Shadowing Practice: How to write like a human being, not a robot - Learn English Speaking with YouTube

You need to learn how to write, not so that you can become famous, but so that you know how to use your brain.

⏸ Paused

Speed:

306 sentences

If sentences are too short or too long, click Edit to adjust them.

You need to learn how to write, not so that you can become famous, but so that you know how to use your brain.

More and more people are becoming dependent on AI, robots, machinery to do their thinking for them.

And I'm not okay with that.

It makes me very angry to think about that.

Look at any comment section on the internet and you can see the intellectual decline of our species.

Not okay, not all right.

And if you can feel your own brain starting to get lazy, starting to not think so clearly, it's hard for you to sit down and even fill a single page with your own thoughts.

It's time to step in and build in a writing process into your life

so that you can tap into your own inner creativity and not lose yourself to the development of machinery we don't understand.

Also, you'll create some pretty interesting things.

I think you're capable of creating amazing art if you so wish.

But on a basic level, writing, communication, having ideas, and spreading them is part of the human experience.

And we need you to do that in an age of unprecedented AI.

Today, I wrote 12 pages by hand.

I write short stories, personal essays, things like that.

Writing is a big part of my life.

I just enjoy it.

It's something that I really like.

I need it to feel okay.

I rely on it to process my own experience and I'm going to teach you how to do the same thing.

I think most people have a really twisted idea of writing

or it just feels daunting to them or intimidating and that's because they don't have a process.

Writing, more than anything, is a process.

So if you're finding yourself already thinking thoughts like, oh, I'm not a writer, oh, I'm not capable of it.

It's a skill that you might not have built.

It's a skill that you might not have dedicated significant time to try to develop.

And I'm telling you, more than ever before, it is important that you develop it.

And when you do, it's going to be fun.

Like, when you can communicate your own ideas, it's fun.

Okay, let's start at the very beginning.

What you're going to do, if you're interested, is you're going to get yourself a journal or some collection of paper, physical paper that you can write with and on.

You're going to get a pen or a pencil, something that feels good in your hand and you're going to start your writing process by hand, the same way you learned how to write when you were in kindergarten, first grade, whatever.

You started just with this kind of analog, very physical experience.

And I recommend that you do that as well.

There is something so freeing about looking at a page compared to staring at a blinking cursor.

A lot of people's main experience with writing is staring at a blinking cursor, not being able to come up with the first sentence and then feeling like, oh, I can't do it.

I'm not good.

I can't think of something, oh, I'm bad, and then giving up.

If your primary experience around a task is failing and then giving up, of course you're not going to want to do it.

That's not fun at all.

We're going to reconnect you to the magic, the sense of fun that comes from this.

So get yourself something where a blinking cursor isn't going to stare you down.

Get a pen, sit down.

Here's how the writing process starts.

It starts with drafting.

The important thing with the drafting process is that you don't get in your own way.

Most people start editing the work immediately, and that's really what's going on when you have writer's block or when you're staring at a blinking cursor, is you're trying to edit it already.

You're thinking too hard about what the final product has to be.

And you're not letting the idea flow.

You got to get everything out on the page.

The first draft should feel like creating a sandbox.

Okay, just generating as much raw material as you can.

You're going to mess with it later.

You're going to delete stuff.

There is absolutely zero pressure when you are drafting.

So I want you to take the idea and just write it in its most basic form.

This is a speech about blank, or this is a story about blank, or if there's a single image that comes to mind, you're going to write that image down.

Boom, you've started.

The process has begun.

You are no longer looking at a blank page.

That's huge.

The main thing is that you don't look at a blank page.

What you're going to do on this first page is you are going to ruin it.

You're going to make a mess.

You're going to do a bad job on purpose.

You're going to remove any and all psychic pressure that you're putting on yourself to create something good, and you're going to make a messy,

horrible job that then you can maybe mess with later and clean up later if you want.

You might not want to.

Okay, so you're going to fill the page.

Just fill it.

The drafting process needs to be fast.

It needs to be like just ferocious, fast and furious.

You got to go fast.

You got to fill the page.

Your hand and your forearm should be getting sore from the speed at which you're going.

