Shadowing Practice: How To Read People Like Patrick Jane - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Patrick Jane can look at someone for five seconds and tell that they're lying, having an affair, hiding something, or about to completely lose their s*.

And the weird part is, a lot of what he does isn't actually made up for the show.

Jane isn't psychic.

He's just ridiculously good at noticing what people accidentally reveal, and even better at tricking them into revealing more,

because half the time, he doesn't actually know the answer.

He says something, watches your reaction, lets you give him the missing information, and then somehow makes you feel like he knew it all along.

And once you understand his tricks, you start noticing just how much information people give away without realizing it.

So, I broke down the techniques Patrick Jane uses to read people, from figuring out when someone's lying,

to getting people to tell you things without ever asking them a question.

Cold reading.

The first trick

Jane uses is cold reading.

But instead of explaining it, let me do it to you first.

You're the kind of person who can be very social when you're comfortable.

But you also need time completely alone.

You've had people assume things about you that aren't actually true.

And there's probably something you've been thinking about changing in your life for a while now, but you haven't fully committed to it yet.

Sounds weirdly accurate, right?

Except I know absolutely nothing about you.

I gave you statements that sound personal while being broad enough to fit an insane number of people.

And your brain did the rest.

When I said people misunderstand you, you probably thought of a specific person.

When I said there's something you want to change, you decided what that thing was.

I never had to know.

You filled in the blanks for me.

And this is part of what makes Patrick Jane look almost psychic.

He doesn't always walk up to someone already knowing their entire life story.

Sometimes he'll throw out a statement that is specific enough to get a reaction, but flexible enough that he can adjust depending on what happens next.

And there's one thing that makes this work significantly better.

Certainty.

Imagine I look at you and say, you, uh, seem like maybe you've been having problems with someone close to you.

That sounds like I'm guessing.

But if I look directly at you and say, you've been having problems with someone close to you.

Now, your first thought probably isn't, How could she possibly know that?

It's who is she talking about?

Your brain starts searching your own life for evidence that makes my statement true.

And the second you react, even slightly, I have more information than I had five seconds ago, Jane can then narrow it down.

Someone you're romantically involved with.

They disappointed you recently.

And suddenly, it looks like he pulled an incredibly specific fact out of nowhere.

But he didn't start with this specific fact.

You let him there.

And there's another version of this that is honestly even more useful

because you can use it in completely normal conversations without pretending to be psychic.

It's called elicitation.

The basic idea is ridiculously simple.

If you want information from someone, sometimes don't ask them a question.

Say something slightly wrong instead, because people have an almost irresistible urge to correct you.

Let's say you want to know how much someone working at Walmart makes.

You could ask, how much do you make?

Now they know exactly what information you want.

Maybe that feels invasive, so they don't tell you.

Instead, you say, I heard

Walmart actually pays really well now, like $25 an hour.

And they go, what?

No, they don't.

I make $15.

You never asked.

Or imagine someone tells you they went out last night and you want to know who they were with.

Don't immediately ask, who did you go with?

Try, went with your friends?

And they might automatically respond, no, I went with my sister.

Again, they corrected you.

And people tend to love correcting things that are wrong.

But deliberately getting something wrong becomes a lot more interesting

when you think someone is lying

because Jane can insert a completely false detail into somebody's story just to see what they do with it.

Imagine someone tells you, I was near the mall around 8 last night.

You respond, oh, so you probably saw that huge car accident outside.

Apparently the road was completely blocked.

There was no accident.

You just made that up.

Now watch what happens.

Someone who genuinely remembers being there might look confused.

What accident?

I didn't see anything.

But someone who is actively constructing a story has another problem.

They don't know the accident is fake.

Oh yeah, actually, I think I did see something happening over there.

So you push a little further.

Yeah, apparently there were police everywhere.

And suddenly, yeah, that's probably what I saw.

They're now giving you memories of an event that never happened.

But Jane doesn't only listen to what people say.

Sometimes the most interesting part is what happens before they even answer.

And this is where people completely misunderstand body language.

You've probably heard things like they crossed their arms.

They're defensive.

They looked away.

They're lying.

No. Because what if they always cross their arms?

What if they hate eye contact?

One gesture tells you almost nothing.

What Jane pays attention to is change.

Let's say I suspect you stole something from me.

If I immediately walk up to you and say, did you steal my necklace?

I'm already watching nervous body language, but that doesn't tell me much.

You might just be nervous because some lunatic is accusing you of stealing a necklace.

So instead, I talk to you normally first.

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How was your day?

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Where have you been?

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And while we're talking, I'm quietly learning what you look like when you're comfortable.

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Maybe you naturally make a lot of eye contact.

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Your hands move constantly when you talk.

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You're leaning back.

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Your voice is relaxed.

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That's your baseline.

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Then I casually mention, by the way, something weird happened.

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My necklace disappeared yesterday.

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And suddenly your hands stop moving.

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You sit up.

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Your answers become shorter.

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And now I'm interested.

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because I didn't decide that rubbing your hands means you're lying.

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I noticed that you changed when I mentioned the necklace, and you want to look for more than one change.

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This is where clusters come in.

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Crossing your arms by itself could mean absolutely nothing.

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But if the subject changes, and suddenly someone crosses their arms, starts self -soothing, their voice changes, and their previously expressive body becomes unusually still,

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now you have something worth paying attention to, and don't fall for the biggest cliche of all.

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Liars avoid eye contact.

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Some people do the exact opposite.

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If someone knows avoiding eye contact makes them look suspicious, they might stare directly at you because they're actively trying to look believable.

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So don't ask, are they making eye contact?

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Ask, is this how they were behaving 30 seconds ago?

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That's the real trick.

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But none of these tricks work particularly well if you're not actually paying attention.

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And this is probably Patrick Jane's biggest advantage over everyone around him.

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He notices everything.

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Imagine Jane meets a man for the first time.

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He looks at his hands and says, You recently stopped wearing your wedding ring.

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The guy immediately looks confused.

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How did you know that?

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It sounds psychic.

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Until you look at his hand, there's a pale strip of skin around his ring finger.

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Where the rest of his hand has been exposed to the sun, that's it.

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The information was sitting there the entire time.

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Everyone could see it.

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Jane was just the only person actually looking.

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And once you start doing this, you realize people are basically walking around carrying evidence of their lives all over them.

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Look at someone's hands.

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Maybe there's dirt underneath their fingernails.

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Maybe there are calluses in very specific places.

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Look at their clothes, their shoes.

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What's worn out?

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What do they keep checking?

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What do they immediately hide when somebody walks into the room?

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None of these details necessarily mean anything on their own.

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The interesting part is putting them together.

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Imagine someone walks into a coffee shop wearing an expensive suit.

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At first glance, you'd probably assume they have money.

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But then you notice the suit doesn't fit particularly well.

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Their shoes are much cheaper than everything else they're wearing.

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The tag on their briefcase is still attached and they keep adjusting their watch like they're not used to wearing it, suddenly there's another possibility.

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Maybe this isn't how they normally dress.

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Maybe they're trying to impress someone, job interview, first date.

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Now you don't know that yet, but you've noticed something worth investigating.

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Jane notices a detail, creates a hypothesis, and then looks for something else that either supports it or destroys it.

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And you can actually practice this.

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The next time you're sitting somewhere public, pick one person and give yourself 30 seconds.

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Just notice.

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What can you know for certain?

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What can you reasonably guess?

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And most importantly, what are you assuming with absolutely no evidence?

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Because those are three completely different things.

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Another exercise is watching a reality show with the sound completely off.

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Then turn the sound back on and see how catastrophically wrong you were.

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And you probably will be wrong sometimes.

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That's actually the useful part, because you're training yourself to separate.

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I noticed this. From.

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Therefore, this must mean that.

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Jane is ridiculously good at the first part, and that's why he can make deductions from things everybody else walked straight past.

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Because most of us think we're observing the world around us.

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We're not.

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We're filtering out almost all of it.

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Your brain decides what seems important and throws everything else into the background.

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But start deliberately looking at the things you normally ignore.

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The hands, the shoes, the objects, the tiny changes in behavior.

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And suddenly there's an entire layer of information that was always there.

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You just weren't looking at it.

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Play dumb.

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And the last trick might be my favorite because it goes against what almost everyone naturally wants to do.

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If you want to read people better, let them underestimate you.

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Most people spend an insane amount of energy trying to prove that they're smart.

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Jane does the opposite.

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He acts on serious.

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He asks questions he probably already knows the answer to.

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Sometimes he deliberately lets someone believe they're smarter than him.

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And that's useful because the moment somebody thinks they have you figured out, they stop worrying about whether you have them figured out.

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Think about it.

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If you knew you were sitting across from someone whose entire job was analyzing every word you said, you'd immediately become more careful.

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You'd think before answering, you'd watch your expressions, you'd reveal less.

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But if you think the person sitting across from you is slightly clueless, you relax.

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Maybe you explain something you didn't need to explain.

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Maybe you correct them.

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Maybe you say something you would have filtered if you thought they were actually paying attention.

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And suddenly, while you're busy thinking, God, this person is an idiot.

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They're learning everything about you.

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There's actually a perfect example of how powerful underestimation can be in the mentalist.

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Tommy Volker pretended to have an intellectual disability, and because everyone had already placed him into the category of someone harmless,

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someone who couldn't possibly be calculating what was happening around him, they stopped treating him like someone capable of deceiving them.

