Shadowing Practice: [B2] Have You Ever Made a Difficult Decision? | English Listening & Speaking Practice - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Hi, everyone, and welcome back to the 5-Minute English Podcast.
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I'm Jessica, and today I'm here with my friend, Mark.
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Hi, Mark.
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How are you?
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Hi, Jessica.
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I'm doing well.
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Thanks.
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I'm really looking forward to today's topic.
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It's something everyone can relate to.
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Absolutely.
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So, the topic is a difficult decision you made.
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Life is full of choices, but some decisions are harder than others.
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They can even shape who we become.
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Mark, can you share one difficult decision you had to make?
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Sure.
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I think the hardest decision I ever made was choosing whether to study abroad.
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When I got the offer to go to another country for university, I was excited but also terrified.
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It meant leaving my family, my friends, and everything familiar to me.
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I can see how that would feel overwhelming.
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What made it so difficult?
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Well, on one hand, I knew it was a big opportunity.
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I could learn new skills, improve my English, and experience another culture.
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But on the other hand, I was really close to my family.
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I worried about feeling lonely or failing or not fitting in.
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That sounds like a real inner conflict.
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So how did you finally make the decision?
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I spent weeks thinking about it it.
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I talked to my parents, my teachers, and even some students who had studied abroad before.
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In the end, I asked myself one question.
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If I don't take this chance now, will I regret it later?
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And the answer was yes.
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So I decided to go.
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That's a powerful way to think about it.
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Asking yourself about future regret.
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And how did it turn out?
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The first few months were really hard.
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I missed home so much and everything felt strange, but slowly I made friends, got used to the culture, and started to enjoy the independence.
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Looking back, it was one of the best decisions of my life.
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That's inspiring.
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And I think your story shows that sometimes the most difficult decisions lead to the most growth.
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I agree.
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What about you, Jessica?
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Can you tell us about a tough decision you had to make?
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Sure.
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For me, it was deciding to leave my first job.
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It was stable and paid well, but I wasn't happy.
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I felt stuck, and I wanted to try something new.
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The problem was I didn't know if I would succeed in a new field, and I was afraid of disappointing my family.
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That's a really tough position.
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How did you deal with the fear?
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Honestly, I struggled for months.
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I made a list of pros and cons, I talked with friends, and I thought about what kind of life I wanted.
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Finally, I realized that if I stayed, I would always wonder, what if? So, I quit.
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That must have taken a lot of courage.
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It did.
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And the beginning was not easy at all.
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I had to learn new skills, start over, and face rejection.
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But in the end, it gave me confidence and opened new opportunities I never expected.
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So, both of our stories show that difficult decisions are never easy in the moment, but they can lead to growth and new opportunities.
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That's true.
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Tough choices can feel frightening, but they often help us discover who we are and what we really want in life.
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To our listeners, think about a difficult decision you made.
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How did it affect you?
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And if you want extra practice, try telling your story in English.
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It's a great way to improve your speaking skills.
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Thanks for listening to the 5-Minute English Podcast.
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We'll be back with another episode soon.
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Take care and keep practicing your English.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “[B2] Have You Ever Made a Difficult Decision?”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: decision, difficult, English, Jessica, tough. This video has 68 sentences and 613 words to shadow. The speech runs for 4:01. The speaker talks at a natural 152 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 85% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start. 11 of its 68 sentences are questions, so it is good practice for question intonation and short answers.

Key vocabulary in this video

The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:

WordPronunciationMeaning
skill noun/skɪl/A capacity to do something well; a technique, an ability, usually acquired or learned, as opposed to abilities that are regarded as innate.
topic noun/ˈtɑpɪk/A subject; a theme; a category or general area of interest.
abroad adverb/əˈbɹɔːd/Beyond the bounds of a country; in foreign countries.
regret verb/ɹɪˈɡɹɛt/To feel sorry about (a thing that has or has not happened), afterthink: to wish that a thing had not happened, that something else had happened instead.
stable noun/ˈsteɪ.bəl/A building, wing or dependency set apart and adapted for lodging and feeding (and training) ungulates, especially horses.
discover verb/dɪˈskʌvə/To find or learn something for the first time.
courage noun/ˈkʌ.ɹɪd͡ʒ/The quality of being confident, not afraid or easily intimidated, but without being incautious or inconsiderate.
succeed verb/səkˈsiːd/To follow something in sequence or time.
con verb/kɑn/To trick, lie or defraud, usually for personal gain.
lonely adjective/ˈloʊnli/Unhappy due to feeling isolated from contact with other people.
relate verb/ɹɪˈleɪt/To tell in a descriptive way.
inspire verb/ɪnˈspaɪə(ɹ)/To infuse into the mind; to communicate to the spirit; to convey, as by a divine or supernatural influence; to disclose preternaturally; to produce in, as by…
rejection noun/ɹɪˈd͡ʒɛkʃən/The act of rejecting.
disappoint verb/ˌdɪsəˈpɔɪnt/To sadden or displease (someone) by underperforming, or by not delivering something promised or hoped for.
listener noun/ˈlɪs(ə)nɚ/Someone who listens, especially to a speech or a broadcast.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

WordMeaning
look back verbTo think of (past events) in retrospect (in hindsight).
look forward to verbTo anticipate, expect, or wait for, especially with a feeling of approval or pleasure; to be excited or eager to.
start over verbto begin again; to return to the beginning
turn out verbTo end up; to result.

Sentences worth repeating

Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:

  • I'm really looking forward to today's topic.
  • Mark, can you share one difficult decision you had to make?
  • If I don't take this chance now, will I regret it later?
  • How did you deal with the fear?
  • How did it affect you?

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 8 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, didn't, don't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

How to practise with this video

  1. Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
  2. Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
  3. Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like skill, topic, abroad.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →