Shadowing Practice: The Most Raw Conversation I've Ever Had: Revisited - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
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Excuse me, sir.
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Excuse me, sir.
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Sorry to bother you.
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What?
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Sorry to bother you, I'm Chris.
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- Yeah.
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- And I'm a photographer, I'm a portrait photographer.
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And I just thought that you had like a really cool look.
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I noticed you over there and the hat and everything and the coats Are you from Dublin sir?
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Yeah. Are you?
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No, I don't live here anymore.
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I left many years ago.
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Oh, okay.
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I'm leaving tonight.
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I'm going back to London where I live.
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Oh, you're living in London?
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Yeah.
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Do you miss Dublin?
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Well, you have a certain...
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- That's not funny.
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- Empathy and nostalgic feeling for the place you're from originally.
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I'm not using my first name, I'm using my middle name, which is James.
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James, okay.
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And that's what I'm calling myself because it doesn't cause a hassle, right?
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Yeah.
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I've never been happy with my first name.
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You're a photographer, did you say?
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Yes, there's no money involved in this.
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You get the vibe and I know you're not...
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I'm not out to scam you or anything.
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I guess I know that, but unless you take that as a compliment.
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I look at myself this morning and I'm not happy with what I'm looking at, you know.
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I've always had a sense of appearance, right, since I was a young boy.
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When you're not rich, I mean, if I was rich, I'd...
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I mean, I've always had...
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what I would regard as impeccable taste, but now Here I am.
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- I'm going to go.
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Thank you.
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Not rich.
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And yet I still make a slight effort.
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You know, it's like if you haven't got money, you know what I'm saying?
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I should have money off my own bet, you know, because of my background and all the possibilities.
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I should, you know, be like a top lawyer or theoretically that was within my grasp, right?
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To be a top professional and to be pretty wealthy in that respect.
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Yes.
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I missed that train.
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Have you ever been married?
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Do you have family?
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What was your name?
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I'm Chris.
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I regard myself as Chris as the greatest failure that ever walked the planet Earth.
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Why?
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Because I am.
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Because I didn't achieve the very basics.
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I'm the could have been man.
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I call myself the could have been man.
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I could have been, right?
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I'm the could have been man, but I ended up with nothing.
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I didn't even get a life.
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And I tried from the age of 13.
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You know, and the girl I was looking was looking at the other geezer.
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important lesson you think you've learned over the course of your life?
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Never wanted to put anybody down or bully, you know?
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I have no tolerance for bullies.
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I put somebody down or make fun of somebody.
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If I could turn the clock back, I wouldn't hesitate to tell people exactly how I feel, which I didn't want to do, then I didn't want to hurt anybody, right?
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Yeah.
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Just bought a neckerchief.
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You want to put on your neckerchief, if you want?
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There's 9 million people in London, and I don't have a single friend.
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And I'm not saying that like I'm crying, that is the reality.
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I lived overseas in the Americas, North America and South America.
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And when I came back, they had all kind of disappeared.
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And I've been alone for the last 22 years.
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When I was quite young, I didn't need any friends.
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I'm chasing girls and I didn't want another guy.
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I had the dawn to be able to chat up and all the rest of it.
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And then they'd move in or try to move in.
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And of course it never dawned on me I'd get to this age
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and be practically penniless and not have a profession and all the rest of it, which I should have, right? Or money.
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I should have a profession.
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I should have money.
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I missed all of that.
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And not even a wife.
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You know since the age of four you could say I'm psychologically alone since the age of four
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My own mother was a piece of ice
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We had a horrifically bad relationship at one point very difficult woman piece of ice.
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There was no physical contact Very strange by an Irish woman.
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There was no hug.
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There was no kiss.
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There was no nothing.
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It was I do remember
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when I that school I was at when I was four years of it there was another kid that I After school, I went to his house.
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And his mother, was all over him, right?
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I can even feel this very day, that feeling.
