Shadowing Practice: I Can't Keep Doing This - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creando lección...
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Guys, I can't do this anymore.
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Something needs to change.
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I need to make better quality episodes.
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Hello, my lovely learners, and welcome to Easy Stories in English,
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the podcast that will take your English from okay to good and from good to great.
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I am Ariel Goodbody, your host for this show.
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In today's episode, I will tell you about some quite dramatic changes that are coming to the podcast.
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As always, the transcript and PDF are available at easystoriesinenglish.com, and you can find the link in the description.
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So yes, it's true.
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I can't keep going on making episodes like this, but before I reveal the shocking truth,
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I need to tell you the meaning of some words.
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So if you simply can't wait, just skip to the next chapter.
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Binge, B-I-N-G-E, means to consume a lot of one thing at one time, in one sitting.
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Traditionally, it refers to binge drinking, which is when you drink lots of alcohol in one go.
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It's quite common in the UK, especially at universities.
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But these days, binging often refers to watching TV shows or eating lots of food.
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For example, your favourite TV show might drop its new season all in one go
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and you might binge all the episodes at once.
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This was a very popular form of releasing TV episodes years ago before Covid.
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For example, when Orange is the New Black came out, people would binge the whole season.
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Personally, I'm not much of a binger myself, but I can play video games for hours if I'm not careful.
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A leap of faith is when you make a really big decision that could go really well or really badly.
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You're essentially leaping, jumping into the unknown.
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Moving to China was a big leap of faith for me, but fortunately it is going very well.
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Watching paint dry isn't really an activity people do, that's the point.
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It's a phrase we use to talk about something hypothetical that is so so boring.
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For example, you might say that studying English from a textbook is like watching paint dry
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and I would agree with you because I think textbooks are a very boring way to learn.
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When you have a project on the back burner it means you are not actively working on it.
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If you think about a hob in a kitchen you have four burners
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and you might put a saucepan on the back burner simmering a sauce for like 40 minutes while you cook some onions,
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you fry some onions on the front burner.
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So the idea is often that we leave something on the back burner and come back to it later.
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I have a lot of things on the back burner in my creative
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life right now but i'll get to that later when we say
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that something sucks we mean that it's really bad
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and this is very colloquial language it's specifically quite american for example i think
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that public transport in the uk sucks at least outside of london
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but the quality of dairy products so milk
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and yogurt in china also sucks
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so sucking is universal fortnight means two weeks it literally comes from 14 nights we use this in british english
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but they don't use it in american English.
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So when they would say bi-weekly or once every two weeks, we would say fortnightly or once a fortnight.
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When something kicks in, usually a medicine, it starts being effective.
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For example, many painkillers, many medicines that reduce the level of pain,
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take about 30 minutes to kick in.
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We can also talk about an emotion kicking in.
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For example, in today's episode I'm talking about fear kicking in, when suddenly fear rushes through your body,
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a bit like a medicine taking effect.
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Anodyne, A-N-O-D-Y-N-E, which by the way is one of my favorite words,
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words, means boring, specifically in a way where something has been designed to be as inoffensive and bland as possible.
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These days it feels like most media is made to either be really inflammatory,
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to offend as many people as possible, or to be completely anodyne,
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to be uninteresting and friendly to everyone.
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A lot of bad pop music is bad precisely because it's anodyne
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and now with AI anyone can pump out endless anodyne songs,
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stories, images because AI literally just takes the soup of everything
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that exists and mixes it all together and creates very average anodyne work.
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An anecdote, A-N-E-C-D-O-T-E, is a story from real life.
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Anecdotes are usually quite short, it's usually observing a situation.
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We also talk about anecdotal evidence, which is when you don't have scientific studies about something,
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but lots of people talk about experiencing the same thing.
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And usually anecdotal evidence is what inspires scientists to study something in the first place.
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Finally, a preview is when you get to see a bit of something before it's released.
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Later on, I'll be giving you a preview of an upcoming episode, so look forward to that.
