Practice Speaking & Reading Out Loud with This English Shadowing Exercise

hey what's up Stefanie the English coach here  from Englishfulltime.com in this video we are  

going to do shadowing practice we're going  to work on our pronunciation natural Rhythm  

natural intonation connected speech and just  like the last time I made a video like this  

we are going to use an email that I wrote myself  and sent to my list of email subscribers back in  

2020 now 2020 if you don't remember was a really  crazy year for the entire world that is when the  

pandemic started and we were all quarantining we  had had to stay home it was just insane and for  

me on a personal level the year was hard not  just because of the pandemic but because of  

so many other things that I was going through at  the time and because it was such a rough year for  

me I had to take breaks from my work and I would  just disappear entirely for months at a time and  

when I sent this email I really wanted to update  my subscribers and tell them and be honest about  

how I was doing and how I was not doing well but  I was improving so not only is this going to be  

really great pronunciation practice for you but  you're also going to encounter lots of good useful  

words and expressions uh and vocabulary that I  think you will be able to use yourself when you  

are talking about rough times in your own life now  before we get started I just want to let you know  

that Linked In the description I have put a free  PDF for you in case you want to print out this  

email WR in the margins Circle things highlight  things really dig into the material of course I  

always recommend students do that because that  way you can Circle the words that you struggle  

with you can underline words that are new for  you it really gets you engaged in the material  

and I'm also going to include an audio file so if  you really want to practice the shadowing and work  

hard you will be able to listen to that audio  file again and again without having to listen  

to this YouTube video and everything that I say  in the video you'll just be able to listen to the  

material that you're going to Shadow and practice  that okay so in just a second I'm going to start  

reading the email so you can hear how it sounds  again listen to the Rhythm listen to the way  

I connect words listen to my intonation and you  want to try and imitate that okay you really want  

to try to match my sounds match my Pace like how  fast I'm reading match my rhythm how I'm linking  

the words together words that I'm lengthening  words that I'm shortening and the intonation right  

the rise and fall The Melody of the words and then  after I do this reading I'm going to go over a few  

of the longer words and break them down for  you just in case you're struggling a little  

bit with the pronunciation so we'll have like  a mini pronunciation lesson at the end of the  

video and by the way I am going to be reading off  of my computer screen which is right below the  

camera in case it looks funny because I will be  looking down a little bit okay let's get started  

where have I been hey when 2020 first started I  said this was going to be my year last year was  

was rough the year before that wasn't much easier  but this year this was going to be the year for  

all things good mental well-being balance enjoying  Hobbies growing the business going on vacation and  

leaving my work at home finally getting control  of my bad habits and living with Incredible focus  

and drive and well look at us now quarantined and  locked down around around the world sending memes  

about toilet paper and standing in line for hours  just to get groceries what a weird world we live  

in right now I have no idea what life is like  where you live but if you're practicing social  

distancing like the rest of us then chances are  you're pretty bored me too but truth be told  

I've been practicing social distancing long  before it was a buzzword on the news I was  

practicing all kinds of distancing especially  social media distancing why because this year  

unfortunately has been one of the hardest years  of my life so far and it has nothing to do with  

any kind of virus I don't want to get into the  details but I'll just say that I was dealing  

with some serious issues stuff that sent me into  a deep depression made me lose the will to keep  

going and finally had me calling therapists to to  get help it's the kind of ugly stuff that no one  

wants to talk about it's easier to go through  life pretending everything is always peachy  

but it's not and I've never been a pretender  I can't make videos and teach English when I  

feel awful because people can read my face  like a book I'm as transparent as a window  

and people can see right through me so I knew I  needed to get myself in check before continuing  

with my work it has not been easy I've had  endless stress migraines insomnia and a lot more  

and that's weird because it takes a lot to push me  over the edge anyway why am I telling you all this  

because I'm finally seeing the light at the end of  the tunnel I am finally smiling again laughing and  

genuinely happy my drive is coming back and  I'm finally getting back to so many project  

that were put on hold like the new version of  connect and communicate and the pronunciation  

course I'm making I want you to know that we all  go through ups and downs maybe you are even going  

through a really difficult time right now and if  you are just don't give up there will be light at  

the end of the tunnel there are people who love  you and there are people who want to help you  

today I'm sitting in my new office and getting  organized I just started renting it 2 days ago  

and it feels good to finally have a place where  I can focus on my work on helping you so that's  

it I just wanted to let everyone know I'm alive  and well or rather getting better and I hope to  

get back on social media soon I hope you're doing  well and that you are taking advantage of all the  

downtime to relax and be productive we'll be  in touch talk soon Stephanie okay so there you  

have it now it's funny because I actually did not  end up finishing the new version of connect and  

communicate although I still plan on doing that  but I moved on to other projects or I should say  

I chose to focus on other projects instead and  I did end up making the pronunciation course  

in fact I made a couple and the big one is an  absolute Beast it's called accent Freedom it's a  

12we program it's amazing you should check it out  I'll link it below but BAS basically in the accent  

