Shadowing Practice: Grocery Shopping in Australia (Market & Supermarket) | Real Life English Listening Practice - Learn English Speaking with YouTube
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Hi there. Today, we’re going to the market to do our grocery shopping.
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Hi there. Today, we’re going to the market to do our grocery shopping.
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Then we’ll visit the supermarket to pick up a few other items for the week.
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You can speak along with me and use this video for shadowing practice, or you can relax and listen along.
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If you're new to learning English and want to see more about life in Australia, maybe you're planning to travel here, are studying here, or will move here for work, this video series will help you understand everyday English quickly through comprehensible input while exploring real places around Melbourne and Australia.
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PDF scripts are available to download for members of my channel, and I upload bonus videos each month that are filled with extra questions that are filled with extra questions and moments for you to practice speaking English out loud.
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I make new videos every week, so please subscribe to see them every Sunday.
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Okay, let's go for a walk.
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This morning, we’re doing our grocery shopping.
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We’re buying food that we’ll cook and eat during the week.
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In Australia, we don’t usually use plastic carry bags at grocery stores.
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We need to bring our own reusable bags.
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Reusable means we can use them again and again.
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They're not disposable.
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Sometimes you can buy paper bags, but most people bring their own.
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The market is on the other side of the road.
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We’ll wait for the light to turn green.
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Now that it’s green, we can cross and head into the market.
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We’ll go through these automatic doors.
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Automatic doors open by themselves.
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Now we’re inside the market.
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Let's have a look around.
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This shelf is full of cheese.
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There are small round wheels and pieces cut into smaller parts.
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These shelves are refrigerated to keep these cheese fresh.
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Over here there are olives and pickles.
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The olives are in round, plastic containers.
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They’re stacked very neatly.
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Next to the olives is a bakery with beautiful cakes and sweets.
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There’s a plate of pink meringues.
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They’re piled up high.
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A meringue is a sweet dessert made from egg whites and sugar.
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It’s soft inside and a little crispy on the outside.
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There are tarts and a big, round pie.
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They’re also selling square slices of chocolate cake.
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Each slice has a strawberry on top.
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Since it’s Easter, they’re selling hot cross buns.
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They’re sweet bread rolls with fruit and a cross on top.
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Let’s walk further into the market.
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There’s a big flower shop in the middle.
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A person who sells flowers is called a florist.
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You buy flowers from the florist.
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The flowers are bright and colourful.
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They’re sitting in buckets of water on the ground.
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You can buy one bunch of flowers, or you can make a bouquet out of a few bunches.
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A bouquet is a group of flowers arranged together.
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Next to the florist is a stall selling kimchi and other Korean side dishes.
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I know a lot of you who watch my videos are Korean so I hope it’s nice to see that you can find some fresh Korean food if you decide to visit Melbourne.
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Now we’re at the green grocer in the corner of the market.
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This is where we’ll buy most of our groceries today.
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They sell fruit and veggies.
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“Veggies” is short for vegetables.
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They have boxes of mixed fruit and veggies on these shelves.
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These boxes have a variety of items in them.
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A variety means many different kinds.
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Lauren: “Uh, what do you think we would use from this box?” Partner: “The cauliflower, the bananas.” Lauren: “Yeah.” / Partner: “Grapes.” Lauren: “I don’t think we would use the avocados.” “We already have kale at home.” “Maybe we should just pick individual...” Partner: “Yeah. Let's get individual fruits and vegetables.” Instead of buying a box, we'll choose our own items.
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Lauren: “So...” Partner: “I’ll grab a cauliflower.” Lauren: “Oh yeah, let’s get a cauliflower.” We’ll put one half of a cauliflower into our bag.
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We can pick seven items for $20.
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That's a pretty good deal.
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It's much cheaper than the supermarket.
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Partner: “We’ve just made some soup out of it so” “we probably don’t need those.” Lauren: “No. We’ll get an eggplant.” We’ll also grab eggplant, broccoli, and zucchini.
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We were considering getting a leek, but instead we decided to get a big sweet potato.
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Considering means thinking about something before deciding.
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Some fruits are placed on individual plates.
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Each plate counts as one item at this stand.
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It all looks good.
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There’s a big box of limes and a big box of lemons.
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These are citrus fruits.
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They usually taste sour.
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The tomatoes look fresh today.
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They are shiny and bright red.
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We’ll take a plate.
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Now it's time to pay.
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The man who works here has a big personality.
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That means he's very friendly and expressive.
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Sometimes he gives us an extra item for free.
