Shadowing Practice: Why learning English is so difficult. - Learn English Speaking with Video
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I have to be honest.
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I'm a native English speaker,
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I teach English, and I firmly believe that the English language can be really, really stupid.
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And I know that sounds harsh, but let me explain.
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If you're learning English and you find the English language difficult, you find that sometimes it doesn't make any sense,
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you're confused, you're frustrated, then I want to tell you that there's a good chance the problem is not you.
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Because the English language is difficult.
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It can be really confusing and honestly it can be stupid.
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There are times when things just don't make sense.
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So in today's video I'm going to talk to you about why English can be
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so difficult and I also want to give you some good news.
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So stay till the end of the video
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because I'm going to give you some good news which will hopefully help motivate you and encourage you to learn English.
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Now, one thing that happens when students first start learning English, maybe you can relate to this,
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maybe this is something that happened to you too, but a lot of students find English easy at the beginning.
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They find it simple.
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They find it not as complicated as some other languages. And this is true.
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At the beginning, English is actually quite basic.
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We only have one definite article.
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We don't have any gender.
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We don't have masculine or feminine nouns.
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We have one word.
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We word for everything, the.
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And the simple tenses in English, not the complicated tenses which you learn later,
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but the basic tenses like the present simple, past simple, they're simple.
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I did, you did, he did, we did, they did.
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It's all the same.
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And a lot of languages at the beginning you have to memorize a lot.
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When you get more advanced in English, so maybe you get to the B2 or the C1 level,
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you start to realize that things get a lot more difficult.
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And this is where the challenge begins.
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It seems like every rule you've learned in the past has an exception.
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So you have to relearn things.
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You have to learn them again.
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And this is one of the difficult things about English.
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It's a bit deceiving because at the beginning it seems to be quite easy.
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But the more advanced you get, the more you realize that, oh, there's a lot more to this language than I expected.
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Now, one of the most difficult things about English is spelling and pronunciation.
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And unfortunately, English can be really, really challenging when it comes to these two areas.
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Now whenever you learn a new word, it's not enough just to learn the word.
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Because if you look at a word, it's impossible to know the pronunciation just by looking at the spelling.
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Because there are so many different ways of pronouncing things in English,
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you actually need to learn the pronunciation at the same time you learn the word.
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So whenever you learn a new word, go to Google, go to Bing, go to any of these translation sites,
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type the word in, and then press the play button.
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There's always a play button so you can actually hear how the word is pronounced.
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So you're not only learning the word, you're not only learning the definition, but you're also learning the pronunciation at the same time.
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It's really going to save you a lot of time
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and a lot of effort so you don't have to go back and learn the pronunciation again.
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So whenever you learn something new, you learn a new word, you learn a new phrase,
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always look up the pronunciation and learn the correct pronunciation at the same time.
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Now why is English spelling and pronunciation so complicated and confusing.
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Well, there's actually a historical reason for this.
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So 500 years ago, in the past, we spelt words similarly to the way we do today,
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but we pronounced them completely differently.
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And what happened, and this is completely normal, this is completely natural, is we changed our pronunciation over the years.
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But we changed our pronunciation and not our spelling.
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So our spelling is like this old -fashioned reflection of pronunciation.
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But our pronunciation is now modern, so there's this gap between pronunciation and spelling today.
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And that's why English can be so difficult, because we haven't updated our spelling.
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A lot of languages have, but English has never done this, and it's one of the things that I don't like about the language.
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Now, as I mentioned earlier, it's also true that every rule in English has an exception.
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And this is something that can be very frustrating, because the only way to learn these exceptions is to memorize them,
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to learn them individually and to memorize them.
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So as you get more advanced in English, you will have to spend a lot of time memorizing rules, but also exceptions.
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Memorizing spelling, memorizing pronunciation, memorizing tenses, irregular verbs, all that stuff.
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Now, I mentioned earlier that I did have some good news.
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So yes, it can be very, very confusing.
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It can be frustrating to learn all these rules, to learn all these exceptions.
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But the good news is that, as I said before, basic English is relatively simple.
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You don't need to speak perfectly to express your ideas and to get your thoughts across to the other person.
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Now, if you've watched my other videos, or maybe you're a student of mine,
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you'll know that I often say that the purpose of language is not perfection, it's communication.
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So when you speak, when you learn a language, your priority needs to be communicating, getting your ideas to the other person.
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And you can do this without being perfect.
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It's okay to make mistakes.
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Everybody makes mistakes, even native speakers.
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So don't wait to start speaking.
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Don't wait until some magical moment where suddenly you're going to be perfect
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or suddenly you're going to be able to speak without making any mistakes.
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Because that's never going to happen.
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It's impossible.
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You will make mistakes, but there's nothing wrong with that.
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Now, that's not to say that you shouldn't improve your spelling, that you shouldn't improve your pronunciation,
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your grammar, or that you shouldn't learn these rules and these exceptions.
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Because you absolutely should.
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And honestly, you need to if you want to become truly fluent, if you want to improve your writing,
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if you want to improve your English generally.
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But that shouldn't stop you from communicating right now.
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That shouldn't stop you from expressing yourself and expressing your ideas in English.
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Ideally, you should be communicating in English every day.
