Shadowing Practice: 04.a Stand Out - Effortless Business English - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Stand out.
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If you're remarkable, it's likely that some people won't like you.
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That's part of the definition of being remarkable.
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Nobody gets unanimous praise, ever.
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The best the timid can hope for is to be unnoticed.
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Criticism comes to those who stand out.
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Where did you learn how to fail?
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If you're like most people, you learned in first grade.
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That's when you started figuring out that the safe thing to do was to fit in.
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The safe thing to do was to color inside the lines.
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Don't ask too many questions in class, etc. Playing it safe.
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Following the rules.
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Those seem like the best ways to avoid failure.
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And in school, they may very well be.
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However, these rules set a pattern for most people, like your boss, and that pattern is awfully dangerous.
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These are the rules that ultimately lead to failure.
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In a crowded marketplace, fitting in is failure.
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In a busy marketplace, not standing out is the same as being invisible.
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The good news is that the prevailing wisdom makes your job even easier.
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Since just about everyone else is petrified of being different,
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you can be remarkable with even less effort.
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If successful new products are the ones that stand out,
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and most people desire not to stand out, you're set.
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So, it seems we face two choices.
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To be invisible, anonymous, uncriticized, and safe.
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Or, to take a chance at greatness, uniqueness, and big success.
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Seth Godin, marketing expert, www .sethgodin .com If you want to be a big success in your career,
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or if you want to create your own successful business, you must be remarkable.
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The problem is, being remarkable is scary.
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We are taught all our lives to be the same.
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We are taught to avoid criticism.
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We are taught to fit in.
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We learn to do what everyone else is doing.
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That does give us a little security.
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We manage to keep a safe but boring job.
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We make a little money.
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Maybe we get a small promotion.
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But we never achieve our dreams.
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We never attain big success, total financial freedom, plenty of time to enjoy our lives,
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and feelings of happiness and ecstasy.
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Most people feel stuck in their jobs.
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They want something more, but they are afraid to be different.
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Starting your own business is scary.
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I know.
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I was terrified when I started Effortless English.
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To be honest, I wasn't worried about money.
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What terrified me was humiliation.
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I told everyone about the business.
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If it had failed, I would have felt embarrassed.
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I would have felt like a total idiot.
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This fear is normal.
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Don't worry about it.
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Unfortunately, many new business owners play it safe because they are afraid.
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They start a new business, but then they copy what everyone else is doing.
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There's nothing remarkable about the business.
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What happens?
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Usually, the business fails.
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Since the business isn't remarkably different, no one is interested in it.
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Over 90 % of new businesses fail within five years.
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That's a scary statistic.
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How do you avoid being in that 90 %?
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Or maybe you just want to go higher in your career.
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How do you move up?
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You do it by being remarkable.
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You must be different.
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You must be unique.
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You must take risks and do things that no one else is doing.
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When you do this, people will criticize you.
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I was criticized by many English teachers when I started Effortless English.
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They said I was crazy not to teach grammar rules.
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They said students wanted grammar rules and would never buy my lessons.
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Now, I have a successful growing business, and they are still working bad jobs for little money.
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Why?
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Because I chose to be different and remarkable.
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They chose to stay the same and play it safe.
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It's easy to be remarkable.
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Here's how you do it.
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Number one, identify your strong points.
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What are the strongest points of your personality and skills?
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2. Exaggerate those strong points.
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Make them super strong.
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At the same time, ignore your weak points.
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Don't try to correct them.
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Focus on making your strong points even stronger.
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3. Take risks where you are strong.
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Try new things.
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To succeed, you must be extreme.
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For example, the strongest point of effortless English is listening and speaking fluency.
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Several years ago, I was good at helping students speak English easily and fast.
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I also knew from research that grammar study did not help.
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Every other school and teacher focuses on grammar study.
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I focused on my strengths.
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I became better and better and better at teaching students to speak English easily and fast.
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I didn't focus on writing, although that is a legitimate area to study.
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I didn't do what everyone else does, teach useless grammar rules.
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I focused on my strengths.
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Eventually, I created the best system in the world for learning to speak English easily and fast with no grammar study.
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It's remarkable.
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It's unique.
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It's totally different than any other system in the world.
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That's why Effortless English succeeded.
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Use this same strategy with your career or business.
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Do not copy others.
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In fact, strive to be different than everyone else.
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Pick a few things and be remarkable at those things.
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Stand out.
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People will criticize you.
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It's true.
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But in the end, you will live your dreams and they will forever be disappointed.
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Follow Seth Godin's advice
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Take a chance at greatness, uniqueness, and big success
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “04.a Stand Out - Effortless Business English”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: remarkable, English, safe, grammar, rules. This video has 111 sentences and 910 words to shadow. The speech runs for 8:15. The speaker talks at a steady 110 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. 86% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| remarkable adjective | /ɹɪˈmɑɹ.kə.bl̩/ | Worthy of remark; notable; interesting. |
| grammar noun | /ˈɡɹæm.ə(ɹ)/ | A system of rules and principles for the structure of a language, or of languages in general. |
| scary adjective | /ˈskɛə.ɹi/ | Causing fear or anxiety |
| criticize verb | /ˈkɹɪtɪsaɪz/ | To find fault (with something). |
| succeed verb | /səkˈsiːd/ | To follow something in sequence or time. |
| invisible adjective | /ɪnˈvɪzəb(ə)l/ | Unable to be seen; out of sight; not visible. |
| marketplace noun | An open area in a town housing a public market. | |
| greatness noun | /ˈɡɹeɪtnəs/ | The state, condition, or quality of being great |
| ignore verb | /ɪɡˈnɔː/ | To deliberately not listen or pay attention to. |
| lesson noun | /ˈlɛs.ən/ | A section of learning or teaching into which a wider learning content is divided. |
| happiness noun | /ˈhæpinɪs/ | The emotion of being happy; joy; elation. |
| disappointed adjective | /ˌdɪsəˈpɔɪnɪd/ | Defeated of expectations or hope; experiencing disappointment; let down. |
| skill noun | /skɪl/ | A capacity to do something well; a technique, an ability, usually acquired or learned, as opposed to abilities that are regarded as innate. |
| promotion noun | /pɹəˈmoʊʃn̩/ | An advancement in rank or position. |
| praise verb | /pɹeɪz/ | To give praise to; to commend, glorify, or worship. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| stand out verb | To jut out, protrude (from a surface etc.). |
| figure out verb | To come to understand; to discover or find a solution; to deduce. |
| move up verb | To promote, put onto a higher level. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- Where did you learn how to fail?
- To be honest, I wasn't worried about money.
- How do you move up?
- Here's how you do it.
- What are the strongest points of your personality and skills?
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 11 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, you're, didn't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: promotion /pɹəˈmoʊʃn̩/, humiliation /hjuːˌmɪliˈeɪʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: invisible /ɪnˈvɪzəb(ə)l/, disappointed /ˌdɪsəˈpɔɪnɪd/, legitimate /lɪˈd͡ʒɪt.ɪ.mət/, anonymous /əˈnɒn.ə.məs/, statistical /stəˈtɪs.tɪ.kəl/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Shadow it sentence by sentence at normal speed, repeating each one until your rhythm matches the speaker.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like remarkable, grammar, scary.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.