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Shadowing practice: Family Guy: Buying a Used Car (Clip) | TBS

Listen to the line, then say it out loud
Line 1

Full transcript

  1. Peter, we really need a second car.0:00
  2. Trying to do all these errands in a taxi is exhausting.0:02
  3. Oh, but you meet such colorful characters in taxis, like Alex Rieger and Tony and that funny foreign guy who0:05
  4. worked in a garage.0:11
  5. Rieger, cab 402.0:12
  6. Nardo, you and your luscious melons are in 315.0:14
  7. Now get the hell out of here, you losers.0:18
  8. Hey, Louie, what about the foreign guy?0:20
  9. No way, banter.0:21
  10. He's a nut job.0:22
  11. Come on, Louie, show a little compassion for once in your miserable life.0:23
  12. All right, can of waterworks.0:26
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  1. Jackie Chan, cab 302.0:28
  2. Thank you very much Peter, please, I saw an ad for a used car that would be perfect Oh, no,0:33
  3. Lois, no, a guy at work bought a car out of the paper Ten years later, bam, herpes I'm buying0:40
  4. our car from a dealer, and that's that Oh, look, oh, aren't you beautiful?0:45
  5. Yeah, yeah, you like that, don't you?0:54
  6. Yeah, you're a bad little car What's that?0:56
  7. What's that?1:00
  8. You want me inside you?1:00
  9. Peter, look at this one It's safe and reliable and we can afford it I'll just see if I can1:03
  10. find a salesman Hey, I'm Doug, nice to meet you Whoa, have you lost weight?1:09
  11. No, it's still there, I'm just parting it on the side We were more interested in that car over there1:16
  12. Lois, let me handle this Peter, this car has dents in it And it's got a cardboard steering wheel Yeah,1:21
  13. just a second, honey And look, there's no engine.1:27
  14. It just has a drawing of an engine.1:30
  15. But it only had one previous owner, James Bond.1:32
  16. I'll take it.1:36
  17. Okay, let's see what this baby can do, eh?1:38
  18. Well, I'm sure the dealer will take care of it.1:43

American accent training with Family Guy's car lot scene

This two minute clip from Family Guy is rated B1 and runs at 192 words per minute, faster than 54% of the catalogue, so pausing after each line matters more than usual. The scene opens with Lois complaining about taxis, moves through a cab dispatcher barking out names, then lands on Peter negotiating with a dealer over a car that turns out to have no engine, just a drawing of one. The comic register keeps changing: complaint, insult, flirtation with the car, then a straight faced scam. For american accent training that mix of tones inside thirty short lines is the point of picking this clip over a slower, single register recording.

Because two speakers trade lines throughout, right down to Peter and the dealer talking over Lois, this clip also works as daily english conversation practice: interruptions, asides, and one character cutting another off are all here, not the tidy turn taking of a scripted lesson dialogue.

English shadowing practice: three lines from the car lot scene

Three lines carry the comic rhythm and are worth isolating for english shadowing practice. The dispatcher's insult lands its stress hard on the final words, a pattern that recurs through the scene. Lois's opening complaint is one long clause with no natural break in the middle. And the dealer's cover up line is delivered completely deadpan, with no pitch rise anywhere.

  • "Now get the hell out of here, you losers." Stress falls on hell and losers; match that weight, not the words in between.
  • "Trying to do all these errands in a taxi is exhausting." One breath, no pause before exhausting; practice holding the clause together.
  • "It just has a drawing of an engine." Flat pitch throughout; the joke sits in the flatness, so do not add rise or fall that is not there.

How to shadow this line by line through the car lot scene

Work the clip in order rather than jumping around. The comic tone shifts every few lines, and following that shift is itself useful english speaking practice, since real conversation moves the same way.

  • Start with line 2, "Trying to do all these errands in a taxi is exhausting," and get the single unbroken breath before touching the faster lines.
  • Move to the dispatcher's cab calls, lines 5 through 13, and repeat them back to back once your ear catches the clipped names; this is the fastest stretch in the clip.
  • Isolate line 7, "Now get the hell out of here, you losers," and drill the stress on hell and losers on its own before putting it back in context.
  • Finish on the dealer's pitch, where "this car has dents in it" sits; the pace actually eases here, so a mismatch in speed will stand out more than it did on the fast lines.
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