Shadowing Practice: Long Part 3 - Learn English Speaking with Video

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I know you've lived in a lot of different countries, but what countries have you actually lived in before for more than like a couple weeks?

Good question.

I've lived in Japan for three years.

I lived in Brazil for a couple years.

I lived in the Dominican Republic for about a year.

And besides that, I have traveled a lot.

I wouldn't necessarily say I lived in other countries, but I did stay for three months in Vietnam

and three months in Thailand and a month in germany

and then a few weeks in different countries along the way

and of course i'm from the united states so i've lived here

but that's about it that's all that's a lot that's awesome

i had a period of time for a couple years where i was like nomading around

and really enjoying my freedom

so i traveled a lot i know a lot of americans like to talk about where their heritage

or ancestors are from yeah

so can i ask you where are your ancestors from yeah um

i can pretty much trace all of my heritage back to ireland oh yeah uh in fact

i have dual citizenship i have u .s and irish citizenship

because my grandfather was born in ireland

and i was able to get citizenship through him wow

so that's super cool so yeah i'm very proud of my irish heritage heritage

and um i've been able to travel to ireland a couple times

and love anyone watching from ireland let us know yeah absolutely um shout out to my irish people yes um

so yeah um and i am gonna flip this one

and say how about you like tell me about your background

i also haven't been counting how many questions we've done for this

so far we're probably getting close to ten like eight okay

so for me my ancestors

or my great grandparents are from a variety of european countries like switzerland norway um wales

and i'm probably forgetting a couple but those are oh poland yes

or um uh belarus yes

when you lived in new york city what neighborhood did you live in ah

so i lived a couple different places uh i lived up in inwood

which is very northern tipple manhattan right by inwood hill park

and then i moved up to the bronx right by dan cortland park um

so i was always kind of like the northern part of

new york city cool well should we pick another topic sports books

and music oh this sounds like a jeopardy topic

i was gonna say this sounds like trivial pursuit like let's let's get a piece of the green pie

and uh sports books and music all right so i picked the question

so i ask yeah have you seen any new movies recently like did you see the odyssey ah

i no i did not see the odyssey it's on my list of things to do um

i've not gone to the movies a lot the last few years

i don't know it kind of fell off for me

but like well tomorrow's a rainy day

so it might be a good movie day i would love to see

that i've heard really good things

if you have any movie recommendations for a rainy day please let us know in the comments that's

but i will say i am a huge studio ghibli fan yes

and so i've been watching a couple of ghibli movies

that i've seen again like howl's moving castle yes we enjoy those we do um i know

that you're athletic and that you like to do some half marathons

and full marathons i try i do my best you dance

and things like

that i don't think i know like do you have a favorite sports team oh are there any sports

that you actually follow you know i've always really enjoyed soccer um

and or football in the rest of the world i don't really have a favorite team

because i've lived in

so many different places i feel like i can't just pick one i just i enjoy the sport

because it's fast -paced and the fans are truly fanatics and

that kind of energy

and passion is just um it's uh uh what's the word

i'm looking for it is intoxicating

it is um no really what's the word though i can't think of it it is like

when they pass it on to you it is contagious thank you yes um

so yeah so the energy is contagious and one of my favorite memories was

when i lived in boston i went to see a brazil versus mexico soccer game

that must have awesome oh

that was fun yes cool yes i think back actually my favorite you said you loved living in japan

when i was visiting japan i got to go see a baseball game over there oh neat and

if people don't know in japan

they take baseball as seriously as most the rest of the world takes football soccer yes

and they have songs and chants

and they have uh women with kegs of beer strapped to there

that bring you beer it's just a great experience oh i'd love to go all right we'll put

that on our to -do list Japanese

if anyone is watching from Japan please let us know

when we can come see a game with you please

and thank you do you like live music in fact

I do yeah I know I do like going to live music shows um

I don't do it as much as probably a lot of other people yeah

but like I find like when I do actually go I really really enjoy it

so like it's something I probably should be doing more

because every time I go and do it I enjoy it

but I'm actually a huge reggae fan oh yeah

so that's one of the things about living here in maine

that's not as great is like there's not as many big reggae names

that come through i mean shout out to the main reggae scene not to put

you down there's some good stuff going on here too

but you know compared to new york or boston

or one of those big cities this is a smaller population up here yeah yeah absolutely okay um all right

so gabby have you read any good books lately

i stopped reading not entirely i stopped reading for a little bit

because i've been just all consumed with moving and renovations

and um also we started going to the gym again and

so i've gotten back into audiobooks i mean i don't know

if that counts as reading but kind of that's a great question

audience poll what do you think count do audiobooks count as reading

or is that listening um

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but i have a few books on hold at the library right now

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that i need to pick up on the topics of marathon running okay

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so tips especially for women preparing for a marathon i don't know

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if that's any different than men preparing for a marathon

