Shadowing Practice: Emma Watson Opens Up About Learning in Public, Slowing Down & Finding Inspiration - Learn English Speaking with Video
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about attempting things, I mean, you're currently studying, right?
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You're learning.
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Yes.
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Yes.
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Well, two things I want to say there is I think in a way I was sort of,
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I mean, I'm someone who's always cared about vulnerability and authenticity, but I think I was also
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forced into it to a degree that maybe even I wasn't ready for and that I just started
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so young that I had to learn in public.
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I had to make mistakes in public and say, oh, okay, now I've learned this.
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And I had to be willing to go back and be like, like, there were some gaps here.
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And here's what I know now.
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And I think people's, I agree with you, I think it's becoming increasingly difficult to learn in public and continuing to learn.
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I mean, I think that's one of the reasons why I have gone back to school
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and why I continue to do it is
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because I want to make sure that I have things to say that are worth saying.
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And I think you can only do that if you take a minute sometimes and listen to some people who aren't you,
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you know, and like not just the sound of my own wonderful voice.
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So yeah, it's been great.
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And I think also I wanted to be inspired.
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I think being around, my favorite piece has been being around young people who still believe
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that the world is malleable and things are changeable and
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that like anything can be done is um such important energy there's
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so much dystopian fiction at the moment and dystopian movies it's so dark
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and i'm just like what happened to thinking about the utopia
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what happened to like planning for the best case scenario like where where did we lose vision, excitement, imagination, possibility.
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So I think it's been wonderful to be around young people and just to sit there and listen.
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Yeah.
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Do you ever, I mean, you clearly read so much.
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Do you have to take yourself away to do it in order to be able to do it?
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Do you have to cordon off time?
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How are you still managing to study and learn?
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Because that seems like it's important to you.
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Yeah, you reminded me as you were talking of one of my spiritual teachers, my monk teacher, who always said to me,
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if you want to move three steps forward, you have to go three steps deep first.
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Whoa.
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And what I found often in my life is I'm trying to go four steps forward, and I haven't yet gone four steps deep.
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And so it's almost like, I mean, this is probably a terrible analogy, but maybe thinking of the movie The Substance.
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I don't know if you watched it.
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I didn't see it.
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Okay, fine.
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Okay, terrible.
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Let's remove it.
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No, no, no. No, no, no. Let's forget about it.
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But it's that idea of like every extra step you take
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when you haven't learned and you haven't experimented and you haven't attempted is taking away from your ability to move forward.
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And sometimes I think when we feel stuck or when we think things are not moving or they're not progressing,
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it may be a sign to say, well, pause and go deeper for a second or pause and go inward for a second.
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And so to me, hearing that from you, I find that, and I definitely fail at this all the time.
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There are so many times I'm trying to push more forward than I've gone deep.
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And so whenever I notice that myself and I notice that I'm just kind of trying everything and nothing is working,
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it's actually just the universe and self saying to me, go read, go study.
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And so I found that I've had to really carve out time to make time to do what I love, which is to read and study.
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But I found that I'm someone who doesn't love 30 minutes a day.
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I'm not that kind of a I'm someone who needs to read for three or four hours, if not more.
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And so I found that carving out deep immersive time is more important to me than this kind of mechanical 30,
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40 minutes a day, which is great for you if that works for you as a habit.
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It doesn't for me because I'm a bit of an extremist and I just need to spend a whole weekend reading
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as opposed to, you know, I don't need to read every day.
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So I'll try and, I try once a month on a weekend to just absorb into a subject
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that I love and I'll take a course, I'll go to a class, I'll watch a TED talk online,
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I'll read as many books as I can, and I try and immerse myself that way.
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What's your learning style?
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I'm the same as you, and actually, someone who I really respect and ask for advice for often, and I ask for feedback on myself,
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he said to me, Emma, I think if you did 90 % of what you wanted to do at 50 % of the speed,
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you would get so much more, like life would be so much better.
