Shadowing Practice: Real British English Conversations - intermediate level - Learn English Speaking with Video

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300 sentences

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I bought it for £5.

It could be worth £150 -£200.

I'm going to a record fair and you're coming with me so that you can hear some everyday natural English.

The problem is I've forgotten where it is so I'll have to ask for directions.

Those lads look like they might know a little about music so I'll ask them.

Excuse me, can you point me in the right direction of the record fair?

Sure, it's over there.

Cheers.

No problem.

Hi, I'm Steve.

Oh, this looks like the way.

And here we are at the record fair.

This is a temporary event where people come to buy and sell music records, or as some people call them, vinyl.

It's early doors so it's not exactly heaving.

Let's start at the far end and work our way back.

Just pass this man on the phone.

Excuse me.

Now, what are the flogging on this stall?

You can see a selection of sew -on patches.

I like these and as you can see they're all related to music.

Some are bands like

Led Zeppelin and others are record companies such as Sun Records.

Most if not all of these are what we'd call old school, in other words bands from a long time ago.

Next to these patches we have some metal badges with pins.

These are really nice and only four quid each so not pricey at all.

Now these are for putting around a can of drink.

They call them Cozies.

Again they all have band names on them.

I wasn't really expecting this.

CDs.

Some of them unused.

My last car didn't even come with a CD player, only a place to put in a flash drive with music on it.

Check out this label that tells us that this box is full of records in the music style of of ska, mod and punk.

This type of music was at its height of popularity in the 60s and 70s.

Next we have classic rock, so bands such as Deep Purple and Pink Floyd like this.

These bands were typically very loud.

Of course the most famous of all, the Beatles, who came from here in Liverpool.

Just a minute, they look like the lads who gave me directions earlier.

What was the first record you ever bought?

My first record I ever bought?

The Boomtown Rats.

You had great taste. And you?

My first record I ever bought was The Who, Who's Next.

How long have you been selling records?

At the fares?

About six months.

Yeah, about six months.

About six months at the fares.

Where'd you get them from to sell?

We buy collections of people that have inherited them or just clearing out the loft.

Or house clearances and stuff like that.

Have you ever found a hidden treasure amongst what you buy?

I'd say that

Beatles rubber sole, loud cut.

The Beatles loud cut.

I didn't realise it was that.

I bought it for £5.

It could be worth £150, £200 pounds so yeah

and also uh electric ladyland that's at ladyland yeah yeah

that's value of like four to five hundred pounds yeah jimmy and yeah that's that's a me personal collection

not for sale that got commandeered yeah i see you have some unusual records here

now i don't know my arse from my elbow

when it comes to jazz same here yeah so do you specialise in any particular genre?

We kind of do a mix of everything really, don't we?

Yeah, we try to cover everything.

But, I mean, mine sort of specialty really is like 60s and 70s, 70s prog.

He likes Pink Floyd.

Yeah, so all that sort of prog era I really like.

So I know quite a lot about that.

The rest of the stuff, it's just run of the mill.

Obviously, you know, soul and funk and disco and 12 inches, 7 inches, everything.

He sends the like different stuff to me so it works well.

Yeah.

Because I like ska and...

Yeah, and reggae and all that, don't you?

So between the two of us it works.

Some madness.

Madness, ska.

2 -2.

2 -2, yeah.

Do you sell any records by up -to -date bands?

We still stock it.

We still have bits of that, but it's not something that we sort of...

We're learning.

Yeah, it's a learning curve with that sort of stuff.

And new stuff like indie and the noughties era sort of thing.

I have to be honest with you.

I threw my record player away over 30 years ago.

And so coming here has really opened my eyes.

Oh yeah, it's coming back.

Yeah, yeah.

You find a lot of young ones, the parents, get the vinyl down out the loft and then they start playing it,

then they get interested in it and then they're like, I want to buy this because my dad listens to this.

And then the dad borrows them the records.

You get the bug.

Yeah.

Once you get the bug.

It's a generation thing.

And then when you say to the young ones, what's your go to?

100

Well, my dad listens to, so I listen to that.

101

Exactly.

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So it's just like following the same football team as your dad does.

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It rubs off on you, doesn't it?

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Yeah.

105

If you could only ever listen to just one record that's here for the rest of your life, which one would you choose?

