Shadowing Practice: Understand FAST English: Advanced Listening Practice - Learn English Speaking with Video

Have you ever watched an English movie or TV show and thought, oh, they're speaking so fast.

I can't understand this without subtitles.

Is there some kind of trick to understanding fast English conversations?

Well, never fear.

Today, you are going to learn how to understand fast English conversations with my four-step listening method.

Hi, I'm Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.

And like always, I have created a free PDF worksheet.

It includes all of the tips and tricks of the four-step listening method,

including a worksheet and a transcript from today's conversation lesson.

To get this free worksheet, all that you need to do is click on the link in the description, enter your name and email address and voila,

this free worksheet will land immediately in your email inbox.

And do you know what the best part is?

Now, after you have signed up, you will receive my weekly free PDF worksheets.

That's right.

Every week they will immediately come to your email inbox and you don't need to sign up anymore.

Hooray.

So don't miss out.

Click on the link in the description to sign up for today's free worksheet with all of the listening tips

and tricks to help you finally understand real English conversations.

This is my gift to you.

So what is the four-step listening method?

Well, let's start with step number one.

Step number one is to listen to a short clip of a real English conversation.

We're going to listen to this together and I want you to test your listening skills.

At first, there's going to be no transcript.

You could turn on subtitles on YouTube, but don't do it.

That's cheating for right now.

I want you to only listen to this conversation.

We're going to listen to it just once together.

All right.

Are you ready?

Let's listen to this quick clip.

You're going to hear David talking about his experience when he was much younger meeting a woman named Chantelle.

Let's listen.

Actually when I was there I met a girl from Montreal.

Chantelle her name was.

I saw her on the beach and I said oh she's beautiful.

I must meet her.

She spoke no English.

I spoke no French.

That didn't matter.

She had a friend that was with her.

They had come down from Montreal for a vacation, a couple of weeks.

And she ended up living with me for seven months.

All right.

How did you do?

That was pretty fast, right?

Well, actually that was a completely normal speed for a real English conversation.

So let's move to step two.

Step two is to slow it down.

You're going to listen to a slow version of this conversation.

This clip has been recorded by my husband Dan and I in order to slow it down a lot.

I have a feeling you're going to understand a lot more.

So after you understand a lot more, we're going to go back to the fast clip after this.

So first let's listen to the slow clip together.

Actually, when I was there, I met a girl from Montreal, Chantelle.

Her name was.

I saw her on the beach and I said, oh, she's beautiful.

I must meet her.

She spoke no English.

I spoke no French.

That didn't matter.

She had a friend that was with her.

They had come down from Montreal for a vacation, a couple weeks, and she ended up living with me for seven months.

Okay.

How did that go?

Before we go to the fast version again, I want to let you know a little preview of what step three and four are, because you need to be ready.

For step three, you are going to be writing exactly what you hear in the conversation.

I want you to listen especially to that fast conversation clip and to write every word that you hear.

You can get your notebook, you can write it on your phone, whatever feels the most comfortable for you.

So because this is a video, you can pause and repeat and go back as many times as you need to, to write it out.

But this is going to show what you actually understand.

How many of those individual words do you understand?

That means what kind of context can you understand?

And then when you speak, what kind of vocabulary can you reproduce?

When you are writing that out, this is testing all of those skills and growing them together.

So let's listen to this clip, the fast clip one more time.

And if you have a piece of paper with you, I want you to try to write out everything that you hear.

Of course, you're welcome to go back

and listen to the slow clip again as well while you're writing it out if you need to.

Are you ready?

listen again and I'm gonna give you a little quiz afterwards so listen carefully.

Actually when I was there I met a girl from Montreal, Chantal her name was.

I saw her on the beach and I said oh she's beautiful I must meet her.

She spoke no English.

I spoke no French.

She had a friend

that was with her they had come down from Montreal for a vacation a couple weeks

and she ended up living with me for seven months.

All right.

I hope that this second time that you heard the fast clip, it was a little bit easier than the first time.

I want to ask you a couple comprehension questions.

Are you ready for this little quiz?

I'm not going to give you multiple choice answers.

I'm only going to give you the question.

This is super tricky because you don't have multiple options to choose from.

You just have to remember.

This is like school again, right?

Are you ready?

100

My My first question is this, where is Chantel from?

101

Where is Chantel from?

102

You have three seconds.

103

The answer is Chantel is from Montreal.

104

Question number two, where did David first see Chantel?

105

Three seconds.

106

The answer is he first saw Chantel on the beach.

107

The next comprehension question is just a yes or no question and it is, did David and Chantal speak the same language?