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I wish she was my mother.
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And then you read about some British,
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English guy who's disappeared or in jail in India or Thailand and the parents fly over there.
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Yeah.
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When I came back from America, I stepped off the plane, nobody...
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I've never been met at any airport in my life by anybody.
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And I know in my heart I could have been tough in certain things.
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The other thing I might tell you, Chris, is I've always had it done for writing.
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and I wrote two plays which I'm very proud of, and they've been sitting there for 20 years.
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I've said recently that I make people laugh almost every day.
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I haven't made you laugh because I've been very serious, but I make people laugh every day.
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without even trying.
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Like I'm not trying to be.. but...
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and I said this is my greatest asset.
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My only contribution is complete strangers that I talk to.
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They crack up laughing sometimes.
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Chris, I mean, these people are wondering who is this famous guy?
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You know, I don't have a bitterness, but I could have, but I don't have it.
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And you've been very friendly and gracious to me and kind, and I appreciate that James.
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That's why, that says a lot about your character.
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It says a lot about your character.
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But there are times, um, uh, when you do feel low, you know?
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you you you you
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “The Most Raw Conversation I've Ever Had: Revisited”. This video has 118 sentences and 1022 words to shadow. The speech runs for 5:49. The speaker talks at a natural 176 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. Only 81% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding. 22 of its 118 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 |
|---|---|---|
| neckerchief noun | /ˈnɛkə(ɹ)tʃɪf/ | A scarf that is worn looped or tied around the neck. |
| bully noun | /ˈbʊli/ | A person who is intentionally physically or emotionally cruel to others, especially to those whom they perceive as being vulnerable or of less power or… |
| disappear verb | /dɪsəˈpɪɹ/ | To vanish. |
| profession noun | /pɹəˈfɛʃ.ən/ | A promise or vow made on entering a religious order. |
| bitterness noun | /ˈbɪtənəs/ | The quality of having a bitter taste. |
| horrifically adverb | In a horrific manner. | |
| impeccable adjective | /ɪmˈpɛkəbəl/ | Perfect, without faults, flaws or errors |
| nostalgic adjective | Of, having, or relating to nostalgia. | |
| penniless adjective | /ˈpɛ.nɪ.ləs/ | Lacking even the smallest amount of money. |
| psychologically adverb | In a psychological sense. | |
| hassle noun | /ˈhæsl̩/ | Trouble, bother, unwanted annoyances or problems. |
| gracious adjective | /ˈɡɹeɪʃəs/ | kind and warmly courteous |
| theoretically adverb | in theory; on paper | |
| empathy noun | /ˈɛmpəθi/ | Identification with or understanding of the thoughts, feelings, or emotional state of another person. |
| hesitate verb | /ˈhɛz.ə.teɪt/ | To stop or pause respecting decision or action; to be in suspense or uncertainty as to a determination. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| come back verb | To return to a place. | |
| come back from verb | To become successful, confident or effective again after an injury, setback, failure, embarrassment, etc. | |
| crack up verb | /ˈkɹæk ˈʌp/ | To laugh heartily. |
| go back to verb | To stem from; to originate in. | |
| step off verb | To measure by steps or paces; hence, to divide (a space), or to form a series of marks, by successive measurements, as with dividers. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- No, I don't live here anymore.
- I've never been happy with my first name.
- You're a photographer, did you say?
- You get the vibe and I know you're not...
- Have you ever been married?
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Conditional sentences if + clause, will/would + verb — a condition and its result | if I was rich, I'd |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | I've never been · I've always had · Have you ever been |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 55 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, I've, didn't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: profession /pɹəˈfɛʃ.ən/, gracious /ˈɡɹeɪʃəs/
- Long words — get the stress right: impeccable /ɪmˈpɛkəbəl/, practically /ˈpɹæk.tɪ.k(ə.)li/
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 neckerchief, bully, disappear.
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.