Shadowing Practice: 688 - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
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It's time to improve your English listening and speaking skills with another true and frankly crazy story.
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A story so unusual that many people think it cannot possibly be real.
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Imagine this, a government sends soldiers into battle.
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The soldiers carry machine guns and expect an easy victory.
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But they are not fighting another army.
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They are fighting thousands of large birds.
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This is the incredible true story of the Great Emu War.
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It was 1932 and Australia was facing difficult times.
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Like many countries around the world, Australia was suffering from the Great Depression.
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Money was scarce, jobs were hard to find and many families struggled to earn enough to survive.
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In Western Australia, many farmers were trying to build a new life.
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Some of them had fought in the First World War and had received farmland from the government after returning home.
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They hoped that farming would provide a stable future for their families.
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But life on the land was much harder than they had expected.
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The weather was often difficult.
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Prices for crops were low and making a profit was never easy.
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Then, as if those problems were not enough, another challenge arrived.
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Every year after the breeding season,
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thousands of emus migrated across Western Australia in search of food and water.
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An emu is the second largest bird in the world after the ostrich.
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Although it cannot fly, it is a powerful animal with long legs
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that allow it to run at speeds of almost 50 kilometers per hour.
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That year, around 20,000 emus entered the farming regions.
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The birds spread across the fields, eating wheat and damaging crops that farmers had spent months growing.
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As they moved through the countryside,
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they also broke fences, making it easy for rabbits and other animals to enter the farms and cause even more damage.
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For the farmers it was becoming a disaster.
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Many believed they might lose an entire season's work.
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They asked the Australian government for help, hoping that something could be done before it was too late.
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The government decided to send soldiers.
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It seemed like a simple solution.
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If trained soldiers had machine guns, surely they could deal with a group of birds.
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A small military team led by Major Meredith arrived with two Lewis machine guns and thousands of rounds of ammunition.
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At first, everyone expected the operation to be over within a few days.
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Instead, things quickly became much more difficult.
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When the soldiers found a large group of emus, they carefully moved into position.
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They waited for the birds to come closer before opening fire.
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But as soon as the shooting began, the emus reacted immediately.
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Instead of staying together, they scattered in every direction.
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Within seconds, one large group had become dozens of small groups running across the countryside.
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The soldiers found it almost impossible to hit enough birds before they disappeared.
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A few days later, they tried a different strategy.
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This time they attached one of the machine guns to a truck.
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The plan was to chase the emus across the fields while firing at them.
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On paper it sounded like a clever idea.
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In reality it was a complete failure.
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The ground was rough and uneven.
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The truck bounced constantly as it drove over rocks and holes,
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making it almost impossible for the gunner to aim accurately.
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Meanwhile, the emus ran surprisingly fast.
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They changed direction without warning,
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disappeared behind bushes, and often escaped before the soldiers could get close enough.
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The soldiers were becoming frustrated.
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The emus seemed to know exactly how to avoid them.
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Some newspapers even joked that the birds had their own military commanders who organized their escape.
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Of course, that was only a joke, but people across Australia began laughing at the strange operation.
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The soldiers continued their mission for several weeks.
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They fired thousands of bullets and managed to kill some emus, but nowhere near enough to stop the damage.
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For every group they chased away, another group appeared somewhere else.
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The birds simply kept coming coming.
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Eventually the government decided that the operation had become too expensive and was not producing the results everyone had hoped for.
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The soldiers were ordered to leave.
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Although some emus had been killed, thousands remained on the farms.
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The farmers still faced the same problem they had before.
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Over the following years different solutions were introduced.
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Stronger fences were built to protect farmland and farmers were encouraged to control the emu population themselves through reward programs.
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These methods proved to be much more effective than sending soldiers into the countryside.
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Today, the Great Emu War has become one of the most famous stories in Australian history.
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It is often described as the war that Australia lost against birds.
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Of course, it was never officially a war.
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It was a military operation designed to protect farmland from wild animals.
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But the nickname has survived for almost a hundred years because it perfectly captures how unusual the whole event was.
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Although the soldiers had modern weapons and military training, they underestimated their enemy.
