Shadowing Practice: Encounters in the UK - Learning English Video - Learn English Speaking with Video

Thank you

very much.

Thank you.

Anything else, woman?

Thank you.

That is £1.64.

That is fine.

There you go.

There we go.

Thank you very much.

Cambridge is a peaceful city and the people here are just lovely.

I feel very secure here.

Cambridge is very calm and I like it.

It's lovely.

It's very peaceful.

From all over the world come here to learn English, also to do degrees.

There are a lot of English students because of Cambridge University, but also a lot of international students,

so there is quite a good life for young people for young people.

My name is Christina, I'm from Belgium and I'm 18 years old

so I just finished high school in June

and I was quite confused about what I wanted to study this year

so I decided to do a one year programme

which is the foundation programme but also to improve my English because when I came here it was not that good.

My name is Michaela Schubert, I'm from Czech Republic.

I spent here a year perfecting my English

and to be honest really figuring out what I want to do with my life.

And then I met my English boyfriend, decided to really stay and do all the things I wanted to do here.

I studied at the university, I already knew what I want to do so I'm sending a film and media here in Cambridge.

My name is Carolina Bley and I'm from Venezuela

and basically I'm doing a foundation course and it's to study here in the UK.

When my parents told me okay would you like to go to a different country

and learn English I said yeah why not they they told me well why don't you go to Canada

or America because it's quite near to Venezuela and I say, no, I would like to go to England.

Really, yeah, I would like to go to Cambridge.

I don't know why, you know, it was like a feeling that I wanted to go there.

Then when we were like, design, if it was better to stay in a homestay or in a residence,

I say, no, I think I would like to stay in a homestay.

So I could practice with my host mom and my host dad.

you know, meet a real family and how they live and everything.

And I think I made the right choice.

My name is Silvia, I come from Italy and we are in Cambridge now.

I'm a homestay girl.

And here in this house is my first time, but I went to Cambridge twice some years ago for the same reason,

studying at school and homestay after.

Smell.

Yes, it's smell.

Smell.

Smell. And carrots.

And beans, not that.

Peas and.. and carrots and beans.

They give us everything, food,

accommodation, laundry, everything, and conversation, that is the most important part of this home stay.

And it's very nice, I mean, it's the right thing to do to learn a language for me.

Well, home stay is basically a language student coming to live with a British family,

be integrated into the family and immerse themselves in English to help them learn.

The basic home stay booking would be on a half board basis

which is bed breakfast and evening meal

and the student would expect their own room and less specified in

which case they may share with a friend in a twin room basis.

But they would expect a bed, wardrobe, a desk, lighting, somewhere to work.

Other extras may be internet access via Wi-Fi.

They would have access to laundry facilities and cooking facilities if they are booking on a self-catering basis.

Well, in my homestay, I have dinner with them every day at 6.

And also with the different students that are in the house as well.

Every Thursday they wash my clothes and they clean my room.

Actually, because I've been in my homestay for a year and a half,

I play squash with my host mom every Sunday and we enjoy different activities together.

I've been in the birthday of the kids and everything so now I'm really a member of the family.

Well, home stay is where you stay with an English family

and when I say an English family encompasses all different nationalities that have become part of English life

and then you usually spend the morning at school, have the afternoon free and then in the evening there's always a meal ready for you

and we all sit at the table,

talk about what you've done during the day perhaps discuss different aspects of English life.

Hello, I would like to take my IELTS but I don't know when are the next available days.

Oh, okay, that's no problem.

Here's a list of the next available IELTS dates in Cambridge.

So for example, I think the next one is April...

I knew actually people who came here before to do the same program as me

and one of them told me about her homestay that was really good and she enjoyed a lot.

So she recommended to me and the Bell School also recommended us some good homestays.

And so I chose to go in the one I'm here now

because I knew how it would happen more or less and also because we had a kitchen for the students,

we had quite good things in this specific family.

