Shadowing Practice: Don't Try - The Philosophy of Charles Bukowski - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Charles Bukowski was a 20th century American writer and poet known for his unfiltered, potent, and often crude takes on life.
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Bukowski was born in Germany in 1920 and then emigrated with his family to America in 1923.
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Bukowski had a horrible childhood, beaten regularly by his father, starting at age six.
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As an immigrant from Germany, Bukowski was ridiculed by other kids for his accent and clothing, ostracized as an outcast throughout his schooling.
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Into his teenage years, Bukowski developed a condition that covered his face with extreme acne and acne-related blemishes, further intensifying his self-consciousness in isolation.
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The circumstances of abuse and loneliness imposed on Bukowski as a young child
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and adolescent laid the groundwork for his perspective on life and his desire to express himself as a writer.
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In an interview much later in his life, Bukowski said that his father was a great literary teacher because he taught him the meaning of pain, more specifically, pain without reason.
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When you get the shit kicked out of you long enough, you will have a tendency to say what you really mean," said Bukowski.
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In his 20s, after two years at college, Bukowski would quit school and make his first real attempt at becoming a professional writer, bouncing around the United States,
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doing short-term blue-collar jobs while writing hundreds of short stories.
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However, out of the hundreds of stories, only a couple during this time would go on to get published, and the ones that did found essentially no success.
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After a couple years, Bukowski basically stopped writing altogether, disappointed by the publishing process and his apparent inability to write well enough to be successful.
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Bukowski would go on to work various blue-collar jobs for several years thereafter.
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Then in 1955, at 35 years old, after about 10 years of not writing, Bukowski nearly died from a serious bleeding ulcer.
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He survived, however, and then soon after, as fate would have it, Bukowski quit his job, which was at the post office at the time, and began writing again.
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A couple more years went by and Bukowski would publish several pieces during this time, but But still, nothing was providing much success, and he was forced to return to the post office of which he had originally quit.
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Counter to the original time though, this time, Bukowski continued writing while at the post office.
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Before his shift, he would use whatever time he had to write.
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Bukowski would continue in this for many years, getting a collection of pieces published here and there in underground magazines, all with very little success.
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With no real sight of success or money or fame or even just creating a living from writing, Bukowski continued writing nearly every day before work for years.
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Of course, we know how Bukowski's story ended.
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He is being spoken about right now as a writer.
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A renowned, successful, and important enough one to be spoken about with significance decades after his passing, to be considered one of the greats of all time.
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Bukowski, however, didn't end up becoming traditionally or publicly successful until he was into his 50s, many more years into the second stint of working at the post office.
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Only after a long, continued attempt at writing did Bukowski's work finally become noticed and appreciated by an audience, and only after a deal with a publisher who agreed to find Bukowski's work,
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did Bukowski begin to make any sort of living from it.
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At 50 years old, on the tail end of the traditional career timeline, Bukowski got his first real shot and took it.
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After it would seem like to many that it was over, it began, and he would soon become increasingly successful and famous in the literary world and culture at large not long after.
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It took Bukowski years and years of writing and toiling
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and trying to finally have circumstances work out in his favor so he could gain traction and find success as a writer.
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To get what he wanted since he was a teenager and fulfill what he believed his life was for.
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In this, it is at least initially perplexing that his gravestone reads, right now, don't try.
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A message that seems rather grim, especially for a gravestone, as well as counterintuitive to his story.
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How could a man who became successful in fulfilling his idea of himself, a man who, although it took a while, found immense respect and recognition for his craft, all because of his relentless trying,
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how could this man leave the words, don't try, as his final offering?
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Arguably, Perhaps this is where the most important idea can be found, not only in Bukowski's work, but in Bukowski's life.
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In a letter to William Packard, a publisher, friend and fellow writer, Bukowski wrote, Too many writers write for the wrong reasons.
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They want to get famous, or they want to get rich, or they want to get laid by the girls with the blue bells in their hair.
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When everything works best, it's not because you chose writing, but because writing chose you.
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It's when you're mad with it, when it's stuffed in your ears, nostrils, under your fingernails.
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when there's no hope but that.
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In this letter, Bukowski is referring to aspiring writers, but he's arguably referring to something much larger, the notion of purpose and success and creative endeavors in general.
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When you were very young and someone asked you for the first time what your favorite color was, and you decided that it was blue or red or whatever else,
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perhaps it felt like a choice, but it wasn't really.
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No one chooses how colors make them feel and why some seem to paint onto the brain with better feelings than others.
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We can describe the reasons why we like the colors we like, but we can't choose why we do.
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The color, sort of, chooses us.
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In a relatively low-stakes situation like our favorite color, it's easy to just realize which one feels best and declare it without trying.
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How one defines their purpose and carries out the bulk of their life, however, is not so easy nor so low-stakes, making it inevitably more complicated, convoluted, and challenging.
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Although, perhaps it is, at its core, somewhat the same as knowing your favorite color.
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In the same letter to Packard, Bukowski went on to say, We work too hard.
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We try too hard.
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Don't try.
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Don't work.
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It's there, looking right at us, aching to kick out of the closed room.
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In this, Bukowski alludes to the idea that if you have to try to try, if you have to try to care about something or have to try to want something, perhaps you don't care about it,
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and perhaps you don't want it, perhaps it isn't your favorite color.
