Shadowing Practice: You're Learning English Wrong (Do This Instead) - Learn English Speaking with YouTube
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If you want to improve your English speaking but you don't know where to start, then you clicked on the right video.
286 sentences
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If you want to improve your English speaking but you don't know where to start, then you clicked on the right video.
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Today, you will quickly improve your listening, speaking, and vocabulary skills.
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All you need to do is follow along and watch till the end for best results.
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Click the like button and let's jump in.
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Here we are at level one.
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We're going to start with a short, easy sentence.
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Just say it with me or pause the video and repeat it back.
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Let's start slow.
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Are you ready?
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I completely spaced on her name.
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One more time.
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I completely spaced on her name.
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Once more, a little faster.
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I completely spaced on her name.
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All right, great.
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Let's look at this expression, spaced on.
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What does that mean if you space on something?
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That means you can't remember it, right?
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You are drawing a blank, in other words.
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At one point you knew, but right now you can't seem to remember.
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You're spacing on it, spacing on it.
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I'll give you guys a real life example.
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One time I went on vacation for three weeks.
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It was a pretty long vacation, right?
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Well, when I got home, I got to my apartment building.
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I got in the elevator and I completely spaced on what floor I lived on.
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At the time, I couldn't remember, right?
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Okay, let's go ahead and level up to level two.
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Here we are, level two.
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As you can see, I've stretched out the sentence.
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I've made it longer, right?
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Well, let's start with a slow read.
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Here we go.
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I completely spaced on her name, even though we had just met yesterday.
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Oh, OK.
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So this person, right, they had just learned this name yesterday.
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It should have been fresh on the mind.
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It should have been fresh on the brain, right?
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It should have come to them like that.
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They should have remembered right away.
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But unfortunately, they spaced on her name.
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Yikes.
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That's awkward, right?
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I don't know about you guys, but I can relate to this.
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I'm very, very bad with names.
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Always spacing on names.
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Let's say level two again at a quicker speed, and then we will keep leveling up and stretching this sentence longer.
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Here we go.
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I completely spaced on her name even though we had just met yesterday.
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All right, slow speed, here we go.
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I completely spaced on her name even though we had just met yesterday and she was standing right in front of me.
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A very awkward situation.
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A very awkward or we could say cringe.
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cringe situation.
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Yeah, he had just met her yesterday, right?
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He had just learned her name.
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He should have remembered.
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Plus, she was standing right in front of him, right?
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But unfortunately, he forgot her name.
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He spaced on her name.
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Super awkward, super cringe.
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Let's say it again.
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Quick speed.
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Here we go.
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I completely spaced on her name, even though we had just met yesterday, and she was standing right in front of me.
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Flying along, level four.
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Here we go, slow speed.
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I completely spaced on her name even though we had just met yesterday and she was standing right in front of me,
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which made things super awkward.
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Okay, one more time, quick speed.
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I completely spaced on her name even though we had just met yesterday and she was standing right in front of me, which made things super awkward.
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Things are tense.
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They're awkward.
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They're cringe.
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Let's go to level five and see how our main character can get out of this uncomfortable situation.
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Say with me, here we go.
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I completely spaced on her name, even though we had just met yesterday, and she was standing right in front of me,
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which made things super awkward because I had to introduce her to my boss.
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Oh, no. This is a real nightmare scenario.
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This is the kind of situation that's like my worst nightmare.
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Being in a position, being in a scenario,
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being in a situation where it's revealed that you forgot someone's name,
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someone's name that you should remember.
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You've totally spaced on their name, right?
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Now, our main character, this person, has to introduce her to his boss, the person above him at work.
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Yikes.
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Yikes.
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Uh-oh.
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Let's read this again at a quick speed, and then we'll keep on leveling up.
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You guys are doing great.
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Keep working that speaking muscle.
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Here we go.
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I completely spaced on her name, even though we had just met yesterday, and she was standing right in front of me,
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which made things super awkward because I had to introduce her to my boss.
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Take a look at level six here, guys.
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This is getting to be quite the mouthful, right?
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Our sentence is getting really long, but this is fantastic practice.
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It's like a workout for your speaking skills, okay?
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Let's dive in.
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let's kick it up let's turn up the speed to a
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medium here we go I completely spaced on her name even though we had just met yesterday
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and she was standing right in front of me
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which made things super awkward because I had to introduce her to my boss
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so I just mumbled and pointed this made me crack up a little bit.
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Crack up made me laugh.
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This person, they just mumble and they point.
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We know what point is.
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He kind of gestures at her.
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Hey, here's this person I want you to meet.
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Hey, here's this person I'm trying to introduce you to.
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But what is mumble?
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Maybe we could say, speak under your breath, right?
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You talk under your breath.
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You talk in a quiet, kind of sloppy way where no one can hear you clearly.
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Maybe people are straining.
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They're straining to hear what you said.
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Maybe they say, huh, what did you say?
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You're mumbling.
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You're mumbling.
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I didn't quite catch that.
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That means I didn't quite hear you, right?