108

What do you think?

109

The answer is no. David spoke English and Chantal spoke French, but did it matter?

110

Nope, it didn't matter.

111

And the final comprehension question is this one.

112

How long did Chantal live with David?

113

The answer is she ended up living with David for seven months.

114

So now we're going to go on to step number four, which is to compare what you wrote

115

or what you understood to the official correct transcript of what David and I actually said.

116

So we're We're going to listen one more time to the fast clip and you're going to see the transcript here.

117

I want you to follow along and realize you can understand so much more than you could just a few minutes ago,

118

the first time that you were introduced to this clip.

119

Let's listen and let's also take a look at the transcript.

120

Actually when I was there I met a girl from Montreal, Chantal her name was.

121

I saw her on the beach and I said, oh she's beautiful.

122

I must meet her.

123

She spoke no English.

124

I spoke no French.

125

She had a friend that was with her.

126

They had come down from Montreal for a vacation a couple weeks and she ended up living with me for seven months.

127

Okay, so maybe you understood more this last time than you did the first time, but there is a secret to listening that I want you to to know.

128

When you level up your vocabulary, the more words you know, the easier listening will be.

129

Because if people are speaking and you only understand 50% of the words

130

because you actually don't even know those other words that they're saying, it's going to be really hard,

131

no matter how good your listening skills are, to actually understand them.

132

So what we're going to do is we going to go over three important key phrases

133

that were used in that quick clip.

134

You're going to level up your vocabulary so that the next time you hear them in a fast conversation, it will be no problem for you.

135

The first key phrase is to not matter.

136

Notice the pronunciation here.

137

The T's matter are not pronounced like that.

138

They're pronounced in American English, matter, matter like a D to not matter.

139

In the conversation with David, he said that he spoke English, she spoke French, and I said, that didn't matter.

140

So they still had a very special connection, even though they couldn't communicate with language.

141

And I was saying, well, it didn't matter.

142

It was not important.

143

And that is the essence of this phrase.

144

It didn't matter.

145

It wasn't important.

146

So with learning English, we could say, it doesn't matter if you make a mistake, just keep practicing.

147

The next key phrase from the conversation is the phrasal verb to come down.

148

In the conversation, David said that Chantelle and her friend, they came down from Montreal.

149

Well, Montreal is in Canada in the north and David was living in Florida, which is about as far south in the US as you can go.

150

So he said, they came down from Montreal.

151

The idea is that they were traveling south.

152

They were traveling toward the south.

153

So you might say, I'm so excited because my cousins are coming down from New York for the holidays.

154

Well, if you live south of New York, this is a great phrasal verb to use.

155

And the third key phrase from this conversation is another phrasal verb, to end up.

156

This is when something happens with a surprising conclusion.

157

I would say this was a very surprising conclusion from David and Chantel.

158

He said, she ended up living with me for seven months.

159

So he talks about a chance encounter with a beautiful woman on the beach.

160

And usually most people would think that maybe they had a conversation and that was it.

161

But he said, she ended up living with me for seven months.

162

What a surprise.

163

And it is a surprise, right?

164

So this is the perfect use of this phrasal verb to end up.

165

Let me give you another example.

166

You could say, we got lost on our way to the park and ended up finding a cute little cafe.

167

Okay.

168

If you're lost, you think this is a negative thing.

169

Nothing good is going to happen because we're lost, but then you discovered a cute little cafe.

170

What a surprising thing to happen and a great use of this phrasal verb.

171

So how did you do with the four step listening method?

172

We listened to the fast clip.

173

Then we listened to a slowed down clip of that real conversation.

174

We listened to the fast conversation again.

175

hopefully you got a chance to write down everything you heard and we compared it to the official conversation transcript.

176

Plus you learned some key vocabulary along the way.

177

Well, if you want to take it to the next level

178

and officially level up your English listening skills so that fast English conversations are no problem for you,

179

I have a wonderful solution and it is the 150 day listening challenge.

180

Each day over 150 days, you'll spend just 15 minutes,

181

like today's lesson, listening to a short real English conversation clip.

182

You'll hear over 50 native English speakers so that you can get used to different voices, different accents, different styles of speech,

183

just like in real life.

184

With the four-step listening method, it's simple.

185

Just listen, Watch and improve.

186

In the next few months, you will understand English movies, TV shows, podcasts, and real English conversations with no problem.

187

Usually the 150 day listening challenge is $500.

188

That's $100 each month.

189

But right now for this limited time, I'm offering a huge discount so that you can join at no risk.

190

It is $199.

191

This is a steal.

