Shadowing Practice: A Letter to Jordan Peterson: You Changed. - Learn English Speaking with Video
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One of the most difficult types is the intuitive inner world.
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He has intuitions as to the subjective factor, namely the inner world, very difficult to understand.
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Because what he sees are most uncommon things.
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He doesn't like to talk of them, if he's not a fool.
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Nietzsche once wrote, quote,
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Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster himself, end quote.
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Dear Dr. Peterson, I hope this public letter reaches you at least in some capacity.
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Though I only speak for myself, I hope to also give voice to the people who found you in your old days on YouTube.
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For context, and to offer some credibility, I have watched all through your 2014,
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15, and 16 personality lecture series in your Toronto University days.
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In fact, those lectures inspired me to study psychology, and I am now starting my master's degree.
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I also finished your Maps of Meaning lecture series and read the book as well.
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I also read both the 12
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Rules for Life books and engaged in many hours of your content via podcasts or clips on YouTube.
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I am declaring all of this not to flatter you,
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but to show my genuine interest in your work and to support my ability to discuss your current public image.
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I feel a jarring difference in your communication if I jump from your old lectures to your recent public appearances.
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Now, who in the world is that?
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That's Carl Jung.
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My goddamn government came out the other day, those bloody liberals.
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You come across as angrier and more frustrated.
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I understand that you're entrenched in a culture war
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and publicity has visibly taken its toll on you and brought you a lot of shit, which at times you sound resentful about,
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although you've warned others against this emotion.
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How much do you know about me?
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I didn't lie to save my career.
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I didn't lie to save my clinical practice.
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Of course, naturally, I personally don't have any idea about your life or your experience,
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or the amount of criticism levied your way through all this time.
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However, if the other side side, wants to portray you as an old,
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angry, bitter, resentful, right -wing ideologue, then you're playing right into their hand.
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If we rewind the clock, what made you famous in the first place was your calmness
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and sober composure when facing the likes of Kathy Newman or Helen Lewis.
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However, it is the only thing that you get paid for under capitalism.
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Ha!
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Gotcha!
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In essence, your best qualities shined forth.
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Strong verbal ability, patience, balance, and reasonableness.
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Your other appearances reflected your best trait as professor.
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Synthesizing, distilling, connecting highly abstract and difficult ideas and explaining them in approachable ways that highlight their meaning and importance.
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That's a good example of how our fundamental assumptions can be challenged at any moment
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and how a fact can turn from a fact into a clear fallacy.
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Basically, you made philosophy and psychology accessible and practical to people who otherwise would not have any contact with it.
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I think your career is built on this foundation, which is why critics relentlessly and constantly attack this point,
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especially so -called intellectuals.
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Now, however, much of that clarity seems lost in translation.
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Your critics often don't understand you, and even for your longtime followers, it is getting harder to understand what you're getting at.
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When I watch this clip,
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for example, I do get your meaning,
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but only because I engaged with your lectures.
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For anyone else, this is likely incomprehensible, perhaps scattered or even alienating.
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And your frustration in that clip might indicate that you feel this way as well.
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Look, you warned against resentment and ideology,
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saying that a clear sign of it is knowing beforehand what a person will say in any given conversation.
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And this is why I consider it a manifestation of ideological possession.
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It's predictable.
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Yet, how many answers of yours nowadays start with psychopaths and narcissists or the radical left?
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That repetition can sound ideological in itself.
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It also seems you have a harder time listening and empathizing with people now.
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Which is making you feel social pain.
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Right.
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You don't feel that if you have psychopathic tendencies.
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Yes, and then, well, and if that pain doesn't make itself, like, I think that...
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You often seem less interested in the other person's point of view.
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You come off as more combative, perhaps rushing to get your message across, under pressure and stress, as if under siege.
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Which, to be fair, perhaps you are, but it is still working against you.
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I already mentioned the other side, but what side is it, truly?
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Is the solution really to draw lines in the sand and embrace polarization and add to it?
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I hope that people like you would rather be bridges, would be brave yet humble voices of calm and wisdom,
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arguing and verbalizing their points amidst all of this chaos.
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No one?
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One?
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Just three people?
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Okay, well, that's probably not good.
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However, with your recent dive into politics and business, you increasingly seem like a persona, like a branded figure rather than a person.
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I remember your decision against studying politics in your youth, and perhaps that was not without reason.
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You warned against alarmists, yet I regularly encounter clips of you warning about the doom of Western civilization.
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Like, I think the gatekeepers have abandoned the gates, like terrorist radicals take over the universe.
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The universities, I think, are beyond salvaging.
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What happened to your good nature?
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Certainly risk offending me and that's fine.
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I think more power to you as far as I'm concerned.
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You fought against triggered people with a smile but that smile is vanishing now.
