Shadowing Practice: I stayed in a 5* hotel in London - Learn English Speaking with Video

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260 sentences

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It's now 2026.

I have booked one night in a five star hotel in Shoreditch in East London,

which is kind of like the trendy, kind of cool part of London.

Today we are staying in the Athos hotel.

It's really, really hot in London today.

So I'm excited to go somewhere with air conditioning.

The hotel is right here in front of me.

So let's go check in.

- The corridor is quite dark and like,

has these gold lights and let's tap here.

We just got into the room.

It's so cool in here.

Like temperature.

The temperature is cool.

They left the air conditioning on.

So that helps like so much.

Because outside today it's literally like 31 hours degrees or 32

or something like this which in London there isn't a lot of air conditioning.

I'm gonna do this in the style of like Hannah Ricketts.

I watched a few of her videos but she always says the price of the room as she goes in.

I'm going to do the same thing and you can tell me

if you think that this room is worth that money or or not.

For this room which was the executive I paid for around 400 pounds.

That's crazy.

I don't normally spend money like this, but anyway, I thought it would be fun.

As you walk in, there's a lot of this like, black paneling.

Here we have this like big Full length mirror, that's me.

And the bedroom is just through here.

It's so gorgeous.

I really, really like the style, it feels very, very minimalist and clean.

Huge TV.

We can check the view out as well.

- Thank you.

Ooh, you can see some of the skyscrapers over here.

Mostly it seems like I have a view of like the building works next door.

A lot of scaffolding over here on all of the nearby houses.

That's fine.

All of my bags are already up here.

I did not bring my suitcase up here.

They actually, they had a porter bring everything up for me.

A porter is also known as like a bellboy.

So it's basically somebody who helps you with your bags when you're in a hotel.

And then just down here, a couple of cups and some bottles of water.

I have been told that these are like They say on the house, so if it's on the house then it's free.

Basically they provide them for you.

Then below here we have this cabinet or maybe you would call this like a console.

I actually I don't even know if this is I.. you can.

You can open it.

Oh, cool.

Okay.

I don't think...

This is free.

This is like a snack bar.

These do not come with the room.

If you eat these, you will get charged.

So we have some like, like seasoned cashew nuts, some crisps in here,

some chocolate almonds, some strawberry and white chocolate nibbles.

I don't know what they are.

And some little fruit jellies as well.

In this drawer here, a couple wine glasses, a few little boxes.

So I don't know what these will be.

Ah, these are like charging cables.

And there's a small bottle of wine as well.

And in here We have some tea.

Some tea, a corkscrew, and a little kettle as well.

It's super clean.

I think the tea is included, so they have Earl Grey or green tea or breakfast tea.

This is like black tea.

This is like the British tea, basically.

Yeah, this is the mini fridge.

Oh, wow.

like minibars are kind of expensive so I'm fine.

Next to this is like a little this little brown chair

it's kind of cute panels these work as curtains i suppose in this room the bed looks super gorgeous

It's a double bed.

With these white sheets on, I think they should feel quite nice.

They feel lush.

And then just here, there's like a little telephone These lamps, they're really beautiful.

It's very simple.

And then most importantly, so this I can have.

So I'm not going to be charged for this.

This is a little coffee machine.

I love coffee.

So this is fantastic.

I guess this little tub will have...

Oh cute.

So these are different little coffee pods.

One from Brazil, a Brazilian coffee and a Colombian coffee and these really nice little mugs.

They have a small one which I guess you would use for like an espresso

or if you like a short coffee we call it, like a short coffee.

A coffee that's like maybe more like an espresso.

If you prefer a longer coffee they have some bigger mugs.

There's a little do some work and in this leaflet is just like Ooh!

A pillow menu.

Cool.

So they have some different pillows depending on what you like. So...

you They have one for hyperallergenic.

for pregnant women, one that's scented, that's amazing.

We have three doors and one of them is probably the bathroom.

100

There's one door here, so this is the wardrobe, this is the bathrobe.

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It's like a white bathrobe.

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There's two.

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One of these little tote bags in case you need

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bag to take with you around London and it says filled with experiences.

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They have an iron over here and at the bottom are the slippers.

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Are the slippers.

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Oh, there's two in each.

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I just opened the bag and I like forgot to hold the microphone but here are the slippers.

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Then we have two more doors.

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So I'm guessing this big one here, this will be the bathroom.

111

So I'm gonna check this one first.

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This is another small wardrobe.

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This is the hairdryer, it has a nozzle on it, which I like.

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I'm not gonna wash my hair today, but It's a good hairdryer.

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A shoe glove.

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I don't even know what that is.

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Ah, this is a breakfast menu if you want breakfast in bed.

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So this first drawer here has a safe...

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And it seems like quite a big one.

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Whee!

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What I can say so far is that like everything feels very very clean.

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Like there's no dust anywhere so that's super nice.

