Shadowing Practice: Be Interested, to Be Interesting | Hao Tran | TEDxRMIT - Learn English Speaking with YouTube

Today's presentation is something that I've struggled with for the last seven years.

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Today's presentation is something that I've struggled with for the last seven years.

From the moment that I arrived here to even today,

and I've gotten better of course,

which is to be interested, to be interesting.

Those two words are very different and I'll explain what I mean by that.

And the first one, to be interested,

is the first most important step

that you can take in your own journey of discovering your own identity and your own purpose,

especially professionally but also personally.

So I'm going to start with a story from when I was 17 years old,

18 years old, which was that my high school senior year teacher,

she asked the whole class of about 30 to write letter to themselves.

And that letter to themselves would include all the goals that they would hope to achieve over the next 10 years.

And then she would send that letter back to us after 10 years to see

and reflect if we achieved those goals that we thought were possible when we were 18.

I can start by saying I accomplished none of them.

Very interesting goals now that I read them again,

but none of them were that I wasn't interested in them now that I think about it.

So why did I even pick them in the first quiz?

I'm going to share a few of them.

So the first one was to learn a new language.

So I speak English, I speak Vietnamese, I speak Spanish.

I spoke Spanish, I learned Spanish,

not because I was interested in it,

because my dad forced me to.

I lived in California where apparently everybody has to speak Spanish,

which is useful by the way.

But anyways, that was in my letter,

one of my goals, to learn a new language beyond that didn't happen.

The next goal was to become a top student.

I was the valedictorian of my high school class,

the number one student, and that university,

top student at university, and I was in the bottom 50% of my university class.

I didn't achieve that.

The next one was to become a star musician.

Like most Vietnamese Americans, I was forced to learn piano.

And somehow that was interpreted as me being a successful pianist in the future if I continued down that route.

But I quickly learned I was not interested in it.

And I wouldn't be for the next 10 years. So that didn't happen.

And the last one that I'll share today was the idea

that I would have a career at a company that I was proud to be at.

A big tech company.

I'm from Silicon Valley and my dad was one of the founding engineers of a very successful company.

My brother, similar.

I thought I would follow that path, it didn't happen.

Actually, my first job out of university, I was laid off.

I lost my job after 18 months.

And I'll share more about that as well.

So when I look at all those goals in that letter, I realized, wow.

Well, not only did I fail at all of them, but why?

It's because I wasn't interested in any of them.

And I'll share a little bit later about what goals I was actually interested in,

now that I reflect on it,

and why it's led me to be more interesting today.

And what I realize, now that I reflect on those 10 years,

it's been a bit more than 10 years now,

actually, is that this has been a journey,

and it continues to be.

of getting rid of this sense of entitlement.

Society puts all these labels on us,

and the media likes to talk about,

which is ironic because I run a media company,

tells you all about the success stories and what you should and can be.

But it's important to kind of set your own interests,

and then you will too be interesting.

Because when I wrote that letter,

and also when I moved to Vietnam when I was 23,

I was not an interesting person.

Because I was so obsessed with what people thought I should be rather than what I should have been myself.

And I'll talk about, you know,

the organizers invite me today.

A lot of people ask me,

why did you move to Vietnam?

I moved seven years ago.

You had everything going for you, which I did.

I had a high-flying tech job in California, good family.

My entire family lives there, all the good stuff.

But when I moved to Vietnam,

I realized that no one knew who I was.

I literally didn't know anybody.

And no one really cared either.

Why would they care about you?

You can tell them all these stories about how interesting you are

and how much you deserve because you have that fancy degree or this or that.

Those are good things too,

by the way, including RMIT.

But more importantly, you should be interested in the stories that you can learn from other people to be interested in yourself,

especially for young people.

And when you move to a new place,

you go to a new university,

a new job, be engaged.

And that was something that I was very lucky to have.

I didn't know this lesson,

by the way, back then,

so in retrospect, it worked out.

So I'm going to tell a quick story about how I ended it even in Vietnam in the first place.

So seven years now.

This is an email from almost exactly seven years ago.

I read on the Wall Street Journal,

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BBC or whatever it was,

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about this new venture capital fund that had just opened an office in Vietnam.

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I was so shocked.

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I was like, why would anyone do that?

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This was seven years ago, keep in mind.

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Different story now.

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And so I wrote to the partners.

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I had just come back from a trip to Vietnam, actually.

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I lost my job, as I mentioned.

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I took like a six-week kind of find-myself journey.

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And Vietnam was one of the stops.

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And I realized how the dynamic of a country was.

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As a Vietnamese-American, I didn't know very much about it.

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So I decided to engage more and when I went back to the US after this trip,

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I started researching, found these great guys,

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these two idols, people that I could see myself becoming as well in 10,

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20 years down the line.

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And I was like, why are they doing this?

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I want to know.

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So I sent this short email,

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just really short, I tried to not focus on myself too much,

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I just want to learn what they're doing and how I can get involved.

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And they actually replied.

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I was really surprised.

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These two people are super busy.

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You know, that's a lesson for you guys, by the way.

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When you send emails, keep it nice and short.

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Especially people that you think aren't busy.

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Keep it short.

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The shorter, the better.

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And they replied.

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And I remember I met with one of them,

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Bin, who is, I'm very grateful for to this day.

