Shadowing Practice: why you need a mini creative project - Learn English Speaking with Video

This is one of my favorite recent purchases.

It is a tiny little notebook, it was 3 euros, and I try and bring it everywhere I go.

But I didn't realize how much I needed this tiny creative project until it found me, and here's why.

It all started with AI.

More specifically, that AI is now kind of everywhere, without us even asking for it.

We have AI TVs, AI washing machines, AI to help with your taxes, even though it's completely useless, so I still need to call the people to help me with my taxes.

And Duolingo now is AI first, which means, from my understanding, that they fired most of their freelance contractors and replacing them with AI.

Yay!

And the one that scares me and confuses me the most is AI art.

I think in general AI could be a useful tool and also it could be useful for creatives.

You could maybe make a storyboard with it.

I sometimes use it for brainstorming

but lately I've been seeing a lot of people talk about how AI is making them more creative

and they're sharing their AI generated art

and saying how they can finally express their creativity

which is a little bit confusing

because well ai made the art it's like hiring a painter

to make your painting you tell them hey could you make

it red could it be a lady holding a martini glass

and they make it for you and you wouldn't say

that you made the art the painter did sure you had the idea

but the execution matters as much and

that brings me back to this tiny notebook initially this notebook

was meant to be used to write down my ideas that's

why the first page has the word ideas on it

but i took it to a four hour flight

and i got kind of bored there

and i was like hey maybe i could sketch something in it

and i did this was my first sketch and i thought to myself

that was fun maybe i should do it again

and maybe i should try and do it every day

so that's where my little creative project was born sure my proportions

and perspective might be off and my camera can do a 10,000 times better job than me, but I made this and I kind of like it.

Making art

and being creative is not about being perfect you don't even

have to be good at it it's about showing up playing around observing things

and capturing your perspective and so

because of this i think we should all have more mini

creative projects in our lives they don't have to be big you don't have to share with the world

and it could have a deadline or it could not

and it doesn't have to be a sketchbook it can be anything

and there are are many reasons why this is beneficial for our lives and well for my life at least.

First of all it builds focus and presence.

I like how this little notebook makes me slow down and appreciate the small details of the things that I'm drawing.

Oftentimes what I do is I take some pictures throughout the day

and then later on just sketch from my phone to this little sketchbook.

And especially when it comes to buildings, Riga has a lot of beautiful buildings but I don't really have time there to just stand and look at it.

So I really enjoy the process of looking at it from my photo

and transfer it to my sketchbook because then I can actually see how much detail was put into this building.

It makes me appreciate it more.

Plus I have tried meditation a couple of times already and it doesn't really click with me.

And if I have a quiet place

and I can just sketch my sketches it kind of feels like a form of meditation.

You are like in a you know in a calm focused state.

It also gives me a nice chance to reflect on my day.

I take pictures of something that

catches my eye or interests me or a funny thing

that happens and I try and replicate it in this notebook

and you know just makes me think about what I did today.

Plus for me I'm a visual person

so it's nice to look back at it and then I see and immediately remember where and what it was.

The next reason for why you should have a mini project it is something that you can look forward to.

When I started filling out this notebook I was really excited to see what I'm gonna sketch today, what is it gonna be?

Sometimes it's really easy and sometimes it's not that easy to come up with things.

But still, it's kind of fun.

It also teaches you to be okay with imperfection

because I have some sketches that I do not like there are some sketches

that I'm like hell yeah but some of them are like regrets

but it's a sketchbook who cares and it's my sketchbook

so I mean it's not the best and I'm not sure

if I like the way that I colored it but I think it's cute I mainly made this this section.

And in general that's kind of the whole point.

You try, you mess up, you try again, you try again and again and again until you finally actually have something cool.

And then you decide to start something new and then the cycle continues.

I think we're getting used to this instant gratification of you're immediately good at something

or you immediately have something that you want.

Which I think is not a good thing and I'm not saying I'm perfect, probably I'm also like that in some ways, but I think this is a good reminder

that you have to fail many times until you have something actually nice to show.

And last but not least, you're making something for yourself.

You're playing, you're experimenting, you're exploring what you like and what you don't like, and you don't need to show it to anybody.

I mean, I'm showing this notebook to you now because I want to, but there's still half of it that I need to fill out, so I don't know if I'm gonna share that.

You don't have to put it on social media, even though I did a couple of times in my stories, but I don't share every sketch that I make because some of them look kind of rough.

So let me give you a couple of options of what you could do, because for me I really like my little sketchbook, I like drawing in it, but maybe it's not your thing.

So here are a couple of things that you could do instead.

First but not the most, scrapbooking or junk journaling.

Collecting rocks and painting them.

Start reviewing places on Google the places that have one or two reviews or some random stuff like bridges or trash cans.

Start crafting ransom notes for your friends, trying all different kinds of teas or apples and writing down what's good and bad about them,

making a comic strip, start a photo project, maybe photograph every neighborhood cat you see or usually

when I solo travel my mini goal is to get a good picture of myself, which sometimes is easier said than done.

Writing a poem or a haiku, start documenting things your life or the sky or textures of buildings

and just start collecting things like brochures as you can see my walls are filled with

different brochures that I found and I really like how it looks

or in general pick something that you did as a child

and stopped doing for some reason or something

that you always wanted to try it can become some sort of hobby

but it also just be like a short-term goal for me it's filling up this little guy

and then seeing if i want to get a new one

or not in general what i'm trying to say is i think

100

that everybody should have some kind of mini project in their lives it doesn't matter

101

if you're an artist or if you're an accountant creativity

102

and creating art was never gatekept by a certain group of people it is always available for everybody

103

because anybody can create something it's just some people are better at it because they kept showing up,

104

they kept failing, and at a certain point their work just improved and was better.

