Shadowing Practice: What to do when you don't understand someone in English - a British Council English podcast - Learn English Speaking with YouTube

What's your go-to strategy when you're in a place where you don't speak the language?

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What's your go-to strategy when you're in a place where you don't speak the language?

My strategy is kind of my strategy for life, which is just smile.

There's a way to be a foreigner in a country to ingratiate yourself.

What about what?

Nottails, that's rude.

You're listening to the British Council English Podcast,

brought to you by the world's English experts.

Perfect.

Hello, everyone.

Thank you so much for watching our English for Life podcast.

Today we're going to talk about techniques and methods

or different ways to say that you don't really understand something

and you're asking the person to repeat their sentence or their question.

I am here today with Mirage and Joe.

Thank you so much for joining us.

Thank you for having us.

All right, well, let's get into it.

Today we're going to talk about your own personal experiences.

and the first question is okay so what's your go-to strategy

when you're in a place where you don't speak the language

well my strategy is kind of my strategy for life especially

if i have any problems it is just smile a lot

and not try to be pleasant try to be helpful

and it depends on the situation

if you want to get something in a restaurant you can always point yeah you know If there's pictures, that's helpful.

Using translator, that's really helpful.

Okay, all right.

Or if you're trying to be nice to people and show that you're a nice person,

but you can't speak their language,

I try to do things for people.

So I'm looking for things that I can help them lift or looking for ways that I can...

Being really physical.

Yeah, but not in a slapstick way.

But just ways that I can be kind to people without words.

Yeah.

Okay, all right.

Yeah, I think you hit the nail on the head there, Joe.

It depends on the situation.

There isn't like, I would say for me personally, a single go-to strategy.

It really depends.

So if I'm, let's say,

in a longer conversation, or I'm thinking about my situation where I'm in Spain.

I mean, I do speak Spanish,

but there might be some concepts or things that I don't get.

So I just keep listening,

and maybe they clarify with a bit more information.

I wouldn't interrupt and say,

sorry, I don't understand at that moment.

I'll let them speak a bit more,

see what I can catch.

But I remember a time when I went to Japan and I was traveling there and I don't speak any Japanese,

just except for a few words I'd got out the guidebook and I did the same thing there.

And I was surprised by how much I could understand from railway announcements

or being in a bar and I got some of the stuff just by being patient and listening to a bit more.

really interesting even in japanese even in japanese

and i remember i had a meal with a with an elderly couple sat next to me in a bar

and they bought me a round of drinks

and i don't know how we sat with each other for over an hour eating

and drinking and i didn't speak japanese

that is amazing

so you basically don't need any techniques i don't know what

it is maybe is this i exude an energy of like

um you can just talk to me whatever language you want

and he'll kind of get it oh wow oh lovely lovely okay okay great

So can you share a time when you were in a foreign country and totally misunderstood something?

And what did you do to get out of that situation?

Should I go first?

Yeah.

Go for it.

Yeah.

Well, I've got a situation when I was in my 20s,

me and my friend, my first big traveling backpacking adventure,

we decided to travel through Europe.

And one of our stops was in Poland.

And we arrived on the train very early in the morning we hadn't slept well

because we were sleeping on the train with these big heavy backpacks

and we wanted to get to our hostel

and we had to get a tram from the train station to the hostel

and so we saw a tram just arriving at the station

so we jumped onto it

and then realized oh my god we haven't bought any tickets we couldn't find a ticket machine on the tram

or we couldn't find

and we couldn't we remember we didn't see a ticket machine outside at the tram stop

but we got on it anyway and we thought okay well we'll deal with this

when we get to the station or we might be lucky and not have to buy a ticket.

As luck would have it a ticket inspector got on at the very next stop.

I started asking everyone for their tickets and we started biting our fingernails

and he stopped when he got to us and started making a big scene.

