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Shadowing practice: Talking about mistakes 👎❌🤦 Real Easy English

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  1. Hello and welcome to Real Easy English, the podcast where we have real conversations in easy English to help you0:00
  2. learn.0:07
  3. I'm Neil.0:07
  4. And I'm Beth.0:08
  5. You can find a video version of this podcast and a worksheet to help you learn on our website bbclearningenglish0:10
  6. .com.0:18
  7. How are you today, Beth?0:25
  8. I'm OK, Neil.0:27
  9. I'm a little bit tired.0:28
  10. How are you?0:30
  11. I'm very well.0:31
  12. I'm fine.0:32
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  1. Great.0:33
  2. Good, good.0:33
  3. Well, today we're going to talk about mistakes.0:35
  4. So hopefully I won't make many mistakes being tired.0:38
  5. No.0:42
  6. Mistakes.0:43
  7. Mistakes can be things that are wrong, like a mistake in a maths problem.0:44
  8. But we can also use mistake to talk about really big things in life, decisions that you've made, actions that0:49
  9. you've taken.0:56
  10. Yes, that's true.0:57
  11. So I think let's start the conversation.0:58
  12. Let's do it.1:01
  13. So Beth, have you made any mistakes recently?1:02
  14. Yes.1:06
  15. So I recently left my suitcase on a train by mistake.1:07
  16. Oh no.1:14
  17. So I was travelling from home to Leeds on the train and I got to the station at Leeds and1:14
  18. there were loads of people and they were football fans and they were singing really loudly and I just wanted1:24
  19. to get off the train and that's what I did.1:32
  20. And then I realised about half an hour later that I didn't have my suitcase.1:34
  21. Oh no.1:40
  22. So yeah.1:41
  23. That's a bad mistake.1:42
  24. mistake.1:44
  25. Did you get it back?1:44
  26. I did.1:45
  27. I was so lucky.1:46
  28. The train stopped at Leeds.1:47
  29. So when I realised, I ran and said to the people on the platform, my suitcase is on the train1:49
  30. and they held the train for me.1:57
  31. And I ran up the platform, I grabbed my suitcase and then they blew the whistle and the train went.1:58
  32. I was so lucky.2:05
  33. But yeah, that was a big mistake.2:06
  34. And I will not make that mistake again.2:08
  35. Everybody says that.2:10
  36. So earlier we said that mistakes can be small things, like my suitcase, but there are big mistakes that we2:14
  37. can make.2:23
  38. So have you ever made a big mistake, do you think?2:23
  39. Yeah, well, once I had a job that I really, really enjoyed.2:27
  40. I was teaching at a school in Prague in the Czech Republic, teaching English.2:31
  41. And I loved the job and I had loads of really good friends but i had this feeling that i2:36
  42. needed to go move somewhere else do something else with my life and so i resigned um but then about2:41
  43. a week or so later i realized that i really really didn't want to leave that school so i went2:50
  44. back to the boss and i said i've changed my mind i want to stay and he said well it's2:58
  45. too late because i've given your job to somebody else oh no that's so sad so you left your job3:05
  46. left prague no actually a bit like your suitcase beth um it ended up it ended up being okay because3:12
  47. the person who took my job um then decided that he didn't want the job either so in the end3:20
  48. i did stay so when we make mistakes neil sometimes we then have a regret or we regret the thing3:26
  49. that we did that means that we feel bad about it or we wish that we'd done something differently do3:36
  50. you have any regrets yeah when i was a kid i guess i was probably 12 or 13, I had3:44
  51. some piano lessons and I quit as soon as I could.3:52
  52. My parents gave me that choice.3:59
  53. And I regret that because I love music and I play guitar and I think I would have enjoyed playing4:01
  54. piano.4:09
  55. I always think, to be honest, you shouldn't have any regrets because whatever Whatever you've done, you've learnt something from4:10
  56. it.4:18
  57. Even if something bad happened, then you know for next time and it's a kind of self -improvement thing.4:18
  58. That is a very positive attitude to mistakes, Beth.4:27
  59. Yeah, I think it's important to learn from your mistakes and that's a common expression in English, to learn from4:30
  60. your mistakes.4:39
  61. Let's recap the vocabulary we've learnt in this podcast, starting with mistake.4:45
  62. And a mistake is an action that is wrong or that you do when you don't mean to.4:51
  63. And we can make a mistake – that means we do something wrong.4:57
  64. Or we can do something by mistake, which means we do something accidentally without meaning to.5:01
  65. For example, I left my suitcase on the train by mistake.5:08
  66. mistake.5:13
  67. We also heard regret, which means feel bad or sorry about something you've done or a mistake that you've made.5:13
  68. And we heard learn from your mistakes, which means remember the mistake and then not do it again the next5:21
  69. time.5:28
  70. That's it for this episode of Real Easy English.5:30
  71. You can test yourself on what you've learned with a worksheet on our website bbclearningenglish .com.5:33
  72. See you then.5:38
  73. Goodbye.5:39
  74. Bye.5:40
  75. you5:43

An A2 British Conversation at 160 Words a Minute About Everyday Mistakes

This is english speaking practice built around a real two person conversation, not a scripted drill. Neil and Beth host the BBC Learning English podcast Real Easy English, and in this episode they talk about mistakes, from losing a suitcase to bigger life decisions. The level is A2, and the pace runs at 160 words per minute, faster than 26 percent of the catalogue, so the language stays simple even while the speakers move quickly.

What makes it useful for daily english conversation practice is the shape of the exchange itself. Beth tells a real story about leaving her suitcase on a train, Neil reacts as she goes, and the two of them trade short lines back and forth. You get greetings, reactions, and a full narrated anecdote in one recording, closer to a conversation you might actually have than a monologue read for learners.

British English Pronunciation Practice on Beth's Suitcase Story

Beth narrates the suitcase story mostly in the past tense, but one line switches to the present for effect, and that shift is what a native speaker does under pressure: dropping into the present to make the moment feel urgent. It is worth noticing before you try to say it yourself.

  • "So I recently left my suitcase on a train by mistake." carries the whole topic in one sentence. Listen for how "by mistake" is said as a single stressed unit, not two separate words.
  • "my suitcase is on the train" is present tense inside a past story, said fast and flat, the way people talk when they are still out of breath from running.
  • "And I will not make that mistake again." closes the story with a promise everybody makes. The stress falls hard on "not" and "again".
  • "I was so lucky." appears twice in the recording, once for getting the suitcase back and once for the train being held. Repeating it both times is good practice for showing relief with your voice, not just your words.

How to Shadow This Beginner Conversation, Line by Line

This clip is a good pick for english shadowing for beginners because the level is A2 and the story stays concrete throughout. Work through the 87 lines in the order they were recorded, since the story only makes sense that way, and treat the present tense line as its own target for speaking practice.

  • Lines 7 to 14, the "How are you today, Beth?" exchange: shadow these first since they are short and let you match Neil and Beth's rhythm before the story starts.
  • Line 27, "So I recently left my suitcase on a train by mistake.": say it slowly once for the stress on "mistake", then at full speed to match the recording.
  • Lines 29 to 32, the run describing the platform and the football fans: read this as one breath group, the way Beth says it, instead of pausing at every comma.
  • Line 41, "my suitcase is on the train": isolate this line and shadow it on its own a few times, since the tense shift is the hardest part to imitate and to improve english speaking rhythm.
  • Line 46, "And I will not make that mistake again.": use it as your closing line and match the falling tone Beth gives it.
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