Shadowing Practice: What Kind Of Person Makes A Good Firefighter? - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
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Hi everyone, I'm Courtney and today I'm here with James.
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We are going to talk about jobs in this new series called Jobs Uncovered.
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We're going to pick a job and talk about the things
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that are good about that job and the things that are bad about that job.
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At the end of the episode, we're going to decide whether we'd like to do that job or not whether we'd like to have that occupation
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james how are you today i'm doing well
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and i'm looking forward to talking about our first job today
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so what is our first job that we're talking about today
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So the first job we're talking about is we're going to talk about firefighters.
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So obviously, I'm sure you're aware that firefighters are people who are caught
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when you have a fire or if you have a fire.
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And they are required to go and put out the fire.
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They'll arrive in their fire truck and they will have all their gear, all their firefighting gear they'll probably bring with them a big
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hose an absolutely gigantic hose to spray water at the fire to try
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and put out the fire so Courtney my question to you is
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what kind of person do you think you need to be
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to be a good firefighter like like what kind of person
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makes a good firefighter in your in your view yeah it's a good question
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so in my opinion i think in order to be a
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good firefighter you need a couple of different personality traits
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so i think you need to be the type of person that's pretty brave the type of person
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that is not afraid to take on challenges head on
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because running into a fire is not something for the meek
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or the feeble you have to be pretty brave to do
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that I think you also need to be pretty physically fit
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I know a lot of firefighters spend a lot of time working out
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and spend a lot of time working on their physique so
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that they can you know have the physical capacity to to go in
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and take on those challenges like you said the hose carries a lot of water in it
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and so I'm sure it's pretty heavy
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and then you need other things like like a good lung capacity right to be able to to run
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and carry people out of buildings and all the crazy things that firefighters have to do
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and then I also think the third thing
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that a firefighter needs is the ability to stay calm under pressure to be level -headed
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because usually when you're firefighting I'd imagine
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that most situations are pretty um pretty intense firefighters don't really get called
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when when good things are happening yeah so i agree with you
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that a firefighter definitely needs to be level -headed right you
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know you need to be able to really be level -headed
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and although it's a situation where many people might panic right
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there are lives at stake there could be lives at stake
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it's important for a firefighter to be very level -headed
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and something else i think a firefighter needs to be able
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to do is they need to be able to think on
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their feet you know i think they need to be able to quickly adapt to any situation
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that comes their way you know maybe they are going into a burning building to go
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and save one person and then perhaps they find out
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that there are two more people that need to be saved as well
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and so the firefighter really they need to think on their feet
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and sort of quickly adapt to every situation at a very fast pace
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so yeah i would say that's quite important um for being a firefighter is there anything else
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that you think any other personality traits or skills
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that are important for a firefighter Courtney can you think of
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anything else I would say probably teamwork teamwork is important in a lot of different jobs
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but I think in firefighting you know you're part of a team
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and so it is a life -threatening situation not only for for the people
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that you're saving but for for your team members
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so I think there needs to be a lot of teamwork
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and a lot of trust I know I wouldn't want to be a firefighter with someone
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that i didn't trust very much yeah absolutely i mean that's what they they work in teams
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and yeah you have to be you know you have to know
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that your teammates have got your back right you need to know
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that they've got they've got your back if if things if things go south
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um yeah you need to you know and
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which i'm sure could happen you know in in a burning building
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if things really go south if things get dangerous
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and miss you know things go wrong then you need to know
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that your team makes they've got your back right yeah they're there for you they're there for you
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that they've got your back
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and i suppose the last thing really is quite an obvious thing
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but of course you need to be fearless right oh yeah you know you're going into a very dangerous situation so
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if you're somebody who is you know easily scared i don't
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think uh being a firefighter would really be for you in fact courtney i think
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that leads me on to my next question
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what kind of person do you think should not be a
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firefighter like like what kind of person should never sign up for for
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that job i think that if you're a person
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that struggles with physical fitness you're going to have a really
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difficult time uh being a firefighter in fact i think during
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some of the firefighting shifts they actually have requirements for working out
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and staying active and fit and in shape um
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so i think you know physically uh that's a challenge
