Shadowing Practice: How to Make Anything - Learn to Think Like an Engineer - Learn English Speaking with YouTube
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Most people treat starter kits like toys,
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Most people treat starter kits like toys,
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then they don't know how to start their first real project because they never learned how to build systems.
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In this video, I'm going to show you the mindset shift
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that you need to turn a $20 starter kit into a real engineering experience.
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This is how the pros do it,
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and if you start now, so can you.
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Hello and welcome to Fluxbench.
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My name's James and I'm a nerd and I hope you're a nerd too.
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okay so here's the problem you get your kit you follow the tutorial you plug in your light
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and wire it up exactly like they tell you to you run the code
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that they give you and it blinks wonderful
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and then you go on to the next lesson and another part
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but what did you actually learn by doing that like
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if i took away those instructions do you think you could honestly use
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that part in something else you're not learning electronics you're following recipes
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and that's copying and it's fine to get started but you're not going to get far past blinking lights doing that.
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What matters is connecting all these ideas together.
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Why does the LED actually work?
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What else could the LED respond to?
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What else could you swap in instead of using an LED?
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Here's how I look at it.
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Those lessons are giving you one tool at a time where you have things like buttons
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and sensors and those are just inputs and then you have your microcontroller in the middle
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and then you have LEDs and screens and stuff like that that are outputs.
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And what you need to do is chain the inputs to the outputs somehow.
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You need to build a system that links them all together.
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And that's where the real engineering is.
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If you begin thinking like this,
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then that $20 starter kit of yours,
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it's no longer a toy.
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It's a freaking laboratory to do whatever the heck you want
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with it it's your R&D laboratory you have all the tools
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all the sensors the buttons whatever you need to make what you want it should be in there
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so now we get to the fun cheesy part of it's
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not what you know it's how you think about it it's the real difference between a beginner
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and a builder is
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that a beginner looks at a starter kit as a bunch of individual demos
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that are separate and a builder looks at them as a bunch of individual tools
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that they're going to go link together in a system
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and they're just learning one at a time and
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so you got to have
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that mindset shift of it's not demos it's systems i want
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to show you the engineering ladder of mine it's got five rungs on it
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and in the beginning you start out with tutorials
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and in the end you're able to build whatever the heck you want this is the blinky stage where you follow tutorials,
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you plug in sensors, you just get results.
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But it's not the destination.
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Think of this as just learning individual words of a vocabulary.
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The magic really begins once you start to integrate these separate things.
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Once you start to combine a button with an LED or some sort of sensor with like a speaker,
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all of a sudden you're taking these individual tools and combining them into a system.
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It's like if you took these individual vocabulary words,
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started putting them together and they're starting to make like a fluid sentence.
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Now you're really starting to speak like a real engineer.
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Music isn't just one note,
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it's a arrangement of many.
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And it's the same thing with electronics and when you start to combine and integrate them,
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this is where that real electron jazz begins.
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I love modules, they're a great way to get started in electronics.
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You can just go and buy a kit of them for real cheap and they just work.
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But the problem is once you need a lot of them.
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This here is a infrared transmitter.
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It's probably a dollar or two dollars a piece
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but the problem is it's probably five or ten cents a piece for the actual parts.
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And then this thing here is a photoelectric light measuring module,
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but all these parts here are probably one penny a piece.
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They're just resistors, to be honest.
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And this bag of buttons,
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if you buy a button module,
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oh my goodness, well, you might need it,
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but it's just like a penny or two per button.
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So all these are great,
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but those $5 modules are probably just like 75 cents in parts.
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If you use enough of them,
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it's kind of like trying to water a tree with bottled water.
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You can definitely do it.
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It's just a really expensive way to go about doing it.
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Flip your board, read the chip,
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look up the part, own your circuit.
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So the real playground isn't in your 37-in-1 sensor kit or your modules.
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It's in the catalog.
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Check this out.
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A whole box or bag full of different microcontrollers.
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So you can take your ESP32
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and I can basically swap out any size of memory I want
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so I can get a $3 microcontroller or a $5 microcontroller depending on how much money I want to put into it.
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I can add all sorts of sensors.
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I can customize it however I want and that's what you get when you start working with a catalog compared to modules.
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Start browsing distributors like Mauser,
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DigiKey, L-C-S-C And you don't just search You really try to discover
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You sometimes find the part that just does exactly what you need,
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and other times you find a part so cool you end up changing your whole project around it.
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The real superpower is debugging,
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fixing, and just not panicking while you do it.
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Because by now, you don't expect things to work on the first try,
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and when something else breaks,
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you're used to it, and you just start hunting it down because you're ready for it and you know where to look.
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At this point, you're not copying anymore.
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You're building.
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You're solving.
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And if you actually manage to get here, you're dangerous.
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Most people don't get past level one.
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But the thing is, if you're feeling the itch to do something real,
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then this is your ladder.
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Climb it.
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I'm serious.
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By the time you get to the top,
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you will be dangerous because you're not going to need anyone else's help.
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Whatever the thing is that you want to do,
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you're going to know how to do it.
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You got to learn, integrate,
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replace, explore, and most of all, you got to persevere.
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If you don't know where to begin,
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then my previous video talks about how to actually get electronics,
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what to buy, where, how much,
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just get a starter kit.
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Any of them will do.
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And in the next video,
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we're going to start doing something crazy.
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I'm going to start a series where we're actually going take
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some of these first few lessons of any of these starter kits
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and we're gonna go all the way from idea all the way to income making a real product.
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This is something that you guys can do as well so follow along it's gonna get crazy.
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But for now whatever it is go out there make something awesome you got this.
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About This Lesson
In this lesson, you will learn how to approach English speaking and thinking in a more integrated manner, akin to how engineers think about systems rather than isolated components. By watching the video "How to Make Anything - Learn to Think Like an Engineer," you will gain insights into the importance of connecting ideas and concepts, which can significantly enhance your language proficiency. You will practice using key vocabulary and phrases related to engineering and creativity, which are essential for expressing your thoughts clearly and confidently in English.
Key Vocabulary & Phrases
- Starter kit: A set of initial tools or components for beginners.
- Engineering experience: Practical knowledge gained through hands-on activities related to engineering.
- Input and output: Refers to the data received by a system (input) and the results produced (output).
- System linking: The process of connecting different elements to work together.
- Mindset shift: A change in how one thinks about a concept or problem.
- Tutorials: Instructional guides that provide step-by-step directions for a specific task.
- Integration: Combining different elements to form a cohesive whole.
- Builder vs. Beginner: The distinction between someone who merely follows instructions and someone who creates and innovates.
Practice Tips
To effectively use this lesson for improving your English speaking skills, consider employing shadow speech techniques while watching the video. The pace of the video is moderate, making it ideal for shadowing practice. You should:
- First, listen to the speaker carefully and understand the context of what they are saying. Notice their intonation, rhythm, and pauses.
- After understanding the content, play the video again and repeat what the speaker says, mimicking their tone and pacing. This shadowspeaks technique will enhance your pronunciation and fluency.
- Try pausing after each key phrase and summarizing it in your own words, linking your ideas seamlessly to exemplify the shadowing site principle of integrating knowledge.
- Record yourself while practicing to monitor your progress and notice areas for improvement.
- Finally, engage with other learners by discussing the concepts from the video, which can provide valuable context and boost your confidence in using vocabulary centered around engineering and creativity.
By following these methods, you’ll not only improve your English speaking skills but will also foster a mindset of integration and creativity, echoing the lessons from engineering. Embrace the journey of becoming a builder in both language and thought!
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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