Obviously we don't speak Polish and he made us get off the tram

and asked us for money and when we showed him that we didn't have money we had travelers checks,

all of this without speaking any Polish.

He got frustrated and asked for our passports

and only then did he realize our stories were true

that we were traveling and we kept explaining to him in english

that we were just traveling we'd come from the uk

after looking at our passports deliberating for several minutes i let them go okay all right um

but yeah we we basically had uh we did our best in english

and he didn't really understand but he kind of understood from the context

that we were traveling and all right did you try to use any gestures or facial expressions to communicate.

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Yes, yes, yes.

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Everything we were explaining was accompanied by gestures,

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things like, no money, no money,

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ticket, I'm so sorry, that kind of thing, you know.

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Okay.

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All right.

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Yes, yeah, I mean, we managed to get out of it.

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Yay.

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Yeah, lucky for you.

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Yes, what about you, Jo?

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Well, yeah, I think that happens often when traveling with,

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like, directions and things, especially for me,

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because I'm so bad at directions.

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Mm-hmm but i have another story

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that i was in egypt last year at one of the markets yeah

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and i'm so bad like i don't really understand how markets work

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because when i see something i'm like oh my god look

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and my husband is always like no you're supposed to pretend

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you don't want to exactly yeah yeah like how much is this oh it's 90 euros is it really

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and then you know i was tried to be cool

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and like no no no you know i'll i'll walk away

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and then of course they they follow you yeah they're like you

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but you're not leaving the shop without buying something you love

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that thing i don't know why you're leaving and

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so i was offered it a little gift yeah

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and i didn't realize you're not supposed to take the gift

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you're shaking your head yeah oh my god thank you

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so much

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but you know it's it's through i'm speaking english like your strategy too i don't know what they understand

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but still like just try to communicate in some way okay all right

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and i took the gift and then i tried to leave

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and then he's like what do you think you're doing leaving

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but he you know i didn't understand him

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but he put his body in the way of the exit so i was like oh okay clearly i'm not leaving

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until I buy something.

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But luckily I wasn't a woman on my own

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because I was there with my husband

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so they were able to leave without buying something

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and I don't really like that sort of sales tactic so I didn't buy anything.

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A hard sell.

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Yeah, I bought something somewhere else.

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So you were speaking in English when you went to Egypt.

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Yeah.

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And you were using facial expressions and body language.

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Yeah, a combination of facial expressions,

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body language, anguish, look on my face.

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Okay.

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Now let's just think about our viewers who are watching or listening to this podcast.

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And let's say that English is their second language.

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So, and let's say that someone right now,

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or they're talking to someone and they don't really understand what that person is saying to them.

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And they can't use English perfectly to,

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you know, to ask that question or to say,

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can you please repeat that question?

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So what are some expressions or what are some sentences that they can use?

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In English.

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In English, yeah.

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Yeah, I mean, asking the person to speak a bit more slowly.

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This is a technique that I used a lot when I was learning Spanish when I was recently arrived.

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And I got into the habit,

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because at first I felt really embarrassed about asking people to speak slowly.

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I thought, well, why should they speak slowly for me?

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But then I just got into the habit of asking,

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would you mind saying that?

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And I always prefaced it with,

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I'm sorry, I don't speak very good Spanish.

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Could you please speak slower? and then they kind of took pity on me

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and said okay well at least he said that in spanish

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so he's trying yeah

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and i think that's that's a key to to is it

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something i said to to our colleagues earlier saying there's a

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way to be a foreigner in the country to to ingratiate yourself with local people

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so if you say

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that you know you apologize for not being able to speak

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their language perfectly um you get a better result absolutely absolutely I forgot the question.

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It's okay.

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So expressions or?

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Oh, yeah.

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Yeah.

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What I learned as well,

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because I have also lived in different countries where I'm learning the language.

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And one of my top tips is not just to ask them to repeat,

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but to say from where,

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because if you don't say from where,

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people tend to repeat everything.

