Shadowing Practice: LET’S PRACTICE YOUR ENGLISH? - Learn English Speaking with Video

Well, hello there.

How are you?

Welcome to the first episode of English with Sue's podcast.

I'm super excited to be doing this, guys.

I've been wanting to do this for like the longest time ever and to finally do it, it's actually super rewarding.

There's not much secret here.

It's literally just a podcast and I'll be talking about various things.

This is a great opportunity for you to practice your listening and pay attention to keywords, vocabulary, how to conjugate the verbs,

how I am initiating certain words too, paying attention to the captions over here as well, the subtitles.

Yeah, it's just a great way for you to also take notes.

Don't, you know, don't be scared to take some notes, especially if you see different vocab that you didn't know before, you know?

Yeah, I hope this is great for you and I'm super excited and just sit back, relax, and let's practice your English.

Or better, let's practice your listening.

Okay, so if you don't know how a podcast works.

It's basically just a full video, okay?

I'm not going to be cutting.

It's going to be very natural and organic, and I've never done this before, okay?

I usually edit a lot of my videos, so this is going to be kind of new to me, and I will say I'm a bit nervous because I don't want to,

like, mess up anything, but anyways, we'll just give it a try.

It's the first episode, You know, we'll see how it goes. And yeah.

So for today, I honestly wanted to do a episode,

an episode that I can introduce myself a little bit

because I feel like I don't really introduce myself that much on TikTok.

and with that I am able to also talk a little bit about my journey with English right

and I feel like a lot of people watch my videos

because they either live abroad or they want to live abroad right

so I also wanted to give a few tips on how to improve your English once you get to your destination, right?

Because that's super important.

Of course, the work really starts before you go, but we'll get into that later.

But I feel like it's crucial when you get to your destination as well.

So a little bit about myself.

I am 24.

A lot of people think I'm younger, but no, I'm 24.

I am 100% Brazilian, but I'm also half American because my dad's American.

So my mom's side, they're Brazilians, and my dad's side, they're Americans.

And I was born in Manaus, Amazonas, and I lived there for 10 years of my life, which was great.

My whole family is there, my childhood friends, everyone's there.

But when I was 10, I moved to Fortaleza because I have siblings in Fortaleza from my mom's old marriage or whatever.

And so I stayed in Fortaleza for five years.

So then when I turned 15, I moved to the United States of America and I moved to Florida first.

So I did like my sophomore year of high school in Florida.

And then my dad, who lived and worked overseas, he finally retired and he moved back to California,

which is where he's from.

And after that year and a half in Florida, my dad retired.

So that's when I moved to California and I've been here ever since.

I get this question a lot, which is if I've ever like moved back to Brazil.

I did.

I moved back to Brazil in 2021.

I lasted three months because when you're like used to the way things work

and the way you live your life abroad and you try to go back to your homeland,

it's always weird and sometimes you might not be able to adjust especially given the age

that I moved to the states right I moved to the states

when I was 15 and when I moved back to Brazil

which I lasted three months like I said I was like almost 20

so I was already an adult so I like it was

that crucial part of my life that I'm just used to how things work abroad

and then I tried adjusting and I just didn't do it

and I had the opportunity to come back here you know I wasn't stuck there

so I decided to come back and I've been here ever since

which you know I'm very grateful I do love living here

but I also love Brazil my mom's there my whole family

is there my best friends my childhood friends you know

so I go to Brazil periodically like maybe once a year

sometimes twice a year it really depends on my budget but anyways that's a little bit of my background

um before I moved to the states you know I got the confirmation like my dad told me Suze, you're going to move here and you're going to,

you know, go to college, go to school, have a life here.

And that was like a year before the trip, right?

Me moving here.

And I was like, I need to like lock in, right?

I need to actually learn English or at least like learn how to communicate

because I don't want to go there

and fail all my classes in high school

because I can't speak the language

and I also get this question a lot from people in

general not just social media a lot of people ask me

like your dad was American why didn't you grow up speaking English it's

because my dad I'd see my dad like once a year my dad was in the military

so he was always everywhere he worked for the government too

so it's like I would rarely see my dad and

so I didn't really have that contact with the language

and my dad spoke Portuguese very bad Portuguese

but he spoke my language right so I it was mainly like I didn't need to learn English, right?

