Shadowing Practice: English Listening Practice - REAL Native Conversation! (B2 - C1) - Learn English Speaking with Video

Hello everyone, my name is Dylan and welcome to a brand new video.

If you are new here, hi there, I post fun and relaxing English lessons every single week.

So today I'm going to be hitting you with some more real everyday British English conversation.

Now as I've been saying over the last couple of videos,

I've noticed that sometimes I make a very conscious effort to speak as clearly as possible.

And this is because, of course, if you're watching this video,

then you are going to be learning English and therefore you need to be able to understand what your teacher is saying.

However, I do appreciate that out there in the real world, not everyone speaks this clearly.

So therefore, in today's video, I'm not going to try to speak particularly clearly either.

I'm going to be speaking at a very natural and native pace.

So that means that this video is going to be excellent practice for

when you do come to an English-speaking country because this is how most of us actually talk.

So with that in mind I would say

that this video is probably going to be a listening exercise at about a B2 to a C1 English level.

So I have gathered some random questions about all sorts of different things

and I'm just going to be doing my best to answer them in a natural and native way.

So throughout this video I will be using quite a lot of different expressions

and pieces of vocabulary so if I say something

that I think will be beneficial for you to know it

will pop up here on the screen it will say whatever the word is

or the expression with a short definition and everything

that does also pop up will be included in a free PDF so you have all of it in one convenient place.

The link to that PDF will be in the top comment.

You don't need to sign up to anything you just hit the link and press download.

Right then let's do this.

So I have got a random question generator in front of me and we have about 25 different questions today.

By the way this is actually a part two to a video I made a couple of weeks ago

so if you do enjoy this one I'll put the link to the first one in the top comment

and it will also appear at the end of the video as well.

Right then guys question number one.

Would you rather have a pet dragon the size of a hamster or a hamster the size of a dragon?

So we're starting with the important questions um i can't really

think of any benefit to having a dragon sized hamster like

logistically that's going to be a bit of a pain in

the ass i don't think it's going to fit in my house let alone this room

so i'm probably going to have to go for the the hamster sized dragon

which would actually be quite useful firstly it's going to be

a lot easier to look after secondly um well it's it's currently January in the UK

which means it's bloody freezing like I think it was minus five the other day

so a source of fire would be quite useful

so I think I would get the the small dragon

and just ask him

or her to just I don't know blow some fire into the corner of the room to create some heat

and you don't have to pay for the electricity

that way as well

so that's kind of like a more efficient version of heating

up the house as opposed to just having the radiators on the whole time

so we're going to go for the small dragon to um

well to help me out during the winter months yeah

and during summer i don't know just let it roam free

let it do whatever a hamster sized dragon wants to do what's a small moment that completely changed your life

oh I have one

but it's going to lead to a very long story it

actually is the reason why I started my YouTube in the first place yeah

so this is a long story I'm going to make it as brief

or as succinct as possible okay about 10 years ago I had a random seizure.

A seizure is otherwise known as a fit.

And it's when you lose consciousness, you fall to the ground, you might shake about a bit and your eyes go crazy.

And yeah, it's pretty unpleasant.

But it does happen.

It's not that uncommon just to have like a random one off seizure.

Because of this, they put me on some medication, right?

And the medication was, I had no side effects.

So I was happy to take it.

It wasn't really a big deal.

Fast forward, seven years, so about three years ago, I was applying.

I wanted to teach English abroad and specifically I chose South Korea.

So I was in the process of applying to become a teacher in South Korea.

Everything was going smoothly.

I thought it would be a pretty easy process because pretty much everyone gets accepted to be a teacher in South Korea.

Like it's not particularly hard as long as you have like the qualifications

and stuff um so yeah I got to the final stage where you're about to have the interview

and then I got an email saying yeah no um it's

not happening sorry mate you're not going to be a teacher here

and I was very confused they didn't actually give a reason why

so I spoke to the woman who was helping me with the application she was really nice

and she basically said yeah I don't really know why either

probably because on the form you have to say what medicine you have taken in the past

and I put the seizure one and

that probably um scared them off quite a bit

because they're very very strict with things like that which is

so stupid because I don't know they lost a great teacher

that day I would have been so good

so whatever anyway I was pretty pissed off with that

so well I didn't really know what to do to be honest

so I was sulking for about a week feeling sorry for myself And then I thought, you know what, whatever, I'm going to teach English anyway,

so I just need to find another way to do this.

