Shadowing Practice: Learn Real-Life British English - In Cornwall! | Comprehensible Input B1 - 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 I'm in the county of Cornwall in the southwest of England
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and I'm at place called st michael's mount so
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that there is st michael's mount and
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that is where i'm going to visit today for this video i'm going to turn off the subtitles
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so try to use your ear to listen
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and understand without subtitles actually as always
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if you do want subtitles then just click the button down here and you can get a YouTube subtitles.
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Anyway let's go and take a look at St Michael's Mountain.
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So you can see all these people are walking along the path to go
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and get to st michael's mount right all of these people
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they are all walking towards st michael's mount over there the
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interesting thing about st michael's mount is actually you can only
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go across this path at certain times of the day
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and actually it depends on the tides yes
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so during high tide at high tide the sea will will
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cover this path the path will be underwater during high tide
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right now it's low tide you see the sea is is really far out you see
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so it's low tide right now and
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so at the moment you can take this path
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and you can walk over to St Michael's Mount but you can only do this at low tide.
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During high tide it's not possible because the path is covered with water.
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The path is underwater during high tide so you can only go out there during low tide like right now.
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So I think I have about three hours to go over there
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and come back because in about three hours the tide will come in the tide will come in
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and the water will cover the path right
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so i will have to make this video quickly
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because i've only got three hours before the tide comes in
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so let's go i need to go
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and check out some michael's mount quickly by the way you
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can see down here there's all this moss around here you see all this green moss down here
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so all of this area is covered in this uh in this green moss here all over
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and over there there's also some seaweed i can see down there all over this area
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that there's seaweed more seaweed seaweed all over this place so so lots of moss and seaweed all over here
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so cornwall is actually a really popular holiday destination not only for brits
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but also for people from other countries as well as i've
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been walking around here i've heard a lot of german being spoken actually
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so i guess cornwall apparently it's pretty common with german people
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cornwall is a good place to go on holiday for brits
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because when you come to cornwall you don't have to worry about passports you don't have to worry about airports
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or visas it's easy you just drive down here right you just drive down to cornwall
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or you can even take the train
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in fact i actually took the train to come down to cornwall it took about five
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and a half hours six hours something like that
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but this is why cornwall is such a good place to go on holiday
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because it's like it's not too difficult to come here it's everything is in english you don't need another language or anything
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and it's a good place a cheaper place for families to
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come on holiday you don't have to spend a lot of money right
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and that's why it's um it's a more popular place to
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come on holiday the other thing with Cornwall that's pretty good is
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that you kind of feel quite cut off from the rest of the world here
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because Cornwall is right on the end like right on the southwest of the country
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and it's actually quite a long way from anything else like
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you are miles away from London you are miles away really
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from any major city right there are no major cities around here the closest city is probably Plymouth
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and even Plymouth is not a really big city
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so you get the feeling down here
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that you're really cut off from the rest of the world it's quite nice although I will say
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that nowadays it's pretty touristy as you can see sort of
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behind me right there are tourists like it's it's it's jam -packed with tourists now I used to come here
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when I was younger when I was a kid
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and it was less touristy then
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so although you do get the feeling like you're cut off
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from the rest of the world it's also not quite as much as it used to be
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because actually there are loads of people here now
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and lots of tourists but yeah Cornwall is nice I would say
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if you live in the UK
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if you are somebody who's living here you may want to
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consider Cornwall as a place for your next holiday it's pretty
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nice pretty relaxing you know it's pretty chill it's pretty chill it's a pretty chill place Cornwall I would say
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so i'm just chilling here on some rocks and before i go and climb st michael's mount
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i've got a packed lunch here so i've got a sandwich
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and a packet of crisps so a sandwich
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and a packet of crisps this is what we call a packed lunch right
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so instead of going and buying something instead of going to a touristy shop
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and buying lunch for six pounds seven pounds you know
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and it will cost a lot because this is a touristy area
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i decided to bring a pack lunch instead so
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if you want to save money it's always good to bring a pack lunch right
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so i've got in here a ham and ham and cheese sandwich
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and the ham and cheese sandwich is wrapped it's wrapped in tin foil right
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so we got a sandwich and it's wrapped in tin foil
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so let me just take off the tin foil
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and here is my sandwich right here
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so I wrapped it in tin foil right to keep it fresh I guess
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and it's baguette so this is a baguette here and it's a ham and cheese baguette ham and cheese sandwich
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wrapped in tin foil pretty good for a pack lunch okay i have just finished eating my pack lunch
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so now it's time to cross over the path over the causeway as it's called and go to St. Michael's Mount.
