Shadowing Practice: NYC VLOG: What I Spend In a Day in NYC - Learn English Speaking with Video
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- Hello, this is Taylor.
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Welcome to what I'm turning into, a what I spend in a day in New York City.
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You might know the popular version, what I spend in a week in New York City.
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but it's just 24 hours today.
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And I'm filming this because I have some fun bopping around, and some errands and all that good stuff to do in New York City today, and...
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I have a feeling it's gonna add up a wee bit.
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It's an overcast, lovely day in New York.
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I gotta address it.
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I don't know if you guys will give a hoot at all, but I couldn't find my regular sunglasses, the ones I wear every single day.
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For those who don't know, these are the ones I wear every single day.
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Couldn't find them this morning, but it's an overcast day, and that's actually when you need sunglasses the most, you know?
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Hello, squirrel.
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Wow. So agile.
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That's when you need them the most because the sky is white not blue and so they're more reflective.
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Meteorology expert Taylor reporting for duty.
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But anyways, I had to leave my house with these kind of catty ones that I have.
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They're fun but I feel like I'm cosplaying Mean Girl.
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You know what I mean?
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I should show you.
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This townhouse in East Village is the one that Led Zeppelin used on the cover of that one album, you know?
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There it is right there.
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Fun fact!
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Alright.
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I would love to try one of these, because you guys are known for the cloud thing, right?
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Thank you.
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Oh my god, smells good.
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Okay, this is their Cloud Cappuccino.
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I think it's just like a ton of sweet cream, cold foam on top.
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You know what this reminds me of?
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Is from the Simpsons movie, when Flanders makes that insanely intricate coffee or hot chocolate drink.
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That is literally what this looks like.
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I just need a little flame thrower to toast the top.
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Anyway, cute dog.
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Looks like mine.
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All right, moment of truth real quick before we chat.
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I have never had this before.
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I mean, okay, I'm not gonna lie, there's a little tongue mark already.
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I mean, yeah, can't not be good.
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Let's see the coffee.
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I should've got a straw, what an idiot I am.
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Should I use my finger, is that gross?
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All right, we're past the crazy stuff.
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It's good.
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I mean, at the end of the day they're charging 8 .50
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because you can call it like a cloud latte and put sweet cold foam on there.
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It was delightful, don't get me wrong, but I just wanted to try it.
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Okay, so this is Elizabeth Street Garden.
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I brought you guys here before in my What I Spend In week actually.
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And I remember saying it's like cemetery vibes, which I stand by that, it is, but like good cemetery vibes.
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People sitting in different pockets, reading.
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I see a lot of people just come here to read, which I've done many times and we're gonna do today too.
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But this is a really beautiful area.
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We're in Nolita, which means north of Little Italy, part of Manhattan.
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I've checked on Street Easy, but I want to see what these apartments that kind of look down over the garden are like on the inside.
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Okay, gonna go join the populace in the more crowded area over there.
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Read my book in a second.
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But first, wanted to tell you guys something.
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I'm reading this, which is called Show Your Work by Austin Kleon.
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I haven't finished it yet, but I know what this book is about.
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And I'm I just had a couple reflections around it.
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It's about basically putting your work out there or sharing some part of yourself or your creativity, etc. in some small way every single day and to be practicing it.
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Because odds are others, you know, some people will resonate with it, but it has to be findable.
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So anyways, I had a moment yesterday where that principle of this book really resonated with me.
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It was a small thing, but my life now, it really obviously revolves around YouTube and that's what I geek out on.
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So all of the little features that come out on YouTube, or the analytics that I'm constantly analyzing on my videos.
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That's my passion, that's what interests me, and is also just applicable to my life in a way that, I mean, I'm constantly comparing these things, but it's what I know.
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And the way that consulting was not that for me, because it was much more theoretical.
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It wasn't, you know, the work I was doing for clients.
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It wasn't for my own business.
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And so I always say without having my own skin in the game or without having a horse in the race,
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so to speak, I just couldn't bring myself to care nearly as much as I care about my own business, obviously.
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Anyways, point being, I put on my Instagram story yesterday, me rambling a little bit about something that I found really interesting.
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I'll give you the TLDR.
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Basically, YouTube recently rolled out the feature for creators to be able to A /B test their thumbnails, which means you can upload up to three different thumbnails
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and YouTube will then track which one performs the best and automatically set it to the one that performs best.
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And I thought it was interesting that the metric
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that YouTube tracks to determine which one is best is not click through rate.
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Click through rate is is the percentage of people that click on a thumbnail when it's presented to them.
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The metric that they track according to the back end in the YouTube studio is watch time.
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So how many minutes of your video did that person watch?
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Which to me is a little bit counterintuitive.
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Anyway, so I went on my story and just talked about this
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and said that I can understand why YouTube would do it the way they do it.
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But I personally as a creator would like to see the difference in click -through rate.
