Shadowing Practice: THINK and SPEAK in English: Your Weekend Plans - Learn English Speaking with Video

What do you do this weekend?

If I asked you this question, would you know how to respond?

Or would your heart start to beat fast?

Your palms get a little sweaty?

Well, never fear.

Today, I'm going to help you learn how to

think and speak in English so that you can respond to this question What'd you do last weekend?

With no fear, no hesitation, and lots of confidence.

Hi, I'm Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa .com.

For over the past 10 years to over 7 million of you here on YouTube,

I have been teaching real life English that real speakers use in everyday conversations, and that's what you are going to learn today.

Plus, because I am your teacher and PDF worksheet that includes all of today's important lesson material,

plus two extra bonuses that you cannot get in this video.

The first one is a quiz to test yourself.

See if you can remember what you learned today.

And the second one is a downloadable speaking practice.

Many of you have said that you love these downloadable speaking practices, and I want to help you have more speaking practice.

So when you get the PDF worksheet, you can that will give you the speaking practice.

You can carry it wherever you go and practice speaking in English.

So how can you get this worksheet plus quiz and speaking practice?

All you have to do is click on the link in the description, enter your name and email address, and voila, just like that, it will land in your email inbox.

It is my gift to you.

So let's get started by talking about your weekend plans.

I'm going to tell you a little story about what happened to me last weekend.

Hint, it was very busy.

I'm going to include a lot of phrases that you can also use to describe your weekend plans.

And this is going to help you build on your vocabulary

and your speaking skills so that it sticks in your head and you can think and speak in English.

Are you ready?

Listen carefully to what happened to me last weekend, and then we'll vocabulary.

I'm not one to have busy weekends.

In fact, I don't like to overload my schedule with many activities.

I try to keep it simple by going for hikes with my family or just having some friends over to our house.

Take a look at this first phrase.

I'm not one to...

This means it doesn't usually happen.

I'm not one to have busy weekends.

Or we could say, "I'm not one to complain,

but the service in this restaurant is horrible." So this is not something natural for you, but it's happening anyway.

This second word overload feels really heavy, right?

That's the idea here is there is too much going on.

I don't like to overload my weekends or my schedule, but sometimes it happens.

You might say, "I overloaded my work schedule this week

and I don't know how I'm going to possibly do it all." The opposite of overload is this, to keep it simple.

Keep it simple.

There is a famous phrase in English, kiss, keep it simple, stupid.

Not the nicest phrase, but you could use this to say, "Oh, I really just need to keep it simple this weekend.

I've had such a busy week." Or you might say to your teacher, Vanessa, "Vanessa, please keep it simple.

There's too much in English that I need to learn.

Don't speak in long, complicated sentences with too much difficult vocabulary.

Please just keep it simple." All right, let's go to the next part of my story.

But some weekends become more hectic than others.

Last Sunday was one of those days.

This word hectic means busy and chaotic.

Some weekends are more hectic than others.

I prefer to have weekends that are not hectic, but sometimes that happens.

Let me know in the comments, was your weekend hectic last weekend?

This phrase, one of those days, hides a hidden meaning.

If I say, "Ugh, yesterday was one of those days."

The phrase itself doesn't clue you in to the kind of day it was.

Was it a good day or a bad day?

But I bet You're smart enough.

You can tell actually how my day was by my tone of voice.

Yesterday was one of those days.

Do you think it was a good day?

Absolutely not.

So if you use one of those days, you are implying that it was not the kind of day that you wanted to have.

You might say, "Yes, yesterday was just one of those days.

I was late to work.

I lost my keys.

Then I forgot my lunch at home.

Oh, one of those days." Okay, let's move on.

With the change in weather, it's about that time to start thinking about what to plant in the garden.

That's what inspired me to plan a get together at my house last week for a seed exchange Ideally,

everyone brings some seeds to share so we can all plant new things in our gardens.

This phrase, it's about that time to, plus a verb can be used in so many situations.

So let's imagine that for you, your friend is having a baby

and you cannot wait to go baby clothes shopping with her

and her baby's going to be due in maybe two, three months.

Well, you might say, "It's about time to go baby clothes shopping.

Do you want to do it this weekend?" "It's about that time to..." Great phrase.

This phrase, a get together, is a great example of a time when a verb can be used as a noun in a slightly different context.

So here I said, I had a small get together.

