シャドーイング練習: Why You Should Write Personal Essays (Even If Nobody Reads Them) - 動画で英語スピーキングを学ぶ

練習モードを選ぶ

各モードは全画面の練習ルームで開きます。

193 文

文が短すぎたり長すぎる場合は、Editをタップして調整してください。

If you think essays are boring, then you are trapped in this awful school mindset where you think

that all an essay is good for is for writing down and passing an exam.

Essays are so fundamental to the human condition and they have never been more important as a skill for you to train.

At a time where you can prompt an AI to give you an essay like this,

there has never been more value in you sitting down thinking and working out your own essay, your own opinions, your own thoughts

so in this video I am going to make the argument

that you should be writing personal essays

and not only am I going to convince you of writing personal essays

I'm going to give you an exact framework

that you can be using to write personal essays such that

if you engage with this video particularly well

you'll already have your first personal essay by the time

you finished it as a bit of background my name is Erin

I post three times a week here on YouTube

I post broadly about curiosity learning productivity neuroscience I'm a student at the University of Cambridge

so I write a lot of academic essays

but I also write a lot of personal essays over on my sub stack

and generally in my journal and in my diaries and I think

that for providing some level of introspection

and providing some level of understanding about yourself there just is nothing

that you can do that is better than writing a personal essay

so that is all the yapping that I'm going to do about it let's get into the substance of the video.

I would like to quote Joan Didion, who in her Why I Write, she said, I write entirely to find out what I'm thinking.

And that encapsulates exactly why I write personal essays, with the emphasis being on what I am thinking.

Because if you're like me, you probably spend a while in social media every single day.

And that means you are constantly consuming the thoughts, opinions, and ideas of other people.

That's really valuable because sometimes you need to know what other people think in order to figure out what you think.

But if you're never stepping back and you're never questioning what it is that you personally think and feel,

then you're never coming up with your own opinions.

And personal essays give you the room and the space to do that.

So I'm going to start by giving

you a bit of an intellectual argument as to why you should be writing the personal essay.

And you might want to skip through this and go for it, but I actually think it's really, really important.

So first of all, writing is a form of thinking.

It's not just a record of what you thought.

When you're writing, you're actively going through ideas and it's forcing you to slow down.

Thinking is very, very fast.

You can think like this.

Speaking is also pretty fast.

It's slower than thinking but it's still much faster than writing.

Writing really makes you slow down.

You can only think at the speed at which your hand can write

and that forces you to really go through different processes and to really evaluate options.

The permanence or the perceived permanence of writing,

you can always put something in the bin or burn it or just get rid of it by other means.

But the perceived permanence also means

that we're a lot more thoughtful about what we write than what we speak and what we think.

And so that becomes a fascinatingly powerful way of working through your own ideas, assumptions, and the way that you're thinking about a given thing.

And what that leads into is the fact

that writing really teaches you this level of intellectual independence that you don't really get through schools.

Your opinions that you write in academic essays are often informed by the other papers that you have read,

they're informed by your friends or what you think your teacher's going to like

and when you're writing this personal essay you have this independence because who's going to read it?

You, you're the only person who's going to read it, you're the audience, you might want to share it with other people,

that's on you but that's not a prerequisite and when it's only you being your audience, when you're an audience of one,

it allows you to be a lot more honest

and it allows you to really explore your own thoughts

and ideas without thinking oh is this going to make it you know less impressive to an examiner

and because you're slowing down

so much you're connecting ideas between different fields you're giving your brain the ability to make distinctions

and make connections that at the speed of thinking

and at the speed of speech it just might not be able to do

but my favorite reason as to why I write essays

and I go back on my essays for this exact reason

it creates a bit of an intellectual history of yourself sometimes I'll go back read my early essays

and go wow can't believe I thought like this can't believe I believe

that it's insane it's crazy but it's written down

and it allows me to chart my own progress

and my own intellectual thought processes and I think that's something really valuable

and honestly really very cool actually

if we go back into the history of essay writing they were never meant to be school assignments

if we go back to 1580 I can never pronounce his name very well

but it's Michel de Montaigne and he published the first edition of his essays it was obviously given the name in French,

the word essay means something like an attempt or a trial or a test.

