Shadowing Practice: Slow English Conversations (A1+ comprehensible input) - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
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Hello everyone, welcome back to my Slow English podcast.
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Today I'm here with my friend Jay
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and we're going to show you guys something very exciting we've collaborated on to help you learn English.
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We'll have a slow English conversation with lots of hand gestures for you to understand easier.
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All right.
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Welcome, Jay.
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Where are you in the world right now?
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Thank you, Tiana.
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Right now, I am in Vietnam.
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Vietnam is in Asia, which is far from my hometown,
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in York, in England.
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How about you?
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Where are you in the world right now?
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I am in Mexico.
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Mexico is not that far from my hometown.
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My hometown is in the United States, Nebraska.
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Mm -hmm.
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Wow.
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Sorry, one question.
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Sure.
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And where in Vietnam?
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What city in Vietnam?
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I am living in a city called Da Nang.
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Da Nang.
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Da Nang is beautiful.
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Have you been to Da Nang?
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Yes, yes.
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I love Da Nang.
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I love Vietnam.
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It's my favorite country.
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Wow, awesome.
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Maybe in the future, you can fly to Vietnam.
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Yeah, I hope so.
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We can make a video in person.
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Yeah, yeah, together in person.
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Sounds good.
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Could you share with me a little bit about Mexico?
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Maybe the food, the weather, the people, the language.
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Tell me about the culture.
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The food in Mexico is delicious.
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It's the best in the whole world.
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It's spicy.
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It's greasy.
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A lot of meat in the south of Mexico the weather is hot
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but in the north of Mexico it's a little bit colder mm -hmm
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and in Mexico they speak Spanish we speak Spanish mm -hmm The people are very loud
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and very warm and inviting.
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And Mexico is a beautiful place to visit.
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You should come.
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I would love to visit Mexico.
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Yes.
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Can you tell me a little bit about Vietnam? and the culture in Vietnam?
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Sure.
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The culture in Vietnam is very different than the culture in the UK, in England.
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One thing is about the weather.
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Here in Vietnam,
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the weather is very humid it's very sweaty it's hot
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and it's wet it's wet like water there is lots of water in the air
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and it's very humid it makes me sweat the food is wonderful it's delicious they have my favorite food now
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which is called pho it's spelled p h o pho
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and maybe you know
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but pho is a bowl of noodles with broth broth is like water but with more flavor Mm -hmm.
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And one more thing about Vietnamese culture is that they are very friendly,
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very smiley, very happy people, and they always want to help you.
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They want to show you their country, show you their foods.
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They are very open, open and warm and welcoming.
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That's what I loved about Vietnam is that it was similar to Mexico.
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It was similar because the people are so happy and helping, friendly.
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Yeah.
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I loved Vietnam because it's very similar to Mexico.
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And how is Vietnam different from your hometown?
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How are the people different?
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Sure.
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Sure.
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In England, in my hometown, people are more closed.
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They are more closed off and maybe narrow -minded.
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They are focused on their day, their tasks, their work.
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In Vietnam, people are more open, as I say.
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They are just much more friendly and warm towards you.
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Mm -hmm.
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Yeah, yeah.
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Narrow -minded, that's a good word.
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Mm -hmm.
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Yes, the opposite being open -minded.
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Exactly, yeah.
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Mm -hmm.
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That's where you are in the world.
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I like to use real life objects in my videos.
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What about you?
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I am the same.
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I also use real life objects like this mug of Yorkshire tea.
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Yeah.
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Yorkshire is...
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That won't focus let me cover my face let me get a tap focus on
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that if you put your hand in front of it oh yeah you're right oh yeah sorry but I did
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there it is Yorkshire tea this is tea from my county Yorkshire
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and this is a mug these are sunglasses.
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I'm wearing the sunglasses because it's bright.
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And this is a bell and I'm ringing the bell to ring the bell.
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Oh, speaking of ringing, one second, somebody is ringing me now.
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Hello there.
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It's great to talk with you today.
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What's on your mind?
