Shadowing Practice: Can Adults Learn a New Language? - Learn English Speaking with Video

Is it possible to learn a language as an adult and if it is possible,

how is it different from learning a language as a child?

In this episode we are going to be speaking all about the process of learning a language as a grown-up,

as an adult and I'm going to talk about my absolute

favourite thing which is how I as a 23 year old I'm not 23 now

but when I was 23 I learnt my very very first kind of extra language

so prior to that point I only spoke English

and I want to kind of explain what

that experience was was like for me some of the feelings I had at various different stages of language learning

and maybe some of these stages will be in the same point

that you are maybe you will relate to some of the things

that I explain and you can know that hey

if you are studying English everything you're feeling right now is probably very very normal my name is Evie

and you are listening to the English podcast,

a podcast to help English learners practice their listening comprehension while they do other things.

So listen to this while you walk the dog, listen to this podcast while you brush your teeth, anything.

It's for you to practice English while you are a busy person basically.

I am really really interested and really really passionate about the process of learning a language as an adult.

So I work as an English teacher and I only work with with adult students.

I also make YouTube videos with with adults in mind

so I will swear in my videos it's

because all of my audience is adult

but I wanted to explain like a little bit about my background

and kind of my linguistic background as well so you can understand why I became so passionate and interested in languages.

I grew up in the UK so I am from the UK,

my family only speak English and in the UK we do study languages in school but it's not,

you will struggle to find British people

that speak languages other than English unless they maybe grew up in a family

which has you know grandparents or parents which speak another language as their mother tongue.

It's quite uncommon to find British people who speak French or Spanish or,

you know, something like this for any reason other than their parents are from there.

We do study languages in school in the UK, but it starts typically, it starts when you are, how old?

11 or 12 years old when you go to secondary school, which is, it's like our high school.

And you normally study French, Spanish or German.

And it's not even compulsory in many schools.

So in my school, you have to study it for two years, French or Spanish.

But then you can choose if you want to study or which one you want to do.

I, in school, this is so crazy now with my job, but I hated languages.

I found them really, really boring.

I couldn't speak and I misbehaved in class like all the time.

I was so badly behaved in school.

So I did not study French.

I did not study Spanish.

I just I just could not understand like languages.

For some reason, my brain was just not interested.

My whole life, basically all of my childhood and adolescence, I only spoke English.

The moment for me where this began to change is when I was at university.

So I went to university in London.

I had my friend group, you know, all English speakers.

And then I went on a study abroad.

So I had a year studying abroad in the United States.

And if anyone here has been on study abroad before, you'll probably know that usually all of the international kids or like adults,

students, they all group together I guess because we're outsiders

because we're only there for one year

so we find other people who you know are only there for a short time as well

and you kind of all go together

so I made friends with lots of people from all over

the world um in particular there were three Spanish people two boys

and girl and we all became friends like this big group

and I had another friend who spoke English

and Japanese another friend who spoke like Mandarin and English

and I was literally wowed by my friends like they we would go to Mexico

and they could switch languages they would go on the phone with their parents

and they could just switch between like English and Japanese

and I was so impressed like I was so fascinated too

because my brain only understood English the idea of having a brain

that could think of things in two different ways

or with two different linguistic structures was so fascinating to me and so impressive and I,

my poor friends, I had so many questions.

I was like, what language do you dream in?

Which language do you think sounds more beautiful?

I had so many questions for my friends and they were very lovely and answered all of my questions,

but I was so inspired by them and admired them

so much and their ability to move to a new country and speak English.

I just thought they were amazing. And eventually,

um I started dating one of the Spanish guys it's my boyfriend he's he's still dating me now

and we started dating and I went to Spain to visit his hometown

and meet his family and meet his friends

and I only spoke English still I had not tried to learn Spanish

and I went to Spain and I would go to like the bars

or go to the restaurants and I would meet his friends

and obviously if they're all together

and they all speak Spanish they're going to speak Spanish so

and some people don't actually you know speak great English

or don't feel very confident with their English

which is you know I can't expect everybody to change just for me

so I would be sat there

and my boyfriend would have to like translate absolutely everything into Spanish

so I would always be like 20 seconds behind in the conversation I couldn't really contribute

and I just remember feeling like this is actually embarrassing

because as a Brit we go away we go anywhere in the world

and we just expect everybody to speak in English with us,

we do, like we go abroad and we will quite confidently order food in English

and just hope that everybody will speak English with us

and I remember feeling like okay I really need to try

and try and learn Spanish so that when I go to Spain, I can interact with people and like form a relationship with the,

you know, the loved ones of my partner.

But I was, I was really worried because I,

I genuinely believed at this point that you could learn a language as a child or maybe as a teenager,

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but once you became an adult, I just believed it was impossible.

