Shadowing Practice: Learn English with Finding Nemo - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
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Come away, beyond the sea.
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How's it going, Bob?
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You know I speak whale.
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Come by!
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Just as well, he might be hungry.
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Don't worry, whales don't eat clownfish, they eat krill.
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Swing away!
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Oh look, krill!
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Hell watches the ships that...
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Smooth, go read!
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What's going on guys?
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Today we're learning English with Finding Nemo.
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So I'm Ethan, your RealLife English Fluency Coach, and I grew up watching this movie.
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I watched it countless times as a kid.
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It's definitely a Pixar classic that anyone from the United States, or I'd say anyone from around the world probably knows.
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And it even stars the iconic voice of comedian Ellen DeGeneres.
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Now the scene that we've chosen for you today is perfect
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because it is packed with vocabulary related to the sea and sea animals, it is great for learning how to tell a story in English,
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and you even get to practice listening to both American and Australian accents.
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By the way, this week we are celebrating hitting two million subscribers here on YouTube!
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It's really incredible!
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So to celebrate and to thank you, we have something really special to share with you in just a little bit.
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Now let's head under the sea with Finding Nemo.
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So where are you going?
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Well, you see, my son was taken.
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My son was taken away from me.
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No way.
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What happened?
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No, no, no, no, kids, I don't want to talk about it.
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Aw, boys!
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Well, okay.
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I live on this reef a long, long way from here.
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Oh, boy.
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This is gonna be good, I can tell.
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And my son, Nemo, he was mad at me.
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And maybe he wouldn't have done it if I hadn't been so tough on him.
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I don't know.
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Anyway, he swam out in the open water to this boat, and when he was out there, these divers appeared, and I tried to stop them, but the boat was too fast.
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So we swam out in the ocean to follow him.
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We couldn't stop him.
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And then Nemo's dad, he swam out to the ocean, and they bumped into three for all the sharks!
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He scares away the sharks by blowing them up!
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Golly, that's amazing!
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And then dives thousands of feet straight.
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Straight down into the dock.
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It's like wicked dock down there.
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You can't see a thing.
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That's it going, Bob.
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And the only thing I can see down there is the life of this big, horrible creature with razor sharp teeth.
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Nice penny, old man.
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And letting us to blast as we are...
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Two little fish up, Ben.
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Searching the ocean for days.
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On the east Australian current.
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Which means that he may be on his way here right now.
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That just would have been Sydney Harbour in a matter of days.
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I mean, sounds like this guy's gonna stop at nothing.
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But nothing until he finds his son.
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I sure hope he makes it.
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That's one dedicated fowler, if you ask me.
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So in this scene, we see Marlin, Nemo's father, telling the story of how Nemo was captured and his journey to find him.
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His story fascinates other fish and animals as they quickly share and spread it to their friends all over the ocean.
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So where are you going?
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Well you see my son was taken, my son was taken away from me.
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So, Marlin means his son was captured and taken from him by force, to somewhere far from him.
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A reef is a raised area on the ocean floor that's made of rock, coral, or sand.
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It normally attracts diverse ocean life, like different kinds of fish and other marine animals, as the movie shows.
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We can imagine that this reef is the famous Great Barrier Reef in Australia.
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In fact, we can hear several Australian accents throughout the scene and the movie.
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Oh boy is an interjection that can express two different types of emotions or moods.
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It is said when you are excited or pleasantly surprised about something, like Dory seems to be about Marlin's story.
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Check out this other example.
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And it can also be used when you are feeling slightly annoyed or disappointed about something.
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Randall's your monster.
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You think he's gonna come through the closet and scare you.
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Oh boy, how do I explain this?
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Uh, it's empty.
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See?
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A long, long way from here.
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Oh boy, this is gonna be good, I can tell.
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As you know, the verb to tell usually refers to saying something to someone, like giving them information or instructions.
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However, in this case, when we hear Dory say, Oh boy, this is gonna be good, I can tell she means something else.
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What do you think she means?
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So here we see the other, less common meaning of the verb to tell, which is to know, recognize, or be certain of something.
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For example, a mother can normally tell if her kids are hungry.
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See this other example.
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See this tentacle?
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It's actually shorter than all my other tentacles.
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But you can't really tell, especially when I twirl it like this.
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So, basically, Dory is saying that she senses that the story will be good.
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And my son, Nemo, he was mad at me.
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In informal American English, the adjective mad is commonly associated with being angry.
