Shadowing Practice: Why Extraordinary is Overrated - Learn English Speaking with Video
Les maken...
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I have this alarm on my phone which says, today I welcome harmony and clarity, and some days it just doesn't arrive.
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You know, some days it does.
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Sometimes I think my life is very ordinary, and sometimes I think, what would an extraordinary life be?
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To some people, maybe my life would be extraordinary.
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I don't know.
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To say it's more important to be extraordinary than ordinary, it's just faulty.
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It's faulty because then what I'm trying to do is live up to somebody else's idea of what extraordinary is.
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And I don't think I want to do that.
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If there was anything extraordinary I was going to do, it would be the small little moments that touch someone else's life.
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For example, I want to share my poems with the world.
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And one of the ways I can do that is by writing a blog.
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And writing a blog is pretty scary because I'm putting myself out there
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and I don't know what's going to come back at me.
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But then on the other hand, a poem can have a life in my book, but it gets another life when it's read by somebody else.
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So I decided I was going to start blogging, and I decided to introduce the blog with a poem called An Encouragement.
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Can I read it to you?
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My first poem.
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Walk.
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Set out now.
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Take a step.
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The beginning is easy, but the beginning is the hardest part.
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Close the door behind you.
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Walk through the shadow of the pines.
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Walk in the great sea of eucalyptus.
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Listen as it sings the song of waves and water.
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Hear the trees groan in the wind.
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Walk higher still into the sunlight.
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Smell the feinbos, see the flowers, and walk.
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Walk to the end of the path where the river flows down, where the waterfalls are, to the pool in the rocks.
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Leave your clothes over there, walk into that water and float.
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For me, as someone who's quite introverted, silence is super important.
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I really need it for my mental health, for my well-being.
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I've never really felt a need to fill spaces with spoken words.
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But I have some pretty nasty voices in my head, some really critical ones.
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They're not my best friends, that's for sure.
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But one thing I do know about those voices
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and those scary things that can arise is that they have a finite life, you know.
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I've been on a couple of retreats where part of the retreat has been, let us be silent for a day or for half a day.
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Which for me is like, yay!
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I don't have to talk to anybody.
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I could just be quiet and I could just watch the world go on around me.
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But then on the other hand, I observed how some people really needed to go off into corners
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and whisper to each other because it was hard for them to be quiet.
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So I wrote this poem specially for those people.
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Listen. Be silent.
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Hold your words.
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They will not tear you open.
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You will not die of silence.
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Are you afraid?
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Listen.
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Do you hear the river?
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She flows, she flows, over the rapids and down to the sea.
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Hold your words.
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Let them become ripe, heavy, sweeter than honey.
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Then swallow them.
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See if you can live listening. Be silent.
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Can you hold this moment in your throat?
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Can you die now without speaking? Can you hear?
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I know that my parents loved me.
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Let me start off by saying that.
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I know they loved me.
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I also know that I was a very difficult child for them.
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They found me tricky and I was very determined to be independent.
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So I was kind of unprepared for the fact that when my mom died, I would feel her loss so acutely.
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After she died, there was this shock of going, I'm actually an orphan now,
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even though I'm 60-something, I'm now motherless.
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And it was difficult.
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It was difficult.
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There were a lot of things that I never asked her, I never got around to asking her, because they felt too personal, or they felt too exposing,
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or that they would make her feel vulnerable or me feel vulnerable.
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So this is one of many poems that I wrote after my mother died.
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It's called Orphan Adult.
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I am unmoored, adrift, my anchor lost, uncertain where I belong, unmothered.
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My skin hurts, I can't find a way to stop this running before a wind that tears my sails.
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Salt water in my eyes.
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I can't see.
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The map is lost.
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I didn't know it would be like this.
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There are so many questions I never asked.
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We carry them inside us whether we want to or not.
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In a way, saying I love my parents feels abstract.
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It's something you should say because I didn't have a bad childhood and they did the best they could.
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But I don't think I realised how much a part of me they were until they weren't here anymore.
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And then I was like, oh, so that's another kind of love, the kind of love where someone is so familiar and so comfortable.
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And, um, someone who understands you and knows you that well is,
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you don't come across it often.
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Somebody asked me not that long ago, her mom died at the end of last year, and she said to me, Corinne, how long am I going to feel this grief?
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And can I expect it to go away?
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And I really asked myself the question, is this just not going to be part of my being until the day I die?
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One of the gifts that the idea of impermanence has given to me is that each moment has its own perfection,
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but it will not last.
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So it might feel like, this might feel like it's,
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you know, it's solid, it's real, it's got my tea in it,
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but actually one day it will be broken.
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and both of those things exist side by side.
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So the reality of this moment and the reality of it being broken, in other words, it's not permanent.
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And my mother is dead, but she sits here talking to me, and she does.
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She talks to me over my shoulder now and then, you know.
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I look at myself in the mirror and I see my mother.
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So she's not here, but she is here.
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I cannot control what is to come.
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I can't control the fact that somebody will drop that cup one day or that my mother will die.
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But what I can do is I can be here with my teacup,
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with my mom, and this moment as it This is just perfectly right, but I can't hold on to it.
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So live it, be with it, and know that it will be God one day.
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God.
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The The
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Ram Dass said, we are all walking each other home.
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And for me that's just so lovely because whatever it is and however we do it,
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we're all here walking each other through life and home is the end of, I think for me, home is the end of our lives.
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So we're here to accompany each other in whatever way that might be.