Pause.

And you're just going to do this until your idea is either fully fleshed out

or until you need to take a break.

And then you just take a break.

What you're not going to do is you're not going to purposely run yourself into the ground.

I'm going to write an entire novel right now.

I'm going to fill this entire page of...

No. Nope.

You're going to pay attention to what's going on inside your body

and brain and notice when you get tired and then you're going to pause.

I can take a short break.

What I do is I go make another cup of coffee

or I take a walk around the block or I say what's up to my roommates or I eat an orange.

Notice how different this process is compared to using ChatGPT or another AI.

Everything that comes out of you during the drafting process is coming from you.

It is your most honest take.

And what you're going to notice if you've been depending on these tools 100% for all of your writing, you're going to notice that it's hard.

Like it's hard to think of stuff and you have to kind of like try and that's a good feeling.

And that it's not actually miserable to have to try.

You get more interesting material out.

You find what is actually you.

Because the more that you use ChatGPT, the less you're going to trust your own voice.

Because you are letting something speak for you that is not you.

And it's not even a physical, biological being.

100

It's not someone with feelings.

101

So that's why you got to draft.

102

You got to write by hand.

103

You got to figure out what is actually you.

104

What ideas are coming from you?

105

What is important?

106

When you're doing it right, which is when you're doing it honestly, good writing is just honest writing.

107

What's going to come out of you onto the page is raw feeling, or it's truth.

108

It's true to you.

109

And it might not sound great.

110

You might doubt it.

111

You might hate it, but it's true.

112

It's coming from you.

113

Just tell the truth.

114

This is Hemingway.

115

When Hemingway, Ernest Hemingway, one of the great writers of the 20th century, could not think of what to say, he went back to one very basic maxim.

116

Write one true sentence.

117

Write one true sentence.

118

You can always think of one true thing to say.

119

Let's say you're doing a journal entry, and you don't know what to write.

120

Okay, what are you feeling?

121

Like right now?

122

You could, I mean, the most honest thing would be like, I don't know what to say right now.

123

I don't feel like I have any good ideas.

124

You know what?

125

This reminds me of when I was in high school

126

and I often felt as if my peers were doing better than me at this, this, and boom.

127

You've just found yourself, you've connected that feeling of not knowing what to write to a personal memory that then you can unpack.

128

You can go into the sensory details of that memory.

129

I remember being in math class and feeling really behind

130

and what it was like to have all my peers look at me.

131

And it doesn't have to be negative, but do you see what I mean of how if you could just take an honest feeling, it ultimately, it leads you down a hallway of interesting ideas that

132

if you could just take one true memory one true experience it'll lead you down a long corridor of doors

133

that you can open and each door leads you into a potential experience

134

or memory that you can unpack through writing this is your human experience

135

and this is what we need you to write about in whatever form makes sense for you not

136

so that you can publish it and become famous unless you want to and that's a separate conversation

137

But just so that you know who you are, so that you are fully engaged with your life.

138

This is like a mental health exercise more than anything.

139

I mean, people get all confused.

140

They think writing is so that they can blow up on social media or whatever.

141

Like, that's great.

142

But what if it meant mental digestion?

143

What if it was a tool for you to process what you're going through?

144

Okay, I know we're getting way off topic here, but that's how these things go usually.

145

This is what the drafting process is like.

146

You go off on a tangent, right?

147

And then you find other interesting truths

148

that you had no idea you were going to stumble into when you set out to write the initial thing.

149

Anyway, so you draft a messy thing by hand.

150

And then what I do next, what I recommend you try, is then transcribing it.

151

So then I open up my computer and then I transcribe what I wrote down in my notebook.

152

I'm holding a mic right now so I can't flip through it

153

but this whole thing

154

and along with like ten others over there is just full

155

every single line is full of blah blah blah blah blah

156

blah blah blah blah blah some of it is good some of it is not

157

so good but every time when I have a finished draft of something a story

158

or an essay whatever I write it I transcribe it

159

and I still don't edit anything I'm not trying to make

160

it good I'm not overthinking anything I'm delaying I'm saying to

161

myself no I'm gonna figure it out later not worrying about it I'm gonna figure it out later.