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Greengrocer: “Get one more. $20, for you” Lauren: “What do you recommend?” Greengrocer: “You want veggies or fruit?” Lauren: “Veggies probably?” Greengrocer: “Here, have a fig each.” He threw some figs at us to catch.
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We caught most of them.
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Lauren: “Thanks mate, we’ll see you next week!” Greengrocer: “Thank you, ciao!” Lauren: “See you next time!” / Partner: “Take it easy!” Now we have our fruit and veggies for the week, we’ll have a look around at the rest of the market.
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This stall sells organic vegetables.
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Organic means the food is grown naturally, without chemicals.
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They are usually more expensive.
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There’s a large basket of fresh green beans.
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And you can buy different kinds of potatoes here.
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How do you like to eat potatoes?
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I love to eat crispy, roast potatoes.
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These small pink balls are radishes.
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There’s a lady shopping here.
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She’s adding some greens to her basket.
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There’s a stand of bananas for sale.
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These bananas are still green.
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They are not ripe yet.
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Ripe means ready to eat.
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This stand sells fresh orange juice.
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The juice in the bottles is bright orange.
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The bottles are resting on ice to keep the juice cold.
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Over at this stand, there is a refrigerated cabinet full of marinated items.
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Marinated means food that is soaked in oil, spices, or sauce to add flavour.
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They have a whole cabinet full of marinated olives too.
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There’s a small dog in this store.
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It looks like it’s doing its grocery shopping too!
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This store sells fancy dog treats.
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They’re things for your dog to chew on.
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Some of these are made from kangaroo.
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You can buy them individually or in a packet.
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Now we want to find something to eat.
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Out here is a place for people to sit in the sun and enjoy the food they’ve bought at the market.
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There are umbrellas to sit under and plenty of tables and chairs.
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Here is a bakery that sells really nice pastries.
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There’s a bit of a line, so let’s have a look at what they’re selling first.
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Lauren: “They have a, they have a seasonal” “fruit danish that looks like it’s got a raspberry on it.” “Um., they have...it’s hard to read.” “they have a cinnamon pretzel,” “the swirly one with the rasins.” There’s lots of options, but it’s not really what we feel like eating today.
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Sometimes too many choices can make it harder to decide.
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We’ll head back inside to see what else they have.
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We’ll walk in this door and past the butchers.
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They sell meat and seafood in here.
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There’s a dog waiting outside for its owner.
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Its lead is tied to the pole.
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I think it can smell the meat.
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It’s looking inside at the butcher and wagging its tail.
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Here is a fishmonger.
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They sell seafood.
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This place sells fresh oysters.
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Oysters are shellfish that you can eat raw or cooked.
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The man is shuffling the blue trays around in the window.
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On the opposite side to the fishmonger are some butchers.
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The butcher is grabbing a shoulder of lamb from the window for the customer.
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It looks like they sell premium cuts of meat.
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Premium means high quality.
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It looks like they only sell red meat.
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Red meat is beef or lamb.
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The next butcher looks more affordable.
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Affordable means not too expensive.
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This butcher sells poultry.
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Poultry means chicken and other birds.
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This last butcher has round hamburger patties and big cuts of steak for sale.
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We can hear sausages cooking.
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They’re sizzling on the grill.
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Half of the sausages have been grilled and are ready to eat.
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The other half are still raw.
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They haven’t cooked through yet.
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The man in front of me is using a shopping cart.
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It’s a big shopping bag that he can wheel along behind him.
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It’s helpful if you have a lot of produce to buy that’s too heavy to carry.
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Here are shopping trolleys that you can borrow from the market.
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You can use them to carry your items and then return them.
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You can also use a basket if you have fewer items.
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In the centre of the market there is a coffee stand and some places to sit.
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We can smell toasties.
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A toastie is a toasted sandwich with melted cheese filling.
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I think that’s what we’ll get this morning.
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Partner: “I need a vegetarian one.” “Hang on - that’s cheese.
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Lauren: “Hi.” / Partner: “Hi, sorry, still deciding.” Staff: “That’s ok, just letting you know we have an” “Easter special, it’s a, like a dark chocolate” “orange marmalade toastie.” Partner: “Could I please grab the seasonal, thank you.” Staff: “There you go, that’s $19.22 please.” All: “Thank you.” Lauren: “Let’s get a seat!” It’s golden brown on the outside and looks very crispy.
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It has cheese and mushrooms inside.
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We've both taken a bite.
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It tastes really good.
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On the way out of the market there’s a store that sells fresh pasta.
