Shadowing Practice: The Truth About Moving to the UK - Learn English Speaking with Video

There is so much negativity about the UK at the moment.

The number of natives that just say this is the worst country in the world...

Thank you.

Hello.

From South Africa.

Hang on.

The number of natives that say the UK is literally the worst country in the world is insane.

And I'm just trying to push back against some of that negativity because it really is so much better than people say.

And in this video, I'm basically going to be telling you why that is

and giving you some reasons as to why you should come to the UK because it genuinely is still an incredible country.

So firstly I just wanted to talk a bit about these people who hate on the UK

because it's mainly British people right

so I feel like no other nationality hates on the UK anywhere near as much as native British people do

and to me it feels like they're slightly ungrateful for it all

and the type of person I'm thinking of tends to be quite young maybe about my age in their 20s

and they move to Bali or Thailand nothing against those countries

but that's just where they go

and they spend the rest of their days there telling you basically just chatting about the UK

and telling you how bad it is there despite the fact

they don't even live there anymore it's almost like they're smug about it

or they're trying to convince everyone else that it's a terrible country

and they did the right thing by leaving

and then they tried to convince you to join the $997 financial freedom course

So you can live like them in Bali

and on the UK on a beach instead

And I just before we get into the reasons I just think this is ridiculous

By the way at the end of this video I will be telling you

if you are looking to come to the UK the best way of doing that as well

Probably should have said that at the start.

Anyway, I just think that's so ridiculous because

One of the things one of the main reasons that they give as to why

The UK is rubbish and why other countries are better as you say.

Oh, yeah, Thailand and it's just like you get so much more for your money, and the cost of living is so much better.

And it's like, do you fail to realize that the reason why it's cheap is because you are British?

It's because you're from the UK.

It's all relative, isn't it?

Thai people, to them, it's not cheap or expensive.

It's just the price is the price.

Okay, if anything, the tourists are making it more expensive.

And I do understand the irony of me filming this video in Korea, but we'll get onto that later.

I'm not here moaning about the UK.

I'm actually saying it's a good place.

that's my excuse anyway anyway the reason why these places are cheap is because

the because they're from the UK

so they have this currency they were just born with

that they didn't do anything so it's just ridiculous them saying oh Britain is

so bad oh it's a terrible terrible country when the whole reason

that the the new place they're going to is cheap is

because they're from there do you know I mean

and another thing is they always say oh it's just

so easy to travel it's so easy to travel

but I think once again they take that they they Take the fact

that they were born in an English-speaking country for granted.

Okay, the reason why it's easy to travel is because the world's language, for better or for worse, obviously it's good for me because I'm an English teacher, is English.

So when they go to these countries, they don't need to learn Thai, do they?

They can just speak English.

And once again, the reason why they are fluent in English without having to do anything is

because they were born in the UK.

So the reason why they find all these other countries so much better than the UK is because they're British.

It's just so ironic that they didn't realise that.

Anyway, that's a couple of the reasons as to why I think it's wrong that some, listen, it's not a perfect country,

I'm not saying that, there are definitely flaws and some questionable decisions made, but I just think that in general a lot of British people take it for granted.

Okay, anyway, let me give you my reasons as to why I I think the UK is still a very good country.

So firstly, this is a random one.

I've just, I've written some of these down because I don't want to forget any.

First one is random and it's to do with the air quality and the nature as well.

The British air is so crisp and clean and it's just it's

when you go to other countries

and the air in some countries feels slightly almost thick

and quite humid as well the uk is not a humid country whatsoever

so when you experience this british air when you go away

and you don't have it and you come back it's

so nice you really notice it and

that ties in with the other thing i wanted to talk about

which is the nature the nature in the uk is incredible it's

so green and luscious we have parks absolutely everywhere

and they're genuinely nice parks you know when you go to cities sometimes

and they have like these these parks in the center

but they're slightly depressing okay the the grass isn't green it's this very artificial color

or it's just like dying like dirty grass in the uk it is

so luscious so

if you get the opportunity to walk around a park on

a sunny day in the uk then it's just such a pleasant experience

and we have that everywhere the only problem is the weather is quite bad okay

so that is one limiting factor but still you have have to take that into consideration.