So I randomly decided to start a YouTube channel.

And yeah, the rest is history.

This was about two and a half years ago, I think, I started my channel around then.

So if I hadn't had that random seizure, I wouldn't have started my channel.

I wouldn't be here today.

So it's crazy how something so small

and seemingly negative at the time can have such like a big impact on your life, like seven years down the road.

So, yeah, guys, that's a that's an interesting story, right?

What's one thing you always forget when you go to the shop?

This is an easy one.

I always, always, always forget to bring a bloody plastic bag.

in the uk they charge you for plastic bags used to

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be 5p i went away for a few months came back now it's 30p

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which is a bit crazy

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and i just always forget i don't i don't know what

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it is whenever i go into sainsbury's i'm just always having

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to keep buying these plastic bags after plastic bags now my kitchen is just full of these plastic bags

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and yeah it's a bit of a pain in the ass um

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so if you guys can do me a favor

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and just put in the comments just remind me to bring a bloody bag when I next go to Sainsbury's.

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I'd appreciate that.

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I'd appreciate that.

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How many cups of tea is too much in one day?

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Well, that depends who you ask.

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I'm gonna say nine.

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Nine cups of tea is too much.

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what's the most british insult you can think of

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oh um well i don't want to swear too much so

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that does kind of limit my answer a bit i guess

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a family friendly british insult would be um you can call someone a plonker.

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And that just means you're a bit of an idiot.

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I haven't heard plonker in a while, but most...

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I think pretty much all British people will know what you mean if you call someone a plonker.

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Yeah, it's a good word actually, plonker.

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I might start using that.

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What's one thing you think people misunderstand about you? you.

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I don't know, because I don't really know what you guys understand about me.

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I think, as I've said in the previous videos, I was speaking very clearly.

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And I think this was quite, I did this subconsciously, because obviously, if you're teaching to an international audience, you need to be able to speak as clearly as possible.

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And even though the intention was not to like mislead anyone, it still felt slightly inauthentic,

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because it's like, that isn't how I normally speak in real life situations.

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So it wasn't malicious, but it still felt slightly inauthentic, as I say.

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So that's why I like these videos here where I can speak at a more natural pace.

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And another way that people probably misunderstand me is, well, it relates to my newsletters.

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And I do actually, I'm going to get a couple of my newsletters on the screen now this is relevant don't worry

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so I'm going to put one here

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and this was the time I got arrested in Japan

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so the story is I was riding on a bike in Japan

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and I was listening to music I had my headphones in

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and a police officer did pull me over

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and he tried to give me a ticket but after realizing

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that I don't speak a word of Japanese apart from Azas and Oishi.

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The guy realized it was more trouble than it was worth.

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So he just let me go.

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So of course, you know, I had to milk that and get a newsletter out of it.

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So there are people that see that email.

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And I checked my inbox the other day.

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And there were quite a few people that messaged me like, Are you okay?

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I'm so sorry, you got into trouble with the law in Japan.

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So what happened?

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Are you out now?

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Is that right?

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You okay?

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So I think they just see like the heading of the email and assume that I'm being serious.

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And I'm kind of being serious.

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And another example is for Christmas, one of my students very kindly gifted me a panda.

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So you know, I had to get an email out of that.

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I had to get a newsletter out of it.

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I said something like, I'm officially a father.

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And that led to me getting loads of really nice responses saying, congratulations on you and your family.

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That's amazing.

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Oh, congratulations.

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That's brilliant.

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An early Christmas present

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when in reality I just have a panda in China who I technically own I don't know

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if I own it I adopted it yeah

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so I think maybe the problem is

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when you make these sorts of weird jokes with a completely straight face in the tone

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that I tend to make jokes in like

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when I talk about my ex-wife and all my kids

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and stuff like that people might assume that you're telling the truth which is understandable.

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It's just try British humour, I guess.