106

It's got to be the Holly's greatest hit, doesn't it?

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Oh, yeah.

108

The Holly's greatest hits.

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The Holly's greatest hits.

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Yeah.

111

It's fabulous.

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Absolutely amazing.

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Fabulous record.

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But we're in Liverpool and they're from Manchester.

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It's not about where they're from.

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It's that album.

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I don't know what it is about that album.

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We don't stop playing it, do we?

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Thanks for your time.

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Welcome, no problem.

121

What was your first record you ever bought?

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The first record I ever bought was Jethro Tull, Stand Up.

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Cool. And you?

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She's more into like reggae and stuff.

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I'm more of a rock person.

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The first single I ever bought was Roy Orbison, Pretty Woman.

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And I was only about 15 or 16.

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How do you replenish your stock?

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I'm retired now.

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It's just old stock that's been lying around the house.

131

If you were going to a desert island and could only take one record with you, what one would you take?

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Ooh, that's a difficult one.

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Probably Genesis when Peter Gabriel was with them.

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They did something called Stagnation

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and I saw them do it live at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester

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and I just thought it was just the best thing ever.

137

So I'd take that with me, I think.

138

What's the priciest record you've ever sold?

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A couple of hundred pounds.

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And what's the most expensive one you're selling today?

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Nothing too expensive today, probably £20.

142

Do you ever sell records that have been autographed?

143

Occasionally, but now that I'm retired, I mean, it's only in the last 12 months that I've had a bit of a renaissance.

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You know, probably after retirement, I didn't do anything for 10 years.

145

So I've stopped buying records.

146

Thanks for taking the time to talk to me today.

147

Nice to meet you.

148

Hi, I'm Steve.

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What's your name?

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My name's Cliff.

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Hi Cliff, where are you from?

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Liverpool.

153

What's the very first record you ever bought?

154

Oh, erm, Queen Boheme Rhapsody.

155

And was that the first one you bought with your own pocket money?

156

No, the first one was Billy Joel, erm, Uptime Girl.

157

How long have you been selling records?

158

Oh, 40 years.

159

Let me just get a close -up of this.

160

How much would something like this cost?

161

That's like £45 in the shops.

162

And how much would it have been originally?

163

That is a reproduced one.

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So original one of filler in the shops and

165

when it first being released would it be about four

166

or five pounds initially being released

167

but now to buy it now you're looking at 45 pounds

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so it's an investment so the records the older records are investments

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so if you get an old record and you can get a better investment.

170

Especially more picture discs of the older groups.

171

But records get scratched and damaged.

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You do, it's looking after them.

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You've got to look after them.

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Take care of them.

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If you don't, it's detrimental to the value.

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Yes.

177

Obviously the worst condition is the less the value.

178

What if the artist has signed it?

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That's a way for a lot, yeah.

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But then you have to prove that it's been signed by the artists.

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You have to be careful so there's a lot of items being signed

182

which are not genuine i got offered a queen bohemian rhapsody reissue signed by freddie mercury

183

that's clearly not a proper one because freddie mercury had died at

184

that time and freddie mercury's signature is on that that record and the dearest record you have on sale today

185

With me today probably would be Radiohead.

186

That's here.

187

That one there.

188

How much is that going for?

189

That would be £10 there in the shops.

190

But I've got it priced.

191

Wow, 35 quid is a bit steep.

192

That's a triple LP, a Raziohead.

193

What's the most you've ever sold one for?

194

£250, that was a Rolling Stones one.

195

All these are LPs.

196

Don't you sell singles?

197

I used to sell singles, but there are many more LPs.

198

Have you ever unearthed any special finds?

199

Well I found one in the charity shop for £2 and that was a Rolling Stones one as well.

200

That was £108 I sold that one for.

201

That was in the charity shop so I knew how much it was worth

202

so I gave the charity shop more of a donation.

203

Did your heart skip a beat?

204

It did.

205

When I was saying I went you can't have that for £2

206

so I said I've got to buy that for £2 but I'll give donations.

207

I gave a donation to the charity.

208

Do you mainly sell middle of the road stuff?

209

I do have a few bits of jazz stuff.

210

Miles Davis is in there, so that's in there as well.

211

I've got to admit, I'm clueless when it comes to music like this.

212

Can you make a living, or is it pin money?

