Shadowing Practice: Learn English with Disney's ELEMENTAL - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
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Oh yeah!
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Today we are learning English with Pixar's 2023 hit "Elemental".
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Elemental captures the beauty and challenges of living in a melting pot society.
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Similar to New York City, a melting pot is a place where people from many different cultures mix to create a diverse community.
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In elemental, fire, water, earth and air people, all live in one place.
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The movie explores what happens when boundaries start to break down and different groups actually connect.
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By the way, as someone who had to learn English myself, I find it So frustrating when I have a conversation in English and a word I learned Well,
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come to my mind, I bet this happens to you too.
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That's why We're here to help.
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We have advanced tools on the RealLife English app like Flashcards and our AI Coach,
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so you can practice all of today's new expressions like "melting pot" and never forget them.
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I'll show you exactly how it works in a few minutes, but for now.
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Let's start the lesson!
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We have two scenes from the movie, you'll watch each one, then I'll teach you all the advanced expressions and pronunciation.
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Stick around until the end because you'll test everything you learned by watching the scenes a final time.
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without subtitles and answer some quiz questions.
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Let's go!
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Before I see if you are a match, I splash this on your heart to bring love to to the surface.
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And I will read the smoke.
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-Embeth!
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I'm doing a reading!
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-Sorry!
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Gotta grab some stuff!
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So, are we a match?
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It's true love.
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Which is more than I ever smelled on this one.
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Oh goody this old chestnut.
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Yep.
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Nothing.
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Just a loveless, sad future of sadness.
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Ember, work with me!
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Your finding match was my mother's dying wish!
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Alright, so in this scene we meet Amber, a young fire element living in Element City, a place where different elements live together. But...
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Here's the thing: they don't always mix well.
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Fire and water especially tend to stay separate, living in their own neighborhoods, shopping at their own stores.
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Amber's family runs a traditional fire shop and like many immigrant families, they hold tight to their culture and traditions.
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One of those traditions?
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Finding the perfect romantic match through a matchmaker.
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We just saw her in this scene, so now let's learn the vocabulary.
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Before I see if you are a match...
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So, when two people are a match, it means they are compatible.
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They go well together, especially romantically.
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The matchmaker's job is to determine if two people would make a good couple.
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By the way, the matchmaker is Amber's mother.
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This expression comes from the idea of matching, like matching pajamas or matching puzzle pieces.
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So, when things match, they fit together perfectly.
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Check out how it can be used in other contexts.
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Look at our shadows.
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We match.
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What have we here?
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Matching uniforms?
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I splashed this on your heart to bring love.
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To splash means to make water or other liquid fly through the air, maybe heat something, like here.
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In this magical ritual, the matchmaker splashes special water onto the customer to reveal their true feelings.
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But what does it mean to bring something to the surface?
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To make something float on water?
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to reveal something hidden, to clean something thoroughly.
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When you bring something to the surface,
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you're making hidden feelings, truths, or information visible.
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For example, if you do therapy, it may help bring childhood traumas to the surface so you can finally deal with them.
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"Embe, I'm doing a reading !" "Sorry !" To do a reading means to perform a fortune telling
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or a ritual to predict someone's future or reveal hidden truths.
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In many cultures, people visit psychics, tarot card readers or matchmakers who do readings to gain insight.
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For example, Professor Trelawney from Harry Potter reads tea leaves to predict the future.
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Sorry, gotta grab some stuff.
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Now, grab some stuff is super casual English.
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To grab here means to quickly pick up items.
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Stuff refers to things.
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Check out these examples.
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Yeah, the bus is here.
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Whoa grab your stuff.
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Go on get on the - This line is packed with sarcasm.
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"Goodie" is an old -fashioned childish way of expressing excitement like "hooray" or "yippee" but Amber is clearly being sarcastic here.
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She's annoyed that her mother is criticizing her for being single.
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Now.
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What about this colorful idiom she used? this old chestnut.
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What do you think it means?
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a type of traditional food an outdated fashion trend, or an old repeatedly told story or joke.
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you Nice!
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So when someone says "this old chestnut", they're referring to something that's been said so many times.
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It's become boring.
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This is a common expression that means "help me out here".
