Shadowing Practice: My School Stories - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
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I just recently realized that the majority of my school days are over.
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I don't know about anyone else, but I used to think to myself, Ugh, school's never gonna end.
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12 years plus college is so long to spend just in school.
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And now, all of a sudden, it's practically over.
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And it's like, w-what?
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What happened?
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Wait, I'm not ready to be an adult yet!
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And you know what else is scary?
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I don't remember pretty much anything I learned from grade 6 up.
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It's just a jumble of English papers and random history I didn't care about.
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Kinda makes you question the education system when you think about it.
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So, I don't remember a lot of the things I studied during school, but I do have a lot of dumb, random memories that I, for some reason, haven't forgotten about over the years.
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For example, in first grade, I lost my front left tooth in the middle of class and started bleeding all over the place.
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And the teacher had to stop in the middle of class to get me a tissue
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and one of those little teeth envelopes to hold the tooth I just spat out.
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I don't know if schools still use those, but they were the funniest concept to me.
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Like you come home.
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Oh mom, you got mail.
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Oh, what is it?
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Oh, it's not much.
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It's just my freaking gross saliva covered baby tooth I ripped out of my head in the middle of school.
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Does school still do this?
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I don't know.
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I hope so.
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Oh, dude, that's a funny memory.
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I bet you don't remember what you were learning about while you bled on everything.
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Nope, you're wrong.
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We were learning about emperor penguins.
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Thanks for remembering all those important details, brain.
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Appreciate ya.
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I also remember everyone in school kind of fit into a category.
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Athletes, popular kids, nerds, anime nerds, emos, you name them.
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What kind of kid was I in school?
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You guessed it!
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The quiet one who never talked at all.
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Growing up, I was a shy, quiet person, and I always only had one or two friends in a class, if any.
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I mean, I'm still pretty reserved, but I mean, that's not the point.
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I was so shy that one time my nose started bleeding randomly in the middle of a class, and I was too quiet to get up and excuse myself to go to the bathroom or the nurse.
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So I silently just raised my hand, waiting to get permission to leave.
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And you know what happened?
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The teacher took five minutes to call on me.
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I spent five minutes panicking, trying my best not to bleed on anything.
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Looking back, there was a lot of blood involved in these memories.
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Ooh, one time a teacher asked the class a question, and a few people raised their hand, but as he was looking around the room, we made eye contact.
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Oh god.
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Jaden!
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Crap.
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Everyone knows, if you don't want to be called on, don't make eye contact.
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It's school 101.
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I- I don't know.
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He went on to someone else who had their hand raised, which he should have done in the first place.
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If someone doesn't have their hand raised, it means they don't have the answer.
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Don't be mad when you call on someone without their hand raised and they don't have an answer.
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So he continued his lecture, and I started calming down from the surprise spotlight.
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But a few minutes later, he had another question.
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Can anyone define a peninsula?
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Oh, I know what a peninsula is, but I don't know how to describe it, so I won't raise my hand.
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Jaden!
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What the- are you actually trying to give me a seizure?
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I- I- I don't- do you know?
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No, but- well, I- I mean yes, I- I know what it is.
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Then he yelled, Then tell me!
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The class laughed because he was being sarcastic.
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I thought it was funny too, but for some reason I almost started crying.
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He didn't call on me the rest of the year.
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Alongside being the shy girl, I was also known as being the art kid.
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I think everyone who's artsy in school can relate relate.
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Whenever someone found out you like to draw, it would immediately turn to, You like to draw?
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Can you draw me?
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And the answer would always be, Heh heh.
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Anyway, like the nice way of saying, Heh heh, that's a silly question.
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No, of course I don't want to draw you.
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And several years later to this day, people are still asking me if I would draw them things.
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And the answer is still, heh heh.
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No. In my middle school art class on the last day of school, we had a little celebration end of the year art competition.
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Not a drawing contest, but a who's the most passionate about
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and is most likely going to do something with it in their life
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and not just drop it and get a day job sitting in a cubicle all day.
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Contest.
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Me, having pretty much zero self-confidence, already accepted the fact that someone else would get it.
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I wasn't sad or anything.
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I just knew in my head people weren't going to vote for me because, one, I never really talked to people and it was a class vote, and two, I don't know, I just didn't think I was good enough.
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But to my surprise, I actually won!
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I was so startled when the teacher called my name, like, what?
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Me?
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Are you sure?
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You don't want to count the votes again?
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Kathy's pretty good.
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Everyone likes Kathy.
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Frickin' Kathy.
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Then high school happened, and I met my high school art teacher.
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This guy was...
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I don't know how to describe him.
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I've never met someone so...
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psychopathic.
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To start, he had this obsession with Pirates of the Caribbean, and even though there's nothing wrong with that, I mean, everyone has their fandoms.
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He would sit back at his desk and blast different remixes of the Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack, even when we were all trying to draw.
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He would hop up onto desks and scream, SWING YOUR SWORD!
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While whirling around a golf club with a paintbrush taped to the end of it.
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No one knew what he meant.
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We didn't question anything.
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He hung a pirate flag on the emergency fire sprinkler.
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A bit of a safety hazard if you ask me, but again, no one questioned him.
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And one time on a random day of class...
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ARGH!
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DRAW ME!
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He burst through the door dressed up completely like a pirate, screaming in people's faces and running around like a crackpot.
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I didn't take his class anymore.
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But that was not the end of Mr. Captain Jack Sparrow, nope!
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You know why?
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Because he was one of the tennis coaches!
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Yep, and you all know who was on the tennis team!
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It wasn't that bad because he coached the boys team.
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His ex-wife coached the girls.
