Shadowing Practice: How Culture affects your Personality - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Personality is more than just genes.
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A large part of who we are and the decisions
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that we make are influenced by the culture that we grew up in.
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So where does this influence start?
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Think all the way back to when you learned manners.
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You were probably scolded for engaging in behavior that was considered rude in your culture.
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Conversely, you were probably encouraged to engage in behaviors that are considered to be polite.
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Now, as you were conditioned to engage in more polite behaviors, you subconsciously picked up on patterns that influenced how you behave.
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These patterns are highly influenced by the values of the culture that you grew up in.
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But, not all cultures hold the same values.
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Some cultures tend to encourage behaviors that are loud, boisterous, and competitive.
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Others encourage quiet, respectful, and more humble behaviors.
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Depending on the culture where you live, you probably pick up on these values, and they have definitely influenced your decisions and your personality.
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Researchers have been studying the connections between culture and personality for a long time, and in this video, I'm going to attempt to explain two spectrums that researchers have created to define cultures.
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The cultures place on these spectrums highly influences the personality traits and the behaviors of the people within that culture.
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So culture is not determined by borders.
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As you'll see throughout the rest of this video, people learn lessons from cultures that are created from people within a certain country, occupation, class, gender identity, or other differences.
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For example, just because the country you live in has an individualist culture does not mean you are bound by individualist ideas.
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So keep this in mind throughout the rest of the video.
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Let's get started by talking about individual versus collectivist culture.
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Individualism focuses on the individual, just as the name implies.
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People living in an individualist environment prioritize self-improvement of themselves
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and satisfying their own needs before the rest of those of their community.
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Why?
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Well, individualist cultures believe and teach that if everyone takes care of themselves, then the entire group should thrive and then become self-sufficient.
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Individualist cultures put a lot of stress on independence and self-reliance.
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Those that live in this type of culture tend to be very self-sufficient and driven workers, but are weaker whenever it comes to collaboration and teamwork.
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They usually struggle handing off responsibility.
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Now in general, these people usually distance themselves psychologically and emotionally from one another, since working with others is more of an option than a requirement for success.
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In the media, we often see individualist characteristics associated with men, people in urban settings, and the western culture.
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So what about collectivist cultures?
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People living in a collectivist environment are taught to focus on
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the needs of the group before they focus on their own individual needs.
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They associate their identity to the role and function in a larger group.
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These groups can include families, teams at work, or the entire nation.
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Collectivist societies teach people that everyone will benefit when they start to look out for one another.
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Harmony and interdependence between group members is highly valued among people in this type of environment.
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Now, unlike their individualist counterparts, members of collectivist cultures tend to be extremely close to each other psychologically and emotionally.
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Now, this can create an us versus them mindset that separates or looks down upon people that are outside of their group.
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Collectivist characteristics are generally associated with women, people in rural settings, and eastern culture.
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So let's look at another spectrum.
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Did you grow up in an approach or an avoidance culture?
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This idea was coined in 1935 to help psychologists identify what makes some conflicts easy to resolve and others difficult to resolve.
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Where you lie on this spectrum can highly influence how you make decisions.
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So what is approach vs avoidance?
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Humans typically want to approach and move towards pleasurable things, and they typically want to avoid and move away from negative or painful things.
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It's very similar to Freud's pleasure-pain principle.
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The idea of approach vs avoidance was measured when an experiment was conducted on rats in 1948.
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The rats were exposed to different positive and negative stimuli.
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then measure the strength of their pull towards the stimuli.
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The most interesting results from this experiment reveal
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that the closer the rats were to the item that they were either approaching or avoiding, the stronger their pull was in either direction.
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Now this can be applied to humans and how they make their decisions and categorize conflict.
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But what does it have to do with the culture where you grew up with?
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Cause that's kinda the topic of this video, right?
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The culture helps to teach you at a young age what to approach and what to avoid.
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Culture doesn't teach you to avoid physical pain and approach food.
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Those things are instinctual to all humans.
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The things we learn to approach and avoid through culture appeal to a higher need.
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One example of this is something called uncertainty avoidance.
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The uncertainty avoidance of a culture is a measure of how that culture responds to novelty and uncertainty.
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How does a culture deal with ambiguity?
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Are changes welcome in the nation?
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Or does the culture approach stable, traditional rules and customs?
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Now in some research I've found that countries who generally score high in neuroticism tend to be high in uncertainty avoidance.
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Most countries usually have a more formal system of rules that try to minimize cultural or situational ambiguity.
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And the citizens are uninterested in changing them.
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These cultures tend to be more conservative, more emotional, and usually xenophobic.
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Families in these cultures tend to have more traditional gender roles too.
