Shadowing Practice: What's REALLY Your English Level? (Not What You Think) - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Everybody's chasing the C2 level but nobody even knows what it means.

What does it mean?

Let's talk about why these levels A1 to C2 don't matter and what is really your level and what really matters.

I'm in the kitchen, I'm cooking and this is about to get spicy so buckle up we're going for a ride.

My original idea for this video was to make a "what is your English level" video.

Even though I've

those kinds of videos I don't like this level system I don't like it I was always skeptical about it

but these videos are really popular on YouTube

so I said okay well maybe I'll make one of these videos

and just say you know don't take it

so seriously take it with a grain of salt

but this is your level according to the system if you're interested so I asked chatgbt to give me Well,

I said just do B1 to C2 because if you're A1 to A2, you can't even understand my videos in English.

So this isn't even for you.

But anyway, so I looked at what ChatGPT gave me for a test.

The questions were, in my opinion, horrible.

They were multiple choice questions.

So you have the question and then four possible answers.

Well, that's too easy because when one of them is the the answer than to have to think of it yourself.

So if somebody gives you a language test that's multiple choice, you know it's not a good test.

So I was looking through the questions and I was just getting frustrated

because of how either too easy or too difficult the questions were.

And by too difficult, I mean like ridiculous stuff that even native speakers don't know or use or say,

in written English, but not spoken English, or even some questions that used more like British English.

And I only teach United States English here.

So, so I just got frustrated with this test and I said, you know what?

I don't like these questions.

I don't like this test.

I think this is ridiculous.

I'm not going to do it.

I'm not going to make a video like this.

So then I asked Chachupiti if there is an official test made by the same people who made up these levels,

these A1 Do these people have an official test?

And the answer is no, they don't.

So these people have the audacity to make this A1 to C2 system, and they don't even have a test.

They just have guidelines, and the guidelines are super vague, super general.

So everybody, all the teachers, they're just guessing.

They're just estimating how to measure these levels, how to evaluate It's all made up.

Everybody has a different interpretation of it.

And I think this goes without saying, but these tests don't really determine your true ability in English.

This is an extreme oversimplification of your English ability.

So then I asked Chachapiti to help me better understand these levels.

Give me sentences that students at each level should be able to use.

completely shocked me.

So ChatGPT gave me example sentences from A1 to C2 because I really wanted to see what are the differences here?

What are these levels representing?

What is the knowledge?

What is the skill level behind these levels?

So starting out with A1,

beginner, these are the absolute name.

I like pizza.

Where is the bathroom?

I have two brothers.

This is my friend.

So you can see it's all the same verb tense.

It's all just simple present tense.

Your simple basic vocabulary.

Then we have a two, which is considered elementary.

The sentences are, I usually get up at seven o 'clock.

You don't need to say seven o 'clock.

You can just say seven, by the way.

Can you help me find the I went to the store yesterday.

Okay, so we're using the past tense now.

She doesn't like coffee.

I want to buy a new phone.

The weather is nice today, isn't it?

I'm learning English because I want to travel.

So you can see even in A2, the sentences are extremely basic.

And it's funny because you would be shocked at the amount of comments

that I receive on my YouTube videos of people saying that they are a beginner.

And these are people who write a paragraph in English in the comment section and tell me that they're a beginner.

And every time I have to tell them, you are not a beginner.

Why do you think you're a beginner?

A beginner is learning how to say, I want to buy a new phone.

She doesn't like coffee.

Just because you sometimes make mistakes on things

that you're supposed to learn at the beginner level doesn't mean you're a beginner, okay?

You don't have to You just have to be generally competent at the beginner level.

If you understand my videos talking in English, how I talk, how I normally talk like this, you're not a beginner.

I don't care what the tests say.

Next time I see one of your comments like, I'm a beginner, I'm just going to reply, I want to buy a new phone.

She doesn't like coffee.

Okay, moving on to B1, intermediate.

Last summer, I traveled to Mexico and loved it.

Okay, so we're getting into a little bit more complex sentences now.

A little bit more.

I think studying English is important for my career.

Could you explain how to use this app?

I'm worried about the test tomorrow.

In my opinion, social media has both good and bad effects.

I usually go to the gym three times a week.

When I was a child, I played football every weekend.

So these sentences might seem simple and basic, but native speakers use these kind of sentences all the time, right?

Like these are normal sentences that are totally normal, totally fine.

Then we have B2, upper intermediate.

Although it was raining, we decided to go hiking.

Okay, it's getting a little bit more complex.

The film was interesting, but I found the ending disappointing.

If I had more time, I would learn to play the guitar.

