Shadowing Practice: Embrace the Shake - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Tanya Cushman Reviewer So, when I was in art school,

I developed a shake in my hand, and this was actually the straightest line I could draw.

Now, in hindsight, I'll admit the shake was great for some things, like mixing a can of paint or shaking a Polaroid.

But for me, this was really doomsday.

This was the destruction of my dream of becoming an artist.

This shake developed out of a single -minded pursuit of pointillism, just years of making little tiny dots.

And eventually, the dots went from being perfectly round to looking more like tadpoles because of the shake.

So to compensate, I'd hold the pen tighter, which progressively made the shake worse, so I'd hold the pen tighter still.

And this became a vicious cycle that ended up causing so much pain and joint issues, I had trouble holding anything.

And after spending years perfecting dots, I couldn't imagine being an artist in any other way.

So I left art school, and then I left art completely.

But after a few years, I couldn't stay away from art, and I decided to go to a neurologist about the shake,

and I discovered that I had permanent nerve damage.

And the neurologist took one look at my squiggly line and said, And I said, well, why don't you just embrace the shake?

Okay.

So I did.

I went home.

I grabbed a pencil.

And my slide.

I slide.

And I just started letting my hands shake and shake.

I was embracing it.

And I started making all these scribble pictures.

And even though it wasn't the kind of art that I was ultimately passionate about, it felt great.

And more importantly, once I embraced the shake, I realized that I could still make art.

I just had to find a different approach to making the art that I wanted.

Now, I still enjoy the fragmentation of pointillism, seeing all these little tiny dots come together to create a unified whole.

So I began looking for other ways to fragment images where the shake wouldn't affect the work,

like dipping my feet in paint and walking on a canvas.

Or in a 3D structure consisting of 2x4s, creating a 2D image by burning it with a blowtorch.

I discovered that if I worked on a larger scale and with bigger materials, my hand wouldn't really hurt.

And I went from having a single approach to art to an approach to creativity that has completely changed my artistic horizons.

This was the first time I'd encountered the idea that embracing the limitation could actually drive creativity.

At the time, I was finishing up school, and I was so excited to finally get a real job and afford new art supplies,

because I actually had this really pathetic set of tools,

and I felt that I could do so much more with the supplies I thought an artist was supposed to have.

I actually didn't even have a regular pair of scissors.

I was using these metal shears until I stole a pair from the office that I worked at.

So, I got out of school, I got a job, I got a paycheck, I got myself to the art store,

and I just went nuts buying supplies.

I just bought everything I've ever wanted.

And then when I got home,

I sat down and I set myself to task to really try to create something just completely outside of the box.

And I sat there for hours, and nothing came to mind.

The same thing the next day, and the next, quickly slipping into a creative slump.

I was in a dark place for a long time,

unable to create, and it didn't even make any sense because I was finally able to support my art, and yet I was creatively blank.

but as I searched around the darkness I realized

that I was paralyzed by all the choices that I never had before

and it was then

that I thought back to this limitation of my jittery hands embrace the shake

and I realized if I ever wanted my creativity back I had to quit trying

so hard to think outside of the box and and get back into it.

I wondered, could you become more creative then by looking for limitations?

What if I could only create with a dollar's worth of supplies?

At this point, I was spending a lot of my evenings in Starbucks,

and I know you can always ask for an extra cup if you want one.

So I decided to ask for 50.

Why not, right?

Surprisingly, they just handed them right over.

And then with the pencils I already had, I made this project for only 80 cents.

This became a moment of clarification for me, that we need to first be limited in order to become limitless.

Then, I took this approach of thinking inside the box to my canvas and wondered, what if instead of painting on a canvas,

I could only paint on my chest?

So I painted 30 images, one layer at a time, one on top of another, with each picture representing an influence in my life.

Or what if instead of painting with a brush, I could only paint with karate chops?

So I dipped my hands in paint, and I just attacked the canvas,

and I actually hit so hard that I bruised a joint in my pinky, and it was stuck straight for a couple weeks.

Or what if instead of relying on myself, I had to rely on other people to create the content for the art?

So for six days, I lived in front of a webcam, I slept on the floor and ate takeout,

and I asked people to call me and share a story with me about a life -changing moment.

Their stories became the art as I wrote them onto this giant, revolving canvas.

Or what if, instead of making art to display, as we always do, I destroyed it?

This destruction idea turned into a year -long project that I called Goodbye Art.

Goodbye Art.

And the idea was that each and every piece of art had to be destroyed after its creation.

In the beginning of Goodbye Art, I focused on forced destruction, like this image of Jimi Hendrix.

It's made with over 7 ,000 matches.

Then I opened it up to creating art that was destroyed naturally.

I looked for temporary materials, like spitting out food, using sidewalk chalk,

and even frozen wine the last iteration of destruction was to try to produce something

that didn't actually exist in the first place

so what I did is I organized candles on a table I lit them

and then blew them out then repeated this process over

and over with the same set of candles then I assembled the the videos into the larger image.

So the end image was never visible as a physical whole.

It was destroyed before it ever existed.

In the course of this

Goodbye Art series, I created 23 different pieces with nothing left to display.

What I thought would be the ultimate limitation really turned out to be the ultimate liberation, as each time I created,

the destruction brought me back to a neutral place where I felt refreshed and ready to start the next project.

