Shadowing Practice: Learn English Podcast: Describing People | Appearance & Personality Conversation #englishpodcast - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Love English Podcast.
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Hello everyone, and welcome back to the Love English Podcast.
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We are here to help you learn English for your real life, in a simple and natural way.
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I'm your host, Leo.
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And I'm Emma.
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It's so wonderful to be here with you all.
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This is a safe space for you to learn, so we will always speak slowly and explain everything.
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Leo, I met our new neighbor this morning.
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She just moved in next door.
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Oh really?
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That's great.
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What is she like?
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She seems really nice.
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And that question, what is she like, is the perfect introduction to our topic today, how to describe people.
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We are going to talk about both appearance and personality.
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This is such a useful topic.
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We describe people all the time.
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We describe a new friend to our family.
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We describe a character in a movie.
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Or we describe a new boss to a co-worker.
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But there is an important difference in the questions, right?
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Yes, and this is the first, most important thing for our listeners to learn.
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The two questions sound similar, but they are very different.
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The first question is, what does she look like?
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This question is only about appearance, the outside of a person.
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And the second question, which I asked you, is what is she like?
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This question is only about personality, the inside of a person, their character.
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Let's start with the first one, describing appearance.
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What does a person look like?
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This is usually about four main things, height, body size, hair, and eyes.
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Let's start with height.
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For height, we can use simple words like tall, short, or average height.
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Average means not tall and not short, somewhere in the middle.
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That's easy enough.
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My brother is very tall.
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My sister is a little short.
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What about body size?
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This can be a sensitive topic, so we should be polite.
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It is very sensitive.
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It's usually best to use general, neutral words.
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Neutral means not positive and not negative.
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You can say someone is slim, which means thin in a healthy way.
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You can say someone is well-built if they have a strong body, maybe from going to the gym.
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If you don't want to be specific, you don't have to talk about it at all.
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That is great advice.
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Be polite and kind.
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Now let's talk about something easier and more fun.
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Hair.
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There are three things we can describe about hair – length, style, and color.
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Let's start with length.
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She has long hair.
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He has short hair.
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Very simple.
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For style, the most common words are straight hair or curly hair.
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Curly hair has many curls and waves.
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And for color, we have the basics.
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Black hair, brown hair, blonde hair, which is yellow, and red hair.
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So you can put it all together.
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For example, my new neighbor has long, straight, brown hair.
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That's a perfect description.
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And finally, for appearance, you can mention their eyes, usually just the color.
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She has blue eyes, he has big brown eyes.
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You can also talk about other features, like a beard or a mustache for a man, or if someone wears glasses.
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For example, my father has a gray beard and wears glasses.
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Let's do a quick practice.
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How would you describe me, Leo?
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Okay.
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Well, Emma, you have long brown hair that is a little bit curly, and you have green eyes,
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and you have a very friendly smile.
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Aw, thank you, Leo.
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Adding a friendly smile is a nice touch.
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It's a mix of appearance and personality.
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So that is appearance, but to really know a person, we need to talk about their personality.
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This is where we answer the question, what is she like?
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Yes, this is all about adjectives.
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Adjectives are words that describe nouns.
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Here, they are words that describe a person's character.
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Let's start with some very common positive adjectives.
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The first one has to be nice or kind.
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Yes, kind is a wonderful word.
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A kind person is someone who is good to other people.
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They are helpful and caring.
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For example, my grandmother is very kind.
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She is always helping her neighbors.
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What's another great positive word?
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How about friendly?
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A friendly person is easy to talk to.
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They smile a lot and make you feel welcome.
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The people in my new office are so friendly.
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They all said hello to me on my first day.
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Friendly is a great one.
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Another one I like is funny.
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A funny person makes you laugh.
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They tell good jokes or have a good sense of humor.
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You could say, my best friend is so funny.
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He always makes me laugh, even when I'm sad.
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A good sense of humor is so important in a friend.
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Let's talk about another one, smart.
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A smart person knows a lot of things.
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They are intelligent.
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You could say, my teacher is very smart.
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She can answer any question we have.
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Okay, so we have kind, friendly, funny, and smart.
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Let's add hardworking.
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A hardworking person puts a lot of effort and energy into their work.
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Yes, my dad is very hard working.
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He often works late to make sure his job is done perfectly.
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The opposite of hard working is lazy.
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Let's do a few more positive ones.
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I like the word easy going.
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An easy going person is relaxed.
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They don't get stressed or angry easily.
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I love that word.
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My boss is very easy going.
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He is very calm even when there is a problem.
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The opposite of easy going might be uptight or strict.
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How about outgoing?
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An outgoing person is energetic and loves to be with other people.
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They are not shy.
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They love going to parties and meeting new friends.
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My sister is very outgoing.
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She can make a new friend in five minutes.
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The opposite of outgoing is shy or quiet.
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A shy person is nervous around new people.
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A quiet person just doesn't talk a lot.
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This is a great list of words.
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But Emma, this brings us to a difficult question.
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What if a person is not very nice?
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How can we describe a negative personality politely?
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We don't want to be mean.
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This is a very important skill.
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Sometimes we need to be honest, but we should always try to be gentle.
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Let's say a person talks a lot, in a way that is maybe a little annoying.
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Instead of saying He is annoying.
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You could say, he is very talkative.
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Talkative is a more neutral word.
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That's a great example.
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What if someone thinks they are the best, and they are always talking about how great they are?
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The negative word is arrogant.
