Shadowing Practice: French influence on Vietnamese cuisine - Learn English Speaking with Video
Choose a practice mode
Each mode opens a full-screen practice room.
Download App
Everything you need to speak fluently
Recommend Video
B2Vietnamese street food comes to France | Vietnam Today
B1Vietnamese Coffee Was Easy… Coconut Coffee Took 3 Tries 😂
B1Fish Sauce – The Soul of Vietnamese Cuisine 🐟🇻🇳 | Nước Mắm Explained
B1Vietnam Explained: Hanoi Autumn | Vietnam Today
B1Bài 9 - Bánh Mì Việt Nam
B1VTV7 | Follow us | Culture Shock | Điều gì ở Việt Nam làm Dustin "bất ngờ" nhỉ?
B1Shadowing: Broken Rice
B1Banana Leaves in Vietnam – Simple, Green, and Full of Meaning
B1Learning Vietnamese with M_Van
B2Vietnam's Vibrant Tapestry A Journey Through 54 Ethnic Groups
B1D11_ ALBRECHT FUND SHADOWING_ COFFEE THE RICH FLAVOUR OF VIETNAM
B2How Vietnam Turned French Bread Into the World's Best Sandwich
Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “French influence on Vietnamese cuisine”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: Vietnamese, French, dishes, coffee. This video has 18 sentences and 201 words to shadow. The speech runs for 1:11. The speaker talks at a natural 169 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. Only 72% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| dish noun | /dɪʃ/ | A vessel such as a plate for holding or serving food, often flat with a depressed region in the middle. |
| introduce verb | /ˌɪntɹəˈdus/ | To cause (someone) to be acquainted (with someone else). |
| meal noun | /ˈmiːl/ | Food that is prepared and eaten, usually at a specific time, and usually in a comparatively large quantity. |
| extend verb | /ɛkˈstɛnd/ | To increase in extent. |
| relax verb | /ɹɪˈlæks/ | To make something loose. |
| filling noun | /ˈfɪlɪŋ/ | Anything that is used to fill something. |
| chill verb | /tʃɪl/ | To lower the temperature of something; to cool. |
| moreover adverb | /mɔːˈɹəʊ.və/ | In addition to what has been said. |
| convenient adjective | /kənˈviː.niənt/ | Serving to reduce a difficulty, or accessible with minimum difficulty; expedient. |
| accommodate verb | /əˈkɑməˌdeɪt/ | To render fit, suitable, or correspondent; to adapt. |
| inspire verb | /ɪnˈspaɪə(ɹ)/ | To infuse into the mind; to communicate to the spirit; to convey, as by a divine or supernatural influence; to disclose preternaturally; to produce in, as by… |
| integral adjective | /ˈɪntəɡɹəl/ | Constituting a whole together with other parts or factors; not omittable or removable. |
| coconut noun | /ˈkəʊ.kə.nʌt/ | A fruit of the coconut palm (not a true nut), Cocos nucifera, having a fibrous husk surrounding a large seed. |
| dessert noun | /dɪˈzɝt/ | The last course of a meal, consisting of fruit, sweet confections etc. |
| vendor noun | /ˈvɛn.dɚ/ | A person or a company that vends or sells. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| come up with verb | To manage to produce, deliver, or present (something) by inventing, creating, thinking of, or obtaining it. |
| sit down verb | To assume a sitting position from a standing position. |
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | have been influenced · was introduced · was served |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | have been influenced |
Pronunciation to watch
- Long words — get the stress right: accommodate /əˈkɑməˌdeɪt/, coriander /ˈkɔ.ɹiˌæn.dɚ/, ingenuity /ˌɪnd͡ʒəˈn(j)uːəti/, originate /əˈɹɪd͡ʒɪneɪt/
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 dish, introduce, meal.
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.