We could say, do you want to get together?

That's a verb.

Do you want to get together at my house?

But I used it as a noun and I said, I planned a get together at my house a get together,

and it simply means that we are getting together.

Simple, right?

Let's move on.

I sent out text reminders, prepped food and drinks, tidied up the house.

I also reminded my kids to be on their best behavior.

I wanted to highlight this first phrasal verb here.

I sent out text reminders, to send out.

We could say, I sent text reminders.

Totally fine.

Absolutely acceptable.

But sometimes in daily conversational English, we will choose to use the phrasal verb because it sounds more conversational.

I sent Out text reminders.

100

So here it has the exact same meaning, but it just sounds a little more natural.

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This word, I prepped food and drinks to prep something is shortened for prepare.

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I need to prep some food and drinks before people come over.

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Do you ever prep food and drinks before people come over to your house?

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Probably so.

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You could say I prepared, but it's a little more conversational to say prep.

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And then we have this lovely phrasal verb to tidy up.

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This is something essential to do.

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I think it is within our nature that when guests come to our house, we can't stop ourselves.

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We have to tidy up.

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If people come to your house and You don't tidy up.

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Well, maybe you are not human.

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It is within our human nature to want to tidy up when guests come over.

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It simply means you put away all of the mess.

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Maybe you shove it in a closet or another room, or maybe you actually clean it up and you make sure that your house looks nice and tidy.

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And this final phrase here, "I told my kids to be on their best behavior," is a full fixed phrase that we use all together.

116

It's often used for children because children often misbehave, but we can also use this for adults as well.

117

Let's imagine that you are going on a first date with someone.

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You've never talked with them before in real life.

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You're going on a first date with them and they're kind of rude.

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- Thank you.

121

Well, you probably won't want to go on a second date with them because On your first date, you should be on your best behavior.

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If you're rude on the first date, Well, it's only going to go downhill after that, right?

123

So you should be on your best behavior on your first date

124

and kids should also be on their best behavior when you have guests over.

125

That's the ideal, right?

126

Okay, let's move on.

127

My two oldest children have their own garden beds, so they were pretty hyped about sharing some seeds with the neighbors.

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I want to introduce a very specific vocabulary phrase, a garden bed.

129

I have several videos on this channel where I have shown you my garden, walked through the garden.

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You've even met one of rectangular area where you plant vegetables.

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Sometimes you plant flowers in a garden bed as well, but it is a contained area.

132

This is helpful, especially if you have weeds that want to come in, you can make sure that the soil in the garden bed is really nicely kept.

133

And what about this phrase?

134

To be hyped.

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My kids were hyped about the garden club meeting.

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So we could say they were excited.

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It is simply a synonym for excited.

138

They were hyped about the meeting.

139

And we could say, I'm hyped for every trip that I go on.

140

I'm really excited to travel and I get hyped before a trip.

141

Maybe you get hyped when you realize there's going to be a new is coming.

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I'm so excited.

143

You are hyped for the new lesson.

144

Great.

145

Let's move on.

146

Eight of my neighbors showed up.

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Several people brought over packets of seeds to share

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and some brought seeds that they had saved directly from their plants last summer.

149

It was such a good opportunity to bond with my neighbors.

150

This phrasal verb, to show up, means to arrive.

151

Yes, this is the direct meaning, but it also has a slight nuance to it.

152

It means are going to show up, but you don't need to say, I don't know.

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It means there's an element surprise or unknown.

154

So you might ask how many people showed up to the meeting.

155

Well, if you were expecting 50 people, you might say, "Well, actually only 20 people showed up.

156

I was kind of surprised." So here it is implying

157

that you don't exactly know how many people are actually going to be coming.

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How many people showed up?

159

Well, at my gathering, there were eight people.

160

This phrase to bond with someone is a very kind phrase.

161

Here I talked about bonding with my neighbors.

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We are growing our friendship bonds.

163

You can also bond, for example, with your children.

164

You might say something like, "I try to bond with my kids by listening to the type of music that they enjoy." Well, as your kids get older,

165

it might be more difficult to connect with them, so listening to music together could be a way to bond in a deeper way.

166

All right, let's continue.

167

A few hours later, everyone headed home and I had a moment to catch my breath before the next event.

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Yes, there was a next event.

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This lovely phrase is one that I use all the time, but I don't see English learners using that often and I want to make sure you can use it.

