Shadowing Practice: English with Lucy / A Conversation with Lucy Earl (LEP#693) - Learn English Speaking with Video

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hello lucy hello how are you i'm fine how are you i'm very good thank you i'm quite excited

because i think i mentioned your podcast in a video you did quite a

while back and i never never once imagined

that i would be on it it's very exciting thank you

thank you for mentioning my podcast on in in one of

your videos my my sort of like email subscriber list went boing

and i was like hello yes that's exciting yeah that's great you live on a farm don't you I do.

I live on a farm.

In England, my fiancé, so the man I'm going to marry, is a farmer.

He does mainly arable, which is crops, so wheat, barley, beans.

It's all very exciting.

We have very different jobs, and I think that's why it works.

Yes.

No animals there, then?

No, no. It's all arable now.

Arable crops.

OK, very nice.

Do you make bread and stuff there?

no we just sell it on

and someone else makes it to be honest i am i

don't know much too much about what goes on that's my fiance

and his dad they do all of that

and i just stay in my little studio

and sometimes hear a tractor reverse past but that's it really okay i see i see that's fantastic

so lucy right where where are you from actually

so i'm from bedfordshire a little village i grew up there um

and then i went to university in london and spain and now i'm in cambridgeshire

do you have an accent these are the questions that learners of english often will ask

so i speak from what i can tell with the modern rp accent the modern received pronunciation accent

but there are definite hints of estuary english in there as well especially

when i'm talking with my family or with my friends

when you speed it up glottal stops start coming in

and other little pronunciation quirks um i think there's

so much blending now with accents

and dialects yes definitely what about you i think i'm probably

the same although i've got i don't know can you can

you hear any hint of an accent i mean obviously everyone's got an accent

if you speak you have an accent

but can you can you hear any sort of uh regional flavor in there at all

or or not i wonder this would be a guess i'm not

that good at working out where people are from

but are you from the south of london well i'm actually from london

and the midlands so i've spent lots of time in west london

and then also lots of time in the west midlands as well

so so which which city or town sort of solihull warwickshire

that area okay my grandparents live there oh really yeah lovely area yeah it is it is nice

so when i'm with my friends sometimes it sort of becomes a bit more grummy like

that you know i can start sounding a bit more like i'm from solihull

or something but then i've lived in london a lot of my life as well

so i have most of the time a normal sort of received pronunciation accent not dissimilar to yours

That's the thing, isn't it?

It's definitely the people you spend time with.

So when I learned Spanish, I was with my ex -boyfriend who was Spanish.

Well, he still is.

He's still alive.

And yeah, he is from Seville.

So I very quickly went from schoolgirl Spanish to a kind of Andalusian accent.

And that was quite interesting.

And Will went to university in Sirencester which is in the Cotswolds

and it seems to be quite a posh university and it's

so funny because when he's with his friends I see him adapting to a slightly posher accent

and then when he's on the farm with farm workers with his family

and his dad I see him almost go the other way it's

so interesting to adapt to other people yeah yeah it's totally normal

and natural as well to adapt your accent like

that what did you do at university i studied marketing ah

and yes has that has

that helped you in in what you do do you think definitely it's it's amazing nowadays

because uh marketing has changed so much and

so quickly it's always changing i mean we did a subject on digital marketing

and we didn't even touch on facebook or social media or influencers because this was 2012 to 2016.

Whereas now, I think if they did a segment or a session on that, I think it would be all about influencer marketing and Facebook ads and things like that.

So what I did learn was mainly through examples of what previous marketing companies had done,

successful campaigns, mess ups.

It was very, very interesting.

But I think for marketing, you've just got to learn as you go along and use a lot of instinct.

Yes.

OK.

Spanish.

You talked about learning Spanish.

So wait a minute.

You went to university in Westminster, right?

University of Westminster and then and marketing.

And so what about Spanish then and moving to Spain?

How did that happen?

Yeah, so I loved Spanish at school, and I was always desperate to spend some time out there.

When I was 16, 17, I used to work in a pub, and I used to save up all my money to then pay for

a Spanish course for a week each half term over in Seville.

And I knew that I wanted to spend at least some of my university time in Spain.

