Shadowing Practice: 4.2k - Learn English Speaking with Video

We sat down with Taylor Swift in Nashville, Tennessee and talked about her career, a few special moments, and her new project, Fearless, the Platinum Edition.

When I was little, my parents always talk about how we used to be driving

back from seeing a Disney movie at the movie theaters or something.

And I was like three years old in the backseat singing every single word to the songs

that I had heard and I'd just seen the movie once.

because I think I've just always loved music and gravitated towards it since I was a little kid.

My grandmother took me to go see a children's theater production of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

And it was in my hometown, and there were all these kids that were my age.

I was nine at the time.

And they were all getting up there and performing and just becoming these characters, and I was really into it.

I loved it.

And so the next week I went to go try out for a musical, and that was what really made me fall in love with performing.

A couple years later, you know, I'd been singing karaoke and playing at festivals and fairs

and Boy Scout meetings and garden club meetings and anywhere I could possibly play with my little karaoke machine.

And I was at my house and this guy came to fix my computer.

And I was doing my homework in the same room and I saw that he had brought a guitar with him him.

And so I looked down at the guitar and I was like, you play that?

And he's like, yeah, I do.

Do you play?

And I was like, oh, I wish.

And he asked if I wanted to learn a couple chords.

And I said yes.

And I learned those three chords.

And he left the guitar with me that week.

And I wrote my first song that night.

And he just kept coming back every week and teaching me new guitar chords.

So I started writing songs immediately after I started playing guitar.

The artists that made me want to be in country music were artists like Faith Hill

and Shania Twain and the Dixie Chicks.

And these were all female artists in country music

that I felt were different than anything I'd ever heard in my whole life.

Shania Twain is just so independent and confident and empowering and Faith Hill is so glamorous

and just everything that she does to me seems graceful.

And the Dixie Chicks, they had this really quirky element to everything that they did.

I was inspired by different things about every one of those artists, but those were definitely the three that inspired me more than anything else.

But you look at Britney Spears' early award show performances where she would always do something a little unexpected.

I was inspired by that.

And then songwriters like Sheryl Crow, I was very inspired by what she did in the songwriting realm of things.

So I love great music.

It doesn't matter what genre it falls under.

I try to look at my music as diary entries, because that's sort of what it's become.

I went through a period of time when I didn't really have friends at school.

And the one thing that I had to look forward to was going home and writing a song about it.

was the way that I started dealing with my problems.

And so that hasn't changed much at all.

That's still how I deal with my problems.

And my first album that I put out, the self-titled album, that's my diary from the point when I started writing music to the point where I was 16.

So that's 12 to 16.

And then Fearless, I look at that as being my diary from the time

that I was 16 to when I was 18.

And so I think it's going to be really crazy to look back

when I'm older and look at these albums as these diary entries from different times in my life.

When I put out my first album, there was a fear that I had that maybe my music would be too personal for people to relate to.

I had two songs on that album that mentioned guys' names, you know, guys that I'd had a crush on or the guy

that sat next me in class and I was sitting there and part of me was thinking, are people going to be able to relate to this at all

because it's so my personal story that maybe people might not be able to relate.

It actually had the opposite effect.

It was crazy how many people were coming up to me

and mentioning the songs that were the most personal on the record

and and saying that those were the ones they could relate to the most.

And at that point I started to realize that it was a good thing to put details into songs.

It's how I had always written, so I didn't really know any other different way.

It just really meant a lot to me

that I realized after my first record came out that I didn't have to change anything that I was doing.

It was okay to write songs in my bedroom, you know, sitting there, writing songs about a guy that I almost dated,

and comparing him to, you know, Prince Charming, and all that was okay to write about because if I was feeling it,

I guess it didn't occur to me that a lot of other people might be feeling it too.

Making Fearless happened over the course of two years.

I put out my first album and went on non-stop tours.

I was the opening act for every country artist out there that was on their headlining tour.

And I'm so glad that I took two years to make the second album

because what I've always wanted to do and my main goal above everything else is to beat what I've done before.

To me that's the most important thing.

And always topping what you did last.

So taking those two years in between the album, I experienced two years worth of experiences and two years worth of life

and meeting people and getting let down and having people promise you things

that they don't follow through with and watching people and reflecting on things.

And I'm so glad that there was that amount of time for me to grow up.

You do so much growing from the age of 16 to 18.

And I was living on a tour bus at that point and I was playing a show every night, but that didn't change the fact that I was meeting boys

and got my heart broken and lived life the way a 16 to 18 year old lives their life.

Regardless of if you're staying in a hotel or if you're going to high school every day, those things happen to you.

And I've tried to leave the whole travel aspect out of my writing

and just focus on feelings and boys because that's what I like to write songs about.

