Shadowing Practice: Learn Real-Life British English - In Brighton! | Comprehensible Input B2 - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Do you want to learn English the natural way?
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Well, in this video you're going to learn English with the comprehensible input method.
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All you need to do is just watch, listen, and you will learn new English vocabulary.
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Today we're in the city of Brighton on the south coast of England.
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It's a very popular getaway for people from London.
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so let's go and take a look around Brighton
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okay
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so we are we are here in the North lanes you
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can see this absolutely heaving with people right now look I mean it's honestly heaving it's probably
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because it's peak season right now.
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It's July, it's Saturday, so yeah, it's basically peak season.
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What can you do?
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We're actually going to look for a new pair of sunglasses now.
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I don't like these sunglasses, honestly.
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So we're gonna find a new pair.
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Here we got some bongo drums.
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Some bongo drums here.
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That's the extent of my bongo drum skills.
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Here we've got some maracas.
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What have we got here?
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Some rings.
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Selection of different rings here.
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Some bracelets to go on your wrist.
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This, a selection of bracelets.
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and yes we got rings and we got bracelets that's basically everything
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that we got here five pound each
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or you can get three for ten pounds not
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a bad deal yeah bracelets what do you
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think they look good yeah it is absolutely heaving with people
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enjoying beer in the
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sun yep
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over there
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that's called the Brighton Dome
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see because
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because there's a big dome shape on the top of the
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the building you can see see it's in the shape of a dome
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so that's why it's called the brighton dome um they do performances it's like a theater as well i think
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so it's a theater they do performances just like the royal pavilion over there
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so yeah if you're into your theater i think you know where to go so this is the Royal Pavilion in Brighton.
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It was built for King George IV, I believe, and it was kind of his like getaway retreat,
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right, because King George, he lived in London, and London is a busy, crazy place.
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This was kind of like his seaside getaway.
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It was kind of a place where he could escape the hustle and bustle of London.
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Interestingly it was actually turned into a military hospital during World War I.
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It was a military hospital just for Indian soldiers.
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So yeah it was a military hospital for wounded Indian soldiers.
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Today it's actually a theatre right so you can go and you can watch performances there.
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So yeah let's go take a look at what's on in the theatre.
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So this tells you what's on right it tells you what's
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on at the theater here between uh from may until august 2026 so
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so we can take a look at what's on uh apparently
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this has already happened right this was on the 13th of
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may on the wednesday there was an event called the treasures of the royal pavilion archive that's good uh today
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so the next event that's on here pride at the pavilion when it When it talks about Pride here, it's actually talking about LGBT Pride.
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So there must be some kind of Pride event happening here at the Pavilion on Thursday, the 30th of July.
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It goes from 6.30 until 9.30pm.
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The tickets are 70 quid.
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That's a bit pricey, in my opinion.
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A little bit pricey, 70 quid.
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But there are early bird tickets for 60 pounds until the 1st of May.
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So an early bird ticket is when you buy the ticket really early, right?
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You're one of the first people to buy a ticket.
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So you can get an early bird discount, right?
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Because you know what they say, the early bird gets the worm.
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Yes, have you heard that before?
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Everybody knows that the early bird gets the worm.
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Members can get a discount of 15% and apparently it's a glamorous evening of food, wine and entertainment.
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Sounds good! so
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now
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we're in the area of Brighton
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which is called the lanes okay basically in the lanes you You can find loads of little independent shops of all kinds.
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You can also find some pretty expensive restaurants as well.
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So I guess we'll just wander around the lanes.
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Anyway you can see the lanes are heaving just like everywhere else in Brighton today.
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Somebody's playing music down here as well.
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There's a restaurant over here.
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Alright, over here there's a busker,
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there's a girl busking on her guitar and I guess she's just trying to earn a little bit of money by busking.
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It's quite a good spot actually if you think about it.
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This is a good spot to do some busking because there's a lot of people passing through this area so.
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This book, that's always the one My name is Bo, you say my name is Bo
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There's a pizzeria behind me So yeah, if you're Italian You know, maybe you want to come and check out the pizzeria Although if you're Italian
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You probably they probably won't be up to your standards probably
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but if you are not Italian come to the pizzeria You'll probably you'll probably love it and Yeah,
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lost in the lanes I guess because we're in the lanes
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and it's kind of like around like a side alley in the lanes
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So it's I guess if you're a bit lost and you're in the lanes Go to this cafe restaurant cafe
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Go to this cafe if you're lost in the lanes, I guess.
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So there we go.
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Okay, so we've looked around the lanes.
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Let's go to the beach, shall we?
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Let's go take a look at Brighton Beach.
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We're going to walk down here and we're going to go to the seafront.
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Let's go. So now
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we're at the Brighton seafront.
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I'm gonna try not to walk into anybody as I walk backwards here.
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So you can see, just like everywhere else in Brighton, it is absolutely heaving with people because it's a Saturday,
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it's peak season, and so everybody's here.
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You can see there's a cycle lane just here,
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so you need to be careful not to step into the cycle lane while there are cyclists passing up and down, right?