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I don't know if I had read that online

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or whether it's just something that people say they say

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that yeah when you're a kid your brain is like a sponge

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and you can learn languages really easily but

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when you're an adult it's basically like never gonna it's never gonna happen is what I I believed um

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but I decided you know what like I'm not I'm not

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stupid like I'm a clever person like I well I hope

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so but I I was like I'm smart like I'm sure I can I can do this

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so I had to go back to the UK for my final year of university

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and I decided to enroll in a beginner Spanish course my degree was in history in international history

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so languages had nothing to do with what I studied

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but I signed up

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and I was feeling like confident guys I was like you

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know what like my like boyfriend is Spanish like I will

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be able to practice Spanish with him like surely I'm gonna go into this class

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and I'm gonna like I'm gonna smash this I'm gonna I'm gonna get straight A's

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and I went into that first week and I left and I was absolutely mind blown.

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Like I was trying to understand the fact that

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language does not only exist in one way and there were really really basic concepts that were completely blowing my mind.

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After like a few weeks I was beginning to like sit some exams, like sit some writing exams, sit some speaking exams.

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And I was doing absolutely awful.

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Okay, like I was getting B's, but I'm somebody, I want A plus, you know.

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And I was there for three months and I was studying, I was going home and writing flashcards,

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and my grades still sucked.

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And I could not understand why I was so shit at Spanish

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and I was like oh my god what have I done

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I have signed up for this class knowing full well

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that I'm 23 and I'm too old to ever learn a language

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and it was the last year of my degree

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and I was super stressed and it got to a point where I

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I went to my Spanish teacher and I started crying

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so dramatic now it's like oh my god there are bigger problems in the world

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but I was just feeling so disheartened

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and I felt like learning a language was seriously impossible um

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and then I decided okay like my teacher told me don't worry this happens to everyone,

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like you are actually doing really well, so stop panicking basically.

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And I decided to go away and go on Google and start searching like okay how,

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what do people recommend to learn Spanish on your own?

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And when I was on Reddit I found a post of somebody talking about a website called Dreaming Spanish

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which is basically like a website with videos for Spanish learners starting at like super beginner

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so somebody who knows nothing

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and going up to like an advanced level it's not super advanced

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but a more complicated level

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and the way these videos worked were they were designed to be understandable even

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if you did not know any of the words.

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So right now I'm holding a glass of water

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and the video would be like this is a glass of water okay like you can understand

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that right and I was like okay if people on reddit

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you know not a good source of information but

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if people on reddit say

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that this is the way to study spanish then that's what i'm going to do

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and basically every single day in january i would listen to

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videos in spanish for i think like at the beginning it was only half an hour every day

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and my brain would hurt.

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I don't know if you have had this before, if you listen to lots of videos in English, like your brain actually starts aching like it's done a workout

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and in the beginning that was what was happening to me

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but with time I could listen to more and more

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and more and I started going to like an hour a day

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and then two hours a day and then three hours a day,

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crazy, of listening to Spanish and this was the real moment where I started to see great progress with my language abilities.

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So in the beginning I was only listening to Dreaming Spanish

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and then I started listening to like a gaming channel made for beginners called Spanish Boost Gaming

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and a podcast by Español Con Juan

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and these two things like changed it for me like changed learning Spanish

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because I would listen to the podcast when I was doing other things

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and the gaming videos were just so entertaining to watch

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that I could watch them for hours every day and not feel like I was studying.

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So shout out Spanish Boost Gaming because that is one of the things

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that inspired me to make this channel was the feeling of kind of watching these videos.

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Anyway, I was feeling great.

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It was coming up to the final exam for my Spanish course at university

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and I decided it would be a good idea to visit my boyfriend in Spain, have like a week where I only spoke Spanish.

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So I went to Spain, I was feeling so good, like for the first time I felt like I could actually sort of have a conversation.

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I was really bad at using like proper grammar, my past tense was rubbish but I went to Spain

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and my boyfriend said oh let's go hang out with with my friends you know the people

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that I had previously been sat there and not saying anything

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and I was like okay yeah like I've got this

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and we went there was like 10 people sat at this table

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and everyone is speaking Spanish and guys I could not understand a single fucking word like

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not one and I remember in this moment feeling so disappointed and upset

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because I had literally spent hours every day for months studying Spanish it had like taken over my life

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and I really enjoyed it and I really enjoyed the process

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but to work so hard at something and then be in this situation

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and be completely like helpless was so discouraging and disappointing

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and you know I could not understand a word like it

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might as well have been Arabic like I just could not understand anything

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and I remember leaving this dinner

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and just again a lot of crying I cried I literally left this dinner

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and cried because in English I think I I feel very confident like speaking with new people

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and I feel very confident and outgoing

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but in Spanish I had this inability to be myself

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and it was really it really like made me feel awful

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um again I I tried to bounce back from it I went back to the UK, I did my exam, it went really well, I got a great grade,

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flex, but I got a great grade and then I was like, okay, if I'm going to, you know, understand these people in Spanish,

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like I need to try and listen to more native content, I can't stay with the learner content,

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so I began to listen to some easier native content

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and I've mentioned this in a few videos

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but from my experience with Spanish

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if you can understand my videos the easiest native content to then understand is like true crime,

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reality tv, especially dating shows and before you tell me like that's bad advice

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because they don't speak properly oh just it doesn't matter it's for learning.

