Shadowing Practice: A brief history of powerful gemstone amulets | V&A - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Precious stones, semi -precious stones, gemstones, crystals, they are physically beautiful,

they catch the light, they are rare, they are gathered from the landscape, mined from the earth.

They have been used throughout human history for devotion and for decoration.

This object here is a rock crystal amulet container.

The container could have been worn as a pendant attached to a cord, hung around the neck or attached to the person somewhere,

something to keep with you, to protect you.

This pendant is made up of two pieces of rock crystal, which is a microcrystalline mineral that is a quartz.

The ancient sources that talk about the generation

and formation of rock crystal describe the mineral as being made of an elemental combination of both air and water.

The word crystallos that forms the word crystal is actually an ancient

Greek word for ice.

And when you undo the screw loop holding the container together at the top, you can open the container up

and you can see from the inside the two separate pieces of rock crystal

which have been hollowed out from the inside with three different cavities

and inside the cavities would have been placed crayfish eyes to treat any ailments around vision and sight it's

It's not just what went in the container that had this medicinal function.

Rock crystal was closely associated with healing eye problems during the period that this was made.

Jewelry was worn for its protective powers, but also as a sign of faith.

And rock crystal has symbolic associations in a devotional context as well.

This small rock crystal reliquary cross was made at some point during the 17th century probably in southern Europe.

In these two objects there's a link between the transparency of the rock crystal as a material

and its ability to aid vision in different ways.

Because rock crystal is transparent with a slightly magnifying quality it was used to house relics

that would have been really difficult to see.

Things like fingernails, hair, saints tears.

The pieces of relics here, we don't know what they are but they're very small pieces wrapped in paper.

This is a really precious object that has been finely crafted with colourful enameled gold on each end of the cross.

It has a pendant loop at the top that again signifies

that it probably would have been worn or kept with the person.

The connection between the purity of the stone, the cosmos, and the divine is definitely something that the maker would have considered

when crafting an object that was used as a container for the most sacred of holy matter.

People have been studying stones since ancient times and trying to list their different qualities, magic powers or medicinal purposes.

Following the studies of ancient authors books listing the power of stones became really popular.

These types of books came to be known as lapidaries.

We use the word lapidary still today.

A lapidarist is someone that works with stone that cuts it and carves it.

In our collections we have a lapidary book that was popular in 17th century England.

It was written by Thomas Nichols, a Cambridge scholar published in 1652.

This type of book was a precursor to a type of encyclopedia.

It was supposed to give you information very systematically about each of the stones.

Helpfully included in this book is a fold -out diagram which helps you identify stones by asking you a series of questions.

Is the stone small or is it great?

Is it rare or is it common?

And then you follow the options through to the stone chart until you find these lists of stones.

Garnet, rubies, diamonds, all of the types of stones that were used for decorative purposes.

The symbolic, magical and therapeutic properties of different gemstones were often incorporated into the design for the jewellery.

pendant was made in England between 1540 and 1560

and you can see here the three jewels that have been selected for the design.

The green jewel at the top is a peridot, the middle stone is a hessenite garnet and the blue stone hanging is a sapphire.

This pendant would have been worn around the neck and we know

that it had a protective function because if we turn it over

and look at the back there is an inscription here around the peridot that was thought to ward off epilepsy.

There is an inscription too which invokes God which also would have been a form of protection.

These stones haven't been fully backed with gold which allows for some contact between the stone and the wearer's skin,

making the pendant as protective as possible.

The maker and the owner of this pendant would have chosen stones for specific reasons

and it may well have been

that they would have consulted a lapidary book to try and understand what the protection offered by specific stones would be.

If we look up sapphire in our lapidary book to see what it says, you You can see here chapter 10,

it tells us about the sapphire's tincture, that is the way it looks, its colour.

It tells us where it might be found and it also tells us its different names, the different kinds of sapphires that are found.

And furthermore, it tells us about its different faculties or properties.

