Shadowing Practice: I Built a GIANT LEGO Castle… - Learn English Speaking with Video

Creating lesson...
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This is a LEGO castle.
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It has a working portcullis and drawbridge, dungeons, kitchens, cottages, and not one, not two, but three LEGO frogs.
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And this… is 10 of them.
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I also have a ton of extra bricks, including a thousand of… this brick, this brick, this brick, this brick, this brick, this brick, this brick, French stick, this brick, that brick, those bricks, these bricks, and take a look at all of… these frogs!
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The plan is quite simply to build until I run out of pieces, and hopefully that should make a pretty big castle, big enough, jelly-beans crossed, for my two cats, Ralph and Bella.
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I’ve previously built Château de Ralph, multi-tiered and much-ignored, followed by Boxingham Palace, much larger but largely boring.
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This LEGO castle therefore will complete the trilogy, and since my cats are generally rather fond of my LEGO creations, insert footage of Bella head-butting every LEGO set I’ve ever made here, I’m hoping I can trick them into actually liking this one.
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But then the weirdest thing happened.
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I laid the first brick, and as if by magic the castle started building itself.
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I’m kidding, it was a painfully meticulous process, but with the initial footprint locked in place, building upwards was incredibly satisfying, and very soon, the towers were joined together.
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So the towers are connected, I’ve built a portcullis although it’s fixed in position, and I’ve added all these arrow-slits and the used masonry bricks to give it some kind of texture, you can really get a feel for how it’s gonna look now.
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Next I built a dining hall, complete with a comically long table, Christmas decorations and a suit of armour, as well as a kitchen in one turret and a drink storage room in the other.
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The kitchen has all manner of cooking utensils, but only enough ingredients to make carrot sandwiches.
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Deeeeelicious!
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The drinks room sees barrels, bottles and goblets galore, and has a very long ladder leading down to the bottom of the castle.
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Now you might have noticed that both rooms have an umbrella, and the kitchen even has a mop and bucket in there, and that is because I forgot to build a roof.
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Yeah. Lack of roof aside, I was incredibly pleased with how this first section turned out, but it was about to get a whole lot bigger.
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First was a simple square tower, built in a spellbindingly spinny timelapse that unfortunately stopped recording halfway through.
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Yup, how unsatisfying is that?!
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This is what the finished tower looks like anyway, and I gave it a rooftop garden, with a fountain, beehive and tons of overgrown plants.
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I then built an identical tower, but this time with two rooms inside.
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The lower room is the castle Treasury, overflowing with gold coins, gold bars, and solid gold frogs.
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The upper room is a study, including a globe, grandfather clock, cartographer’s writing desk and bookshelf.
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I’m really happy with how it turned out, and there’s even a colony of seagulls nesting on the roof.
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How cute is that?
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So we’re up to an entranceway and two towers, but I think it’s time we build the biggest part of the castle, the keep.
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This section alone is already the biggest thing I’ve ever made from LEGO.
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It’s huge, and features a cat tunnel through the middle, as well as two rooms, an armoury on one side and a bedroom on the other.
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You can probably tell from the cobwebs and bright green carpet that was outdated even in medieval times that the armoury hasn’t been used in a very long time, and that’s because the castle’s occupants are pacifists.
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The bedroom sees all the normal furniture, plus the original Van Gogh’s Starry Night painting, a shelf of weird and wonderful artefacts, and a pen with twin lambs who are being hand-reared.
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There are then also these thatched cottage sections, adapted from the original castle, and two bell towers.
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Now I ran out of windows as I was building this, so I’ve had to use ivy to tactically cover the caps, but other than that I’m delighted with it, it’s enormous!
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It finally felt like I was getting somewhere, especially once I built the walls and connected all the sections together.
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But before the grand reveal, it’s time for some finishing touches.
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I built stables, home to the castle’s horses, plus a farm, with cows, pigs, chickens, and sheep, as well as lots of babies.
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I added crops, such as corn, pumpkins, and a hopeful prize-winning carrot, a market, selling fresh produce and baked goods, and the fountain of youth, which appears to have worked a little too well.
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Then I built a dragon, and placed him on the roof of the keep.
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He’s incredibly fragile and flimsy, which aren’t exactly desirable qualities when describing your castle’s fierce defender.
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Next is probably the most important part of the entire castle, a time traveller.
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You see being YouTube, some people watching will inevitably have felt the overwhelming urge to smugly point out that for instance, teddy bears weren’t invented until 1902, so how could there possibly be one in a medieval castle?
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Well it was the time traveller of course.
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Or maybe they can’t resist informing me that Van Gogh didn’t in fact paint starry night until 1889, so I’m wrong.
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Nope, they’re wrong, there’s a time traveller, in fact Van Gogh is the time traveller.
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Verrassing!
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Or that Christmas trees weren’t a thing until the 16th century, nor were pumpkins or sweetcorn grown in Europe, or carrots coloured orange nor did they start growing vertically out of the ground like this until 2064.
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It was the time traveller mate, didn’t you see him?
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For once, this video is entirely free of inaccuracies- ah, he’s gone.
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Well I guess it’s time for that grand reveal then.
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It’s crazy to think something this big is made entirely from LEGO, Bella was first, wasting no time in rubbing up against the castle.
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And once inside the castle walls, promptly set about attacking the crowd of innocent villagers.
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She soon discovered the treats I’d put in the cat tunnel, and that it made a wonderful place to scratch.
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But the spikes on the portcullis proved to be an even more satisfying place to scratch her head.
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And the rest of her body.
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She then attacked the villagers some more, and sat down to admire her destruction.
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All in all, I don’t think Bella was too impressed, I know the poor villagers certainly weren’t anyway.
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But what would Ralph make of the castle?
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He immediately started rubbing his head on the portcullis, with a little too much force.
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Why must you destroy the things I love?
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He then headed inside, to sit unamusedly in the courtyard, before showing no regard whatsoever for the castle walls and hopping straight over them.
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On second thought, I don’t want this to be a cat castle anymore.
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I want it to be a Chris castle.
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I repaired the damage, rescued the villagers, and enjoyed the castle for myself.
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The cats are more than happy with their many other toys, and I was unquestionably delighted with mine.

