Shadowing Practice: How polyglots learn languages | The book that changed my life - Learn English Speaking with Video
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This book once made me believe that I could become a polyglot.
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How I Learn Languages is the reason I fell in love with language learning.
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I first found it at school and it inspired me so much that later I chose to study linguistics at university.
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I speak several languages, I'm learning my seventh language
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and in this video I'm gonna share what I still find inspiring
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and what I don't completely agree with anymore katolom herself was
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a true legend she studied around 28 languages could speak around
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16 of them fluently enough to work as a professional interpreter even a simultaneous interpreter
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which was extremely rare back then especially for a woman she mentions
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that she was no talent for languages she started learning in her adult years
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and proves that progress comes from interest
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and time not from being gifted she even puts it into
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a formula time spent plus interest equals result she says
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that there is no magic pill for learning a language people
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often tell me oh you just have a talent for languages
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but like lump i honestly don't understand it another point
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that lump makes and i really relate to this is how adults block themselves
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when speaking a foreign language They are so afraid of making mistakes that they end up saying nothing at all.
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And I used to be exactly like that.
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When I was learning my first foreign language, I was so embarrassed to make even small mistakes.
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I was just silent.
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But now, after studying more and more languages, I honestly don't care anymore.
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Mistakes are just part of the process and they are evidence that you are actually using the language.
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So let's update the formula, the previous formula, like this.
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Time plus motivation divided by fear equals result.
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There is another interesting moment in the book when she says
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that men are actually more blocked and embarrassed when speaking a foreign language,
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while women are less shy and have a stronger need for communication.
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It's an interesting point, and I'm not sure whether I agree with it or not.
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What do you think?
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So talking about being gifted, about abilities, you don't have to be a linguist or a genius to learn several languages.
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A linguist is a person who studies the theory of language, its grammar, structure, phonetics, everything profoundly.
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And she compares it to a choreographer, like a linguist is a choreographer who studies dance, and a ballerina who actually dances.
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So you can be a ballerina another thing
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that i love about this book is that she writes
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that learning languages shouldn't feel like a burden
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but like a moment of enjoyment
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and in everyday life like it should be your routine
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that makes you enjoy your life
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and this is exactly how i try to teach my students
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i want languages to feel alive connected to their interests
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and never just a set of grammar rules and this is
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when i realized
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that in many ways her words shape my own teaching philosophy
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even before i realized it even before entering the university
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so why do we study languages i think it's pretty clear
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to be engaged with the world with people with different ways of thinking
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and long has a beautiful line about this in her book she writes we study languages
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because language is the only way
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is the only thing that is never useless to know even superficially
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and i couldn't agree more even the smallest knowledge of a
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language a few phrases some basic understanding can open doors create connections
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and change how you see the world
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so you don't have to know all the languages proficiently just start learning a language
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and probably you will move further just by being interested in it, being engaged in the process.
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When it comes to her methodology, I find myself agreeing with her on many points,
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not all but many, especially with her idea that a language should be learned as a whole.
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She compares knowledge to a nail.
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If it isn't driven deep enough, at the first pressure it will fall out.
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And the same with languages, if you only study them passively just by reading
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and listening without practice without output active output these languages won't simply hold another metaphor
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that i love is how she describes language as a building it has four grand holes speaking listening reading
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and writing and you can only call yourself truly at home in this building
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if you have entered all of these four holes
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if you neglect one of them the whole construction feels unstable
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doesn't feel like home i really connect with this idea with this metaphor
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because for me language learning has never been about collecting loose words
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or grammar rules it's about building this solid structure brick by brick making sure
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that every hall is open every room is alive that's exactly
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what i try to give my students not just grammar rules not just fragments
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or loose words as I've said before but a living system where all the parts support each other.
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It is interesting that on the other hand Lam criticizes what we would now call immersion.
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She says it can feel like mindless something as passive as watching tv.
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For her real language learning for adults should rely on conscious effort, logical thinking and deliberate practice.
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Which is right because adults don't actually learn like children.
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We can't just be thrown into a new English-speaking
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or any other language-speaking environment and expect that our brain will absorb everything the way a toddler does.
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It won't work like that because we're not toddlers, we're not babies anymore.
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But But at the same time, reducing immersion to something passive or thoughtless feels very unfair.
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From my own experience, immersion is one of the most powerful tools that we have.
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Like watching movies, watching podcasts, listening to music, surrounding yourself with the language.
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It isn't about switching your brain off.
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It's about letting these language patterns sink in naturally.