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A causeway is basically a path that will go underwater during high tide.
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That kind of path has a special name.
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It's called a causeway.
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So now I'm going to walk across the causeway to St. Michael's Mount.
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You can see that it's very rocky on either side of the causeway see it's very rocky on that side
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but also very rocky on the other side
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so it's it's rocky on either side
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and you can see down here there's some seaweed here see
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so lots of seaweed and also a lot of moss see see this this is moss see
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so seaweed and moss all over this rocky area
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okay i have made it to the island st michael's mount
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so we have crossed the causeway
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and here we are now i have two tokens here see i've got a red token
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and i've got a white token here
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so i've got two tokens the red token gives me access to the castle up here
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and the white token here gives me access to the garden normally the tickets would be about 20 pounds
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or 30 pounds but i have a little secret i've got one of these cards
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so this is a national trust see that this is a national trust card
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so this gets me into all national trust places for free right all for free
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so i didn't have to pay anything to come here today
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there are national trust sites all over the country up
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and down the country there are different national trust sites
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and you can get one of these cards
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and this will allow you to get into all of the
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sites for free actually the truth is this is not actually my card
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this is the card of a family member but don't tell anyone about
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that let's pretend this is my card okay
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so this is not actually my card so yeah
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if you have a national trust card you can get into all these places for free
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so it's a pretty good thing to have Are you all right?
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So that's the way it's made of the wheels now?
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Gathering.
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Gathering.
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we're at the top of the castle on st michael's mount
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i think it's been built from a period of like from 1100 to about 1900
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so it was built in a slow process the local legend is
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that a giant lives at the top of Michael's Mount in this castle
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so that's the local legend I don't know if it's true
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but maybe it is I don't know
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but yes there's a lot of tourists here today it is jam -packed with tourists actually
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so I'm gonna keep looking around the castle a little bit and then I'll head back across the causeway, across the sea again.
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You can see that now you don't even need to use the path because the tide has gone out even more
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that I can just walk on the sand over here because look at the tide, the tide has gone right out.
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so you don't even need this path anymore everybody is using the path
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but you don't need to use it
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because the tide has come out the tide has come way out
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and so i can just walk on the sand
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when i came into the
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when i came across the path the first time there was water on both sites
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and you needed to use the path
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but now the tide has gone out even more
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so I can just use the sand I'm just going to walk on the sand now you can see
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that you need to watch your step you need to watch your step
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because it's rocky it's a rocky ground here
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so you need to watch your step to make sure
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that you you don't trip over
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or twist your ankle i don't want to twist my ankle on these rocks
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so i'm just gonna i'm gonna watch my step here look
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some more seaweed i just stood on some more seaweed look at that
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okay guys
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so just before we end today's video here at st michael's
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mount i just wanted to talk a little bit about the
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benefits of listening to English without subtitles okay I believe that
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if you're learning English
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and you want to learn with the comprehensible input method you should a significant amount of your time listening,
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listening without subtitles, okay?
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You see, when you listen to English with subtitles turned on, it's very good.
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You learn a lot.
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You can learn a lot of vocabulary this way.
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There's only one small problem and
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that is your brain is still looking at the spelling of the words that you're listening to.
