Shadowing Practice: No Celebrity Could Stay Serious Around Rowan Atkinson... - Learn English Speaking with Video
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150 sentences
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Nobody in comedy can bring the entire room to tears without saying a single word like Rowan Atkinson
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This is Rowan Atkinson and his most funniest self
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While most comedians spend their entire careers chasing the perfect punchline, Rowan Atkinson built a global empire by saying almost nothing at all.
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But what most people don't know about Rowan Atkinson is that he's nothing like the characters he plays.
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The man behind Mr. Bean is the complete opposite and almost unrecognizable in real life.
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I probably enjoyed playing Mr. Bean the most because he's a character who's furthest away from my own character.
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As a person, I don't like him at all.
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I think he's very odd and pretty weird and not very nice.
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Are you feeling any better?
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No. Excuse me?
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Oh!
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Thank you!
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Speaking of how unrecognizable he is, on The Graham Norton Show,
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Rowan told the hilarious story of a stranger who walked up and swore he was the spitting image of Mr. Bean, with no idea he was talking to the actual man.
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A few years ago, I was in a Land Rover parts department near Peterborough, the kind of place you find me on most Sundays,
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and we were waiting for car parts.
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I was standing around with a group of guys and I could see this guy doing that.
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And he came up to me after a while and he said,
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Excuse me, has anyone ever told you that you are the absolute spitting image of that Mr. Bean?
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LAUGHTER And I said, well, actually, I am the actor who plays Mr. Bean.
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And he said, I bet you wish you were.
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LAUGHTER And they followed this bizarre conversation in which the more I tried to claim that I was the person
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whom he thought I merely resembled, the less he believed me.
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And I could tell after a
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while I had to bring the conversation to a close because not only was he not believing me, but he was getting quite annoyed.
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But nothing tops the moment when Rowan impersonated the legendary F1 commentator Martin Brundle to Martin Brundle himself,
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while Brundle had absolutely no idea it was happening.
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Lovely to see you, Rowan.
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Enjoy the race.
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And so you're cheering for the pole sitter, Mr Russell.
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Well, thank you.
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May the best man win.
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Absolutely.
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Mom!
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Dad!
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In one of the most iconic Mr. Bean scenes ever filmed, Rowan spent over a minute fighting to put on a swimsuit without ever removing his pants.
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Years later, he recreated the entire bit live on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and brought the whole studio to tears.
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So this is how to act with discretion and decorum on the beach.
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you wish to change into a sewing suit
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while you've got your trousers on and you've nowhere to hide behind
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and then so what you do first take a chance
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good luck to do this
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so you do this take everything down like this trying to trying to maintain as much decorum as you can
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Okay, like this.
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And then, okay, so you're so fast, so good.
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But this obviously, there appears to be a logical incongruity here where you can't...
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Well, start with either leg, but it can be the right leg.
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You start like this.
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Gotta be just.. gotta be sweet.
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Pull it out like this, like...
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And then you can, there you are.
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There you go, okay.
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And then all you do is feed, feed the crowd.
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Feed your love.
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Take it then, baby.
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See?
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Feed it through.
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Feed it through.
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Alright, come on, settle down, please.
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Answer your names.
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Anus.
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Arse bandit.
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Bottom...
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Clitoris. Where are you, clitoris?
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Rowan has a rare gift.
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He can make the most boring, ordinary moment in life and turn it into a comedy masterpiece.
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This is how Mr. Bean shaves.
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Okay, ready?
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One shaver.
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Okay, so you're here to audition for a part in the British Airways Safety Information video.
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Can you just look into the camera and give your name please?
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Oh Princess of Wales?
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The man has more control over his face than most actors have over their entire body, and one raised brow from him lands harder than a five minute monologue.
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I'm not really a very diligent writer, so I thought, I just stood in front of a mirror, to be honest, and I just started pulling faces, I mean for want of a better term,
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and I just sort of, you know, was doing this... So...
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I'm going
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to go to the next one.
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I can't do that!
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When did the trouble start?
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You see my stethoscope is bobbing to the throbbing of your heart.
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From New Delhi to Darjeeling I have done my share of healing and I've never yet been beaten nor outboxed.
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But her complaint has got me really foxed.
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Can I see your tongue?
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Nothing the matter with it, put it away please.
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Oh, good evening, gentlemen.
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No, no, no, that's no problem.
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Come in, please.
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Oh, no, come in.
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No, no, no, that table is reserved.
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It is also a table for two people.
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Perhaps this table might be more suitable for nine.
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Right, right, now, what would anybody...
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Quiet, quiet, quiet, gentlemen, please, quiet.
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What would anybody like to drink?
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Right, now, what would anybody like to eat?
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Um, oh, uh, it is a lamb dish, sir.
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Yes, a marinated lamb in coconut with a cream sauce very nice no not hot
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it is a medium spiced dish and anything else for starters just some poppadoms and salad and yogurt and shit.
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Anyway, it was this story of a friend of mine who went to a party, a housewarming party.
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This house had just been built and he'd been invited to and he was late.
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He'd stayed late at work and he was rushing to this party.
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He arrived at the party and suddenly realised this is the ultimate toilet joke.