The title Fearless was directly taken from a song that I wrote.

I wrote this song about what my idea was of the best first date ever.

And, you know, it doesn't matter where you go to dinner on the best first date

or if somebody brings you flowers at the door or something like that.

It's really all about who you're with and who shows up at your doorstep and how that person makes you feel.

And I wrote this song called Fearless about how you just have that feeling where you would do anything.

You would dance in the rain in your best dress because with that person you feel fearless.

And you know, the first thing I do

when I'm thinking about titling an album is I look to the music first and I look to the lyrics.

So that really stuck out to me as something that not only described the feeling you get when you're in love,

but it describes the feeling that I hoped to have putting out that album.

You know, everything just disappears, all your fears and your anxiety and your doubt, and you put it out and you hope people like it.

And I think there's a lot of fearlessness that goes into love

and writing honest songs about what you're going through on a daily basis.

So I'm really, really happy that we chose that as the album title.

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My co-producer, Nathan Chapman, is amazing, and I met him when I was 14.

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So when I met him, I was writing songs in this little publishing company

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and he was producing demos in a shack behind that publishing company with like a space heater next to his computer.

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And he had like a couple instruments and he would like make these demos in this shack that sounded like records.

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When we put out my self-titled album, that was the first album either of us had ever made.

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So it's been awesome to see those albums go on to sell millions of records

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when we were just having fun in this little shack behind a publishing company.

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And then we got to upgrade to studios with air conditioning and stuff, which was really nice.

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But making Fearless was a little bit different than making the first album

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because if we wanted to put strings on a certain song, that was easier for us to do.

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And if we wanted to really experiment with recording a last-minute song that I had just written the night before.

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Love Story was a song that I wrote in my bedroom

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and then the next day I was scheduled to go into the studio and we had 15 extra minutes in the studio.

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And so I got up my guitar and I was like, I know that you guys want to go home

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but I wrote this last night and I was wondering if maybe we could just kind of do a run through, just like try it out, see if we like it.

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If not, you know, just we won't do it.

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But it ended up being the biggest hit that I've ever had and being number one in countries I've never been before.

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Like, that's so crazy to me.

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So co-producing this record was also really awesome because when I write songs, I hear the entire production in my head

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and I hear what the guitar lick is in the beginning

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and I hear what the hook is and just instrumentally

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and I really love the fact that I am with the producer that listens to me.

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It means so much to me

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because I've been a teenage girl in Nashville in the studio with people who don't listen

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and I like it a lot better when they do listen to me.

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I heard stories about Shania and Garth going over there and touring in different countries,

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but other than that, I hadn't heard of any country artists that have gone overseas and really tried to make it work. But it's been wonderful.

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I'm so excited about going over there and playing Wembley Arena and playing an arena in London.

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Are you kidding me?

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I just am so excited about it.

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Touring in Australia last year was incredible and we're going back there with my entire set. So excited.

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And I'm going to Japan for the first time.

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So it's been so exciting because I've never expected to get to do any of this.

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So when it happens I just freak out.

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Writing the song You Belong With Me was really inspired by a conversation that happened in my life.

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It's so funny how sometimes I'll get inspired by something that's happening to one of my friends or something like that,

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but then there's the case where I'm literally having this happen to me and I write a song about it.

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I was walking past one of my guy friends

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and he was on the phone with his girlfriend and she was yelling at him like really loudly in the phone.

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I mean I could hear her voice yelling at him from across the room and she was on the phone.

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It's terrible.

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And I felt so bad for him because I was like, don't be with her.

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She's mean to you.

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Like, she's being ridiculously mean.

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It was because he didn't call her back in 10 minutes.

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He called her back in 15 minutes.

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Crazy.

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And so I walked past and I started humming to myself.

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I started singing in my head, you're on the phone with your girlfriend.

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She's upset.

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And I was like, that could be something.

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And so I went back to my tour bus

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and picked up my guitar and wrote the first verse

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and got back to Nashville and went over to Liz Rose's house

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and played her the first verse and like half the chorus.

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And we turned it into this song that I'm really excited.

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It was a big hit.

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I mean, it's like, I just, it's so funny to look back on the inspiration point of these songs,

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and then what they go on to become is crazy to me.

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The video was really fun to make because we got to go back to high school, and that storyline is what I always wished would happen to me in high school,

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and because it never did, I got to make a music video about it.

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So Lucas Till was in the video, and I thought he did a great job as the male love interest, and I got to wear my glasses that I used to wear in high school, so it was all good.

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When I have any time off, which doesn't happen that much, but when I do have time off, I love baking and cooking,

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and right now I'm getting my mom to teach me all of the recipes that she knows.

