Shadowing Practice: How polyglots learn languages | The book that changed my life - Learn English Speaking with Video

This book once made me believe that I could become a polyglot.

How I Learn Languages is the reason I fell in love with language learning.

I first found it at school and it inspired me so much that later I chose to study linguistics at university.

I speak several languages, I'm learning my seventh language

and in this video I'm gonna share what I still find inspiring

and what I don't completely agree with anymore katolom herself was

a true legend she studied around 28 languages could speak around

16 of them fluently enough to work as a professional interpreter even a simultaneous interpreter

which was extremely rare back then especially for a woman she mentions

that she was no talent for languages she started learning in her adult years

and proves that progress comes from interest

and time not from being gifted she even puts it into

a formula time spent plus interest equals result she says

that there is no magic pill for learning a language people

often tell me oh you just have a talent for languages

but like lump i honestly don't understand it another point

that lump makes and i really relate to this is how adults block themselves

when speaking a foreign language They are so afraid of making mistakes that they end up saying nothing at all.

And I used to be exactly like that.

When I was learning my first foreign language, I was so embarrassed to make even small mistakes.

I was just silent.

But now, after studying more and more languages, I honestly don't care anymore.

Mistakes are just part of the process and they are evidence that you are actually using the language.

So let's update the formula, the previous formula, like this.

Time plus motivation divided by fear equals result.

There is another interesting moment in the book when she says

that men are actually more blocked and embarrassed when speaking a foreign language,

while women are less shy and have a stronger need for communication.

It's an interesting point, and I'm not sure whether I agree with it or not.

What do you think?

So talking about being gifted, about abilities, you don't have to be a linguist or a genius to learn several languages.

A linguist is a person who studies the theory of language, its grammar, structure, phonetics, everything profoundly.

And she compares it to a choreographer, like a linguist is a choreographer who studies dance, and a ballerina who actually dances.

So you can be a ballerina another thing

that i love about this book is that she writes

that learning languages shouldn't feel like a burden

but like a moment of enjoyment

and in everyday life like it should be your routine

that makes you enjoy your life

and this is exactly how i try to teach my students

i want languages to feel alive connected to their interests

and never just a set of grammar rules and this is

when i realized

that in many ways her words shape my own teaching philosophy

even before i realized it even before entering the university

so why do we study languages i think it's pretty clear

to be engaged with the world with people with different ways of thinking

and long has a beautiful line about this in her book she writes we study languages

because language is the only way

is the only thing that is never useless to know even superficially

and i couldn't agree more even the smallest knowledge of a

language a few phrases some basic understanding can open doors create connections

and change how you see the world

so you don't have to know all the languages proficiently just start learning a language

and probably you will move further just by being interested in it, being engaged in the process.

When it comes to her methodology, I find myself agreeing with her on many points,

not all but many, especially with her idea that a language should be learned as a whole.

She compares knowledge to a nail.

If it isn't driven deep enough, at the first pressure it will fall out.

And the same with languages, if you only study them passively just by reading

and listening without practice without output active output these languages won't simply hold another metaphor

that i love is how she describes language as a building it has four grand holes speaking listening reading

and writing and you can only call yourself truly at home in this building

if you have entered all of these four holes

if you neglect one of them the whole construction feels unstable

doesn't feel like home i really connect with this idea with this metaphor

because for me language learning has never been about collecting loose words

or grammar rules it's about building this solid structure brick by brick making sure

that every hall is open every room is alive that's exactly

what i try to give my students not just grammar rules not just fragments

or loose words as I've said before but a living system where all the parts support each other.

It is interesting that on the other hand Lam criticizes what we would now call immersion.

She says it can feel like mindless something as passive as watching tv.

For her real language learning for adults should rely on conscious effort, logical thinking and deliberate practice.

Which is right because adults don't actually learn like children.

We can't just be thrown into a new English-speaking

or any other language-speaking environment and expect that our brain will absorb everything the way a toddler does.

It won't work like that because we're not toddlers, we're not babies anymore.

But But at the same time, reducing immersion to something passive or thoughtless feels very unfair.

From my own experience, immersion is one of the most powerful tools that we have.

Like watching movies, watching podcasts, listening to music, surrounding yourself with the language.

It isn't about switching your brain off.

It's about letting these language patterns sink in naturally.

and then reinforcing them in conscious practice.

So while I understand her skepticism, I think immersion is not the enemy of conscious learning.

It's its strongest ally.

Together, they create a great balance for adults when they learn languages.

Logic gives you structure.