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Well, what's on my mind?
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I would like to know how can I improve my English speaking?
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That's a great question.
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I think the best way to improve your English speaking is by practicing a lot.
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You could try watching movies or TV shows in English or listening to podcasts.
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It helps you get used to the sounds and rhythms of the language.
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What do you think about that?
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Well, Miss Honey, I think that that is a fantastic answer.
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You have helped me.
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Thank you.
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Bye -bye.
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Wait, what?
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Were you talking to me? Or me?
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I was talking to, not you, but you.
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that's so cool i love it i give really good advice you do
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that was fantastic advice it's gonna help so many english learners to practice speaking
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so guys i worked with jay to create an AI,
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an AI conversation partner that sounds exactly like me, Miss Honey.
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Now, after your videos, you can practice speaking with Miss Honey AI.
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The easiest way to practice using the vocabulary you learned in a video, by speaking.
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Let's build your confidence by speaking.
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You can use the link in the description to try out Miss Honey AI for seven days free.
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She can help you become fluent in English.
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Let me show you guys how it works.
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Hello, Tayana.
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It's great to talk with you today.
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What's on your mind?
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Hey, Miss Honey, it's great to talk to you too.
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What's on my mind?
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I'm really excited to introduce this AI so that my students can start practicing speaking every day.
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That's wonderful, Dayana.
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It's a great idea to use AI to help your students practice speaking.
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Repetition is so important for learning.
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What do you think they will enjoy most about practicing with the AI?
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I think they'll enjoy speaking with someone who sounds just like me and who speaks slowly and clearly.
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Thank you.
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That's great.
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It sounds like you're saying that your students will enjoy speaking with the AI
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because it sounds like you and speaks clearly and slowly.
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It's wonderful that you're thinking of ways to make learning fun and accessible for your students.
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It's kind of creepy to hear my own voice and speak with myself,
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but hopefully you guys enjoy speaking with my AI.
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I have one too.
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And at first it was weird.
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It was mind blowing it's so accurate accurate
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and it sounds just like you she sounds just like you yeah she does she does
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and so does yours he sounds like you too he sounds just like me Yeah, I think it's so cool.
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Okay, so we both create videos.
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I want to know, why did you start?
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What made you want to start making videos?
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And was it hard?
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Or was it scary?
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I started making videos randomly one day.
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I was watching a video.
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I was learning Chinese on a YouTube channel
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and she was speaking slowly very slowly and finally I
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was able to understand what she was saying I was able to understand Chinese for a second.
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And I thought, wow, my students would love a slow English podcast from myself.
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They always told me,
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I hate practicing listening to podcasts because everyone speaks too fast and unclear.
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So I thought I'll make some slow English videos for my students to practice with.
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And I sat down, I recorded a TikTok and everybody loved it.
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It went.
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viral.
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After that, I just started making YouTube videos and more TikToks.
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It wasn't very scary because I was just doing what I always did,
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which was speak English and talk about interesting topics like the different types of intelligence,
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the meaning of colors, the best parts about traveling, just different topics.
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So instead of teaching students through online meetings,
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I would just do the same thing in my videos.
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And it was even more fun because now I was connecting with thousands of people instead of just one.
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so it was it was very fun i never felt scared
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i think wow okay amazing did you did you ever fail with
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that or did you succeed from the beginning i think i succeeded since the beginning okay
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but it depends on what you consider a failure maybe I got a lot less engagement on something
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that I was really excited and proud of and then on something that I didn't think
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much of it went really viral so like it really depends sometimes you don't expect it sure yeah
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i think your approach the way you make your videos in such an accessible way it's easy for learners to understand, to comprehend.
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I love your hand gestures.
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You make it so easy to watch,
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easy to listen to, and very valuable, very valuable for learners.
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Thank you.
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I even got my nails done because I'm always showing my hands.
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So I thought I need to have my nails done.
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I haven't got my nails done.
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Not yet.
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Not yet.
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Yeah, very soon.
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Yeah.
