Shadowing Practice: Talk About Your Day in English | Daily Routine Vocabulary & Phrases | A1–B1 English Podcast - Learn English Speaking with YouTube
B1
Okay, real talk.
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Okay, real talk.
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What is the very first thing you do when your alarm goes off in the morning?
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Like, do you spring out of bed,
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full of energy, ready to take on the world?
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Or do you hit snooze two, three, maybe four times?
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Because I have a theory.
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Your answer to that question says a lot about who you are as a person.
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Stay with us.
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Welcome back, everyone.
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You are listening to the Daily English Conversation Club,
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the podcast where two friends just talk and you pick up real English along the way.
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I'm Leo.
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And I'm Zara.
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And okay, Leo, I feel like I already know your answer to that opening question.
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You're a snooze button person, aren't you?
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Completely.
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Totally.
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100% guilty.
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I am not ashamed.
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My alarm goes off at 7 and I genuinely don't drag myself out of bed until about 20 past, sometimes 7.25.
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And every single morning I think, today will be different.
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And it's never different.
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I love that.
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I'm the total opposite, by the way.
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When my alarm goes off, I just get up.
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I actually enjoy mornings, which I know sounds a little crazy to a lot of people.
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It's a little crazy, yeah,
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but we love you for it.
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Alright, before we jump in,
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a huge thank you to everyone who has been listening,
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sharing, and leaving comments.
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It means so much to us.
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If you haven't subscribed to Daily English Conversation Club yet,
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please do that right now.
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It's free and you will never miss a new episode.
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And here's our first comment question for today.
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Are you a morning person or a night person?
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Drop your answer below.
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We genuinely read every single one.
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Yes, we want to know.
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Okay, so daily routines.
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Why is this such an important topic for English learners, Leo?
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Right, so here's the thing.
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When you start learning a new language,
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one of the very first real situations you'll face is someone asking,
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So, what do you do every day?
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Or, tell me a bit about yourself.
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And if you can talk through your routine,
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morning, afternoon, evening, smoothly and naturally,
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you are already having a real conversation conversation,
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that's a massive step, especially for beginners.
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And honestly, even at B1 level,
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how you say things, your rhythm,
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your word choices, the expressions you reach for,
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that's where natural fluency starts to come through.
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Exactly.
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So this episode is for everyone, whatever your level.
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We're going to make it feel real, not like a textbook.
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Let's start at the very beginning, the morning.
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Leo, walk us through it.
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What actually happens from the moment your eyes open?
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Okay, so I wake up around 6.30.
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My alarm goes off and I sit up in bed for about one minute just to adjust.
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You know that weird in-between feeling where you're not fully awake but you're not asleep either.
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That little foggy zone.
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Oh, I know that zone.
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I try to spend as little time there as possible.
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You, on the other hand,
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I imagine, try to stay there.
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I do try to extend it, yes.
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So after that little moment,
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I get out of bed and head straight to the bathroom.
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I splash cold water on my face.
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That's my actual wake-up trick.
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Cold water, done.
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I'm alive.
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And then I brush my teeth.
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Quick note on that phrase, brush your teeth.
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Not clean your teeth, not wash your teeth.
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Brush.
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And it's always teeth, plural, not tooth.
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Small thing, but worth remembering.
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So after the bathroom, then what?
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Kitchen.
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Tea.
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Every single morning, without fail.
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I make tea first.
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While it's brewing, I have a bowl of cereal.
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Simple.
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Quick.
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And if I have time,
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I sit and eat slowly,
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which I think is so underrated.
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A lot of people just grab something and rush out the door.
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Rushing in the morning really does set a stressful tone for the whole day.
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I'm a coffee person myself.
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I make coffee first thing.
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And while it's brewing, I usually eat a banana or have a piece of toast.
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Make breakfast, have breakfast, by the way,
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those are two different verbs that are both really useful.
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Make breakfast is the preparation.
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Have breakfast is the eating.
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Great point.
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And after breakfast, you get dressed.
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You choose your clothes, put them on.
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And there's a really important verb here.
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Put on.
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Put on your shoes.
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Put on your jacket.
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Put on your coat.
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We use put on when we're placing something onto our body.
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And the opposite is take off.
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You take off your coat when you come inside.
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off your shoes at the door.