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but it sounded interesting to me

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and another topic is i think i found some books about identifying plants like edible foraging

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for edible plants here in me because you really inspired me honestly

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because he knows every plant you guys

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because he's a ranger he's like look do you know what

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that is and i don't of course not

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but he knows all of the plants and he knows what you can eat

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and not eat

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so i'm trying to study up that's very kind of you i don't know all the plants

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but i know a few you know a lot

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i actually just saw some ghost pipe coming up on a walk with i don't even know what

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that is you could make that up monotropa uniflora ghost pipe a medicinal

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and cool cool plant if you say so i do okay

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so you know i just recently moved back to maine

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if i wanted to get to know maine again through sports books

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or music is there a recommendation you have for me okay

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so let's start with sports okay uh we do have a couple local sports teams

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so we got the portland sea dogs yes play baseball

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so they're like in the middle of their season

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so it would be really fun to go catch a game totally yeah

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and then coming up i mean

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you know as it gets the weather gets a little colder

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it makes me think of hockey season oh yeah we have the the main mariners hockey team

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i'm i've gotten more into hockey the last couple years myself

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because i've been traveling a lot through canada

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and had a chance to go to a couple nhl games

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and i get to watch a couple tv shows i watch are about hockey

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so i've been kind of like more into hockey

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so i'm actually really excited to go check out a mariner's

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game what i would like to check out in addition to

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that but i believe they're all sold out is the hearts of pine soccer games yeah

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that is like the hottest really popular yeah yeah hard to get a ticket to the hearts of pines yeah

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i met a couple who told me that they got to see the games

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because only because they joined the band

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that plays for the games oh that's cool and i asked them

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if i could join i said i can shake a tambourine

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i can play guitar i'm mean

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i'm a kazoo oh actually do you play any instruments oh great question um currently no in the past uh

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i've used to do a lot of percussion

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it's like hand drums like yeah congas bongos djembe uh different types of like shakers

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and rattles and stuff like that so

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when i was young again going back to being into reggae

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music like i used to play in some reggae bands here in portland wow

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so i used to play all different types of percussion

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so i have really good rhythm

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but like couldn't read a sheet of music to save my life okay um

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but i'm also i have like kind of like a bucket list goal of i want to build

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it's called a cigar box guitar it's basically like a three -string guitar

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that you make out a cigar box

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so that's on the horizon maybe I'll learn to do

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that very cool yeah

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and I'm gonna flip this one around yeah what about you do you play any instruments

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I play guitar I learned to play when I was 12

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or 13 and I never really took it very seriously

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but I learned how to play the basic chords and how to sing while I play

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and then i just kind of got into other things

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but i still have a guitar and that's about it i learned a little piano

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but yeah that's about it so

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if i build a cigar box guitar

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you can teach me like a couple basics i could maybe yeah yeah

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i'm gonna ask a question this goes slightly further than small talk okay

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because i like i like going a little deeper okay

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so um thinking about books is there a book

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that comes to your mind

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that maybe changed your life yeah actually there is uh yes

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there's a book called the obstacle is the way by um ryan holiday who is an author

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and actually owns a bookstore in texas

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and this is a book that's about stoicism

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so it taught me you know

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i don't want to i don't want to give up any

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um what are they called spoilers yes thank you i don't want to i don't want to spoil it

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if you want to read the book but let's just say it helps me reframe the way i think about things

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so i really like that book i can link to it below in the comments

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and the description

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so you can check it out cool uh what about you i yes um

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i've had several books throughout my life

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that have really kind of changed my life or

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that i really gravitated towards i would say most recently um

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there's an author named richard roar who is a franciscan uh monk priest friar

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i'm not sure the exact title franciscan

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and he wrote a book called falling upward oh that sounds good

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and it's all about kind of like first half of your life versus the second half of your life

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and like to get to second half of life you have to face challenges

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and what you do with those challenges kind of determines how you grow it's pretty deep

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and pretty in there

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and it helped me a lot during a challenging time in my life would you say it's an easy read

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or like more advanced like

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if someone's learning english at the intermediate level would they enjoy

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it i would say it is more advanced more advanced okay

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but maybe a good challenge we're talking about audiobooks oh i think that's a great way to listen to

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that one because richard roar actually narrates that one himself i like

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that and i actually got more out of listening to it than i did

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when i read it so i think that's the way to go yeah

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but it's funny you bring up like a more entry -level book

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that people might want to read another life -changing book of mine is uh the dow of poo

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so it's um pooh bear pooh bear yeah yes winnie the pooh winnie the pooh um

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but it's basically like kind of explaining uh daoism through the characters of winnie the pooh

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that sounds like a great one like

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if you're looking for a recommendation a lot of people ask me you know what books to read

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if they're learning english so i think

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that would be a fun one

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i'll link to these all in the description benjamin hoff

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i believe is the author okay i think okay we'll double check

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and check the link awesome that's a great recommendation yeah okay

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i say it's time for the next topic let's do it pets

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and animals favorite topic yes right up there with food all right you picked it

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so i get to ask the first one yeah hey gabby do you have any pets

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i do i have a siberian husky dog her name is misha uh she is about nine years old

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and she's very fluffy

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and very cute has misha ever cameoed on any of your videos i don't think

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so not yet it's about it's about time

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i know maybe the next one you guys you gotta like share subscribe comment do all the things

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and then yes if this how about this

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if this video gets more than 10 000 views

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then misha will be in the next one all right you heard it here folks it's a promise uh click

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that like and subscribe button yeah get Misha on camera.

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So, you know, obviously.

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What about you?

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Well, I was going to say, you know, obviously we're asking questions that maybe we already know the answer to.

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Like, I knew you had a dog.

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Yeah.

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So, yeah, Misha is the coolest dog.

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I just want to say that.

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I'm glad you like her.

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She loves you.

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Yeah, she's amazing.

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So do you have a dog?

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I do have a dog.

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His name is Ranger.

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So I used to be a park ranger, but that's not why he's named Ranger.

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Why did you name him Ranger? i thought a cool name for a dog

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because i'm like uh speaking about books i'm a lord of the rings fan

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so i thought of the character aragorn and aragorn is known as a ranger

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so my dog is either going to be named ranger

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or strider because that's another one of his nicknames okay

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so ended up with ranger and it just

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so happens oh there's a park ranger too that's funny

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but he's he's a cattle hula mix he's crazy smart uh crazy stubborn

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and i love him to death he's my hiking buddy yeah

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he's a good boy um all right uh have you ever had any other pets besides misha yes

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i had a dog before misha

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so misha was the friend of my first dog okay

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and then that dog unfortunately passed away um but

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that is all really when i was very young uh five years old

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or so we had a dog but since then I hadn't had a pet.

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Okay.

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Yeah.

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What about you?

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I had lots of pets over the years, especially as a kid.

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As a kid, I had a dog growing up.

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His name was Drifter.

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Okay.

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And then growing up, I also had a turtle named Ted, a box turtle.

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I had an aquarium with a bunch of fish and some aquatic frogs.

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Oh, wow.

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My mom had some finches.

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What are finches?

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Oh, birds.

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Right.

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Okay.

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Finches in the cage.

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Yes.

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My dad actually had like a small parrot for a

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while oh wow and then in my adult life i've actually had 14 pet rats believe it

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or not i just got goosebumps 15 pet rats um

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i will defend rats with my dying day rats are amazing creatures

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they're smart they're clean they make amazing pets they're wonderful little creatures

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and they have a really bad reputation

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so i'm gonna stand up for rats all day long shout out to any rat lovers out there i learned

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that there are wild rats which you don't want in your home

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and then there are pet rats

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which are domesticated i didn't know this before okay well i asked you a couple how about you questions

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so i feel like i should ask you another small talk question okay do you know

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if there is a dog park near here

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that i could take my dog to that's a great question um one of the things

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that i wish south portland had was a dog park

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because there's none here which is a bummer there's a couple parks here in south portland

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that you can take your dog off leash um

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but the closest dog parks i know of are across the bridge in portland sure

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so um you have a couple i forget the names of them right now

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but a couple dog parks over in portland

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that you can take to not too far away do you

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have any favorite wild animals do i have any favorite wild animals um

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i don't know it's a small talk question but why not sure okay

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if you're a nerd like me you're a nature nerd you're like do you like hawks or owls

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okay okay i like horses i like wild horses i think they're very beautiful i i like all animals i mean

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as long as they're not chasing me

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or trying to eat me like a bear when i'm hiking or something

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but um yeah i i'll just say i like horses

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i have a beautiful um framed photograph it's it's very large

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you've probably seen it of of a beautiful horse that's running yeah awesome yeah very cool

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so i think it's interesting that there's a lot of dog friendly restaurants

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and cafes here yeah there's a few yes what are some places

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that you think that we could bring our dogs

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or not bring our dogs because like this morning

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and i think this is interesting culturally so maybe you could tell us too

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if in your country

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or your city where you're living is it normal for people to bring their dogs

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or their pets to a cafe like this morning we went to a cafe

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and there was a sign that said no pets only serve as animals

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so we did not bring my dog inside but i think there's restaurants

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or cafes where you can bring your dog

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or breweries right a lot of breweries yeah yeah it's really interesting like here it usually is breweries

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that kind of allow dogs most of the time i guess there's something about like beer

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and dogs just go together maybe because there's no food maybe

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and it's usually kind of an industrial building where you have a lot of outdoor space yeah outdoor space

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it might have to do yeah something with like the um you know the the codes the laws that

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if there's a certain level of food you can't have pets

