Shadowing Practice: How I Learned English Vocabulary - Learn English Speaking with Video

If you're trying to improve your English vocabulary but you feel like you can't really remember everything you're learning, this video is for you.

Today I'm going to share with you the methods I applied when I was learning English.

And these are the same methods I apply with my students and they work.

I recommend taking some notes while you go through this video

so then you have something to look at when the video is done.

Of course you can watch it again

but it's always nice to write things down because you retain information a little bit better.

So first let's talk about something really important and that's the methods

that you are currently applying or the methods that are taught to us in schools.

So the traditional ways of teaching vocabulary in schools is pretty much you write down the word,

you write the translation into your native language, maybe you repeat that word 10 times and hope for the best.

Some of us may have long vocabulary lists, like trying to learn 10 to 15 words a day.

We have color-coordinated notebooks.

We have stickers on our fridges.

And all of this is great, but it doesn't really do the job.

These methods make you feel productive.

They give you this illusion that you are learning.

But a few days or a week later, these words and expressions are gone.

And at some point in the future, you see that word or expression, you recognize it, but you can't really put your finger on it and you can't really use it yourself.

So what's really wrong with these methods and why don't they work?

Well, it's because these old school methods are based on passive memorization and not active use.

They teach you to recognize the words, but not to own them.

So let me explain.

When you write down a word or an expression and you just write it in your notebook, you translate it and maybe say it a few times but without real context,

you are creating this false idea of learning.

You're creating a temporary memory and you're not building any confidence to use this word in real life.

And that's not your fault.

Most schools still teach vocabulary this way, but we have been shown by studies that our brain doesn't learn a language like that,

doesn't retain information through these methods.

So what is real learning?

How do you actually learn?

So a lot of you might think that if you write something down

or if you watch a video about something or

if you hear a teacher explaining something to you and you understand that, that's learning.

But that's only the beginning.

That's the first step.

You are only getting familiarized with those words, expressions, or concepts.

You might understand the word today, but if you don't use it, if you don't include it into your everyday speech, you will lose that word.

And that's because learning has two stages and you're only doing the first.

So the first stage is passive vocabulary.

You recognize the word, you understand it, but you can't yet use it.

And stage two is active vocabulary.

You use that word in the right context when you need it without hesitation and without any translation happening in your head.

Words become part of your vocabulary only through consistent use.

Until then, they're not really your words, they're someone else's.

Okay, another thing I wanted to point out is that you don't need to learn all the words.

You need to learn the right words for you, for your life, for your job, for your interests, for everything that surrounds you.

Would a ballet dancer and a truck driver use the same words every day?

Nope.

Would a fashion blogger or a cybersecurity analyst talk about the same topics?

Definitely not.

So instead of trying to learn everything, start building your own vocabulary bank.

Words you need for work, words and expressions that match your hobbies and interests, words that match your tone, your style, your humor.

Basically words and expressions you would use in your native language if you spoke English.

That's how you build a vocabulary that serves you.

And if you're learning vocabulary that is relevant to you, that you feel like is useful to you,

you're not going to get bored and you're going to understand exactly where to use those expressions, how to use those words, and actually feel the progress.

So I like to call these words high impact vocabulary.

These are words that are frequent, are flexible, are functional to you, are commonly used in English,

or are professionally or emotionally useful to you.

We all come from different backgrounds.

We all have different mindsets, different mentalities, different culture.

We cannot all speak the same way.

You don't all speak the same way in your country and everybody has its own style of communication, right?

So we're trying to kind of do the same thing.

We're not trying to be robots and everybody have the same exact vocabulary bank, but we're trying to match what we need to our thoughts,

our ideas, our goals, our style.

You want to look at, okay, what's my job?

What are my interests?

What do I like doing?

What do I like watching?

What do I like reading about?

Because if you're already consuming content that you're into, that you're interested in, might as well consume it in English.

Because if you're actually interested in what you're watching, reading, you're going to pay attention differently than

if you're trying to learn some random words that you just wrote on a piece of paper.

It's going to be organic learning.

Try to find expressions or idioms or different phrasal verbs that you find that you use a lot in your native language.

So this way you want to match what you're going to be sounding in English with your native language style.

Then learn expressions that match your style.

If you're sarcastic, learn sarcastic expressions.

If you're funny, learn some jokes.

Your environment, your house, try to describe everything around you.

Try to narrate everything you're doing.

Try to be comfortable within your comfort zone, but in English.

Your outfit, your breakfast, how your day went, what you watched on the news, talk about your pet, talk about your friend.

Things that you can actually feel, things that you can attach some sort of emotional baggage to.

This is how you're going to discover what you need to learn

because when you're going to try to say those things and you won't have them, you're going to know, okay, this is the word that I need to look up.

