Shadowing Practice: Elon Musk: Work twice as hard as others - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “Elon Musk: Work twice as hard as others”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: achieve, hour, entrepreneur. This video has 29 sentences and 295 words to shadow. The speech runs for 1:51. The speaker talks at a natural 159 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 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
14 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| entrepreneur noun | /ˌɑn.tɹə.pɹəˈnɝ/ | A person who sets up a business; generally, a person who owns and manages a business and assumes its financial risks. |
| rigorous adjective | /ˈɹɪɡəɹəs/ | Showing, causing, or favoring rigour/rigor; scrupulously accurate or strict; thorough. |
| assessment noun | /əˈsɛsmənt/ | The act of assessing or an amount (of tax, levy or duty etc) assessed. |
| ideal adjective | /aɪˈdi(ə)l/ | Pertaining to ideas, or to a given idea. |
| helpful adjective | /ˈhɛlp.fl̩/ | Furnishing help; giving aid; useful. |
| odd adjective | /ɑd/ | Differing from what is usual, ordinary or expected. |
| versus | /ˈvɝsəs/ | Against; in opposition to. |
| pursue verb | /pɚˈsu/ | To follow urgently, originally with intent to capture or harm; to chase. |
| merit noun | /ˈmɛɹɪt/ | A claim to commendation or a reward. |
| tendency noun | /ˈtɛn.dən.si/ | A likelihood of behaving in a particular way or going in a particular direction; a tending toward. |
| ethic noun | /ˈɛθ.ɪk/ | A set of principles of right and wrong behaviour guiding, or representative of, a specific culture, society, group, or individual. |
| unrealistic adjective | Not realistic. | |
| tenacious adjective | /təˈneɪʃəs/ | Clinging to an object or surface; adhesive. |
| wishful adjective | /ˈwɪʃfəl/ | Expressing a wish or longing for something. |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 7 contractions and reduced forms, such as you're, I'm, doesn't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: tenacious /təˈneɪʃəs/, wishful /ˈwɪʃfəl/
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 entrepreneur, rigorous, assessment.
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.