Shadowing Practice: my first week living in Canada - Learn English Speaking with Video

it is now about 20 to 9 in the morning here in canada

and i'm in my new apartment i arrived last night I

got here at about 3 p .m in the afternoon

and me and my boyfriend

because my boyfriend is here with me we went to get poutine

which is the national dish of Canada to basically try

and stay awake and then I went to sleep

and I've just woke well I woke up then at like 4 50 in the morning

or something because of jet lag i always always always get like super jet lagged

so that is

so normal for me right now the apartment is an absolute mess like we have a few things in here

but we need to go to ikea

so we're in a little bit of a rush we're gonna

head out now we're going to rent a truck as well

it's called u -haul we're gonna to book a u -haul

like truck let's go okay we have just got back from ikea i'm so tired

this is all of the stuff

that we have bought it's just crazy this is a sofa

these are cushions it's just insane the time is now 8 p .m

which I'm like so jet lagged I'm just exhausted

honestly we're gonna move some stuff build a table eat

and I'm gonna go to bed but I promise tomorrow I'll give you guys like a proper update okay

honestly everything is still a mess but I feel like I've been rushing around

so much I've been trying to do everything so quickly

that I just have not given you an update at all about literally anything um

so yesterday we went to ikea we bought so much stuff

and then we came home and we started building the furniture until we realized

or remembered that we forgot to buy a screwdriver oh

so everything like we just we decided you know what it's

like 9 30 p .m we had been up since 7am except I had woken up at 5am

because I'm jet lagged anyway so we decided today to go

and do some more shopping so we've just done a huge food shop

and we went to this shop it was like pound land

but Canadian it was called like dollars like dollars dollarama

or something and we bought some screwdrivers you might not know what those are called in English

but these our screwdrivers to like fasten the screws of all of the furniture.

This disaster in front of me is my suitcase

and it is full of some things that we bought from Ikea for example these like clothes hangers basically.

There is just so much stuff that that needs to happen

and I want to give you guys like a little bit of a haul of some of the things

that we bought but I honestly might just have to do

that in a minute

because I just can't live like this let me show you

the mess I'm in let me show you these are the boxes with this is our dining table

and two dining chairs

and then this is our sofa do you love it I

literally love it we we actually got this on sale

and I was so happy about it

because there are lots of really modern sofas

so lots of sofas with like very straight lines very clean lines

and I wanted a sofa

that looked like a real sofa like this is an armrest okay

because you rest your arm on it

and I wanted a sofa with a big armrest not like a little thin armrest

and so many of the Ikea sofas are like very modern

and I just I wanted something like this and then we went to the sale section and this sofa was literally there.

So I want to show you the cushions that we bought for the sofa.

Ideally I wanted like a white sofa.

I will put some of the pictures that were my like my inspiration on the screen like here or here or something.

But I wanted a white sofa but this one was cheaper and we are on a budget okay.

I wanted to show you the like soft furnishings I bought to try

and make this sofa a little bit more like my pinterest board

so i bought this one it looks like this i mean you'll see it

when it's out right

but we bought this one we then bought like a red one to match the kind of like orange

and red thread on the flowers and then we bought a white one

and these are the three that we bought

and then we also bought this blanket so oh I'm

so tired this afternoon the main plan is just try

and make this space livable so I think step one is build a table and build some chairs

Good morning it is Monday Monday morning

so this is the first like well apart from last Friday

this is the very first weekday of me being here in

Canada this is also the first day where I am going

back to like back to work I guess today I have a couple classes

that I need to do oops

that was the oven um today I have a couple classes

that I need to do I have honestly really been struggling

with jet lag like every single day I have been waking up at like 5am

but today I woke up at 6 10 which is an improvement actually

if I woke up at 6 10 every day I would be quite happy anyway it's now nine

so I've been awake for like basically three hours just um working on a couple things on my computer

but I'm now going to make a coffee and coffee is something

that I love if you have watched my videos before I always make a coffee

and basically now I'm here in Canada I have to try

and find a new coffee recipe because in the uk i normally drink this it's like iced nescafe

i like to drink iced latte iced lattes so i need to find a new way to make these

and i have seen people online making these like iced lattes and they look really really good so

I'm going to try and make an iced latte like

that today I bought this yesterday this is I bought it

from like the dollar store it's like a it's a milk frother

so it makes the milk go frothy

when something is frothy it has like those white sort of bubbles on it

so I bought that and I'm going to try and make an iced latte.

