Shadowing Practice: Are we too Materialistic? - Learn English Speaking with Video
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43 oraciones
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It doesn't seem to make sense to suggest that there might be such a thing as good materialism.
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After all, isn't materialism just plain bad, always?
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It can seem as if we're faced with a stark choice.
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Either you can be materialistic, and that means obsessed with money and possessions, shallow and selfish, or you can reject materialism,
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be good and focus on more important matters of the spirit.
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But in truth, most of us are, in our hearts, stuck somewhere between these two choices, which is pretty uncomfortable.
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We're still enmeshed in the desire to possess, but we're encouraged to feel rather bad about it.
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Yet, crucially, it's not actually materialism, the pure fact of buying things and getting excited by possessions, that's ever really the problem.
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We're failing to make a clear distinction between good and bad versions of materialism.
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Let's try to understand good materialism through a slightly unusual route – religion.
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Because we see them as focused exclusively on spiritual things, it can be surprising to note how much use religions have made of material things.
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They've spent a lot of time making and thinking about scrolls to hang in your house,
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shrines, temples, monasteries, artworks, clothes, ceremonies.
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However, they've cared about these things for one reason only
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because they've wanted material things to serve the highest and noblest purpose – the development of our souls.
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It's just that they've recognised that we are incarnate, sensory, bodily beings and that the way to get through to our souls has to be,
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at least in part, through our bodies rather than merely through the intellect.
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The importance of material things was for centuries at the core of Christianity
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which proposed that Jesus was both the highest spiritual being and a flesh and blood person.
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He was the spirit incarnate, holiness embodied.
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In the Catholic mass, great significance is accorded to the bread and the wine, which are believed to be transubstantiations of Christ,
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that is, material objects which simultaneously have a spiritual identity, just as Jesus himself combined the spiritual and the bodily while on earth.
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This can all sound like a very weird and arcane point, entirely removed from the local shopping mall.
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But exactly the same concept actually applies outside of religions.
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Many good material possessions can be said to involve a kind of transubstantiation, whereby they are both practical and physical,
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and also embody or allude to a positive personality or spirit.
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Take this watch by the designer Dieter Rams.
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To the outer eye, it's an ordinary timepiece, but at a psychological level, it's also a kind of transubstantiation.
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It tells the time, but it also hints at a more psychological or even spiritual side, with ideals of purity, simplicity and harmony floating around it.
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It tells us how long there is till lunch, but it's also trying to nudge us towards being a certain sort of person.
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Or take this chair.
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It, too, transubstantiates a set of important values straightforwardness, strength, honesty and elegance.
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By getting closer to the chair we stand to become a little more like it, which is an important piece of inner evolution.
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Material objects can therefore be said to play a positive psychological or spiritual role in our lives when higher,
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more positive ideals are materialized in them, and so when buying and using them daily gives us a chance to get closer to our better selves.
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When they're contained in physical things,
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valuable psychological qualities that are otherwise often intermittent in our thoughts and conduct can become more stable and resilient.
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This isn't to say that all consumerism just conveniently turns out to be great.
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It depends on what a given material object stands for.
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An object can transubstantiate the very worst sides of human nature, greed, callousness, the desire to triumph, as much as it can the best sides.
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So, we must be careful not to decry or celebrate all material consumption just like that.
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We have to ensure that the objects we invest in
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and tire ourselves and the planet by making are those that lend most encouragement to our higher, better natures.
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Vocabulario y notas de pronunciación para esta lección
Esta lección de conversación se basa en el vídeo “Are we too Materialistic?”. Las palabras que más se repiten: material, materialism, spiritual, object, psychological. Este vídeo tiene 43 frases y 686 palabras para practicar shadowing. La parte hablada dura 4:24. El hablante habla a un ritmo natural de unas 156 palabras por minuto, cercano a una conversación cotidiana. Solo el 80 % de las palabras está entre las 3.000 más comunes del inglés, por lo que el vocabulario es exigente.
