Shadowing Practice: Why I Love Writing by Hand (And Hate Computers) - Learn English Speaking with Video
Les maken...
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I've been trying to write a book lately and I've been using my laptop to do it, but I've run into a bit of a problem.
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The words just don't seem to be flowing, and I'm just struggling more than I really ever have.
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So I decided that I was going to try something different, something new, or really something kind of old.
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I am going to write the first draft of this book, and maybe the second draft or the third draft, by hand, using a pencil and a notebook.
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Our laptops or our computers, they are our defaults.
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They are the things that we choose when we're not even thinking.
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And I think if we want to be intentional about how we live, including how we write, but also how we read or how we study or how we spend our recreation time,
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any of that, we can't just let technology be a default.
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One of my favorite living writers is Wendell Berry.
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He's a poet, he's an essayist, and a novelist.
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He's also a farmer who lives in Kentucky.
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I highly recommend this volume, The World Ending Fire.
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It's a collection of his essays.
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I think every essay in this is quite good.
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The essay I want to talk about is from the late 80s, and it's called Why I Am Not Going to Buy a Computer.
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In it, Berry explains why he continues to write all of his essays, his novels, his poetry, using a simple pencil and paper.
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And Berry is clearly my inspiration in what I'm doing right now.
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Barry argues that simply put, there aren't that many advantages to a computer and using a pencil
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or a pen and paper has been good enough for the greatest novelist, the greatest essayist, the greatest poets who have ever lived.
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The essay is very short and I highly recommend that you read it, but if you wanted the summary of it, well you could look to the end of it where Barry gives nine rules for choosing whether
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or not you're going to adopt a new piece of technology.
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He writes that the new tool should be cheaper than the one it replaces.
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It should be at least as small in scale as the one it replaces.
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It should do work that is clearly and demonstrably better than the one it replaces.
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It should use less energy than the one it replaces.
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If possible, it should use some form of solar energy as of that of the body.
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It should be repairable by a person of ordinary intelligence, provided that he or she has the necessary tools.
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It should be purchasable and repairable as near to home as possible.
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It should come from a small privately owned shop or store that will take it back for maintenance and repair.
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It should not replace or disrupt anything good that already exists.
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And this includes family and community relations.
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If we were following Wendell Berry's rules, we would all throw away our computers right away.
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And it would be unrealistic to say that that's what we ought to do.
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So even if it's maybe a little too late for us to decide whether or not we're going to buy computers,
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we could be thinking about how we choose to incorporate those pieces of technology into our lives.
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So let's look at that last rule, that a new piece of technology should not disrupt something that already exists that is good.
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It's not just that a pencil and paper are perfectly fine for writing.
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What I realized, I think, is that actually trying to write on your computer is disruptive, and it's disruptive of the actual act of writing.
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And there's a couple of ways we can explain that.
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One is I actually think
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that I am capable of typing faster than I'm capable of writing
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and it seems that the ability at
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which I can write on a page is pretty much the exact pace
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that I need if I want to write half decent prose.
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If I'm typing it just comes out way too fast.
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Also when you're on a laptop you have this kind of tendency to want to edit as you go
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because you can just go back and delete something.
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You can copy and paste.
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You can look at spell check or check your grammar
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and yet I found that when I want to write well like when I was writing my dissertation, I really had to put a gap between what I was doing in the writing phase,
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where I just needed to get my ideas out on the page, and what I was doing in the editing phase.
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And I needed to actually put time in between there.
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And I admit that some of my preference for writing by hand might be driven by a kind of romanticism.
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I like the image of sitting at the coffee shop, sipping on your coffee, writing slowly, thinking about the world.
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But I do think that there are these practical benefits.
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I think it can actually help you with your writing since I switched over to writing by hand I found
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that the words are just kind of pouring out of me in a way
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that they weren't
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when I was trying to type the book it's just much easier for me to produce
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and to get those ideas out
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when I was typing my book on my laptop I was just floundering
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but there's another connection and for that I think we should talk a little bit about the poet Rilke.
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Rilke wrote these famous letters called letters to a young poet it's a collection of letters.
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He wrote 10 letters to a younger poet, often giving him advice about art and also about spirituality.
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And one of the key takeaways in Rilke's letters is that a poet or a writer, or just I would say a thoughtful intellectual person, needs a kind of solitude.
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Rilke writes it like this, what is necessary after all is only this solitude, vast inner solitude, to walk inside yourself and meet no one for hours.
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That is what you must be able to attain.
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Now, that is a discipline.
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It's something we actually have to cultivate.
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We have to learn to be okay with solitude and we have to learn to be comfortable there.
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But we also need to set up our exterior conditions so that we're able to enter into that place of solitude.
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You have to be incredibly disciplined to not be distracted by all the things that your laptop offers.
