Shadowing Practice: IELTS Conversation about Happiness - Learn English Speaking with YouTube

Hello everybody and welcome.

⏸ Paused

Speed:

354 sentences

If sentences are too short or too long, click Edit to adjust them.

Hello everybody and welcome.

And today it's a really special video because today I have a collaboration with somebody very special in the world of IELTS.

And if you saw the last video,

you may know who it is.

If not, stick around, because you're gonna learn a lot more about how to improve your IELTS preparation.

Let's go.

Hello, everybody.

This is Keith from English Speaking Success.

And as I mentioned today,

it's a special video because we're collaborating.

And today, I'm delighted to introduce Chris from IELTS Daily,

who is here today to share some ideas about our IELTS speaking skills.

Hello, Chris.

Hello there, Keith.

Thank you so much for having me on your channel.

It's a privilege.

Oh, it's a pleasure for you to be here.

I'm really excited about collaborating with you.

I think your channel is amazing,

the things that you're doing.

You've grown so quickly, and you,

I mean, you not only help students with IELTS speaking,

but the full range of IELTS skills.

So that's great.

Maybe we can kick off.

Tell me a little bit about IELTS Daily, Chris.

So IELTS Daily, by the way, you made me blush.

Sorry.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for the wonderful words.

IELTS Daily is a fairly new channel, you're right.

We've been going for about two years and we're based in Australia and quite far from where you live.

I really am passionate about helping people pass the test for

the first time with the kind of the most knowledge

that they could possibly have and so that they're not wasting their time,

their money and make sure that they feel confident

when they go into the test because there's no need to be nervous going into the IELTS test.

Would you agree?

Oh, totally.

It's all about mindset.

It's all about being relaxed and comfortable.

And I think that helps a lot.

Yeah.

And so feeling like you can talk naturally is a really important thing.

And I think that's what we just want to teach the students today,

that a conversation between two people, that's all it is.

An IELTS examiner is just a person.

So, thanks for letting me have this opportunity.

Not at all.

I mean, we're delighted.

And I totally agree.

I mean it is very much about being relaxed and I love the way that you create videos that help students relax.

You give them lots of visual support.

It's really nice.

So we're going to go straight in.

We're here today.

We're going to be looking at a topic.

This is a topic that very often comes up.

It's quite a common topic and we're going to look at

how some questions around this topic and how we might answer it and some ideas and vocabulary.

right?

So the topic is happiness.

So it's IELTS speaking, we're looking at the topic of happiness.

I'm going to begin by putting Chris on the hotspot and ask you the first question here, Chris.

So are you generally a happy person?

On the whole, I'm a pretty optimistic and happy person.

I I'm a fairly happy-go-lucky person actually.

So whenever I approach a task or if I meet somebody for the first time,

I would like to think that my overall demeanour is a fairly positive one.

Sometimes behind closed doors though,

that I do have days when I feel kind of down

or maybe I don't want to talk to too many people but on the whole,

in general, by and large, I'm a happy person.

That's nice.

That's lovely.

I love that answer because I like the way you've talked about the happy side and the sad side.

You've kind of talked about optimistic and the feeling down or feeling sad as well.

I think that's something that students could benefit from in the test.

When they are approaching a topic,

one thing that they should always remember is that there is no right

or wrong answer in the speaking test and there's actually no marks really deducted if you go a little bit off topic.

So if you talk about happiness and sadness, totally reasonable, right?

Absolutely.

I mean, they are the brother and sister.

I mean, they're opposites, but they're so connected and it felt very natural.

That's what you would say in a natural conversation.

And the other thing I liked,

which sometimes students forget, is in a question,

especially in part one, you want to talk about you, right?

So you weren't talking about the abstract notion of happiness,

you were talking about you and your feelings and that's really, really important.

Yeah.

There were actually three constructions that I put in there on purpose

and they were ways that people can talk about something generally.

And I said, in general,

by and large and on the whole.

Those three terms you can use interchangeably and you can say,

it just means generally and you can choose

which one you want to use at any one time and I thought that they would be useful for you guys.

