Shadowing Practice: Dylan Palacio: 'I'm a dangerous man when it comes to freedom' - Learn English Speaking with Video

Let me just get some more if I could.

You can say some more.

You're about to break it down.

I got a feeling.

You're getting some power.

You're getting ahead of steam.

I had to say something deep.

Or at least try to.

Wow.

All right.

Let's chat.

Let's talk.

All right, so what was the question?

Finish the roll for the fall.

I mean, I'll tell you what.

Visualization is a serious thing.

It's a real thing.

And I remember back in TC3, because yes, I went to TC3, let it be known.

I went to a community college, and then I went to the Ivy League.

I want everyone to make sure they remember that.

I don't forget my roots.

Shout out to soccer there.

All my best friends, Mickey Brown.

I remember these people in the past that I crossed with.

And one thing it was, it was always visualization.

I remember older guys would laugh at me because I would play my come out song.

I would play it, and they would say, what are you doing?

And I would be like, I'm just practicing my moment.

And they would laugh.

But when that moment came, my freshman debut, and that song was playing, I reminded myself how much I knew this was going to happen.

The future.

You have to believe in it and believe in yourself.

You know?

So when I'm out there, I visualize this moment.

What would it feel like?

And it was all so real.

You know, visualization.

I let go of the balloon.

Let go of everything that's holding you down in this life.

And that's all I did here today.

I visualize it.

When I spent my spring break in a hospital two years in a row, I canceled my trips.

I had trips to go down south, enjoy my time off the traveling.

No. two years in a hospital and there was no cameras.

The only people who were with me were El Fordy.

They nurture me back here right now.

So when I'm going out there and they're sending me texts like, Bro, it don't even matter what you do.

We love you independent of results.

How could you not feel freedom to do whatever you want out there?

To have no walls, no boundaries.

To act simply as the art it is.

Because this is an art and we pervert from that.

As we get older it's about money or whatever it is, fame, I don't care.

I don't care.

But when you get back to the kid, the root of it all, why you started in the first place, it was all for the love.

Like a little kid, a flow state.

A flow state.

Maybe not as immature, but a flow state nonetheless, where you don't care about results.

And the people who you love, who truly love you, they don't care about those results either.

And I'm a dangerous man when it comes to freedom.

I'm a dangerous man when I have a freedom to express my heart.

Because I'm crazy like that. So open-minded.

I think a lot of people have concerns coming in with less than 10 matches into the national tournament.

Thank you.

Did that ever concern you?

And obviously you showed a lot of people that 10 matches is all you need to come in here and perform.

Listen, I mean, listen, it wasn't my choice.

You know what I'm saying?

You can only do what's in front of you.

There's obstacles every step of the way.

And we always define ourselves by that next obstacle.

All the time.

I said this yesterday.

It's the next test.

It's the next job interview.

It's the next thing that we just feel so constrained in a box.

But let me ask you something.

If you talk about boiling water for a second, if I ask you to look in your reflection of boiling water, what would you see?

You would see nothing.

You would see a mirage.

Or like, you can't see the answer.

Similar to life.

If I come in here, 10 matches, oh my god, and I just get mad, angry, upset, or feel despair for everything that's happened, or let those words get to me,

at the end of the day, it's gonna be like this, like boiling water.

You can't look inside yourself for the answers.

You gotta be calm with it.

So the 10 matches, I was always calm.

And I had people around me nurturing me.

Shout again to Chris Horvath, Brett O'Neil, Jay Kapinski.

These people nurtured my souls.

And my best friend died.

I couldn't wrestle anymore.

When you throw yourself at your job or your work or your passion, when you still have so much emotionally to still grieve and to get over, you're going to resent your passion.

And I didn't want to do that in any facet of life.

I'm like, yeah, I sacrificed half my season.

But it kinda worked out so far.

I'm a two-time All-American, a two-time El American, but I'm still El Foti.

100

I'm still Long Beach.