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You could always check your email.
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You could always check your analytics if you're like me.
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You could always check YouTube.
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And there are ways around that, and you can block sites and things like that.
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I figured that actually the easiest thing to do was to just cut it off at its source, and it was to stop using the laptop for my writing anyways.
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Now, none of this actually should stop with writing.
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The more I think about it, the more I realize that I should just put the laptop away, put the phone away too, as much as I can.
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I've actually now designated a place in my apartment where I will keep my laptop
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and phone during the day so that if I don't need it, I'm not around it.
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And that way I can focus on the things that really matter to me.
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Now I can kind of hear this criticism.
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I can hear people saying, well, you're going to have to use a computer anyways if you're writing a book.
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eventually you're going to have to type it up
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and you're going to have to edit it
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and you're going to have to send it to an agent or a publishing house or something.
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You can't just send them a notebook.
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And you're absolutely right.
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My position is not that we should just get rid of computers completely.
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I think we already are in a little too deep.
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We have computers and we should use them as best we can.
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When I've written my first draft, my second draft, when I feel comfortable with the finished product, I'll type up the whole thing.
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That will actually probably be a useful process for me because it'll give me a final chance to edit it.
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I'll be able to see it in a different context, see it on the screen, typed out in something that isn't just my own handwriting.
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Maybe you could make an argument that ultimately it is more efficient to just learn, to be disciplined, and to type.
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But I would suggest that instead we should look at solutions to problems that just involve opting out of the problem itself.
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So if your laptop is distracting you and it's making it difficult to write, you can just put it away and you can find another way to write.
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Thank you.
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Woordenschat en spreektips bij deze les
Deze video bevat 99 zinnen en 1503 woorden om na te spreken. Het gesproken deel duurt 7:08. De spreker praat snel, ongeveer 211 woorden per minuut, dus reken op verbonden en ingeslikte klanken. 83% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| laptop zelfstandig naamwoord | /ˈlæp.tɑp/ | laptop, notebook |
| poet zelfstandig naamwoord | /ˈpoʊ.ət/ | dichter, poëet |
| essay zelfstandig naamwoord | /ˈɛs.eɪ/ | essay, opstel |
| edit werkwoord | /ˈɛdɪt/ | bewerken, wijzigen |
| pencil zelfstandig naamwoord | /ˈpɛnsəl/ | potlood, griffel |
| discipline zelfstandig naamwoord | /ˈdɪsəplɪn/ | discipline, (zelf)beheersing |
| default zelfstandig naamwoord | /dɪˈfɔlt/ | niet-nakoming |
| notebook zelfstandig naamwoord | /ˈnoʊtˌbʊk/ | schrift, cahier |
| distract werkwoord | /dɪˈstɹækt/ | afleiden |
| novelist zelfstandig naamwoord | /ˈnɑvəlɪst/ | romancier, romanschrijver |
| disrupt werkwoord | /dɪsˈɹʌpt/ | verstoren |
| vast bijvoeglijk naamwoord | /væst/ | enorm |
| practical bijvoeglijk naamwoord | /ˈpɹæk.tɪ.kəl/ | praktisch |
| argue werkwoord | /ˈɑɹ.ɡju/ | redetwisten |
| efficient bijvoeglijk naamwoord | /ɪˈfɪʃənt/ | efficiënt |
Phrasal verbs die je zult horen
| Woord | Uitspraak | Betekenis |
|---|---|---|
| come out werkwoord | /ˌkʌm ˈaʊt/ | uitkomen |
| go back werkwoord | teruggaan | |
| set up werkwoord | /ˌsɛt ˈʌp/ | bereiden, voorbereiden |
| throw away werkwoord | weggooien |
Uitspraak om op te letten
De spreker gebruikt 32 samentrekkingen en verkorte vormen, zoals you're, I'm, I've. Spreek ze kort uit, zoals je ze hoort.
- De klanken “sh” en “zh”: efficient /ɪˈfɪʃənt/, inspiration /ˌɪn.spɪˈɹeɪ.ʃən/, relation /ɹɪˈleɪʃ(ə)n/, publish /ˈpʌblɪʃ/, recreation /ɹiːkɹiˈeɪʃən/
- Lange woorden — let op de klemtoon: ordinary /ˈɔɹdɪnɛɹi/, inspiration /ˌɪn.spɪˈɹeɪ.ʃən/, incredibly /ɪŋˈkɹɛdɪbli/, intellectual /ˌɪntəˈlɛkt͡ʃʊəl/, recreation /ɹiːkɹiˈeɪʃən/
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 laptop, poet, essay.
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 run · has been · I've actually now designated |
| Lijdende vorm be + voltooid deelwoord — het gaat om wat er gebeurt, niet om wie het doet | might be driven · be distracted · be disciplined |
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.