162

So much of it is just coaching yourself to not stress out in the moment.

163

Because if you start to edit early on, you'll wig out and you'll hate it.

164

So just don't do that.

165

Just, nope, I'm going to trust that initial pass.

166

I'm going to trust the initial effort.

167

There was something in there that is truthful.

168

So you transcribe it over.

169

And then once you have it all transcribed, you take a break, get a glass of water, you go outside.

170

And then when you come back to it, maybe it's the next day.

171

For me, oftentimes I separate it.

172

I have a drafting day and then an editing day, you got to figure out what works for you.

173

You're going to come back to the work and you're going to start editing.

174

And editing is a different vibe.

175

Editing now is much more like surgery where you are thinking critically.

176

You're really using your brain.

177

You're looking at what this material is.

178

You're reading over it again and you're noticing what feels good

179

and exciting and what you want more of and what doesn't really work for you.

180

And you delete the stuff that doesn't work and you keep the stuff

181

that is good and maybe you expand on it, right?

182

Maybe you rewrite some sections.

183

Maybe there's some sections that are really messy.

184

Editing right now as of April of 2026 is where I feel the most resistance

185

or where I feel sometimes the most challenge because I've learned to really enjoy the drafting process.

186

I love taking an idea and ripping through it, just getting it from beginning to end, just running with the idea right away.

187

That used to be really hard for me

188

and I think most people really struggle with starting something because they don't want to mess it up.

189

I've gotten through that.

190

I can now start things pretty easily but then cleaning them up

191

and making them a finished product is the harder part because it's a little bit more tedious, right?

192

You have to be more patient.

193

You have to spend a lot of time going over the same material over and over again, reading through it, reading through it again, reading through it again.

194

And through that repetition, you notice what works and what doesn't, what is exciting and what isn't exciting, what makes your nerve endings go, oh yeah, this is awesome,

195

and what isn't like that.

196

Over time, your internal compass of what's good

197

and what isn't as good or isn't as true becomes more attuned and you get better at editing.

198

But that's why in the editing process, what I coach myself on is just get yourself to publishing it.

199

Basically, my process is fast the whole time.

200

And that is because I want to move on to the next one.

201

Because I know that if I take too much time at any stage of the process, the drafting, the editing, or the publishing on the internet, if I take too much time,

202

I'm going to get lost in it and I'm going to lose some of that spark, and it's likely that I don't finish it.

203

And that's what I found to be true for me.

204

I think this is probably applicable to a lot of people.

205

I think a lot of people move too slow with their projects, and they really don't sprint towards publishing.

206

The problem with that is if you don't publish, you don't move on to the next one, typically.

207

Or then you just have a bunch of unfinished drafts.

208

You have a closet of unfinished projects, and you have no confidence in yourself to be able to complete something.

209

What you need to become a better writer or a better creative in any field is the act of publishing, is the act of finishing something and learning from it and moving on to the next one.

210

And so that's why even in the editing process, which right now I find to be the most difficult part writing-wise, I just tell myself, hey, guess what?

211

It doesn't have to be perfect.

212

And the little reward you get by publishing this is

213

that then you're done with it and you can move on to the next one.

214

And I've got many of my favorite stories that I've published, some of which have done fairly well on the internet by my standards.

215

I didn't think they were that good when I was working on them.

216

I had so much self-doubt at every part of the process.

217

The drafting, the editing, the publishing.

218

My experience, a lot of the writing process is just getting yourself to not freak out

219

and not give up on a project and just stay with the process itself.

220

Understanding that through each iteration on every single thing that you write and publish, you get a little bit better, right?

221

And you find more of your voice, right?

222

You figure out, you start noticing the things that you do often.

223

Like everyone is going to have little intricacies in their process.

224

You know, like for example, this process might not be for you.

225

The whole drafting by hand, whatever.

226

I think it's worth trying, especially if you're someone who isn't writing right now, go back to analog, find your way.

227

But you're going to have your own intricacies.

228

You're going to have your own little rituals that work for you.

229

And those are great.

230

Lean into those.

231

Everyone has their own process.

232

But the most important thing is that you view it as a process

233

and not some character trait that you have or don't have.