This is the expression I need to search for.

This is the style that I'm looking for.

And that's how you identify what you need to learn specifically for you.

Don't just learn random words from an article on a topic

that you're not even interested in because you will never end up using those words.

So you will never remember those words.

Therefore, you're just wasting your time.

Remember, you don't need to know everything.

And of course, our passive vocabulary will always be bigger than our active vocabulary, right?

Because we're able to understand a lot more, we consume a lot more compared to speaking or producing.

We don't write and we don't speak as much as we listen and watch and read.

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So it's okay to have a bigger passive vocabulary because

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when you're watching a documentary on a topic that you're not even interested in,

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you will understand what they're talking about even though those words might not be part of your active vocabulary

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so you won't be able to use them in the same way they did in

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that documentary but we are mostly focusing on active vocabulary

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and how you can speak more fluently

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and more confidently another thing I used to do is practice all the dialogues

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and the conversations that I had had during the day in the evening

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or before bed or while I was taking a shower.

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So the conversations I would have in my native language with friends,

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colleagues, teachers, parents, whatever, I would try to replay them in English

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and then I would know like okay I wanted to say

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that but I don't really know how I'm gonna go and look for those words and expressions.

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Or for work for example I would prepare like a little presentation on a small topic

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and I would try to talk about it as if I would present it.

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I would convince people of what I was trying to say and again

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because my thoughts were coming from my native language I kind

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of knew okay this is how I want to present this information.

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These are the words that I needed and I didn't have

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or I thought I knew but I didn't have on the spot

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which means that I had them in my passive vocabulary

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but I had to convert them into active vocabulary

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and then I would get a little bit more technical

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and play with root words that could get prefixes

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and suffixes added to them in order to create new words

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so English is fun and interesting that way you have one root word

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and then you can add different elements either at the beginning of the word

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or at the end and create three four maybe five new words for example the verb to create.

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It could be creativity for the noun and it could be creative for the adjective.

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Help, helpful, helpless, happy, unhappy, happiness.

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So when you start getting used to what type of prefixes there are and what type of suffixes there are,

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you can kind of play with it yourself and you develop this logic of,

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okay, what would make this word the opposite of the other if I added a certain prefix. Do, undo.

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Interested, uninterested.

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Competent, incompetent.

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And so on and so forth.

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Most important thing, do not learn too much at once.

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I know it gives you that instant gratification feeling, that sense of learning when you write many things down,

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but you're not going to retain those words.

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You're not going to remember them.

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They won't even become part of your passive vocabulary let alone

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active vocabulary this is just wishful thinking this is just hope

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and this hope fades away

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so instead what i would do i would choose three to five words maximum five is like a lot

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so three to four is perfect i would focus a lot on the pronunciation to make sure

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that i'm confident i'm saying them right then i would try

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to find real life examples in my mind even imaginary situations

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but realistic situations that could happen in my life where I could use that word.

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And very importantly, I would say those things out loud.

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I would also try to write a little short story with those words.

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It's kind of a fun exercise especially for my students

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when you give them kind of random words

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and they have to find a way to put them all together and to make them make sense.

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Or you can also journal about your day for example and try to incorporate those words into your sentences.

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So as you can probably notice it's a lot more production rather than consumption.

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So you write things down and then you start using them.

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You start to produce your own thoughts containing that word or that expression.

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And one of the most important things that a lot of people forget about

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or maybe they don't know about is that you need to revisit those words.

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You need to reuse them, refresh them.

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Imagine I curl my hair today and I want the curls to last for two weeks.

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They won't.

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I have to re-curl them maybe in two days, maybe tomorrow in order for them to last.

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Those are your words.

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The curls are your words.

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You have to continuously use them, introduce them into your vocabulary, look at them, say them,

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so they stay alive and they stay in your active vocabulary and they don't go into passive vocabulary or completely fade away.

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So when you're doing this vocabulary rotation, I would also add some synonyms and antonyms.

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For example, if you always use the word nice, right?

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Depending on the context, depending on the situation, sometimes you can use a different word, not nice.

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Of course, you can say a nice outfit, nice dress, nice house, nice weather, nice park.

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Everything can be nice.

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Nice is a very, very generic word, very flexible.

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But if you're trying to enrich your vocabulary, you can switch that up.

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You can have pleasant instead of nice.

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You can have lovely, enjoyable, it could be stunning or delicious or beautiful,

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so many other things depending on what you're describing.

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And the same thing with antonyms, you could have the word bad that you use with everything,

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but you can also have terrible, awful, unpleasant, disappointing, mediocre.

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So identifying that word that you use a lot

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and finding synonyms for it will make you sound a lot more flexible

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and a lot more fluent because you're going to express your thoughts a lot more accurately.