About This Lesson

In this lesson, you will engage in an exciting English speaking practice session inspired by a creative process of building a giant LEGO castle. By listening to the transcript of the video, you will practice your pronunciation, expand your vocabulary, and learn how to describe activities in detail. This session will not only help you improve your English pronunciation but also enhance your storytelling abilities. By immersing yourself in the whimsical world of LEGO castles, you'll practice speaking in a narrative style often used in informal settings, which is useful for social interactions and presentations alike.

Key Vocabulary & Phrases

  • Portcullis - a heavy grilled door that can be dropped to prevent entry.
  • Drawbridge - a bridge that can be raised or lowered to provide or deny access.
  • Dungeons - underground rooms typically used for imprisonment.
  • Armoury - a room where weapons are stored.
  • Treasury - a place where valuable items or money are kept.
  • Time traveller - a fictional character who can move through different periods in time.
  • Rooftop garden - a garden located on the roof of a building.
  • Grand reveal - the moment when something spectacular is finally shown.

Practice Tips

As you practice with this video transcript, consider shadowing the speaker to enhance your fluency and pronunciation. The speed of the narration varies, so when the pace quickens, take your time to repeat phrases more slowly. This technique allows you to focus on articulating each word clearly. You can utilize a shadowing site to play the video in segments, repeating key phrases after the speaker. Aim to mimic not just the words but also the tone and emotion in the narrator's voice, especially during exciting moments like the "grand reveal." This method will greatly benefit your IELTS speaking practice, as it emphasizes the importance of intonation and clarity in spoken English. Additionally, practice describing your own projects or interests in a similar narrative style to build confidence in your English speaking practice.

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.