So I chose a university with an Erasmus program have you

ever heard of Erasmus yeah it's basically international studying program isn't it yeah yes yeah it's something

that I imagine the UK won't be a part of

when it leaves the EU which is so sad

because it was such an amazing amazing program international students from all over Europe would come together

and study together it was awesome and so I did

that in Madrid and then I stayed that was for a term

and then i stayed on for another year it was meant

to be a marketing placement year a placement is like um

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when you are put with a company paid a salary

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but it forms part of your university degree but the company shut down

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so i ended up being an english teacher and here we are

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another person who ended up being an english teacher

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which is quite common yeah definitely okay but tell me about learning spanish

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because like um how is your spanish by the way

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it's good i would consider it's good

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so arrogant i mean it's fluent um i am fluent in spanish

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because and i heard you mention this

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when you did a podcast with your wife it's very hard to change the accent

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that kind of dominates your relationship i'm not sure how you

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put it in a much better way than i've just put

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it i think maybe i said something like um you know once you start

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a relationship in one language then it's very hard to move up you know it's this

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that that defines the relationship that's exactly it and that's exactly what happened with my ex -boyfriend

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we started speaking in spanish together

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and he wasn't he wasn't particularly fluent in english at the

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time he actually found it very embarrassing to talk with me in english

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which was quite interesting i never expected that and uh and so

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that is i'm sad to say one of the best ways

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to get fluent in another language is to shack up with someone learning by doing definitely

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right okay okay okay but you don't have like uh do you still work on your spanish these days

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Not as much as I'd like to.

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The farm is quite restrictive, so we can't really leave, especially not during the summer, which is the time that I would love to go to Spain a lot,

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so I might start doing it more in the future.

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But I do have quite a few Spanish friends I'm still in contact with, but I'm not actively working on it.

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And it did kind of get to a level where i

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wasn't really learning the language anymore it was more just honing it a little bit

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and i definitely hadn't learned it like grammar in a book i just learned through speaking and immersion

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so for example i always had a huge problem with accents you know the the little written accents yeah um

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because i never learned where they went

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so i just never used them i just used spoke spoken spanish

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and um so that that's almost like a little bit of a regret

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because when i when i write spanish i don't feel

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that it comes across that i know spanish as well as i do

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so that's why i always push my students to make sure they understand the grammar as well

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and english spelling if they can but it's not the most important thing

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if you just want to speak it then just talk

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and listen and and

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so after going to university doing the marketing doing the spanish

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thing how long were you living in spain were you there

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for a long time i lived there for nearly two years okay um

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but i lived in england with my spanish boyfriend for another two years as well

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so it was basically four years of immersion yeah

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and we were living in london together

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and working little jobs in London whilst I was at uni

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and one thing I discovered was that Spanish people are just

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so friendly that they immediately met all of the other Spaniards in London

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and stayed together as a group I mean they had the most fantastic social life amongst themselves

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so it was great for me it was terrible for my partner

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because it meant he didn't meet any other English speakers to talk to um

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but it was great for me

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so i had my mini spain within london where did this

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awesome where did the spanish people hang out was it in a particular part of town It was all in houses.

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Ah, but there was one nightclub called, I think, Zubar or something.

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Oh, yeah.

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Or Tiger Tiger?

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Tiger Tiger.

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Oh, I can't remember.

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Tiger Tiger.

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I think it was that.

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The infamous Tiger Tiger in Piccadilly Circus, right?

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Yes, that was it.

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And I remember once going along to a language exchange event there, but I didn't realise this.

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I just thought it was a...

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Language exchange.

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Were they just exchanging languages or...?

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Just languages.

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Just...

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What should we call it?

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A tongue exchange?

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Maybe.

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and you were meant to there was a face painter there

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and she said to me so you know where are you from what do you want

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and I said oh I'd like a melon like a watermelon

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and so I had a watermelon painted on my face I remember her being like okay that's fine

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and then I left the painting studio

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and everyone else had their flags painted on their faces

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so you could see where they're from

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and I was there with a bloody melon on my face why did you want a melon on your face

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because my favorite fruit yeah fair enough yeah there we are everyone's there with a flag on

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which is the perfect conversation starter oh i see you're from blah blah blah

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and you're like with a melon and they're like what what flag is

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that if you're not hella heard of melanonia or wherever it is

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that i know okay yeah tiger tiger i remember my students uh in london

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when i was teaching in London they would sometimes go to

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Tiger Tiger I don't know how people found it it's all

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word of mouth isn't it it's all word of mouth

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and the name is quite memorable as well

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but people you know I'd like hear from the students oh

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yeah everyone's going to Tiger Tiger tonight I'd be like all

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right okay did you ever go no I never went oh

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see I was a bad teacher I did go whilst I

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was in my last year of university this was the year after Spain I was

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so desperate to keep my kind of Spanish alive

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and still interact with spanish people that i did a lot of teaching

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and then i became really friendly with my students

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which is always something that isn't recommended but is often impossible

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because you're often of a similar age similar sense of humor

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and and i did go to tiger tiger a couple of times

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which was also around the same time i started my youtube channel

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and then i slowly started realizing that more and more people were watching

