Shadowing Practice: SOMETHING YOU BOUGHT — IELTS Speaking Part 2 — Reach Band 7.0+ Recent Question - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Hey everyone! Welcome back!
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I'm Jay from IELTS daily, and we're going to be continuing our series answering a few questions related to the IELTS speaking exam.
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So let's get started, okay?
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So today, specifically, we're going to be looking at IELTS, part two in the speaking exam.
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And I have my good friend here, Chris, who is going to be giving me some questions.
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How are you going, Chris?
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I'm doing fantastic.
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Hello, students!
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I hope you are all really well.
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Today's question is hard.
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I am sorry, Jay all these questions are hard.
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Ok, so you'll see the question on the screen now, which is: describe a recent purchase that you had a problem with, the first time you used it.
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You should say what you bought, when you bought it, where you bought it, and say what the problem was.
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Jay, I think this is a really tricky question, and I would struggle in the test if I were you.
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So what we're going to do is, you're going to have some time to write your answer.
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I will give you a minute to prepare, but we'd love to hear some of your thoughts.
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Good luck with this one because I think it's hard. Your minute starts now.
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Thanks, Chris!
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And yes, this is a very difficult question.
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Usually, I can come up with personal examples when I answered these questions, but in this case, I cannot, I can't.
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I don't have an example to use here, so I'm going to have to make something up, and that's one of the things that you might have to do during this part of the exam.
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So I'm going to just try to just come up with some ideas right now.
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I'm going to say I purchased a Google Pixel Two, which is a mobile phone.
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I bought it three weeks ago at JB HiFi, which is a electronics dealership.
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And the problem was, the screen did not work.
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As we all know, if your screen doesn't work on your mobile phone.
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No dice. Not a good situation.
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So we'll see how I go answering this question, because this is a difficult question.
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That's your minute.
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Right, so you need to speak fluently for over one minute, but fewer than two minutes, it's tricky, and try to tell a story.
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Try to talk as much as possible, and I'll be writing down some of the wonderful language that you use.
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Your time starts now.
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OK, thanks, Chris.
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So the question is to describe a recent purchase that I had a problem with the first time I used it.
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Quite recently, probably about three weeks ago, I purchased a Google Pixel Two, which is a mobile phone.
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Many of you might know what a Google Pixel Two is?
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I purchased it from JB HiFi, which is an electronics dealership in the area.
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And when I got home and opened the box, try to set everything up after I had plugged it in, charge the phone, make sure a strong battery, I noticed that something was weird, because usually when you plug in a brand new phone, even if the phone isn't turned on, the battery symbol or the image of the battery will come on when you plug the phone in.
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And whilst the phone was charging, I noticed that that little symbol didn't come up.
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And I was like, "that's strange".
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and I just kind of put it out of my mind.
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I just let it go, thinking that it wasn't anything.
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And sure enough, after maybe about half an hour, forty-five minutes of letting it charge, I went and grabbed the phone, and I hit the power button, and nothing happened.
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So I didn't see anything, no splash screen came up for Google.
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And eventually, after probably three or four minutes, nothing came up on the screen.
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It was completely black, so I think I purchased a faulty phone.
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Or there was something wrong with the screen, and I had to end up taking it back to JB HiFi, and I had to show them what happened to the phone, and they were able to give me an exchange on that.
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So you know, sometimes these things happen, and we just have to, you know, deal with them as they come, right?
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So that's about it for this one.
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How did that go, Chris?
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That was one minute and fifty-six seconds.
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Almost two minutes.
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Wow! That was one of your longer speeches. So, I think telling a story, even if you don't know about this story could be a good piece of advice for students.
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Tricky. The thing which I didn't really like about your speech, but it's not a problem with your language.
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It's about the beginning, where you repeated the question. I normally avoid, and I tell students to avoid repeating the question, where you said "so I want to talk about something that I bought, which had a problem, and I'm going to talk about when I first".
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Do you know why I did that?
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By yourself some time?
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Yes. To extend my response, because I knew going into this question that it was going to be a difficult one for me to answer, and I was worried that I wasn't going to get to the one minute mark.
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But I think you've shown that you can do that, so you don't need to repeat the question.
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and I liked the language of these, "weird".
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What does weird mean?
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Weird can mean strange or different.
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When did I use weird?
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You said, "I noticed something was weird".
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And you plugged the phone in?
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It's a phrasal verb: to plug in.
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What does that mean?
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To attach the power cord to it, to give it power.
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Good. You said, "whilst the phone was charging".
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What does whilst mean?
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That's another word for a while or during.
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At the same time right?
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And "I let it go".
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What does that mean?
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Let it go and in what context...
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That you had a problem, and you just... "I was going to let it go".
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Oh! It means to forget about it.
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Yes, to gorget about it.
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To not worry about it.
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Sure enough, what does that mean?
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As I thought, or we use this, when we were verifying something that we thought was going to happen and it ended up happening.
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Look at that.
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Sure enough.
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Yeah, good.
