Shadowing Practice: How I Would Learn English Today - Learn English Speaking with YouTube

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10 things I would do differently if I had to learn English all over again.
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10 things I would do differently if I had to learn English all over again.
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Number one, I would focus on pronunciation right from the beginning.
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If you have a good pronunciation,
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people will understand you and you will like what you hear when you speak,
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so you will be inclined to do it more.
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Number two, I would not focus on vocabulary words that I would never use.
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I would probably pick like three topics that I like and then I would just focus on that.
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Let's say it's travel, food, and work.
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And I would only make an effort to learn phrases or words from those three topics at first.
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Number three, I would not learn conversations from textbooks.
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The textbook dialogues are so robotic.
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They're like, this is John.
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John is 30 years old.
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John is from London.
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No, no one talks like that.
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Real speech is emotional, messy.
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People use a lot of filler words.
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It's just textbooks are just not realistic.
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Just follow this rule.
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If nobody would say this in real life, don't learn it.
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Number four, I would make my house my speaking partner.
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I know that sounds weird,
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but basically I would make my house an English zone.
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For example, when I'm inside my house,
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everything that I do, everything that I see,
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I will say that in English.
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You open the fridge, you say,
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I am opening the fridge.
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You look at the milk,
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you say, oh, the milk is expired.
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So narrate everything you're doing.
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Write your grocery list in English,
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write your to-do list in English.
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If If you're doing your makeup, narrate that.
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Imagine you're a vlogger.
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If you're cooking, explain what you're doing.
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You'll be surprised how many words you don't know,
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how many words you thought you knew.
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So just refresh those constantly.
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Number five, I believe.
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I would listen to real people.
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For example, somebody on YouTube is venting about a problem that they had with customer service, whatever.
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Amazing.
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Somebody is ranting about a friend on TikTok telling a crazy story.
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Gold.
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Because these are real people using real English,
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real speech that you will hear every time you go outside.
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Pay attention to the slang,
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pay attention to the sarcasm,
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pay attention to the jokes,
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pay attention to facial expressions, gestures, everything.
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The next thing I would do differently,
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and I think this should have been on the first or second place,
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but anyway, I would stop translating everything.
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I would forget about my native language and I would focus on English.
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It's a different language.
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It's a foreign language.
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It has nothing to do with my own language.
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I would focus on understanding the idea behind that word
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or the meaning behind that expression instead of finding the exact equivalent or the translation in my own language.
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I don't need that.
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Why do I need that?
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I would try to connect the words and their meaning to some sort of context or emotion or image in my head.
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Translation will only slow you down because every time you translate something,
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the next time you're going to want to do the reverse thing,
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you're going to think about the word in your native language or the expression in your native language
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and you're going to want to translate it back into English,
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you're not going to use that expression that you wrote in your vocabulary list.
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You're going to try to translate word for word for something else.
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And it's going to sound weird.
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Okay, next thing I would do differently,
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just because I simply didn't have access to a phone or the internet.
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It was 25 years ago, okay?
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Now you have this beautiful device that you're holding and you have a lot of AI apps.
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You have a lot of apps that you can interact with humans on.
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So what I would do,
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I would find an app that I would train my English just to like feel comfortable
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and practice little grammar bits and whatnot.
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And another app where I would find somebody to talk to,
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somebody real and apps that would pretty much give you like a speaking club dynamic.
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So you can actually speak.
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So you train your confidence and your ability to interact with human beings like you're learning some social skills as well.
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Or if I have the means I would just hire somebody to talk to every day or a couple times a week.
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Next thing I would do differently or I would change is my mindset around making mistakes.
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I feel like as kids we became so terrified of making mistakes
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because you know our teacher would take our homework and our notebooks
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and would mark every single mistake with a red pen
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and then we would feel guilty about it and we'd think about it and it didn't feel good, you know?
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If you made a couple of mistakes,
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your grade would go lower, which is so dumb.
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But anyway, when you're speaking and you're making mistakes,
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the person that you're talking to is not your teacher.
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They're not taking your speech and analyzing it word by word and marking with red whatever you said wrong.
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It's not like that.
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They're just trying to understand what you're saying.
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You notice those mistakes more because you've been learning every single piece of your speech
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but that person is just trying to get your message and have a conversation.
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They don't want to be your teacher, trust me.
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Okay, next thing is I would stop waiting until I'm ready to speak.
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I would never feel ready to do anything
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because to feel ready means what you're you're so confident
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that you're a hundred percent perfect
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that you feel ready to start doing something you're never ready
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you just have to do it bad english is better than silent english
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because every time you make a mistake you learn but
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if you're waiting to never make a mistake but you're not speaking
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and you're not making mistakes it's but you're it's it makes no sense okay
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and last thing i would do differently i would record myself any chance i'd get voice memos videos everything
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that i'm doing and i can record it i would
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because then i would be able to just look back a month
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or two and see my progress and be my own motivator a lot of people a lot of of my students,
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they don't really realize how they're improving and I have to be like,
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you're so much better than you were three months ago.
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And they're like, oh really?
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No, I still suck because we never feel like we're good at anything.
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So recording yourself and then looking back would be such an eye-opener.
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It'll be inspiring.
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And honestly, you never know.
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You might develop this love of recording things and social media is so big nowadays.
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Maybe you'll become a vlogger.
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Maybe you'll become a TikToker.
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You never know.
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What do you think I'm doing right now?
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I'm practicing English too.
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So listen, I learned English the hard way.
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You can learn it a lot easier, a lot faster nowadays.
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The traditional textbook teaching method focuses a lot on writing and reading,
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and maybe a little bit of listening.
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So a lot of people have this illusion that they can speak English,
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and when they want to speak,
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it's just so hard because the words are not coming.
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So I hope these tips will help you focus a little bit more on speaking.

