Shadowing Practice: Xưởng độ Band 1 - Learn English Speaking with Video
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How often do you travel?
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These days I usually travel maybe once or twice a year at most.
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Ever since I started working, I've had far less free time than I used to.
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So traveling has sort of become a luxury, something that I have to plan, you know, way in advance.
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That being said, I, you know, I do try to make the most of my summer break
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and I try to fit in at least one proper trip, if possible.
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And what kind of places do you like to travel to?
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I'd say beach destinations are definitely my favorite.
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There's something really relaxing about being near the ocean and just spending time in the water.
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I also enjoy swimming.
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So, you know, a beach vacation offers that rare opportunity to actually swim in the ocean, which is something that I genuinely enjoy.
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What kind of things do you usually spend the most money on when you travel?
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I'm a big foodie, so most of my money definitely goes towards food when I'm traveling.
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I love exploring the local cuisine
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because I feel like food is sort of the perfect medium through
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which you can learn about the local culture in a very authentic kind of way.
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Sometimes I do feel like you can learn more from eating where the locals eat than visiting tourist attractions.
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And who do you like to travel with?
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I generally prefer traveling with my friends rather than my family.
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I think it's mainly because we kind of have the same interests, the same lifestyles, and by extension, the same travel styles.
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And it's just a lot easier to enjoy a trip together.
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You know, we like actually being out and about and exploring and doing stuff.
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My parents, on the other hand, they prefer a much slower, more relaxing type of holiday.
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You know, they'd rather stay at a resort, spend most of their time just resting or being pampered at the spa.
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And that's not quite my travel tempo, so to speak.
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Describe someone you know who made a good decision lately.
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So the person I'd like to talk about today is my best friend Phuc, and I think he made a really smart decision lately.
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A little bit of background about him.
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He majored in computer science at one of the leading universities in Vietnam, and he's always been someone who's extremely good at technology and logical reasoning.
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He's the sort of person who enjoys solving complex problems, and he can come up with like really creative solutions incredibly quickly.
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And after graduating, he was working as an AI engineer.
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And, you know, he already had a pretty steady gig.
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Like he made a pretty decent living.
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However, not long ago, he was offered an opportunity to move to Singapore to get involved with a research project,
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something that has to do with like medical applications of AI.
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As far as I know, it's like a collaboration between some of the most prestigious universities there, although I'm not really familiar with the technical details myself.
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What impressed me the most about this decision was the fact that he already had a stable life in Vietnam.
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So accepting this job opportunity meant stepping out of his comfort zone and starting over in a completely new environment.
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And moving abroad is never an easy decision
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because it involves a great deal of uncertainty and there's cultural adjustment and work pressure.
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And Singapore has a notoriously stressful work culture, right?
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I think it was absolutely the right call for him to transition to Singapore
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because it opens up opportunities that would otherwise be really difficult to find at home.
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He would get to work alongside leading researchers, the top minds in the industry, gain international exposure, international experience,
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and overall just develop tremendously, both professionally and personally.
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And I also think that being abroad really broadens your perspective and fundamentally changes the way that you see the world.
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So yeah, I have no doubt that, you know, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity.
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And this decision is going to have a huge positive impact on his future.
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At what age do you think parents should let their children make their own decisions?
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I think around the age of 18,
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17, 18 is a reasonable point to start giving your children more decision-making freedom.
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I think at that age, people have developed enough maturity and basic life experience and life skills to start making choices independently.
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For example, I think they can start to decide the kind of field they want to go into, the kind of career they would like to have,
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the kind of relationships they want to build, and generally just the kind of people they want to associate with, although I know a lot of Asian parents are going to
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find the prospect of ceding this much autonomy to your children to be quite horrifying.
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And in all fairness, I do believe that parents should not step out of their children's lives entirely.
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I think support is still paramount, counsel is important, but the final decision should increasingly belong to the child.
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What are some important decisions that a person has to make in their life?
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I think choosing a career and choosing a life partner are probably the most influential decisions
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that a person will have to make over the course of their lifetime.
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career choices matter obviously because you spend a large portion of your life working
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and ideally you should do something that aligns with your interests your abilities
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and perhaps your worldviews I also think
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that you have a better chance of succeeding if you do something
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that you are passionate about that you genuinely find fulfilling
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and then you know choosing a life partner is equally important for obvious reasons.
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The person that you're going to spend your life with is going to have a huge influence on your emotional well-being.
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They very much are going to determine the kind of lifestyle you're going to have, and perhaps they're going to affect your long-term goals as well.
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So yeah, in many ways, I think these two decisions very much shape the direction of someone's entire life.
