Shadowing Practice: The First Marriage | Everybody Hates Chris | CBS - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “The First Marriage”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: kid, wife, divorce, papers, married. This video has 64 sentences and 380 words to shadow. The speech runs for 2:52. The speaker talks at a steady 133 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. 86% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start. 23 of its 64 sentences are questions, so it is good practice for question intonation and short answers.
Key vocabulary in this video
12 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| divorce noun | /dɪˈvɔːs/ | The legal dissolution of a marriage. |
| complicated adjective | /ˈkɑm.plɪˌkeɪ.tɪd/ | Difficult or convoluted. |
| harm noun | /hɑːm/ | Physical injury; hurt; damage. |
| silly adjective | /ˈsɪl.i/ | Laughable or amusing through foolishness or a foolish appearance. |
| introduce verb | /ˌɪntɹəˈdus/ | To cause (someone) to be acquainted (with someone else). |
| complaint noun | /kəmˈpleɪnt/ | The act of complaining. |
| watt noun | /wɑt/ | In the International System of Units, the derived unit of power; the power of a system in which one joule of energy is transferred per second. |
| bulb noun | /ˈbʌlb/ | The bulb-shaped underground portion of a plant such as a tulip, consisting of a shortened stem and many fleshy scale leaves, from which the rest of the plant… |
| courtroom noun | The room where a judge presides over hearings and trials, sometimes with a jury. | |
| straighten verb | /ˈstɹeɪtn̩/ | To cause to become straight. |
| concubine noun | /ˈkɑŋkjəbaɪn/ | A woman who lives with a man, but who is not a wife. |
| tawny adjective | /ˈtɔni/ | Of a light brown to brownish orange colour; orangey brown tinged with gold. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| straighten out verb | To make straight. |
| turn out verb | To end up; to result. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- Why didn't you tell me you were married to someone else?
- How can you not know that you have another wife?
- Do you have a kid with her?
- What am I going to say to my children?
- We'll leave them out of this.
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | were drunk · were divorced |
| Future with “going to” be going to + verb — a plan or something you can see coming | I'm going to be · What's going to happen · am I going to say |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 14 contractions and reduced forms, such as didn't, don't, I'm. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
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 divorce, complicated, harm.
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.