Shadowing Practice: 9 Investments for Better Learning - Learn English Speaking with Video

Learning is a hobby, so why not make it easier to do?

It's not the end-all-be-all, but good equipment is damn important.

A dull knife in the kitchen is not only dangerous, but it's a pain in the arse.

If you buy cheap paintbrushes, then they're going to shed all their bristles on your artwork and ruin it.

And crappy hiking boots may have saved you a few extra bucks, but they're going to make your walking a misery.

It's okay to invest in your hobbies, and learning is the same.

And I don't mean this wild consumerism, but I mean wise choices with intention behind them.

I've bought a lot of random shit in my ears, and admittedly most of it was pointless.

But here I want to share some of the things that have proved themselves, and become a part of my everyday routine.

The ones that aren't just dumb gimmicks, and they actually enhance my work and make it more comfortable.

I put this item first because it's quite literally the foundation of everything else on this list.

If you make a wrong choice here, not only will it be expensive, but it's going to hold you back in the future.

We all need a good desk.

And I learned this the hard way, because I've had some terrible workspaces in the past.

For the past few years, this was where I did all my work.

This was where I read, I wrote, and I edited these videos.

Just to work comfortably, for even more than an hour, I had to twist and turn like some contortionist in a circus.

It was a nightmare.

And all of this slouching and slumping may have been comfortable in the moment, but I was ruining my health.

All it took me was an aching lower back to realise that this couldn't continue.

I couldn't go on like this.

And I had to find some new place to comfortably work, where I'd really screw myself up.

Now I don't mean to sound like some ungrateful twat but most of the other desks available to me weren't good enough.

They were wonky, they were too small or had all these annoying features

that I didn't want and I'll admit I'm a bit fussy

when it comes to desks but

if you're going to be sitting at one for several hours a day these tiny things matter

because they can add up and make you feel more stressed than you need to be.

So instead of settling for that I decided to splurge and it's the old saying goes, you buy once, you cry once.

And to me this meant buying a desk for life, one that's sturdy, high quality and big enough to give you that breathing room.

And since the health of your back goes beyond any price tag, I'd actually recommend a standing desk.

These let you adjust the height with the click of a button, so you can immediately switch from a standing position to a seated position whenever you want.

One of the most annoying issues in the world of reading and writing, and I'm sure you're familiar with this, is that you kind of have to sit down.

And we both know that being seated is not really a natural position for humans.

And we also know that a sedentary life nowadays is a major killer.

Like, I don't know how many years or decades it can trim off your life, but it's a problem.

And we have to find a way to compromise with this somehow.

With a standing desk, you're given the chance to fight off

that chronic pain and all of the other issues that come with it.

Plus, it means I don't necessarily have to stop and stretch and walk around a bit to continue working, because I don't want to lose that flow sometimes.

It just helps to switch to a standing position and carry on.

And if you can't be asked standing up, that's fine.

You just sit and you have a break.

This model here is a FlexiSpot E7.

And it is expensive, but it's something that I'm going to be using every single day, probably for the rest of my life.

So it's worth it.

But if that's not your style, I'd recommend getting a desk that's as big as possible for your current situation.

Because we may not always notice it, but it's so easy for a small desk to piss us off.

It makes you feel cramped, you have to shuffle between papers, and there's just no room to spread your work out and have an overview of it, which is so annoying.

Every other feature of your desk is your choice, and I'm not going to force my stuck-up desk dogma onto you.

You clicked on this video because you're a curious person, and you want to improve the way you learn.

And that's why I think you'll like Imprint, who are kindly sponsoring this video.

Imprint helps you use small pockets of time in your day to help you build a learning habit, with these nice visuals and animations that not only tell a story, but offer you some new insights every time.

Each course is sharp and quick to the point.

And I like that because I can get a taste of what a topic has to offer me in just minutes.

Maybe as I rest in the gym or if I'm waiting on a train, for example.

And it's beyond just a book summary app.

There's a whole range of short courses and articles on almost every topic you can imagine, from philosophy to finance to nutrition.

Imprint was recently named Google's app of the year and I can understand why.

My knowledge of philosophy is still quite shallow

so I'm working through this course called Essential Philosophy to get a broad overview of the topic, maybe before I do a deeper dive into any one specific area.

And I also love that I can use it to refresh my mind of things I've already learned, all without the extra time burden.

