Shadowing Practice: She Raised Her IELTS Speaking 1.5 Bands in 1 Week - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Have you ever been in an IELTS speaking test
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and the examiner asks you a question and your brain just goes completely blank?
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That's exactly what happened to this student, even though her English was great.
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So she froze on nearly every part three question, as I'm sure many of you watching have done too.
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We identified why she was freezing, why she was lacking in confidence.
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And then we taught her a few simple techniques
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that anyone can learn and she was then able to massively improve her score in the second test, even if she got topics that she wasn't confident about.
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Watch both tests so that you can learn exactly what she did, so that you can improve and perform confidently on test day.
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Let's talk about your hometown.
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Where are you from?
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I'm from Morocco.
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It's in the north of Africa.
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Precisely, I come from the capital, Rabat.
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Yeah, next.
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Can you describe your hometown?
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According to, you know, the not locals, like people not from Rabat,
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it's civilized compared to the rest of the cities in Morocco.
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It's clean, it's safer, it's beautiful, it's so pretty, you should visit.
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What's your favorite part of your hometown?
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My favorite part of my hometown?
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That's an interesting question.
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I would say where I...
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The area where I went for middle school.
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Just such a fun area.
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I have a lot of memories there.
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I used to hang out there.
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I still hang out there when I'm back home.
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Yeah, there's a lot to do.
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Now let's talk about the weather.
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What's your favorite kind of weather?
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Ooh, summer, sunny weather, sun, grillin' sun.
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That's my favorite weather.
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Why?
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Why?
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Because I guess I grew up, again, where I come from,
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in winter it's cold, but not like no snow or, you know, minus cold.
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But it's still cold and it rains pretty much, you know, every day.
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And it's summer.
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It's nice.
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It's, you know, there's a breeze and there's sun that tans you but not burns you.
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I grew up, you know, going camping with my father and my brothers.
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And I go to, I love going to the beach, especially the wild beaches. And I love tannin.
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My skin feels a lot better under the sun than in cold weather.
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Does the weather affect your mood?
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Yes, it does, big time.
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It does affect my mood.
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I don't know, like, I just feel bored, depressed, anxious.
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Yeah, basically, I just feel blue all the time when it's raining outside.
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Now let's talk about TV.
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Do you often watch TV?
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I do watch TV, unlike, you know, my generation, who, you know, nobody watches TV anymore.
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I still watch a lot of TV.
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What kind of programs do you watch?
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Cartoon, fashion, movies on TV, sometimes Netflix and, you know,
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the other platforms and, you know, Disney plans and stuff.
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But I still watch movies and series on TV, TV channels.
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What's the best TV show you've ever watched?
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Let's see.
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Do you consider series as TV shows?
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No, I don't think so.
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Kind of like Friends.
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You know Friends, the series?
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Yes?
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Yeah, that one.
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That's a TV show?
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So, yeah, Friends.
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Oh my God, I love that series so much.
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Why?
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I feel it's comforting.
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and I could watch it all day long and re-watch it again.
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I watched it three times.
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Now let's talk about the sea.
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Do you like to go on holiday by the sea?
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I do actually whenever I'm I want to travel
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and you know like brainstorming destinations with my
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boyfriend my family my friends I usually choose the tropical destinations it has to have a beach,
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a nice beach or beaches so I can have,
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I can get to choose and yeah it has to have a beach and nice sunny weather.
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And do you go into the sea to swim or do you swim in a swimming pool?
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I don't like swimming pools, I feel that they're you know dirty.
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I prefer the beach and the salty water on my skin.
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Are there any other activities that you do on the sea apart from swimming it?
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Yes.
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When I go to a beach that actually has water activities and equipments for all of that,
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I do love to do everything everything they have I do including jet skiing,
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scuba diving, snorkeling, what else?
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Yeah I don't know what the name of the activity where they push you, you know, they pull you with a rope and a yacht.
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I do have more than one but since the question is to choose one
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I think I would go with New York City.
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I see all the time, all the models, because I model part-time.
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And it's one of my ultimate goals,
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I would say, is to walk a fashion show in New York City, travel from here, and with an agent,
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with my crew, to walk a fashion show in New to walk a fashion show in New York City.
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And actually a fashion week, New York Fashion Week.
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That's like a big dream.
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That's like every model's dream.
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Yeah.
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And I mean, it's a little bit scary.
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I do come from, I wouldn't say it's a big city, because it's actually one of the smallest cities in Morocco where I come from.
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I am scared of the big cities because when I do go to big cities for work on business trips,
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I don't like to walk around.
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I don't usually go and visit any touristy places.
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I don't do any touristy activities because I get scared of doing that alone because when you're on business trips,
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you're usually alone, right?
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So, yeah, I would want to discover the city, but I have to have somebody with me.
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New York City is pretty scary, challenging, I feel like.
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So we've been talking about a city you would like to visit.
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We're going to continue to talk about visiting cities and the growth of cities.
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Do you think it is better to visit a city alone or with other people?
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I have never traveled alone.
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Even on business trips, you're always with the team.
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So I do think it's more enjoyable when you're accompanied with people.
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There has to be someone and preferably someone you're close to so that you can,
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you know, probably share the same interests and same hobbies.
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Yeah, centers of interest.
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I think so.
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Why are many cities increasing in size?
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I have no insight on that, honestly.
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Okay.
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What are the challenges of ever-growing bigger cities?
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I don't think I can be of a fuse to give an actual answer to that because,
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again, I've never lived in a big city.
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I don't know how it is.
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I only visit for three days maximum and I don't really go out unless it's a restaurant to eat.
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But that's it.
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I don't go out in big cities because I, again, I'm scared of big cities.
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In what ways do you think big cities will change in the future?
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In what ways?
