Shadowing Practice: Native English Conversation - With My Sister! Listening Comprehension - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Hello everybody, this is Teacher Levy.

Today I'm here with my sister and we'll be making a video with real native English.

It'll be a conversation style video.

I'll try to speak at a normal speed

so it is a little faster than what we usually do on the channel with the slow English,

but hopefully you'll be able to keep up and I'll have my sister introduce herself as well.

Today's special day because it's the first time I'm announcing the book which is Tom's English Adventures,

A Busy Summer, a book I wrote personally.

It took over a half a year to get this done and it's finally on Amazon.

I'll put the link in the description at the top of the description if you'd like to get it.

I have students who have ordered it, but it didn't arrive yet.

So we'll also do a live stream book challenge, like what we used to do on towards the end of August.

We'll set that up so that you can get prepared and hopefully even read the book by that time.

So I'll have my sister introduce herself now and then we'll just have a conversation.

Hello, everyone.

My name is Lily.

I'm teacher Levy's sister, and I'll be joining today's video just to discuss the book and speak about our childhood.

So thanks for joining the video.

A lot of times she's behind the camera.

She's helped me film, and she's been behind the scenes, and she agreed to do this video,

which I think will be helpful for you to listen to a conversation in English.

Do you want to talk a little bit about your hobbies just so people get to know who you are?

Sure.

I think I have quite a few hobbies.

I like cooking, baking.

I started a recipe book recently, so I've been enjoying that.

I also like reading.

I read quite a bit.

um in the past I read a lot of self-development books non-fiction books um now I'm reading classical literature

and just just fiction fiction books I've switched it up a bit um I also do dance

and I exercise quite a bit I just go to the

gym um a few times a week in the past I to do gymnastics

so i did competitive gymnastics for like eight years or so um and then after

around high school i stopped um and then i just started you know going to the gym consistently

um what else you have a passion for dogs oh i also work with dogs

so i started a um small business um I I do dog training dog walking dog sitting

so a variety of dog services and I plan to open a

dog kennel in the future which

if you guys don't know that's a um like a hotel for dogs

so a boarding kennel for dogs if somebody decides to go on vacation

and they need to leave their pets somewhere dogs specifically yeah totally

so why'd you get into this um

so I I got my own I got my first dog

when I was um I can't remember exactly how old I was

but I um I trained her all by myself

and I really enjoyed it

and I learned a lot of a lot about like dog training

and dog behavior and these types of things

and it turned into a passion

and then i just decided to try to try to work more with dogs

or be around more dogs and kind of take it from there

so did you get any qualifications or training or something

or is this all by yourself or did you have a course that you went to or

I did a six month or maybe it was around eight or ten months.

Ten months?

I think it was a eight month course.

It was like a dog trainer course.

And I finished that.

They gave me a certificate it and and so i finished the course

and i got certified as a dog trainer which you also need

if you if you want to open any kind of like boarding kennel

or um if you want to work with dogs in general it's better to have

so this is just for pet owners and i go for dog walks

and she knows because she watches the videos but what are the biggest mistake that mistakes that people make

while walking their dog or while walking their dog yeah um

i sometimes many people have problems with um leash pulling and at least leash control

not least con like just leash pulling mostly and um and many times they'll people will use a harness

but the problem with the harness is that it makes it really comfortable for them to pull

um for a long time people were saying

that the regular collars they put a lot of pressure on the on the throat

but um if you train good leash behavior then they don't need to pull on the regular collar

and what about for dog training is there stuff that people can do at home?

Or would you recommend everybody to go to a dog training school facility?

um i think anybody can train their dogs at home all by all by themselves

and there's so much information online and resources

that you really don't need a um a trainer um i

think people start getting trainers once they have some kind of behavioral issues

or when their dogs have behavioral issues and then they hire a trainer to fix that issue.

But with, if you train your dog by yourself, you're kind of preventing a lot of those issues, I think.

Okay.

So let's go step outside of the doctrine for a second.

So what do you think about the YouTube videos that I'm making?

I think they're really great.

I like to read through the comments

and people seem to have people seem to enjoy it and I think you get good feedback.

And I also think that you provide value so I think it helps a lot of people and yeah.

So do you think the you teach English so do you think these are helpful for

advanced students as well or only for beginners or intermediate level students?

um I think it's definitely better for it's I think everybody can get value from it

but since many of your videos are slow English I think it is more helpful for intermediate

level students what about the shadowing practice for pronunciation is

that something that works for advanced students too or no you think

or not super useful um I think it can work for advanced students

but since they're already at like a higher level um I don't know

if they would need to do that

because I think with the shadowing it's it's it's about repetition

and just remembering things and memorizing it and so it's

so advanced students would be more you would recommend TV shows or something or movies?