But it didn't happen overnight.

There were times my projects failed to get off the ground, or even worse, after spending tons of time on a project,

the end image was kind of embarrassing.

But having committed to the process, I continued on, And something surprising came out of this.

As I destroyed each project, I was really learning to let go.

Let go of outcomes, let go of failures, and let go of imperfections.

And in return, I found a process of creating art that was perpetual and unencumbered by results.

I found myself in a state of constant creation, thinking only of what's next, and coming up with more ideas than ever.

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When I think back to those three years away from art, away from my dream, just going through the motions,

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instead of looking for a different way to continue that dream, I just quit.

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I gave up.

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And what if I didn't embrace the shake?

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Because embracing the shake for me it wasn't just about art and having art skills.

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It was about life and having life skills.

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Because ultimately, most of what we do takes place here, inside the box, with limited resources.

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Learning to be creative within the confines of our limitations is the best hope we have to transform ourselves

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and collectively transform our world.

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Amen.

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Looking at limitations as a source of creativity changed the course of my life.

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Now when I run into a barrier or I find myself creatively stumped, I sometimes still struggle.

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But I continue to show up for the process and remind myself of the possibilities, like using hundreds of real live worms to make an image,

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using a pushpin to tattoo a banana.

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or painting a picture using hamburger grease.

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Limitations may be the most unlikely of places to harness creativity, but perhaps one of the best ways to get ourselves out of ruts,

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rethink categories, and challenge accepted norms, and instead of telling each other to seize the day,

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Maybe we can remind ourselves every day to seize the limitation.

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Thank you.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This speaking lesson is built on the video “Embrace the Shake”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: shake, limitation, image, project, instead. This video has 118 sentences and 1579 words to shadow. The speech runs for 11:00. The speaker talks at a steady 143 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. Only 77% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.

Key vocabulary in this video

15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
shake verb	/ˈʃeɪk/	To cause (something) to move rapidly in opposite directions alternatingly.
limitation noun	/lɪmɪˈteɪʃən/	The act of limiting or the state of being limited.
embrace verb	/ɛmˈbɹes/	To clasp (someone or each other) in the arms with affection; to take in the arms; to hug.
destruction noun	/dɪsˈtɹʌkʃən/	The act of destroying.
creativity noun	/kri.eɪˈtɪv.ᵻ.ti/	The ability to use imagination to produce a novel idea or product.
canvas noun	/ˈkæn.vəs/	A type of coarse cloth, woven from hemp (traditionally) or from cotton and polyesters, useful for making sails, tents, and overcoats or as a surface for…
dot noun	/dɑt/	A small, round spot.
skill noun	/skɪl/	A capacity to do something well; a technique, an ability, usually acquired or learned, as opposed to abilities that are regarded as innate.
discover verb	/dɪˈskʌvə/	To find or learn something for the first time.
remind verb	/ɹəˈmaɪnd/	To cause one to experience a memory (of someone or something); to bring to the notice or consideration (of a person).
slide noun	/ˈslaɪ̯d/	An item of play equipment that children can climb up and then slide down again.
rely verb	/ɹɪˈlaɪ/	To trust; to have confidence in; to depend.
dip verb	/dɪp/	To lower into a liquid.
transform verb	/tɹænsˈfɔɹm/	To change greatly the appearance or form of.
pencil noun	/ˈpɛnsəl/	A writing utensil with a graphite (commonly referred to as lead) shaft, usually blended with clay, clad in wood, and sharpened to a taper.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Meaning
come up with verb	To manage to produce, deliver, or present (something) by inventing, creating, thinking of, or obtaining it.
end up verb	To bring to a conclusion.
finish up verb	To complete the last details of a task.
get off verb	To move from being on top of (something) to not being on top of it.
get out of verb	To leave, exit or escape from; to become free of.
give up verb	To surrender (someone or something); to inform on (someone).
go through verb	To travel from one end of something to the other.
sit down verb	To assume a sitting position from a standing position.

Sentences worth repeating

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

I just bought everything I've ever wanted.
I wondered, could you become more creative then by looking for limitations?
What if I could only create with a dollar's worth of supplies?
I could only paint on my chest?
And what if I didn't embrace the shake?

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 paralyzed · be destroyed · was destroyed
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	has completely changed · I've ever wanted

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 17 contractions and reduced forms, such as didn't, I'd, couldn't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “th” sounds: pathetic /pəˈθɛtɪk/, rethink /ɹiːˈθɪŋk/
The “sh” and “zh” sounds: shake /ˈʃeɪk/, limitation /lɪmɪˈteɪʃən/, destruction /dɪsˈtɹʌkʃən/, brush /bɹʌʃ/, passionate /ˈpæʃənɪt/
Long words — get the stress right: limitation /lɪmɪˈteɪʃən/, creativity /kri.eɪˈtɪv.ᵻ.ti/, naturally /ˈnæt͡ʃ.(ə.)ɹə.li/, temporary /ˈtɛmp(əˌɹ)ɛɹi/, importantly /ɪmˈpɔɹ.tənt.li/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Shadow it sentence by sentence at normal speed, repeating each one until your rhythm matches the speaker.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like shake, limitation, embrace.

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 →

Shadowing Practice: Embrace the Shake - Learn English Speaking with Video

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