Shadowing Practice: Learn English with The PRINCESS DIARIES — Fancy Dinner - Learn English Speaking with Video

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238 sentences

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Thank you.

Between the courses to cleanse the palate.

Mm. Will?

She didn't realize it was frozen.

What should we do?

We should take that much too.

Just do the same thing.

No, no!

You're running!

You're acting like monkeys!

Today, we're learning English with The Princess Diaries.

So, what Mia just experienced is called a brain freeze.

That horrible experience when you eat something cold too fast.

Now this movie about a normal teenager suddenly finding out she's actually European royalty is great for learning formal, sophisticated English.

We'll learn with the hilarious scene where Mia has her first royal dinner and just makes mistake after mistake.

And we're saving all the advanced expressions like courses, cleanse the palate, and brain freeze on the real life app.

By studying these words with our flashcards just 10 to 15 minutes a day, you'll be able to remember them forever and confidently use them in conversation.

Now, let's join the Princess of Genovia at dinner.

Shall we practice entering like a princess?

Okay.

Entering.

At the Grand Vol, you enter with the Queen.

But at the state dinner, you enter unaccompanied.

Shoulders back.

Smile.

They're all happy to see you.

Ah, there she is.

Well done.

The worst is over.

Our diligent Prime Minister, Sebastian Motaz.

Hello.

And his lovely wife, Sheila.

Hi, nice to meet you.

Dinner is served.

Someday we will own Zenobia again, and you will be queen.

And your face will be on a postage stamp.

So, Mr. Prime Minister, how would you say the pear market is doing in Genovia?

The Genovian pear market is blossoming, if your pardon's a pardon.

I hear they're serving Lord Spivak's filet on the bone.

No. And

that's their princess.

You wanted to see me?

Is everything all right?

Um, yes.

Yes.

What was happening with the ice bucket?

Oh, um, I just had a little clumsy moment.

It's a busy moment.

The food's delicious, by the way.

So Joe, helpful as always, helps Mia to understand what to expect at the dinner.

At the Grand Ball, you enter with the Queen, but at the state dinner, you enter unaccompanied.

If you enter somewhere accompanied, someone is with you.

The prefix un- makes accompanied negative.

So if you're unaccompanied, you're alone.

Mia has to walk into that grand room by herself with everyone watching her.

And then Joe tries to reassure Mia.

Well done, the worst is over.

You can use this to comfort someone who's been through something tough, like here.

Well, at least the worst is over.

If you want to have good manners, you can pay someone a compliment when introducing them like Joe did with the Prime Minister and his wife.

Diligent means hard-working and careful.

Someone who takes their responsibilities seriously and puts in real effort.

You might describe a diligent student as one who studies every night and never misses a deadline.

Think about someone like Hermione Granger from Harry Potter.

She's the definition of diligent.

And then we hear the butler make an announcement.

Dinner is served!

This is simply a formal, sophisticated announcement that the meal is ready.

If you hear this, you should go sit down at the table and get ready to eat.

These two characters are members of the Genovian aristocratic family.

They believe they have a claim to the crown and are envious of Clarice and Mia throughout the movie, like in this comment.

Someday we will own Genovia again and you will be queen and your face will be on a postage stamp.

This is actually pretty funny.

A postage stamp is the small printed sticker you put on a letter or envelope so it can be mailed.

In many countries, stamps feature the faces of royalty, national heroes, or important figures.

So, it's as if he's saying this is the most exciting part of being a queen.

Then, we hear some more political small talk.

This is pretty clever wordplay.

The market is blossoming means that it's growing, thriving, and doing really well.

Blossom literally means to produce flowers, like a tree in the spring.

But here, it's used figuratively to describe something that is developing beautifully and reaching its full potential.

You might say a young musician is blossoming, or that a new business is blossoming.

The joke is because Genovia is known for its pears, and pears come from trees that literally blossom.

Get it?

By the way, I want you to become the successful, fluent English speaker you've always dreamed of becoming.

I bet you feel pretty lost about how to do this.

You feel too busy to be diligent and dedicate enough time to studying

or you feel like you've been stuck at the same level forever.

So let me share with you a method to go from

being a lost insecure English learner to become a confident natural English speaker even

if you only have 10 to 15 minutes per day.

Watch a short lesson like this one with princess diaries practice the new words from

that lesson with smart flash cards

which use science to help you remember new words forever

and speak the new words in a real conversation

so you feel confident using them in any situation and practice pronunciation

and we make it super easy for you on the real life app

100

and in fact you can use the new words you're learning

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today in a guided speaking conversation based on this exact lesson with Princess Diaries right now.

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Stop just recognizing and forgetting new words and start being able to speak them naturally.

