Shadowing Practice: English Listening Practice #1 - Real Native Conversation (B2-C1) - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
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Good morning, good afternoon and good evening.
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Welcome to a very different setup.
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Today we're doing something a little bit different.
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We're just going to have a chat.
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We're not going to try to be clear.
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We're going to talk to each other exactly as we would in a kitchen.
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We've got a random question generator.
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We're going to ask each other some questions, have a bit of a chat, have a bit of a laugh.
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Exactly, because so many of our students say, you are so clear when you teach me but as soon as I try to listen to real people having a conversation,
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I don't understand it.
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So we're going to have a really real conversation and we will, if we say anything a bit strange or a bit different, it will come up on the screen,
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I'll tell you what it means and hopefully this will be a really good way for you to practice your listening.
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So we'll see you on the other side.
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Bez, how you been?
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How was your Christmas?
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You were there.
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You were there the whole time.
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Did you have a nice Christmas?
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I had a lovely time.
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What was your favourite bit about Christmas?
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My favourite part about Christmas was.. me being there.
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Probably.
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Um, Boxing Day?
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I liked Boxing Day, that was a good day.
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What did you like about Boxing Day?
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so it's like it's like christmas day
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but it's more football there's more football exactly i knew you're gonna say
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that played chess with your dad did you win no oh yes i did
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but it didn't feel like a win
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because he said he said he was only trying about 30 percent oh
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so that was do you think you'll ever beat him genuinely no i think he's very good
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but he'll just keep getting older and you've still got young sharp rim.
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Well that's what I'm hoping for.
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Maybe when he's 90 I might beat him.
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That's what you gotta wait for.
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We played chess a couple times didn't we?
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And I can like...
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I know what the pieces do and I can put it in places
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but I'm not very good at thinking far enough ahead to be like okay.
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You're getting better.
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I think the first time...
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I do make some moves that that make you think.
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Make me think but that's...
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I'd be worried if you didn't make me think.
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No but No, but that's a success for me considering the only chess I've ever played was Simpsons chess when I was a kid.
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And Simpsons chess is not any different rules.
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It's still the same rules, but they all look like the Simpsons.
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So you have like Marge was the queen and Homer was the king.
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So I still don't know the names of the real chess pieces because I just called them Maggies and Barts.
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I played chess last night. Did you? With who? With Harry. On Xbox?
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No, we finished playing Xbox and then...
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Is it chess online or something?
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Yeah, on Discord.
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There's like a chess thing now.
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Did you win?
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And I heard him clicking away.
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We were like, what are you doing?
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This is a quarter to one in the morning.
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And then he said, I'm playing chess.
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And I joined.
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And I accidentally joined his game.
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And I played against him.
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Did you win?
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I won, yeah.
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Of course you did.
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Well done.
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Well, should we do our first question?
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Okay, fine.
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Let's have a look here.
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It's an interesting question, actually.
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Lovely tea, by the way.
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I've recently started not having sugar in my tea.
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I'm doing well with it aren't I?
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You're doing well with the coffee.
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I don't want a coffee without sugar but a tea, I'm still getting used to it.
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It's not my cup of tea.
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This is my cup of tea but it's not my cup of tea.
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This is an interesting question.
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Okay so what we're gonna do is we're gonna generate some random questions.
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I've generated them.
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And answer them.
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Okay what's the first question?
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Hit me.
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The first question is this.
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What doesn't exist but should?
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Now you're good at this, you've got a whole list of inventions.
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I know, yeah.
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You love inventing.
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That could take the whole time.
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What doesn't exist but should?
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Well, I could be really like Miss World about it and say World Peace, you know, like that's something that you could say.
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Yeah, come to that.
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Okay, I would love...
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see I always come across these things but then I never remember what they are something that
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okay I know it is something that doesn't exist but should
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and it might exist in some places rules in high schools of absolutely no phones ever for high school kids.
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See in my school we didn't have yeah but that was before they were so like all over the place.
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But you've but you're in your school you could you know in the classes, so in the classes you couldn't have your phones out but at lunchtime you could do what you want, you could just have your phones out.
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But I like if I'm sending my kids to school
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because I don't want to give my kid a phone until they're about 15
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but I don't want my kid in year 7 going to school and everyone's bullying them because they haven't got a phone.
