Shadowing Practice: "How Was Your Day?" Is a Test. Are You Passing? - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Good, that's how you answered it last time, isn't it?

Someone asked, how was your day?

And you said, good.

And then came that awkward little pause because now neither of you knows what to say next.

Here's what's strange.

This is the most common question in English.

You'll hear it today, you'll hear it tomorrow.

And yet it's the one question that makes your English sound the smallest.

Now listen to how a fluent speaker answers the exact same question.

Oh, it was actually a pretty good day.

So this morning was kind of rough.

Hear that?

Something's already happening.

You want to know what went wrong.

Today, my friend, I'm giving you the method behind that answer.

Three simple parts and you can use it tonight.

And stay with me to the end

because I'm going to tell you the true story of a

single mother who turned the most ordinary part of her day into a Nobel prize.

Are you ready?

Well, then let's jump right in.

Here is the question.

How was your day?

Now you might also hear it as, can you tell me about your day?

Or can you tell me how your day was?

This is the question that is asked all the time.

Now listen to these two responses, these full responses.

The first one is a learner response.

My day was good.

I woke up at seven o 'clock, I went to work, I had meetings, I ate lunch, I went home, I ate dinner, I watched TV, then I went to sleep.

That's all.

Now listen to the fluent English speaker response.

Oh, it was actually a pretty good day.

So this morning was kind of rough.

I overslept.

So I was rushing around trying to get my daughter ready for school.

And by the time I got to the office, I was totally frazzled.

Things got better in the afternoon, though.

My co -worker Aiko and I had back -to -back meetings, but instead of eating at our desks like we usually do,

we grabbed lunch at this little ramen place near the river.

It was a nice change of pace, and honestly, it was great to talk about something other than work for once.

She told me she's moving to Canada next year, which I totally didn't see coming.

And then this evening, I just stayed home with my wife and daughter.

We made curry together and watched a movie.

And by like nine o 'clock, I was wiped out.

So I decided to call it a day.

I felt really relaxed.

So yeah, that was my day.

So imagine these two responses, both from an individual.

He is talking about his life, right?

What happened today, but one is when he was a learner and the other is when he became a fluent speaker.

So why are these responses from this man so different?

Here's the first reason a schedule versus a story.

You see Kenji's first answer.

That's the man's name.

We're giving him the name Kenji Kenji's first answer sounds like he's reading his calendar, seven o 'clock work, lunch, home.

However, the fluent answer given by Kenji, it tells you what his day was actually like one is a calendar.

The other is a story about his day.

Reason number two, why the responses are so different

and empty day versus is a full one you see in

the learner's answer nobody else is there however in the fluent

answer you meet Kenji's daughter you meet his co -worker Eiko

and you meet Kenji's wife people make a day feel real you're starting to recognize the subtle differences

but the subtle important differences between these two responses again reason number two an empty day versus a full one

and this leads us to the third reason why the responses are

so different again the learner response versus the fluent response reason

number three is facts versus feelings you see the learner response In the learner response,

Kenji said good once and never said how he felt again.

But in the fluent answer, there's this up and down, up and down of emotions.

Frazzled in the morning, refreshed at lunch, relaxed at night.

And Eiko moving to Canada gives the listeners something to ask about.

So facts versus feelings.

Now I want to explain the method that Kenji used to give this natural English.

Fluent response.

Here's the method.

I want us to go deep.

Now I want you to look at those three differences again, what happened,

who was there and how it felt that's literally the whole secret

and it has a name it's called the around

the clock daily life method around the clock daily life method.

This is the method that Kenji used to actually give the second fluent English response.

Now I want you to picture a clock.

Think about a clock that represents your day.

Now your day moves around it in three parts.

You have the morning.

Let's separate this off.

You have the morning.

Let's say this is your morning.

If you're looking at the video, then you have your afternoon.

This is the second part of your day.

And then finally you have the evening what you're doing during the last part of your day.

So we have the morning, the afternoon, and the evening.

And in every part, you ask yourself the same three questions.

This is where it gets interesting for each part.

You're asking yourself three questions.

The first question is what, what did you do during that part of your day?

The second question you're asking yourself is who, who were you with?

And the third question you're asking yourself is how, how did you feel about what happened?

So again, the first one, what did you do?

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The second one, who were you with?

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And the third one, how did you feel about that?

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How about it?

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This is the around the clock daily life method.

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I'm getting tongue twisted, tongue tied.

