Shadowing Practice: Times I Plagiarized - Learn English Speaking with Video

I almost lost a thousand-dollar scholarship because of plagiarism.

Let's talk about that.

Plagiarism.

Adverb. The practice of taking someone else's work or ideas and passing them off as one's own.

Just the word plagiarism sounds like a crime.

Racism, sexism, and plagiarism.

I'm not here to talk about people who repost my comics, JPEG'd, cut my name off, and have the audacity to put their own watermark on, nah nah nah NAH, not that kind of plagiarism.

I'm gonna tell you about all the times that I plagiarized, in school.

And, OK, just off topic, I wanna address something publicly.

I don't go looking through other people's comics and go: "Oh, this comic's funny! I'm gonna redraw it and pass it off as my own!" No, I'm not about that life.

But some of my comics have been very similar to other people's comics.

I read a lot of comics, so it's possible I saw them and then repressed them in my memory and drew them again, or it's possible that it's all a coincidence and me and someone else just came up with the same idea, it happens all the time with other cartoonists, not just me.

Again, I don't purposely take comic ideas and try and pass them off as my own.

Whenever people point out that my comic is a lot like someone else's, I get really sad.

So you guys should check out these other cartoonists, they're really good.

Anyway, I just wanted to say that at the beginning of the video, because I'm gonna be telling you about times that I actually DID plagiarize.

But that was just in school, OK?

I keep plagiarism off the Internet.

Isn't that right, Matthew?

I cheated a bit in school.

An occasional glance at my partner's desk, maybe jot down that important equation on my hand, nothing TOO big.

I had a Math Class where we went to Lunch in the middle of the class, and whenever we had tests, the teacher wouldn't split the test into two parts.

Dff-- Do you expect us NOT to exchange notes?

The first time that I got caught cheating was in 9th grade.

And if you stalk me and watch my old videos, you know that I went to a preparatory school my freshman year.

And in preparatory school, the amount of work they gave you as kids was just STUPID!

So cut me some slack.

In one class, we had to write an essay about something historical? or something?

And I chose to write about the Berlin Wall.

Specifically about people who escaped ACROSS the Berlin Wall.

Now I chose this topic because... I don't know if you know this, but there's a National Geographic documentary about this exact topic.

So I didn't copy and paste anything into my essay, per say.

It's just I told the exact same stories in the exact same order as the documentary, and, OK, I might wrote some things down word for word.

But at least I didn't plagiarize it from Wikipedia, OK?

So I didn't copy and paste anything...

...until I had to write the conclusion of the essay.

And I found this article talking about it, and the article said some things that would've been PERFECT in my essays, sooooooooooo.....

Ctrl + C, Ctrl + V.

I turned it in, I didn't think too much of it, but then when I got it BACK, the conclusion paragraph had been highlighted, and a "see me" was written next to it.

So I had gotten in trouble for plagiarizing the conclusion.

Just the conclusion...

Nothing. Else.

To be honest, I'd kinda forgotten that I copied and pasted the conclusion.

I thought he knew that I basically turned in the script of a documentary.

The teacher who we'll call "Mr. Batman" He took me outside of the classroom, he told me that it was bad that I plagiarized, and he called my parents, that freaking snitch.

My parents got mad at me too.

He gave me a chance to rewrite the essay, and I remember just being so traumatised and stressed out that night.

I kept thinking: "What if he finds the documentary and sees that I practically plagiarized the whole essay?" I ended up rewriting not only the conclusion, but the whole freaking essay.

I turned in the new essay, and I don't think he ever found out that I copied the whole thing.

Except, I did just admit it. And he watches my videos.

Seriously, in April he emailed me and asked if I was the same James that was in his class.

He's the only teacher to ever reach out to me.

And even after all those years, I still didn't tell him that I plagiarized the whole thing.

So... ...hi Mr. Batman.

Uhh, you can't change my grade now, can you?

But that was a good experience for me to have.

It taught me a valuable lesson.

Because I didn't plagiarize a single essay for the rest of High School.

But then Community College rolled around.

I did Community College for a bit, because I couldn't afford university on a Subway payroll.

I took honors and A.P. classes in High School, I was a relatively good student.

Except I didn't take any of the A.P. tests.

So when I went to Community College, I had to take classes that were a step BELOW the classes I took in High School.

What a GREAT way to spend my time!

Senior Year of English, we were writing essays and analyzing poetry.

Freshman Year of College, we were writing movie reviews.

