This week’s topics jump around quite a bit – from photos to cars to car trips. Repeat after me in English to practise speaking about these topics.

Step 1: Tune in to this week’s podcast episode (audio version available below).

Part 1 Questions Where are you from? Do you like taking photos? What do you like to photograph, people or nature? Let’s talk about cars. Do you think the colour of a car is important? What kind of car would you like to have in the future? Do you enjoy car trips? Do you prefer being a driver or a passenger?

🧑‍🎓Target language: relive -remember something vividly “It also helps me remember what we were doing or how we were feeling when the picture was taken, which is a pleasant way to relive the experience.”

Step 2: Listen to the sample a few times to get more familiar with the language.

Step 3: Engage this week’s full speech shadowing lesson. (If you do not yet have access, click here to sign up for full lessons.)

Step 4: Below is Monday’s speech exercise. Post yourself saying this excerpt to your Whatsapp group. Exercises for Tuesday to Friday will be posted in the group by your instructor.

Post yourself saying this into your Whatsapp group!🗣️📲 “I love taking photos. I don’t have any professional photography equipment, but I have a few apps on my phone that allow me to capture colours and movement accurately and without blurriness.”

Step 5: It’s very important that you note any new language items or pronunciation points from this week’s lesson in your journal to help you chronicle your improvement.📝

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Transcript

Where are you from?

I am from a suburb of Hanoi. It’s in the north of the city.

Do you like taking photos?

I love taking photos. I don’t have any professional photography equipment, but I have a few apps on my phone that allow me to capture colours and movement accurately and without blurriness.

What do you like to photograph, people or nature?

I would say people. When I’m travelling, I like to take pictures of interesting places and objects, but I find these photos are more personal when they include my friends or people I care about. It also helps me remember what we were doing or how we were feeling when the picture was taken, which is a pleasant way to relive the experience.

Let’s talk about cars. Do you think the colour of a car is important?

I’m not super interested in cars, so to me personally the colour is not that important. However, certain colours, like mustard yellow or gold, look awful in my opinion, and I would imagine these colours would make reselling the car difficult. That’s about the extent to which I worry about the colour of a car.

What kind of car would you like to have in the future?

I’m mostly concerned with reliability – how long can I use the car before it starts breaking down? My brother bought a Mitsubishi Pajero a few years ago and has had no trouble with it, so were I to buy a new car I think I would probably follow suit. I like camping, so the larger frame of this model would make it easy for me to pack in all my things.

Do you enjoy car trips?

As I mentioned, I like camping but I’m not crazy about the long drive to get to the campground. I’m quite tall, so my legs often don’t fit comfortably in a car. Also, I sometimes find the motion of the car can make me feel a bit queasy.

Do you prefer being a driver or a passenger?

Neither I guess! But if I had to choose I would say the driver only because being in control of the car can help me with my motion sickness. It’s nice to have something to do on a long journey as well. If I’m the passenger, I’m more likely to get bored.

Thank you.