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And another thing about the negative words or the antonyms of the good words, being polite is huge in English, okay?

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So here we're talking a little bit about our social skills.

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If you're out shopping with a friend and she's trying to pick a dress, for example, and you're just there to help her choose one, and you see one that you don't like,

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don't just say, this is ugly, because this sounds pretty hurtful, and this could offend your friend, but just say things like,

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this is not as beautiful as the last one.

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I liked the blue one more.

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I think that the other one suits your style better.

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Do you notice how I said pretty much what I intended to say

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that this dress is ugly but I never used those words.

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I just redirected her attention towards a different dress because it's not about what you think about that specific dress.

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It's about your friend choosing a good one.

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So very often when you're using very simple words like good, bad, ugly, it could sound too dry.

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It could sound rude.

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So you always want to be prepared with softer synonyms or expressions to diffuse that and not sound super direct.

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Of course, this is different with a best friend or a family member or something, but if you're with someone who you don't know very,

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very well, do not risk it.

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Always be polite.

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Okay, another major, major thing that a lot of traditional schools and teachers don't really talk about is connected speech.

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Learning how to pronounce those words in connected speech is crucial.

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If you don't learn how that word sounds in real life, in real life speech, then you might not even recognize it when someone will use it.

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Because whenever someone talks, they connect the words a lot more close to each other than

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when you're learning this vocabulary word isolated.

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When you're learning words or expressions in isolation without them being connected to words in front of them and after them,

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you're learning them in a very robotic way.

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Like nobody will actually pronounce them the same way you are learning them.

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So if you learn the word remote control, if you write it down, you're going to read it remote control,

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remote control, and you're going to say it just like that

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slowly

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and very very clearly in speech it's going to be hey

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have you seen the remote control remote control remote control it's

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going to be a lot more squished like the sounds are not going to be as wide so

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if you're learning the word remote control okay write it down

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you don't need the translation you just need the explanation the definition of it um

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and then try to imagine it okay where would I use this and say that out loud.

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Hey, I'm looking for the remote control.

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I'm looking for the remote control.

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And say that a few times.

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I'm looking for the remote control.

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I'm looking for the blah, blah, blah, blah, right?

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It has to become an exercise.

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It has to become a tongue twister.

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And then when you say remote control, remote control, remote control multiple times, that T at the end pretty much disappears.

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And it's a silent T, remote control, remote control, remote control, right?

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But when you're learning it in isolation, you will read every single letter because you have the time,

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you have the space, and you're trying to learn it correctly, right?

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Most of the other words you're learning, they change when they're spoken.

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They change based on what comes before them and what comes after them in a sentence.

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The question, what do you mean by that?

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If you write it down, what do you mean by that?

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What do you mean by that?

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That is extreme articulation.

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Nobody says it like that in real life, right?

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They'll say, what do you mean by that?

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What do you mean by that?

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What do you mean by that?

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So if you're saying that sentence multiple times faster and faster and faster,

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you will eventually learn what that sounds like and how long it should take you to actually say it.

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What do you mean by that?

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And not what do you mean by that because

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that will make you sound a lot less fluent

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and a lot more robotic and on top of

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that you're practicing your listening skills too

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so um there is a website i think it's called youglish

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i'm gonna put it right here you can write the expression

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or the word that you're learning

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and it will give you uh snippets of videos from movies

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or ted talks or whatever online where you could hear

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that word in real speech so you can see how quickly

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that word is pronounced or how it is connected to other words around it.

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Okay and the last part is learning idioms.

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Idioms are such a big part of spoken English it's crazy everybody uses an idiom like every other sentence

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and if you don't know idioms are short phrases or expressions

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that have a completely different meaning than the actual words in them.

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So they're like metaphors that English speakers use all the time.

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So what I like to do with idioms when I learn them, I look up the idiom that I want to learn

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or maybe I take the idiom that I heard somewhere

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and I want to introduce it into my speech because I liked it.

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I feel like it's something that I would use or it matches an idea from my native language.

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So what I would do, I would have the idiom written down.

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I would say it many times because I want to make sure that I pronounce it correctly and fast enough.

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Then I would write the definition and I would read

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that definition out loud or the meaning and then I look at the origin.

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Where did it come from?

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Because for me, for example, if I can attach some sort of logical explanation to some of these things, I can remember them better.

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And not all idioms will have like a super clear origin story, but a lot of them do

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and then I will try to create a little dialogue in

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my head where would I use this with whom would I use this I basically imagine like a fake situation

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but a realistic one and then I try to put

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that into one of the lines of the dialogue either used by me

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or by someone else for example spill the tea spill the

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tea what does spill the tea mean it's definitely not spilling the tea out of a cup.

