Shadowing Practice: i-D Meets: Beabadoobee - Learn English Speaking with Video

Beba Doobie Beba Doobie Beba Doobie Beba Doobie Beba Doobie Beba

Doobie Welcome to my messy bed dream do not look underneath

this curtain Hey do you wanna like listen to one of my songs?

Action!

What's up?

I'm Beba Doobie aka B Beatrice and I play music So loud sorry

Beba Doobie that's how you say it The worst pronunciation they somehow put like poop into it

and I thought it was on purpose, so I just kind of rated it from them.

Or people say, I'm Biba Boobies, and someone made a sign.

Biba Boobies!

I didn't flash my tits.

I grew up in West London.

I was born in Iloilo, Philippines, and I moved here when I was three.

Me as a kid in my old house, do you want me to leave it?

That's you focus.

See, look, I go out of the deepy and know what it's like.

I thought I was going to be a nun for a really long time.

My mum showed me the sound of music.

And I was like, nuns, all they do is just live with each other and sing.

When I was seven, I was really intelligent and then I fell down the stairs.

And then I just lost all capability of academics.

I just got really stupid and I couldn't do math.

But then I started being really good at the violin.

Lost some brain cells.

Gained some music cells.

Well, I went to a private school in the Philippines.

And I think it's quite different from the public schools because they kind of let you do whatever the fuck you want.

It's actually quite bad.

I just remember not really learning anything and just having lots of fun and eating loads of food and getting really fat.

I could think of a funny time and I did.

It was like a talent show.

It wasn't really a talent, it was a class talent show.

And I sang Seven Things I Hate About You by Miley Cyrus, acapella.

No backing track in the middle of the class in front of everyone.

Full on dance moves and angst.

My room is so messy.

This is kind of in back, this is an insight to my life.

I went through a phase where I just like refused to listen to music on my phone

and just listen to music on a fucking Walkman.

because I thought I was edgy, be on Hammersmith and Cityline and be like...

Beethoven on cassette.

I felt like everyone was going to think it was weird that I chose the colour green.

But I thought it was kind of funny because I looked like snot.

This was during the time in year nine, when I was, like, so depressed.

No, there was loads of pages in this book where it's like, where it's like, I hate him.

There's this page.

It's just so sad.

There's like weird drawings.

It's black, for fuck's sake.

It's sad because that was just before I got really sad.

She had no idea what was coming, huh?

I've always had lots of self-esteem issues growing up.

As an Asian woman in London, People were very mean, love like backhanded racist comments.

When I grew up, it was like one extreme to the other.

It was like Asian hate to Asian fetishization, which was really weird.

And I just couldn't find like a good in between.

It definitely takes a lot of time and maturing and to learn to appreciate your culture and how you look and your,

like, family traditions.

It makes you different, but in a good way, not in a way that you should hide or you should be embarrassed about.

Cute outfit.

I'd wear that coat, I'd wear that skirt, and I'd totally wear pink tights.

I wore this for the last day on Earth music video.

Vintage Dior.

Don't know anything about brands.

I'm just like, oh, it looks cute.

These are my shoes, but not all of my shoes, because there's some shoes downstairs.

These are my favorite ones.

John Fluvog.

And they just look like princess shoes.

It's so cute.

Like dolly shoes.

And the back reminds me of primary school for some reason.

I don't know why.

Music was my first job.

I went to Camden, and I went in all the stores and asked if I could work for anyone, and they all said no.

So the first job I had was when I actually got signed and started making music at 18.

So Gretsch made these guitars called princesses so they can encourage more girls to play guitars.

There's not a lot of female producers, not a lot of women on tour.

A song in Baytopia is the first time I actually wrote a song about how I feel about that, and it's called Ripples.

I've got a lot of people I want to go on tour with.

Taylor Swift.

Elliot Smith would love this shit.

And then we'd write a song afterwards about Filipino food.

I chose to wear something quite loose, because I know I was going to bloat.

I remember when I started making music for the first time, my parents thought it was a joke.

My mum was much more chiller, because she was super into Madonna and Boy George when she grew up.

She showed me all the bands I listen to now.

I remember her first showing me Nirvana when I was seven.

And me watching it and being like, oh, my God, this is Satan music.

I'm to order...

Vegetable spring roll, chicken wings,

cool-willed fried rice, chicken adobo, panse chicken.

I'm really scared because I don't eat the middles of my meat.

I don't eat the middles of doughnuts.

I leave the rim just around the middle.

My dad was like really crazy into cholesterol and stuff, and he cannot eat the yolks of eggs.