Immersion gives you life.

Lam talks a lot about vocabulary in this book, how we should learn it, how we shouldn't learn it.

She criticizes this old form of learning languages, of learning vocabulary, you know,

two-column method where we write a word in one column and its translation in another column next to it.

And I criticize it as well because if we learn the words this way, they will stay isolated.

They will be detached from the real usage.

So what you should remember is that words don't live alone.

They live in context.

They live in collocations they live in phrases not alone

but then at the same time she defends the method

that is called the dictionary method it's about simply learning words

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straight from a dictionary i don't understand this method like i

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don't think it's effective of course dictionaries are essential it's a great great tool

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but again they strip words away from life they're not in context they're not in real usage.

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And I agree with Lom that the more energy we invest in searching for the right meaning using a dictionary,

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the stronger the effect of learning the language, of memorizing the vocabulary.

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I agree with it.

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It's definitely true.

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So what's the best way to work with a dictionary?

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For me, it's not about copying ready-made examples or cramming lists of words.

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It's about taking a writing it down in your notebook

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and immediately creating a sentence with this word your own sentence your own example with it

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so this way the word becomes linked to you to your life to your thoughts to your experience

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and it will be more effective for you to memorize it

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when it comes to grammar i actually agree with long with one of her central points

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that grammar is a system and

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if you want to master a foreign language as an adult

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you simply cannot avoid the system you simply cannot avoid learning grammar

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and again it's not about memorizing about cramming sets of rules

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grammar should be studied in combination with other aspects of language

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through reading through listening through meaningful contexts without this systematic approach adult learners risk ending up with this fragmented knowledge

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that doesn't work in real communication I disagree with LOM on another point.

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She writes that we should extrapolate grammar rules from one language that we already know to another language.

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In other words, we should take a structure that we already know in one language and apply it to a new one, assuming that it will work the same way.

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This cross-linguistic transfer might sound logical to someone and it might work in some cases.

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For example, when we learn the languages that are structurally close like spanish

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and french for example but more often it leads to interference

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and some fossilized errors unnatural usage

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so i don't recommend doing this i have an example from

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my life i try to compare the grammar rules of turkish

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and russian russian is my native language and turkish was the language that i was learning that time

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And it turned out to be a terrible idea because Turkish, unlike any other languages I've studied,

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has a completely different structure and internal reason.

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And at some point I realized the only way forward was to stop comparing

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and to learn Turkish as Turkish on its own terms.

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I believe it's more effective to approach each language as an independent system about reading.

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Katow long placed reading at the very heart of language learning and for her it's not just a tool.

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So books are not just a tool, it's the ultimate source of knowledge

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and I see why she emphasized the importance of reading books

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so much because back in her time learners didn't have this instant access to podcasts, to YouTube, to online learning apps as we do.

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Books were the most reliable way to immerse yourself in a language.

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And I do agree, reading is crucial.

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But what about those people who don't like reading as much as Lomb did, for example?

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Because I have that type of students who don't enjoy reading thick novels, and that's okay, I think, because you can read just some short articles,

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texts, or even like social media posts

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and yeah it's still about engaging with meaningful content it's still about engaging with reading

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so if novels feel like a burden you don't have to force yourself

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if you don't like reading this kind of book start with

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short stories with news with even subtitles of some series or

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or films can be considered to be reading another thing

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that long insists on is that when you read you shouldn't translate every single word.

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She says that stopping at each unknown word kills the flow of reading and turns it into torture.

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And because the real benefit of reading is when you let the book, the books carry you, even if some words slip by,

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it's not that important to translate every single word.

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If you do translate every single word, it means

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that the book is not suitable to you to your level probably you should change it to something simpler but

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if you don't know some words it's not necessary to translate

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everything we can just instead try to figure out the meaning

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through your mental effort you know this moment of discovery

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when you realize what this word means can bring you this joy of you know like cracking a puzzle

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or something so it's even more satisfying and the satisfaction gives you the opportunity to learn to memorize the word more effectively.

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So when I read in a foreign language, I don't aim for translating every single word for a perfect translation.

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I don't actually translate.

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I just aim for understanding the story and understanding the characters, the message.

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I do write down some collocations that I find useful, interesting.

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I write them down in Quizlet.

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This is the app that I use for learning words.

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There is another interesting point that I don't really share.

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She writes that textbooks, the best textbooks, are written in the learner's native language.

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I can't understand her point because back in her time the most popular

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and even the most logical approach was that kind of approach when you used your native language to clarify the explanation.