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So spill the tea means, okay, tell me what's the gossip.

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I'm intrigued.

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I want to know what happened.

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Tell me more.

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Tell me what you know, right?

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It's something that I shouldn't really be talking about, but I want to know more about.

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So let's imagine I have a friend who's a manager at a company

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and there was this incident with an employee

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and they had this talk with HR and my friend was part of

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that conversation and I want to know what happened and I ask her, okay, you had the meeting, spill the tea.

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That means tell me what happened.

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So that's how I would actually try to introduce that idiom into my life, connecting it with real persons,

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with real situations, so then I can attach some sort of emotional baggage to it.

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So I created a free PDF guide with 20 of my favorite idioms, and you can get it when you subscribe to my newsletter.

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You can find the link in my description here.

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Okay, so let's do a little recap, a little summary of what we just talked about.

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You need to focus on words that fit your energy and your lifestyle.

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Don't try to learn too much.

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Go deeper, not wider.

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Move vocabulary from passive to active by using it.

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Focus on production.

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Balance the consumption with the production.

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Speak and write just as much as you listen and read.

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Use the words in full expressions and sentences and practice connected speech.

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And idioms are your best friend when you want to sound fluent.

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All right, I hope this helped you and if you have a friend or you know someone

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who's still learning vocabulary through old school methods, send them this video.

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I know there's a lot more methods that could be super efficient in vocabulary learning, so if you know one, make sure to write it down in the comments.

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All right, thank you so much for watching.

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Bye!

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Woordenschat en spreektips bij deze les

Deze video bevat 302 zinnen en 3695 woorden om na te spreken. Het gesproken deel duurt 21:22. De spreker praat in een natuurlijk tempo van ongeveer 173 woorden per minuut, dicht bij een alledaags gesprek. 86% 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
vocabulary zelfstandig naamwoord	/vəˈkæb.jə.lə.ɹi/	woordenschat, vocabulaire
remote bijvoeglijk naamwoord	/ɹəˈməʊt̞/	verwijderd, afgelegen
passive bijvoeglijk naamwoord	/ˈpæs.ɪv/	passief
connect werkwoord	/kəˈnɛkt/	verbinden
spill werkwoord	/spɪl/	morsen
topic zelfstandig naamwoord	/ˈtɑpɪk/	onderwerp, thema
pronounce werkwoord	/pɹəˈnaʊns/	uitspreken, verklaren
curl zelfstandig naamwoord	/kɜɹl/	krul, lok
ugly bijvoeglijk naamwoord	/ˈʌɡli/	lelijk
translation zelfstandig naamwoord	/tɹænzˈleɪʃən/	vertaling, transmissie
introduce werkwoord	/ˌɪntɹəˈdus/	introduceren, voorstellen
dialogue zelfstandig naamwoord	/ˈdaɪəˌlɑɡ/	dialoog, gesprek
depend werkwoord	/dɪˈpɛnd/	afhangen
flexible bijvoeglijk naamwoord	/ˈflɛk.sɪ.bəl/	buigzaam
consume werkwoord	/kənˈsum/	consumeren, verbruiken

Phrasal verbs die je zult horen

Woord	Uitspraak	Betekenis
write down werkwoord		opschrijven, neerschrijven
look up werkwoord	/ˌlʊk ˈʌp/	opkijken
end up werkwoord		belanden, terechtkomen
point out werkwoord		aanwijzen, aanduiden

Uitspraak om op te letten

De spreker gebruikt 106 samentrekkingen en verkorte vormen, zoals you're, don't, I'm. Spreek ze kort uit, zoals je ze hoort.

De klanken “sh” en “zh”: translation /tɹænzˈleɪʃən/, explanation /ˌɛkspləˈneɪʃən/, consumption /kənˈsʌmp.ʃən/, isolation /ˌaɪsəˈleɪʃən/, efficient /ɪˈfɪʃənt/
Lange woorden — let op de klemtoon: vocabulary /vəˈkæb.jə.lə.ɹi/, explanation /ˌɛkspləˈneɪʃən/, documentary /ˌdɒk.jʊˈmɛn.tɹi/, isolation /ˌaɪsəˈleɪʃən/, temporary /ˈtɛmp(əˌɹ)ɛɹi/

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 vocabulary, remote, passive.

Grammatica in deze video

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

Structuur	In de video
Lijdende vorm be + voltooid deelwoord — het gaat om wat er gebeurt, niet om wie het doet	is done · are taught · are based
Present perfect have/has + voltooid deelwoord — iets uit het verleden dat nu nog telt	have been shown · have you seen

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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Shadowing Practice: How I Learned English Vocabulary - Learn English Speaking with Video

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How to Learn English Vocabulary (and Actually Remember It!)

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