Shadowing Practice: Podcast Chậm Rãi - Lịch sử kỳ lạ đêm Halloween và chuyện ma có thật | Học 26 từ vựng | Tập 5 - Learn English Speaking with YouTube
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me and my friend looked at each other like, what was that?
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me and my friend looked at each other like, what was that?
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It was startling because it was totally quiet and then smashed.
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What's up everyone?
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Chào các bạn và chào mừng các bạn quay trở lại với tập nam của podcast Slow
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and Clear của What's Up English.
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My name is Carter and in this podcast,
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we're going to talk about Halloween.
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So in the beginning, you guys are going to learn the interesting history of Halloween.
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Then we will talk about some activities that you do during Halloween.
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And finally, at the end,
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I'm going to tell you guys kind of like a ghost story.
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But it's something that happened to me that I still remember to this day.
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and it's kind of creepy.
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Let's begin with the history of Halloween.
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So maybe you know Halloween as the holiday where kids dress up in scary costumes
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and they go door to door asking strangers for candy and that is called trick-or-treating, right?
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But the way
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that this started was roughly 2,000 years ago in what was known as the Celtic area
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and now that area are countries like Ireland,
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Scotland, Wales, countries in Great Britain now,
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and also some countries in Europe.
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So that area was pretty large,
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and at that time, they had a holiday called Samhain.
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And Samhain was on November 1st. And on this holiday,
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people believed that ghosts would come back from the dead and roam around.
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So what they did to stop the ghosts from coming into their homes was they would put things like bread
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and wine at their doorstep.
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so the ghosts would be happy with the offering and not go into their homes.
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People would also wear masks when they were outside on the street because they believed that if they wore masks,
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then the ghosts would think that they are ghosts too and leave them alone.
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This day when the ghosts would roam around the streets used to be called Samhain.
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And then they changed the name to All Hallows.
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The day before All Hallows was All Hallows Eve.
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And then that got shortened to Halloween.
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To sum it up, Samhain was on November 1st. Samhain became All Hallows.
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and then the day before All Hallows was All Hallows Eve because Eve means the day before,
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like Christmas Eve.
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And then All Hallows Eve became Halloween.
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So that's how we have the name Halloween.
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One thing that the poor people used to do at this time was they would go around begging for pastries
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and if someone gave them the pastry,
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in return, they would pray for that person.
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They would pray for their ancestors,
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or they would pray for their health.
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They would pray for good weather,
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just basically good things for whoever gave them these pastries.
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This was called soling.
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And there was another activity called guising.
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And this one might sound a bit more familiar.
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Guising was when young people,
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kids, children, would dress up and then they would go around accepting food,
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money, or wine, stuff like that,
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in exchange for singing or saying a poem or telling a joke,
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some form of entertainment.
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And again, this was called guising.
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But then much later on in America,
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in the 19th century, these Irish and Scottish immigrants that came to America,
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they brought back these old traditions.
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And then in the 1950s,
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around that time, those traditions became what is known today as trick-or-treating.
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So these days, Halloween is a very big industry in America.
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There was a statistic that Americans spent over $10 billion in 2021 for Halloween.
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So it's a really big industry.
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Now, as we can see,
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it's spread to many, many countries around the world, including Vietnam.
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Many kids like to dress up, get free candy, right?
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Because everyone loves free candy.
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So some things that people can do on Halloween are trick-or-treating, of course.
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And trick-or-treating is when kids dress up as a monster or something scary.
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and they go door to door or apartment to apartment and they say trick or treat and hopefully get a candy.
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In the west
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and also here we have Halloween parties where they have a theme they will dress up like a monster
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or whatever and go to the party.
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There are haunted houses and haunted means ghosts are there.
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I remember when I was young,
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I was maybe five or six years old,
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and I was going trick-or-treating with my dad and my brother,
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and there was a haunted house not too far from my house.
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Some people in the West,
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they put a lot of effort into creating something scary around their house or as a part of their house.
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So in the West, we have garages where you park your car
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and many people would turn those into a haunted house for kids.
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And I remember I saw this haunted house and I was genuinely scared to go in because I was very young.
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And the guy said, if you go into this haunted house,
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I will give you a big candy bar.
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Because most of the time they gave you small candy bars, right?
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Small chocolate bars.
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But he said, if I go in,
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I'll get a big one like this it was tempting
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but I couldn't do it
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and I remember my brother he was three years older than me he did it
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and he got a big chocolate bar
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and I was thinking okay maybe next year I'll do it but this year I can't it's too scary
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Other things that people do on Halloween are carving pumpkins.
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And I think that's straightforward.
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You have a pumpkin, you carve it into a face or anything that you want.
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And then you can put a candle inside and it makes a really nice decoration.
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Some places have hay rides.
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And a hay ride is when you're at a farm.
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And you sit on a tractor or a truck and it drives through the farm,
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like the tall wheat fields.
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So you cannot see very much, right?
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And at nighttime, it's very creepy.
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And there was one place in Canada called Saunders Farm.
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And it was like a Halloween scary place.
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On this hayride, you would go onto a truck and they would drive you through the hayfields.
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So you are not in the truck,
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but you are on the bed of the truck.
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So you are still exposed to the outside.
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And as they drive through the hayfield,
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there's a guy with a fake chainsaw,
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but he suddenly jumps out of the hayfield
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and he starts chasing you on the truck with the chainsaw and it makes noise.
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It's like, like it sounds,
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it's a real chainsaw, but there's no chain on it.
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So that is terrifying as a kid.
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And it was like exciting, but also very scary.
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Some other things people do are they watch horror movies,
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like a horror movie marathon.