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After this, I'll paint them.
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Yeah, you should.
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You should.
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Now, what about you?
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I, like you, I was an English teacher and I still am.
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In the past I taught online on my laptop for many years, seven, eight years.
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I taught children in schools, adults in person and online.
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But when I moved from England to Vietnam I started making social media videos.
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Like you, I started TikTok.
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I made one video every day.
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But in the beginning, the videos didn't get views.
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People didn't watch the videos for maybe
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six months I made videos every single day nothing happened
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day one day two day three day four nothing happened
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but i kept going i knew i knew that i couldn't fail if i kept going
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eventually one video took off it took off it blew up it exploded it went viral like yours not quite as viral.
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but it went viral and then the rest is history.
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From there I made the rest, the rest is gone.
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It's all history.
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Yeah so for me it was actually quite a lot of failure but I think that's okay.
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Like I think it's okay to fail if you just keep going.
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It doesn't matter, brush it off, keep going.
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and it's failure but at the end it was success so can you even consider it failure exactly
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yeah sure okay so we have just talked about our stories about becoming content creators from English teachers.
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Now, I would like to know,
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was this your dream when you were young?
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What was your dream when you were young?
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My dream when I was young was to be a marine biologist.
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Wow.
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I loved the ocean, animals, sea animals specifically.
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And I was very interested in anything that had to do with the ocean.
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And what about you?
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What was your dream as a child? as a child like
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you similar to you i wanted to work
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with animals especially monkeys i don't know why
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but as a child i loved monkeys i used to have
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many soft toys.
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This is a soft toy.
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I had many soft toys.
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They were all monkeys.
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I had maybe 26 soft toys of monkeys.
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They had sticky hands so they would stick together
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and you could hang them on my bed it was always
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my dream to see an orangutan an orangutan is the man of the jungle
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or the human of the jungle and they live in indonesia they are big orange apes
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I still, to this day, still haven't seen one in real life.
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But I will.
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You will.
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That's the important part.
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I will.
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You will.
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Interesting.
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Because, so, are monkeys your favorite animal?
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Mm.
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Are they my favorite animal?
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What is my favourite animal?
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They have to be, right?
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They have to be, yeah.
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If you have 26 stuffed monkeys, they have to be.
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Yeah.
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As a kid, as a child, they were my favourite animal.
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Now I'm fascinated by cats.
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Any type of cat.
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So recently, just yesterday, I was watching a documentary about lions,
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leopards, and cheetahs.
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Cheetahs are the fastest land mammal, the fastest animal on land.
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And for me, I love how,
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cool word, complex, how complex the cat's character are.
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Yeah, you've got a better gesture.
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Complex.
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They are really cool to watch, observe, and yeah, they're just so successful around the world.
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Wow, interesting.
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I would have assumed.
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that monkeys were your favorite animal because I'm gonna mention this a little bit.
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Okay.
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When I was a little girl, I had tons of stuffed animals, but they were elephants.
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Wow.
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Even today, I have two stuffed elephants, but I love elephants.
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Since I was a little girl, I don't know why either, but I've loved elephants.
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And I always dreamed of seeing an elephant.
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And just like three months ago, I saw an elephant in real life for the first time.
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And yeah, it was a dream come true.
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Amazing.
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How did you feel when you saw that elephant?
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I felt very connected.
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It was almost like I already had seen an elephant because I watched videos all the time.
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I always dreamed of it.
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So it was just like it was just coming true.
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Oh, how lovely.
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Yeah.
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They are very intelligent animals.
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very very and and seeing their eyes
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and you can just feel the the wisdom yeah and everything
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that is inside of them you can feel it yeah i love that about animals like they make us present
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future past we think in the future and the past but animals bring us here and now yeah they make us present.
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So we've talked about our dreams, about monkeys, elephants and cats.
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And now, besides animals, what do you like?
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What are you into?
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What are you interested in?
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I'm very interested in dancing.
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Since I was a little girl, I love dancing, anything.
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Wow.
