Shadowing Practice: Growing Up POOR in AMERICA - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
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Growing up, my family was broke.
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And before anybody comments, Oh my god, Sam, my family only went to Disneyland once again.
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I mean, broke broke, as in, Let me count these coins and see if I can afford school lunch tomorrow, kind of broke.
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$1.50.
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I spent the first year of my life in the Philippines
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because my parents were struggling to keep everything together financially in the state.
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Then we came back and spent the next 10 years living in a one-bedroom apartment in LA with my mom, my dad, my sister, me,
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our soon-to-be little brother, and then like two emotionally supportive cockroaches.
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And as a kid, of course, I wanted toys, especially Moonsand.
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But my parents always looked stressed.
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Like, you know when you're a kid and your parents are talking about bills or whatever and money, looking all stressed out, and suddenly you develop financial anxiety before you even know how to count.
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So yeah, I learned not to ask for things, which was It's really unfortunate because I grew up during the era of kids saying
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Because these poor kids weren't wearing Nikes They were not wearing Adidas, Vans They were wearing Adidas,
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Mike Adidin And you know who else was wearing these?
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Me!
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I was wearing them!
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While other kids were shopping at Forever 21, Abercrombie and Fetch And I don't know,
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Gucci or whatever brand was picking that era I was at Didi's discount Ross,
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Goodwill, my older cousin's bag of old hand-me-downs The stores where your mom would say, Pick wisely.
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You will be wearing these for the next three years.
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And you'd find that one pair of shoes that looked like Vans, but weren't actually Vans.
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You know, the bootleg ones that looked super fat, stiff, and heavy.
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But I didn't care.
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Like, who would actually notice?
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On rare occasions, my mom would take us out to the mall.
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But the moment we walked in, straight to the clearance section.
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Everything else in the store, I don't know what you're talking about.
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If we found a $5 shirt, perfect.
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$12 dress, perfect.
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Anything above $15, no. At school, I wore the same pair of shoes for years.
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And eventually, I'd be like, Mother, I believe I need new shoes.
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Go.
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And she'd hit me with a Y.
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What's wrong with your old ones?
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They're okay.
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No, they were not okay.
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You know, in the Philippines, we didn't even have shoes.
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And I didn't even push for new ones because I was such an anxious little empath child.
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My parents probably would have bought me new bootleg shoes, But instead my brain was like,
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no, I'll just continue walking through these puddles in my decaying footwear Lunchtime was the worst
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because this is where you'd see who was rich and who was poor The rich kids had cute lunchboxes, lunchables, Gatorade, branded chip bags,
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and a handwritten note from their mom saying You can do hard things xoxo mom Meanwhile, my lunch?
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First of all, no lunchbox,
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just grocery bag Then Tupperware of sweaty Vienna sausages and rice Asterius chips in a folded plastic bag Fruit snacks,
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if we were feeling wealthy that week And then water from the water fountain.
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My mom would sometimes send me to school with coins in an envelope, literally just coins, like, ah, the sound of poverty.
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And most days it worked, but on the days when I happened to be short, even a little, so bad, but what's for you?
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And you're humiliated in front of all your peers, then handed an apple and a milk, like the filthy poor peasant you were.
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And the crazy part was that they throw away The food right in front of you.
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They throw it away.
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Bro, if you're just gonna throw it away, why can't I just eat it?
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So I'd sit down with my apple and milk, trying not to cry as I watched everyone else eat their Lunchables and Gatorade, all happy.
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Field trip days, everyone else would be like, And then there was me.
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Because I already knew we probably couldn't afford it.
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And even if we somehow could, asking would just make me feel guilty.
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So I would just pretend it didn't exist.
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Boom, problem solved.
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Except not really because then field trip day would arrive
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and everyone would be lining up to get on the bus
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and I'd be standing there with a work packet like I had again committed a federal crime.
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The teacher would be like, okay, sweetie, you're gonna be staying with Mrs. Johnson's class today, okay?
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Then I'd spend the entire rest of the day in the back of some other classroom trying not to cry again.
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Home life was another experience.
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Touch the thermostat, you die.
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So in the summers, I'd open the fridge and just stand there.
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Another cooling strategy was wet arms, wet legs, stand directly in front of the fan.
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Sometimes I'd get a little bucket of water and pour it over myself in bed.
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Yes, I would sleep in a puddle of water when it was hot.
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No, this is not a lie or exaggeration.
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I am aware this was disgusting.
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Anyways, grocery shopping was done at Dollar Tree or the 99 cent store, Food for Less, Walmart, Food Drives, which by the way, if you live in the US,
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you can look up the nearest food drive near you
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and what days they operate to get yourself a box of free groceries.
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Shampoo bottles were half shampoo, half water.
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Dish soap was half dish soap, half water.