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I also wanted to go into the bathroom which I guess is this middle door right here.

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Let me get the lights.

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And here is...

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Thank you.

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The bathroom.

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That's so nice.

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Oh my god.

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I'm gonna start with the shower which is just over here.

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What I will say, there's quite a big step up into the bathroom.

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Like, I mean it's not huge.

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Maybe you can see against me, but has this nice shower head up here and shampoo, conditioner and body wash.

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Then over here we have like a nice big mirror.

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You can see me.

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with Thank you.

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Some hand wash and hand lotion by The Sink.

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It's so gorgeous.

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I love this like gold colour.

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It feels very warm.

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These like small towels, which are for your face, are...

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We call them flannels in the UK.

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So this is a flannel and Yeah, just a pot with a shower cap and a vanity set.

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So that's like, probably going to be...

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Yeah, like a nail file, some cotton buds, and a hairband.

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just like small things in case you don't have them.

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Then over here we have the loo or the toilet and just above we have some more body lotion,

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box of tissues and then there's this other mirror here which like I love this because this is for doing your makeup.

149

I've been traveling since 3 a .m.

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But I am so incredibly tired.

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Like last night, I think I had about four hours of sleep.

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I'm going to have a shower.

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have some water, have a nap and try and recover a little bit from today.

154

Thank you.

155

I'm going to go to the next one.

156

Good morning, I am just making a quick coffee here in the room.

157

I'm gonna have a Probably a little bit of sugar in my coffee as well.

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I actually, I don't know how much of this coffee I'm going to...

159

I'm going to drink like I really enjoy an iced latte, like an iced caramel latte.

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So this is more of like an Americano style coffee and I can't find any milk, which honestly, I've not even looked.

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Let me let me look before I start complaining.

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There is this little milk in the mini bar.

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It looks nice.

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The coffee is pretty good.

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And there's a nice view from my room.

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The only thing is there's like a window full of toilet roll over here.

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I know sometimes people don't like having windows that kind of look into...

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their room like this.

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We are on the fifth floor.

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These are very, very high buildings.

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But it seems to be More like the back...

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of other buildings like I've not seen anybody in any of these windows which you know

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The hotel can't control that but anyway.

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I went out last night to meet some friends and

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when I came back there had been a turndown service which felt so bougie.

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Remember this word, bougie, it's very important.

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It's, uh, feels like fancy, right?

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If something's bougie, it feels fancy and kind of like expensive, but...

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When I got back last night from dinner and drinks, the bed was like made up.

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The lights had been turned down.

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My slippers from the hotel were left by the bed.

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And yeah, the bathroom was cleaned or like straightened up as well.

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They put the bath mat down, like ready for me to have a shower.

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I slept very, very well. And...

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I don't know if that's because the hotel was very quiet, which it was.

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It was a very, very quiet hotel.

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I couldn't hear any doors or anything, but I also like...

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I had only slept four hours the night before.

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So honestly, I think I could have slept very well Anywhere.

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The hotel here is very, very new, so it opened up in 2025.

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It's now 2026 and it only opened in like the autumn.

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autumn of 2025.

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I am now going to head downstairs

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and I'm going to grab a quick coffee and yeah we can we can take a little look around the hotel.

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It's 28 degrees right now at 8am and today it's going up to 35 degrees which is just awful.

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I'm going to go downstairs and grab some breakfast.

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The breakfast menu actually looked very nice.

198

They had some like traditional English breakfast, like a cooked breakfast sort of thing.

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I did not book it just because I'm not a huge breakfast person.

200

And personally, I prefer to have like a coffee and a pastry, maybe from like a nearby cafe or something.

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That's fine for me.

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Shoreditch as an area has really, really cool cafes.

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So it's, you know.

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I think it's honestly fine to just do that instead.

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Just head out the hotel and maybe have a look around.

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You can also pay to have dinner at this hotel as well.

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They have a Japanese restaurant called Mitsu.

208

Anyway, let's...

209

Let's go downstairs.

210

Thank you.

211

- Hi.

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- Wow.

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- Wow.

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- Um, I guess, uh, Yeah.

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I had an appointment this morning,

216

so I had to go for a little walk.

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and I stumbled upon this amazing old church building.

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I don't know what it is actually.

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But it is so incredibly beautiful and This is very London,

220

where You have this old like I don't even know how old this building is.

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And then right next to it are these like modern, super modern office buildings.

222

Central London is obviously intense, right?

223

Like there are a lot of tourists, especially if you're going to the very touristy places, I actually think I would really,

224

really recommend staying in a neighbourhood like this because It feels.. a little bit calmer.

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It's listen, it's not calm.

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If you're not used to big cities, if you know, maybe you are from like a small town or a village or maybe just a smaller city.

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Shoreditch will still feel very busy, very lively.

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There's just a lot of bars with lots of people outside.

