Shadowing Practice: Talking About Online Shopping - Spoken English Lesson - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
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Hi, I'm Rich.
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Welcome to Oxford Online English.
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In this lesson, you can learn how to talk about online shopping.
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What was the last thing you bought online?
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What are the best online shopping websites, in your opinion?
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Have you ever had a really good or bad experience when shopping online.
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You'll learn some useful language to talk about these topics and answer these questions in this lesson.
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One more thing.
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Do you want to watch this video with subtitles?
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You can.
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Turn them on now by clicking the CC icon.
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On a phone, find the subtitles by tapping the settings icon on your screen.
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Now, let's start your lesson.
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Hey, nice shirt!
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Thanks!
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Is it new?
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Yes, I bought it last week on ASOS.
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I've heard of ASOS, but I've never actually ordered anything from there.
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Would you recommend it?
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Yes, I think it's great.
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I use it at least once a month.
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They have a huge range of clothes and the prices are very reasonable.
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Some people say their customer service is a nightmare, but I've never had any trouble.
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Where do you shop for clothes if you don't use ASOS?
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Well, I used to shop at Next, which is a shop I've always liked.
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The clothes have always been quite expensive, but over the last year or two, the quality has been going downhill.
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So recently I started shopping at Zara.
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I think the clothes are much better value for money.
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Okay, so you would recommend Zara as a good place to shop?
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Yeah, so far so good.
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I only started using their website two months ago, mind you.
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Here's a question.
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Do you know which prepositions to use when you talk about online shopping?
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When we talk about physical shops, we use at.
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So you can say, for example, I bought it at Walmart.
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When we talk about online shops, we usually use on.
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So you can say, I bought it on Amazon.
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This is because we talk about being on a website.
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We also say, I bought it online or I bought it on the internet.
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We often hear students making mistakes with these phrases, so be careful.
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In the dialogue, you heard some vocabulary to talk about online shopping.
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Look at some phrases you heard.
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What do these phrases mean?
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Could you explain the meanings in English?
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Try it now.
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Pause the video.
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Imagine you're an English teacher and you need to explain what these phrases mean in English.
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What would you say?
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Pause the video and say your definitions aloud.
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How was it?
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Could you do it?
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A huge range means that they have many different products.
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For clothes, this would mean they offer many different items, different styles, colours, and so on.
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Reasonable means fair.
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If the prices are reasonable, they're not too high.
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It doesn't mean that the website is cheap, but if you use the word reasonable,
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you probably mean that something is good value for money.
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A nightmare is literally a bad dream, but you can use it to describe something terrible.
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Finally, if something goes downhill, it gets worse.
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The quality had been going downhill means that the quality of their products has been getting worse and worse.
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There are other useful words and phrases in the dialogue.
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We recommend listening to each dialogue several times and noting down any phrases you think are useful or interesting.
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Next, you heard how to talk about shopping websites you use for buying clothes.
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Look at some questions.
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Think about how you could answer these.
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When you answer the questions, try to include some details.
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For example, when you answer question one, don't just say, I like shopping on Amazon.
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Instead, you could say, I love buying clothes online.
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My favorite website is ASOS because the prices are very reasonable and their customer service is excellent.
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You could also say, I usually buy clothes online two or three times a month.
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I would recommend staying away from frocks because the quality of the clothes has gone downhill recently.
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Okay, pause the video and try to answer the questions now. Could you do it?
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If not, go back and listen to the dialogue again.
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Ready to move on?
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Let's look at your next topic.
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In this dialogue, you will hear us comparing two websites, Amazon and AliExpress.
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Have you ever used these websites?
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If you have, how do they compare?
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Think about your answers before you listen.
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So, what about things like electrical goods?
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Which website would you use if you wanted to buy, say, a battery for your mobile phone?
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Until recently, I would have said Amazon is better without a doubt, but a while ago, a friend of mine introduced me to a website called AliExpress.
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AliExpress?