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if you're not physically fit you might not make a good firefighter another thing
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that I would say is someone that's more timid or someone
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that hasn't faced a lot of situations where they've they've had
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to be resilient in the past I think firefighting is a job where you have to persevere a lot
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and you have to push through tough situations so I think
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that if you're someone that's a little bit more mentally weak
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or i would honestly say like
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if you're someone that's worked an office job for for years
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and years you've sat in an office
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and you haven't done a lot of like like physical labor
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or situations where you're put under real life pressure
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and there are pretty dire consequences i wouldn't recommend it um you can't really paperwork your way out of a fire
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definitely not paper paper's not going to help in a fire yeah it probably will make the fire worse
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um and then i guess the third thing that i would say is
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that if if you're not a person that um
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if you're a selfish person i think firefighters have to be
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pretty selfless they have to put their own lives before other people's lives
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yeah i completely agree um being selfless for sure
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so this brings me on to the the most important question
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i guess goni would you make a good firefighter do you think
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i don't think i would make a good firefighter i think i could um i think
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that if i wanted to be one, I could work on those skills.
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I'm not extremely physically fit, but I am athletic, so I could work on those skills.
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I'm not sure that I'm calm under pressure.
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I'm not sure that I would be super level -headed.
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I remember I was a lifeguard growing up, and looking back on my time as a lifeguard, um, if something had happened,
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I'm not sure I would have responded well.
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Um, and it's crazy.
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They put 16 year olds in charge of that.
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Um, and then I guess the third thing is just, I, I haven't had a lot of experience, uh, working on a team in a,
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in a setting where things are fast paced i've had experience working on a team before um
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but not not in in a setting where where it's a life
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or death situation
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so i don't think i'd make the best firefighter what about
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you yeah it's a hard question um to be honest i do think i could meet the physical requirements um
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but i know the firefighters they do something i believe they do something called the bleep test i don't know
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if you have this in the us i think maybe you have a different name for it
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when there's like a bleep and then you run to one side
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and there's a bleep and you have to keep running back
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and forth yeah i don't know what that's called
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but i know what you're talking about yeah i don't it's probably got a different name in the us
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but i remember at school i actually won the bleep test one no way
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so yeah that's right i came out first
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so i do think i can meet the physical requirements
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but as you were talking about like remaining level -headed in a life
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and death situation that's like a different question i'm not entirely sure
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that i'm the kind of person that could do that i have a feeling that i may
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panic a little bit in those situations honestly
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and uh like i think i would be able to think on my feet
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and i could do the physical stuff but in terms of the psychological side of things i'm not
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convinced that i would actually be able to handle like the death you know people being burned and
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and things i don't i honestly think maybe i'm not the
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right guy for the job in this case unfortunately yeah um
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i do think there would be some pretty cool parts about
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being a firefighter like you get to wear the cool firefighting suits although i'm sure they might get really hot
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and stuffy um and be a little cumbersome to to move around in uh
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and you also like
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when things go well you get the credit right it probably is really rewarding to be able to help people
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or some yeah sometimes firefighters even do things
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that don't involve fires like you know help with car accidents
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or save a cat from a tree yeah i mean you
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know what i think the solution to this is just to
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pretend to be a firefighter like just buy the by the gear
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and then pretend that to everybody or your friends and family
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that that you are firefighter and then you get all the credits
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and all the props for being a firefighter
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but you don't actually have to do the dangerous job 100
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percent yeah i uh i also want to say thank you to anyone watching this
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that is a firefighter uh
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when i was in high school there was a massive wire
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wildfire behind my house where we lived it was only about a mile from my home
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and i had to pack up all of my belongings
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and uh go stay at neighbor's house i say neighbors
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but it was it was maybe five or ten miles away
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and i just had to watch and see if my house burned down
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and luckily thanks to the firefighters my house was fine
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because they were able to put out the fire before it burned my house down so thank you firefighters
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yeah firefighters we salute you thank you for the work
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that you do i wonder if there are any firefighters listening today
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if you're a firefighter put put that you're a firefighter in the comments
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and you need to be a real firefighter as an hour
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don't pretend yeah don't just have a year all right everyone well
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that was our chat about firefighters in our new series jobs
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uncovered make sure to stay tuned for the next episode to learn the pros and cons of the next job.
