Shadowing Practice: How To Reinvent Yourself From Scratch - Dostoevsky Method - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Ladies and gentlemen, we all go through phases in life where we want to develop and grow and progress in some way,
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and that will continue throughout our lives.
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Because, let's face it, progress and development doesn't happen in a linear way.
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We're not constantly progressing and evolving.
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It happens in spurts.
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We grow, we progress, we change, we reinvent ourselves in a way, and then we plateau for a little bit and we stay as
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that person until we feel like we need to change things and shake things up again.
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And then once again, we look to progress.
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And whenever I'm in one of those stages, I have to go back and read Fyodor Dostoevsky.
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Because he is more than just a writer, a poet, an author.
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He is, as Friedrich Nietzsche said, the only psychologist worth learning from.
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Now, there are a few psychologists I like, but I do think Nietzsche is right that Dostoevsky is the most consequential,
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and that Dostoevsky was an absolute genius.
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And there are so many principles that we can learn from his books, from his writings, from his philosophies,
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that we can apply in our own lives to better ourselves and better our life around us.
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And so in this video, I'm going to go over the four steps of self -reinvention
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that I have learned from reading Dostoevsky's books time and time again,
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and also lay out a blueprint for you to follow in order to progress in whatever way
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it is you're looking to do.
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And so the first step that I have learned from Dostoevsky in regards to self -reinvention is taking radical responsibility.
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This is a theme that he goes over in almost all of his books, but in particular, The Brothers Karamazov, where there's this constant theme
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that continues to come up in regards to taking responsibility for everything in your life
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and for exactly where you are in the world.
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Because it's easy, and I'm certainly of this temperament, and I'm sure almost everyone is because it's only natural,
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to think that there are some things in your life that are out of your control.
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Of course, you can be born to a family without much means.
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You can be born in an area where you're not close to opportunity.
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And those things in some way are out of your control.
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But what Dostoevsky argues is that there's nothing you can do about that.
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And so there's no point in thinking about that being out of your control and admitting defeat in that way.
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You actually need to claim ownership over that.
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And then through claiming ownership over the things that you quote unquote can't control, you can then begin to implement processes to try and fix them.
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And this is honestly a very confronting idea and something
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that I've had to wrestle with time and time again in my life
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because we can always come up with excuses for why we don't have something, for why something is out of our control,
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for why something isn't working, for why we're not where we want to be.
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But that doesn't actually solve the problem.
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The way you solve it is by claiming radical responsibility
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and then taking that into account and taking that into your own life,
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putting that on your back and figuring out a way to solve that problem, a way to fix it,
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and a way to still get to where you want to get.
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But this also extends to other parts of your life when it comes to how you take care of your room,
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when it comes to your own organization, when it comes to how you present, how you dress, how you think,
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how you talk, the books you read, everything you do.
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It's about taking radical responsibility.
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and why this is such a crucial first step
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when it comes to self -reinvention as well is
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because it's easy to think about trying to become someone you want to be
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and you have that idea in your head of who you want to be
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and why you're not there
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and what the differences are between the person you want to be
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and the person you are today but there will be unconscious habits
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that are actually affecting you and halting your growth
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and stopping you from becoming the person that it is you want to be
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And some of those unconscious habits may be the music you listen to, may be the books you read,
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may be the people you talk to, the content you absorb.
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You may think that some of these things are trivial and mindless, but they all have a big effect on how your brain operates,
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how you think, and how you go about your life.
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If you listen to rap music 24 -7, your brain will operate in a different way to someone who listens to classical music 24 -7.
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And I'm not saying that one or the other is the right choice or one is better than the other.
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I do have one way that I lean, but I'm not saying that one way is better than the other.
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I'm just saying that they influence you in different ways.
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And by taking radical responsibility, you can think about the person you want to become and think to yourself, how would they think?
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How would their mind operate?
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What music would they listen to?
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And then you start to shape your content that you absorb
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and the things you listen to and how you do and the unconscious habits that you have.
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Even down to the small, trivial tasks in your own life.
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Because when you take this idea of radical responsibility, it works in the big areas, it works in the big changes,
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but it also works in the small changes that you need to make in order to change yourself.
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You can't have a big change without changing the little, small things.