100

Fantastic, love it.

101

Next question.

102

Chris, is it important to be happy?

103

Ooh, that's a tricky question and I would say that it's quite important to be happy,

104

but it's also not a problem if you're not happy.

105

If, let me explain that a little bit more.

106

So when you approach a task,

107

it's generally seen or we would say that a task is kind of more fun to do if you are feeling positive,

108

if you look on the bright side of life and if you're a glass half full person,

109

if you're positive about something,

110

the results are usually, they tend to be more positive,

111

you know, as a result.

112

If somebody approaches something with a negative mindset,

113

if they kind of look on the gloomy side,

114

you tend to expect that a project or a piece of work probably wouldn't have the same outcome.

115

Would you agree?

116

Oh, absolutely.

117

Yes.

118

I think the way that we think

119

and the happiness you have influences things around you and how successful you do things, you know?

120

I mean, if you're in a bad mood,

121

if you're in a bad mood,

122

it's like hitting your head against a brick wall.

123

Sometimes things just don't work out.

124

Totally agree.

125

We have a funny phrase in English when we say,

126

did you get out of the wrong side of the bed this morning?

127

And that's something that my parents and my family would often say to me.

128

If I got up in the morning and if I was feeling grumpy and not very happy as a teenager,

129

my mum would usually say to me,

130

did you get out of the wrong side of the bed this morning?

131

What does that mean, Keith?

132

It does.

133

It just means that, well,

134

if you've got out of the wrong side of bed,

135

you've woken up in a bad mood for no reason.

136

no specific reason and things then just start going wrong because you're in a bad mood.

137

Yeah and just to elaborate and talk a little bit more about the importance of happiness

138

and maybe that's something we can talk about more but working in a team like at work or at school,

139

I think it's you know pretty important to generate this motivational kind of atmosphere because because otherwise it just brings people down.

140

Would you agree?

141

100% yeah it does.

142

I think teamwork helps.

143

You want to raise the energy,

144

raise the dynamics in the office or in a team to make things more successful.

145

I think it's a good point actually to talk about things that do make us happy.

146

I mean there are so many things you can talk about.

147

I think talking about work,

148

talking about success and achieving your goals makes people happy.

149

maybe it's a nice meal,

150

maybe it's a nice drink.

151

I don't know.

152

What are the things that people could talk about for about happiness?

153

Gosh, in the test, there's so many things that you could talk about.

154

It might be a memory.

155

It could be a date,

156

like an anniversary or a time when you met somebody.

157

It could be a type of food that you really like that makes you happy.

158

So if I go for a nice meal,

159

like you say, and I feel positive,

160

I could be spending time with friends and family.

161

And these relationships, I think that's another important part that makes people happy.

162

But one question I have for you,

163

Keith, if you don't mind.

164

Does money make you happy?

165

Money doesn't...

166

Does money make me happy?

167

Yes, it makes me happy,

168

but it's not the source of all happiness.

169

I think money makes me happy

170

because it may enable me to do certain things like to go and have a nice meal or to go on holiday.

171

But I don't see money as the goal.

172

Yeah, it's not the be-all and end-all.

173

That's a phrase, isn't it?

174

Nice phrase, the be-all and end-all.

175

What does that mean exactly?

176

It's not the ultimate, the final thing.

177

It's not the thing which defines you.

178

It's quite a tricky one to explain.

179

It is, but I think you're absolutely right it's not the final goal.

180

So great, I'm going to move on to more questions.

181

Just before I do, I was going to pick up on something I really liked about your answer,

182

which I think is important for students,

183

is that at the start,

184

you started giving an answer and then you realised it wasn't very clear and you said,

185

let me explain what I mean.

186

And I think that's so good and so important for students

187

because sometimes students get tongue tied and they realize they've made a mistake and they're not clear.

188

It's absolutely fine to just stop and say,

189

just a moment, let me explain what I mean.

190

And then you say it in a different way.

191

It's a great technique.

192

So if you missed that,

193

go back and listen again to what Chris said.

