating Every Asian Fried Chicken!!”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: chicken, fried, flavor, flour. This video has 430 sentences and 4434 words to shadow. The speech runs for 25:50. The speaker talks at a natural 172 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. Only 75% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.
Key vocabulary in this video
The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| fry verb | /fɹaɪ/ | To cook (something) in hot fat. |
| flavor noun | /ˈfleɪvə/ | The quality produced by the sensation of taste or, especially, of taste and smell in combined effect. |
| flour noun | /ˈflaʊ.ə/ | Powder obtained by grinding or milling cereal grains, especially wheat, or other foodstuffs such as soybeans and potatoes, and used to bake bread, cakes, and… |
| crispy adjective | /ˈkɹɪs.pi/ | Having a crisp texture; brittle yet tender. |
| crunchy adjective | /ˈkɹʌnt͡ʃi/ | Likely to crunch, especially with reference to food when it is eaten. |
| pandan noun | /ˈpændən/ | A screw pine, screw palms (Pandanus spp.). |
| batter verb | /ˈbætə/ | To hit or strike violently and repeatedly. |
| chili noun | /ˈt͡ʃɪli/ | The pungent, spicy fresh or dried fruit of any of several cultivated varieties of capsicum peppers, used in cooking. |
| shrimp noun | /ʃɹɪmp/ | Any of many swimming, often edible, crustaceans, chiefly of the infraorder Caridea or the suborder Dendrobranchiata, with slender legs, long whiskers and a… |
| pasta noun | /ˈpɑ.stə/ | Dough made from wheat and water and sometimes mixed with egg and formed into various shapes; often sold in dried form and typically boiled for eating. |
| cutlet noun | A thin slice of meat, usually fried. | |
| starch noun | /ˈstɑɹt͡ʃ/ | A widely diffused vegetable substance, found in seeds, bulbs and tubers, as extracted (e.g. from potatoes, corn, rice, etc.) in the form of a white… |
| juicy adjective | /ˈd͡ʒuːsi/ | Having lots of juice. |
| chickpea noun | /ˈt͡ʃɪkˌpiː/ | An annual plant (Cicer arietinum) in the pea family, widely cultivated for the edible seeds in its short inflated pods. |
| pakora noun | A piece of vegetable, or sometimes meat, deep-fried in a batter flavoured with spices. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| find out verb | To discover, as by asking or investigating. | |
| hold back on verb | To wait for a period of time before proceeding. | |
| check out verb | To record the departure or withdrawal of someone or something (such as guests, employees, books, etc.). | |
| come out verb | /ˌkʌm ˈaʊt/ | To be discovered; to be revealed. |
| end up verb | To bring to a conclusion. | |
| fall apart verb | To disintegrate, to break into pieces. | |
| fall off verb | To become detached or to drop from. | |
| flip through verb | Synonym of thumb (“to turn the pages of (a book) in order to read it cursorily”). |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- I guess we're gonna find out soon.
- Let's give it a shot.
- To me, that is what it's all about.
- Is it better to go like our first location?
- I have to unknot this pandan leaf somehow?
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect continuous have/has been + -ing — an action that started earlier and is still going on | I've been leaning · you've been carrying |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | you've ever seen · has been brined · you've never met |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | isn't just called · were wrapped · is breaded |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | someone who wouldn · someone who was · someone who actually |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 89 contractions and reduced forms, such as gonna, we're, I'm. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- Long words — get the stress right: coriander /ˈkɔ.ɹiˌæn.dɚ/, genuinely /ˈd͡ʒɛn.ju.ɪn.li/
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 fry, flavor, flour.
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.