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and i couldn't misbehave at tiger tiger with a melon on

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my face do you get do you get recognized sometimes hardly ever hardly ever i mean

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when i go to london or i go abroad then yes but i hardly go and especially not in lockdown

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but i did have one funny experience i went to bali

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in indonesia with will this was our first holiday together

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so i was feeling you know quite excited because i knew

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that a large part of my audience came from indonesia um they're a very vocal group they love to comment

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and say oh hello from indonesia they're just so friendly

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so i i was pretty sure that i was gonna meet someone out there

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that might have watched my videos

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and uh we were at this tourist attraction i think it was a hole in a cliff

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and if the wave hit it right then water would spurt out it was mildly disappointing

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but uh this group of girls ran up to us

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and said oh can we take your picture can we take your picture

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and then proceeded to hand me the camera to have a picture with William

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because I'd never seen such a tall person before oh my goodness I felt

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so humbled Will found that hilarious you were the third most interesting prospect at

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that location like yes basically water flying out of a hole

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one second in this case um yeah it didn't do my ego any good uh

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but it was very very funny yeah yeah definitely um okay

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so when did you when did you start

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when did you choose to start doing youtube videos then well i had the idea for quite a

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while uh because i was around 19

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when i started teaching english um i did a tefl qualification in seville

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and um and then i was they hired me there to stay on

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and work which blew my mind but now i'm understand why um but

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yes I accepted a very low wage and they just thought

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that being a native blonde British girl was enough to teach

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these you know loads of students I thought they liked me anyway

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but yes so I started teaching

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but obviously had no experience I'd I'd never really dealt

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that much with grammar I'd learned a limited amount of Spanish grammar

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and then just kind of winged it yeah yeah winged it

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or wong it what do you think it's got to be

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winged it's got to be winged it isn't it where are

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you getting wong from to wing something wing wing wang wong wing wang wong sing sang song there may be

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but i guess yeah when you turn a noun the wing into a verb to wing it

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which is obviously listeners viewers meaning to make something up on the spot to kind of improvise

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when you haven't prepared properly um then um

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which is often the best way sometimes but anyway absolutely uh wing yes to

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when you turn a noun into a verb how do you then conjugate

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that verb if the if if it's new so wing i think i think winged

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winged we'll go with winged i still think one has more of a charm yeah maybe

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but winged is fine uh yeah

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so i was winging it oh i didn't even need to use

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that verb at the end right okay just use the continuous

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form no problem i was winging it um i i had to teach prepare students for exams

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and i just knew

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if these students were going to pass then i really needed to up my game great phrase

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that isn't it there's another one vocab hunters improve yeah up your game

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up your game do you explain as you go along

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or do you have a yeah sometimes sometimes i probably should more

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but sometimes it depends if the conversation is flowing then we'll just go with the flow

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but uh yes uh to up your game yeah i think

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it's i think probably fairly clear to raise your game up

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your game raise your game as well yeah to really start

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to make an effort yeah improve improve i guess basically

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or yeah make more of an effort in order to improve

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you started to raise your game you started to up your game i did i did and um i started to

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really look into the grammar i was finding

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that grammar books just weren't they weren't helping me

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so i started looking on youtube and i could see that a lot of uh there were a lot of teachers

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basically filming their classes um normally they were intending it for a very small audience

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and then it went viral and reached a very big audience yeah

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but it was often teachers that were were treating the camera as

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if it were their classroom of six to 30 students

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and I learned a lot from them

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but I just noticed a little bit of a gap in the market

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so an opportunity a work a business opportunity there

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and thought I think I could do that

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but I didn't want to do it at that point

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because I didn't feel like a skilled enough teacher

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so I just kept it in the back of my head

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and honed my teaching skills did as much training as I could did as much studying as I could

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and then in the end absolutely fell in love with teaching English

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because at the time I was just thinking of it as a way to fill a year

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because I couldn't re -enroll in university for that year

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and my placement scheme had failed the company had gone bust they had collapsed financially gone out of business and

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but actually towards the end I was I started to think

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this is what I want to do I love teaching yeah

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so when I went back to England I carried on teaching

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and then in the final the beginning of the final semester

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of my final year at university I started the channel

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which was very exciting yeah and it's it's doing

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so well it's I mean how do you feel about the response

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that you've had

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because like you've got what like four point something million subscribers

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on YouTube you've got to be one of the most famous

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English teachers on YouTube certainly one of the most famous British

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English teachers on YouTube it's a bit of a sensation isn't it you've been in the newspapers

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and stuff you're making me blush if I wasn't wearing

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so much makeup you'd he's been bright red um yeah it's

