Shadowing Practice: 10 things I never do when learning a language - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Hi, today I want to talk about 10 things you shouldn't do, 10 dots when it comes to language learning.

I'm not trying to put those out there as negative things

because these are things that I feel sap your confidence and confidence is so important in language learning.

And I relate it to golf.

I actually am a very poor golfer.

For my age, I'm relatively flexible, relatively strong, relatively athletic.

A lot of people who are not as athletic as I am are much better golfers.

And that's because I struggle with some of the very same issues in my golf

that I think some language learners struggle with in their language learning.

So here we go.

Number one, don't put pressure on yourself.

Don't put pressure on yourself not to speak.

Don't put pressure on yourself to speak.

Don't put pressure on yourself to speak well.

Speak when you want to and let it all come out.

Rely on your instincts.

Don't put pressure on yourself.

Don't think you're going to master the basics.

We often hear this, just master the basics, as if there's something basic, whether it be a vocabulary item or a structure in the language.

First of all, you can't master it.

It doesn't prevent you from acquiring more words, from acquiring more familiarity with the language.

It's a bit, again, like the golf swing.

Whenever I try to have a perfect golf swing, try to remember all the things that I'm supposed to do, I play more poorly.

If I just swing naturally with confidence, I do better.

In fact, one of the things that triggered this video was an audiobook that my son suggested to me,

because we played golf yesterday in Palm Springs and it didn't do very well as usual.

And he said, you've got to listen to this book by Dr. Bob Rotella, where he talks about the psychological side of golf,

where you can't expect to be perfect all the time.

And so don't try to master the basics.

Acquire the language through listening and reading, as I say all the time here.

And then when you have a chance to speak, just go with what you got.

And I am guilty of doing the same in golf, of not doing this.

But now that I've been listening to this audiobook, I'm going to try my best.

And we are golfing today, and I'm going to try my best to just go with what I've got.

Whatever happens, accept it.

So don't try to master the basics.

It's a futile exercise.

It will lead to more frustration, and it'll sap your confidence.

Because, in fact, it's very difficult to master the basics.

You will continue to make mistakes with the basics for a long, long time.

And certainly, if you haven't had a lot of exposure to the language, like early on, I think it's impossible to master the basics.

Number three, don't focus on memorization.

Again, it's going to slap your confidence because we are always going to forget.

We'll put a lot of effort into a spaced repetition system or a memorization system.

And for most of us, there's undoubtedly exceptions out there and people who swear by this as a method of learning.

But I find that if the focus is on memorization, you're going to be more frustrated when you can't remember.

If the focus is on enjoying the language, acquiring the words naturally in a, not a spaced repetition system,

but a random repetition system through the content that you're listening to.

And research tends to indicate that we retain things better when we encounter them in different contexts,

rather than trying to zero in on a list of words, not to mention all of the other inconveniences with SRS,

but some people like them fine.

But I feel that it saps your confidence because you are going to forget.

So don't focus on memorization.

You're setting yourself up for frustration.

So focus on memorization.

No. Number four, don't get frustrated at what you can't do.

One of the keys to success and progress in language learning, in my opinion, is to make good use of easier material,

material with a lot of repetition, like the mini stories or even graded readers but then push yourself forward into more challenging material,

more interesting material, and don't get frustrated when you can't progress as easily, where there are words that if you're on link that are yellow

that you've looked up before and now you don't know what they mean.

Don't just stay with the easy material.

They are a stepping stone, but you have to move beyond those easy readers, graded readers, many stories, staying with learner material, staying with graded readers.

To me, that's a no -no. Number five, don't try to pursue native -like pronunciation.

It's a futile task.

You will be disappointed.

I don't use the international phonetic alphabet because if I were learning English

and I listened to Australians and I listened to people from the US South or from,

you know, Ulster, Scotland, they're all going to pronounce the vowels a little differently.

So how does that international phonetic alphabet symbol help me?

I've got to put the time into listening.

My focus is not on perfecting my pronunciation.

I never spent any time on pitch accent in Japanese, for example.

And throughout my life, I've done business with people whose native language is not English, and I hear them on television.

And if they use the language well and elegantly and eloquently, as I say, the accent almost adds a little bit of class to their English.

And I'm sure the same is true in other languages.

So don't focus too much on and having perfect pronunciation, it doesn't matter.

It can only lead to frustration.

