Shadowing Practice: How to make the best language learning plan | Notion template - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Hey guys, welcome to my channel.

Today we're going to talk about building a system to learn any foreign language.

Now I'm going to use English as an example, but this system is universal.

I wish I had something like this years ago when I started learning a language.

I'm going to give you a free template.

I'm going to walk you through it.

Let's do it.

Get ready.

We're going to use a platform called Notion.

I'm an absolute fan of them.

I've been using them to run my business, run my YouTube channels, make my own notes.

And today I'm gonna show you a system

that you can use absolutely free to structure everything that's going on with your language.

Because in my case, like I get so many recommendations of what to watch, what to see, which YouTubers to follow to learn a language.

And now when I watch those YouTubers, I learn a lot of different things.

But if I write them down in just one note, I quickly forget the context and they stop making sense.

So let me show you everything.

Now let's start with goals.

Remember how I told you that it's very important to have a specific goal when you learn a language.

So think about something that makes you excited.

For example, get master's degree in the USA.

Or it could be start making money on Upwork.

And Upwork is this freelance platform where you can work with international companies.

And it's very important to have a specific date.

Let's do 2024.

Or start making money on Upwork.

For example, you want to take the first order in like August 2022, I don't know.

So make this section very specific.

And every time you would open your planner, you'd be like, oh my God, this is why I'm learning a language.

But then it's great to have big goals because they give you direction.

But in order to keep studying, you need to give your brain this extra dopamine by setting smaller goals,

reaching them every week or every month and celebrating them.

Celebrating means even like saying, Marina, you did well.

Okay, goals for this week.

For example, watch two episodes of whatever show you're watching in English and then learn fast,

perfect or learn 10 idioms.

Like something like this and goals for the month they can be bigger read a book

and like watch 10 movies in english learn

100 new words which might be too much but

if you're in this learning mode then you know why not

now once you have all of your goals right in front of you you update them every week

when it comes to weekly goals uh you update them every month when it

when it comes to monthly goals the next step is to actually get into details like how are you learning a language.

Now next in here we have your activity tracker.

I'm gonna get back to it a bit later.

This is like your board where you have columns of whatever you're doing but let me start with vocabulary first.

So your vocabulary actually consists of three sections.

Words that you're learning, phrases that you're learning and idioms, because those are different structures within a language,

and I want you to group them before you actually learn them.

So here you click new, and we have different fields that you would need to fill in.

For example, let's say reference, meaning mention or refer to provide information.

Example sentence.

I requested a reference from, oops, reference from my bank.

Then status here, you can choose from new, learning, or I already know.

Basically here, let's say you're learning it.

Because later you would be able to sort them by whatever the status is.

And if you know this word already, you would just hit I know and then you would be able to hide them

so that you don't have to repeat them all the time.

Then the topic, you would be able to add more topics here right now.

We have food, weather, business school.

Let's do business.

And the type here is words.

And so basically if you made a mistake and you put it in phrases, it automatically goes to the second category here.

So everything is automated for you.

And if you need more customization, this is why I love

Notion, you would be able to just customize everything based on your needs.

You would be able maybe to add like verbs or maybe you want to add American English phrases.

So whatever you want, you would be able to add here.

And then we also have source.

You see, source is very important for the context because when we talk about all of those...

memory training hacks, a lot of methods are actually based on associations.

So whenever you mention a resource, your brain is like, oh, it starts remembering circumstances.

It starts remembering what actually happened when you watched my video.

And you'll be like, oh, Marina had this example.

Now I remember what she meant.

So 20 useful idioms lingua Marina.

Maybe you were reading a book.

So you will create different texts for yourself.

Now let me show you something.

For For example, this reference, you're like, oh, I know this word already, and I don't wanna see words that I've learned.

So we choose filter, add a filter here,

status, does not contain, I know.

See, it disappeared, it's no longer here, but then it's actually in your database,

and if you want to calculate the amount of words that you've learned in a month, it's all stored there, but it doesn't distract you because

if you know the word you don't have to see it all the time.

Every entry can be opened as a page if you want to just dedicate more of attention to a particular phrase.

So this is the way you can see it.

White elephant no longer needed but it costs a lot of money.

This is the meaning.

Then we have the example sentence.

This office is a white elephant.

Everyone is working from home but we keep paying rent.

Then the status is new.

20 useful idioms topic we could do I don't know white elephant

it doesn't really matter it can can be used anywhere

so let's just leave it out and the type here is idiom

and then we have white collar office worker

and this is basically business let's pretend

that tomorrow you have a test for business English

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and you're like let me remember all the idioms I've learned in business and you have like thousands of entries here.

