Shadowing Practice: What Do Indians Think About The UK? | Street Interview - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
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Hey bosses, its Paridi from Asian Boss.
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Historically, India and UK share a long relationship.
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Be it from the British colonial era to Rishi Sunak becoming the first UK Prime Minister from Indian origin.
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So how do Indians feel about the UK today?
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Let's find out.
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First off, can you name three things that pop into your head when you hear the word UK or Britain?
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So when we hear about UK,
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we think about the world class infrastructure and study and the living standards they have the hygiene and cleanliness they have.
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We think that it's a colonial power that enslaved our country for more than a century.
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Premier League, it's the English League and Rishi Sunak because he recently became the Prime Minister.
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And the royal family, I follow them sometimes.
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I like Prince William and all that.
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It's a very educated country.
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The literacy is very good.
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Three things that come in my mind is like colonialism, monarchies still prevalent and racism sometimes.
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Have you ever travelled to the UK?
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Yeah, two three times I have travelled.
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What was your experience like?
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It's very expensive, some people they discriminate but mostly people are good, mostly educated people are moving there.
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So definitely now they have good impression about Indians.
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What's your overall impression of UK as a country?
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It's a financial strengthened country, it's an economic power I think,
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it's a veto power also in United Nations as you can say and India has a very smooth relationship with UK.
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Basically the lifestyle it is very very different from India and considerably free.
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We as Indians have a lot of restrictions and I I personally would not like that kind of life.
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So I do believe that I would want to live in UK considering the lifestyle and the opportunities you'll get
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and further studies, that's a very big thing.
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Could you please tell me what restrictions are you referring to?
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Restrictions?
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As in being a girl, you are not supposed to go out late at night.
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I think that they are very free to do whatever they want.
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Literally in anything, whatever they want.
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In India, you don't see that.
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UK as a country is like a dream nation.
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You know, the first thing in today's world, whenever we want to know about any country, we want to make an assessment is what is the type of government there.
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It is democracy and it is a very good democracy.
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You know, media is free, their judiciary is powerful, those sort of things.
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So UK is a very good country.
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They are living in the old days like they have king-queen mentality.
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I think they should come out of that.
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Now it's a global world.
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So definitely they should change their thinking.
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Do you think the fact
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that India used to be UK's colonies has any bearing on how Indians perceive the UK these days, especially young people?
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I started developing a bit of hatred towards the country.
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It's not good, but just because of the old textbooks we read.
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Our textbooks have been very biased about the things we have been taught.
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I have a very strong opinion on this.
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The textbook did not have a good language, they supported the whole colony system.
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And I think things will get improved by the good policy.
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The very first thing we study in history is that UK colonized India, which leaves an impression that okay they are bad people, they have ruled over us which is definitely not a nice thing to do.
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So as the youth we still have this thing in our mind
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that no the people are not nice even though they are not the same people anymore.
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I think there would have been a lot of nice things they did for India but those things are not shown.
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We only are taught about how they ruled over us.
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Me when I was in school, it was treated like we were prisoners.
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We didn't want them to be here.
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They colonized us.
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It was not colonization.
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It was literally, they just ruled us for a long, long, long time.
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200 years, I think, approximately.
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So it was treated, yeah.
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It was, I didn't like UK as I was growing up, I guess.
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We shouldn't mingle with the past.
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Past is past.
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So I think India has moved on from that thing, like still considering England or UK as a boss.
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So we are at peace now.
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We as an Indian, I think we don't hold any grudges against them.
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So yeah, it's okay.
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We are cool.
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What are the influences that you see in India today that has been brought into India because of the British rule?
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The good infrastructure, the good architecture, the good design of the roads,
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the good urban planning, and also a good education system all brought by British and I'm very happy for it.
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India has mad about cricket, right?
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There is no football, there is no rugby.
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First is cricket.
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Second is English language, obviously.
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After the Allied powers became victorious in the World War II, English was the predominant language.
