Shadowing Practice: How She Became Fluent in English 2 - Learn English Speaking with YouTube
B2
What about the cultural difference?
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What about the cultural difference?
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Say, moving from China and going to travel to a new country,
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what was that like?
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Honestly, from the first beginning, it was overwhelming.
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The first time I was in the US,
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I was in Louisiana, out of nowhere.
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And I met people, they're the neighbors,
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they asked me, hey, how are you doing?
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I was like, huh?
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Are you talking to me?
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because in China we don't have small talk
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so I never did small talk in my whole life I'm
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like oh who are you talking to oh me I'm like
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uh okay thank you I don't know what you say
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and I feel awkward I feel overwhelmed
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because at the time I'm still thinking okay maybe they will
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think why this Chinese girl is right here what is she's doing
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and she doesn't even speak English I will think maybe he's judging me
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because I don't speak English he was saying I'm dumb from first beginning That's all in my mind.
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But later I realized I started to speak more.
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People actually, they like to get to know me.
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And when I see they have the interest for me,
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I will try to express myself more and stop thinking about,
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OK, they're going to judge me because my English is not perfect.
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And they're always being very supportive and always like inspire me.
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Oh, you should talk more and your English is really good.
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And then later I don't think about, OK, I'm dumb.
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I speak bad English.
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As long as I can express myself well,
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I think it's all that matters.
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Because the grammar is just the way to express yourself.
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As long as people understand you,
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no matter what you're speaking, that's the most important.
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Yeah, for sure.
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So for example, if I went up to someone in China and I started having small talk with them,
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like hey how's the weather it's nice today isn't it then
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what do you think the reaction of a Chinese person would be you mean
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if it's you like a foreigner oh yeah yeah
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and they will be like oh wow she's talking to me I mean it's definitely you look
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so like up like different foreign yeah boring learn boring what about
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if it was a Chinese person
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if it's Chinese people people were saying uh why are you
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talking to me like you don't have your own business business to do right now.
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Yeah, but sometimes from some regions people are very talkative,
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especially for the elderly, they like to talk a lot.
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Maybe you met in the elevator,
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they will ask you, oh,
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where did you get this back?
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You know, sometimes they do,
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but usually people don't do small talk with you,
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they don't talk with you.
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Yeah.
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Okay.
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Okay.
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They're super busy yeah
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so it's a big cultural difference then um you lived in
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the united states how how long did you live in the
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united states honestly i was traveling in the u.s at the
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time i first time i was there for like five
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and a half months i was traveling
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and then the second time i went to visit for like three months
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and the third time i actually worked there i was doing the working holiday
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because at the time I really want to get an opportunity to work abroad,
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to practice more my English and also get better paid.
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So I worked there.
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So in total probably like one year and a little bit more.
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Okay.
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And what was your first initial reaction moving from China to the United States?
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I was very excited though I was very excited
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because I still remember the first day like the plan I'm
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like arriving in Baylor Rouge I was in Louisiana seriously out of nowhere
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but I just feel like oh my god the air is
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so fresh because there's no factory you know so
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because the air is so fresh and also I feel like I don't I feel
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so free because we do have a lot of restrictions back to China.
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We're still very free, but for example,
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I cannot use Google, I cannot use Instagram in China,
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but here I can just use everything I wanted to use.
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So I feel like you can say whatever you want to say and people will accept who you are.
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So there was no big culture shock in a negative way?
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I think negative way, yes.
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I think sometimes people are too nice.
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You know, because for Chinese, we're very direct.
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If I like you, I will tell you I like you.
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If I don't like you,
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I'm just gonna be polite.
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But I'm not gonna say it was so nice to meet you,
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and I had such a great time with you,
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I'm gonna see you again.
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If I don't feel that way,
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I will never say that in Chinese.
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But I noticed that when I was in the US,
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I thought we're friends, we had a great time together,
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I said it was so nice to meet you,
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we're gonna see each other again.
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And then you realize, oh maybe for them they don't think the same.