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I've never heard of that.
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How's it compared to Amazon?
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I think the main reason people use it is because it's cheaper than Amazon.
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But I've also found that they often have products that you can't get hold of on other websites.
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Okay, that's interesting.
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What's their customer service like?
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Well, it's true that you'll see lots of complaints about it if you read the online reviews, but I've only had to send something back once,
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and they sent a replacement straight away.
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Right.
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Well, sounds pretty reasonable.
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Yes, I thought it was fair enough.
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The only thing I would say about AliExpress is that their delivery times are not the best.
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You wouldn't want to order something from them if you were in a hurry.
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Can you see the estimated delivery times when you place the order?
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Yes, you know what to expect.
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You just have to be patient.
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The last thing I bought from AliExpress, which wasn't available on Amazon, by the way, was a part for a printer.
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They said it would take over a month to arrive, but in fact, it arrived safe and sound after only a week.
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So, you were a satisfied customer.
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How did you get on?
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Did you agree with our comparison?
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Let's have a look at some of the language we used.
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Look at these sentences.
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Which words are missing?
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You heard them in the dialogue.
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Try to remember.
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Okay, let's check.
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You can use without a doubt to emphasize the point you're making.
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You could also say definitely.
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Get hold of something means to find something that you need.
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If you say replacement parts are hard to get hold of, you mean that it's difficult to find a shop or website which sells them.
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If someone asks you what's their customer service like?
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They're not asking you if you like it or not.
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What is it like means tell me about it or describe it to me.
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If you're talking about customer service or shopping,
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you're probably asking whether the other person recommends it or not.
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It's like asking, is the customer service good or bad?
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It's not exactly the same, but it's similar.
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Finally, if you say that something is not the best, you're saying that it's not so bad, but it could be better.
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As before, there's more language in the dialogue which you might find useful.
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We won't give you every single word and phrase we use.
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You should also do your own work to get the most from these dialogues.
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Now, let's see if you can talk about this topic.
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Try to provide a detailed answer, perhaps using some of the vocabulary you saw before.
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For the first question, you could say, when I need to buy electronic products, I usually use a website called Banggood.
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They don't have as many of the top brands as Amazon, but the prices are great.
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And they often have products that you can't get hold of anywhere else.
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For the second question, you could say, the last time I bought something on Banggood was about three weeks ago.
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I couldn't find the product on any other website and it arrived safe and sound after only two weeks.
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I was a very satisfied customer.
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Of course, there are many possible answers.
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Now, it's your turn.
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Pause the video and try to answer the questions now.
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How did you get on?
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Were you able to express your ideas?
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Next, you'll see how to talk about good online shopping experiences.
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This time, you'll see some key phrases before you hear the dialogue.
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What are the missing words?
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Try to find them as you listen.
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Pause if you need more time to read.
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Ready?
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Here's the dialogue.
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Do you find that there are some websites you use more since you've been living outside of the UK?
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Yeah, absolutely.
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One of my favorites is a website called Moonpig, where you can buy greetings cards, like birthday cards, Christmas cards,
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and have them delivered to people in the UK.
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British people often send greetings cards to friends and family on their birthdays or at Christmas.
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And this can be difficult to organize if you're living overseas.
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Right.
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I guess in some countries birthday cards or Christmas cards are hard to find.
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Yeah, that's true.
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And even if you can get hold of them, it's hard to gauge how long it will take to arrive in the UK.
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So some years ago, I got into the habit of ordering cards on Moonpig.
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The website is really intuitive, so it's easy to find what you need.
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That's always a plus.
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It sounds good.
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How does it work?
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Yeah, well, first you choose a card.
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Then you can personalize it with a photo if you want to, or just write a message.
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After that, you just confirm the address you want to send it to.
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Sounds like a good service.
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I gave up on trying to send birthday cards.
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Now I just send people text messages.
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But I've always felt it's a little lazy.
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It's nice to get a real card in the mail, you know?