Sapphire was thought to be a useful jewel to wear to keep you chaste, and the physical property of the stone,

its kind of medicinal therapeutic purpose, is listed here as helping to prevent the erections of Venus.

Also cooler fever, cure a stammer, promote chastity.

We don't know who the original owner of this pendant was, but perhaps they were given it as a gift to ensure their chastity,

or if they chose it for themselves, maybe they chose the sapphire for its soothing, calming properties.

This amulet case was made in the 19th century in Tibet.

It would have been tied into braids worn in the hair

and it would have been worn by an official of the Tibetan government of the fourth rank or above

so not only is it a protective object

it is also a striking symbol of social status the amulet box is inlaid with turquoise stones

and traditionally in the jewelry of the himalayas turquoise is revered for its beauty

and for its spiritual value amulet cases would have carried paper,

scrolls or other sacred objects that were thought to protect the wearer from malevolent forces.

This box would have opened from the back by lifting the metal panel and the scrolls would have been placed inside.

An interesting thing about turquoise is that the stone changes colour, it starts to discolour and pale as it interacts with its environment,

but the stones might change at different rates perhaps the turquoise

might have been seen to have faded as someone aged or became ill.

There were also claims of when passing turquoise on to someone of the next generation,

it would regain its color with the youth of its new owner.

This small carved mythical beast called the Qi Lin was made during the Ming dynasty in China in the 1500s.

It has been carved from a nephrite jade pebble.

There are two different types of jade.

This object is made from a creamy brown nephrite jade

that would have been found locally in the northwestern now autonomous region of China.

When a jade specimen is gathered up from the riverbed

it has this russet coloured skin towards the outside of the specimen

so it's really the skill of the craftsperson to kind of incorporate these different colours into a carved object like this.

The carver has incorporated the russet colour into the carved tail to make it a different colour from the head.

Also the horns of the mythical animal.

have got this brown tinge.

This technique of incorporating the natural colouring of the stone is a Chinese technique that translates into English as ingenious colour.

Jade has been revered for its sensuous and material qualities throughout Chinese cultural history.

It is a material that has auspicious connotations.

It symbolises good luck and prosperity.

Jade is considered to be an incredibly virtuous stone.

These two objects are bloodstone intaglios.

So an intaglio is an image that is incised, engraved or cut into the surface of a stone.

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Bloodstone is a striking patterned stone it's green, it has red flecks in it, likened to spots of blood.

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This bloodstone intaglio was made in the 1700s and it has a scorpion inscribed on it.

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The scorpion you can see on the front of the ring and also a small one on the back here.

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This might have referenced the function of the bloodstone itself, its natural property to ward off poisonous creatures.

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But the classical symbolism of the scorpion engraved on a stone had a protective function in and of itself.

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Its symbolism has been used in intaglios like this one since antiquity.

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This bloodstone intaglio was carved in the third century.

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It would have had an amuletic potential when it was made.

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It's been carved with the serpent -footed figure of the Gnostic god Abraxas.

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This was a protective image, the figure brandishing the whip.

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The whip was to scare away any evil forces and the bloodstone itself also would have had this protective function.

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The 18th century ring was made at a moment where there was a real craze for everything antique.

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It was a moment where archaeological sites were being excavated and throwing up all of these exciting ancient objects.

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So this example is actually drawing very strongly on this antique tradition of carving and bloodstone.

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In this very new looking lunchbox is a very old object.

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It's actually one of my favourite objects in the museum.

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It was made in the 3rd or 4th century in ancient Rome,

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and it is a statuette of an empress made from amethyst.

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You can see the different tones of the amethyst.

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You can even see around the figure's face, the curls of the hair, the toes sticking out from underneath the costume.

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Amethyst was scarce in the third and fourth century when this figure was carved so this figure would have been extremely precious.

