Shadowing Practice: English in a Minute: A Mixed Bag - Learn English Speaking with Video

Creating lesson...
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Welcome to English in a Minute.
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We use bags to hold just about everything.
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So, what might we put in a mixed bag?
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Let's find out.
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Hey, how was the party at Bernie's last weekend?
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Well, it was a mixed bag.
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What do you mean?
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The people were interesting, but the food was awful.
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The music was great, but it was way too loud.
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That does sound like a mixed bag.
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A mixed bag has a few meanings.
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It can mean a situation has a variety of things, some good and some bad.
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It can also describe a range of different people or things.
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And that's English in a Minute.

Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This video has 14 sentences and 110 words to shadow. The speech runs for 0:54. The speaker talks at a steady 123 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing.

Key vocabulary in this video

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

WordPronunciationMeaning
awful adjective/ˈɔːfʊl/Very bad.
describe verb/dɪˈskɹaɪb/To represent in words.
loud adjective/ˈlaʊ̯d/Of great intensity.
mix verb/ˈmɪks/To stir together.
welcome/ˈwɛl.kəm/Greeting given upon someone's arrival.
weekend noun/ˈwiˌkɛnd/The break in the working week, usually two days including the traditional holy or sabbath day. Thus in Western countries, Saturday and Sunday.
meaning noun/ˈmiː.nɪŋ/The denotation, referent, or idea connected with a word, expression, or symbol.
bag noun/bæɡ/A soft container made out of cloth, paper, thin plastic, etc. and open at the top, used to hold food, commodities, and other goods.
variety noun/vəˈɹaɪ.ə.ti/A deviation or difference.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

WordMeaning
find out verbTo discover, as by asking or investigating.

How to practise with this video

  1. Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
  2. Shadow it sentence by sentence at normal speed, repeating each one until your rhythm matches the speaker.
  3. Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like awful, describe, loud.

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 →