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Schools have more structured learning, and children are taught to trust
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that their Teachers have all of the answers children are also taught that the outside world may be a hostile place
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Religions associated with the uncertainty avoidance include Catholicism Islam Judaism and Shinto ism
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Conversely countries low in neuroticism and low
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and uncertainty avoidance tend to have fewer laws and regulations
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And their citizens are much more interested in politics These cultures are often more open to change
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and more tolerant of diversity and people within these cultures tend to suppress their emotions more.
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Families in these cultures usually have looser gender roles and their schools have a more open-minded learning.
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As a generality, teachers are allowed to say that they don't know and students are encouraged to question authority.
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Children are also taught that the outside world is benevolent and that they should not persecute others based on their beliefs.
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Religions associated with low uncertainty avoidance include Protestantism, Buddhism, Taoism, and Hinduism.
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So where do you fit in?
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Uncertainty avoidance is just one concept that is influenced by a culture's personality
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and how it influences the decisions and behaviors of the people within that culture.
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What were you taught to avoid?
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What were you taught to approach?
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And how does the culture where you grew up in influence what you consider to be comfortable and uncomfortable?
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I hope you guys enjoyed this video and if you did, feel free to watch some of the other videos in this personality series.
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And if you want to learn more about your own personality, check out my free 3-in-1 personality quiz in the description below.
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What it does is it combines three of the major personality
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quizzes into just one test you can take in under 10 minutes.
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And at the end of it, I'm gonna try to predict some things about you, like your political stances, your relationship style, and also your health.
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I put a lot of work into it, so I hope you guys enjoy it.
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Thanks for watching, and I hope to see you in the next video.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “How Culture affects your Personality”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: culture, avoidance, personality, approach, uncertainty. This video has 93 sentences and 1311 words to shadow. The speech runs for 6:22. The speaker talks fast, about 206 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 83% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start. 14 of its 93 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 |
|---|---|---|
| avoidance noun | /əˈvɔɪdəns/ | The act of avoiding or shunning; keeping clear of. |
| uncertainty noun | /ʌnˈsɜːtənti/ | Doubt; the condition of being uncertain or without conviction. |
| individualist noun | Someone who believes in individualism as a sociopolitical system. | |
| collectivist adjective | /kəˈlɛktɪvɪst/ | Of or pertaining to collectivism. |
| rat noun | /ɹæt/ | Any of the numerous members of several rodent families that usually have short limbs, a pointy snout, a long, hairless tail, and a body length greater than… |
| ambiguity noun | /æm.bɪˈɡjuː.ɪ.ti/ | The state of being ambiguous; the state of leaving room for more than one interpretation. |
| neuroticism noun | The quality or state of being neurotic | |
| psychologically adverb | In a psychological sense. | |
| conversely adverb | /kənˈvɝsli/ | With a reversed relationship. |
| stimulus noun | /ˈstɪm.jə.ləs/ | An external phenomenon that has an influence on a system, by triggering or modifying an internal phenomenon; for example, a spur or incentive that drives a… |
| quiz noun | /kwɪz/ | A competition in the answering of questions. |
| researcher noun | /ˈɹiˌsɝ.t͡ʃɚ/ | One who researches. |
| polite adjective | /pəˈlaɪt/ | Well-mannered, civilized. |
| characteristic noun | /ˌkæɹ(ə)ktəˈɹɪstɪk/ | A distinguishing feature of a person or thing, a part of mental or physical behavior. |
| emotionally adverb | /ɪˈməʊʃənəli/ | In an emotional manner; displaying emotion. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| pick up on verb | To notice, observe, learn, or understand, especially something otherwise overlooked. |
| check out verb | To record the departure or withdrawal of someone or something (such as guests, employees, books, etc.). |
| hand off verb | To pass (the ball) to a teammate. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- Did you grow up in an approach or an avoidance culture?
- What were you taught to avoid?
- What were you taught to approach?
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 | are influenced · were probably scolded · were probably encouraged |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | have definitely influenced · have created · I've found |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 8 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, doesn't, don't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: emotionally /ɪˈməʊʃənəli/, pleasurable /ˈplɛʒəɹəbəl/, situational /sɪtjuːˈeɪʃənəl/, emotion /ɪˈməʊ.ʃən/, occupation /ˌɑkjʊˈpeɪʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: uncertainty /ʌnˈsɜːtənti/, collectivist /kəˈlɛktɪvɪst/, ambiguity /æm.bɪˈɡjuː.ɪ.ti/, characteristic /ˌkæɹ(ə)ktəˈɹɪstɪk/, emotionally /ɪˈməʊʃənəli/
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 avoidance, uncertainty, individualist.
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.