234

It is a skill, and the skill is learned through a process.

235

Draft, furious, fast.

236

Why do I keep saying those two words.

237

Draft it messily, inclining to make it bad, trying to make it bad, right?

238

Then you transcribe, carry it all over.

239

It's your first rereading of what you just produced.

240

Don't worry about it yet.

241

You're going to fix it later.

242

Then edit, edit like a surgeon, edit very carefully, but have some fun with it.

243

Don't lose the magic, right?

244

The goal is to keep the thing alive.

245

Okay.

246

I know we're all over the place today, but listen, here's the problem with AI writing and why we need to be so careful of it in the coming years.

247

AI writing is not alive.

248

It was not produced by something that is alive.

249

What we need to figure out as the humans who are alive during this time is what is it

250

that makes human art good?

251

Do we have anything that makes our art better than the machines

252

that are going to become infinitely better at creating infinite content?

253

The AI, I have no doubt, is going to become better at producing viral content than I ever will be, and I need to accept that.

254

But that's never going to stop me from writing because I love the creative process.

255

I love it.

256

Like I need it.

257

It is one of the things I enjoy most in this life.

258

And so I'm going to do it forever.

259

This is a game I'm going to play forever.

260

What I am very compelled by is what is my human edge?

261

What are the things I can do that the machine cannot do?

262

And if you're curious about that as well, the only way you're ever going to figure that out is by trying, getting into the arena, using your skill,

263

using your humanity, training your humanity through creative work.

264

And it's going to come out different than what a machine will produce, but it will be alive.

265

It might be messy.

266

It might be bad.

267

It might not perform on social media compared to what Claude or ChatGPT can crank out in a millisecond, but it will be alive.

268

It will have a pulse.

269

It'll be true, hopefully.

270

But we got to get good.

271

There is a huge skill building component to this.

272

And the only way to build the skill is to show up for it.

273

Understand it's going to be fun.

274

I know I say this all the time.

275

But it is fun.

276

If it's not fun, you're not doing it right.

277

It should feel cathartic.

278

It should feel like you're processing things that need to come out of you.

279

And you will get better over time.

280

But I want you to stop putting this pressure on yourself that it needs to perform well or whatever.

281

No. This is psychological digestion.

282

This is you doing the work as a human being to figure out what's going on inside you

283

and to put words to it.

284

And when you do that really truthfully and honestly, you find that a lot of people resonate.

285

Draft.

286

Transcribe.

287

Edit.

288

Publish.

289

Repeat.

290

Do the whole thing many times.

291

Build it into your way of life.

292

You don't have to publish also.

293

I know I say that because I do that, but like you don't have to.

294

Publishing just means finishing.

295

Just finish the work.

296

This might be as simple as journaling in the morning.

297

This might be as complicated as writing short stories, screenplays, novels, whatever it is for you.

298

But you need to write.

299

We need to train our brains.

300

We need to become smarter.

301

We need to defend ourselves against the attempts to reduce us to dumb, dopamine-addicted zombies.

302

I don't mean to fearmonger here, but I also don't think that I'm speaking entirely out of turn.

303

So anyway, no doom and gloom.

304

This is what's going to give our lives joy and spirit

305

and vitality and it's a process and it's fun

306

and let me know how it goes for you and if you have questions, I'm going to get back to it.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

☕ Buy us a coffee

ShadowingEnglish remains 100% free thanks to your support. Server and AI costs are high — your coffee keeps us going! 🙏

Donate via PayPal

ShadowingEnglish.com – English Shadowing Practice

Speak English fluently using the Shadowing technique. Listen to native YouTube videos, repeat sentence by sentence, and build real pronunciation and fluency — used by IELTS learners worldwide.

Shadowing Practice: How to write like a human being, not a robot - Learn English Speaking with YouTube

Why practice speaking with this video?

Grammar & Expressions in Context

Common Pronunciation Traps

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing Practice: How to write like a human being, not a robot - Learn English Speaking with YouTube

Download App

Why practice speaking with this video?

Grammar & Expressions in Context

Common Pronunciation Traps

What is the Shadowing Technique?