Shadowing Practice: Learn English with ENCANTO — Mirabel Sees the Future - Learn English Speaking with Video
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340 sentences
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What's hurting the magic?
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Let's learn English with Disney's Encanto!
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By the end of today's lesson, you will have learned at least nine advanced expressions that you can use in your everyday English conversations.
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So, this family, the Madrigals, were given a miracle in the form of candle that grants every family member a gift, a special power.
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and constantly looks for ways to help and protect her family.
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So when the miracle starts to disappear, Mirabel immediately starts investigating what is happening.
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This leads her to her long lost uncle, Bruno, who can see the future.
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He had a vision about Mirabel being important to the miracle disappearing.
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However, he knew others wouldn't understand, so he left to protect her.
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She seeks him out and asks him to look at the rest of the vision so she can save the miracle.
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Let's check it out.
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But first, if you're new here, I want to let you know that you can learn even more by watching this lesson in the RealLife app.
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I know this is going to make a big difference for you to become fluent,
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so I want you to try having a conversation with your AI coach using the vocabulary that you're learning in this lesson.
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Just click the link in the description to get started for free.
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Have another vision.
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Maybe it'll show me what to do.
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What if I show you something worse?
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I don't think you make bad things happen.
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Sometimes family weirdos just Let's get a bad rap.
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You can do this.
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You might wanna hang on.
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So you know the famous song "We Don't Talk About Bruno", right?
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So, everyone always blamed Bruno when his visions came true, even though he was just seeing the future, not causing it.
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That's why he's so hesitant to use his power.
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Bruno has been hiding inside the walls of Casita for years, until Mirabel finds him, that is.
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"Have another vision !" "No, no, see, I don't do visions anymore." So, Bruno could have said, "I don't have visions anymore," or,
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"I don't predict the future anymore." And those would both be grammatically fine.
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But I don't do visions hits differently.
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In informal English, "do" is used in this way to mean something like "engage in" or "be part of."
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It frames the thing, visions in this case, almost as a lifestyle choice or principle.
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It's not just that Bruno stopped having visions, it's that he has made a deliberate decision to not use his power.
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It shows that you value something and won't sacrifice your principles.
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For example, Your boss offers you a third consecutive weekend shift and you say, "I don't do weekends." Your friend pressures you to try a trendy diet and you say,
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"I don't do that stuff." Or you buy a Tesla
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and you tell your friends it's because our family doesn't do fossil fuels anymore.
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It's a confident way of drawing a line.
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Now, Mirabel responds to Bruno's excuses with three expressions in one breath.
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Let's break this whole line down.
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You can't say the weight of the world is on your shoulders.
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The end.
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If our fate's up to me, Misa's Have another vision.
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First up, when someone has the weight of the world on their shoulders, they feel personally responsible for all the problems around them.
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It's like everything is their burden to carry alone.
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Think of Atlas from Greek mythology, a titan who is literally condemned to hold up the entire sky on his shoulders, for eternity.
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That's the image.
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When Nelson Mandela was released from prison after 27 years and took on the challenge of peacefully uniting a divided South Africa,
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people described him as a man carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders.
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And honestly, he kind of was.
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Now, right after that, Mirabel drops one of the best expressions in this whole scene.
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and I'm not changing it.
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You've probably heard parents use this with kids.
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You're going to bed at 8 o 'clock.
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The end.
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Similarly, we'll use the word period.
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Eat your vegetables or no dessert.
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Period.
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Here are a couple other ways natives use these expressions.
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- I know you have enough, no boxing in the house!
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Alright, no boxing, period!
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No weapon on the aircraft, period.
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And here, we can hear both expressions used together.
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You have to listen to me.
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No. No!
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I know how to get a hold of you.
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The end, period.
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And I mentioned the real life app at the start of the lesson.
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This is because it is the easiest way to make learning English a fun, purposeful, everyday habit, period.
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It's going to grant you the power to become that fluent, successful English speaker you've always dreamed of being.
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However, if you're like most learners, you feel lost about how to achieve this.