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she explained the problem clearly so everyone understood okay

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so here's the thing if you speak at

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that level you can call yourself fluent i don't care i

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don't care what a test is i don't care what anybody says you can call yourself fluent

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if you speak at a b2 level not if you understand only

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but if you speak

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if you can speak at a b2 level you can call

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yourself fluent in english according to me okay obviously the way that i said the sentences because i was reading

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it would sound more natural.

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But the point is, is that those are sentences that we use every day, all the time.

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Like this is how native speakers talk.

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This is normal English, you know, add some slang, add some idioms, add some connected speech and,

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you know, fast talking and add the United States accent.

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Boom.

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That's how we talk.

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That's everyday English.

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That's all you need.

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That's all starts to get crazy.

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So now we're looking at C1 sentences.

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This is what Chachivici told me is C1, advanced.

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Despite the challenges, the team managed to complete the project on schedule.

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His speech was compelling, highlighting the urgency of environmental conservation.

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The novel explores complex themes such as identity and belonging.

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The proposal, while ambitious, lacks sufficient data to support its claims.

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Okay, the reason why I'm saying that this is crazy is because we don't talk like this.

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Native speakers do not talk like this.

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This is written English.

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You got to understand that when we write English in a professional or academic context, we write like this.

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If we're good writers, right?

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Some people are horrible at writing.

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A lot of people actually.

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For native speakers who have a general basic grasp of professional English writing or academic English writing, this is how we write.

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If we sit down and think about it and really try to

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make really nice English sentences and organize our thoughts in a very professional way, this is how we write, this is how we can write,

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but this is not how we speak.

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This is not, I don't care who you are, most people are not talking like this.

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Even in professional situations, even in formal situations, even in a job interview, if you talk like this, you sound like a robot,

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you don't sound like a real person, you sound like you memorized a script, But if native speakers heard or read these sentences,

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we would have no problem understanding.

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And a lot of us, not all of us, but some of us could even write these sentences, but almost nobody actually talks like this.

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So this is where it's very important to understand the huge difference between input comprehension ability,

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also known as listening or reading, and speaking.

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category.

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Let's look at C2.

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Having thoroughly analyzed the report, I must concur with the conclusions drawn.

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I must concur.

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What are you, a British king from the 1600s?

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I don't think I've ever heard anybody say that in real life in my entire life.

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I don't even think people write like this.

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This is ridiculous.

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Okay, the next one.

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The intricacies of the legal system often baffle even seasoned professionals.

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To delineate the nuances between the two theories requires extensive knowledge and critical thinking.

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To delineate the nuances, I don't even know what that means.

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And I have no shame about that because it's not necessary to know that.

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And that's the thing is that the reality is for most people learning a second or third language,

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they just need to be able to communicate with people well enough to possibly live in

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that country where they speak that language, have a job in that country, stuff like that.

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don't need to be able to write academically in that language.

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So after looking at these example sentences, I've come to the conclusion that C1 and C2 level,

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according to these guidelines, according to these people, or at least according to ChatGPT,

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I don't know, these levels are totally irrelevant to your speaking ability.

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are really trying to write academically, professionally, extensively, or you want to be able to read,

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you know, this kind of advanced English writing.

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Because you're almost never going to hear people actually talking like this, and you're not really going to have a need to talk like this yourself.

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So if you just want to have a good, standard, everyday English speaking and listening ability, you only really need up to B2.

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Really, instead of these sentences, my version of C1, C2 would be all of the idioms

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and slang and crazy amount of phrasal verbs and all the connected speech, you know, all of the hardest things about English.

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That's the C1, C2 level, not the having thoroughly analyzed the report, I must concur with the conclusions drawn.

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That's not what's hard in 2025.

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What's hard in 2025 is being able to understand those movies and TV shows that you want to watch on Netflix.

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Okay, that's C1, C2, baby.

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And I'm going to I also just want to reiterate, I want to emphasize the importance of understanding that speaking and listening levels are different,

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even for native speakers.

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We understand so much more that we hear or read than we are able to speak ourselves.

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Listening is easy compared to speaking.

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You should never expect your speaking ability to be equal to your listening ability.

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That's not how the human brain and language works.

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Okay, real quick, I just want to talk about my Spanish because I consider myself advanced or fluent in Spanish.

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Now, that doesn't mean that I don't make mistakes.

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That doesn't mean that I'm not often asking, how do you say this?

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What is this?

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How do I express this?

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What's the most common way of saying this?

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That's what I'm doing all the time.

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But I feel confident with my Spanish.

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I feel like I can have these fluid conversations.

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I can flow.

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good, I think in the language, I express most of what I want to express, I can find a way of expressing it even if I don't know the exact way, I feel good.

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And at the end of the day, that's what it's about.

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It's about how you feel and how easily you're able to communicate with people about a lot of different topics.