I think for advanced students it's it's enough to just consume content

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and then like maybe just keep some good vocabulary in mind or write it down.

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Like vlog videos or stuff like this too could be helpful.

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Yeah specifically like vlogs like lifestyle videos and then the podcast

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because I think those are very casual and

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and there's a lot useful words that you can words

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and expressions that you can pick up from those types of videos

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so i want to ask you about my book as well you read the book

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and she was one of the first

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or she was probably the first five people to uh proofread the book and she gave feedback

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back when it was only a PDF and so you read it

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and towards the end you said it was actually pretty good

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so what what's your honest feedback about the book you what was your first impression of it

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and then as it developed as I changed it would you think about it

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because at first you didn't love it

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and then later he said it was pretty good

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so what's what's your take on it obviously she's not learning English

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so but still she she read the book probably a couple times

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um yeah I think I think the book is really good

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and I'm I like the finished product I was really impressed with

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so I think I mentioned it to you

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that um it's quite similar to Diary of a Wimpy Kid um

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or it's like a similar style and yeah

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so she uh she read it

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and you could I guess maybe talk Like at first you were surprised

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that I wrote the book because the first draft was very roughly.

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I mean, I just went straight from thinking about the story to writing it down and then sharing bits and pieces.

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And then she read that and then I revised it.

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I worked on it and I went through different iterations

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or different editing parts of just working on revising it and improving vocabulary,

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making it sound more of like a story rather than like a diary.

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And so then she read it and she was like, wow, this is really good.

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I think you were traveling somewhere and you read it and you're like, wow, this is actually really good.

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Remember?

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So yes, by the time I got the final draft, I read through it and I was really impressed.

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I thought it was really entertaining and humorous and I think for English learners it will be really beneficial.

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I don't know if we will go through how the book is structured.

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We could do.

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There are short chapters.

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I did 20 short chapters and at first I was concerned

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that they're too short and then I was looking into other books

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and realized that short chapters are good for keeping the reader's attention.

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So like if you have a story for each chapter and it's only a few pages, you go through the whole book pretty quick because you're always looking forward to the next thing.

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So it keeps it entertaining.

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And also I think I could change situations for every chapter.

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So there's different things I'm showcasing and different events happening in the book.

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So I thought it was, by the end of it,

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I thought it was pretty well-rounded and it's something that could turn into a series where there's different situations,

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not only summertime activities, but it could be, for example, it could be something business related, it could be anything.

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Yeah, and I think another great thing from the book is that they're based off of real events.

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So you can, you speak from personal experience and,

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and they're very American lifestyle inspired so that people get a glimpse into what it's like.

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And this is a teenager's

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uh in high school high schoolers uh life during summer

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so summer break but still it's like an insight into what it's like to be in the u.s

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and it's it's real

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and it's based off of um what actually takes place kind of in a suburban environment would you say

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so yeah of course and i think we even spoke about how maybe it won't be

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so um clear for people who don't live live in the U.S

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but I think at the same time we also talked about how

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or we were a little bit worried that the stories wouldn't be relatable

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or super clear for people who don't live in the U.S

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or who have never lived there before but we decided

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that it was it works because because that's the whole point is to have something

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that people can read and also get real insight into American lifestyle, which is what a lot of people or students are interested in.

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They don't care about, or they might care, but it's different than reading about somebody who's living in Belgium or somebody who's living in Sweden.

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Could also be a great story, but this is kind of a two-in-one.

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It's English.

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It's a good story.

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Plus, it's the American culture and lifestyle put into one pie.

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So it has all the ingredients for English learners, and I think that's helpful.

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So it's not a random story of someone around the world, right?

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Should we go through the structure of the book and the way you designed it, or should that be a surprise for the readers?

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You mean the chapters?

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The chapters and the practice exercises.

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Okay, we can talk about it um every chapter has a word bank

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and we also have comprehension checks and discussion points

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so this is kind of the outline we have a chapter

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which finishes here and then we have the next page uh with a word bank questions

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and also a discussion point so if you're with a teacher

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or in a group what we'll do in our live stream is we'll talk about the discussion points

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and these are open for

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if you have different opinions for example um what's your favorite place to go

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when you want to be in your own world

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and think clearly that's part of it

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and everybody has a different uh answer it might be go

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to the gym it might be go to a park it

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might be uh spend time in your room whatever it may be

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so yeah and the discussion point i feel like you can also do

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that by yourself um you can ask yourself that question

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and i think um great practice is just speaking out loud

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to yourself it sounds a little bit funny to say

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but um saying it in your head versus saying it out loud is a completely different feeling

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and exercise so i think that could be beneficial i recommend

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that to everybody all the time yeah but recently i stopped doing it

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because now i think there's other um techniques

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that i push like the comprehensible input thing i've talked about a lot

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which do you know what that is um that maybe not okay

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so comprehensible input is the same as uh learning like a child does

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that make sense right so they go through the world

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and they just kind of absorb the vocabulary without speaking they're just listening right does that make sense yeah

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yeah

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so the way it works the real comprehensible input is you spend like six months hours every day without speaking

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and you just listen to native speakers the key is just hours

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and hours and then after six months you've kind of mastered their pronunciation just by listening to it

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and you've learned and retained a lot of vocabulary that's the theory behind it so you think it's useful?