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That's the question, yeah.
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I guess they could start by building better roads and better infrastructure.
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And yeah, I think in the same... In the same...
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Trying to develop the transportation.
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Transportation?
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Yeah.
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public transportation.
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I guess that's all I have.
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That's the end of the speaking test.
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How do you think that went?
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Okay.
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I'm very happy with it because I think we can help you very quickly.
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So I'm going to go through the different parts of the test and what you could do to improve that.
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And then we'll bring you back and hopefully you'll have improved after that.
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So for part one, if you would like your speaking assessed one on one, we do offer that as part of our VIP package.
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To thank you for watching the video, I'll offer you 10% off.
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All you have to do is just go to the description, click the link and you can get 10% off today.
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Part one, it was quite good.
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One of the things that you are doing in general is you're thinking a lot about the content of what to say.
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So your language is quite good.
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Your grammar and your vocabulary, your pronunciation are quite good.
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You know how to speak English, but you're always searching for the right topic or the right thing to say.
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Am I right or what do you think?
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Why do you think that is?
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Because when I spoke to you before the test, you didn't speak that way.
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You just spoke naturally.
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I don't exactly just speak whatever comes into my head.
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I always pause before I say something.
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Always.
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Especially when I'm speaking English because it's my third language.
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So I have to translate from Arabic to French and from French to English.
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That's when I can speak.
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That's the problem.
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Yeah, so I always have to pause to think.
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Imagine your brain is a computer.
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When you're on the computer and there's too many tabs open, there's too many programs open.
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It lags.
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Yeah, there's just not enough bandwidth.
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So there's a few solutions.
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There's a long-term solution and then there's a short-term solution.
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The short-term solution is when you get asked a question, you can take a pause, that's absolutely fine.
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So you can say something like, oh, that's an interesting question or I haven't thought about that or give me a second, I'm going to think about that.
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And then pick the one thing that is easiest for you to talk about.
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What you tend to do is you start to talk
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and think at the same time and then you list like lots of different things.
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So not only are you translating three different languages, you're making it 10 times more difficult for yourself by trying to think of all these different ideas,
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rather than just what's the easiest thing for you to talk about.
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Part one is about you.
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You are the leading expert in the world on you.
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So just pick from your own life experience, the thing that you feel most comfortable talking about, easiest to talk about.
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And then when you finish with that thing, take a beat, think about the next thing.
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And for part one questions, one thing is normally enough.
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And don't overthink it.
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It's not a knowledge test.
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There's no correct answer.
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Does that make sense?
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Yes, it does.
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Long term, if you really wanted to improve your English, you're going to have to start operating just in English, so not translating at all.
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Wow.
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But that's difficult.
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How can I do that?
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So one of the best ways to learn English is through reading
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and listening to English about topics that you find interesting or you're passionate about.
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Let's say you're listening to a podcast on something that you find interesting.
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You would, let's say you're learning new words or learning improving your vocabulary.
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You would not write the Arabic.
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would write the word, the meaning in English, example sentences in English.
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If you do that over and over and over again, so you're listening to English, you're reading in English, you're writing in English,
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you will stop translating and you will start producing it in English.
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But most people don't want to do that because it is very time consuming and it's difficult.
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So it really depends on whether you want to do that or not.
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But you will never be able to speak really fluently in English whilst translating from Arabic to French into English.
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It just won't happen.
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That doesn't sound that difficult though.
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Sounds like something I can do.
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Okay, great.
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What you did in part two, you will repeat ideas a lot.
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So instead of developing an idea, you will state an idea and then you'll repeat it again and again.
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So you'll say something like, New York is not safe.
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You know, I don't like being there alone because it's not safe.
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I like being with other people because it's not safe.
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So you're repeating the same thing rather than moving on to the next thing.
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That is a problem because you're not really giving the examiner enough to go on
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because you're repeating the same ideas again and again.
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For part two, look at the topic and then write down different things that you could talk about.
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Talk about that, explain it, give an example, and then move on to the next one, then the next one, then the next one.
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You should be aiming to talk about at least like four or five different things within that two minutes.
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You really only talked about maybe two things, but you were repeating it over and over again.
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Maybe it's just a confidence thing, you're like, okay, I know how to say this, so I'm going to repeat it.
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It seemed as if you were repeating things and thinking about the next thing to say, and you couldn't think of it, so you were repeating it.
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I can't look into your brain and tell, say what you're thinking, but what were you thinking when you were going through that?
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I don't know much about New York other than what's going on there in the fashion world.
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So why pick that one?
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Why not pick a city that you know a lot about?
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I just didn't think about it.
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Even if New York City is like your dream city and you really want to visit that one, but you don't really know what to say about it, don't say that.
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Pick the easy thing to talk about.
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Let's say it's pick a country you would like to visit you've never been before.
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Don't talk about a country you've never been, talk about a country you've been to before.
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So it's okay to lie.
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Right.
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We're being strategic here.
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Just say, I've never been to Thailand, but I'd really like to go for this reason, and I really like this.
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Just make it easy for yourself.
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All right.
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Any questions about that?
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No. No?
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Okay.
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So, part three, there were a lot of questions you not refused to answer, but you just said, like, I don't have any insight on that.
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And then you just stopped talking.
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It is fine to say something like that, but you would need to explain a little bit more.
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I said, why have cities increased in size?
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it's okay to say like I haven't really thought about
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that I don't really have any insight on that but
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if I had to guess
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and then you could guess what it is again it's not
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a knowledge test it's not an IQ test it's a speaking test
