Shadowing Practice: fear - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
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Fear helps you stay alive, but I feel like in today's age, it feels much more like a burden than a function of survival.
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Sure, the world can be a scary place sometimes, like when you actually see a bear, but I just don't see bears that much.
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And I think fear is just a little more annoying than it is helpful in most parts of my life.
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The first thing I think of when I think of fear is flying.
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Fun fact about me, I used to not be afraid of flying at all.
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And actually, I thought it was a lot of fun.
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But now, unfortunately, flying is so much more of a hassle than it used to be.
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One of the more recent times I was flying, the pilot came over the intercom and said, "Hello passengers, we are coming close to our destination." "Uh,
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and we are going down." "And as we are going down to our destination, I ask everyone to fasten their seatbelts and return their seats to their upright position for landing." Um,
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can we work on our phrasing a little?
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Or provide context?
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When inside of a giant metal tube in the sky, I thought for a moment that I was actually gonna die.
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I can't totally describe the feeling of doom that I felt in that moment, but I can kind of make a facial expression that represents it.
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It was like that, but on the inside.
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I used to think it would be cool to have flight as a superpower, but with fear of flying, it would just be terrible.
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Wheeeee!
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*cough
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cough cough cough cough cough *
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*cough
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cough cough cough cough cough *
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*cough
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cough cough cough cough cough *
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*cough
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cough cough cough cough cough *
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*cough
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cough cough cough cough cough *
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*cough
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cough cough cough cough cough *
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be really cool to see everything with no obstructed view.
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But the closer I got to the glass boxes, the more my brain cranked up my fear.
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There's never been a mechanical failure.
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It's gonna be fine.
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Yeah, but what if it's not fine?
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What if it breaks for the first time when you stand on it?
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There's always a first time for everything.
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But it's maintained regularly.
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And look at all the other people doing it.
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They're okay.
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Yeah, but what if when you get on a bug flies into a bird's mouth and it chokes, which causes it to hit a plane, which makes the plane crash and the plane hits a screw on the glass box.
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And then, but the plane actually recovery supplies away so everybody's happy about that.
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But the screw spins until it comes out and unbravelled the whole glass box and you fall?
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Hmm.
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No, yeah, that's a good point.
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So when it was my turn to go into the glass box, I decided to not.
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The building is well maintained and has never had a mechanical failure, and I could have had a cool experience, but I was just too freaked out.
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However, even if fear is sometimes annoying, I stand by my wariness of mechanical failures.
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Things happen.
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If there really are infinite realities inside of infinite universes, then that means somewhere out there, there's an Andy that met a terrible fate.
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place and enjoy the view without my brain screaming code red all the time.
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Again, I prove my point.
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Fear is annoying, but not as annoying as this!
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Fire can be useful for a lot of things, like roasting marshmallows, pyrotechnics, and whenever you want lions to hop through a ring of fire.
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So, despite all of these joys that fire brings us, I am also afraid of fire.
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But only big fire.
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I'm not, like, screaming at candles and stuff.
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Beachwood Lavender!
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It's specifically scary when it's out of control.
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I've seen videos of people driving through or even next to forest fires, which awakens a deep and primal fear.
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And I'm not even in the situation.
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I can't imagine the courage firefighters must have to fight forest fires.
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There's a lot of Fs in that sentence.
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Did you know the size of a loose fire doubles every 60 seconds?
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You gonna put that out?
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Yeah, yeah, are you...
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Shuck.
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Show an example.
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I can't remember where I heard that fact, but it's very scary!
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Fire is incredible.
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It can feed you, it can protect you, but if you're not careful with it, fire can totally and completely destroy everything you've ever known or loved.
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Hey, hey, I said pass the marshmallows?
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Oh yeah, sorry.
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Here you go!
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Darkness.
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It's the idea of the unknown.
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Anything could be right out in front of your face and you wouldn't know!
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Hi, do you wanna subscribe?
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at a nearby movie theater.
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When the movie finished up and everybody left, my plan was just to walk home.
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Eventually, I get to my neighborhood and I see a dark figure in the distance and there's no light.
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I start to get a little nervous because I don't know what or who that is.
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At this point, my mind is starting to sound the alarms again.
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A murderer?
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A bear?
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An eldritch creature of the night?
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Whatever it is.
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Adrenaline.
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As the shape gets closer, it starts to look more and more humanoid.
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Then, I see it's a person and they're running
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and I think it's pretty fast
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and I think it's running directly at me I am in
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danger there is no reason anyone should be running at night
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at anyone I am not fighting nor flighting I'm just standing there baked in fear they get closer
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and closer and once they were close enough hello hey I They were just on a nighttime jog.
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The funny thing about darkness is, it messes with your sight.
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When your brain doesn't get all the information it needs, it'll just do you the favor of filling in the gaps itself.
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So my brain just assumed it was getting attacked, it was just an hallucination stemming from my fear.
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Cool.
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That is the thing that freaks me out about darkness.
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It's unknown.
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And that scares me.
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Anyway, those are my top fears.
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Thanks for watching.
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Ah!
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Speaking Goals for This Clip: Expressing Fear and Personal Anecdotes
This video is perfect for practicing how to share personal stories about fear—whether it’s a common worry like flying or a specific anxiety like glass boxes. You’ll learn to describe emotions, recount funny (or scary!) moments, and use casual language to connect with listeners. It’s a great way to build fluency in real-life conversations, where storytelling and tone matter just as much as grammar.
Phrase Bank: Reusable Expressions for Talking About Fear
- “I feel like… is more of a burden than a function” – Compare how something should work vs. how it feels.
- “I can’t totally describe the feeling, but I can kind of make a facial expression” – A playful way to explain hard-to-put-into-words emotions.
- “My brain cranked up my fear” – Vividly describe anxiety getting worse.
- “I was just too freaked out” – Casual phrase for being too scared to act.
- “My brain screaming code red” – A funny metaphor for intense worry.
Fix Your Weak Spots: Pronunciation and Rhythm in Casual Speech
The video’s conversational tone is ideal for practicing natural rhythm—how we pause, stress words, and use contractions like “it’s” or “don’t” in everyday talk. Notice how the speaker emphasizes words like “terrible fate” or “code red” to show emotion. To improve, try the shadowing technique: play short clips, pause, and repeat them aloud, matching the speed and tone. Use a shadowing app or shadowing site to record yourself and compare—this helps you catch subtle pronunciation issues. Learning English with YouTube clips like this makes practice fun, and focusing on rhythm will make your speech sound more like a native. Keep at it—you’re getting closer to sounding confident and natural!
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 not · used to be · used to think |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | I've seen · you've ever known |
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.