Shadowing Practice: NZ: Westerly change this week, unsettled but large dry areas - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Hello, kia ora.
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It's Monday the 13th of July.
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Thank you for joining me as we track the weather for New Zealand right through until Sunday.
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And on the Monday satellite imagery you can see the classic cold front heading towards the country from the Tasman Sea.
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Ahead of it we've got northwesterly winds in a number of places.
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Island, the Norwest Arch in some locations, and on the western side you've got the clouds building up with rain,
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thunderstorms, plenty of thunderstorms around parts of Fiordland and southern parts of Westland.
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There are more thunderstorms out at sea, you can view this on our new lightning tracker that you can find in our app and on our website, but as you'll notice,
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many of these thunderstorms starting to fall apart as it runs closer to the North Island where we've got more high
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New Zealand at the moment but the rain clouds are starting to move in
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and then as I say they break apart to some degree, and further out to the east, the Chatham Islands, cloudy periods for you at the moment.
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So high pressure is over the Chatham Islands, stretching back into the North Island, that's why we've got a lot of dry weather.
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But as you notice this afternoon, three o 'clock, These blue shaded areas around the western and northern parts of the country, mostly anyway, there are maybe one or two that go further south,
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just indicate the risk of a few showers and cloudy areas which we'll be developing today.
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The front, like I say, is weakening as it runs into the high pressure zone that's around much of the North Island.
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but it's going to dump a fair bit of rain around the west coast.
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Heavy falls, thunderstorms continue in some locations, and the northwesterly winds carry on, although they're a bit more north to northwest for the North Island.
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The polar boundary, brushing Stewart Island this afternoon, so you'll notice the temperature down there.
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So here is this evening, the main low pressure zone is well south of New Zealand and Tasmania, down next to Antarctica.
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another weaker area around the Coral Sea and Queensland, and then that connects up over to Western Australia with the other high pressure zone.
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Classic set up for westerly winds and that's what we've got in both Australia and coming into New Zealand for now.
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So a bit of a change to the weather pattern as we kick off this week
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and for the next few days ahead.
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So let's have a look at what is ahead.
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Here is Tuesday, lunchtime.
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High pressure is out here north of the Chatham Islands, east of the North Island,
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but it does stretch up to the northern parts of New Zealand and that actual position
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encourages more of a subtropical airflow coming down into the North Island.
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So northwesterly winds for everybody on Tuesday pretty much.
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I mean you might have local variations but the main airflow is a northwesterly.
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Again all that low pressure south of us at the moment and high pressure is further to the north.
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That means frosty weather does not look as likely as we go through into Tuesday.
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There may still be a few frosts here and there especially around higher elevation parts of
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become quite strong and gusty around the South Island on Tuesday and around the very lower North Island.
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The winds will be lightest around the far north.
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So the cold weather coming in here for Australia on Tuesday isn't really moving into New Zealand just yet by lunchtime tomorrow,
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but by night time that colder weather moves in and so those rain bands that are on the west coast, some of that will fall as snow higher up into the ranges in the mountains.
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So by Wednesday the polar boundary comes into Canterbury and the mid -west coast.
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Still more rain and showers coming in mostly from the west, but there will be a wee bit of spillover into the east, so you might get a few spits of rain or a possible downpour.
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Over here in the North Island, or up here in the North Island, westerly winds carry on, northwesterly winds, so that brings in some showers to the western side.
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But if you're on the eastern side of the island, it does look dry, and mainly dry for the Chatham Islands, you might get an isolated shower.
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So the westerlies carry on into Thursday, but the main change from where we are at the moment is they go from north westerlies to south westerlies.
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The coldest of the airflow is actually just east of Dunedin and south of the Chatham Islands, but you can see that kind of surge there of colder air.
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Still not exactly warm though for a number of South Island areas
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and you'll notice the temperature down a wee bit again in the North Island as that southwesterly comes through.
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You can see the showers it's producing mostly along the western side of both of the main islands.
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There'll be a few showers around the Chatham Islands, temperature drops going into Thursday afternoon
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and the temperature starts to gradually lift a little bit for
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those of you in the lower South Island going into Thursday afternoon and going into Friday because by Friday
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The next high coming out of Australia, the one that's currently out over Western Australia, out over the Indian Ocean, should be over New South Wales, Victoria by the time we get to the end of the week.
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And it stretches out almost to New Zealand.
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I mean, there's a bit of a ridge over the country.
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But what you'll notice or what you'll feel is
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that temperature just lifting up a degree
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or two as the southwesterly winds start to curve a little more westerly around parts of the South Island.
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It's not a major temperature lift, but you'll notice it.
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and it is mainly dry
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but there could be still a few cloudy areas especially in the west
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and that could produce a couple of showers but
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if you're on the eastern side of both of the main
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islands it looks dry showers continue on for the Chatham Islands
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and still got that cold air around you at least in the morning maybe eases a wee bit into the afternoon.