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so they need to hear you speaking so
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if you explain like I've had to guess this
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or at the speculate I don't really know that tells the examiner
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that at least you're trying whereas if you just said I don't know
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or I haven't been to see
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or I've never lived in a city what you're saying to
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the examiner is I don't have enough language to talk about this.
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My English isn't good enough when it is.
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Your English is quite good.
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You can do way better, but you need to just shift your tactics a little bit in your strategy.
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I would like to bring you back and coach you a little bit more and see how that changes, because I think you can do much, much better next time.
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So I'm not going to give you a score because I don't think it would be fair.
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And then next time we're going to see what your real score is.
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All right.
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I'm sorry if I'm being very negative, but it's because I think you can do way better.
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Thank you.
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Well done.
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Let's talk about food.
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What's your favorite food?
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I would say couscous because it's where I come from.
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It's flavorful and very healthy.
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Do you have a healthy diet or not?
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Healthy diet, I work out and I'm bound to have a healthy diet and yeah,
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low carb diet precisely.
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Do you ever have a cheat meal?
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Twice a week actually, it should be once a week according to my PT, but it's twice a week.
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I'm a bit of a foodie.
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And do you have a sweet tooth?
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I do, yes.
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And it's really hard to get a hold of that and,
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you know, not losing your track of what you're doing and your goals.
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And yeah, that's what I count as a cheat meal.
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It's desserts twice a week.
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Now let's talk about drinks.
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What's your favorite drink?
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My favorite drink, Moroccan tea.
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Very refreshing and at the same time it's hot.
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You don't drink it cold, it's hot.
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So it's refreshing and soothing at the same time.
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Do you drink coffee?
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I'm not much of a coffee lover, honestly, but I do crave from time to other a Spanish latte.
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And do you prefer to go to coffee shops alone or with other people?
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Depends on what I want to do at the coffee house.
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Like if it's, you know, like catching up, a little bit of gossiping with the girls,
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you have to have company with you.
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And if it's, you know, getting some work done and just, you know, being alone with your thoughts,
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then it's alone at the coffee shop.
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Now let's talk about your free time.
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What do you like to do in your free time?
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A couple of things.
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I take belly dance classes.
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I used to when I got back to it recently.
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It's something that I enjoy very much.
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And as I said before,
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I work out around four to five times a week. And I play tennis.
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I used to play tennis as a kid.
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And it's something that I'm good at, again, according to my coach.
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So I got back to it.
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So I love to stay active all the time.
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Do you play tennis as much as you did before or less than before?
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I play as more often than I did before because I was a kid.
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So I was, you know, I could also I could only play tennis on weekends when I'm free.
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But now I can make my own free time.
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So I do play around three times a week.
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As you get older, do you think that your hobbies or your free time will change?
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My hobbies, yes.
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I like to, I'm open to trying new things,
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new hobbies and discovering whatever it is that can keep me busy and distracted. So hobbies, yes.
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I forgot what was the other part.
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Okay.
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So it's this hotel that I stayed at one time.
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I was between apartments, so I needed a place to stay.
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And a friend of mine recommended this hotel, the Grovener House in Marina side.
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I love that hotel.
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this spa there i tried all sorts of services they have it's amazing
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and the stuff is so nice and so welcoming and
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so warm um yeah let's see there's the lounge on the building number one i guess
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if i remember correctly so that lounge is um they also have breakfast there if i remember correctly It's very nice.
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The breakfast is diversified.
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You never run out of options of what to eat.
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It's something new every day.
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And you also have access to other hotels, pools, and beachclubs, private beaches.
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And I've been to every and each one of them.
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Let's see what else.
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Yeah, and the choice of restaurants.
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I think they have at least six restaurants at that hotel and one of them is Moroccan, so I can be happier.
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And yeah, there was one Japanese and one rooftop lounge.
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Yeah, I can name that hotel.
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I can say, it's safe for me to say that that hotel was my favorite one.
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You've been describing a hotel that you've been to and we're going to continue to talk about hotels.
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What things are important when choosing a hotel?
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How the bathroom looks like.
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Coming from a girl's perspective, the bathroom has to be, the light has to be perfect.
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And it has to be, it has to have a large bathtub.
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And yeah, like good lighting everywhere, honestly.
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And good pool.
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Just to turn.
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Do you think that it's important for a hotel to be luxurious?
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No, it doesn't have to be luxurious.
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I feel like that's just overrated.
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Luxury doesn't mean comfort and good quality service, food and such.
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What skills do you need to be successful working in the hotel trade?
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I would say good communication skills and yeah good communication skills that comes first.
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I've worked at hotels not for long for about a year
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and in different departments and I can say
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that communication is the one thing and then secondly you have to master more than one thing one language,
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at least two, or where I come from, it has to be at least three languages.
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So yeah, in my case, I spoke three languages.
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I wouldn't say four because I'm not fluent in Spanish, but yeah, I can get by.
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And then thirdly, I can...
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I'm lacking one word.
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You already gave two, so that's enough.
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And that's the end of the speaking test.
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And that was a massive improvement.
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You went from not being able to speak a lot of the time for a lot of the questions, just saying I don't know anything about that, to being far more comfortable,
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far more fluent, and really showing how great your English actually is.
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So the first test, you were making a lot more mistakes, but you weren't even, you weren't really allowing the examiner to see how great your grammar,
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your vocabulary, your pronunciation, your fluency actually is.
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She should have a lot more confidence now because you've demonstrated that with just a few small changes in strategy,
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you're able to massively improve your score.
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So well done.
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Thank you.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “She Raised Her IELTS Speaking 1.5 Bands in 1 Week”. This video has 372 sentences and 3757 words to shadow. The speech runs for 26:05. The speaker talks at a steady 144 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. 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:

WordPronunciationMeaning
examiner noun/əɡˈzæmɪnɚ/A person who investigates someone or something.
translate verb/tɹænzˈleɪt/To change spoken words or written text (of a book, document, movie, etc.) from one language to another.
hobby noun/ˈhɑ.bi/An activity that one enjoys doing in one's spare time.
vocabulary noun/vəˈkæb.jə.lə.ɹi/A usually alphabetized and explained collection of words e.g. of a particular field, or prepared for a specific purpose, often for learning.
hometown noun/ˈhoʊmˌtaʊn/An individual’s place of birth, childhood home, or place of main residence.
lounge noun/ˈlaʊ̯nd͡ʒ/The act of someone who lounges; idle reclining.
pause noun/pɔːz/A temporary stop or rest; an intermission of action; interruption; suspension; cessation.
scare verb/skɛɚ/To frighten, terrify, startle, especially in a minor way.
insight noun/ˈɪnsaɪ̯t/A sight or view of the interior of anything; a deep inspection or view; introspection; frequently used with into.
pronunciation noun/pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/The formal or informal way in which a word is made to sound when spoken.
massively adverb/ˈmæs.ɪv.li/In a massive manner, in a way that appears large, heavy or imposing.
fluent adjective/ˈfluənt/That flows; flowing, liquid.
luxurious adjective/lʌɡˈʒʊəɹi.əs/Very fine in quality and comfortable.
refresh verb/ɹɪˈfɹɛʃ/To renew or revitalize.
analyze verb/ˈæn.əˌlaɪz/To subject to analysis.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