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Really useful pair of verbs.
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Put on and take off.
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And then the last big step of the morning, you leave the house.
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Bag on shoulder, shoes on feet,
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door closed, off you go.
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And you either go to work,
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go to school, or if you're lucky,
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you walk three steps to your home office.
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Wherever you're going, that's the morning done.
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You've got out of bed,
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got ready, and started your day.
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Listener challenge for part one.
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Tomorrow morning, narrate your own routine out loud as you do it.
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Say it as it's happening.
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I'm waking up.
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I'm brushing my teeth.
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I'm making coffee.
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You are the narrator of your own life,
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and your bathroom mirror is a perfectly good audience.
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I love that.
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Okay, part two is coming right up.
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What happens during the day?
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Work, lunch, the afternoon grind.
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Don't go anywhere.
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And we are back.
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Welcome to part two here on the Daily English Conversation club.
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Morning is sorted.
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Now let's talk about what happens during the day,
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because this is where a lot of really useful, practical English lives.
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And this part is interesting because everyone's day looks a little bit different.
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Some people go to work in an office,
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some work from home, some go to university,
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some are looking after kids.
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The activities vary a lot,
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but the English you use to describe them,
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surprisingly similar across all of those situations.
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So when you leave the house in the morning,
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you might say, I go to work or I go to school.
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Very simple, very common.
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Then once you get there,
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what do you actually do?
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Zara, you work in an office on most days, right?
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Yeah, most days.
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So when I get there,
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the first thing I do is sit at my desk,
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turn on my computer and check my emails or answer emails.
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Both are natural.
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And honestly, a big chunk of office life is just managing emails.
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It never really ends. So true.
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I spent the whole morning answering emails.
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It's something people say constantly.
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It's very relatable.
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And then throughout the day, there are meetings.
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The phrase is, have a meeting.
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I have a meeting at 10.
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We had a long meeting this afternoon.
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And the classic, I'm in a meeting right now,
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which is what people say on the phone when they desperately want to hang up. So accurate.
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Leo, you work from home a lot.
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How does your day look?
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Pretty similar, actually.
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I sit at my desk,
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which is in my flat.
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I use my computer, write things, do research, prepare material.
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I also have online meetings, video calls.
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The work itself is very similar to office work.
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The main difference is the commute,
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which for me is about eight steps from my bedroom to my desk,
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which I genuinely appreciate every single day.
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That is honestly the dream.
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And a lot of people now do a mix.
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Some days in the office,
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some at home, which is very normal these days.
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And whatever your situation, the key work verbs are work on something,
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finish something, send an email,
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prepare something, write a report.
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Learn those and you can describe most work situations in English.
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And then lunchtime. Have lunch.
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I usually have lunch at 1 o'clock.
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What did you have for lunch?
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That last one is honestly one of the most common small talk questions in English.
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It's such a natural way to start a conversation with a colleague or a classmate.
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Perfect for real life.
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What do you usually eat for lunch, Leo?
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Depends on the day, honestly.
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If I'm at home, I'll make something simple.
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A sandwich, some rice and vegetables,
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maybe leftovers from the night before.
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Nothing complicated.
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But if I'm out, I love going out to eat.
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Finding a small local restaurant,
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sitting down properly, taking a real lunch break.
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I genuinely think a good lunch break makes your afternoon more productive.
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Completely agree.
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Though some days you're really busy and you just eat at your desk,
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which is also real life and completely fine.
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And after lunch, you go back to work.
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The afternoon is more tasks, more emails, more meetings.
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And then that moment everyone is waiting for, you finish work.
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Or a great expression, you wrap up.
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I need to wrap up this report before I leave.
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We're wrapping up the meeting now.
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It means you're bringing something to a close.
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I love wrap up.
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Very natural, very common.
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And it works in lots of situations, not just work.
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You can wrap up a conversation,
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wrap up a project, even wrap up an episode of a podcast.
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Wink.
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Okay, little grammar moment before we move on.
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Did you notice we've been using the word usually a lot?
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I usually have lunch at one.
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I usually check my emails first.
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Usually tells the listener this is a habit, something you do regularly.
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You can also say normally,
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typically, or most of the time.
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Same idea, slightly different feel.
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And words like these are what make the present simple tense come alive when you're talking about routines.
