Shadowing Practice: Simplified Speech #186 – Christmas 2023 - Learn English Speaking with Video

Hello there, everyone.

My name's Andrew.

And I'm Cassie.

And this is the Q -Lips English Podcast.

This is Simplified Speech, the Q -Lips series, which features clear, natural, and easy to understand English conversations about interesting topics.

And today I am joined by my co -host, Cassie.

Hey Cassie, how's it going?

Hey Andrew and hey listeners.

I'm doing super well and I hope you guys are too.

Cassie, what is our topic of conversation for today?

Well, the holidays are coming up so today's topic is Christmas 2023.

Yeah, so we'll get into our conversation all about Christmas and how we're planning to celebrate this year and Cassie,

I'm very curious to hear about how you're going to celebrate Christmas in Thailand in a hot place, but we'll save that for just a moment because before we start,

guys, I want to let you know that there is a study guide

and interactive transcript that is available for this episode if you are a Q -Lips member.

And in fact, we make study guides and transcripts for all of our episodes,

and they're created by our team of expert English teachers to help you get the most out of your time

that you spend with QLips and to help you in your English learning journey.

Now, as a QLips member, you'll also get exclusive bonuses and exclusive means member only that other people don't get, only you as a member.

So those benefits include invites to our monthly live streams, full access to our fluency file series and more.

So to sign up and become a QLips member, just visit our website qlips .com.

Now at the start of the show, we'd also like to give a shout out to one of our listeners who is tuning in from Canada, it looks like.

Cassie, my home country.

And this listener has the username plantlover406.

Okay, perfect.

And this is a very cute comment.

Cassie, would you do us the honors and read it for us?

Sure.

Plant Lover 406 says, Hi, Q -Lips.

My mom subscribed to the podcast and the rest is history.

I love Andrew's stories, Cassie's attitude, Anna's wisdom, and Suzanne's accents.

Thank you for the amazing content.

Even though I don't have an issue with my English level, I still tune in to find out about the lives of the hosts.

It is a lifesaver in this stressful world of a nine -year -old keep up the good work omg

that is so cute well plant lover 406 thank you

so much for that comment and cassie i wonder

if plant lover likes your attitude because it's cool or bad

or good i wonder what kind of attitude you have yeah i'm bad to the bone such a bad attitude dude.

No, I know what Plant Lover is trying to communicate there.

And yeah, so that is awesome.

I love it, actually, when people listen to the podcast because they find it interesting or entertaining.

Of course, we're here first and foremost to teach English and to provide amazing educational English lessons.

But I also feel very pleased when people like it because it's entertaining.

And I think that is what Plant Lover was trying to tell us.

So thank you so much again for the awesome review and the five -star rating on Apple Podcasts.

And thanks to everybody out there who is supporting what we do at Q -Lips by rating

and reviewing us on your favorite podcast app.

Please keep it up.

And with that said, Cassie, why don't we transition into our main topic of conversation for today,

which is Christmas 2023.

And I know you guys can't see it because you are listening right now, but Cassie and I are communicating with each other through video call.

Of course, I'm in Korea and Cassie is in Thailand.

And I changed the background of my video call to this wonderful Christmas background.

There's a huge Christmas tree and a fireplace roaring in the background.

So I feel very Christmassy right now, Cassie, but I don't really see any Christmas decorations in your background.

No, but yours is very festive.

I feel so cozy right now.

So maybe we could start there.

We could start by talking about decorations.

In general, Cassie, are you someone who tries to get into the Christmas spirit by decorating your house with a Christmas tree

or Christmas lights or decorations, anything like that?

Honestly, no, but my mother is a huge Christmas person.

Her three favorite things in the whole world are Christmas, Disney, and the beach.

So when those three things are coming up in her life, she just goes all out.

She has a huge tree, a train, a tree inside and outside, fireplace roaring every night.

It's like Christmas threw up around our house.

I wonder if your mom can combine two of her passions then, Christmas and Disney.

I'm sure she has like a lot of Disney Christmas ornaments on the tree.

Is that the case?

She does.

She used to have a shelf in our house specifically full of these limited edition priceless Disney ornaments as well.

But Unfortunately, there was one year where the shelf broke and many of them smashed.

And I'm sure a little piece of my mom's heart also died with those ornaments.

