Pratique du Shadowing: why you need a mini creative project - Apprendre l'anglais à l'oral avec la vidéo

This is one of my favorite recent purchases.

It is a tiny little notebook, it was 3 euros, and I try and bring it everywhere I go.

But I didn't realize how much I needed this tiny creative project until it found me, and here's why.

It all started with AI.

More specifically, that AI is now kind of everywhere, without us even asking for it.

We have AI TVs, AI washing machines, AI to help with your taxes, even though it's completely useless, so I still need to call the people to help me with my taxes.

And Duolingo now is AI first, which means, from my understanding, that they fired most of their freelance contractors and replacing them with AI.

Yay!

And the one that scares me and confuses me the most is AI art.

I think in general AI could be a useful tool and also it could be useful for creatives.

You could maybe make a storyboard with it.

I sometimes use it for brainstorming

but lately I've been seeing a lot of people talk about how AI is making them more creative

and they're sharing their AI generated art

and saying how they can finally express their creativity

which is a little bit confusing

because well ai made the art it's like hiring a painter

to make your painting you tell them hey could you make

it red could it be a lady holding a martini glass

and they make it for you and you wouldn't say

that you made the art the painter did sure you had the idea

but the execution matters as much and

that brings me back to this tiny notebook initially this notebook

was meant to be used to write down my ideas that's

why the first page has the word ideas on it

but i took it to a four hour flight

and i got kind of bored there

and i was like hey maybe i could sketch something in it

and i did this was my first sketch and i thought to myself

that was fun maybe i should do it again

and maybe i should try and do it every day

so that's where my little creative project was born sure my proportions

and perspective might be off and my camera can do a 10,000 times better job than me, but I made this and I kind of like it.

Making art

and being creative is not about being perfect you don't even

have to be good at it it's about showing up playing around observing things

and capturing your perspective and so

because of this i think we should all have more mini

creative projects in our lives they don't have to be big you don't have to share with the world

and it could have a deadline or it could not

and it doesn't have to be a sketchbook it can be anything

and there are are many reasons why this is beneficial for our lives and well for my life at least.

First of all it builds focus and presence.

I like how this little notebook makes me slow down and appreciate the small details of the things that I'm drawing.

Oftentimes what I do is I take some pictures throughout the day

and then later on just sketch from my phone to this little sketchbook.

And especially when it comes to buildings, Riga has a lot of beautiful buildings but I don't really have time there to just stand and look at it.

So I really enjoy the process of looking at it from my photo

and transfer it to my sketchbook because then I can actually see how much detail was put into this building.

It makes me appreciate it more.

Plus I have tried meditation a couple of times already and it doesn't really click with me.

And if I have a quiet place

and I can just sketch my sketches it kind of feels like a form of meditation.

You are like in a you know in a calm focused state.

It also gives me a nice chance to reflect on my day.

I take pictures of something that

catches my eye or interests me or a funny thing

that happens and I try and replicate it in this notebook

and you know just makes me think about what I did today.

Plus for me I'm a visual person

so it's nice to look back at it and then I see and immediately remember where and what it was.

The next reason for why you should have a mini project it is something that you can look forward to.

When I started filling out this notebook I was really excited to see what I'm gonna sketch today, what is it gonna be?

Sometimes it's really easy and sometimes it's not that easy to come up with things.

But still, it's kind of fun.

It also teaches you to be okay with imperfection

because I have some sketches that I do not like there are some sketches

that I'm like hell yeah but some of them are like regrets

but it's a sketchbook who cares and it's my sketchbook

so I mean it's not the best and I'm not sure

if I like the way that I colored it but I think it's cute I mainly made this this section.

And in general that's kind of the whole point.

You try, you mess up, you try again, you try again and again and again until you finally actually have something cool.

And then you decide to start something new and then the cycle continues.

I think we're getting used to this instant gratification of you're immediately good at something

or you immediately have something that you want.

Which I think is not a good thing and I'm not saying I'm perfect, probably I'm also like that in some ways, but I think this is a good reminder

that you have to fail many times until you have something actually nice to show.

And last but not least, you're making something for yourself.

You're playing, you're experimenting, you're exploring what you like and what you don't like, and you don't need to show it to anybody.

I mean, I'm showing this notebook to you now because I want to, but there's still half of it that I need to fill out, so I don't know if I'm gonna share that.

You don't have to put it on social media, even though I did a couple of times in my stories, but I don't share every sketch that I make because some of them look kind of rough.

So let me give you a couple of options of what you could do, because for me I really like my little sketchbook, I like drawing in it, but maybe it's not your thing.

So here are a couple of things that you could do instead.

First but not the most, scrapbooking or junk journaling.

Collecting rocks and painting them.

Start reviewing places on Google the places that have one or two reviews or some random stuff like bridges or trash cans.

Start crafting ransom notes for your friends, trying all different kinds of teas or apples and writing down what's good and bad about them,

making a comic strip, start a photo project, maybe photograph every neighborhood cat you see or usually

when I solo travel my mini goal is to get a good picture of myself, which sometimes is easier said than done.

Writing a poem or a haiku, start documenting things your life or the sky or textures of buildings

and just start collecting things like brochures as you can see my walls are filled with

different brochures that I found and I really like how it looks

or in general pick something that you did as a child

and stopped doing for some reason or something

that you always wanted to try it can become some sort of hobby

but it also just be like a short-term goal for me it's filling up this little guy

and then seeing if i want to get a new one

or not in general what i'm trying to say is i think

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that everybody should have some kind of mini project in their lives it doesn't matter

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if you're an artist or if you're an accountant creativity

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and creating art was never gatekept by a certain group of people it is always available for everybody

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because anybody can create something it's just some people are better at it because they kept showing up,

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they kept failing, and at a certain point their work just improved and was better.

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I'm really happy to see the pages filling up, the end result is uniquely mine, and I love the process.

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It helps me relax, it clears my mind, and it brings me joy.

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So if you ever needed a sign to start your mini creative project, then I guess it's this video.

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So other other than that, I'll see you next time.

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: why you need a mini creative project - Apprendre l'anglais à l'oral avec la vidéo

Context & Background

Top 5 Phrases for Daily Communication

Step-by-step Shadowing Guide

Qu'est-ce que la technique du Shadowing ?