Shadowing Practice: He's a Dangerous LIAR - Learn English Speaking with YouTube

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So this loser would do anything to not have to get a job.
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So this loser would do anything to not have to get a job.
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Now the guy's name is Jean-Claude,
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and Jean-Claude is around 20 when this story starts,
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and he's a med student studying in Lyon, France.
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And Jean-Claude is pretty much a model student.
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Like, he's doing really well in school.
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But then one day, the worst thing happens to him.
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He's in the middle of taking a bunch of his first year finals when his girlfriend breaks up with him.
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And this is devastating for Jean-Claude.
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He gets all depressed, and in fact,
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he takes it so badly that he stops showing up for his exams altogether.
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And even when he's later given another opportunity to retake them, he never does.
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And because he didn't show up for his exams,
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Jean-Claude fails the year, which means he can't move on to the second year of med school.
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And to make it worse,
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his parents basically pay his bills and finance his life,
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and he can't bring himself to tell them the truth.
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So, he lies to them.
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And he tells his parents and all his friends that he actually passed the exams,
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and that he's now in his second year of med school.
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And from that moment on, he just keeps lying.
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He never passes his first year exams,
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but he keeps going back to campus pretending to be a med student.
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He hangs around campus all day,
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he attends classes here and there with his friends,
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but he never actually takes any tests.
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And no one knows he's faking it,
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so he keeps lying to everyone.
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And a few years pass,
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and eventually Jean-Claude's classmates graduate, and he doesn't.
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But he just lies and tells everyone that he graduated too.
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And not long after that,
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he lies and claims that he landed this big,
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prestigious job as a medical researcher working for the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland and everyone is all impressed.
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And around the same time,
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he reconnects with his college girlfriend,
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the one who broke up with him.
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Her name is Florence.
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He tells Florence that he's this big shot medical researcher working at the WHO,
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and she thinks it's cool.
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And so they end up getting back together.
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And eventually, they get married and they move to Switzerland.
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And to keep this lie going,
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every morning, he leaves the house,
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pretending to go to work at the WHO,
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and he'll spend the whole day sitting in the WHO building parking lot.
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And sometimes he'll walk into the lobby and pick up magazines or brochures,
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and then he'll take them home,
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so it looks like he really works there.
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He even tells his family that he's traveling abroad for conferences and seminars.
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But in reality, he just parks his car at the airport,
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stays in a nearby hotel,
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and then quietly returns home after a few days.
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And he keeps this lie going with everyone.
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His wife, his extended family, his friends.
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Now, obviously, he can lie about having a job all he wants,
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but he still needs money to pay his bills.
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So he decides to start scamming people.
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And who better to start scamming than his own family?
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So Jean-Claude tells some of his relatives that because of his position at the WHO,
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he has access to some special investment program with high returns and that he can invest their money for them.
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So his parents, his relatives,
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and even his in-laws all start handing money over to him.
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He even starts having an affair with this side chick,
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and he convinces his side chick to hand over about 900,000 francs for him to invest,
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or about 170,000 US dollars in today's money.
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So now, Jean-Claude has access to a lot of funds.
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And of course, he isn't really investing this money.
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He's keeping it for himself.
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He mostly uses it to maintain the fake upper middle class lifestyle that he's been pretending to live for years.
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Cause you know, he's got to make it look like he has this high paying job at the WHO.
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And he keeps this con going for a long time,
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pretending to go to work,
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pretending to travel for conferences, pretending to be successful.
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But then things start to get a little complicated for Jean-Claude.
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At some point, his father-in-law wants to buy a car.
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So he asks for some of his investment money back.
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And Jean-Claude, he doesn't actually have a lump sum of money to give him.
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He spent it all.
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But he realizes that if he doesn't give him anything,
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other investors might get suspicious.
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So he decides the only way out of this predicament is to get rid of his father-in-law.
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So one day he's at home and his father-in-law is there and he waits for the right moment and then
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he allegedly pushes his father-in-law down the stairs and unfortunately the poor father-in-law doesn't survive.
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And later Jean-Claude tells police that his father-in-law must have accidentally fell and police they don't find any evidence that says otherwise.
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So that's what they go with.
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And the death is ruled an accident.
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So not only did Jean-Claude just get away with murder,
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but he ends up making even more money off of it.
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Because then his mother-in-law later sells off some of her late husband's property,
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and she hands Jean-Claude around 1.3 million francs to invest for her.
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Which means 1.3 million francs goes right into Jean-Claude's pocket.
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And so he just continues on conning and deceiving people.
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And more years pass.
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But then all this money he scammed starts to run out.
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And some of his victims,
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they're asking for their money back.
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And he has nothing left to give them.
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But that's not the only problem he's dealing with.
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People in his life are noticing some inconsistencies with Jean-Claude claiming that he works at the WHO.
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And they're starting to question him about it.
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Now, he's been lying to people for years,
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so he always has an excuse ready to give them.
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But deep down, he knows it's only a matter of time before everyone discovers
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that he's been lying about his life for nearly two decades.
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And that is when he decides
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that it would be better for his family to die than to discover what a liar he really is.
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So he goes to a local gun store and he buys some ammunition
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and a silencer for his rifle and an electric stun wand.
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And then one night, while his wife Florence is asleep beside him,
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Jean-Claude picks up a rolling pin and then pow,
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pow, he starts beating her with it until she's no longer moving.
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Then he gets his gun and blam,
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blam, he shoots his two kids.
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After that, he drives over to his parents' house and he shoots them too.
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Then he drives all the way to Paris to see his side chick,
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same side chick that he conned into investing with him years before.
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So he meets up with her and he says he wants to take her out to dinner.
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But instead of driving her to a nice restaurant,
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he drives her toward a remote area in the woods.
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And he gets her out of the car,
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and suddenly, he sprays her in the eyes with tear gas.
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Then, he zaps her with that electric stun wand he bought.
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But then, side chick starts begging him not to kill her.
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And at the last moment,
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for some reason, he decides to stop,
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and he lets her go.
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After that, he drives back home,
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and he decides the only thing he can do from here is unalive himself.
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So he takes a bunch of sleeping pills.
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Then he pours gasoline all around the house,
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and he sets the place on fire,
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and he lays down inside,
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hoping that he'll pass out and the fire will kill him.
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Until.
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Until a few minutes later,
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firefighters show up, And they manage to find Jean-Claude,
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and they rescue him from the house,
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and he ends up surviving.
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So, after he recovers in the hospital, bam, Jean-Claude is arrested.
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Here's a picture of him.
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And later, he goes to trial,
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he's found guilty, and he gets sentenced to life in prison.