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Yeah, I'm with you.
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It's a good service.
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The cards are posted in the UK, so they only take a day or two to arrive.
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It's straightforward to use once you get the hang of it.
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Reasonably priced, and they haven't let me down yet.
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Could you find the missing words?
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Let's check.
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Do you know what these mean?
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Intuitive means easy to understand.
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If a website is intuitive,
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you can find what you need and do what you want without difficulties and without having to think about it too much.
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A plus is a conversational way to say advantage or benefit.
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If you get the hang of something, you learn how to do something, or you learn how to use something.
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You can say, for example, it's easy when you get the hang of it.
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If someone lets you down, they disappoint you by not doing what they said they were going to do.
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If a website is very reliable, you can say, for example, they never let me down.
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What about you?
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Are you usually a satisfied customer when you shop online?
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Tell us about a positive experience.
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Pause the video now and try to make a few sentences.
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For example, you could say, most of the time, I enjoy shopping online.
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I often order birthday presents online.
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Although it's very convenient, it makes me a bit nervous because obviously they need to arrive on the right day. So far, so good.
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They haven't let me down yet.
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Last year, I ordered a bunch of flowers for my mum and I was worried they might get damaged.
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I was very pleased when she told me that they'd arrived safe and sound and on the 8th of November.
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Done?
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Great.
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Let's look at our last point.
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Speaking of being let down, I've just had a really strange experience shopping online.
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Really?
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What happened?
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Well, I have an old laptop that I bought overseas a long time ago.
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Last year, I needed to buy a replacement battery and I couldn't find one anywhere.
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No one seemed to stock the exact type I needed.
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Yeah, I think the manufacturers do that on purpose.
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They just want you to buy a new computer.
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Right.
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Well, I persevered and eventually I found a company which had the battery, but they said it would take two months to deliver it.
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I didn't have any alternatives, So I went for it.
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Okay, and what happened?
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Well, first of all, the ordering process was really tricky.
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The website was so clunky.
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It looked like it was made in the 1990s and hadn't been updated since.
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I hate it when that happens. So annoying.
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Yep, but I was determined.
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So then I spent about six weeks tracking my battery as it made its way around the world.
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It showed that it had arrived in the country, but then it disappeared off the radar completely.
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I hated when that happened.
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I contacted the company, and they had no idea what had happened.
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And they sent me a refund.
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Okay, well, that's something, at least.
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I was ready to just call it quits.
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But then last week, I received a package from the same website.
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Don't tell me.
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Your battery finally arrived?
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Well, not exactly.
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The package contained a battery, but it was for a phone, not for a laptop.
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But it had my name and address, and so on.
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It's kind of weird, isn't it?
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Do they mix your order up with someone else's? Who knows?
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Anyhow, I gave up on them.
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It's too much hassle.
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Here are some sentences from the dialogue.
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Can you fill in the gaps? Could you remember?
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Let's check.
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What do these highlighted words mean?
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Do you know or can you guess from the context?
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Pause and think about it if you need more time.
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Stock, as a verb, means to have something for sale.
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You can use it in the verb phrase have something in stock.
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If a shop has something in stock, it's available and you can buy it.
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If something is out of stock, it's not available right now.
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Clunky means that something is badly designed and difficult to use.
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If your website is made on a budget, it'll probably be clunky.
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It's mostly used to talk about technology, which is not well designed or which is out of date.
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Call it quits means that you've been trying to do something for a while, but now you're giving up and you're not going to try anymore.
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After a long, frustrating customer service experience, you might decide to just call it quits and go home.
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Finally, hassle is a useful word to talk about bad customer service.
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Something which is a hassle is both difficult and annoying.
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If you describe something as a hassle, you're suggesting that it doesn't need to be this difficult.
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For example, if a website makes you fill out loads of forms to get a refund or cancel your subscription,
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you can describe that as a hassle.
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They're making it more difficult than it needs to be.
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Now it's your turn.
