Shadowing Practice: 2 Hours of Focus Will Put You in The Top 1% - Learn English Speaking with YouTube

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I have not had social media on my phone in three years.
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I have not had social media on my phone in three years.
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Why?
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Because I feel like you are bringing a butter knife to a gunfight if you have these tools on your phone.
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And if it's too scary to unplug for three years,
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you don't have to commit to that.
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I didn't in the beginning.
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It's like, do a one or two week social media fast.
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at least on your phone.
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So I can still access social media if I need a hit of the heroin.
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I can still access social media through my laptop,
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but it adds enough friction that I'm not gonna end up looking at Instagram
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while I'm on the toilet and wondering why I can't feel my legs 40 minutes later, right?
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It's gonna avoid that type of thing.
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Or the compulsive sort of dopamine scratching whenever you have free 30 seconds jumping into social media.
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This is not good for your ability to focus.
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It's not good for your ability to single task.
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It's not good for your mental health when you always have that escape.
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I mean, look, I'm telling people things they probably agree with,
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but perhaps haven't implemented, right?
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So you can do something like that.
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You can use an app like Freedom.
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There's an app called Freedom that you can use to block certain things for certain periods of time.
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I mean, there are these technical tools that you can use,
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but at the very base,
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you can't use more window dressing technical tricks to fix like fundamental problems with goal selection.
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Big yes is worth defending and core beliefs, right?
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If I say no to this person or something bad is going to happen and they're not going to like me,
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they'll stop inviting me to things like if you have these
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and that is going to what right you have to ask
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and then what
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and then what right I'm gonna end up alone okay well
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these are these are sort of Rubicons you need to get comfortable crossing in the sense that my experience is,
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this is also Neil's experience.
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He had tons of fears,
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as did I at the beginning stages.
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It's like when you start to stand up for the things that are important in your life,
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I think this is a Dr. Seuss quote,
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but it's like the people who mind don't matter and the people who matter don't mind.
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Like you actually do a lot of pruning in your life that you should do anyway.
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And it's a, it's a forcing function for that.
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That's so interesting.
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It really is about courage in the end.
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It is.
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And you can train that.
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You can train that.
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It's not something you are born with or without.
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Like that is something through actually understanding what your fears represent and like what's underneath them.
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It could be from childhood.
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It doesn't necessarily have to be.
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But when you start to actually examine them,
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there's an exercise people could do today.
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Also, they can find it at TED Talk on this called fear setting.
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You start to do fear setting around these fears.
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You defang them.
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And guess what?
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Suddenly you have this thing that others might call courage.
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But what it is, is it's clarity.
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It's clarity around the actual downside,
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which is limited versus the upside of protecting these big yeses over a year, two or three.
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And I will say, not to continue to beat this dead horse,
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but with all of the noise that is here,
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but that is coming with AI,
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it's going to be 10,
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100, 1,000 times worse within two years.
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If you can single task on important things for not even four hours a day,
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two hours a day, without interruption,
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you are going to be,
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from the perspective of, let's just say,
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an attention economy, in the top 1% of performers.
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Thank you.

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Why practice speaking with this video?

Engaging with this video provides a valuable opportunity for English learners to improve their speaking skills. The speaker discusses the necessity of focus and discipline in achieving personal goals, making it an ideal context for practicing effective communication. By shadowing the speaker, learners can learn to articulate thoughts clearly and improve their fluency in expressing complex ideas. Additionally, the emphasis on overcoming fears can resonate deeply, allowing learners to connect emotionally with the material and practice speaking from personal experience, which is crucial for IELTS speaking practice.

Grammar & Expressions in Context

This video features several key structures and expressions that illustrate advanced grammatical concepts:

  • Conditional structures: The speaker uses conditional sentences to express hypothetical situations. For example, "If you feel it's too scary to unplug, you don't have to commit to that." This usage encourages learners to practice complex sentence forms in their own responses.
  • Gerunds and infinitives: Phrases such as "accessing social media" or "to fix fundamental problems" provide examples of when to use gerunds versus infinitives. Understanding the difference will enhance learners' ability to form correct and varied sentence structures.
  • Direct advice: The speaker's use of imperative verbs, like "do a one or two week social media fast," exemplifies how to give suggestions or commands effectively. Practicing this can help learners formulate their own advice confidently.

Common Pronunciation Traps

When shadowing the speaker, pay attention to these challenging words and phrases that may present pronunciation challenges:

  • “Compulsive”: Make sure to stress the second syllable [kəmˈpʌl.sɪv], which can be tricky for some learners.
  • “Dopamine”: This word is often mispronounced. The correct pronunciation [ˈdoʊ.pəˌmiːn] emphasizes the first syllable, which is essential for clear communication.
  • “Friction”: Many learners tend to merge sounds, but it’s critical to pronounce it as [ˈfrɪkʃən], accentuating the 'fr' sound clearly.

Using a shadowing app with the video can enhance your practice further. Focus on the shadowing technique to mirror the speaker’s intonation and rhythm, which can dramatically improve your pronunciation and overall speaking confidence. Whether you're preparing for the IELTS or just looking to enhance your everyday communication skills, utilizing resources like this video can provide immense value on your journey to English fluency.

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.

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