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So try it for free, just click the link down in the description.

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Now it can be frustrating when natives speak fast and you can't understand what they said, right?

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But oftentimes you don't understand because you're not used to connected speech.

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That's how we natives cut, reduce, and link our words together when speaking fluently, like in Mia's next question.

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First, when we have an N and T together, the T sound often drops, like in international, 20, or here in wanted, which becomes wanted.

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The preposition to often reduces to t, t, but here, because it was preceded by a word ending in D, we drop the T too.

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Wanted to.

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Your speaking will only improve with lots of practice, so listen to me again and try to say that just like her.

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What was happening with the ice bucket?

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Well, what Clarice wanted to see me about is why one of her guests arms was on fire.

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Um, I just had a little clumsy moment.

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Yeah, okay.

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Clumsy means being awkward or uncoordinated.

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Throughout the movie, we see that Mia is very clumsy.

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Not exactly ideal for a princess who is supposed to be graceful.

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Another perfect example is Mr. Bean.

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Listen to this.

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Yeah, it's really cool.

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Oh, whoa there, buckaroo.

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I'm so clumsy sometimes.

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It's all good.

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And Mia had another clumsy moment in that first clip we watched where she ate a frozen green food.

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The Prime Minister explains what it is.

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Between the courses to cleanse the palate.

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So first, a course is one part of a meal that is served separately.

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Some fancy dinners might have three to six courses, or even more.

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You can use this as an adjective too.

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A six course meal.

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Now, between those courses, the guests were served a small dish to cleanse the palate.

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Your palate is just another word for your sense of taste.

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And to cleanse it means to refresh it, to clear away the flavors from the previous course so you can fully enjoy the next one.

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It's basically a little reset for your mouth.

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Alright, let's see the dramatic end of Mia's first dinner as a princess.

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Oh!

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You never run country.

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You're runkin' these.

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I'm outta here.

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Oh!

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I am sopping.

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Was that my fault?

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It can be quite flattering when someone toasts you,

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but that's not exactly the case here.

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I would like to propose a toast to the Baroness and Baron Van Token.

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May you always be barren.

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To propose a toast means to raise your glass and say something in honor of a person or occasion.

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You might have seen it at a wedding where someone stands up, raises their glass, and says something like, to the happy couple.

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You can also say, make a toast.

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Hey guys, I want to make a toast.

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Um, here's to those who wish us well, and those who don't can go to hell.

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So, the toast is to the envious aristocrats we saw earlier.

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A baron is a member of the nobility just like lords, dukes, and counts.

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A baroness is the female version, or the wife of a baron.

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And then we hear another play on words.

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May you always be baron.

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This is hilarious if you catch it.

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May you always be barren sounds exactly like may you always be barren

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and Barren means unable to produce life completely empty like land that can't grow crops

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So the prime minister is telling the barren

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that he hopes he remains a barren

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But it also sounds like he's wishing something terrible on them

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And then we see a bit more chaos caused by Mia's clumsiness

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What do you think sopping means?

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Completely wet?

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Extremely angry?

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Absolutely exhausted?

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Great, one of the guests got some liquid splashed on them.

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Sopping means absolutely soaking wet.

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Like if you just jumped into a swimming pool fully clothed.

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You might also hear sopping wet as the full expression.

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Listen to this.

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These shoes are sopping wet.

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Good thing you got these.

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Come on, son.

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We have to keep moving.

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But then, Queen Clarice gracefully saved the evening.

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Shall we adjourn to the Grand Hall for coffee?

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Lovely word here.

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To adjourn means to officially end or pause a meeting or gathering, usually so that everyone can move to another place or continue at another time.

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It's quite formal.

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You'd hear it in a courtroom, court is adjourned, in business meetings, or in formal events like this one.

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The Queen uses it brilliantly here to redirect everyone's attention away from the disaster and smoothly move the evening along.

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And now it's time to adjourn to the most important part of the lesson, your test.

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You'll watch all the scenes again, this time without subtitles, and answer some quiz questions.

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I'm sure you'll do better on your test than Mia does at being a princess.

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Shall we practice entering like a princess?

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Okay.

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Entering.

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At the Grand Ball, you enter with the queen, but at the state dinner...

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Fill in the blank.

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Mia had never been to a royal dinner before, so she was nervous about entering the room without the queen by her side.

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So she was nervous about entering the room unaccompanied without the Queen by her side.

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You will own Zenobia again and you will be queen and your face will be on a postage stamp.

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So, Mr. Prime Minister, how would you say the pair market is doing in Genovia?

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The Genovian pair market is blossoming, if your pardon's a pardon.

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True or false?

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The market is blossoming means business is doing badly and losing money.

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False.