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Probably it was the safest way to avoid confusion.

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But today modern research shows the opposite in my own experience as well.

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I work with Cambridge and Oxford textbooks

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and most of my students are Russian speakers

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and these books are not in Russian so we don't use the mother tongue and yet they are extremely effective.

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In fact I almost never switch to Russian when I when I teach in class.

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And this is what some studies in second language acquisition say.

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Early and consistent exposure to the target language helps learners think directly in it instead of constantly translating in their heads.

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Also, these modern textbooks are created by qualified specialists.

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They are built on solid methodology with a very clear and logical structure system.

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So this makes them accessible even for beginners without the need for constant translation into your native language.

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So while I respect her perspective as a reflection of her time.

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I believe the most effective textbooks are those that immerse learners in the language, in the target language from the very start.

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So we've just talked about reading textbooks and learning grammar vocabulary, but none of these tools will really work without consistency.

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That's where discipline comes in.

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Of course, motivation is important and she emphasizes it again and again in her book.

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She writes that language learning works best when it's connected with your genuine interest

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when you approach it through things that you really like doing

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that you enjoy doing and i completely agree with her of course

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if you are curious if you love the content

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that you absorb you will naturally spend more time with the

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language you won't force yourself relying only on motivation is a bad idea motivation comes

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and goes some days you feel inspired other days you don't that's why i believe in the power of self-discipline

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so you need to make learning a habit?

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How do you actually do this?

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For me, the answer is small regular steps.

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Over time, these little routines, these little steps will become as natural as brushing your teeth.

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This is how I actually feel about learning French or Spanish or any other language.

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So motivation brings you to the language.

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Discipline keeps you there.

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And patience allows you to see the results, some lasting results.

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Ketelom also writes about some easy and difficult languages.

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And there is this stereotype that English is really easy.

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Like it's the easiest language to learn.

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And Chinese is labeled as impossibly hard.

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But if we look closer, we will see that it's a misconception because let's take English.

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The grammar is relatively simple, but then we face a jungle of phrasal verbs,

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idioms, multiple meanings of the same word.

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We realize that it's not as simple as everybody thinks it is.

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For instance, the verb turn can branch into dozens of expressions like turn up,

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turn down, turn turn over and each must be learned in contexts

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because their meanings can really match the logic of our native language is english

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that easy probably at the beginning but then when you

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reach a certain level it doesn't seem to be so easy

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and on the other hand chinese is often feared

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because of its writing system

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but once you go deeper you find a strong internal logic every character carries meaning often connected to visual roots

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and once you recognize these patterns the system begins to make sense

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and that leads to her central point about the difficulty of languages talking about languages as easy

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or difficult is misleading because every language balances its challenges

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and advantages and what you lose in one area you gain in another area So instead of asking which language is easier,

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a much better question is which language inspires me more to keep learning.

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Because when you choose a language that you genuinely love,

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it's so-called difficulties turn into puzzles that you actually want to solve.

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An uncorrected mistake is a disaster and this is why we need a teacher.

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Because if we keep repeating the same mistake, it just doesn't stay but it becomes stronger it becomes fossilized

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and later unlearning this mistake unlearning this wrong form is even harder than learning it right from the beginning

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so this is why the best way to study is to

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study with a teacher a good teacher notices the things

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that you don't notice their feedback and correction can save you hours or even months of re-learning in In a way,

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a teacher is like a compass who makes sure you're not heading in the wrong direction, the wrong way.

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She also mentions her personal experience in this book.

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She said that she found it easier to learn languages with female teachers

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because it was simpler for her to chat and build contact.

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This detail may sound funny, but there is a truth behind it that you should find the teacher

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that you feel at ease with because you will speak more, you will not be afraid to make mistakes, and this way you will learn faster.

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Also, she had to sign for Polish classes once, and instead of joining the beginners group, she went straight into the advanced one.

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She insisted on it, even though she didn't know the language at all, like a single word.

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And in her case, it worked, because she is strongly motivated it she had no choice

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but to keep up with the rest of the group in spite of the pressure

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that she had but for some students this strategy is not good like it cannot really work

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because it's like throwing yourself into fire

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and learning to survive it sounds really stressful

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and as a teacher i have to say

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that it's not always the right decision to take this kind of students

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because one unprepared student can slow down the rest of the group

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and in this case the teacher has to spend extra hours just explaining basic things to

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that student who is not aware of anything.

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A good teacher should place students where they can progress gradually, consistently, without damaging the experience of the rest of the class.

