Shadowing Practice: becoming smart is easy, actually - Learn English Speaking with YouTube
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So you want to become smart.
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So you want to become smart.
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In most of the world,
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you're told that it takes 12 years of school,
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plus 4 years of college,
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plus 6 years of graduate school to become smart.
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But what you actually become is homeless.
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That's not even a joke.
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But on the bright side,
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when you make a Reddit post about how you can't get a job,
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you can do it in perfect English.
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If you haven't guessed by the title,
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becoming smart is actually very easy.
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Even if you think your genetics make you dumb,
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If you compare yourself to every other animal, you're actually pretty overpowered.
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When people like you and me say we want to get smarter,
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it means a bunch of things.
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We want to learn useful skills,
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ideally skills that make money.
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We want to be good at solving problems, hopefully for money.
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We want to get better greeds and learn difficult subjects to make more money,
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and also to flex on people.
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And lastly, we want to sound smart in conversation,
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just enough so people respect you,
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but not too much to the point where people think you're a nerd.
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The problem is, most advice on the internet is so vague and philosophical that even if it works,
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the only people who could actually follow it are Oprah and Socrates.
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And if you instead look for specific advice that you can actually try right now,
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this is what you get.
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Eat blueberries cause they're brain food.
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Drink black coffee.
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Exercise.
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Sleep more.
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Take IQ tests.
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Listen to classical music.
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These things sound good, but at some point you have to,
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you know, actually learn stuff.
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Besides, even in the past,
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there have been some geniuses who've spent the whole day sitting at a desk,
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getting two to four hours of sleep a day.
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So what can you actually do to get smarter?
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That's not just the same six brain hacks from a Facebook post copied
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and pasted from a WikiHow article inspired by a quote spray-painted on a New York subway wall.
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The main thing you need to do is read.
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What kind of reading?
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It depends.
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Fiction is good for learning to read faster,
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and it gives you better vocabulary.
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Also, if you read a lot of dialogue,
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it makes you feel like you have friends.
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But most people go straight for non-fiction,
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which indeed is the key to being able to casually drop interesting knowledge in conversations.
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For example, just by reading this book,
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you can come off to anyone in conversation as someone who knows history.
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The key is to not be obnoxious about it.
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Crazy how he evolved from chimpanzees, right?
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Well, actually, evolution is non-linear and several human-like species inhabited Earth simultaneously,
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none of which could even be remotely considered as chimpanzees.
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While this is considered polite by the standards of a YouTube comment section,
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in real life, saying a well actually before proving someone wrong will make you instantly unlikable.
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Change the well to an easy, and now we're talking.
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Let's redo that conversation.
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Crazy how we evolved from chimpanzees, right?
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It is crazy, right?
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You know, I was reading the other day and apparently humans and chimpanzees I always thought we evolved from them,
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but I guess we just evolved side by side.
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You can be smart while also being humble and also sounding like you touch grass.
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The key is to teach people what you know without making them sound dumb.
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This way, people will actually learn from you,
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which will make them see you as smart and respectable.
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Now, how do you find these books?
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It's actually really easy.
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You don't have to read the same five books everyone tells you to read.
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Just think of a topic you want to learn about.
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Like cleaning.
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Now Google books about cleaning.
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Here's one that looks good.
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Usually, these books cost money.
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But if your finger slips,
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you might accidentally end up on this website.
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And you might accidentally search for the title of the book.
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And by chance, click on the first link.
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And oh no, accidentally downloaded a file.
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and opened it with the appropriate ebook viewer?
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Well now that you have the book,
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you'll also find that not only can you pick out interesting tidbits to use in conversations,
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but you can also learn many useful skills.
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There are 10 things you should know before you learn a skill.
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1. Unless you practice the skill,
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your brain will think it's useless and forget it.
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2. You only have to know 20% of the knowledge to master 80% of the skill.
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So I guess we could just move on.
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This is called the learning curve.
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It's a graph of how good you get at a skill over time.
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As you can see, just by practicing a little bit,
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you can make a lot of progress in the beginning.
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But you have to practice.
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No one ever learned how to tie a tie by watching how to tie a tie.
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You only learned how to tie a tie by watching how to tie a tie while tying a tie.
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The same applies to reading.
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Books only make you smart if you give your brain a reason to remember the stuff in the book.