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And when I have these slots, I typically don't share them because I think they're too niche or I don't know, like who cares?
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Screw it, I'm gonna put it on my story.
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see what people think.
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The amount of replies I got on that ostensibly very, very niche thought I was having, or opinion about this thing,
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got so many replies and from such a wide variety of people too.
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None other than the expert himself, MKBHD, literally responded to it because he had the same thought
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and so he dug into it and said that what YouTube does is actually, it's kind of a combination of the two, the click -through rate and the watch time.
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Basically the way he put it is, if a video gets let's just keep numbers simple, 100 hours of watch time,
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but 75 of those hours come from the group of people that clicked on this thumbnail versus that one.
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That's how YouTube determines it.
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So it's kind of a combination between click -through rate and average view duration.
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Again, like getting into the nitty gritty, but just the fact that I got so many replies on that.
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let alone from experts in the field.
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I just thought that was really, really cool.
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And so again, without having finished this, I already feel inspired to be putting out random thoughts into the world every day or like even in this video.
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I'm already rambling because I'm sure it will resonate with someone.
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All right now I'm gonna go join the masses.
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Oh I should have said part of my effort to start sharing more like random thoughts
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and etc. I am starting a newsletter and
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so it's gonna be part of my email list which if you want to join the link is in the description.
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A couple hours of pooter time which included scripting on my next video after this one.
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Little hint it involves my apartment so I'm excited to release
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that one and I think you guys are really gonna like it.
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Caught up over the next couple months.
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And of course, texted some friends.
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I'm always multitasking.
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Here's live footage of me receiving a really funny one.
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Huge perk of my job, being able to do it from pretty much wherever.
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I just sent out the invite to my birthday party, which I'm having soon.
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And yeah, for reference, every single event that I host, I call it a moistening.
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That's just my brand now.
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But anyway, it's my 27th birthday soon.
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My actual birthday is September 4th, but I'm having the party another time when more people are in town.
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But I'm really proud of this theme.
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I'm not gonna lie, it was one of my friends' ideas.
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Well, I came up with this part, 'cause Taylor Swift obviously had her eras tour, but this Taylor, this one, my spin on the eras tour is life eras.
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So to come dressed as one of your life eras, whether it was when you were an intern, a high schooler, or I added this little bit, future MILF DILF, you know, keep it spicy.
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And I put this as my picture.
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I think that's what I'm gonna do is the life era of Taylor, first day of freshman year in college.
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All pen gear, wearing a freaking lanyard,
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We'll see.
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I laugh every time I walk by here.
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This place called Rin Tin Tin.
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It's like a popular drinks and like bite spot and Soho, Nolita area and
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Like everyone me all my friends everyone I know calls it Rin Tin Tin
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But then I'm a friend who insists on calling it Hon Ton Ton.
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It really tickles me.
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I don't know why.
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Anyway, we're actually Keeping the wallet in the pocket more than I expected today, but let's go change that shall we?
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the fast casual jewel of the Mediterranean.
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Thank you.
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Thank you.
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Try it in true.
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Also, she packed me so full.
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I'm going to put the hood on that thing.
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Music is blasting.
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- But we're here for a reason.
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Don't worry, this is not a shopping vlog, but...
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We got so quiet.
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I actually need new tops.
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I literally just wear black t -shirts all the time and it's like, come on, up your game a little bit Taylor.
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These aren't really shirts.
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I got some shirts.
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Either way, if I walk out of here with greater than or equal to one item, it's going to be expensive.
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So, what I spent in a day.
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Nice color scheme, Taylor.
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Look, green.
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Guys, what a success.
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I'm gonna get a couple of these things.
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Probably this green t -shirt.
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Sue me.
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And god, do I do it?
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Do I do it?
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I don't know.
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And no, I'm not going to a funeral.
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All right, with that purchase, which we will talk about in a minute, I got a free token to use the cafe upstairs.
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Worth it?
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Oh man, that hurt a little bit.
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At the same time, I'm like, you know what?
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I do that once a year.
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Not that I've ever spent that much in a single shopping trip, but I went in there with an idea of what I wanted.
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I don't do it very often.
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I'm going to keep those pieces forever.
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I don't know who I'm trying to justify it to besides myself.
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And now I can donate quite a bit of stuff in my closet too.
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So honestly, I got to say, great place for staples and just really classy looking I hurt a little bit, I'm not gonna lie.
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Anyway, I'm gonna walk home for free, and then do something that's good for my health, I think.
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Oh my god, I found another one.
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If you didn't know, I have a deep, deep love for Cavalier King Charles Daniels.
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I grew up with two amazing ones.
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I have two other amazing ones now who, I get to see you soon because I'm flying home to LA in a couple days.
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They're just the best dogs.
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They really are.
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By the way, your newsletter that you mentioned earlier.