192

You get lifetime access to the entire course so that you can go back and review at any time that you want.

193

We will start studying the lessons on Friday, March 21st. So make sure you join before this date

194

because the discount will go away and you'll miss studying with everyone and getting feedback from our wonderful American English teachers.

195

You can click on the link in the description to get your huge discount on the 150 day listening challenge.

196

Join us in level up your listening skills so that understanding real conversations is no problem.

197

Well, congratulations on leveling up your English skills in today's lesson.

198

Don't forget to download the free PDF worksheet

199

that includes all of the steps for the four step listening method

200

so that you can use this to finally understand fast English conversations.

201

You will also get a transcript of the conversation between David

202

and I so that you can go through this and see how real English speakers talk, especially when we're having fast conversations.

203

It can sometimes feel like a mystery, but it doesn't have to.

204

It can be simple with the four step listening method.

205

When you click on the link in the description to download that free PDF worksheet.

206

Just enter your name and email address and voila, I will send it right to your email inbox

207

and you will continue to get a free PDF worksheet from me every week.

208

It is my gift to you.

209

Well, thank you so much for learning English with me

210

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

211

Bye.

212

But wait, do you want more?

213

I recommend watching this video next where you will continue to learn how to understand fast conversations.

214

You'll listen to a conversation about the tastiest thing in the world,

215

desserts, and break down some key pronunciation tips so that you can hear those in fast conversations.

216

I'll see you there.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “Understand FAST English: Advanced Listening Practice”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: conversation, English, listening, fast, listen. This video has 216 sentences and 2361 words to shadow. The speech runs for 15:21. The speaker talks at a natural 154 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 87% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is easy to follow.

Key vocabulary in this video

The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
worksheet noun		A sheet of paper or computerized document on which problems are worked out or solved and the answers are recorded.
transcript noun	/ˈtɹæn.skɹɪpt/	Something which has been transcribed; a writing or composition consisting of the same words as the original; a written copy.
phrasal adjective	/ˈfɹeɪzəl/	Relating to, or used in the manner of, a phrase.
verb noun	/vɝb/	A word that indicates an action, event, or state of being.
vocabulary noun	/vəˈkæb.jə.lə.ɹi/	A usually alphabetized and explained collection of words e.g. of a particular field, or prepared for a specific purpose, often for learning.
inbox noun	/ˈɪnbɑks/	A container in which papers to be dealt with are put.
comprehension noun	/ˌkɑmpɹɪˈhɛnʃn̩/	A thorough understanding.
café noun	/ˌkæˈfeɪ/	A coffee shop; an establishment selling coffee and sometimes other non-alcoholic beverages, simple meals or snacks, with a facility to consume them on the…
subtitle noun	/ˈsʌbtaɪtəl/	A heading below or after a title.
voilà	/(v)wɑˈlɑ/	Lo, there it is; ta-da; presto; behold!
pronunciation noun	/pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/	The formal or informal way in which a word is made to sound when spoken.
pronounce verb	/pɹəˈnaʊns/	To declare formally, officially or ceremoniously.
quiz noun	/kwɪz/	A competition in the answering of questions.
reproduce verb	/ˌɹi.pɹəˈdus/	To produce an image or copy of.
notebook noun	/ˈnoʊtˌbʊk/	A book (physical or digital) in which notes or memoranda are written.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Meaning
end up verb	To bring to a conclusion.
go back verb	To return to a place or state after having been there at a previous time.
sign up verb	To add a name to the list of people who are participating in something.
break down verb	To stop functioning.
come down verb	To descend, fall down, collapse.
follow along verb	To continue behind or beside an animal, person, vehicle or other object, especially as a companion.
go away verb	To depart or leave a place.
go back to verb	To stem from; to originate in.

Sentences worth repeating

Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:

I can't understand this without subtitles.
We're going to listen to it just once together.
How many of those individual words do you understand?
That means what kind of context can you understand?
Are you ready for this little quiz?

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	have created · have signed · has been recorded
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	has been recorded · were introduced · are not pronounced
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	four, which is · Florida, which is

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 50 contractions and reduced forms, such as we're, you're, didn't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “sh” and “zh” sounds: comprehension /ˌkɑmpɹɪˈhɛnʃn̩/, pronunciation /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/
Long words — get the stress right: vocabulary /vəˈkæb.jə.lə.ɹi/, pronunciation /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/

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 worksheet, transcript, phrasal.

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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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

Key vocabulary in this video

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Sentences worth repeating

Grammar in this video

Pronunciation to watch

How to practise with this video

What is the Shadowing Technique?