Shadowing Practice: Her underground DREAM HOME is blowing everyone's mind - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Hi, I'm Kim, and this is my Hobbit House.
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I'm an interior designer, and I have a specialty in custom window treatments, upholstery, and wallpaper.
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During COVID, I, just like anyone, you know, my life had been interrupted, and I was jumping out of my skin.
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One day, I reposted an episode of Zillow Gone Wild,
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and in that listing, there was the Wisconsin Hobbit House just like anybody else.
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I'm like, this is cool.
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Oh, this is really cool.
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Oh, this is really cool.
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Oh, this is for sale.
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I immediately contacted the realtor and she said, it's a long shot.
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It's, we've got 20 offers.
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And I said, but can I look at it?
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She said, if you're willing to make the drive, I'll make it happen.
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I stood in the space and I really couldn't believe it was real
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and in 24 hours our life changed at no point did
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I think I was going to come home with Hobbit house
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I learned what an escalating bid was ten years later
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that is one little piece of the puzzle of how we ended up winning the 20 way bid three hundred
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and fifty six thousand is what we paid the home is
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just shy of twenty four hundred square feet it has a large living room kitchen dining room a laundry room
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and then two bedroom suites welcome to the wisconsin hobbit house
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what you're looking at here come with me is two kwonset
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huts they've been placed on grade one is higher than the other
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the lower kwonset hut is the living room kitchen and dining room
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the upper both of the bedroom suites would you like to come on in It's been surreal.
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When I was a kid, we went to visit the Xanadu homes and they no longer exist.
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And the Xanadu homes were very much like Wisconsin Hobbit home.
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They were experimental homes devoted to the study of what we would call home automation today
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and the exploration of the modern home, how your home can be integrated with your lifestyle in a way
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that is cohesive not just a box to live in
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and I remember this amorphous space
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that you know as a kid you just want to jump around
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and play and one day
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and I don't know maybe in my 20s I had a flashback
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and I was like I remember this it's like driving down the highway
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and I called my dad and I'm like what's this white house you brought us to
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and he's like oh the Xanadu homes you remember that
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and I'm like wow so fast forward I get on the phone with my sister
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and I'm like you're not gonna believe this I'm about to
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buy the Xanadu houses like I'm in a Xanadu house right now
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and it's been a ride so it's been really fun through here is our living room.
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Watch your step.
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The home is just shy of 2 ,400 square feet.
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At our highest point here in our first skylight is about 20 feet to the top of the skylight.
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The home is actually a Quonset hut.
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So you have a series of steel culvers.
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Those culvers have then been sprayed with spray foam and that's how you get the really interesting effect that looks like concrete.
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The floor is a poured aggregate concrete.
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Each room has a fireplace and here we have the doors that lead out into our outdoor area.
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Outside we have a place for our guests to enjoy and take in the nature that surrounds the property.
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One of the most interesting things to experience about the Wisconsin Hobbit House is the expansive space
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and then the compression of space through smaller openings that then again open up into bigger openings.
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So here in the kitchen we have another skylight
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and everything in the kitchen is built in and integrated as you'll also see repeatedly in this home.
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I have one more cool thing to show you.
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all of the lighting throughout the home is integrated into the architecture itself
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and at night it is a sight to behold all of these are original built -ins with storage for the entire home
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the wisconsin hobbit house is located in river falls wisconsin It's a small college town in the Driftless region
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and the home was built by two college professors who worked for the local university.
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They commissioned architect Michael McGuire, and he lives in nearby Stillwater.
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Michael McGuire was very inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright,
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and you really see the mid -century modern influence throughout the home.
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So the relics of the home were passed down with the sale of the home,
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and inside were original blueprints that were the hand -drawn blueprints of the space.
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So what you're looking at here the scanned images of hand -drawn floor plan
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and you know they knew they're like oh we're gonna put some parking over here
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and walk up and enter here and so these are michael mcguire's drawings
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through this way is where the home connects through the wood construction hallway
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so we're actually going up a level here
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and we are now in the area
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that is not part of the two quonset huts this was um this area bridges the two quonset huts
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and is where all of the mechanicals are stored in the
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home also a little surprise come back this way is the coolest laundry room you've ever seen
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so through this part here is one of my favorite architectural details of home you have these stalactites
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that go from the longest to the shortest
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and again at nighttime it's absolutely incredible how they illuminate the space through this way we have both bedrooms
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right here is the main bedroom suite
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we have a king bed and i'm going to save the best for last and a little lounge area here
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Over this way, we have these doors that lead to the outside, and it puts you at eye level with nature
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and also allows for the cross ventilation in this space into the next bedroom suite.
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Over here, we have our king bedroom suite and our bathroom.
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the finished material on this bathroom is more of the closed cell foam
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so because it's an exterior finished material it's actually waterproof and can withstand showering through here is the second bedroom
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and again we've got a door to the exterior a beautiful space to relax outside right out your bedroom
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so this bedroom has a full -size window as well
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and I'll show you in a moment how we get the cross ventilation through both bedrooms.
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Here we have two more twin beds in a lounge area and up this way is everyone's favorite part of the home.
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We have a queen bed here and if you come this way you'll see one of the prettiest views of the home.
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We've got another skylight here that you wake up to the most architecturally interesting part of the home.
