Shadowing Practice: AEE - What is Lookism and What Can We Do About It? - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
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Hello, Lindsay.
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How are you?
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Hey, Aubrey.
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I'm doing great.
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Great to be back on the mic.
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We took a little break, although episodes still came out, but you and I haven't recorded in a few weeks here, so it's nice to be back on the microphone together.
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It is nice to be back, and I have a question for you.
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This is going to be a really interesting topic today, and I'm wondering, do you ever judge someone based on their appearance?
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I mean, I think if you said no, oh, it would be a lie, right?
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The human mind is designed to draw conclusions as quickly as possible because that's evolutionarily how we survived as a species, unfortunately.
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But I will say that what I try to do is when I make a judgment, I think about the fact that I just made a judgment.
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It's like an awareness, right?
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And I think, oh, could that be untrue?
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At least you're questioning the prejudices.
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You might have the assumptions and it might not not necessarily be about someone's beauty or something physical,
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but maybe if they're slovenly dressed or seem like they have poor hygiene, things like that, it's hard to not draw conclusions about a person.
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Oh, for sure.
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I mean, and I know it happens on the other side.
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Like I know that when I bring my son into daycare now, I basically roll out of bed, feed him and then go in kind of like just in cut off jeans.
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My hair is all over the place.
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And most parents drop off their kids when they are polished, ready for work in their high heels.
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And I know I've been looked up and down and I know what they're thinking.
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I've had that same experience.
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If I have to drop something off to kids at school and I'm like, I wonder what the other moms look like coming in.
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I'm like barely dressed.
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It's true.
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I'm like, I work from home.
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Okay.
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So it happens on both sides.
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And so we're going to talk about this today.
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This is fascinating.
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This was inspired by an article that I saw in the New Yorker that was called, should we do more to fight lookism?
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And I immediately was like, what is lookism?
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I had never heard this word.
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And Lindsay and I chatted briefly, you hadn't as well, right?
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So it's sort of a new term, I think.
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But it makes sense.
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This is the unfair treatment or discrimination of people based on their physical appearance.
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So judging someone's character, intelligence, or value because of how they look.
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And that can be anything about their appearance, something that doesn't necessarily have anything to do with their character
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but it's a judgment solely based on how they look completely
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guys we love to get into topics like this thought -provoking new cultural topics
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and we're going to show you later in the episode how
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you can talk with another english speaker about this too
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so hit follow
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if you love our style we'll show you how most importantly to connect around good conversation yes exactly
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because this is such an interesting topic it's very cultural i'm sure it's different around the world.
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But all of us have observed it or noticed it or found ourselves doing it.
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So definitely something that's interesting to talk about.
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100%.
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So where should we start today, Aubrey?
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What do we need to know?
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So I'll first share some details about this article if you want to go check it out.
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It was in the New Yorker.
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And sort of the subheading was discrimination against the unattractive is widespread and widely tolerated.
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So this was by Joshua Rothman, July 24th of this year, 2026.
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And this is interesting how it's not just about the fact that lookism exists.
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It's more about why isn't anyone doing anything about it?
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Like, why are there no repercussions?
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Why are there no consequences if someone is getting a promotion or getting a job?
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And there's a chance that that was affected by something about their appearance.
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Very interesting, right?
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Because if you look at the C -suite of many companies, it's often the good looking, well, it's often men, good looking men and older men.
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Right.
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Um, and so there's a lot there, but this, this is fascinating.
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So, so when we talk about lookism, let's make sure we have the definition.
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Are we looking just at attractiveness?
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Are we also looking at looking like, let's say on camp to work?
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Like I said before, kind of showing up at daycare sort of hair all over the place.
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I mean, all of that, right.
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There's a reason that
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when you go to a job interview you are dressing in your nicest clothing
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and trying to do your hair
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and look well you know most of us don't go to an interview looking unkempt
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and there's a reason for that lookism right we know
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that we are being judged based on the appearance that we put forth
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and you can't prove it you can't prove you didn't get a job
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because you went in sweats to an interview but you can assume
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that right because that's just part of our culture it's part of what our society values.
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Right.
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So we put on makeup, right.
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To prepare for a job interview, we put on our best clothes and yeah, I mean, that's just, I guess I've never thought of it this way.
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Right.
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And I hadn't thought of it as an ism, right.
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Something that we're being judged on and maybe unfairly, like I had never thought of it like this exists in our society, but is it not okay?
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Is it something we should be fighting?
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It was just always sort of a given and
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that I'm sort of fascinating in my own assumptions fascinated by my own assumptions there.
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That is really fascinating.
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So what are kind of the key aspects here of lookism?
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Yeah.
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So of course the workplace, right?
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Employers often will favor attractive job candidates for hiring and promotions.
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There is this sort of beauty premium where better looking workers often earn more money.
