Shadowing Practice: MY COLLEGE EXPERIENCE (ucla film school) - Learn English Speaking with Video
Choose a practice mode
Each mode opens a full-screen practice room.
192 sentences
If sentences are too short or too long, click Edit to adjust them.
1
Ah, the great college experience.
2
High schoolers dream of it, college students go into debt for it, and parents go to jail for it.
3
Is that too many college scandal related jokes for one channel?
4
Maybe.
5
Anyways, I just graduated from UCLA as a film major a month ago, and I thought I would take you guys on a little tour around my alma mater
6
and try to do it all while not getting kicked out for not having a filming permit.
7
So it should be a fun time.
8
Let's get going, kids.
9
How do I need to tell her that?
10
Hey, Bill!
11
Now, I'm from Maryland, so my first time ever coming to LA was for my UCLA film school interview.
12
They only admit 15 people every year.
13
Oh my freaking Lord. So they interview us.
14
So they interview everybody in person first to make sure they don't admit any weirdos.
15
Now, tragically, that system failed in April of 2016 when they admitted me.
16
I did get into a couple other non-film schools that were probably safer and smarter and objectively a much better life decision, Ashley, than blowing all your money on film school.
17
But I was very headstrong in high school, and I decided, you know, if I had one chance to make a career out of what I love doing, I was sure as hell going to do it.
18
Now, my college experience started out a bit untraditionally.
19
I knew from the onset I wanted to graduate in three years instead of four, and people always ask me, like, why did you want to do college so fast?
20
It's like, have you heard of out-of-state tuition and the fact that it's like $40,000?
21
So I wanted to save that good, good tuition money, so I ended up flying out here early to take some summer classes, which are cheaper than like regular tuition for some reason, before my freshman year began.
22
Now, I didn't know a single person in LA, so I ended up living here in an apartment with four complete strangers that I met off a Facebook group.
23
Now this could have ended in either one of two ways.
24
I could have made some lovely unlikely friends or I could have ended up dead in somebody's basement.
25
Luckily it was the former and they actually ended up all being seniors from UCLA
26
so I kind of got like a crash course in the college experience, mostly just drinking a lot of boxed wine.
27
Fall rolled around, my freshman year officially started, hence this backpack to signify freshman Ashley, and I moved up to Hedrick Hall.
28
Now despite the UCLA dorms being notoriously overpriced for
29
or the equivalent amount of space that you get in a spirit airline seat, I really wanted that good, good college experience.
30
So I moved up to the freshman dorm, Hedrick Hall.
31
I really just wanted to be like friends with everybody on my floor
32
and have like late night hangouts and all that fun shit.
33
My first week in college started out pretty hopeful because we had like a beach trip together.
34
There was even a karaoke night
35
and I screamed Avril Lavigne at the top of my lungs with some of the people from my floor.
36
And I thought we were gonna be really, really good friends.
37
But then as soon as classes started, I pretty much didn't see anybody like ever again, which I guess is just college.
38
Now the one thing that did live up to my expectations was the dining halls.
39
They were dank and like dangerously dank.
40
I did not think the freshman 15 was real, but oh boy, it was real for me.
41
This is where I went to my first ever college party.
42
I remember strutting in in a denim skirt and a button-up.
43
Yes, a button-up, because I thought that was what college students wore to frat parties.
44
And I felt so cool because like three guys asked me to dance.
45
I found out the next day that this is actually the engineering frat, which explains why they were attracted to nerds in button-ups.
46
And that turns out to be the only time I was ever asked to dance at a college party.
47
I'm also slowly realizing how awful my outfit is in this video, so please don't unsubscribe for that.
48
Right now we're standing outside Melnitz, which is the film school where I took all of my classes.
49
I remember my first impression of Melnitz was walking into this
50
grand entrance where they have all of the movie posters from all of our UCLA alumni proudly displayed, which was so empowering until you take a closer look
51
and realize that you have no idea what the fuck those movies are are
52
because they were all made in like the 80s and everybody who's graduated since is just like a full-time barista.
53
Right at the onset I was a little bit like oh fuck what have I got myself into?
54
I'm gonna be so unemployed.
55
One thing that took me way too long to learn in film school is that opportunities are not handed to you.
56
You really have to go out and search for them.
57
For some reason in my high school brain I thought
58
that as soon as I got into film school like my life was set, they were gonna get me internships, they were gonna get me jobs, and that's really not the case.
59
I think college is exactly what you make of it, and you really have to go above and beyond to go and ask your professors if they have any internship opportunities,
60
ask the guests interesting questions and try to make connections that way.
