Shadowing practice: Imaginary Boyfriend | Inside Out | Official Clip

This clip is from Inside Out, the scene where Joy and the other emotions run into Riley's imaginary boyfriend inside her head. Someone asks "Who the heck is that?" and gets the answer "Imaginary boyfriend." From there the scene turns into a chase through preschool world, a rescue, and a squabble between two characters calling each other dumb. It is rated A2, so the vocabulary stays simple even when the plot gets silly.

The pace is measured at 194 words per minute, faster than 56 percent of the catalogue, which is exactly why it rewards English shadowing practice rather than passive listening. The American voices swing from panic to sarcasm in a few seconds, so you are training rhythm and attitude, not just words. With 32 lines total, most under six words, this is a short scene you can loop start to finish in one sitting.

Quote a few lines out loud before you shadow the whole clip, and you will notice how much emotion sits in very few words. This is where American accent training pays off on a clip this short: the same three or four words carry completely different intonation depending on who is speaking.

• "Who the heck is that?" opens the scene on a rising, alarmed pitch. "Heck" is the soft substitute a panicked character reaches for, and the stress lands hard on it.
• "This is crazy." is said twice in a row by two different voices, so you get to hear the identical line delivered with two different levels of urgency back to back, a small but useful lesson in how stress changes meaning.
• "Sorry I don't speak moron as well as you, but let me try." is a long, sarcastic put down. Practise it slowly first for the stress on "moron," then speed up to match the original.
• "We found this idea, now we're gonna get to the posse memories!" is the one reduced form in the whole clip. "Gonna" carries the whole line's momentum, and it is worth isolating on its own before you try the full sentence.

This is beginner friendly shadowing English speaking practice, so work in small chunks rather than trying to keep up with the whole 32 line scene at once. Free, in your browser, no install: repeat each line until it feels automatic before moving to the next.

• Start with the shortest lines first: "Who the heck is that?" and the two answer word replies "Imaginary boyfriend." and "I live in Canada." Get the rhythm of short exchanges before anything longer.
• Move to the doubled line "This is crazy." said twice, and shadow both deliveries separately so you can hear and copy the difference in urgency between them.
• Take the panic sequence "Now!" "For my leave!" "Joy?" "Hang on!" as one block. These are all under three words, ideal for building fast reaction speed in your own speech.
• Slow down for "Sorry I don't speak moron as well as you, but let me try." Break it into two halves, get the stress on "moron" right, then rejoin the halves at full speed.
• Finish on the closing line with "gonna," saying it on its own a few times before attaching it to the full sentence "We found this idea, now we're gonna get to the posse memories!" This closes the loop on the one reduced form in the clip and leaves you able to repeat the entire scene in order.