The second one is also quite random and is the time zone.

The British time zone is perfect.

It's pretty much smack bang in the middle of the American time zone and the Asian time zone.

It's genuinely perfect and that's really useful for you guys

because I'm guessing that if you're watching this you're probably from another country, right?

If you're European then you will be slightly used to that

but for everyone else that's going to be convenient

when you need to speak to your friends or your family back home

and it's also very good for business as well you're perfectly connected with the world right

so there's a lot of people there let's go this way anyway okay all right next one the manners the manners

the manners in the uk uh they're very good

so of course there are rude people everywhere i'm sorry

if you've been to the uk

and had an experience with a rude person it's going to be like

100

that everywhere there are some rude people but in general the manners are just really really good

101

everyone says please thank you sorry excuse me all the time whether they actually mean

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that is one thing but it doesn't really matter it's still the same effect

103

and with queuing as well we tend to be extremely respectful

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just the british personality i think is quite respectful in general for most people it's very modest

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and they don't like to they don't want to ever make

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anyone feel uncomfortable it's very similar to the japanese culture in

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that regard i would say

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so yeah that's something i do appreciate about the country as well the humor the humor is

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so good the humor is so good it's very subtle

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and dry and a bit silly and weird and oddly comforting

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but it's it's unlike any other style of humor in any other country

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and we have some brilliant TV shows

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and films I'm not really huge on watching TV shows

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and films it's just I don't really tend to do

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that for some reason but I mainly watch YouTube

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but there are some really good ones I'd suggest peep show it's probably my favorite

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and we also have the in-betweeners which is really funny slightly you know vulgar

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but it's fine I'm sure you can take it and there's the only ones I can think of.

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The UK office as well.

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Check that out.

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And just meeting British people, a lot of them tend to be quite funny.

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It's very...

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We'll talk about it a bit later on.

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And the fifth one kind of ties in with this.

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It ties in with the modesty and slightly the humor because I think this is really funny.

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And it's these understated expressions we have and if something's understated it means

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that we pretend it isn't as severe

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or it isn't as much of a big deal as it actually is

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so for example I've written some down not bad at all

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so you might be thinking what does

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that mean well we say not bad at all

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when something's actually really good

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so we didn't say oh yeah it's really good it's amazing no we just say it's not bad

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or not bad at all that's the extent of the praise we give to something

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so if a British person says that they're actually saying it's really really good Another country might be like, oh man, it's absolutely awesome.

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It's brilliant.

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We're so lucky.

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Whereas a British person might be like, yeah, not bad.

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Not bad at all.

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And that's a huge compliment.

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Trust me.

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We also have on the other side, it's not ideal.

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And that could mean that something awful has happened.

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And we might say, yeah, you know, it's not ideal.

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Someone can get a severe illness and they're told that they have to have all of these complicated surgeries.

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That they're going to miss this number of weeks of work.

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And it's going to be, well, actually we have free healthcare in the UK forgot to mention

148

that that's another good thing free healthcare yeah hello good thing

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um what was i saying what's the thing free healthcare um oh yeah someone could get a terrible diagnosis

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and they would say something such as oh you know it's not ideal

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but and once again we're downplaying it so so much

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and it's very modest

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and i think it's very cute another example i wouldn't say no to something

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so if you really wanted say a drink

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or a beer you might say oh yeah i wouldn't say anything to a beer right now

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which means that you really want one so i just think it's very modest

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and quite sweet and also we have i've had better days

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which means that you've had an awful day you say oh you know i've had better days

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so you get the point now i really like

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that i think it's a nice detail all right next up we have the food now i know

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that the the British food gets a lot of stick

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and I think I understand it but I think the main problem is

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that British food is very it's not very photogenic so

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if you see a photo of like bangers and mash

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or fish and chips

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or I can't really think of many more British foods at

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the moment like black pudding a full English it doesn't look

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that appetizing when you try it it's

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so nice I've never actually met anyone who has said the

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British food is rubbish after trying it they'll say oh yeah it's actually really nice

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and if you don't like British food honestly it doesn't really matter

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because there are so in the UK you can get any style of food

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if you're in any sort of city

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or even a small town they are guaranteed to have multiple Italian restaurants

