Shadowing Practice: 5 Weird Involuntary Behaviors Explained! - Learn English Speaking with Video
Les maken...
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We like to think we walk through our lives completely conscious,
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free to choose whatever we like, totally, completely in control.
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Not even close.
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Our bodies leave a lot to autopilot, which is a good thing, because imagine having to regulate your heartbeat and your breathing and your digestive system and your body temperature,
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while not peeing your pants and falling down.
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That would be hard.
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Many of those involuntary actions are mysterious, annoying, and just plain weird.
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Here are five of the human body's strangest out-of-control behaviors.
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Start typing why does my into Google, and the top result is an eye-opener.
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Involuntary twitching of the muscles around the eye has a number of causes, including dry eyes, caffeine, bright lights, and just like during a tough workout, from simple fatigue.
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It's usually totally harmless and eventually goes away on its own, and it's a good hint that you've probably been looking at that screen enough for one day.
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Looking at bright light can cause more than an eye twitch.
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In Aristotle's book of problems, he asks, why is it that one sneezes more after one has looked at the sun?
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Proving that people have been asking a lot of the same questions for a long time, and no one told Aristotle that you're not supposed to stare at the sun.
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Like, ever.
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The so-called photic sneeze reflex, aka the autosomal cholinergic heliophthalmic outburst,
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abbreviated achoo, yes, seriously, is experienced by about one in four people, leading scientists to believe that it is genetically heritable.
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While the exact cause hasn't been pinpointed, Many scientists think that it's due to crosstalk between the optic nerve
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and the nerve that feeds the tickling sensation in your nose.
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The visual cortex of sun-sneezing people is also prone to overstimulation, which might send the sneeze-sensing parts of their brain haywire.
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Have you ever been just about to go to sleep, walking through the gates to dreamland, only to have the floor pulled out from under you and suddenly you're falling and then you wake up?
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These frustrating sleep starts have another cool medical name, hypnagogic myoclonus.
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When we drift off, the areas of our brain that control motor function are inactivated, in favor of those that control our sleep cycles.
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Which is why you can dream about riding your bike without actually moving your feet.
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As the sleepy part of your brain fights with the awake and moving parts of your brain, that battle can spontaneously tip back in favor of the motor control side,
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and then suddenly you're like, whoa, I'm awake.
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Sleep starts aren't the only myocloni that we experience.
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Makeups are an uncontrollable contraction of the diaphragm muscle that we use to draw air into our lungs.
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About a quarter second after that muscle contracts, the vocal cords snap shut, creating that characteristic… Scientists still aren't sure what causes them,
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but possible explanations include hiccups being an evolutionary remnant from a few hundred million years ago, when our ancestors still had to pump water over their gills.
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Or, since hiccups mainly happen in mammals, that they they started as a way for nursing infants to clear air from their stomachs.
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If you want to get rid of hiccups, it seems that increasing the amount of CO2 in your blood can do the job, which is why common remedies include drinking water, holding our breath, or breathing into a paper bag.
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Yawning, another long, slow, involuntary form of breathing, is common throughout the animal kingdom, and it even happens in the womb.
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We know it's associated with sleep and boredom, but that doesn't explain why it happens.
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Unlike most human behaviors, if you stop and think about yawning long enough, it starts to become a really weird thing to do.
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Hippocrates believed that yawns released noxious fumes that had built up in the body, but modern medicine has shown us that that usually happens on the other end of the body.
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We also know that about 50% of people who observe a yawn will yawn in response, so it's thought to be a social cue to synchronize our biological clocks.
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One theory says yawns might even cool the brain slightly to make us more alert as we get bored or sleepy.
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Even watching someone talk for extended periods of time can induce yawning.
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So next time you're getting bored in class, tell your teacher it's Mother Nature's fault.
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Finally, I'll leave you with one bonus behavior, post-micturition convulsion syndrome, or the pee shivers.
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This is another behavior for which scientists haven't quite shaken out all the details,
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but some believe it's simply because we're exposing sensitive areas of our body to the cold while we expel some internal warmth.
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They might also arise from a bit of conflict between our autonomous nervous system that's usually quietly keeping all that pee inside,
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and the part of our conscious mind that's in charge of the plumbing at that moment.
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These weird, wild, and often twitchy behaviors may define nice neat explanations, and yes, sometimes they are very annoying, but in the great movie that is life,
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they're a nice reminder of all the amazing things going on behind the scenes.
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Here's a reflex action, you click subscribe, and I'll see you again next week.
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Stay curious.
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When the mercury plummets, we don't actually feel the temperature.
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We feel the flow of energy.
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We feel the heat.
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Feel, feel, feel, feel my heat.
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Or really, we feel the unheat, because cold can never move into something.
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It's heat flowing out.