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By the other time they will be like,
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oh I was so happy to meet you,
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it's so nice to meet you and actually they don't mean it
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but i understand
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because people want to be positive all the time they want
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to be nice they want to be always being not encouraging
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but maybe they just think i'm boring at the time
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because i don't speak that much english
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and like why do they wanted to know me you know
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but it's just sometimes i can't know if people really mean what they say Okay,
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more in the United States.
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way with you it's because they really don't like you
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if they're just completely reactionless and with no enthusiasm at all then they're very you think
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that they hate you they probably do
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so for me that was a big maybe culture shock
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when i visited china because they're very like oh you know
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but it makes it more special when they do react and when they are enthusiastic because it's It's like,
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oh, I guess you truly do like me.
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Yeah, because I think when Chinese people say it's like,
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you know, they're very welcoming,
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they show their like your passion to you,
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that means they're really like you.
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Yeah, yeah.
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Because usually Chinese people are very calm.
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Like, we're very calm.
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We like to observe that situation first.
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Yeah, they're very observant.
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We're not just like, you know,
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bumping to you and say a lot of things.
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We like to watch, observe,
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and to say, okay, how's the situation right now?
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and how should I react?
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Yeah.
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And we're more into like our own business,
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like what I said, like we don't do small talk,
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so we'll be like, okay,
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you do your own business, I do mine.
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Yeah.
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Of course, we'll be very like curious about foreigners,
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so a lot of people,
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when you're in Shanghai, I think you definitely experienced people wanted to take picture for you,
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wanted to, you know, talk with you,
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some kids might come to you practice their English.
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Yeah, yeah, in Asia a lot too in general.
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And so what part of learning English do you think changed your life the most?
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I think for me it's definitely learning English.
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Let me find out what's my dream for.
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For me right now, I'm doing my jewelry design and also collecting all the jewelries from all over the world.
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Yes, so because I discovered when I was traveling,
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when I was talking to people from all over the world,
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because I love the cultural things.
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I love the nature because I've been so many different places.
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I was in Maldives, Costa Rica, Korea.
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I've been so many different places because I could speak English.
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I could communicate with people.
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I was talking to so many people.
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For me, talking to them is like you're objecting yourself.
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You know, I was like observing myself.
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What do I really like?
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What's my passion for?
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What I want to do in my life?
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And after this two and a half years traveling,
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solo traveling by myself, I discovered I like fashion.
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Since I was young, I like fashion.
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So why don't I just start something with fashion?
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And because I noticed along the way, I'm always making necklaces.
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I'm also, you know, collecting all the beautiful jewellery.
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So that's why right now I started everything and I put a lot of meaning on it.
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For example, some of my pieces,
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like for example, this one,
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like the diamond one, because when I was younger,
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I liked the song from Rihanna, Shine Like a Diamond.
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So that's why I made this one.
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It's so beautiful.
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Can you see it?
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Yeah, yeah.
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I just want to make a close-up while you talk about it.
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Yeah, so I actually gave this one to my friend as a gift.
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And at the time, I didn't know I'm going to make jewelry in the future.
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And I told her, like,
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you can shine like a diamond.
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Because I feel like she's so beautiful.
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She looks a little bit like Rihanna as well.
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So I gave it to her and she told me,
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why don't you just start something like you know with your fashion design with jewellery
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or collecting like all the beautiful things from over the world i'm like yeah why not
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so that's why right now i'm settling down in maxwell city
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and i'm trying to build up like everything like for my jewellery
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and also beautiful things i collect from over the world contain
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all the cultural things for example for the Chinese things like Chinese design,
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we have some you know dragons like clouds,
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we believe in some energy and elements you know,
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so I just wanted to let people to know different cultures and in in my way like from my perspective,
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so I want to bring it back to them,
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meaning bring the energy yeah and each one has a story behind it,
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exactly a story of your traveling of your journey of your English language journey.
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Exactly too like right now i have this flower actually i
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don't know the english name though um in spanish you know
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he no people hippocampus hippocampus no that's part of the brain no it was it called Guys,
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I just did an unboxing video on my TikTok,
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but I wanted to come on here and thank you again and show you what we have.
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I made a video thanking you guys for 1 million subscribers already.
