Shadowing Practice: This Is NORMAL In The USA?? 🇺🇸 (English comprehensible Input) - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
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here in the united states this is a normal sized cup of soda
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and if i wanted to i could drink all of it
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and fill it up again and again
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and again all for free without paying any more money because i already paid for the cup
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that was a lot of soda today we are going to look at five different things
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that are very normal here in the United States, but may be very weird to you.
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But before we go, let me go get another refill.
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These are called fountain drinks, and all you have to do to get one of these
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is order one on this screen here in the drinks section you just pick from here
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which drink you would like and then pay three dollars
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and 29 cents and then you pick up your cup from over there and then come over here
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to fill up your drink you can press any of these and that soda will come out so i got pepsi
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and Pepsi comes out when you click that button.
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It's crazy because you can literally get as much soda as you want.
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This may be one of the reasons that America is so unhealthy.
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They have fountain drinks here,
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iced tea right here, lids and straws right here as well as some sauces and napkins and silverware like knives.
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The next place that we are going is just across the street here at a place called Chick -fil -A.
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We were at Taco Bell right here
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and we just have to cross the street so
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that I can show you the next thing
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that Americans do all the time
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that may be kind of weird to you
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guys oh wait I
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forgot my car I forgot my car even though it's just
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across the street I'm still gonna take my car this is something that Americans are known for,
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we drive our cars everywhere.
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Even if we're just going across the street, a lot of the time we will take our car instead of walking.
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Yeah.
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Now that I'm already in my car, I'm just going to go through the drive -thru to order instead of going inside.
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Hello.
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Hello, so welcome to Philly.
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Can I get a name for the order?
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Yeah, Jaden.
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What would you like today, Jaden?
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Can I just get a cup of water?
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Yeah, of course.
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Would you like that small, medium, or large?
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Medium.
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Would that be all for today?
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That's it.
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You can go.
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Thank you.
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My pleasure.
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I love this restaurant because instead of saying you're welcome when you say thank you, they always say my pleasure.
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My pleasure.
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No matter what.
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But that's not what I wanted to show you guys.
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Once I get my water then you will see what I wanted to show you.
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Hey.
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How are you today?
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Good how about you?
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You just got the water?
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Yeah.
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Thank you so much.
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You too.
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My pleasure.
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All right.
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Are you guys ready to see?
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So this is the water that Chick -fil -a just gave me.
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I'm going to take the lid off
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and pour it in to this glass now
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look how much of this water is ice do you see
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that this is all ice and a lot of it melted too
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because I spent a little bit setting up the camera and getting this shot so much ice
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and this is not even as much as they usually do.
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A lot of the time all of this would be ice
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and there would just be a little bit of water in the ice.
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At most restaurants here they will ask would you like ice with your water?
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What they should say is would you like water with your ice because they give you a lot of ice.
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Americans love their ice.
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It's cold and refreshing.
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If you guys ever come to the United States, go to Chick -fil -A.
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They are so nice.
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They gave me this water, a straw, and all of these napkins all for free.
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Out of any chain restaurant here in the united states i
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would say chick -fil -a has the highest percentage of really really nice employees chick -fil -a gets a jayden 10.
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we just went through the chick -fil -a drive -through it's time to go to another drive -through
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that is very unique let's go This car is not really that fast.
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We made it.
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It's this place behind me.
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It's a pharmacy.
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So pharmacies are the kind of places where you pick up medicine.
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So your doctor will tell you, go to this pharmacy to get your medicine that I prescribed for you,
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that I told you to get and you come here to pick up your medicine.
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They also have a lot of medicine over the counter so you don't need a prescription to get some of this medicine.
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You can just go in and browse and look around to see what they have and grab what you want.
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But the majority of people that come here probably come to get their prescriptions.
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Now you may be thinking, okay so you get your medicine by just going inside and picking it up.
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Hmm, you can do that.
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Or look at that drive -thru pharmacy.
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Yes, that is right.
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You can also go through a drive -thru to get your medicine.
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You just come around here to the back side of the building to pick up your prescription
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so what does that look like i can't show you
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because i don't have a prescription to get
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but it would look a little something like this hello i'm
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here to pick up some medicine all right i'll just need
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to see your id yes sure here's my id okay let me just go in the back
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and get it i'll be just one minute
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okay here's your medicine and your id there you go have a good day thank you
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so much you have a good day too it's not just pharmacies
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that do this like this cvs here but we also have other things like banks.
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You can go and drive through a bank at an ATM to get your money out of the bank.
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All you do is drive through
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and then once you get to the ATM you give it your debit card
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and then tell it how much money you want and then it will give you all of that money.