I think I remember you telling me that story once before on a different Simplified Speech episode. So sad.

So then why hasn't that carried on to you?

Why aren't you following in your mom's footsteps and going all out with decorating your house for Christmas?

I think it's because I'm a bit of a nomad, Andrew.

I have never worked at the same job for more than two years, and I've never lived in the same house for more than two years.

So because of that, I just don't like having a lot of stuff

because then I have to bring it to the next place.

Yeah, yeah, I get that.

I'm in a similar situation to you, Cassie.

I grew up with parents who went all out at Christmas and they still decorate the house.

You know, I remember putting up Christmas lights outside with my dad on the roof and we had a big Christmas tree.

Well, when I was maybe in middle school or high school, we switched to an artificial Christmas tree.

But when I was a real little kid, we used to go and get a real tree.

We wouldn't chop a tree down in the forest or anything like that.

We weren't that extreme.

But there would be Christmas tree lots in the supermarket parking lot

and you could go and buy a real Christmas tree

and they would be like fresh cut from the forest or from a tree farm.

I don't know exactly where they came from, but you could pick up a tree

and it would always be a bit of a battle to take the tree home

because you've got this like big two meter long tree, right?

You'd have to attach it to the roof of your car

or put it in the back of your truck or something

and then you'd get it home and the tree would be a real fresh tree

and there'd be like sap coming out of it.

And sap is that really sticky liquid that comes out of a tree

100

if you perforate the surface of the tree trunk, right?

101

If you cut a hole in the tree trunk.

102

So it'd be really sticky and sappy and wet.

103

And so what we would have to do is dry the tree out for a few days in the garage.

104

We'd like put the tree up and just let it dry out a little bit.

105

We never did that.

106

We had a real tree too.

107

That's smart.

108

You had a real tree too?

109

Yeah.

110

Yeah.

111

And then ironically, once you would put the tree up in your house, you would have to put the base of the tree in water so that it wouldn't turn brown.

112

Yep.

113

You dry it out and then rehydrate.

114

But listeners, as you can tell, that's a ton of work.

115

And I don't blame my parents at all for switching over to an artificial tree.

116

So there's been many years now that we've just had a fake Christmas tree.

117

But yeah, the Christmas tree goes up, the ornaments come out, the lights go up, and my parents go all out.

118

But yeah, Cassie, I'm the same as you.

119

You know, I like Christmas.

120

I'm not like a huge Christmas guy until maybe the week before.

121

I like Christmas, but I think we celebrate it for too long.

122

It's not a day of Christmas.

123

It's a month or a month and a half of Christmas.

124

Yeah, it's too long in my opinion.

125

So I tried to save decorating and stuff until maybe, you know, the 20th, 19th, 20th, and then, you know,

126

take it down on the 26th or 27th and move on to the new year.

127

That works for me.

128

That's my Christmas season.

129

Maybe you'll get a few more decorations now that you have your own place.

130

Yeah, that is exactly what I wanted to talk about, Cassie, because now I finally feel like I'm in a position where I could actually buy a Christmas tree

131

and it wouldn't be a waste because I know I'm not going to move.

132

Well, hopefully not going to move.

133

You never can say never, right?

134

But I feel like I'm in a permanent place now.

135

So my wife and I were debating about buying a full -sized Christmas tree for our home this year.

136

But then we saw how expensive they are and we decided, no, we'll just stick with the little mini Christmas tree.

137

It's probably 25 centimeter tall mini Christmas tree that we've been using the last couple of years.

138

I think we'll stick with that.

139

Easier to decorate, easier to put up, easier to put into storage.

140

It's a win, win, win.

141

Exactly.

142

But we did want to make our house look more Christmassy.

143

So we bought a Christmas wreath and we hung it on our front door.

144

and actually it's been a bit of a battle trying to hang the wreath

145

because our front door is a metal front door it looks like wood

146

but it's made out of metal but it's not magnetic

147

so at first I thought oh this will just be easy

148

we can hang like a magnetic hook on the front door

149

and hang the wreath but that doesn't work

150

so then my wife bought these like hooks

151

that have a little sticky pad on the back and she stuck that on there.

152

And then the weather went from being really warm one day to really cold the next day.

153

And I guess the sticky pad didn't like that because we woke up and the wreath was on the ground. So sad.

154

So now we've been trying some other methods.