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Bye.
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Bye.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “What Kind Of Person Makes A Good Firefighter?”. This video has 168 sentences and 2066 words to shadow. The speech runs for 12:56. The speaker talks at a natural 160 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 83% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| physically adverb | /ˈfɪz.ɪ.kli/ | In a physical manner. |
| gear noun | /ɡɪɚ/ | Equipment or paraphernalia, especially that used for an athletic endeavor. |
| skill noun | /skɪl/ | A capacity to do something well; a technique, an ability, usually acquired or learned, as opposed to abilities that are regarded as innate. |
| pretend verb | /pɹəˈtɛnd/ | To speak or behave so as to give a false or simulated appearance. |
| requirement noun | /ɹɪˈkwaɪɹmənt/ | A necessity or prerequisite; something required or obligatory. Its adpositions are generally of in relation to who or what has given it, on in relation to whom… |
| hose noun | /hoʊz/ | A flexible tube conveying water or other fluid. |
| pace noun | /peɪs/ | A step taken with the foot. |
| brave adjective | /bɹeɪv/ | Strong in the face of fear; courageous. |
| panic noun | /ˈpænɪk/ | Overwhelming fear or fright, often affecting groups of people or animals; (countable) an instance of this; a fright, a scare. |
| stake noun | /steɪk/ | A piece of wood or other material, usually long and slender, pointed at one end so as to be easily driven into the ground as a marker or a support or stay. |
| adapt verb | /əˈdæpt/ | To make suitable; to make to correspond; to fit or suit. |
| trait noun | /tɹeɪt/ | An identifying characteristic, habit or trend. |
| wire noun | /ˈwaɪɚ/ | Metal formed into a thin, even thread, now usually by being drawn through a hole in a steel die. |
| fitness noun | /ˈfɪt.nəs/ | The condition of being fit, suitable or appropriate. |
| intense adjective | /ɪnˈtɛns/ | Of a characteristic: extreme or very high or strong in degree; severe; also, excessive, towering. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| put out verb | To blind (eyes). | |
| work out verb | /ˌwɝk ˈaʊt/ | To calculate. |
| burn down verb | To cause (a structure) to burn to nothing. | |
| come out verb | /ˌkʌm ˈaʊt/ | To be discovered; to be revealed. |
| find out verb | To discover, as by asking or investigating. | |
| grow up verb | To mature and become an adult. | |
| look forward to verb | To anticipate, expect, or wait for, especially with a feeling of approval or pleasure; to be excited or eager to. | |
| push through verb | To force (legislation or a plan) to be passed or agreed to or a decision to be reached. |
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 | are caught · are required · be saved |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | hasn't faced · you've sat · haven't done |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | people who are · somebody who is |
| Possibility with “might / may” might/may + verb — something that is possible but not certain | might panic · might not make · might get |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 74 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, you're, don't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: athletic /æθˈlɛt.ɪk/, threaten /ˈθɹɛt.n̩/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: occupation /ˌɑkjʊˈpeɪʃən/, selfish /ˈsɛlf.ɪʃ/
- Long words — get the stress right: psychological /ˌsaɪ.kəˈlɑː.d͡ʒɪ.kl̩/, occupation /ˌɑkjʊˈpeɪʃən/, firefighter /ˈfaɪ.ɚˌfaɪ.tɚ/, firefighting /ˈfaɪ.əɹˌfaɪ.tɪŋ/
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 physically, gear, skill.
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.