213

It's one of them, you get profits and then that profit goes back onto more records,

214

so you're selling your profit in a sense you don't really say much um of anything by way of profit

215

so it's more of a hobby listen thanks very much for you i really appreciate it mate cheers

216

tell us all about the first record you ever bought first record i ever bought uh

217

I think it was Adam and the Ants, Ant Rap.

218

So we were about 82.

219

The first music I bought was The Jungle Book on cassette.

220

I remember buying that from Woolworths in Bootle.

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I loved that.

222

When I started doing this again, I found a copy of The Jungle Book on vinyl, so I've kept that back because it's nostalgia, really.

223

Have you always been a record dealer?

224

No, I've only started, well, about 12 months ago, uh i took redundancy from a job what job lecturer

225

so i was lecturing i've gone i'm doing still doing a bit of part -time lecturing now

226

but i'm kind of hedging my bets with doing a bit of i've opened a shop in rainford

227

so sunflower records um so i've been doing that

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and i still do a bit of lecturing on the side as well really

229

so but i'd rather do more of this than than

230

that really so i've been starting i started doing record fairs about over a year

231

or so ago i've got a website got

232

and now got a shop really so it's all been quite quick really so could you make a living doing this

233

at the moment no that's why i'm doing more teaching as much teaching really

234

so it's balancing kind of the two really so yeah

235

so eventually hopefully i'd like to kind of make more of a living from it

236

but it's kind of you know just got early days really

237

so before you acquired a shop where did you store all these records well

238

that was the problem because this was all so this

239

and more was in my front room uh

240

so i've got a very forgiving wife um

241

and i've obviously taken more stuff on since the the shops opened um

242

so yeah so

243

but basically the units i've got in rainford i saw it as a glorified storage unit um

244

but obviously i open up it's a shop so people can come in and browse the racks really.

245

Do you specialise in any particular genre?

246

Manure stuff.

247

I'm kind of into my indie alternative stuff, so I get quite a lot of indie stuff.

248

I'm a big

249

Beatles fan, big Bunnymen fan.

250

The shop is inspired by my love of Tear for Fears, so Sunflower Records is my kind of...

251

That's the inspiration for the name.

252

So they've just brought out another version of The Seeds of Love that came out for an album day.

253

I haven't got it in just yet, but I'll probably get that in as well.

254

So yeah, and a big fan of Tears of Fears really.

255

Have you anything here that is eye -wateringly expensive? On sale now?

256

Probably Depeche Mode.

257

It came out round about the time when vinyl was kind of quite rare, really.

258

So a lot of their albums would have come out on CD so

259

Songs of Faith and Devotion

260

so there was kind of like a limited kind of run of vinyl then but now everything comes out on

261

well Fontaine's DC just come out and they're releasing stuff on I've got the vinyl,

262

bringing it out on cassette as well and also CD so it's coming up, everything's coming out now on different formats really

263

Is there more of a market for vinyl than say CDs or cassettes?

264

Well it's funny because the vinyl boom started earlier

265

and then cds have come back in the last few years

266

so people were getting rid of cds

267

and now they're they're becoming uh a kind of a sought after item really

268

so i think people are kind of reacting to kind of streaming really they'd rather have the physical product

269

so someone i know set up a uh a cassette label in the late sort of 2010s

270

and i thought i i can see vinyl coming back

271

but i couldn't see cassettes coming back

272

but cassettes are coming back in a big way most bands now release across all formats whether it's uh streaming vinyl

273

cassettes or on cd really so it's there for everyone

274

and also as well when they release stuff in the first week

275

or so what they tend to do is bundle stuff

276

so you're a big collector even if you're not listening

277

because the cassette they'll say buy our bundle of this rec this this new record

278

so you've got it all on different formats really so it's it's

279

that that collector collecting side is coming more to the fore really

280

so i'm flabbergasted as someone who got rid of their record

281

player ages ago yeah as well as their cd player it's funny whenever you go to record fairs

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or you go to shops you can people who come in

283

and maybe not buying a record they go through

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and go oh I had that on vinyl

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and I got rid of it so no one goes into Marks

286

and Spencer's and says oh I had that pair of underpants

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and I got rid of them really

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so it is kind of uh yeah you get their life story with it it's like oh I had

289

that I had that on my nan bought me that

290

or whatever or loads of things like that really

291

so yeah there is some I think you can't say

292

that about streaming oh I downloaded

293

that record back in the day there's no no stories with it really

294

so I'm old enough to remember going to the local library to borrow records oh yes

295

that yeah that remember that the library doing that yeah yeah

296

because i because my use of cassettes back in the day was doing stuff like

297

that was going the library getting the latest release recording it taking the record back

298

and listening to it on the cassette for a while really so yeah if you enjoy learning english like this?

