Shadowing Practice: I Hate the Argentine Football Team - Learn English Speaking with Video
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I hate the Argentine football team.
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They are the most despicable, time-wasting, cheating, cynical, nasty, that have ever existed.
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The New Zealand rugby union team, possibly the greatest rugby union team of all time, the New Zealand All Blacks,
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have a policy called the No Dickheads Policy.
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And that works like this.
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If they think you're a dickhead, regardless of your talent, you will never ever put on the all-black shirt and play for the all-blacks.
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You will get kicked out.
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Whereas Argentina have a policy called the all-dickhead policy, which is the only way you get to play for Argentina is if you're a massive bellend.
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So you just have to look at their behavior.
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The cynicism, the nastiness, the kicking, the persistent fouling.
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The moment you touch them, they throw themselves to the ground like they've actually just been shot.
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The moment that you touch Messi, there's about 10 of them that just come flooding around and shouting and screaming.
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I don't know, like he's some just disabled child who's in a wheelchair
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and you've just kicked him into a canal and everybody's had a meltdown like suddenly you're the bad guy.
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Instead of him just being a socially awkward, inept dwarf who's brilliant at football and that's about it, and yet you're not allowed to challenge him.
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This is what these people are.
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And for those of you thinking it's sour grapes, yeah, possibly it's sour grapes, but I don't care.
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It's my show.
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And this is more important than this, and I'll tell you why.
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I'm half South American, Venezuelan, everyone can drink, right?
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I grew up, I spent a lot of time in South America and Venezuela.
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And I love football.
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I've always loved football since before it was cool, since I was eight years old, 1990.
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And I used to watch football in South America, in Venezuela.
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And in Venezuela, we've got a rubbish football team, but they beat, they're a baseball nation.
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And by the way, they beat America, the United States of baseball in a series of three.
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So they're great at their own sport.
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Obviously, it's not a real sport.
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No one, I mean, it's baseball, come on.
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Anyway, but they like it, fair play, whatever.
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But when the World Cup's on and there's a South American team playing, I'm talking about, I don't know, Brazil, Colombia, Bolivia, Peru.
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Everybody will sit down and watch the game and they'll cheer on the South American teams.
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They will always do that.
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They'll always cheer them on.
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The only one they won't cheer on are, that's right, the Argentines.
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Why is that?
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Because everybody hates them.
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You know how everybody hates them because of the nickname that they're given.
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You know what we call the Argentines in South America?
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The English of South America.
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That's how you know they're hated.
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They are the worst.
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They are the worst team.
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The thing that makes it so egregious is their team is filled with incredibly talented footballers.
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They don't have to behave the way that they do, but they behave the way that they do because they're dks.
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That's why they behave like that.
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They don't have to.
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They don't need to do that in order to win.
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They do that because that's who they are.
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There's a very famous joke in Venezuela which talks about the arrogance of the Argentine, and it goes like this.
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An Argentine man goes to the bar and he's drunk.
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And he gets absolutely plastered and he meets a guy at a bar
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and he's obviously he's arrogant like most RG's are and he puts his arm around him and he goes, right, you're going to come home with me.
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I have the best house in the whole town.
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I have the most beautiful wife.
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You are going to see the best.
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Only the best.
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So he takes his bloke back, not in a sexual way, get your head out of the gutter.
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And he talks him round.
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He takes him to the living he goes you see the sofa see
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that sofa the best leather the softest level feel the lever i so soft
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so beautiful takes him to the kitchen he goes you see this work surfaces the marble it is pink marble
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taken from italy it is used before in the roman temples
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but it has been retaken
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and it is now in my kitchen it's a beautiful marble he takes him to the bedroom
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and his wife is there getting absolutely pounded by another man in front of them
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and the guy's looking around looks at the argentine the argentine
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points at the man shagging his wife looks at the guy
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and goes you see that man over there that is me and
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that is the argentine mentality my friends a terrible country filled
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with terrible people who i'm just gonna say it a nation of cheats maradona right the way through every time they cheat,
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lie, in order to get what they want.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “I Hate the Argentine Football Team”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: argentine, football, goes, America, Venezuela. This video has 72 sentences and 841 words to shadow. The speech runs for 5:12. The speaker talks at a natural 162 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 84% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.
Key vocabulary in this video
The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| argentine noun | /ˈɑː(ɹ).d͡ʒənˌtiːn/ | Any osmeriform fish of the genus Argentina, especially a European argentine (Argentina sphyraena). |
| marble noun | /ˈmɑɹ.bəl/ | A metamorphic rock of crystalline limestone. |
| behave verb | /bɪˈheɪv/ | To conduct (oneself) well, or in a given way; to conform. |
| cheat verb | /ˈt͡ʃiːt/ | To violate rules in order to gain, or attempt to gain, advantage from a situation. |
| grape noun | /ɡɹeɪp/ | A small, round, smooth-skinned edible fruit, usually purple, red, or green, that grows in bunches on female vines of most species of genus Vitis and the… |
| sofa noun | /ˈsoʊ̯fə/ | An upholstered seat with a raised back and one or two raised ends, long enough to comfortably accommodate two or more people. |
| sour adjective | /ˈsaʊ.ə/ | Tasting of acidity. |
| cynicism noun | /ˈsɪn.ɪˌsɪzəm/ | A distrustful attitude. |
| despicable adjective | /dɪˈspɪkəbəl/ | Fit or deserving to be despised; contemptible; mean. |
| egregious adjective | /ɪˈɡɹiː.d͡ʒəs/ | Conspicuous, exceptional, outstanding; usually in a negative sense. |
| nastiness noun | Lack of cleanliness. | |
| retake verb | /ɹiːˈteɪk/ | To take something again. |
| disable verb | /dɪsˈeɪbəl/ | To render unable; to take away an ability of, as by crippling. |
| plaster noun | /ˈplæstɚ/ | A paste applied to the skin for healing or cosmetic purposes. |
| meltdown noun | /ˈmɛltˌdaʊn/ | An act or process of melting. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| grow up verb | To mature and become an adult. |
| kick out verb | To eject, dismiss, expel, or forcefully remove (someone or something). |
| look around verb | To inspect a building or area. |
| sit down verb | To assume a sitting position from a standing position. |
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | have ever existed · they've actually just been shot · you've just kicked |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | been shot · is filled |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | policy, which is · people who i |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 28 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, they're, you're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: rubbish /ˈɹʌbɪʃ/, socially /ˈsoʊʃəli/, shout /ʃaʊt/
- Long words — get the stress right: cynicism /ˈsɪn.ɪˌsɪzəm/, despicable /dɪˈspɪkəbəl/, mentality /mɛnˈtæləti/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like argentine, marble, behave.
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.