Shadowing Practice: Learn English Vlog - Visit Shakespeare's Hometown! 📜 - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
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We're in Stratford-upon-Avon, the home of Shakespeare.
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We're going to be showing you around and teaching you some English along the way.
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God, Laura!
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Laura!
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You said Laura!
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Laura, push!
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Push off against that!
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Oh, Christ alive!
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And we're also going to be teaching you some of the words and idioms that Shakespeare actually invented.
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You'll notice that Shakespeare does a lot of heavy lifting in Stratford-upon-Avon.
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He is the guy here.
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Every shop has a picture of Shakespeare outside.
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The pubs are called things like The Bard.
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It is like Shakespeare Disneyland here really, which fair play, he was very influential.
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And right over there is the Royal Shakespeare Company.
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Let's go have a look.
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So this is the RSC, which stands for the Royal Shakespeare Company, and it's the theatre where you can see a lot of Shakespeare plays,
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and they do really interesting adaptations of them.
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It's not just the standard adaptation.
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I tried to steer the boat and I was absolutely awful.
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Like, couldn't even, like...
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My brain just doesn't work like that.
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I have no spatial awareness.
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I can't get my head around, go this direction.
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I just can't do it.
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I think when you had a go last time, we went in the bushes.
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Do you remember that?
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Yeah.
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We should be fine.
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There we go.
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Can we just keep a straight course?
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We're not.
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We're going that way.
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I'm on it.
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I'm on it.
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I'm on it.
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Don't worry nice
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laura oh my god i'm doing it now i'm doing it now just do you just
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that way no we have to go back now right we've
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been trying for about 10 minutes oh to get through this
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bridge the guy from the boat places we're okay oh god
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he's laughing right there you go there you go there you go there you There you go, there you go.
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But we're going through the wrong one.
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No, no, no, no. Oh, yeah, sorry.
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This is all we could do.
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We're going through the no entry one.
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Oh, forget it.
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Oh, forget it.
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Oh, my God.
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Oh, no, there's a goat.
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Oh, no, no, they're coming with a boat, Laura.
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They're coming with a boat.
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We're OK.
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We're OK.
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Oh, God.
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They're coming to help us through the bridge.
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So we got through the bridge because that man pushed us.
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Gave us a hand.
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He gave us a hand.
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and he basically just pushed us through the bridge.
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It's really hard.
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But he said the wind conditions are really hard.
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He said the wind, he said it's very windy today so it's making it much more difficult.
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So that's the excuse I'm going for.
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Well, it's safe to say, I don't think we're very good at boating.
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I don't think it's our bag.
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I don't think it's our bag.
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Do you know what I found difficult?
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I found difficult to do like, I we were just going straight, I could do this.
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That's absolutely fine.
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But when we had to turn, I'd, like, focus on my right hand.
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And then my left hand would just kind of...
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The rudder would just be in the water.
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You've always been a bit rubbish with your left side, haven't you, actually?
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I have.
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No, genuinely.
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Genuinely.
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This left hand.
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OK, so we're by a statue of Hamlet.
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So let's learn an idiom that Shakespeare created that you can hear in Hamlet.
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My own flesh and blood.
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If someone is your own flesh and blood, they are related to you.
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So you might hear someone say, I can't betray my own flesh and blood.
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I can't betray my family.
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Here's another one from Hamlet.
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In my heart of hearts.
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And this idiom is a way of exaggerating how you truly feel.
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In your heart of hearts.
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I know in my heart of hearts I shouldn't do this, but I'm gonna do it anyway.
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Why is he stood like that?
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I can hear some geese over there, which reminds me of another Shakespeare idiom, a wild goose chase.
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If you're on a wild goose chase, you are foolishly pursuing something that is hard to get.
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The telltale sign that this is a Tudor building is these thick wooden beams here.
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So now we're going to pay the Holy Trinity Church a visit because inside there is something very, very interesting.
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So let's have a look.
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I think this is William Shakespeare's will and it's almost illegible really
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because because English is so different now and the writing was
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so different you can barely make out what it's trying to say.
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I think that's his signature there.
