Shadowing Practice: Stewart Lee - Brexit vs Trump - Learn English Speaking with Video
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73 sentences
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1
This is a very difficult time in history to do stand -up, and I would appreciate your blanket support, to be honest.
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It's very...
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Look, I went back on the road in September.
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I did a week in Oxford, right?
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That's Remain.
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Then I did Doncaster, that's Leave.
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Then I did Glasgow, Remain.
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Dartford, Leave.
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This was about 60 -40 in favour of Leave, wasn't it?
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And the Remain voting cities now, they loom out of the map, don't they?
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Like fantasy citadels in a Tolkien -esque landscape.
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Wondrous, walled cities, full of wizards and poets.
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And people who could understand data.
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In the middle of a vast, swampy fen, with here there be trolls written over it.
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Yeah, down here, laughter up there.
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People go, hang on.
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Troll stew, that's not a very fair way.
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You know, we are in leave voting south end on sea trolls that's not a very fair way to describe the English
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and Welsh majority that exercise their democratic right to vote to leave the EU
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and it isn't to be fair you know
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and I think look we're gonna leave the EU that is happening
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and I think people have got to put their differences behind them now
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and try and make it work and I don't know
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if you can make massive generalizations about people that voted to leave Europe anyway because people
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voted to leave Europe for all sorts of different reasons you know and it wasn't just racists that voted to leave Europe.
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Cunts did as well, didn't they?
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Stupid fucking cunts.
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Racists and cunts and people with legitimate anxieties about ever closer political ties to Europe.
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Dear Palace Theatre South End, please inform the comedian, and I use that word advisedly,
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Stuart Lee, who I had the misfortune of being taken along to see my friends last night, that I actually voted to leave Europe,
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and I am neither a racist nor a cunt.
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Merely someone with genuine anxieties about ever -closer political ties to Europe.
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Yours, a cunt.
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Burnham on Crouch.
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It's where they live, isn't it?
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Burnham on Crouch.
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Do you know what?
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I don't know anything about Burnham on Crouch.
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I just drove to it.
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I thought, that'll do for that joke.
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It's the first time it's got a laugh. so
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yes welcome to the music hall so
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no but it's difficult you know you can't make massive to be fair you can't make massive generalisations about people
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that voted to leave Europe, people did vote to leave Europe for all sorts of different they did, don't snigger away down there they voted for, you know not everyone
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that voted to leave Europe wanted to see Britain immediately descend
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into being an unaccountable single party state exploiting people's worst prejudices to maintain power indefinitely.
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Some people just wanted bendy bananas, didn't they?
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Oh, no!
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I only wanted bendy bananas.
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And now there's this chaotic inferno of hate.
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Oh, well, never mind.
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At least the bananas are all bendy again on you.
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Right, they always fucking were.
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You know, because I've got a trumpet, I have to check at half -time every night
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that he's not been assassinated or fallen into a barrel of porn actresses or something.
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But it does mean that I see the same crass anti -American generalisations online every night on social media, and it annoys me, to be honest,
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because I don't know if you can and make massive generalisations about Americans who voted for Trump.
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Because Americans voted for Trump for all sorts of different reasons.
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And it wasn't just racist that voted for Trump.
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Cunts do this well, don't they?
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Yeah, stupid, fat American cunt.
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The worst kind of cunts, aren't they?
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Much worse than our British cunts, aren't they?
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Salt of the Earth, British cunts!
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British cunts!
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British cunts!
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British Brexit voting cunts from Southend! But...
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It's you, innit?
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But I don't know...
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Well, I don't know if you can make massive generalisations about Americans that voted for Trump.
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Seriously, I mean, not all Americans that voted for Trump wanted to see America immediately descend into being an unaccountable,
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single -party state exploiting people's worst prejudices to maintain power indefinitely.
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Some Americans just wanted to be allowed to wear their Ku Klux Klan outfits to church, didn't they?
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “Stewart Lee - Brexit vs Trump”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: cunt, voted, Europe, Trump, generalizations. This video has 31 sentences and 703 words to shadow. The speech runs for 5:46. The speaker talks at a steady 122 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. Only 79% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| racist noun | /ˈɹeɪ.sɪst/ | A person who believes in or supports racism; a person who believes that a particular race is superior to others, or who discriminates against other races. |
| banana noun | /bəˈnænə/ | An elongated curved tropical fruit of a banana plant, which grows in bunches and has a creamy flesh and a smooth skin. |
| anxiety noun | /æŋˈzaɪ.əti/ | An unpleasant state of mental uneasiness, nervousness, apprehension and obsession or concern about some uncertain event. |
| exploit noun | /ˈɛksplɔɪt/ | A heroic or extraordinary deed. |
| prejudice noun | /ˈpɹɛd͡ʒədɪs/ | An adverse judgment or opinion formed beforehand or without knowledge of the facts. |
| indefinitely adverb | /ɪnˈdɛfɪnɪtli/ | In a manner that is not definite. |
| descend verb | /dəˈsɛnd/ | To pass from a higher to a lower part of (something, such as a flight of stairs or a slope); to go down along or upon. |
| vast adjective | /væst/ | Very large or wide (literally or figuratively). |
| actress noun | /ˈæk.tɹɪs/ | A female who performs on the stage or in films. |
| genuine adjective | /ˈd͡ʒɛn.juˌɪn/ | Belonging to, or proceeding from the original stock; native. |
| merely adverb | /ˈmɪəli/ | Without any other reason etc.; only, just, and nothing more. |
| landscape noun | /ˈlan(d)skeɪp/ | A portion of land or territory as defined by its landform, its geographical (and architectural) features. |
| favour noun | British standard spelling of favor. | |
| legitimate adjective | /lɪˈd͡ʒɪt.ɪ.mət/ | In accordance with the law or established legal forms and requirements. |
| outfit noun | /ˈaʊtfɪt/ | A set of clothing (with accessories). |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| go back on verb | To be treacherous or faithless to; to betray. |
| stand up verb | To rise from a lying or sitting position. |
| write over verb | To save a piece of data in place of other data; to overwrite. |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 21 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, wasn't, aren't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- Long words — get the stress right: anxiety /æŋˈzaɪ.əti/, indefinitely /ɪnˈdɛfɪnɪtli/, legitimate /lɪˈd͡ʒɪt.ɪ.mət/, comedian /kəˈmiː.di.ən/, unaccountable /ˌʌnəˈkaʊntəbl̩/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Shadow it sentence by sentence at normal speed, repeating each one until your rhythm matches the speaker.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like racist, banana, anxiety.
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.