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So I do not understand why that Polish teacher accepted her to that advanced level of classes.

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So this book once made me believe that I could become a polyglot.

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honestly it changed the whole course of my life

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because it inspired me to study linguistics it pushed me to explore several languages

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and it shaped the way I teach my students now although

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I don't share all of her views the influence is undeniable it gave me the spark of motivation

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that I really needed in order to decide where I want

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to what I want to study in the future what I to do in the future.

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I wouldn't be the person I am today if I hadn't found this book in a library.

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So if you enjoy this kind of videos make sure you subscribe because I'll be sharing some more interesting stories,

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insights and strategies that will inspire you your own language journey, I hope.

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Vocabulario y notas de pronunciación para esta lección

Este vídeo tiene 259 frases y 3321 palabras para practicar shadowing. La parte hablada dura 20:48. El hablante habla a un ritmo natural de unas 160 palabras por minuto, cercano a una conversación cotidiana. El 83 % de las palabras está entre las 3.000 más comunes del inglés; conviene repasar el resto antes de empezar.

Vocabulario clave de este vídeo

15 palabras del vídeo que vale la pena aprender, con su pronunciación y significado:

Palabra	Pronunciación	Significado
grammar sustantivo	/ˈɡɹæm.ə(ɹ)/	gramática
motivation sustantivo	/ˈmoʊ.tə.veɪ.ʃən/	motivación
textbook sustantivo	/ˈtɛkst.bʊk/	manual, libro escolar
translate verbo	/tɹænzˈleɪt/	traducir, trasladar
compare verbo	/kəmˈpɛɚ/	comparar, parangonar
logical adjetivo	/ˈlɑd͡ʒɪkəl/	lógico
dictionary sustantivo	/ˈdɪk.ʃəˌnɛ.ɹi/	diccionario, tumbaburros
vocabulary sustantivo	/vəˈkæb.jə.lə.ɹi/	vocabulario
formula sustantivo	/ˈfɔː.mjʊ.lə/	fórmula
translation sustantivo	/tɹænzˈleɪʃən/	traducción, transmisión
column sustantivo	/ˈkɒləm/	columna, pilastra
discipline sustantivo	/ˈdɪsəplɪn/	disciplina
usage sustantivo	/ˈjuːsɪd͡ʒ/	uso
conscious adjetivo	/ˈkɑn.ʃəs/	consciente
criticize verbo	/ˈkɹɪtɪsaɪz/	criticar, culpar

Phrasal verbs que vas a escuchar

Palabra	Significado
end up verbo	terminar, ir a parar
fall out verbo	caerse
figure out verbo	averiguar, captar
keep up with verbo	seguir, ir al paso
slow down verbo	desacelerar, decelerar
turn down verbo	rechazar
turn up verbo	aparecer
write down verbo	apuntar, anotar

Gramática en este vídeo

Las estructuras que más usa el hablante, con las palabras exactas del vídeo:

Estructura	En el vídeo
Oraciones condicionales if + oración, will/would + verbo — una condición y su resultado	if we look closer, we will see
Voz pasiva be + participio pasado — importa lo que ocurre, no quién lo hace	being gifted · be engaged · being engaged
Present perfect have/has + participio pasado — una acción pasada que sigue importando ahora	have entered · has never been · I've said
Oraciones de relativo who / which + oración — información extra sobre una persona o cosa	person who studies · people who don · students who don

Pronunciación a tener en cuenta

El hablante usa 54 contracciones y formas reducidas, como don't, doesn't, I'm. Dilas en su forma corta, tal como las oyes.

Los sonidos de “th”: methodology /ˌmɛθ.əˈdɑ.lə.d͡ʒi/, thick /θɪk/, seventh /ˈsɛvənθ/
Los sonidos de “sh” y “zh”: motivation /ˈmoʊ.tə.veɪ.ʃən/, dictionary /ˈdɪk.ʃəˌnɛ.ɹi/, translation /tɹænzˈleɪʃən/, conscious /ˈkɑn.ʃəs/, explanation /ˌɛkspləˈneɪʃən/
Palabras largas — cuida el acento: motivation /ˈmoʊ.tə.veɪ.ʃən/, dictionary /ˈdɪk.ʃəˌnɛ.ɹi/, vocabulary /vəˈkæb.jə.lə.ɹi/, naturally /ˈnæt͡ʃ.(ə.)ɹə.li/, difficulty /ˈdɪfɪkəlti/

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 grammar, motivation, textbook.

¿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.

Técnica de shadowing: lee la guía completa paso a paso →

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