Shadowing Practice: How to Journal (Like a Philosopher) - Learn English Speaking with Video
Les maken...
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So if you want to start journaling, it's actually pretty simple.
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There are basically three steps.
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First, just get a journal.
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Find one that you like.
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I like these Lloyd's term soft covers lately.
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Second, get a pen that you like to write with.
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I really like fountain pens, but you should just pick whatever works for you.
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And third, the step is to just write.
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Make a habit of it.
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Try to write every day if you can.
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And if you can't write every day, just write when you feel like it.
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It really is that simple.
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But every time I talk about journaling on this channel, I get one question I'm going to give you a guide to journaling.
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I'm going to tell you what to do when the words aren't flowing.
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And along the way, I am going to talk about journaling's relationship to self -improvement, which is one reason so many of us journal, and also the philosophy behind it all.
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If I'm struggling to write, I found that there is a reliable structure that I can follow that lets me write about a page's worth of content.
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First, I write a paragraph about something that happened that day, or if I'm journaling in the morning, something that happened the day before.
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I'm just writing about some event in my life, something that was notable.
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I'm being selective here.
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I'm not writing about everything that happened to me, and I am not aiming for this to be a comprehensive account of my entire day.
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So as an example, a few days ago, I was writing in my journal about something that happened at work.
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Basically, this event occurred.
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The details don't really matter for this video, but it was something that I found very stressful, but it turned out to be a misunderstanding on my part.
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and There was some stress for me until it was resolved.
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That was a notable enough event that I decided to write about it in my journal.
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So after I've written my factual account of the event in my life, I then try to write about something that I did well.
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This is something I can feel proud of.
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This is an achievement or a little bit of a success, a small victory,
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or even just an instance where I was able to reliably fall back on a habit that I've built up over time.
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to actually figure out what I would need to do to solve the problem.
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Now, because it turned out it was a misunderstanding, I didn't actually have to do much.
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But what I was proud of was
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that I broke the problem up into some smaller problems and started solving the most important ones.
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After I've written that paragraph, I write a paragraph about what did not go well.
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This is an opportunity for me to identify problem areas in my life, to identify places where I want to improve.
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These can over again.
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Or it could be bad habits that I've cultivated that I want to try and break.
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So I'm someone who's prone to anxiety.
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And when a problem arises, I tend to spiral for a little bit.
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I can usually then collect myself and solve the problem.
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But I always go through that anxiety spiral.
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And I want to stop doing that.
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So I try and identify times when I let my anxiety get the best of me.
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And then I try and think about how I can avoid that.
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What are the conditions that make
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to follow because one very effective technique for combating anxiety is figuring out where the anxious mind goes wrong
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and actually being able to reason with yourself
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so far i have written about an event i have written about something i'm proud of
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and something that i'm not proud of a success and a failure
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but after that there's still something else worth writing and
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that is when i try and zoom out
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and think about the bigger picture this part really isn't a paragraph it can
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pages on those days when I have a lot to think about.
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What I'm really trying to do is figure out what this event has in common with other events in my life.
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Or really, I am trying to fit this event into a larger narrative about my life.
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I am giving a sort of internal logic to my life story, and I am using my journal as an opportunity to do that.
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Let's talk a little bit more about this and the philosophy behind it.
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Many philosophers, just to name a few, Charles Taylor, Alistair McIntyre, Martin Heidegger, there are many others, but those are some notable names.
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They think of persons as primarily storytelling beings.
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So what makes us
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persons as opposed to mere animals is that we are able to construct and tell a narrative about ourselves.
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It's not as if we all have a formal narrative written down.
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Despite being someone who has consistently journaled for about a decade, it's not like I have written an autobiography of myself.
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And even those who write autobiographies don't write totally comprehensive accounts of their lives.
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But as we live our lives, we are thinking about how events relate to one another,
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We are looking for coherence and we are placing them in a more or less linear format.
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We're being selective.
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We think about some events more than others, but all the time as we live, we are constructing a narrative about ourselves.
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As we tell this story about ourselves and construct this narrative, really we are constructing who we are.
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What I think is interesting though, is that most of us don't take an active role in this construction.
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We do it out of habit and routine. to break the routine.
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It is designed actually to take a more intentional and active role in telling my life story to myself.
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If my life is a story.
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I want to be its author.
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but I also want to be a good author And that takes practice.
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Journaling is my practice.
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The idea is that I want to go beyond a fragmented account of my life.
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Julia Anis, who is an ethicist and a scholar of ancient philosophy who I really admire, calls this making sense of one's life as a whole.
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She discusses this at length in the first chapter of her book, The Morality of Happiness, a book that I highly recommend.
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Even if you're not an academic philosopher, it's pretty readable.
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According to Anis, ancient ethics begins with one simple question.
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Am I satisfied with my life as a whole, with the way that it has developed and the way that it promises to continue?
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For ancient philosophers like Aristotle, the central problem of ethics is happiness, or what they would call eudaimonia.
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We could also call that human flourishing.
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Achieving happiness is no easy task.
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It takes work, and a lot of that work is reflective work, reflecting on one's life as a whole.