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All right, let's get into the episode.
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So I've been doing the podcasting thing for a while now, almost eight years.
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When I started, I was just a newbie teacher taking my first steps of independence out in the world.
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I loved podcasts, I binged them for hours every day, and I was looking for a creative outlet, a way to share my writing,
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and so Easy Stories in English came together.
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I'm no longer that same shy 25 year old.
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I've been through COVID, as we all have, had a rather complicated health and gender journey,
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and last year I moved halfway across the world to China.
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I'm not the only one who's changed.
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The podcast market, or content landscape as people like to call it,
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is completely different now in 2026 than it was in 2019.
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I talked about binging your favourite shows before, but this is becoming less and less common worldwide.
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Increasingly, rather than diving deep into one creator's content,
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people are watching what the algorithm serves them, and the algorithm offers a buffet of endless variety.
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Never before have more people been competing for your ears.
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Production standards have changed too.
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I originally started a podcast because it required less effort than video,
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but these days podcasts are expected to have video too, And not just any video,
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but tightly edited, well-shot feasts for the eyes.
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Well, I don't know.
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You decide whether I fit that bill.
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Finally, tastes have changed.
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I remember the days when a 10-minute YouTube video was considered long.
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Now I'll happily sit down to watch a five-hour documentary about the history of North Korean pop culture.
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Not in one sitting.
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Although if you do want to watch that video, I'll link it in the description.
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It's fascinating.
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But I digress.
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These days I come home from work, sit down on the sofa, and hungrily wait for videos from my favourite YouTubers.
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And when those videos arrive, I eat them up.
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ContraPoints is one such example.
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A brilliant YouTuber who releases videos about once a year now.
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But they're not just any videos.
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They're well-researched, they're beautifully shot, and most importantly, in my opinion, masterfully written.
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So where does this put me and my little show?
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Well, first of all, I've never really been like the other English learning podcasts.
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Hello everyone and welcome to the BBC Boring British Club,
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where you can learn English by listening to the most tedious, dull conversations possible.
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Did you know that tedious and dull are synonyms of boring?
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If you haven't shot yourself from boredom yet, congratulations!
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You just raised your IELTS level by 0.1.
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Today we're talking about boring things in the past tense.
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Sandra, what did you do on the weekend?
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Well, Ariel, on the weekend, I watched paint dry.
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I counted the number of fridges in my house.
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I have just one fridge.
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And I thought about rabbits.
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Thinking about rabbits?
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Do you have any pets, Sandra?
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Oh, sorry.
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We're using the past tense.
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Did you go to the pet shop on the weekend, Sandra?
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No, I didn't.
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But I thought about rabbits anyway.
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Careful, Sandra.
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That sounds a bit too into...
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Oh, crap.
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Past tense.
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Sandra, I once thought about rabbits and it was very interesting,
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but I was part of a show called Boring British Club,
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which had only the dullest and most tedious conversations.
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And it was a bit too interesting so i got into trouble
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did your boss tell you off in this story it's not a story sandra it's real
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and yes my boss told me off and I almost lost my job.
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Well then, I suppose I should tell you about the other thing I did on the weekend.
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On the weekend, I looked for a new job.
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I wish they were like that.
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Unfortunately, they're more like five words for walking down the stairs.
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You know, not my thing.
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My thing is a bit more...
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We're learning English with a real good buddy.
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Woo!
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Woo!
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Woo!
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Learning English with a real good buddy.
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But as I've said, times are changing and I'm kind of getting bored of my own style.
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For a long time now, I've been wanting to work on deeper projects,
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longer stories with music and sound effects and just a general higher quality of production value.
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I've done some of these episodes in the past few years.
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The Juniper Tree, Hamburg, The City of Water, and Doing Evil are the three episodes that come to mind,
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but these took me a long time to make.
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The first two I did while I was working full-time on the podcast,
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and I started writing The Juniper Tree in October 2022,
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which means it took me almost three years to go from start to finish.