So every time I'd go in for the yolks of eggs, my mom would feed me the chicken, she'd miss out the middle, and my dad would get so angry.

Like, you can't just feed Bea the skin.

I only want the skin.

100

Yeah.

101

I have this thing where every time I eat seafood, eat seafood it feels like they're like swimming in my stomach.

102

For some reason mushrooms remind me of like human ears.

103

I could do shrooms but not mushrooms.

104

I had like teeth extraction I just had like a teeth surgery

105

and I couldn't smoke so I'd have to get edibles, ube edibles.

106

Freaking delicious it gets you high it does the job.

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Mmm Doritos natas preparados.

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Oh my fuck.

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It's just the best chicken wings I've ever had in my life.

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I'm eating the middles.

111

I love chicken wings, and I'm really picky with chicken wings.

112

Fur, great chicken wings.

113

One time they banned their chicken wings, and I called every single shop in London.

114

I was like, where the fuck are your chicken wings?

115

Filipino culture is just so...

116

so different from English culture.

117

In terms of, like, how they treat their families, and, like, the food they eat, and, like, what they do on the weekends.

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Like, shit like that.

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But so that was quite strange.

120

Also like being friends with loads of white people and going out with a lot of white boys.

121

That was a crazy cultural difference.

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And like, I remember my dad going home one day and my dad watching the football

123

and he never watched the fucking football.

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And I was like, why are you watching the football?

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He was like, this country accepted us.

126

So I have to understand their culture.

127

It was obviously quite hard.

128

My parents moved to a country they've never, ever been before.

129

And they had to start from scratch.

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Ultimately, that was hard on them.

131

And if it's hard for them, that's going to be hard on me.

132

And fitting in school was quite difficult.

133

The typical Asian group in secondary school that I was in, it was really hard to find common ground with them.

134

I love my culture, but there was a lot of differences.

135

They didn't understand that.

136

I didn't listen to the same music.

137

So I found an amazing group of girls that can, you know, accept me for who I am.

138

I used to do this thing with my dad.

139

This is so stupid, now that I think about it.

140

My dad used to make me the craziest Filipino food for school and pack it in, like, a thermos.

141

And I'd eat that shit in the form room, because I'd be too embarrassed to eat in the lunch hall,

142

which is stupid, because now if I pulled up in school with a fricking thermos with rice and chicken adobe, like yeah check this out motherfuckers when you're a kid

143

and you are in such a predominantly white environment you know you feel like an alien you grow up

144

and you realize that's stupid and that you're actually cool as fuck

145

so the problem with growing up in a strict household is

146

that you know you create quite rebellious kids guitars being thrown

147

and you have the stereotypical teenage where you just are a bitch, basically.

148

That makes me really sad that I used to be mean to my parents.

149

They're really lovely people.

150

I think it definitely takes time for very traditional, first-generation Filipino parents to accept who you are.

151

I didn't tell my dad about my first boyfriend for a year.

152

First time he wanted to meet him, he told me to bring him to church.

153

This is my old book.

154

This is my old diary.

155

Oh, it's like for songwriting.

156

B's book for songwriting.

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Owner B, please return to B.

158

Who is the best B?

159

Underneath there is my address, and it says, if found, cash prize, which is a lie.

160

All the boys have crushes on.

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Ducky from Pretty in Pink to the Beast from Beauty and the Beast.

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Adrian Brody, I have taste.

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Timothee Chalamet's on there, but I've crossed him out.

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I've been teaching my boyfriend how to play guitar.

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I've taught him how to play the deaf tones.

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She was quite sweet.

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He's a cultured white boy, you know?

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He had something in the Filipino restaurant that I don't usually like when my dad made a meet.

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He was like, mmm, yummy.

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I'm like, you don't have to eat it.

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He was like, what was that thing in that Filipino restaurant, chula chula?

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And I'm like, what?

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I'm like, chula chula, mocha mocha.

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I'm like, it's fucking halo halo.

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Do your research.

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For dessert, I want leche flan.

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Oh, my, fuck, it's warm.

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See how smooth that shit is?

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Crazy.

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Ube.

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Holy fuck me.

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This is sick.

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This is the best day of my life. And turon.

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This is good turon.

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My dad will freak out.

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I feel like I'm in, like, MasterChef, and someone, like, has given me all their desserts to eat, and I have a little bite of every one.

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I'm like, mmm.

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Great texture.

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People keep telling me I give off furry vibes.

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We go upstairs, and there's a bin bag.

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Well, it's in the bin bag because it's from tour, not because I'm trying to throw them away.

192

Of all the toys the kids at shows have given me, and they've kept every single one.

