Shadowing Practice: This Fish Shouldn’t Exist… So I Got One - Learn English Speaking with Video

There are over 33,000 different species of fish in the world, and most of them get around like normal, using their fins to swim across the ocean.

But others have evolved to have actual wings to shoot up out of the water and escape predators by taking flight.

This is real, we have flying fish.

But if I tried keeping one of these guys, I'd probably end up getting hit in the face.

So instead of getting a flying fish, I got the next best thing, a walking fish.

Also known as the mudskipper.

And I don't even know if you could call this a fish anymore because they've evolved to breathe air and they've turned their fins into super strong arms that they use to skip across the mud.

Now the scientists that named these guys weren't very creative, but they did find that the mudskipper loves to throw down and do a little jig.

Oh look at him go.

Damn he's hidden that.

Anyways for the next 30 days I'll be getting my own mudskipper, building him his dream home, seeing if he can hunt live food, checking out all his weird quirks, and maybe even becoming friends with him.

But before I do any of that, I should probably order him because I just have an empty plastic bag that I filled with water.

And it turns out these guys are actually pretty rare or nobody wants them because every website was out of stock.

Except for this one.

And the price is pretty cheap too, I just need to pay $65 for shipping?

Welp, there goes all my money.

But in the meantime, let's get started on building his tank.

And the layout's pretty simple, mudskippers need about 20% water and 80% land.

But I also want to make a working river just because I think he'll enjoy it.

Uh, this is me from the future, He does enjoy it.

So I started by adding a water filter and gluing a box around it so the water would stay separated from the mud and stay clear.

Then I just used some spray foam to build up the river structure, and then pulled out my emergency bag of dirt to mix with aquarium silicone and make a waterproof base for the river.

And it also turned out to be really fun to touch.

I might have to make some more for later.

But after sticking all this on, I added in the finishing rock touches and had a fully working river.

Well, actually, I didn't even know if it worked at this point, which is why it was time to now test it.

Alright, filter is on.

Does the river work?

Uh, no, it does not.

Wait, okay, we have a working river.

Who up playing with a river?

Ah ha ha.

Oh, you guys don't have a river?

Now I can get started on making the mud with a bucket, some clay, a bag of dirt, and some water.

I started by adding in the dirt and then made sure to leave no witnesses.

Absolutely none.

Leave no witnesses.

Then I added the water and started to mix it.

And this was also really fun to touch why is everything so fun to touch never mind i heavily regret my actions and after playing with the mud for just a little bit longer i finally heard a ring on my doorbell and what i found was a suspiciously mud skipper shaped box so i brought it inside and it was finally time to unbox my brand new mud skipper but first i gotta tell you about today's sponsor Into the AM Apparel.

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Now, it was actually time to unbox my brand new Mud Skipper.

Look at him, he's just a little guy.

This guy walks on mud.

Maybe I'll name him Mud Man or something.

I don't know.

But I noticed he wasn't actually moving at all.

He was just swaying with the water.

Was he even still alive?

I waited a little longer and he still did not move at all.

Just sitting there motionless.

Would we never get the chance to become friends?

What did they do to you?

Speak boy.

Say anything.

Wake up.

Wake up please.

Please wake up.

No he's gone.

He's gone forever.

Nah he's fine.

He must have just been sleeping or something.

Look at him he's so happy now.

So it seems like that while in shipping his water had gotten cold and he entered a state of hibernation, but now that he warmed back up, he was more active than ever.

He immediately started to swim around and then showed off his ability by leaving the water and going on to shore.

Now the first thing you'd notice are probably his crazy looking eyes, but these give him a super wide field of view and he can see almost anything around him.

And of course, I had to add a piece of my own hair so he'd hopefully grow up to look like me.

Oh come on.

But over the next few days, he spent his time skipping around the mud and just exploring his new home.

And it looked like he was sniffing, I think.

And of course he showed me one of his dance moves, and also how long he can hold his breath.

But I think his favorite part of the whole tank was the river.

I caught him spending a lot of time just relaxing in here.

Now he spent about 2 days in that box and it had been a while since he'd eaten, so I added in this feeding stone and at first he was scared of my hand, but he eventually came back to see what I was doing.

I also dug out a little cave for him to go inside of whenever he wanted to get out of water but still feel safe.

He didn't really spend that much time checking it out.

Now I knew he was getting hungry so I started adding bloodworms to the feeding stone, and he came out of the water pretty quickly to check it out.

But he looked very cautious while approaching the bloodworms and he made sure that it wasn't a trap before actually going up to them.

And over the next few days he continued to skip around and hang out in the water, while also getting himself into some precarious situations.

What, how did you even get up there?

Get down, you're gonna get hurt!

Oh he's fine, I forgot the skipping part was like his whole thing.

Now for some reason, even after spending days staring intently into each other's eyes, whenever I tried to hand feed him, he wanted nothing to do with me.

Hey buddy, you want some of this food?

Come on, it's really good, it's what you were eating on that rock.

Just take a bite.

What about a cricket?

You want a cricket?

Come on, it's right there.

100

Just take a bite.

101

I swear it tastes good.

102

I'll eat it myself.

103

Here comes the airplane.

104

As you can see, he was not warming up to me that quickly.

105

I think he knew I was a source of food, but he still saw me as a predator.

106

And other times, it looked like he was trying to escape by climbing up the glass.

107

But I wouldn't let that happen.

108

Not after the last guy got away.

109

But now, it was time for him to face his biggest challenge yet.

110

A fully grown cat.

111

Oh he does not stand a chance.

112

Oh my god he's beating him up.

113

Now his actual challenge would be to stand up to this horde of crickets, because I wanted to see if he could actually hunt live food.