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You can have bonfires tell scary stories around the bonfire.
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Apple bobbing.
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I didn't see it too often,
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but yeah, people would grab an apple with their mouth from a barrel.
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So yeah, those are a few things that people do on Halloween.
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And finally, for the last part of this podcast,
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I'm going to tell you guys a real,
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true, creepy story that happened to me.
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This is 100% true from what I saw and what I heard.
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I'm not making anything up.
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This was not at a time that was close to Halloween.
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I can't remember exactly when it was.
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I think it was in the winter in Canada.
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and I was in my basement with my friend.
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We were sitting next to each other.
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In this room we were in,
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there was another room not too far away,
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but the door to that room was closed.
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All of a sudden, we heard a very loud bang come from that room.
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it sounded like something very heavy or large fell down
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and smashed on the ground like it was loud
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and as soon as that happened me
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and my friend looked at each other like what was
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that it was startling because it was totally quiet and then smash so the first thing that we thought was
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something must have fallen down.
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And let's go check on it.
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So after that smash we got up we went to the room
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that we heard the smash come from and everything was normal.
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There was nothing on the floor,
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nothing out of the ordinary,
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just basically we were looking for anything because we were so convinced that something broke,
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something big broke.
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Hearing a bang that loud,
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we thought we must be able to find something that made
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that noise because it came from right there and it was so loud,
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loud to the point where we looked at each other,
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even thinking like, is someone breaking into the house.
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It was really loud, but we could not find anything.
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And we were pretty confused, to be honest.
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But then I went back to the computer and then there was a pop-up on the screen.
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And I remember this was maybe 10 years ago.
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No, more than that.
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Maybe about 12 years ago.
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So this was with an old version of Windows,
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and there was a pop-up on the screen with just the exclamation mark.
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It was like the yellow triangle with the exclamation mark.
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It was an Italian word.
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That's all it was.
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Just a pop-up with the Italian words on it.
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I thought, that's weird.
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So I googled what those words were and it turned out that it was a haunted house in Italy.
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It was a house that was famous for having ghosts in it in Italy.
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And I was like, what?
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Why would that pop up on my computer?
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It wasn't an advertisement.
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It wasn't anything.
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It had no purpose.
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It just popped up and the only thing I could click was OK to close it.
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It happened very shortly after that loud bang.
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Another weird thing was the house we were in had been previously owned by Italian people because this area was very Italian.
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There were many Italians that used to live there from the 50s.
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so yeah it was very strange to this day I still don't know what
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that bang was you know the my friend I was with he doesn't know um
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so it's a mystery and I would say
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that was the most paranormal thing
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that has pretty much ever happened to me in my life because normally I'm not a person that believes in ghosts,
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to be honest.
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I'm pretty like logical and scientific.
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And I think if there's no proof of something,
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then I'm not going to believe it exists.
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But that was one thing that I had no answer for.
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It was very strange.
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So that's it, guys.
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That's it for this Halloween podcast.
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I hope you enjoyed it.
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I hope you learned some things about Halloween.
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I hope you have a great Halloween.
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Whatever you do, maybe you'll do nothing.
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Maybe you will go out trick-or-treating.
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Thank you so much for watching as usual.
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If you want to watch another podcast,
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click this video up here and I will see you guys in the next video.
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See you later.
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Why practice speaking with this video?
In this episode of the podcast, listeners have the chance to improve their English pronunciation while engaging with a fascinating topic: the history of Halloween. By listening to real-life conversations and narratives, learners can pick up not only vocabulary but also contextual speaking patterns. The balance of storytelling and education in the podcast makes it an enjoyable way to learn English with YouTube.
The speaker uses approachable language and clear articulation, making it easier for listeners to mimic speech patterns and intonation. This practice is crucial for developing natural speaking skills and can be significantly enhanced through tools such as the Shadow Speak technique. By repeating phrases and sentences from the podcast, learners can build confidence while speaking, aiding in both fluency and comprehension.
Grammar & Expressions in Context
Throughout the podcast, several grammatical structures and expressions stand out, which can be beneficial for learners:
- Past Simple Tense: The speaker often recounts events using the past simple ("was," "believed," "went"), which is important for discussing historical topics. For example, “they believed that ghosts would come back from the dead.” This structure is essential for narrating past experiences.
- Modals of Advice: The speaker uses modal verbs such as "would" and "could" when discussing what people used to do during Halloween ("they would wear masks"). Understanding modals helps learners express possibilities and advice more naturally.
- Conditionals: The phrase “if they wore masks, then the ghosts would think...” exemplifies how conditionals are used to express hypothetical situations. This structure can be particularly useful in creative writing or speaking about potential outcomes.
- Present Continuous: When the speaker describes current actions ("we're going to talk about Halloween"), it showcases how this tense can make conversations more dynamic and engaging.
Common Pronunciation Traps
As with any podcast, there are specific pronunciation challenges learners should be aware of. Some tricky words mentioned include:
- “Samhain”: This term may be unfamiliar and is pronounced as "sow-in." Paying attention to how the speaker articulates it can help learners get it right.
- “Guising”: The pronunciation may vary based on accents; focusing on how this word is presented can aid in mastering it.
- “Celtic”: This term can have different pronunciations, but in this context, it is pronounced as "kel-tik." Recognizing accents in the podcast allows for greater understanding and improvement in English pronunciation.
To truly harness what you've learned, consider using a shadowing app that lets you practice alongside the speaker. Attempt to match the timing and rhythm of the narratives. Shadowspeak is an effective exercise for refining pronunciation and developing a more native-like accent. With continuous practice, you will see substantial improvements in your speaking abilities.
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.
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