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And it's so nice of them,

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but it's sometimes like a waste of time.

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So if I say, I didn't understand the part after,

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or what did you say about X?

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So that they can repeat just the relevant part,

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the part that you didn't understand.

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And then it eases communication.

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It's not so, you know, stilted.

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It's not so hard on the person who's trying to speak to you

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or on you who's trying to speak in a different language

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and it also shows them that you are you're actively listening

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and you want to understand and you're making the effort

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and you just want you did not understand or didn't get that last part

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wonderful okay um next question ever mispronounced something in another language

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and it led to a funny situation now i'm gonna start off with my example i was in spain

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and i instead of saying uh buenas noches i said bonas nachos

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and you live in spain right and you guys and i think

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that

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that is did you get off a nice cold a glass

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of beer afterwards no i just i was just laughed at

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but that was okay

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and what about you guys okay i guess i guess nachos is just a word that's in your head yeah

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so just nachos and nachos yeah they sound

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so similar don't they yeah my story is kind of similar to

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that because i was in italy where i live now

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and i wanted to order pancakes with maple syrup

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and the word for syrup in italian is shiroppo

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but i'd never said that word before i only read it on menus

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and so instead a word that i was familiar with came out which was shopper which Italian speakers,

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if you're listening, will be laughing right now because siopro means strike,

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like to go on protest and not work.

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Okay.

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So I asked for the waiter,

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the worker at the restaurant,

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if I could have my pancakes with no work,

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basically telling him to go on strike.

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Like, pancakes con siopro.

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And he went, okay.

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And he's like, siopro, siroppo.

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And he left the restaurant.

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Yeah, he left the restaurant.

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I did not get my pancakes.

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No, no. I think they're similar enough that he understood.

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He was like, okay, this is a foreigner.

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Okay, I'm not going to make her feel bad.

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So I did get my pancakes.

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It's funny, your story was about work because my experience of messing up a word or mangling the language was,

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again, it was Spanish.

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And it was quite early on and I was translating a lot of English directly into Spanish.

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I think what a lot of people do is very natural when you're learning a language to translate word for word.

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And so where I was living,

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the building, the lift had broken

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and I was waiting around at the bottom of the lift and the neighbor passed me and said, what's up?

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I said, because in English,

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when we say something's not working,

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we use the word work,

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whereas in Spanish, they don't use the word work,

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they use function, something doesn't function.

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And so I literally translated, this doesn't work.

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And he said, yes, because it's a Sunday today,

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making a joke, you know,

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and I just didn't get it at the time.

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I thought, why is he making jokes with me about this?

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The lift doesn't work.

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I'm going to have to climb up six floors.

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Then later it dawned on me,

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some languages just use a completely different word.

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yeah okay well um we're going to also we're going to do like a mini game right now okay

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so i'm gonna ask you a couple of questions

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or say a couple of expressions actually and you need to decide

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if it's a rude way to ask someone to say something again

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or if it's chill and acceptable okay so for example let's start with

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and this is you can play with us

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and you can comment um all right so what about could you say

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that again please very polite acceptable acceptable in practically every situation

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yeah very polite yeah what about huh huh not chill yeah yeah you definitely don't want to say

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that to people who you don't know it's a bit it's

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a bit rude could be it could even be a bit aggressive

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absolutely yeah yeah yeah okay what about say that again

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i think it depends again on how well you know a person maybe

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but yeah i probably wouldn't say that to many people

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but then why because the words say

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that again you're asking someone to repeat something okay yeah it's too direct

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and it's like a command right

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and in english we generally don't tend to use commands especially

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with people we don't know we tend to use indirect questions

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or just like uh you know could you say that again please would be more likely okay what about pardon

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um that's that's something you hear all the time especially in

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british english pardon um a little bit old-fashioned i don't use it myself

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but i was gonna say i don't use it but i I thought that's because I'm Irish.