That's how I felt in my head, which like, I was a teenager, right?

And I guess I was lazy too.

I was interested and curious about the language, but I was mainly just like, okay, I don't need to because I rarely see my dad.

And whenever I do see him, he speaks Portuguese and I'm fine.

So that's one of the reasons why I didn't really grow up speaking English.

But then going back to what I was saying, um, I did have that, like, realization of, I need to learn this language,

because I'm literally going to be moving there, right, and it was also, like, I wanted to connect with my father in a deeper way,

because even though he spoke English, I mean, Portuguese, he, he didn't really speak very good Portuguese

so it was a little bit hard to truly connect with my father

and when I turned 15 which was right around the time

that I got the confirmation that I was going to move to the states

that really that that was a huge like load you know

that really started weighing on me like wow I feel like I rarely like I barely know my dad

so I need to learn this language and so what I did was

I didn't want to go to one of those like English schools, right?

I didn't want to do like tutoring or courses or any of that because I feel like for me,

myself, it doesn't really work, right?

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So I decided to change my entire world, like my entire, my everything, you know, my phone, my computer,

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the books I was reading, shows I was watching, movies that I liked watching, everything.

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I decided to change everything to English so that I would change my entire environment to that language.

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So I'd get used to everyday things, right?

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Routine things.

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And get also used to the language in general, you know, listening to the language and being a part of it.

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So that was the first thing that I did.

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And then another thing was, I would watch a lot of videos on YouTube.

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Yes, I'd watch videos from like, American YouTubers, and I'd pay attention to how they talked.

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because I felt like most like shows and movies that's scripted

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so it's very romanticized and I guarantee

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because I live here nobody talks the way they talk

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when it comes to movies and shows it's very romanticized and scripted

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so I wanted to see how people actually talked right like how do people actually communicate here without a script

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so that's why I started watching American YouTubers and I do

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that for like hours of my day I mean I was

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15 I did not have a job I was literally just in school I went to school in the morning

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so as soon as I got off school

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which was like noon I'd like lock in

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and just watch a bunch of YouTubers and it was also fun

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because I found out you know I found out about a lot of like new ones

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that I wasn't aware of it

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and you know I actually generally just like actually loved watching their videos

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so that was one thing that I did

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and I highly recommend you start doing that

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because those youtubers they talk exactly how people actually talk here

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it's not scripted it's not romanticized it's how people actually talk how natives talk it's very natural

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and organic so that was one of the things

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that I did for my um listening and to learn vocabulary and not just any vocabulary it was like vocabulary to

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like like day-to-day vocabulary you know slang terms expressions

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and you know funny things like it's super important to learn how people actually talk right

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and then another thing

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that I do to practice my speaking was I'd watch interviews of famous people or whatever it was on YouTube

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and the way I'd do was like let's say Shawn Mendes has a interview right

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and he's being interviewed by I don't know like somebody

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that I don't really know these people that do interviews

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but he was being interviewed by somebody right

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and the person would ask Shawn Mendes a question

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and then I'd pause the video right before he'd start like talking and I would answer so essentially

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I was pretending to be interviewed

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and I'd be like practicing my my speaking you know right

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there on the spot you know no time to think

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because that's how life works

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when you move abroad you don't really have time to be

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like hold on let me check my notes like you can't really do

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that right I mean maybe you can but that's not very realistic right

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so I do that and that was so crucial because

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I wasn't scared to answer questions I was like really being

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put on the spot even though I was alone in my room

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and nobody was watching me but even

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that was a bit like making me it would make me a little bit nervous in the beginning

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but then essentially I'd like get more natural about it

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and I'd do

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that every single day for at least like an hour you

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know it was like crucial it really really helped me

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and that's one of the main things that I tell people

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when they want to learn English or practice their speaking or listening, I tell them to do that because that was crucial, at least to me.

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Damn, I talk a lot, huh?

