Shadowing Practice: How to Improve Yourself Right NOW (and Why) - Prof. Jordan Peterson - Learn English Speaking with Video

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What could you do to improve yourself?

Well, let's step one step backwards.

The first question might be: Why should you even bother improving yourself?

And I think the answer to that is something like so you don't suffer anymore stupidly than you have to.

And maybe so others don't have to either. It's something like that.

You know, like, there is a real adjunction at the bottom of it.

It's not some casual self-help doctrine, it's that if you don't organize yourself properly: you'll pay for it!

And in a big way. And so will the people around you.

And you can say: 'Well, I don't care about that!' but that's actually not true, you actually DO care about that.

Because if you're in pain you will care about it.

And so you DO care about it even if it's just that negative way, you know.

It's very rare that you can find someone who is in excruciating pain who would ever say 'Well, it would be no better if I was out of this!' This sort of pain is one of those things that brings the idea that it would be better if it didn't exist along with it.

It's incontrovertible.

So you get your act together so that there isn't any more stupid pain around you that necessary.

So then the question might be: how would you go about getting your act together?

And the answer to that - - and this is a phenomenological idea, too - it's something like: Look around for something that bothers you and see if you can fix it.

So now you think, well...

Let's say you go into...

You can do this in a room, it's quite fun to do it.

Just when you're sitting in a room - maybe your bedroom - you can sit there and just sort of meditate on it and think: 'Okay, if I wanted to spend ten minutes making this room better, what would I have to do?' And you have to ask yourself that. It's not a command, it's like a genuine question.

And things will pop out in the room like there's a stack of papers over there that's kind of bugging you and you know that maybe a little order there would be a good thing.

There's some rubbish behind your computer monitor that you haven't attended to for like six months.

The room would be slightly better if it was a little less dusty and the cables weren't all tangled up the same way.

If you allow yourself just to consider the expanse in which you exist at that moment there will be all sorts of things that pop out in it that you could just fix.

And you know I might say well, if you were coming to see me for psychotherapy the easiest thing for us to do first would just be to get you to organize your room You think: 'Well, is that psychotherapy?' And the answer is: it depends on how you conceive the limits of your being.

And I would say: start where you can start!

You know, if something announces itself to you - which is a strange way of thinking about it - as 'in need of repair' that you COULD repair then, hey! Fix it!

You fix a hundred things like that, your life will be a lot different.

Now, I often tell people too: fix the things you repeat every day.

Because people tend to think of those as trivial.

You get up, you brush your teeth, you have your breakfast...

You have your routines that you go through every day.

Those probably constitute fifty percent of your life!

And people think: 'They are mundane, I don't need to pay attention to them.' No, no, that's exactly wrong.

The things you do every day: those are the most important things you do.

Hands down, all you have to do is do the arithmetic.

You figured out right away.

So, a hundred adjustments to your broader domain of being and there's a lot less rubbish around a lot fewer traps for you to step into.

And so that's in keeping with Jung's idea about erasing the this...

Once you got your mind and your emotions together and once you're acting that out, then you can extend what you are willing to consider your self and start fixing up the things that are part of your broader extend.

Now, sometimes you don't know how to do that.

Imagine you are walking down blur street and there is this guy who is alcoholic and schizophrenic and has been on the streets for ten years.

He sort of stumbles towards you and incoherently mutters something.

That's a problem!

And it would be good if you could fix it but you haven't got a clue about how to fix THAT.

You just walk around that and go find something that you could fix because if you muck about in that, not only is it unlikely that you'll help that person, it's VERY likely that you'll get hurt yourself!

Just because you're experiencing things announce themselves as in need of repair doesn't mean that it's YOU right then and there that should repair them.

You have to have some humility.

You don't walk up to a helicopter that isn't working and just start tinkering away with it.

You have to stay within your domain of competence but most of the time, if people look at their lives... You know - it's a very interesting thing to do.

I like the idea of the room because you can do that at the drop of a hat.

Go back to where you live and sit down and think: 'Okay, I'm gonna make this place better for half an hour - what should I do?' You have to ASK and things will just pop up like mad and it's partly because your mind is a very strange thing and as soon as you give it an aim - a genuine aim - it'll reconfigure the world in keeping with that aim.

That's actually how you see to begin with.

So if you set it a task... You have to be genuine about it which is why you have to bring your thoughts and emotions together and then you have to get them in your body so you're acting consistently.

You have to be genuine about the aim but once you aim the world will reconfigure itself around that aim, which is very strange.

It's technically true!