101

Cornell did not change a thing about me.

102

I still talk to my people from Long Island.

103

I got Kim here, Kim.

104

Kim remembers me from high school, right, Kim?

105

I got Nikki Garron.

106

I'm still the same me, the people's champ.

107

Everything the people can't be.

108

Everything the people can't be.

109

I wanna be that character.

110

Have you wrestled LaVallia?

111

I don't even know who won, but same thing.

112

I'm just gonna go out there and just wrestle.

113

The semis, I don't really care.

114

I don't care.

115

I mean, I would love to be in the national finals, wrestling NOLF, not only for me, but that's what everybody wants to see.

116

Everybody.

117

You know what I'm saying?

118

I would love to give the crowd exactly what they asked for.

119

Well, congratulations on the big win.

120

Thank you.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “Dylan Palacio: 'I'm a dangerous man when it comes to freedom'”. This video has 120 sentences and 1012 words to shadow. The speech runs for 5:00. The speaker talks fast, about 202 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 84% 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
wrestle verb	/ˈɹɛs(ə)l/	To take part in (a wrestling bout or match).
nurture noun	/ˈnɜːɹ.t͡ʃəɹ/	The act of nourishing or nursing; tender care
visualization noun	/ˌvɪʒ.ʊ.ə.laɪˈzeɪ.ʃən/	The act of visualizing, or something visualized.
boil verb	/bɔɪ(ə)l/	To heat to the point where it begins to turn into a gas.
visualize verb	/ˈvɪʒuəˌlaɪz/	To perceive (something) visually; to see.
obstacle noun	/ˈɑbstəkəl/	Something that impedes, stands in the way of, or holds up progress, either physically or figuratively
shout verb	/ʃaʊt/	To utter a sudden and loud cry, as in joy, triumph, exultation or anger, or to attract attention, to animate others, etc.
constrain verb	/kənˈstɹeɪn/	To force physically, by strong persuasion or pressuring; to compel; to oblige.
grieve verb	/ɡɹiːv/	To cause sorrow or distress to.
mirage noun	/mɪˈɹɑːʒ/	An optical phenomenon in which light is refracted through a layer of hot air close to the ground, often giving the illusion of a body of water.
pervert verb	/ˈpɚ.vɚt/	To turn another way; to divert.
resent verb	/ɹiˈzɛnt/	To feel resentment over; to consider as an affront.
immature adjective	/ɪməˈtjʊə(ɹ)/	Not fully formed or developed; not grown.
despair noun	/dɪˈspɛə(ɹ)/	Loss of hope; utter hopelessness; complete despondency.
champ verb	/t͡ʃæmp/	To bite or chew, especially noisily or impatiently.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
go out verb		To leave, especially a building.
come out verb	/ˌkʌm ˈaʊt/	To be discovered; to be revealed.
get ahead of verb		To take preemptive action before a potential development becomes reality.
get back to verb		Return to (an activity)
get over verb		To overcome.
go down verb		To descend; to move from a higher place to a lower one.
work out verb	/ˌwɝk ˈaʊt/	To calculate.

Sentences worth repeating

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

You're about to break it down.
You're getting ahead of steam.
I mean, I'll tell you what.
Did that ever concern you?
You know what I'm saying?

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 42 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, don't, can't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “sh” and “zh” sounds: visualization /ˌvɪʒ.ʊ.ə.laɪˈzeɪ.ʃən/, visualize /ˈvɪʒuəˌlaɪz/, shout /ʃaʊt/, mirage /mɪˈɹɑːʒ/, freshman /ˈfɹɛʃ.mən/
Long words — get the stress right: visualization /ˌvɪʒ.ʊ.ə.laɪˈzeɪ.ʃən/, emotionally /ɪˈməʊʃənəli/

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 wrestle, nurture, visualization.

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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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

Key vocabulary in this video

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Sentences worth repeating

Pronunciation to watch

How to practise with this video

What is the Shadowing Technique?