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Shadowing practice: Talking about socialising 👋🥳🤭 Real Easy English

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Line 1

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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 Georgie.0:08
  5. You can now watch this podcast and find a worksheet to help you learn on our website bbclearningenglish .com.0:09
  6. So Georgie, how are you?0:23
  7. I'm very tired actually.0:25
  8. I've had a lot of social plans lately.0:27
  9. How about you?0:30
  10. Yeah, I'm fine.0:31
  11. Social plans, that's interesting because we're talking about friends today.0:32
  12. Yes, we're talking about socialising, which means spending time with people for fun.0:36
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  1. So, Neil, do you like spending time with friends?0:41
  2. Yeah, I love spending time with my friends.0:44
  3. If I don't see my friends very often, often, I feel a bit sad and lonely.0:48
  4. So yeah, I really like seeing my friends, but I don't get to see them very often because, you know,0:54
  5. we're grown -ups and we have responsibilities.1:01
  6. You have kids, you have lots of things going on.1:04
  7. I also like spending time with my friends.1:07
  8. I have lots of friends.1:10
  9. As I said, I've had a lot of social plans lately.1:11
  10. Pretty much every day I've been socialising.1:14
  11. Wow.1:16
  12. So, you like socialising, but do you like things like parties or do you prefer smaller social events?1:17
  13. I do really like big parties because I like meeting new people.1:25
  14. I like dancing as well.1:31
  15. So at big parties, usually there's some music.1:33
  16. But I do have a shy side of my personality.1:37
  17. So usually a smaller event is better for me so I can have kind of deeper conversations with fewer people.1:41
  18. How about you?1:50
  19. Yeah, I don't really like that situation where you're at a party and don't know lots of people.1:51
  20. So a small group of people that I mainly know and there's one or two people who I don't know.1:59
  21. know so well, that's fine.2:06
  22. But a bigger group with lots of people I don't know, I really don't like that.2:08
  23. And why is that?2:14
  24. Is that because you don't like small talk?2:15
  25. Yeah, I don't really like small talk.2:19
  26. It feels a bit empty.2:22
  27. Small talk is conversations about things that aren't important, like the weather, usually with people that you don't know very2:25
  28. well.2:34
  29. Yeah.2:34
  30. And you don't like that?2:35
  31. No, I find it awkward.2:36
  32. So, Georgie, you like meeting new people.2:39
  33. Do you feel embarrassed at all or are you completely fine with that?2:43
  34. Oh, I think it depends.2:47
  35. I think if you find a topic quite quickly that you have in common, that avoids embarrassment.2:49
  36. But it's when you meet someone new, you don't know them very well obviously because they're new and you don't2:58
  37. know what they like or don't like or what they think is rude or not rude um but if you3:05
  38. can figure that out quite quickly it's yeah it's usually okay do you usually feel quite embarrassed then sometimes like3:11
  39. you said it depends if you find something that you have in common and you can talk about that sometimes3:21
  40. you don't find something in common and then it's really, I don't know, embarrassing I suppose.3:28
  41. Ooh, I feel strange just thinking about it.3:35
  42. You obviously, you like parties, you like socialising, but do you like spending time alone?3:39
  43. I get more energy from spending time alone and relaxing and not talking to anyone.3:45
  44. I often get what I call social burnout, which means you just get exhausted from spending too much time with3:52
  45. others.4:00
  46. How about you?4:01
  47. Well, yeah, spending time alone is also important and I like to do that but not so much, not as4:02
  48. much as maybe spending time with people because like I said before if I'm alone for too long I get4:15
  49. a bit lonely and feel a bit, I don't know, just lacking energy.4:22
  50. Let's recap the vocabulary we heard in this podcast, starting with socialise, which means to spend time with friends or4:33
  51. other people to enjoy yourself.4:41
  52. We had small talk, which is conversation about things which aren't important, such as the weather or the traffic.4:44
  53. We use small talk a lot in the UK.4:51
  54. We heard some adjectives to describe how you might feel about meeting new people.4:53
  55. So we had embarrassed, which means feeling ashamed or shy.4:59
  56. And we also heard awkward, which means feeling uncomfortable when you're meeting new people.5:04
  57. We also heard in common.5:09
  58. So if you have something in common with someone, it means you share the same likes, dislikes or interests with5:11
  59. someone.5:18
  60. That's it for this episode of Real Easy English.5:19
  61. Test what you've learned by downloading the free worksheet on our website bbclearningenglish .com.5:22
  62. See you then.5:29
  63. Bye.5:29

A2 British Conversation Practice from BBC Learning English's Podcast on Socialising

This clip is a two person podcast conversation between Neil and Georgie of BBC Learning English, set at A2 level, so the vocabulary stays simple and the sentences stay short. It moves at 162 words per minute, faster than 28 percent of the catalogue, so the turns between speakers come quickly and you need to keep pace with natural British rhythm rather than a slowed down teaching voice.

The topic is socialising: Georgie says she is tired because she has had a lot of social plans lately, and the two of them work out whether they prefer big parties or smaller groups of friends. This is everyday english, the kind of daily english conversation practice you would actually use catching up with someone, and because both speakers are British, it also doubles as british english pronunciation practice, letting you hear two different voices trade the same simple structures.

English Shadowing Practice with Two Natural British Speakers

Three lines from the opening show what is worth repeating out loud.

  • "Social plans, that's interesting because we're talking about friends today." Neil picks up Georgie's own words and turns them into the topic sentence for the whole episode. Notice the stress lands on "interesting" and "friends", not on "that's".
  • "Yeah, I don't really like small talk." The "Yeah" softens what is actually a flat disagreement, a very British way to push back gently, and "really" carries the emphasis, not "like".
  • "we're grown -ups and we have responsibilities." Said quickly inside a longer turn, this line shows how a British speaker keeps function words like "we're" and "we have" light so the content words land harder.

Practise English Speaking Step by Step with This BBC Socialising Chat

Work through the opening in order rather than jumping around the clip.

  • Start at line 7, "I'm very tired actually", and shadow this line on its own until the falling tone on "actually" feels natural.
  • Move to line 11, "Social plans, that's interesting because we're talking about friends today", and repeat it until the link between "that's" and "interesting" stops feeling rushed.
  • At line 17, "we're grown -ups and we have responsibilities", slow it down first, then bring it back to full speed, since this is where the pace outruns most english shadowing for beginners.
  • Finish on line 37, "Yeah, I don't really like small talk", and try answering Georgie's question in your own words before playing Neil's actual reply to check how close you got.
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