Shadowing Practice: A Full Schedule Can Still Lead to an Empty Life | A2 English Shadowing - Learn English Speaking with Video
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177 sentences
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Have you ever had a very busy day, but still felt like you did nothing important?
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You wake up early.
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You check your phone.
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You go to work or school.
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You answer messages.
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You finish one task and start another.
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Then you come home tired.
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You look at the clock and think, where did the day go?
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Your schedule was full, but somehow your day felt empty.
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This may sound strange.
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If you are busy all day, how can your life feel empty?
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The answer is simple.
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A busy life and a meaningful life are not always the same thing.
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You can have many things to do and still have very little time for the things you really care about.
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In this A2 English shadowing practice, we will look at why being busy does not always make us happy,
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what we may lose when every minute is full, and how small changes can help us enjoy our lives again.
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Imagine a person named Anna.
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Anna works from Monday to Friday.
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Every morning, she gets up at She gets ready quickly and goes to work.
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At work, she has many things to do.
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She answers emails.
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She goes to meetings.
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She talks to customers.
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She checks her phone many times.
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When work ends, Anna does not really stop.
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She goes to the gym.
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Then she goes to the supermarket it.
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Then she goes home and makes dinner.
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After dinner, she watches some videos and checks her phone again.
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Before she goes to bed, she thinks about tomorrow.
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There is another list of things to do.
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Anna is busy.
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Very busy.
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But one evening, she asks herself a simple question.
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When was the last time I really enjoyed my day?
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She cannot remember.
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This is the problem with a very full schedule.
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When every minute has a job, we may forget to make time for things that make us feel good.
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A schedule can tell you what you have to do, but it cannot tell you what is important to you.
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You may have 10 tasks on your list.
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You may finish all 10, but that does not always mean you had a good day.
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Maybe you wanted to call your mother.
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Maybe you wanted to sit outside and enjoy the evening.
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Maybe you wanted to read a book.
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Maybe you simply wanted to have dinner with your family without looking at your phone.
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These things may not feel important when you look at a busy schedule, but they can be very important in life.
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And here is the strange part.
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Sometimes we are not busy because everything is important.
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Sometimes we are busy because we never stop to ask what really matters.
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Being busy can feel good at first.
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When you have many things to do, you may feel useful.
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You may feel that you are doing something important.
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You may even feel proud when you tell people, I am so busy these days.
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But being busy can become a habit.
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You finish one thing and quickly look for the next thing.
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You eat lunch while looking at your phone.
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You watch TV while answering messages.
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You talk to a friend while thinking about tomorrow's work.
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Your body is in one place, but your mind is somewhere else.
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Little by little, you stop enjoying simple moments.
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Think about eating your favorite food.
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You have been waiting for it all day.
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You sit down to eat, but your phone is next to you.
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A message comes.
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You read it.
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Then another message comes.
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You answer it.
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Soon your meal is finished.
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You ate the food.
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But did you really enjoy it?
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The same thing can happen with people.
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A friend asks you to meet for coffee.
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You say, I am too busy this week.
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Then next week you say the same thing Then another week passes
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You may still care about your friend
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But your busy schedule keeps taking your time This is how
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a full schedule can slowly become a full life with very little space for happiness
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Being busy is not bad Work is important
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School is important Taking care of your home is important There will always be busy days.
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The problem starts when being busy leaves no space for anything else.
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You need time to work, but you also need time to live.
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And sometimes the things that make life feel good are very small.
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A slow breakfast, a short walk, a good conversation, music in your room,
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playing with your child, calling someone you love.
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These moments may not make your schedule look better, but they may make your day feel better.
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So, here is an important question.
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What is your busy life actually giving you?
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Imagine that you have a calendar with every hour planned.
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Monday is full.
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Tuesday is full.
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Wednesday is full.
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You are always moving.
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But if someone asks you, what did you enjoy this week?
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You need a long time to think.
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Maybe the problem is not that you have too much to do.
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Maybe the problem is that there is not enough space for the things you love.
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This can happen very easily.
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We make time for work.
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We make time for school.
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We make time for meetings.
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We make time for other people's needs.
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but we may not make time for ourselves.
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And no, this does not mean you need to take a whole day off.
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You do not need a perfect life.
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You can start with 10 minutes.
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10 quiet minutes in the morning.
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10 minutes to walk outside.
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10 minutes to call a friend.
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10 minutes to read.
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10 minutes without your phone.
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Small moments matter.
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You can also ask yourself three simple questions.
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What is important to me?
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What gives me energy?
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What do I want to have more time for?
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Maybe your answer is family.
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Maybe it is friends.
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Maybe it is health.
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Maybe it is learning something new.
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Maybe you simply want more quiet time.
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Once you know what matters, look at your schedule again.
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Is there any space for these things?
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If there is no space, something may need to change.
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You may need to say no to some things.
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You may need to stop doing things that are not really important.
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You may need to use your phone less.
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You may need to leave some time with no plan at all.
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At first, this may feel strange.
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We often think that an empty hour is a wasted hour.
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But an empty hour is not always wasted.