Basically Montaigne wasn't presenting a definitive system of answers.

He wasn't presenting these conclusions.

Essays were not meant to be conclusionary.

Instead they were meant to be exploratory.

They're meant to be a test of ideas, a test of belief systems

and in writing you're able to distill your beliefs into something approaching a conclusion at the end

but that's not the important bit.

The important bit is the intellectual exploration that happens beforehand and that's where a personal essay really

becomes distinct from a school essay because a school essay is structured around defending a conclusion, right?

And a personal essay is structured around discovering a conclusion.

You can't state your thesis in the opening because you don't know it.

You can just state your ideas and sort of explore from there.

So the personal essay method, how are you going to go and write your first one?

The more you do, the less you'll need this method.

But sometimes given that we operate in a world of structure, it can be nice to have some structure given to you.

It becomes a lot easier for you to sort of look into the world

and begin to write something rather than staring at a blank page where you could write absolutely anything.

So I'm going to give you a bit of structure.

The first thing that you're going to do is you're going to find some friction in your life.

What I mean by this is, is there a problem that you are working through?

Is there an emotion that you're feeling that you've not really given yourself time to feel?

Is there a particular situation, scenario, problem space that you just want to explore in slightly more depth?

identify that and then turn it into a question

so find a specific element of it

or turn the entire thing into a bit of a question

100

and this is going to be the question

101

that you are trying to find a conclusion for through your essay

102

it's going to be sort of the guiding idea that you are

103

exploratively working towards throughout the entire thing

104

and from there you need to think okay well

105

if I'm going to be exploring what I personally think my conclusion to this is you need some feedstock for that.

106

You need some raw material.

107

You need some personal experiences or perhaps some memories or something a friend said, videos, podcasts, things that you've watched and can recall.

108

I'm not saying go away and do research.

109

I'm saying think about what you've already experienced that you could bring into your discussions around trying to discover this conclusion.

110

And then you're going to put your pen on the page.

111

And you're going to start simply by stating the question

112

and then what I find most beneficial for getting started is

113

then go into one of these raw materials go into one of these experiences write about it

114

and then write about how that links to your question

115

and what sort of a conclusion that would push you towards

116

and by the time you're here you'll have some momentum

117

and you'll be thinking well maybe x and y isn't really true

118

or maybe there was some bias here or maybe this doesn't apply in these other situations

119

and you want to be finding constantly these persuasive objections to your beliefs try

120

and find counter examples try and find opposing views

121

and discuss them discuss them in depth really strong man the argument

122

and give yourself something to work with you want this constant back

123

and forth between yourself and your other self between the perspectives

124

that you had initially and the perspectives

125

that you're growing to have as you're writing more

126

and more you might think sometimes what do i say next

127

if you're ever stuck

128

if you don't know what to say next find another piece of raw material find another experience

129

or conversational moment and bring that in and then contrast it to the previous

130

and that'll kind of give you infinite material to keep going

131

and keep evaluating the same points and going towards this particular conclusion

132

that you're trying to make

133

and as you're doing this you are trying to identify changes in the way

134

that you're thinking about either the situation the question as a whole

135

or where you think that conclusion is pointing you towards and when you feel like you're experiencing one of those changes

136

you don't have to literally flag it but you can sort of mentally flag it and flag it in your own writing.

137

So those are the sort of phases that you're going to try

138

and work through as you are writing these essays

139

but as you're doing that try and keep in mind the fact that firstly you want to be discussing some specific things.

140

It's really good to have these sort of general ideas

141

but generally you can bring these general principles

142

and these bigger questions into smaller more sort of condensed mini questions that you're looking at.