299

Well click the bus to subscribe to this channel and then click here and I'll see you there.

300

Ta -ra!

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This speaking lesson is built on the video “Real British English Conversations - intermediate level”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: record, bought, shop, vinyl. This video has 299 sentences and 2797 words to shadow. The speech runs for 18:54. The speaker talks at a steady 148 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. 82% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start. 46 of its 299 sentences are questions, so it is good practice for question intonation and short answers.

Key vocabulary in this video

15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
vinyl noun	/ˈvaɪ.nɪl/	The univalent radical CH₂=CH−, derived from ethylene.
pound noun	/ˈpaʊ̯nd/	A unit of weight in various measurement systems.
charity noun	/ˈtʃæɹɪti/	An organization, the objective of which is to carry out a charitable purpose.
format noun	/ˈfɔːɹ.mæt/	The layout of a publication or document.
lecture noun	/ˈlɛk.t͡ʃə/	A spoken lesson or exposition, usually delivered to a group.
donation noun	/doʊˈneɪʃən/	A voluntary gift or contribution for a specific cause.
indie noun	/ˈɪndi/	An independent publisher.
label noun	/ˈleɪ.bəl/	A small ticket or sign giving information about something to which it is attached or intended to be attached.
progressive noun	/pɹəˈɡɹɛsɪv/	One with liberal or progressive political beliefs.
jazz noun	/d͡ʒæz/	A musical art form rooted in West African cultural and musical expression and in the African American blues tradition, with diverse influences over time…
patch noun	/pæt͡ʃ/	A piece of cloth, or other suitable material, sewed or otherwise fixed upon a garment to repair or strengthen it, especially upon an old garment to cover a…
genre noun	/ˈ(d)ʒɑnɹə/	A kind; a stylistic category or sort, especially of literature or other artworks.
cheers	/t͡ʃɪəz/	A common toast used when drinking in company.
fabulous adjective	/ˈfæbjʊləs/	Of or relating to fable, myth or legend.
retire verb	/ɹəˈtaɪɹ/	To stop working on a permanent basis, usually because of old age or illness.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
come back verb		To return to a place.
come out verb	/ˌkʌm ˈaʊt/	To be discovered; to be revealed.
bring out verb		To elicit, evoke, or emphasize (a particular quality).
check out verb		To record the departure or withdrawal of someone or something (such as guests, employees, books, etc.).
clear out verb		To completely empty.
come up verb		To emerge or become known, especially unexpectedly.
go through verb		To travel from one end of something to the other.
open up verb		To open.

Sentences worth repeating

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

Where'd you get them from to sell?
It rubs off on you, doesn't it?
We don't stop playing it, do we?
What's the priciest record you've ever sold?
What's the very first record you ever bought?

Grammar in this video

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

Structure	In the video
Present perfect continuous have/has been + -ing — an action that started earlier and is still going on	have you been selling · that's been lying · i've been doing
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	I've forgotten · have inherited · Have you ever found
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	have been autographed · being released · been signed
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	someone who got · people who come

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 82 contractions and reduced forms, such as I've, I'm, don't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “sh” and “zh” sounds: donation /doʊˈneɪʃən/, genre /ˈ(d)ʒɑnɹə/, flash /flæʃ/, unusual /ʌnˈjuːʒ(u)əl/, inspiration /ˌɪn.spɪˈɹeɪ.ʃən/
Long words — get the stress right: temporary /ˈtɛmp(əˌɹ)ɛɹi/, unusual /ʌnˈjuːʒ(u)əl/, inspiration /ˌɪn.spɪˈɹeɪ.ʃən/, occasionally /əˈkeɪʒənəli/, popularity /ˌpɑ.pjəˈlæɹ.ə.ti/

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 vinyl, pound, charity.

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 →

Shadowing Practice: Real British English Conversations - intermediate level - Learn English Speaking with Video

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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?