Shadowing Practice: A Journey Through Your Nervous System - Learn English Speaking with YouTube

B2
Your nerves are literally everywhere around here.
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Your nerves are literally everywhere around here.
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We'll start from the most important ones,
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which are going through your spine and your brain.
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This thick cluster of nerves is called the central nervous system, or CNS.
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It's responsible for everything you do,
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from breathing to tapping your finger on the side of your smartphone while waiting until I get to the topic already.
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When a signal gets to the CNS in the brain from any part of the body,
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it sends back a command to react according to the situation.
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Pinch yourself now.
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Yeah, please do it.
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Ow!
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The place you've just pinched has a lot of neurons,
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just like anywhere else.
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When you pressed the skin,
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they flared up and sent the information about pain to the brain,
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which reacted by sending back a message that it hurt.
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It all happened in less than a millisecond,
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but the signal traveled several feet there and back.
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Let's go to the spinal cord now and carry out a little experiment.
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On the count of one,
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I'll sever the connections between the neurons here and you'll see what happens.
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Ready?
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One.
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See?
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You've just become limp from your waist down and can't feel anything in your legs.
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It's because your CNS can't figure out where they are.
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Okay, restoring the connections now, don't worry!
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This is why both your brain and spinal cord are naturally protected by bones,
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the skull and the vertebrae.
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Inside the spinal column, there's also cerebrospinal fluid,
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a liquid substance that protects the nerves,
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helps better conduct signals, and gets rid of weights.
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Ok, now let's take a closer look at all the rest of the nerves,
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starting with the ones at the tips of your fingers.
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Something that's not the CNS is called peripheral nervous system, or PNS.
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Will you kindly wave your hand now?
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Thanks!
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You've been able to do that because your brain consciously sent several million signals to the peripheral nerves in your shoulder,
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forearm, wrist, and hand.
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Together, they made a common effort to lift your arm,
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fix it in a certain position,
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and wave the hand from side to side.
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And responsible for this effort is your voluntary or somatic nervous system.
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Your eyebrows going up at this fact are also controlled by the same nerves.
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Did you count how many breaths you took while listening to my ramblings?
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a beat your heart had made.
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You shouldn't have.
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These things are regulated by your vegetative or involuntary nervous system.
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Your CNS sends signals to the periphery and tells your heart to beat,
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your respiratory system to let the air in and out,
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and even your bowels to digest the food you eat.
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Now, blow all the air out of your lungs and hold your breath for as long as you can.
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Okay, this will take some time,
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so fast-forward to the point where you start wanting to breathe in.
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Letting the air out and holding your breath are your conscious actions,
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so it's you who tells your brain to send signals to the breathing organs.
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But when you start lacking oxygen,
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it's already your brain that tells you to stop fooling around.
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Oh, I see you're becoming blue in the face.
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Please inhale already.
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And now I'll do something you'll have to forgive me for.
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Ow!
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Sorry, you dropped the phone because I sent a little shock through it.
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The point is, you subconsciously let your phone go as soon as you felt the pain.
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When I asked you to pinch yourself,
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you activated your voluntary nervous system,
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so you expected the pain and could continue pinching if you wanted to.
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This shock came unexpectedly, though,
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so your involuntary nervous system jolted in and made you move away from the threat ASAP.
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That said, your self-preservation instinct is something that's regulated by your nerves as well.
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Your body will try to save itself from harm even without your consent.
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Hey, what's that itch?
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You need to scratch it now.
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Thanks.
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Itching appears when there's something on or under your skin that doesn't belong there,
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like an insect or a bite it left.
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Nerves at the site flare up like beacons,
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and your brain sends signals to that spot.
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But when you scratch the itch,
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you feel two opposite things at once.
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Consciously, you experience relief because it's not itching anymore.
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On the subconscious level, though,
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your brain perceives scratching as pain and shifts your attention from the itch to the scratch instead.
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Basically, by scratching, you trick your brain into believing there are more important things to do than paying attention to the itch.
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Hey, is it me or is it a bit too hot here?
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Yeah, I see droplets of sweat on your forehead.
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When the outside temperature rises,
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your CNN reacts to the change.
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Billions of signals flash through your entire body.
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Sweat glands receive them in the blink of an eye and start working furiously.
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Sweat appears on your skin, cooling it down.
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I recommend going to the AC and turning it higher a bit, thank you.
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Hey, I said a bit,
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not all the way up.
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Ah, great, now you're shivering.
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Your brain is confused but is still working fast,
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reacting to the change of circumstances.
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Once again, it sends billions of signals to all the neurons in your muscles,
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telling them to start contracting as quickly as they can.
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By doing so, they create friction, and friction generates heat.
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Your heart starts beating faster too,
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by the way, pumping blood to your limbs to keep them from freezing.
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All this also makes you think sliding that counter up a notch is a good idea.
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On the topic of thinking,
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neurons are responsible for that too.
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For example, this is your first time watching this video video.
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You can't possibly know what I'm going to do or say next.
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Maybe I'll do a barrel roll.
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Or just end the whole video abruptly.
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Your brain is only now creating the neural connections necessary for you to remember what's coming up next.
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This is why you're still bearing with me.
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You want to know.
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But as soon as you've watched it until the end,
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the interest is gone, no matter how fascinating I am.
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Your CNS has created enough connections between the neurons,
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and if you start over,
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they will tell you what to expect.
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Still, the pathways are very basic.
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A simple example.
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What did I say exactly 3 minutes and 5 seconds into the video?
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You can't remember, because your neural connections aren't strong enough yet to give such details.
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But the more times you watch,
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the stronger and more numerous they become,
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and after a number of attempts,
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you'll be able to repeat the whole text word for word.
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The same happens when you learn some new skill, like roller skating.
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At first, you can't move even a single foot.
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Your brain encounters an unusual task and is all ablaze with signals it's sending every which way.
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You fall, but then you stand up and try once more.
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This time, several million neurons are already connected,
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and your CNS doesn't waste time creating new links.
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You fall again, and again, and again.
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But every time you rise and repeat,
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your brain gets more and more adapted,
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until finally, on your 5th,
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10th, or 50th attempt, you skate forward.
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The brain captures the moment you stop falling and creates strong neural connections to prevent you from repeating your previous mistakes.
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And soon enough, with more practice and links in your CNS,
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you'll be skating like a pro,
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wondering how you could be so clumsy before.
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Yet, the best thing about these connections is that they never completely go away.
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Even if you learned skating as a kid and then didn't put on the skates for 10 years,
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it'll take you just a couple of minutes to recall how it's done.
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So hey, if you're afraid to take that dusty guitar hanging on the wall for years, don't be.
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Go strum the strings, it'll all come back to you in a jiffy.
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Maybe not the calluses.