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true it's very i'm just blown away by the response to

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it um i certainly wasn't the first to do something like this

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but i i'd like to think i everyone brings something different to the table it just

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so happened that i really gelled with my audience

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and yeah it's been awesome because it really has gone like

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that um for the podcast listeners i'm showing a an upward slope uh

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but i've i still recognize some people

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that were um there from the very beginning as well yeah

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so it's awesome that's brilliant um i told my dad about

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my idea my dad had a business as well he's slowly retiring now

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but he um he had a business and

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so he was someone i trusted to talk about business things

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and he asked me to bring him a business plan um

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so i i think i wrote it on noted on notepaper

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lined paper i wish i still had it i'd have loved to have seen it yeah

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but in the end we agreed

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that he would lend me a 500 pound business loan to buy a second hand a second hand camera body

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and i say body because that's very important and a tripod

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so i ordered these put them together also i had to pay them back with interest as well

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that was the important part of it um but it's like dragon's den

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or something yeah it was like this it was a very

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friendly dragon i think he just wanted to do it properly

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he didn't want me to be just handed money to do

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do something he wanted it to be a serious exchange and um i put this camera.

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on the tripod and I just looked at it and I thought that doesn't look like Zoella's camera

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it doesn't look quite right and I hadn't bought a lens so it was just this lensless

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DSLR or DLSR or whatever it is just on it

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so filming was postponed for another week whilst the lens arrived

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yeah was it was it a bit of a learning curve dealing with the cameras

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and the technology because for me video and editing video

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and uploading videos is a huge pain in the neck to be honest yes yes

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because for the first two years I was doing it all

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myself now I haven't listened the help of a couple of editors

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because I'm really not good at editing

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and what I can do in eight hours they do in two yeah

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but it was it was hard work

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because I was running my own mini language academy

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so I had six students in at a time to do

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the Cambridge exams trying to keep time free to also film

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but I was also living with flatmates who were sharing this space

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so I had to do it whilst they were out at

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work I just dread to think what would have happened had had the pandemic hit

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when I was trying to do all

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that it would have been a nightmare all those poor people

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who are just waiting yeah waiting to get started um

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but now I feel that phones and camera equipment You can do it in your own room.

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I don't think I would have been able to do it back then.

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Yeah.

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But I really feel for the people in flat shares during the pandemic.

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That's not fun.

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Stuck with people that they don't necessarily want to be stuck with.

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Yeah, especially if they're from abroad and they've come over.

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Lots of British people stuck here are lucky to go back to their parents' home at least.

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Normally, your parents tend to have a bit more space than you can afford to have in London but yeah

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if you're having to go back abroad maybe you just can't

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it really sucks yeah did you did you ever do a

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flat share except for like you lived with your your ex

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but um did you ever do a flat share you've ever had

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that experience yes I did lots yes I did one at university with six students

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that was a nightmare yeah because we no one did the washing up

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and I remember going on a three week language course to Italy once coming back

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and just seeing all of my saucepans full of pasta sauce yeah um

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and mold and this guy the flatmate had cooked in each of them

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and just left them for three weeks

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and I remember I think I called security and the security guard came

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and said I'm not going to help you with your wash

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I was 18 I was a drama queen you're like security

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and the security what's the problem look it's like you loser

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i'm not doing the washing up what are you talking about

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no there's something living in there i know i cringe

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so much at some of the things i did

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when i was younger yeah

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that is quite a common thing though at university in the uk i don't know

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if it's the same everywhere everywhere else i often ask myself this question um whether

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or not for example um people in other countries do university in the same way

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that we do for example the fact

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that uh yeah we often have to live with other students uh there are no grown -ups around

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and i say grown -ups because you know often when you're a student you're not properly grown up

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and uh other other things like you know you don't look

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after yourself properly you don't eat properly the kitchen is often

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a bit of a mess no one does the washing up is

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that is it the same in other countries i don't know yes i got given a book by my student called

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oh la coinquilina di merda i think or something like

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that right it was in italian

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and um i also got given the spanish version as well

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i think i told the same stories to different nationalities of students

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because both of my christmas presents were the same book

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but in different languages um yeah i think it's just i

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think it's part of growing up isn't it yes yeah living away from home

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and living in a certain level of squalor i was the

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same i lived in a in a in a house in liverpool with about eight other people

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and the kitchen was a total disaster zone i mean i could go into the stories everyone

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but it's a bit disgusting you know things growing in the kitchen

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and like you know there being one weekend one saturday where

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it's like right we're gonna do it you know strap going strapping on the marigolds

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and just attacking the kitchen it sort of takes all day

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it's like a military operation almost um i actually forgot

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that i lived in the worst flat share ever

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which was illegal it must have been i can't even imagine

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how illegal it was it was the first i was just i had just i think i was 17

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because i was young for my age

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so i actually graduated school before i was 18 right

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because the school year ended in june in may young my

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birthday's in june young for your age yeah young for you young for my year at school Yeah, I know what you mean.