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Basically what you do, you just type business here and Notion sorts everything for you.

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You have your business idioms listed.

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Again, if you had more, you would have more.

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But this is again, super convenient because maybe you're writing an email, a business email, and you want to sound cool.

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I don't know.

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There could be many reasons, but you would be able to sort them just by typing something that you need in the search bar.

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So this is your vocabulary vocabulary 2022.

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I remember when I started learning a language, I just had a regular notebook where I had two columns, word translation, word translation.

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Whenever I was putting an entry into my notebook, I would be like, I wouldn't even be able to use it because there is no system,

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there is no structure.

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I am so grateful that

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Notion has this.

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Oh my god.

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And one last thing in the vocabulary before we go into next section.

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This database has two views.

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We added them already.

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It could be all words or learning.

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So basically when you do the learning you would only be able to see what you're learning.

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So for example here idioms you're only learning white light but then you can easily go back to all idioms.

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This is all made ready for you again go ahead download

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this template completely free don't forget to copy it to your own

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Notion to be able to edit it.

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So basically what you would need to do

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when you open this template you click duplicate and it takes you to your own notion.

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Now, this is your brand new system to learn a vocabulary.

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Let me show you something even more exciting, something that you can use even if you're even not for languages.

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This can be for any subject.

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We're going back to a learning English page and we're going to resources.

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Now, this is one of my favorite sections just because it could be applied to anything that you're learning.

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Even if you're studying crypto or you're studying photography or you're studying geography, you're like, I'm getting so many resources.

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I'm watching YouTubers, I'm watching TikTokers, and there is so much information.

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I want to remember where it is all coming from.

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Now here, you basically add resources that you're using to learn a language.

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For example, you're reading this book, Willpower Doesn't Work, and you add type of content, you add a link to it,

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and you check mark whether it's completed or not.

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For example, I am watching this TV show called Inventing Anna on Netflix or like Emily in Paris that we have here.

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It's serious, but we also have YouTube.

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We also have article, movie.

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Again, you would be able to customize everything, but it's another serious.

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I'll put a link here and I will check mark completed.

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And actually when I checked marked it, it disappeared because we have two types of views here, new resources and completed.

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And if you want to see what's completed, it's going to be here.

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There is another video of mine, how to study in the US for free.

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And then you go back to new resources.

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Now a perfect use case for something like this is when you're talking to your friend and he or she says,

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you know, when I was learning English, I watched this TV show.

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whatever like you have to watch it or you're talking to a native speaker

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and you ask them what their favorite book is

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and they'll be like oh you should totally read william shakespeare this book

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and you're like okay let me type this in um

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so this is where you collect all the resource

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and again i don't know if you've ever been in this situation

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but for me like this happens all the time everybody keeps recommending movies

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and books but then in the evening when i finally have free time to watch something or read something.

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I sit down and I can't write any notes.

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I don't remember what people recommended.

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Now you have a resource.

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And Notion can be used from your laptop and on your mobile phone.

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So pretty easy to use it.

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Okay, so you started collecting resources.

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Now let me show you the next step.

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Now, for example, you started reading a book, Willpower Doesn't Work, one of my favorite books.

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You go to this book, you click three dots, and you click copy link.

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Then you go back to the learning English page and to activity tracker.

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You insert this link, select mention a page, and drag it to not started column.

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So now we have this book that you are starting to read.

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Now when you do that, you open the tab, and we have created templates for you here

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because it's a new book you select new book

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and see what happens you have chapter one you have chapter summary

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that you can fill in to remember the details you have key vocabulary

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and you see what happens here put in vocabulary like you

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you learn a new word from this book willpower meaning control to do something.

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Example sentence, willpower doesn't work.

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Status, learning, topic, whatever.

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Type words and source here, you add another one.

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Willpower doesn't work.

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See, it's automatically added.

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And then you can also add key takeaways and you can do this for every chapter.

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Now let's close it and the most exciting thing is when you now go to your vocabulary, you see willpower is already here

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and this way you're able to collect words from the resources

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that you're learning and they all go to the same database and you're like, oh, I learned this word from this book,

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this word from another book and it's a lot easier to memorize things like that.

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For example, if you started watching a video, you embed it here and then you write down vocabulary

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and you write down key takeaways

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or maybe it's new series podcast here

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we have episode one episode two again vocabulary summary key takeaways

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now one quick thing notion is amazing in a way

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that you can embed videos here

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which means you don't have to open youtube step open notion tab and switch between tabs all the time.

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So you just paste a video that you've been watching and then here you click embed a video.

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See what happens?

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The video is right here in your Notion.

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So you watch it and you write down the new words and phrases that you've learned.

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For example, you start watching a video.

