Repeat With Me: English speaking practice

Vanessa: I'm going to tell you an embarrassing story,  

but we are going to use this embarrassing story  to help improve your English skills. One of the  

best ways to improve your English skills is to  shadow, which means repeat after someone else when  

they're speaking. So today you are going to repeat  after me as I tell you this embarrassing story  

that happened to me and your English skills are  going to level up. Let's do it together. Hi, I'm  

Vanessa from Speak English With vanessa.com, and  like always, I have created a free PDF worksheet  

for today's fun repeat with me English lesson.  You will learn all of the important vocabulary,  

pronunciation points, and it includes the entire  story that you're going to hear today so that you  

can go back and review it. At the bottom of the  free worksheet is Vanessa's challenge question,  

so that you never forget what you've learned  and you don't embarrass yourself too. You can  

click on the link in the description to  download that free PDF worksheet today.

All right, let's get started with  how this lesson is going to work.  

You're about to hear the story of my smelly  embarrassment, something that happened on the  

first week that I was living in Paris with  a French family. As I tell you this story,  

I'm going to be explaining the expressions  and the pronunciation that I use so that you  

can repeat after me. We'll practice repeating  and shadowing throughout this story. I want to  

challenge you to be an active participant in  this lesson. If you just listen to me speak,  

watch me speak, it's okay, but I want you to  be active. I want you to really repeat after  

me out loud. There's something powerful that  happens when you hear your own voice using  

English. When you hear someone else's  voice, it's kind of separate from you.

It's distant, but when you use the language  yourself, you start to grow that confidence,  

overcome the fear of speaking, and really feel  like you can use English in your life. So that's  

what the goal is for today's lesson. Let's get  started with my smelly embarrassment story. I'll  

explain some vocabulary and pronunciation and  you will speak out loud repeating with me. Let's  

do it. I know exactly what it's like to feel  embarrassed when you forget the words you want  

to say or you don't understand important  instructions. When you feel embarrassed,  

you feel shy or ashamed. Let's practice this  word embarrassed. Embarrassed. Embarrassed.  

I felt embarrassed. Okay. What we're going  to do is you're going to watch me say that  

sentence one more time. You'll listen to  my voice and then we will pause and I want  

you to say it out loud. I want you to repeat  the exact same words that I said. Say it out  

loud using your voice. Let's do it. I know  exactly what it's like to feel embarrassed  

when you forget the words you want to say or  you don't understand important instructions.

Great work. Let's go on to the next sentence of  the story. As a French learner, I felt frustrated  

that I couldn't understand my French host family.  Let's talk about that word frustrated. It means  

you feel annoyed, sometimes angry, because you  can't do something or something's out of your  

control. Let's talk about the pronunciation.  The word is frustrated. The emphasis is on  

the beginning of this word. It should be, I felt  frustrated, not I felt frustrated. It should be,  

I felt frustrated. Can you say that  sentence with me? I felt frustrated. Okay,  

we're going to go back. You'll watch the  original sentence one more time and then  

we'll pause so that you can repeat after me and  say it out loud. Let's go. As a French learner,  

I felt frustrated that I couldn't  understand my French host family.

I almost ruined my host family's clothes  because I couldn't understand them. Let's  

talk about the word ruined. Ruined  means to destroy something completely,  

and the pronunciation of this word is ruined.  I ruined it. Can you say it with me? I ruined  

it. All right. Let's go back to that  sentence. You'll listen to it and then  

repeat it. I almost ruined my host family's  clothes because I couldn't understand them.

When my host mom asked me to hang up the  wet laundry, I misunderstood. I thought she  

wanted me to turn off the washing machine. Let's  talk about those two phrasal verbs. In English,  

they're very different, but in French, these are  the words and they sound almost exactly the same  

to a non-French speaker. In English, we use the  verb to hang up to talk about hanging up clothes.  