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And I work full-time now, so if I started that episode now, I don't even know how long it would take.
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I've fallen into this pattern where I have these big, juicy projects on the back burner,
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but because I'm always rushing to get the next episode out on schedule, I can never finish them.
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Or for example, when I'm going on a holiday, I don't want to be working,
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so I'm in this mad rush to batch a bunch of episodes before I go away
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and I can just never take those things off the back burner.
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The juniper tree is not an exception.
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I have many projects, both episodes and other things related to the podcast, that I've been trying to do for years.
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It's not an exaggeration.
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The last straw for me, the thing that made me say, okay, enough is enough, was the Cambodia episode.
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Because the Cambodia episode sucked.
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Like, I'm sorry, it just sucked.
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It was bad.
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I only talked about Cambodia for half of the episode, and I didn't even go into the actually interesting stuff because I didn't want to cry.
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Honestly, it was emotionally, intellectually, and artistically lazy.
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So here's the deal.
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I need more time to work on episodes.
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That's it.
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That's the big leap of faith I've been building up to this whole time.
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Because here's the thing, in 2019 it made sense to do one episode a week
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because it was the era of quantity over quality.
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When I came back from my hiatus in 2022, it made sense to switch to Once a Fortnight for my own mental health.
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But now I really need to do something that I feel creatively proud of and that actually fits the content landscape.
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And that is bigger, juicier episodes, but fewer episodes.
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Really, the only reason I didn't do this before is I was scared.
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The longer you do one project online, the more fear kicks in.
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Because you have an audience now, and audiences have expectations.
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You've got to always come up with new and better content.
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Every year there's more competition.
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And finally, the geniuses at YouTube and Spotify could just roll out of bed one day,
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change the algorithm and make you disappear like that.
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I would also be lying if I said money wasn't a factor in this decision.
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When I was self-employed working on the podcast, I was terrified of making any changes that might affect my income.
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But now I have a full-time teaching job that leaves me very comfortable, so I have no reason not to experiment.
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Because I have big plans.
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At the start, I thought I was just a teacher and just a writer.
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But over time i began to realize you know what i'm not half bad at this voice acting thing
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and now i'm like screw it let's go for it music sound effects epic stories
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so much content online is lazy anodyne simplistic i want to make art i want to make deep real art
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that shakes the mind and stirs the soul And I want you to learn English at the same time.
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So yes, easy stories in English is changing.
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There won't be a regular schedule anymore.
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Just saying that terrifies me.
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But don't worry, I'm not going to leave you waiting eight months between episodes.
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I'll find little ways to fill in the gaps.
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Actually, that's where I think the unscripted content, the little anecdotes, the shorter stories will be perfect.
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And I'll also be giving you previews of those big juicy stories that are to come.
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Speaking of which, here's a preview of what I'm working on at the moment.
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When the ten suns rose, it was like a fireworks display going off in Houyi's face.
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It took all his strength not to turn away.
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You nine suns who have joined the sky, Houyi cried.
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I come to ask you, why?
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Our people suffer, our rivers dry.
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Won't you leave and let us be?
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Three of the sons circled around towards Houyi, as if curious about his message.
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But they remained silent.
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He could not tell if they understood. So Houyi spoke again.
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you nine sons who have joined the sky hoi cried i
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come to ask you why our people suffer our rivers dry won't you leave
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and let us be another three of the sons came forward but these three did not stay quiet.
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The moment Houyi's words came out, their laughter boomed.
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It thundered in Houyi's ears and made the back of his eyes itch.
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But still, the young man did not give up.
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You nine suns who have joined the sky, Huyi cried.
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I come to ask you why our people suffer, our rivers dry.
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Won't you leave and let us be?
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The next three suns came and these three did not find Huyi's words amusing.
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In fact, they began to boil, deepening in colour until they were as red as a lobster's tail
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and before Hou Yi knew what was happening one of the sons was shooting towards him.