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i don't know be it's probably something legal about it some breweries might fit into

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that cool area are there any animals

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that you're afraid of oh good question um well like i said

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if there was a big bear

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and i was hiking i probably wouldn't want to get too close i'm very respectful of wildlife um especially

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if it could eat me you know sharks yes i think they're

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that is yours yeah i think they're amazing

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but do i want to go pet them no yeah no

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i i have a the closest thing i have to a phobia is sharks um

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and i don't know if it's fair to call it a phobia

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because it is a prehistoric cold blood killing machine sure

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but i like sharks too i think they're cool like i i'm afraid of them

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and i think they're super cool amazing creatures

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that have a right to respect for them be in their home

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and it's us that are the visitors in the ocean

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so respect to sharks

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but they do scare me a little okay i have another question for you do you like

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or do you know how to um

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do uh horseback riding ah i mean i wouldn't say i like an expert horseback okay but i've been

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you know five or six times in my life okay

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so i feel like i could get on a horse

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and know the basics of what to do and probably put the saddle on correctly if i had to and

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you know some yeah so i definitely enjoy horse back riding

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but okay probably a better idea of like someone guides me

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sure is there yeah professional yeah yeah okay what are you doing this weekend mike ah

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so uh well it's saturday today

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so i'm making this video with you that's part of what i love it this weekend yes

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and then uh probably gonna cook some dinner afterwards got some steak marinating

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so i'm looking forward to that um

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and then tomorrow uh i think i'm going to be helping you to paint i hope so and then

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And possibly might go down to Boston for a little salsa festival, Latin dance festival.

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We'll see.

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That would be fun.

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That would be fun.

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Yeah.

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And if we don't do that, then maybe we'll go catch some live music here.

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Yes.

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More local.

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There's festivals everywhere right now.

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It's kind of the end of the summer.

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We're in September, but I feel like we're getting the last of the outdoor festivals and events.

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So we have to make the most of them.

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What did you do this past week? oh this past week has been a blur honestly with renovations going on

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and then um just yeah just trying to stay on top of life admin my to -do list

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it has been such a blur um

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i'm trying to think of like i mean this week like i cannot even remember honestly like half the things

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that have gone on this past week that is a busy week

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so follow a question yes what do you like to do to relax after a long week like

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when you've had a really busy week what do you like to do to relax

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and and kind of just chill back out a bit i like to check out a festival maybe

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if there's live music or dancing i love to go out to eat um

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but for a special occasion i don't like to go out to eat every day

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i would say yeah at the end of the week

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you know what last week it was really fun going to

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that sound bath have you guys ever heard of a sound bath have you been to one

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that was very relaxing i enjoyed that but

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that was actually last friday yes which is crazy to think about

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so this last week just flew by what are you looking forward to in the coming weeks

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so in the coming weeks i am very much looking forward to getting out to nature

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and doing some hikes

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because like i said this is my favorite time of the year like the weather is just

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so crisp and beautiful and it's not too hot

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and you know mosquitoes are getting less and the bugs are getting less

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and maine's getting a little less busy after a really busy summer with a lot of visitors

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which we love the visitors but you know right to have the hiking trails back

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and yeah do all that so that's crowded i'm i'm really excited to go out

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and have some um outdoor adventures maybe even do some camping oh fun oh

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that sounds great yeah

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so you know as we're sitting here there's lots of people riding bikes by uh do you ever go biking

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or have any plans yes i love biking yeah

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i actually have plans i think it's this coming weekend to do the main lighthouse ride yeah okay

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so uh maybe by the time i get this edited

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and posted it will have already happened but i'm really excited for

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that i haven't really been training that much i wanted to train

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but we've been doing weight lifting i've been doing a little jogging

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so i feel like i'm in decent condition for that

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so um so now that it's fall and we're talking a lot about

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that like what is your ideal fall weekend

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if you could plan a perfect fall weekend what would include this is not a small talk question

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so my ideal fall weekends would be it would involve things

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that you enjoy like hiking camping maybe a sauna maybe like a jump in the lake or the ocean um

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some good food maybe like a campfire and s'mores yeah that sounds awesome yeah and a cute sweater

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let's make

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that happen let's do it i like it yeah okay deal

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deal done what's your favorite day of the week ah what is my favorite day of the week today

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i like that um you know

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it's hard to beat sunday that's true it's hard to be some sunday i feel like people are like

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they're chill they've had a day to relax yeah um you know

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if you work a normal nine to five monday through friday like a lot of people do

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so like the weekend is like there's a lot going on yeah um

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but you know it's it's a chill fun relaxing day to go out

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and like have fun

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and there's a lot of events going on i think especially here

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it's sunday is still seen as a day of rest

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and fun and family time and that's not true everywhere

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but here it is i agree i like that yeah my turn all right oh my gosh

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We only have two left.

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We can do this as the sun is setting.

