Shadowing Practice: Our pool has never been this colour 🥴 #poolcleaning #pool #diyprojects - Learn English Speaking with Video

It seems like every year our pool gets worse.

In fact, we have yet to open our pool for the season to anything but a green swamp, and this year is no different.

Actually, this year, it's not even green.

It's almost black.

So the first step is power washing everything.

The ground, the walls, our patio furniture, which unfortunately got eaten over the winter.

Every single year, I share our pool cleaning video, and people are always surprised that we don't actually drain the water and refill it, but that's just not what people do around here with an in-ground pool.

We drain out some of the nasty water that's accumulated over the winter, but then we just start adding in chemicals to kill the bacteria and the algae.

And then by the next day, the pool looks like this.

Slowly, the water starts getting more clear.

We hook up our pool equipment and give the pool a good vacuum.

We do this a couple times and clean the filter in between because it gets pretty nasty.

We give the walls one more scrub, add in our pool floaties, and we're good to enjoy the pool for another season.

Let me know, do you have to do this process where you live?

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18 sentences

Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This video has 14 sentences and 214 words to shadow. The speech runs for 0:48. The speaker talks fast, about 268 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 89% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is easy to follow.

Key vocabulary in this video

15 less common words from the video, with pronunciation and meaning:

nasty /ˈnæs.ti/ (adjective) — Dirty, filthy.
drain /dɹiːn/ (noun) — A conduit allowing liquid to flow out of an otherwise contained volume; a plughole (UK)
wash /wɑʃ/ (verb) — To clean with water.
hook /hʊk/ (noun) — A rod bent into a curved shape, typically with one end free and the other end secured to a rope or other attachment.
furniture /ˈfɝ.nɪ.t͡ʃɚ/ (noun) — Large movable item(s), usually in a room, which enhance(s) the room's characteristics, functionally or decoratively.
filter /ˈfɪltɚ/ (noun) — A device which separates a suspended, dissolved, or particulate matter from a fluid, solution, or other substance; any device that separates one substance from…
vacuum /ˈvæ.kjuːm/ (noun) — A region of space that contains no matter.
swamp /ˈswɑmp/ (noun) — An area of wet (water-saturated), spongy (soft) land, often with trees, generally a rich ecosystem for certain plants and animals but ill-suited for many…
scrub /skɹʌb/ (verb) — To rub hard; to wash with rubbing; usually, to rub with a wet brush, or with something coarse or rough, for the purpose of cleaning or brightening
accumulate /əˈkjuːmjʊˌleɪt/ (verb) — To heap up in a mass; to pile up; to collect or bring together (either literally or figuratively), often gradually and without active intent.
alga /ˈæl.ɡə/ (noun) — Any of many aquatic photosynthetic organisms, including the seaweeds, whose size ranges from a single cell to giant kelps and whose biochemistry and forms are…
bacterium /bækˈtɪəɹ.ɪəm/ (noun) — A single-celled organism with cell walls but no nucleus or organelles.
floaty /ˈfloʊti/ (adjective) — Tending to float on a liquid or to rise in air or a gas; buoyant.
patio /ˈpæt.i.əʊ/ (noun) — A paved outside area, adjoining a house, used for dining or recreation.
refill /ˈɹiː.fɪl/ (noun) — An additional helping of food or drink at reduced cost.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

hook up (verb) — To assemble the parts of a mechanism, especially by connecting wires.

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 nasty, drain, wash.

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Verb + -ing enjoy, keep, stop… + -ing — verbs that are followed by the -ing form	start adding · starts getting
Obligation: must / have to / need to saying that something is necessary	have to do

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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