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Throughout his life, Bukowski constantly returned to writing, never reducing or modifying his voice for the sake of something else,
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never letting the rejection or the suffering throughout the process ultimately take writing away from him.
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It's not that Bukowski didn't try, it's that he didn't try to be something that he wasn't.
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He tried to be a writer, but he didn't try to want to be a writer.
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Nor did he try to write how he wanted to write, he just did it and kept on doing it.
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At least creatively, we seem to often perform at our best when we are ourselves, natural and honest, attending to who we really are and what we really want to say or do,
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without the addition of ulterior motives, without forcing it or overthinking too much.
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And perhaps this is, in part, what Bukowski meant.
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Truthfully, no one other than Bukowski can say or know exactly what Bukowski ever really thought or meant in anything.
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And none of this is to suggest that something as hard
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and complicated as purpose and passion and desire and success is easy or prescribable.
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Because it isn't.
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It's all as unclear and complicated as the very brain that contrives the whole system.
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And it's not as if writing or filmmaking or painting or making music or business or whatever else else, must come easy to the writer or filmmaker or painter
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or musician etc. in order for it to be the right thing or for them to be great at it.
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But it is likely, however, that if the pain and endurance of working through the process does not feel worth it,
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and you are not compelled to do it even in the face of rejection or hardship or sacrifice, then perhaps it is here where Bukowski might say, don't try.
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But if it does, if the thought of not doing the thing hurts more than the thought of potentially suffering through the process, if the thought of a life without it or never having tried it at all terrifies you.
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If it comes to you, through you, out of you, almost as if you're not trying, perhaps Bukowski might say, here, try.
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And if you're going to try, go all the way.
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Charles Bukowski.
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You can find the Patreon page by clicking on the link in the description or the icon on the screen.
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Thanks again for watching and see you next video.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This C1 speaking lesson is built on the video “Don't Try - The Philosophy of Charles Bukowski”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: Bukowski, writing, writer, perhaps, color. This video has 81 sentences and 1551 words to shadow. The speech runs for 7:38. The speaker talks fast, about 203 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.
Key vocabulary in this video
The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| litter noun | /ˈlɪt.ɚ/ | Straw, grass, and similar loose material used as bedding for people or animals. |
| gravestone noun | /ˈɡɹeɪvstoʊn/ | A stone slab set at the head of a grave. |
| circumstance noun | /ˈsɝ.kəmˌstæns/ | Something which is related to, or in some way affects, a fact or event. |
| acne noun | /ˈækni/ | A skin condition, usually of the face, that is common in adolescents. It is characterised by red pimples, and is caused by the inflammation of sebaceous glands… |
| fulfill verb | /fʊlˈfɪl/ | To satisfy, carry out, bring to completion (an obligation, a requirement, etc.). |
| rejection noun | /ɹɪˈd͡ʒɛkʃən/ | The act of rejecting. |
| arguably adverb | /ˈɑɹɡjuəbli/ | As can be supported or proven by sound logical deduction, evidence, and precedent, but without absolute certainty. |
| collar noun | /ˈkɑlɚ/ | The part of an upper garment (shirt, jacket, etc.) that fits around the neck and throat, especially if sewn from a separate piece of fabric. |
| allude verb | /əˈljuːd/ | To refer to something indirectly or by suggestion; to invoke it by implication rather than mention. |
| aspire verb | /əˈspaɪɚ/ | To have a strong desire or ambition to achieve something. |
| blemish noun | /ˈblɛmɪʃ/ | A small flaw which spoils the appearance of something, a stain, a spot. |
| compel verb | /kəmˈpɛl/ | To overpower; to subdue. |
| contrive verb | /kənˈtɹaɪv/ | To invent by an exercise of ingeniosity; to devise |
| convoluted adjective | /ˌkɑnvəˈlutəd/ | Having numerous overlapping coils or folds; convolute. |
| counterintuitive adjective | /ˌkaʊntəɹɪnˈtuɪtɪv/ | Contrary to intuition or common sense. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| bounce around verb | To discuss or brainstorm (ideas) on a topic. | |
| carry out verb | /ˈkæ.ɹi aʊt/ | To hold while moving it out. |
| end up verb | To bring to a conclusion. | |
| work through verb | To get past a difficult or stressful situation by thinking or talking about it. |
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | was born · was ridiculed · was forced |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | job, which was · man who became |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 19 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, didn't, you're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: truthfully /ˈtɹuːθ.fəl.i/, thereafter /ˌðɛɹˈæf.tɚ/, altogether /ɔl.tuˈɡɛð.ɚ/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: rejection /ɹɪˈd͡ʒɛkʃən/, blemish /ˈblɛmɪʃ/, hardship /ˈhɑɹdˌʃɪp/, traction /ˈtɹæk.ʃən/, musician /mjuˈzɪʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: convoluted /ˌkɑnvəˈlutəd/, counterintuitive /ˌkaʊntəɹɪnˈtuɪtɪv/, creatively /kɹiˈeɪtɪvli/, intensify /ɪnˈtɛnsɪfaɪ/, ulterior /ʌlˈtɪɚ.i.ɚ/
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 litter, gravestone, circumstance.
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.