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The matchmaker is asking Ember to make a good impression in front of the customers.
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You'll hear "work with me" a lot in situations where someone needs another person's patience.
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Imagine you're trying to take a group photo and someone keeps moving, so you say: "Come on, work with me!
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Just stand still for two seconds !" And hey, could you give me just two seconds?
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Do you want to speak English naturally and fluently?
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Well, at the start of the lesson, I mentioned our new AI coach on the RealLife app, so you should know that it will help you a lot with this goal.
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You can practice the new expressions you're learning today like bring to the surface,
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grab some stuff and work with me in a safe speaking environment every day.
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Your coach helps you use these expressions in a real conversation and gives you instant, personalized feedback.
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The thing is, If you don't practice what you're learning today, it will disappear from your memory in hours or even minutes.
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You don't want to get into a conversation and
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know that you learned an expression in this lesson that would be perfect to use but not remember it.
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right?
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Just check out what our premium user Marzio said about his experience.
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He had tried dozens of courses and solutions but with the real -life app he finally feels like
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His confidence is getting better.
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Oh yeah, Marcio!
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Give it a try yourself, just click the link in the description below to get started.
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for free Now, let's jump forward in the movie.
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Ember meets a water person named Wade.
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While Amber is hot -tempered and doesn't trust people easily, Wade is sensitive and connects well with other people.
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The second time they meet, Wade is completely flustered because he finds Amber attractive.
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But as a water guy talking to a fire girl, everything he says just comes out wrong.
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"A -FOOT !" "Hey, hey !" "No !" "Sorry !" You're so hot.
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Excuse me?
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No, I mean like you're smoking.
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No, I didn't mean it like that.
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Are you done yet?
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Yes, please.
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You're so hot.
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Excuse me?
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No, I mean like you're smoking!
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Hilarious!
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Alright, so hot and smoking are both slang terms that mean extremely attractive or sexy,
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like how Henry Cavill looks really hot in The Witcher or how Beyonce always looks absolutely smoking when she performs.
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The humor here is that Wade is literally talking to someone made of fire, so she is physically hot and smoking.
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That's why it's so awkward.
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He intends to comment on her temperature, but she thinks He is commenting on her appearance.
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Eventually Wade and Amber get to know each other better and although Amber grew up with a father who dislikes water people,
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she begins to see that There is a real beauty in their differences.
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How'd you do that?
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It's the minerals.
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Check this out.
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Awesome!
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Watch this!
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There was some interesting connected speech there.
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That's how native speakers cut, reduce, and link their words in fluent speech.
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And learning connected speech can help you understand fast speaking natives better, and speak more naturally yourself.
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So, Let's break it down.
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How'd you do that?
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First of all, let's check out some morphing that happened here.
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When a word ending with D is followed by the pronoun "you" They usually transform into "Jew".
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So, how did "you" becomes How do you?
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That ends with a glottal T.
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The T is not fully released, it's cut off at the back of the throat.
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The.
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Let's put it all together.
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How do you do that?
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How'd you do that?
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Your speaking will only improve with lots of practice, so listen to Wade again and try to say it exactly like him.
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How'd you do that?
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you Before we move on to the next scene, let me tell you about something pretty amazing.
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You know how Elemental deals with themes of immigration, cultural identity and learning to embrace differences.
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There is actually a real world parallel to Almond City.
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Think about places like New York City in the early 1900s.
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Millions of immigrants arrived from Italy,
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Ireland, China, Eastern Europe, all bringing their languages and traditions and foods At first,
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differing groups often stayed separate in their own neighborhoods just like Firetown in the movie.
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There was prejudice and misunderstanding.
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But over time, something beautiful happened.
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These communities started mixing, sharing, Learning from each other Italian pizza became American pizza.
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Chinese food became Chinese -American food and cities became these incredible Melting pots where diversity made everyone's lives Reach her!
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That's exactly what Elemental is exploring.
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How scary it can feel to cross boundaries and connect with people different from you.
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but also how transformative and beautiful it can be when we do.
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That's why here at RealLife English we always like to share with you that no matter what divides us, the agricultural differences.
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What unites us is far greater.