194

Yeah, and I'll just explain that sometimes in the test,

195

you might, you might have a question,

196

which is really difficult and you might start talking about something and you're trying to buy yourself some time.

197

This is a technique that native speakers will do if they're in an interview.

198

And this is something that everybody experiences when they go for a job interview.

199

The person might say, so do you have any experience in coding?

200

And you say, well, a few,

201

few, you know, weeks ago,

202

I went on a coding course,

203

but, and then, oh, let me explain what I mean.

204

So it's, it's this kind of going down one track and then explaining your thoughts.

205

It's a, a native speaker has to do it every day as well.

206

And it's nice because it helps you go deeper and bring out richer vocabulary,

207

which is always a bonus.

208

Right.

209

I've got another question for you,

210

Chris, on this topic of happiness.

211

Do you have a place that you go to that makes you happy?

212

Gosh, I don't have one particular place.

213

There are different places that make me happy in different ways.

214

One of the places that I love is going for a stroll along a local river.

215

I find that going to this place makes me feel kind of at ease.

216

I feel at peace.

217

I love to listen to the sounds of nature and it just helps me relax.

218

But then, kind of on the same token,

219

I also love going to these really vibrant places, festivals.

220

I like going to kind of a loud restaurant or a bar and spending time with friends.

221

So it really depends on my mood.

222

And I don't know, what would you say in this question,

223

Keith, if you were asked this?

224

I would go down a similar path actually,

225

because my answer would be that there's a place near where I live,

226

right out on the coast,

227

and it's a small little beach,

228

not very well known, kind of off the beaten track.

229

And I often go down there for a walk on the beach,

230

and it's just breathtaking.

231

The view is gorgeous if the weather's clear,

232

and it really relaxes me,

233

and it just gives me a feeling of happiness and almost ecstasy.

234

Maybe ecstasy is a bit too strong,

235

but it's a nice feeling.

236

Contentment.

237

Contentment, yes.

238

All is well with the world, yes.

239

Wonderful.

240

It's a good point.

241

I mean, thinking about synonyms for happy,

242

what are the different words we could possibly use?

243

And are there any nuances to that?

244

There are.

245

This is one thing in the test I will really warn students about.

246

On Instagram, on social media,

247

they will see words which say,

248

don't use happy, use ecstatic or use thrilled.

249

And they might give some examples.

250

Now, the problem with this,

251

and Keith will probably agree with me,

252

I don't know, is that the word happy and the word ecstatic and the word thrilled don't actually mean the same thing.

253

So if I say I am ecstatic,

254

that means that I am happy,

255

happy, happy, happy, happy, really happy.

256

If I say I'm happy,

257

it kind of just means that I'm in a good mood.

258

One of the criterion is that you have to be able to flexibly use language.

259

And if you're not using it appropriately and flexibly,

260

then you're going to be restricted from getting to that,

261

you know, really high band in the lexical resource.

262

Do you see this as a problem within the IELTS preparation world, Keith?

263

Oh, it's a huge problem.

264

I think you've hit the nail on the head with the difference between social media friendly posts and quality learning materials.

265

So as you say, like on Instagram,

266

these nice infographics of 20 synonyms, looks lovely, looks great.

267

Is it quality learning material?

268

No, it's actually negative because it doesn't,

269

although students may think it looks nice,

270

if you don't know the nuance,

271

if you can't use it confidently in the right context,

272

it's gonna go against you rather than help you.

273

So I think being aware of that difference, yeah, it's really important.

274

And the only real way that students can actually learn that,

275

And it's probably not through you and I.

276

It's probably actually through listening to audio book stories.

277

It's listening, watching, you know,

278

a TV series which is made in English.

279

And you will find that these very specific words will only appear in particular, at particular times.

280

So that's my one warning from today that you can learn five or 10 idiomatic phrases.

281

That means nothing to you in your test,

282

unless you use it correctly.

283

Yeah, that's great.

284

That's a nice warning, Chris.

285

And maybe just let me put a tip on top of that is,

286

if you're learning vocabulary then, start from the context.