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Have you ever had a bad experience with shopping online?
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Tell us what happened.
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When you're ready, pause the video and say your answer out loud.
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Or write your answer down and share your experience with other students in the comments.
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That's it for this lesson.
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Thanks for watching.
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See you next time.
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Thank you.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B1 speaking lesson is built on the video “Talking About Online Shopping - Spoken English Lesson”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: website, online, shopping, dialogue, customer. This video has 261 sentences and 2564 words to shadow. The speech runs for 20:23. The speaker talks at a steady 126 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. 87% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is easy to follow. 52 of its 261 sentences are questions, so it is good practice for question intonation and short answers.
Key vocabulary in this video
The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| dialogue noun | /ˈdaɪəˌlɑɡ/ | A conversation or other form of discourse between two or more individuals. |
| cloth noun | /klɒθ/ | A fabric, usually made of woven, knitted, or felted fibres or filaments, such as used in dressing, decorating, cleaning or other practical use. Sometimes… |
| phrase noun | /ˈfɹeɪ̯z/ | A short written or spoken expression. |
| pause noun | /pɔːz/ | A temporary stop or rest; an intermission of action; interruption; suspension; cessation. |
| hassle noun | /ˈhæsl̩/ | Trouble, bother, unwanted annoyances or problems. |
| downhill adverb | /ˌdaʊnˈhɪl/ | Down a slope. |
| clunky adjective | Ungainly; awkward; inelegant; cumbersome. | |
| intuitive adjective | /ɪnˈtjuːɪtɪv/ | Spontaneous, without requiring conscious thought. |
| satisfy verb | /ˈsætɪsfaɪ/ | To be enough (for) |
| annoy verb | /əˈnoɪ̯/ | To disturb or irritate, especially by continued or repeated acts; to bother with unpleasant deeds. |
| subtitle noun | /ˈsʌbtaɪtəl/ | A heading below or after a title. |
| greeting noun | /ˈɡɹiːtɪŋ/ | A conventional phrase used to start a letter or conversation or otherwise to acknowledge a person's arrival or presence. |
| verb noun | /vɝb/ | A word that indicates an action, event, or state of being. |
| vocabulary noun | /vəˈkæb.jə.lə.ɹi/ | A usually alphabetized and explained collection of words e.g. of a particular field, or prepared for a specific purpose, often for learning. |
| refund noun | /ɹɪˈfʌnd/ | An amount of money returned. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| fill out verb | /fɪl ˈaʊt/ | To complete a form or questionnaire with requested information. |
| give up verb | To surrender (someone or something); to inform on (someone). | |
| go back verb | To return to a place or state after having been there at a previous time. | |
| let down verb | To disappoint; to betray or fail somebody. | |
| note down verb | To write down, especially hurriedly; to make a note of. | |
| take over verb | To assume control of something, such as a business or enterprise, and sometimes by force. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- What was the last thing you bought online?
- Do you want to watch this video with subtitles?
- Have you ever used these websites?
- If someone asks you what's their customer service like?
- Do they mix your order up with someone else's?
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect continuous have/has been + -ing — an action that started earlier and is still going on | has been going · has been getting · you've been living |
| “Used to” used to + verb — a past habit or state that is no longer true | used to shop · used to talk |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | I've heard · I've always liked · have always been |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | are posted · being let · was made |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 50 contractions and reduced forms, such as you're, I've, don't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: conversational /ˌkɒnvə(ɹ)ˈseɪʃənəl/, preposition /ˌpɹɛpəˈzɪʃən/, subscription /səbˈskɹɪpʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: intuitive /ɪnˈtjuːɪtɪv/, vocabulary /vəˈkæb.jə.lə.ɹi/, conversational /ˌkɒnvə(ɹ)ˈseɪʃənəl/, personalize /ˈpɜː.sə.nə.laɪz/, preposition /ˌpɹɛpəˈzɪʃən/
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 dialogue, cloth, phrase.
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.