Freedom program you go from learning the basics of  pronunciation like just the sounds to how to link  

them American Rhythm intonation connected speech  reductions all of that and then you end by really  

finding your own voice in English and choosing  how you want to sound so it's a really intense  

program but I cover absolutely everything that  you would ever want to know about pronunciation  

in general in English but also speaking and how  to speak persuasively and well and eloquently and  

again how to find your voice in English so you  can use your voice to represent who you are and  

want to be in English so I'll put the link in the  description if you want to check out that course  

but I also ended up making another course that's  called The Amazing American accent sound bank and  

all that course is is a deep dive on every single  sound of my American English so it's not General  

American English or anything like that it's based  entirely on sounds that I use in my accent and I  

did this course in addition to Accent freedom  because I realized some students really need  

to dig very deeply into each individual sound  to understand it and train their ears to hear  

the sound correctly because if you can hear it  correctly then you can imitate it correctly so  

I'll leave a link to that course below as well now  let's go back to the email and I want to focus on  

a few different words and I'm just going to  say them slowly and I want you to listen to  

how I pronounce each syllable so that you can  imitate and of course use this pronunciation  

when you are shadowing as well so the first word  we have is incredible incredible okay in C C

incedible credible creda CR creda creda creda  bull bull bull incredible next we have quarantined  

quarantined quarar quar quarin in in in teen teen  teen quarantined quarantined next unfortunately un  

un un four four four unfor unfortun Chin Chin  Chin unfortunate Chin Chin Chin unfortunately

unfortunately next therapists therapists this one  is a little bit tricky because of the ending you  

have the so an S and then a TS Thea Thea pists  pists therapists therapists next transparent  

transparent so you have the word parent in there  like I am a parent transparent trans trans trans  

parent parent pair pa pa parent parent transparent  next genuinely genuinely gen gen gen you genuin  

win win winly genuinely genuinely so that is it  I have so much for you in this video I hope you  

take advantage of it I hope you learn something  and have fun practicing I know that the topic  

of this email is a little bit sad and depressing  but you know it's based on my real life and again  

life is tough sometimes okay we all have ups  and down so I wanted to choose something that  

I felt you could relate to don't forget that you  can download the PDF so you can read it yourself  

practice reading it out loud you're also going to  get the audio file of me reading the email that  

way you can just listen to that over and over and  over again and Shadow and repeat that and another  

really great thing that you can do with this email  if you print it out is you can actually highlight  

different words and phrases that you want to  use in your life I'll just run through this  

email again real fast and I will point out some  of the ones that I think could be useful for you  

and you can ask yourself hey do I use these words  do I use these phrases because if you don't make  

a note of it highlight them and you can start  using them so for example mental well-being  

okay mental well-being getting control of my bad  habits getting control of my bad habits we're all  

working on that right now right all of us all of  us together I'm sure standing in line for hours  

standing in line for hours right I'm sure you've  had to stand in line for hours before then we have  

I don't want to get into the details okay there  will be times where people will ask you something  

and you might want to say hey I don't want to get  into the details of this but you know something  

else I don't want to get into the details next  dealing with some serious issues dealing with  

some serious issues the will to keep going the  will to keep going stuff that no one wants to  

talk about okay stuff that no one wants to talk  about see how like there are so many phrases you  

can literally grab from this email and you can use  them in the next conversation you have in English  

when you talk about things that are a little bit  more personal okay in this part here where I said  

I've never been a pretender this is so true I have  always been like this ever since I was a kid like  

if I'm sad I cry if I'm happy I laugh I don't  hide anything I can't hide anything literally  

bottled up emotions inside of me is no that's no  I no go I can't I will literally explode um but  

I know some people are not like that at all  some people are able to keep it in and keep  

a straight face and keep going on with life and  everything like that so my question for you down  

below if you care to share what kind of person  are you are you the kind like me where you're  

like I can't pretend if I'm mad I'm mad or are  you the kind of person that's like no I prefer  

to keep a straight face and um keep my emotions  private and deal with it I don't know like on my  

own so that people around me don't see what I'm  going through so what is your way of dealing with  

these things okay oh another phrase it has not  been easy it has has not been easy okay stress  

migraines insomnia I'm sure we've all gone  through that at one point so you need to know  

these words and how to say them right oh finally  seeing the light at the end of the tunnel that's  

a good one um going through ups and downs that's  another one okay so like I said there's lots of  

useful vocabulary and phrases and expressions  in this email so I hope you have a fun time  

practicing everything and finally I want to let  you know that I have some other free resources  

on my website that can really help you with with  your pronunciation I have a 7day pronunciation  

challenge that is completely free it has over 8  hours of pronunciation training with me inside  

of it videos where you can just watch them and  I'm explaining and I'm teaching and I'm talking  

and I'm going over different sounds and linking  and all kinds of things mindset work too which  

is really important when it comes to pronunciation  so that is a 7-Day free challenge you sign up it's  

all automated each day the challenge material  will come to your inbox okay and then I also  

have an IPA guide that's really helpful if you  want to study all of the individual sounds that  

I use in English but quickly okay and that  is it I really hope you enjoyed the lesson  

feel free to watch it as many times as you  need in order to really start understanding  

and hearing how the connected speech works and  I cannot wait to see you in my next video bye