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Hou Yi leapt for his bow and arrow.
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He readied the arrow and fired, striking the sun mere meters from his face.
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The sun let out an animal scream,
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breaking into strips of red silk which caught fire, burning Hoi's face.
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But no sooner had the first sun gone than the second one threw itself at Hoi
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and again he let off an arrow, tearing the creature apart and showering the mountain top in fire.
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The battle continued in this way.
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One by one, the suns rained down on him and Hou Yi shot so fast he thought his fingers might break.
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Three, four, five, six, seven.
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He soon lost count.
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The ground around him was transformed to magma, covered with the remains of the once powerful suns.
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Finally, one sun remained on the horizon, shining like a fresh bruise.
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Huyi raised his bow, ready to fire, when...
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Wait!
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He almost fell over.
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Behind him stood a Taoist monk, his blue robes flapping in the wind.
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Young man, that is our original sun.
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If you shoot it down, you will throw the world into darkness.
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As an artist, you always have to change.
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Also, I don't know if you've noticed, but the world is changing quite a lot right now.
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We need powerful stories more than ever.
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I kind of hate saying that like, oh, stories are going to change the world.
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But it's kind of true.
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It's like when you learn a language and you say, oh, I'm learning English for travel or for work.
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But really, the biggest change
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that comes from learning a language is the deep connections you form because you were able to speak it.
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And that is something we simply cannot predict.
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So, before we finish, let's just recap all the new words I've taught you this episode.
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If you're new to the show, maybe this has inspired you to go back and binge all the previous episodes.
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And if you're a long-time listener, please support me in this leap of faith.
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You will have to wait more than a fortnight for the next episode.
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Hopefully it won't feel like watching paint dry.
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But if the loneliness starts to kick in, you can always follow me on social media where I'll be posting previews of upcoming episodes.
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Finally, if this idea sucks, if these bigger, juicier episodes end up being uninspired and anodyne,
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I guess I can always go back to telling little anecdotes from my everyday life.
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The only word I haven't used is on the back burner, which is fitting because things left on the back burner often gets ignored.
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So, comment and let me know what is one leap of faith you've been considering but have been too scared to make.
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Who knows, maybe I can help give you a little push.
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Thanks for listening and may you learn English happily ever after.
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Bye!
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Vocabulario y notas de pronunciación para esta lección
Esta lección de conversación de nivel B1 se basa en el vídeo “I Can't Keep Doing This”. Este vídeo tiene 258 frases y 2989 palabras para practicar shadowing. La parte hablada dura 25:51. El hablante mantiene un ritmo constante de unas 116 palabras por minuto, cómodo para el shadowing. Solo el 81 % de las palabras está entre las 3.000 más comunes del inglés, por lo que el vocabulario es exigente.
Vocabulario clave de este vídeo
Las 15 palabras más avanzadas del vídeo, con su pronunciación y significado:
| Palabra | Pronunciación | Significado |
|---|---|---|
| podcast sustantivo | /ˈpɑdˌkæst/ | podcast, pódcast |
| burner sustantivo | /ˈbɝnɚ/ | fogón, fuego |
| binge sustantivo | /bɪnd͡ʒ/ | atracón, comilona |
| bore verbo | /boɹ/ | aburrir |
| anodyne adjetivo | /ˈæn.ə.daɪn/ | anodino |
| leap verbo | /ˈliːp/ | saltar, brincar |
| preview sustantivo | /ˈpɹiːvjuː/ | preestreno, premier |
| anecdote sustantivo | /ˈæn.ɪkˌdəʊt/ | anécdota, chascarrillo |
| juicy adjetivo | /ˈd͡ʒuːsi/ | jugoso, zumoso |
| rabbit sustantivo | /ˈɹæbɪt/ | conejo, conejil |
| juniper sustantivo | /ˈd͡ʒunɪpɚ/ | junípero, enebro |
| tedious adjetivo | /ˈtiː.dɪəs/ | tedioso, prolijo |
| dull adjetivo | /dʌl/ | romo, embotado |
| tense sustantivo | /tɛns/ | tiempo |
| algorithm sustantivo | /ˈælɡəɹɪðm̩/ | algoritmo |
Phrasal verbs que vas a escuchar
| Palabra | Pronunciación | Significado |
|---|---|---|
| come out verbo | /ˌkʌm ˈaʊt/ | revelarse, salir a la luz |
| come together verbo | /ˈkʌm tʊˈɡɛðɚ/ | juntarse, concitarse |
| come up with verbo | ingeniar, ingeniarse | |
| end up verbo | terminar, ir a parar | |
| fall over verbo | caerse | |
| give up verbo | rendirse, entregar | |
| go away verbo | irse, marcharse | |
| look forward to verbo | no ver la hora de, quedar a la espera de |
Frases que vale la pena repetir
Frases cortas y completas del vídeo que puedes reutilizar en la conversación diaria:
- Guys, I can't do this anymore.