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Now, the good thing is you can also hear the word
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while the person is speaking it
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but you also see the spelling down where the subtitles are
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and your brain in many cases will still try to interpret the letters in the word
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and decide how to pronounce the word
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so without realizing it your brain can kind of try to
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interpret the way the word is spelt into how it's pronounced right
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when you listen to english with no subtitles all you're getting
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is sounds there are no letters there's no writing it's just sounds
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and when you only have sounds to listen to you are more likely to actually understand
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and copy eventually copy the correct pronunciation the correct sounds right without being misled by the letters
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that you see when you're using subtitles it's not like
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if you have the subtitles turned on you get nothing from the video no
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if you're using subtitles you still learn a lot by watching comprehensible input okay I'm just saying
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that you should spend a significant amount of your time listening to comprehensible input without subtitles
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because that allows your brain to focus only on the actual sounds
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that native speakers are using
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and not getting your brain will not get misled by the spelling of words when it comes to english pronunciation
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not getting misled by the spelling of words is half the
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battle right that's like half the battle yes you can still have problems with the pronunciation of certain sounds
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because you can't get your teeth and your lips in the right place
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but honestly half the battle with english pronunciation is
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that you just don't get misled by the spelling and
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that you focus on the actual sounds that native speakers are using okay
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when you do listen to comprehensible input without subtitles you may find
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that you need to reduce the level a little bit
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if you're normally listening to b2 upper intermediate videos with subtitles you may find
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that you may have to bring down the level to be one intermediate to be able to understand without subtitles
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but you want to get into the habit of listening without subtitles firstly because because of what I said about pronunciation
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but also for your listening skills as well because in the real world
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if you speak English to somebody or a native speaker
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or anybody in the real world what you get is you
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just you have to look at their face like this
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and you have to understand the words
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that are coming out of their mouth you just have to look at their face
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and understand there are no subtitles in the real world
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so it's a good thing to actually get used to listening
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to english without subtitles it will help you more in the real world
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when you're having a real conversation right
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because you will be familiar with actually listening to the sounds
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that you hear and then recognizing
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which words people are using now of course there are some videos on english sponge that include subtitles
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that's okay like i said you can still learn a lot with subtitles you can still learn lots okay
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but on english sponge .com we have more than 700 videos comprehensible input videos at each level
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and almost none of them have subtitles probably only five percent
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or three percent of our videos have any subtitles
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so yeah on english
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if you prefer to listen without subtitles like this on english
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sponge .com we have more than 700 videos without them anyway
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guys i hope you've enjoyed watching me take a look around
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st michael's mount today here is a playlist of me traveling around
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the uk and teaching english at the same time
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but thank you for watching guys and i will see you in the next video
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Why Practice Speaking with This Video?
This video offers authentic English speaking practice set in Cornwall, a real-life British location, making it ideal for learners seeking natural language use. The conversational tone and visual context (like the tide-dependent path to St Michael's Mount) provide "comprehensible input"—language that’s easy to follow while expanding your vocabulary. It’s perfect for shadowing (repeating phrases aloud as you listen), a technique that improves fluency and pronunciation. Whether you’re prepping for IELTS speaking practice or just want to sound more natural, this video mirrors the casual, descriptive speech you’d encounter in daily life.
Grammar & Expressions in Context
The dialogue uses practical structures you can apply immediately:
- "You can only go across this path at certain times of the day" – The modal verb "can" for possibility/permission, common in giving directions.
- "It depends on the tides" – "Depends on" for explaining conditions, useful in discussions about plans or rules.
- "I have about three hours to go over there and come back" – "Have + time + to + verb" for talking about schedules, a key phrase for daily interactions.
Common Pronunciation Traps
British English accents can trip up learners, so note these:
- "Cornwall" – Pronounced "KOR-nawl" (not "KOR-nwal"), with a soft "l" at the end.
- "Tide" – Short "i" sound (like "eye"), not a long "ee" sound.
- "Moss" and "seaweed" – "Moss" rhymes with "boss," while "seaweed" is two clear syllables ("see-weed").
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 come · used to be |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | i've heard · have just finished · have made |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | is covered · being spoken · is wrapped |
| Possibility with “might / may” might/may + verb — something that is possible but not certain | may want · may find · may have |
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.