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In fact, we have the Global Speak on the RealLife app exactly
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so you can connect to English learners from around the world and discover other cultures.
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It's really like traveling without having to catch a play.
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Now, let's get back to the movie.
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At first, Amber's parents don't approve of her dating a water guy.
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Let's see how her mom, the matchmaker, reacts when she finds out.
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Mom, it's okay.
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He's just a friend.
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Sai!
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Silence!
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I could smell you from over there!
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Oh, you stink!
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What are you talking about?
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You know what I'm talking about.
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You're smelling love on me?
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If your father find out, fire and water cannot be together.
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I prove it!
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Come with me!
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I splash this on your heart to bring love to the surface.
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And then you must light these with your fire, and I read the smoke.
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- - Amen.
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See Ember, it cannot be.
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Actually What are you doing?
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Sigh!
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Silence!
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I could smell you from over there!
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Now, literally to stink means to smell bad, like the garbage stinks.
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But Amber's mother isn't talking about normal smells.
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She has special powers where she can smell love.
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You might also hear stink used figuratively like: Something about his story stinks.
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I don't think he's telling the truth.
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Now, at the beginning of the clip, there was a bit of connected speech.
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Let's listen again.
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Mom, it's okay, he's just a friend.
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The article "a" almost always reduces to just a schwa, which sounds like "uh".
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This links to "just", so we hear one fluent phrase Just a friend.
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He's just a friend.
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Now it's your turn!
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Listen to Amber again and say it just like her: He's just a friend!
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He's just a friend!
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And let's check out one final connector -speech example.
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Questions like this almost always get super reduced.
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What are you talking about?
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When a T is between two vowel sounds in American English, it usually morphs into a soft D sound.
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We call this a tap T, so instead of "what are" we hear "water".
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The "a" in "about" becomes a schwa, and the "t" is a glottal "t". about About.
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- Yeah.
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And this links to the G from Talking.
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talking about talking about.
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Let's put it all together.
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What are you talking about?
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What are you talking about?
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Alright, now you try saying it just like her.
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When you prove something, you demonstrate or show that it's true using evidence.
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Amber's mom wants to prove that fire and water cannot be together by doing a reading.
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You might also use this as a command Prove it! when you don't believe what someone is saying.
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Here's an example from the movie Toy Story.
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I can't tell you, I could fly around this room with my eyes closed.
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Okay then, Mr. Lightbeer, prove it.
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Alright, then I will.
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And by the way, did you notice the grammar mistake here?
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I prove it!
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Come with me!
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It should be "I will prove it".
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Amber's parents aren't native English speakers, but we can understand them perfectly.
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It just goes to show you that it's okay to make mistakes, as long as others can understand you.
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Thank you.
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This is a formal dramatic way of saying something is not possible acceptable.
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So here, Amber's mom is attempting to use the force of tradition
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and her authority as a parent to try to stop what she sees as as an impossible romance.
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Now, here's what makes this scene so powerful.
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Amber's mom is expressing a prejudice that's been passed down through generations.
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Fire and water cannot mix.
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They're too different.
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It's dangerous.
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It goes against tradition.
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But then, as we see, somehow amber and weight Make a perfect match But think about real -world examples of this kind of thinking.
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For centuries, people said that different races couldn't marry.
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The people from different religions couldn't be together.
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that people from different social classes couldn't mix.
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In 1967, the US Supreme Court case Loving v.
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Virginia finally struck down laws banning interracial marriage.
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Think about that.
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It was illegal in many states for people of different races to marry until 1967.
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However, We know better.
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Again, no matter what divides us, what unites us, is far greater.
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And now comes the most important part of the lesson.
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You'll test everything that you learned today by watching the scenes a final time without subtitles and answering some quiz questions.
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You've got this.
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Before I see if you are a match, I splash this on your heart to bring love to to the surface.
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And I will read the smoke.
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Fill in the blank I need to run home and before we head to the party.
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I need to run home and grab some stuff before we head to the party.
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I'm doing a reading!
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Sorry, gotta grab some stuff.
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So, are we a match?
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It's true love.
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Which is more than I ever smelled on this one.
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Oh goody, this old chestnut.
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Yep.
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Nothing.
