Shadowing Practice: One Day in VIETNAM Changed Everything.. - Learn English Speaking with Video

12 hours ago I landed here in Saigon and I never thought I would end the day feeling like this.

Given that I don't speak any Vietnamese, this is what I get.

So this is a look at our new room.

Good morning from Saigon.

It is great to be back.

I absolutely love this place.

But today I want to see a side to the city that I've always missed.

So let's get out of here and go find the people who know it best Okay,

okay, okay It's probably here

This is amazing!

Oh my god this is amazing!

I've just been invited into these people's mouths to come and drink with them.

They're singing karaoke, they've given me beer, they've given me food.

For no reason I was just walking down the street and they said come, come, come, come!

Amazing!

Oh my god, what an amazing experience.

These people just welcomed me into their home.

Cheers!

One thing that stands out to me every time I visit Vietnam is how friendly the people are.

I mean look at this situation I've just landed myself in.

My friends!

Your friends!

Amazing!

Me?

No no no no, not me no no no, not me no no.

Oh my god we are hammering through the beer.

I had to come outside it's insanely noisy in there.

We are having an amazing time.

Something I've learned over the years of travel is you can communicate with people even if you don't speak the language.

I can tell stories like yesterday I went out and drink too much.

You can just do that all sort of by actions and everything.

Anyway, these are some of the most lovely people I've met here.

I asked them, where should I go to eat in the area?

They said there's a really awesome little banh mi cart just down here.

So have a couple more beers, I think, and then I'll go down there.

I've got to get some food into me.

I haven't eaten anything yet today.

We are just pumping through the beers

Thank you Bye-bye, thank you Be careful yes Bye-bye, thank you

my god what an experience those people were

so unbelievably lovely i'm i'm drunk now i must have smashed

like five beers i was there probably there for about two

hours smashing beers with them they were a really fun group

of people just hanging out singing karaoke they invited me into their home

i can't believe that this trip is off to an incredible start i gotta get some food into me Alright,

this is the place Alright,

this is the highly recommended little find me car I don't really know what I'm getting She just said one

So maybe they just have the one Oh, okay, okay

I love coming to these little street side spots And

if the locals say it's the place to come Then you know it's gonna be good All right,

that was 15,000 Vietnamese dong.

I'm constantly blown away by the price of everything here, but 15,000.

All right.

I still can't believe this was 15,000 dong.

I hope you can hear me.

I was looking for somewhere quiet to sit and evidently that doesn't exist here in Saigon, but let's give this a shot.

Mmm!

Oh man, that's good.

That's got some spice to it.

She asked me if I wanted chilies, then I said, yeah, yeah.

The bread is so good.

I love bread.

I almost never eat it in Thailand.

Mmm.

Uh-oh.

The rain is back.

I gotta get out of here.

I've just come into a little street undercover.

Get to enjoy this lunch.

This one has the pate.

I quite like when they put pate in barn meat.

I guess there's a few different types and everyone has their own specialty or their own sort of unique one.

I'm assuming that lady just has this one that she does

and probably does other little variants for people given that I don't speak any Vietnamese.

This is what I get.

And the people here are all so friendly.

So when I was buying my bottle of water from the next shop, I asked, you know, what do you recommend that I do?

Everyone keeps recommending that I try the coffee here.

I'm not a huge coffee drinker, but I will try some, I know the egg coffee is the thing that a lot of tourists do here.

I don't know how much the locals have it, but I think after here, I will go try some coffee.

I might take the edge off those beers earlier.

But for now...

Mmm!

Oh man, that was amazing!

It's all over me!

So now I'm gonna go find a place to have a coffee, which shouldn't be difficult.

There's about 200 billion cafes here in Saigon.

So let's go give it a shot.

Thank you.

Alright cool, I've come to a little road type place.

Something I notice every cafe I walk past, obviously I'm not much of a coffee person, I always have a coffee and a second drink.

I think it's like an iced tea.

Yeah iced tea.

Delicious.

Now like I said I'm not a huge coffee person but I got a sweet iced coffee.

Oh that's not bad.

That's so much better than I was expecting.

I don't know if I'm doing this right, but if you drink that like a chaser, that's amazing.

100

I think this is separate.

101

I think you're supposed to drink this like a water, but delicious.

102

Yes.

103

Right. For free?

104

Yeah, that's amazing.

105

Like 20 minutes?

106

Right, right.

107

Yeah, okay, thank you.

108

Thank you.

109

I just got a call from my hotel.

110

They said they've got a free room upgrade for us, which is amazing, unexpected.

111

They said they've had a cancellation, they've got a better room, and they've offered it to us.

112

So I wasn't planning on doing a hotel tour because the room I'm staying in is nothing special, but might just have to now.

113

Oh, this is good.

114

I think I'm starting to sober up now.

115

I can't believe how friendly those people were.

116

Like just straight away invited me into their home, hammered me with drinks.

117

I don't know how much I drank.

118

We drank a lot in a very short period of time, but they were just so lovely.

119

They wanted to share their food with me, share their drinks with me.

120

At the end, I offered to give them some money and they weren't having a bar of it.

121

I kind of expected this.

122

I've been in similar situations before, but I just feel like you should offer at least.

123

Man, what an experience.

124

What a start to the trip.

125

Vietnamese people are so lovely, but this is just, this day is off to an amazing start.

126

Thank you so much.

127

Bye.

128

Coffee.

129

So I guess I've stumbled upon the whole street market part of the city.

130

This is really cool.

131

Come check out some of this stuff.

132

Oh, Guess who?

133

No wait, guess who?

134

God, bringing back some memories there.

135

What have we got here?

136

Trash and treasure by the looks of it.

137

The next one is the first place to be in the world.

