Shadowing Practice: Have You Ever Compared Yourself To Others? - Learn English Speaking with Video

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A lot people spend their whole lives always comparing themselves to other people without even knowing how much it negatively affects them.

When comparing yourself to someone who is inferior than you, you may feel content with who you are and lose the passion to grow to your full potential.

When comparing yourself to someone who is superior than you, it could just make you feel bad about yourself and focus only on how little you've progressed in comparison to them.

And this can be very discouraging altogether.

I mean if you look at someone else and work your own goals around theirs you're actually following someone else's path.

But that path is probably not the same path as yours and will not be the path you need to take in order for you to achieve your own dreams.

The thing is, everyone is different.

Diamonds are valuable because it doesn't pretend to be Topaz.

Topaz are valuable because it doesn't pretend to be Rubies.

Everything is beautiful in it's own way.

We are all valuable in our own way.

For example, if you're a fish but you compare your running skills to a tiger, you will undoubtedly be disappointed in your own value.

But actually, you can swim way better than a tiger can.

And that there is your value.

Therefore, what you should be focusing on is finding yourself.

Walking on your own path and competing with yourself.

Instead of looking at yourself and the things that you don't have, you should be focusing on the things that you do have and do well.

And even if being yourself doesn't always succeed, like maybe you'll fall, or maybe you'll fail, you should just think that whatever the outcome is, it's the best outcome you could have.

Now you're probably wondering something like: Hey I lost the race, hey I didn't do as well on my exams as my friends, hey I did terribly in the job interview, and then think how is that the best outcome I could have?

It's the best outcome because of the circumstances in that moment.

I'll give you an example, there was a runner who finished in 4th place because the night before she raced, she didn't sleep very well therefore not getting enough rest and not having enough energy to run as she did when she was training.

She was really sad and she blamed herself because she thought that she didn't do the best that she could because if she had had more rest, she would have done better.

But in reality, she's not able to turn back the time to when she didn't get enough rest.

Which means that ultimately, we cannot control everything and we cannot change anything even if it wasn't done as well as we had hoped.

It really was the best outcome considering the situation.

The voice in our head that's always telling us things like "had I known, I wouldn't have done it that way" or "if I hadn't done it like this, I wouldn't be in the position I am in now", they comes from our hope and expectations that want to fix our disappointments but in reality we aren't able to turn back the time to fix what's already happened.

And because we can't fix it, then we think that's it's our fault and we blame ourselves.

But no matter how much we blame ourselves, we can't change the past.

Therefore, the only thing that can release us from blaming ourselves is to understand that we are not the only cause for what happened.

The runner finished in 4th place not just because she was too excited to fall asleep.

But it was also because of several other reasons.

The 3 winners had trained 6 months longer than her and were more familiar with the trail.

Not only that, but actually there was another runner that didn't make it because of a major traffic jam.

There was traffic because there was construction.

There was construction to fix a broken telephone pole.

There was a broken telephone pole from the lightning and there was lightning from the storm.

Now you can see that had the storm not hit last night, our racer would've finished 5th place because the other runner would have made it to the race.

There are so many other reasons that this could have happened.

We are not the only ones to cause something to happen and we can never go back to change the past.

So if we remember that when we are disappointed in ourselves, we may learn to blame ourselves less, have a little bit more understanding and be able to accept the things that happen to us.

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152 sentences

Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This video has 40 sentences and 788 words to shadow. The speech runs for 4:01. The speaker talks fast, about 196 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 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

15 less common words from the video, with pronunciation and meaning:

outcome /ˈaʊtkʌm/ (noun) — That which is produced or occurs as a result of an event or process.
compare /kəmˈpɛɚ/ (verb) — To assess the similarities and differences between two or more things [“to compare X with Y”]. Having made the comparison of X with Y, one might have found it…
runner /ˈɹʌnɚ/ (noun) — A person who moves, on foot, at a fast pace, especially an athlete.
disappointed /ˌdɪsəˈpɔɪnɪd/ (adjective) — Defeated of expectations or hope; experiencing disappointment; let down.
telephone /ˈtɛləˌfoʊn/ (noun) — A telecommunication device which converts data or sounds (usually speech) into electrical signals which are then transmitted to enable two or more people to…
pretend /pɹəˈtɛnd/ (verb) — To speak or behave so as to give a false or simulated appearance.
tiger /ˈtaɪɡə/ (noun) — Panthera tigris, a large predatory mammal of the cat family, indigenous to Asia.
pole /pəʊl/ (noun) — Either of the two points on the earth's surface around which it rotates; also, similar points on any other rotating object.
lightning /ˈlaɪt.nɪŋ/ (noun) — A flash of light produced by short-duration, high-voltage discharge of electricity within a cloud, between clouds, or between a cloud and the earth.
superior /sʊˈpɪɹ.i.ɚ/ (adjective) — Higher in rank, status, or quality.
trail /tɹeɪl/ (noun) — The track or indication marking the route followed by something that has passed, such as the footprints of animal on land or the contrail of an airplane in the…
passion /ˈpæʃən/ (noun) — A true desire sustained or prolonged.
diamond /ˈdaɪ.ə.mənd/ (noun) — A glimmering glass-like mineral that is an allotrope of carbon in which each atom is surrounded by four others in the form of a tetrahedron.
skill /skɪl/ (noun) — A capacity to do something well; a technique, an ability, usually acquired or learned, as opposed to abilities that are regarded as innate.
compete /kəmˈpiːt/ (verb) — To be in battle or in a rivalry with another for the same thing, position, or reward; to contend.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

look at (verb) — To observe or watch.
turn back (verb) — To reverse direction and retrace one's steps.
come from (verb) — To have as one's origin, birthplace or nationality.
go back to (verb) — To stem from; to originate in.
take in /teɪk‿ˈɪn/ (verb) — To receive.
walk on (verb) — To come onstage.

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 24 contractions and reduced forms, such as didn't, doesn't, you're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “th” sounds: altogether /ɔl.tuˈɡɛð.ɚ/, theirs /ðɛɚz/
The “sh” and “zh” sounds: passion /ˈpæʃən/, expectation /ˌɛk.spɛkˈteɪ.ʃən/
Long words — get the stress right: disappointed /ˌdɪsəˈpɔɪnɪd/, superior /sʊˈpɪɹ.i.ɚ/, altogether /ɔl.tuˈɡɛð.ɚ/, disappointment /ˌdɪsəˈpɔɪntmənt/, expectation /ˌɛk.spɛkˈteɪ.ʃən/

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 outcome, compare, runner.

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	someone who is
Superlatives the -est / the most … — the top or bottom of a group	the best
Advice with “should” should + verb — saying what is a good idea	should be · should just think
Possibility with “might / may” might/may + verb — something that is possible but not certain	may feel · may learn

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.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

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