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I guess a podcast was like the best thing I could have done in my life because I'm really talking.

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But anyways, I lost the thread.

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I don't know where.

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What was I going to talk about after?

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By the way, this podcast is not scripted.

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Like I have no script here.

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Like I'm literally just talking to you guys.

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Very natural, very organic.

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But anyways, oh yeah, that's what I was going to say.

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So one of the things that this whole interview method taught me was basically that you're going to make mistakes, right?

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And now we're actually moving to the part of the podcast

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that I wanted to give you a few tips on how to learn and practice and get better with your English,

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either living abroad or before you know like living abroad

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so here's the first thing that I'm going to tell you you need to understand

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and come to the realization that you're going to make mistakes you're going to

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embarrass yourself you're going to feel embarrassed you're going to make

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mistakes you're going to say something wrong you're going to say something

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that you shouldn't say you're going to make mistakes that's like inevitable like you will make mistakes

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and you need to be okay with that because one of the things that I hear the most is,

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I am super shy because I don't want to make mistakes or I always say something wrong when I'm speaking English.

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Well, that's the whole point, okay?

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You need to make mistakes.

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You almost need to do that.

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You know why?

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Because Americans, at least, I don't know about British people and like Irish people,

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but Americans are so used to foreign people that they're not going to make fun of you if you make a mistake.

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They're not going to.

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I swear they're not going to.

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At least, I mean, if you don't have any intimacy with them, if you're not friends with them, they're not going to put you on the spot like that, okay?

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They will most likely correct you, and that's what's important.

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When you make a mistake and somebody corrects you, it puts you on a spot where you feel embarrassed, it's a shock, and I guarantee you're never going to make

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that mistake ever again because somebody just corrected you

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and it was like a lot for you right it got

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you embarrassed you got shy you anyways it just kind of

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got to you right am i is my microphone working it is okay sorry i had to make sure um

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so that will really like the correction that you will have from,

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you know, whatever mistake you made, along with putting you on a spot and being shocked,

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will make you never forget that mistake, in my opinion, right?

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Because you don't want to go through that feeling of being put on a spot and getting embarrassed, you know, again.

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So you're really going to pay attention to that, and it's going to be replaying your head most likely for a few days.

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But anyways, so coming to terms with the fact

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that you will make mistakes and being okay with

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that is the first thing that you need to accept when you want to learn any language, literally any language, okay?

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Especially if you're living abroad or you're going to move abroad, girl, I'm telling you you're going to make mistakes and you need to make those mistakes,

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okay and then as time goes by you're actually like listen I'm fluent in English

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but I sometimes make mistakes

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and before I make these mistakes I know I'm going to be making a mistake

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and I do it on purpose because I know somebody's going to correct me

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and I'm not scared of like the correction right

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and I know I'm going to learn so it's almost like with time you will develop this sense of like, whatever, I'm going to make a mistake, you know, you're not, you're going to be careless about it.

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And you're almost want, you're almost going to want to make the mistake so that you learn, right?

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And then another thing is, if anybody makes fun of you, okay, this is important, I'm literally going to look at you right in your face.

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If anybody is making fun of you, because of a mistake you made, or because of your accent, or because you are not from here,

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let me tell you something

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that person speaks one language you speak multiple languages you speak more than one language

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so if anybody is actually like supposed to be embarrassed is

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that person not you okay because you know I've had moments in my life

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that people were making fun of me and you know what I did I looked at them

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okay and I told them I was like how many languages do you speak

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like seriously

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and you're making fun of me you know i'm over here

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trying to like i'm trying to communicate with you learn your

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language do it for myself do it for other people out of respect obviously

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because if you're in someone's country you don't want them speaking your language you want to speak their language right

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so it's like and then you're making fun of me

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when you literally like don't even speak other languages you know you're the one that needs to be embarrassed not me

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so always like remember this don't forget this okay you are doing something greater than what

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that person could ever think about doing it because

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that person is too lazy to learn a language and they know

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that and that's why they're making fun of you

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because they're jealous of you that's the key point

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that I tell all of my students and people in my life in general anyways this is a bit like

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this is turning into a motivational podcast huh anyways um okay moving on

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so another thing that I need to tell you

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which will be kind of like the last topic

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because I can't upload like a super long video on my channel

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because I don't have enough subscribers to post like a super long video by the way

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so unfortunately I can't make this too long otherwise YouTube won't let me uploaded.