143

They can draw in these big principles

144

but ultimately you want to be questioning these small

145

and specific things such that

146

when you're reaching a conclusion you feel as though you've actually meaningfully changed something about a perspective

147

or a way you feel about a particular situation and coupling

148

that it's so great to write sentences paragraphs etc that sound amazing

149

but I think particularly

150

if you're coming from a background of having done a lot of academic essays

151

there is a tendency to want to be performatively profound

152

and to say things just because they sound really good

153

or they look really good when they're written down but

154

that doesn't necessarily translate into something that's going to give you utility it's always better to say something

155

that is precise to say something that is thought through even

156

if it is using the most basic language

157

because it is actually very much a skill to be able

158

to distill large complex ideas feelings emotions etc into super basic words

159

and if you can do that in your personal essays then you're going to be really finding some beneficial value in there.

160

So some recommendations I would have if you want to read some more personal essays.

161

Obviously I've already mentioned Michel de Montaigne, his essays.

162

Fantastic collection.

163

To that I would add

164

Why I Write by George Orwell.

165

This is an insane, insane explanation of why you should be writing

166

and if you do read this you will never be not writing personal essays ever again.

167

You will constantly be returning to them i also am quite partial to the death of the moth

168

and other essays by virginia wolf that's a good sort of starting ground

169

i think i also mentioned joan didion at the start from her why i write

170

That is really good, but also slouching towards Bethlehem is fantastic.

171

It's a piece of work of hers.

172

So go, write your first essay.

173

Replay this video, replay the section where I'm telling you how to write a personal essay

174

and follow along and write it because there is something insanely wonderful about the fact

175

that you can sit down with a question,

176

a blank page and a pen and nothing particularly intelligent to say already in your brain and through the act of writing,

177

realise you have so much more to say, so much more to think about and sometimes a very changed view on the world

178

and remember you don't need anybody to read them

179

you don't need to think of yourself as a writer although in the act of writing

180

you do become a writer but the important thing is

181

that you're just giving yourself time

182

and the opportunity to work out what exactly it is

183

that you think and that is the conclusion

184

that i want you to take away from this video i hope you're going to go away

185

and write a bunch of personal essays

186

if you do keep them safe build on them allow them to shape your world view

187

that's all for this video I really hope you found it interesting and enjoyable

188

if you did you're going to love the rest of my

189

videos be sure to subscribe give this video itself a little thumbs up

190

and a comment what would you like to see next what

191

are your thoughts on personal essays have you written any

192

if there are any you'd like to share then put them in the comments

193

and we can take a look at them together and as always I'll see you in the next video bye

アプリをダウンロード

流暢に話すために必要なすべて

AI発音採点文ごとに採点

IPA練習すべての音をマスター

単語学習自分の単語帳を作る

単語ゲーム遊びながら覚える

QRをスキャン

Download on theApp Store Get it onGoogle Play

FOR YOU

このレッスンの語彙とスピーキングのポイント

このスピーキングレッスンは、動画「Why You Should Write Personal Essays」を教材にしています。繰り返し出てくる語は次のとおりです：essay, write, writing, personal, conclusion。この動画には、シャドーイング用の文が193文、単語が2439語あります。音声の長さは11:22です。話す速さは速く、1分あたり約214語です。音のつながりや弱く発音される音が多くなります。単語の86%は英語の頻出3,000語に含まれます。残りは練習の前に確認しておきましょう。

この動画の重要語彙

動画に出てくる覚えておきたい単語15語を、発音と意味つきで紹介します。

単語	発音	意味
essay 名詞	/ˈɛs.eɪ/	エッセイ, 随筆
conclusion 名詞	/kənˈkluːʒən/	終わり, 結び
intellectual 形容詞	/ˌɪntəˈlɛkt͡ʃʊəl/	知的な
explore 動詞	/ɪkˈsploɹ/	探検する
belief 名詞	/bɪˈliːf/	確信
insane 形容詞	/ɪnˈseɪn/	気が狂った, 狂しい
skill 名詞	/skɪl/	腕, 技
discover 動詞	/dɪˈskʌvə/	発見する, 見つける
principle 名詞	/ˈpɹɪn.sɪ.pəl/	原理, 原則
emotion 名詞	/ɪˈməʊ.ʃən/	感情, 心緒
inform 動詞	/ɪnˈfɔɹm/	告げる, 知らせる
beneficial 形容詞	/ˌbɛn.ɪˈfɪʃ.əl/	有益な
evaluate 動詞	/ɪˈvaljʊeɪt/	評する
replay 名詞	/ˈɹiːpleɪ/	リプレイ
perceive 動詞	/pɚˈsiv/	知覚する, 認める

