Shadowing Practice: 2579 - Don't Undermine Your English Listen Today! - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Hey, Lindsay, how are you?
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Doing good, Michelle.
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How are you?
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How's everything?
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I'm doing well.
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Thanks.
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Lindsay, have you this is a kind of a personal question?
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Have you ever known someone who constantly made you feel small?
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Wow, that's a deep question, Michelle.
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I know, I know.
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No, I guess I had a friend when I was really young who would brag a lot.
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and that annoyed me but i'm talking like i was seven years old right
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and she was like a bragger what is bragging michelle by
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the way uh oh i'm the best at this yeah much better than yeah yeah
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and then she would like i would say something i want to do
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because i was just like a seven -year -old i was like i want to go to the movies tonight
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or i want to do something like i wanted to go skiing
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or something you'll never be able to do that like she would do
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that so that was actually because she was a naysayer that's what the word a naysayer
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so that really triggered me a lot because i don't
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tells you you can't do something right and so
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that was kind of she was kind of undermining me a lot of times
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but she was we were only seven so this is kid stuff right but i still remember it so
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yeah yeah you still remember it well
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so yeah we are going to talk about this word undermine yes um
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and this is a really useful word for that type of situation
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that lindsey is talking about and this came up
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because we spoke about it in a recent episode on business english over on our other
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the business english podcast you got to get on over there
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um we we you know business is real life you know
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and people work in the business world it's not robots we have to learn how to talk
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and build these relationships well oh yeah that's true i can't believe i just said
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that um so guys but this was on episode 5 30
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which was how not to step on toes at work
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that we use this
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and this you know this word you know once we add
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this to your vocabulary today guys it's going to elevate your It's a really good one to know at the B2C1C2 level.
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So let's get into it, Michelle yeah okay yes
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so um according to the dictionary um we would define undermine as to make something especially somebody's confidence
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or authority gradually weaker
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or less effective wow it sounds manipulative in a way doesn't it yeah it's not not great um
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so on that business english episode we were talking about undermining someone's authority
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which is very common um to say that undermining It's like, you know, someone's your boss, someone, you know, you're a teacher,
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whatever it is, and you're just kind of.
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not doing what they say or making them look bad in some way yes exactly exactly
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so we're going to get deeper into this in just a minute
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but i do want to take an important minute to call
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out our amazing listeners who took the time michelle to go
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and leave us a review these reviews came from apple podcasts
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so guys we love it when we see your ratings
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and your reviews of the show because it tells us
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if we're are we on track with the show right what do you want to hear you can ask your
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from Smile from China on January 5th, five -star review.
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Amazing.
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And from Hungary, English with Speak of You from January 4th in Apple Podcasts.
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This person says, your podcast is always full of energy and tips.
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You provide such valuable resources for learners and teachers.
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This is a good show for teachers as well, guys.
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So if you're teaching, bring it into your classroom.
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Let your listeners know which episode you're going to talk about next week, right?
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Tell them So the point is, guys, if you love our show,
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go and leave us a review wherever you listen and be sure to hit follow right here on the show.
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All right.
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Absolutely.
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Thank you guys so much.
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Yes.
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So when you undermine someone, it doesn't does it have to be super obvious that someone is being undermined?
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No, that's the cool thing about this.
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Not not the concept, but the word.
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It's flexible.
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This could be very subtle.
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with it was very obvious right kids are very obvious but adults are much more subtle at times
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um but we can we can recognize it
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and label it as undermining right yes right
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and i mean can is it always intentional um does
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if someone undermines someone else is it always
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that they are you know manipulative manipulative no manipulative is the worst version of it right because it's calculated you're scheming,
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but sometimes we're just undermining someone and not realizing we are.
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Yeah.
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Right.
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Like maybe if we're a manager, we are always checking our employees work and we're undermining their confidence because we're not letting them have the independence.
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We're making them feel like we don't believe in them.
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Right.
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But we're just, it's just our own control issues maybe.
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Right.
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Yes.
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Yeah.
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Very interesting.
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So undermining, it can be calculated.
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It can be
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can also just disney villain
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or something yeah right it can also just be totally innocent you don't realize it
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and maybe it needs to be brought to your attention and
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and i'd say probably yeah yeah i think most of the time probably michelle it's it's that
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that people don't realize they're doing it most people are good
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people they don't want to hurt people especially at work
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or it's yeah so probably like 75 of the time it's unintentional
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but it's good to call it out
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and approach the topic with someone right yeah so let's give some more examples could be an other contexts.
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Lindsay, what's an example?
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Well, we can undermine ourselves too, right?
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So I tend to undermine myself when I don't feel confident.
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I say things like, I'm sorry, and I don't know.
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Yeah.
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And there are entire phrases we've done episodes on, you know, phrases to avoid in this area that will cut us down.