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Really important point.
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The present simple, I wake up,
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she goes to work, they have lunch at noon,
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that is the tense of daily life, of habits, of routines.
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It's the grammar that runs through this whole episode.
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And frequency words like usually,
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often, sometimes, always, never, those tell us how regular something is.
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Quick pause here.
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If this episode is helping you,
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please share it with a friend who is also learning English.
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Sharing is genuinely the most helpful thing you can do for us at Daily English Conversation Club.
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It costs you nothing and it helps more people find the show.
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We really appreciate every single share.
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And comment below, what do you do during the day?
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Are you a student?
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Do you work in an office?
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Do you work from home?
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Tell us, we want to know.
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And hey, if you want to share your daily routine in English,
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go ahead and write it out in the comments.
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That's a great practice and we love reading them.
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All right, part three is coming up right now.
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Evenings, winding down, and everything that happens before bed.
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My favorite part of the day, honestly.
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Mine too.
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Let's go.
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Welcome to part three of today's episode here on the Daily English Conversation Club.
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And I think the evening is where the most relatable human stuff happens.
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Because this is the part of the day where you've done what you needed to do.
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Work is over, school is over,
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and now you get to just exist for a while.
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Beautifully put.
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And the big phrase to kick us off, go home.
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After work, I go home.
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I usually get home around 6 or 6.30,
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depending on whether I stop somewhere or hit some traffic.
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And that moment, walking through your front door at the end of a long day,
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I don't think there's anything quite like it.
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Instant decompression.
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Total reset.
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And the first thing most people do when they walk in,
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they take off their shoes,
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put their bag down, and change their clothes.
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Get into something comfortable.
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I do this every single evening without fail.
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It's like a physical signal to your brain.
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Work is done.
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You can relax now.
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Yes.
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Home clothes are absolutely non-negotiable for me.
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And then relax on the sofa.
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Such a natural phrase.
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Come home, kick off your shoes,
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relax on the sofa, watch TV for a bit.
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Watch TV, watch a show, watch a movie.
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The verb is always watch, by the way.
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Even now when we say I was watching something on Netflix or I've been watching a lot of YouTube lately.
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And for people who live with family or housemates,
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the evening is also when you spend time together.
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You might talk, have dinner together,
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sit in the same room.
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That time matters.
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Okay, dinner.
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Cook dinner or make dinner.
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You can use both.
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They mean the same thing.
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I genuinely enjoy cooking.
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There's something about being in the kitchen after a long day.
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Chopping things, music on in the background, a bit of steam.
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It helps me fully switch off.
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I like trying new recipes too.
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It feels like a little creative project at the end of the day.
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That's lovely.
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I enjoy cooking too, but some evenings I'm genuinely exhausted and I just order food.
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Order food, order delivery, get a takeaway.
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A few different ways to say it depending on where and there is absolutely no shame in that.
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It's a valid life choice.
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And then dinner.
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Have dinner or eat dinner.
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Usually around seven or eight for me.
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And after dinner, the thing that nobody loves but everyone has to do,
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wash the dishes or do the dishes.
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Both are fine.
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I always listen to a podcast while I wash up.
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Makes it go so much faster.
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Life-changing tip, honestly.
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Truly excellent strategy.
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And then the evening opens up and what people do varies a lot,
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which is actually great because it gives you lots of different vocabulary to work with.
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Some people read a book.
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I've been reading a lot lately.
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Some people go for a walk,
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especially nice in the evening if the weather cooperates.
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Some people call a friend or talk to family.
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I called my mom last night.
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I was talking to my sister on the phone.
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Some people work out at home or go to the gym.
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Workout just means exercise, by the way.
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I try to work out a few times a week.
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And some people, hopefully including our listeners,
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spend time practicing English, watching English shows,
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listening to podcasts, doing exercises.
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Like, for example, this podcast.
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Just putting that out there.
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We appreciate you enormously.
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And then the wind down, getting ready for bed.
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You brush your teeth again.
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Yes, morning and night.
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Very important.
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Maybe wash your face and then go to bed.
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I usually go to bed around 10.30.
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I went to bed really late last night.
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And the actual moment when sleep takes over, fall asleep.
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I feel asleep almost immediately.
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or the frustrating version.