287

Learn vocabulary from context, like podcasts and films.

288

Don't learn it from lists because there is no context.

289

It's the other way around.

290

That's great.

291

Really, really nice, Chris.

292

And so, yes, we have to be careful with synonyms.

293

I mean, we have mentioned you've talked about ecstatic and thrilled and happy and the differences.

294

I wonder about idiomatic expressions because there's actually quite a few that pop into my head when we talk about happiness.

295

Any that pop into your head?

296

Yeah, perfect.

297

And this is another point where we should just let the students know that learning idiomatic expressions is important.

298

They have to be used appropriately.

299

So, for example, and I don't know if you remember,

300

when you passed your driving test, Keith.

301

Yeah, that's a long time ago.

302

Equally long time ago for me.

303

And I remember when I passed it, I was really happy.

304

Okay.

305

And I was over the moon.

306

I was completely, you know, I was thrilled.

307

I was over the moon that I passed my driving test.

308

When I got my exam results from school,

309

I was over the moon.

310

So, over the moon is a really common phrase that we use in English on a kind of weekly day-to-day basis.

311

There are some, however, which we use but probably not as often.

312

One of them is, I was on cloud nine.

313

Okay, so let's imagine that somebody proposes to their girlfriend or or their boyfriend,

314

I think this would be an example when somebody is on cloud nine, would you say?

315

Yeah, yeah.

316

I was on cloud nine in that situation.

317

Again, it's one of those expressions that it's a bit like in seventh heaven, right?

318

It's not as common.

319

We don't use it as common as other expressions.

320

I would probably say I was in heaven.

321

You know, it's idiomatic.

322

It's obviously not literal.

323

That might be slightly more common.

324

So there are, yeah, different expressions we can use.

325

Thrilled to bits is a nice...

326

I was just going to say,

327

thrilled to bits, it's like you read my mind.

328

Thrilled to bits is maybe more British, would you say?

329

I think so, yeah.

330

In British English, we have kind of like chuffed to bits and maybe thrilled to bits.

331

I mean, when I, gosh,

332

when I graduated from university with my master's degree,

333

I was thrilled to bits because it was so much work and so much time.

334

So that's a nice expression.

335

Fantastic, Chris.

336

So I think we're going to wind up.

337

We've looked at lots of interesting words,

338

possible answers and expressions that students can start learning and start practising as well.

339

This has been, I think, really valuable, really interesting.

340

Thank you so much for coming along today.

341

And just to let students know,

342

if they want to find out more about you and IELTS Daily,

343

where should they go?

344

IELTS daily just in YouTube they can come

345

and find us on there we've got lots of videos thanks

346

so much for having us it's been a pleasure

347

and I love to read comments this is a really important thing for me

348

so if you have any of your own vocabulary put it in the comments section

349

and Keith and I will have a look at that it's it's

350

so interesting for us to see how you guys are preparing for your tests

351

so thanks Keith absolutely yeah I think we can all learn from each other thank you very much Chris

352

and guys go and check out IELTS daily lots of stuff they're not only speaking

353

but all of the skills that you need it's been great

354

and I look forward to seeing you all very very soon in the next video take care my friends

TRENDING

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.

☕ Buy us a coffee

ShadowingEnglish remains 100% free thanks to your support. Server and AI costs are high — your coffee keeps us going! 🙏

Donate via PayPal

ShadowingEnglish.com – English Shadowing Practice

Speak English fluently using the Shadowing technique. Listen to native YouTube videos, repeat sentence by sentence, and build real pronunciation and fluency — used by IELTS learners worldwide.

Shadowing Practice: IELTS Conversation about Happiness - Learn English Speaking with YouTube

Popular

Why practice speaking with this video?

Grammar & Expressions in Context

Common Pronunciation Traps

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing Practice: IELTS Conversation about Happiness - Learn English Speaking with YouTube

Download App

Why practice speaking with this video?

Grammar & Expressions in Context

Common Pronunciation Traps

What is the Shadowing Technique?