61
If you guys are just starting school now, please take advantage of those opportunities because you are paying so much for them, and then you know before you know it you're going to be a graduate
62
and you're not going to have access to them anymore.
63
This is where I waited to catch the bus for one of my many internships freshman year.
64
I have really seen it all when it comes to internships.
65
I have taken out the trash for free.
66
I wrapped Rachel McAdams Christmas presents.
67
I met Deb Patel.
68
I've had some good bosses and some weird bosses, but at least luckily nobody has asked me to watch them masturbate in their office, so.
69
Welcome to the bathrooms at TFT.
70
Wow, luxurious.
71
This is what you wanted in a college tour.
72
Um, lots of good men's here, lots of peeing, some pooping.
73
Also a decent amount of me just waiting for break to be over in class
74
because my classes were like four hours long
75
so the teacher would always give us a pretty long break
76
but like when I didn't have friends
77
that I could talk to I would kind of just like hide in the bathroom
78
and like sit on the toilet for a while so that's that's normal.
79
Now this video has kind of been all like jokes
80
and stuff up until here but I remember going home for winter break my freshman year
81
and when I had to take the plane back to LA I like could not stop crying
82
because this is such like a first world problem because I was
83
so lucky to be able to go to film school
84
and it was like my dream school to go to
85
and I was supposed to be studying something that I loved
86
but I guess I thought college would be this big grand fun experience with all these friends
87
and parties to go to and classes that I loved and I just ended up feeling lonelier than I've ever felt before.
88
I felt like I could close my eyes and disappear and nobody would even notice.
89
You know like I struggled a lot in high school too and I would like come home crying.
90
I wanted to graduate early and get my GED.
91
And my mom would always say that if I could just hold out until college, I would have an amazing time in college.
92
Everything would be different.
93
But when I finally got to college, I just felt even more alone than I'd ever felt.
94
I honestly was like, shit, I peaked in high school.
95
I never thought I would be one of those people.
96
And even though I was going to film school, which was my dream for my entire life, I was so lucky to go.
97
I quickly learned that Hollywood wasn't really what I expected either.
98
You know, I thought it was like all these fun, creative people making their dreams come true
99
but it was really just a bunch of like executives in their office doing cocaine
100
and people getting jobs because their dad or their cousin worked somewhere.
101
Coming to film school like everybody back home was just like oh invite me when you get an Oscar.
102
They were so proud of me for like pursuing something
103
that was seemed really hard but I felt like it didn't even have a purpose anymore
104
because it was just people trying to make money in their
105
offices like I didn't what's the point you know there are like so many more important things to work on in life.
106
I would like cry on my way to class I would cry on my way to the dining halls.
107
Literally the highlight of my day was just stuffing my face
108
with brussels sprouts before I went to work at the dining halls until 3am.
109
I remember spring of my freshman year, I took another of the film students to take over my internship and she was just like, isn't this the best?
110
Isn't college the best time of your life?
111
And she genuinely meant it and I don't know, I guess it just clicked in my head that it wasn't all UCLA's fault.
112
I felt like I was blaming it on like school, I was blaming it on not having the funnest people on my floor or something like that, but really it was my goddamn fault for not getting out there
113
and like making friends and really trying to do the college things.
114
So I decided for at least the rest of my freshman
115
year I would just try out the whole college thing and try to do it right.
116
I joined a theater company on campus and this is where we performed.
117
Well technically we performed like in the theater but I couldn't get in so I'm doing my best.
118
I finally quit my unpaid internship reading shitty scripts in a closet three days a week
119
and I used that extra time to start making YouTube videos again.
120
As cringy as my videos and my hair was back then, I'm really glad that I took a step back from this 24-7 grind of going to class
121
and internships and maxing out on units and gave myself a little time to try to build something for myself.
122
And I took my first ever cinematography class and made my first short film in film school.
123
It felt really good to get my hands on a camera again for the first time
124
that year and really reminded me why I came to film school, which wasn't this like administrative bullshit or like making a lot of money.
125
It was really just to make films that I loved making.
126
By sophomore year, things were starting to look up.
127
I was able to use my portfolio of my own YouTube
128
videos to get a job editing for some other YouTubers so I could finally quit my minimum wage job, and I also moved from the dorms into this lovely apartment.
129
Here, I lived with five other girls in a two-bedroom apartment, which is actually too many people to like legally have in
130
that amount of space because apparently it was like a fire hazard, so I wasn't on the lease and I spent a lot of time here avoiding my landlord.