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Maybe you feel a bit like Mirabel.
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You're surrounded by all these people with the superpower of fluent English, but you don't have enough time to dedicate to studying.
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Or you've been stuck at the same level forever.
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So let me share with you a method to go from being a lost, insecure English learner to becoming a confident,
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natural English speaker, even if you only have 10 to 15 minutes per day.
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Watch a short lesson like this one with Encanto.
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from that lesson with smart flashcards, which use science to help you remember the new words forever,
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speak the new words in a real conversation so you feel confident using them in any situation, and practice pronunciation.
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The great thing is, we make it super easy for you to do this with the RealLife app.
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And in fact, you can use the new words that you're learning today in a guided speaking conversation,
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based on this exact lesson with Encanto right now.
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Stop just recognizing and forgetting new words, and start being able to actually speak them naturally.
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So try it for free.
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Just click the link in the description below.
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You can't say the weight of the world is on your shoulders.
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The end.
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If our fate's up to me, Misa's.
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Have another vision.
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And when it's up to you, the decision, the responsibility, and the outcome are yours.
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Like, whether you stay in a job you hate or leave it is up to you.
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Here's another example: "Hold on, we got you the info you needed.
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Now it's up to you, the professional, to actually, you know, get the bad guy and save our friend Monty." You might have noticed something grammatically odd in that line too.
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If our fate's up to me, Nisa's, Have another vision.
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Shouldn't it be "I say"?
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Normally, yes.
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"I" is the subject pronoun in English, so the grammatically correct version would be "I say".
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But Mirabelle is doing something clever and playful.
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She just said: If our fate's up to me...
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And then she keeps using "me" as the subject of the next sentence to lighten the message.
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-Misa's...
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"Have another vision." It's a deliberate, humorous break from the rules to make it sound funny and a little self -mocking, like she's referring to herself as a third person in the room.
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Native speakers break grammar rules all the time for humor or emphasis.
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and recognizing when and why we do this is actually a real sign of fluency.
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And there's something else I want to show you before we move on with the scene.
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I bet you feel pretty frustrated when natives speak fast and you can't understand us, right?
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We've all been there.
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But guess what?
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It's usually not about speed.
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It's because of connected speech, like here.
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Maybe it'll show me what to do.
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So all those words sort of flowed together, right?
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That's connected speech.
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How we natives cut, reduce, and link our words in fluent speech.
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Learning about this will help you understand natives better, and even speak more fluidly yourself.
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The T in "ittl" is between two vowel sounds, so we morph it into a soft "d" like in water or butter.
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It sounds like "iddle" This is called an American tea.
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And in fact, we heard another one in the intro.
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"What's hurting the magic?" She said: Herding.
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Hurting.
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not hurting.
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Then, prepositions like "to" usually reduce, so we say "tuh" -- "tuh" -- not "to." The "t" in "to" links to the "t" in "what,"
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so we only hear one of them.
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Whatta.
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Whatta.
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Let's put it all together.
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It'll show me what to do.
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It'll show me what to do.
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Your speaking will only improve with lots of practice, so listen to Mirabel again and say that just like her: Maybe it'll show me what to do.
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Maybe it'll show me what to do.
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So Bruno agrees to help but is still nervous.
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Let's look at a useful collocation he uses.
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Okay.
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What if I show you something worse?
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"What if" is used to introduce a situation that hasn't happened yet, but could.
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It's a way of imagining a possible outcome.
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Usually, we use it to raise a concern, explore risk, or suggest an idea.
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Let's listen to a couple other ways that natives use this phrase.
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I was gonna add more locks to the door, you know, try to keep you in, but then I thought, well, what if they wanted to be outdoor pets?
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Do you want to be free range?
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Come to think of it, I don't recognize any of this from Alice's sketchbook.
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What if we never find it?
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Now, Bruno uses it here to express worry.
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What if the vision makes things worse instead of better?
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It's a possibility that scares him.
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Mirabel responds with some fun slang: Sometimes family weirdos just Let's get a bad rap.
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First, a weirdo is someone who behaves in a strange or unusual way.