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But if there was a rule of like you're not even allowed, if you if a teacher sees a phone we're gonna take it off you.
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Yeah, in my school that was it.
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Well that's why, okay I want that to be in most schools then because it wasn't in my one.
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I remember I had my phone in my, oh I I remember I had my phone, we weren't allowed to take it to school and I never did
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because there was no point because I could never go on it.
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But one day I did for some reason and I didn't, I panicked.
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I was like, what am I going to do with it?
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Why do I, what am I doing?
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And it was in my pencil case in maths and my...
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What kind of a phone would fit in a pencil case?
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It was one of those ones with the typey ones.
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Oh, the teeny weeny ones.
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Not an iPhone.
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Not an iPhone, yeah.
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and it had headphones plugged into it right
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so I had headphones plugged into it as phone does
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and then somehow music started playing through my head
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so you know you can hear someone else's headphones very very
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quietly yeah that's what happened I don't know probably I as replay maybe yeah
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and then I remember the maths teacher walking past
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and I couldn't read I didn't know it was mine either for a bit
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but I was like I can hear very very faintly some music and then he stopped next to my desk,
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kind of looked down and I looked up at him and he moved on.
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And he killed you.
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I'm a ghost.
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So yeah but that was very tense.
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I just.. one of my biggest stresses for the future, and I stress a lot about the future because you know that's just who I am,
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but one of my biggest stresses is I have a certain way that I want to raise my children.
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I don't know why I'm thinking about this like i'm only 25
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but i just i know how i want to parent children
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and one of the things
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that stresses me out the most is like i have a view on how they should use technology
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and stuff but i don't know how possible
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that is once they leave my house do you know what i mean
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and other kids yeah well a lot of parents say
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that don't they they say that that kids the worst thing
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that happens to your kids is like other kids i know
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because they they ruin it for you
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because you're raising your child in this perfect way and then other children come in and like ruin it.
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But maybe that's good.
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No, but then because the other option people would say like, oh, homeschool your kids, but I don't want to homeschool my kids.
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I want my kids to have social skills.
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I'm not saying that all homeschool kids don't have social skills, but I think it's the easiest way to
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get social skills is by going to school because.. and high school's hard and you have to go through difficult times, but that's also important.
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I don't know.
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I don't know why I'm stressing about this now.
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I'm not having a baby.
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So what should exist but that doesn't exist?
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No phones in schools.
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There we go.
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Okay.
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The next one is this.
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This is interesting.
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What's your opinion on tipping?
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As in tipping in restaurants, giving money...
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I've got some big old opinions on tipping.
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Interesting.
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Because it's not a thing here, is it?
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In the UK, you get tipped if you give some exceptional service.
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Even then?
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Even then you feel like, okay.
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But what is exceptional service?
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I would say if there's a big group of you
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if there's like more than eight and they've been on time
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and everything's come and they've made sure that everyone's got what they need
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because that's hard because I've been a waiter
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and it's really hard to have a big table so I think
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if you have a big table it's kind of courteous to give a tip
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but I went to the States recently
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and it's mental I went to a buffet and it's a buffet the concept of a buffet is you serve yourself.
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Oh you have to tip in a buffet?
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I had to tip the person who literally took my card at the till.
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So you're queuing up, someone sat at the till and they go, that'll be $30 for the buffet.
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And I said, thank you very much, handed my card over.
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And then she said, you can add your tip now?
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I said, can I? Did you?
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No, I didn't.
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You didn't?
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No. And I know that all those Americans hated me, but it's just mental.
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I'm literally at a buffet.
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I do the work myself and they want me to sit, But they have to because they pay American servers, like, pittance.
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They pay them so little because they know they're going to get loads of tips.
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Isn't that mental?
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But do they get loads of tips?
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Yeah, because Americans have such a tipping culture put into them because they know that the servers don't get a lot, so they have to.
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But if they paid them fairly, then people wouldn't have to tip.
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I know, I know.
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And then that would help people.
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They would go out for food more because they would be less expensive.
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I know.
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Isn't that insane?
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They're basically putting the financial stress on the customers rather than on themselves by paying the staff fairly.
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Yeah.
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Exactly.
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Isn't that just awful?
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In other countries?
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Do they have that in other countries?
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I don't know about other countries.
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I think America is...