131
I was also making weekly YouTube videos at this point, but I was so embarrassed of my YouTube channel, I couldn't film with anybody else around, which is a hard task when you have five other roommates.
132
So I would keep a notes app on my phone
133
and write down every time that they like were in and out of the apartment, and I would find like the two hours per week where everybody was out of the apartment
134
and film then and then scramble to like take down my lights and make my YouTube video for the week.
135
Now this giant empty plaza is where I would come to film a lot of my lookbooks sophomore year.
136
I remember I would come here with my vlog camera and do like the same motion over and over again.
137
I'd be doing like this for like an hour trying to get the perfect shot for my lookbooks.
138
This is where I would fall asleep after pulling all-nighters, staying up editing and writing essays.
139
This is where me and my friends smoked a blood before our class where our required class screening was to watch Twilight.
140
Now I gotta say that movie is pretty entertaining while stoned
141
but by the end of class my high was wearing off
142
and I remember being like how the fuck was I entertained for this for the other two hours?
143
This movie is awful.
144
This is where I took urban planning, which I was originally
145
so salty I had to take along with a bunch of other non-film major classes
146
but it turns out it was one of my favorite classes at UCLA
147
and you know maybe at the end of the day there is something to this whole like liberal arts education thing.
148
The next summer I applied to another 20 or so studio internships
149
and surprise surprise I got rejected from all of them so I hauled my ass to this lovely new apartment.
150
Despite having to walk up this literal trash alley every single day to get to my apartment, I was so proud to finally have a room of my own, which was something really special to me.
151
That was the first summer that I started working on my YouTube channel full-time
152
and also where a lot of you guys joined me on my journey.
153
This was a really good summer.
154
I hit 100k on YouTube.
155
I went on a frankly embarrassing number of Tinder dates.
156
Yeah, it was like a good wholesome summer.
157
Wholesome if you count like wholesome sleeping with a...
158
I don't...
159
David is filming this video I'm not gonna say any of that.
160
For some reason I really really like college towns in the summer.
161
UCLA is a pretty big school
162
so it feels like somehow more intimate to just have people around who are like taking summer classes
163
or who don't want to go home to their families or who have internships.
164
By the end of the summer I also met the lovely
165
lovely David who's filming this video right now who dare I say was one of the best parts of going to UCLA.
166
During senior year I decided to give myself one final push
167
and load up on courses so I could graduate an extra quarter early.
168
Let's mosey on over to talk more about my college education senior year.
169
Oh, follow me.
170
Senior year at film school, everybody chooses a concentration.
171
So like directing, producing.
172
I was a screenwriting concentration, which meant that I sat in this classroom every single week and went over my pages.
173
I have always been so protective of my writing, so it was fucking terrifying to come here every week and be like, here, read my pages out loud and tell me how cringy they are.
174
But by the end of the school year, it was really nice to have this little like family of people
175
that I could trust to give me criticism and actually make my writing better.
176
And it made my ego like a tiny bit less fragile too, which is good because I need to work on that.
177
I also really appreciate my screenwriting professor was really the first professor at UCLA who told me
178
that I had like some type of potential, which, you know, I don't, I shouldn't need like external validation, but it was really nice,
179
especially in like a big school and a big city and a big industry for somebody to be like, hey, maybe you'll make something that people like.
180
See you later, see you on YouTube, bye bye!
181
I guess all of this begs the question, do I regret going to college?
182
And recently I've noticed this trend of influencers dropping out of high school and college and saying, Fuck the educational system, I don't need that anymore.
183
In some ways, the educational system is so fucking broken.
184
Tuition is absolutely insane, student debt is rampant.
185
But I also fear those people encourage giving up on your education just because it isn't fun.
186
And frankly, it's not.
187
College has become all about the college experience rather than the college education, which is what you're here to get.
188
Getting a college degree is fucking hard.
189
I don't even know how people who get their PhDs do it, but it makes you a stronger person.
190
It makes you smarter.
191
It makes you see the world in a way that you didn't before.
192
And that for me was the reason to go to college and the reason I don't regret going.