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It can be a mild insult, but it's also used affectionately.
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Sometimes the most interesting people in the room are the weirdos.
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Think of Luna Lovegood from Harry Potter.
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Weird, but also wise, loyal, and charming.
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Mirabel is empathizing because they are both family weirdos.
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Now, what do you think "get a bad rap" means? to have a negative reputation, to be misunderstood by others, to create many problems.
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Exactly.
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When someone gets a bad rap, people have a low opinion of them.
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But often, that opinion isn't completely fair or deserved.
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Both Mirabel and Bruno are criticized by the rest of the family, even though their intentions come out of love.
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You hear the expression a lot in everyday life.
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For example, introverts get a bad rap.
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People think they're unfriendly, but they're just quiet.
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Here's another example.
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"To be honest, Vinnie P caught a bad rap." And listen again to how she said that.
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Sometimes family weirdos.
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just Get a bad rap.
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Did you catch that?
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It's the American tea again.
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She said get a, get a bad rap.
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You try, listen and repeat.
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Sometimes family weirdos just Let's get a bad rap.
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Let's get a bad rap.
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Next, Bruno says one of the most useful English phrasal verbs: Now, "hang on" has several different meanings.
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Let's figure out which one Bruno is using here.
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You might want to hang on.
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What does hang on mean in this moment?
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Wait a second.
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Don't give up.
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Physically hold on tight.
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Right!
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Bruno is literally warning Mirabel to grab him before things get wild.
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But "hang on" is incredibly flexible.
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Here are all three meanings: Hold on tight, physical, hang on, the roller coaster is about to drop.
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Wait a moment, Hang on,
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I'll be right with you.
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You say this when you need someone to pause for a second.
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Wait, wait, hang on guys!
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Are we really doing this?
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Don't give up.
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I know things are hard right now, but you just have to hang on.
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This is the most emotional version.
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It's what you say to someone going through a tough time.
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Okay, so hang on Barry, alright?
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Thank you very much.
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Notice that all three share the same underlying idea.
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Holding on, whether it's with your hands, your time or your spirit.
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Alright, let's see what happens with Bruno's vision. Where is that?
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It's all out of order.
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It's the candle.
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The candle's getting brighter.
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I think you're gonna help the candle.
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How?
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There's someone with you and you...
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Yeah.
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A spider!
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What?
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Wait, no, no, no, no. Is that a hog?
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Am I fighting or hugging? and embrace
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and embrace to make the candle bright you have to embrace
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her embrace who oh almost there who is it almost there oh I got it - Isabella!
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Oh, your sister!
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That's great!
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Every time.
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The fate of the family, it's not up to her.
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It's up to you.
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You're exactly what this family needs.
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You just have to see it.
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So the Vision couldn't be worse for Mirabel.
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The Vision says she has to make amends or make peace with her older sister, Isabella.
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We could say that they don't have the best relationship.
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So, as always, Bruno's visions leave people unsatisfied.
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Let's break down all the learnings from that scene.
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"It's just the same thing.
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I gotta stop." "No!
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I need to know which way it goes." When you say you need to know which way something goes, you're asking how situation will turn out.
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Is it going well? or badly.
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one direction or another.
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It's about the final outcome of something uncertain.
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It's like when the final season of Game of Thrones was released, everyone was asking themselves which way it would go.
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And in the end, we were about as happy as anyone hearing one of Bruno's visions.
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By the way, it's pretty similar to Celine Dion's iconic song.
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Alright, let's look at some more connected speech in Bruno's next line:
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"There's someone with you and you.. you're a fighter !" So now you're probably getting good at identifying that American tea.
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Like in...
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Fighter.
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Fighter.
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What's interesting here is that the H in her was dropped.
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The same usually happens with other pronouns, like "him" and "them." fighter, fight him, fight him.
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And "u" was also reduced to just "ya", "ya fighter".
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Ya fighter.
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Practice it with Bruno.
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And now, the heart of the scene.
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So, what's the difference between an embrace and a hug?