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So if you say you are mad at somebody, that means that you are angry with somebody.
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You know, after we went underground, my husband used to listen to a police scanner, waiting for something to happen.
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And I got mad at him for it.
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What?
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You knocked down a building?
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It was on fire, structurally unsound.
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It was coming down anyway.
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Tell me you haven't been listening to the police scanner again.
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Look, I performed a public service.
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You act like that's a bad thing.
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It is a bad thing, Bob.
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Uprooting our family again so you can relive the glory days is a very bad thing.
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Reliving the glory days is...
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See, he was mad at me.
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And maybe he wouldn't have done it if I hadn't been so tough on him.
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If you are tough or hard on somebody, you are strict and treat them severely.
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So Marlin regrets not treating Nemo more kindly, and starts to think that maybe he wouldn't have swam out to open water,
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where he was captured, if he had been easier on him.
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By the way, did you notice how he said this?
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Here we see some major native connected speech.
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That's how we cut and connect our words.
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He didn't say wouldn't have done it.
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He said, Maybe he wouldn't have done it if I hadn't been so tough on him.
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Maybe he wouldn't have done it if I hadn't been so tough on him.
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Let's quickly look at a few native tendencies.
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First, when we have an N and T together, oftentimes we drop the T, like in the words international and interesting .
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Listen to this other example.
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Stars, capturing them.
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He blows them up and then dives, stars at defeat.
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Alright gang, we have less than 48 hours before Darla gets here.
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This tank will get plenty dirty in that time.
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This tank will get plenty dirty in that time, but we have to help it along any way we can.
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And maybe he wouldn't have done it if I hadn't been so tough on him.
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Next, in this part, we can see how natives sometimes drop the H sound.
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This often happens with pronouns, for example, him or her.
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So he dropped the H in have and connected it to the previous sound, the N from wouldn.
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Finally, it reduces and hooks to done.
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So instead of saying a clear done it, he says done it.
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Altogether, Maybe he wouldn't have done it if I hadn't been so tough on him.
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Now, this probably feels a bit confusing.
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It is an extremely common part of native speech
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and one of the biggest reasons why it can be so hard to understand your favorite series and movies without the subtitles.
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What you have just seen here is a perfect example of what students of our Fluent with Friends course learn to master.
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Hey guys, let me just make a quick interruption to say that we just recently hit 2 million subscribers.
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It is insane, I still cannot believe it.
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And we are just so grateful to all of you
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and all of your support over the last few years in building this channel.
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Really all of your support means that we can help more
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and more people from all around the world to go beyond the classroom and live their English.
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Helping people to not just see it as a dry and boring school subject, but as something fun that they actually look forward to learning
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and helping less and less people to give up and more and more to succeed and love every step of the journey.
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So to thank you for all of your support in helping us to reach this tremendous milestone,
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we want to help you to take your next huge step on your journey to English fluency.
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So just for the next week, we are offering you an incredible 49% discount on our Fluent with Friends course.
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Wouldn't you love it if this time next year you could understand your favorite series
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and movies in English even without the subtitles?
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And wouldn't it be incredible if you could master native connected speech just like we've shown you in this lesson?
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Well one of our students, Jenny, says that thanks to our Fluent with Friends course she can now communicate freely
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when she travels abroad and even in her daily life.
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Well to learn more about the course and how you can get fluent with friends, just click up here or down in the description below.
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And to get your 49% discount, remember to use the code 2MILLION at checkout.
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But hurry, this offer is only available for a few more days.
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Now, let's get back to our lesson with Finding Nemo.
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This is one of the trickiest irregular verbs to conjugate.
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Even natives sometimes confuse the past and perfect conjugation.
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But you don't have to.
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The correct conjugation should be present, I swim, past, I swam, perfect, I have swum.
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In this context, open water refers to an area in the ocean that is deep and not close to any terrain, like reef or land.
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A diver, like the ones we see in the movie that take Nemo away, is a person who dives as a sport or professionally.
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Divers normally make use of scuba equipment, and that's why they are commonly referred to as scuba divers.
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By the way, do you know what this similar activity is called?
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But the boat was too fast, so we swam out in the ocean to follow up.
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We couldn't stop him!
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And then Nemo's dad?
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Dad, he swims out to the ocean and they bump into three for all the sharks!
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To bump into somebody or something refers to the action of hitting somebody else with your whole body, normally by accident.
