Shadowing Practice: How living abroad rewires your brain. - Learn English Speaking with Video

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I always feel really stupid just doing these kind of shots.

Everyone says living abroad is hard, and it is.

The bureaucracy, the language gaps, the cultural misfires, ordering four cheese pizzas when you're meant to order one four cheese pizza, you're far from family.

And making friends as an adult is awkward.

I moved out at 18, not abroad, but as far from home as I could get.

Newcastle upon time was my first outpost.

Then came Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, back to Germany.

And in between, I lived out of a suitcase in Prague, Dakar, Maputo, New York, Sydney,

Montreux, Washington, La Paz, everywhere and nowhere.

And after all that, here's what I've learned.

There's something about living abroad that no one really tells you.

You won't read it in travel blogs or visa forums, you only find out by doing it, by living through it, by feeling foreign.

So today I am in Maastricht.

I used to call this place home.

I've come back to visit a friend who is defending his thesis, which is exciting.

It's always strange being back somewhere isn't it?

It's like, well even though I know these streets really well and I lived here for five years,

I basically feel foreign and this isn't a new feeling for me.

I've lived outside of the UK for almost 20 years.

I have felt foreign I guess for most of my life at this point.

But there's something really interesting about feeling foreign

because yeah sure you have this weird feeling of sadness

and dislocation but there's also a really really surprising set of benefits that I don't think people talk about enough.

So look I spent most of my life feeling foreign, feeling like an outsider.

It's part of my, I guess it's part of my character.

It's just who I am.

I've always been like this.

I've always felt like an outsider and I've always chosen the path,

I guess, of most friction and that's involved moving abroad quite a lot of the time.

But all the stuff that I talked about earlier, that stuff starts to, well, it starts to take its toll.

It starts to grind you down after a while.

So I keep asking myself the question, why do I do it?

And it It turns out that, well, after 20 years, it basically has a bunch of really surprising benefits.

Feeling foreign isn't just vibes, if I'm not too old to use that word.

Sure, there's friction and there's difficulties, but there's some scientific things behind the sense of feeling foreign

that enable you to go on and do things that you couldn't otherwise do.

And I believe if you harness it in the right way, I think it's a kind of gift.

Psychologists say living abroad can trigger three deep shifts in how we think and feel.

The first is self -concept clarity.

Basically, how clearly and confidently you understand who you are.

When you move abroad, that all gets shaken.

Language, routines, cultural cues, they all fall away and suddenly you're asking, who am I without all of that?

You kind of lose your autopilot, but that loss forces you to get intentional.

I had to decide consciously how to live, relate and respond to the world around me.

And over time, that made me more resilient.

I think I made better decisions.

I think I've built more authentic relationships and I've definitely stopped chasing approval, says the guy with the YouTube channel who responds to every comment.

But crucially, that clarity doesn't vanish.

It's helped me in career shifts.

It's helped me in parenting, in creativity, I think basically any time the ground moves,

I have self -concept clarity to help me understand who I am.

The second shift is called cultural frame switching, which is basically changing how you think and behave depending on the cultural context.

And you see a lot in bilingual people, for instance, and I felt it a bit.

I'm more direct in German, say.

I'm more reserved in Dutch and I'm annoyingly polite in English.

Different parts of me show up depending on where I am.

It's demanding, but it's kind of powerful in a way.

It's a bit of a superpower.

You get better at reading the room and seeing things from different angles.

And at times, yeah, I mean, it makes you feel in between.

You're sort of fluent everywhere, but at home nowhere.

But it also makes you adaptive and flexible.

And if you use it consciously, it is a strength.

The third concept is somewhat harder to pin down.

It's called emotional and existential displacement.

And it's the feeling that you no longer fully belong anywhere, not to a place or even to your past self.

I've felt homesick for instance for versions of me that I've outgrown.

I'm kind of caught between identities, not sure where I fit.

But over time I've realised that in between space is where something new can form.