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and then reinforcing them in conscious practice.
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So while I understand her skepticism, I think immersion is not the enemy of conscious learning.
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It's its strongest ally.
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Together, they create a great balance for adults when they learn languages.
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Logic gives you structure.
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Immersion gives you life.
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Lam talks a lot about vocabulary in this book, how we should learn it, how we shouldn't learn it.
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She criticizes this old form of learning languages, of learning vocabulary, you know,
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two-column method where we write a word in one column and its translation in another column next to it.
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And I criticize it as well because if we learn the words this way, they will stay isolated.
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They will be detached from the real usage.
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So what you should remember is that words don't live alone.
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They live in context.
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They live in collocations they live in phrases not alone
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but then at the same time she defends the method
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that is called the dictionary method it's about simply learning words
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straight from a dictionary i don't understand this method like i
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don't think it's effective of course dictionaries are essential it's a great great tool
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but again they strip words away from life they're not in context they're not in real usage.
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And I agree with Lom that the more energy we invest in searching for the right meaning using a dictionary,
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the stronger the effect of learning the language, of memorizing the vocabulary.
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I agree with it.
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It's definitely true.
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So what's the best way to work with a dictionary?
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For me, it's not about copying ready-made examples or cramming lists of words.
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It's about taking a writing it down in your notebook
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and immediately creating a sentence with this word your own sentence your own example with it
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so this way the word becomes linked to you to your life to your thoughts to your experience
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and it will be more effective for you to memorize it
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when it comes to grammar i actually agree with long with one of her central points
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that grammar is a system and
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if you want to master a foreign language as an adult
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you simply cannot avoid the system you simply cannot avoid learning grammar
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and again it's not about memorizing about cramming sets of rules
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grammar should be studied in combination with other aspects of language
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through reading through listening through meaningful contexts without this systematic approach adult learners risk ending up with this fragmented knowledge
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that doesn't work in real communication I disagree with LOM on another point.
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She writes that we should extrapolate grammar rules from one language that we already know to another language.
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In other words, we should take a structure that we already know in one language and apply it to a new one, assuming that it will work the same way.
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This cross-linguistic transfer might sound logical to someone and it might work in some cases.
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For example, when we learn the languages that are structurally close like spanish
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and french for example but more often it leads to interference
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and some fossilized errors unnatural usage
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so i don't recommend doing this i have an example from
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my life i try to compare the grammar rules of turkish
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and russian russian is my native language and turkish was the language that i was learning that time
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And it turned out to be a terrible idea because Turkish, unlike any other languages I've studied,
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has a completely different structure and internal reason.
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And at some point I realized the only way forward was to stop comparing
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and to learn Turkish as Turkish on its own terms.
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I believe it's more effective to approach each language as an independent system about reading.
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Katow long placed reading at the very heart of language learning and for her it's not just a tool.
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So books are not just a tool, it's the ultimate source of knowledge
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and I see why she emphasized the importance of reading books
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so much because back in her time learners didn't have this instant access to podcasts, to YouTube, to online learning apps as we do.
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Books were the most reliable way to immerse yourself in a language.
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And I do agree, reading is crucial.
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But what about those people who don't like reading as much as Lomb did, for example?
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Because I have that type of students who don't enjoy reading thick novels, and that's okay, I think, because you can read just some short articles,
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texts, or even like social media posts
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and yeah it's still about engaging with meaningful content it's still about engaging with reading
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so if novels feel like a burden you don't have to force yourself
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if you don't like reading this kind of book start with
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short stories with news with even subtitles of some series or
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or films can be considered to be reading another thing
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that long insists on is that when you read you shouldn't translate every single word.
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She says that stopping at each unknown word kills the flow of reading and turns it into torture.
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And because the real benefit of reading is when you let the book, the books carry you, even if some words slip by,
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it's not that important to translate every single word.
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If you do translate every single word, it means
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that the book is not suitable to you to your level probably you should change it to something simpler but
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if you don't know some words it's not necessary to translate
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everything we can just instead try to figure out the meaning
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through your mental effort you know this moment of discovery
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when you realize what this word means can bring you this joy of you know like cracking a puzzle
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or something so it's even more satisfying and the satisfaction gives you the opportunity to learn to memorize the word more effectively.
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So when I read in a foreign language, I don't aim for translating every single word for a perfect translation.
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I don't actually translate.
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I just aim for understanding the story and understanding the characters, the message.
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I do write down some collocations that I find useful, interesting.
