Shadowing Practice: I'm So Clumsy! | Advanced English Listening Practice - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
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Hello everybody, this is Elliot from ETJ English.
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How are you all doing today?
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So I thought today maybe we'd do a bit of a listening practice, okay?
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So we're just going to listen to me talk a little bit.
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Feel free to just kind of sit back, relax, listen to my voice and analyse the way I speak and also enjoy the story.
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But first of all, I want to talk about something called clumsiness
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or to be clumsy because this is really related to the story I'm going to tell you.
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So first of all, I am a very, very, very, very, very clumsy person.
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I'm extremely clumsy, okay?
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To be clumsy essentially is to be the sort of person who has a lot of accidents.
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Let's say you're, let me give you another true story.
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Let's say I'm sat at a restaurant.
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As always in the restaurant, I've got lovely glass of wine next to me.
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Red wine, that's my chosen alcoholic beverage.
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Maybe it's just, you know, just here on the table.
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I'm talking and bang!
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In the middle of conversation, the red wine is all over the white tablecloth.
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Everything is red now and I have ruined my date, let's say, or my whatever it is that I'm doing,
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my meal, and probably have to pay some kind of fine to the restaurant for for destroying their tablecloth
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and this is what clumsiness is essentially in its purest form clumsiness is
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when we always have accidents things always go wrong maybe we're
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not very good with our hands they always end up knocking
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things over to knock something over is to make something fall
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we might smash things imagine a glass drop it on the
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floor smashed um also we i'm not very good with my legs
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so i might fall over quite a lot hit my knee on a door
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or or walk into the bed or hit my head on something okay
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so this is what clumsiness is
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and this is me i want to tell you a little story about
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when i was uh about 14 i was in year eight in school
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and it was a very hot summer day okay very hot summer day
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and it was lunchtime break time some people call it where we have time out from lessons
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and we relax there's a place where all of my friends where we used to sit
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and chill out relax talk catch up with each other in a field
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and there was lots of trees in this field
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and me being the person i was
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when i was a teenager all i wanted to do was
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kind of impress the impress the girls make them think i'm i'm really cool
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which I'm not and I decided to climb a tree
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so I climbed to the top of this tree took me a while
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and when I got to the top of this tree I you know shouted I wanted everyone to see
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that I was at the top of this tree
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so I shouted I was right at the top of this tree look at me
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and um I fell so straight away I just went and
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that that was that my my wrists hit the ground one wrist went like
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that one wrist went like that
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and they were completely out of shape not the way they should be quite obviously they were broken
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because I'd fallen quite a high distance not only that
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but I also landed flat on my nose and it was broken and there was blood everywhere.
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I was knocked out, okay?
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To be knocked out means to be unconscious.
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So yes, I hit my head, my face so hard that I was knocked out.
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And the next thing I knew, I was woken up in hospital with two broken wrists and a flat nose.
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And that's probably why my nose is such a funny shape now.
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And this really did affect me it changed my my year i guess i had six months off school
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because i could do nothing with my arms i couldn't write
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i was stuck like a robot for a long time
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and um my mum had to wash me in the bath
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because i i couldn't i couldn't have a bath on my
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own my mum had to wash me even worse my my
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parents had to use the toilet paper on my bottom yes
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that's right my parents had to wipe my ass for me i never thought i would tell anyone this
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and now i'm telling 20 000 people
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that my parents have had to wipe my bottom
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when i was a teenager which is really embarrassing
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but this is what happened one thing i'd also like to
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tell you i want to teach you a bit of vocabulary in this
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comesy -ness runs in my family it runs in the family now
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if something runs in the family what that means is
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that it's something
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that kind of maybe happens to my dad he's always knocking
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glasses over at the table he's always smashing plates by accident dropping things so same as me
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It also happens to my sister.
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It also happened to my granddad before he passed away.
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So it's something that runs in the family.
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A lot of people in my family, it happens to them also.
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They also have this clumsy gene every day.
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It's an everyday problem.
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It's like a disease.
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And I actually think it's quite an endearing thing.
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Endearing.
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It's something that's quite interesting about a person.
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It's something different.
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It's unique and I embrace it.
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Now I laugh about any incidents that happened to me.
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But the reason I'm kind of telling this listening practice is because I actually want you to tell me, are you a clumsy person?
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Does this happen to you?
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Do you have any really interesting stories that you want to tell me about your clumsy experiences?
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Or are you a perfect person who never makes mistakes?
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Because I know there are some of you out there who are just very lucky and not clumsy at all.
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Now thank you very much for watching.
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If you would like to book a Skype lesson with me, learn real British English, pronunciation, connected speech, expressions, everything and become one of my friends as well as a student of mine,
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feel free to go down below in the description box and book a Skype lesson with me.
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The first lesson is just two pounds.
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It's been a pleasure telling you this story.
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Please do tell me if you enjoy these listening practices and I will do more along with the lessons also.
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But yes, thank you very much for watching guys.
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You're all great.
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There's 20 ,000 of you now.
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I could not be happier.
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Let's make it 100 ,000.
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Come on, let's do it.
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Tell all your friends about ETJ English.
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Help them become a fluent British English speaker.
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Cheers guys and I'll see you all in the next lesson.
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Stay clumsy.
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Bye.
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Thank you.
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Mastering Advanced English Listening with a Clumsy Anecdote
The video features Elliot from ETJ English sharing a personal story about his extreme clumsiness, blending casual conversation with vivid storytelling. This real-life narrative is perfect for advanced learners, as it mirrors natural speech patterns—filled with pauses, emphasis, and colloquial expressions. By engaging with content like this, you’ll learn English with videos in a way that feels authentic, not scripted.
Top 5 Phrases for Daily Communication
- "To knock something over": Use this to describe accidentally making an object fall (e.g., "I knocked over my coffee cup this morning").
- "Catch up with each other": Ideal for talking about reconnecting with friends (e.g., "We met at the park to catch up with each other").
- "Chill out": A casual way to say "relax" (e.g., "Let’s just chill out and watch a movie").
- "Out of shape": Describes something that’s not in its normal form (e.g., "My old backpack is out of shape from years of use").
- "Knocked out": Means to lose consciousness (e.g., He hit his head and was knocked out for a few minutes).
Step-by-Step Shadowing Guide for This Video
The shadowing technique is a proven way to boost your speaking and listening skills, and this video is a great fit. Here’s how to use it:
- Listen first, then repeat: Watch the video once to grasp the story. Then, play short 5-10 second clips and shadow speak immediately after, mimicking Elliot’s tone and rhythm. This trains your brain to process and reproduce English quickly.
- Focus on connected speech: Notice how Elliot links words (e.g., "kind of impress" becomes "kinda impress"). Shadowing speech in this way helps you sound more natural.
- Record and compare: Use your phone to record your shadowing, then compare it to the original. This reveals gaps in pronunciation or pacing—key for refining your skills.
Practicing with a shadowing site or app can enhance this process, but even with just the video, consistent shadowing will improve your fluency. Remember: the goal is to shadow speak like a native, not just repeat words. With this video, you’re not just learning phrases—you’re mastering real-world communication.
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.