WordPronunciationMeaning
get back to verbReturn to (an activity)
go through verbTo travel from one end of something to the other.
grow up verbTo mature and become an adult.
work out verb/ˌwɝk ˈaʊt/To calculate.
catch up verbTo pick up suddenly.
get off verbTo move from being on top of (something) to not being on top of it.
go out verbTo leave, especially a building.
play around verbTo behave in a silly, childish, or irresponsible way.

Sentences worth repeating

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

  • Can you describe your hometown?
  • What's your favorite part of your hometown?
  • My favorite part of my hometown?
  • What's your favorite kind of weather?
  • Does the weather affect your mood?

Grammar in this video

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

StructureIn the video
“Used to” used to + verb — a past habit or state that is no longer trueused to hang · used to when · used to play
Present perfect continuous have/has been + -ing — an action that started earlier and is still going onwe've been talking · You've been describing
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters nowHave you ever been · have done · you've ever watched

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 116 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, you're, I'm. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

  • The “th” sounds: bathtub /ˈbæθtʌb/, soothe /suːð/, thirdly /ˈθɚdli/, bandwidth /ˈbændwɪdθ/, tooth /tuθ/
  • The “sh” and “zh” sounds: pronunciation /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/, luxurious /lʌɡˈʒʊəɹi.əs/, refresh /ɹɪˈfɹɛʃ/, passionate /ˈpæʃənɪt/, anxious /ˈæŋkʃəs/
  • Long words — get the stress right: examiner /əɡˈzæmɪnɚ/, vocabulary /vəˈkæb.jə.lə.ɹi/, pronunciation /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/, luxurious /lʌɡˈʒʊəɹi.əs/, carbohydrate /kɑɹboʊˈhaɪdɹeɪt/

How to practise with this video

  1. Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
  2. Shadow it sentence by sentence at normal speed, repeating each one until your rhythm matches the speaker.
  3. Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like examiner, translate, hobby.

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 →