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Speaking of newsletters, every single Tuesday I send out a short funny English lesson about my life.

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It's a lot of fun.

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You do also get sent an exclusive bonus YouTube video as soon as you sign up.

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Right, that's the last time I'll mention it.

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What is the weather like today where you are?

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Um, I can't really see because the blinds slightly closed.

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It's grey.

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It's grey.

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I can only slightly see, but an educated guess will tell me that it is grey and dull in the UK.

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Yeah.

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Do you have any weird or unexpected skills?

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Yeah.

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Get me a skateboard.

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Get me a skateboard.

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That's all I'll say.

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Get me a skateboard.

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One day I will surprise you guys with a skateboard.

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How does one cup of tea somehow fix everything?

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Right, I know this is kind of like a bit of a joke question, but I think there is a slightly deeper meaning to this one.

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So I am actually going to answer it properly.

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making a cup of tea is a moment of tranquility

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and serenity it gives you a break from your work so say

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if I'm here at my desk working on something just staring

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at a laptop for like two hours there is something about

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standing up leaving your phone at the desk obviously not taking your laptop with you, going downstairs, putting the kettle on,

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boiling the water, putting it in the mug, waiting for the tea to diffuse out of the teabag into the mug,

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taking it out, putting the milk in.

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That ritual is kind of like the, there's a certain level, it's kind of like a novelty.

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And it just gives you five minutes of peace.

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You don't have to think about this.

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Like if you're British

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that is just going on to autopilot mode that's how you

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make a cup of tea like we all know how to do it it happens intrinsically

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so I don't know it's kind of like five minutes of just peace

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and not having to think about anything

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and getting the excuse to like getting the chance to walk around a little bit

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and just like stand up and not be at your desk

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and of course once you've done all that you are rewarded with a delicious beverage so it doesn't fix everything but

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it does help.

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How old are you?

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Right, this is a question that I have received quite a lot, so I may as well just answer it now.

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So I am somewhere between the ages of 25 and 65.

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Would you rather always have wet socks or never be able to use a fork again?

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Ooh, we're back to the would you rather questions.

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I did a whole video of these would you rather questions last week.

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Okay, I can't live my life having only wet socks.

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That would be horrible.

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that you're just robbing yourself of the pleasure of being able

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to put a dry pair of socks on you know

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when you're freezing cold in the UK I know I keep banging on about the weather

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but seriously it is nippy out here it's very very cold um

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so I'm gonna have to I'd rather have dry socks

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and just never use a fork again it's not really

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that big of a deal I can use a knife I can use a spoon I can use chopsticks

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or I can just you know pick the plate up

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and eat it straight from the plate with my mouth like a dog.

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It's all good.

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It's all good.

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I live by myself, so it's not really a big deal.

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There's no one there to judge me.

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Do you prefer working in silence or with music on?

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So I am not ashamed to admit that I am one of those people

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that goes into YouTube and types in work music or study music and just has that on in the background.

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And it's chill.

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It's just

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if you've ever listened to one of those playlists it's like

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there's no lyrics it's just a very chill sort of beat

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and there's something about it that does I think make it easier to concentrate

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so not all the time

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but I would probably prefer working with some very quiet

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chill music on um what's the best gift you have ever received

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the gift of life, my friend.

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No, I'm joking.

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When I was like 10, I think I was given a football for Christmas and a goal,

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like a small football goal that had a net and everything.

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It was so exciting.

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I put that up in the garden and I just got so much, so many hours of fun from just playing football in the garden

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and I'd say in terms of what gift has brought the most pleasure and enjoyment into my life

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I mean that's the one that springs to mind yeah

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so I'm gonna have to say

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that in terms of gifts I've received as an adult I actually have one wait it's give me a second

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so about a year ago my friend gave this to me

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and it was very unexpected it's basically how do I open it it's basically a dry perfume

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so it's all it's empty now

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but it's kind of like it's got like a texture of like Vaseline

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and you rub it on you put it on your neck

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and firstly I didn't know this existed secondly it's just

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so easy to carry around with you it's got a very nice weight to it

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so it just feels good got a nice little picture on the front and oh my goodness this stuff smells

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incredible it smells so good and it's got a nice magnetic

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clothes on it as well

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so I'm gonna have to say this is probably the best gift I've received as an adult

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so thank you very much yeah and of course

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that panda I was gifted that was very generous as well

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and I got a newsletter out of it so happy days happy days what's a common mistake English learners make?