And the teacher didn't even like me, she thought I was a slacker because I was never paying attention.

I didn't take Community College seriously, but it was so easy, I was still getting amazing grades.

On the third semester of Community College, I took a Public Speaking class.

Now I might be an introvert, but I don't have a problem with Public Speaking.

That's part of my job now!

I took the class because I thought it would be an easy A, and I needed a communications credit for my major, I wanted to be a Math teacher, and you may not have noticed, but they publicly speak ALL the time.

So I take the class, I'm like the best person in the class, right.

And for the final we had to give a persuasive speech in front of everyone.

Oh, and by the way, I didn't learn like, ANY tricks to help with Public Speaking.

The whole class was literally just us giving speeches to each other over and over.

So three semesters of doing easy classes and wasting my time, my apathy meters were just off the charts.

I didn't wanna work too hard, so I chose to do my speech on why we should get rid of the penny.

And, I don't know if you know this, but there's this YouTube video made by CGP Grey, that makes great arguments on why we Americans should get rid of the penny.

AGAIN, I didn't copy and paste anything per say, it's just the speech I gave had the exact same arguments in the exact same order as CGP Grey.

OK, it was pretty much a one for one recreation of his whole video.

I'm sorry! I thought we were getting graded on Public Speaking, not writing original speeches!

The teacher caught me, I guess she's a fan of CGP Grey.

And gave me a 0 on the final.

So I ended up getting a D in the class!

And that was the worst grade I got in Community College.

Part of me was like: Pfft!

What-what-whatever.

I don't- I don't care...

This next semester though, I wanted to go to a REAL college.

And still trying to be economical, I found that it was actually cheaper for me to an out of state school, than to go in state.

At this school, they gave scholarships to out of state students who had high enough GPAs and enough credits.

It would've saved me THOUSANDS of dollars.

And I had family living in this state, so that was another reason why I wanted to go to that school.

But here's the thing.

Even with that D, I still had a high enough GPA to get the scholarship, but since I failed, it didn't count as a credit.

So I ended up being ONE credit short for what was required.

PLAGIARIZING WAS GOING TO COST ME THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS!

My options were either: Stay home and do a 1 credit semester of Community College, or beg the university to give me my scholarship anyway.

100

During Christmas, my family visited the state the school was in.

101

So me and my dad got the chance to go to the school, and basically talk our way into getting the scholarship.

102

We talked to five different people, now THAT'S Public Speaking.

103

I had to use my persuasive talking skills that I would've learned!

104

And all of them were telling us: "There's nothing we can do." But we were talking to one lady, she was telling us the same thing about not being able to do anything.

105

She looked at my transcript.

106

She said: "Oh, you failed Public Speaking." She looked at it for a bit, she'd type something on her computer, she printed out a piece of paper and handed it to me saying: "It's OK, I'm not good at Public Speaking either." SHI-- SHE THOUGHT I WAS BAD AT PUBLIC SPEAKING!

107

She thought I failed 'cause I was insecure or something, and not 'cause I did something WRONG.

108

Oh, uhh... ...yeah! I'm just terrible at speaking to the public...

109

So really, there WAS something you could do.

110

I got the scholarship, because a lady wearing eye shadow took pity on me.

111

But I only ended up staying a semester and a half at that school, because my YouTube kicked off.

112

And now I'm doing that full-time.

113

But I'm still thankful I got the scholarship!

114

I hope my Public Speaking teacher could see where I am now.

115

I speak in front of MILLIONS of people for my JOB.

116

I mean, I can't see them, and I'm just reading everything off a script, in my closet.

117

And I didn't get punished for plagiarism!

118

I didn't learn my lesson.

119

And I didn't learn anything in your class.

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Woordenschat en spreektips bij deze les

Deze video bevat 119 zinnen en 1741 woorden om na te spreken. Het gesproken deel duurt 7:44. De spreker praat snel, ongeveer 225 woorden per minuut, dus reken op verbonden en ingeslikte klanken. Slechts 79% van de woorden hoort bij de 3.000 meest gebruikte Engelse woorden, dus de woordenschat is pittig.