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Yeah.

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okay yeah and um i moved into this little well this house in finsbury park in london

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and there were 11 of us 11 of us

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but i think it started off as you know seven

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or eight but everyone had partners that moved in

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and everything we were all spanish apart from what apart from me

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but i could speak spanish apart from one poor italian guy who couldn't speak any spanish

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or english and uh we had to like communicate through simple tools and

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mime sign language like you uh do the do the washing up no no me me neither

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yeah yeah it's a bit intense um i'm gonna ask you more about your videos

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if that's right by you and um

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so um making your videos then how how much time does it take for you to make

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because i you know i do audio mainly

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and it takes quite a long time to do one single episode from the idea to it being published

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that takes quite a lot

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that can take a long time like hours depending on the episode sometimes days uh

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but uh what about video how about you yes it's it's a big, big task.

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I've become quite good at managing my time and finding efficient ways of doing things, but I don't always follow my own rules.

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So I normally block shoot.

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So I will spend one day writing all the scripts.

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I've got to be in a real, really intellectual mood for that day.

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I'll also spend the whole, I'm always researching.

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So I'm always looking at articles um trying to pick up

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mistakes from the comment section comment sections of my videos yes are a gold mine for mistakes

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that people need to work on

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that i can then include in a video i see what

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everyone else is doing i look back at my previous videos to see how they've performed as well

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so yeah i do a day of writing scripts

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and then the next day usually the next day whilst it's fresh in my mind i'll do a full day

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or a half a day of filming so i'll film four to five videos

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and then I put the audio in the video together I send it off to my editors

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but it's not as easy as it sounds

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because you have to communicate exactly what you want them to do

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and sometimes it gets to a point where they know you

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so well and they know your style so well

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that they can pretty much work out exactly what you want

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but when you're taking a new editor on board the onboarding process

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that process of starting with a new employee um this can be quite tiring um

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so i normally write out a very exact uh explanation of what i want done at each time stamp

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so it does end up taking quite quite a while

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and then i'll have maybe up to three revisions um

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and then actually uploading it's quite intense as well i still do all my thumbnails and everything i really enjoy that

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generating the subtitles i create free pdfs for each of my videos now as well

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so i make those by hand

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but i hope to maybe have a bit of help with

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that at some point you make them by hand you sort

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of weave them this is how pdfs are made crochet you

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weave by bite i know what you mean obviously i'm just being stupid

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but um love it that's interesting no it's really good

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that you've taken on other people uh

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because that's sort of personally i mean i have you know

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what it's like doing this there's a lot of work involved

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but yes it's another step entirely to bring new people in

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well i'm not as advanced as many youtubers are with having a team

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so to speak um but definitely here and there normally

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when i'm way past needing someone then i'll bring them on um

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but it's a smart thing to do

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because they're not just helping you out you're also helping someone

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out by offering them decent employment as well it's just it's

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just been a really good experience having people work with you

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because it's a very lonely job I wonder

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if you well you work teaching real students as well don't you

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but yeah I can find it

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so lonely I do combine what I do with actual teaching with classes of students too

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but when I'm not doing

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that yes I'm basically in my wife will be at work she's got an office that's not far away

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and but I'll spend most of the time just knocking around on my own I don't mind

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so much knocking around on my own

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because you know I keep myself entertained I just you know play music

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and just you know do whatever I want

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but a lot of the time it's just like right got

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to do got to make my content got to make my content

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that can be quite hard to kind of stay focused I

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probably go a little bit mad as well on my own

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yes I mean it's very easy to procrastinate isn't it

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when you're on your own it's extremely difficult not to get distracted

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and yeah and

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and hours can fly past you all it takes is like

476

i'm gonna go i'm gonna go into my google documents to do some work

477

and on the way to google it's like oh twitter and i just like sometimes i'll click on twitter

478

um without even realizing i've done it you know like literally it's

479

so it's so insidious in a way social media is

480

that it like grabs you

481

and holds you uh for me it's reddit have you ever

482

been on reddit yeah yeah yeah yeah i do read oh

483

i'm an absolute addict i can't can't get off once i'm on there i get my screen time report

484

and reddit is

485

so up there do you do you post on reddit as well are you just sort of reading i do

486

but under a private account yeah

487

and um i have had some successful posts in my time

488

um my dog made the front page oh really wow that's

489

something that's something on reddit what was your definitely can i ask what your dog was doing