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Putting on music and dancing in my room is something that I've been doing since I was five years old.
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And whenever I feel overwhelmed or stressed or even just sad,
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I'll just put on music and I'll dance and I'll feel happy again.
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So dancing, anything.
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Salsa, cumbia, modern dancing, ballet.
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When I was a little girl, I would watch Dance Moms.
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Have you heard of Dance Moms?
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I have never heard of Dance Moms.
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Okay, you'll have to look it up
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but okay i'll look it up it's um it's this crazy series where these little girls they dance
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and their moms are always just getting into fights with each other
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because they're like oh my daughter's better than yours your daughter's
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being mean to my daughter my daughter should have gotten And this solo, they're very competitive.
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The moms, but the daughters, they're just there like, they're good dancers.
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Yeah, they're good dancers.
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But yeah, I think it was probably a traumatic show for the little girls.
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I bet.
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Yeah, when I was little, I loved watching Dance Moms.
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It was my favorite because the girls were such good dancers.
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Maddie Ziegler, Sia, you know Sia?
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I do.
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Sia has a dancer who dances in her videos all the time.
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And she's from Dance Moms.
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She found her on Dance Moms.
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So they're very famous now.
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It's very interesting, but it's like my childhood.
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That's a hobby that I have had since my childhood.
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How wonderful.
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Do you dance every day?
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Hmm.
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I normally dance.
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Once or twice a week.
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Okay.
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Is it official or is it more just as you please?
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As I please.
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As I please.
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Put on the music and start doing a bit of salsa.
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Exactly, yeah.
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I mean, I go to a salsa class once a week.
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I go to a modern dance class once a week.
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And then I just dance in my room alone twice a week.
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Nice.
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That's a good amount of practice.
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Yeah, yeah, for sure.
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And what about you?
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What do you like to do?
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I like to dance too but not officially I just I like to move my body so
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that could be dancing it could be gymnastics it could be
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running walking playing tennis I like to move I like to stay active.
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It's important to me.
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It makes me feel good.
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It makes me feel strong.
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It keeps me sharp.
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As well as that, I love music.
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I have my guitar over there.
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I have a piano and I like to sing and rap.
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I enjoy many things to be honest.
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I love making videos.
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I really like being creative.
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Anything that I can make something, create something, I absolutely love.
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So yeah, I have many hobbies.
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And just like I changed from monkeys to cats.
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I like to change my hobbies and keep things fresh and keep a variety of different things.
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Yeah, that's a good point.
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A good point, I guess.
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Because anything creative, it just feels liberating.
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It's like, oh, I'm finally relaxed because I got my creative juices out of me.
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that's a good phrase yeah creative juices yeah we say we
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say our creative juices meaning just like our creativity yeah
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and actually i love to rap too it's
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so much fun to me to find the rhymes with a friend it's just like going back
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and forth i think it's really good practice even for developing your speaking.
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Absolutely.
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Yeah.
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I do that with like in an improvised way.
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Like, so one game that I love to play, which maybe I can share with your audience
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and you maybe to improve my English and my speaking is the word association game.
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So maybe we can play as an example.
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So I will say a word and then you say a word that connects or relates to that word.
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And then we go back and forth like ping pong, like table tennis.
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So you want to try?
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Yeah, yeah.
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Let's do an example.
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Okay.
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Let's do an example.
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Okay.
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And usually guys I start with something around me
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so a bell okay so I find something that's
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so you say related or something that rhymes something it can rhyme
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or it can be related whatever your first thought is
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if it could be bell hell or it could be bell ring
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or it could be bell school and then go back and forth.
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Okay.
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School.
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Children.
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Books.
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Harry Potter.
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Library.
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Reading.
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Words.
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Lexicon.
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Dictionary.
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Definition.
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Sentences.
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Construction.
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Comprehension.
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Understand.
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Think.
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Speak.
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Talk.
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Chat.
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Learn.
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Joy.
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Laugh.
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Okay.
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That's a good transition.
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So you see, we went back and forth.
