Shadowing Practice: I Survived! 8 English Phrases to Use After Difficult Situations - Learn English Speaking with Video
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In this English lesson, I'm going to teach you eight different English phrases that we use after we've done something difficult.
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Some of these phrases are exaggerations, where we make it sound like the thing we did was more difficult than it actually was.
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And here's the first example so you know what I'm talking about.
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Last week was my first week back at school as a teacher, and I survived.
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When you use the phrase, I survived, it means that you did something dangerous or something risky, but sometimes we use it to describe something normal,
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like your first week back at work or your first day back at work.
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So last week was my first week back at work after having the summer off, and I survived.
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I started the week, I did my work, at the end of the week, I felt good, and I had done it.
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I survived.
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The second phrase I want to teach you is actually two phrases, and it's the phrases, I did it or I made it.
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You would say these two phrases after doing something difficult.
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If I ran a marathon, that's never going to happen.
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Or if I climbed a mountain, I don't think that's going to happen either.
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When I finished the race or when I got to the top of the mountain, I could say, I did it.
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Or I could say, I made it.
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I would basically be celebrating the fact that I did something extremely difficult.
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So if you do something very difficult in your life, when you're done, you could say, I did it.
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Or you could say, I made it.
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This third phrase is the phrase, the worst is behind me now.
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And you use this phrase usually after you have an injury
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or surgery or something where part of the experience is really, really bad.
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So it can apply to other things as well.
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And then when you're starting to feel a little bit better after an injury or a surgery, you could say, oh, the worst is behind me now.
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Basically, it's a difficult time, time, but one part of that difficult time was more difficult than the rest of it.
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And that's the worst part.
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So you could say, oh, the worst is behind me now.
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For me, when I broke my collarbone, the first week was awful.
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But after the first week, I could literally say, oh, the worst is behind me now.
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I think I'm starting to feel better.
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The fourth phrase is the phrase, I lived to tell the tale.
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And this is another funny phrase in English, a bit of an exaggeration.
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You might use this after you, let's say, go on a roller coaster.
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Every year my school goes to an amusement park and there are a lot of roller coasters.
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If I went on a roller coaster and if I was terrified to go on it, when the ride was done, I could say to my colleagues, well, I lived to tell the tale.
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Basically saying that I was alive when I started and there was no big accident or something tragic that would have, well, let's not talk about that.
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I lived to tell the tale, an exaggeration, basically saying you did something hard and you're here to tell people about it.
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The fifth phrase I want to teach you in this English lesson is the phrase, what a relief.
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Have you ever lost your phone?
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Have you ever lost your wallet?
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When you do eventually find your phone or your wallet, you would say, what a relief.
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You were stressed and now you are relieved.
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I've lost my phone before and I ended up finding it in my car but I looked all over my studio, I looked all over my house and I couldn't find it.
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I was very, very stressed.
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But when I eventually found it in the car, actually, I think Jen found it.
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When I eventually found it, I literally said, oh, what a relief, because I thought maybe someone had stolen it.
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Maybe I had dropped, maybe I had left it on the roof of my car
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and drove down the road and away my phone went.
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So if you ever lose something or if you have a situation where you're stressed, When it's eventually over, you can say, what a relief.
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For number six, I wanna teach you a phrase that goes like this, the hard part is over.
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Let's imagine you're in an English class and you have to go up front
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and talk in front of the rest of the class.
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Maybe English class itself is stressful, but that part of it is even more stressful.
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When you are done talking in front of the class, you would say, oh, the hard part is over.
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Maybe you have to give a speech at a wedding.
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Maybe you have to go up front and congratulate the bride and groom, and you're really, really nervous.
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After you're done, you can say, whew, I can relax now.
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The hard part is over.
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The seventh phrase I want to teach you is the phrase, I weathered the storm.
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Sometimes in English, we talk about difficult times in our lives like it's a storm, like it's a rainstorm or snowstorm.