A third identity if you will, like built but not inherited.

It's uncomfortable but it's honest.

You're no longer living someone else's story, you're writing your own.

Living a boat that you can leave is a bit more time.

Feeling fun and uproar your receiving license, the way of seeing the world, and the fact.

The fortune of you still is the truth.

The suspicion of you being a bit mature, that's how you just get feeling.

Also, it's such a very nice feeling, and it's such a great feeling.

You're all ready of it when you feel a little tired, feeling a little bit more.

2, 3, 3, 4, 2, 3, 4, 2, 3, 4, 2, 3, 4, 2, 3, 4, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2,

3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1,

2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2,

3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3,

4, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1 Thank you.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This speaking lesson is built on the video “How living abroad rewires your brain”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: feeling, foreign, abroad, cultural, felt. This video has 79 sentences and 944 words to shadow. The speech runs for 5:55. The speaker talks at a natural 160 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 82% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.

Key vocabulary in this video

15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
abroad adverb	/əˈbɹɔːd/	Beyond the bounds of a country; in foreign countries.
clarity noun	/ˈklæɹ.ɪ.ti/	The state or measure of being clear, either in appearance, thought or style; lucidity.
pizza noun	/ˈpi.tsə/	A baked Italian dish of a thinly rolled bread crust typically topped before baking with tomato sauce, cheese, and other ingredients such as meat or vegetables.
nowhere adverb	/ˈnoʊ.(h)wɛɹ/	In no place.
depend verb	/dɪˈpɛnd/	To be contingent or conditioned; to have something as a necessary condition
friction noun	/ˈfɹɪkʃən/	The rubbing of one object or surface against another.
outsider noun	/ˌaʊtˈsaɪdəɹ/	One who is not part of a community or organization.
consciously adverb		In a conscious manner; knowingly, volitionally.
defend verb	/dɪˈfɪnd/	To ward off attacks against (something or someone).
gap noun	/ɡæp/	An opening in anything, made by breaking or parting.
chase verb	/t͡ʃeɪs/	To follow at speed.
angle noun	/ˈæŋ.ɡəl/	A figure formed by two rays which start from a common point (a plane angle) or by three planes that intersect (a solid angle).
belong verb	/bɪˈlɒŋ/	To have its proper place.
forum noun	/ˈfɔːɹəm/	A place for discussion.
routine noun	/ɹuˈtin/	A course of action to be followed regularly; a standard procedure.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Meaning
fall away verb	To cease to support a person or cause.
find out verb	To discover, as by asking or investigating.
live through verb	To survive a difficult period or event
pin down verb	To attach or secure with pins.
show up verb	To appear, arrive, or attend, especially suddenly or erratically.
turn out verb	To end up; to result.

Sentences worth repeating

Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:

It's always strange being back somewhere isn't it?
It's just who I am.
I've always been like this.
It's helped me in career shifts.
You're sort of fluent everywhere, but at home nowhere.

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	I've learned · I've come · I've lived
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	friend who is · switching, which is

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 30 contractions and reduced forms, such as I've, you're, I'm. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “th” sounds: thesis /ˈθisɪs/, authentic /ɔˈθɛn.tɪk/
The “sh” and “zh” sounds: friction /ˈfɹɪkʃən/, shake /ˈʃeɪk/, suspicion /səˈspɪʃ.ən/, intentional /ɪnˈtɛnʃənəl/, crucially /ˈkɹuːʃəli/
Long words — get the stress right: difficulty /ˈdɪfɪkəlti/, uncomfortable /ʌnˈkʌm.fɚ.tə.bl̩/, creativity /kri.eɪˈtɪv.ᵻ.ti/, psychologist /ˌsaɪˈkɑl.ə.d͡ʒɪst/, intentional /ɪnˈtɛnʃənəl/

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 abroad, clarity, pizza.

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 →

Shadowing Practice: How living abroad rewires your brain. - Learn English Speaking with Video

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