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But anyways, going back to this, the last thing I'll tell you is as soon as you get to your destination, as soon as you move abroad,

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you need to come to the realization that that's your life okay

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and that sounds so cliche this sounds so like stupid

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but it takes time for you to realize that that's your new life

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and with that you need to not only speak the language

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but you need to live that language you need to live

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that country okay because what I see is at least Brazilians

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because that's where I'm from a lot of Brazilians move to the states

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and they only hang out with Brazilians they only go to Brazilian parties they only go to Brazilian restaurants

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and they only do like they left Brazil

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but Brazil never left them right and then they complain

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that they have a hard time speaking English when they're not even speaking because they don't need to.

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Everywhere they go, they speak Portuguese.

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All of their friends are Brazilians.

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Their boyfriends or girlfriends are Brazilians.

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So it's like, how do you expect yourself to learn something when you're not around it, right?

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And so you need to actually live that language.

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Languages are a reflection of a country's culture, okay?

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That's why I'll give you an example.

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So Brazilians are extremely expressive people and welcoming

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and like you know just like really nice and warm people

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and it's very expressive you know we use our hands a lot

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when we talk and

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so portuguese the language is also a very expressive language we open our mouths a lot

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when we speak portuguese we use our hands

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so it's languages are a reflection of the country

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and that's why a lot of like people foreigners think that americans are cold people

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when in reality they're not it's just

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because the English language is a very neutral language it doesn't

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have a lot of vocabulary it's not a hard language to learn it's very even even even cued um

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so that's why a lot of people tend to think

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that Americans are like that when they're not it's just a language thing

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so with that being said don't just like you need to live the language you need to make American friends.

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You need to go to like American like places and like, I don't know, like live the country, you know?

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You have to almost like forget about where you came from, but not really, okay?

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Like don't forget your roots, obviously, but you need to let it go.

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Otherwise, you're not going to learn the language, okay?

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You might learn it.

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You might learn how to communicate, but you're not going to sound native, you're not going to sound natural, and you're going to have a really hard time getting used to that country as well.

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Because you, your mind, you know, is still in your home country.

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So how are you going to get used to that new country?

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How are you going to get used to new people?

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How are you going to get used to the way things work and how to live life in general?

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You're not

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because all you do is hang out with people from your country all you do is um speak the language

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that you literally like grew up speaking

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so like how are you going to actually get used to things

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if you're still caught up on the old stuff you know

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so that's super important and this might be controversial

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and this might hurt you but this is the truth okay you can't learn a language unless you're around that language, right?

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And you speak the language, right?

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So you can't be scared to make mistakes.

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You have to speak, okay?

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Because that's how you learn, right?

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Oh, I have a hard time speaking English because I freeze.

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Well, how about you actually speak?

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You're freezing because you're scared of making mistakes.

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So you can't be scared of making mistakes.

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Otherwise, you're going to freeze.

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All right.

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You can't like, you can't just completely disregard the fact

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that you're in a different place and you need to really put yourself out there.

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Right.

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You can't just be hanging out with people from what you're used to

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because you need to get out of your comfort zone.

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Okay.

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And you need to live that language.

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You need to do that.

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Okay.