170

To head home means simply to go home, but we use this verb to head to talk about simply starting the journey.

171

So you could say, well, I think I need to head home.

172

It's getting late.

173

This is commonly used all the time, you could say, I need to go home.

174

Totally acceptable.

175

But when you use this phrase to head home, you are elevating your English.

176

I love it.

177

What about this phrase, to catch my breath?

178

No, I'm not actually catching my breath.

179

It's more figurative than that.

180

I said I had a little bit of time to catch my breath before the next event.

181

It wasn't that I couldn't breathe.

182

This means I just have a few minutes to try to recover, gather my thoughts, relax a little bit.

183

I could finally catch my breath before the next thing.

184

So if you've had a busy day at work, you might say, When I got in the car after work, I had a few minutes to catch my breath before I went home.

185

Ah.

186

Okay, let's go on.

187

I made an early dinner, kissed my kids goodnight, and headed out to my friend's book club meeting at a fun rooftop bar.

188

I wanted to show you this phrase to kiss my kids goodnight

189

because it can also be used in a couple other ways as well.

190

When I was saying goodnight to my kids, what did I do?

191

gave them a kiss and said goodnight.

192

But I reduced all of these ideas to just, I kissed my kids goodnight.

193

You might say this about your partner, I kissed him goodnight, Or you might say this at the end of a date,

194

"I kissed him goodbye." Okay.

195

There are some famous songs as well that are rather ironic, I would say.

196

They're trying to use this in a clever way.

197

When they say, "I kissed him goodbye." That means goodbye, good riddance, I don't want to see you anymore.

198

I kissed him goodbye.

199

So if you look up Some songs about kissed him goodbye.

200

They're quite funny.

201

I think a lot of these are kind of country songs, but you'll get the sense of this phrase.

202

We can just kiss someone goodnight, kiss someone goodbye, or we can kiss them goodbye.

203

Do you recognize this word, to head?

204

Here we're using it as a phrasal verb, to head out.

205

Earlier you heard to head home, and now we're talking about leaving.

206

And we're using that same verb again, this time as a phrasal verb with the word out.

207

I'm heading out, or you could say, for example, I'm heading out to the store.

208

Do you need me to get you anything?

209

I'm heading out to my book club meeting.

210

I'm going out, but we're leveling it up and saying heading out.

211

Let's go on.

212

We spent the evening discussing the characters and how the book turned out.

213

I want to stop after just this phrase and explain this phrasal verb, to turn out.

214

We're talking about the ending of the book, what happened in the end, but there's a slight nuance here.

215

We're talking about how the book turned out.

216

There's a bit of surprise here.

217

We don't know what's going to happen at the end of the story.

218

day.

219

So you don't know how it's going to turn out.

220

And in the book, we talked about how the book turned out.

221

We talked about the ending, the unknown ending.

222

That's how we're using to turn out here.

223

You can use this in a business situation as well.

224

Maybe you're having a big meeting where you're trying to get some new clients and you think that the meeting went well, but you're not quite sure.

225

You might say to your friends later, I think the meeting went well, but I don't really know how it's going to turn out.

226

I'll find out next week.

227

Okay, there's a lot of unknowns here.

228

You don't know the conclusion yet, but you're hoping it will be good.

229

Okay, let's move on.

230

To be honest, I wasn't a big fan of the book we were discussing.

231

Turns out my friends didn't like it either, but it's always nice having some me time, especially when it involves a rooftop bar.

232

You probably recognize this phrase, "Turns out." We just talked about it.

233

Here I'm using it as a little bit of a transition.

234

Turns out my friends didn't like the book either.

235

So we're talking about that surprising or unknown conclusion.

236

I'm telling you what happened at the end. So here.

237

I didn't enjoy the book and I found out.

238

It turns out my friends didn't like it either.

239

We're using the same phrasal verb, but in a way to show the conclusion.

240

I love this.

241

So let's imagine that you're walking along the streets of your hometown

242

and there is a foreign traveler walking along looking lost and you think, "Oh, I should probably help them." But can I speak in English?

243

Can I really help them in English?

244

I don't know if I can do it.

245

Then you approach them, ask if they need help, and you actually help them.

246

Well, you might tell me, Vanessa, it turns out I can actually use English.

247

I did it.

248

Here you are telling me the conclusion.

249

It turns out I actually can do it.