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Okay.
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This main character of ours, this person, they are really digging a hole deeper and deeper here.
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Let's see how they get out of it.
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First, let's read the sentence again at a quick native speed.
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Here we go.
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Ready?
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I completely spaced on her name, even though we had just met yesterday and she was standing right in front of me,
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which made things super awkward because I had to introduce her to my boss.
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So I just mumbled and pointed.
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And look at the blue text here.
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And my boss shot me this weird look.
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Huh.
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What does it mean if you shoot someone a look?
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It's usually a negative thing, right?
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A bad emotion.
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Like you shoot someone an angry look.
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You shoot someone an accusing look.
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In this case, It's a weird look.
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Maybe we could say the boss glanced at this person.
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The boss looked at them quickly, and the boss clearly does not approve.
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The boss is not happy, right?
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Okay, let's read this whole thing.
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Level seven, quick speed, and then we will level up.
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Ooh, this is getting challenging.
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Don't give up, guys.
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Keep going.
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Push.
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Here we go.
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I completely spaced on her name.
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Even though we had just met yesterday, and she was standing right in front of me, which made things super awkward, because I had to introduce her to my boss,
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so I just mumbled and pointed, and my boss shot me this weird look.
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Let's read the blue together first.
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Here we go.
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I could tell I'd totally fumbled it.
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I had totally fumbled it.
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What does that mean?
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If you fumble something, That means you had some responsibility, right?
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People had trusted you to do something and you couldn't do it.
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You made a mistake.
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Maybe we could also say slipped up.
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You slipped up, right?
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You made a mistake and you didn't do what you were supposed to do, what you were trusted to do, right?
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You fumbled it.
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You slipped up.
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You made a mistake.
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All right, here we go, guys.
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Quick, speed, ready?
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I completely spaced on her name, even though we had just met yesterday, and she was standing right in front of me,
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which made things super awkward because I had to introduce her to my boss, so I just mumbled and pointed,
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and my boss shot me this weird look.
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I could tell I totally fumbled it.
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Okay, blue text, read with me, But then she just laughed it off and said her name herself.
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Thank goodness our main character got out of this sticky situation or tricky situation.
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They were in a tough spot, an awkward spot, an awkward position.
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Their boss shot them a weird look.
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They thought maybe they were going to get in trouble, right?
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But then this person, he's trying to remember her name.
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He can't remember it.
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What does she do?
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She just laughed it off.
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In other words, that's her way of saying no big deal.
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Yeah, if you laugh something off, that's your way of saying, hey, hey, don't worry.
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I'm not actually upset about this.
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I'm not actually bothered by this.
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maybe you did something to sort of offend me
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but I'm just gonna brush it off I'm gonna laugh it
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off don't worry it's no big deal don't worry about it
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all right guys let's read this monster sentence before leveling up to level 10
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and before we do that
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if you have not clicked like on this video yet make sure you do
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that right now maybe even leave me a comment letting me know where in the world you are watching from.
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Here we go.
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I completely spaced on her name, even though we had just met yesterday, and she was standing right in front of me,
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which made things super awkward because I had to introduce her to my boss.
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So I just mumbled and pointed, and my boss shot me this weird look.
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I could tell I totally fumbled it.
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But then she just laughed it off
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and said her name herself here we go guys level 10
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the final boss of today's video let's start with the blue text ready saving me from my own brain fart
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and becoming the chillest person i know oh i love today's
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super sentence you guys there is some really spoken natural native language here okay so this person,
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she said her name herself, and she kind of saved him, right?
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Saved him from what?
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Saved him from his own brain fart, right?
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Remember when he spaced on something?
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We could also call that a brain fart.
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Now, don't use this language at work.
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It's a little bit inappropriate, right?
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But if you have a brain fart, then you forget something you usually know, right?
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What if I forgot my mom's birthday, right?
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Normally, I know that.
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That's something I know very well.
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But maybe suddenly, in the heat of the moment, in the heat of the moment, the pressure is on me.
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Maybe I freeze up and I have a brain fart.
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It slips my mind, we could also say.
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Slips my mind or it slips your mind.
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Okay, so this girl saved him from his own brain fart, right?
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Right in front of his boss this happened and in doing so, because she did that, because she saved him,
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she became the chillest or coolest person I know, A person who's really chill,
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is really awesome, really cool, right?
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Okay, guys, quick speed read of this level 10 sentence, but don't go away because we have a cool down exercise coming up next.
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Here we go.
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Ready?
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I completely spaced on her name, even though we had just met yesterday, and she was standing right in front of me,
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which made things super awkward because I had to introduce her to my boss.
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So I just mumbled and pointed, and my boss shot me this weird look.
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I could tell I totally fumbled it, but then she just laughed it off and said her name herself,
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saving me from my own brain fart and becoming the chillest person I know.