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And that's something Dostoevsky lays out time and time again in all of his books,
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is the idea of shrinking the grand ideas into the small granular ideas,
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the small practical processes, the ways that you're living it out in your life in the smallest of ways that adds up,
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that has an effect, and that changes the larger scheme and the larger ideas and the larger areas of your life.
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And that all starts with taking radical responsibility.
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And this is hard, this is confronting, this is very tiring to actually think about this, and it's going to take effort,
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because when you want to try and change your life, when you want to change who you are.
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It's like a plane.
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When it's taking off, it's got to use up a lot of fuel, a lot of power, a lot of effort.
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And then once it's in the air, it's just sipping fuel and it's going along nicely because it was
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that initial phase that gave it
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that push in order for it to sort of glide
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and keep progressing and keep moving forward at an easier pace with less effort because of that initial effort.
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And so the initial effort is taking radical responsibility.
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To take it back to the plane metaphor the plane has to take responsibility
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or the pilot has to take metaphoric responsibility for
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that plane being on the ground has to put in a lot of effort to get
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it up in the air and then it's moving nicely and
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so this being the first stage is about really being a strenuous task
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it's a strenuous idea it's confronting it's going to hurt it's going to clash you're going to try
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and change your habits and that's not going to be easy
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but you need to keep pushing through and you need to hold
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that idea of radical responsibility in your head so that you can actually have the motivation,
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the strength, and the effort to push through those habit changes
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because that's what it's going to take in order for you to become the person you want to become
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or achieve the things you want to achieve or achieve the objectives that you have.
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You can't achieve objectives with you staying the same.
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You've got to change yourself, and that starts with changing your habits, and that starts with taking responsibility.
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Which leads us into step number two, which is to confront the real world, not the inner world.
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Now, the thing that Dostoevsky lays out time and time again, specifically in one of his best books called White Knights,
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is that all of us have this internal monologue and this internal world that we build for ourselves,
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where we imagine we're the type of person to do a certain thing, or we imagine that the world is this certain way,
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and then we step out into the real world and it doesn't quite go according to plan.
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We can imagine that we're going to drive to meet someone for lunch, for example, and we don't actually take into account the real world,
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and all of a sudden there's traffic on the road, and we're, like, angry at that because we're thinking, why is there traffic?
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I'm going to be late to this lunch that's because you planned
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and you strategized and you left your house with enough time for you to get there if there was no traffic,
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but you didn't take into account the fact there might be traffic because in the real world there is traffic.
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And that's a very trivial example, but that works in all areas of our life.
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We all build up this internal idea of what the world is like, who we can become, the type of person we are,
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And then when we actually try and put that into practical action, it doesn't work the same way.
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In our heads, we may think, I'm a great presenter.
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I could be a great talker.
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I could make great YouTube videos.
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And then when we sit down to make a YouTube video, as I find with myself time and time again recording these,
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you go, I'm actually not the presenter I think I am.
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I can't talk about my ideas in the way that I thought I could.
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I'm not as great of a speaker as I thought I was in my mind,
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and that's because there's the real world versus the internal fake world.
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And so in order to create change, in order to radically change our lives and reinvent ourselves,
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we've got to come up with an imaginary version of us.
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We have to come up with an imaginary world that we're going to build around us,
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but then we need to confront the real world in order to create that imaginary world in the real world, if that makes sense.
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And so when it comes to changing yourself, you come up with that imagined version of yourself, the person you want to become,
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the things you want to achieve.
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And then you look at the real world and you think, okay, what are the real world applications of that?
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How do I actually become? that in the real world.
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Because we may think, I want to be someone who's physically fit.
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I want to be someone with a lot of energy, someone who's very healthy.
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That's great.
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We've got the imagined world.
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But it's hard to actually eat broccoli.
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It's hard to actually go to the gym for an hour a day.
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It's hard to get up in the morning and run.
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It's hard to only drink water and cancel out
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Coca -Cola and cancel out Sprite, whatever it is you like to drink.
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It's hard to actually practically apply that.
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So you have the imagined version, and then you confront reality so that when you are in reality, it's not a shock to you.
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Because if all you do is think and imagine about what you're going to become,
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it's actually going to be hard to push through those tough times.