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Sometimes it is where life happens.
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You do not need to remove everything from your schedule.
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You simply need to leave some room for the things that matter.
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Try something simple this week.
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Choose one small part of your day.
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Maybe it is breakfast
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Maybe it is your evening Maybe it is the time before bed
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During that time Do only one thing If you are eating, eat If you are talking to someone, listen.
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If you are walking, look around you.
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If you are resting, let yourself rest.
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You may be surprised by how different a simple moment can feel when you are really there.
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You can also choose one thing that you want to do every week.
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Call a family member.
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Meet a friend.
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Go for a walk.
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Cook something you enjoy.
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Read a few pages of a book.
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It does not have to be big.
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It just needs to be something that makes you feel connected to your life.
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And there is one more thing to remember.
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You do not have to be productive all the time.
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You are not a machine.
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You do not need to finish something every minute to have a good day.
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Sometimes sitting with someone you love is enough.
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Sometimes watching the sunset is enough.
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Sometimes doing nothing for a few minutes is exactly what you need.
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A full schedule can make you look successful, but a good life is not measured by how many things you finish.
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It is also measured by how many moments you actually experience.
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So, the next time you look at your busy calendar, do not only ask, what else do I need to do?
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Ask, where is my life in all of this?
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Because your schedule is only a plan for your time.
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It is not your life.
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Your life is the people you love, the moments you enjoy, the things you care about,
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and the small moments you almost miss when you are always in a hurry.
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You do not need a completely empty schedule.
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You just need enough space to feel that you are living, not only doing.
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Your life does not become better just because your schedule becomes fuller.
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Work matters.
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Responsibilities matter.
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But so do the people you love, the moments you enjoy, and the time you give yourself.
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So, this week, look at your schedule and make a little room for life.
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You do not have to do more.
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Sometimes, you simply need to slow down and enjoy what is already there.
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Great job completing this A2 English shadowing practice.
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Keep listening and speaking just behind the narrator.
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Focus on clear pronunciation, natural rhythm, and the meaning of each sentence.
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Small practice every day can make a big difference.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This A2 speaking lesson is built on the video “A Full Schedule Can Still Lead to an Empty Life”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: busy, schedule, enjoy, moment, simple. This video has 177 sentences and 1543 words to shadow. The speech runs for 11:16. The speaker talks at a steady 137 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. 94% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is easy to follow.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| shadow noun | /ˈʃædəʊ̯/ | A dark image projected onto a surface where light (or other radiation) is blocked by the shade of an object. |
| calendar noun | /ˈkæl.ən.də/ | Any system by which time is divided into days, weeks, months, and years. |
| meal noun | /ˈmiːl/ | Food that is prepared and eaten, usually at a specific time, and usually in a comparatively large quantity. |
| happiness noun | /ˈhæpinɪs/ | The emotion of being happy; joy; elation. |
| clock noun | /klɑk/ | A chronometer, an instrument that measures time, particularly the time of day. |
| connect verb | /kəˈnɛkt/ | To join (to another object): to attach, or to be intended to attach or capable of attaching, to another object. |
| habit noun | /ˈhæb.ɪt/ | An action performed on a regular basis. |
| leaf noun | /lif/ | The usually green and flat organ that represents the most prominent feature of most vegetative plants. |
| productive adjective | /pɹəˈdʌk.tɪv/ | Capable of producing something, especially in abundance; fertile. |
| hurry verb | /ˈhʌ.ɹi/ | To do things quickly. |
| meaningful adjective | /ˈmiː.nɪŋ.fl̩/ | Having meaning, significant. |
| rhythm noun | /ˈɹɪð.əm/ | The variation of strong and weak elements (such as duration, accent) of sounds, notably in speech or music, over time; a beat or meter. |
| sunset noun | /ˈsʌnˌsɛt/ | The moment each evening when the sun disappears below the western horizon. |
| narrator noun | /ˈnæˌɹeɪ.təɹ/ | One who narrates or tells stories. |
| supermarket noun | /ˌsupɚˈmɑɹkət/ | A large self-service store that sells groceries and, usually, medications, household goods, and/or clothing. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| look around verb | To inspect a building or area. | |
| slow down verb | To decelerate. | |
| wake up verb | /ˌweɪk ˈʌp/ | To stop sleeping; to awake. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- You look at the clock and think, where did the day go?
- What is your busy life actually giving you?
- What is important to me?
- What do I want to have more time for?
- Ask, where is my life in all of this?
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | is not always wasted · is not measured · is also measured |
| Possibility with “might / may” might/may + verb — something that is possible but not certain | may sound · may lose · may forget |
| Verb + -ing enjoy, keep, stop… + -ing — verbs that are followed by the -ing form | stop enjoying · keeps taking · Keep listening |
| Obligation: must / have to / need to saying that something is necessary | have to do · need to take · need to say |
Pronunciation to watch
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: shadow /ˈʃædəʊ̯/, pronunciation /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: supermarket /ˌsupɚˈmɑɹkət/, pronunciation /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/
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 shadow, calendar, meal.
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.