The best example of that - you have all seen this video where you watch the basketballs being tossed back and forth between members of the white team versus the black team and while you are doing that a gorilla walks up into the middle of the video and you don't see it.

If you thought about that experiment for about five years, that would be about the right amount of time to spend thinking about it.

Because what it shows you is that you see what you aim at.

And that - man! - if you can get one thing through your head as a consequence of even being in university THAT would be a good one: You see what you aim at.

And so, because one inference you might draw from that is: Be careful what you aim at!

Right? What you aim at determines the way the world manifests itself to you So if the world is manifesting itself in a very negative way one thing to ask is: Are you aiming at the right thing?

You know I'm not trying to reduce everybody's problems to an improper aim.

People get cut off at the knees for all sorts of reasons.

They get sick, they have accidents.

There's a random element to being, that's for sure, but - You don't want to take anything, even that particular phrase, too far You want to bind it with the fact that random things do happen to people.

But it's still a great thing to ask.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This C1 speaking lesson is built on the video “How to Improve Yourself Right NOW (and Why) - Prof. Jordan Peterson”. This video has 67 sentences and 1338 words to shadow. The speech runs for 6:59. The speaker talks fast, about 191 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 88% 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

The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
psychotherapy noun	/ˌsaɪkoʊˈθɛɹəpi/	The treatment of people diagnosed with mental and emotional disorders using dialogue and a variety of psychological techniques.
reconfigure verb		To arrange into a new configuration.
manifest noun	/ˈmæn.ɪ.fɛst/	A list or invoice of the passengers or goods being carried by a commercial vehicle or ship.
rubbish noun	/ˈɹʌbɪʃ/	Refuse, waste, garbage, junk, trash.
organize verb	/ˈɔɹɡənaɪz/	To arrange in working order.
adjunction noun		The act of joining; the thing joined or added.
arithmetic noun	/æɹɪθˈmɛtɪk/	The mathematics of numbers (integers, rational numbers, real numbers, or complex numbers) under the operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and…
conceive verb	/kənˈsiːv/	To have a child; to become pregnant (with).
excruciating adjective	/ɪkˈskɹuʃi.eɪtɪŋ/	Causing great pain or anguish, agonizing
expanse noun	/ɪkˈspæns/	A wide stretch, usually of sea, sky, or land.
incoherently adverb	/ˌɪn.kəˈhɪə.ɹənt.li/	In an incoherent manner.
incontrovertible adjective	/ˌɪŋ.kɒn.tɹəˈvɜː.təbl̩/	Not capable of being denied, challenged, or disputed; closed to questioning.
inference noun	/ˈɪn.fə.ɹəns/	The act or process of inferring by deduction or induction.
meditate verb	/ˈmɛ.dɪˌteɪt/	To contemplate; to keep the mind fixed upon something; to study.
mutter verb	/ˈmʌtə/	To utter words, especially complaints or angry expressions, indistinctly or with a low voice and lips partly closed; to say under one's breath.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Meaning
figure out verb	To come to understand; to discover or find a solution; to deduce.
fix up verb	To provide (someone) with something; to furnish.
get up verb	To move in an upward direction; to ascend or climb.
go back to verb	To stem from; to originate in.
go through verb	To travel from one end of something to the other.
hands down adverb	without much effort; easily
pop up verb	To come up with a "pop" sound.
sit down verb	To assume a sitting position from a standing position.

Sentences worth repeating

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

What could you do to improve yourself?
Let's say you go into...
You know - it's a very interesting thing to do.
That's actually how you see to begin with.

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 you don't organize yourself properly: you'll pay · if you're in pain you will care
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	someone who is · guy who is · aim, which is
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	haven't attended · has been

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 28 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, you're, you'll. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “th” sounds: psychotherapy /ˌsaɪkoʊˈθɛɹəpi/, arithmetic /æɹɪθˈmɛtɪk/
The “sh” and “zh” sounds: rubbish /ˈɹʌbɪʃ/, excruciating /ɪkˈskɹuʃi.eɪtɪŋ/
Long words — get the stress right: psychotherapy /ˌsaɪkoʊˈθɛɹəpi/, arithmetic /æɹɪθˈmɛtɪk/, excruciating /ɪkˈskɹuʃi.eɪtɪŋ/, incoherently /ˌɪn.kəˈhɪə.ɹənt.li/, incontrovertible /ˌɪŋ.kɒn.tɹəˈvɜː.təbl̩/

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 psychotherapy, reconfigure, manifest.

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 to Improve Yourself Right NOW (and Why) - Prof. Jordan Peterson - Learn English Speaking with Video

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