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Some of them don't watch this channel, which is just like crazy.

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So that's probably the most common mistake, not watching this channel.

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Next question.

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What's your guilty pleasure oh this actually relates to the the present I just showed you

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so just so you know a guilty pleasure is like it's something

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that you enjoy

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but you feel weirdly guilty about it even though it isn't necessarily a bad thing to do

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because it might be a little bit quirky and people might shame you

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if you if they find out that you like it so a guilty pleasure could be like

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I don't know it could be like watching romantic comedies

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or listening to jazz whilst drinking milk not necessarily bad things

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but just a little bit obscure to the point where people might try and

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I don't know judge you for it my guilty pleasure I

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used to be obsessed with perfume I obsessed with it

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and this was when I was like 15 to 16

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so like for a young teenage male to be obsessed with

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perfume I think is slightly strange yeah it got to the point where there was like this

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department store where I used to live in my hometown

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and after school I'd walk past it

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and I made friends with the woman in there she was like some 50 year old woman

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and we would just I'd go in there and I'd talk to her about perfumes and she'd give me the little

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the little spray bottles because of course back then well you have no money at

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that age so you can't actually buy any of them

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which is a little bit annoying

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but I had a very vast knowledge of perfumes back then

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and I was really into it so I'd say that's probably my guilty pleasure

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right um I'm not gonna lie we do have a bit of a bonus here

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because I wasn't sure on the best way to describe what a guilty pleasure was

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so I did google it and I came across this website

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that shows you your favorite guilty pleasure according to your zodiac sign

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so we're going to do this together guys just in case

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you are unsure what your guilty pleasure could be you just

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need to look at the photo i've put on the screen

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and we can work it out together

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so let's see how accurate this is i'm a pisces

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so apparently my guilty pleasure is cry sessions which isn't true i'm afraid

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that is not true if it was i'll do it up to it genuinely but it's not really the case so

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It's not accurate for me.

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Let's go through this and see if any of these apply to me.

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Reality TV, not really.

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Fine dining.

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I don't really think fine dining is a guilty pleasure.

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I mean, that sounds like quite a pleasant pleasure, to be honest.

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Social media, fresh flowers, spending money.

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Yeah, maybe.

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People watching, redecorating.

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I did used to, I used to really like redecorating my bedroom when I was younger, just like rearranging where the bed is.

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And it's quite a small room, there was only so much you could do with it but I used to find that very satisfying to be honest.

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Romance novels, I've never read a romance novel in my life.

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Travel planning, I despise planning, especially travel planning.

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Working from bed, yeah true, I mean as I said guys it's very cold in the UK

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so I was yesterday I was actually trying to work from bed, I was planning some lessons,

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got into bed with my laptop was working for about 15 minutes

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and I just fell asleep I just fell asleep I woke

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up like three hours later with my laptop still in front of me straight back to the grime baby

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so yeah I can't work from bed anymore

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because I just fall asleep at this point video games not really my bag

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but yeah hopefully guys um this photo will give you a

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bit of an idea as to what your guilty pleasure could be based on your zodiac sign

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so enjoy right next question do you believe in the concept

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of soulmates bloody oh i'm glad we didn't have this at

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the start um not really i think having one soulmate is

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unrealistic i think there are certainly obviously there are people out there who you are probably very compatible with.

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And if you meet one of these people, I think that you aren't necessarily soulmates because you could have many different soulmates.

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So they aren't like the one.

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However, I think you do probably grow with this person in a way that makes you more similar.

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And therefore, you could argue that you have become soulmates.

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So I think you could have, let's say, like, 100 potential soulmates out there.

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It just depends on which one you meet first, or, you know, if you do ever meet them.

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And you become, you kind of grow together.

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So you change your personality a bit, they change their personality a bit to the point where you may as well be soulmates.

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Does that make sense?