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Why Practice Speaking with This Video?

If you're looking to improve English pronunciation and fluency, this video offers invaluable insights from someone who has learned through real-life experiences. The speaker emphasizes the importance of practicing pronunciation from the beginning. By focusing on pronunciation early in your learning journey, you'll find that others understand you better, which boosts your confidence and encourages you to speak more often. Narrating daily activities, just as the speaker suggests, transforms your home into an English zone, allowing you to incorporate language learning into your routine effortlessly.

Additionally, the speaker's advice to listen to real people—their emotions, the way they express themselves, and even their use of slang—enables you to absorb English in a more authentic context. This approach will shed light on how English is used in natural conversation, enhancing your speaking skills significantly.

Grammar & Expressions in Context

  • Present Continuous Tense: The speaker uses the present continuous tense frequently to describe ongoing actions, such as "I am opening the fridge." This structure emphasizes actions happening in the moment, vital for effective communication.
  • Filler Words: Expressions like "you know," "basically," and "like" are common in spoken English. Recognizing and practicing these can help you sound more natural when speaking.
  • Emotional Expressions: The speaker's use of emotionally charged language, such as "crazy story" or "venting about a problem," demonstrates the effective use of expressions that convey feelings and engage listeners.
  • Contextual Vocabulary: By selecting specific topics (like travel, food, and work), the speaker showcases how focusing on familiar subjects can simplify vocabulary learning. Adopting this method, especially when creating phrases related to your interests, can make learning more engaging and practical.

Common Pronunciation Traps

While learning from the video, pay attention to certain tricky words and accents that may pose challenges. For instance, words like "fridge" and "expired" can sometimes trip up English learners due to their vowel sounds. The shadowing technique, where you mimic the speaker's pronunciation and intonation, can be particularly beneficial here. By practicing shadow speech, you can become aware of regional accents and the nuances of American or British pronunciations.

If you encounter phrases that feel difficult, break them down into smaller parts. For example, when saying "I am opening the fridge," focus on the transition between words, emphasizing the end sounds and linking phrases to sound more fluent. Regular practice using the shadow speak method allows you to refine your skills while improving pronunciation naturally.

Incorporating these strategies into your daily English practice will not only enhance your speaking abilities but will also make you more confident in using the language in real-life situations. Remember, language learning is a journey, and utilizing authentic materials like this video is a step towards success!

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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