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And that is exactly what a regular practice of journaling can provide.
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So if you have been struggling to get started with journaling, maybe give this format a shot.
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All you have to do is write about something that happened to your day, write about something you're proud of, something where you can improve, and then try to place it in the larger context of your life.
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Write that story about yourself.
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Woordenschat en spreektips bij deze les
Deze spreekles op niveau B2 is gebaseerd op de video “How to Journal”. Deze woorden komen het vaakst terug: write, event, journaling, written, narrative. Deze video bevat 90 zinnen en 1252 woorden om na te spreken. Het gesproken deel duurt 6:44. De spreker praat snel, ongeveer 186 woorden per minuut, dus reken op verbonden en ingeslikte klanken. 82% van de woorden hoort bij de 3.000 meest gebruikte Engelse woorden; de rest kun je beter vooraf bekijken.
Belangrijke woorden in deze video
De 15 moeilijkste woorden uit de video, met uitspraak en betekenis:
| Woord | Uitspraak | Betekenis |
|---|---|---|
| paragraph zelfstandig naamwoord | /ˈpæɹəɡɹæf/ | alinea, paragraaf |
| philosopher zelfstandig naamwoord | /fəˈlɑsəfɚ/ | filosoof, filosofe |
| notable bijvoeglijk naamwoord | /ˈnəʊtəbl̩/ | opmerkelijk, bemerkenswaardig |
| misunderstand werkwoord | /mɪs.ʌn.də(ɹ)ˈstænd/ | misverstaan |
| autobiography zelfstandig naamwoord | /ˌɔː.tə.baɪˈɒɡ.ɹə.fi/ | autobiografie |
| spiral zelfstandig naamwoord | /ˈspaɪɹəl/ | spiraal |
| cultivate werkwoord | /ˈkʌltɪveɪt/ | telen, verbouwen |
| readable bijvoeglijk naamwoord | /ˈɹiː.də.bəl/ | afleesbaar, leesbaar |
| flourish werkwoord | /ˈflʊ̈ɹ.ɪʃ/ | floreren, bloeien |
| fragment zelfstandig naamwoord | /ˈfɹæɡmənt/ | fragment |
| factual bijvoeglijk naamwoord | /ˈfæk.tʃ(u)əl/ | feitelijk |
| intentional bijvoeglijk naamwoord | /ɪnˈtɛnʃənəl/ | opzettelijk |
| zoom werkwoord | /zuːm/ | zoeven |
| stressful bijvoeglijk naamwoord | /ˈstɹɛsfəl/ | stressvol |
| fountain zelfstandig naamwoord | /ˈfaʊn.tɪn/ | fontein |
Phrasal verbs die je zult horen
| Woord | Betekenis |
|---|---|
| figure out werkwoord | uitvogelen, er achter komen |
| turn out werkwoord | uitvallen, resulteren |
| write down werkwoord | opschrijven, neerschrijven |
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 have/has + voltooid deelwoord — iets uit het verleden dat nu nog telt | I've written · I've built · I've cultivated |
| Betrekkelijke bijzinnen who / which + zin — extra informatie over een persoon of ding | improvement, which is · someone who has · those who write |
| Lijdende vorm be + voltooid deelwoord — het gaat om wat er gebeurt, niet om wie het doet | was resolved · is designed |
Uitspraak om op te letten
De spreker gebruikt 25 samentrekkingen en verkorte vormen, zoals I'm, I've, don't. Spreek ze kort uit, zoals je ze hoort.
- De “th”-klanken: ethics /ˈɛθ.ɪks/, ethicist /ˈɛθɪsɪst/
- De klanken “sh” en “zh”: flourish /ˈflʊ̈ɹ.ɪʃ/, intentional /ɪnˈtɛnʃənəl/, anxious /ˈæŋkʃəs/
- Lange woorden — let op de klemtoon: philosopher /fəˈlɑsəfɚ/, misunderstand /mɪs.ʌn.də(ɹ)ˈstænd/, autobiography /ˌɔː.tə.baɪˈɒɡ.ɹə.fi/, intentional /ɪnˈtɛnʃənəl/
Klanken die Nederlandstaligen lastig vinden:
- Stemhebbende eindmedeklinker — /b/, /d/, /g/, /z/, /v/ niet verscherpen: misunderstand /mɪs.ʌn.də(ɹ)ˈstænd/, selective /səˈlɛktɪv/, reflective /ɹɪˈflɛktɪv/, arise /əˈɹaɪz/, oppose /əˈpoʊz/
- /æ/ — opener dan de Nederlandse “e”: paragraph /ˈpæɹəɡɹæf/, misunderstand /mɪs.ʌn.də(ɹ)ˈstænd/, fragment /ˈfɹæɡmənt/, factual /ˈfæk.tʃ(u)əl/, satisfy /ˈsætɪsfaɪ/
- /g/ — een harde plofklank, geen Nederlandse “g”: paragraph /ˈpæɹəɡɹæf/, autobiography /ˌɔː.tə.baɪˈɒɡ.ɹə.fi/, fragment /ˈfɹæɡmənt/
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 paragraph, philosopher, notable.
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.