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I couldn't fall asleep.
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I was lying awake for ages.
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Very relatable.
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Okay, vocab recap time.
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Not a boring list, just a quick run-through of what we covered across all three parts.
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From the morning, wake up,
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get out of bed, brush your teeth,
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wash your face, make breakfast,
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have breakfast, get dressed, put on and take off your shoes, leave the house.
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From the daytime, go to work,
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go to school, work from home,
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sit at your desk, check emails,
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answer emails, have a meeting,
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have lunch, go out to eat,
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eat at your desk, go back to work, wrap up, finish work.
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And from the evening, go home,
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get home, take off your shoes,
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change your clothes, relax on the sofa,
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watch TV, cook dinner, make dinner,
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order delivery, have dinner, wash the dishes,
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do the dishes, read a book,
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go for a walk, call a friend,
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work out, go to bed, fall asleep.
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And the grammar connecting all of that,
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the present simple tense used for habits,
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routines, and the things you do regularly.
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I wake up at 7.
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She usually has lunch at 1.
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They go to bed early.
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And the frequency adverbs, usually,
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often, sometimes, always, never, that tell us how regular something is.
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Your weekly challenge is to write out your own daily routine in English.
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8 to 12 sentences, morning to night.
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Use usually, often, and sometimes.
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Then, if you're feeling brave,
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share it in the comments.
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We genuinely will read them.
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We will, every single one.
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And here's today's gamified comment challenge.
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Find one phrase from today's episode and use it in a sentence about your own day.
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Just one.
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Post it below.
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The best ones get a heart from us.
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We want to see what you come up with.
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All right, that is a wrap on today's episode of the Daily English Conversation Club.
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Thank you so much for spending this time with us.
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It genuinely means a lot that you choose to learn English with Leo and me.
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If you enjoyed this, please subscribe so you never miss a new episode.
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Leave us a rating if you can.
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It helps other learners find the show and share this with anyone you know who is learning English.
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Every share helps us grow and reach more people.
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And next time, we're talking about weekends,
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hobbies, and how to describe the things you love doing in your free time.
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is going to be a really fun one.
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Until then, keep practicing, keep listening,
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and be kind to yourself.
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Your English is getting better every single day,
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even when it doesn't feel like it.
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Bye for now, everyone.
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Take care.
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See you next time.
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Context & Background
In the podcast episode titled "Talk About Your Day in English," the hosts Leo and Zara engage in a lively discussion about daily routines. This dialogue offers insights into their contrasting personalities, with Leo identifying as a “snooze button person”, while Zara relishes her mornings. Such conversations are not only relatable but also serve as a foundational element for English learners. Knowing how to talk about daily activities is essential since it can lead to more profound exchanges about interests and habits. Understanding and practicing these types of dialogues can significantly enhance your ability to converse naturally in English.
Top 5 Phrases for Daily Communication
- “What is the very first thing you do when your alarm goes off?” - Use this question to initiate conversation about routines.
- “I hit snooze two, three, maybe four times.” - A fun way to describe the habit of delaying getting out of bed.
- “I genuinely don’t drag myself out of bed until about…” - A more casual way to share your wake-up time.
- “I actually enjoy mornings.” - Perfect for asserting your preferences in a light-hearted manner.
- “Are you a morning person or a night person?” - A great question to gauge others' habits and preferences.
Step-by-step Shadowing Guide
To effectively use the shadowing technique from this episode, follow these steps:
- Listen Closely: Play the podcast episode and familiarize yourself with the tone and pacing of the conversation. Note how Leo and Zara interact naturally.
- Repeat and Imitate: Pause the audio after short segments and repeat what you hear. Focus on matching their intonation and rhythm. This is where you can practice shadowspeak, where you echo what the speakers say.
- Record Yourself: Utilize your phone or a recording device to capture your voice as you practice repeating the phrases. This will help you identify areas for improvement.
- Engage on a Shadowing Site: Look for a community or resources online focused on shadowing. Sharing your recordings can provide feedback and foster further learning.
- Practice Regularly: Consistency is key! Aim to incorporate daily practice into your routine to reinforce what you’ve learned from learn English with YouTube resources.
Through diligent practice and engagement with the material, you can elevate your spoken English and converse about your daily life with ease!
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.
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