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So I think you have a lot of potential soulmates out there, not just one and you grow together in a way

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that allows you to become soulmates right i think that makes sense do you think fish get thirsty no

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times you've laughed at the worst possible moment um i was

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getting told off with a couple of my friends in it was in maths class

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when I was about 16 a lot of my stories come from when I was 16

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anyway and um it was me and two of my friends

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and the teacher was like shouting at us

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and for some reason my friend just burst out laughing

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and it was just so awkward and unexpected the teacher stopped

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and then we all started laughing apart from the teacher

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so I was never like a naughty I was never like disruptive at school

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but things like that would occasionally happen and it's just like you know when you're

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when something when you shouldn't laugh and that's

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when you just randomly start laughing moments at school when

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if it's like silent or

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if you're being told off you know you shouldn't laugh That's the last thing that you should do in that situation,

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which is why it's just so tempting to do it and why it's so funny and contagious if someone else does it.

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So, yeah, that's my answer.

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I'm sorry to that maths teacher.

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I have forgotten her name, but it's what it is.

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Do you believe in karma?

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Yeah, I think that, listen, if you're a dick for a long enough amount of time, eventually, what's the expression?

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Your chickens will come home to roost?

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Roast?

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Roost?

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I think that's the expression it basically means that well in this case

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if you're a dick for a long enough time eventually you know you're going to get an equal reaction

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so if you keep doing bad things eventually someone is going to do something bad to you

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and that will technically be karma

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if you keep doing bad things bad things will happen to you

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so you could argue that's karma and on the flip side

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if you keep doing positive things then you'll get an equal reaction

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and people will be nice to you

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and will do something positive to you as well

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so i think over the the long haul people tend to get what they deserve

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so that is i'd say that's kind of like karma

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so yeah i do i think it's very scientific to be

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honest i think karma is a it's definitely a real thing

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what's the best dessert you've ever had oh um i was a cheesecake person

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for a long time but recently I've been indulging in terimisu

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which is just exceptional I'll definitely put a photo of terimisu on the screen I'm sure you've had it but delicious

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what's something

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simple that makes you happy

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just going for a walk a little stroll yeah

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so not necessarily like hiking like an arduous trek up a hill

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or a mountain just like a little stroll the UK there's

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a lot of um a lot of green spaces here it's quite easy to find like a park

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or just some areas just like a patch of grass for some trees nearby

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so just walking around there for 10 to 15 minutes makes me pretty happy to be honest

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right guys we have two more i have been speaking pretty fast this whole video by the way

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so if you do understand

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if you have understood me then fair play your listening is

389

pretty good right um the penultimate question you guys know what penultimate means do you believe in ghosts

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so i used to i certainly used to

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when about 15 years ago there was this period where there

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was just like this onslaught of new horror films being released

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in in the west probably in in Europe as well where it was just um the same film over

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and over and over again

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and it was kind of like a new category of film I would say

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and it was like this supernatural ghost type film

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so it wasn't like gory it wasn't like um people getting cut

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and you know like chainsaws and murder after murder it was more sort of psychological

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and the main one I'd say the the vanguard to this whole genre was a film called Paranormal Activity,

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which in fairness was terrifying.

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When I first saw that, I was pretty young and I was at the age where I wasn't too sure if it was real or not.

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So when I watched that for a good few months, I certainly did believe in ghosts.

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I haven't seen any since, but that doesn't necessarily mean I don't believe in them.

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I don't know.

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I'm kind of on the fence with it.

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Right guys, final question.

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What is the last thing you bought?

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The most boring answer ever.

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I bought more storage for my Google Drive account.

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Now I've got to give you something better than that.

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I'll give you the last tangible thing I bought.