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Like we'll degrade kind of our, um, like our authority or people's confidence in what we're saying or what we're doing.
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Right.
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Exactly. So yeah, for sure um
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or here's another example her husband was always undermining her in
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front of her friends he would say everything she was doing
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wrong oh that's horrible geez okay hopefully no one's doing
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that well um the way my friend spoke to me really undermined my confidence i don't know
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that i want to continue to be friends with her yeah um
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or she undermined the teacher by proving her wrong in This could just be an innocent,
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oh, actually, you know, you said this, but actually the calculation is this, right?
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And the teacher might feel a little bit funny, but it wasn't with ill intent, but they might feel that they were undermined.
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Yes, we have the signature phrase, "My feel funny." Right?
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"Feel funny" is your signature phrase.
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"Feel funny." That's my signature.
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Yep.
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And I want to say that's really cultural.
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So some cultures
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allow this sort of undermining of authority especially so in an academic context in some cultures it's probably
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more okay than other cultures.
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Like certain institutions would probably encourage a dialogue back and forth between students and teachers.
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The teachers would challenge, sorry, the students would challenge the teachers.
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But that really depends on the institutional culture, the country culture, the language you're speaking, right?
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It's really different.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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It's really interesting.
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Yeah.
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The cultural aspect on this.
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And then here I thought of this one, not connection can undermine how you learn a language good one right don't we flip
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that one connection not perfection of course as our listeners know
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yeah michelle for you how does it feel to be undermined Thank you.
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Well, I mean, it doesn't feel great if it feels like, you know, if it's something that like, yeah, if I were being like, let's say I were an example,
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if I were being like totally micromanaged or something like that, that wouldn't feel good.
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If I feel like it's because somebody doesn't have confidence in me, that's not going to feel good.
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you were there do you correct in front of people i i uh it depends on who we're around like
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if we're around like family
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and it's really not going to make a difference in how they see my partner i might
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but if it's different friends that maybe don't know us as well i might avoid
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that might let my partner just tell the story right right yeah right right yeah
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because yeah i remember i read somewhere that said that like with your partner like you shouldn't correct them like
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It's hard because sometimes, okay, if Dan's telling a story and he said, "Oh, we were there back in 2015 or something, and I know it was 2017."
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it's like don't who cares like it doesn't no one no one cares about the the difference
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and but sometimes it's hard to you just want to be like oh no actually
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but you know i try sometimes if there's something like
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that to just say okay this isn't important this has nothing to do with the story it's a minor detail
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and i don't need to correct so yeah like those
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because those types of things can build up if you're constantly yeah no it's actually this it's actually no one wants
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is someone just nitpicking everything right we don't want that uh
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and this can really come alive in different spheres you're talking
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about at home with your relationship with your family we're talking
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about in the academic context maybe a college class at work right
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so this undermine this word can be used in
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so many different contexts michelle yes exactly nice all right
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so yeah so let's talk a bit about other ways to use this word
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or other things we might say if we don't We wanted to actually focus on this main one today.
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We can always do a follow -up, but let's talk about how else you can express this idea.
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Lindsay, what's something you could say?
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So make someone feel small.
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This is what you asked me at the beginning of the show, I think, right?
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Make someone feel small.
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Her constant criticism made him feel small, and this is really bad, right?
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When it gets to a very pathological side of this concept. Or put someone down.
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He didn't mean to put his friend down,
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be honest and sometimes some certain personalities might just like have a compulsive need to tell the truth
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and there's less of a looking at nuances of feelings
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and people just tell the truth so they just have to do
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that so they end up undermining people especially
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if the people don't understand them very well right yeah yeah yeah absolutely
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and then there's just the word hurt which could be useful as well
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so the third time he got a d on a test it really hurt his confidence
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so he you could say it undermined his confidence although i
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would say in the workspace the word hurt becomes a little more emotional right
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so undermine is probably better like
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if you say like my manager hurt me versus my manager
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undermined me it's probably better to go with undermine in the
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workplace would you agree michelle it's just hurt is a little for me is a little squishy a little
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i don't know do you disagree what do you think no no i don't i i think especially if you're saying
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that's like a little much but
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if you're saying oh it hurt like I don't think
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that you I mean we could do a whole episode on the word hurt we've never done that yeah yeah So,
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yeah, there's a lot there's a lot that you could say because sometimes it might be the best word to use.
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But yeah, I see what you're saying here.
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So if you're saying my manager hurt my confidence, that's probably OK.
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Right.
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Because you're not like hurt my heart or hurt me as a person.
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Right.
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Yeah.
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Right.
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Got it. So interesting.
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But we can talk about this more another day.
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So let's do a role play.
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All right, here we go.
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So here in this context, you are complaining to me about our mutual friend.
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Okay.