250

Good for you.

251

This next expression, me time, is a fun one and it's simply what it looks like.

252

It's time spent for only you.

253

Something that you enjoy doing, you are not giving to others, you are not working, you are doing something that you love.

254

And going to book club with my friends in a rooftop bar, this is absolutely something that is me time.

255

It's something that I enjoy.

256

So tell me in the comments, what do you like to do for your me time?

257

Okay, let's move on to the two sections of my story where you're going to learn five final phrases.

258

"By the time I got home, it was already 10 :00 PM.

259

I was socially exhausted and just crashed." This phrase, by the time, is an interesting one because it's talking about a timeline.

260

When something happens, another event is also happening.

261

"By the time I got home, I was exhausted." So here,

262

two things by the time I got home, I'm feeling quite tired.

263

This phrase, socially exhausted, is a great one to use when maybe you haven't done a lot of physical activity,

264

but if you have talked to so many people for so long, all day, you had garden club, seed exchange with eight neighbors, then you had a rooftop bar,

265

book club with your friends, you have been talking and socializing so much,

266

it can be really social stimulation will be even more exhausting for you.

267

So you could say, I was just socially exhausted after talking with clients all day.

268

It's probably true.

269

This next word to crash is not talking about a car crash.

270

Instead, it's talking about your body.

271

At the end of the day, what are you going to do if you are exhausted?

272

You're going to flop down on the couch or in your bed and crash.

273

It just means that your body is so exhausted that you're just going to lay there.

274

You're not going to do anything necessarily productive.

275

You're just going to lie there and crash.

276

So, if someone says, "Hey, what are your plans for this weekend?" You could use this phrase if you have had a really busy, exhausting week.

277

"Oh, I had such a busy week.

278

This weekend I'm just going to crash." Maybe you'll just watch Netflix all weekend.

279

Okay.

280

Let's go to the final part of this story and the final phrases.

281

In my ideal world, I wouldn't be cramming two events into the same day, but I pushed myself because I knew I would have a good time and I did.

282

In my ideal world is a great phrase for talking about this dream of a way that you wish the world was.

283

So let's think about this for your English goals.

284

In your ideal world, what do you wish you could do with English?

285

So you might say, "In my ideal world, I would be able to communicate easily with clients.

286

In my ideal world, I wish that I could travel to the US and just easily talk with people.

287

Okay, here you're talking about the dream.

288

This dream, in my opinion, is not unrealistic.

289

It is achievable.

290

You're here on the right path trying to make this happen, but we can use this phrase to talk about a goal.

291

In my ideal world, this is what would happen.

292

"I'm going to be a goal." And our final phrase is a great phrasal verb that unfortunately happens to many of us, to cram into.

293

When you were studying in school, did you study a week ahead of time for an exam,

294

or were you someone who tried to cram all of your studying into the last few days,

295

maybe the last few hours before the exam?

296

Well, unfortunately, human nature is such that we often the last few days before we have to do something.

297

So we can use this to talk about our daily lives.

298

I try not to cram everything into the last few minutes, but I sometimes do.

299

And even though I crammed those two big events into one day, I still had a good time.

300

Sometimes you can just push yourself and make it happen.

301

Well, great work practicing thinking and speaking in English today.

302

The next step is to download today's free PDF worksheet.

303

This is a 13 page worksheet that includes everything you learned today, plus a bonus quiz.

304

Test yourself and see if you can really remember all these phrases, plus a bonus speaking practice.

305

I want to help you speak.

306

Today you listened, you learned new vocabulary, and it will become your chance to speak and practice this, when you download this worksheet,

307

you will be able to download the bonus speaking practice so

308

that you can use it anywhere you go and level up your English skills.

309

How can you get this worksheet?

310

Just click on the link in the description, enter your name and email address, and voila, just like that, it will land in your email inbox.

311

It is my gift to you.

312

Well, thank you so much for learning English with me.

313

I want to ask you a question.

314

Let me know in the comments what did you do last weekend?

315

Try to use some of the phrases that you learned in today's lesson

316

and I will see you again next Friday for a new lesson here on my YouTube channel.

317

Bye.

318

But wait, do you want more?

319

I recommend watching this video next, where you will continue to learn to think and speak in English while talking about technology.

320

This is a very relevant topic and you need to be able to speak about this in daily life.

321

I'll see you there.

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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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