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A few days later we met for coffee and I remember asking him about what you're doing out there,

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you know, how can I get involved?

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He's like, how?

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Just stay where you are.

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You've got a great resume,

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you'll get another job quickly,

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which I did, and you don't want to come to Vietnam.

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And I was like, why?

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He's like, how?

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To be honest, I can't afford you.

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I said, try me.

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So he offered me $6 million a month. $250.

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That's a lot less than some of you will be making when you graduate.

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And I remember such a shock to my system because I was like,

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wow, I've worked two years full-time, right?

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Am I going to really do this?

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Am I going to take that bet on myself?

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And I did.

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But before accepting, I asked,

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can you pay for my flight?

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They ended up paying for half of my flight.

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But anyways, the lesson here,

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we look up to these idols,

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and some of them will be speaking later today as well.

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It's about being interested in what they have to know, what they know.

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Not just proving why you're interesting,

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but if you can ask the right questions,

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get them excited to share what they're going to talk about,

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like you will hear today,

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you too will be in that same position when the time comes.

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Anyways, I'm going to fast forward a little bit.

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So I moved to Vietnam for the job,

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venture capital, and within a couple months I realized,

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I was like, wow, I'm here for one year,

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I can't be just doing this,

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I've got to get out there and learn a little bit more about education,

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about food and beverage, about music,

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about all these different things.

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And that's how Vietcetera started,

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just a little blog, I would just write.

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One of the first people I met was the founders of Maru Chocolate,

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an artisanal chocolate brand here.

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I'm sure a lot of you have tried it or at least heard of it.

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And again, keep in mind,

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I was 23 years old and I was like,

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wow, I got to meet these people, yes!

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I just was so obsessed with the fact that I could put on Instagram that I met these people

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that I totally forgot that I should actually listen to the interview

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that I was doing with them so I met with them I drafted the article

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and it's still online you can read it later

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and I sent it to them before publishing again it's the first ever article I wrote back in whatever

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and they didn't reply for a week and I felt so sad I was like,

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why didn't I not reply?

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So I called them.

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I was like, yo, what's going on?

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And they replied with a very short email.

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How?

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To be honest, the article is terrible.

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And I panicked when I read that email.

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Keep in mind, I was 23 at the time.

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Looking up to my eyes, I was like, why?

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I heard the transcript of recording again.

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And I realized I wasn't listening.

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I wasn't engaged.

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I was just so obsessed with the fact that I was there.

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It was like a one-way conversation almost.

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Of course they were talking,

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but I felt like I was trying to prove myself so much about why I'm doing this company,

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this blog, why it matters,

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and I was like, just shut up.

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Just let them talk, because they have so much to share.

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A decade of experience making chocolate,

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entrepreneurship, branding, learn from these people.

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And that's what I did.

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So I fixed their article,

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sent it back to them.

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They're like, how?

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You did a 360.

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And today, actually, Maru Chocolates is one of our clients.

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So I like to tell that story sometimes at conferences,

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Vincent is still at.

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He laughs all the time.

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It's a great reflection, right?

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Anyways, the point I was trying to make there guys is when meeting anybody,

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they could be younger than you,

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older than you, more experienced,

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an entrepreneur, a future relationship, anything.

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Be interested in something so that you have something to share rather than trying to prove that you're interesting.

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And that's the idea about storytelling, right?

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It's about being interested.

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authentically curious, and you yourself will be interesting as well.

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So how does one go about doing this?

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That's the key question.

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And the rule is very simple.

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Stop trying to be interesting and focus on being interested.

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These are my interests.

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Compare them to the letters that I wrote.

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I wrote.

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I wanted to be a top student.

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I wanted to be a star musician,

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learn a bunch of languages.

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That sounds all nice and dandy.

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These may be a little bit more dry.

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Maybe?

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I don't know.

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But actually, if you ask me about these, I can talk endlessly.

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Apparently, I'm like a huge World War II history buff.

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Only like 60 year old dads are supposed to be, but I am.

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So if you ask me,

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I can give you all that.

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I love good design.

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I love travel, business, airline points.

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It's a very specific one.

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If you want to learn how to maximize your travel,

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you can ask me and I'll talk about it for hours.

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I've written blogs about it actually.

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And because I've realized over this,

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especially since moving to Vietnam,

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this journey of what am I interested in,

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I myself have now become more capable of sharing knowledge

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and quote-unquote being interesting that's I guess why I'm here to talk right

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but you asked me about languages music I just don't know

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anything I'm sorry can't help you you'll be bored to death

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so the next time you meet someone

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that you you want to learn something from you just want to meet you want to have

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that good conversation you got to get that good mutual energy transfer.

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Ask them, what are you working on that you're most excited about?

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And this question could apply to a personal relationship,

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could be a family member,

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you know, future boyfriend or girlfriend, business partner.

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And hopefully they come back with something so exciting that they love,

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that you feel inspired to,

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and you also will be interested in, interesting in.

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Thank you so much, everybody.

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Thank you.

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Shadowing Practice: Be Interested, to Be Interesting | Hao Tran | TEDxRMIT - Learn English Speaking with YouTube

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Shadowing Practice: Be Interested, to Be Interesting | Hao Tran | TEDxRMIT - Learn English Speaking with YouTube

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Why practice speaking with this video?

Grammar & Expressions in Context

Common Pronunciation Traps

What is the Shadowing Technique?