Shadowing practice: Tangled — Rapunzel Wins Over Maximus

This clip comes from Tangled, and it sits at A2 level, so it is a good match for english shadowing for beginners. The scene has 13 lines. Rapunzel is talking to Maximus, a horse who does not talk back, so you hear one clear voice carrying the whole scene, in an american accent, without any overlapping speech to untangle. Clips like this are a simple way to learn english with movies, because the story context makes new words such as "appreciates" and "boot" easier to remember than a vocabulary list.

Because Rapunzel is talking to an animal, her sentences stay short and her tone stays warm and teasing. That makes this a low pressure way to build english speaking practice: you are not chasing fast dialogue between two people, you are following one speaker who repeats and rephrases the same handful of ideas.

A few lines are worth slowing down for.

• "Now drop the boot." This is a short command with the stress landing hard on "drop" and "boot", the shape you need for giving simple instructions.
• "Nobody appreciates you, do they? Do they?" The question repeats itself, and the second "Do they?" rises higher than the first, a common way English speakers add emphasis without adding new words.
• "Oh, you all tired from chasing this bad man all over the place?" This line drops the "are" before "you all tired", the kind of casual question shape that sounds natural in speech but would look wrong written down for a test.

Work through the clip in order, since the lines build on each other, and this ten minute routine works well as part of a daily english speaking practice habit.

• Start with line 1 and 2, "Now sit." and "Sit.", two one word commands, and match the flat, firm tone before moving on.
• Take "Oh, you're such a good boy!" and "Yes, you are!" together, lines 6 and 7, and copy how the pitch jumps up on "good boy" and "Yes".
• Slow down on "Oh, you all tired from chasing this bad man all over the place?", line 8, and say it once slowly, then once at Rapunzel's own pace.
• Repeat "Nobody appreciates you, do they? Do they?", line 10, until the second "Do they?" rises the same way hers does.
• Finish with "Oh, he's nothing but a big sweetheart." and "Isn't that right, Maximus?", lines 12 and 13, to close the scene on the same warm tone you started with. This is worth repeating daily if you want to improve your english accent.