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Irish.

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Yeah, I think it's old-fashioned.

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I think it's not as common as it once used to be.

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Yeah, it's true.

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I certainly don't use it.

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When I want somebody to repeat, I'd say sorry.

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Sorry.

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Standard thing, but it's acceptable and it's very polite, yeah.

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Okay, okay.

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We have two more.

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What about what?

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Nuttails.

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That's rude.

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Yeah.

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I'm always teaching my students about not saying what

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because they translate directly for Spanish where the word is acceptable to get somebody to repeat

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or como and then they think it's what

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and I have to keep telling you'd only say that

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if you're very close to the person you know them very well you know family member

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or a close friend you say what what did you say it's short for what did you say what

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but with somebody you don't know

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or maybe somebody who you should give some respect to like a teacher

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or a boss you wouldn't use the word what isn't this really interesting though

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because we know these rules these you can't find these rules

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in a certain book maybe you can find them online of course you can find them online

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but it's the fact that we know that it's impolite to say what

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or how cultural information exactly exactly these rules unwritten rules of cultural communication yeah

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because if you're learning a language and let's say

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that again then you know you should be able to say it

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and have the person repeat themselves but it's not really polite

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so why do people get it into their minds that it's acceptable to say what

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because it we often hear learners saying what inappropriately right i

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don't know in your experience also yeah it's the same with italian they say cosa

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but it's just like what as well

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so they would automatically say what do you think they're translating

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or maybe they've seen it or heard it in some other place in English and they're using that experience?

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I think they're using something that's more similar to their first language.

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But also, I think, I don't know,

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I may be wrong, but I feel like you see it in films.

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Maybe it's a more American thing.

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Maybe social media as well has an impact.

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They're seeing the usage of what on TikTok and media where the kind of style of talking is very personal.

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Yeah.

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one more sorry I missed that can you repeat it

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very good nice it's very elegant yeah it's that one

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do you have any other expressions that our viewers and listeners can use

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so we did can you say that again please yeah sorry I missed it anything else what about

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excuse me could you repeat that

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do you like that one you could say that

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but i don't know how often i would actually say

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that could you repeat that the whole phrase i'd say

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so it's not really natural

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or very natural to say it's quite formal yeah um would you mind saying

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that again again it's it's a bit more formal

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but um i have used it in the past uh would you mind saying that again maybe maybe over the telephone

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maybe what was that last bit again yeah that

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that is really nice yes exactly and there's also uh another technique

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that we were talking about in your house uh off camera

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yeah yeah uh where you recap what you've understood yeah okay

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so um yeah you interject at the correct moment

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if somebody's telling you a long story and you want to check

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that you've understood before they go on a bit more and

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so you just say so if I understood correctly

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and then you tell them the main details a bit of

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summary of what they've said just to get confirmation from them

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that you've understood the key details I use that a lot when I'm following a long story in in Spanish

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and it's also a great way to show

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that you're listening actively again participating in the conversation all right well thank you guys

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so much thank you Niraj thank you Joe for being a

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part of today's podcast thank you um thank you our viewers uh for tuning in

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and for watching this uh podcast if you're watching it on youtube

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or if you're listening on spotify make sure to like this video subscribe

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and we have lots of uh new content coming out every week

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or so

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so um make sure you subscribe to watch all of it

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bye bye bye thanks for listening we really care about your english

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so if you like this episode make sure you subscribe because we've got lots more great content for you to explore

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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.

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Shadowing Practice: What to do when you don't understand someone in English - a British Council English podcast - Learn English Speaking with YouTube

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Why practice speaking with this video?

Grammar & Expressions in Context

Common Pronunciation Traps

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing Practice: What to do when you don't understand someone in English - a British Council English podcast - Learn English Speaking with YouTube

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Why practice speaking with this video?

Grammar & Expressions in Context

Common Pronunciation Traps

What is the Shadowing Technique?