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Woordenschat en spreektips bij deze les
Deze spreekles op niveau B2 is gebaseerd op de video “5 Weird Involuntary Behaviors Explained!”. Deze woorden komen het vaakst terug: behavior, brain, sleep, yawn, scientists. Deze video bevat 55 zinnen en 931 woorden om na te spreken. Het gesproken deel duurt 5:12. De spreker praat in een natuurlijk tempo van ongeveer 179 woorden per minuut, dicht bij een alledaags gesprek. Slechts 80% van de woorden hoort bij de 3.000 meest gebruikte Engelse woorden, dus de woordenschat is pittig.
Belangrijke woorden in deze video
De 15 moeilijkste woorden uit de video, met uitspraak en betekenis:
| Woord | Uitspraak | Betekenis |
|---|---|---|
| yawn werkwoord | /jɔn/ | geeuwen, gapen |
| sneeze werkwoord | /sniːz/ | niezen |
| hiccup zelfstandig naamwoord | /ˈhɪkʌp/ | hik |
| involuntary bijvoeglijk naamwoord | /ɪnˈvɑ.lənˌtɛɹ.i/ | niet intentioneel |
| annoy werkwoord | /əˈnoɪ̯/ | ergeren, vervelen |
| reflex zelfstandig naamwoord | /ˈɹiːflɛks/ | reflex |
| sleepy bijvoeglijk naamwoord | /ˈsliːpi/ | slaperig |
| twitch zelfstandig naamwoord | /twɪt͡ʃ/ | praam |
| bore werkwoord | /boɹ/ | vervelen |
| awake werkwoord | /əˈweɪk/ | ontwaken |
| conscious bijvoeglijk naamwoord | /ˈkɑn.ʃəs/ | bij bewustzijn, alert |
| nerve zelfstandig naamwoord | /nɝv/ | zenuw, neuronenbundel |
| abbreviate werkwoord | /əˈbɹi.vi.eɪt/ | afkorten, verkorten |
| ancestor zelfstandig naamwoord | /ˈæn.sɛs.tɚ/ | voorouder |
| autopilot zelfstandig naamwoord | /ˈɔtoʊˌpaɪlət/ | automatische piloot |
Phrasal verbs die je zult horen
| Woord | Uitspraak | Betekenis |
|---|---|---|
| fall down werkwoord | /fɔl ˈdaʊn/ | neervallen |
| wake up werkwoord | /ˌweɪk ˈʌp/ | wakker worden, ontwaken |
Grammatica in deze video
De structuren die de spreker het meest gebruikt, met de exacte woorden uit de video:
| Structuur | In de video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect continuous have/has been + -ing — iets dat eerder begon en nog bezig is | you've probably been looking · have been asking |
| Present perfect have/has + voltooid deelwoord — iets uit het verleden dat nu nog telt | has looked · hasn't been pinpointed · has shown |
| Lijdende vorm be + voltooid deelwoord — het gaat om wat er gebeurt, niet om wie het doet | is experienced · been pinpointed · are inactivated |
| Betrekkelijke bijzinnen who / which + zin — extra informatie over een persoon of ding | autopilot, which is · job, which is · people who observe |
Uitspraak om op te letten
De spreker gebruikt 16 samentrekkingen en verkorte vormen, zoals you're, aren't, I'll. Spreek ze kort uit, zoals je ze hoort.
- De klanken “sh” en “zh”: conscious /ˈkɑn.ʃəs/, contraction /kənˈtɹækʃ(ə)n/, convulsion /kənˈvʌlʃən/, noxious /ˈnɑkʃəs/, shiver /ˈʃɪvɚ/
- Lange woorden — let op de klemtoon: involuntary /ɪnˈvɑ.lənˌtɛɹ.i/, abbreviate /əˈbɹi.vi.eɪt/, autopilot /ˈɔtoʊˌpaɪlət/, heritable /ˈhɛɹɪtəbəl/, hypnagogic /ˌhɪpnəˈɡɑd͡ʒɪk/
Klanken die Nederlandstaligen lastig vinden:
- Stemhebbende eindmedeklinker — /b/, /d/, /g/, /z/, /v/ niet verscherpen: sneeze /sniːz/, nerve /nɝv/, digestive /daɪˈdʒɛstɪv/, synchronize /ˈsɪŋ.kɹə.naɪːz/, fatigue /fəˈtiːɡ/
- /æ/ — opener dan de Nederlandse “e”: ancestor /ˈæn.sɛs.tɚ/, contraction /kənˈtɹækʃ(ə)n/, diaphragm /ˈdaɪəˌfɹæm/, inactivate /ɪˈnæktɪveɪt/, mammal /ˈmæməl/
- /g/ — een harde plofklank, geen Nederlandse “g”: hypnagogic /ˌhɪpnəˈɡɑd͡ʒɪk/, gill /ɡɪl/, fatigue /fəˈtiːɡ/, regulate /ˈɹɛɡ.jə.leɪt/
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 yawn, sneeze, hiccup.
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.