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MUSIC Like, I was just there then, I was thinking, like, I'm less than 10 metres away from William Shakespeare right now.
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Yeah, from the very hands that wrote the idioms that we're teaching people today, that people actually use.
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He was, like, right there.
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Yeah.
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And, like, he lived, he really lived his life and was really buried there.
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and then 500, 600, 700 years later, here we are.
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You come with this camera and it's crazy.
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And just like filming it and I'm stood right there.
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And it really helps you to connect with history, I think.
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Like Shakespeare, he's almost like a character now, isn't he?
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In a strange way.
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Yeah, like Santa Claus.
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Yeah, just like, oh, yeah, Shakespeare.
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Well, he's kind of omnipresent still in everyday life because we always reference him.
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There's always some kind of word that we say that he invented.
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He's just always around.
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It's not like someone who lived in the past and died, whatever.
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It is like Santa Claus.
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It's kind of like...
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You know when people say, like, you die twice.
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You die when the day you stop living and the day that somebody says your name for the last time.
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Shakespeare will never die, will he?
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No. These flowers are beautiful, but they might attract some bees.
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Speaking of bees, here's a good idiom that Shakespeare invented.
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The be-all and end-all.
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The be-all and end-all is the most important or crucial part of something.
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It is the all-important goal.
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When Bez's football team loses, I have to remind him that football is not the be-all and end-all.
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These houses were built in the 1500s.
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That is mental.
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So we just walked past the site of Shakespeare's family home, so where he lived with his family.
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And I asked the man, I said, how much are tickets?
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And he said, £27.
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And I said, each?
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And he said, yeah.
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So that's a little bit pricey, I feel.
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27 each, because if that's two of you, that's nearly 60 pounds to go inside the building.
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But if that's important to you, go for it.
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But I believe you can still see the outside of Shakespeare's birthplace without having to pay.
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So you can still see where he was born for free.
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But yeah, 27 I thought was quite a lot.
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I'm flagging a little bit.
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I'm flagging so I could do with a matcha.
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If you've watched my videos before i always grab a matcha
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and i can see a starbucks right across the road don't
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get hit by a car let's get a match i'm feeling quite tired today
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so here's a good idiom
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that shakespeare invented to not sleep a wink oh i haven't
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slept a wink i didn't sleep a wink it just means you didn't I can't sleep at all.
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Behind us is William Shakespeare's birthplace.
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Like I said, you don't need to pay to look at it because it's just on the high street.
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Yeah, which is very strange.
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It's just kind of here opposite a Christmas shop, weirdly.
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Well, I think in lots of towns in the UK, the town is built around the church, but I feel like this street has maybe become really Yeah, prominent.
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Popular and prominent because of the birthplace being here.
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But you don't need to pay to look at it.
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You can just look at it, but you do need to pay to go in.
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So because I'm in front of Shakespeare's house, it's only right that we learn another idiom that Shakespeare created.
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Eaten out of house and home.
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If you say, oh, he will eat me out of house and home, it means he's going to eat all my food.
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So he's going to come to my house, eat everything I have, and I will have to spend lots of money because he's eating all my food.
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I'm considering having a burger for my dinner, but all of the burgers have pickles in them.
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Shakespeare made that, didn't he?
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Yeah, he did, yeah.
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If you're in a pickle, it means that you're in a difficult situation.
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Imagine, like, you need a taxi to get home, but you haven't got any money.
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You're in a pickle.
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Ooh, thinking about ice cream has reminded me of another idiom that Shakespeare created.
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To break the ice.
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It means to dissolve a tense situation.
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Maybe you've met someone new, and you're a little bit awkward together, you don't know what to talk about, but then you make a joke,
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or you say something that relieves the tension.
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It breaks the ice, you feel comfortable around each other.
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I want an ice cream.
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That is what I'm talking about!
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We're both not very good with dairy, so we have to have vegan ice cream.
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And there was a shop that had vegan ice cream, Which is very nice.
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And I've got Biscoff sauce on it.
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And I've got raspberry sauce.
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That's the thing about Britain.
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It only needs to be about 10 degrees.
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And if the sun is out, people will be eating ice cream.
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Bez can't bite ice cream because he's got sensitive teeth, but I can.
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Is there anything I can do?
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If I bite?
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No, don't put yourself through that.
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Don't.
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Well, thank you so much for watching watching.
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If you enjoyed this video please subscribe.
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And you can find all of our amazing courses over on our website smashingenglish.com.
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And if you are a member you will receive a pdf for every video
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and in this video you'll get a pdf with all of the idioms
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that we taught you and more idioms that Shakespeare created.
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So click the join button to become a member.
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Thank you so much for watching and we'll see you next time.
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Ta-ta-ra!
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B1 speaking lesson is built on the video “Learn English Vlog - Visit Shakespeare's Hometown! 📜”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: shakespeare, idiom, ice. This video has 195 sentences and 1753 words to shadow. The speech runs for 13:19. The speaker talks at a steady 132 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. 83% 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
The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| idiom noun | /ˈɪdiəm/ | A manner of speaking, a mode of expression peculiar to a language, language family, or group of people. |
| invent verb | /ɪnˈvɛnt/ | To design a new process or mechanism. |
| birthplace noun | /ˈbɝθˌpleɪs/ | The location where a person or an animal was born. |
| pickle noun | /ˈpɪkəl/ | A cucumber preserved in a solution, usually a brine or a vinegar syrup. |
| wink noun | /ˈwɪŋk/ | An act of winking (a blinking of only one eye), or a message sent by winking. |
| goose noun | /ɡus/ | Any of various grazing waterfowl of the family Anatidae, which have feathers and webbed feet and are capable of flying, swimming, and walking on land, and… |
| flesh noun | /flɛʃ/ | The soft tissue of the body, especially muscle and fat. |
| betray verb | /bɪˈtɹeɪ/ | To deliver into the hands of an enemy by treachery or fraud, in violation of trust; to give up treacherously or faithlessly. |
| matcha noun | /ˈmɑ.t͡ʃə/ | A type of powdered green tea, traditionally used in Japanese tea ceremonies. |
| vegan noun | /ˈviːɡən/ | A person who does not eat, drink or otherwise consume any animal products |
| adaptation noun | /ˌæd.æpˈteɪ.ʃən/ | The process of adapting something or becoming adapted to a situation; adjustment, modification. |
| burger noun | /ˈbɝ.ɡɚ/ | A hamburger. |
| bee noun | /ˈbiː/ | A flying insect, of the clade Anthophila within the hymenopteran superfamily Apoidea, known for its organised societies (though only a minority have them), for… |
| genuinely adverb | /ˈd͡ʒɛn.ju.ɪn.li/ | In a genuine manner; truthfully, truly. |
| bite verb | /baɪt/ | To cut into something by clamping the teeth. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| get through verb | /ɡɛt ˈθɹu/ | To overcome; to endure. |
| go through verb | To travel from one end of something to the other. | |
| go back verb | To return to a place or state after having been there at a previous time. | |
| make out verb | /meɪk aʊt/ | To draw up (a document etc.), to designate (a cheque). |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- Let's go have a look.
- My brain just doesn't work like that.
- Can we just keep a straight course?
- Do you know what I found difficult?
- Is there anything I can do?
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Conditional sentences if + clause, will/would + verb — a condition and its result | If you say, oh, he will eat · if the sun is out, people will be · if you are a member you will receive |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | are called · are related · was really buried |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | You've always been · you've watched · has reminded |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | someone who lived · Yeah, which is · cream, Which is |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 75 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, we're, don't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: flesh /flɛʃ/, adaptation /ˌæd.æpˈteɪ.ʃən/, foolishly /ˈfuːlɪʃli/, spatial /ˈspeɪ.ʃəl/, rubbish /ˈɹʌbɪʃ/
- Long words — get the stress right: adaptation /ˌæd.æpˈteɪ.ʃən/, genuinely /ˈd͡ʒɛn.ju.ɪn.li/, exaggerate /ɛɡˈzæd͡ʒ.ə.ɹeɪt/, illegible /ɪˈlɛd͡ʒəbəl/, omnipresent /ˌɔmnɪjˈpɹɛz(ə)nt/
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 idiom, invent, birthplace.
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.