Download App
Everything you need to speak fluently
AI PronunciationScore every sentence
IPA PracticeMaster every sound
VocabularyBuild your word bank
Vocab GameLearn while playing
Same Channel
FOR YOU
Recommend Video
B21
371 sentences
College Week in my Life DURING MIDTERM SEASON! study routine + film school classes at USC
Daily ConversationUniversity Students
B22
100 sentences
unavoidable college experiences
Daily ConversationUniversity Students
B21
650 sentences
I Drove 10,000 Miles Around America Alone | Part 1
Travel EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B21
286 sentences
big sis advice for university | what I wish I knew 🎓
Daily ConversationUniversity Students
B24
146 sentences
If You're Stressed About Your Future, Watch This
Daily ConversationUniversity Students
B2388 sentences
How I went from FAILING to TOP Electrical Engineering Student (Best Study Tips)
Daily ConversationUniversity Students
B21
226 sentences
Caught Lying in a Job Interview | Charles Engle | Stand Up Comedy
Interview EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B22
464 sentences
move into college w me @ yale 📘 | travel day, my dream room, deep clean & decorate
Daily ConversationUniversity Students
C11
236 sentences
【日英字幕】2026ハーバード卒業演説 自身のハーバード学生生活から人生の教訓まで、ユーモアを交えて語るコナン流感動の卒業スピーチ
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B21
184 sentences
10 things you need to do before you graduate college | budgeting, saving, and negotiating jobs!
Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B1110 sentences
what they don't tell you about freshman year of college...
Daily ConversationUniversity Students
B21
213 sentences
confessing to my college campus crush...
TeensDaily ConversationUniversity Students
Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “MY COLLEGE EXPERIENCE”. This video has 192 sentences and 2954 words to shadow. The speech runs for 12:46. The speaker talks fast, about 231 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
The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| internship noun | /ˈɪntɜːnʃɪp/ | A job taken by a student in order to learn a profession or trade. |
| freshman noun | /ˈfɹɛʃ.mən/ | a person (of either sex) entering the first year of an institution, especially a high school (ninth grade for US, grade 9 for Canada, grade 7 for Philippines)… |
| tuition noun | /tjuːˈɪʃən/ | The training or instruction provided by a teacher or tutor. |
| dine verb | /daɪn/ | To eat; to eat dinner or supper. |
| wholesome adjective | /ˈhoʊl.səm/ | Promoting good physical health and well-being. |
| cringey adjective | /ˈkɹɪnd͡ʒi/ | Characterised by causing feelings of embarrassment; embarrassing. |
| dank adjective | /ˈdæŋk/ | Dark, damp and humid. |
| frat noun | /fɹæt/ | Shortened form of fraternity, college organization. |
| lookbook noun | /ˈlʊkbʊk/ | A comprehensive directory of fashion-related companies and people, such as fashion designers, industry figures, brands and retail stores. |
| screenwriting noun | The art of writing screenplays. | |
| dorm verb | /doɹm/ | To reside in a dorm. |
| sophomore noun | /ˈsɑf.mɔɹ/ | A second-year undergraduate student in a college or university, or a second-year student in a four-year secondary school or high school. |
| onset noun | /ˈɒnˌsɛt/ | The initial phase of a disease or condition, in which symptoms first become apparent. |
| entertain verb | /ˌɛntəˈteɪn/ | To amuse (someone); to engage the attention of agreeably. |
| luckily adverb | /ˈlʌk.ɪ.li/ | In a lucky manner; by good fortune; fortunately. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| end up verb | To bring to a conclusion. | |
| start out verb | To emerge suddenly; to jump out. | |
| find out verb | To discover, as by asking or investigating. | |
| get out verb | To leave or escape. | |
| go out verb | To leave, especially a building. | |
| go over verb | To look at carefully; to scrutinize; to analyze. | |
| hold out verb | To hold (something) out; to extend (something) forward. | |
| look up verb | /ˌlʊk ˈʌp/ | To have better prospects. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- How do I need to tell her that?
- I'm gonna be so unemployed.
- Isn't college the best time of your life?
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | classes, which are · Melnitz, which is · displayed, which was |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | have really seen · have taken · I've had |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | were attracted · was ever asked · are not handed |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 47 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, didn't, I'm. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: internship /ˈɪntɜːnʃɪp/, freshman /ˈfɹɛʃ.mən/, tuition /tjuːˈɪʃən/, luxurious /lʌɡˈʒʊəɹi.əs/, validation /ˌvæl.əˈdeɪ.ʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: cinematography /ˌsɪn.ə.məˈtɒɡ.ɹə.fiː/, dormitory /ˈdɔɹ.mɪˌtɔɹ.i/, influencer /ˈɪnflu.ənsə(ɹ)/, karaoke /ˈkæ.ɹiˌəʊ.ki/, notoriously /nə(ʊ)ˈtɔː.ɹɪ.əs.li/
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 internship, freshman, tuition.
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.