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I write them down in Quizlet.
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This is the app that I use for learning words.
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There is another interesting point that I don't really share.
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She writes that textbooks, the best textbooks, are written in the learner's native language.
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I can't understand her point because back in her time the most popular
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and even the most logical approach was that kind of approach when you used your native language to clarify the explanation.
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Probably it was the safest way to avoid confusion.
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But today modern research shows the opposite in my own experience as well.
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I work with Cambridge and Oxford textbooks
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and most of my students are Russian speakers
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and these books are not in Russian so we don't use the mother tongue and yet they are extremely effective.
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In fact I almost never switch to Russian when I when I teach in class.
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And this is what some studies in second language acquisition say.
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Early and consistent exposure to the target language helps learners think directly in it instead of constantly translating in their heads.
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Also, these modern textbooks are created by qualified specialists.
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They are built on solid methodology with a very clear and logical structure system.
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So this makes them accessible even for beginners without the need for constant translation into your native language.
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So while I respect her perspective as a reflection of her time.
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I believe the most effective textbooks are those that immerse learners in the language, in the target language from the very start.
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So we've just talked about reading textbooks and learning grammar vocabulary, but none of these tools will really work without consistency.
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That's where discipline comes in.
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Of course, motivation is important and she emphasizes it again and again in her book.
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She writes that language learning works best when it's connected with your genuine interest
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when you approach it through things that you really like doing
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that you enjoy doing and i completely agree with her of course
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if you are curious if you love the content
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that you absorb you will naturally spend more time with the
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language you won't force yourself relying only on motivation is a bad idea motivation comes
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and goes some days you feel inspired other days you don't that's why i believe in the power of self-discipline
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so you need to make learning a habit?
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How do you actually do this?
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For me, the answer is small regular steps.
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Over time, these little routines, these little steps will become as natural as brushing your teeth.
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This is how I actually feel about learning French or Spanish or any other language.
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So motivation brings you to the language.
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Discipline keeps you there.
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And patience allows you to see the results, some lasting results.
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Ketelom also writes about some easy and difficult languages.
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And there is this stereotype that English is really easy.
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Like it's the easiest language to learn.
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And Chinese is labeled as impossibly hard.
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But if we look closer, we will see that it's a misconception because let's take English.
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The grammar is relatively simple, but then we face a jungle of phrasal verbs,
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idioms, multiple meanings of the same word.
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We realize that it's not as simple as everybody thinks it is.
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For instance, the verb turn can branch into dozens of expressions like turn up,
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turn down, turn turn over and each must be learned in contexts
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because their meanings can really match the logic of our native language is english
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that easy probably at the beginning but then when you
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reach a certain level it doesn't seem to be so easy
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and on the other hand chinese is often feared
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because of its writing system
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but once you go deeper you find a strong internal logic every character carries meaning often connected to visual roots
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and once you recognize these patterns the system begins to make sense
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and that leads to her central point about the difficulty of languages talking about languages as easy
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or difficult is misleading because every language balances its challenges
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and advantages and what you lose in one area you gain in another area So instead of asking which language is easier,
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a much better question is which language inspires me more to keep learning.
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Because when you choose a language that you genuinely love,
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it's so-called difficulties turn into puzzles that you actually want to solve.
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An uncorrected mistake is a disaster and this is why we need a teacher.
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Because if we keep repeating the same mistake, it just doesn't stay but it becomes stronger it becomes fossilized
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and later unlearning this mistake unlearning this wrong form is even harder than learning it right from the beginning
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so this is why the best way to study is to
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study with a teacher a good teacher notices the things
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that you don't notice their feedback and correction can save you hours or even months of re-learning in In a way,
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a teacher is like a compass who makes sure you're not heading in the wrong direction, the wrong way.
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She also mentions her personal experience in this book.
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She said that she found it easier to learn languages with female teachers
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because it was simpler for her to chat and build contact.
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This detail may sound funny, but there is a truth behind it that you should find the teacher
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that you feel at ease with because you will speak more, you will not be afraid to make mistakes, and this way you will learn faster.
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Also, she had to sign for Polish classes once, and instead of joining the beginners group, she went straight into the advanced one.
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She insisted on it, even though she didn't know the language at all, like a single word.
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And in her case, it worked, because she is strongly motivated it she had no choice
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but to keep up with the rest of the group in spite of the pressure
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that she had but for some students this strategy is not good like it cannot really work
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because it's like throwing yourself into fire
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and learning to survive it sounds really stressful
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and as a teacher i have to say
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that it's not always the right decision to take this kind of students
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because one unprepared student can slow down the rest of the group
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and in this case the teacher has to spend extra hours just explaining basic things to
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that student who is not aware of anything.