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This one's called Poop, because he just kind of gives poopy vibes.

194

This is my Sully.

195

I always get scared because it looks like he's got a camera hidden behind his eyes.

196

This is my Red Panda rug, because I love red pandas.

197

My Basis Aliana, who's also my best friend, she collected all the flowers from the Fake It Flowers live session,

198

and she pressed them and she kept them and she framed them.

199

I got some paintings from fans.

200

Someone made this for me and I've got this random Polaroid of this couple.

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This cowboy hat they threw on stage at a show.

202

They have no idea that this Polaroid of them is on my fridge.

203

I've got Electric Light Orchestra.

204

Galaxy 500, which is where my TikTok name comes from, because my TikTok name is Noki 500 and I really love Noki, but I also really love Galaxy 500.

205

There's some of my books.

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There's this Sonic Youth book that has every single one of Thurston Moore's tunings.

207

Chibati G gave me this book.

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Chibati G, How to Be a Man.

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And this Jude Law book.

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Yeah, it's basically a book about how that he's not just a pretty face and he has talent.

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This is the book.

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This was like when I properly started writing loads.

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I've written most of my songs on this guitar.

214

I started writing music as a way of, you know, therapy.

215

All the music that stemmed from Baytopia is from a place

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that I had for so long tried pushing under the rug and forgetting.

217

I like when people say my music is nostalgic nostalgic because it makes me feel like I know I'm a little bit.

218

At the end of the day, I am a 22-year-old girl who has the exact same problems as other girls.

219

I think when you have a platform, you should express what you feel and your opinion, and especially if it's a good one, especially if it's about politics.

220

As much as social media can benefit a lot of people's careers

221

and a lot of people in It can be very damaging

222

and a lot of people on the internet can be quite mean or judgmental.

223

You're never going to have a hundred amazing comments.

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You know, there's always going to be one person disagreeing with you.

225

There's always going to be one person that is going to say some shit.

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And I think it's something that you just have to build tough skin with.

227

The people on the internet are not real and they ultimately, they do not know who you are.

228

The only people who know you are your family and your friends, really.

229

so their opinion doesn't really matter.

230

If you really joke, if you printed out some hate tweets, I would have totally loved to be like, fuck you, John.

231

Can I sound that hair in my chewing?

232

When Domay did that and then the mic was still on, I took a wee.

233

It was Abbey Road.

234

I'm a chicken girl.

235

Thank you, ID, for giving me, and the Filipino gods for giving me really yummy Filipino food for free.

236

Thank you.

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363 sentences

Why This Video Is Perfect for English Speaking Practice

This casual, conversational clip from Beabadoobee’s interview is a goldmine for english speaking practice. Her relaxed tone, slang, and storytelling style mirror real-life speech, making it ideal for shadow speak—a technique where you mimic a speaker’s rhythm, intonation, and pace. The mix of personal anecdotes and playful asides keeps the language relatable, helping you learn to sound natural, not scripted.

Breaking Down Natural Speech: 3 Key Phrases

Let’s look at how Beabadoobee’s words reflect everyday English:

“So loud sorry Beba Doobie that's how you say it”: Notice the run-on structure and casual “sorry” mid-sentence. Native speakers often connect thoughts loosely, using filler words to adjust. Mimicking this helps you sound less robotic.
“I thought I was going to be a nun for a really long time”: The phrase “for a really long time” is a common, informal alternative to “for a long period.” It’s simple but effective—perfect for shadow speech practice.
“My room is so messy. This is kind of in back, this is an insight to my life”: The transition “This is kind of in back” is unpolished but authentic. It shows how speakers pause and rephrase, a skill that makes your speech feel human.

A Simple Shadowing Routine for This Video

Try this shadowspeak exercise to master the clip: 1. Watch 5 seconds of the video, then pause. 2. Repeat the line out loud, copying the tone and speed—even the “ums” and “ahs.” 3. Record yourself, then compare. Notice if you matched the stress (e.g., “really stupid” vs. “really stupid”). 4. Do this for 10 minutes daily. Over time, you’ll start to internalize natural rhythm. This loop works because it trains your mouth and brain to sync with real speech, a core part of effective english speaking practice.

Whether you’re using a shadowing site or just your phone, this video’s unfiltered style makes it a fun, practical tool to level up your speaking skills.

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 do · used to make · used to be
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	I've crossed · I've taught · has given
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	fetishization, which was · prize, which is · people who know
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	was born · being thrown

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 →

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Breaking Down Natural Speech: 3 Key Phrases

A Simple Shadowing Routine for This Video

Grammar in this video

What is the Shadowing Technique?