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The Imios were fast, unpredictable and perfectly adapted to the Australian landscape.
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That is why this strange story continues to entertain people around the world nearly a century later.
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Now you can test yourself with a quick quiz.
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Don't forget to answer the questions out loud and press pause if you need more time.
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Ready?
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Why were the farmers asking for help?
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And the answer is because thousands of emus were eating their crops and damaging their fences.
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Why did the government send soldiers?
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The government believed the soldiers could quickly solve the problem with guns.
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Why didn't the soldiers succeed?
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And the answer is the emus ran very fast, scattered into small groups and escaped across the countryside.
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Why did the truck plan fail?
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The uneven ground made it difficult to drive and almost impossible to aim a machine gun.
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How was the problem managed later?
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And the answer is better fences and reward programs for farmers.
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I love this story because it reminds us that nature is often much more unpredictable than we expect.
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What do you think?
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If you had been in charge, part of the Australian government, how would you have solved the problem?
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Let me know below in the comments.
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Also please don't forget to like, subscribe and hype to support my work.
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It really helps.
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If you are ready for another true story to improve your English then click here.
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I'll see you in the next video.
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Take care.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This video has 97 sentences and 1087 words to shadow. The speech runs for 10:24. The speaker talks slowly, about 105 words per minute, so there is time to copy every sound. 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
15 less common words from the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
- soldier /ˈsoʊld͡ʒɚ/ (noun) — A member of a ground-based army, of any rank, but especially an enlisted member.
- farmer /ˈfɑɹ.mɚ/ (noun) — A person who works the land and/or who keeps livestock; anyone engaged in agriculture on a farm.
- fence /fɛns/ (noun) — A thin artificial barrier that separates two pieces of land or forms a perimeter enclosing the lands of a house, building, etc.
- countryside /ˈkʌn.tɹiˌsaɪd/ (noun) — An area located outside of towns and cities; an area that is not urban or suburban; a rural area.
- crop /kɹɑp/ (noun) — A plant, grown for it, or its fruits or seeds, to be harvested as food, livestock fodder, or fuel or for any other economic purpose.
- unusual /ʌnˈjuːʒ(u)əl/ (adjective) — Not usual, out of the ordinary.
- chase /t͡ʃeɪs/ (verb) — To follow at speed.
- solve /sɒlv/ (verb) — To find an answer or solution to a problem or question; to work out.
- arrive /əˈɹaɪv/ (verb) — To reach; to get to a certain place.
- reward /ɹɪˈwɔɹd/ (noun) — Something of value given in return for an act.
- disappear /dɪsəˈpɪɹ/ (verb) — To vanish.
- unpredictable (adjective) — Unable to be predicted.
- uneven /ʌnˈivən/ (adjective) — Of a surface, not even; covered with raised spots, pits and grooves.
- earn /ɝn/ (verb) — To gain (success, reward, recognition) through applied effort or work.
- meanwhile /ˈmiːnwaɪl/ (adverb) — During the time that something is happening, often specifically in a different place.
Phrasal verbs you will hear
- ask for (verb) — To request; to order.
- deal with (verb) — To handle verbally or in some form of artistic expression; to address or discuss as a subject.
- move into (verb) — Synonym of move in (To start living or working in a new place)
- run across (verb) — To cross by running.
- run at (verb) — To charge at (someone); to advance on (someone) as though to attack; to conduct a surprise attack on (someone).
- stay together (verb) — To remain loyal in times of stress or difficulty; to avoid separation despite pressure to do so.
- wait for (verb) — To wait until the specified event occurs.
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 4 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, didn't, I'll. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: unusual /ʌnˈjuːʒ(u)əl/, capture /ˈkæp.(t)ʃɚ/, ammunition /ˌæmjuˈnɪʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: unusual /ʌnˈjuːʒ(u)əl/, surprisingly /səˈpɹaɪzɪŋli/, accurately /ˈæk.jə.ɹɪt.li/, ammunition /ˌæmjuˈnɪʃən/, underestimate /ʌndɚˈɛs.tɪ.meɪt/
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 soldier, farmer, fence.
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | could be done · were ordered · had been killed |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | has become · has survived · have solved |
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.