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And we know that there have been studies about this.
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There are statistics, but it's tricky because it's really hard to prove.
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Like, like you said, often leadership in a company are good looking people.
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How can you prove that that helps them get the job?
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Right.
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And also it would be hard to prove because those people that have made it to the leadership, the C -suite have the skills because they've been good looking, not just because of it,
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let's just say it's all the reason, but partially because of this throughout their entire careers, right?
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Something that compounds, something that would, there's a built -in confidence when their whole life they have known that they have this attractiveness going for them.
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So there's a lot more to it than just attractiveness.
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If that person were a poor leader and had a lack of confidence, then they probably wouldn't be getting that job.
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It's kind of all related.
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So they're kind of compounding effects where maybe it starts with knowing you're an attractive person that makes you more confident.
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Therefore you gain more skills.
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Therefore you become even more qualified.
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Exactly.
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Right.
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And it's interesting to think about how social media affects this
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this i think is becoming even more prevalent in our culture
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because of digital culture right selfie sharing apps
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that increase appearance pressure people have to think more i was talking to my teenagers about this they never know
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when someone's going to take a picture of them
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and post it immediately we didn't have
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that pressure as kids where it was just film cameras like
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there were like two pictures have taken of me a year so i didn't have to worry about it so much.
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The focus wasn't so much on appearance.
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That's a lot of pressure.
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Gosh, that is a lot of pressure for teenagers to have when they're already, you know, struggling with their appearance, maybe you're trying to figure out who they are or changes.
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This really reinforces those narrow beauty standards that you have to always be put together and photo ready.
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And so it's interesting how that really has compounded this lookism and made it a bigger part of our culture, unfortunately.
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Yeah.
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And there really aren't any, uh, laws that ban this because as we said, it's really hard.
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It would be really hard to prove this.
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We have more laws about things like ageism, racism, sexism.
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Um, what's another one?
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I don't know if we have any, any laws for fatism, but it is a term too, um, that I've heard lately.
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Yeah.
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Interesting.
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Yeah.
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So yeah, it's true.
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There aren't really any laws on the books.
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So, you know, targets of this don't really have legal protection.
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And you couldn't really prove it.
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If you are maybe, by society standards, an unattractive person, and you feel like you're not getting jobs and you're not getting promotions,
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how could you possibly prove that?
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It would be really hard to do, for sure.
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So what is this halo effect?
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This is interesting.
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So this was kind of in the research about why this persists.
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And this something called the halo effect is that people tend to automatically assume that attractive individuals are smarter, kinder, healthier, more confident.
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And often maybe they are because like we were saying, this compounds, this sort of reinforces.
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And so they might all be related often.
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And so we do, a lot of individuals have this tendency to assume attractiveness equals all these other positive characteristics.
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Interesting.
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But it's interesting why it could be true.
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It's because of lookism, because they've been given those opportunities, those advantages throughout their lives.
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It's not because they're good looking.
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Right. So interesting.
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And I researched this a little further because this was the first I had heard this term.
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But there was an academic paper by the Cambridge University Press in April of 2026 called Lookism and Acceptable Discrimination.
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And this was a really fascinating paper
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that studied why lookism isn't taken as seriously in policy and practice as other forms of discrimination, such as sexism and racism.
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So you can just search and read that entire academic paper if you really want to dive in for details about this, because it is fascinating.
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And it's also interesting to think about the cultural piece.
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This is possibly prevalent in many countries across many cultures, but it's likely different depending on where you live.
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And that's really interesting as well of course.
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Standards of beauty are different, of course.
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But this seems like because there have been two articles written in the last three or four months, it seems like it could be a hot new term kind of emerging
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that we're going to start talking about on a societal level.
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So this is really tuning our listeners in to a current topic that matters.
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Exactly.
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Really interesting.
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So definitely it might come up in conversations
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and you want to be ready hey quick question do you want to feel more confident
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when you speak english if
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so we made a free guide for you it'll help you avoid those common mistakes
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and start speaking more naturally in real conversations go grab it in the description below
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and if this is helpful for you make sure that you like
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and subscribe we're here five times a week to help you connect in english All right, Aubrey.
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So what are some ways that our listeners can take this new concept
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that maybe today's the first time they've heard about it and start talking about it in English to practice and to connect?
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Yeah, we're excited for you to have these conversations, but this is definitely one of those things
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that you have to be aware that whoever you're talking to may never have heard this term before.
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So we've recommended this in the past as a way to do that.
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So our first recommendation is to start the conversation with something like this.
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I was listening to a podcast about lookism where people experience discrimination based on their appearance.
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Do you think that happens a lot?
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So I wouldn't say something like, I was listening to a podcast about lookism.
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Have you heard of that?
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Do you know what that is?