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About This Lesson

This lesson focuses on practicing your English listening and speaking skills using a real-life story about a character named Jean-Claude, who struggles with the consequences of dishonesty. Through this engaging narrative, learners will enhance their ability to understand spoken English and practice speaking in a way that retains the natural rhythm and tone of everyday conversation. You will improve your skills in shadow speech, allowing you to repeat and mimic the phrases and expressions used in the video. By immersing yourself in the story, you will become more familiar with the nuances of spoken English and develop greater confidence in your speaking abilities.

Key Vocabulary & Phrases

  • Model student - A student who performs exceptionally well.
  • Devastating - Causing severe emotional pain or distress.
  • Retake exams - To take an examination again.
  • Lie - To make an untrue statement with the intent to deceive.
  • Graduate - To successfully complete a degree program.
  • Prestigious job - A respected and admired position in the workplace.
  • Medical researcher - A professional who conducts studies and research in the field of medicine.
  • Conference - A formal meeting for discussion, often related to professional or academic fields.

Practice Tips

When practicing your speaking skills, try using the shadowspeak technique to mimic the speaker's voice and intonation. Listen to the video at a slow pace, then gradually increase the speed as you become more comfortable with the content. Pay close attention to how the speaker emphasizes certain words and phrases. This will help you understand the rhythm of natural speech.

To enhance your shadow speech practice, repeat each sentence after you hear it in the video. Make sure to pause and imitate not just the words, but also the emotional undertones, like the sense of disbelief and tension in Jean-Claude's story. By shadowing this video, you will not only enhance your vocabulary but also gain confidence in conversational English.

Finally, after you've finished practicing with the video, try summarizing the story in your own words. This will help reinforce what you have learned and improve your overall language skills as you learn English with YouTube.

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.

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