- You're essentially leaping, jumping into the unknown.
- Sandra, what did you do on the weekend?
- I come to ask you, why?
- Won't you leave and let us be?
Gramática en este vídeo
Las estructuras que más usa el hablante, con las palabras exactas del vídeo:
| Estructura | En el vídeo |
|---|---|
| Present perfect continuous have/has been + -ing — una acción que empezó antes y continúa | I've been doing · I've been wanting · I've been trying |
| Oraciones condicionales if + oración, will/would + verbo — una condición y su resultado | If you shoot it down, you will throw |
| Present perfect have/has + participio pasado — una acción pasada que sigue importando ahora | has been designed · I've been · have changed |
| Voz pasiva be + participio pasado — importa lo que ocurre, no quién lo hace | has been designed · is made · are expected |
Pronunciación a tener en cuenta
El hablante usa 68 contracciones y formas reducidas, como I'm, I've, don't. Dilas en su forma corta, tal como las oyes.
- Los sonidos de “th”: algorithm /ˈælɡəɹɪðm̩/, hypothetical /ˌhaɪpəˈθɛtɪkəl/, thunder /ˈθʌndɚ/
- Los sonidos de “sh” y “zh”: exaggeration /ɪɡˌzæd͡ʒəˈɹeɪʃən/, expectation /ˌɛk.spɛkˈteɪ.ʃən/, emotionally /ɪˈməʊʃənəli/, traditionally /tɹəˈdɪʃ.ə.nə.li/, shine /ʃaɪn/
- Palabras largas — cuida el acento: artistically /ɑː(ɹ)ˈtɪstɪkli/, colloquial /kəˈloʊ.kwi.əl/, creatively /kɹiˈeɪtɪvli/, exaggeration /ɪɡˌzæd͡ʒəˈɹeɪʃən/, masterfully /ˈmɑːstəf(ʊ)li/
Sonidos difíciles para hispanohablantes:
- s + consonante al inicio — sin añadir una “e” delante: straw /stɹɔ/, stairs /ˈstɛɹz/, scream /skɹiːm/, skip /skɪp/
- /v/ — no es /b/: los dientes tocan el labio inferior: preview /ˈpɹiːvjuː/, creatively /kɹiˈeɪtɪvli/, observe /əbˈzɜːv/, dive /daɪv/, actively /ˈæktɪvli/
- /z/ — sonora, no /s/: lazy /ˈleɪ̯zi(ː)/, bruise /bɹuz/, exaggeration /ɪɡˌzæd͡ʒəˈɹeɪʃən/, observe /əbˈzɜːv/, horizon /həˈɹaɪ.zən/
Cómo practicar con este vídeo
- Escucha el vídeo entero una vez sin hablar y anota las palabras que no conoces.
- Haz shadowing frase por frase a velocidad normal, repitiendo cada una hasta que tu ritmo coincida con el del hablante.
- Grábate y compara con el original, prestando atención a palabras como podcast, burner, binge.
¿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.