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Sorry.
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The States.
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I think the States are the biggest sort of tippers in the UK.
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Don't have to worry about tipping at all.
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But I saw...
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I follow someone who lives in Las Vegas and they work on Instagram who works as a waiter.
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and over Christmas he was taking pictures of bills, like cheques, that he'd given people when they'd left no tip and was writing like, Merry Christmas.
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I can't believe I had customers like this, like really complaining about it.
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And I was like, that was me when I was there.
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I wasn't leaving any tips.
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In my opinion, I think, I agree with you if it's exceptional, but I don't know what people would have to do to do that.
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Like, to achieve exceptional service.
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I don't know what they would have to do if the can you give me a situation
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we're eating somewhere and the waiters being extra friendly asking us how our day's gone
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and something's gone wrong with the food
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but they've really apologetic they said I'll get your free drink
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but the waiters yeah really trying
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but then the waiter that's their job I know that's their
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job we have very different views in the UK about how to tip things so.
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Like, like, I would say, like, if somebody, if somebody, if somebody gives, if they say you can have a free drink, yeah, a drink on the house,
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as they say, yeah, then that's not the waiter doing that, no, that's the, that's the boss telling the waiter offer them free drinks,
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yeah, so it's, yeah, no,
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you're right, I think I tip for five percent of my meals out, Probably, yeah.
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I would round it up.
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Do you know what I mean?
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Oh, yeah.
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So imagine it's £73 for food.
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Yeah.
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I maybe will round it up to £80, depending on how many drinks I've had.
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And I feel very generous.
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But usually I don't tip because it's expensive already.
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It is already expensive.
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Do you want the next question?
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Yes, please.
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Oh, this is an interesting one.
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um what food do you used to like
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but don't anymore bacon yeah i'm well off bacon i don't
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know why i think i had a really bad fatty bacon sandwich
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and i know the bacon sandwich you're talking about
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and at the time at the time you said it was
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lovely no you did the bacon itself was it was a bit wet is a bit wet
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and that's why like bacon unless it's burnt i don't like it i don't like floppy fatty bacon.
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It really put me off here a lot.
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So I've gone off bacon a lot.
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I could never eat bacon again.
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Same.
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I like it though, but I think that's a reflection on me because I'm not a food person. In general.
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I'm not a food person.
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Cheese I couldn't live without.
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You're not a food person, you're a cheese person.
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Cheese guy.
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What's a food that I used to like but don't anymore?
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that's rare for you if you like to be your lawyer.
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Probably, do you know what?
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Probably...
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I've gone off...
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soups.
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You have soup every day.
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No, no, no, no. As in, so I like tomato soup.
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I've gone off, like, meaty soups.
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I used to.. any soup, I could have it.
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Like, in a restaurant, soup of the day.
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Do they have that in other countries?
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Yeah, yeah, soup of the day.
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Soup du jour.
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Soup of the day.
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Yeah.
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I used to think, whatever the soup of the day is, I will have it.
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Yeah.
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Because usually you have to ask, what's the soup of the day?
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Well, it's this.
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Now, I feel like I'm getting more picky with my soups.
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That sounds like a 1975 album name.
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Yeah, it does.
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I feel like I'm getting more picky with my soups.
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I'm more picky with your soups.
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I used to order soup, now I don't.
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I go to restaurants and now I sit there, but I don't tip.
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Yeah.
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No. This is a big question.
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Do you want a deep question?
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Yeah, sure.
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I'd love one.
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I feel like crying reading this question out.
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What are you currently doubting in your life?
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Wow.
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What am I doubting?
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School systems.
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I'm back to schools, doubting the school system a lot.
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Yes.
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In your life though? you're done with school.
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Well, for my children.
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For my future children that I'm so worried about.
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Oh, forget about the children, Laura.
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Okay, I'm doubting the school system.
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Yeah.
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Something in your life, Laura.
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In my life?
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Not much.
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No. Doubting...
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How much you spend on stuff?
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What are you trying to say?
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I don't know.