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There's lots of very cute cafes and it feels very local.

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Like you're not going to find tourist traps here tourist traps,

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you know, places that are in touristy areas to get tourists and everything is overpriced and low quality.

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you're not going to get that here in Shoreditch.

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So I think I'm going to recommend Shoreditch to stay if you visit London.

234

Some East Londoners might be like, what are you talking about?

235

But I actually think it's a really, really good place to stay.

236

- Thank you.

237

Thanks, Dad.

238

Let me know how to play ghost pipe.

239

Yeah, he's there.

240

Thank you.

241

I have just been downstairs to have a coffee and it's now 11am.

242

So, checkout is at 12.

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I have to checkout in one hour.

244

So, the plan is now to go home.

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Honestly, it's even hotter today.

246

It's 35 degrees and I have to get the train, which is going to be like a nightmare, but it's fine.

247

Every time it's hot in the UK or really cold, everything stops working.

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It's just the way we are.

249

Like, even though we have snow, a little bit of snow or ice every year,

250

every time it happens, we stop working functioning as a country and same with heat waves.

251

Every heat wave, everything stops.

252

So hopefully I get home.

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Okay.

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But, um, yeah, I loved my stay here in the Athos.

255

It was It's just beautiful.

256

The staff are lovely.

257

But that just leaves me to say thank you so much for watching.

258

I have lots of other videos on my channel and a vlog from my day in London yesterday.

259

So thank you so much for watching and I will see you in the next video.

260

Bye.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This video has 260 sentences and 2335 words to shadow. The speech runs for 17:34. The speaker talks at a steady 133 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. 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

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

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
downstairs adverb	/daʊnˈstɛɹz/	Down the stairs.
mirror noun	/ˈmiɹɚ/	A smooth surface, usually made of glass with reflective material painted on the underside, that reflects light so as to give an image of what is in front of it.
gorgeous adjective	/ˈɡoɹd͡ʒəs/	Sumptuously dressed.
menu noun	/ˈmɛn.juː/	The details of the food to be served at a banquet; a bill of fare.
mini adjective	/ˈmɪn.i/	Miniature, tiny, small.
incredibly adverb	/ɪŋˈkɹɛdɪbli/	In an incredible manner; not to be believed.
fancy noun	/ˈfæn.si/	The imagination.
trap noun	/tɹæp/	A machine or other device designed to catch (and sometimes kill) animals, either by holding them in a container, or by catching hold of part of the body.
toilet verb	/ˈtɔɪ.lət/	To assist another (a child, etc.) in using a toilet.
autumn noun	/ˈɔtəm/	Traditionally the third of the four seasons, when deciduous trees lose their leaves, and temperatures and daylight hours decrease; typically regarded as…
cafe noun	/ˌkæˈfeɪ/	A convenience store, originally one that sold coffee and similar basic items.
porter noun	/ˈpɔɹtɚ/	A person who carries luggage and related objects; (historically) one who carried luggage or did manual labour in the transloading of cargo.
pillow noun	/ˈpɪl.oʊ/ [ˈpʰɪɫ.ö̞]	A soft cushion used to support the head in bed.
wardrobe noun	/ˈwɔɹdɹoʊb/	A governmental office or department in a monarchy which purchases, keeps, and cares for royal clothes.
drawer noun	/dɹɔɹ/	An open-topped box that can be slid in and out of the cabinet that contains it, used for storing clothing or other articles.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
look around verb		To inspect a building or area.
come back verb		To return to a place.
get back verb		Return to where one came from.
go out verb		To leave, especially a building.
head out verb		To leave, depart; to go on ahead.
head up verb		To lead or take the lead in; to direct; to take charge of.
make up verb	/ˌmeɪk ˈʌp/	To constitute, to compose.
roll over verb		To make a rolling motion or turn.

Grammar in this video

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

Structure	In the video
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	is also known · have been told · is included
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	room which was · somebody who helps · shower which is
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	have booked · have been told · I've not even looked
Verb + -ing enjoy, keep, stop… + -ing — verbs that are followed by the -ing form	start complaining · stops working · stop working

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 48 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, don't, gonna. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “th” sounds: bath /bɑːθ/, bathrobe /ˈbæθ.ɹoʊb/
The “sh” and “zh” sounds: sheet /ʃit/, tissue /ˈtɪʃ.(j)u/, shoe /ˈʃu/, shampoo /ʃæmˈpuː/, lotion /ˈloʊʃən/
Long words — get the stress right: incredibly /ɪŋˈkɹɛdɪbli/, importantly /ɪmˈpɔɹ.tənt.li/, conditioner /kənˈdɪʃənə/, minimalist /ˈmɪn.ə.məl.ɪst/

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 downstairs, mirror, gorgeous.

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: I stayed in a 5* hotel in London - 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

Grammar in this video

Pronunciation to watch

How to practise with this video

What is the Shadowing Technique?