動画に出てくる句動詞

単語	意味
slow down 動詞	遅らせる
write down 動詞	書き留める, 記す
go away 動詞	去る, 出る
find out 動詞	見出す, 調べる
go back 動詞	戻る, 帰る
sit down 動詞	座る, 腰掛ける

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
条件文 if + 節, will/would + 動詞 — 条件とその結果	if you do read this you will never · if there are any you'd like
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	are trapped · are often informed · were never meant
現在完了形 have/has + 過去分詞 — 過去の出来事が今も関係している	have never been · has never been · have read

注意したい発音

話し手はyou're, I'm, don'tなど、短縮形や弱形を78回使っています。聞こえたとおりの短い形で発音しましょう。

「th」の音: thesis /ˈθisɪs/, thumb /ˈθʌm/, thoughtful /ˈθɔːtfəl/, moth /mɔθ/
「sh」と「zh」の音: conclusion /kənˈkluːʒən/, emotion /ɪˈməʊ.ʃən/, beneficial /ˌbɛn.ɪˈfɪʃ.əl/, contrast /kənˈt(ʃ)ɹæst/, explanation /ˌɛkspləˈneɪʃən/
長い単語（アクセントの位置に注意）: intellectual /ˌɪntəˈlɛkt͡ʃʊəl/, beneficial /ˌbɛn.ɪˈfɪʃ.əl/, necessarily /ˌnɛs.əˈsɛɹ.ə.li/, explanation /ˌɛkspləˈneɪʃən/, fundamental /ˌfʌn.dəˈmɛn.təl/

日本語話者が苦手な音：

/r/ と /l/ の区別 — /l/ は舌先を歯茎につけ、/r/ はどこにもつけない: explore /ɪkˈsploɹ/, principle /ˈpɹɪn.sɪ.pəl/, replay /ˈɹiːpleɪ/, necessarily /ˌnɛs.əˈsɛɹ.ə.li/, recall /ɹɪˈkɔl/
/v/ — /b/ にならないように、上の歯を下唇に当てる: discover /dɪˈskʌvə/, evaluate /ɪˈvaljʊeɪt/, perceive /pɚˈsiv/, impressive /ɪmˈpɹɛsɪv/, convince /kənˈvɪns/
/f/ — 「フ」ではなく、上の歯と下唇で出す: belief /bɪˈliːf/, inform /ɪnˈfɔɹm/, beneficial /ˌbɛn.ɪˈfɪʃ.əl/, defend /dɪˈfɪnd/, awful /ˈɔːfʊl/

この動画での練習方法

まず声を出さずに動画を最後まで聞き、知らない単語をメモします。
まず0.75倍速で一文ずつシャドーイングし、慣れてきたら通常の速度に戻します。
自分の声を録音して元の音声と比べます。essay, conclusion, intellectualなどの単語に特に注意しましょう。

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 →

シャドーイング練習: Why You Should Write Personal Essays (Even If Nobody Reads Them) - 動画で英語スピーキングを学ぶ

練習モードを選ぶ

アプリをダウンロード

おすすめ動画

Why Education Is Important - Jordan Peterson

How I got a First Class in EVERY Essay at Law School

Why I Choose to Live a "Boring" Life

The Lost Art Of The Intellectual Life

The Best Journaling Habits for Your Brain, Backed by Neuroscience

How I Would Build a Personal Brand in 2027 (If I Had to Start Over)

How to Think and How to Speak | Jordan Peterson and Lex Fridman

Learn To Write And You Will Become Unstoppable. It's That Simple

Emma Watson: “Dating Feels Like a Disaster… But Writing Saved Me”

How To Become Dangerously Self-Educated (complete plan)

Henry Rollins on the Joy of Writing

You're Too Self-Aware to Be Happy | The Psychology of Deep Thinkers