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We're going shopping after this yeah um no i feel pretty secure i'm the kind of person though
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if i if i doubt something or
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if i have any kind of issue with something i'm i try to fix it straight away
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so if i was doubting my fitness i'd be on it do you know what i mean like
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if i thought oh i went up the stairs
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and i was out of breath i'd be like right okay we exercise then
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if i thought well i'm doubting my abilities okay well i'm gonna get better then i'll practice
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so i i like to fix things i don't like just to go
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well and that's it i like to go no let's solve it
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so i don't i can't imagine i would sit in doubt
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for a long time probably not i don't for me i
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don't i'm first doubting like relationships with people i'd go well
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okay i'll talk to them i'll talk to them i'll fix it
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so i don't think i like to i don't like to sit in negativity for a
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while i fix it do you i try to you try to
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but i feel like like that stresses you out more sometimes.
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Do you think?
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Yeah.
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Deep?
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In the search for perfection, you dig your hole deeper.
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Do you know what I mean?
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That sounds like a 1975 album.
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It does.
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Yeah.
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Dig, dig, dig, dig.
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What's the next?
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Should we have one more question?
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I don't know how long we've been talking for.
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I don't know either.
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Let's do two more.
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Let's do two more questions.
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this is an interesting one what app or website completely changed your life google youtube youtube
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changed my life I would say because it has changed I think youtube is a part of your life exactly youtube
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not facebook
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no I don't think it changed my life it might have changed my brain we don't know when we look
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ahead in future years we might look back at how much
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of an impact facebook had on our brains we might say yeah it did change me completely
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and i would have been a different human
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if it weren't for social media we don't know definitely i
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think certainly that's too big you can't you can't say like
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how much do you spend on social media every week yeah
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it's gonna have an impact let's imagine it's it's probably more than this 15 hours
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which is horrible right but if it's more than
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that you can't say to somebody something you do 15 hours minimum a week
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if you get rid of that has no impact on you
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and you'd be absolutely fine no like you would be a completely different person
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if you put 15 hours a week into exercise than social media yeah
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and the thing is I don't think with social media I
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go on social media all the time as well I'm not I'm a hypocrite here but there's nothing I I think there's...
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Social media should be the last thing that you do.
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Everything else is more productive than going on social media.
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Cleaning the house.
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Yeah.
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Reading a book.
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Talking to a friend.
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Going for a walk.
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Eating a meaty soup.
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Eating a...
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Maybe.
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Maybe eating a meaty soup.
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Yeah.
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Recording a podcast.
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Yeah.
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Anything.
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Library.
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Yeah.
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There's...
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Can you name me one thing that social media is more productive than?
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doing drugs?
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Yeah.
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I have to think.
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Yeah.
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It's more productive than anything else that's more destructive.
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You know what I mean?
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So like, yeah, like, jumping off a cliff.
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Yeah.
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Do you know what I mean?
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Yeah, but drugs is very destructive to you, so yeah, I get what you mean.
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Destructive, yeah, you're gonna die.
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There are always things that are more...
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Yeah, I know what you mean.
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You're saying dying is less productive than social media, and that's it
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and that's what we spend 15 hours a week minimum on.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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But that's what the world is now.
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Like, it's...
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What do you do to manage your social media...
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Time.
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Time.
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Um...
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Can I say what I've done?
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What have you done?
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I've unfollowed a lot of people.
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Not them.
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Sorry.
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I've unfollowed a lot of people...
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Who don't serve you.
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Even people who do.
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Even my friends.
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My close family and friends.
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um some of them yeah because because
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because i realize how much i how much i just go on it
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and i'm just trying to make instagram for example less
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and less appealing i don't want instagram to be appealing do you know what i mean
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because if it is then i will want to go on it more like i
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my twitter i follow a lot of football accounts who just talk about football right yeah i do um
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I've unfollowed a lot of them and that's bad for me
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because I'm like oh they're accounts that I like to read about yeah
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but by doing by following them I'm giving myself more of a reason to go on Twitter true
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so I'm trying to just make it make it more boring
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if anything I don't think it's a bad thing
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if you don't have anything else to do like I don't think if you're sat waiting for a train
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and you see I do nothing I do
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because those are the experiences in the world when we sat at train station
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you can sit there and you can watch people.
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Okay, do it for like 10 minutes, but then I also want to have the option of I don't have to sit, because remember when, before we did have that option, you hated it, when you were a kid and you had nothing to do,
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and you were just sat in a car for like five hours going somewhere, you hated it, and if, and like, yeah.