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It could be.

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I think that could definitely be useful.

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I've had many students who've used similar techniques and it seems to work well for people.

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All right.

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So to wrap up, I also want my sister to share some summer stories or something.

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This book, I put in personal stories and I tried to implement them into chapters.

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So do you have something you could share from any summer that you remember and that stands out?

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Like I mentioned earlier, I did competitive gymnastics for a long time.

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And in the summer, we had summer camp and those were really intense.

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And it's kind of a core memory that I have from my childhood.

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So it was a lot of fun.

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And I was really close with my teammates.

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It was definitely tiring and demanding, but

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it was just overall a really great memory

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and usually after practice we would go to the beach together

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or do some kind of fun activity and it kind of just balanced it out very well.

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I don't know if that's like an exciting story to tell.

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I do have one funny story

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and I think I talk about it quite a bit

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and it was when I was at my friend's house with all my teammates from gymnastics and

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my friend had a pool outside.

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It was like a normal in-ground pool.

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And I was so excited to go swimming.

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And I just ran to the pool with my phone in my hand and I jumped into the deep end.

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And while I was like in the water sinking to the bottom, I realized that I was holding my phone in my hand.

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And then I came out and I was like shocked

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that I just jumped into the pool with my phone in my hand

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and then we ended up um just putting it in a bucket of rice um

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and it's the rice trick it was the rice trick there was actually a meme years ago

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that whenever something is broken you just throw it in rice

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and it was kind of for electronics it was kind of a joke

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but it really did work um

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so kept it in the in in the rice for like two days

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and after that it worked it worked perfectly fine um

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so it's a kind of a funny story yeah the rice

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thing was the rice is supposed to absorb the water and

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so you keep it in rice for a while

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and then i actually did i guess suck out the water from the phone yeah

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and um my screen was completely shattered like the glass on the on the screen

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because i dropped it on my friend's um driveway before and before

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and we were joking how maybe the rice was able to to suck the moisture out of my phone

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because of the cracks through the through the screen

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but that's probably not how it worked oh i didn't know

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that okay yeah so i've heard

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that story before i didn't know the screen was cracked i

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thought it was um getting the water out from the plug-in port where you charge your phone

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and the speakers so I guess not no probably from the screen yeah

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so that's pretty funny I have let me let me think of a summer story that's pretty good

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so I just glossed over this in the book I barely mentioned it

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but me and my sister growing up we sold dog biscuits we went door to door

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and we made them at home and they were kind of a healthy dog biscuits

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because a lot of the stuff you buy um has I

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don't know it has chemical I don't know what it has it's not the best for dogs

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and so ours had peanut butter

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and a couple other ingredients we put them in glass jars

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and she kind of designed it and it looked it looked okay it looked homemade

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and we were we went to we didn't do our street

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but we went to the street near our house a different street

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and we actually sold a couple we made like probably 20

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or i don't know how much it was like a batch

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of 20 i don't remember we sold quite a few we sold quite a few yeah less than 20

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or no or maybe less than 100 for sure

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but it was we sold a couple there were people who bought two at a time you remember that

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yeah yeah um i do and i think people were trying to be nice

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and they were trying to support young kids

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so it kind of made it easier for us yeah um actually i put

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that in my book there's a thing i've noticed where there's

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like these uh pity sales where people feel bad for you

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and it's not that they feel bad i think

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when you're young they want to support this entrepreneurial spirit it

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and so if mom opens the door

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and she's like wow these kids are trying to take initiative

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and you know do their own products that I think they want to support

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that local business

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and we support local businesses to this day right you support

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local businesses of course I try to support local businesses

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and why is that important before we I think supporting small businesses is great

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and it's important because you're supporting that person's

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livelihood and maybe you're supporting their family as well it's different than big corporations

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or huge companies which have thousands of employees so this is a

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business where you can shake the owners hand you can talk

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to them you can have a a cup of coffee with them

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so it's it's a different feeling and it's nice to know

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that you have neighbors or people in your community who are supporting each other

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so I think that's a good thing to do in general

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so no okay so that was it

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so thanks for joining do you have any last do you have anything to say to the audience

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or in general anything else you would like to add well

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thanks for inviting me you're welcome um this has been quite

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a unique experience for me i'm i'm not i don't really um use social media too much

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and i don't post anything so this this has been fun and um i hope that people

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check out your book and that it does well.

