Shadowing Practice: 5 Languages I Will NEVER Learn - Learn English Speaking with Video

Creating lesson...
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As -salamu alaykum, it's a pro -pajal of its name on my canal.
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My legal birth name is LanguageSimp, and I am a hyperpolyglot, giga -chat alpha male who is very attractive to every woman...
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...and man on the planet.
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I love learning languages.
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Aside from working out, sleeping, and doing other alpha male activities, all I do is learn languages.
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But there are a lot of languages in the galaxy.
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Like, there's gotta be at least 30 of them.
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In North America alone, there are three, and in Europe there are at least four, so I can't learn them all within the average life expectancy of a man on an American diet.
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People are constantly asking me which languages I want to learn, and when I'm going to learn their language, which got me thinking, Yanni, which languages do I not want to learn?
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So today I'm going to present to you the top five languages that I am probably never going to seriously study.
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Let me know in the comments which language you'll never learn, and without further ado, Smacking us in the face at the number 5 spot, we have Korean.
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Obviously, and I can see myself learning John Cena language or even Indonesian after that,
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but Squid Game language just doesn't really do it for me.
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I like Korean, but it's extremely difficult and takes a lot of time.
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Honestly, I'm just not enough of a Koreaboo to learn it.
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I'm really into writing systems, and I don't hate the Korean writing system, but I don't stan it the same way that people stan'd BTS before they joined the armed forces.
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It's artificial, like Diet Coke.
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It was designed by some king back in the day and it's just a bunch of circles and sticks.
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Yeah, it's kinda cool how the letters come together, but reading and writing it is like playing Tetris, the way you have to try to fit all the letters together.
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And it also reminds me of those toys for babies where you put the shapes in the correct holes
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that I still can't figure out.
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The grammar is also a nightmare, and I already have enough language -related nightmares.
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And whenever I hear Korean spoken, it seems like they're just repeating the same word over and over, mainly smida.
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It's like, Hi, how are you, smida?
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My name is Josh, smida.
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Oh, sorry, I don't like men, smida.
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It's like that episode of SpongeBob, you know?
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I don't understand, bye, smida, don't smida, understand, smida.
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K -pop is mid, Twice has some bangers, I love plastic surgery, Parasite was a good movie, but all that's not enough to convince me.
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South Korea seems like a cool country, but I know that if I visited, I wouldn't be able to resist the urge to throw my arms back
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and Naruto run through the DMZ into the Northern Promised Land.
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If there was a way to learn North Korean Korean online without signing away my life to the American war machine, I would consider it.
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Coming in at the number 4 spot, we have Portuguese from Portugal.
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I love porches, geese, and porch of geese, and I just happen to prefer the Brazilian dialect, so that's the one I learn.
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Brazilian port sounds so open, expressive, and fofo, like eu falo português do Brasil,
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but port port sounds rushed and closed off, like eu falo português do Portugal.
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I don't hate português from Portugal.
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I actually think it sounds pretty interesting and pretty.
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In the past, I was very curious about it, and I even wanted to learn some of it and go spend some time in Villa Rio de Santo Antonio.
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But now I refuse to even dabble in it or flirt with it.
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And it's all because I got verbally attacked by a famous Portuguese YouTuber which turned me off of the dialect forever.
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Basically, in my language review Porch of Geese episode, I focused heavily on Brazilian Port since it's more common.
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Like it literally has 20 times more speakers than Port Port, and it's what I learned, but that triggered this Portuguese guy Wuant so bad
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that he made a video roasting me with half a million views
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and a thumbnail quoting me saying something that I definitely never said.
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Then I got a lot of angry messages from Portuguese people, even some threatening me and telling me never to step foot in their country.
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So, I won't.
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No, actually I will.
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I'll grind out D1 Brazilian Port, marry a Brazilian woman, travel to Portugal,
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and have hundreds of thousands of Brazilian Port speaking babies who will influence Port Port and make it more like Brazilian Port.
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And when I go to Portugal, I'll 100 % be using my phone for things like maps, emails, texting, and to call home.
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And I'll do that with Saley, who I'd like to thank for sponsoring today's video.
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I'm sure a lot of you know just how bad it sucks to look for a SIM card when you're traveling.
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So to avoid the hassle, I've been going through my carrier for data, but I'm always on hold with them for at least an hour, and it's way too expensive.
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So from now on, I'll be using Salee, because it's quick and easy to set up, and it's much more convenient than buying a physical SIM card.
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Now at number 3 we have Bulgarian.
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I love Slavic languages, and I can confidently say that I also love Bulgarian.
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It sounds super nice and crisp, kind of crunchy, and Bulgari is a gorgeous and underrated country.
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I also firmly believe that Bulg is by far the easiest Slavic language to learn.
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In fact, it's too easy, and that's why I couldn't learn it with a good conscience.
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Unlike the vast majority of Slavic languages, Bulg does not have grammatical cases.
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And if you don't know what a grammatical case is, it's basically the hardest grammar concept in the Milky Way galaxy, which causes nouns to have like 20 different forms,
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and they're responsible for making languages like Russian and Polish infamously difficult.
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So it's typically very impressive when you reach a high level in a Slavic language, since they all have these nonsensical, complex, and intricate case systems.
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People salivate when they find out that I know dozens of forms of hundreds of Russian nouns.
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But since bulg doesn't have dozens of forms of each noun, it kind of feels like stolen valor to brag about your competence in it, as if you've learned a Slavic language,
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even though it technically is a Slavic language.
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I want my Slavic languages to make me feel depressed and hopeless.
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Bulg would make me too happy, so for that reason, I'm out.