Belangrijke woorden in deze video

15 minder gangbare woorden uit de video, met uitspraak en betekenis:

essay /ˈɛs.eɪ/ (zelfstandig naamwoord) — essay, opstel. A written composition of moderate length, exploring a particular issue or subject.
comic /ˈkɑmɪk/ (zelfstandig naamwoord) — komiek, humorist. A comedian.
scholarship /ˈskɑːləɹʃɪp/ (zelfstandig naamwoord) — studiebeurs, stipendium. A grant-in-aid to a student.
conclusion /kənˈkluːʒən/ (zelfstandig naamwoord) — conclusie, einde. The end, finish, close or last part of something.
semester /sɪˈmɛstɚ/ (zelfstandig naamwoord) — semester. Half of a school year (US) or academic year such as autumn or spring semester.
documentary /ˌdɒk.jʊˈmɛn.tɹi/ (zelfstandig naamwoord) — documentaire, docu. A film, TV program, publication etc. which presents a social, political, scientific or historical subject in a factual or informative manner.
topic /ˈtɑpɪk/ (zelfstandig naamwoord) — onderwerp, thema. A subject; a theme; a category or general area of interest.
pasta /ˈpɑ.stə/ (zelfstandig naamwoord) — deegwaren, pasta. Dough made from wheat and water and sometimes mixed with egg and formed into various shapes; often sold in dried form and typically boiled for eating.
lesson /ˈlɛs.ən/ (zelfstandig naamwoord) — les. A section of learning or teaching into which a wider learning content is divided.
script /skɹɪpt/ (zelfstandig naamwoord) — geschrift. A writing; a written document.
penny /ˈpɛni/ (zelfstandig naamwoord) — penny. In the United Kingdom, a unit of currency worth ¹⁄₁₀₀ of a pound sterling, or a copper coin worth this amount. Abbreviation: p.
cheat /ˈt͡ʃiːt/ (werkwoord) — valsspelen, bedriegen. To violate rules in order to gain, or attempt to gain, advantage from a situation.
freshman /ˈfɹɛʃ.mən/ (zelfstandig naamwoord) — feut, eerstejaars. a person (of either sex) entering the first year of an institution, especially a high school (ninth grade for US, grade 9 for Canada, grade 7 for Philippines)…
slack /slæk/ (bijvoeglijk naamwoord) — slap. Lax; not tense; not firmly extended.
shadow /ˈʃædəʊ̯/ (zelfstandig naamwoord) — schaduw. A dark image projected onto a surface where light (or other radiation) is blocked by the shade of an object.

Phrasal verbs die je zult horen

end up (werkwoord) — belanden, terechtkomen. To bring to a conclusion.
get in (werkwoord) — binnenraken. To get into or inside something, literally or figuratively.
check out (werkwoord) — onderzoeken. To record the departure or withdrawal of someone or something (such as guests, employees, books, etc.).
come up with (werkwoord) — bedenken, verzinnen. To manage to produce, deliver, or present (something) by inventing, creating, thinking of, or obtaining it.
find out (werkwoord) — ontdekken, onderzoeken. To discover, as by asking or investigating.
point out (werkwoord) — aanwijzen, aanduiden. To identify among a group of similar subjects, or in a scene where the subject might not be readily seen or noticed, with a gesture of the body.

Uitspraak om op te letten

De spreker gebruikt 55 samentrekkingen en verkorte vormen, zoals didn't, I'm, don't. Spreek ze kort uit, zoals je ze hoort.

De “th”-klanken: thankful /ˈθæŋkfəl/, apathy /ˈæ.pə.θi/
De klanken “sh” en “zh”: scholarship /ˈskɑːləɹʃɪp/, conclusion /kənˈkluːʒən/, freshman /ˈfɹɛʃ.mən/, shadow /ˈʃædəʊ̯/, occasional /əˈkeɪʒ(ə)nəl/
Lange woorden — let op de klemtoon: documentary /ˌdɒk.jʊˈmɛn.tɹi/, practically /ˈpɹæk.tɪ.k(ə.)li/, occasional /əˈkeɪʒ(ə)nəl/, recreation /ɹiːkɹiˈeɪʃən/, coincidence /kəʊˈɪnsɪdəns/

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 essay, comic, scholarship.

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	have been · would've been · would've saved
Betrekkelijke bijzinnen who / which + zin — extra informatie over een persoon of ding	people who repost · people who escaped · teacher who we
Lijdende vorm be + voltooid deelwoord — het gaat om wat er gebeurt, niet om wie het doet	had been highlighted · was required
Past continuous was/were + -ing — iets dat op een moment in het verleden bezig was	were writing · was never paying · was still getting

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.

Shadowing-techniek: lees de volledige stap-voor-stap-gids →

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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?