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which is equally boring um i'm trying to see if i have it

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i don't have it it's a charger for my keyboard that's rubbish let me give you something else

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one sec this bag i bought this bag um i don't really need a bag

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and i'm not too sure why i bought it it was from a brand

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that i like and it was on sale i bought it on boxing day whilst watching shrek

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and i bought it on my phone from an email they sent out

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so it was that type of purchase and certainly an impulse purchase yeah

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but you know i kind of like it i guess it

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will probably come in handy at some point it seems to be pretty good quality this kind of feels like a

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it's kind of like a seat belt to be honest um

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but yeah this is the last thing i bought

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so yeah that's good right and

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that is the final question there we have it guys

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so thank you so much for watching today's video as mentioned i was speaking pretty quickly

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so if you have understood most of this video then congratulations

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that you are probably at a C1 English listening level

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so congratulations and if you haven't understood all of this video please don't get discouraged it's quite challenging

429

and if you have made this far then fair play to you

430

and you probably are at like a B2 level

431

but yeah either way thank you so much for watching

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so as mentioned I did use quite a lot of different expressions

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and pieces of vocabulary which will be appearing in a free pdf the link to

434

that is in the top comment um what else do we

435

have yeah every tuesday guys i send out a free newsletter

436

so i would definitely recommend you to check

437

that out you get sent an exclusive bonus video as soon as you sign up

438

if you did enjoy today's video why not consider liking the video

439

and subscribing to the channel it is massively appreciated

440

and oh yeah um I have been posting to my Spotify a lot

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so I've kind of started like not really a podcast

442

but I've been making quite a few videos like this where it's just unscripted

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and it's like English listening practice where I use some vocabulary I'll tell some stories

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or play some games or something like that and these videos don't go up in my YouTube is just on my Spotify.

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So if you would like that, it's completely free.

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I'll put the link to that in the top comment.

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So why not check it out?

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I've been posting quite a lot there recently.

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I think I posted like three different videos last week.

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So yeah, guys, it's definitely worth checking out.

451

And if you do enjoy that, please consider following the Spotify and rating this show five star.

452

It makes a massive difference.

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Right, guys, what else?

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I think that's it.

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So, oh by the way yeah as mentioned part one will be appearing here

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and in one of these corners either that one or

457

that one it will be telling you guys to subscribe so you may as well do that as well

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right then thank you again for watching I hope you all have a lovely weekend

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and I will hopefully see you guys next week for another video cheers

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Why This Video is Gold for Real-Life English Practice

If you’re looking to learn English with videos that mirror how people actually talk, this clip is a game-changer. Unlike scripted lessons, the speaker uses natural pacing, casual phrases, and even a bit of slang—just like you’d hear in a coffee shop or a friend’s living room. It’s perfect for bridging the gap between classroom English and real-world communication, making it a secret weapon for IELTS speaking practice too. The mix of humor and everyday logic (like debating a tiny dragon vs. a giant hamster) keeps it engaging, so you won’t even realize you’re learning.

Breaking Down the Natural Flow

Let’s unpack why this dialogue sounds so authentic. First, “I can’t really think of any benefit to having a dragon-sized hamster—like logistically that’s going to be a bit of a pain in the ass.” The pause with “like” and the informal “pain in the ass” show how native speakers break up thoughts and use casual language. Next, “it’s currently January in the UK, which means it’s bloody freezing—like I think it was minus five the other day.” The repetition of “like” here isn’t a mistake; it’s a natural way to add emphasis or clarify. Finally, “you don’t have to pay for the electricity that way as well—so that’s kind of like a more efficient version of heating.” The phrase “kind of like” softens the statement, making it sound conversational, not robotic. These small details are what make real English feel alive.

A Simple Shadowing Routine to Try

To turn this video into speaking practice, try a shadowing exercise. Start by watching a 10-second clip, then pause and repeat it out loud, mimicking the tone, speed, and pauses. If you have a shadowing app, record yourself and compare it to the original—notice how close you are to the natural rhythm. Focus on phrases like “bloody freezing” or “pain in the ass” to get comfortable with slang. Do this for 5 minutes a day, and you’ll start to shadow speak more like a native. Over time, you’ll notice your intonation and fluency improve, making conversations feel less like work and more like second nature.

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 saying · I've been indulging · have been speaking
Conditional sentences if + clause, will/would + verb — a condition and its result	if you do enjoy this one I'll put · if it was i'll do
“Used to” used to + verb — a past habit or state that is no longer true	used to be · used to live · used to really like
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	I've noticed · have gathered · have taken

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 →

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Breaking Down the Natural Flow

A Simple Shadowing Routine to Try

Grammar in this video

What is the Shadowing Technique?