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But don't retune, please.
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That he arrived at this party and he was desperate to go to the toilet
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and in quite a big way he needed to go to the toilet.
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So he went and he came
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and he burst in the front door of the house and there was a door by the front door.
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And he opened that door and sure enough it was a toilet.
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And there was a toilet and he closed the door
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and he locked it and he sat down and he relieved himself in the way that he needed to relieve him.
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And he felt much better for it.
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And then he realized that the house had not actually been quite completed.
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And that the toilet was not actually connected.
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There was no water going in and there was no drainage coming out.
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And he'd left this significant calling card of his own.
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And he sat there, and then he realized that it wasn't, in fact, it wasn't, it was a little office.
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It was a little study that they'd just dropped the toilet.
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It wasn't supposed to be a toilet at all.
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And because it wasn't supposed to be a toilet, there was no toilet paper.
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And he was there thinking, what the hell am I going to do?
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And he rummaged around it in his briefcase, and he found some writing paper lying at the bottom of his briefcase, which is about the right sides, you know.
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So he used the, you know, the writing paper, as you would wish to use, toilet paper.
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And then he suddenly realised that it was his headed notepaper that he used.
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It had his name, Richard Steiner, written across the top.
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And he left the paper on top of what he left in the toilet.
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And it was this fantastic way that, it was the least anonymous way you could have committed this heinous social crime.
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You've probably realised by now, this is hell.
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And I am the devil.
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Now, murderers...
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Over here, please.
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Thieves, if you could join us.
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And lawyers, you're in that way.
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Would you like to come down there?
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Yes, there's plenty of room.
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If the hedge fund managers would just move along a time...
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There you go.
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The French.
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Are you there? And the Americans.
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If you'd just like to keep clear of that big space there,
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we're reserving for a Mr. Trump. And Christians.
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Christians?
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Yes, I'm sorry.
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I'm afraid the Jews were right.
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Thank you, man.
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That would be lovely.
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Thank you, man.
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Knock, knock.
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Who's there?
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Death.
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Death?
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This video has 150 sentences and 1431 words to shadow. The speech runs for 14:01. The speaker talks slowly, about 102 words per minute, so there is time to copy every sound. 83% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| toilet verb | /ˈtɔɪ.lət/ | To assist another (a child, etc.) in using a toilet. |
| realise verb | Non-Oxford British standard spelling of realize. | |
| arrive verb | /əˈɹaɪv/ | To reach; to get to a certain place. |
| knock verb | /nɑk/ | To rap one's knuckles against something, especially wood. |
| tear verb | /tɛɹ/ | To rend (a solid material) by holding or restraining in two places and pulling apart, whether intentionally or not; to destroy or separate. |
| dish noun | /dɪʃ/ | A vessel such as a plate for holding or serving food, often flat with a depressed region in the middle. |
| gentleman noun | /ˈd͡ʒɛn.təl.mən/ | Any well-bred, well-mannered, or charming man. |
| laughter noun | /ˈlæftɚ/ | The sound of laughing, produced by air so expelled; any similar sound. |
| lamb noun | /ˈlæm/ | A young sheep; especially, one younger than nine months. |
| spit verb | /spɪt/ | To evacuate (saliva or another substance) from the mouth, etc. |
| relieve verb | /ɹɪˈliːv/ | To ease (a person, person's thoughts etc.) from mental distress; to stop (someone) feeling anxious or worried, to alleviate the distress of. |
| pants noun | /pænts/ | An outer garment that covers the body from the waist downwards, covering each leg separately, usually as far as the ankles; trousers. |
| rush verb | /ɹʌʃ/ | To hurry; to perform a task with great haste, often not properly or without thinking carefully. |
| mirror noun | /ˈmiɹɚ/ | A smooth surface, usually made of glass with reflective material painted on the underside, that reflects light so as to give an image of what is in front of it. |
| chase verb | /t͡ʃeɪs/ | To follow at speed. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| come down verb | To descend, fall down, collapse. | |
| come out verb | /ˌkʌm ˈaʊt/ | To be discovered; to be revealed. |
| come up to verb | To approach. | |
| have over verb | To host (a visiting guest) at one's house. | |
| move along verb | To continue without being distracted; to keep going. | |
| settle down verb | To make or become quiet and calm after a period of disturbance or restlessness. | |
| sit down verb | To assume a sitting position from a standing position. |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 29 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, wasn't, you're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: thief /ˈθiːf/, furthest /ˈfɜː(ɹ)ðɪst/, stethoscope /ˈstɛθəsˌkoʊp/, throb /θɹɒb/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: dish /dɪʃ/, rush /ɹʌʃ/, discretion /dɪˈskɹɛʃən/, shave /ˈʃeɪ̯v/, audition /ɑˈdɪʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: ordinary /ˈɔɹdɪnɛɹi/, hilarious /hɪˈlɛə.ɹi.əs/, legendary /ˈlɛd͡ʒ.ənˌdɛɹ.i/, anonymous /əˈnɒn.ə.məs/, comedian /kəˈmiː.di.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 toilet, realise, arrive.
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | been beaten · is reserved · been built |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | have done · You've probably realised |
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.