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The sun is, yeah, we only have how many, wait, you taught me how to, how to like judge the sunset.

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Yeah, we got like half an hour.

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Half an hour.

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Okay.

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We better hurry up.

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Half an hour.

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All right.

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Shared situations or observations.

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This is a bonus topic actually, but this is a really good small talk topic.

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So, um, so maybe explain this to me.

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Oh yeah.

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So it's just looking around.

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Okay.

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So you're in person with someone that you're talking to.

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Got it.

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Or you don't have to be, actually.

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But we're in person, of course.

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Like, we're not AI.

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This is a real person.

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I'm a real person.

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Can you do some cool effects where I just, like, dissolve and, like, my mic is gone?

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No. No?

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Okay.

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But, yeah, we're going to be asking questions or observing our environments.

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So I guess if you were talking to someone on FaceTime or Zoom or something, it would be a little different.

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But you could still do this.

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Yeah so we actually just did

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that we were looking at the sun going down yeah

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and i asked you about you know how much time do we have judging from the sun okay

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so we were actually doing this topic before i even picked

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it cool it's amazing can i teach you people at home real quick

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that trick of course all right so

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if you want to know how much sunlight

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you have left here's a cool trick you look at the sun not directly it'll hurt your eyes

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but you know look at the sun you want to hold out your hand

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and put your pointer finger just below the rim of the sun

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and then count how many fingers it takes to get down to the horizon

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so for me right now it's two fingers each finger is about 15 minutes left of sunlight

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but the cool thing is like where's my eyes i have bigger fingers than gabby

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because i'm a bigger guy but my arms are also longer

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so it kind of works for all different people that is

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so interesting yeah i love that trick it's very helpful like

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if you're out hiking

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or just even now yeah you're out recording a video yeah um all right

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so observations did you see that big dragonfly

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that just flew by no

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that's my favorite type of insect oh really yeah do you

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have a favorite insect by any uh favorite insects well i mean butterflies they're really beautiful yeah right yeah um

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so it's getting a little cooler do you like this weather more

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or do you miss the hotter weather uh no

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this is my perfect weather right here

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this is like a little bit cool like i feel like

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i'm more of like a flannel kind of sweater kind of guy

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you look nice in your flannel thank you yes appreciate

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that yes um so yeah you know like

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when it gets to be fleece season flannel season sweater season that's my time to shine i like

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that weather yes you know because like you really go

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and hike hard yes and not be a sweaty mess yes you know yes

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so true okay this is kind of observational or question small talk

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so they're talking about getting rid of daylight savings time here like what do you think about

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that you know i would like that

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because i always get confused about time zones and time changes

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and i would just like one less thing to worry about

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when i lived in hawaii hawaii doesn't recognize daylight oh

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it was awesome i loved it oh yeah i didn't have to worry about

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when are we changing

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and what's i think it's kind of a relic from times gone by like

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when everyone was a farmer yeah

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and now we're not farming anymore i mean some people do

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but like not everyone not ever right yeah yeah

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i don't see any leaves changing color yet are you looking

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forward to doing some leaf peeping in the coming months

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or two month

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or to absolutely that's one of those things

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i think about living in maine in the northeast never gets old like every year it's almost like a tradition

485

that you got to go out and like check out the leaves

486

but for me like i'm red green colorblind actually

487

so for me sometimes the trees and stuff

488

that stands out to me might be a little bit more boring to other people interesting

489

or vice versa some some people look at that beautiful amazing like red purple tree you're like what which one

490

oh but it's fun though yeah yeah okay you still enjoy it yeah oh

491

so again you know just the sun's going down on us here

492

we're losing a little light have you ever seen the green flash what's the green flash ah

493

so like if you are watching the sunset like over the ocean where you have a clear view sometimes

494

if you're lucky

495

if the conditions are just right as the sun is setting down below the horizon at the very end

496

it goes like this little green flash of light really yeah the weather's been really great lately i'm wondering

497

because you know it's gonna change it's gonna get colder

498

we're gonna have rain all day tomorrow is there anything

499

you're really looking forward to doing before not necessarily before tomorrow

500

but like before it gets colder like before winter comes like yeah before the first snow okay um yeah uh

501

i you know

502

when you live in maine i think

503

you learn to just soak up the warmer weather yeah you gotta get out

504

while it's good you gotta get while the getting's good yes um

505

so i'm looking forward to spending a lot of time outdoors yeah a lot of hiking like there's still yeah

506

there's still like a good month

507

or two left of good kayak weather

508

i want to do i actually want to go swimming before

509

it gets colder i know the ocean is really cold up here

510

but i have a i have a long sleeve swimsuit

511

and i think it'll be not too cold i might regret it later

512

but i'm looking forward to

513

that well actually i think like in september beginning september the ocean's still warm