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They have rectangular packs of home-made lasagne for you to cook at home.
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They also sell pasta sauces that you can buy scoops of.
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The fresh pasta is laid out in bunches.
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Now we’ve finished at the market but we still need a few items from the supermarket.
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A market usually sells fresh, local food.
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A supermarket is bigger and sells more packaged items.
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The first thing we need is some peanut butter.
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Peanut butter is a spread that you can eat on toast, but I’m going to make some cookies using it later.
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This jar says that it’s “dark roast” which means that the peanuts were roasted before they were blended into peanut butter.
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It’s crunchy so it has chunks of peanut in it.
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Smooth peanut butter has no chunks in it.
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This jar is crunchy too but it’s not on sale.
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I’ll choose the one that’s on sale.
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It's cheaper.
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In the next aisle there are different kinds of alternative milk.
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That’s milk that doesn’t have dairy in it, like soy milk or oat milk.
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They come in cartons.
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I’ll pick up one container of soy milk.
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Lastly, we need some beans.
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This aisle has lots of canned vegetables on the shelves.
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We need two cans of butter beans.
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They’re on the top shelf.
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They’re only $1 so they’re very cheap.
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It’s time to head to the checkout.
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The checkouts are almost always self-checkouts at grocery stores in Australia.
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You’ll need to scan your items yourself.
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We’ll put our basket down and scan each item.
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This self checkout only accepts card payments.
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It doesn't accept cash.
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We’ll pay using our phone.
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Here comes our receipt.
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And I’ll put my basket back for the next person to use.
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And that’s all of our groceries that we need today.
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Do you prefer shopping at a market, or at the grocery store?
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Thanks for joining me today.
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How do you describe food that is soaked in oil, spices, or sauce to add flavour.
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Marinated. What do you call a person who sells flowers?
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A florist. How do you describe fruit and vegetables grown naturally without chemicals?
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They're organic.
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How could you talk about how someone behaves or expresses themselves?
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It’s their personality.
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What word means thinking about something before deciding?
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Considering.
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Which word means having many different types or kinds?
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Variety. Have something that's high quality and more expensive than usual?
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Premium. Thanks so much for joining me today, and thank you so much to the members of my channel.
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If you'd like a little extra support learning English members of my channel can download a PDF script and get bonus listening and speaking practice videos every month.
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Where would you like to go next?
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And which everyday English topics would you like to practice more?
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Let me know in the comments.
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If this video helped you, please subscribe for more simple Australian English practice.
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See you next time.
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Why practice speaking with this video?
This video on grocery shopping in Australia offers an excellent opportunity for English learners to engage in shadowing technique. By listening to everyday conversations in a real-life context, you can practice speaking skills that are essential for real-world interactions. The speaker guides you through the market and supermarket while describing various items, encouraging you to speak along. This practice not only enhances your fluency but also helps improve your confidence when speaking English.
Additionally, if you're preparing for the IELTS speaking practice, this video can serve as a practical resource. It exposes you to authentic language use, allowing you to familiarize yourself with common topics you might encounter in speaking situations. By participating in this immersive experience, you'll be better equipped to express yourself in English during formal assessments or casual conversations.
Grammar & Expressions in Context
In the transcript, several useful grammatical structures and phrases are showcased that learners can adopt:
- Present Continuous Tense: Phrases like "we’re doing our grocery shopping" indicate ongoing actions. This tense is vital for discussing current activities and situations.
- Modal Verbs: The phrase "we need to bring our own reusable bags" highlights the necessity expressed through modal verbs. Understanding this usage can help articulate obligations or recommendations effectively.
- Conditional Phrasing: The statement "if you decide to visit Melbourne" employs a conditional structure. This can be useful for making suggestions or discussing possibilities in conversation.
By integrating these structures into your own speech, you'll enhance your English communication skills and express ideas more naturally.
Common Pronunciation Traps
As you practice along with the video, be mindful of specific words and phrases that might pose pronunciation challenges:
- "Meringue": This word can be tricky. Focus on the 'air' sound followed by a nasal ending, ensuring the 'ng' is pronounced clearly.
- “Bouquet”: The 'qu' can often lead to mispronunciation. Emphasize the 'kay' sound to articulate it correctly.
- “Olives” and “Pickles”: Pay attention to the vowel sounds. Both words require clear, distinct pronunciation of the vowel combinations.
Practicing these words repeatedly will not only help with improving English pronunciation but also prepare you for varied accents you may encounter, especially in multicultural environments like Melbourne.
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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