Vocabulario clave de este vídeo
15 palabras del vídeo que vale la pena aprender, con su pronunciación y significado:
| Palabra | Pronunciación | Significado |
|---|---|---|
| spiritual adjetivo | /ˈspɪɹɪt͡ʃuəl/ | espiritual |
| psychological adjetivo | /ˌsaɪ.kəˈlɑː.d͡ʒɪ.kl̩/ | psicológico |
| possession sustantivo | /pəˈzɛʃn̩/ | posesión |
| ideal adjetivo | /aɪˈdi(ə)l/ | ideal, idóneo |
| bodily adjetivo | /ˈbɑdɪli/ | corporal |
| practical adjetivo | /ˈpɹæk.tɪ.kəl/ | práctico |
| stable sustantivo | /ˈsteɪ.bəl/ | establo, cuadra |
| encourage verbo | /ɪnˈkʌɹ.ɪd͡ʒ/ | alentar, arengar |
| temple sustantivo | /ˈtɛm.pl̩/ | templo |
| unusual adjetivo | /ʌnˈjuːʒ(u)əl/ | inusual, inusitado |
| plain sustantivo | /pleɪn/ | llanura, planicie |
| ceremony sustantivo | /ˈsɛɹ.əˌmoʊ.ni/ | ceremonia |
| designer sustantivo | /dɪˈzaɪnɚ/ | diseñador, diseñadora |
| ordinary adjetivo | /ˈɔɹdɪnɛɹi/ | ordinario |
| evolution sustantivo | /ˌiːvəˈluːʃ(ə)n/ | evolución |
Gramática en este vídeo
Las estructuras que más usa el hablante, con las palabras exactas del vídeo:
| Estructura | En el vídeo |
|---|---|
| Present perfect have/has + participio pasado — una acción pasada que sigue importando ahora | have made · They've spent · they've cared |
| Voz pasiva be + participio pasado — importa lo que ocurre, no quién lo hace | is accorded · can be said · be said |
| Oraciones de relativo who / which + oración — información extra sobre una persona o cosa | choices, which is · wine, which are |
Pronunciación a tener en cuenta
El hablante usa 12 contracciones y formas reducidas, como they've, we're, isn't. Dilas en su forma corta, tal como las oyes.
- Los sonidos de “sh” y “zh”: possession /pəˈzɛʃn̩/, unusual /ʌnˈjuːʒ(u)əl/, evolution /ˌiːvəˈluːʃ(ə)n/, consumption /kənˈsʌmp.ʃən/, flesh /flɛʃ/
- Palabras largas — cuida el acento: psychological /ˌsaɪ.kəˈlɑː.d͡ʒɪ.kl̩/, unusual /ʌnˈjuːʒ(u)əl/, ceremony /ˈsɛɹ.əˌmoʊ.ni/, ordinary /ˈɔɹdɪnɛɹi/, evolution /ˌiːvəˈluːʃ(ə)n/
Sonidos difíciles para hispanohablantes:
- s + consonante al inicio — sin añadir una “e” delante: spiritual /ˈspɪɹɪt͡ʃuəl/, stable /ˈsteɪ.bəl/, stark /stɑɹk/, scroll /skɹoʊl/
- /v/ — no es /b/: los dientes tocan el labio inferior: evolution /ˌiːvəˈluːʃ(ə)n/, invest /ɪnˈvɛst/, involve /ɪnˈvɑlv/, exclusively /ɪkˈskluːsɪvli/, conveniently /kənˈvinjəntli/
- /z/ — sonora, no /s/: possession /pəˈzɛʃn̩/, designer /dɪˈzaɪnɚ/, possess /pəˈzɛs/, propose /pɹəˈpəʊz/, materialism /məˈtɪɹiəlɪzəm/
Cómo practicar con este vídeo
- Escucha el vídeo entero una vez sin hablar y anota las palabras que no conoces.
- Empieza a velocidad 0,75×, haz shadowing frase por frase y vuelve a la velocidad normal cuando te resulte fácil.
- Grábate y compara con el original, prestando atención a palabras como spiritual, psychological, possession.
¿Qué es la Técnica de Shadowing?
Shadowing es una técnica de aprendizaje de idiomas respaldada por la ciencia, desarrollada originalmente para la formación de intérpretes profesionales y popularizada por el políglota Dr. Alexander Arguelles. El método es simple pero poderoso: escuchas audio en inglés nativo y lo repites en voz alta de inmediato, como una sombra que sigue al hablante con solo 1-2 segundos de retraso. A diferencia de la escucha pasiva o los ejercicios de gramática, el shadowing obliga a tu cerebro y músculos de la boca a procesar y reproducir simultáneamente patrones de habla reales. Las investigaciones muestran que mejora significativamente la precisión de la pronunciación, la entonación, el ritmo, el habla conectada, la comprensión auditiva y la fluidez al hablar, convirtiéndola en una de las metodologías más efectivas para la preparación del IELTS Speaking y la comunicación en inglés en el mundo real.