To explore Imprint yourself with a free seven-day trial, you can scan the QR code on screen or you can click the link in the description.

And with that, you'll also get 20% off of an annual premium subscription.

So do check that out.

One of the most disturbing modern trends is how everything is being digitized nowadays.

Like a track your fridge contents with a smartphone app.

Please log in to use your toothbrushes tracking feature.

Experience your work calls in VR.

No, piss off.

No one wants to do that.

There's so much bullshit out there that promises to make your life more convenient, but in reality it just adds clutter and confusion and I want to specifically draw attention to the alarm on your phone.

Of course it's convenient but it's on the same device as all the other addictive time-sucking apps.

In the past I'd wake up

and I'd reach my phone to turn off the alarm

but then the phone is in my hand and naturally I start scrolling on Instagram, on X, on YouTube, whatever.

And not only is that a huge waste of time

but I swear it feels like 50 points of your IQ are just chopped off there and then.

It makes me feel lethargic and slow and as if I can't get any momentum going to start the day properly.

This is a common issue.

I know it's happened to you before and you can fight this off by investing in a traditional alarm clock.

No wi-fi, no smart features, no bluetooth, just a clock that tells the time and wakes you up.

Now I can put my phone in another room and wake up and actually get the day started with a fresh mind.

One that's going to help me read, write and learn more effectively.

Surprisingly I'm not a clock guru so I'm not going to tell you what to buy.

These range from cheap to expensive and they come in a hundred different aesthetics depending on what you prefer.

I bought this one from a home good shop in Ireland in Cork and it was like 20 quid, 20 euro sorry, and it's done the job for me.

I take a lot of notes from my books and I'm pretty confident you do the same.

That's where the real learning happens.

That's where you can play with the ideas and let the book touch your mind with true wisdom.

But there's this annoying issue that creates that's small enough to be overlooked but still really irritating.

Let's say you're writing up some ideas you found from a book.

You read the page and you see something that resonated with you.

So you put the book down, you start to type and then you forgot what you left off.

So you have to find that again and then you find something else.

Pick up the book again.

You start writing it, put it down, you pick up the book again

and it's this annoying cycle of jumping between the page

and the screen or your notebook and this clumsy cycle gets even more annoying

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when you have to copy a quote or a passage from the book and into your notes.

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And that's where the bookstand comes in

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because you can hold your book open at any page and suddenly taking notes becomes this effortless hands-free experience.

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I don't know the exact model of mine but

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if you go on Amazon or Etsy

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and you look up adjustable wooden bookstand you'll find

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so many different models that get the same job done all for about 20 quid I think.

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Not all of them are adjustable but I would recommend getting something

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that you can change because it saves you from the neck pain.

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I love to place mine just below my main monitor.

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I can easily keep track of where I was and overall note-taking just becomes so much smoother.

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I bought this next item completely on an impulse

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and I wasn't expecting much from it but then it surprised me as to how much it improved my everyday work life.

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It was probably a year ago when I was studying in Ireland

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that I was aimlessly browsing through a home sense and

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if you don't know that's a home goods shop

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and I saw this desk organizer on the top shelf being sold for a tenner

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and I thought to myself surely that's just a gimmick.

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That's what people on TikTok buy to make their aesthetic desk setups and they pretend to study and don't actually do anything.

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But I bought it anyway and I'm glad consumerism got to me that day because it did declutter my entire workspace.

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Before that my desk was a tragedy.

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There were all these pens, papers and just dumb knickknacks scattered everywhere.

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And I didn't realize it at the time, but this clutter reflects onto your state of mind.

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It's like when you walk into a messy room and you just get this chaotic aura that surrounds you.

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And you can't get anything done until that room is clean.

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It's the same with your desk.

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But once you have an organiser, you can clean that up and restore some peace to your area.

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And even better, you don't waste time looking for things.

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Because you know where it's going to be.

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Again, there's so many different models and what you choose is up to your personal taste.

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I've seen wooden ones, transparent ones, big ones, small ones, everything and anything.

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I want you to picture yourself doing something around the house.

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Maybe you're cleaning, maybe you're cooking, or maybe you're just reading in the corner.

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And then suddenly, out of nowhere, this amazing idea falls into your head.

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And this is not just any idea.

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This is a special one.

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This could potentially be life-changing.

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So of course, you rush to write it down.

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And you look around.

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There's no pen.

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There's no paper.