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In Pliny's Natural History, a text authored in the first century, Amethyst was given powerful attributes

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and these powerful attributes included an antidote for intoxication clarity of mind to ward off drunkenness

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when held and kept about the person it could protect you from hail locusts

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and bad spells i think what's really amazing about an object like this

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that comes from ancient rome is that it's made it to today

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and that in itself is probably testament to some kind of power

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that it holds to endure in the collections at the vna there are an array of objects made from colourful stone.

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These objects may have different symbolic, medicinal, or magical associations across times and places and

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what's so amazing about seeing a collection of all of these different stones is

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that they have this power to transport us to a specific time

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and place and really just connect us back to the earth.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This speaking lesson is built on the video “A brief history of powerful gemstone amulets”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: stone, object, crystal, rock, pendant. This video has 22 sentences and 1872 words to shadow. The speech runs for 14:21. The speaker talks at a steady 130 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. Only 77% 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
crystal noun	/ˈkɹɪstəl/	A solid composed of an array of atoms or molecules possessing long-range order and arranged in a pattern which is periodic in three dimensions.
protective adjective	/pɹəˈtɛk.tɪv/	Serving or intended to protect.
container noun	/kənˈteɪ.nəɹ/	An item in which objects, materials or data can be stored or transported.
incorporate verb	/ɪŋˈkɔɹ.pɚ.eɪt/	To include (something) as a part.
medicinal adjective	/məˈdɪ.sɪ.nəl/	Having the properties of medicine, or pertaining to medicine; medical.
ward noun	/wɔɹd/	The action of a watchman; monitoring, surveillance (usually in phrases keep ward etc.)
symbolic adjective		Pertaining to a symbol.
jewellery noun	/ˈd͡ʒʊ-/	Collectively, personal ornamentation such as rings, necklaces, brooches and bracelets, made of precious metals and sometimes set with gemstones.
jewel noun	/ˈd͡ʒuːəl/	A precious or semi-precious stone; gem, gemstone.
technique noun	/tɛkˈniːk/	The practical aspects of a given art, occupation etc.; formal requirements.
craft noun	/ˈkɹæft/	Ability, skillfulness, especially skill in making plans and carrying them into execution; dexterity in managing affairs, adroitness, practical cunning…
loop noun	/luːp/	A length of thread, line or rope that is doubled over to make an opening.
gather verb	/ˈɡæðɚ/	To collect normally separate things.
sacred adjective	/ˈseɪkɹɪd/	Characterized by solemn religious ceremony or religious use, especially, in a positive sense; consecrated, made holy.
maker noun	/ˈmeɪk.ɚ/	Someone who makes; a person or thing that makes or produces something.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
look up verb	/ˌlʊk ˈʌp/	To have better prospects.
throw up verb		To vomit.

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 been · have been hollowed · has been
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	are gathered · have been worn · is made

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 4 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, haven't, they're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “th” sounds: gather /ˈɡæðɚ/, therapeutic /ˌθɛɹ.əˈpjuː.tɪk/, furthermore /ˈfɜː(ɹ).ðə(ɹ)ˌmɔː(ɹ)/, underneath /ˌʌndɚˈniθ/, mythical /ˈmɪθɪkəl/
The “sh” and “zh” sounds: collections /kəˈlɛkʃənz/, inscription /ɪnˈskɹɪpʃən/, traditionally /tɹəˈdɪʃ.ə.nə.li/, decoration /ˌdɛkəˈɹeɪʃən/, devotion /dɪˈvoʊʃən/
Long words — get the stress right: incorporate /ɪŋˈkɔɹ.pɚ.eɪt/, medicinal /məˈdɪ.sɪ.nəl/, therapeutic /ˌθɛɹ.əˈpjuː.tɪk/, incredibly /ɪŋˈkɹɛdɪbli/, traditionally /tɹəˈdɪʃ.ə.nə.li/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Shadow it sentence by sentence at normal speed, repeating each one until your rhythm matches the speaker.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like crystal, protective, container.

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 →

Shadowing Practice: A brief history of powerful gemstone amulets | V&A - Learn English Speaking with Video

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