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It means the market is growing and thriving.

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What was happening with the ice bucket?

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Oh, um, I just had a little clumsy moment.

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The food's delicious, by the way.

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Between the courses to cleanse the palate.

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Mm.

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Yep.

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Yes, you will.

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I thought it was cold.

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She didn't realize it was frozen.

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What should we do?

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We should take that much too.

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Just do the same thing.

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You're acting like monkeys.

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What does it mean to propose a toast?

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To suggest a new type of bread at dinner?

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To raise your glass and honor someone with kind words?

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To offer a drink to someone who is thirsty?

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I'm really sorry.

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It happens all the time.

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I would like to propose a toast to the Baroness and Baron Ventokin.

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May you always be Baron.

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I'm out of here.

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Oh, I am sopping. Was that my fault?

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I am.

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Shall we adjourn to the Grand Hall for coffee?

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Oh yeah, I hope you had a lot of fun learning English with the Princess Diaries.

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And if you want to be able to understand fast speaking natives without getting lost, without missing the jokes, and without subtitles,

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every single week we help you to do it with two new lessons with your favorite movies, series, celebrities, and more.

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So all you have to do to not miss a single one

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and join over 11 million learners from around the world is to hit the subscribe button and the bell down below.

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And if you're really ready to take your English to the next level, the best way to do that is to learn with these lessons on the RealLife app.

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So get started for free with that link down in the description below.

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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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I just want to know what happens next.

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You want the unpublished manuscript?

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Well, we know everyone in publishing.

237

It shouldn't be a problem, should it?

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And you can do anything, right?

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This video has 238 sentences and 2222 words to shadow. The speech runs for 18:26. The speaker talks at a steady 121 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. Only 81% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.

Key vocabulary in this video

15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
toast noun	/toʊst/	Bread that has been toasted (cooked lightly by browning).
blossom verb	/ˈblɑ.səm/	To have, or open into, blossoms; to bloom.
lesson noun	/ˈlɛs.ən/	A section of learning or teaching into which a wider learning content is divided.
baron noun	/ˈbæɹən/	The male ruler of a barony.
freeze verb	/ˈfɹiːz/	Especially of a liquid, to become solid due to low temperature.
stamp noun	/stæmp/	An act of stamping the foot, paw or hoof.
formal adjective	/ˈfɔɹməl/	In accordance with established forms.
diary noun	/ˈdaɪ.ə.ɹi/	A daily log of experiences, especially those of the writer.
propose verb	/pɹəˈpəʊz/	To suggest a plan, course of action, etc.
postage noun	/ˈpoʊstɪd͡ʒ/	The system of transporting letters, and parcels.
meal noun	/ˈmiːl/	Food that is prepared and eaten, usually at a specific time, and usually in a comparatively large quantity.
bucket noun	/ˈbʌkɪt/	A container made of rigid material, often with a handle, used to carry liquids or small items.
delicious adjective	/dɪˈlɪ.ʃəs/	Pleasing to the sense of taste; tasty.
announcement noun	/əˈnaʊns.mənt/	An act of announcing, or giving notice.
hilarious adjective	/hɪˈlɛə.ɹi.əs/	Very funny; causing great merriment and laughter.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Meaning
check out verb	To record the departure or withdrawal of someone or something (such as guests, employees, books, etc.).
clear away verb	To tidy up, to remove mess or obstacles from a place to make it neat.
find out verb	To discover, as by asking or investigating.
stand up verb	To rise from a lying or sitting position.

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 35 contractions and reduced forms, such as you're, I'm, you'll. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “th” sounds: thrive /θɹajv/, gather /ˈɡæðɚ/, thirsty /ˈθɝs.ti/, smoothly /ˈsmuːðli/, clothe /ˈkloʊð/
The “sh” and “zh” sounds: delicious /dɪˈlɪ.ʃəs/, flash /flæʃ/, occasion /əˈkeɪ̯ʒən/, shoe /ˈʃu/, dish /dɪʃ/
Long words — get the stress right: hilarious /hɪˈlɛə.ɹi.əs/, accompany /əˈkʌm.pə.ni/, naturally /ˈnæt͡ʃ.(ə.)ɹə.li/, celebrity /səˈlɛb.ɹɪ.ɾi/, beautifully /ˈbju.tɪ.fə.li/

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 toast, blossom, lesson.

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	was frozen · is called · is served
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	Someone who takes · one who studies · those who wish
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	who's been · you've always dreamed · you've been stuck

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.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

Shadowing Practice: Learn English with The PRINCESS DIARIES — Fancy Dinner - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

Key vocabulary in this video

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Pronunciation to watch

How to practise with this video

Grammar in this video

What is the Shadowing Technique?