Shadowing Practice: 710 - Learn English Speaking with Video

Creating lesson...
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What's up everyone, it's Arash here
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and in this episode I'm going to show you how to avoid making five UI design mistakes
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that will turn your design from this into this.
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So let's begin.
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Mistake number one, overusing shadows.
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I know it's tempting to use different effects to make your design pop, but overusing shadows can really hurt your design.
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Let's take a look at this example.
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Here as you can see, many of our elements have shadows like this text layer, which makes it less readable.
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Please, please never ever use shadows for your text.
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So if I unhide the improved version, you can see that our design can now breathe
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and only our cards have some drop shadows to help them elevate a little bit.
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Mistake number two, unrealistic shadow colors.
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There is a misconception about the color of shadows and it's that many people think all shadows are dark gray, which is not true technically.
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So here as you can see all our shadows are dark gray and it doesn't look realistic at all.
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So to improve this design we can instead use the element's main color with a decreased opacity as our shadow's color.
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Mistake number three, low contrast.
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Often I see designers put a text layer on an image
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that is barely readable because of having a low contrast ratio between the foreground and background, and they don't know how to fix this issue.
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Well, here is a very easy solution to this.
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You can simply darken the background to make your text more readable.
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Let's take this card for example.
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As you can see, the text is not easily readable, and what I'm going to do is add a new feel to it as an overlay and make it darker.
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I can also turn it into a gradient that fades away gradually.
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Just like that, we could dramatically improve our design.
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The other example would be using a very light gray on a white card.
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Just because you can read it easily doesn't mean that other people can too.
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So make sure to check the contrast ratio of your colors to avoid accessibility issues.
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Mistake number four, not applying colors properly.
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Once your color palette is ready, you need to know how to allocate your colors properly.
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Otherwise, your design wouldn't look good.
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Here is an example of bad color usage.
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As you can see, our CTAs don't pop because we should have used the accent color for them.
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And keep in mind that you should reserve your accent color, which is usually a vibrant color for your actionable elements only.
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If you use them everywhere, you cannot direct the user's eyes to your CTAs.
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Mistake number five, bad visual hierarchy.
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Having a good visual hierarchy in UI design can help the user to scan the content of your app
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or website easily and quickly.
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Let's take a look at this model card.
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Did you notice the issues here?
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As you can see, we don't have a good visual hierarchy
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because our title and the body text use the same font size and weight.
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And also, we didn't use two types of buttons to indicate their level of importance.
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To fix these issues, I'm gonna increase the title's font size and also let me change its weight.
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Then we can turn this cancel button into a text button.
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It looks much better now, doesn't it?
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Do you have anything else to add to this list?
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If so, please let me know in the comment section down below.
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Alright guys, thanks for watching.
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If you enjoyed this video, please hit the like button and subscribe to my channel to not miss the upcoming tutorials.
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Have a wonderful day and see you next time.
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What You'll Learn

This video is a goldmine for english speaking practice—you’ll pick up how to follow conversational instructions, ask questions naturally, and explain design concepts clearly. Plus, you’ll learn to use phrases like “turn your design from this into this” to compare ideas, a key skill for everyday communication. It’s perfect for learn english with youtube since the speaker’s friendly tone makes complex topics easy to follow.

Listen For These Sounds

Pay attention to connected speech: phrases like “it's Arash here” link smoothly (“itsArashhere”), and “let's begin” reduces to “letsbegin.” The speaker also uses casual contractions like “I'm” and “don't,” which are essential for sounding natural. You’ll hear reductions like “what's up” (instead of “what is up”) and “gonna” (for “going to”), common in real-world conversations. These patterns are great for shadowspeak—mimicking native speakers to improve fluency.

Say It Like a Native

To mirror the speaker’s rhythm, stress key words in sentences. For example, in “overusing shadows can really hurt your design,” emphasize “overusing,” “really,” and “hurt” to highlight the mistake. Notice how the speaker pauses before examples (“Let's take a look at this example”)—this gives your speech flow and clarity. Practice shadowing the dialogue with a shadowing app to copy his pace and intonation. Also, repeat phrases like “dramatically improve” and “reserve your accent color” to work on improve english pronunciation—focus on the “t” in “dramatically” and the “v” in “reserve” to sound crisp. With a little practice, you’ll be speaking with the same confidence as the host!

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 →