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Bulgarian's not depressing enough for me.
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When I study Slavic languages, it's because I'm in my feels or I'm in a sad boy arc.
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You should have to work hard and break your back like an old coal miner in order to learn a Slavic language.
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If we could start a movement bringing awareness to how easy bulg is, maybe I'd feel less shameful about learning it.
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Or maybe the devs could add cases to the language, or change the language family.
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Just call it Semitic, I don't know.
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I'm pretty sure everything I just said is also true for Macedonian, but I like saying the word bulg.
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Coming in at the number two spot, we have Hindi.
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I really like how Hindi sounds, and it's awesome how learning it unlocks a huge amount of
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very unique DLC since there are hundreds of millions of NPCs who speak it.
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Hindi also has huge shock factor potential, which is evident from this clip that I recorded about two years ago.
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I studied it for a few weeks about two years ago, and I'll admit it was fun to speak and study it,
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but it was frustrating in ways that I could have never imagined before I got into it.
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Firstly, I had like a dozen Hindi speakers on a call with me while I was learning, and they couldn't agree on the basics of their own language.
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I would ask them how to say something, and they would come up with multiple different answers, and the 12 of them would get into a fiery debate over it, which was hilarious and fun,
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but demotivating because it felt like the language wasn't very standardized.
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I must say, however, that they were really fun people to practice with, and I'm very grateful they helped me, as I did reach a basic conversational level,
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mainly consisting of very offensive swear words.
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But the biggest thing
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that makes me not want to learn it anymore is the constant code -switching into American that Hindi speakers do.
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If you don't know what code -switching is, it's when you speak mainly in one language, but you switch to another to say some things.
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When I speak a foreign language, I don't want to speak American.
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I prefer to speak in the foreign language.
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I live next to a Walmart.
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I speak plenty of American every day.
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I think it's fine to code switch a word or two into a sentence from time to time, but watching Bollywood movies, I noticed how they would sometimes switch to American for complete sentences.
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They would say something like, Namaste bhaj, mujelak tahe ki, the pizza is running late.
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Can we go pick it up at the store?
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Maybe they like doing that, or maybe my inclination towards anti -colonialism is outdated in 2024.
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I don't know.
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Namaskar, England.
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If I didn't know a word in Hindi, I could say it in American and it would still sound perfectly normal, which felt like cheating and was rather demotivating.
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But screw it, I would still learn Urdu even though it's like the same thing.
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Also, I'm more interested in regional Indian languages nowadays like German.
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God, I wish Germany was in India.
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Doesn't currywurst come from the German part of India?
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God, I'm so shot.
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Before I reveal my number one pick, let's discuss some honorable mentions.
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The first honorable mention is American.
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Yeah, this one's a bit of a technicality, but I will never learn American.
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Since I spawned in the United States of America, I can automatically speak it.
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The DLC came pre -installed in my body.
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The second honorable mention is Norwegian.
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If you didn't know, Swedish, Danish, and Norwegian are the same language wearing different Roblox skins with slightly different features.
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And I happen to prefer Danish and even Swedish to Norwegian.
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This is only an honorable mention because I'm not sure about it.
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It would be really cool for me to one day get D1 in Danish and Swedish, and then get D1 in Norwegian to complete the trifecta.
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And the last honorable mention is all conlangs except Tokipona.
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No JimBob663 on Discord, I don't want to learn your conlang based on mixing Thai with Navajo, but only using the word pineapple in both languages with altered tones
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and clicks added that you think will one day unite the globe and solve world hunger.
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Tokipona is based, but aside from that, I don't want to learn any conlangs.
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You can tell me about them, it might be kind of interesting, and I don't think you're cringe if you create them yourself, but I have languages that actually exist that I need to learn.
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And at the number one spot, we have...
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Afrikaans.
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Where do I even begin with this one?
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First of all, Afrikaans is basically just the dialect of Dutch, which is a dialect of German, with a fancy regional name spoken in South Africa.
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I'm not the biggest fan of Dutch, but the language has a lot of cute properties, so I could see myself learning it one day,
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especially since it's easy, but even that's gonna be a big leap for me to take.
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So it would require a miracle for me to want to learn Afrikaans, like I'd have to spontaneously teleport to South Africa, or my celebrity crush would have to start learning it.
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Wait, why does Katy Perry speak Afrikaans?
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And even before Dutch, I want to master Austrian and So Afrikaans is really low on the list.
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It's a colonial language, so it's got a rough past, as there was a literal uprising when South Africa made it an official language.
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And in the present day, it's only the native language of about 14 % of South Africans, so it doesn't really unlock a lot of DLC.
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And I would much rather learn Zulu or Ex -Hosa first if I one day choose to explore that DLC.
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I don't think Afrikan sounds bad or is too hard or anything, but South Africa is just not a country I really want to visit, and the language doesn't interest me enough.
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And that's my list of languages that I will never study.
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Truthfully, Yanni, there's a good chance that this list changes and that I learn all of them anyway.
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I mean, years ago I swore I would never learn Peruvian, and now I speak it fluently and watch telenovelas to fall asleep.
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Let me know which languages you never want to learn in the comments, and let's start some toxic debates.
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And please consider supporting me on Patreon for just $3 a month.
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There I make videos teaching you how to learn a language, and I answer direct questions from my patrons in a long video that I make about three times a month.