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Oh, no. Let's see about this mutual friend.
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All right.
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I don't know.
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Sometimes she just makes me feel small.
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She does have a way of talking down to people.
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She's definitely put me down before.
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Maybe we should talk to her.
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She should know that she's heard us both.
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Yeah, and she always undermines me in front of other people, whether she means to or not.
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That's not good.
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That's not, yeah, we gotta figure this out.
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Yeah, that's not something I would, someone I would want to be friends with.
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Right?
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No, no, no, no. For sure not.
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So we started by, you said, I don't know, sometimes she just makes me feel small.
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Yeah, and that's what that's what to me is like, I don't use this one that much.
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It's like a like very like dramatic and to me yeah this is small
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but it is it you you will hear it yeah exactly
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it's very much on the villainous side of um undermine it's really on the like really extreme end
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if someone is calculating and going to these lengths to make someone feel small we said before
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that undermine can be very subtle it can be unintentional right that's the other side.
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This is, this is the opposite side of it.
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Really bad.
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Yes.
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Yeah.
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Um, and then I said, uh, no, you said she's definitely put me down before.
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So meaning insulted me, right?
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Insulted me.
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Yeah.
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Um, so she should know that she has hurt us both.
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So here's, we are actually talking about the heart, right?
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Hurt you emotionally, right?
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Cause we're not here at work, right?
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It's just friends. to or not.
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So we got to do something about this.
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Really interesting.
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And so a provocative question here, when it comes to the workspace, we're not publishing this on business English.
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This is on all ears English, but it's interesting to think about if you are in a management position, are there any things that you, like if you are undermining someone,
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like you're, if you're micromanaging someone, is it a skill you still need to work on for yourself?
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Like details.
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If you're micromanaging someone else on their attention to details, is it something you're
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to do is a little bit of projection happening yeah yeah that's what i was gonna say interesting
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that can yeah yeah and remember you can check out
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that episode it was 5 30 on business english was how
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not to step out on toes at work all right what
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should we leave our listeners with today lindsay well i think
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that's kind of it like examining our own way of like what's going on in our own hearts
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if we're like if we seem to be undermining someone is it coming from somewhere That's the interesting thing, right?
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Yeah.
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If we address that, would that go away?
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Would that like undermining someone go away?
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So that's kind of like an internal thought today, I think.
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Yeah.
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Yeah, absolutely.
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All right.
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Well, yeah.
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Glad we spoke about this today, Lindsay.
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And yeah, hopefully no one makes you feel small today.
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Same for you, Michelle.
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Yeah.
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I want you to not encounter that at all today.
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We hope for the best.
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Yes.
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Hoping for the best.
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All right, guys.
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Have a great day.
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We'll see you on the next tour.
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All right.
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Bye.
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Take care.
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Bye.
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Bye.
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Context & Background
In the recent podcast episode titled "Don't Undermine Your English Listen Today," hosts Lindsay and Michelle explore the concept of undermining, particularly in social and business contexts. They share personal experiences and elaborate on how this behavior can affect confidence and interpersonal relationships. Through their conversation, they aim to illuminate the nuances of communication that can sometimes lead to feelings of insecurity, especially when interacting in English. This episode serves as a guide for English learners to not only understand the term but also recognize its implications in everyday life and professional environments.
Top 5 Phrases for Daily Communication
- Make someone feel small: This phrase is used to describe actions that undermine another person's confidence.
- Put someone down: This means to insult or belittle someone, often in a manner that affects their self-esteem.
- Hurt my confidence: Indicates that an interaction or feedback has negatively impacted someone's self-assurance.
- Undermine: To make something gradually weaker, typically in the context of authority or self-esteem.
- Feel funny: A colloquial expression used to describe an awkward or uneasy feeling in a social situation.
Step-by-step Shadowing Guide
To effectively learn English with YouTube, particularly from this episode, consider using the shadowing technique, also known as shadow speech. Here’s a step-by-step approach:
- Choose a segment: Select a short segment from the podcast where the hosts discuss the idea of undermining. Aim for a clip that resonates with you.
- Listen carefully: Play the segment through once without pause. Focus on understanding the context and the emotions conveyed through their tone.
- Break it down: Replay the segment in smaller parts. Pause after each sentence or phrase that you find challenging. This allows you to digest the material better.
- Repeat aloud: Use the shadow speak method. Mimic the speakers immediately after hearing them. Pay attention to intonation and rhythm.
- Self-evaluate: Record yourself performing the shadow speech. Listen to your pronunciation, rhythm, and expressiveness. Identify areas for improvement.
By incorporating these strategies into your language learning routine, you can build confidence in your speaking abilities and enhance your overall proficiency in English.
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | being undermined · can be calculated · be brought |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | Have you ever known · we've done · we've never done |
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.