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And even our constitution that we have taken is largely influenced by America and UK.
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So and it gives us a democratic
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so we did not go to the path of Russia
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or China those type of things and we have a democracy in place.
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I think our some laws are still the British laws
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and our you can say our system education system and our parliamentary system it's a copy of UK.
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We speak English and mostly people understand English.
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Because of that advantage, Indians are going all over the world.
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For example, in IT field, we have an advantage over Chinese.
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Because Chinese is also a cheap laborer, but they can't speak good English.
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So we have more advantage.
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We have advantage because of British colony.
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How is the UK covered by the local media?
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Is it positive or negative?
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Mostly it's positive.
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Why do you think that is?
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Because being a colony, maybe we still feel we have the obligation to say those positive words for the country
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which colonized us.
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Obviously positive.
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Yeah, they are like, yeah, see their education system, healthcare system, the so called NHS, the National Health Service.
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They are so organized.
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Why is there most positive coverage by the Indian media about the UK?
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India is still growing.
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It needs some support from all over the world.
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It is still growing.
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To maintain its diplomacy, I guess.
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Exactly, maintain its diplomacy.
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And there are many countries which are beheading India, be it China or any other countries.
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But India is a very friendly country with every country because it knows they want to grow.
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Right now, we are developing countries.
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We are not yet developed.
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So we can just go ahead like a boss, like US and all.
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We can't.
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Right
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we have to be friendly like what's the latest news
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that you have heard about the UK in Indian media it's
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like he UK is suffering from a very bad economic condition
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and Roshu Shunak is trying to strengthen it our media was
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saying he's Indian it will be good for India you know he's Hindu
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but it's not that
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if he is the Indian he's going to do a lot
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of things about India it's not he is more responsible for
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his own people how do you feel about the new UK
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Prime Minister Rishi Sunak Rishi Sunak is a very good Prime Minister as I have heard
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that is a very proud moment that an Indian become a Prime Minister of UK
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and we are all with him he's very young he is very dynamic I think
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so the youth of India as mostly seeing on the British Prime Minister Rishi Sunna as an ideal, I want to say.
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Prime Minister Reynes Modi has also been there and met him.
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So, it helped our country, India, to have a great relation with Britain and other countries.
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Because with this relation, all other countries are seeing India as becoming an emerging superpower.
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So, when he became the Prime Minister, how big of a news was it in Indian media?
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It was big.
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It was very, very, very big.
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He has British citizenship.
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We didn't consider that.
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He's like, okay, he's Indian.
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That's it.
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Indian Prime Minister.
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Yeah, we were very happy.
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And also, nowadays, Indian people just seem to occupy these high-level positions in companies like Google and Microsoft.
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So why do you think so many Indians do so well in climbing the highest positions overseas?
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Because we are smart.
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I mean, we are smart.
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That's it.
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The Google CEO is from the IIT in India he completed his study in India
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so that India has a very nice opportunity in education purposes yeah
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because of our education and Indians are hard-working
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and more analytical as an Indian
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if I see the CEO of some big companies like he's an Indian
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and definitely it means that I can reach up to that point.
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So it's not about the color, it's not about the race, it's about the talent.
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So definitely it's inspirational.
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We have been doing great from the old age, like R.A.
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Bhatta, he discovered the zero and all those sort of things.
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So it is naturally in our blood, you know, wherever we go, we will shine and we will raise the name of our country
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but I think we should in spite of taking it as
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a positive thing I would rather take it as a little negative thing
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because a person has become the head of the Google why can you not serve it our own country right
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why are we happy that a person who is
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so intelligent is going to leave our country
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and going to serve some other country i think we need to change our opinion
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that these people need to serve our country as well
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so it is reported
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that nearly a quarter of all international students are in uk are from india
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so if you had a chance to go and live
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and study in uk would you go there yeah sure i
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want to be go there to study my continue my further studies yeah i would definitely go and I'm planning to go.
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So I'm open for that.
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Why is that?