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And hand soap was probably just water with a molecule of soap.
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Struggle meals were things like microwaved cupped noodles.
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Oh, cancer.
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Raw Vienna sausages.
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Hot dogs and rice.
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Bologna and rice.
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Microwave TV dinners.
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And if I was really struggling, I'd watch mukbangs or literally google pictures of food while chewing on air Growing up,
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I was embarrassed thinking everyone else had more than me And honestly, most of them did But looking back now as an adult,
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it really wasn't that bad We always had a roof over our heads There was always food Maybe not the healthiest, but food
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And my parents worked really hard Like ridiculously hard My mom
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would sometimes sacrifice eating lunch for the day at work
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So she could give us what we needed These hardships taught
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me how to be kind to others who didn't have as much as me
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And how to be responsible with money So yeah, growing up poor was humbling But also kind of funny
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B1 speaking lesson is built on the video “Growing Up POOR in AMERICA”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: mom, wearing, kid, shoes, parents. This video has 89 sentences and 1101 words to shadow. The speech runs for 5:56. The speaker talks fast, about 185 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 83% 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
The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| shoe noun | /ˈʃu/ | A protective covering for the foot, with a bottom part composed of thick leather or plastic sole and often a thicker heel, and a softer upper part made of… |
| soap noun | /soʊp/ | A metallic salt derived from a fatty acid, commonly used in cleaning products. |
| coin noun | /ˈkoɪ̯n/ | A piece of currency, usually metallic and in the shape of a disc, but sometimes polygonal, or with a hole in the middle. |
| bootleg noun | /ˈbutˌlɛɡ/ | The part of a boot that is above the instep. |
| lunchbox noun | /ˈlʌntʃˌbɒks/ | A container for transporting meals, especially lunch. |
| puddle noun | /ˈpʌdəl/ | A small, often temporary, pool of water, usually on a path or road. |
| shampoo noun | /ʃæmˈpuː/ | A traditional Indian and Persian body massage given after pouring warm water over the body and rubbing it with extracts from herbs. |
| sausage noun | /ˈsɔsɪd͡ʒ/ | A food made of ground meat (or meat substitute) and seasoning, packed in a section of the animal's intestine, or in a similarly cylindrical shaped synthetic… |
| microwave noun | /ˈmaɪkɹoʊˌweɪv/ | An electromagnetic wave with wavelength between that of infrared light and radio waves. |
| grocery noun | /ˈɡɹəʊ.s(ə.)ɹi/ | Retail foodstuffs and other household supplies. |
| dish noun | /dɪʃ/ | A vessel such as a plate for holding or serving food, often flat with a depressed region in the middle. |
| chip noun | /t͡ʃɪp/ | A small piece broken from a larger piece of solid material. |
| bologna noun | /bəˈloʊni/ | A seasoned Italian sausage made from beef, pork or veal. |
| empath noun | /ˈɛm.pæθ/ | Someone who does so through psychological talent or training, thus having an unusually good level of empathy. |
| exaggeration noun | /ɪɡˌzæd͡ʒəˈɹeɪʃən/ | The act of heaping or piling up. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| grow up verb | To mature and become an adult. | |
| come back verb | To return to a place. | |
| look back verb | To think of (past events) in retrospect (in hindsight). | |
| look up verb | /ˌlʊk ˈʌp/ | To have better prospects. |
| stress out verb | To become stressed. | |
| throw away verb | To discard (trash, garbage, or the like), to toss out, to put in the trash. | |
| walk through verb | To explain (something) to (someone), step by step. |
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 we somehow could, asking would just · if I was really struggling, I'd watch |
| Past continuous was/were + -ing — an action in progress at a moment in the past | were struggling · weren't wearing · was wearing |
| Superlatives the -est / the most … — the top or bottom of a group | the worst · the nearest · the healthiest |
| Present continuous am/is/are + -ing — something happening right now or around now | are talking · you're talking |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 31 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'd, didn't, you're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: empath /ˈɛm.pæθ/, thermostat /ˈθɝməstæt/, filthy /ˈfɪlθi/, wealthy /ˈwɛl.θi/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: shoe /ˈʃu/, shampoo /ʃæmˈpuː/, dish /dɪʃ/, exaggeration /ɪɡˌzæd͡ʒəˈɹeɪʃən/, hardship /ˈhɑɹdˌʃɪp/
- Long words — get the stress right: exaggeration /ɪɡˌzæd͡ʒəˈɹeɪʃən/, humiliate /hjuːˈmɪliˌeɪt/, ridiculously /ɹɪˈdɪk.jə.ləs.li/, emotionally /ɪˈməʊʃənəli/, unfortunate /ʌnˈfɔː.t͡ʃə.nɪt/
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 shoe, soap, coin.
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.