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It's very convenient.
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You don't have to talk to anyone or go even inside a building.
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You can do it all from your car.
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And we have drive -through car washes.
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There are literally places where you can have your car driven through a tunnel with a bunch of people cleaning it.
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Or there's also a kind where a machine can clean it
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there are two different kinds one for the inside of the car
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and one for the outside of the car we have
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so many drive -throughs it's crazy i think the reason
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that we have all of these drive -throughs is
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because the united states is all about convenience people here love things
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that make their life easier and so
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if you can go in a drive -through instead of going in the actual building
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and it saves you some time then you might as well do it.
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Oh look, there's our next stop.
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Our next stop is this building right here.
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It's at a public park right here.
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They currently have fences up right now because they are doing some work over here at the playgrounds.
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But the reason that I brought you here is because we are going to go into this building which is the restroom.
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So this is the men's restroom and in order to go in I just have to pay a little bit of money.
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Nope just kidding.
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That is something that a lot of people find strange about America is
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that here in the United States you don't have to pay in order to public bathrooms.
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It opens right up.
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This place is completely free.
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In a lot of places like Europe and other places I've been, you have to pay like a quarter or something like
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that in order to use their bathroom
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but not here public restrooms are all over the united states at parks at rest stops
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and even some restaurants will allow you to use their bathrooms without even buying any food
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and look this place is pretty nice you have the sinks
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right here there are two sinks as well as a trash can
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which has no trash bag in it two mirrors these urinals this
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which sprays stuff into the air that is supposed to smell good
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but a lot of the time it just smells like chemicals there's also no one in this bathroom
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so we can go wherever we want.
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I will show you guys the stall here.
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Wait.
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Maddox?
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Okay.
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We are going to wait.
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Let's wait outside for Maddox.
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I did not know there was a guy in there.
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Maddox why did you open the door on me I'm sorry I am
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so sorry I did not know you were in there where
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did you think I was you haven't been in this entire
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video where did you come from the bathroom I also heard your tour Jaden
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and it wasn't that good wait my tour of the bathroom yeah
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but I showed them
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so much I thought it was good no no no I'll take you guys for a real tour I'm Mattis
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and this is
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my bathroom
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they
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have these mirrors which are shiny like diamonds from 20 ,000 feet below the ground.
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They have the sinks with water fresh straight from mountain springs.
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mmm refreshing they have this air freshener with the freshness
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like the fluff on the mane of a unicorn and with that I'll leave you the end of my tour
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I'm gonna go back in here back to my peace and quiet.
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I'll see you guys later.
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I am now at my house on the front porch
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and I'm going to be doing the fifth thing that Americans do often that you may not expect.
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I'm going to be using my phone to order food.
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So all I do is I go to this app called DoorDash
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and then I'm going to search Lay's chips because I want Lay's chips.
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I can pick where I want to get these from
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if I want to get them from Costco Wegmans or 7 -eleven
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and I'm going to do 7 -eleven these ones are the best salt and vinegar add to cart
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and we are ready to place our order look at all of this
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so the subtotal is $2 .79 But then we have a bag fee of $0 .05,
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a delivery fee of $2 .99, a service fee of $3 .54, and tax of $0 .03.
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So the whole thing is $9 .40 before the tip.
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And then we tip $2, and the whole thing is $11 .40 sense guys i don't do this often
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but i'm gonna do it for the video pay now now
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that my order is placed we just wait out here until
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the delivery driver comes with my food oh look he sent a picture right here with my bag.
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Wow this bag right here will be delivered right to my house.
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I can't wait.
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It says that our delivery driver's name is Shang Chang.
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Shang Chang where are you?
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I need my potato chips.
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Please hurry Shang Chang wherever you are i need my chips
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what am i going to do without them he's close it shows me exactly where he is thank you
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so much i appreciate it have a great day thank you we got them thank you shang chang
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and look this is the exact same print of the photo that we saw earlier that Shang Chang sent me.
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I am so glad I tipped him.
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He deserves all $11 that these chips cost.
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Although he'll probably only get like half of the money.
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It's time for the moment we have all been waiting for.
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The unboxing.
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here they are salt and vinegar are $11 chips mostly filled with air so good it's crazy
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that shang chang delivered me just these chips it probably took him like 20
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or 30 minutes just to bring these chips to me
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ordering food is really common here ordering just one little thing isn't super common
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but it does happen i used to be a delivery driver for door dash just like shang chang
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and i sometimes would be door dashing at like 1am
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and I would bring someone like a pack of gummy worms at 1 in the morning and that's it.