155

We tried like gluing the hook to the front door and also the wreath fell down again.

156

So we're trying our best to have like a Christmassy vibe for our front entrance to the house.

157

But yeah, so far, no luck

158

but I think we just need to use maybe some super glue or something and just attach it really seriously.

159

You'll never get the wreath off again.

160

Yeah, it might be Christmas, not just for one week at our house, but for 365 days.

161

I'm not sure.

162

Exactly.

163

And we also bought a little step ladder and when the step ladder arrives, we just bought it online.

164

When the step ladder arrives, then I'm going to get some Christmas lights and I'm going to go up onto the roof and hang some Christmas lights, which I think will be really cool.

165

Because although Korea is a country where Christmas is celebrated, and just going around Seoul these days, you can see lots of Christmas decorations,

166

many Christmas trees, lots of stores and cafes are all decked out.

167

There's Christmas music playing in cafes and stores.

168

But one thing that you don't see is people hanging Christmas lights to decorate the exterior of their houses.

169

So now that I have a house here, that's what I'm going to do.

170

I'm going to put some Christmas lights outside, and I think I'll be the only house, not even on our streets, but the whole neighborhood.

171

You can light up your neighborhood.

172

Yeah, that'll be great.

173

Exactly.

174

Yeah, so I'm excited for that.

175

Cassie, what is your plan for Christmas Day then?

176

How are you going to celebrate?

177

and does it feel more difficult for you to get into the christmas mood

178

when you're in a place like i imagine it's not an official holiday in thailand is that true

179

or tell us a little bit about spending christmas in thailand it's true it's not an official holiday

180

but there are so many expats living in thailand especially from europe and the u .s like more western cultures

181

So you definitely see a lot of decorations on the streets or in the big shopping malls in Bangkok.

182

So it's still there, but even though it's not like an officially celebrated holiday,

183

you can still see it around with like the tourists that are there, the expats that are there, and the stores that want to make money from Christmas shopping.

184

yeah oh they have christmas markets too where you could buy some gifts

185

and then also our school is an american school

186

so high school not so much

187

but the elementary school they really go hard on the christmas festivities leading up to winter break that's awesome

188

and do you have any special plans for how you're going

189

to celebrate the day honestly we're kind of skipping christmas this year my cousins

190

and my aunt and uncle from Sweden are coming to visit for three weeks.

191

Yeah, and I think on Christmas Day, we're going to be in the middle of Kauyai National Park outside of Bangkok a few hours.

192

And I think we're going on some sort of jungle tour.

193

So not your typical Christmas, but we'll be having fun together.

194

Yeah, that's awesome.

195

As for me, my wife and I don't really have anything special planned.

196

We'll probably just have a pretty laid back Christmas.

197

I don't think we'll really do anything out of the ordinary, to be honest.

198

But the one thing that we will do is we're going to go see the Nutcracker Ballet.

199

My wife bought tickets to that.

200

That's really cool.

201

Yeah.

202

So I'm not sure if that is on the 23rd, the 24th, or the 25th.

203

I know it's sometime around Christmas.

204

But yeah, right around Christmas Day, we're going to go and see the Nutcracker and then we'll probably go out for like a nice dinner afterwards.

205

You know, Christmas Eve in Korea is a big date day.

206

It's like a day to hang out with your girlfriend or boyfriend or in my case, my wife.

207

And we'll go out and just, yeah, have a nice dinner on that day.

208

And I think that'll probably be it for Christmas for this

209

year for us you should get some of those delicious scones from

210

that shop near your old place those were so good

211

yeah listeners last time

212

that cassie was in korea we went to this amazing scone

213

shop it's like a bakery they bake their own scones

214

and it's really good

215

so cassie i think that's a wonderful idea i should pick

216

up some scones then i can wake up on christmas morning

217

and just have a nice cup of coffee and a scone and just enjoy my Christmas that way.

218

I love it.

219

Well, everyone, I think we will end this episode here.

220

We're going to keep going for a little while longer for our Q -Lips members.

221

So if you are a member of our Q -Lips member community, then guys, you can access more of our conversation.

222

You can listen to more of our conversation just by going to the Q -Lips dashboard.

223

You have to log in on our website, go to the dashboard and listen to the episode through there.

224

That's where you'll find the extra bonus content.

225

But if you're not a Q -Lips member, well then guys, we are going to end our conversation here.

