Shadowing Practice: Learn English with @lavendaire | American Accent | Improve your Pronunciation - Learn English Speaking with Video
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struggling with your pronunciation, rhythm, or how to connect words, this is the video for you.
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Today, we're going to make sure you improve your American English pronunciation by breaking down a video of an amazing YouTuber, Eileen.
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You might know her channel, Lavendaire.
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Hello, my loves.
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Welcome back to Lavendaire.
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My name's Eileen, and here we talk all about personal growth and life design.
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So in this video, you're going to get to improve your pitch, intonation, connected speech, and pronunciation.
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By the way, if this is your first time here, I'm Tyler and I've been helping ESL professionals for 18 years here in Los Angeles.
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I've helped actors, entrepreneurs, musicians, politicians, pastors, and I hope I can also help you.
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So let's get to work.
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We spend so much time like on social media just consuming that we don't let our minds take a break.
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It's like you're not even in control of your own self.
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The hustle grinding culture, even the creator culture that's like non-stop grinding, that's like it puts you in that activated hustle mode.
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You'll burnt out eventually.
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If you grew up feeling unseen or invisible, of course being seen on social media is going to feel good.
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But what if the views are low?
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What if nobody likes it?
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Then what happens?
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How do you feel about yourself then?
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Let's begin with a bit of pitch and intonation here.
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And what I want you to pay attention to is when we have two ideas in a sentence.
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So what usually happens is we go up in the first one to kind of signal the brain
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that we still have more to say.
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And then when we're about to wrap things up, we go down to show we're done.
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Obviously we're not robots and things can change depending on emotion or even maybe the message.
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But if I had to give you certain rules so you can remember, I would say that the most important ones are 1.
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If it's a statement and you're done with the message, go down in the end.
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2. When you're not done, go up a bit.
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3. If you're asking a yes or no question, go up in the end.
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For example, did you like it?
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Four, now if it's a question but not a yes or no question, then you can go down in pitch.
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Five, if it's a list, then you can go up until it's the last item.
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Once you get to the last item then you go down in pitch like this.
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I went to the grocery store and I bought apples, bananas and a watermelon.
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See how the brain understands we're done once we go down?
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Watch this one more time.
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We spend so much time like on social media just consuming that we don't let our minds take a break break.
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Did you notice how she used the word like?
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Like is an interesting word because there are
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so many ways to use it and I know
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that there are some ways that some people are against it
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but I don't think there's a bad way to use it
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if you have balance but if you think about it anything you overuse becomes bad.
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I think this applies to life.
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Whatever you do in life but you don't have balance becomes bad.
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But let's go over different ways to use the word like
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so you can know them and I'm sure you'll find your own balance.
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So the first and maybe the most common way to use the word like is to say you enjoy something,
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as in I like music.
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You can also use it to say that something is similar to something else.
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You're comparing two things that share traits.
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For example, he's fast like lightning.
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Another way you can use like is to describe how a situation appears.
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It's pretty much the same thing as using as if.
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For example, it looks like it's gonna rain.
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You can also add like at the end of certain words to mean similar to that thing.
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I mean, I mean the one you attach to it.
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For example, he has a childlike sense of wonder.
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By the way, these versions I just mentioned can be found in books.
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And maybe you've learned before, but the next ones I'm gonna show you are more informal, but very common.
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You probably wouldn't see these in a formal essay, but you will hear them constantly in movies, TV shows, and real life.
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So the first one is when we use it to replace the word said or thought.
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So instead of saying he said, we use he was like.
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For example, I was like, no way.
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And he was like, yeah.
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We also use like when you don't know the exact number, time, or amount.
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For example, the movie starts in like 10 minutes, which is around 10 minutes.
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Maybe not exactly 10 minutes, but something around that.
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Another option you have is to use like to point out a specific example, like this example.
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See what I did there?
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So you can say, I love to have junk food sometimes, like potato chips, In-N-Out, candy.
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Well, it can also be used as a pause or filler.
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We use it to hold our place in the conversation while we think of the next word.
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It's pretty similar to um or uh if we use it like this.
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For example, if I say, I just like don't really know what to do.
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So enough about like, let's go to the next sentence.
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It's like you're not even in control of your own self.
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Um, I lied.
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There's actually one more thing I have to mention.
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I want you to pay attention to how she connected like and your.
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Not even in and control of yourself.
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The rule here is the same.
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Whenever we have a word that ends in a consonant sound sound and the next word begins in a vowel sound,
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all you have to do is to bring the consonant sound to the next word.
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That's why like your sounds like like your.
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Not even in sounds like not even in.
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And control of your own, control of your own.
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The rule here is the same in all of these options.
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Just split the words differently, bring the consonant to the next word so that the consonant and the vowel sound of the next word are together.
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Hustle grinding culture, even the creator culture that's like non-stop grinding, that's So first of all,
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I want you to imagine the hustle grinding culture like this.
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So imagine a world where answering work emails at 2am isn't just normal.
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It's something you brag about.
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And if you don't know what to brag about something is, it's to show off, you know, like using words.
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It's when someone talks about their achievements, the things they own, or their abilities in a way that they seem overly proud.
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That is the heart of hustle culture, also known as grind culture.