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For example, when you're walking and not paying attention to what is in front of you.
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However, as is the case of what the turtle says, it can also simply mean you met somebody unexpectedly, without planning to, not that you actually hit them.
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Check out this example.
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Hey Rach, funny story, I bumped into Joanna on the street yesterday.
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My boss Joanna?
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Wow, that must have been awkward.
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Well, no, actually she asked me if I want to get a drink.
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A ferocious animal or person is very aggressive and violent.
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By the way, do you know how to correctly pronounce this word?
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In English, words that end in O-U-S are commonly mispronounced due to their complicated spelling.
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But did you know that most of these share the same simple sound, us, for this OUS termination.
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For example, listen to these three words.
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Courageous, Mysterious, Ferocious.
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In the case of this word, make sure that you notice that the C sound becomes an SH sound.
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Ferocious.
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And then Nemo's dad, who swims out to the ocean and then he bumps it to three for all the sharks!
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He scares away the sharks by blowing them up!
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Golly, that's amazing!
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Golly is another interjection used to express excitement or surprise about something.
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If you scare somebody away or scare them off, you are causing them to go away and stay away,
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because of fear or because of possible trouble, difficulty, etc. Hey, you!
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Wait a second!
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Look, I'm not gonna eat you!
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I just...
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I just...
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To blow up is to explode.
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This line refers to the moment earlier in the movie
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when Marlin and Dory escaped from three sharks because of an explosion that happened.
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Here, the slang expression wicked functions as an adjective,
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and is used to give emphasis.
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So if a place is wicked dark, it is very dark.
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Dory, do you see anything?
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Ah!
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Something's got me!
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That was me, I'm sorry.
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Who's that?
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Who's that?
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Who could it be?
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It's me.
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The words, a thing, when used negatively in a collocation such as, can't see a thing, means cannot see anything.
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Check out this example with another collocation.
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But Fiona and I are married now.
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We need a little time, you know, to be together.
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Just with each other.
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Alone.
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Say no more, say no more, you don't have to worry about a thing.
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I will always be here to make sure nobody bothers you.
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Then dies thousands of feet straight down into the dark.
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It's like wicked dark down there, you can't see a thing.
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How's it going, Bob?
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And the only thing I can see down there is the life of this big, horrible creature with rings of sharp teeth.
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In this part we've just seen, we can see a fascinating element of storytelling.
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Did you notice how he is telling the story in the past, but then here he changes to the present tense?
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Why do you think that he does this? Because...
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That's right, sometimes we are creative with conjugation when we tell a story.
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In this instance, he switches to the present tense because he really wants to put the listener in this situation,
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imagining himself being deep in the ocean and not being able to see a thing.
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Be sure to pay attention to these changes in conjugation in other parts of the scene and imagine why they might happen.
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And the only thing I can see down there is the knife in this big horrible creature with razor sharp teeth.
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Nice penny oil, man.
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And letting us to blast as we are...
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A razor is a tool that people use for shaving.
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It can also refer to just the blade part of the object, which tends to be very sharp.
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That is, it can cut through things very easily.
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So if we say that something, such as teeth, is razor sharp, we mean that the teeth are as sharp as a razor.
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If you make your way somewhere, you are making an effort to go somewhere.
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Example, he's making his way across Europe, from Lisbon to Minsk.
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These swordfish are explaining that Marlin had to blast his way somewhere.
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He might be referring to when Marlin and Dory had to quickly cross a field of jellyfish.
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They blasted their way across the jellyfish.
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By the way, if you want to learn more nautical and fish vocabulary, then the perfect lesson for you to watch next is this one with Spongebob Squarepants.
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So in Finding Nemo we see a natural phenomenon called ocean current, which is a continuous directed movement of seawater.
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In the movie, it is represented by a visible tunnel of moving water, as we can see here.
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So Marlin is using the East Australian current to travel faster and reach the city of Sydney in less time.
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This guy's gonna stop it.
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The expression a matter of is the same as only or just.
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For example, in a matter of seconds the building was in flames.
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So that means in just a few seconds the building was on fire.
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So they believe that Marlin will be in Sydney Harbor in just a few days.
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A harbor such as the Sydney Harbor is a protected area along the shore where boats can be anchored or docked.
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If you say that someone will stop at nothing to get or do something, you are emphasizing that they are willing to do things that are extreme,
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wrong, risky, or dangerous in order to get it.