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I'll do it later.

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or I'll just remember to write it down tomorrow when I wake up.

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That's not happening.

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And you know it's true.

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That's not happening.

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The amount of good ideas I've lost because I told myself that lie is actually quite sad.

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But the problem is solved by a product that's dirt cheap and abundant everywhere.

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It's the humble pen and notepad.

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Now before you get mad, I'm not taking the piss here by seriously recommending you such an obvious product.

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But the twist here is that I recommend having a pen

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and paper in as many places as possible in every room of the house for example.

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So now instead of being too lazy to jot something down, it's always in arms reach, and it's always convenient for you.

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That means less forgotten thoughts, more awareness over your mind, and a slightly easier life of learning, which matters.

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And for a few dollars more, it's worth it.

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This next item will be either dead obvious to you, or revolutionary, like it was to me.

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For context, I've never been into tech gear, and it's only very recently that I can say I have a proper desk setup.

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I find it therapeutic to spend money, So naturally I explored how I can improve my setup.

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And when I bought this second monitor, I realised just how much I was limiting myself before I had it.

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I used to do everything on my laptop screen.

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And not only was it uncomfortable, but everything was cramped.

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If I was taking notes on a video or article, I had to squeeze them together on the same page.

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And if I was doing research for a piece of writing, I'd have to constantly flick between tabs.

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And it slowed down my editing too.

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with so many windows cramped onto one page I can never zoom out

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and see a broad overview with a second screen I have

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that breathing room I can put my main work on the big one

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and on the side put some research put a video I'm taking notes on

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or even just a music playlist or something again you have

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so many options here and the price range is quite large

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so I would tailor this setup to serve you the best

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I like to use the more expensive high resolution one in the middle and then put the

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inferior one to the side which is usually cheaper and low resolution.

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Of course this is your setup and you do what works best for you

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but even then I have two small pet peeves

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that really annoy me when I see them in other people's setups

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and if you value your comfort and you don't want to have neck strain I'd recommend you consider them.

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First I'd recommend that you put your main monitor directly in front of you

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because if you don't

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that means you're going to have to 100% of the time be looking either to your left

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or to your right as you work and that just doesn't make sense.

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It's uncomfortable, it's weird looking and over time it's going to strain your neck.

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If you put your main monitor head on, yes the secondary one is going to be tilted towards you but you're not going to be looking at that too often.

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So what matters is that you're comfortable most of the time.

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The second quality of life tip is to make sure that there's no visible gap in between both monitors.

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Now I'm not sure why you'd want this in the first place but it just makes more sense when

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there's a seamless transition between both.

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It's more comfortable and it makes sense I guess.

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I don't know what else to say.

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So for as low as about $100 you can make a significant upgrade to your workspace and give yourself that breathing room.

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Okay but maybe the second monitor and the fancy standing desk are too big a leap for you.

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And I understand that.

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It's no small investment and it took me years to make the switch.

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But what if you want some of that extra comfort with a smaller price tag?

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Well in that case I'd recommend a laptop stand.

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I have this aluminium one from Boyata

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and it lets me adjust the height of the laptop so that I can put it at eye level.

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It doesn't sound like much but it's crazy how big a difference this makes.

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Just a few inches higher and it puts your head in a much more natural position

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so that your posture is preserved and you don't go into like this nasty goblin mode that's hunched over.

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There's loads of different styles of this.

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There's folding ones, collapsible ones, 360 rotation ones.

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There's so many and I like the simple up and down design

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but they're all inexpensive and they're a nice addition to any desk.

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There's a lot of noise in the online learning sphere.

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Content creators will come up with these over complicated weird approaches to learning

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that of course have a fancy new name to attract you to click.

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Some of these work and some don't but the point is that in this pursuit for the ultimate learning strategy, we tend to forget what matters and we lose sight of the basics

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that have been proven to work again and again and again.

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No, they're not always exciting or unique, but that's exactly what makes them so reliable.

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Throughout my entire college degree, I used one study tactic pretty much, and it was to re-watch old lecture recordings,

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re-read my old notes, and then write new ones in my own words.

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I'd add new stuff I'd learned and I would refine them a it.

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And it was essentially just transcription.

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Nothing crazy.

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It was quite boring and underwhelming but it worked and I did well in my tests.

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And this next item is a perfect example of a mundane learning approach

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that we may have forgotten in the past in pursuit of this shiny new stuff.

