Shadowing Practice: Kylian Mbappé Answers Questions Without Dropping the Ball | Vanity Fair - Learn English Speaking with YouTube

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I start to learn how to cook.
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What's the Mbappe special?
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For example, nothing.
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For the moment, nothing.
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But I try to be better.
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Hi, guys.
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It's Kylian Mbappe.
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And I'm here on my Vanity Fair cover shop.
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What do you know now about being a pro athlete that you wish someone had told you when you were 16?
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Oh, I will tell him, like, to dream big, to stay humble, and to trust the process.
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athletes.
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When I was 16, I just wanted to be a football player, to play the best games, to play in the best teams, to be happy also on the pitch, to don't lose my patience for the game.
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Also to be happy outside football, because that's helped you to have a wonderful career, to be happy with your family, with your lovely ones.
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It's Always important.
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Do you have friendships that have nothing to do with football?
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Yeah, of course, of course.
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I have friends that I met outside football, I have friends that I met before I was a football player.
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I think it's important also to keep a balance because football, it's...
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just a big thing in my life, but there is not only football in life.
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So it's good to open my mind to other things and to explore everything I can explore.
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I try to do normal things first because there is nothing normal in the world in football.
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I have one friend like he don't care about football.
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So all the time we start talking about football for him.
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It's so boring.
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So he'd say you have nothing else in your life than football. But it's...
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It's my friends.
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Kylian, what's something people would be surprised to hear that you do in your spare time?
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Oh, I think they will be surprised.
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to know that sometimes in my day of I love to do nothing and stay home.
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Because everybody thinks that our life is so exciting.
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We do everywhere and things, but sometimes we just love to chill at home and do nothing like everybody.
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And I know because sometimes one day was A friend of me would bring a friend to my house, and he was surprised that I was like doing nothing.
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He was thinking that everybody was like super fast, super chill.
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I said, "No, no, no, it's just Sunday.
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I want to stay home." I start to learn how to cook.
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What's the Mbappe special?
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For example, nothing.
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For the moment, nothing.
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But I try to be better.
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But it's something that I want to improve, you know?
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When I'm home, I think when you can cook something good at home for someone or for yourself, it's something good.
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What was the first thing that genuinely surprised you about Madrid?
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Oh, a little bit of everything, because I have to be honest, when I arrived in Madrid, I had absolutely no idea about the city.
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Nothing.
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But I was surprised about the culture, about the people, about the way they are welcoming, about the way they want to help all the time.
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But also the food is good food.
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It's difficult to match with French food, but they try to do it.
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It's not bad.
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And also the weather.
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The weather is so nice.
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It's peaceful to be in a place like this.
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And I really enjoy my time in Madrid with our fans all around the world.
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Of course, in Madrid, even more.
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But of course, it's the greatest club in the world, the most famous club.
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We have love, we receive love from everywhere.
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Even now that I come with national team for games, there is many Madrid fans.
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Yesterday, the stadium was the same.
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It's the big club in the world, so it's such a blessing to be to be part of this club and this project.
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The thing that surprised me the most when I used to arrive and they eat so late in France, we are like, At 9 is breakfast,
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at 12 is lunch, at 8 is dinner.
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Them is like chill, everything is chill.
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They always say when you say something, they say "tranquilo".
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It's okay, they take it easy.
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They let the things come to them.
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And it's really funny because they have no pressure in everything, they have no pressure in.
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And it's something that I learned from Spanish people, they are like easy.
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Come on, let's go outside.
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- Roll siding.
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- Ronaldo is one of your role models.
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- Yeah.
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- Can you tell me what's some advice you received from him?
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Pfff!
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It's a friend now.
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It's so great to have people that you idolize when you're young and they became your friends.
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We used to talk a lot together.
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He helped me a lot when I was in Madrid for my first year because he knew Madrid really well.
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He spent like almost 10 years in Madrid.
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So we have a wonderful relationship and I'm happy with that.
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And of course I was happy to talk with him the first time because
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I was someone that I idolized when I was young.
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But I'm not someone who's scared or shy, so...
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It's easy for me.
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Kilian, if football didn't exist, what do you think you'd be doing right now?
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I think I'm working with kids to help kids
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because I always say that I love kids and they are the future of the world.
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So I try to give them the best tips in life to have the best life possible.
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In 2018, you were a teenager playing in your first World Cup.
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Yeah.
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In 2022, you were a breakout star.
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What does 2026 have in store?
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I'm a captain now.
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I'm the captain of the team.
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from the responsibility, but I'm ready for that.
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Ready to lead my team to the biggest stage again.
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And I hope that we're gonna go back with the trophy in Paris and in Deschamps -Elysées.
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I think when you play you don't think about the legacy, you think about to perform and to bring the trophy home.
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But of course, if we win and if I win, it's going to be insane for the legacy of the country and my legacy for sure.
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Guys, we had a nice time, but I got to go.
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So thank you for everything and see you soon.
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Thank you.
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That's a cut.

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Why Practice Speaking with This Video?

Engaging with Kylian Mbappé's interview offers a unique opportunity to immerse yourself in authentic spoken English while practicing the shadowing technique. As a world-renowned athlete, Mbappé not only shares insights into his personal life but also demonstrates clear and natural speech patterns that are essential for improving your English communication skills.

By shadowing his speech, learners can experience the rhythm, tone, and expression necessary for effective communication. The context of the video—discussing cooking, personal friendships, and cultural observations—gives learners a diverse array of vocabulary and phrases, allowing for a more comprehensive practice session.

Grammar & Expressions in Context

Throughout the video, several grammatical structures and expressions stand out. Here are three key examples:

  • Use of Infinitives: "to dream big, to stay humble, and to trust the process." This phrase illustrates how infinitive verbs can convey goals or aspirations.
  • Present Simple Tense: "I love to chill at home." The present simple is frequently used to express habits and general truths, making it essential for everyday conversations.
  • Expressions of Surprise: "I think they will be surprised." This expression allows learners to practice how to convey unexpected reactions, enhancing their conversational skills.

Utilizing these structures in your own speech can dramatically enhance fluency and confidence in communicating in English, especially for learners employing the shadow speech method.

Common Pronunciation Traps

Pronunciation can be tricky; here are a few points to focus on while practicing the video:

  • Cultural terms: The word "Madrid" is pronounced with emphasis on the second syllable ([muh-DRID]), which can be challenging for some learners. Make sure to practice this to enhance your recognition and production.
  • Relaxed speech: Mbappé often uses contractions like "it's" and "that's," which might blend words together. Practicing these can improve your fluency and help you sound more natural in conversation.
  • Vowel sounds: Compare the differences in vowel length and quality, especially in words like "home" and "nothing," to improve your overall English pronunciation.

Applying the shadowspeak technique—where you mimic and practice alongside a speaker—enables you to overcome these pronunciation challenges effectively. Commit to consistent practice to see measurable improvement in your speaking skills.

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.