114

So I added in a few plants and a big log for the crickets to climb onto, and now the battlefield was ready.

115

Look at him he has no idea what's about to happen.

116

So I started to add the crickets in and they quickly took over the entire tank, climbing all over the log, the walls, and running frantically around the tank while the mudskipper was completely oblivious.

117

But he eventually got curious and he came out to see what all the commotion was about.

118

Almost immediately he encountered his first cricket and he tried to pounce on it, but he was just too slow.

119

He took the loss in stride and went to go roll it off, off, before locking onto his next target that was on the wall.

120

It looked like he was analyzing how to get to this cricket, but he just sat there for a couple minutes and he didn't actually go for it.

121

After two failed attempts, the mudskipper was looking pretty bummed out, so he went back to his cave to think about his next moves and somehow didn't notice these two crickets in the cave with him.

122

But it didn't matter because he already had his next target located in the corner.

123

He immediately leapt over and went in for the attack.

124

Which he failed again and the cricket got into the moss.

125

But our mudskipper was too determined to quit.

126

And after accidentally grabbing a mouthful of moss and looking like he had a big mustache, he went back to finish the job.

127

And as the cricket came out thinking the coast was clear, he was ambushed.

128

And our mudskipper, who I think I'll name Muk, had officially caught his first ever cricket.

129

And then he spent a while just kind of toying with his food.

130

But he eventually got it all down.

131

So after 30 days, we still haven't quite become best friends yet, but I think he's enjoying his new home.

132

And if you enjoyed this video, make sure to subscribe and also check out Into the AM using my link in the description to help support the channel.

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Vocabulario y notas de pronunciación para esta lección

Esta lección de conversación de nivel B2 se basa en el vídeo “This Fish Shouldn’t Exist… So I Got One”. Las palabras que más se repiten: cricket, mud, river, mudskipper. Este vídeo tiene 132 frases y 1876 palabras para practicar shadowing. La parte hablada dura 11:11. El hablante habla a un ritmo natural de unas 168 palabras por minuto, cercano a una conversación cotidiana. El 84 % de las palabras está entre las 3.000 más comunes del inglés; conviene repasar el resto antes de empezar.

Vocabulario clave de este vídeo

Las 15 palabras más avanzadas del vídeo, con su pronunciación y significado:

Palabra	Pronunciación	Significado
mudskipper sustantivo	/ˈmʌdˌskɪpɚ/	pez del fango
skipper sustantivo	/ˈskɪp.ɚ/	patrón
sponsor sustantivo	/ˈspɒn.səː/	patrocinador, patrocinadora
unbox verbo		desembalar, desempacar
fin sustantivo	/fɪn/	aleta
predator sustantivo	/ˈpɹɛd.ə.tɚ/	predador, depredador
evolve verbo	/ɪˈvɑlv/	desarrollar
moss sustantivo	/mɔs/	musgo
commotion sustantivo	/kəˈmoʊ.ʃən/	conmoción, trulla
doorbell sustantivo	/ˈdɔɹ.bɛl/	timbre
frantically adverbio	/ˈfɹæn.tɪk.li/	frenéticamente, desesperadamente
hibernation sustantivo	/ˌhaɪ.bəɹˈneɪ.ʃən/	hibernación, aletargamiento
intently adverbio	/ɪnˈtɛntli/	atentamente
motionless adjetivo	/ˈmoʊʃənlɛs/	inmóvil, inerte
moustache sustantivo	/ˈmʌstæʃ/	bigote, mostacho

Phrasal verbs que vas a escuchar

Palabra	Pronunciación	Significado
wake up verbo	/ˌweɪk ˈʌp/	despertarse, recordar
check out verbo		investigar, chequear
come out verbo	/ˌkʌm ˈaʊt/	revelarse, salir a la luz
end up verbo		terminar, ir a parar
get away verbo		alejarse
get off verbo		bajarse
get out of verbo		salirse de, ponerse fuera de
get up verbo		levantarse

Frases que vale la pena repetir

Frases cortas y completas del vídeo que puedes reutilizar en la conversación diaria:

Oh, you guys don't have a river?
Would we never get the chance to become friends?
What did they do to you?
What, how did you even get up there?
Hey buddy, you want some of this food?

Pronunciación a tener en cuenta

El hablante usa 31 contracciones y formas reducidas, como didn't, don't, I'll. Dilas en su forma corta, tal como las oyes.

Los sonidos de “sh” y “zh”: commotion /kəˈmoʊ.ʃən/, hibernation /ˌhaɪ.bəɹˈneɪ.ʃən/, motionless /ˈmoʊʃənlɛs/, moustache /ˈmʌstæʃ/, ambush /ˈæm.bʊʃ/
Palabras largas — cuida el acento: hibernation /ˌhaɪ.bəɹˈneɪ.ʃən/, precarious /pɹɪˈkɛəɹi.əs/, aquarium /əˈkwɛɹ.i.jəm/

Sonidos difíciles para hispanohablantes:

s + consonante al inicio — sin añadir una “e” delante: skipper /ˈskɪp.ɚ/, sponsor /ˈspɒn.səː/, snowboard /ˈsnoʊˌbɔɹd/, stride /stɹaɪd/, sway /ˈsweɪ̯/
/v/ — no es /b/: los dientes tocan el labio inferior: evolve /ɪˈvɑlv/, oblivious /əˈblɪviəs/, vibe /vaɪb/
/z/ — sonora, no /s/: analyze /ˈæn.əˌlaɪz/, anyways /ˈɛn.iˌweɪz/

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 mudskipper, skipper, sponsor.

¿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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