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Both involve wrapping your arms around someone, but the feeling behind them is different.
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A hug is casual and everyday.
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You hug your friend when you see them, you hug your dog, you give someone a quick hug goodbye.
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Depending on the culture you are in, hugging may be very common or something reserved for those you love most.
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An embrace carries emotional weight and happens in big, meaningful moments between people who care deeply about each other.
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Think of a soldier returning home from a long deployment, and the moment they finally hold their family,
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that's not described as a hug, that's an embrace. have a tense relationship.
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They need to leave their differences aside and embrace each other to save the magic.
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And embrace also has a figurative meaning, to fully accept and welcome something.
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You can embrace a challenge, an idea, a change, or a new way of life.
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For example, entrepreneurs tend to embrace the unknown.
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Here's another example.
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You know, being a pigeon is actually way cooler than it seems.
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And if you just embrace your new form, you'll see all the advantages.
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In Encanto, Mirabel literally has to physically embrace Isabela, but it's also about accepting her sister for who she really is beneath all the perfectionism and pressure.
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And really, this is the beautiful message behind Encanto.
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Loving each other means accepting each other unconditionally, despite our differences.
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And this includes loving ourselves despite our imperfections.
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This is something we see Mirabel discovering throughout the movie.
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Alright, you've done great so far!
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But now comes the most important part:
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you will test everything you learned today by watching all the scenes again without subtitles and answering some quiz questions.
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It's up to you.
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When I was a teenager, I played video games every day, but now I believe they are a waste of time. So, Amen.
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I don't do video games anymore.
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"Uh, no, no, see, I don't do visions anymore." "But you could." "But I won't."
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"You can't say the weight of the world is on your
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shoulders." Your friend feels like she's carrying the weight of the world on her shoulder because she moved to a new city, got a new job, and is trying to learn a new language all at once.
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What does she mean?
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She's excited and energized by all the new changes.
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She feels a heavy, overwhelming sense of responsibility and pressure.
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She's been working out a lot and her back hurts.
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The end.
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If our fate's up to me, Misa's Have another vision.
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Maybe it'll show me what to do.
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What if I show you something worse?
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I don't think you make bad things happen.
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Sometimes family weirdos just get a bad rap.
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If your friend tells you they believe spiders get a bad rap, what do they mean?
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They have an irrational fear of spiders.
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They believe spiders are dangerous.
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They believe the reputation spiders get is unfair.
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You can do this.
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You might want to hang on.
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It's just the same thing!
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I gotta stop!
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No!
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I need to know which way it goes!
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There's gotta be an answer!
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Something we're not seeing!
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You're looking at the same thing that I am!
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If there was something else - There!
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Over there!
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Butterfly!
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Follow the butterfly! Where is that?
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It's all out of order.
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It's the candle!
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The candle's getting brighter!
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I think you're gonna help the candle!
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How?
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There's someone with you and you...
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You're a spider!
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What?
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Wait, no, no, no, no. Is that a hog?
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Am I fighting or hugging?
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An embrace!
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An embrace is an especially emotionally charged hug, but it can also mean to fully accept a challenge to love someone unconditionally, to not like change.
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Isabella!
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Oh, your sister!
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That's great!
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Every time.
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The fate of the family, it's not up to her.
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It's up to you.
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You're exactly what this family needs.
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You just have to see it.
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Ah yeah, I hope that you had a lot of fun learning English with Encanto.
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And if you want to understand fast speaking natives without getting lost, without missing the jokes and without subtitles,
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then you can do that every single week here on Learn English with TV series with two new lessons.
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It's already helping over 11 million learners to become more confident English speakers, so be sure to hit that subscribe button and the bell down below so you don't miss a single new one.
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And if you're really ready to stop being stuck at intermediate level and become an advanced English speaker,
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the best way to do that is by watching for free with the link in the description.
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And if you're sticking with us here on YouTube, you might want to check out this lesson next.
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- Okay.
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- We're back to eat through the night.
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So much for being done chasing after gigs, huh?
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- - I hope that cat isn't supposed to be some kind of peace offering.