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If you guys made it all the way through this gigantic super sentence, you are one of the chillest people I know take your
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hand give yourself a pat on the back to congratulate yourself
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because you deserve it my friend as your YouTube English teacher I am super super proud of you
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and I hope you never ever feel like you cannot speak long sentences in English ever again
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because look look at this giant sentence we just spoke no
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problem up next we have a paraphrase challenge to paraphrase is
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to say something in a new way to put something in your own words
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and it's a really great way to practice your linguistic flexibility right if you want to be fluent in English,
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you need to be able to say one thing many different ways, right?
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So that's what we're going to work on here.
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Take a look at this.
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I spaced on her name.
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Do you remember?
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What's a different way we can say that?
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How about you pause the video, try it yourself first, and three, two, one, take a look at this.
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You could also say, you blanked on someone's name, okay?
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You blanked on their name I blanked I'm drawing a blank
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right now I'm drawing a blank I completely forgot I totally forgot right now I can't remember right all of
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that means I spaced on it right it slipped my mind
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slipped my mind look at number two here things got super awkward what's another way we could say
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that in English a different way pause the video try it
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yourself three two one okay we could also say things are painfully cringe right
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if a situation is super awkward we could also say it's really uncomfortable
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really cringe really tense maybe embarrassing would be another good word to use here ah yeah that was super embarrassing.
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Instead of I just mumbled and pointed, what's a different way we could say that?
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In three, two, one, we could also say stammered and gestured.
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Okay.
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Maybe a gesture is kind of like pointing at someone, a gesture, right?
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So point, we could say gesture.
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I'd say waved is a little bit different than pointed, right?
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You could maybe nod towards someone, give them a nod, but those are a little bit different than pointed, right?
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I think mumbled would be a better word to paraphrase here.
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Made a vague sound, an unclear sound.
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That's pretty good.
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Let out a noise, a strange noise, an unclear noise.
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That's not bad.
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Stammered is a little bit different because stammered is kind of like stuttering when you trip up over your words you're
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trying to say something we call that stammering
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or stuttering right mumbling is just talking under your breath a
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little bit quieter look at this one here he shot me a weird look in three two one You could also say,
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he threw me a strange side eye or gave me a strange side eye, hit me with a puzzled glance.
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Puzzled meaning confused, right?
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He gave me a what's wrong with you stare.
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He gave me a look as if to say, dude, what is wrong with you?
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Guys, if this video got you speaking, if it got you feeling more confident, you should become a channel member.
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It's only $1.
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You can get PDFs for all of my videos.
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You can get hours and hours of bonus content, including my exclusive book club.
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Come read a book with us and improve your English.
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I want to give a massive thank you, a massive shout out to all of my channel members.
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You know, without you guys, I simply would not be able to do what I do here on English is Easy.
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I thank all of you guys, and there are hundreds of you from the very bottom of my heart.
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And guys, if you haven't watched the full Super Sentences playlist, I highly recommend that you do.
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Watch one of these videos every day and just watch.
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In one week, you will already see a big difference with your English speaking abilities.
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Cheers, everybody.
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Stay well and I'll see you again very soon.
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Context & Background
The video titled "You're Learning English Wrong (Do This Instead)" addresses common challenges faced by English learners on their journey to improve their speaking and listening skills. The speaker emphasizes a practical approach, combining engaging exercises with useful vocabulary. This lesson is particularly beneficial for those who feel uncertain as to where to start their English practice. By focusing on relatable everyday expressions, the speaker aims to boost learners' confidence and understanding, particularly in conversational settings.
Top 5 Phrases for Daily Communication
- I completely spaced on her name. - A useful phrase to express forgetting something you should remember.
- I drew a blank. - Another way to say you can't remember something, particularly in an awkward moment.
- It should have been fresh in my mind. - A phrase indicating that the information was recently acquired and accessible.
- We just met yesterday. - A common way to reflect on a recent encounter, which can help contextualize your memory lapse.
- I always space on names. - Use this to relate to others about a common struggle with memory, especially with names.
Step-by-step Shadowing Guide
To effectively utilize the shadowing technique demonstrated in the video, follow this structured approach to enhance your English speaking skills:
- Watch and Listen: Begin by watching the video from start to finish without pausing. Familiarize yourself with the tone and rhythm of the speaker's delivery.
- Slow down: Pause the video and repeat after the speaker. Start with the phrase, I completely spaced on her name. Focus on mimicking the pronunciation and intonation.
- Level Up: After mastering the simple sentences, gradually incorporate longer phrases. For instance, try I completely spaced on her name, even though we had just met yesterday. Adjust your speed and enunciation as you gain confidence.
- Add Shadow Speech: As you practice, use shadow speech to reinforce your learning. This involves saying the phrases while simultaneously listening to the speaker. It bolsters both your improved English pronunciation and your ability to recall vocabulary.
- Practice Regularly: Use this technique consistently for your IELTS speaking practice or any other speaking scenarios. The more you practice, the more natural the phrases will feel in your daily communication.
By incorporating these steps, you're well on your way to improving your English speaking and listening skills. Remember to revisit the video for continuous learning, making the most of this effective shadowing site resource.
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.
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