Shadowing Practice: ENGLISH SPEECH | VICKY KAUSHAL: From Engineering to Acting (English Subtitles) - Learn English Speaking with Video
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138 sentences
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Sometimes it's not necessary for you to know how it's gonna happen.
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But it's very necessary for you to believe that it's gonna happen.
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If you believe that it's gonna happen is when the how takes care of itself.
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Okay, first of all, I must thank you so much for agreeing to do this.
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We have an absolutely enraptured audience who are all looking forward to this.
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They want to decode this enigma called Vicky Kaushal.
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It seems like a mysterious and yet such a draw that you have over especially the youngsters, it's something absolutely breathtaking.
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So the theme of the event is the stories we tell also tell us.
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So we want to know your story.
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Was it an unlikely one?
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Could you take us back to your days of engineering and then how you journeyed, how it all started off?
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Because I know that it could all start with an industrial event, I'm not wrong.
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A lightning struck.
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I would actually like to take the story a little further back.
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Oh lovely.
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For two years of my life I have stood at the bus stop right here.
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I was a Mityabai student.
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Oh wow.
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For two years of my life I have stood at this bus stop.
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I was a science student so my classes used to be from 7, 7.30 till one o'clock in the afternoon and I used to stand at the bus stop over here,
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wait for 79, 33, 38.
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These are the three buses that used to take me home.
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And I want to know how much does the Vatapau cost over here now?
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It's pretty steep now.
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It's pretty steep.
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30?
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20?
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So when I was doing my junior college in Mithiwai, this was 2001 to 2003.
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By the way, when was the last time you had a Vatapau?
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I keep having Vada Pau on set, I call for Vada Pau.
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But in 2001 to 2003 I was in Mithibai and that time the Vada Pau used to be of 5 rupees.
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5 rupees.
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So I started from here and then of course I did my engineering from Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Technology.
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Till that time, I am still that guy but I have always believed in living in the present, going with the flow and just be completely honest to what I'm doing now.
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The plan was to do post graduation.
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I was good in studies but I was very active on stage since childhood
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but never really thought that I want to make it a career choice.
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So when I was doing my engineering in the second year, the college faculty took us to an industrial visit to show us that this is your future.
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You know when you pass out, you complete your graduation, this is how an MNC looks, this is how the work,
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whatever the floor looks and how people work.
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So that was the first time I started introspecting as to what do you want to do.
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So the answer was performing, performing for the audience.
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The rule was in the family that first you have to finish graduation, you have to finish it well.
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I had a blast doing my engineering, I finished that and then in 2009 is when I started my journey as an actor.
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Okay, so that's how it all began.
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As audience we always like to look at the glory days of an actor,
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of how he's doing well and all the success and fanfare that he's enjoying.
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But failures is something that we don't talk about, like everyone has a good share of it.
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Was Was it a very, was it a straight forward journey?
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Because if I am not wrong, you started off with assisting Anurag and then your first break, so was it a straight forward journey?
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How did you take failures?
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It was a straight forward journey but of course I wanted to learn acting, of course I wanted to learn the skills but more than
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that I just wanted to be sure that if I am made to act every day, am I a happier soul or am I cribbing about it?
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what I really wanted to know.
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So I did that and by the end of it I got my answer that I really really love doing this.
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After that I was also sure I remember I was 22 back then right after engineering I was 22.
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I was in no hurry to be in front of the camera.
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Because I knew that firstly camera captures everything.
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You're a good actor, bad actor, fantastic actor, worst actor.
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It will present you the way you are because in acting your eyes have to be honest and the camera captures everything.
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The audience in two seconds of sitting in that cinema hall in
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that first shot you give in that first scene that you do, they know that if you can act or no. And once they've made that judgment,
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it's a very uphill task to really prove your worth to the audience.
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So I wanted to do all of that before actually coming to the audience.
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So I had kept five years in my mind to learn the tropes, to meet people, learn from them, assist them, do backstage in theatre,
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do everything that is related to cinema and acting, learn all that I can before I'm fairly even confident to face the camera and come in front of the audience.
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So it's very strange because when I was doing that acting course in 2009, I still remember the date was 24th of July 2009
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and it was the first day of my acting course and the teacher, it was a class of 20 students
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and they just randomly asked like you know okay how have your last five years been like
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and we were all discussing that and then they asked
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that do you want your next five years to be like
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and where do you see yourself in the next five years
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and I really am not a big fan of this question
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because I don't know what I'm going to do in the next five minutes
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and I really don't want to know where I'm going to be.
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Sometimes where you think you're going to be in the next
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five years is much smaller than what God has blacked for you.
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So I don't want to limit myself in that thought process.
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But still… So, but I was asked that, I'll do theatre, I'll assist somebody,
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I'll do behind the scene work and I'll be there.
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This was 24th July 2009 and 24th July 2015 was the day when Masan released and my poster was there.
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It's just sometimes things like these make me believe in belief.
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Like believe in belief that you know you just have to sometimes just give it out there.
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Just give it out and do it.
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Like you know sometimes it's not necessary for you to know how it's gonna happen
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but it's very necessary for you to believe that it's gonna happen.
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If you believe that it's gonna happen is when the how takes care of itself.
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So, I mean you guys are gonna start and do whatever you wanna do in life but never never lose that belief.
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That's step one.
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Before skill, before talent, before everything else, that's step one.
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And I also wanna give a disclaimer that I tend to forget my questions.
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and I go on a different trip.
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So just get me back whenever people do that.
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More to do with the failure part.
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Failure, yes, yes.
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I saw… That is very important because when you look at the youngsters, they are very bad at accepting rejection and failure is something that rattles them.
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Yeah.