490

or uh he was in my um my fiance's arms looking

491

very silly um yeah it's a very cute cute picture

492

and some people did work out that it was will

493

and diego they did recognize him but it was very funny

494

because a lot of meme pages on instagram steal a lot of content from reddit

495

and i'm used to my my english videos being stolen

496

but it was interesting to see to log onto facebook

497

and seeing you know a random friend from school sharing this cute dog picture

498

and i was thinking that's my that's my dog

499

and my fiance you've got no idea you don't even realize

500

either yeah yeah yeah a lot of stuff does come from

501

reddit reddit seems to be quite a sort of rich source of original content

502

and things like that that ends up being shared elsewhere uh yes

503

so uh procrastination that's what we were talking about how do you manage

504

that do you actually have a system

505

because i know a lot of people have very organized days

506

where they find ways to you know um be productive

507

and stuff do you have a a fixed routine in your in your day um

508

so i i like to break it up quite a lot um

509

so pre lockdown down it was going to the gym I've

510

got a really small gym it's just a room with some equipment

511

and we just do exercise classes there I'm the youngest person

512

there by probably at least 20 years I hope I don't offend anyone by saying

513

that I'm 32 everyone's fine here don't worry

514

but it's just the loveliest thing to go there

515

and have a little bit of a social life do some stepping around on a box

516

or lifting a barbell meaninglessly

517

and um yeah that's lovely a lot of dog walks as well

518

and in the summer i love running

519

so i listen to a lot of audiobooks

520

when running i also have a very useful tool

521

which i will show you some of the younger folks may

522

never have seen something like this it's a pad it's a

523

list book oh i don't think i can show you everything that's on it secrets um

524

but it's um yeah just this has changed my life it's

525

so silly I was doing everything on my phone

526

and I it's very easy to put your phone to one side but

527

when you've got something written on your desk staring at you

528

you know you have to get it done yeah that's my secret to success things though I've got

529

so many lists oh no see the thing is like I write lists of things to do

530

and usually the first thing on the list is write a list so it's like Like,

531

you know, I just, I've got lists which contain references to other lists.

532

It's just lists on lists.

533

How complex.

534

Cross -sectional.

535

It's too complex.

536

I don't get anything done.

537

Like, for me, writing the list itself is a task.

538

When you've already done something, but you're writing a list, do you write it on just to cross it off?

539

Is that who you are?

540

No, I haven't quite got to that stage yet.

541

But I do love crossing things off lists.

542

But often I'll cross them off just because they're so old that they, that i just like well that's just done that's gone now

543

that is whatever

544

that was i don't even remember cross it off oh feel

545

better that's like equivalent to doing it for me yeah just

546

crossing it off even though i didn't do it still feels

547

vaguely satisfying i'm i'm really badly organized i need to get

548

my act together well we spoke about this via email

549

when we were planning this episode didn't we yeah we both claimed to be quite quite disorganized i'm disorganized

550

if i let myself become disorganized um my personal life is a complete shambles not my actual personal life

551

but my bedroom floor i had a floor drobe for example a floor drawer

552

but yes i hadn't i hadn't heard of a floor drobe before i get it instantly

553

but um i wonder

554

if our viewers understood what a floor drobe is what is

555

a floor drobe it is where you use your floor as your wardrobe where you store your clothes

556

so i just have a terrible habit of removing my clothing oh yes

557

and also putting it on the floor not just removing the clothes well that's another habit

558

but i've had therapy for

559

that okay good good good yeah our bedroom is a bit like that

560

but it's not a floor drobe instead we've just got piles of clothes in different like precariously um put on different objects.

561

so folded yeah folded nicely folded then precariously balanced on an

562

object then they fall then they fall off they become less folded

563

and you know it's it's it's i don't know sure it's

564

a floor drope i'm not sure what you could use what word you could use to describe

565

that but you like living life on the edge basically my wife does

566

and so by by extension

567

so do i i suppose yeah yes in your relationship is there is one more organized in the other

568

or are you pretty equal depends in what in what context

569

actually i'm more oh god no i think we're equally disorganized

570

i would say yeah she's more of the life organizer she's more on the ball for things like holidays

571

and she's in she's in charge basically she knows what's going

572

on i'm i'm just kind of like um she's the sort of steve jobs and i'm the

573

under manager i don't know i can't i'm trying to find a metaphor to describe my relationship i can't

574

but um i think she's probably more organized than than me

575

yeah my my head's in the clouds thinking of you know stupid things

576

and and podcast episodes and things like

577

that whereas she's a bit more down to worth probably yes

578

yeah it's funny how the dynamic sorts itself out i definitely think our dynamic is like