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You should be speaking, you should be writing, you should be doing something productive in English and at the same time,
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not instead of speaking, but at the same time, simultaneously, you should also be working to improve your spelling,
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your pronunciation, your grammar, learning the rules, learning the exceptions at the same time.
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Not instead or not replacing speaking.
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It's something that should happen at the same time.
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And that's the important thing.
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That's the thing that I want you to take away from this video.
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Yes, English can be difficult.
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English can be stupid.
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And I think it is stupid sometimes.
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But unfortunately, that's just the way it is.
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There's no getting around that.
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And as I said, the good news is that you can still use the language,
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you can still speak, you can still communicate even if you don't speak perfectly, even if you don't have perfect spelling,
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even if you don't have perfect pronunciation.
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Eventually, the more you practice, the more you speak, the more you study the rules, the more you study these exceptions,
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the better your English will become, the more confident you will feel.
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But it's a journey.
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It's a process.
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It's not something that happens overnight.
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So start speaking English today, not next week, not next month, but today.
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Learn the rules.
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Yes, learn the exceptions, but don't focus on them.
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Focus on speaking.
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Anyways, that's it for today's video.
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If you made it this far and you found the lesson useful,
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make sure to leave a like and let me know in the comments what you find most difficult about English.
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And so you don't miss any future lessons from me, don't forget to subscribe to English at the Ready here on YouTube.
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And you can also check out the link in the description
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below to learn more about how I can help you improve your English.
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Hope you have a wonderful day and I'll see you in the next lesson.
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Vocabulario y notas de pronunciación para esta lección
Esta lección de conversación se basa en el vídeo “Why learning English is so difficult”. Las palabras que más se repiten: English, learn, pronunciation, word, spelling. Este vídeo tiene 122 frases y 1446 palabras para practicar shadowing. La parte hablada dura 10:22. El hablante mantiene un ritmo constante de unas 140 palabras por minuto, cómodo para el shadowing. El 88 % de las palabras está entre las 3.000 más comunes del inglés, por lo que el vocabulario es fácil de seguir.
Vocabulario clave de este vídeo
15 palabras del vídeo que vale la pena aprender, con su pronunciación y significado:
| Palabra | Pronunciación | Significado |
|---|---|---|
| pronunciation sustantivo | /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/ | pronunciación |
| spelling sustantivo | /ˈspɛl.ɪŋ/ | deletreo, espeleo |
| exception sustantivo | /əkˈsɛpʃən/ | excepción, salvedad |
| tense sustantivo | /tɛns/ | tiempo |
| complicated adjetivo | /ˈkɑm.plɪˌkeɪ.tɪd/ | complicado |
| lesson sustantivo | /ˈlɛs.ən/ | lección |
| confuse verbo | /kənˈfjuːz/ | confundir, barahustar |
| grammar sustantivo | /ˈɡɹæm.ə(ɹ)/ | gramática |
| confused adjetivo | /kənˈfjuːzd/ | confundido |
| encourage verbo | /ɪnˈkʌɹ.ɪd͡ʒ/ | alentar, arengar |
| priority sustantivo | /pɹaɪˈɒɹɪti/ | prioridad |
| translation sustantivo | /tɹænzˈleɪʃən/ | traducción, transmisión |
| spell sustantivo | /spɛl/ | hechizo, conjuro |
| phrase sustantivo | /ˈfɹeɪ̯z/ | frase |
| similarly adverbio | /ˈsɪm.ə.lə.li/ | similarmente, igualmente |
Phrasal verbs que vas a escuchar
| Palabra | Pronunciación | Significado |
|---|---|---|
| check out verbo | investigar, chequear | |
| look up verbo | /ˌlʊk ˈʌp/ | mejorar |
Pronunciación a tener en cuenta
El hablante usa 38 contracciones y formas reducidas, como don't, you're, shouldn't. Dilas en su forma corta, tal como las oyes.
- Los sonidos de “sh” y “zh”: pronunciation /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/, exception /əkˈsɛpʃən/, translation /tɹænzˈleɪʃən/, reflection /ɹɪˈflɛkʃən/, harsh /ˈhɑɹʃ/
- Palabras largas — cuida el acento: pronunciation /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/, communicate /kəˈmjuːnɪkeɪt/, complicated /ˈkɑm.plɪˌkeɪ.tɪd/, priority /pɹaɪˈɒɹɪti/, similarly /ˈsɪm.ə.lə.li/
Sonidos difíciles para hispanohablantes:
- s + consonante al inicio — sin añadir una “e” delante: spelling /ˈspɛl.ɪŋ/, spell /spɛl/
- /v/ — no es /b/: los dientes tocan el labio inferior: productive /pɹəˈdʌk.tɪv/, overnight /əʊvə(ɹ)ˈnaɪt/, individually /ˌɪndɪˈvɪd͡ʒ(u)əli/, verb /vɝb/, motivate /ˈmoʊ.tɪ.veɪt/
- /z/ — sonora, no /s/: confuse /kənˈfjuːz/, confused /kənˈfjuːzd/, translation /tɹænzˈleɪʃən/, phrase /ˈfɹeɪ̯z/, anyways /ˈɛn.iˌweɪz/
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 pronunciation, spelling, exception.
¿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.