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All right.

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So around the clock daily life method.

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Now, what is the starting point?

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The starting point is the question, the topic, the question, what are they asking you?

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So before you walk through your day, you want to answer the question in one quick line.

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Before you start walking through your day, this tells the listener where your story is going.

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So you're starting with this one quick line, think about it.

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The question was asked to Kenji, how was your day?

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Kenji's response was, oh, it was actually a pretty good day.

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He started by giving a quick one line answer.

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So we can imagine this kind of being that center part for Kenji.

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Oh, Hey, listen, it was actually a pretty good day.

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That starting point.

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Then we go to the morning and your morning actually is going to set the tone.

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So we start with your morning.

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Now your morning again is what sets the tone.

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And it usually is where the day's first little problem or first good moment shows up.

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So it pulls the listener in right away.

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Was there a problem or was there a good moment?

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Kenji said it like this.

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So this morning was kind of rough.

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I overslept.

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So I was rushing around trying to get my daughter ready for school.

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And by the time I got to the office, I was totally frazzled.

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This is how Kenji started his response.

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So remember for each part of the day, what do we need to do?

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We need to answer.

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Let's highlight it.

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What happened?

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So what happened for Kenji?

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He overslept and rushed to get ready. Who?

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He was with his daughter.

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And how did he feel?

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How did he feel?

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He was frazzled.

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So if we were answering the questions again, what?

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He overslept.

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Again, who was he with?

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His daughter.

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Man.

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And how did he feel? he felt frazzled we're just speaking

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about the morning now there's an advanced vocabulary word right here the word is frazzled

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so i want you to repeat after me frazzled Excellent.

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One more time.

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Frazzled.

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Great job.

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Now, what does this word mean?

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It means stressed, worn out and a little scattered because too many things are happening at once.

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In English, we say frazzled.

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So Kenji, he felt frazzled.

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Why?

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He was trying to get his daughter ready for school, but he overslept.

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So he was feeling frazzled.

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Now here's an example sentence.

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three calls two emails and a broken printer and it wasn't even 10 o 'clock i was completely frazzled

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you got it right excellent all right now this moves us

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to the next part of our around the clock daily life

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method now we're getting to the part of our day that's entitled the afternoon now we're looking at the afternoon.

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Now the afternoon is the middle of your story.

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This is a great place for a change or a shift, something that surprised you or a moment that's worth talking about.

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Here we go.

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Remember what Kenji said.

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Kenji said, things got better in the afternoon though.

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My coworker, Aiko and I had back to back meetings, but instead of eating at our desks, like we usually do,

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we grabbed lunch at this little ramen place near the river it was a nice change of pace

170

and honestly it was great to talk about something other than

171

work for once she told me she's moving to canada next year

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which i totally did not see coming

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so what do we see here once again following our method again the around the clock daily life method.

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So let's write what we have for the what,

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so what happened in the afternoon for Kenji.

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Now let's change the color for the afternoon.

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What happened meetings and then lunch.

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So we had meetings back to back meetings and he also had lunch, but who was he with?

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He was with his coworker and her name was Aiko in our story.

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And then how are our response, how he felt refreshed and surprised,

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refreshed to go out for lunch and then surprised.

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Why?

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Because of Aiko's news.

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So again, we're still using our around the clock daily life method, but we're looking at the afternoon.

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Now, in this response, this part of his response, we heard a new English expression.

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The expression is a change of pace.

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Excellent.

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Again, a change of pace.

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Yes.

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Very good.

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All right.

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Now I want to give you the definition of this term, a change of pace.

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So it just means something different from your normal routine that feels refreshing.

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Ah, this feels good.

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It's out of the norm, but it feels refreshing.

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Here's an example sentence.

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We usually cook at home.

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So going out for tacos last night was a nice change of pace.

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Makes sense, right?

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Excellent.

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All right, now we move to the next part of our around the clock daily life method.

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We're looking now at the evening.

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So let's get a different color.

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Now we're looking at the evening part of our day.

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So let's see for Kenji.

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Now the evening is how your day ends, how it wraps up.

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This is where you slow down and where your answer starts coming in for a landing like a plane.

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Now this is what Kenji said.

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Kenji said, and then this evening, I just stayed home with my wife and daughter.

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We made curry together and watched a movie.

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And by like nine o 'clock, I was wiped out.

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So I decided to call it a day.

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I felt really relaxed.