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We did the community giveaway,
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and I'm really excited for the 10 winners to join the community.
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I'm excited to meet you guys.
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And I'll be sending you an email if you were one of the lucky winners.
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And if you didn't win this time, then don't worry.
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I'll be doing another giveaway,
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hopefully soon, for more English classes so that everybody gets the chance to learn.
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Unfortunately, I can't open all the free spots,
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but I'm working on a system that can make it possible.
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I'll be hanging this up right there.
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So you'll be seeing it in my next video.
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And thank you guys for being here.
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Thank you guys for learning English,
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for staying motivated, for being a part of this English community that we have here,
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a lovely, lovely English community where we support each other,
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where we motivate each other,
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and where we never stop learning.
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That's the goal.
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Thank you, guys.
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Back to the video.
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To wrap up the video,
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what do you think are your learning English goals now?
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Now that you're at this level,
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now that you can have a conversation naturally with me,
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what's your next step?
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For me right now, yeah,
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I'm comfortable speaking English right now.
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But I feel like there's still certain words,
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you know, I cannot express myself perfectly.
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I wanted to know how to become more native.
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So I would definitely still do shadowing
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when I'm you know watching like videos on youtube I do love shadowing
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because it's really like a real reaction you learn from people right
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and also I wanted to become more professional in my field like a fashion field
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or because I don't know any vocabularies about like jewellery before
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so right now I'm gonna you know like get into it to learn more things about my field Yeah,
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I think this is mainly my English learning goals for right now.
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And I feel like, you know,
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learning a language is a lifelong journey.
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You gotta keep learning, no matter how good you can speak.
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Because there's always something out there you don't know,
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and you want to know.
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So for me, I would love to always keep learning.
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Perfect, never stop learning, that's what I always say.
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Yay.
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All right.
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Well, thank you guys for joining us.
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Thank you, Olivia, for being on the podcast with me.
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And let me know in the comments if you guys want to see more interviews with Olivia.
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She has a lot to show you,
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a lot to tell us.
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So, yeah, be sure to like and subscribe.
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And I'll see you guys next time.
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Subscribe and like me.
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And I'll leave Olivia's Instagram in the description if you want to go check out her jewelry.
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all right bye guys bye
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Context & Background
In this enlightening video, the speaker shares her personal journey of becoming fluent in English after moving from China to the United States. Overwhelmed by cultural differences, she initially struggled with small talk and the nuances of social interactions. This experience highlights the challenges many learners face when trying to fit in and communicate in a new language. Her story underscores that although it can be intimidating to engage in conversations, the most crucial element is the ability to express oneself and connect with others, regardless of grammatical perfection.
Top 5 Phrases for Daily Communication
- "How are you doing?" – A common greeting that opens the door to small talk.
- "Can you help me?" – This phrase is useful when you're in need of assistance.
- "Where are you from?" – Engaging someone in conversation can often begin with questions about their background.
- "What do you think about this?" – A great way to invite input and dialogue from others.
- "I appreciate your support!" – Expressing gratitude can strengthen social connections and encourages positive interactions.
Step-by-step Shadowing Guide
To effectively use this video as a resource for improving your english speaking practice, follow this structured shadowing guide:
- Watch the Video: Start by watching the video once without any subtitles. Focus on the speaker's pronunciation, rhythm, and intonation.
- Write Down Key Phrases: As you watch, jot down the phrases that resonate with you, especially those used for small talk and social exchanges. These are valuable for real-life conversations.
- Pause and Repeat: Play back sections of the video, pause after each phrase, and repeat what the speaker says. This mimicking technique improves your pronunciation and confidence.
- Record Yourself: Use a shadow speech approach by recording yourself while you mimic the speaker. Listening to your own voice allows you to identify areas for improvement.
- Engage in Practice Conversations: Utilize the phrases learned to initiate conversations with friends, family, or language partners. This helps reinforce your learning in practical scenarios.
For those looking to learn English with YouTube, enhancing your skills through shadowing can be an effective way to build fluency and overcome speaking anxieties. Engage with a shadowing site or participate in shadow speech exercises to further immerse yourself in the learning process.
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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