シャドーイング練習: Why Are There 7 Days In A Week? - 動画で英語スピーキングを学ぶ

レッスンを作成中...
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Did you know that there is only one thing every single culture, country and religion in the world agrees on?
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And it's that there is only 7 days in a week.
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Not one more, not one less.
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Christians, Muslims, Jews, Europeans, Arabs, Asians.
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From China to Antarctica, everybody has 7 days a week.
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But why 7?
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What's so special about that number that every single person on the planet agrees to it?
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Let me explain.
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Thousands of years ago, people didn't have iPhones or watches to tell the time.
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So they would look up at the planets and their positions to guess it.
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They saw seven planets, including the sun and the moon, and believed that each had superpowers.
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So they started to worship them.
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One would be the god of justice, the other would be the goddess of love, and just like that, every planet became a god.
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They wanted these gods to watch over them 24 /7.
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So they assigned one God to every hour of the day.
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And eventually, they even gave a whole day to each.
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And that's how we ended up with seven days for seven gods.
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Moon day, Mars day, Mercury day, Jupiter day, Venus day, Saturn day, and of course, Sunday.
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These people were the Babylonians.
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Their weak system got so popular that it spread to Spain, France, India, Malaysia, and even the North Pole.
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That's how Mars day became Tuesday after the Norse god of war, Tu.
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Mercury day was renamed to Wooden's day after the Norse god of Wisdom, Wooden or Odin.
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Jupiter day was called Thor's day, after the Norse god of Thunder.
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And Venus day was renamed after the goddess of love, Frigg or Freya.
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So it was called Freya day.
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Many cultures tried to change the week, like the Egyptians and Romans who had 10 days instead of 7.
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But it never worked out because almost every other country in the world was happy with 7.
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Actually, the world fell in love with 7.
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That number became so popular that we started using it everywhere.
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The seven wonders of the world, the seven colors of the rainbow, the seven deadly sins, the seven continents, the seven seas, the seven chakras,
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the seven white keys of the piano, and even the seven Harry Potter books.
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It became a lucky number.
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So lucky that if you hit it three times in a slot machine, you'll become mega rich.
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It's so popular, even Cristiano Ronaldo picked it up as his jersey number.
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And James Bond uses it as a code name.
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Scientists found out that the reason we love it so much is
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because we can only remember up to seven things at a time in short -term memory.
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Anything more than that and we would need to write it down.
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So the next time you feel like your week is too long or you can't wait for the weekend, just remember it could have been much longer had you had followed the Egyptians.
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See, we found the most successful people in the world.
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The CEOs, the YouTubers, the entrepreneurs, the crypto geeks.
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And we invited them to teach everything they know on our platform.
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So go to nasacademy .com before their classes start and put NAS Daily as a promo code to get 10 % off.
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This is only for the first 1000 of you.
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Or alternatively, you can just join one of our free workshops to try it out.
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Thank you so much and I'll see you in the next video.

このレッスンについて

YouTubeで英語学習をするなら、「なぜ1週間が7日なのか?」という動画は最適です。この動画では、7日間の起源や文化的背景、7という数字の人気の理由などが話されています。英語スピーキング練習にぴったりの内容で、日常会話から学術的な話題まで幅広くカバーしているので、IELTS スピーキング対策にも役立ちます。リスニングとスピーキングを同時に鍛えながら、面白い知識も得られる一石二鳥のレッスンです。

重要な語彙とフレーズ

  • worship:崇拝する。「They started to worship them.」(彼らはそれらを崇拝し始めた)
  • assign:割り当てる。「They assigned one God to every hour.」(彼らは1時間ごとに神を割り当てた)
  • upskill:スキルアップする。「platform to upskill yourself」(自分をスキルアップさせるプラットフォーム)
  • short-term memory:短期記憶。「we can only remember up to seven things in short-term memory」(短期記憶では7つまでしか覚えられない)
  • slot machine:スロットマシン。「hit it three times in a slot machine」(スロットマシンで3回当たる)

練習のヒント

shadowing siteやshadowspeakを使って練習する際は、まず動画のスピードに合わせてリピートしましょう。この動画は話し方が自然で、口調が明るいので、発音とイントネーションに注目してください。「So they would look up at the planets...」のような長い文は、途中で息を吸うタイミングを覚えることが大切です。何度も繰り返して、自分の言葉のように話せるようになるまで練習しましょう。英語スピーキング練習には、継続が大切です。毎日10分でも、shadowingを続けると、流暢さが格段に上がります。IELTS スピーキング対策にも、このような自然な会話の練習が効果的です。頑張ってください!

この動画の文法

話し手がよく使っている文型を、動画の実際の表現とともに紹介します。

文型動画での表現
受動態 be + 過去分詞 — 誰がするかより、何が起きるかに焦点を当てるwas renamed · was called
最上級 the -est / the most … — グループの中で一番the best · the most successful
「will」の未来表現 will + 動詞 — その場の決定、約束、予測you'll become · I'll see

シャドーイングとは?英語上達に効果的な理由

シャドーイング(Shadowing)は、もともとプロの通訳者養成プログラムで開発された言語学習法で、多言語習得者として知られるDr. Alexander Arguelles によって広く普及されました。方法はシンプルですが非常に効果的:ネイティブスピーカーの英語を聞きながら、1〜2秒の遅延で声に出してすぐに繰り返す——まるで「影(shadow)」のように話者を追いかけます。文法ドリルや受動的なリスニングと異なり、シャドーイングは脳と口の筋肉が同時にリアルタイムで英語を処理・再現することを強制します。研究により、発音精度、抑揚、リズム、連音、リスニング力、そして会話の流暢さが大幅に向上することが確認されています。IELTSスピーキング対策や自然な英語コミュニケーションを目指す方に特におすすめです。

シャドーイングのやり方: ステップ別の完全ガイドを読む →