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I would start it sort of assuming that they haven't heard this term
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and then say it this way where you kind of automatically very briefly define it and then jump right into the conversation.
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Yeah, for sure.
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And I can't overemphasize how common this chunk is.
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These days out in the world, I was listening to a podcast about X.
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It's so common.
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It's the easiest way to start a conversation because it takes out that sort of condescension of like, I heard about this, right?
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Everyone listens to podcasts.
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It's such a easy medium to be like, I randomly heard about this on a podcast.
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I'm not setting myself up as more learned or intelligent than the person I'm talking to.
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Exactly.
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It's just so funny because we started the show in 2013.
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And that wasn't a thing you heard anywhere.
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No one knew what a podcast was.
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It's just, it's such a cultural shift that we've gone through in the last 10, 13 years.
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It's amazing.
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I don't know. So true.
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And then this second thing I want to recommend is you can say like, have you heard of lookism?
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But what you're doing is immediately sharing that you had not before, right?
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Cause this is such an uncommon term.
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Most likely the person that you're talking to would just say, no, I haven't.
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What's that?
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You don't want to set yourself up as an expert that could hurt the connection.
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So what you can say is something like, Hey, have you heard of lookism?
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I had not heard of it before, but I just heard a podcast about it.
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Yes, exactly.
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And you know, some follow -up questions that we could have, uh, you could then, you know, if the response is people are curious, whoever you're talking to, you could ask,
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have you ever witnessed or do you feel like you've ever seen it?
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Maybe more casually, right?
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Have you ever witnessed lookism?
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Do you feel like you've ever seen this or experienced it, what else?
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Or are you guilty of it?
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Like you could admit yourself, be like, I definitely feel like I've been guilty of this.
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What about you?
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Right.
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Admit that vulnerability.
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Yes.
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Um, or you could ask, is it common where you live and work?
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Um, it's also really interesting to talk about standards of beauty, which would be a slightly different topic, but what is considered beautiful in your culture?
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Definitely.
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It would It'd be interesting to find out how that's different with who you're talking to.
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Yeah.
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Just yesterday, we ran our fluency party, which we run once a month for anyone in any one of our courses.
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And we were talking about sunscreen and tanning, right, Aubrey?
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That's a good example.
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I thought of this lookism when we had that conversation, because this, of course, is different across cultures, depending on beauty standards.
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Here in the United States, that sun -kissed, a little bit tanned skin is a beauty standard, but that's not how it is around the world necessarily.
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Exactly.
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It's fascinating.
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So, um, all right, Aubrey, are we going to dive into a role play here to show our listeners how we might talk about this together?
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Uh, let's do it.
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Um, so here you and I are friends chatting at lunch.
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I'll start us out.
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All right.
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I was listening to a podcast about lookism where people experience discrimination based on their appearance.
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Do you think that happens a lot?
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Yeah, I do.
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I don't think people always realize they're doing it, but first impressions can be really powerful.
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I agree.
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Have you ever caught yourself making assumptions about someone based on how they look?
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Honestly, yeah.
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I have assumed someone was unfriendly because they looked serious.
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And then after talking to them, they turned out to be really kind.
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Oh, that's a great example.
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Do you think social media makes it worse?
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Probably, yeah.
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We're constantly seeing carefully chosen photos, so it's easy to judge people based on appearances.
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That's true.
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It's a good reminder to give people a chance before jumping to conclusions.
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Yeah.
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Interesting.
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Yeah.
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I think most people will probably admit, yes, they've experienced this and, and experienced it and, and done it.
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Right.
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Um, I, I'm sure.
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and it's a great conversation to strike it is interesting it's
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going to be interesting to see whoever you're talking to how they respond where the conversation goes
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because there are
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so many possibilities right you could end up talking more about someone could share specific experiences they've had at work
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or in their life or specific times when they felt like they judged someone else
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always going to be a way to connect because people are going to start sharing truths about themselves
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yes 100 all right abri
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so anything we want to go through in the role play
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here do we have any we didn't really have key phrases today
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which is kind of a nice little refreshing change right we're
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talking about a concept right it's not about the vocabulary it's about the concept
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and what a great conversation topic it is and how to start
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that conversation because it is tricky
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if you just say like do you know what lookism is
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and you've heard this podcast you've been delving into it
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and they just are like no what's
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that this is a mistake a conversation mistake that a lot of people do where they set themselves up as an expert.
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And now you're in a position where you need to just lecture them, share all this information.
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And that's not a fun conversation.
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So if instead you make it collaborative like this, just share, you heard about it on a podcast and go from there.
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That's such a better way to connect over a conversation.
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Yeah.
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We'd call that a conversation killer, setting yourself up as an expert from the beginning, right?
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It's only going down all of the information I heard with you.
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Some people do it.