Often I understand the students have known, previous students who've been in our house, and so they apparently, when they send an application in,

or first make an inquiry to the Bell School, they say, does Mrs Kelly have a room?

And then the Bell School will phone me and ask if I have a room for him, give him the dates, and it goes from there.

Yes, Vanessa, can you tell Joy that you are not going to eat home tonight?

Because I booked in Calucho for your birthday.

My home mother, she cooks every day

and in the beginning I was a little afraid

because of the stereotypes of English food but that's really not true because I am lucky,

I expected bad foods while I have good food.

I think

it's that immersing themselves in English, you know, being in a British family that are speaking English all the time,

it's completely different to learning it in a classroom and perhaps speaking with somebody else who is also learning it, you know, you're picking up,

you know, that native language basically.

At school you learn grammar, you make exercises of listening comprehension and so on.

But then these things you have to practice and the family is the way you can practice a language.

100

You can learn when you get wrong, they can correct your mistakes and so on.

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Yes, I think if you stay in a student dormitory, you're more likely to meet people of the same nationality

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and not practice your English as well as you would if you were a homestay.

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When you're in a homestay, you have to speak English.

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At school, I'm really learning the grammar, vocabulary, the English language,

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But in my host family I have the chance to speak with them and to practice the English accent.

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And I think by hearing them always speaking at dinner time, that helps me a lot to see how to speak.

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And I think by hearing a lot I learn also.

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Often their accent needs encouragement and help

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and they're encouraged to listen a little bit so they can match our speech patterns for intonation.

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And this happens very much in the dining room, across the table.

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And the fact that my husband was a professor of linguistics, he can always give the reasons for things.

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Sometimes I think the explanations are a little bit about the students, but they listen politely and some must go in.

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It was a whole family mom, dad and they had two kids and I found it quite

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helpful that the children didn't speak such a complicated language and they had many tools to learn to write and read

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Because they go to school here very early the age of five I believe so

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Always when I didn't know something they would draw me a picture of it and try to explain me

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So once you get the word this way, you will never forget it because you have the whole interaction and this whole experience wrapped around it.

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Yes, so that was brilliant.

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I believe that it's doing these simple things with them, like to eat, to watch TV.

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You don't talk too much, so you don't need to use that uh too much language

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because you are just a beginner but uh but even though

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if you don't realize it but it all has effect on you you sleep on it

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and next day you feel yeah it's something got in you know

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I would

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advise If you're looking for homestay, please tell the company, the school,

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us, as much information as possible what you're looking for.

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So then the service, we have to place you into a host family.

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If you tell us you want internet,

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you're allergic to animals, we need to know as much information as possible to make your experience perfect.

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Try to interact with them and be part of the family.

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Sometimes you have to also think that you are not in your country anymore and you have to adapt to some situations.

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It's not going to be the same food as your home or back in your country.

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It's not going to be, you know, almost everything is going to be different.

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So maybe you have to give a little bit of you

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and try to adapt to different situations and enjoy the time, of course.

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Just not to be scared because the family know how to deal with you,

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how to make you comfortable and so on.

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personal problem because they know how to to make you to feel you at home there are two things

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which which would be the worst

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and you need to find a balance in between the worst thing is to be to be too shy yeah

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and the other thing is to be too arrogant nothing will get nothing will get you anywhere

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so you to find the balance somewhere in between

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and find your confidence

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and take the dictionary with you have it always in your

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pocket whatever you see translate try to interact with the people you know

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and and live it don't come here don't bring your your world with you here

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and don't don't continue living living in your in your you know culture

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and everything you need to open for it and then

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and then it all comes to you and you will find it easier and easier to learn the language.

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It's going to be a great experience, not only in terms of learning English, but in learning about life.

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Because you will encounter many different views of life,

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many different styles amongst the student that you hadn't realized could exist before.

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So you don't only come to learn English, you come to learn about how people live and the rest of the world.

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you

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 Practice: Encounters in the UK - Learning English Video - Learn English Speaking with Video

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What is the Shadowing Technique?