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Just a loveless, sad future of sadness. In there!
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Work with me!
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Your finding match was my mother's dying wish!
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A -Fu!
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Hey!
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Hey!
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Oh!
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Sorry!
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You're so hot.
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Excuse me?
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No, I mean like you're smoking.
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If someone says "you're so hot" or "you're smoking" in a casual context, what are they saying?
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You have a fever.
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you're extremely attractive.
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or you're angry or upset.
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No, I didn't mean it like that.
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Are you done yet?
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Yes, please.
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Mom, it's OK.
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He's just a friend.
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Sai!
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Silence!
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I could smell you from over there!
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Oh, you stink!
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What are you talking about?
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You know what I'm talking about.
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Y -you're smelling love on me?
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If your father finds out...
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Complete this sentence.
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My mom said I can't get a motorcycle.
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She says, .
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My mom said I can't get a motorcycle.
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She says it cannot be.
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Fire and water cannot be together!
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I prove it!
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Come with me!
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I splashed this on your heart to bring love to the surface.
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And then you must light these with your fire, and I read the smoke.
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- Thank you.
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- Okay.
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- Yeah.
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See Ember?
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It cannot be!
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Actually What are you doing?
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Oh yeah!
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I hope that you had a blast learning English with this inspiring movie.
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Every week we lost without missing the jericks and without subtitles.
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So hit that subscribe button and the bell down below so you don't miss a single one.
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Over 10 million learners already find this to be the most fun way to get natural, confident English.
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And if you are sticking with us here on YouTube, then I highly recommend you check out this lesson next.
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Quick!
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*Gasp
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Gasp Gasp Gasp Gasp Gasp *
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*Gasp
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Gasp Gasp Gasp Gasp Gasp *
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*Gasp
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Gasp Gasp Gasp Gasp Gasp *
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*Gasp
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Gasp Gasp Gasp Gasp Gasp *
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*Gasp
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Gasp Gasp Gasp Gasp Gasp *
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*Gasp
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Gasp Gasp Gasp Gasp Gasp *
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*Gasp
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Gasp Gasp Gasp Gasp Gasp Gasp Gasp Gasp
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Learn English with Disney's Elemental: Dive into Culture, Vocab, and Conversation
Who Is This Video For?
This lesson is perfect for intermediate to advanced English learners who want to practice real-world vocabulary while exploring cultural themes. Whether you’re struggling with conversational fluency, want to understand idioms, or just love Disney movies, this video helps you learn in context—making new words stick. It’s ideal for anyone looking to improve their speaking skills through shadowing (repeating dialogue to mimic pronunciation) or using tools like a shadowing app to master everyday expressions.
Words & Idioms Worth Stealing
The dialogue from Elemental is packed with practical phrases. Let’s break down the key terms:
- Melting pot: A place where people from different cultures mix to form a diverse community (e.g., "New York City is a melting pot of traditions").
- A match: Two people who are compatible, especially romantically (e.g., "They’re a match—they share the same hobbies and values"). This comes from the idea of things fitting together, like puzzle pieces or matching pajamas.
- Hold tight to: To keep something strongly, often referring to culture or traditions (e.g., "Immigrant families often hold tight to their native customs").
How to Get the Accent Right
Pronunciation is key to sounding natural. Focus on these tips for the phrases above:
- Melting pot: Stress the first syllable of "melting" (MEL-ting) and keep "pot" short (pah-t). Avoid over-pronouncing the "t" in "melting"—it should sound soft.
- A match: The "a" is short (uh), and "match" rhymes with "catch." Say it quickly to sound conversational: "uh match."
- Hold tight to: The "tight" should be crisp (tite), and "to" is reduced to "tuh" in fast speech: "hold tite tuh."
Practice by shadowing the scene—repeat the lines aloud, mimicking the rhythm and stress. Use a shadow speech tool to record yourself and compare it to the original. This helps you master the flow of natural English conversation.
Ready to level up? Learn English with YouTube videos like this one, and use flashcards or an AI coach to reinforce new words. By the end, you’ll not only understand Elemental better but also speak English more confidently in real-life situations!
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 two people would make |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | is packed · been said · is followed |
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.