Number six, shadowing.

I don't shadow.

I'm not saying you shouldn't shadow if you like shadowing.

You should do things that you like to do.

I tried it.

I found it frustrating.

I found that either I was listening to very easy material, like the many stories where I knew the content,

and then for a while I could shadow, but then I lost interest because it's not really meaningful to me.

Or if I'm listening to interesting content that's new to me, full of interesting information on history or whatever it might be,

I want to focus in on the meaning.

So whatever I do, I like it to be meaningful and authentic.

To me, although many people rave about shadowing, it's not something that I do.

Bear in mind that my don'ts here are not telling people what to do.

It's more a matter of, based on my experience, these are things that I don't find useful or which,

in many cases, sap my confidence and my momentum in learning the language.

But everyone doesn't have to agree with me.

Number seven, role -playing.

Role -playing is a staple of many language courses.

The idea is that we'll pretend that, you know, you are a doctor and I'm a patient

and we have an artificial conversation about that situation and we play these different roles, doctor or patient.

Personally, I don't enjoy doing these.

I think they are not authentic.

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They give you a false sense of security, which will lead to frustration because

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if you are actually in a scenario like buying a ticket at the train station

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and you have been practicing that

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and you say something to the teller at the train station

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and he or she comes back with something typically quite different then you're frustrated.

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So you're far better in my view in working on improving

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your overall level in the language in order to be able to deal with all the possible situations

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that could arrive in any given scenario.

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So trying to master the scenario is a shortcut that doesn't work.

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It distracts you from the goal, the real goal, which is to elevate your level in the language.

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And through lots of listening and reading and speaking to many different people on many different subjects,

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your overall confidence level in the language will increase and you're then in a better position to just let it go.

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Rather than as me with my golf string trying to remember what I'm supposed to say in this particular scenario.

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Next, testing.

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Don't test unless you need the test for your job or entrance into university, which is perfectly understandable.

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But if you are learning for fun, testing, whether it be a 10 -question questionnaire or an hour -long test, is a lot of pressure,

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a lot of self -doubt.

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And actually, it's not necessary.

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The only real test is when you are listening to something, do you understand?

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When you're interacting with people, do they understand you?

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Do you feel comfortable?

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This is what we should be trying to achieve in our language learning.

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And if we gear ourselves for the test, we end up doing some of the same things that I am very much against here,

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like studying long lists of words, vocabulary for TOEFL.

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And of course, we know from research on the brain that the more time we spend deliberately trying to,

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you know, focus in on certain words, the less we learn.

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The brain gets turned off.

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The brain likes new things.

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The brain likes seeing words in different contexts.

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So the test approach tends to direct learners into learning activities

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that are not helpful in the long -term goal of improving their language skills.

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And of course, we get things wrong.

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There's pressure.

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We feel frustrated when we keep on making mistakes.

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So unless you need the test, don't test.

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Here's another no -no. Don't always ask, how quickly can I learn?

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We have videos, you know, learn this language in a week, in three months.

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It'll take as long as it takes.

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Don't put pressure on yourself to learn quickly.

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Rather, you should be looking at how can I enjoy the learning process.

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I enjoy what I'm doing in Persian.

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I've been at my Persian and Arabic and Turkish now for three, four, five years.

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I enjoy it.

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Now, maybe some people are in a hurry.

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I think I would have been more successful in those three languages

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if I focused in on one and if I spent more time every day.

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So those are some of the things

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that affect how quickly you're going to proceed and how quickly you're going to progress in the language.

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But don't put pressure on yourself to learn it in a short period of time.

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I think it's counterproductive.

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It saps your confidence.

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And finally, number 10, which kind of relates to all of these parts, give yourself credit for what you can do.

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This comes out in the audiobook that I started listening to on golf.

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If I play a game of golf and all I think about is the shots that I missed,

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I come away from that golf game genuinely unhappy.

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If I can remember the good shots, if I can feel happy with what I was able to achieve,

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then I'm more confident, more motivated, more likely to continue.

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There are always moments in language learning where we forget, we don't understand, And we're disappointed,

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but we shouldn't be disappointed because we should pick out those things that we are able to do.

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In other words, I started the language two years ago.

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I now understand a lot.

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I'm able to say certain things.

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Maybe I met someone at the summer I spoke to in Farsi, a store we were buying, which is a real case, buying kitchen appliances.