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And I was like, wow, 50 % of the speed and only 90 % of what I want to do.
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And he was like, I think that's the minimum, to be honest.
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And I was like, wow.
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But I think, yeah, what you said resonates.
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I think I often have to remind myself that.
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It's not about speedily getting somewhere.
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It's just not the point.
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Things are supposed to happen with a certain timing.
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And so, yeah, it resonates.
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And to your point, I cannot just sit for 30 minutes and look at something.
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I need a week on holiday, and then I'll start to deeply get into something.
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And I need quiet, and I hyper -focus and that's when I love it,
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but I can't do little itty bitty bits.
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It drives me nuts.
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It's the same, it just doesn't work for me.
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It doesn't work for me.
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It doesn't work for me.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “Emma Watson Opens Up About Learning in Public, Slowing Down & Finding Inspiration”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: step, deep, forward, learn. This video has 82 sentences and 1026 words to shadow. The speech runs for 5:38. The speaker talks fast, about 182 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 83% 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
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| remind verb | /ɹəˈmaɪnd/ | To cause one to experience a memory (of someone or something); to bring to the notice or consideration (of a person). |
| pause noun | /pɔːz/ | A temporary stop or rest; an intermission of action; interruption; suspension; cessation. |
| gap noun | /ɡæp/ | An opening in anything, made by breaking or parting. |
| deeply adverb | /ˈdi(ː)pli/ | To a deep extent or degree; very greatly. |
| fiction noun | /ˈfɪkʃən/ | Literary type using invented or imaginative writing, instead of real facts, usually written as prose. |
| spiritual adjective | /ˈspɪɹɪt͡ʃuəl/ | Of or pertaining to the spirit or the soul. |
| experiment noun | /ɪkˈspɛɹ.ə.mənt/ | A test under controlled conditions made to either demonstrate a known truth, examine the validity of a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of… |
| increasingly adverb | Increasing in amount or intensity. | |
| mechanical adjective | /məˈkænəkəl/ | Related to mechanics (the branch of physics that deals with forces acting on matter). |
| feedback noun | /ˈfiːdˌbæk/ | Critical assessment of a process or activity or of their results. |
| habit noun | /ˈhæb.ɪt/ | An action performed on a regular basis. |
| imagination noun | /ɪˌmæd͡ʒəˈneɪʃən/ | The image-making power of the mind; the act of mentally creating or reproducing an object not previously perceived; the ability to create such images. |
| excitement noun | /ɪkˈsaɪtmənt/ | The state of being excited (emotionally aroused). |
| scenario noun | /sɪˈnɛəɹioʊ/ | An outline or model of an expected or supposed sequence of events. |
| inspire verb | /ɪnˈspaɪə(ɹ)/ | To infuse into the mind; to communicate to the spirit; to convey, as by a divine or supernatural influence; to disclose preternaturally; to produce in, as by… |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| step forward verb | to take one or more steps forward, especially in response to a request for identification |
| go back verb | To return to a place or state after having been there at a previous time. |
| go back to verb | To stem from; to originate in. |
| move forward verb | To cause to make progress. |
| take away from verb | To subtract a quality from; make something seem not so good or interesting. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- Do you have to cordon off time?
- How are you still managing to study and learn?
- Because that seems like it's important to you.
- I don't know if you watched it.
- What's your learning style?
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | I've learned · have gone · it's been |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | people who aren · people who still · love, which is |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | be inspired · can be done |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 37 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, I'll, doesn't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: fiction /ˈfɪkʃən/, imagination /ɪˌmæd͡ʒəˈneɪʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: experiment /ɪkˈspɛɹ.ə.mənt/, mechanical /məˈkænəkəl/, imagination /ɪˌmæd͡ʒəˈneɪʃən/, analogy /əˈnæləd͡ʒi/, vulnerability /ˌvʌln(ə)ɹəˈbɪlɪti/
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 remind, pause, gap.
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.