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We can play this with ourselves to practice our English speaking too.
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I can say pen, pencil, rubber, erase, school.
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Yeah, or even define words that are similar to others, like comprehend, think, understand.
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Yeah, these synonyms, similar words.
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Synonyms.
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Synonyms.
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Nice.
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I need to learn from you with your hand gestures.
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Yeah, synonyms.
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Cool.
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I wanted to talk about one more thing that's close to me.
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As an English teacher, I also love languages.
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You are a mix of American and Mexican.
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Is that correct?
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That's correct.
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So, do you speak languages?
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Which languages do you speak?
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I do.
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I speak English and Spanish.
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What about you?
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I speak English, obviously.
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Spanish and French when I was in university studying I learned Spanish
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and French translation I love to learn languages that's actually
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a big reason why I started my YouTube channel it's why I taught before and it's why I started Sprout which is
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my English platform, which helps non -native speakers like you guys to improve your English,
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to become better and to immerse yourself in the English language through watching, listening and speaking.
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To learn in a natural way.
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That's how you learn a language by learning naturally,
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by watching, learning, listening, and speaking.
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And remember, guys, if you want to practice speaking with Miss Honey AI,
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then click the link in the description, and you'll get seven days trial for free.
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All done.
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Thank you for watching, guys.
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Thank you so much.
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Thank you, Miss Honey.
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Thank you, Tiana, for having me.
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Thank you, Jay, for being on the Slow English Podcast.
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It's my honour.
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It's my pleasure.
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And I'm excited about future collaborations to continue working together thank you for watching guys thank you guys bye bye
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Why This Slow Conversation Is Perfect for English Learners
If you’re just starting out with English or want to build confidence in speaking, this video is a goldmine. The slow, clear dialogue—paired with hand gestures—makes it easy to follow, and the real-life topics (like where people live and local culture) keep it relatable. It’s the kind of comprehensible input that sticks, because you’re not just hearing words—you’re understanding the context. Plus, the natural flow of the conversation helps you pick up how native speakers actually connect ideas, which is key for sounding fluent.
Breaking Down the Dialogue: What Makes It Sound Natural
Let’s look at a few lines that show real English in action:
- “Vietnam is in Asia, which is far from my hometown, in York, in England.” Notice how the speaker adds extra details (“which is far from my hometown”) to clarify. This is how people talk—they don’t just state facts; they explain them. It’s a great example of conversational expansion.
- “The food in Mexico is delicious. It's the best in the whole world.” Short, simple sentences connected by a topic (food) make this easy to follow. Native speakers often use repetition (“food”) to keep the conversation focused, which helps listeners stay engaged.
- “Maybe in the future, you can fly to Vietnam.” The phrase “maybe in the future” is a soft, friendly way to suggest a plan. It’s less direct than “You should fly to Vietnam” and sounds more natural in casual talk.
A Simple Practice Routine to Try Today
To turn this video into a speaking tool, try a repeat-and-record loop—it’s like having a language partner! Here’s how: 1. Watch a 10-second clip of the conversation. 2. Pause and shadow speak (repeat the lines out loud, copying the tone and speed). 3. Record yourself. 4. Compare your recording to the video. Did you match the pauses? Did your pronunciation of “Da Nang” or “Nebraska” sound clear? For extra help, use a shadowing app or shadowing site to slow down the audio or loop tricky parts. This routine helps improve English pronunciation and trains your brain to think in English. Over time, you’ll notice your speech sounds more natural—just like the speakers in the video! Remember, practice doesn’t have to be perfect. Even 5 minutes a day with shadowspeaks techniques will make a difference.
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | we've collaborated · Have you been · have helped |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | Asia, which is · someone who sounds · Sprout which is |
| Past continuous was/were + -ing — an action in progress at a moment in the past | Were you talking · was talking · was watching |
| Verb + -ing enjoy, keep, stop… + -ing — verbs that are followed by the -ing form | practice speaking · start practicing · enjoy speaking |
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.