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Thanks.

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Yeah.

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We're, um, we're not huge social media.

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I think social media could be good for learning things or connecting with people, but it's just very, it could get addictive as well, which we've talked about, but yeah, so this is the book.

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If you guys want to check it out and, uh, we'll do a live stream at the end of August.

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I'm sure I'll talk about it more.

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Maybe I'll do a video going through the whole process of, the past over half a year of putting this together.

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And that could be interesting.

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Maybe I'll do that in slow English.

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So thanks for coming on.

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And then maybe we'll do another one later, or not later, but kind of in the coming days, we'll be spending time together.

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So if you're open to do it.

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Sure.

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Okay.

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So thanks everybody for watching.

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Have a good day.

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And if you like these videos you can like comment

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and subscribe and share it with someone if you think

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that they could improve their English specifically doing a combination you

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can switch from slow to fast to I have a few beginner videos

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but mostly slow and and fast or real English

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but thank you for the support thank you shout out to the members as well

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and they were the first to learn about the the book and that it came out.

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So thank you very much, everybody.

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Have a great day.

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I'll talk to you next time.

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Bye-bye.

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Bye.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “Native English Conversation - With My Sister! Listening Comprehension”. This video has 324 sentences and 3842 words to shadow. The speech runs for 24:08. The speaker talks at a natural 159 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 85% 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
trainer noun	/ˈtɹeɪnɚ/	A person who trains another; a coach.
leash noun	/liːʃ/	A strap, cord or rope with which to restrain an animal, often a dog.
gymnastics noun	/d͡ʒɪmˈnæs.tɪks/	A sport involving the performance of sequences of movements requiring physical strength, flexibility, and kinesthetic awareness.
vocabulary noun	/vəˈkæb.jə.lə.ɹi/	A usually alphabetized and explained collection of words e.g. of a particular field, or prepared for a specific purpose, often for learning.
comprehensible adjective	/kɒmpɹəˈhɛnsɪbəl/	Able to be comprehended.
kennel noun	/ˈkɛn.əl/	A house or shelter for a dog.
biscuit noun	/ˈbɪs.kɪt/	A small, flat, baked good which is either hard and crisp or else soft but firm; a cookie.
learner noun	/ˈlɜɹnəɹ/	One who is learning; one receiving instruction.
revise verb	/ɹɪˈvaɪz/	To review, alter and amend, especially of written material.
vlog noun	/ˈvlɑɡ/	A weblog using video as its primary presentation format.
pronunciation noun	/pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/	The formal or informal way in which a word is made to sound when spoken.
beginner noun	/bəˈɡɪnɚ/	Someone who is just starting at something, or has only recently started.
harness verb	/ˈhɑɹ.nəs/	To place a harness on something; to tie up or restrain.
ingredient noun	/ɪnˈɡɹiːdi.ənt/	One of the substances present in a mixture, especially food.
absorb verb	/æbˈsɔɹb/	To include so that it no longer has separate existence; to overwhelm; to cause to disappear as if by swallowing up; to incorporate; to assimilate; to take in…

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
go through verb		To travel from one end of something to the other.
come out verb	/ˌkʌm ˈaʊt/	To be discovered; to be revealed.
read through verb		To thoroughly read something to check or proofread it.
check out verb		To record the departure or withdrawal of someone or something (such as guests, employees, books, etc.).
crack through verb		To penetrate
end up verb		To bring to a conclusion.
grow up verb		To mature and become an adult.
keep up verb		To maintain; to preserve; to prevent from deteriorating or falling.

Sentences worth repeating

Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:

I think they're really great.
You mean the chapters?
We're, um, we're not huge social media.
I'm sure I'll talk about it more.
I'll talk to you next time.

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	have ordered · she's been · I've switched
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	book which is · students who have · people who don
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	is structured · is broken · was completely shattered

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 83 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, I'm, I'll. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “sh” and “zh” sounds: leash /liːʃ/, pronunciation /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/, beneficial /ˌbɛn.ɪˈfɪʃ.əl/, iteration /ˌɪt.əˈɹeɪ.ʃən/, repetition /ˌɹɛp.əˈtɪʃ.ən/
Long words — get the stress right: vocabulary /vəˈkæb.jə.lə.ɹi/, comprehensible /kɒmpɹəˈhɛnsɪbəl/, pronunciation /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/, ingredient /ɪnˈɡɹiːdi.ənt/, behavioral /bɪˈheɪvjəɹəl/

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 trainer, leash, gymnastics.

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: Native English Conversation - With My Sister! Listening Comprehension - 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

Sentences worth repeating

Grammar in this video

Pronunciation to watch

How to practise with this video

What is the Shadowing Technique?