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Why practice speaking with this video?

Engaging with the video "A Journey Through Your Nervous System" offers an excellent opportunity to practice your English speaking skills in a context that is both informative and captivating. As you listen to the speaker discuss the intricacies of the human nervous system, you can use the shadowing technique to replicate their speech patterns in real-time. This not only helps you improve your pronunciation but also enhances your fluency and comprehension.

The practical context of the video allows you to learn scientific vocabulary and phrases that may not appear in everyday conversations, thereby expanding your lexical resource. By repeating after the speaker, you're encouraged to focus on clarity and intonation, which are crucial for effective communication. Furthermore, discussing topics like the nervous system can deepen your understanding and engagement with the English language while improving your conversational skills.

Grammar & Expressions in Context

Throughout the video, several key grammatical structures and expressions can be identified that are beneficial for learners:

  • Present Continuous Tense: The speaker frequently uses the present continuous to describe actions that are happening now, such as "Your nerves are literally everywhere." This structure is vital for discussing ongoing activities.
  • Imperative Sentences: Command forms such as "Pinch yourself now" encourage interaction and direct participation, effectively using verbs in their base form to instruct the audience.
  • Conditional Statements: Phrases like "If you press the skin, they flared up" show cause and effect, which can be instrumental in forming complex sentences when explaining processes.
  • Passive Voice: The speaker employs passive voice constructions, such as "the signals are sent," to emphasize the action rather than the subject performing it, a common pattern in scientific discourse.

Common Pronunciation Traps

As you practice speaking along with the video, pay attention to some tricky pronunciation aspects that might arise:

  • Words with "nervous": This can easily lead to mispronunciation. Ensure you stress the first syllable: NER-vous.
  • Scientific vocabulary: Terms like "cerebrospinal" and "voluntary" can be challenging. Break them down: cer-e-bro-spi-nal and vol-un-tary to better master their pronunciation.
  • Speed and Rhythm: The speaker's pace is relatively fast. Pay attention to how they group words and practice adjusting your rhythm to maintain clarity, which will help you improve English pronunciation overall.

Utilizing the shadowing technique with this video not only sharpens your speaking skills but reinforces your understanding of complex concepts in English. Whether you aim to learn English with YouTube or simply enhance your communication abilities, practicing with such engaging content will yield fruitful results.

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.

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