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That's all they would get.
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They would pay like $11 just to get gummy worms at 1 in the morning.
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It's so funny.
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Not everyone does that but it does happen.
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But just like not everyone orders one thing from DoorDash all the time.
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Not everyone does all of these things that I mentioned.
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They're just certain things that are more common here in the U .S like infinite fountain drinks.
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Not everyone will get an infinite fountain drink and chug a ton of soda, but some people do so
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which ones of these do i do starting with the soda honestly i don't really drink
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that much soda i don't really like it
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so i used to drink a lot of soda
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but now i'll only drink it if it's made with real sugar
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because they use a lot of ingredients that are really bad for you
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and i don't want any of that and
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so i don't really drink much soda next is getting a ton of ice in your water again that's something
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that i'm not a big fan of i will take ice
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if it's a really hot day out
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but a lot of the time i'll tell them light ice
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which is just a little bit of ice
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but the drive -throughs yes i go through the drive -throughs i don't use drive -through car washes all
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that much but i have used drive -through atms to get money
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and drive -through pharmacies when i have a prescription to pick up and public restrooms i mean everyone uses public restrooms here
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as for ordering food i've maybe only done it like three times i just remembered the best time
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that i ever ordered food from doordash is
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when i got like 50 pounds of bananas that was good i did
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that with my friends a different time that i ordered food was
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when i was at the beach and me
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and my friends really wanted a pizza
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and it was only like $20 to have a pizza delivered through DoorDash so I used it then too.
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Let me know which ones of these you would use if you had in your country.
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This was not worth $11.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This video has 233 sentences and 2495 words to shadow. The speech runs for 21:31. The speaker talks at a steady 116 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.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| soda noun | /ˈsoʊdə/ | Sodium bicarbonate. |
| chip noun | /t͡ʃɪp/ | A small piece broken from a larger piece of solid material. |
| chang noun | A traditional harp of central and southwest Asia | |
| chick noun | /t͡ʃɪk/ | A young bird. |
| pharmacy noun | /ˈfɑɹməsi/ | A place where prescription drugs are sold or dispensed. |
| prescription noun | /pɹəˈskɹɪp.ʃən/ | A written order from an authorized medical practitioner for provision of a medicine or other treatment, such as (ophthalmology) the specific lenses needed for… |
| fountain noun | /ˈfaʊn.tɪn/ | A natural source of water; a spring. |
| sink verb | /ˈsɪŋk/ | To descend or submerge (or to cause to do so) into a liquid or similar substance. |
| mirror noun | /ˈmiɹɚ/ | A smooth surface, usually made of glass with reflective material painted on the underside, that reflects light so as to give an image of what is in front of it. |
| wash verb | /wɑʃ/ | To clean with water. |
| pizza noun | /ˈpi.tsə/ | A baked Italian dish of a thinly rolled bread crust typically topped before baking with tomato sauce, cheese, and other ingredients such as meat or vegetables. |
| trash noun | /tɹæʃ/ | Useless physical things to be discarded; rubbish; refuse. |
| wherever | /(h)wɛɹˈɛvɚ/ | Regardless of the place in, at or to which. |
| infinite adjective | /ˈɪnfɪnɪt/ | Indefinably large, countlessly great; immense. |
| eleven noun | /əˈlɛv.ən/ | A cricket team of eleven players. Hence first eleven - the team of best cricket players (at a school), second eleven - the "B" team, etc. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| pick up verb | To lift; to grasp and raise. | |
| go through verb | To travel from one end of something to the other. | |
| come out verb | /ˌkʌm ˈaʊt/ | To be discovered; to be revealed. |
| come around verb | /kʌ.məˈɹaʊnd/ | To change one's mind, especially to begin to agree or appreciate what one was reluctant to accept at first. |
| come over verb | To affect in a sudden, unprecedented or surprising manner; to overwhelm a person's ordinarily contrary impulse. | |
| fill up verb | To make (something) completely full. | |
| set up verb | /ˌsɛt ˈʌp/ | To make ready for use. |
| wait out verb | To wait through (something): wait (through) till the end; patiently endure. |
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| “Used to” used to + verb — a past habit or state that is no longer true | used to be · used to drink |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | are called · are known · is placed |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | I've been · haven't been |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | building which is · mirrors which are |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 45 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, don't, I'll. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: prescription /pɹəˈskɹɪp.ʃən/, wash /wɑʃ/, trash /tɹæʃ/, dash /ˈdæʃ/, refresh /ɹɪˈfɹɛʃ/
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 soda, chip, chang.
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.