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It's the humble whiteboard.

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One of the best things you can do for your attention and your understanding is to visualize ideas.

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You take this boring wall of theory from a book or textbook

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and you make it come to life in this colourful picture.

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Because when you hack your way through the facts and the individual points of a subject, it's easy to lose focus of the bigger picture, which is often the most valuable to us.

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But once you put that onto a real-life canvas, the whiteboard, you suddenly get to see the overview and you see how everything links together

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and you see the different areas within this field.

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You use diagrams, you use pictures, you use sticky notes or bullet points, anything else to help you understand the topic in depth.

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Sometimes I like to dump everything I know about a certain topic onto the whiteboard as a sort of exercise

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And I like to use mind maps to get a grasp on how everything comes together It's a nice exercise

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because not only does it help you remember what you just read

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But it helps you gather your thoughts

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and see what matters the most to you

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And it's not just for learning either Back in Ireland I had one on my wall

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And I used it for putting my workout routine, my daily schedule, a to-do list, reminders, everything and anything

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I bought another one for here recently and the size is borderline ridiculous

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but I always think it's better to have something that's too big than too small

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but of course they come in all sizes

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and I recommend buying something that's not irresponsible

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and can actually fit in your room and

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if you have no free walls where you can drill the

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whiteboard into then you could always buy one of those rolls

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of like sticky paper style whiteboards where you unroll it

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and it's like a sticker you can put it on any surface be it a cabinet

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or the side of a table or something

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and there's also the small handheld ones which are quite useful for just having on your desk to jot down notes.

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So there is no perfect setup

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and all of the choice on these lists I recommend

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because they work for me and they worked in my conditions in my setup but I don't know you very well.

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I don't know what your bedroom looks like.

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I don't know how big, how small.

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I don't know these things.

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So ultimately don't see this list as a prescription to you

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but a recommendation and it's you who should take the choice into your own hands

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and make the decisions that are right for you.

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We can't let this shadow of consumerism consume us just because some guru somewhere was good at marketing.

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So with that said I get to ask my favourite question.

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What have you bought that helps you?

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What has elevated your daily life and helped you read, write and learn better?

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I love to hear your recommendations

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so feel free to email me to comment down below

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and I'm sure that other people could find them really helpful as well.

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And of course thank you for watching.

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412 sentences

Why Practice Speaking with This Video?

This video is a goldmine for English learners looking to boost their speaking skills through shadow speech—a technique where you mimic the speaker’s tone, rhythm, and pronunciation. The casual, conversational style makes it easy to follow, while the relatable topic of "investing in learning" keeps you engaged. Practicing with this dialogue helps you master natural phrasing, like "buy once, cry once" or "piss us off," and teaches you how to express opinions confidently. Plus, the speaker’s clear delivery is perfect for shadowspeaks practice—you’ll pick up on subtle intonations that make your speech sound more native.

Grammar & Expressions in Context

"It's not the end-all-be-all, but good equipment is damn important." The phrase "end-all-be-all" is a fun way to say "the most important thing." Notice how "but" contrasts two ideas, a common structure for balancing opinions.
"All it took me was an aching lower back to realise that this couldn't continue." "All it took was X to Y" is a useful pattern for explaining what caused a change. It’s concise and impactful—great for storytelling.
"If you can't be asked standing up, that's fine." "Can’t be asked" is a casual way to say "don’t want to make the effort." This informal expression is key for sounding natural in everyday conversations.

Common Pronunciation Traps

Watch out for these tricky words and sounds:

"Contortionist" (kənˈtɔːrʃənɪst) – Don’t rush the "tor" sound; stress the second syllable.
"Sedentary" (ˈsedntri) – The "d" is soft, and the stress is on the first syllable. Avoid pronouncing it as "sed-en-tary."
"Wonky" (ˈwɒŋki) – The "o" is short, like in "hot," and the "k" is sharp. It means "unstable"—a useful slang term!

To nail these, try using a shadowing app or shadowing site to slow down the audio and repeat each word until it feels natural. Remember, practice makes perfect—even native speakers stumble over "contortionist" sometimes!

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Conditional sentences if + clause, will/would + verb — a condition and its result	if that's not your style, I'd recommend
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	being seated · can't be asked · being digitized
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	I've bought · have proved · I've already learned
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	side which is · picture, which is · ones which are

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 →

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