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So I think it's equally important how you receive failure because that's going to happen at some point of time.
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So how did you receive failure?
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Because there are a lot of people who look up to you.
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No, I feel failures must rattle you.
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I feel they must rattle you, they must shake you up because it's only something good that comes out of it.
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Failure I feel is also one of the beginning stages for success.
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People say that persistence and perseverance are the two tricks for success
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but I feel failure has also got to do a big part in that.
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What kind of acting do you subscribe?
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Do you believe in that, that there is something called as a classical acting style, there is method acting or do you think it's just these distinctions don't really respond?
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I don't really believe in one approach towards acting because I feel at the end of the day
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between action and cut I have to be honest.
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My goal is to reach that honesty no matter how I reach that.
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Different films, different characters depending on how far or near that character is to you, you decide on your route.
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For me it's my world, it's that character's world.
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I need to know my world in the film.
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So between takes sometimes it's just knowing, sometimes for me as an actor it's more of knowing the space.
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Most of the times it's bonding with your co-actors because depends again on how your relationship in the film is.
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Like me and Taapsee for Manmarzia we would, like we were practically living together.
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Like it was almost like we were on set together the entire time
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because that had to come across in the film or be it me and Ranbir and Sanju.
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Our workshop for the film was for like 30 to 40 days before we started shooting.
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It was just me Ranbir and Raju sir sitting at his office for hours at stretch and faffing.
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That's it.
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Faffing.
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Just faffing.
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It was just faffing because the energy that we have while we faff, that is the energy that we wanted in the film between those two characters.
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It is what the audience always remembers what's between those lines.
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In real life, it's not what we speak that matters.
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It's what we not speak, what we hold back.
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It makes me Vicky, makes you, you who you are.
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So I need to know what I said as that part
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and what are the things that I didn't say as that part but which was there in my head.
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So you need to bond with your co-actors, need to know them, gel with them.
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So all of that is going on with your team because at the end of the day, it's a team effort.
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The set has to be a happy set.
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It has to be nice and people should enjoy working together.
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The important thing is to just keep walking, just keep walking, just keep walking, just keep walking.
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Correct.
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Great.
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Wonderful.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “ENGLISH SPEECH”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: failure, actor, acting, audience, happen. This video has 136 sentences and 1795 words to shadow. The speech runs for 10:00. The speaker talks at a natural 179 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 88% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is easy to follow.
Key vocabulary in this video
The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| faff noun | /fæf/ | A state of confused or frantic activity. |
| rattle noun | /ˈɹæ.təl/ | Any of various plants of the genera Rhinanthus and Pedicularis, whose seeds produce a rattling noise in the wind. |
| graduation noun | /ˌɡɹæd͡ʒuˈeɪʃən/ | The action or process of graduating and receiving a diploma for completing a course of study (such as from an educational institution). |
| rupee noun | /ɹuˈpi/ | Any of the monetary currencies used in modern India, Mauritius, Nepal, Pakistan, the Seychelles, or Sri Lanka. |
| youngster noun | /ˈjʌŋstɚ/ | A young person. |
| steep adjective | /stiːp/ | Of a near-vertical gradient; of a slope, surface, curve, etc. that proceeds upward or downward at an angle approaching vertical. |
| cinema noun | /ˈsɪn.ə.mə/ | A movie theatre, a movie house. |
| depend verb | /dɪˈpɛnd/ | To be contingent or conditioned; to have something as a necessary condition |
| decode verb | /dɪˈkəʊd/ | To convert from an encrypted form to plain text. |
| disclaimer noun | /dɪsˈkleɪm.ɚ/ | One who disclaims, disowns, or renounces. |
| enigma noun | /ɪˈnɪɡmə/ | Something or someone puzzling, mysterious or inexplicable. |
| enrapture verb | /ɪnˈɹæpt͡ʃə(ɹ)/ | To fill with great delight or joy; to fascinate or captivate. |
| fanfare noun | /ˈfænfɛə/ | A flourish of trumpets or horns as to announce; a short and lively air performed on hunting horns during the chase. |
| introspect verb | /ˌɪntɹəˈspɛkt/ | To engage in introspection. |
| perseverance noun | /ˌpɝsəˈvɪɹəns/ | Continuing in a course of action without regard to discouragement, opposition or previous failure. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| come across verb | To change sides; to cross over to work for the opposition. |
| have over verb | To host (a visiting guest) at one's house. |
| hold back verb | To act with reserve; to contain one's full measure or power. |
| look forward to verb | To anticipate, expect, or wait for, especially with a feeling of approval or pleasure; to be excited or eager to. |
| look up to verb | To show respect or admiration for (someone); to see (someone) as a role model. |
| pass out verb | To faint; to become unconscious. |
| start off verb | To begin. |
| stop over verb | To interrupt one's journey for a short (sometimes overnight) stay. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- How did you take failures?
- What kind of acting do you subscribe?
- For me it's my world, it's that character's world.
- It's what we not speak, what we hold back.
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| “Used to” used to + verb — a past habit or state that is no longer true | used to be · used to take |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | have stood · have always believed · they've made |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 28 contractions and reduced forms, such as gonna, don't, I'm. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: graduation /ˌɡɹæd͡ʒuˈeɪʃən/, rejection /ɹɪˈd͡ʒɛkʃən/, distinction /dɪˈstɪŋkʃən/, workshop /ˈwɝk.ʃɑp/
- Long words — get the stress right: graduation /ˌɡɹæd͡ʒuˈeɪʃən/, perseverance /ˌpɝsəˈvɪɹəns/, mysterious /mɪˈstɪɹi.əs/, practically /ˈpɹæk.tɪ.k(ə.)li/
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 faff, rattle, graduation.
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.