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He will stop at nothing to save the princess.
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If you make it, you are successful in achieving something difficult, or in surviving through a very difficult period.
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Look, we're gonna break your neck so you don't feel a thing.
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How's that?
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Wait a minute, I thought rhinos were vegetarians.
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An excellent point!
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Shut up!
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Who says we're gonna eat them after we kill them?
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Yeah, come on, move it!
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Okay, look, if either of you make it across that sinkhole in front of you, you get the sloth.
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In another context, if you make it somewhere, you succeed in getting there, especially in time to do something.
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The wedding!
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We'll never make it in time!
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Ha ha ha, I never fear, for where there's a will, there's a way, and I have a way.
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And look for the giant chicken!
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Now, Etch!
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That's where I need to go.
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You can't go, Buzz.
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You'll never make it there.
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Woody once risked his life to save me.
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I couldn't call myself his friend if I weren't willing to do the same.
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So where are you going?
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Well, you see, my son was taken.
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My son was taken away from me.
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No way.
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What happened?
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No, no, no, no, kids.
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I don't want to talk about it.
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Aw, boys!
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Well, okay.
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I live on this reef a long, long way from here.
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Oh, boy.
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This is going to be good.
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I can tell.
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And my son, Nemo, he was mad at me.
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And maybe he wouldn't have done it if I hadn't been so tough on him.
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I don't know.
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Anyway, he swam out in the open water to this boat, and when he was out there, these divers appeared, and I tried to stop them, but the boat was too fast, so we swam out in the ocean to follow him.
289
We couldn't stop him, and then Nemo's dad, who swam out to the ocean, and they bumped into three for all the sharks!
290
He scares away the sharks by blowing them up!
291
Golly, that's amazing!
292
And then dives thousands of feet straight down into the dark.
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It's like wicked dark down there.
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You can't see a thing.
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That's a gumbop, and the only thing I can see down there...
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...is the life of this big, horrible creature with razor sharp teeth.
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Nice patio, man.
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And then he has to blast his way out.
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Two little fish have been...
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...touching the ocean for days.
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On the East South Street.
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Hurry!
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It means that he may be on his way here right now.
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That should put him in Sydney.
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...in a matter of days!
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I mean, it sounds like this guy's gonna stop at nothing!
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But nothing until he finds his son!
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I sure hope he makes it!
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There's one dedicated father if you ask me!
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Alright, I hope you've had a lot of fun with this lesson with Finding Nemo, and hey, if you're ready to take your English to the next level
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and be able to understand your favorite movies and series, even without the subtitles, then I want to invite you to check out our Fluent with Friends course.
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And remember to use that coupon code 2 million to get a huge 49% discount at checkout.
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Now it's time to go beyond the classroom and live your English.
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Aww yeah!
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Why Practice Speaking with This "Finding Nemo" Video?
Practicing with this video is a fun way to build real-world English skills. The dialogue is packed with sea-related vocabulary and storytelling phrases, making it ideal for shadowing—a technique where you repeat lines aloud to mimic pronunciation and rhythm. Shadowing with familiar movies like Finding Nemo helps you learn in context, turning dry practice into an engaging activity. Plus, the mix of American and Australian accents exposes you to diverse speech patterns, preparing you for real conversations. Whether you use a shadowing app or practice manually, this video’s natural flow makes it easy to follow and replicate, boosting your fluency without feeling like work.
Grammar & Expressions in Context
The video uses practical structures that native speakers use daily. Here are key examples:
- "What's going on guys?": A casual greeting to start a conversation, perfect for informal settings.
- "I grew up watching this movie": The past continuous tense ("grew up watching") connects a past habit to a life stage, useful for sharing personal stories.
- "Wouldn't you love it if...": A conditional structure to pose hypothetical questions, great for engaging others in discussions.
Common Pronunciation Traps
The video’s accents and fast speech can trip up learners. Watch for:
- "Countless": The "t" is often softened to a flap sound, like "counless," common in American English.
- "Incredible": The stress falls on the second syllable ("in-CRED-i-ble"), not the first, which is a common mistake.
- Australian accent quirks: Words like "mate" or "day" may have a longer vowel sound, so listen closely to mimic the rhythm.
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| “Used to” used to + verb — a past habit or state that is no longer true | used to listen · used to express |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | is packed · was taken · was captured |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | we've chosen · have just seen · we've shown |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | tell, which is · person who dives · current, which is |
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.