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And I have this little red book that's a journal, but I just write the recipes in that book that she knows,

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and whenever I'm home, like, I have her teach me a new recipe every single night, and it's really fun.

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Other than that, I just got my first place, and I'm really excited about it.

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So whenever I'm on the road and when I'm home, I'm always in antique stores and buying old things,

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and I just want it to be a really quirky, eclectic place with, like, mismatched furniture and,

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you know, crazy colors and some place where I can't wait to go when I'm home.

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So I'm doing lots of construction.

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It looks very post-apocalyptic right now in there, but it's gonna be cool.

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I am involved in charities.

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I haven't just picked one.

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I try to spread it out and really be a part of a lot of different charities.

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But Red Cross has been a favorite of mine.

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Also, St. Jude's is everybody.

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Everybody loves St. Jude's because they do amazing stuff over there.

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And also, when I go to a town that has had flooding or natural disasters happen there,

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I give back privately and stuff like that

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and I'm a big fan of making a difference in a family's life when I meet someone who really needs it.

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And I don't talk about those ones because it's

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so rewarding just on a personal level to be able to help people now.

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And I get to be a good tipper now, which is really fun.

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I really love tipping people at drive-thrus because they don't expect you to.

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There's a lot of extra content on this album

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and I just always try to let people into my life

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and show them what they've done for me because the fans are the reason I'm here.

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They're the reason I get to stand on a big stage

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so I want to show them what it's like to be on tour.

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So we have a lot of backstage footage

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and my brother recently got a camera and started taking pictures

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when we were on the road and eventually we just started saying, Austin, why don't you take pictures of everything and we'll use it somewhere.

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Why don't you just be tour photographer for the summer?

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And so he came out on the road every single show this summer and took pictures behind the scenes, took pictures of the band, of the crew, of me,

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of performances, of backstage and there are so many pictures on there that I'm so excited for people to see.

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There are music videos, Thug Story, the T-Pain collaboration that I did for the CMT Awards is on there,

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which I'm really excited about.

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I'm also really excited about all the videos that are on there, like You Belong With Me, Love Story, White Horse, they're all on there.

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The six new songs on the Fearless Platinum Edition are songs that I either recorded really recently and wrote really recently.

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Wrote maybe a year ago and almost put on Fearless but decided not to for one reason or another.

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Songs that I wrote when I was 14 or 15 and recorded back then and then re-recorded recently.

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It's a good mixture of songs from different time periods throughout my life

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but when I make an album I always have a general theme for

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that album and when I hear my songs and go back and listen to old ones,

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there are some that you know fit in with the theme of this album, just musically, sonically.

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And so these are six songs that I've written that I feel really, really working well with this album.

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And there are a few that are just my favorites.

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There's a song called Jump Then Fall that is probably the happiest,

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bounciest, fun song to drive down the street listening to.

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I wrote it last summer and it's just really fun and happy and takes me back to a good place.

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There's a song called The Other Side of the Door

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that I really like because it talks about

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when you're in a fight with someone you're in a relationship with and you slam the door and you're like, leave me alone, don't ever talk to me, I hate you.

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But what you really mean is, please go buy me flowers and beg that I forgive you and stand at the door and don't leave for three days.

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It's like all about the dramatics of relationships where you're like, I hate you so much, I don't ever want to talk to you again, and you mean the opposite.

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So that's a fun one that I am really excited about getting out there.

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And there's also a version of my song Forever and always that is just piano and cello.

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And that's a song on the record that I feel like

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that song has a lot of different sides and it has a lot of different emotions all poured into one song.

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And so this version of the song really addresses the sad parts of that song.

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And you know on the record the way it is, it's produced and it seems frustrated and angry and confused,

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but this version of the song is just really sad.

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So it's going to be really excited to hear what people think of the six new songs

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and all the new stuff on this record because they've made this a really great year for me.

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And so this is my chance to, you know, give some new music and some new stuff to the people who have had this CD for a year.

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I hope they all enjoy the Fearless Jedi Ninja Platinum Edition.

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Woordenschat en spreektips bij deze les

Deze video bevat 226 zinnen en 3329 woorden om na te spreken. Het gesproken deel duurt 19:43. De spreker praat in een natuurlijk tempo van ongeveer 169 woorden per minuut, dicht bij een alledaags gesprek. 85% van de woorden hoort bij de 3.000 meest gebruikte Engelse woorden; de rest kun je beter vooraf bekijken.