579

that as well um but i also think will's worked with his dad his whole life

580

so he's always had someone telling him what to do in quite an authoritative way

581

so maybe that's why but i don't want to get too deep into

582

that psychological but he he runs a farm

583

so he must be pretty organized right no i think sometimes

584

when you i think the farm is organized to an extent

585

but there is the issue with farms is just there is always so much to do

586

um there's no such thing as right we're done yeah it

587

doesn't exist there's always something to do yeah uh the thing

588

that people used to say about farmers is that they would get up

589

when they go get up and go to bed with the sun

590

so this is is it still really true apart from going

591

to bed uh getting up yeah at the moment he's loving life waking up at 8 30

592

or whatever and coming in at dusk as well because especially

593

when you're using um machinery on the land we are we have quite clay soil yeah

594

so it's very sticky yeah

595

so at night time it gets really sticky sticks to the wheels

596

and you physically can't drive the machinery on it

597

so that's a lovely excuse i feel sorry for everyone with

598

lovely light land who has to keep on going until midnight um

599

but yeah that's absolutely true but then in summer different story

600

because obviously we have such long summer days in the uk um in summer he's up at four

601

and back at back in after 10 it's a long day

602

that is a long day yeah okay

603

so winter's a good time what's the other thing that

604

that um now this is this is something else i'm thinking farmers

605

but now the the expression comes to mind red sky at night shepherd's delight

606

but he's not a shepherd he's a farmer

607

so you know just forget about

608

that i think i think um i think his dad did

609

do sheep at one point i think everyone's done sheep at

610

one point you're not a real farmer unless you've tried sheep

611

uh you mean um breeding sheep um yes breeding sheep on

612

sheep action not any not anything else oh lord no you

613

did talk about doing sheep i felt you know compelled i felt compelled to highlight the innuendo

614

oh dear making it worse for sheep farmers everywhere i'm very good at digging myself into holes here

615

but um so i think that's what the farmers were doing i think so oh

616

red sky at night shepherd's delight is a phrase in english

617

which basically means if you look up at the sky in the evening

618

and there's a red sky then it means what the shepherds will be happy does it mean

619

that the weather's going to be good i think

620

so it must be yeah i don't know if there's any science behind

621

that red sky at night shepherd's delight we just watched the the weather it's it's

622

so funny when you know i go over to his parents house

623

and they're all sitting around

624

and the tv's on the minute the weather comes on they're

625

like little meerkats looking at it like what it's the weather

626

and then they love to complain the next day about how

627

wrong the weather was it's never right yeah it's the it's the gift

628

that keeps on giving the the weather in the uk it's

629

a perfect topic for the conversation it is brilliant uh lucy

630

i don't want to keep you too long you've been very

631

generous with your time i could keep you know rambling on to you about shepherds

632

and sheep and all sorts of things like that i wonder

633

if uh if we've lost the uh the the

634

if we've completely lost the audience here like what are they going on about shepherds and sheep what about lucy's videos Close.

635

um what um i'll sort of finish maybe by asking you

636

what do you know what you're going to do in the

637

future are you planning to just continue doing the youtube videos

638

or is there if you got like big plans

639

or anything oh we've got lots of plans i mean i've just released my first ever course

640

which is a pronunciation course british english modern received pronunciation course

641

and i did actually set up a little coupon code for your listeners

642

and viewers if they want it It's 15 % off, and it is LUKE15, a very imaginative code.

643

And you can use that at epiphanylanguagestudios .com, which is my website.

644

Epiphanylanguagestudios .com.

645

This sounds really good.

646

Is there a story?

647

I think it's good, but I'm very biased.

648

I know, it does.

649

It sounds good.

650

Epiphany, epiphanylanguagestudios .com.

651

Oh, yeah.

652

And is there a story behind this, behind the name of this?

653

An epiphany is a moment where you realize or understand something that's really important to you.

654

And I kind of coined that phrase when I was, I had my own epiphany when I suddenly realized,

655

hang on a minute, I think I'm fluent in Spanish after a night out

656

and I had just conversed with everyone i'd made jokes i'd made people laugh i'd laughed at people's jokes

657

and i just felt on top of the world yeah

658

and i really want to make my students feel

659

that way at some point as well

660

so i'd like them to have their own epiphany with me um

661

so we started with pronunciation because my pronunciation videos have always always been really popular

662

and it's a topic that i'm really keen on teaching i really enjoy it

663

so in this course we go through all of the sounds

664

that comprise modern received pronunciation connected speech intonation rhythm and stress there's

665

so much there i'm i'm very very excited it just launched last month that's great luke 15