I hang up the clothes. Can you say this? I hang  up the clothes. The other phrasal verb to turn  

off is used when we're closing down something, I  turn off the machine. Can you say it with me? I  

turn off the machine. All right, let's go back  and listen to that full section again and then  

you'll repeat it with me. Let's watch. When my  host mom asked me to hang up the wet laundry,  

I misunderstood. I thought she wanted  me to turn off the washing machine.

Great work. Let's go on to the next section.  I made that mistake for three days in a row. I  

turned off the machine instead of hanging up the  laundry. After three days, my host mom asked me,  

Vanessa, our clothes are still wet and starting  to smell bad. Why didn't you hang up the laundry?  

Let's take a look at that simple verb to ask. In  the past tense, it can be tricky to pronounce. I  

said, my host mom asked me, what is happening  here? The K really gets just forgotten. In  

this word in fast American English, you're  going to hear American English speakers say,  

my host mom asked me. Asked me. You might  hear when they're speaking slowly people say,  

asked me. Asked me. Asked me with a K, but  it's really a lot trickier to say it like that,  

so I invite you to say it in the simple  way. Say this with me. My host mom asked  

me. My host mom asked me, why didn't you  hang up the laundry? I just turned it off.

All right, let's go back and repeat that  sentence and then you will say it out  

loud as well and we'll move on to find out what  happened to that wet laundry. After three days,  

my host mom asked me, Vanessa, our clothes are  still wet and starting to smell bad. Why didn't  

you hang up the laundry? I told her that I  had followed her instructions exactly. Then  

she told me the difference between to hang up  and to turn off in French. We laughed about it  

for a long time. Let's take a look at this nice  word. Instructions. There's a lot going on here,  

so let's break down the pronunciation.  Instructions. Instructions. Instructions.  

Instructions. Say the sentence with me. I followed  the instructions. I followed the instructions.

All right, let's go back and watch that  original sentence and then you're going to  

repeat it with me out loud. Use your voice. I am  listening. No matter where you are in the world,  

my magical teacher ears can hear you, so  you better be speaking out loud. Let's  

do it. I told her that I had followed her  instructions exactly. Then she told me the  

difference between to hang up and to turn off  in French. We laughed about it for a long time.

I wish that someone had helped me to figure out  how people really speak in their daily lives so  

that I could speak naturally too. Let's take a  look at this lovely word, naturally. Interesting,  

there is a C, but listen to how it sounds.  Naturally. It sounds like a CH. Let's break  

down this word. Naturally. Naturally. Naturally.  Let's say this sentence together. I want to  

speak naturally. I want to speak naturally.  This means you don't want to speak just like  

a textbook or kind of robotic. You want to  speak like yourself. You want to feel like  

yourself when you're speaking in English,  even though it's not your native language,  

you want it to feel natural and for your speech  to just be naturally coming from your mouth. I  

want to speak naturally. All right, let's  go back and listen to that sentence and  

I want you to repeat out loud with me. I  wish that someone had helped me to figure  

out how people really speak in their daily  lives so that I could speak naturally too.

Great work repeating after me. In conclusion,  it took many hours of practicing on a daily  

basis and some smelly, moldy laundry to be  able to finally speak in my second language,  

French, smoothly, confidently, naturally,  and that is what I want for you. I want  

you to be able to go out into the world  and create relationships and connections  

with people in English. So I want to hear  from you. Let me know in the comments your  

embarrassing stories. Let's read each  other's comments and support each other  

because the best thing you can do when you  feel embarrassed is just to laugh about it.

And don't forget to download today's free  PDF worksheet with all of these expressions,  

pronunciation tips, and the full story so that you  can practice reading this out loud and repeating  

it out loud so that your voice gets used to using  English and you can level up your speaking skills.  

That's the goal. You can click on the link in the  description to download that free PDF worksheet  

today. Well, thank you so much for learning  English with me and I'll see you again next  

Friday for a new lesson here on my YouTube  channel. Bye. But wait, do you want more? I  

recommend watching this video next where you will  learn to think and speak in English about your  

vacation and your vacation plans, even if your  vacation didn't go too well. I'll see you there.