Shadowing Practice: 9 Designs That Inspired Meshtimes, One of Tech's Most Creative Minds | Source Material - Learn English Speaking with Video
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115 sentences
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Hi, my name is Marissa, and welcome to my source materials.
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Have you guys ever seen this?
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Okay, this looks like just a regular box, but it's not.
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This is a vanity.
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Growing up, I wanted one of these so badly, but my mom wasn't really into buying me girly things,
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so I would just grow up playing cards with my little brother.
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Now that I have adult money, I just want myself one.
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I just love all the little compartments.
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There's a drawer, and then you just keep opening.
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There's this, it keeps going.
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I don't know who approved of this many drawers, but it's great.
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I love the little surprises.
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Like, you guys would not believe this. And here, too.
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I just really love objects that like reveal themselves.
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And I think as a designer, good interfaces don't always reveal themselves at once.
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Like they kind of reward curiosity.
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I love designing moments where people are like, wait, there's something else.
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Wait, there's another layer to it.
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It's like a little good like Easter egg moment.
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It's the anticipation.
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That's what it is.
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I love a good buildup.
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I first got this book because I just really like the green.
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Very performative of me, I know.
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But it turned out to be one of my favorite books.
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I really like this book because there have always been women building cool things in tech.
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Mindy is such an amazing person.
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I love that she cares about the internet culture enough to just document everything.
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Most of us women don't always end up in history books and I love that this book is the opposite of that.
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Okay, next item.
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This has a very special place in my heart.
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So this is my elementary school lunchbox, and it's called Pinto in Thai, which means like three -tiered lunchbox.
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There was this sense of like surprise and like anticipation.
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What do I get to eat today?
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And it kind of just depends on my grandma, and I just love the sound of this rice and stir -fried as a top.
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And then the middle one, sometimes she would pack soup or noodles or a side of vegetables.
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Bottom layer is my favorite.
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She would pack a sweet treat on my lucky days.
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I realize I don't like my food touching because of this.
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Yeah.
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And then this next book is The Tree of Coats.
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This book couldn't exist as a PDF file, and that's the reason why I love this book so much.
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There are words cut out, and it's so delicate.
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You have to be so gentle flipping through the pages.
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It's also such a fun take on negative space as well.
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So I've been into hardware recently.
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This is a makeup cyber deck.
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I put grass on here just so that, you know, touch grass.
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It has a keyboard, a mouse, and I'm gonna put a screen on here.
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So just imagine there's a screen here for now.
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Cyberdeck is kind of like an upcycled computer.
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You take apart the computer that you know, and then you put it into an unexpected medium.
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It's like a little eyeshadow palette inspired by that little vanity box.
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And then I also have a drawer with all the makeup brushes.
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I've just been seeing so many cool girls building Cyberdex.
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I'm like, I want to learn how to do that.
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Once I figure out the electronics, which is the hardest part, this is the brain of the Cyberdex.
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It's a Raspberry Pi.
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It's the brain of the operation.
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So I need to figure out how I want to mount it on.
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I'm going to put a Zoom meeting on here.
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I can do my makeup and like take my meetings at the same time.
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I also started watching like
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Totally Spies not too long ago.
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And they have like a little makeup compact and I would call their boss on their makeup compact.
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So I was like, why not?
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Why don't I?
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Yeah.
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I love it though.
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Like I just needed a break from like vibe coding.
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I want to be able to touch things again and like get my hands dirty again.
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Don't mind me, I'm just gonna plan my next side quest on here.
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This book is about how to wrap five eggs.
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It really changed my perspective on like packaging design.
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You have to solve so many problems at once.
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Like how do you keep something cool?
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How do you keep something warm?
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Like how do you make sure it commutes well?
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I just love flipping through these pages.
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It's just... So pretty.
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All of these packaging are like natural materials too.
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Mostly bamboo, like wood and ceramics.
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Yeah, I'm such a hoarder when it comes to like packaging.
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And that's when I know it's good packaging design because I don't want to throw them away.
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Let me introduce you to my pencil case.
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Every button does different thing.
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This one opens a pencil sharpener.
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You can sharpen your pencil.
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And then this is also a compartment.
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Sometimes I would put like tringets in here, friendship bracelet necklace situation.
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And this would be my class schedule.
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But then sometimes I would put like cheat codes on here.
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This is my favorite book of all time.
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I read it every time I need a good cry.
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This one is about enabling the dreams of others by Randy Pouch.
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He was a professor at Carnegie Mellon.
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He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in his 40s.
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Before he passed, he gave his last lecture, which is also the title of the book.