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I quoted Nietzsche at the start of the letter not without reason for I know you know this quote too.
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In essence I think that quote encapsulates perfectly the arc of your public journey.
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Look whatever you have to say which I know at bottom is well -meaning and good is simply not getting across.
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And it saddens me because we need voices to talk about symbolism, faith, and meaning.
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Perhaps it is not always just onwards and upwards.
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Perhaps there is also something to be said about the element of the garden, which must be maintained with patience, humility, and love.
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To be fair, it's hard to estimate how much reels, shorts, and clips, and the algorithms behind them distort anyone's image,
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not just yours, and is adding to this situation.
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But that is a topic for another day.
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To close, I will add my favorite clip of yours, which I think encapsulates you well as a person as seen by your followers.
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As for myself, I hope you find ways to reconnect with your roots, with your best traits, and to bring people together and not apart.
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Young people need role models and not moral lecturers wagging their finger at them, and I know you know this.
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I hope this letter did not miss the target.
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Sincerely yours, Augustus.
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We better stop before that girl comes in.
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It was very nice having you all in the class and I appreciated the warm welcome I got,
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especially in January, because it was a rough time in January
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and so I'm glad this all worked out so well and it was a pleasure teaching you.
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So good luck to you all.
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I mean it.
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Be what you can be god you let the world dissolve around
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you otherwise that's not a good thing you've got something
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that everyone needs man including yourself it's like let it out that's where everything you want is
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and it's this it's the case for every single one of you
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so you know hoist up your goddamn privilege and go out there and do something in the world see ya
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “A Letter to Jordan Peterson: You Changed”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: lecture, clip, meaning, perhaps, seem. This video has 16 sentences and 888 words to shadow. The speech runs for 7:46. The speaker talks at a steady 114 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. Only 78% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding. 4 of its 16 sentences are questions, so it is good practice for question intonation and short answers.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| clip noun | /klɪp/ | Something which clips or grasps; a device for attaching one object to another. |
| lecture noun | /ˈlɛk.t͡ʃə/ | A spoken lesson or exposition, usually delivered to a group. |
| warn verb | /woɹn/ | To make (someone) aware of impending danger, evil, etc. |
| psychology noun | /saɪˈkɑ.lə.d͡ʒi/ | The study of the human mind. |
| patience noun | /ˈpeɪ̯.ʃəns/ | The quality of being patient. |
| nowadays adverb | /ˈnaʊ.ə.deɪz/ | At the present time; in the current era. |
| critic noun | /ˈkɹɪt.ɪk/ | A person who appraises the works of others. |
| trait noun | /tɹeɪt/ | An identifying characteristic, habit or trend. |
| resentment noun | /ɹɪˈzɛnt.mənt/ | Anger or displeasure stemming from belief that one or one's group has been wronged or betrayed by others; indignation. |
| topic noun | /ˈtɑpɪk/ | A subject; a theme; a category or general area of interest. |
| finger noun | /ˈfɪŋɡɚ/ | A slender jointed extremity of the human hand, (often) exclusive of the thumb, and the corresponding part, irrespective of including a thumb, in many other… |
| practical adjective | /ˈpɹæk.tɪ.kəl/ | Relating to, or based on, practice or action rather than theory or hypothesis. |
| rush verb | /ɹʌʃ/ | To hurry; to perform a task with great haste, often not properly or without thinking carefully. |
| argue verb | /ˈɑɹ.ɡju/ | To show grounds for concluding (that); to indicate, imply. |
| element noun | /ˈɛləmənt/ | One of the simplest or essential parts or principles of which anything consists, or upon which the constitution or fundamental powers of anything are based. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| come across verb | To change sides; to cross over to work for the opposition. |
| come off verb | To become detached. |
| get across verb | To cross; to move from one side (of something) to the other, literally or figuratively. |
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 watched · has visibly taken · you've warned |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | can be challenged · is built · be said |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | people who found · people who otherwise · foundation, which is |
Pronunciation to watch
- The “th” sounds: algorithm /ˈælɡəɹɪðm̩/, empathize /ˈɛmpəˌθaɪz/, psychopath /ˈsaɪkəʊpæθ/, synthesize /ˈsɪnθəsaɪz/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: patience /ˈpeɪ̯.ʃəns/, rush /ɹʌʃ/, translation /tɹænzˈleɪʃən/, shine /ʃaɪn/, civilization /ˌsɪv.ɪ.laɪˈzeɪ.ʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: psychology /saɪˈkɑ.lə.d͡ʒi/, intellectual /ˌɪntəˈlɛkt͡ʃʊəl/, accessible /əkˈsɛs.ɪ.bəl/, ideology /aɪ.diˈɑ.lə.d͡ʒi/, civilization /ˌsɪv.ɪ.laɪˈzeɪ.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 clip, lecture, warn.
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.