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She got fired later on for sleeping with the track teacher.
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But this story isn't about her.
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So he'd be there while we were on the next court with her own drills.
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And one practice, I don't know what happened, but all of a sudden he got super hyped out of nowhere and started yelling and making a commotion.
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And we all kind of just stopped and looked over at him like Okay, what's he doing?
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And then he started yelling, I'm gonna jump over the net!
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And the rule of tennis for everyone out there is don't jump over the net!
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We were all just standing there like what the heck is going on?
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And then he started running to actually do it and you know what happened?
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He safely jumped over the net?
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Wrong.
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His foot caught the top of it and it slingshotted him face first into the concrete.
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This is why you don't jump over the net.
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You need to take him to the doctor and she's like, nah, he's fine.
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Like no seriously, he could have a concussion.
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That was a hard hit.
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He's alright.
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He'll shake it off.
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Dude, so his ex-wife took him to the doctor and we all just stood around for a while.
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I don't think he had a concussion, but he did get two black eyes and had to wear sunglasses in class for like a month.
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And that was cool for me.
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There you go.
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Hey dudes!
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It's been a while since I've talked to you.
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Sorry I took so long getting this video out.
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I'm gonna start uploading more frequently now, so yeah.
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I wanted to let you know real quick before the recording bloopers, there's new t-shirt designs in the shop now, so you might want to check those bad boys out.
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Yeah.
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I'm in- I always record in my closet, and Ari's in here with me.
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You got anything to say, Ari?
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Quack?
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Okay, so yeah, see you later, alligator.
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Quiet person.
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And I always only had one, and I always, oh, I was so shy that, oh, my neck popped.
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Which he should have done in the first, hey, which he should have done in the first, Ari.
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Which he should have done in the, god dang it.
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I think that actually helped me continue doing art, actually.
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Wait.
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Quack, quack.
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Haha.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B1 speaking lesson is built on the video “My School Stories”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: draw, heh, teacher. This video has 154 sentences and 1587 words to shadow. The speech runs for 7:52. The speaker talks fast, about 202 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 |
|---|---|---|
| bleed verb | /ˈbliːd/ | To shed blood through an injured blood vessel. |
| yell verb | /jɛl/ | To shout; holler; make a loud sound with the voice, especially to express intense emotions such as anger or excitement. |
| tooth noun | /tuθ/ | A hard, calcareous structure present in the mouth of many vertebrate animals, generally used for biting and chewing food. |
| concussion noun | /kəŋkˈəʃɪn/ | An injury to part of the body, most especially the brain, caused by a violent blow, followed by loss of function. |
| pirate noun | /ˈpaɪɹət/ | A criminal who plunders at sea; commonly attacking merchant vessels, though often pillaging port towns. |
| peninsula noun | /pəˈnɪn.sə.lə/ | A piece of land projecting into water from a larger land mass. |
| scream verb | /skɹiːm/ | To cry out with a shrill voice; to utter a sudden, sharp outcry, or shrill, loud cry, as in fright or extreme pain; to screech, to shriek. |
| relate verb | /ɹɪˈleɪt/ | To tell in a descriptive way. |
| nope | /noʊp/ | No. |
| alligator noun | /ˈæl.ɪ.ɡeɪ.tɚ/ | Either of two species of large amphibious reptile, Alligator mississippiensis or Alligator sinensis, in the genus Alligator within order Crocodilia, which have… |
| blooper noun | /ˈblu.pɚ/ | A blunder, an error. |
| commotion noun | /kəˈmoʊ.ʃən/ | A state of turbulent motion. |
| crackpot noun | /ˈkɹæk.pɒt/ | An eccentric, crazy or foolish person. |
| cubicle noun | /ˈkjuːbɪkəl/ | A small separate part or one of the compartments of a room, especially in a work environment. |
| fricking adjective | /ˈfɹɪkɪŋ/ | A minced oath of "fucking" as an intensifier. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| dress up verb | To put on special or fancy clothes. |
| find out verb | To discover, as by asking or investigating. |
| get up verb | To move in an upward direction; to ascend or climb. |
| grow up verb | To mature and become an adult. |
| look around verb | To inspect a building or area. |
| look back verb | To think of (past events) in retrospect (in hindsight). |
| run around verb | To be very busy doing many different things. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- Wait, I'm not ready to be an adult yet!
- What kind of kid was I in school?
- What the- are you actually trying to give me a seizure?
- I- I- I don't- do you know?
- You don't want to count the votes again?
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | haven't forgotten · I've never met · I've talked |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | be called · was also known |
| Verb + -ing enjoy, keep, stop… + -ing — verbs that are followed by the -ing form | started bleeding · started calming · started crying |
| Past continuous was/were + -ing — an action in progress at a moment in the past | were learning · was looking · was being |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 48 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, didn't, I'm. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: tooth /tuθ/, psychopathic /ˌsaɪkoʊˈpæθɪk/, athlete /ˈæθ.liːt/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: concussion /kəŋkˈəʃɪn/, commotion /kəˈmoʊ.ʃən/, paintbrush /ˈpeɪntˌbɹʌʃ/, slingshot /ˈslɪŋʃɒt/, seizure /ˈsi.ʒɚ/
- Long words — get the stress right: peninsula /pəˈnɪn.sə.lə/, alligator /ˈæl.ɪ.ɡeɪ.tɚ/, psychopathic /ˌsaɪkoʊˈpæθɪk/, practically /ˈpɹæk.tɪ.k(ə.)li/, celebration /ˌsɛl.ɪˈbɹeɪ.ʃən/
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 bleed, yell, tooth.
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.