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And that assumption helped hide the fact that he was the killer.

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Obviously, I'm not suggesting you fake an intellectual disability to psychologically profile your friends, but the principle underneath it is useful.

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People reveal more when they don't feel like they're being observed.

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So sometimes, don't correct someone immediately.

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Let them explain.

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Ask the obvious question.

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Let them think they know more than you.

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And if someone completely misunderstands you, you don't always need to rush to prove them wrong.

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Watch what they do when they believe their assumption is true.

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Because sometimes being underestimated gives you something being impressive never will.

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Information.

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And when you put all of Jane's tricks together, you start realizing something.

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Patrick Jane isn't actually reading minds.

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He knows how to make people show him.

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And that's probably the biggest thing you can actually learn from him.

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Stop trying to magically decode every crossed arm, every look, every tiny movement.

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Get curious.

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Pay attention let people talk, and most importantly, stop focusing only on what people are deliberately trying to show you,

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because people are constantly telling you who they are.

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Most of the time, they're just assuming you aren't paying attention.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This speaking lesson is built on the video “How To Read People Like Patrick Jane”. This video has 220 sentences and 2145 words to shadow. The speech runs for 10:44. The speaker talks fast, about 200 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 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
trick noun	/ˈtɹɪk/	Something designed to fool, dupe, outsmart, mislead or swindle.
reveal verb	/ɹɪˈviːl/	To uncover; to show and display that which was hidden.
deliberately adverb	/dɪˈlɪb.(ə.)ɹət.li/	Intentionally, or after deliberation; not accidentally.
necklace noun	/ˈnɛkləs/	An article of jewelry that is worn around the neck, most often made of a string of precious metal, pearls, gems, beads or shells, and sometimes having a…
psychic noun	/ˈsaɪkɪk/	A person who possesses, or appears to possess, extra-sensory abilities such as clairvoyance, precognition, and telepathy, or who appears to be susceptible to…
steal verb	/stiːl/	To take illegally, or without the owner's permission, something owned by someone else without intending to return it.
shoe noun	/ˈʃu/	A protective covering for the foot, with a bottom part composed of thick leather or plastic sole and often a thicker heel, and a softer upper part made of…
ridiculously adverb	/ɹɪˈdɪk.jə.ləs.li/	In a ridiculous manner. In a way that is funny, embarrassing or extremely implausible.
naturally adverb	/ˈnæt͡ʃ.(ə.)ɹə.li/	In a natural manner.
confused adjective	/kənˈfjuːzd/	unable to think clearly or understand
insane adjective	/ɪnˈseɪn/	Exhibiting unsoundness or disorder of mind; not sane; utterly mad.
pretend verb	/pɹəˈtɛnd/	To speak or behave so as to give a false or simulated appearance.
intellectual adjective	/ˌɪntəˈlɛkt͡ʃʊəl/	Pertaining to, or performed by, the intellect; mental or cognitive.
relax verb	/ɹɪˈlæks/	To make something loose.
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…

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
figure out verb		To come to understand; to discover or find a solution; to deduce.
break down verb		To stop functioning.
give away verb		To make a gift of (something).
go out verb		To leave, especially a building.
look away verb		To ignore something; to pretend not to have seen or noticed something; to avoid dealing with something.
sit up verb		To assume a sitting position from a position lying down.
throw out verb	/ˈθɹəʊ ˌaʊt/	To discard; to dispense with something; to throw away.
walk around verb		To walk with no planned destination; to meander.

Sentences worth repeating

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

You could ask, how much do you make?
Don't immediately ask, who did you go with?
Try, went with your friends?
How did you know that?
What can you know for certain?

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	you've been thinking · you've been having
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	You've had · You've probably heard · have you been
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	isn't actually made · has been exposed · is still attached
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	person who can · Someone who genuinely · someone who is

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 74 contractions and reduced forms, such as they're, don't, you're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “th” sounds: underneath /ˌʌndɚˈniθ/, hypothesis /haɪˈpɒθɪsɪs/, soothe /suːð/
The “sh” and “zh” sounds: shoe /ˈʃu/, assumption /əˈsʌm(p).ʃ(ə)n/, rush /ɹʌʃ/, suspicious /səˈspɪʃ.əs/, unusually /ʌnˈjuːʒuəli/
Long words — get the stress right: deliberately /dɪˈlɪb.(ə.)ɹət.li/, ridiculously /ɹɪˈdɪk.jə.ləs.li/, naturally /ˈnæt͡ʃ.(ə.)ɹə.li/, intellectual /ˌɪntəˈlɛkt͡ʃʊəl/, disability /dɪsəˈbɪlɪti/

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 trick, reveal, deliberately.

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 Read People Like Patrick Jane - Learn English Speaking with Video

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