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So in order to understand this A1, the C2 level thing, I looked for one of those videos that's supposed to tell you what your level in Spanish is.

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So I found a video made by a very popular Spanish teaching channel on YouTube.

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I clicked on it.

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I skipped ahead to the C2 part because I'm not interested in all the other stuff.

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I just wanted to know what is the C2 level in Spanish according to this teacher.

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And when she was starting, she said, okay, now it's going to get hard.

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You might not understand.

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It's going to get challenging.

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This is the C2 level.

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And I said, all right, show me what you got.

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I'm ready.

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And it was painfully easy.

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First of all, it was very and robotic.

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She was like reading a script, but yeah, it was just way too slow.

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Native speakers don't talk like that.

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They talk so much faster.

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The second problem was that she was just talking about what she does in a day.

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It was just a daily routine.

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And there were some advanced words thrown in there that maybe not all students know,

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but most of the words were just general Spanish words,

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everyday Spanish words, the majority of it with just like a few extra advanced words thrown there.

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But she was just talking about her daily routine.

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So it's very easy.

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And I was like, is this for real?

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Is she serious?

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Is this really the C2 level in Spanish?

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This is not, this is a joke.

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Or maybe I just have a C2 level, but I don't think so because I don't think I would be able to write professionally or academically in Spanish.

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As a matter of fact, I know that I can't.

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I know I can't do that.

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That's hard.

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I could probably read and understand a lot of it, but I don't think I So that's why I don't think of myself as C2.

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I've never really had like a challenging job in Spanish.

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You know, I just made YouTube videos in Spanish, but you know, that's not that hard.

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So I'm not really sure if I'm C2.

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I don't know if I can really say that, but you know what?

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I don't care.

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Well, I passed the test on that video on YouTube, but I'm not concerned with it because at the end of the day,

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I am happy with my ability to use Spanish in real life, real life situations.

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conclusion to summarize, to wrap it up, I just wanted to say, I just want to make video come on here and rant

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and rave and say that nobody even knows what these levels mean.

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Everybody has a different idea.

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At the end of the day, they don't matter.

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Native speakers don't even talk like a C1, C2 level.

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That's not realistic.

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Yes, we understand it generally, but we don't talk like that.

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Thank I hope you got something out of this video.

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Okay, enough talking, end the video.

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Bye.

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Oh, sorry.

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Bye -bye.

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Bye -bye.

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About This Lesson

In this lesson, we dive into a discussion about English proficiency levels, from A1 to C2, and why these classifications may not accurately represent your true language abilities. As you engage with this content, you will practice listening comprehension and pronunciation through a shadowing technique. Shadowing involves closely mimicking a native speaker’s speech patterns, intonation, and rhythm. This method is invaluable for enhancing your speaking skills and fluency, especially in contexts like IELTS speaking practice, where clear and confident communication is paramount.

Key Vocabulary & Phrases

Proficiency Levels: The classification of language skills, ranging from beginner (A1) to proficient (C2).
Shadowing Technique: A practice method where learners repeat what they hear to improve speaking and listening skills.
Multiple Choice: A common test format that can oversimplify language abilities.
Guidelines: General principles of language proficiency, which can vary in interpretation.
Native Speaker: A person who speaks a language as their first language.
Frustration: A feeling of annoyance due to inability to achieve something.
Comprehension: The ability to understand spoken or written language.
Interpretation: How information or tests are understood and utilized by learners and educators.

Practice Tips

To maximize your learning experience, try the following practice tips while using the shadow speak technique with this video:

Focus on Tone and Emotion: Pay attention to the speaker's tone, especially when expressing frustration or enthusiasm. Emulate these emotions in your own speech to add depth to your pronunciation.
Start Slow: If the video is fast-paced, slow it down. This will give you more time to consciously follow along with the shadowing technique without feeling rushed. Aim for clear, accurate repetition.
Record Yourself: After practicing shadowing, record your voice. Compare it with the original audio to identify areas of improvement such as pronunciation and rhythm. This is crucial for effective IELTS speaking practice.
Practice Regularly: Make shadowing a part of your daily routine. Consistency is vital in achieving fluency and boosting your confidence in speaking English.
Be Patient: Improvements in speaking may take time, especially with complex phrases. Allow yourself the space to grow without self-judgment.

By engaging actively with these practices, you will enhance your ability to communicate fluently and confidently, transforming your approach to English learning through effective shadow speech techniques.

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	I've ever heard · I've come · I've never really had
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	is considered · would be shocked · is written
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	people who made · two, which is · people who write

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 →

Shadowing Practice: What's REALLY Your English Level? (Not What You Think) - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Key Vocabulary & Phrases

Practice Tips

Grammar in this video

What is the Shadowing Technique?