Shadowing Practice: Good Will Hunting - "What Do You Wanna Do?" - Learn English Speaking with Video
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108 sentences
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1
You feel like you're alone, Will?
2
What?
3
Do you have a soulmate? To find that?
4
Somebody who challenges you.
5
Uh, Chucky.
6
No, Chucky's family.
7
He'd lie down in fucking traffic for you.
8
I'm talking about someone who opens up things for you, touches your soul.
9
I got... Who?
10
I got plenty.
11
Well, name them.
12
Shakespeare, Nietzsche, Frost, O'Connor, Kant, Pope, Locke.
13
That's great.
14
They're all dead.
15
Not to me, they're not.
16
You don't have a lot of dialogue with them.
17
You can't give back to them, will?
18
Without some serious smelling salts and a heater.
19
Yeah.
20
That's what I'm saying.
21
You'll never have that kind of relationship in a world where you're always afraid to take the first step, because all you see is every negative thing ten miles down the road.
22
You gonna take the professor's side on this?
23
Don't give me a line of shit, no. Look, I didn't want the job.
24
It's not about the job.
25
I don't care if you work for the government.
26
But you can do anything you want.
27
You are bound by nothing.
28
What are you passionate about?
29
What do you want?
30
I mean, they're guys who work their entire life laying brick
31
so their kids have a chance at the opportunities you have here.
32
I didn't ask for this.
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No. You were born with it, so don't cop out behind.
34
I didn't ask for this.
35
What do you mean, cop out?
36
I mean, what's wrong with laying brick?
37
Nothing.
38
There's nothing wrong.
39
That's somebody's home I'm building.
40
Right.
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My dad laid brick.
42
Okay?
43
Busted his ass so I can have an education.
44
Exactly.
45
That's an honorable profession.
46
What's wrong with fixing somebody's car?
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Someone will get to work the next day because of me.
48
There's honor in that.
49
Yeah, there is.
50
There is honor in that.
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And there's honor in, you know, taking that 40-minute train ride so those college kids can come in in the morning
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and their floors are clean and their wastebasket are empty.
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That's real work.
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That's right.
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Right.
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And that's honorable.
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I'm sure that's why you took that job.
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I mean, for the honor of it.
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I just have a little question here.
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You could be a janitor anywhere.
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Why did you work at the most prestigious technical college in the whole fucking world?
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Why did you sneak around at night and finish other people's formulas
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that only one or two people in the world could do and then lie about?
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Because I don't see a lot of honor in that, Will.
65
So what do you really want to do?
66
I want to be a shepherd.
67
Really?
68
I want to move up to Nashua, get a nice little spread, get some sheep and tend to them.
69
Maybe you should go do that.
70
What?
71
You know, you're going to jerk off, why don't you just do it at home with a moist towel?
72
You're chucking me?
73
Yeah, get the fuck out of here.
74
No, no, no, time's not up yet.
75
Yeah, it is.
76
I'm not leaving, no. Listen, you're not going to answer my questions.
77
You're wasting my fucking time.
78
I thought we were friends.
79
What do you mean you...
80
Playtime's over, okay?
81
Why are you kicking me out, Sean?
82
I mean, what?
83
I mean, you're lecturing me on life?
84
Look at you, you fucking burnout.
85
What winds your clock?
86
Working with you.
87
Where's your soulmate?
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You want to talk about soulmates?
89
Where is she?
90
Dead.
91
That's right.
92
She's fucking dead.
93
She fucking dies.
94
And you just cash in your chips and you walk away?
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Hey, at least I played a hand.
96
Oh, you played a hand and you lost.
97
You lost a big fucking hand.
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And some people will lose a big hand like that and have the sack to ante up again.
99
Look at me.
100
What do you want to do?
101
You and your bullshit.
102
You got a bullshit answer for everybody.
103
But I ask you a very simple question, and you can't give me a straight answer. Because you don't know.
104
See you, boat people.
105
Fuck you.
106
You're the shepherd.
107
Shepherd.
108
Bright little prick.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “Good Will Hunting - "What Do You Wanna Do?"”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: honor, soulmate, shepherd, brick, answer. This video has 108 sentences and 689 words to shadow. The speech runs for 3:52. The speaker talks at a natural 178 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 84% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start. 30 of its 108 sentences are questions, so it is good practice for question intonation and short answers.
Key vocabulary in this video
The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| soulmate noun | Someone, especially a romantic partner, with whom one is exceptionally or uniquely compatible or has a special, almost spiritual connection. | |
| shepherd noun | /ˈʃɛpəɹd/ | A person who tends sheep, especially a grazing flock. |
| honorable adjective | /ˈɑn.ə.ɹəbl̩/ | Behaving in a manner that shows honor; decent, having integrity. |
| burnout noun | /ˈbɜː(ɹ)naʊt/ | The experience of long-term exhaustion and diminished interest, especially in one's career. |
| janitor noun | /ˈd͡ʒænɪtɚ/ | Someone who looks after the maintenance and cleaning of a public building. |
| wastebasket noun | A usually small indoor receptacle for items that are to be discarded; a rubbish bin. | |
| heater noun | /ˈhitɚ/ | A device that produces and radiates heat, typically to raise the temperature of a room or building. |
| smelling verb | /ˈsmɛlɪŋ/ | Used in adjectival compounds. |
| prick noun | /pɹɪk/ | A small hole or perforation, caused by piercing. |
| moist adjective | /mɔɪst/ | Characterized by the presence of moisture; not dry; slightly wet; damp. |
| bind verb | /ˈbaɪ̯nd/ | To tie; to confine by any ligature. |
| prestigious adjective | /pɹɛˈstiːd͡ʒəs/ | Of high prestige. |
| sack noun | /sæk/ | A bag; especially a large bag of strong, coarse material for storage and handling of various commodities, such as potatoes, coal, coffee; or, a bag with… |
| towel noun | /ˈtaʊ̯əl/ | A cloth used for wiping, especially one used for drying anything wet, such as a person after a bath. |
| sneak verb | /sniːk/ | To creep or go stealthily; to come or go while trying to avoid detection, as a person who does not wish to be seen. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| open up verb | To open. |
| walk away verb | To withdraw from a problematic situation. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- Do you have a soulmate?
- You can't give back to them, will?
- You gonna take the professor's side on this?
- I mean, what's wrong with laying brick?
- I mean, you're lecturing me on life?
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | Somebody who challenges · someone who opens · guys who work |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | are bound · were born |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 31 contractions and reduced forms, such as you're, don't, I'm. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: shepherd /ˈʃɛpəɹd/, passionate /ˈpæʃənɪt/, profession /pɹəˈfɛʃ.ən/, sheep /ˈʃiːp/
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 soulmate, shepherd, honorable.
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.