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And I had a slightly lengthy conversation in Farsi.

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So I have to try to remember those positive moments

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when I felt that I had some success rather than focusing in on moments

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when we didn't achieve or didn't perform as well as we would have liked to.

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So don't beat yourself up.

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Give yourself credit for what you could do.

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And if you follow these 10 don'ts, and I don't want to be, I don't, I don't want to be like a dictatorial.

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You must do this or do that because amongst the things that I suggest you don't do, there are things that people do enjoy doing.

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And if they enjoy doing them.

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Do though, because ultimately the main thing is to enjoy the process, feel good about yourself so that you continue learning the language.

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Thank you for listening.

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Bye.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This speaking lesson is built on the video “10 things I never do when learning a language”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: language, learning, golf, listening, confidence. This video has 138 sentences and 2114 words to shadow. The speech runs for 10:39. The speaker talks fast, about 198 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 84% 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
shadow noun	/ˈʃædəʊ̯/	A dark image projected onto a surface where light (or other radiation) is blocked by the shade of an object.
reader noun	/ˈɹi.dɚ/	A person who reads.
acquire verb	/əˈkwaɪɚ/	To get.
frustration noun	/fɹʌsˈtɹeɪ.ʃən/	The feeling of annoyance at impossibility from resistance or inability to achieve something.
disappointed adjective	/ˌdɪsəˈpɔɪnɪd/	Defeated of expectations or hope; experiencing disappointment; let down.
swing verb	/ˈswɪŋ/	To rotate about an off-centre fixed point.
scenario noun	/sɪˈnɛəɹioʊ/	An outline or model of an expected or supposed sequence of events.
pronunciation noun	/pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/	The formal or informal way in which a word is made to sound when spoken.
naturally adverb	/ˈnæt͡ʃ.(ə.)ɹə.li/	In a natural manner.
relate verb	/ɹɪˈleɪt/	To tell in a descriptive way.
accent noun	/ækˈsɛnt/	A higher-pitched or stronger (louder or longer) articulation of a particular syllable of a word or phrase in order to distinguish it from the others or to…
meaningful adjective	/ˈmiː.nɪŋ.fl̩/	Having meaning, significant.
athletic adjective	/æθˈlɛt.ɪk/	Having to do with athletes.
authentic adjective	/ɔˈθɛn.tɪk/	Of the same origin as claimed; genuine.
vocabulary noun	/vəˈkæb.jə.lə.ɹi/	A usually alphabetized and explained collection of words e.g. of a particular field, or prepared for a specific purpose, often for learning.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
come out verb	/ˌkʌm ˈaʊt/	To be discovered; to be revealed.
come out in verb		to be afflicted by (a visible disruption of the body)
end up verb		To bring to a conclusion.
pick out verb		To remove by picking.
turn off verb		To power down, to switch off, to put out of operation, to deactivate (an appliance, light, mechanism, functionality etc.).

Sentences worth repeating

Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:

Don't think you're going to master the basics.
First of all, you can't master it.
I've got to put the time into listening.
When you're interacting with people, do they understand you?
Don't always ask, how quickly can I learn?

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Present perfect continuous have/has been + -ing — an action that started earlier and is still going on	I've been listening · have been practicing
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	people who are · people who swear · security, which will
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	haven't had · you've looked · I've done

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 82 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, I'm, you're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “th” sounds: athletic /æθˈlɛt.ɪk/, authentic /ɔˈθɛn.tɪk/
The “sh” and “zh” sounds: shadow /ˈʃædəʊ̯/, frustration /fɹʌsˈtɹeɪ.ʃən/, pronunciation /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/, exposure /ɪkˈspəʊ.ʒə(ɹ)/, exception /əkˈsɛpʃən/
Long words — get the stress right: disappointed /ˌdɪsəˈpɔɪnɪd/, pronunciation /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/, naturally /ˈnæt͡ʃ.(ə.)ɹə.li/, vocabulary /vəˈkæb.jə.lə.ɹi/, psychological /ˌsaɪ.kəˈlɑː.d͡ʒɪ.kl̩/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like shadow, reader, acquire.

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.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

Shadowing Practice: 10 things I never do when learning a language - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

Key vocabulary in this video

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Sentences worth repeating

Grammar in this video

Pronunciation to watch

How to practise with this video

What is the Shadowing Technique?