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Shadowing is one of the fastest ways to sound more natural in Spanish. Repeat after me, and you'll train your brain, master your pronunciation, intonation, and rhythm and eventually you'll start speaking fluently in real time. If you don't know me, my name is Laura, I run an online Spanish community where we practice together, do fun challenges, play games, and make Spanish feel actually doable. In today's video, we're going to be reading three Spanish stories that were sent by members in my community to practice some shadowing. The prompt I gave them was: what's the craziest lie or story you've ever gotten away with? And the first story is called: The Science Test.
Try to shadow me. Once, I was taking a science exam in 8th grade. I usually get good grades in science, but that day I knew I was going to fail. When I saw the questions, I drew a blank. There was a very smart boy in my class, sitting near me. There were no cameras in the room. I waited until he finished writing all the answers on her sheet and then I said, "Pass me your answers." We exchanged sheets, and I copied his work while I wrote my own answers. I also whispered some things, and I got caught.
This is a story about cheating on a test. I've cheated on tests before. The supervisor embarrassed me in front of the whole class. She even said she was going to call my parents. I tried to lie. I tried to think of excuses, but my charade ran out. Are you repeating what I'm saying? If I'm going too fast, slow down the video. Repetition is still effective at your own pace. So, let's continue. On Monday, I made up an excuse that I had a stomachache. On Tuesday, I did the same thing, but my mom didn't believe me and sent me to school.
I almost burst into tears knowing what awaited me, and I started to pray. Surprisingly, nothing happened that day, and I thought I'd get caught the next day. Wednesday was the day the teachers were going to hand out the exams. I was sure the exam supervisor had contacted my science teacher and told her about my cheating, and I was afraid she was going to take severe measures against me. My science teacher came into the classroom and started handing out the exams. She called me over and handed me my exam, congratulating me on getting a perfect score.
All the students who saw me get caught that day looked at me in horror. The supervisor hadn't told anyone. She showed me sympathy. From that day on, I had a strange crush on that woman. She worked in the other school building and every morning I would go to that building and wait there for her. Then I would greet her with a "good morning." And from then on, I won't deny that I cheated, but I made sure to study enough to pass the exams. In the end, she got away with it. She got caught, but she still got a perfect score. Let's move on to the next story. Take a deep breath, and let's go. When I started college, I was a very honest freshman who followed all the rules.
I started dating Maria. Maria was a girl who seemed to have been born knowing how to bend the rules. On our first date, she took two empty water glasses at a fast-food restaurant and refilled them with Sprite. "Don't worry," she told me. "No one will notice." One night we saw a movie together. A normal date. But when the credits rolled, she didn't get up. Instead, she leaned toward me and whispered, "Want to see another one?" Before I could answer, she stood up, took my hand and walked down the aisle with complete confidence, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
We went into the other theater. Just as the commercials started. My heart was racing. Hers, certainly, wasn't. At the end of that second movie I didn't know if I was more excited by the screen or the person next to me. Going back to the dorms, she smiled at me and said, "See? You survived." I laughed and thought, "I guess so." That night I learned that sometimes life is more fun if you know how to tell a little white lie and blend into your own stories. How are you holding up? Brain melting a little? Don't give up, we have one more story and then you are officially done with Spanish for today.
Story number three. The speedboat in Sardinia. About seven years ago, I was on a road trip around Sardinia with a good Italian friend. We rented a small motorboat and ended up in a beautiful bay where we dropped anchor and went for a swim. When my friend went to a crowded beach, I decided not to join him because I hate crowds, so I kept swimming for a while. After a while, I got a little cold and sat down on a rock enjoying the view. And just then I realized our boat was dragging its anchor and drifting away from the bay, heading toward another island right in front of us.
I couldn't see my friend anywhere. So my first thought was, "I'm going to swim out to the boat and bring it back." So I started swimming. And the further I swam, the bigger the waves and the swell became, because I was leaving the bay and basically heading into the open ocean. Of course, the boat kept drifting away, so after about 20 minutes of swimming, I looked toward the shore and thought, "No, I'm not going to be able to get back." Then I looked back at the boat and thought the same thing. It's so far away. And that's when I started to panic while I kept swimming, which is apparently a bad combination.
I really regretted my decision and somehow my survival mode kicked in, because seconds before I'd realized that the only direction you can go when you're panicking is down. And humans aren't built to survive underwater. So I stopped swimming. I looked around, but there was really nothing and no one nearby, except for one of those pedal boats with a slide where there were two people, but they were quite far away too. Still, it was my only option to get out of this dangerous situation. I started shouting and waving my arms, but they didn't hear me. So I started yelling at the top of my lungs, and luckily, they somehow heard me.
I started waving my arms, hoping they would understand that I wasn't waving, but that I really needed their help. And thankfully, they understood. They waved back and came towards me. Since they had to pedal, and there was a swell and very large waves, it took them a while to get there, but they saved me. They took me back to our boat, which had been drifting and was quite far out, and I steered them back towards the shore and then went back to my friend.
I was completely exhausted and my friend scolded me for going after the boat. And I'd like to say that this was my only near-death experience, but unfortunately, it wasn't. I also had a near-death experience, but it was because a candy got stuck in my throat and I couldn't breathe. It was awful. What about you? Do you have any crazy stories? If you want to share it and practice some Spanish, come join the community.
It's completely free to join and there's so many things we do over there. So drop by and say hello!