514

because i kind of warmed up most of the summer yeah exactly

515

so the water kind of holds heat yes a little bit longer

516

so this might be a good time to go swimming yeah yeah okay cool do you have a favorite car

517

that you've ever owned oh favorite car um

518

that I've ever owned well my first car has a special place in my heart it was a Toyota

519

what was it it was a station wagon of some kind

520

but it was nothing special but my first car it was special

521

because it gave me that freedom to get out of my parents house

522

and just go out on my own so that was really exciting

523

and I think I still have that feeling about cars

524

and camper vans which we've been looking at

525

that idea of um being on the road

526

it's just exciting like you could go anywhere i'm a big fan of road trips

527

so yeah um follow -up question yes i'm interested yes

528

so you having lived in many many different countries

529

and visited many countries do you feel like road trips are like a quintessentially american thing

530

or do you think it happens in other countries too

531

Well, I think it happens in other countries, of course.

532

But, and because the U .S is so big,

533

I mean, we have a lot of different cities to visit and a lot of different regions, a lot of different, like,

534

topography and geography and all, you know, the different, even different cultures in the U .S to check out um

535

it is a really quintessential thing to go road tripping yeah

536

and you know what else it is it's

537

because most cities you need a car to get around yeah

538

so a lot of americans have to have cars so then

539

that ends up being what we do for fun is driving around

540

or driving to another city

541

so there's very few cities in the u .s where you don't really need a car yeah

542

it's true like new england cities um washington dc where else i think really that's like you know new york boston

543

dc it's hard it's hard to live here maybe yeah i've never lived there i haven't either

544

so did you see the ducks in the river back there yes absolutely

545

so i'm a little bit of a bird watcher ah probably no shock there

546

so yeah it's just always cool to see different waterfowl

547

and actually as the seasons change as the winter comes like

548

that's one of the the cool types of birds go looking for is different types of waterfowl

549

so yeah we got some mallard ducks

550

that were in the stream right over here

551

which is always cool to see the mallards and american black ducks sometimes

552

and some other cool stuff okay love it um are you like into wildlife watching at all

553

or i know you're not really a bird watcher i like people watching okay that's

554

that can be kind of like wildlife yeah uh

555

i am curious about learning more about wildlife bird watching learning more about uh foraging for edible plants

556

so you are inspiring me to learn more about the natural world around us

557

but to be honest i have never really learned about it yeah

558

so i've always been more interested in learning about people

559

and culture languages

560

that kind of thing yeah what do you really like about people watching well i think human behavior

561

and psychology is fascinating like why do we do the things

562

we do why do we say the things we say um

563

so i like to observe people and sometimes i can learn from them

564

and you know improve my own uh uh way of doing things

565

and sometimes i like to watch people because they're funny

566

they make me laugh

567

but always entertaining i suppose awesome all right well the sun is starting to go down

568

i think we have one piece of paper left okay let's go

569

we can do it oh i like this one

570

it's a bonus one oh let's see compliments compliments we can nail

571

this we got this does it have to be a question

572

or no just i think it's just saying a compliment

573

because you can start a conversation with anyone with a compliment

574

and you could ask a question okay

575

so for example i'm gonna i'm gonna add a question to mine please do okay

576

so i love your shirt thank you where did you get

577

it you know i do a lot of my shopping actually at thrift shops oh i love

578

that reuse and recycle yeah yeah um so this is a thrift shop find

579

and it's l l bean classic

580

but i got it for a really good thrift price

581

and i just like the color on me

582

it is a nice thank you combination of colors yes it's good to hear

583

that because i'm red green colorblind and i never know there's a lot of red

584

and green in your shirt cool yeah the more you know

585

and you know i actually really do love your shirt too thank you um where did you get

586

that i feel like it's a it's a fall shirt

587

it has like fall colors um i actually thrifted this shirt i think i got it at a consignment store

588

or a thrift store many years ago yeah but it's it's one

589

that i pull out around this time of year around september because it feels very fall

590

inspired autumn inspired love your enthusiasm for bird watching thank you yeah uh how did you get into

591

that um i'll give you the short version so uh

592

when i became a park ranger in new york city um at

593

that point i wasn't really a bird watcher

594

and i got stationed up in the bronx okay

595

and all the other bronx rangers were pretty much like hardcore bird watchers

596

so when we went on patrol in the parks we always brought our binoculars

597

or they always brought their binoculars so i learned pretty quickly

598

that if i didn't get into bird washing i was going to have a very boring time on patrol yeah

599

so i started learning

600

and i ended up loving it i remember the first bird

601

i ever identified on my own with like the field guide was a dark -eyed junco

602

that was the first bird where i was like oh that's what

603

that is and like that kind of was like a spark moment for me

604

so i love how professional you are with your youtube channel

605

and like you just seem so natural in front of the camera

606

and you know like how long did it take

607

you to get to the point where you felt

608

this comfortable a long time it took about 100 videos to feel comfortable for sure yeah