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And it might just be in a very small way of being kind to a stranger, or it might be in a bigger way of taking someone a pot of soup because they're not well,
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or it might just be in the way of saying, I see you and I see that things are tough at the moment.
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To walk someone home means to allow them to be what they are and to support them in their being.
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So if someone was going to walk me home, it would be by saying, hey, it's okay to be you.
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Families know each other.
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Whether they're always kind to each other is another thing,
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but there's a huge comfort in being known for who you are and not having to be somebody else.
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I have a little ancestor altar that's next to my desk.
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I don't know if you saw it.
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And my ancestor, Alta, has got my parents as a young and very happy couple.
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And for me, that's the way I like to remember them.
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So I guess that's, yeah, they are walking me home.
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Thanks for watching our film.
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Every story we've made is possible thanks to the support of our patrons.
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And if you'd like to continue to support us to make stories that explore the infinite beauty of being human, sign up on Patreon.
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Thanks.
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Thank you.
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Woordenschat en spreektips bij deze les
Deze spreekles op niveau B2 is gebaseerd op de video “Why Extraordinary is Overrated”. Deze woorden komen het vaakst terug: walk, poem, moment. Deze video bevat 128 zinnen en 1459 woorden om na te spreken. Het gesproken deel duurt 15:44. De spreker praat langzaam, ongeveer 93 woorden per minuut, zodat je tijd hebt om elke klank na te doen. 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
De 15 moeilijkste woorden uit de video, met uitspraak en betekenis:
| Woord | Uitspraak | Betekenis |
|---|---|---|
| ancestor zelfstandig naamwoord | /ˈæn.sɛs.tɚ/ | voorouder |
| orphan zelfstandig naamwoord | /ˈɔɹfən/ | wees, weeskind |
| faulty bijvoeglijk naamwoord | /ˈfɔlti/ | kapot, gebrekkig |
| retreat zelfstandig naamwoord | /ɹɪˈtɹiːt/ | terugtocht, aftocht |
| eucalyptus zelfstandig naamwoord | /ˌjuː.kəˈlɪp.təs/ | eucalyptus |
| introverted bijvoeglijk naamwoord | /ˈɪn.tɹəˌvɜːɹ.təd/ | eenzelvig, introvert |
| motherless bijvoeglijk naamwoord | moederloos | |
| teacup zelfstandig naamwoord | /ˈtiː.kʌp/ | theekopje |
| unprepared bijvoeglijk naamwoord | onvoorbereid | |
| waterfall zelfstandig naamwoord | /ˈwɔːtəfɔːl/ | waterval |
| ripe bijvoeglijk naamwoord | /ɹaɪp/ | rijp |
| patron zelfstandig naamwoord | /ˈpeɪ.tɹən/ | beschermheilige, schutspatroon |
| finite bijvoeglijk naamwoord | /ˈfaɪ.naɪt/ | eindig |
| altar zelfstandig naamwoord | /ˈɔl.tɚ/ | altaar |
| accompany werkwoord | /əˈkʌm.pə.ni/ | vergezellen, begeleiden |
Phrasal verbs die je zult horen
| Woord | Uitspraak | Betekenis |
|---|---|---|
| come across werkwoord | overkomen | |
| go away werkwoord | weggaan | |
| set out werkwoord | /ˈsɛt‿aʊt/ | uitzetten, uiteenzetten |
Zinnen om te herhalen
Korte, volledige zinnen uit de video die je in alledaagse gesprekken kunt gebruiken:
- Can I read it to you?
- They're not my best friends, that's for sure.
- I don't have to talk to anybody.
- Do you hear the river?
- Can you hold this moment in your throat?
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 never really felt · I've been · has given |
| Lijdende vorm be + voltooid deelwoord — het gaat om wat er gebeurt, niet om wie het doet | is lost · will be broken · being broken |
Uitspraak om op te letten
De spreker gebruikt 29 samentrekkingen en verkorte vormen, zoals don't, I'm, can't. Spreek ze kort uit, zoals je ze hoort.
- De klanken “sh” en “zh”: perfection /pɚˈfɛk.ʃən/, specially /ˈspɛʃəli/
- Lange woorden — let op de klemtoon: eucalyptus /ˌjuː.kəˈlɪp.təs/, introverted /ˈɪn.tɹəˌvɜːɹ.təd/, accompany /əˈkʌm.pə.ni/
Klanken die Nederlandstaligen lastig vinden:
- Stemhebbende eindmedeklinker — /b/, /d/, /g/, /z/, /v/ niet verscherpen: introverted /ˈɪn.tɹəˌvɜːɹ.təd/, arise /əˈɹaɪz/, expose /ɪkˈspoʊz/, observe /əbˈzɜːv/
- /æ/ — opener dan de Nederlandse “e”: ancestor /ˈæn.sɛs.tɚ/, clarity /ˈklæɹ.ɪ.ti/, anchor /ˈæŋ.kəː/, abstract /ˈæbˌstɹækt/
- /w/ — met ronde lippen: waterfall /ˈwɔːtəfɔːl/, whisper /ˈ(h)wɪspɚ/, swallow /ˈswɑ.loʊ/
Zo oefen je met deze video
- Luister de hele video één keer zonder te spreken en noteer de woorden die je niet kent.
- Spreek zin voor zin na op normale snelheid en herhaal elke zin tot je ritme gelijk is aan dat van de spreker.
- Neem jezelf op en vergelijk met het origineel; let daarbij op woorden als ancestor, orphan, faulty.
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.