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But a softer, more polite way to say it could be, he is very confident, or he has very high self-esteem.
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And what if someone is not very smart.
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We would never want to say, he is stupid.
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That is very rude.
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Very, very rude.
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You could simply choose not to talk about their intelligence.
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Or you could focus on their other qualities.
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You could say, he is not very academic, but he is incredibly kind and very good with his hands.
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You focus on the positive.
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So the main rule for negative traits is, if you can't say something nice, try to use a neutral word or don't say anything at all.
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Exactly.
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It's about respect.
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Now, let's put it all together in a big role play.
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Let's imagine I am going to a party at your friend David's house.
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I have never met David.
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I ask you, what is your friend David like?
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Okay, a great scenario.
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So, you ask me, what is David like?
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I should probably describe both his appearance and his personality so you know who to look for.
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Yes, that would be very helpful.
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Okay.
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I would say, oh, you'll love David.
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First, so you can find him, let me tell you what he looks like.
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He's about average height and he has short, curly, blonde hair.
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He also usually wears glasses.
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You can't miss him.
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Okay.
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That's a clear picture of his appearance.
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Now, what is his personality like?
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What is he like?
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He is one of the friendliest people I know.
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He's very outgoing, so he will probably come and say hello to you first.
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He's also really funny.
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He has a great sense of humor and loves to tell jokes.
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That sounds great.
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I'm excited to meet him.
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Is there anything else I should know?
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Well, he is very passionate about movies.
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He loves talking about films.
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So if you want to have a good conversation with him, you can ask him what movie he has seen recently.
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That's a great tip.
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Thank you so much, Leo.
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Now I feel much more comfortable about going to the party.
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End scene.
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That conversation shows how describing someone can be so helpful.
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You gave me useful information that makes me feel prepared and less nervous.
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I agree.
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So let's do our final summary.
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Remember the two key questions.
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What does he look like is for appearance.
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What is he like is for personality.
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For appearance, talk about height, hair, and eyes.
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For personality, use simple, clear adjectives.
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We learned kind, friendly, funny, smart, hardworking, easygoing, and outgoing.
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And remember to always be polite, especially when talking about appearance or negative traits.
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The goal is to be honest, but always kind.
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The best way to practice this is to think about your own friends and family.
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How would you describe your best friend?
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How would you describe your mother?
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Practice saying it out loud.
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That's a wonderful idea.
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Thank you all for joining us today.
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We hope you feel more confident describing the important people in your life.
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We'll talk to you next time.
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Bye everyone!
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Thanks for listening to Love English Podcast.
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Remember, every minute you spend learning English is an investment in your future.
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Keep learning and see you in the next episode!
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Thank you.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This A2 speaking lesson is built on the video “Learn English Podcast: Describing People”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: hair, describe, word, appearance, personality. This video has 208 sentences and 1683 words to shadow. The speech runs for 11:08. The speaker talks at a natural 151 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 88% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is easy to follow.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| outgoing adjective | /aʊtˈɡəʊɪŋ/ | Extroverted: talkative, friendly, and social, especially with respect to meeting new people easily and comfortably; outgiving. |
| neutral adjective | /ˈnuː.tɹəl/ | Not taking sides in a conflict such as war; nonaligned. |
| polite adjective | /pəˈlaɪt/ | Well-mannered, civilized. |
| curly adjective | /ˈkɝli/ | Having curls. |
| topic noun | /ˈtɑpɪk/ | A subject; a theme; a category or general area of interest. |
| helpful adjective | /ˈhɛlp.fl̩/ | Furnishing help; giving aid; useful. |
| humour noun | /ˈhjuːmɚ/ | The quality of being amusing, comical, funny. |
| sensitive adjective | /ˈsɛn.sɪt.ɪv/ | Having the faculty of sensation; pertaining to the senses. |
| rude adjective | /ɹuːd/ | Lacking in refinement or civility; bad-mannered; discourteous. |
| beard noun | /bɪɹd/ | Facial hair on the chin, cheeks, jaw and neck. |
| neighbour noun | /ˈneɪbɚ/ | A person living on adjacent or nearby land; a person situated adjacently or nearby; anything (of the same type of thing as the subject) in an adjacent or… |
| trait noun | /tɹeɪt/ | An identifying characteristic, habit or trend. |
| blond adjective | /blɑnd/ | Of a bleached or pale golden (light yellowish) colour. |
| thin adjective | /ˈθɪn/ | Having little thickness or extent from one surface to its opposite. |
| gray adjective | /ɡɹeɪ/ | Of a color between black and white, having neutral hue and intermediate brightness. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- It's so wonderful to be here with you all.
- How can we describe a negative personality politely?
- Is there anything else I should know?
- How would you describe your best friend?
- How would you describe your mother?
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | slim, which means · hair, which is · someone who is |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | have never met · has seen |
| Superlatives the -est / the most … — the top or bottom of a group | the most common · my best · the best |
| Advice with “should” should + verb — saying what is a good idea | should be · should always try · should probably describe |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 14 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, I'm, can't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: thin /ˈθɪn/, grandmother /ˈɡɹæn(d)ˌmʌðɚ/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: passionate /ˈpæʃənɪt/, moustache /ˈmʌstæʃ/
- Long words — get the stress right: incredibly /ɪŋˈkɹɛdɪbli/, intelligent /ɪnˈtɛlɪd͡ʒənt/, energetic /ˌɛn.əɹˈdʒɛt.ɪk/
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 outgoing, neutral, polite.
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.