609

if you go back and you look at my videos from the oldest

610

and you look at the first few videos i feel very awkward like i'm embarrassed to have you watch them

611

but i leave them up there

612

because i think it's good to see where i started

613

and where we are now like

614

when i talk in the first few videos my voice is very quiet

615

i sound really shy i look i think i look shy um

616

and the more you just do it the better you get

617

so that's my advice if you're thinking about starting your own channel

618

or making more videos is don't overthink it just do it just start doing

619

it i was about to say i think

620

that is awesome advice for people learning english yeah oh totally like like

621

if you're learning another language you're gonna feel awkward at first

622

you're gonna feel shy about it you're gonna feel like you don't know what you're doing

623

and you're gonna be self -conscious

624

but the more you do it the more you practice

625

then it just becomes more natural just do it don't wait for perfection yeah

626

you have to just start using the language and you could do

627

that right now by repeating after us the questions

628

that we're asking the answers that we're saying um that's called shadowing like

629

when you hear english and you say it right away

630

or you could pause the video

631

and you know take your time to repeat after us

632

but that's how you start using it right now and then choose one or two questions

633

from our spontaneous conversation that you're going to use in your next conversation

634

or you could if you don't have anyone to talk to because i'm always getting

635

emails and comments that say i don't have anyone to speak english with

636

so you could start by journaling the answers

637

you could start by writing out your own dialogue you know scripting a little conversation on paper

638

or on your phone or wherever you like to write and you could even

639

start speaking to yourself or like record yourself on your phone there's a lot of ways

640

that you can practice

641

and just start you don't have to wait until you have someone to talk to

642

or the perfect situation there really is never a perfect situation right you just have to start talking

643

and even if you make a mistake

644

or ask a silly question it's okay at least

645

you are getting out there putting yourself out there yes yeah all right

646

so the topic's compliments yeah is it my turn well it might be

647

but i'm gonna jump on this anyway okay

648

so i think as one teacher to another because i taught about nature

649

and stuff for song i think you're an incredible teacher i think

650

that you're really good at what you do and i think

651

that you're just a natural at like encouraging people and things like

652

that thank you are there any um like tv shows

653

or other things like that that you recommend that people can watch

654

if you're an adult learning english i don't recommend children's shows unless maybe

655

you have an interest in like elementary education

656

or you have a child yourself

657

and you're watching the shows together i think the best thing you can do is find a tv show

658

or movie or book about something that you're interested in

659

so whatever you're passion is find something in english

660

that you can do that interests you or read about

661

or watch although i am a fan of watching reality tv shows on netflix all right for learning english

662

because i feel like the conversations are more realistic

663

because they're reality shows my advice is just find something

664

that you're interested in and then you can learn english through

665

that i really admire how you start a conversation with anyone anywhere um do you think about

666

that do you think about like how am i going to talk with new people today

667

or does it just kind of flow naturally like yeah like do you

668

because i think sometimes when you're learning another language

669

and you want to talk with people in

670

that language you think about it a lot like i about it like

671

if i'm in japan

672

and i want to speak japanese i'm really like you know what can i say

673

or like in spanish i think about well what can i say to start a conversation in spanish

674

because it's not as automatic or natural as it is in your first language

675

so like i don't know do you think about it

676

or does it just feel automatic i would say even in my native language even in english it's a skill

677

that i had to learn yeah you know like growing up

678

i was more of a shy kid i'm an only child me too

679

i did mention my brother in the previous video i don't want

680

you to think i'm a liar i quickly i met my brother later in life

681

so i grew up as an only child

682

and then we connected after we were

683

that same experience i have an older sister

684

that met later in life yes so that's cool

685

but we grew up as only children

686

so we were just like in our own worlds talking to ourselves

687

so yeah for me it was a skill

688

that i had to learn it was a skill i had to acquire uh through practice

689

and being able to talk to people um and i still don't think i'm

690

it's nice for you to give me a compliment and say

691

that you think i'm good at it

692

because like sometimes i still feel like i'm awkward or that i'm not uh you know i think we always think

693

that we're more awkward than we actually are right yeah we're always like maybe our own worst critics oh

694

so that's that reminds me of some advice i got on

695

that topic like for anyone who wants to be more outgoing

696

and talk with anyone is like don't worry

697

so much about what other people think about you

698

because people are all just thinking about themselves we're all just thinking oh my gosh i'm

699

so awkward i'm you know so weird or whatever everyone's thinking

700

that so the best thing you can do is just show interest in other people.

701

Like ask questions like we're doing in this video, right?

702

That's the best thing you can do is show curiosity

703

and interest in other people

704

and have some of these questions in your back pocket to be ready

705

when you see someone that you might want to talk to.