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And in simple terms, it's the belief that constant nonstop work is the ultimate path to success
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and that you should dedicate almost every waking moment to getting ahead.
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I wanna talk about this word here, and I'm not sure if you noticed, but we don't pronounce the T sound.
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All you have to pronounce is h, which is an h and a sound, and then s and a dark l sound,
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which is that l that we usually use the back of the tongue to pronounce it.
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So it's basically hustle, hustle.
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Now there's another interesting word here.
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This one, the biggest thing you have to remember here is that t sounds more like a ch as in choke.
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so it's culture culture like it puts you in
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that activated hustle mode you'll burnt out eventually i want you
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to think about here is how she went up in hustle mode hustle mode remember
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because she was not done yet and then went down
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and eventually eventually because then she was done
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if you grew up feeling unseen or invisible of course being seen on social media is going to feel good.
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Did you notice what happened when she pronounced this word?
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She went to fee and then to a schwa sound.
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Remember that uh sound we have when we agree with someone?
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Uh-huh.
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And then a dark L.
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The sound we talked about earlier.
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The interesting thing here is that when we have a syllable ending in an e
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or oo sound and then we have to pronounce a dark L sound,
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something called co-articulation happens, which is basically a sound that happens because we have to get from one sound to the other.
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It's almost like a bridge from this sound to this sound.
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And that usually happens when we say words such as pool, feel, tool.
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And it's not like we're trying to say that a sound.
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It just goes from that vowel sound.
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As we're going to L, we have to pass through a.
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Well, if you found this helpful, make sure to subscribe so you don't miss my next video.
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Thank you for being here and I'll see you in the next video.
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Tchau!
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B1 speaking lesson is built on the video “Learn English with @lavendaire”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: sound, word, hustle, culture, example. This video has 127 sentences and 1551 words to shadow. The speech runs for 10:06. The speaker talks at a natural 153 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 87% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is easy to follow.
Key vocabulary in this video
The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| hustle verb | /ˈhʌsəl/ | To push someone roughly; to crowd; to jostle. |
| grind verb | /ˈɡɹaɪnd/ | To reduce to smaller pieces by crushing with lateral motion. |
| pronounce verb | /pɹəˈnaʊns/ | To declare formally, officially or ceremoniously. |
| consonant noun | /ˈkɑn.sə.nənt/ | A sound that results from the passage of air through restrictions of the oral cavity; any sound that is not the dominant sound of a syllable, the dominant… |
| vowel noun | /ˈvaʊ.əl/ | A sound produced by the vocal cords with relatively little restriction of the oral cavity, forming the prominent sound of a syllable. |
| pronunciation noun | /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/ | The formal or informal way in which a word is made to sound when spoken. |
| brag verb | /bɹæɡ/ | To boast; to talk with excessive pride about what one has, is able to do, or has done; often as an attempt to popularize oneself. |
| intonation noun | /ɪntəˈneɪʃən/ | The rise and fall of the voice in speaking. |
| unseen adjective | /ʌnˈsiːn/ | Not seen or discovered; invisible. |
| activate verb | /ˈæktɪˌveɪt/ | To encourage development or induce increased activity; to stimulate. |
| consume verb | /kənˈsum/ | To use up. |
| invisible adjective | /ɪnˈvɪzəb(ə)l/ | Unable to be seen; out of sight; not visible. |
| creator noun | /kɹiːˈeɪ̯təː/ | Something or someone which creates or makes something. |
| articulation noun | /ɑɹˌtɪk.jəˈleɪ.ʃən/ | A joint or the collection of joints at which something is articulated, or hinged, for bending. |
| childlike adjective | /ˈt͡ʃaɪldlaɪk/ | Innocent and trustful; credulous; artless. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| go down verb | To descend; to move from a higher place to a lower one. |
| go up verb | To move upwards. |
| grow up verb | To mature and become an adult. |
| break down verb | To stop functioning. |
| get ahead verb | To advance toward success. |
| go over verb | To look at carefully; to scrutinize; to analyze. |
| pass through verb | To go through, to travel through, to transit or lie across a place or from one place to another. |
| point out verb | To identify among a group of similar subjects, or in a scene where the subject might not be readily seen or noticed, with a gesture of the body. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- How do you feel about yourself then?
- For example, did you like it?
- See how the brain understands we're done once we go down?
- Did you notice how she used the word like?
- See what I did there?
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | being seen · can be found · be used |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | I've helped · you've learned |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | minutes, which is · happens, which is |
| Superlatives the -est / the most … — the top or bottom of a group | the most important · the most common · the biggest |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 39 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, we're, you're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: pronunciation /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/, intonation /ɪntəˈneɪʃən/, articulation /ɑɹˌtɪk.jəˈleɪ.ʃən/, musician /mjuˈzɪʃən/, politician /ˌpɑ.ləˈtɪʃ.ən/
- Long words — get the stress right: pronunciation /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/, intonation /ɪntəˈneɪʃən/, invisible /ɪnˈvɪzəb(ə)l/, articulation /ɑɹˌtɪk.jəˈleɪ.ʃən/, entrepreneur /ˌɑn.tɹə.pɹəˈnɝ/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like hustle, grind, pronounce.
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.