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I love the fact that you are telling a story, that's exactly what I want the students to do during the test.
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You said, "Hit the power button." "I hit the power button".
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Did you really hit it?
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No. So I didn't hit the power button.
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I, I pressed it and I turned it on.
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But it's a colloquial use of the word, hit.
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Nothing came up, what does that mean?
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So, nothing appeared on the screen.
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Good. It was a faulty phone, faulty means what?
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Something that isn't working properly.
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Wonderful! I ended up taking it back.
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Ended up. So ended up with is another way of saying, at the end of this situation, I did something.
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Good, and you would use it.
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You would use it with a verb afterwards, so I ended up going.
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I ended up taking it would be the verb in the ing form.
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Yes, good, and at the end you said, "Sometimes these things happen".
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Yeah, that's life right?
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That's life.
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Good. And I loved this one.
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It was a great story.
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I think this would definitely be about nine, and what advice would you give it if they didn't really have any ideas?
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Well like I said, when I was taking my notes for this, you just have to try to think of something on the fly off the top of your head, and you might have noticed two tactics that I tried to do to use for this response.
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I used one unsuccessfully, which I will make sure I don't do in the future, which is to repeat the question, so don't do that.
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But one thing you can do is you can try to slow your speech down just a little bit. Because by slowing your speech down, number one, it gives you a little bit more time to think of a response and to think of what you're going to say next.
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And it also spreads out your answer to try to reach that one minute.
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I'm not saying to slow down, ridiculously slow, but enough to just kind of, maybe help you reach that one minute.
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if you're having trouble.
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I agree. Two good points there.
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The other point is that I would say going off topic is absolutely normal, so you can start talking about one particular device or something that you bought.
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A suddenly in the middle, maybe forty-five seconds, you say, "I've just remembered another thing that I bought".
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For example, I remember this car that I bought, and it had lots of things wrong with it.
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You know there was a broken windshield, and there were some faulty lights.
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I took it back to the dealer and he wouldn't believe me.
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He said He sold it. And just tell the story.
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Anything that you want.
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Great, that's it for me.
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Thanks, Jay!
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well, that's it for me too!
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Thanks a lot for everyone watching, and we'll see you next time.
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See you later.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This video has 124 sentences and 1582 words to shadow. The speech runs for 8:57. The speaker talks at a natural 177 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 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
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| plug noun | /plʌɡ/ | A pronged connecting device which fits into a mating socket, especially an electrical one. |
| faulty adjective | /ˈfɔlti/ | Having or displaying faults; not perfect; not adequate or acceptable. |
| whilst adverb | /waɪlst/ | Often preceded by the: During the time; meanwhile. |
| examination noun | /ɪɡˌzæm.ɪˈneɪ.ʃən/ | The act of examining. |
| tricky adjective | /ˈtɹɪk.i/ | Hard to deal with, complicated. |
| verb noun | /vɝb/ | A word that indicates an action, event, or state of being. |
| symbol noun | /ˈsɪmbəl/ | A character or glyph representing an idea, concept or object. |
| forty adjective | /ˈfoɹti/ | Resembling or characteristic of a fort. |
| electronics noun | /ɪˌlɛkˈtɹɑ.nɪks/ | The study and use of electrical devices that operate by controlling the flow of electrons or other electrically charged particles or by converting the flow of… |
| topic noun | /ˈtɑpɪk/ | A subject; a theme; a category or general area of interest. |
| afterwards adverb | /ˈæf.tɚ.wɚdz/ | At a later or succeeding time; after that; |
| extend verb | /ɛkˈstɛnd/ | To increase in extent. |
| fewer | /ˈfjuː.ɚ/ | Less; a smaller amount of something non-integral commonly expressed as an integer |
| fifty noun | /ˈfɪfti/ | A banknote or coin with a denomination of 50. |
| dealer noun | /ˈdiːlə(ɹ)/ | One who deals in goods, especially automobiles; a middleman. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| end up verb | To bring to a conclusion. |
| come up verb | To emerge or become known, especially unexpectedly. |
| come up with verb | To manage to produce, deliver, or present (something) by inventing, creating, thinking of, or obtaining it. |
| go off verb | To explode. |
| slow down verb | To decelerate. |
| spread out verb | Become further apart. |
| write down verb | To produce or set (something) down in writing; to record something. |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 37 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, didn't, don't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: examination /ɪɡˌzæm.ɪˈneɪ.ʃən/, splash /splæʃ/, dealership /ˈdiːləʃɪp/, windshield /wɪnˈʃiːld/
- Long words — get the stress right: examination /ɪɡˌzæm.ɪˈneɪ.ʃən/, electronics /ɪˌlɛkˈtɹɑ.nɪks/, ridiculously /ɹɪˈdɪk.jə.ləs.li/, colloquial /kəˈloʊ.kwi.əl/, unsuccessfully /ˌʌnsəkˈsɛsfəli/
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 plug, faulty, whilst.
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | now, which is · Two, which is · HiFi, which is |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | you've shown · I've just remembered |
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.