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This is the end that Kenji decided to talk about the end of his day.

215

But again, using our method, the around the clock daily life method, we have to make sure the three questions were answered

216

so let's look at the first question remember the first question we have is what

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so for the what he made curry watched a movie

218

and went to bed early so we have curry going to bed early

219

and also we had watching a movie so let's put that right in the middle watched a movie.

220

Okay?

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Now, who?

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This is White and his daughter.

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Right?

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He has his wife and daughter.

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Notice the answer to the questions.

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What we have about message.

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And how do you feel?

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He said he felt relaxed.

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He felt very relaxed.

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So, each of the questions has their answers.

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This is why I can give a response.

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Now, in his response, the last part of his response, he had an English student.

233

Are you clear?

234

Call it a day.

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More again over time.

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Call it a day.

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Excellent.

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Now, here's the definition.

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It just means to stop working or stop an activity because you've done enough for now.

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So, now when you call something, you announce it officially.

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So we're announcing that day is done.

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All of the day I am done, I can do my work.

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I'm done doing the day.

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You're looking good.

245

We think that we think we need.

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Let's all in a day and finish tomorrow.

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You got it, right?

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Excellent.

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Now, we have morning, afternoon, and we are around the clock daily life message.

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What happened?

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Who are you doing?

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And how did you feel?

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So yes, that was my day.

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We bring it right back to the question.

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That, my friend, is the around -the -clock daily life method.

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Now, if you enjoyed this lesson and you learned a lot, this does represent one of my six industry methods.

257

You can get my industry and the price of the latest in the system.

258

But if you want to study with me and students who are learning around the world,

259

you can join our family by going to www .ceapenglishwithhifties .com for the track 365 system

260

and follow my daily system for food, food, and food.

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And I, my friend, will talk to you in the next lesson.

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you know what time it is it's story time I said it's story time alright,

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this is story time oh,

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today I'm going to tell you this story is entitled The Woman Who Wrote Before the Time My friends,

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let's get it Every eye of their eye is coming to you.

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Your job, your boss, your children, your spouse.

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Where did you find? Where did you find?

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This is a true story from the women in this story.

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One of the most famous, one of the most celebrated writers in the world.

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But I'm not going to tell you a name just yet.

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It's a good story.

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This woman grew up in a small steel town in Ohio.

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Her father was a welder.

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Her mother seemed other to come.

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They were hard workers.

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They did have much money.

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They did, however, have serious.

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Folk tales, songs, family stories told about the people's table.

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They were family saying love this way.

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Now that love happened in all of a great time.

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She studied literature at Howard University.

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She earned a master's degree at Cornell.

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My sister took it back to Howard University as well.

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This woman got her master's degree at Cornell and copied that with that Howard University at Cornell as a teacher.

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And it was there that she had a beautiful life together they had two sons with a beautiful life.

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I love that beautiful life.

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This life that made me.

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By night she was here and made me baby.

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And she was raised and she was younger.

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She needed to say, good, good, good job.

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And she needed to do it.

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You will.

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You will.

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You will.

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You will.

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You will.

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You will.

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You will.

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You will.

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You will.

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You will.

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You will.

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You will.

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You will.

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You will.

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Two little boys that she has to get to school in the afternoon, demanding office job, reading and fixing other people's books.

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And in the evening, making dinner for those same little boys, helping those same little boys with their homework and making sure those same little boys get to bed.

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That kind of schedule would have left anyone frazzled.

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But all day long, she was surrounded by books and she kept noticing something missing.

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You see, she had never read a book where a young black girl was the center of the story, not a background character, the center.

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So she decided to write that book herself.

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But when she tried writing at night, but after a full day of work and kids, she had nothing left.

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Her energy had been expended.

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She was exhausted.

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Most people would have looked at that schedule and called it a day for good, but she didn't.

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She found the one part of the day nobody else wanted, the quiet hours before sunrise.

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She would get up at four or five in the morning quietly so she wouldn't wake her boys.

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She made a cup of coffee while it was still dark outside and she sat there and waited.

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so she could in her words watch the light come

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and then she wrote for her

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that quiet hour was a change of pace from everything else

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no boss no phone no duties no responsibilities no little voices calling her name though she loved them

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so much she had a moment of peace and quiet just her the coffee and her words.

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Day after day, morning after morning.

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She started that first book in 1965.

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It was published in 1970 when she was 39 years old.

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And here's my favorite part.