I'm going to make a brown sugar latte.

Say bless you.

okay so this is the room

that I think we are going to be spending the most amount of time in this is my office

and this is where I am going to be teaching this

100

is where I'm going to be probably filming a lot of my like podcast episodes and things

101

and this is where I'm going to be spending you know 10 hours a day

102

or whatever it is that I'm doing

103

and you can see we do have some bits of furniture in here

104

so let me show you some of it we have this shelf

105

and we got everything we got in here we got from Ikea on sale so this cost $38 .50.

106

And then we got this lamp.

107

I don't know how much that cost, like $60, I think.

108

Canadian dollars.

109

So like £30.

110

And then the thing I'm most excited about is this desk.

111

This is a standing desk, but I've not plugged it in.

112

So I can show you what this looks like.

113

Hang on.

114

This desk, if I press this.

115

And this is what will save my posture.

116

So my posture right now is pretty bad.

117

No, I'm standing straight.

118

I'm normally like this.

119

So this is going to improve my posture.

120

I think now what we should do is we're going to make this lamp.

121

So let's do that now.

122

um and then this is my shelf it has my this is my um keyboard can you see it's like

123

it's got a wave in it it's got it's got a wave this is

124

because it's ergonomic if something is ergonomic then it's like good for your body

125

and your joints and everything um

126

but on my shelf I don't really have any decoration

127

or anything yet honestly I don't own anything like back in the UK I do have like decoration

128

but here I have nothing I have my YouTube play button this is my silver play button

129

and this is um this is just the book

130

that I'm reading in my like English learner book club available on my school community link in bio plug

131

but this is the book we're reading so I thought it would be nice to have that here

132

but it's not visually very exciting so maybe in a future video

133

or in a future vlog we could like decorate this a

134

little bit more what do you guys think would look cute

135

here what do you think would look good anyway I'm now

136

going to cut those labels off I will cut this one and this one

137

so for the rest of my day I am going to just prepare a few things

138

so I have a class to teach at 2 p .m

139

it's with one of my regular students who is preparing for a job interview

140

and then today I also have a live event over on

141

my online school I know I keep talking about it I'm

142

not trying to like plug I'm not trying to promote it

143

or anything but it's just like that's what I'm doing today

144

so it's my very very first like live event

145

that I've done since opening my online school

146

and honestly I'm kind of nervous like everyone is so nice but I have never done like live

147

events in my life

148

or live teaching everything I've done in terms of teaching has been like one -on -one

149

so with a one -on -one class I feel like I know what I'm doing

150

and what I should be doing

151

but these live events with multiple people is something new for me

152

so we will see we'll see how it goes maybe no one turns up anyway like I'm worrying for nothing

153

but anyway let me turn off the extractor fan a second

154

I have been working since about seven o 'clock this morning

155

and yeah I've had a really good day so far

156

so I had class with one of my students at 8am like a one -on -one class

157

and then I had a live event over on my school

158

and I've just been doing like a little bit of work since then um I've been making some like presentations

159

and I didn't even know what I've been doing drinking coffee anyway I'm now just making some lunch

160

so I bought this like pot noodle thing and it contains

161

20 grams of protein but i'm also just adding some tofu this is like just some fried tofu