138

This is a bit of a reminder of how tough it

139

can be for how tough life can be for some of the locals here.

140

You know we come here and think oh everything's so cheap everything's amazingly priced.

141

Take my lunch as an example 15,000 dong like what's the profit margin in that?

142

It has to be really tough for some of the local...

143

Some things make no sense to me.

144

We got a 40 minute car ride from the airport to the hotel and it was like $3.

145

When you factor in the fuel and the cost of the car and everything, it is...

146

A lot of it really doesn't make sense.

147

So, this is a look at our new room and this is cool.

148

This is quite a nice upgrade.

149

Our other room was fine and it was just quite a lot smaller.

150

So nice to be in here.

151

We are right in the middle of District 1, right in the tourist area, just near Bouvien Walking Street.

152

We are paying like 20 something dollars a night to stay here.

153

We didn't need anything fancy for the trip, but this is a really nice upgrade.

154

Anyway, we've still got half the day left, so let's get out and enjoy it.

155

So I am on this trip with my girlfriend.

156

We've come away for five days.

157

We're celebrating our three year anniversary together, And the plan for this afternoon, we're going to go to a park nearby, take some photos together, do some cute couple things.

158

And then I think it'll be time for a beer again.

159

I just realized we're starting and ending the day with beers.

160

Been really getting into using a digital camera to take photos.

161

You get a really nostalgic image out of it.

162

One of my friends in Japan was doing it on our last trip and I've just thought It's so much fun.

163

So we've brought the camera along taking some really cool shots.

164

Something I find really fascinating about this city is how much variety there is here.

165

I mean, this is a really beautiful park

166

and a really bougie part of town and it's kind of the complete opposite of where I was this morning.

167

But Saigon is such a big city and it just has the entire range.

168

I mean, this is, this place is beautiful.

169

Well, this has been fun.

170

This is a beautiful place to come and visit, but about that beer.

171

Thank you!

172

This is still getting ready, so I snuck away for a quick beer.

173

Cheers!

174

Oh man, 12 hours ago I landed here in Saigon

175

and I never thought I would end the day with I never thought I would end the day feeling like this.

176

This has just been one of those ultimate travel days.

177

Those locals welcoming me and just made my day.

178

So the plan for tonight, I'm gonna have this beer.

179

We're gonna go hit the walking street, have some fun and see where the night takes us.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This B1 speaking lesson is built on the video “One Day in VIETNAM Changed Everything.”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: beer, amazing, coffee, drink. This video has 179 sentences and 1721 words to shadow. The speech runs for 12:36. The speaker talks at a steady 137 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. 84% 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
dong noun	/dɔŋ/	The currency of Vietnam, 100 xus. Symbol: ₫
cheers	/t͡ʃɪəz/	A common toast used when drinking in company.
upgrade verb	/əpˈɡɹeɪd/	To improve, usually applied to technology, generally by complete replacement of one or more components.
invite verb	/ɪnˈvaɪt/	To ask for the presence or participation of someone or something.
karaoke noun	/ˈkæ.ɹiˌəʊ.ki/	A form of entertainment popular in clubs, at parties, etc, in which individual members of the public sing along to pre-recorded instrumental versions of…
pate noun	/peɪt/	The interior body, or non-rind portion of cheese, described by its texture, density, and color.
smash verb	/smæʃ/	To break (something brittle) violently.
hammer noun	/ˈhæmɚ/	A tool with a heavy head and a handle used for pounding.
chaser noun	/ˈt͡ʃeɪsɚ/	Something or someone who chases.
drinker noun	/ˈdɹɪŋkɚ/	Someone who drinks alcoholic beverages on a regular basis.
fascinate verb	/ˈfæsɪneɪt/	To evoke an intense interest or attraction in someone.
insanely adverb	/ɪnˈseɪnli/	In an insane manner; not sanely.
nostalgic adjective		Of, having, or relating to nostalgia.
stumble verb	/ˈstʌmbəl/	To trip or fall; to walk clumsily.
unbelievably adverb		In a manner that one does not or cannot believe.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
get out of verb		To leave, exit or escape from; to become free of.
blow away verb		To cause to go away by blowing, or by wind.
bring back verb	/ˈbɹɪŋ bæk/	To fetch something.
check out verb		To record the departure or withdrawal of someone or something (such as guests, employees, books, etc.).
get out verb		To leave or escape.
go down verb		To descend; to move from a higher place to a lower one.
go out verb		To leave, especially a building.
walk down verb		To continually advance (on an opponent) and punch (the opponent) in order to control the fight and dominate the opponent, while shrugging off the opponent's…

Sentences worth repeating

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

I asked them, where should I go to eat in the area?
I've got to get some food into me.
I haven't eaten anything yet today.
I've just come into a little street undercover.
What have we got here?

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	I've always missed · I've just been invited · they've given
Past continuous was/were + -ing — an action in progress at a moment in the past	was just walking · was looking · was buying
Advice with “should” should + verb — saying what is a good idea	should I go · shouldn't be · should offer
Possibility with “might / may” might/may + verb — something that is possible but not certain	might take · might just have

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 64 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, I've, don't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “sh” and “zh” sounds: smash /smæʃ/, cancellation /kænsəˈleɪʃən/, specialty /ˈspɛʃ.əl.ti/, treasure /ˈtɹɛʒəɹ/
Long words — get the stress right: karaoke /ˈkæ.ɹiˌəʊ.ki/, evidently /ˈɛvɪdəntli/, amazingly /əˈmeɪzɪŋli/, cancellation /kænsəˈleɪʃən/, undercover /ˌʌndə(ɹ)ˈkʌvə(ɹ)/

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 dong, cheers, upgrade.

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 →

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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?