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I mean, there's a whole woman -splaining, man -splaining thing that happens, which just is nauseating for me.
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We want to be careful to avoid that, right?
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There are better ways to have a conversation about something you've been learning about that the person you're talking to might.
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And you might find that someone's like, yes, I've just read an article about that.
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And then the conversation would go, you know, and you both are more informed.
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Yes.
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All right, guys, there's another great episode.
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If you love today's episode, go check out another one keep listening to allers english it's episode 2698 in a
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while or for a while tricky english grammar explained we'll show you
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when to use each of these very important for basic grammar absolutely go check it out
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and if you missed that episode you might not be following the podcast
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so wherever you're listening follow all ears english so you never miss any of our episodes.
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All right.
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Sounds great, Aubrey.
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You have a good rest of your day.
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You too.
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Thanks, Lindsay.
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Bye.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “AEE - What is Lookism and What Can We Do About It?”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: interesting, conversation, heard, lookism. This video has 14 sentences and 3311 words to shadow. The speech runs for 17:06. The speaker talks fast, about 194 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 86% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start. 48 of its 14 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 |
|---|---|---|
| podcast noun | /ˈpɑdˌkæst/ | A program, especially an audio program, produced on a regular basis, delivered over the Internet in a compressed digital format and designed for playback on… |
| topic noun | /ˈtɑpɪk/ | A subject; a theme; a category or general area of interest. |
| discrimination noun | /dɪskɹɪmɪˈneɪʃən/ | Discernment, the act of discriminating, discerning, distinguishing, noting or perceiving differences between things, with the intent to understand rightly and… |
| connect verb | /kəˈnɛkt/ | To join (to another object): to attach, or to be intended to attach or capable of attaching, to another object. |
| compound noun | /ˈkɑmpaʊnd/ | Anything made by combining several things. |
| necessarily adverb | /ˌnɛs.əˈsɛɹ.ə.li/ | Inevitably; of necessity. |
| whoever | /huˈɛvɚ/ | Who ever: an emphatic form of who. |
| promotion noun | /pɹəˈmoʊʃn̩/ | An advancement in rank or position. |
| conclusion noun | /kənˈkluːʒən/ | The end, finish, close or last part of something. |
| judgment noun | /ˈd͡ʒʌd͡ʒ.mənt/ | The act of judging. |
| racism noun | /ˈɹeɪsɪzm̩/ | The belief that there are distinct human races with inherent differences which determine their abilities, and generally that some are superior and others… |
| assumption noun | /əˈsʌm(p).ʃ(ə)n/ | The act of assuming, or taking to or upon oneself; the act of taking up or adopting. |
| tricky adjective | /ˈtɹɪk.i/ | Hard to deal with, complicated. |
| listener noun | /ˈlɪs(ə)nɚ/ | Someone who listens, especially to a speech or a broadcast. |
| briefly adverb | /ˈbɹiːfli/ | In a brief manner, summarily. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| check out verb | To record the departure or withdrawal of someone or something (such as guests, employees, books, etc.). | |
| come out verb | /ˌkʌm ˈaʊt/ | To be discovered; to be revealed. |
| cut off verb | /ˌkʌt ˈɔf/ [ˌkɐɾ ˈɔf] | To remove by cutting. |
| drop off verb | To fall asleep. | |
| end up verb | To bring to a conclusion. | |
| figure out verb | To come to understand; to discover or find a solution; to deduce. | |
| find out verb | To discover, as by asking or investigating. | |
| follow up verb | To take further actions remaining after an event; to continue, revisit, or persist; especially, to maintain communication or verify. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- Aubrey, what what do we need to know?
- Are we looking just at attractiveness?
- Is it something we should be fighting?
- How could you possibly prove that?
- Do you think that happens a lot?
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect continuous have/has been + -ing — an action that started earlier and is still going on | you've been delving · you've been learning |
| Conditional sentences if + clause, will/would + verb — a condition and its result | if you said no, oh, it would be · if you love our style we'll show |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | haven't recorded · I've been looked · have observed |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | is designed · are polished · I've been looked |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 87 contractions and reduced forms, such as you're, I'm, we're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: discrimination /dɪskɹɪmɪˈneɪʃən/, promotion /pɹəˈmoʊʃn̩/, conclusion /kənˈkluːʒən/, assumption /əˈsʌm(p).ʃ(ə)n/, impression /ɪmˈpɹɛʃn̩/
- Long words — get the stress right: discrimination /dɪskɹɪmɪˈneɪʃən/, necessarily /ˌnɛs.əˈsɛɹ.ə.li/, naturally /ˈnæt͡ʃ.(ə.)ɹə.li/, intelligent /ɪnˈtɛlɪd͡ʒənt/, importantly /ɪmˈpɔɹ.tənt.li/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like podcast, topic, discrimination.
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.