Why Practice Speaking with This Video?

This video is a goldmine for english speaking practice because it’s conversational, energetic, and packed with natural slang and humor—perfect for honing real-world communication. The speaker’s casual tone and storytelling style make it ideal for shadow speech: repeat his lines to mimic rhythm, intonation, and pacing. You’ll learn to sound more fluent while picking up cultural references, which is key for connecting with native speakers. Plus, the mix of personal anecdotes and strong opinions keeps the content engaging, so you’ll stay motivated to practice.

Grammar & Expressions in Context

  • “I am probably never going to seriously study”: The modal “probably” softens a strong statement, a common trick in casual speech. Practice using it to sound less direct (e.g., “I’m probably not going to finish this today”).
  • “It’s artificial, like Diet Coke”: Similes with “like” add color to explanations. Use this structure to clarify ideas (e.g., “Learning that language is hard, like solving a puzzle with missing pieces”).
  • “I got verbally attacked by a famous Portuguese YouTuber”: The passive voice here shifts focus to the action (attack) rather than the doer. Useful for storytelling when the subject isn’t the main point.

Common Pronunciation Traps

Watch out for these tricky words: “hyperpolyglot” (hahy-per-pol-ee-glot) – stress the second syllable, not the first. “Portuguese” (por-choo-gee) often gets mispronounced with a hard “t”; keep it soft. The speaker also uses rapid, connected speech, like “I can’t learn them all” (pronounced “can’t learn ’em all”). Use a shadowing app to slow down the audio and mimic these connections. Don’t forget the intonation in phrases like “K-pop is mid”—the flat tone signals mild dislike, a subtlety that’s crucial for natural speech.

By focusing on these elements, you’ll turn this video into a powerful tool for learn english with videos and master the art of shadowspeaks in no time.

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 →