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Um, anyways, today was awesome this was the first episode of my podcast I hope you enjoyed this

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and um I'm sorry that I can't make this too long all right

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because um YouTube won't let me upload it

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but um before I go I just wanted to clarify something because nowadays you have to be super careful with how

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you tell things online um

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when I told you you need to forget about who you

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were in like the place you came from it's not necessarily actually forget about like all of

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that okay like I'm Brazilian I will forever be Brazilian

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but in order to get used to a place people languages

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and just like your new life you can't constantly be stuck

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on the past right you need to move forward you need to put yourself out there

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and don't be scared of it so I just want to clarify

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that because nowadays you can get canceled for literally breathing

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so um but anyways yes guys uh thank you

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so much for being a part of my first uh podcast

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episode um I'm super excited for our next episode next week

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um feel free to comment down below what you guys want

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to want me to film for this podcast next week um

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I'm more than open to you know just like whatever you

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guys have in mind i want to do something fun next week

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and something more in terms of english right not just like my life

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and tips um so anyways yeah that's it for today thank you

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so much for watching don't forget to subscribe

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and feel free like i said to comment down below a few um ideas of podcast themes for next week

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and for future podcast episodes as well and yeah I hope to see you next week bye bye

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This video has 329 sentences and 4066 words to shadow. The speech runs for 24:02. The speaker talks at a natural 169 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 86% 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

15 less common words from the video, with pronunciation and meaning:

podcast /ˈpɑdˌkæst/ (noun) — A program, especially an audio program, produced on a regular basis, delivered over the Internet in a compressed digital format and designed for playback on…
anyways /ˈɛn.iˌweɪz/ (adverb) — Anyway, anyhow, in any case.
abroad /əˈbɹɔːd/ (adverb) — Beyond the bounds of a country; in foreign countries.
scare /skɛɚ/ (verb) — To frighten, terrify, startle, especially in a minor way.
script /skɹɪpt/ (noun) — A writing; a written document.
embarrassed /ɪmˈbæɹ.əst/ (adjective) — Having a feeling of shameful discomfort.
vocabulary /vəˈkæb.jə.lə.ɹi/ (noun) — A usually alphabetized and explained collection of words e.g. of a particular field, or prepared for a specific purpose, often for learning.
crucial /ˈkɹuː.ʃəl/ (adjective) — Essential or decisive for determining the outcome or future of something; extremely important; vital.
communicate /kəˈmjuːnɪkeɪt/ (verb) — To impart or transmit (information or knowledge) to someone; to make known, to tell.
rarely /ˈɹɛəɹli/ (adverb) — Not occurring at a regular interval; seldom; not often.
organic /ɔːˈɡænɪk/ (adjective) — Pertaining to or derived from living organisms.
destination /dɛstɪˈneɪʃən/ (noun) — The place set for the end of a journey or to which something is sent; place or point aimed at.
freeze /ˈfɹiːz/ (verb) — Especially of a liquid, to become solid due to low temperature.
upload /ˈʌpˌloʊd/ (verb) — To transfer data to a computer on a network, especially to a server on the Internet.
realization /ˌɹɪə.laɪˈzeɪ.ʃən/ (noun) — An act of figuring out or becoming aware.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

go back to (verb) — To stem from; to originate in.
grow up (verb) — To mature and become an adult.
come back (verb) — To return to a place.
come from (verb) — To have as one's origin, birthplace or nationality.
lock in (verb) — To fix the value of (something potentially variable).
look at (verb) — To observe or watch.
put on /ˌpʊt ˈɒn/ (verb) — To don (clothing, equipment, or the like).
talk about (verb) — Used to draw attention to the speaker's characterization of someone or something.

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 158 contractions and reduced forms, such as you're, I'm, don't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “th” sounds: thread /ˈθɹɛd/, breathe /bɹiːð/
The “sh” and “zh” sounds: crucial /ˈkɹuː.ʃəl/, destination /dɛstɪˈneɪʃən/, realization /ˌɹɪə.laɪˈzeɪ.ʃən/, shock /ʃɔk/, essentially /ɪˈsɛnʃəli/
Long words — get the stress right: vocabulary /vəˈkæb.jə.lə.ɹi/, communicate /kəˈmjuːnɪkeɪt/, destination /dɛstɪˈneɪʃən/, realization /ˌɹɪə.laɪˈzeɪ.ʃən/, essentially /ɪˈsɛnʃəli/

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 podcast, anyways, abroad.

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 the · used to how · used to foreign
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	was born · wasn't stuck · being interviewed
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	I've never done · I've been
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	life, which was · lot, which is

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

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

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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?