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So yeah, there we go.
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I don't want to step into the cycle lane and get hit by a cyclist.
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That would be bad.
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You can see down here we have a merry-go-round over there.
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You can see there are some kids who are sat on top of the horses.
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The little horses.
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And yeah, this is what we call a merry-go-round.
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I guess when I was like five, I probably went on there.
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I'm not planning to go on the merry-go-round today.
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doesn't really seem appropriate for a man in their 30s to be on the merry-go-round
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so I'm probably going to avoid that one
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the thing is with Brighton is that it's only a one-hour train ride from London.
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So it's kind of a perfect getaway for anybody who lives and works in London.
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And you know the London lifestyle can be a bit hectic, it can be a bit stressful.
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So Brighton really is like the perfect weekend getaway for a busy person in London, right?
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So that's why it's really busy today.
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I think that's why Brighton gets so busy because lots of people here are from London.
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It's the perfect getaway from London.
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Having said that, I have already heard today lots of different languages as we walk around.
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Including Spanish.
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I can recognize the Spanish that I'm hearing.
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There are actually people from all over the world living here in Brighton.
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So Brighton is actually the LGBT capital of England.
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So actually next week here there's going to be a pride parade.
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Right, that is a pride parade for the LGBT community.
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And Brighton is famous for the LGBT community in England.
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As well as Bristol as well.
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You can see we actually have some posters on the side here.
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So there are some posters.
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Pride on the Park.
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So again, Pride is referring to LGBT Pride.
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It's a Pride Parade, right?
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And so there's a big event happening next week.
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Pride on the Park, Pride 2026.
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So yeah, that's the Pride 2026.
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It's happening, I think, one week from today.
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So if you think it's heaving with people now, you know, you should see it next Saturday.
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There's going to be even more people here.
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Hold!
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So, we're on Brighton Beach.
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As you can see, it's not a sand beach.
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It's a pebble beach, just like Hastings Beach from the other video, filled with pebbles.
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This is a pebble.
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So this is a pebble and this is the kind of thing that you will find on Brighton Beach.
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So yeah, Brighton Beach is very popular.
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You can see if you look up and down, look up the beach there.
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You can see the people just go a long way.
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This beach is filled with people, probably tourists from other countries,
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but like I said, a lot of these people will be enjoying a seaside getaway from London, probably for the weekend.
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Brighton Beach is probably the most popular beach actually in the whole country.
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Now that I think about it, Brighton Beach is probably the busiest and the most popular beach in England.
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Now, as for the weather, I have to say the weather is pretty good in some ways.
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There is a nice sea breeze coming from the sea.
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The problem is there's a cloud over there.
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Take a look.
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See, ah, there's a cloud.
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You know, quite a big cloud actually.
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So yeah, you know, I prefer when the sky is just blue and there aren't any clouds in the sky.
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And so this is kind of annoying, you know?
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It's like nearly a perfect day, but like there is a cloud there and like there is another cloud.
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It's actually quite cloudy.
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And so, yeah, I don't really like these clouds that are in the sky.
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It's annoying me because it's nearly perfect.
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It's almost the perfect day, but there are just a couple of clouds.
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So that's kind of annoying and I don't like that.
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And that's what I'm complaining about today.
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Like I would rather it was just a cloudy day.
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The fact that it's mostly perfect, but with just a couple of clouds, that's just, that really annoys me actually.
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As you can see, I've got a nice portion of fish and chips here.
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Classic fish and chips by the sea, by the beach.
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You need to be careful because seagulls come and steal your food right
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so you need to watch out and make sure
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that no seagulls are going to come and take it
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but yeah i'm just going to enjoy this portion of fish
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and chips before we go and explore the rest of brighton
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so you can see there's a basketball court here it's a
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group group of guys just playing some some basketball by the
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beach pretty cool over on this side we've got some looks like some beach tennis I guess
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so we've got a little beach tennis court
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and the four players are holding uh tennis rackets so yeah lots of like little sports and stuff going on
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here on brighton beach here we got a little area where you can play some table tennis right
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if you have a paddle a table tennis paddle
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and a little white ball you can bring them here
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and you can just play these tables are free to use so yeah
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if you want to play some table tennis you can just come it's free free to use enjoy now
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if you look at this you can actually go up this thing here
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you can get a pretty cool view of all of Brighton.
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We're not going up there today because the tickets are like pretty pricey, you know.
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I think it's something like 30
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or 40 quid just to go for one person to go up there and get a view.
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So it's just not worth it.
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It's not worth it.
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But it is cool.
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If you want to spend the money, it's a cool, you'll get a cool view over all of Brighton. So yeah.
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As you can see, I have bought a new pair of sunglasses.
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And these sunglasses actually fit properly.
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But yeah, new pair of sunglasses.
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I bought it from one of these stalls over here.
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There were lots of these little stalls.
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And so I bought some stalls probably down there.
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That's where I bought them from.
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There was a little stall there.
