Shadowing Practice: Friends as Family | International Day of Families | practice English with Spotlight - Learn English Speaking with YouTube

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Welcome to Spotlight.
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Welcome to Spotlight.
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I'm Liz Waid.
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And I'm Colin Lowther.
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Spotlight uses a special English method of broadcasting.
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It is easier for people to understand no matter where in the world they live.
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Do you recognize this song from a television program?
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The program ended in 2004.
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But it is still one of the most popular programs around the world.
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It is the 26th most popular English language program on earth.
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In India and Pakistan, it is still the third most popular English language program.
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It is from the television program, Friends.
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This show is about the lives of six people.
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Ross, Rachel, Chandler, Monica, Joey and Phoebe.
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They are all friends who live in New York.
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They are always together.
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They drink coffee, eat meals,
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watch television, and do other things.
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Each character has a job.
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Each character has a family.
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But the important relationships in this show are the friendships.
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This is why the show is called Friends.
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Life can be like this program.
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When a person moves away from their family,
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their friends can become the most important relationships they have.
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Or this can happen because of a bad relationship with a parent.
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Or maybe a person's family has died.
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These situations can make people look for new relationships.
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Today's Spotlight is on when friends become family.
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A program like Friends has all the things that people want in relationships.
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People want to feel close to the people they love.
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They want to be able to talk about anything.
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They want to know people for many years.
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Sometimes even a lifetime.
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People want things to be easy.
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They want to be able to call a friend without planning and talk or eat a meal together.
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Deborah Tannen is a teacher at Georgetown University.
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In 2016, she was writing a book about friendship.
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She talked to many people.
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She was surprised at how many people said that their best friends were like family.
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They shared stories and experiences with each other.
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They shared meals.
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One man said that he did not really enjoy spending time with his friend,
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but that he had to because the man was like family.
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Tannen understood that many of these people felt close to a person in some way.
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A way that felt comfortable.
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Tannen thought about her own friend, Carl.
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She recognized how he had many of the things she wanted in a friend.
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She wrote, If I am angry or sad about something, I call him.
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I trust his judgment, though I might not always follow his advice.
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And most of all, there is comfort.
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I feel completely comfortable in his home.
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When I am around him,
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I can be completely myself.
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I do not have to worry." Friends that make us feel at home are wonderful.
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But everyone knows that friendships are not always easy.
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When on a program like Friends,
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people fight with each other.
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Tannen writes, Just as with families,
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friends who are like family can bring happiness, but also pain.
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The comfort of a close relationship can sometimes change and make you feel trapped.
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The closer the connection, the greater the power to hurt.
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Your friend may disappoint you or make you sad.
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The people who understand us are people who have experienced what we have experienced.
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This is why sometimes friends become like family.
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Imagine two people serving together in a war.
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Thomas Brennan served in the United States military.
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He fought in wars both in Iraq and and Afghanistan.
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He told the New York Times that,
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I feel pride in my country.
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I have seen things that made me sometimes regret my service.
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But I felt a calling to serve.
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In my case, it was because of the attacks of 9-11.
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I have learned that I will always belong to a brotherhood until I die.
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The military are my family." The strong feelings for the people you fight with exist in militaries all around the world.
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In fact, it can be difficult for people who have served in war to make new friends.
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They are joined to other soldiers by very difficult situations.
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When they return home, they do not have the same people around them.
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Their family does not understand what they experienced.
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They can feel lonely.
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People who serve in the military sometimes need help connecting to new people when they finish their military service.
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It is not just war that connects people.
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Neha Ashtikar moved from Mumbai, India, to Paris, France.
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She only knew one person and was very lonely.
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In India, she talked to her mother every day.
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She missed this.
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It took time, but eventually her friends filled this need for her.
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Ashtikar told the website Hello Giggles,
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My friends are my family in Paris.
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Not only have they helped me through rough times,
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they have also shaped my personality in so many ways.
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My parents and friends back home are definitely supportive.
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But physical presence changes everything.
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Ashtikar's friends helped her find a place to live.
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They help her with other problems.
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They celebrate holidays together.
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And when she misses India,
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they help cheer her up.
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She says, If you are with the right people,
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your friends can lift you up and give you courage to survive any problem.
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It may relate to living in a different country or just being a human.
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They will be proud of you when you earn an achievement.
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They will teach you to love yourself.
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They will get mad at you when you are wrong.
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They will prevent you from making bad choices.
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Your friends will fill the hole and be your family.
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But can your friends replace your family?
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It is difficult to know.
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Sometimes important relationships form between family members.
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Sometimes they happen between friends.
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We all need people in our lives who accept us for who we are.
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We all need people who will help us to grow and change.
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For many people, this is a family of friends.
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What do you think?
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Do you have a friend who is so close that you think of them as family?
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Do you have a person in your family that you would call your best friend?
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Tell us about them.
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You can leave a comment on our website.
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Or email us at radio at radioenglish dot net.
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You can also comment on Facebook at facebook.com slash spotlight radio.
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The writer of this program was Adam Navis.
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The producer was Michio Ozaki.
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The voices you heard were from the United States and the United Kingdom.
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All quotes were adapted for this program and voiced by Spotlight.
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You can listen to this program again and read it on the internet at www.radioenglish.net.
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This program is called, Forming a Family, Friends as Family.
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Look for our listening app in the Google Play Store and in iTunes.
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We hope you can join us again for the next Spotlight program.
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Goodbye.
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Why practice speaking with this video?

Practicing speaking with the video "Friends as Family" offers a fantastic opportunity to enhance your English skills in a relatable context. The show Friends continues to resonate globally, illustrating the importance of friendships that often become like family. By engaging with this content, you can discover how informal interactions occur among friends, enabling you to adopt a more natural speaking style. Furthermore, the dialogues in the video reflect everyday conversational patterns, making it a great resource for IELTS speaking practice.

Through repeated exposure to the dialogue, you will benefit from a technique known as shadow speak. This method allows you to mimic the pronunciation, intonation, and pacing of native speakers. It facilitates fluency and builds confidence in your speaking abilities. Moreover, discussing topics like friendship can enhance your ability to connect with others, a crucial aspect of language learning.

Grammar & Expressions in Context

Several key structures used in the video can significantly aid your understanding and usage of English:

  • Conditional Structures: The speaker presents scenarios using "if" clauses, such as “If I am angry or sad, I call him.” This structure is helpful for expressing hypothetical situations and choices.
  • Present Continuous Tense: The use of present continuous, as in "they are always together," emphasizes actions happening at the moment. This tense is essential for describing ongoing relationships and activities.
  • Descriptive Adjectives: Phrases like "most important relationships" and "comfortable" convey a strong sense of emotional connection. Improving your vocabulary with such descriptive words enriches your communication.
  • Reported Speech: The speaker mentions how Deborah Tannen communicated findings, which encourages you to employ reported speech in your conversations, increasing your storytelling capabilities.

Common Pronunciation Traps

As you practice with this video, focus on these challenging words and pronunciation patterns:

  • Family: This word can often be mispronounced due to its vowel sounds. Aim for the 'a' sound to be clear, like "fam-uh-lee."
  • Friendship: Pay attention to the 'sh' sound; it should be soft, unlike the harder 's' sound. Practice saying "friend" and "ship" quickly to blend them smoothly.
  • Comfort: An essential word in the context. Emphasize the first syllable, "COM-fort," to ensure clarity.

Utilizing techniques from a shadowing site to repeat these phrases after the speaker can significantly improve your English pronunciation. By overcoming these pronunciation traps, you will enhance your speaking clarity, making it easier for others to understand you in conversations.

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.

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