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No, but at the time the radio was, radio was there, good old radio.
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I think it's okay as long as it's not taking, if you're prioritizing it over something else, What annoys me is when people go on it in front of other people.
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Yeah, I know.
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That annoys me.
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Yeah, I know.
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It really annoys me.
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And I don't like that people think that I'm boring by saying that.
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No, I don't think people think you're boring.
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I think they probably just think you're being a bit of a granddad.
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Yeah, but why?
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I know.
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Because I want to spend time with my friends and family.
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Well, people don't want to admit that they're being on it.
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Yeah.
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And in the future, there will be some etiquette, probably, where people will say oh yeah going on your phone in front of people is rude
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well it already is it already is but it will become
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so new and people are still so getting used to it
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and like humans are still getting used to the fact
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that we have this thing in our hands
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and we're just excited to use it like you've given this race of monkeys these you know crazy
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and we're still going we will get to a point where
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we're bored with them sometimes i think sometimes i look around
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and people are on their phones and i'm like oh that's really annoying
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but then I think if they were all reading books, is that any different?
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Because we're not talking to each other anyway still.
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Or if we're all watching the TV, we're not talking to each other, we're just watching the TV.
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So how is this different?
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We have the same thing, if books, if phones and books had never been invented
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and you gave the human race books we'd be doing exactly the same thing you'd see everyone just like
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because it's anything that's new we just want to digest it and I promise you there'll be a revolution at some point.
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A revolution but maybe I think our generation
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or maybe Gen Z maybe not Gen Z they'll love it
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but like one of the generations is going to decide I can't do this anymore
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and people are going to start buying like old there's going to be this need for these retro
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like just texty phones no touchscreen no anything
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and yeah people realize not want to detach man just like
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you know unplug they're gonna have another 70s hippie movement you watch I agree because I agree last question here is this
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before one question is what do you spend too much time doing yeah we know
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that um what about give us a good one to end
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on this one's an interesting go on you pick one you
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pick one you pick one from there um what are the
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top three characteristics you feel are important for a person in
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general just a person i'll choose one you choose one then
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we'll agree on okay i think decency what do you mean by
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that no not decency sorry common sense because i think
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that can be the same common sense i think is vital
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too many people lack common sense can you give me an example
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just being able to show can i change it again i mean like um common sense decency
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but i think what i mean is critical thinking i think being able to think about something
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and not just go okay because people who just hear something
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and just go yeah those are the people
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that mean nasty people can control and manipulate so like
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if everyone just hears something and goes yeah i believe
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that without taking the time to research
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and think oh is it this is it this it is it means you can control
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and manipulate that people whereas if everyone was able to look through these lies
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and look through things then people horrible people wouldn't rise to
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power as easy as easy yeah we're definitely living through a time where lots of people are like that now, probably because of phones.
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Exactly.
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So yeah, so people on Facebook and they see like a headline that says like, there's been a big argument between these two people and they just read that and go,
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okay, yeah, rather than click on it.
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Or they just scroll to the next thing and all they remember is big argument.
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Yeah, but then if they actually clicked on it, it would say something like, someone has reported that this person left the room a bit earlier than the other person.
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It's just nothing, less of nothing.
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They're not doing that crit- so I think critical thinking that's my vote.
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Critical thinking, that's a good one.
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And also with that, what people would in the past would do is they would read a newspaper, for example, they see something, maybe they read the whole article, but even if they don't,
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they probably did read the whole article.
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They read the whole article and then they are sitting at the train station with nothing to do, and what do they do?
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They start thinking about things, they start thinking, how do I feel about that story, that news story, blah blah blah, but now we don't give ourselves time to think about how
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we feel at the city deep we don't have enough time
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anymore to think about how we feel about things we just get given information
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and think now yeah yeah exactly the hokey-cokey in your turn so that's
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if we're designing the perfect human i'd say they need to
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have some critical thinking what else do they need to have what's the word
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when you think when you care about other people empathy empathy empathy is massive
498
so critical thinking and empathy so for example empathy Can you give me an example of empathy?
499
So for example somebody...
500
There's no way how to act around.
501
Somebody's cat has died.
502
They come to your house and you want to buy a cat.
503
But these people are at your house who.. a cat just died, RIP.
504
RIP, which is...