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And so, yeah, I bought a little pair of sunglasses from there.
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Much better.
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Much better than the old ones, you know.
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Okay, we're at Brydon Beach, tremendous.
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I love Brydon.
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I love Brydon, the people, the people are...
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So this one is for general waste, so like general waste and dog waste as well, so your, the waste from your dog.
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Things like plastic, cups, food waste, coffee cups, all of these that are just kind of general waste.
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But then you've got your recycling, plastic bottles, only bottles, drink cans and aerosols.
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So that's where you put your recycling stuff.
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More recycling are glass bottles here.
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So this one is only for glass recycling.
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And yeah, more general waste, recycling, recycling.
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So it's important to put the correct waist in the correct bit.
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So yeah, you can see that the viewpoint thing is actually going up now.
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So yeah, it will go all the way up to the top, right?
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So it's going to go all the way up there.
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Pretty high up, I would say.
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But yeah, you'll get a pretty good view actually when you get to the top.
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You can see a lot of people are inside
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so I guess a lot of people decided to it was worth buying a ticket to go so
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So as you can see the house
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that I'm standing next to is upside down right the whole house is upside down
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but not only that everything inside the house is also upside down
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so the bed the sofa kitchen table it's all upside down it's actually a tourist attraction
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and there are a few of these around the country there are a few upside down houses like this but yeah
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upside down house pretty weird
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so what are you doing here on in Brighton today I
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am riding my pogo stick around showing over all my tricks nice
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and can you do any cool tricks on your pogo stick I can try.
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Nice, why don't you show us another trick?
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Go for it.
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Oh, the switcheroo.
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Nice.
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Go to EnglishSponge.com.
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Nice, nice one.
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So that's it guys.
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Thank you for coming with me around the city of Brighton today on the south coast of England.
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If you do want more comprehensible input videos videos to learn English from, go to EnglishSponge.com.
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We have videos at all levels, but if you would prefer to stay here on YouTube, then you can check out this playlist right here,
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where there are a lot more traveling videos like this.
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Thanks for watching, guys, and I'll see you in the next one.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “Learn Real-Life British English - In Brighton!”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: brighton, beach, lane, pride, London. This video has 244 sentences and 2579 words to shadow. The speech runs for 21:03. The speaker talks at a steady 122 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. 84% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| lanes noun | /leɪnz/ | bowling alley |
| getaway noun | A means of escape. | |
| heave verb | /ˈhiːv/ | To lift with difficulty; to raise with some effort; to lift (a heavy thing). |
| recycle verb | /ɹəˈsaɪkəl/ | To break down and reuse component materials. |
| sunglasses noun | Tinted glasses worn to protect the eyes from the sun or other bright light, and may also be worn as a fashion accessory. | |
| upside noun | /ˈʌpˌsaɪd/ | The highest or uppermost side or portion of something. |
| pavilion noun | /pəˈvɪljən/ | An ornate tent. |
| annoy verb | /əˈnoɪ̯/ | To disturb or irritate, especially by continued or repeated acts; to bother with unpleasant deeds. |
| pebble noun | /ˈpɛbəl/ | A small stone, especially one rounded by the action of water. |
| bracelet noun | /ˈbɹeɪslət/ | A band or chain worn around the wrist as jewelry/jewellery or an ornament. |
| stall noun | /stɔːl/ | A compartment for a single animal in a stable or cattle shed. |
| merry adjective | /ˈmɛ.ɹi/ | Jolly and full of high spirits; happy. |
| dome noun | /dəʊm/ | A structural element resembling the hollow upper half of a sphere. |
| bongo noun | /ˈbɑŋ.ɡoʊ/ | Either of a pair of small drums of Cuban origin, played by beating with the hands. |
| busk verb | /bʌsk/ | To solicit money by entertaining the public in the street or in public transport. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| go up verb | To move upwards. | |
| go round verb | To physically swirl or rotate. | |
| check out verb | To record the departure or withdrawal of someone or something (such as guests, employees, books, etc.). | |
| look around verb | To inspect a building or area. | |
| look up verb | /ˌlʊk ˈʌp/ | To have better prospects. |
| pass through verb | To go through, to travel through, to transit or lie across a place or from one place to another. | |
| pass up verb | /pɑːs ˈʌp/ | To refuse (not accept); forgo. |
| stick around verb | To stay; to linger; to remain. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- What can you do?
- What have we got here?
- Yes, have you heard that before?
- Let's go to the beach, shall we?
- Nice, why don't you show us another trick?
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 built · was actually turned · is called |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | has already happened · we've looked · have already heard |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | kids who are · anybody who lives |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 48 contractions and reduced forms, such as we're, you're, I'm. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: attraction /əˈtɹækʃn̩/, treasure /ˈtɹɛʒəɹ/
- Long words — get the stress right: pizzeria /ˌpiːt.səˈɹiː.ə/, comprehensible /kɒmpɹəˈhɛnsɪbəl/, vocabulary /vəˈkæb.jə.lə.ɹi/
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 lanes, getaway, heave.
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.