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So this weekend, we've got a subtropical area of low pressure trying to form, this one here, off the coast of Brisbane, but high pressure coming out of Victoria,
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Australia, stretches all the way out and over the northern part of New Zealand, so it sort of blocks and holds that low back, for now anyway.
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So at the moment, we'll see with that set up on Saturday, more westerly winds blowing through New Zealand, especially around Cook Strait, and down towards Stewart Island,
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so the South Island obviously in the middle of all of that.
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There'll be a bit of rain around Fiordland and South Westland, couple of showers coming in around Stewart Island, maybe coastal parts of Southland,
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and also once again a few of those showers sneaking through to the western side of the North Island, but it's dry in the east, dry out over towards the Chatham Islands,
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and the coldest of the weather is south of Stewart Island as we go
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map shows a messy low pressure zone in the subtropics just north of New Zealand.
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The high pressure belt being squeezed here over the north of New Zealand in the sense
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that it's sort of ballooning out one side of the North Island
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and the other side and a bit of a weakness here
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but there is still higher pressure over the North Island and in fact over parts of the South Island.
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So we don't see a lot of weather change based on this map
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but that low in the north is worth keeping
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if it gets a little deeper up here in the tropics as far as air pressure is concerned.
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So we'll keep an eye on that as we update you across this week.
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But for now the weekend doesn't look too bad
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and the temperatures drop again as more of a southerly breeze comes in for Southland and Otago.
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Maybe a few showers in there but won't be much and a similar story out here over the Chatham Islands.
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So here is the seven day rainfall map.
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Once again, the eastern side is the drier part.
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That wasn't the case in the last couple of weeks.
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Now we're seeing more of a traditional westerly flow.
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So driest weather in the east from Otago right up to East Cape.
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There may still be a few showers around the north of New Zealand and around western parts of the North Island, but most of the heavy rain, as you see clearly here, along the west coast.
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Some areas there going over 100 millimetres, we've got those thunderstorms in there, but you notice how that front
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that we've got coming in today doesn't deliver a huge amount of rain for the North Island.
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Heaviest falls will be from Mount Tararaki down to about Hora Whenua, you're in that sort of 10 to 20 millimetre mark over the next several days.
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And that is all from me.
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Thank you for joining me.
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I'll be back again tomorrow Tuesday with your next New Zealand update.
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I'll see you then.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B1 speaking lesson is built on the video “NZ: Westerly change this week, unsettled but large dry areas”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: island, Zealand, pressure, shower, Chatham. This video has 94 sentences and 1576 words to shadow. The speech runs for 8:07. The speaker talks fast, about 194 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 86% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| westerly adjective | /ˈwɛs.tɚ.li/ | Coming from the west; originating in the west. |
| thunderstorm noun | /ˈθʌn.dɚˌstɔɹm/ | A storm consisting of thunder and lightning produced by a cumulonimbus, usually accompanied with heavy rain, wind, and sometimes hail; and in rarer cases… |
| northwesterly adjective | Situated in, or pointing to, the northwest. | |
| airflow noun | Any flow of air, especially the motion of air around a moving aircraft or aerofoil. | |
| cloudy adjective | /ˈklaʊ̯diː/ | Covered with or characterised by clouds. |
| lunchtime noun | /ˈlʌnt͡ʃtaɪm/ | The time or hour at or around which lunch is normally eaten. |
| millimetre noun | An SI/MKS unit of measure, the length of ¹⁄₁₀₀₀ of a metre. Symbol: mm | |
| southwesterly adjective | Situated in, or pointing to, the southwest. | |
| subtropical adjective | Pertaining to the regions of the Earth further from the equator than the tropical regions. | |
| polar adjective | /ˈpoʊlɚ/ | Of, relating to, measured from, or referred to a geographic pole (the North Pole or South Pole); within the Arctic or Antarctic circles. |
| boundary noun | /ˈbaʊndɹi/ | The dividing line or location between two areas. |
| downpour noun | /ˈdaʊn.pɔː(ɹ)/ | A heavy fall of rain. |
| frosty adjective | /ˈfɹɔsti/ | Cold, chilly; icy. |
| southerly adjective | /ˈsʌðəliː/ | Facing the south; directed towards the south. |
| spillover noun | That which overflows; the excess or side effect. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| blow through verb | To expend or waste rapidly. |
| come in for verb | To be subjected to. |
| come through verb | To come into a room or other space through a door or passageway. |
| fall apart verb | To disintegrate, to break into pieces. |
| going over noun | An inspection, examination, review, or investigation. |
| kick off verb | To make the first kick in a game or part of a game. |
| lift up verb | To elevate to a higher position. |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 32 contractions and reduced forms, such as we've, you'll, we'll. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: thunderstorm /ˈθʌn.dɚˌstɔɹm/, southerly /ˈsʌðəliː/, northwest /nɔɹθˈwɛst/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: elevation /ˌɛlɪˈveɪʃn̩/, variation /ˌvɛəɹiˈeɪʃn̩/, shade /ʃeɪd/, brush /bɹʌʃ/
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 westerly, thunderstorm, northwesterly.
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.