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Come, come on.
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Just say you rescued it.
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Um, no, it's mine.
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I rescued it.
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Hmm, too bad you can't rescue your career.
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Oh.
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Just ask her nicely if she can fix my suit. So...
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Mom, is there any way you can fix this?
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Wow!
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I don't need to see that.
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I know, embarrassing, right?
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So, You'll fix it?
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No!
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What?
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “Learn English with ENCANTO — Mirabel Sees the Future”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: vision, embrace, Mirabel, English, Bruno. This video has 340 sentences and 3287 words to shadow. The speech runs for 23:42. The speaker talks at a steady 139 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 |
|---|---|---|
| embrace verb | /ɛmˈbɹes/ | To clasp (someone or each other) in the arms with affection; to take in the arms; to hug. |
| candle noun | /ˈkæn.dəl/ | A light source consisting of a wick embedded in a solid, flammable substance such as wax, tallow, or paraffin. |
| fluent adjective | /ˈfluənt/ | That flows; flowing, liquid. |
| miracle noun | /ˈmɪɹ.ə.kəl/ | An event that appears inexplicable by the laws of nature and so is held to be supernatural in origin. |
| grammatically adverb | In a grammatical manner. | |
| learner noun | /ˈlɜɹnəɹ/ | One who is learning; one receiving instruction. |
| hug verb | /hʌɡ/ | To cling closely together. |
| pronoun noun | /ˈpɹoʊ.naʊn/ | A part of speech that refers anaphorically to a noun or noun phrase, which cannot ordinarily be preceded by a determiner and rarely takes an attributive… |
| subtitle noun | /ˈsʌbtaɪtəl/ | A heading below or after a title. |
| unconditionally adverb | Without condition, absolutely. | |
| deliberate adjective | /dɪˈlɪb.(ə.)ɹət/ | Done on purpose; intentional. |
| butterfly noun | /ˈbʌ.tə(ɹ).flaɪ/ | A flying insect of the order Lepidoptera, distinguished from moths by their diurnal activity and generally brighter colouring. |
| disappear verb | /dɪsəˈpɪɹ/ | To vanish. |
| affectionately adverb | /əˈfɛkʃənətli/ | In an affectionate manner. |
| collocation noun | /ˌkɑ.ləˈkeɪ.ʃən/ | The grouping or juxtaposition of things, especially words or sounds. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| give up verb | To surrender (someone or something); to inform on (someone). | |
| break down verb | To stop functioning. | |
| check out verb | To record the departure or withdrawal of someone or something (such as guests, employees, books, etc.). | |
| figure out verb | To come to understand; to discover or find a solution; to deduce. | |
| go through verb | To travel from one end of something to the other. | |
| hold up verb | To wait or delay. | |
| turn out verb | To end up; to result. | |
| work out verb | /ˌwɝk ˈaʊt/ | To calculate. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- What if I show you something worse?
- Shouldn't it be "I say"?
- Do you want to be free range?
- What if we never find it?
- Are we really doing this?
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect continuous have/has been + -ing — an action that started earlier and is still going on | has been hiding · She's been working |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | were given · was released · you've been stuck |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | has made · You've probably heard · you've always dreamed |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | someone who behaves · people who care |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 77 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, you're, it'll. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: empathize /ˈɛmpəˌθaɪz/, mythology /mɪˈθɑ.lə.d͡ʒi/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: affectionately /əˈfɛkʃənətli/, collocation /ˌkɑ.ləˈkeɪ.ʃən/, flashcard /ˈflæʃˌkɑɹd/, imperfection /ɪmpɚˈfɛkʃən/, perfectionism /pɚˈfɛk.ʃə.nɪ.zm̩/
- Long words — get the stress right: deliberate /dɪˈlɪb.(ə.)ɹət/, affectionately /əˈfɛkʃənətli/, collocation /ˌkɑ.ləˈkeɪ.ʃən/, figurative /ˈfɪɡəɹətɪv/, imperfection /ɪmpɚˈfɛkʃən/
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 embrace, candle, fluent.
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.