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She kept it so quiet that her own coworkers found out about her novel from a review in the New York times.

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She didn't stop though.

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She kept going more early mornings, more books.

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And one of those books won the Pulitzer prize.

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Then in 1993, she won the Nobel prize in literature.

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The first black woman in history to win it.

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The single mom of two boys who wrote before the sun came up was Toni Morrison.

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Toni Morrison passed away in 2019 at 88 years old in 2023,

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the United States Postal Service put her face on a stamp.

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She never had a perfect day.

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She never had extra time.

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She just took one small piece of her day, the piece nobody else wanted, and she used it again and again.

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So my friend, what does this mean for you as an English learner?

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Maybe you think your day is too ordinary to talk about.

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Maybe you think nothing happened.

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There's nothing to say.

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That's not true.

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Your mornings, your afternoons, your evenings,

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the people in them, the way they made you feel that my friend is a story.

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And just like Toni Morrison, you don't need a perfect day to begin.

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You just need to use the one you have

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so the next time someone asks how was your day don't say good actually tell them how your day was

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This speaking lesson is built on the video “"How Was Your Day?" Is a Test. Are You Passing?”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: response, Kenji, clock, method, answer. This video has 349 sentences and 3170 words to shadow. The speech runs for 23:52. The speaker talks at a steady 133 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. 89% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is easy to follow.

Key vocabulary in this video

15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
clock noun	/klɑk/	A chronometer, an instrument that measures time, particularly the time of day.
fluent adjective	/ˈfluənt/	That flows; flowing, liquid.
pace noun	/peɪs/	A step taken with the foot.
versus	/ˈvɝsəs/	Against; in opposition to.
relax verb	/ɹɪˈlæks/	To make something loose.
refresh verb	/ɹɪˈfɹɛʃ/	To renew or revitalize.
curry noun	/ˈkʌ.ɹi/	One of a family of dishes originating from Indian cuisine, flavored by a spiced sauce.
rush verb	/ɹʌʃ/	To hurry; to perform a task with great haste, often not properly or without thinking carefully.
worker noun	/ˈwɝ.kɚ/	One who works: a person who performs labor for a living; traditionally, especially, manual labor.
listener noun	/ˈlɪs(ə)nɚ/	Someone who listens, especially to a speech or a broadcast.
tone noun	/ˈtəʊn/	A specific pitch.
lesson noun	/ˈlɛs.ən/	A section of learning or teaching into which a wider learning content is divided.
desk noun	/dɛsk/	A table, frame, or case, in past centuries usually with a sloping top but now usually with a flat top, for the use of writers and readers. It often has a…
ordinary adjective	/ˈɔɹdɪnɛɹi/	Having regular jurisdiction; now only used in certain phrases.
calendar noun	/ˈkæl.ən.də/	Any system by which time is divided into days, weeks, months, and years.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Meaning
walk through verb	To explain (something) to (someone), step by step.
wipe out verb	To destroy (especially, a large number or complete set of people or things); to obliterate.
come in for verb	To be subjected to.
come up verb	To emerge or become known, especially unexpectedly.
move around verb	To relocate to new homes repeatedly; to not live in any one place for long.
show up verb	To appear, arrive, or attend, especially suddenly or erratically.
slow down verb	To decelerate.
wear out verb	To cause (something) to become damaged, useless, or ineffective through continued use, especially hard, heavy, or careless use.

Sentences worth repeating

Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:

Good, that's how you answered it last time, isn't it?
Someone asked, how was your day?
You'll hear it today, you'll hear it tomorrow.
The second question you're asking yourself is who, who were you with?
The second one, who were you with?

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
“Used to” used to + verb — a past habit or state that is no longer true	used to give · used to actually
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	is asked · was wiped · was asked
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	students who are · Woman Who Wrote

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 34 contractions and reduced forms, such as we're, you're, I'm. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “sh” and “zh” sounds: refresh /ɹɪˈfɹɛʃ/, rush /ɹʌʃ/, emotion /ɪˈməʊ.ʃən/
Long words — get the stress right: ordinary /ˈɔɹdɪnɛɹi/, vocabulary /vəˈkæb.jə.lə.ɹi/

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 clock, fluent, pace.

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.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

Shadowing Practice: "How Was Your Day?" Is a Test. Are You Passing? - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

Key vocabulary in this video

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Sentences worth repeating

Grammar in this video

Pronunciation to watch

How to practise with this video

What is the Shadowing Technique?