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This bathroom is nothing short of a surprise i'm going to let you go in first
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the fibonacci sequence is found all over in nature including shells and seeds even the inner structure of leaves
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and it's just one more way that the architect integrated nature into this home
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so this is the inside of the hobbit home and follow me up to the roof
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over this way we're on the second level and through here
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short ways we'll be on the roof
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so here we are up on the roof
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and one of the neat things is that This home is actually built into a bluff.
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The bluff right here is part of the Driftless region, and that was a region of the Midwest that was spared by the glaciers,
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and in turn is not as flat as the rest of the Great Plains.
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The Hobbit House has layer of soil and greenery all over the top.
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Because we're part of this beautiful forest system, it's not uncommon for deer and other wildlife to find their way onto the top of the roof, and you do hear them from the inside.
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I designed the home to be a blank canvas I didn't really entirely want to direct their experience here
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because I think there's people who are going to come here to find inspiration to find peace
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and to relax but there may be people who are here to celebrate an anniversary
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and just have a unique experience or our architecture enthusiasts so ultimately I just wanted the space to be something that was,
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again, a blank canvas for people to enjoy for a variety of reasons.
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I'm a world traveler, and this is one of the few places that I can come over and over and wake up, and I'm still enchanted.
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I mean, I'm not trying to toot my own horn.
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I didn't build this.
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I am trying to honor this space, and even I'm amazed.
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I've now owned it for three and a half years
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and it's a pleasure to get to steal a few days for myself and I wake up here and it's just paradise.
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This experience has blown my mind.
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It's been incredible to own this property
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and to be able to go through all of the various challenges and make it through to the other side.
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We would love if you would follow us at Wisconsin Hobbit House on Instagram
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and Facebook or visit our website to book a stay at wihobbithouse .com.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “Her underground DREAM HOME is blowing everyone's mind”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: bedroom, space, Hobbit, Wisconsin. This video has 24 sentences and 1607 words to shadow. The speech runs for 11:29. The speaker talks at a steady 140 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. Only 81% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| bedroom noun | /ˈbɛdˌɹum/ | A room in a house, apartment, hotel, or other dwelling where a bed is kept for sleeping. |
| suite noun | /swiːt/ | A group or train of attendants, servants etc.; a retinue. |
| integrate verb | /ˈɪn.tɪ.ɡɹeɪt/ | To include as a constituent part or functionality. |
| hut noun | /hʌt/ | A small, simple one-storey dwelling or shelter, often with just one room, and generally built of readily available local materials. |
| concrete adjective | /ˌkɑnˈkɹit/ | Real, actual, tangible. |
| architecture noun | /ˈɑː.kɪˌtɛk.t͡ʃə/ | The art and science of designing and managing the construction of buildings and other structures, particularly if they are well proportioned and decorated. |
| relax verb | /ɹɪˈlæks/ | To make something loose. |
| spray noun | /spɹeɪ/ | A fine, gentle, dispersed mist of liquid. |
| blank noun | /ˈblæŋk/ | The white spot in the centre of a target; hence (figuratively) the object to which anything is directed or aimed, the range of such aim. |
| architect noun | /ˈɑɹ.kɪˌtɛkt/ | A professional who designs buildings or other structures, or who prepares plans and superintends construction. |
| laundry noun | /ˈlɔːn.dɹi/ | A laundering; a washing. |
| canvas noun | /ˈkæn.vəs/ | A type of coarse cloth, woven from hemp (traditionally) or from cotton and polyesters, useful for making sails, tents, and overcoats or as a surface for… |
| lounge noun | /ˈlaʊ̯nd͡ʒ/ | The act of someone who lounges; idle reclining. |
| exterior adjective | /ɪkˈstɪɹiɚ/ | Relating to the outside parts or surface of something. |
| foam noun | /ˈfɔʊ̯m/ | A substance composed of a large collection of bubbles or their solidified remains, especially |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| wake up verb | /ˌweɪk ˈʌp/ | To stop sleeping; to awake. |
| come back verb | To return to a place. | |
| come on in verb | Synonym of come in (“to enter”). | |
| come over verb | To affect in a sudden, unprecedented or surprising manner; to overwhelm a person's ordinarily contrary impulse. | |
| drive down verb | To cause or force a price, quantity, rate, etc. to decrease. | |
| end up verb | To bring to a conclusion. | |
| go through verb | To travel from one end of something to the other. | |
| go up verb | To move upwards. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- Would you like to come on in?
- Do you remember that?
- I'm going to let you go in first.
- Over this way, we're on the second level.
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 you come this way you'll see |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | had been interrupted · they've been placed · can be integrated |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | they've been placed · It's been · have then been sprayed |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | people who are |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 39 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, we're, you're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: withstand /wɪðˈstænd/, enthusiast /ɪnˈθuːziˌæst/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: ventilation /ˌvɛntɪˈleɪʃ(ə)n/, inspiration /ˌɪn.spɪˈɹeɪ.ʃən/, shell /ʃɛl/, exploration /ˌɛkspləˈɹeɪʃən/, specialty /ˈspɛʃ.əl.ti/
- Long words — get the stress right: architecture /ˈɑː.kɪˌtɛk.t͡ʃə/, ventilation /ˌvɛntɪˈleɪʃ(ə)n/, inspiration /ˌɪn.spɪˈɹeɪ.ʃən/, mechanical /məˈkænəkəl/, experimental /ɪkspɛɹəˈmɛntəl/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Shadow it sentence by sentence at normal speed, repeating each one until your rhythm matches the speaker.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like bedroom, suite, integrate.
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.