Shadowing Practice: How To Know Yourself - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
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Bye you Bye you Many of us are wandering the earth,
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accomplished in many ways, capable of fulfillment at many points,
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but with a fundamental wound that stops us from becoming who we truly might be.
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We don't quite know who we Oh.
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It isn't, of course, that we can't remember the basics of our biographies.
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We're unsure around two things in particular: Firstly, we don't have a stable sense of what we're worth.
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And secondly, we don't have a secure hold on our own values, or judgements.
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Without knowing who we are, we tend to have particular trouble coping with either denigration or adulation.
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If other people decide that we are worthless or bad, there will be nothing inside us to prevent us from swallowing their verdicts in their entirety,
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however wrongheaded, extreme or unkind these might be.
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We'll be helpless before the court of public opinion.
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We'll always be asking other people what we deserve before seeking inside for an answer.
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Lacking an independent verdict, we also stand to be unnaturally hungry for external praise.
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The clapping of an audience will matter to us far more than would ever be wise.
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We'll be prey to rushing towards whatever idea or activity the crowd happens to love.
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We'll laugh at jokes that aren't funny, uncritically accept undeserving concepts that are in vogue,
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and neglect our truer talents for easy, popular wins.
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We'll trail public opinion slavishly, constantly checking the world's whims rather than consulting an inner barometer in order to know what we should want,
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feel and value.
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We need to be kind on ourselves.
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No one is born with an independent ability to know who they are.
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We learn to have an identity because, if we're blessed, in our early years, someone else takes the trouble to study us with immense fairness,
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attention and kindness, and then plays us back to us in a way that makes sense and that we can later emulate.
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years and use as a defence against the distorting verdicts from hurried or ill -intentioned others.
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Knowing who one is, is really the legacy of having been known properly by somebody else at the start.
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This early identity building tends to unfold with apparently innocuous but life -saving small steps.
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"That must really have hurt," a parent might say in response to an upset, thereby validating an infant's own feelings.
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Or "It's okay not to feel happy on your birthday," the parent might say at another point,
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delicately upholding an infant's less typical response to certain events.
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Ideally, the child isn't just known, he or she is also interpreted as likeable.
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A good parent offers generous interpretations.
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They're on the side of the child
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and are always ready to put the best possible gloss on moments of ill temper
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or of failure which forms the basis upon which resilient self -esteem can then later emerge.
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Now, that's the ideal, but it can, of course, go very wrong and often does.
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A parent may offer mirroring that is out of sync with the reality of the child.
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"Look, who's such a happy little boy or girl?" a parent might insist, when actually the opposite is clearly the case,
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thereby badly scrambling the child's ability to connect with their own emotions.
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Or the parent might only lend the child a very harsh, punitive way of interpreting itself,
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repeatedly suggesting that the child is ill -intentioned or no good.
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Or the parent may simply not show very much interest in the child, focusing themselves elsewhere.
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so that the child grows up with a feeling that not only is it not worth cherishing, but also because it hasn't been adequately seen and mirrored,
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that it doesn't even quite exist.
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a feeling of unreality is the direct consequence of emotional neglect.
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Realizing that we lack a stable identity is a sobering realization.
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But we can, with a fair wind, start to correct the problem at any point.
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We need to seek out the help of a wise and kindly other person perhaps a good psychotherapist, someone who can study us closely,
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mirror us properly, and then validate what they see Through their eyes, we can learn to study, perhaps for the first time,
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how we really feel, and take seriously what we actually want.
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We can, by being witnessed generously,
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more often learn to take our own sides and feel increasingly solid inside trusting ourselves more than we trust the crowd,
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feeling that we might be able to say no,
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not always swaying in the wind and feeling that we are in possession of some of the ultimate important truths about us.
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having come to know ourselves like this, we will be a little less hungry for praise, a little less worried by opposition,
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and a lot more original in our thinking.
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we will have learned the vital art of both knowing and befriending who we, really are.
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Our Know Yourself cards can help us to better understand the deepest, most elusive aspects of ourselves.
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Follow the link now to learn more.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This C1 speaking lesson is built on the video “How To Know Yourself”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: parent, feeling, ourselves, learn, verdict. This video has 58 sentences and 843 words to shadow. The speech runs for 5:45. The speaker talks at a steady 146 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. 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
The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| verdict noun | /ˈvɜː.dɪkt/ | A decision on an issue of fact in a civil or criminal case or an inquest. |
| validate verb | /ˈvæl.ɪ.deɪt/ | To render valid. |
| neglect verb | /nɪˈɡlɛkt/ | To fail to care for or attend to something. |
| interpret verb | /ɪnˈtɜː.pɹɪt/ | To decode the meaning of a topic and then act, whether to continue researching the topic, follow through, act in opposition, or further the understanding… |
| thereby adverb | /ðɛɹˈbaɪ/ | By it; by that; by that means, or as a consequence of that. |
| adulation noun | /ˌæd͡ʒəˈleɪʃən/ | Flattery; fulsome praise. |
| barometer noun | /bəˈɹɑ.mə.tɚ/ | An instrument for measuring atmospheric pressure. |
| befriend verb | /bəˈfɹɛnd/ | To become a friend of (someone), to make friends with (someone). |
| delicately adverb | /ˈdɛlɪkətli/ | In a delicate manner; exquisitely. |
| denigration noun | The act of making black; a blackening or defamation. | |
| distort verb | /dɪsˈtɔːt/ | To bring something out of shape, to misshape. |
| elusive adjective | /ɪˈl(j)u.sɪv/ | Evading capture, comprehension or remembrance. |
| emulate verb | /ˈɛm.jʊ.leɪt/ | To copy or imitate, especially a person. |
| fulfilment noun | /fʊlˈfɪl.mənt/ | The act of fulfilling or the state or quality of being fulfilled; consummation; completion; realization. |
| generously adverb | In a generous manner, in a way that is giving or ample. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| see through verb | To perceive visually through something transparent. |
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 | is born · been known · isn't just known |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | have hurt · hasn't been · have learned |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 18 contractions and reduced forms, such as we'll, don't, we're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: thereby /ðɛɹˈbaɪ/, worthless /ˈwɜːθ.ləs/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: adulation /ˌæd͡ʒəˈleɪʃən/, slavishly /ˈsleɪvɪʃli/, cherish /ˈt͡ʃɛɹɪʃ/, realization /ˌɹɪə.laɪˈzeɪ.ʃən/, accomplish /əˈkɑm.plɪʃ/
- Long words — get the stress right: adulation /ˌæd͡ʒəˈleɪʃən/, barometer /bəˈɹɑ.mə.tɚ/, delicately /ˈdɛlɪkətli/, undeserving /ˌʌndɪˈzɝvɪŋ/, unnaturally /ʌnˈnæt͡ʃ(ə)ɹəli/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Shadow it sentence by sentence at normal speed, repeating each one until your rhythm matches the speaker.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like verdict, validate, neglect.
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.