226

So thank you so much for listening.

227

And please remember that you can support Q -Lips by becoming a Q -Lips member.

228

All the details are on our website, qlips .com.

229

You could also support the work that we do here by following us on social media, by joining our Discord community, which is free to join,

230

or by telling your friends who are learning English to check Q -Lips out.

231

So Merry Christmas, everyone, and we'll talk to you next time.

232

Goodbye.

233

See ya.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This B1 speaking lesson is built on the video “Simplified Speech – Christmas 2023”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: christmas, tree, cassie, Lips. This video has 233 sentences and 2842 words to shadow. The speech runs for 16:55. The speaker talks at a natural 168 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 84% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.

Key vocabulary in this video

The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
cassie noun		A thorny shrub with fragrant yellow flowers, Vachellia farnesiana; the needle bush.
decorate verb	/ˈdɛkəɹeɪt/	To furnish with decorations.
wreath noun	/ɹiθ/	Something twisted, intertwined, or curled.
decoration noun	/ˌdɛkəˈɹeɪʃən/	The act of adorning, embellishing, or honoring; ornamentation.
scone noun	/skoʊ̯n/	A small, rich, pastry or quick bread, sometimes baked on a griddle.
listener noun	/ˈlɪs(ə)nɚ/	Someone who listens, especially to a speech or a broadcast.
lover noun	/ˈlʌvɚ/	One who loves and cares for another person in a romantic way; a sweetheart, love, soulmate, boyfriend, girlfriend, or spouse.
ornament noun	/ˈɔɹnəmənt/	An element of decoration; that which embellishes or adorns.
sticky adjective	/ˈstɪki/	Tending to stick; able to adhere via the drying of a viscous substance.
podcast noun	/ˈpɑdˌkæst/	A program, especially an audio program, produced on a regular basis, delivered over the Internet in a compressed digital format and designed for playback on…
ladder noun	/ˈlæd.ɚ/	A frame, usually portable, of wood, metal, or rope, used for ascent and descent, consisting of two side pieces to which are fastened rungs (cross strips or…
dashboard noun	/ˈdæʃˌboɹd/	A panel beneath the windshield of a vehicle or aircraft containing indicator gauges, compartments, and sometimes controls and indicator lights.
expat noun	/ˈɛksˌpæt/	An expatriate; a person temporarily residing in a foreign nation, often for an occupation, training, or education.
fireplace noun	/ˈfaɪɹpleɪs/	An open hearth for holding a fire at the base of a chimney.
transcript noun	/ˈtɹæn.skɹɪpt/	Something which has been transcribed; a writing or composition consisting of the same words as the original; a written copy.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
go up verb		To move upwards.
put up verb		To place in a high location.
come out verb	/ˌkʌm ˈaʊt/	To be discovered; to be revealed.
come up verb		To emerge or become known, especially unexpectedly.
dry out verb		To cause moisture to be completely removed from; to make dry.
fall down verb	/fɔl ˈdaʊn/	To fall to the ground. To collapse.
go around verb		To move or spread from person to person.
go out verb		To leave, especially a building.

Sentences worth repeating

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

Cassie, what is our topic of conversation for today?
Cassie, would you do us the honors and read it for us?
So then why hasn't that carried on to you?
You had a real tree too?
How are you going to celebrate?

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	we've been using · we've been trying
“Used to” used to + verb — a past habit or state that is no longer true	used to have · used to go
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	someone who tries · community, which is · friends who are
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	is Simplified · is celebrated

Pronunciation to watch

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

The “sh” and “zh” sounds: decoration /ˌdɛkəˈɹeɪʃən/, dashboard /ˈdæʃˌboɹd/, shelf /ʃɛlf/, artificial /ˌɑː.tɪˈfɪʃ.əl/, shout /ʃaʊt/
Long words — get the stress right: decoration /ˌdɛkəˈɹeɪʃən/, communicate /kəˈmjuːnɪkeɪt/, artificial /ˌɑː.tɪˈfɪʃ.əl/, festivity /fɛˈstɪvəti/, ironically /aɪˈɹɑnɪkli/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like cassie, decorate, wreath.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

Key vocabulary in this video

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Sentences worth repeating

Grammar in this video

Pronunciation to watch

How to practise with this video

What is the Shadowing Technique?