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Aren't there a lot of opportunities in India as well given how big the domestic market is?
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The field which I am pursuing has more demand in UK than in India
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because in India there is not much pay for that course which I am pursuing.
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A lot of people want to go there.
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For me, in my friend circle, not a lot.
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It's only one or two.
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But yeah, I have heard that a lot of people are trying
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and on websites you see a A lot of people want to go there.
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Why do you think that is?
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Good paying jobs, good standard of living.
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It's developed.
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I think people think that when they will go there,
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they'll get a better standard of life and they'll have a good life there.
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Yeah, it's a popular destination.
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Because that's home to many Indians too.
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They have been residing for many years.
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That's not an alien place for us.
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The population density in India is growing in a huge amount and we are gonna pass China in case of population.
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Yeah population is the reason like we why we like want to shift to a better place
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Because there's too much of unhealthy competition here.
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So I don't yeah, you can call it a rat race too
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If we do that hard work in any other country the same way, so we'll get more pay But of course it is our home country
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So we should serve this only
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and how easy it is for the average Indian student to go and study overseas at the first place.
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That's very tough like for that you need to get a lot of like
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if it's not for on scholarship that's that's a huge sum of money
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that we have to pay as tuition fees so I think that's not like common between average Indians.
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It is very hard they can not go on their own perhaps
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but the beauty of the UK is and the US countries like these are
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that they recognize the intelligence of a person and provide them some with scholarship schemes So the people can go on scholarship, people who are really intelligent,
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who have a really bright future.
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So those people have a good chance.
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Apart from that, it is still a difficult task.
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So Indian and UK obviously had a complicated past.
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How do you wish the India-UK relationship progress going forward?
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Modiji tried to overcome the barrier between the UK and all our countries to establish a great relationship between us.
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When we talk about the economic transactions, it's like there is a win-win situation for both the countries.
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India is the very big economic power and UK is indeed too.
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So we both can mutually get tied up.
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In the free trade agreement, people from India will get advantage that visa facility will be easy,
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more migration will happen and they can sell their product freely without paying duty in India.
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With the current Prime Minister of India, it's going well
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and they have a very good foreign policy
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and they have a balanced foreign policy
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if you see the international crisis these days like ukraine war
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and everything so they have balanced themselves so with the uk also it's going further in a positive direction
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Speaking Goals for This Clip
This video helps you practice expressing complex opinions—balancing historical context, personal experience, and cultural observations. It’s ideal for reaching a fluency milestone where you can discuss nuanced topics like "perceptions of a country" with clarity and depth, using both factual statements and emotional insights. This skill is key for engaging in real-world conversations, whether in academic settings or casual discussions.
Phrase Bank
- "pop into your head" – to quickly think of something
- "have a bearing on" – to influence or affect
- "financial strengthened country" – a nation with strong economic power
- "come out of that" – to move away from outdated ideas
- "smooth relationship" – a positive, trouble-free connection
These phrases are reusable in discussions about culture, politics, or personal experiences. Practice saying them aloud to build natural flow.
Fix Your Weak Spots
The dialogue features varied intonation—from passionate statements about colonialism to neutral observations about lifestyle. This is perfect for improving pronunciation and rhythm, as it trains you to stress key words (like "hatred," "free," "opportunities") and soften others. To master this, use a shadowing app or shadowing site to mimic the speakers’ pace and tone. Shadow speech exercises—repeating phrases immediately after the video—help you internalize natural pauses and emphasis, making your English sound more native-like. Focus on words with tricky stress, such as "infrastructure" (in-FRA-struc-ture) and "discriminate" (dis-CRIM-i-nate), to refine your pronunciation. Regular practice with this clip will boost your ability to convey complex ideas with confidence.
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect continuous have/has been + -ing — an action that started earlier and is still going on | have been doing · have been residing |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | have travelled · have been · have ruled |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | have been taught · are not shown · are taught |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | countries which are · person who is · people who are |
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.