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It turned out that this whole lecture was for his children to hold on to before he passed.
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It's so emotional, but not in a depressing way.
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I always feel like hopeful after I finish reading it.
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Have a good cry and then go on and like design
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and build like the most ridiculous idea I've had in my head for a long time.
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This tear off calendar, my grandparents always had one in their house.
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Every day they would tear off a page.
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It's so satisfying.
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I just feel like it's so special that you get to hold a day in your hand.
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Everything is on Google Calendar, and it's just another day.
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It just disappears into the land of Google Calendar.
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When I wake up in a really bad mood, sometimes I would tear it off.
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I would demonstrate.
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I would tear it off.
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I would be like this.
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I would crumble the page.
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I would toss it. so
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “9 Designs That Inspired Meshtimes, One of Tech's Most Creative Minds”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: makeup, packaging, tear, page. This video has 115 sentences and 1101 words to shadow. The speech runs for 7:22. The speaker talks at a natural 150 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. Only 79% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| package noun | /ˈpæk.ɪd͡ʒ/ | Something which is packed, a parcel, a box, an envelope. |
| tear verb | /tɛɹ/ | To rend (a solid material) by holding or restraining in two places and pulling apart, whether intentionally or not; to destroy or separate. |
| calendar noun | /ˈkæl.ən.də/ | Any system by which time is divided into days, weeks, months, and years. |
| pencil noun | /ˈpɛnsəl/ | A writing utensil with a graphite (commonly referred to as lead) shaft, usually blended with clay, clad in wood, and sharpened to a taper. |
| drawer noun | /dɹɔɹ/ | An open-topped box that can be slid in and out of the cabinet that contains it, used for storing clothing or other articles. |
| reveal verb | /ɹɪˈviːl/ | To uncover; to show and display that which was hidden. |
| layer noun | /ˈleɪ̯ɚ/ | A single thickness of some material covering a surface. |
| grass noun | /ɡɹɑːs/ | Any plant of the family Poaceae, characterized by leaves that arise from nodes in the stem and leaf bases that wrap around the stem, especially those grown as… |
| flip verb | /flɪp/ | To throw so as to turn over. |
| lecture noun | /ˈlɛk.t͡ʃə/ | A spoken lesson or exposition, usually delivered to a group. |
| compact adjective | /kəmˈpækt/ | Closely packed or densely constituted; having much material in a small volume. |
| anticipation noun | /ænˌtɪs.əˈpeɪ.ʃən/ | The act of anticipating, taking up, placing, or considering something beforehand, or before the proper time in natural order. |
| vanity noun | /ˈvænəti/ | That which is vain, futile, or worthless; that which is of no value, use or profit. |
| compartment noun | /kəmˈpɑɹtmənt/ | A room, or section, or chamber, typically within a vehicle. |
| mount verb | /maʊnt/ | To get upon; to ascend; to climb. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| figure out verb | To come to understand; to discover or find a solution; to deduce. | |
| flip through verb | Synonym of thumb (“to turn the pages of (a book) in order to read it cursorily”). | |
| grow up verb | To mature and become an adult. | |
| tear off verb | /teɹ ɑf/ | To rip away from; to pull a piece from forcibly. |
| cut out verb | To refrain from (doing something, using something etc.), to stop or cease (doing something). | |
| take apart verb | To dismantle something into its component pieces. | |
| turn out verb | To end up; to result. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- Have you guys ever seen this?
- There's a drawer, and then you just keep opening.
- What do I get to eat today?
- How do you keep something warm?
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | have always been · I've been · I've had |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | Thai, which means · electronics, which is · lecture, which is |
| Verb + -ing enjoy, keep, stop… + -ing — verbs that are followed by the -ing form | keep opening · love designing · started watching |
| Superlatives the -est / the most … — the top or bottom of a group | the hardest · the most ridiculous |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 19 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, I'm, I've. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: anticipation /ænˌtɪs.əˈpeɪ.ʃən/, friendship /ˈfɹɛn(d)ʃɪp/, brush /bɹʌʃ/, sharpen /ˈʃɑɹpən/, sharpener /ˈʃɑː(ɹ)pənə(ɹ)/
- Long words — get the stress right: anticipation /ænˌtɪs.əˈpeɪ.ʃən/, ridiculous /ɹɪˈdɪk.jə.ləs/, elementary /ˌɛləˈmɛntəɹi/, unexpected /ʌnɪkˈspɛktɪd/, electronics /ɪˌlɛkˈtɹɑ.nɪks/
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 package, tear, calendar.
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.