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It's hard to get somewhere on a rainy day, and sometimes in life, you have a difficult period.
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Maybe you've lost your job and you don't have a job for a while.
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When you get a job again, and if someone says, how was your time off not having an income, you could say, hey, I weathered the storm.
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Basically saying that you made it through that time in your life, and now everything is a lot better.
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The eighth phrase I want to teach you is the phrase, I made it through in one piece.
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Sometimes you do something difficult and when you get to the other end, you say, I made it through in one piece.
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It's an exaggeration, basically saying you made it through that difficult time and you're healthy and whole still.
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A great example would be driving in really bad winter weather.
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If I have to drive to Jen's parents who live two and a half hours from my house in a snowstorm, When I got there, if her dad or mom said, how did it go?
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I would say, well, I made it through in one piece.
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Basically, I got here without having an accident.
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Well, thank you so much for watching this short English lesson about a few things
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that you can say after a difficult time in your life.
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Don't forget, if this is your first time here, to click the red subscribe button, give me a thumbs up, and leave a comment.
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I love reading them, and I like replying to them.
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Have a good day.
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I'll see you next week with another English lesson.
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Bye.
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We'll see you next time.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This video has 78 sentences and 1171 words to shadow. The speech runs for 6:07. The speaker talks fast, about 192 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 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 |
|---|---|---|
| phrase noun | /ˈfɹeɪ̯z/ | A short written or spoken expression. |
| lesson noun | /ˈlɛs.ən/ | A section of learning or teaching into which a wider learning content is divided. |
| tale noun | /ˈteɪl/ | A rehearsal of what has occurred; narrative; discourse; statement; history; story. |
| roller noun | /ˈɹoʊlɚ/ | Any rotating cylindrical device that is part of a machine, especially one used to apply or reduce pressure. |
| coaster noun | /ˈkoʊ̯s.tɚ/ | A person who uses a sled or toboggan to slide down a slope covered with ice or snow; a sledder, a tobogganist. |
| wallet noun | /ˈwɑl.ət/ | A small case, often flat and often made of leather, for keeping money (especially paper money), credit cards, etc. |
| stressful adjective | /ˈstɹɛsfəl/ | Irritating; causing stress. |
| awful adjective | /ˈɔːfʊl/ | Very bad. |
| steal verb | /stiːl/ | To take illegally, or without the owner's permission, something owned by someone else without intending to return it. |
| relax verb | /ɹɪˈlæks/ | To make something loose. |
| seventh adjective | /ˈsɛvənθ/ | The ordinal form of the number seven. |
| climb verb | /ˈklaɪ̯m/ | To traverse a slope or contour, either upwards (ascending) or downwards (descending). |
| eighth adjective | /eɪtθ/ | The ordinal form of the number eight. |
| marathon noun | /ˈmæɹəθən/ | A 42.195-kilometre (26-mile-385-yard) road race. |
| bride noun | /bɹaɪd/ | A woman in the context of her own wedding; one who is going to marry or has just been married. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| go up verb | To move upwards. |
| drive down verb | To cause or force a price, quantity, rate, etc. to decrease. |
| end up verb | To bring to a conclusion. |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 21 contractions and reduced forms, such as you're, don't, I'm. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: seventh /ˈsɛvənθ/, eighth /eɪtθ/, marathon /ˈmæɹəθən/, thumb /ˈθʌm/
- Long words — get the stress right: congratulate /kənˈɡɹæd͡ʒ.ʊˌleɪt/, exaggeration /ɪɡˌzæd͡ʒəˈɹeɪʃən/
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 phrase, lesson, tale.
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 | we've done · Have you ever lost · I've lost |
| Superlatives the -est / the most … — the top or bottom of a group | the worst |
| Comparatives -er than / more … than — comparing two things | more difficult than |
| Obligation: must / have to / need to saying that something is necessary | have to go · have to give · have to drive |
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.