105

I'm really happy to see the pages filling up, the end result is uniquely mine, and I love the process.

106

It helps me relax, it clears my mind, and it brings me joy.

107

So if you ever needed a sign to start your mini creative project, then I guess it's this video.

108

So other other than that, I'll see you next time.

📺 Zelfde Kanaal

what 600 days of art progress looks like

Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students

making architecture art

Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students

✨ Aanbevolen Video

17 zinnen

how I built a $2.7M brand using a.i (my actual product, website, ads, viral videos)

Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults

Woordenschat en spreektips bij deze les

Deze spreekles op niveau B2 is gebaseerd op de video “why you need a mini creative project”. Deze woorden komen het vaakst terug: notebook, creative, project, sketchbook, sketch. Deze video bevat 108 zinnen en 1515 woorden om na te spreken. Het gesproken deel duurt 7:27. De spreker praat snel, ongeveer 203 woorden per minuut, dus reken op verbonden en ingeslikte klanken. 84% 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
sketch zelfstandig naamwoord	/ˈskɛt͡ʃ/	schets
notebook zelfstandig naamwoord	/ˈnoʊtˌbʊk/	schrift, cahier
sketchbook zelfstandig naamwoord	/ˈskɛt͡ʃˌbʊk/	schetsboek
brochure zelfstandig naamwoord	/bɹoʊˈʃʊɚ/	brochure
confuse werkwoord	/kənˈfjuːz/	verwarren, in de war brengen
painter zelfstandig naamwoord	/ˈpeɪntɚ/	schilder, kunstschilder
meditation zelfstandig naamwoord	/mɛdɪˈteɪʃn̩/	meditatie, overpeinzing
creativity zelfstandig naamwoord	/kri.eɪˈtɪv.ᵻ.ti/	creativiteit
brainstorming zelfstandig naamwoord		brainstorm
gratification zelfstandig naamwoord	/ˌɡɹætɪfɪˈkeɪʃən/	gratificatie
imperfection zelfstandig naamwoord	/ɪmpɚˈfɛkʃən/	imperfectie, onvolmaaktheid
martini zelfstandig naamwoord	/mɑɹˈtini/	martini
uniquely bijwoord	/juːˈniːk.li/	uniek
ransom zelfstandig naamwoord	/ˈɹæn.səm/	losgeld
accountant zelfstandig naamwoord	/əˈkaʊn.tənt/	boekhouder, accountant

Phrasal verbs die je zult horen

Woord	Uitspraak	Betekenis
fill out werkwoord	/fɪl ˈaʊt/	invullen
fill up werkwoord		opvullen, vollopen
show up werkwoord		tentoonstellen
write down werkwoord		opschrijven, neerschrijven
come up with werkwoord		bedenken, verzinnen
look forward to werkwoord		uitkijken naar, zich verheugen op
mess up werkwoord		verrommelen, in de war brengen
slow down werkwoord		afremmen

Uitspraak om op te letten

De spreker gebruikt 40 samentrekkingen en verkorte vormen, zoals I'm, don't, you're. Spreek ze kort uit, zoals je ze hoort.

De klanken “sh” en “zh”: brochure /bɹoʊˈʃʊɚ/, meditation /mɛdɪˈteɪʃn̩/, gratification /ˌɡɹætɪfɪˈkeɪʃən/, imperfection /ɪmpɚˈfɛkʃən/, beneficial /ˌbɛn.ɪˈfɪʃ.əl/
Lange woorden — let op de klemtoon: creativity /kri.eɪˈtɪv.ᵻ.ti/, gratification /ˌɡɹætɪfɪˈkeɪʃən/, imperfection /ɪmpɚˈfɛkʃən/, beneficial /ˌbɛn.ɪˈfɪʃ.əl/

Klanken die Nederlandstaligen lastig vinden:

Stemhebbende eindmedeklinker — /b/, /d/, /g/, /z/, /v/ niet verscherpen: confuse /kənˈfjuːz/, oftentimes /ˈɔf.ənˌtaɪmz/, observe /əbˈzɜːv/
/æ/ — opener dan de Nederlandse “e”: gratification /ˌɡɹætɪfɪˈkeɪʃən/, scrapbook /ˈskɹæpˌbʊk/, ransom /ˈɹæn.səm/, freelance /ˈfɹiˌlæns/, contractor /ˈkɒnˌtɹæk.tə(ɹ)/
/g/ — een harde plofklank, geen Nederlandse “g”: gatekeep /ˈɡeɪt.kiːp/, gratification /ˌɡɹætɪfɪˈkeɪʃən/

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 sketch, notebook, sketchbook.

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 →

Shadowing Practice: why you need a mini creative project - Learn English Speaking with Video

what 600 days of art progress looks like

making architecture art

Did someone say... SecondBrain?

Is AI About to Change Movies Forever?

5 Things Under $20 Every ARCHITECT Needs

How to Journal: 4 Ways to Journal for Growth, Clarity & Becoming Your Best Self

How to be a creative motherf***er

AI-First Playbook: Do a Team's Work With AI (2026) | Peter Yang

Can This Robot Be My Personal Assistant

iPad mini 4 Years Later as a Minimalist | Digital Minimalism

I Self-Hosted for a Year... Here's What I'd Do Differently.

"This Doesn't Lie" | Build Your Own English Level Checker with Google AI Studio