Shadowing Practice: Everyday English: Holidays - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
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Today we're going to talk about one of my favourite topics, holidays.
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A holiday can be one day or several days where you take a break from your usual routine.
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There are lots of reasons for taking a holiday.
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It might be to rest or to spend time with family or friends, or to travel.
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In fact people often use the word holiday to describe travel or a trip.
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I went on holiday to Vietnam last year.
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It was awesome.
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You can also stay at home for a holiday and do something you enjoy.
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For example, I stayed at home for the Easter holidays and just spent time with my family.
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Another word that can be used for holiday is vacation, but that's not that common in Australia.
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It's mostly used in the United States.
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Now if you're working and you want to take a holiday, you might have to apply for leave.
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It could be paid or unpaid.
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Most Australian workers get about 20 days of paid leave a year.
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We call that annual leave.
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Australian students get much longer holidays, especially over summer.
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Summer in Australia happens between December and February.
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We also have public holidays.
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They're days when many businesses in Australia close, like on Christmas Day.
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When people talk about a holiday, we often use the preposition on.
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Like, I wish I was on holiday right now.
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Me too.
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Let's listen to some people talk about their holidays.
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Oh, hey.
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Welcome back, Nick.
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Hey, Dawn Charlotte.
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Good.
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How was your holiday?
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Really good.
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I saved up all of my annual leave and I took the whole month off.
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That's amazing.
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What did you do?
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So, I spent some time with my parents and then my partner and I went to New Zealand to go skiing.
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Do you want to see some photos?
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Yeah.
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Oh.
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Oh.
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It was great and just so relaxing.
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Oh, nice.
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I've used up all my annual leave for the year, so no holidays for me.
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That's a shame.
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I mean, I could take some unpaid leave.
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I think that's what Emma's doing.
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She's on holiday in Barbados at the moment.
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Oh, OK.
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Not all leave is for holidays.
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You can take leave from work if you're ill.
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It's called sick leave.
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It's different to a holiday because you don't really have any fun and you usually spend most of your time in bed.
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There's also the weekend, which is Saturday and Sunday, when most workers get time off.
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Most people work from Monday to Friday, which we call weekdays.
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A long weekend happens when a public holiday falls on Friday or Monday.
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Lots of people go away during the long weekend.
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In English, we often use the verbs do and go to describe weekend activities.
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If we use do, it's usually followed by a determinants like the, some or my.
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For example, I do the washing, I do some shopping, I do my housework, I do some study or I do the gardening.
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The past form of do is did.
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So I do the washing on the weekends becomes I did the washing on the weekend.
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You often use the verb go for sports and activities, especially if they end in ing.
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For example, I might go swimming, go surfing, go skating, go running or go walking.
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Here the past form of go is went, so I go swimming on Saturdays becomes I went swimming last Saturday.
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Hey Charlotte, did you go out to anything fun on the weekend?
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Oh yeah, I went fishing with my dad.
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We usually go fishing about once a month.
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Oh nice, did you catch anything?
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Yeah, we got some squid and it was so much fun.
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But it meant I didn't do any work.
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I haven't done my cleaning, my gardening.
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How was your weekend?
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Pretty good.
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Didn't catch any fish, but I did catch some waves.
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Me and a couple of my mates went surfing up the coast.
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Conditions were perfect.
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You should come along next time.
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Oh, yeah, that sounds great.
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Count me in.
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Well, all that talk of holidays, it's really making me want to go on one.
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Me too.
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We hope you've enjoyed today's lesson and learned how you can talk about your holidays.
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Safe travels.
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About This Lesson
You're practicing English with "Everyday English: Holidays" using the Shadowing technique — a method originally developed for professional interpreter training.
Focus on sounding like the speaker — not just repeating words. With 15–30 minutes of daily practice, you'll build real-world speaking confidence.
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.