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that have some French restaurants some tapas Spanish restaurants they'll have

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a Thai restaurant they'll have some other Asian restaurants you can get anything you want

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and also loads of like western burgers and stuff like that

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they have the usual chains subway okay so there are

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so many options okay you're not going to be forced to eat eel pie every single day

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and no one really eats this by the way i haven't met anyone who eats this

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so the food is surprisingly good and number seven i can't read my own handwriting

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oh yes it's extremely multicultural there are

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so many different um nationalities in the uk so many people come

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and visit and live there and I think that's nice I think in a city

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that adds that's why a city like Bristol for example one

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of the reasons why it's such a good place I will

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talk a bit later on about some cities places I'd recommend going to as well

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but Bristol one of the reasons it's so interesting because there are

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so many cultures there there are two universities sorry I'm trying

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to work out the camera there are two universities there people from all all over the world

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and it just has this influence on the UK

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and for you that's going to help you feel a bit more comfortable as well

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if you come here and the last reason

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that I've written down is the history the UK has been around England's been around for

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so so long I'm English I'm kind of referring to just England when I say the UK.

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I know I shouldn't do that, but yeah.

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That guy's got a Man City top on.

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Anyway, it's an extremely historical place and you might be thinking, oh wow, why does that actually matter?

199

Well, it's just cool, it's cool.

200

So if you graduate university, then during the ceremony, you're going to have all of these really cool traditions.

201

You're going to have people coming in all these different gowns doing these rituals.

202

We have so many old beautiful historical buildings from all of these years ago and

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It just I'm not really that into history to be perfectly honest with you, but I still think it's nice.

204

I like it a lot Anyway, if you are looking for some recommendations on places to visit I am

205

I'd recommend London 100% it is expensive I'm just going to warn you and I haven't covered any of the negatives here.

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There are negatives of course.

207

I'm just focusing on the positives here.

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Alright, I'm not being biased.

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So yeah, definitely London, you need to experience that.

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It's a big city but it's really cool.

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It's very special.

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Bristol, as mentioned.

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Oxford, which is a very beautiful city right next to London.

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It's so green and nice.

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Bath as well.

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And not just in the south.

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I'm southern so I don't want to be, I don't want to say that there are no nice cities in the north.

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For me, I've mainly visited the ones in the south.

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I did live near Manchester for quite a few years.

220

Manchester is a cool place.

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I like it there a lot.

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People are very nice.

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And also the Lake District, there's so much incredible nature.

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Scotland is probably the most beautiful place I've ever been to in my life.

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I'm being deadly serious.

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The problem with Scotland is the weather is bad.

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The weather is bad.

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In the UK, the weather does tend to be...

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I had a comment the other day saying the camera is too close to my face.

230

I apologize for that.

231

it's kind of hard to i need to buy a new

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camera really anyway the uk the weather does tend to be quite bad

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but in scotland in particular it's always raining which is such a shame because

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in terms of nature and how green it is

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and how few people there are there it's probably one of

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the most beautiful places i've ever been to in my entire life yeah

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so those are a few suggestions for you now as promised i'm going to tell you about

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if you are if you're convinced

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and you want to come to the uk then you're going to need to i understand

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that it might be a bit daunting

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because there are a lot of very important cultural nuances in the uk you can't say this you can say

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that and also i know the speaking listening accent all these things can be quite tricky as well

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so for this i have two solutions okay

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so firstly i have an online course it's not like the

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courses i was talking about earlier no it's everything you need to know about coming to the uk

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and achieving fluency there are over 210 lessons

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that took me a year to make interactive exercises all these pdfs

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and stuff like that it's a serious course

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and there's a money back guarantee i promise

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if you take this you will know everything you need to

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know about being a native british speaker that's a fact and

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if not i'll just give you your money back and

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if you'd like some live practice i do also have a

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private community where we have seven live calls every week you can practice speaking with me

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and we also have accent lessons we have an actual modern rp british accent specialist as well

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and it's just a really fun place we have daily posts

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and messages so if you prefer live support the community

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if you want to learn everything self-paced the course is perfect for you

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and yeah that's pretty much it

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and all of the links are in the top comments yeah guys those are the ways in

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which i can help you and those are the reasons why i think

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that the uk is genuinely a pretty amazing country there are flaws as i say

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but i feel like in general it's still definitely worth visiting here yeah all right thank you

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so much for watching i hope you enjoyed this one and

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if you did i'd probably recommend watching this video right here it's very similar

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so check out those links if you'd like to learn with me even further

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and i'll see you guys again very soon for another video all right adios

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This video has 267 sentences and 3110 words to shadow. The speech runs for 15:25. The speaker talks fast, about 202 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 88% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is easy to follow.