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What do people often do when they realize that they've made the wrong decision?
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I think people react differently depending on their personality.
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A lot of people choose to wallow in regret and blame themselves for a long time, especially when they're inexperienced and young.
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But I think a healthier approach would be to treat their blunders as a learning curve.
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Instead of dwelling too much on what went wrong, maybe you should try to figure out what you could do differently next time.
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And hopefully you're going to make smarter decisions in the future.
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Do people in your country try to interfere when they see someone making a bad decision?
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I think it depends a lot on the relationship, the dynamic between the people involved.
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I think if the person is a close friend or a family member,
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generally Vietnamese people would be more than willing to step in and offer advice.
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And it can seem a bit intrusive at times, but it's only because they genuinely care about your well-being
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and they don't want you to have to live with the consequences of your choices.
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But when it comes to strangers, I'm not so sure.
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I think they are a little bit more hesitant to interfere.
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Maybe I'm a bit of a cynic, but I feel like people today are very competitive.
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And in general, they don't want you to do well.
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And so when they see that you're about to make a grave mistake
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that is going to cost you a lot of money or that's going to cost you a promotion, I do feel like people are going to turn a blind eye
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And they're going to let you just walk right into your downfall So it's a bit sad,
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but true Thank you very much It's been a very simple job I'm both a teacher,
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I'm the best one And I'm the best one Okay, thank you very much Thank you for watching the video of
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Sở Nộ Ben It's the last video of Season 1
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And I want to thank you for all the fans who have supported all the 10-10 games in the season.
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We will be back with the fun and fun of the next step.
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And with the new and new ways of the future.
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I hope you will continue to support and support the series of the season 2, 3 and season 2.
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And now, I'll see you again.
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Thank you.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “Xưởng độ Band 1”. This video has 97 sentences and 1449 words to shadow. The speech runs for 9:09. The speaker talks at a natural 158 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 84% 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
The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| genuinely adverb | /ˈd͡ʒɛn.ju.ɪn.li/ | In a genuine manner; truthfully, truly. |
| interfere verb | /ˌɪn.tɚˈfɪɚ/ | To get involved or involve oneself, causing disturbance. |
| depend verb | /dɪˈpɛnd/ | To be contingent or conditioned; to have something as a necessary condition |
| blunder noun | /ˈblʌn.dɚ/ | A clumsy or embarrassing mistake. |
| broaden verb | [ˈbɹɔː.dn̩] | To make broad or broader. |
| foodie noun | /ˈfuːdi/ | A person with a special interest in or knowledge of food, a gourmet. |
| hesitant adjective | /ˈhɛzɪtənt/ | Tending to hesitate, wait, or proceed with caution or reservation. |
| horrify verb | /ˈhɒɹɪfaɪ/ | To cause to feel extreme apprehension or unease; to cause to experience horror. |
| intrusive adjective | /ɪnˈtɹuːsɪv/ | Tending to intrude; doing that which is not welcome; interrupting or disturbing; entering without permission or welcome. |
| notoriously adverb | /nə(ʊ)ˈtɔː.ɹɪ.əs.li/ | In a notorious or notable manner; as is commonly known. |
| pamper verb | /ˈpæm.pɚ/ | To treat with excessive care, attention or indulgence. |
| tremendously adverb | Greatly; enormously | |
| wallow verb | /ˈwɒ.ləʊ/ | To roll oneself about in something dirty, for example in mud. |
| worldview noun | An individual's, ingroup's or society's view of the world and how it is to be interpreted. | |
| inexperienced adjective | /ɪnəkˈspɪəɹi.ənst/ | Not experienced; lacking knowledge because lacking experience. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| come up with verb | To manage to produce, deliver, or present (something) by inventing, creating, thinking of, or obtaining it. |
| figure out verb | To come to understand; to discover or find a solution; to deduce. |
| make over verb | To renovate or to convert to a different use, particularly houses, offices, or rooms within them. |
| open up verb | To open. |
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 | have developed · they've made · have supported |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | being said · being pampered · was offered |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | ocean, which is · person who enjoys |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 23 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, you're, they're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: passionate /ˈpæʃənɪt/, influential /ɪnflʊˈɛnʃəl/, attraction /əˈtɹækʃn̩/
- Long words — get the stress right: genuinely /ˈd͡ʒɛn.ju.ɪn.li/, notoriously /nə(ʊ)ˈtɔː.ɹɪ.əs.li/, inexperienced /ɪnəkˈspɪəɹi.ənst/, ideally /aɪˈdi.ə.li/, autonomy /ɔˈtɑ.nə.mi/
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 genuinely, interfere, depend.
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.