Pratique du Shadowing: How is glass made? - Apprendre l'anglais à l'oral avec la vidéo

Hi, it's Doug.

I recently came across this unbelievable video.

It was taken at a hotel in Texas where on the roof of the hotel they have this pool

that hangs off the edge and it has a glass bottom.

Look at this.

Would you go in there?

Would you trust this glass?

Someone named Benjamin has a question about glass.

Let's give him a call now.

Hi, Doug.

Hi, Benjamin.

I have a question for you.

How is glass made?

That's a great question.

It's funny, right?

Think about just how many objects around you are made of glass.

Without glass, we'd have no windows, no windshields for our cars, no No drinking glasses or eyeglasses.

No skyscrapers or smartphones.

And yet, it's really not obvious at all where glass comes from.

Like if you're sitting there and you have a table or a desk in front of you like this, that's wood.

I'm guessing you know that wood comes from a tree.

Or this statue here is carved from stone.

You know where that comes from. But glass?

Glass is a material that has to be made.

How do they make it?

Where does it come from?

Before I say anything more, now would be a good time to pause the video and discuss.

Okay, you ready?

Well, believe it or not, Glass is made by taking a bunch of sand and getting it so hot that it melts.

It's one of the most amazing things to watch how it's made because in order to melt sand, you have to use a special type of oven that can get super hot.

It's called a furnace or a kiln.

Here you can see someone loading some sand into the furnace.

Once it gets hot enough, it will melt or become liquid.

And when you get something this hot, you can see it glows, just like lava.

This isn't lava though, it's molten sand.

And as it cools, it will start to look more familiar to you.

It becomes solid glass.

To make a flat sheet of glass, like you'd use for a window, they melt sand until it's molten.

Then they pour it out and roll it into a flat shape like this, and carefully allow it to cool.

More fancy objects, like a glass vase, are even more fun to watch.

This involves a special skill called glass blowing.

You can see here, it starts with this person taking a big glob of molten sand

and getting it on the end of a hollow pipe.

Then she blows air into the pipe.

You can actually blow a bubble into it, which might end up being the open part of the vase.

The molten glass has a similar thickness as honey.

They carefully shape it the way they want it and keep turning it and turning it.

As it cools, it becomes solid.

Artists can make amazing sculptures with glass.

Believe it or not, this artist is making a glass swan.

So that's how glass is made.

But it's kind of weird, isn't it?

I mean, how did people ever discover that if you melt sand, it makes glass?

We've been making glass for a long time.

So long ago now that no one knows for sure who was the first person to discover

that if you melt sand it makes glass.

But some of the earliest objects made of glass come from ancient Egypt, a place covered in desert sand.

Could it be that someone long ago had a campfire

and noticed that the heat of their fire melted the sand beneath it?

No one knows for sure, but it's possible.

That's all for this week's question.

Thanks Benjamin for asking it.

Now for the next episode, there's a lunar eclipse that's going to happen.

I reached into my question jar and chose three questions about lunar eclipses that I'm thinking about answering.

When this video is done playing, you'll get to vote on one.

You can choose from, what's the difference between a solar and lunar eclipse?

Why does the moon turn blood red during a lunar eclipse?

Or where does the word eclipse come from?

So submit your vote when the video's over.

I wanna hear from all of you watching.

There are mysteries all around us.

Stay curious and see you next week.

Qu'est-ce que la technique du Shadowing ?

Le Shadowing est une technique d'apprentissage des langues fondée sur la science, développée à l'origine pour la formation des interprètes professionnels. Le principe est simple mais puissant : vous écoutez de l'anglais natif et le répétez immédiatement à voix haute — comme une ombre suivant le locuteur avec un décalage de 1 à 2 secondes. Les recherches montrent une amélioration significative de la précision de la prononciation, de l'intonation, du rythme, des liaisons, de la compréhension orale et de la fluidité.

Pratique du Shadowing: How is glass made? - Apprendre l'anglais à l'oral avec la vidéo

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Qu'est-ce que la technique du Shadowing ?