Key vocabulary in this video

15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
humour noun	/ˈhjuːmɚ/	The quality of being amusing, comical, funny.
genuinely adverb	/ˈd͡ʒɛn.ju.ɪn.li/	In a genuine manner; truthfully, truly.
ridiculous adjective	/ɹɪˈdɪk.jə.ləs/	Deserving of ridicule; foolish, absurd.
ideal adjective	/aɪˈdi(ə)l/	Pertaining to ideas, or to a given idea.
convince verb	/kənˈvɪns/	To make someone believe, or feel sure about something, especially by using logic, argument or evidence.
rude adjective	/ɹuːd/	Lacking in refinement or civility; bad-mannered; discourteous.
accent noun	/ækˈsɛnt/	A higher-pitched or stronger (louder or longer) articulation of a particular syllable of a word or phrase in order to distinguish it from the others or to…
modest adjective	/ˈmɑdəst/	Not bragging or boasting about oneself or one's achievements; unpretentious, humble.
firstly adverb	/ˈfɜɹstli/	In the first place; before anything else; first.
lesson noun	/ˈlɛs.ən/	A section of learning or teaching into which a wider learning content is divided.
awful adjective	/ˈɔːfʊl/	Very bad.
guarantee noun	/ˌɡæɹ.ənˈtiː/	Anything that assures a certain outcome.
grass noun	/ɡɹɑːs/	Any plant of the family Poaceae, characterized by leaves that arise from nodes in the stem and leaf bases that wrap around the stem, especially those grown as…
rubbish noun	/ˈɹʌbɪʃ/	Refuse, waste, garbage, junk, trash.
nationality noun	/ˌnæʃ.əˈnæl.ɪ.ti/	Legal membership of a particular nation or state, by origin, birth, naturalization, ownership, allegiance or otherwise.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
tie in with verb		To become associated with (a person or group of people); to connect with.
check out verb		To record the departure or withdrawal of someone or something (such as guests, employees, books, etc.).
come back verb		To return to a place.
go away verb		To depart or leave a place.
walk around verb		To walk with no planned destination; to meander.
work out verb	/ˌwɝk ˈaʊt/	To calculate.
write down verb		To produce or set (something) down in writing; to record something.

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 you're European then you will be · if you take this you will know · if you did i'd probably
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	I've written · you've been · has happened
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	were just born · were born · are guaranteed
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	people who hate · betweeners which is · anyone who has

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 100 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, they're, you're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “th” sounds: thick /θɪk/, bath /bɑːθ/
The “sh” and “zh” sounds: rubbish /ˈɹʌbɪʃ/, nationality /ˌnæʃ.əˈnæl.ɪ.ti/, consideration /kənˌsɪd.əˈɹeɪ.ʃən/, specialist /ˈspɛʃəlɪst/, artificial /ˌɑː.tɪˈfɪʃ.əl/
Long words — get the stress right: genuinely /ˈd͡ʒɛn.ju.ɪn.li/, ridiculous /ɹɪˈdɪk.jə.ləs/, nationality /ˌnæʃ.əˈnæl.ɪ.ti/, complicated /ˈkɑm.plɪˌkeɪ.tɪd/, ceremony /ˈsɛɹ.əˌmoʊ.ni/

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 humour, genuinely, ridiculous.

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.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

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듣고 있으면 귀가 뚫리는, 톰&샘 영국영어 팟캐스트 Ep.2 | 영국 물가가 그렇게 비싼가요? | 목소리 대박 ASMR

Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

Key vocabulary in this video

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Grammar in this video

Pronunciation to watch

How to practise with this video

What is the Shadowing Technique?