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Yeah, what about it?
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Are you hosting that through Kajabi?
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Yeah, I am.
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Do you know about Kajabi?
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Honestly, yeah at this point I do.
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I'll tag team this one with you.
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Thanks.
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Yeah, I've been working with Kajabi for a long time.
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It's honestly the most organic brand deal I could do because I use it literally every single day.
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Nice.
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one platform to help creators and entrepreneurs build successful businesses online, right?
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Exactly.
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Creators can host a podcast, a newsletter, create a course, one -on -one coaching, our membership model, tons of things.
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Amazing.
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Yeah, I'm actually building a lot of those things for myself slowly
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but surely over time as I ease into the kind of full -time creator entrepreneur thing.
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Ah, is that so?
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Same here, actually.
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Yeah, it's really exciting. For sure.
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Also, incredible that Kajabi doesn't take a cut of your revenue.
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Pretty awesome, isn't it?
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It really is.
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And right now, Kajabi is offering a free 30 -day trial to start your business online.
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If you go to kajabi .com /taylorbelle, that's k -a -j -a -b -i .com /taylorbelle.
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- That's kajabi .com /taylorbelle and join the creators and entrepreneurs who have earned over $7 billion on Kajabi.
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Good stuff!
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Now let's go.
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Alright, Lord knows I don't need to buy any more books right now.
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I have so many on my nightstand that I need to read, but this is cool.
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I've never been in here before.
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And a subscriber said hi to me as soon as I walked in, which is really sweet.
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Hello, Adam, if you're watching this.
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Cheapest way to get fruit.
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My next purchase.
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I'm just joking.
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Those things look so weird.
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They're actually massive.
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If you've ever seen one in real life, they're huge.
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I was gonna go to Barry's, which is like $30.
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But I figured after dropping $621 on the Ritzia,
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I might as well just use the ground on my own two feet, huh?
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So this was my first time ever trying hot pot, which is where you order a broth that sits on a heat source right in front of you.
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Hence the name hot pot.
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Then you order different meats and veggies and noodles, whatever you want.
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and cook it there right in front of you.
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It was honestly really fun.
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I went with my friend, Catherine, who's a huge fan of hot pot, and it was insanely delicious and just very flavorful.
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I will for sure be back.
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hello it is the next day added everything up came out
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to just over $700 obviously I do not spend out every
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day I just kind of knew it was gonna be a
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little bit of a big one I thought it'd be fun to film
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but hope you guys enjoyed I know this was a bit
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of a silly one also wow what a pretty street I'm on huh like
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and subscribe for free and sign up for my email newsletter link in description
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and until next time turtle out I look insane like his glasses are insane Thank you.
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Why am I holding it like that?
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Why This NYC Vlog Is Great for English Speaking Practice
This video is a goldmine for learners using learn English with YouTube methods. Taylor’s casual, conversational tone mirrors real-life speech—filled with filler words, anecdotes, and natural pauses. It’s perfect for shadowspeak (repeating speech in real time) because the pace is relaxed, and the topics are relatable: daily routines, small frustrations, and fun facts. Unlike scripted content, this vlog captures the "messiness" of everyday English, helping you learn to communicate naturally, not just recite.
Breaking Down Natural Speech: 3 Key Phrases
- "I have a feeling it's gonna add up a wee bit." The contraction "gonna" and colloquial "wee bit" (meaning "a little") make this sound like real conversation. Native speakers rarely use "going to" in casual settings, and "wee bit" adds warmth—great for sounding approachable.
- "You might know the popular version, what I spend in a week in New York City, but it's just 24 hours today." The pause after "version" and the contrast with "but" show how speakers connect ideas. This structure helps you learn to transition smoothly between thoughts, a key skill for fluency.
- "I mean, okay, I'm not gonna lie, there's a little tongue mark already." Phrases like "I mean," "okay," and "I'm not gonna lie" are filler words that make speech sound unscripted. They give you time to think and make your English sound more human—essential for avoiding robotic delivery.
A Simple Shadowing Routine for This Video
To practice with this vlog, try a shadowing app or just use your phone. Here’s how: 1. Watch 5 seconds of the video, then pause. 2. Repeat Taylor’s words immediately, mimicking her tone, pace, and pauses. Focus on copying the "flow"—not just the words. 3. Record yourself, then compare. Notice if you missed contractions or filler words. 4. Do this 3 times for each clip, then move to 10-second segments. This shadow speak method trains your mouth to form English sounds naturally and improves your listening skills. Over time, you’ll start using phrases like "wee bit" and "I mean" without thinking—making your speech sound native-like.
By using real-world content like this vlog, you’re not just learning English—you’re learning to use it. So grab your phone, hit play, and start shadowing—your pronunciation and fluency will thank you.
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 never had · I've done · I've checked |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | those who don · Nolita, which means · this, which is |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | are known · is called |
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.