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So once you read the chapter on cleaning a bedroom,
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go ahead and clean a bedroom.
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Doesn't even have to be your bedroom.
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Just clean one.
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and now you'll never forget it.
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But let's just imagine that's something that you can't practice right now.
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Like imagine you're reading a book about cars
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and then you see this diagram of how to jumpstart a dead car with a good car.
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Ideally, you'll read about it and then go practice it.
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But not everyone has two cars lying around to practice on.
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But you can still practice it by just imagining.
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Imagine the moment where you'll need to know how to jumpstart a car.
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Put yourself in the situation.
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Find a video and pretend that's your car.
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By imagining the whole process from start to finish,
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you just convinced your brain that you used all that information and now you'll remember it.
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Meanwhile, the person who just looked at the diagram
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and tried to memorize it still won't know what to do if they ever had to jumpstart a car.
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This is how you get smart.
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Use everything you learn and if you can't,
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imagine yourself in the moment where it'll be useful.
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This is basically how the entire school system works.
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You learn a piece of information,
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and because it'll be like 15 years before you actually use it,
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your teacher creates an imaginary situation where that information is useful.
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That is, a test.
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An exam that has questions on that exact piece of information,
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and if you get it wrong, you fail.
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Or in South Korea, you get prison time.
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Just kidding, that's only if you cheat.
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This is usually enough to make your brain at least attempt to remember the information.
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The only problem is, once the test is over,
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your brain says it's not useful anymore, and you forget it.
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Some people think repetition, or spaced repetition,
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or studying in intervals, or mind mapping will help them get better grades and learn faster.
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But in reality, doing practice questions will give you the most results,
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because they simulate the actual situation in which you'll need to use what you learned.
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If you don't have any practice questions,
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make your own, and convince yourself that the stakes are high.
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Like, pretend that you're hanging off a cliff by one arm,
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and someone's there to pull you up,
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but only if you can name all the parts of a human cell.
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Learning information and making it seem useful to your brain is all you need to get smart,
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and this is why textbooks are the S-tier format for becoming smart as fast as possible.
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There's no fluff, no hand-holding,
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no distractions, just pure information and a bunch of practice questions,
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and if you can't solve them,
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you have to flip all the way to page XXXVVIII in the appendix to get help.
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Textbooks aren't for the casual learner,
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because it's not as fun as watching a YouTube video on the topic and forgetting it all an hour later.
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But if you're ever up to the challenge,
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there is a website you might accidentally end up on where you could accidentally download free textbooks on any subject you want.
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But before you do that,
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About This Lesson
In this lesson, you will practice your English speaking skills through the engaging topic of becoming smarter and the various ways to achieve it. By listening to the presented ideas, you will not only expand your vocabulary but also enhance your pronunciation, making your speech clearer and more confident. This lesson is perfect for those looking to improve English pronunciation, particularly useful for IELTS speaking practice. You’ll focus on how to incorporate practical advice into your everyday learning while developing your ability to express thoughts effectively.
Key Vocabulary & Phrases
- Brain food: Foods believed to improve brain function.
- Non-fiction: Literature based on facts and real events.
- Vocabulary: The set of words known and used by a person.
- Sleep more: An important factor for cognitive functions.
- Exercise: Physical activity to improve health and mental clarity.
- Skills that make money: Practical abilities aimed at earning income.
- Solve problems: The act of finding solutions to challenges.
- Dialogue: A conversation between two or more people, important for language learning.
Practice Tips
To maximize your learning through this lesson, engage in shadow speak exercises. Here’s how to effectively incorporate shadowing into your practice:
- Listen carefully: Pay attention to the speed and tone of the speaker. The transcript might be fast-paced, so it's important to keep up without losing meaning.
- Repeat after the speaker: Try to match not just the words but also the intonation and emotion behind them.
- Focus on clarity: As you practice, concentrate on pronouncing words clearly. This will enhance your English pronunciation and overall fluency.
- Record yourself: Use recording tools to listen to your shadowing efforts. This helps you identify areas for improvement and track your progress over time.
- Engage with the content: After shadowing, summarize what you learned in your own words. This reinforces memory and builds confidence in speaking.
Through these activities, you will not only become more proficient in your speaking abilities but also actively engage with the content, fostering a deeper understanding of the subject matter while participating in your journey to become smarter.
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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