162

it's not very exciting

163

but i just want to basically i just want to make sure i eat better

164

because when i was back in cornwall in the uk i was working

165

so much basically trying to make sure

166

that the youtube i really like doing this is literally my dream job

167

so i really was working so much every day just to try

168

and like keep it happening like I wanted it to keep

169

happening I'm now trying to like eat better like make sure

170

that I actually like eat breakfast I'm really bad for skipping breakfast

171

and then making sure

172

that I eat like a proper lunch um at the moment I'm trying to eat less processed food

173

which clearly it's not going very well um

174

but especially as a vegetarian it's quite difficult to get enough protein that's not like super processed

175

so processed food like fake meat fake chicken

176

and I'm trying to eat better this is really processed

177

but um generally I am trying like noodles with some coriander peas

178

and spinach and tofu

179

and this is what I'm eating for lunch today I now have like a little bit more work to do

180

so it is now what time is it?

181

20 to 2.

182

I have a class at 2 until 2 .50

183

and I'm going to stop working at 3 and then we are going to go to the beach.

184

So literally an hour and a bit left and then we're done.

185

I don't know.

186

sorry hey

187

guys i am on my bed which is currently a mattress on the floor

188

um because we ordered a bed frame no one cares we ordered a bed frame

189

and they like just haven't delivered it so I needed to ring up

190

and like complain basically nicely I complained nicely and they're sending another

191

but that's why the bed's on the floor

192

but yesterday we went into the center of the city and did a little bit of shopping.

193

There was a few things that I still needed in particular like beauty items

194

but I'll show you that later because my camera has like 10%.

195

But I also walked by a shop and there was a pop -up store.

196

So a pop -up store is a store

197

that literally pops up just for like one day two days three weeks something like this

198

and I was like so excited and I went in

199

and the staff was so nice like they were the coolest girls

200

and they were like excuse me like can I can I set a room up for you

201

and they like took all of the clothes into a dressing room

202

and were like choosing things they thought I would like

203

and they were so nice and I was shocked

204

because in the UK you don't get treated like that in a in a clothing store you just like

205

have a lot of privacy no one is really talking to you um

206

but I really liked it

207

and she was super sweet the girl serving me her name was Michaela

208

and I was like oh my gosh Michaela you are

209

so nice and she said to me the girl working there she said of course I'm sweet I'm Canadian

210

I thought that was so cute anyway

211

so in the shop I did buy a few things um

212

and I actually bought a jumper that she had chosen for me

213

because she saw that I liked stripes so I bought this cool, like, stripey.

214

I would call this a rugby shirt.

215

Like, a rugby shirt is a long -sleeved shirt with a collar.

216

And it is so cool.

217

And you can see it's got this, like, exposed seam.

218

So it looks like you're wearing it inside out, but it's not inside out.

219

This is the right way.

220

So I bought this and i'm gonna wear it today i'm

221

so excited and i bought some earrings

222

because i you know i bought i you don't might not know

223

but i bought some earrings in sweden

224

and i've lost them like i always lose my jewelry

225

so i bought some more i just bought these i love

226

i love big earrings these are some big silver hoop earrings

227

and because i bought these two things they gave me a freebie

228

and I was so happy because I I just love big jewelry I love big jewelry

229

and I saw they had this jar of bangles

230

and they were like you can have a bangle for free

231

and I was like oh my god yay

232

so I bought this this is a bangle

233

so obviously a bangle is a type of bracelet

234

but a bangle is specifically a bracelet that goes on the wrist

235

and it doesn't um close it's not like a chain a bangle is like usually plastic

236

or metal that might even be a word from like hindi

237

or something but it's a bangle

238

and i think today we are going to go to a park

239

and just spend some time outside it's a sunday

240

so i think i need like i need to touch grass i spend every single day on my laptop

241

so I need to like touch grass I need to go outside and like connect with nature

242

it is now I don't actually know what day but it's night time and uh during the day today our bed

243

finally arrived excuse the mess

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but this is the bed it's pretty late right now it's already 8 15 we've not had dinner

245

but we bought a couple of these like cheese cheese pizzas oh my life with

246

i'm gonna add some artichokes these are artichoke hearts to the pizza i absolutely love artichokes and some chili flakes

247

Let's do this.

248

We'll see you next time.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This B1 speaking lesson is built on the video “my first week living in Canada”. This video has 248 sentences and 2854 words to shadow. The speech runs for 23:14. The speaker talks at a steady 123 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. Only 81% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.

Key vocabulary in this video

The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
sofa noun	/ˈsoʊ̯fə/	An upholstered seat with a raised back and one or two raised ends, long enough to comfortably accommodate two or more people.
bangle noun	/ˈbæŋ.ɡəl/	A rigid bracelet or anklet, especially one with no clasp.
latte noun	/ˈlɑ.teɪ/	A drink of coffee made from espresso and steamed milk, generally topped with foam.
earring noun	/ˈɪəɹɪŋ/	A piece of jewelry worn on the ear.
armrest noun	/ˈɑɹmˌɹɛst/	Part of the seat of a chair that is designed to support the arm.
artichoke noun	/ˈɑɹ.tɪˌtʃoʊk/	A plant related to the thistle with enlarged flower heads eaten as a vegetable while immature, Cynara cardunculus var. scolymus.
screwdriver noun	/ˈskɹuˌdɹaɪvɚ/	A hand tool or power tool which engages with the head of a screw and allows torque to be applied to turn the screw, thus driving it in or loosening it.
tofu noun	/ˈtoʊfu/	A protein-rich food made from curdled soy milk.
posture noun	/ˈpɑst͡ʃɚ/	The way a person holds and positions their body.
lag verb	/læɡ/	To fail to keep up (the pace), to fall behind.
jewellery noun	/ˈd͡ʒʊ-/	Collectively, personal ornamentation such as rings, necklaces, brooches and bracelets, made of precious metals and sometimes set with gemstones.
haul verb	/hɔl/	To transport by drawing or pulling, as with horses or oxen, or a motor vehicle.
shelf noun	/ʃɛlf/	A flat, rigid structure, fixed at right angles to a wall or forming a part of a cabinet, desk, etc., and used to display, store, or support objects.
plug noun	/plʌɡ/	A pronged connecting device which fits into a mating socket, especially an electrical one.
furniture noun	/ˈfɝ.nɪ.t͡ʃɚ/	Large movable item(s), usually in a room, which enhance(s) the room's characteristics, functionally or decoratively.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
pop up verb		To come up with a "pop" sound.
head out verb		To leave, depart; to go on ahead.
ring up verb		To telephone; to call someone on the telephone.
turn off verb		To power down, to switch off, to put out of operation, to deactivate (an appliance, light, mechanism, functionality etc.).
turn up verb		To show up; to appear suddenly or unexpectedly.
wake up verb	/ˌweɪk ˈʌp/	To stop sleeping; to awake.

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	I've been rushing · I've been trying · have been waking
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	have bought · have not given · we've just done
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	was called · are called · is really processed
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	students who is · bed which is

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 86 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, I've, we're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “sh” and “zh” sounds: shelf /ʃɛlf/, cushion /ˈkʊʃən/, decoration /ˌdɛkəˈɹeɪʃən/, gosh /ɡɑːʃ/, dish /dɪʃ/
Long words — get the stress right: decoration /ˌdɛkəˈɹeɪʃən/, coriander /ˈkɔ.ɹiˌæn.dɚ/, visually /ˈvɪzju.əli/, ideally /aɪˈdi.ə.li/, vegetarian /vɛ.d͡ʒɪˈtɛ.ɹi.ən/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Shadow it sentence by sentence at normal speed, repeating each one until your rhythm matches the speaker.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like sofa, bangle, latte.

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: my first week living in Canada - 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?

WE ATE TJMAXX FOOD FOR 24HRS…wtf?!