706

And the other thing is like, I just try to talk with a lot of different people without an agenda right

707

because sometimes like for example when you're like single

708

and you're like oh i really want to talk to

709

that attractive person then you get all nervous about it

710

and you're like oh what do i say and you overthink it right

711

but if you just talk to most people it's like it strengthens

712

that muscle of how to talk to anyone yes

713

so yes confidence of just saying i have no agenda yeah

714

that gives you confidence we're just talking yeah yeah totally

715

i'm just talking here i want to get to know something about

716

that person yeah exactly awesome well

717

this seems like a great segue to to end to wrap up to wrap up yes also

718

because the sun's going down we have to our hat is empty we have to ride off into the sunset

719

and go make some dinner

720

Thank you for watching.

721

If you enjoyed this, make sure to subscribe

722

and get your free PDF download of all the questions that we asked in this video at gonaturalenglish .com slash anyone.

723

Also, don't forget to watch part one where we had all different topics, all different questions and answers.

724

And I think it was a pretty fun video.

725

It was about an hour of spontaneous English conversation.

726

Really great for your building, strengthening your muscles to be able to talk to anyone, anywhere, anytime.

727

And we had some good laughs.

728

We had some good laughs too.

729

It was a fun time.

730

Yeah.

731

All right.

732

Well, thanks for watching.

733

Bye.

734

Bye.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This video has 734 sentences and 8302 words to shadow. The speech runs for 44:54. The speaker talks fast, about 185 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 83% 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 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
topic noun	/ˈtɑpɪk/	A subject; a theme; a category or general area of interest.
ranger noun	/ˈɹeɪ̯nd͡ʒɚ/	One who ranges; a rover.
pet noun	/pɛt/	An animal kept as a companion or otherwise for pleasure, rather than for some practical benefit or use.
rat noun	/ɹæt/	Any of the numerous members of several rodent families that usually have short limbs, a pointy snout, a long, hairless tail, and a body length greater than…
hike noun	/haɪk/	A long walk, usually for pleasure or exercise.
guitar noun	/ɡɪˈtɑɹ/	A stringed musical instrument, of European origin, usually with a fretted fingerboard and six strings, played with the fingers or a plectrum (guitar pick).
compliment noun	/ˈkɑmpləmənt/	An expression of praise, congratulation, or respect.
hockey noun	/ˈhɑ.ki/	Any of a family of sports in which hockey sticks are used to move a ball or puck into a goal.
awkward adjective	/ˈɔk.wɚd/	Lacking dexterity in the use of the hands, or of instruments.
relax verb	/ɹɪˈlæks/	To make something loose.
marathon noun	/ˈmæɹəθən/	A 42.195-kilometre (26-mile-385-yard) road race.
poo	/pu/	Expressing annoyance, frustration, etc.: a minced oath for 'shit'.
soccer noun	/ˈsɑk.ɚ/	Association football.
heritage noun	/ˈhɛɹ.ɪ.tɪd͡ʒ/	An inheritance; property that may be inherited.
wildlife noun	/ˈwaɪldlaɪf/	undomesticated animals, especially mammals, birds, and fish, which live in the wild.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Meaning
look forward to verb	To anticipate, expect, or wait for, especially with a feeling of approval or pleasure; to be excited or eager to.
grow up verb	To mature and become an adult.
check out verb	To record the departure or withdrawal of someone or something (such as guests, employees, books, etc.).
go down verb	To descend; to move from a higher place to a lower one.
go out verb	To leave, especially a building.
end up verb	To bring to a conclusion.
get out verb	To leave or escape.
bring up verb	To mention.

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Present perfect continuous have/has been + -ing — an action that started earlier and is still going on	haven't been counting · i've been watching · i've been traveling
“Used to” used to + verb — a past habit or state that is no longer true	used to play · used to be
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	you've lived · I've lived · have traveled
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	was born · is known · be named

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 240 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, don't, you're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “th” sounds: marathon /ˈmæɹəθən/, bath /bɑːθ/, grandfather /ˈɡɹæn(d)ˌfɑðɚ/, athletic /æθˈlɛt.ɪk/, thrift /ˈθɹɪft/
The “sh” and “zh” sounds: recommendation /ˌɹɛkəmɛnˈdeɪʃən/, flash /flæʃ/, citizenship /ˈsɪtɪzənʃɪp/, shout /ʃaʊt/, passion /ˈpæʃən/
Long words — get the stress right: recommendation /ˌɹɛkəmɛnˈdeɪʃən/, citizenship /ˈsɪtɪzənʃɪp/, necessarily /ˌnɛs.əˈsɛɹ.ə.li/, automatic /ˌɔː.təˈmæt.ɪk/, renovation /ɹɛnəˈveɪʃən/

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 topic, ranger, pet.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

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

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

Shadowing Practice: Long Part 3 - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

Key vocabulary in this video

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Grammar in this video

Pronunciation to watch

How to practise with this video

What is the Shadowing Technique?