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Let's see what

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Marina says here.

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What?

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Once in a blue moon.

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When something happens once in a blue moon, that means it happens really, really.

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So once in a blue moon, very rare.

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Okay, we have an example sentence, for example, status learning.

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Topic doesn't have to be here, it is an idiom, phrase, source, 20 useful idioms, lingua marina.

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This is how you work with a video now, you just write things down while watching the video in Notion.

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By the way, for everyone who uses this

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Notion template, you're going to get a special gift from me.

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There is a section on free useful resources that you would be able to use.

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They are from LinguaTrip, free worksheets, templates, videos.

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They will be all available in the special free resources section in the Notion template.

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The link is down below.

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Now, this is all very customizable.

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I'm going to leave the link to Notion below.

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I'm going to leave a link to this template below.

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I am Notion affiliate, it, which means that if you ever decide to upgrade to a paid version, I will get some commission,

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but you can also keep using it completely for free.

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I highly, highly recommend using

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Notion because it's just so flexible and you can build your own systems.

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And I'm all about building systems.

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I love building them because they make our lives so much more structured and easier, and we actually become more flexible when we have a system.

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Thank you guys so much for watching this video up to the very end.

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I hope it was useful, and I hope that this template will help you organize the way you learn a language.

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See you very soon in my next videos.

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Bye bye.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This speaking lesson is built on the video “How to make the best language learning plan”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: learning, example, word, notion, resource. This video has 222 sentences and 2518 words to shadow. The speech runs for 14:46. The speaker talks at a natural 171 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 87% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is easy to follow.

Key vocabulary in this video

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

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
notion noun	/ˈnoʊʃən/	Mental apprehension of whatever may be known, thought, or imagined; idea, concept.
resource noun	/ɹɪˈzɔːs/	Something that one uses to achieve an objective, e.g. raw materials or personnel.
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.
template noun	/ˈtɛm.plɪt/	A physical object whose shape is used as a guide to make other objects.
phrase noun	/ˈfɹeɪ̯z/	A short written or spoken expression.
topic noun	/ˈtɑpɪk/	A subject; a theme; a category or general area of interest.
marina noun	/məˈɹinə/	A harbour for small boats.
collect verb	/ˈkɑlɪkt/	To gather together; amass.
database noun	/ˈdeɪtəˌbeɪs/	A collection of (usually) organized information in a regular structure, usually but not necessarily in a machine-readable format accessible by a computer.
elephant noun	/ˈɛlɪfənt/	A large mammal of the family Elephantidae in the order Proboscidea, having a trunk, and native to Africa and Asia.
select verb	/sɪˈlɛkt/	To choose one or more elements of a set, especially a set of options.
translation noun	/tɹænzˈleɪʃən/	The conversion of text from one language to another.
summary noun	/ˈsʌm.ə.ɹi/	An abstract or a condensed presentation of the substance of a body of material.
filter noun	/ˈfɪltɚ/	A device which separates a suspended, dissolved, or particulate matter from a fluid, solution, or other substance; any device that separates one substance from…
flexible adjective	/ˈflɛk.sɪ.bəl/	Capable of being flexed or bent without breaking; able to be turned or twisted without breaking.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
go back to verb		To stem from; to originate in.
write down verb		To produce or set (something) down in writing; to record something.
get back to verb		Return to (an activity)
go ahead verb	/ˌɡoʊ əˈhɛd/	To proceed with; to begin.
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:

I'm going to give you a free template.
I'm going to walk you through it.
I'm an absolute fan of them.
I'm gonna get back to it a bit later.
Basically here, let's say you're learning it.

Grammar in this video

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

Structure	In the video
Present perfect continuous have/has been + -ing — an action that started earlier and is still going on	I've been using · you've been watching
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	I've learned · you've learned · you've ever been
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	is automated · are actually based · can be opened

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 76 contractions and reduced forms, such as you're, I'm, don't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “sh” and “zh” sounds: notion /ˈnoʊʃən/, translation /tɹænzˈleɪʃən/, recommendation /ˌɹɛkəmɛnˈdeɪʃən/
Long words — get the stress right: vocabulary /vəˈkæb.jə.lə.ɹi/, universal /ˌjunəˈvɜɹs(ə)l/, photography /fəˈtɑ.ɡɹə.fi/, recommendation /ˌɹɛkəmɛnˈdeɪʃən/, affiliate /əˈfɪl.i.eɪt/

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 notion, resource, vocabulary.

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 make the best language learning plan | Notion template - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

Key vocabulary in this video

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Sentences worth repeating

Grammar in this video

Pronunciation to watch

How to practise with this video

What is the Shadowing Technique?