666

if you want to get your 15 discount

667

and i expect there'll be other courses arriving on epiphany language

668

studios .com yes hopefully hopefully very soon great lucy thank you very much for talking to me

669

and my audience it's been a pleasure

670

and thank you for having me yeah it's been lovely yeah it has it's been lots of fun

671

and uh good luck with all the courses

672

and all the videos in the future thank you very much

673

um yeah it's been an absolute pleasure to be here um i've loved talking to all your listeners

674

and um and yeah i just think it's a really nice full circle

675

that i recommended your little podcast in a video I say

676

little it's one of them it's massive it's massive you've no

677

idea it is it's huge it's huge it's got global reach

678

I've got it's extremely influential I'm working on I'm working on

679

Vladimir Putin he's subliminally amongst others I sense self -deprecation

680

but in all honesty when I was typing in

681

and listening to lots of different um podcasts there was a reason why I chose your one

682

because I just very very natural

683

and funny I won't make you blush anymore yeah I'm very good at

684

that which is one of the reasons I prefer audio

685

so people can't see my blushing face

686

which is constantly just like ha ha ha say with me

687

always my chin first I don't know why well you look

688

fine Lucy thank you it's been lots of fun as I said and uh have a lovely evening

689

thank you very much you too thank you

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This video has 689 sentences and 7938 words to shadow. The speech runs for 43:37. The speaker talks fast, about 182 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 82% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.

Key vocabulary in this video

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

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
tiger noun	/ˈtaɪɡə/	Panthera tigris, a large predatory mammal of the cat family, indigenous to Asia.
accent noun	/ækˈsɛnt/	A higher-pitched or stronger (louder or longer) articulation of a particular syllable of a word or phrase in order to distinguish it from the others or to…
sheep noun	/ˈʃiːp/	A woolly ruminant of the genus Ovis.
pronunciation noun	/pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/	The formal or informal way in which a word is made to sound when spoken.
farmer noun	/ˈfɑɹ.mɚ/	A person who works the land and/or who keeps livestock; anyone engaged in agriculture on a farm.
grammar noun	/ˈɡɹæm.ə(ɹ)/	A system of rules and principles for the structure of a language, or of languages in general.
podcast noun	/ˈpɑdˌkæst/	A program, especially an audio program, produced on a regular basis, delivered over the Internet in a compressed digital format and designed for playback on…
whilst adverb	/waɪlst/	Often preceded by the: During the time; meanwhile.
fluent adjective	/ˈfluənt/	That flows; flowing, liquid.
wash verb	/wɑʃ/	To clean with water.
fold verb	/ˈfəʊld/	To bend (any thin material, such as paper) over so that it comes in contact with itself.
verb noun	/vɝb/	A word that indicates an action, event, or state of being.
wong verb	/wɔŋ/	To enter a betting game, particularly blackjack, when the odds are favorable.
listener noun	/ˈlɪs(ə)nɚ/	Someone who listens, especially to a speech or a broadcast.
audio adjective	/ˈɔ.di.oʊ/	Focused on audible sound, as opposed to sight.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
end up verb		To bring to a conclusion.
wash up verb		To clean the utensils, dishes etc. used in preparing and eating a meal.
get up verb		To move in an upward direction; to ascend or climb.
grow up verb		To mature and become an adult.
go along verb		To participate, cooperate, or conform.
work out verb	/ˌwɝk ˈaʊt/	To calculate.
blow away verb		To cause to go away by blowing, or by wind.
come across verb		To change sides; to cross over to work for the opposition.

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Conditional sentences if + clause, will/would + verb — a condition and its result	if the conversation is flowing then we'll just
“Used to” used to + verb — a past habit or state that is no longer true	used to work · used to say
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	i've spent · i've lived · has changed
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	was meant · are put · were meant

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 228 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, don't, you're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “th” sounds: clothing /ˈkloʊðɪŋ/, rhythm /ˈɹɪð.əm/
The “sh” and “zh” sounds: sheep /ˈʃiːp/, pronunciation /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/, wash /wɑʃ/, machinery /məˈʃiːnəɹi/, blush /ˈblʌʃ/
Long words — get the stress right: pronunciation /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/, communicate /kəˈmjuːnɪkeɪt/, machinery /məˈʃiːnəɹi/, necessarily /ˌnɛs.əˈsɛɹ.ə.li/, explanation /ˌɛkspləˈneɪʃən/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like tiger, accent, sheep.

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 →

Shadowing Practice: English with Lucy / A Conversation with Lucy Earl (LEP#693) - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

Key vocabulary in this video

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Grammar in this video

Pronunciation to watch

How to practise with this video

What is the Shadowing Technique?