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You don't have to speak like Molly May, who is a famous reality TV star, but it's just good to practice.

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You don't have to speak like them, okay?

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So true crime, reality TV, gaming videos are usually very descriptive of what is happening

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and some streamers as well will repeat themselves multiple times so the chat like can catch up with them, so that's another good one.

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And once I started doing this, I feel like I started getting better.

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And then I started taking Spanish classes like one on one.

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And then in January of 2025, no, 2026.

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But this this January, I went back to Spain.

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And for the first time, I could understand groups of people

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and it was literally it was the best like most rewarding feeling

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because I'd spent so many hours studying

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and I finally could actually communicate in a in a conversation and participate in a group setting

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my Spanish is not perfect but I now feel like it's actually usable

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so that was the most amazing thing ever

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and it just made it all feel worth it this this moment

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when I went to Spain it was a whole week only in Spanish

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and there were very few moments where I felt out of my depth like uncomfortable with my abilities.

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The reason why I'm telling you this story, and I know it's very long, it's because it's like my favourite thing to talk about,

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but also I want you to know that it is actually possible as an adult.

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I think many people say like you can learn a language as a child

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or you as an adult need to learn a language like you did

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when you were a child

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and as an adult you feel like you're on the back foot when it comes to language learning.

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I have been doing like a little bit of reading about this.

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I am by no means an expert.

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I feel like with my linguistics reading.

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I'm a bit, I'm still a bit behind, like I'm still in the 1900s reading, I need to get some more up-to-date stuff.

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But adults can still learn languages,

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it's just obviously a little bit different from when you are a child

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and a lot of that is to do with mentality.

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So adults actually learn languages quicker than children do.

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And you might be like, no way, but think about it, children, their brains are still developing, so it takes them years to learn a language.

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Adults can understand rules much faster than children can,

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but one thing that holds adult learners back is they always want to understand why.

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They will be told a grammar rule and they think, why

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or adults are very prone to it's very common for them

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to research like I know I've done this I will research

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how to learn Spanish instead of actually engaging with the language

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or studying so just try and avoid doing that too much try

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and keep we say like the eyes on the prize okay Keep the eyes on the prize.

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Focus on what it is you should be doing,

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which is engaging with English in a way that is fun and enjoyable and that you like to do.

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I have many students now, like I mentioned before, all of my students are adults

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and they range from like 18 to I don't know how old my oldest student is, but in his 60s.

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And I see improvement in my students every single week, every single month.

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If you want it and you're an adult, do not let your age stop you because you can improve

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and you will improve if you keep working and if you enjoy it, if you engage with it.

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In particular, a lot of linguistics papers will speak about adult brains having like a filter.

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okay it's like a filter it's something which prevents information from going in to your brain

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um adults I feel like are worse at this because we try

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and analyze things because we lack confidence we actually prevent ourselves from fully engaging

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and enjoying and learning in a way that's fun.

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So this is why I make videos that are maybe more like vlogs or more casual, I think.

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It's because I was A, really inspired by this Spanish Boost gaming channel,

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because that was one of the things that made me improve so much with Spanish, is when I stopped overthinking it so much

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and having language learning be something that I feel nervous about

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and sick about and awful then I just improved and improved and improved so enjoy English if you can.

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If you ever want recommendations for you know native content do let me know.

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I have one video where I talk about some of my favourite YouTube channels

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but I would also love to make one on like maybe TV shows or documentaries.

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I just don't know what streaming platforms you guys have.

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Obviously, my audience is very international.

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So in the UK, we have like Netflix.

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Some people have Amazon.

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Some people might have like Disney Plus.

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I only have Netflix, but I would love to know what you what you have

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and what you watch and then maybe I can give some some suggestions from there

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if you are trying to get a question to me I

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am often better at checking comments on like my recent upload

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so anyway just pop it in there or on my Instagram I do check Instagram um but yeah

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I just wanted to say I hope this was inspiring

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or useful that you know now

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that learning a language as an adult learning English as an adult is possible

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and you can do it and

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if you are listening to this podcast you are doing it there are lots of phrases

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and expressions and some good vocabulary Larry in this one

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so I hope that you enjoyed it

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and have a lovely rest of your morning or your afternoon

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or your evening thank you so very much I will see you in the next one bye

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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 →

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