Belangrijke woorden in deze video

15 woorden uit de video die het leren waard zijn, met uitspraak en betekenis:

Woord	Uitspraak	Betekenis
fearless bijvoeglijk naamwoord	/ˈfɪɹləs/	onbevreesd
guitar zelfstandig naamwoord	/ɡɪˈtɑɹ/	gitaar
inspire werkwoord	/ɪnˈspaɪə(ɹ)/	inspireren
relate werkwoord	/ɹɪˈleɪt/	vertellen
diary zelfstandig naamwoord	/ˈdaɪ.ə.ɹi/	dagboek
publish werkwoord	/ˈpʌblɪʃ/	publiceren, uitgeven
chord zelfstandig naamwoord	/kɔɹd/	akkoord
bedroom zelfstandig naamwoord	/ˈbɛdˌɹum/	slaapkamer
charity zelfstandig naamwoord	/ˈtʃæɹɪti/	liefdadigheidsinstelling, goed doel
producer zelfstandig naamwoord	/pɹəˈdjuːsə/	producent, vervaardiger
flower zelfstandig naamwoord	/ˈfloʊɚ/	bloem
theater zelfstandig naamwoord	/ˈθi(ə)tɚ/	theater
verse zelfstandig naamwoord	/ˈvɝs/	vers
demo zelfstandig naamwoord	/ˈdɛm.oʊ/	demo, demonstratie
yell werkwoord	/jɛl/	schreeuwen

Phrasal verbs die je zult horen

Woord	Uitspraak	Betekenis
put out werkwoord		buitenzetten, uitwerpen
get up werkwoord		opstaan
go back werkwoord		teruggaan
come back werkwoord		terugkomen
come out werkwoord	/ˌkʌm ˈaʊt/	uitkomen
end up werkwoord		belanden, terechtkomen
fall under werkwoord		vallen onder
grow up werkwoord		opgroeien

Uitspraak om op te letten

De spreker gebruikt 77 samentrekkingen en verkorte vormen, zoals I'm, don't, you're. Spreek ze kort uit, zoals je ze hoort.

De “th”-klanken: theater /ˈθi(ə)tɚ/, grandmother /ˈɡɹæn(d)ˌmʌðɚ/
De klanken “sh” en “zh”: publish /ˈpʌblɪʃ/, inspiration /ˌɪn.spɪˈɹeɪ.ʃən/, collaboration /kəˌlæbəˈɹeɪʃən/, emotion /ɪˈməʊ.ʃən/, crush /kɹʌʃ/
Lange woorden — let op de klemtoon: anxiety /æŋˈzaɪ.əti/, inspiration /ˌɪn.spɪˈɹeɪ.ʃən/, experiment /ɪkˈspɛɹ.ə.mənt/, collaboration /kəˌlæbəˈɹeɪʃən/, photographer /fəˈtɑ.ɡɹə.fɚ/

Zo oefen je met deze video

Luister de hele video één keer zonder te spreken en noteer de woorden die je niet kent.
Begin op 0,75× snelheid, spreek zin voor zin na en ga terug naar normale snelheid zodra het makkelijk gaat.
Neem jezelf op en vergelijk met het origineel; let daarbij op woorden als fearless, guitar, inspire.

Grammatica in deze video

De structuren die de spreker het meest gebruikt, met de exacte woorden uit de video:

Structuur	In de video
“Used to” used to + werkwoord — een vroegere gewoonte of toestand die niet meer klopt	used to be · used to wear
Present perfect have/has + voltooid deelwoord — iets uit het verleden dat nu nog telt	I've just always loved · hasn't changed · I've always wanted
Betrekkelijke bijzinnen who / which + zin — extra informatie over een persoon of ding	stuff, which was · people who don · someone who really
Lijdende vorm be + voltooid deelwoord — het gaat om wat er gebeurt, niet om wie het doet	was inspired · was scheduled · was really inspired

Wat is de Shadowing-techniek?

Shadowing is een wetenschappelijk onderbouwde taalleermethode die oorspronkelijk is ontwikkeld voor professionele tolkentraining en gepopulariseerd door polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. De methode is eenvoudig maar krachtig: je luistert naar native Engelse audio en herhaalt het onmiddellijk hardop — als een schaduw die de spreker volgt met slechts 1–2 seconden vertraging. In tegenstelling tot passief luisteren of grammaticadrills, dwingt shadowing je hersenen en mondspieren om echte spraakpatronen tegelijkertijd te verwerken en te reproduceren. Onderzoek toont aan dat het de uitspraaknauwkeurigheid, intonatie, ritme, verbonden spraak, luisterbegrip en spreekvaardigheid aanzienlijk verbetert — waardoor het een van de meest effectieve methoden is voor IELTS Speaking-voorbereiding en echte Engelse communicatie.

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Woordenschat en spreektips bij deze les

Belangrijke woorden in deze video

Phrasal verbs die je zult horen

Uitspraak om op te letten

Zo oefen je met deze video

Grammatica in deze video

Wat is de Shadowing-techniek?