Shadowing Practice: Fun And Effective Games To Build Resilience - Learn English Speaking with Video
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I'm here to tell you that you don't build resilience by lecturing people on grit.
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You build it by living it.
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In the moment, together, and yes, even through play.
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The two resilience games I'm about to share, and yes, I just said games,
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they're fun, wildly effective, and guaranteed to bond you and your team while stretching those emotional muscles.
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You ready to have some fun?
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Let's grow.
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This first game I call emotional poker.
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All right, it's a game of unpredictability, emotional agility, and a quick reframe.
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So here's how it works.
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Everyone who's playing will get a hand of emotion cards.
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And the hand anywhere from five to eight cards works.
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Now these are cards that you've created beforehand where you're using an index card, some type of card, and putting an emotion on the front.
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Now make this be a mix of emotions that people know that might be expected as well as ones that are unexpected.
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And I would even like recommend you do some exploration, some research on emotions that are completely outside of your culture.
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There's emotions that are known in a lot of different cultures around the world that you probably have no clue about.
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So put those on the cards.
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So people who see them are like, what does this word even mean?
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Right?
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That's going to make it even more fun.
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But everybody who's playing needs to have a hand of these cards, right?
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So five to seven cards in their hand.
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Okay, next a scenario is read out loud.
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An example being your boss just moved the deadline up of a really big project by two weeks.
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Now, these are the scenarios that you're going to create beforehand.
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You can use chat GPT to create them or maybe they're scenarios that you have experienced over the past 12 months.
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You list them out, right?
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And so each round you're reading out one of these scenarios.
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Then when each person has their turn, they're to choose one of the emotions from their hand and invite them to pick an emotion that might not be expected.
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And I want them to then share how that emotion might be valid or even productive in that particular situation.
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Trust me, you're going to hear some really hilarious responses, but it's ultimately going to help you and your team start to rewire that emotional response,
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kind of that the grooves that are worn and expected emotions when different things happen.
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For example, you might have love on a card and maybe someone chooses love for that situation.
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My boss just moved my deadline up two weeks and I love it.
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How might that be valid or productive?
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Well, I like working under constraint.
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I'm the kind of person that can really deliver when I have a whole bunch of pressure on me.
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So I would actually love it
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because it means I'm going to get this done quicker
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and I know that I can achieve it because I work well under pressure, right?
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So that's a really silly example.
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But you see a lot of these kind of pop up
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because you're going to have so many different emotions and everyone has to pick at least one.
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So you're going to go through many rounds, as many rounds as people have an emotion in their hand
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and you're going to create it or share a scenario for each round.
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The way that this is building resilience is that it's training emotional dexterity, emotional fluency, where people are recognizing there are a lot of different ways to feel
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and a lot of different emotions that might be inspired from scenario to scenario.
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And it's also again doing a great job at building that emotional vocabulary
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because you're going to make it a point to fill these cards with emotions words
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that aren't necessarily commonplace or that you hear all the time.
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And the bonus to this
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and how it really helps nurture resilience is it's going to lift the stigma of having something
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that we would deem a negatively perceived emotion.
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Lift the stigma of that and make it be okay to express it and to share it when something happens.
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And even offer people the framing, that mindset of how it could be valid and even productive.
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So that's going to go for any type of emotion.
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All right, the second game is called Discomfort Roulette.
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It's funny, both of these games could be in some type of casino of emotions.
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Maybe I'll build that.
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Stay tuned.
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This quick fire game is designed to activate discomfort and to normalize it and invite courage in these little micro moments.
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Okay, so here are how it works.
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You just, you're going to need some type of a hat.
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A top hat would make this fun, but some type of hat, a ball cap, you're going to need that.
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And then you're going to have slips of paper.
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Each slip of paper is going to have a slightly uncomfortable, kind of emotionally inspired type of a challenge to it.
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And I'll give you an example.
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Share a time when you failed, learn from it, and then kept going.
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Another one might be deliver a compliment to the person standing on your right.
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Another could be share something you're afraid to share at work.
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Another might be ask the group for support on something that's happening for you that's real.
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Now as you can see, these are a little light, but they're also quite edgy and they will invite discomfort.
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And that's the idea.
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It's to normalize that discomfort.