505
Somebody empathetic would not talk about getting a cat in front of
506
that person that's not like a small scale
507
but think that's very small on a big scale think about like someone wants to do evil deeds
508
but then they just have that thing of how would i feel
509
if if that was being done to me do you know what i mean stop how would i feel
510
if somebody robbed my house exactly if you if you are
511
if your empathy like is
512
so strong then it will stop a lot of bad things from happening
513
because people just can't bring themselves to do evil stuff so critical thing of empathy
514
what else for like a good that's really good for a
515
good person i'm thinking about who i'd like to be friends with.
516
I was gonna say patient but not...
517
I think that comes with empathy.
518
I don't think patience is that important either because sometimes it's good to be impatient and just do something.
519
What about.. passion?
520
Care?
521
Passion's good.
522
Passion's good.
523
Passion about something.
524
Because what really annoys me is when you ask people what's your favorite film
525
and they say I don't really have a favorite film?
526
and then you say what's your favorite song? don't really have
527
one what's your favorite food? don't really have one what's your
528
hobbies? they say oh whatever's on yeah whatever's on the radio whatever
529
if you want passionate about anything is very frustrating yeah like choose something even
530
if it's like cake just be passionate about something do you know what i mean?
531
but sometimes i feel like people are but they think
532
so for example maybe they're embarrassed about their favorite film
533
or they um they they think this is their favorite film but they don't love it that much.
534
Well maybe that is still your favourite film even though you don't love that film.
535
Maybe it's your favourite.
536
So someone who is passionate, empathetic and has good critical thinking.
537
What a great human.
538
Yeah probably.
539
I think so too.
540
The quietest Hattie Five.
541
Well I've thoroughly enjoyed discussing this with you today.
542
Do you have anything else you want to say before we go?
543
Not really.
544
We're gonna go shopping in a bit.
545
You need to buy some waterproof shoes.
546
I'm gonna buy it.
547
We are so cool.
548
Yeah, gonna buy some waterproof shoes in the January sales.
549
Gonna buy some slippers as well.
550
I do have slippers in my calendar to maybe buy.
551
You've put in your calendar that you want to buy some slippers?
552
Yeah, because, okay, no, because what would you do?
553
You would put it in a list, would you?
554
Yeah.
555
Shopping list.
556
Yeah.
557
Whereas I'm just putting it in exactly the same place as
558
my my sort of shopping shopping center waterproof shoes plus slippers
559
that's in my calendar you are adorable there you go awesome
560
and then we're going to go and see matilda yes we are thank you
561
so much for joining us i've been very sat back i
562
hope i've been in frame i'm sure i have been i'll be frightened we've been thank you
563
so much thank you so much for joining us we'll be back next time bye
About This Lesson
Practice real-life English listening and speaking with this casual, unscripted conversation between two native speakers. You’ll hear natural pacing, slang, and everyday topics—perfect for bridging the gap between classroom clarity and real-world communication. Use this video to sharpen your listening skills and try the shadowing technique to boost your speaking fluency. It’s great for IELTS speaking practice too, as it mirrors how people actually talk!
Key Vocabulary & Phrases
- "It's not my cup of tea": A common way to say you don’t like something (e.g., "I tried rock climbing, but it’s not my cup of tea").
- "On the house": Free, provided by the business (e.g., "The manager gave us a dessert on the house").
- "Round it up": To increase a bill to the nearest whole number when tipping (e.g., "The total was £73, so I rounded it up to £80").
- "Critical thinking": Analyzing information carefully instead of believing it immediately (e.g., "Critical thinking helps you spot fake news").
- "Unfollow": To stop seeing someone’s posts on social media (e.g., "I unfollowed that account because it was too negative").
Practice Tips: Master the Shadowing Technique
This video’s relaxed tone and conversational speed make it ideal for shadowing—repeat the speakers’ words *immediately* after they say them. Here’s how:
- Play a 5-second clip, pause, and repeat it, mimicking their intonation and rhythm. Focus on phrases like "It’s not my cup of tea" to sound natural.
- For faster parts (e.g., the chat about social media), slow the video down at first. Shadowspeaks work best when you match the energy of the speakers—don’t worry about perfection, just flow.
- After practicing, try answering the same questions aloud. This helps with both listening and speaking, making it a powerful tool for IELTS preparation.
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.