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A good teacher should place students where they can progress gradually, consistently, without damaging the experience of the rest of the class.
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So I do not understand why that Polish teacher accepted her to that advanced level of classes.
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So this book once made me believe that I could become a polyglot.
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honestly it changed the whole course of my life
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because it inspired me to study linguistics it pushed me to explore several languages
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and it shaped the way I teach my students now although
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I don't share all of her views the influence is undeniable it gave me the spark of motivation
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that I really needed in order to decide where I want
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to what I want to study in the future what I to do in the future.
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I wouldn't be the person I am today if I hadn't found this book in a library.
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So if you enjoy this kind of videos make sure you subscribe because I'll be sharing some more interesting stories,
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insights and strategies that will inspire you your own language journey, I hope.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This video has 259 sentences and 3321 words to shadow. The speech runs for 20:48. The speaker talks at a natural 160 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 83% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| grammar noun | /ˈɡɹæm.ə(ɹ)/ | A system of rules and principles for the structure of a language, or of languages in general. |
| motivation noun | /ˈmoʊ.tə.veɪ.ʃən/ | Willingness of action especially in behavior. |
| textbook noun | /ˈtɛkst.bʊk/ | A coursebook, a formal manual of instruction in a specific subject, especially one for use in schools or colleges. |
| translate verb | /tɹænzˈleɪt/ | To change spoken words or written text (of a book, document, movie, etc.) from one language to another. |
| compare verb | /kəmˈpɛɚ/ | 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… |
| logical adjective | /ˈlɑd͡ʒɪkəl/ | In agreement with the principles of logic. |
| dictionary noun | /ˈdɪk.ʃəˌnɛ.ɹi/ | A reference work listing words or names from one or more languages, usually ordered alphabetically, explaining each word's meanings or senses, oftentimes also… |
| vocabulary noun | /vəˈkæb.jə.lə.ɹi/ | A usually alphabetized and explained collection of words e.g. of a particular field, or prepared for a specific purpose, often for learning. |
| formula noun | /ˈfɔː.mjʊ.lə/ | Any mathematical rule expressed symbolically. |
| translation noun | /tɹænzˈleɪʃən/ | The conversion of text from one language to another. |
| column noun | /ˈkɒləm/ | A solid upright structure designed usually to support a larger structure above it, such as a roof or horizontal beam, but sometimes for decoration. |
| discipline noun | /ˈdɪsəplɪn/ | A controlled behaviour; self-control. |
| usage noun | /ˈjuːsɪd͡ʒ/ | A custom or established practice. |
| conscious adjective | /ˈkɑn.ʃəs/ | Alert, awake; with one's mental faculties active. |
| criticize verb | /ˈkɹɪtɪsaɪz/ | To find fault (with something). |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| end up verb | To bring to a conclusion. |
| fall out verb | To come out of something by falling. |
| figure out verb | To come to understand; to discover or find a solution; to deduce. |
| keep up with verb | To manage to remain beside or just behind someone or something that is moving away from one. |
| read through verb | To thoroughly read something to check or proofread it. |
| slow down verb | To decelerate. |
| turn down verb | To refuse, decline, or deny. |
| turn over verb | To flip over; to rotate uppermost to bottom. |
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Conditional sentences if + clause, will/would + verb — a condition and its result | if we look closer, we will see |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | being gifted · be engaged · being engaged |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | have entered · has never been · I've said |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | person who studies · people who don · students who don |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 54 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, doesn't, I'm. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: methodology /ˌmɛθ.əˈdɑ.lə.d͡ʒi/, thick /θɪk/, seventh /ˈsɛvənθ/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: motivation /ˈmoʊ.tə.veɪ.ʃən/, dictionary /ˈdɪk.ʃəˌnɛ.ɹi/, translation /tɹænzˈleɪʃən/, conscious /ˈkɑn.ʃəs/, explanation /ˌɛkspləˈneɪʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: motivation /ˈmoʊ.tə.veɪ.ʃən/, dictionary /ˈdɪk.ʃəˌnɛ.ɹi/, vocabulary /vəˈkæb.jə.lə.ɹi/, naturally /ˈnæt͡ʃ.(ə.)ɹə.li/, difficulty /ˈdɪfɪkəlti/
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 grammar, motivation, textbook.
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.