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It's to give individuals the opportunity to express something
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that might be emotionally charged and give the team an opportunity to hear it, to feedback, and again that normalization will start happening.
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What this game might uncover is something
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that might have been going on in your team that had been unspoken and not yet surfaced.
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So this game can actually help you surface that.
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And that's why I love it.
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Discomfort roulette.
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I love it because we don't grow through things that are easy.
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We grow through things that are hard, that are challenging, that invite this discomfort.
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And so really I see this game almost like emotional yoga, right?
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It's going to stretch you.
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It's going to stretch you in ways that are uncomfortable, but ultimately playing it more and more, you're going to learn more about yourself, learn more about your team, and you all will be growing together.
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So to supplement those games, I got something else for you completely for free.
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There's a link down below, which takes you to a free chapter of my bestselling book, Change Enthusiasm, how to harness the power of emotion for leadership and success.
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And so it speaks specifically to discomfort and the emotions that are inspired through it.
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So it's going to introduce you to that mindset and how to continue nurturing your personal resilience, your own resilience.
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And it's completely for free.
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Just click the link below.
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Now, until we meet again and you see this face smiling at you once more.
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I want you to keep having fun, keep learning, keep growing, keep inviting discomfort, cause you know that your evolution is on the other side.
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And above all else, keep rocking.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “Fun And Effective Games To Build Resilience”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: emotion, card, discomfort, emotional, scenario. This video has 95 sentences and 1226 words to shadow. The speech runs for 6:25. The speaker talks fast, about 191 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 85% 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
The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| emotion noun | /ɪˈməʊ.ʃən/ | A person's internal state of being and involuntary physiological response to an object or a situation, based on or tied to physical state and sensory data. |
| discomfort noun | /dɪsˈkʌmfɚt/ | Mental or bodily distress. |
| scenario noun | /sɪˈnɛəɹioʊ/ | An outline or model of an expected or supposed sequence of events. |
| resilience noun | /ɹɪˈzɪl.ɪ.əns/ | The mental ability to recover quickly from depression, illness or misfortune. |
| 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… |
| normalize verb | /ˈnɔː.mə.laɪz/ | To make normal, to bring into alignment with an established standard. |
| nurture noun | /ˈnɜːɹ.t͡ʃəɹ/ | The act of nourishing or nursing; tender care |
| roulette noun | /ɹuːˈlɛt/ | A game of chance in which a small ball is made to move round rapidly on a circle divided off into numbered (usually red and black) spaces. When the ball stops… |
| beforehand adverb | /bɪˈfɔɹhænd/ | At an earlier or preceding time. |
| stigma noun | /ˈstɪɡmə/ | An indication of infamy or disgrace. |
| mindset noun | /ˈmaɪn(d)ˌsɛt/ | A way of thinking; an attitude or opinion, especially a habitual one. |
| emotionally adverb | /ɪˈməʊʃənəli/ | In an emotional manner; displaying emotion. |
| deadline noun | /ˈdɛdˌlaɪn/ | A time limit in the form of a date on or before which something must be completed. |
| uncomfortable adjective | /ʌnˈkʌm.fɚ.tə.bl̩/ | Not comfortable; causing discomfort. |
| agility noun | /əˈd͡ʒɪl.ɪ.ti/ | The quality of being agile; the power of moving the limbs quickly and easily; quickness of motion |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| read out verb | /ˌɹiːd ˈaʊt/ | To read something and say the words to inform other people; to call. |
| go through verb | To travel from one end of something to the other. | |
| pop up verb | To come up with a "pop" sound. |
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 | might be expected · are known · is read |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | you've created · have experienced |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 27 contractions and reduced forms, such as you're, I'm, they're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: emotion /ɪˈməʊ.ʃən/, emotionally /ɪˈməʊʃənəli/, normalization /ˌnɔɹ.mə.ləˈzeɪ.ʃən/, exploration /ˌɛkspləˈɹeɪʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: resilience /ɹɪˈzɪl.ɪ.əns/, emotionally /ɪˈməʊʃənəli/, uncomfortable /ʌnˈkʌm.fɚ.tə.bl̩/, agility /əˈd͡ʒɪl.ɪ.ti/, dexterity /dɛksˈtɛɹɪti/
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 emotion, discomfort, scenario.
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.