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But if in your thinking process, in your planning process, you take into account almost the worst case scenario,
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you're therefore going to be able to deal with it in the moment
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because you've already thought that through in your head and you knew that it was going to be hard.
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And do not let your imagination run wild.
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It's easy to strategize with a pen and paper.
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It's easy to think about all the things you want to do.
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It's harder to actually do them.
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So when it comes to the planning process, you have to take that into account and you have to acknowledge
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that it's going to be hard in the moment
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and you have to acknowledge that there are going to be times you want to stop and you want to quit.
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That's a hard thing to do.
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When we think about trying to achieve something, when we think about changing ourselves in some way,
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the last thing we want to think about is the fact that we're definitely going to want to quit at some point.
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But if you think about that,
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you can sit in that emotion and you can almost psych yourself up so that when you are in that moment,
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you have the strength to push through and that you never live in an imaginary world.
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You always live in the real world and then you can actually strategize according to reality, not according to your dreams.
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You have a dream goal, but you have a real world blueprint to achieve that goal would probably be the best way to put it,
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which leads me in to step number three of Dostoevsky's steps for self -reinvention, which is to identify your pain point,
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face it, and carry your burden.
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Something that Dostoevsky loves to explore is the idea that the person you want to become, the path you want to follow,
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everything you want to achieve is almost through the thing that you fear the most.
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It's almost through the thing that is confronting you the most.
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If the person you want to be as someone with better organizational skills.
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That's probably because you feel like you don't have the best organizational skills.
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You're always late.
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You're always multitasking and nothing's really getting done.
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You're not working as efficiently as you would like to.
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And that's probably because you don't take care of the small things.
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Your room is probably messy.
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Your desk is probably messy.
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Your laptop screen is probably all over the place, not put into neat folders.
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And so in some way, you're finding those things daunting.
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You're finding those things frightening.
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You're actually finding the action of those steps scary.
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And so you have to confront it in yourself.
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If you're not someone who cleans your room, you don't enjoy it.
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It's easy to think, OK, but that's not an organizational skill I care about.
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I care about organization when it comes to my work, when it comes to my study.
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But that doesn't work.
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You have to face it in the most trivial areas of your life too, because how you do something is how you do everything.
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And so you clean your room, you make your bed, you organize your laptop screen, you organize your desk, you organize everything about your life,
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even the things you don't think matters, because that all adds up to allow you to confront your burdens and actually push through them.
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But on top of that, that's just surface level stuff.
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To become the person you want to become, you also need to dig deep into your soul.
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And we all have things from our childhood, from past memories, from our lives, which have scarred us in some way.
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It's something we don't want to face.
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It's something we're scared of.
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It's something we'd rather ignore and forget ever happened.
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But that's probably altered you.
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That's probably changed you in ways you can't even imagine.
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That's probably affecting the unconscious habits that you build.
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And so in order to become the person you want to be, you need to face those demons, whatever they are.
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And I can't know from behind the screen.
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We all have different demons that we faced throughout our life, but we need to face them.
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If you're someone who gets incredibly anxious when it comes to areas of life where you need to perform,
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you can't become the person you want to become if you continue to feel anxious all the time, if you continue to feel imposter syndrome,
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if you continue to shut down when really you need to open up and be...
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be outgoing, be open, be forthright, be very, you know, go -getter attitude.
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You can't be someone who then shrinks down and doesn't accomplish those things
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and doesn't go for those things because of some past demon or some past trauma that is resulting in this anxiety.
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And so Dostoevsky, outside of the trivial tasks of cleaning your room,
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you also need to dig down into your soul and face the thing that you don't want to face.
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And it's there.
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And Dostoevsky knows it's there in every one of us because we're all human.
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And so you need to sit in a quiet room.
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You need to find a quiet place, a dark place, and really dig into yourself and confront those demons, confront the things that are tormenting you,
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confront the things that are affecting you.
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Because in order to grow, in order to reinvent yourself, in order to become the person you want to be, you have to push through them.
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You may think that you can become that person by ignoring certain things that you don't need to dig down as deep, but you do.
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And even though it's painful, even though it's hard, even though it's almost, it's like walking through fire, it has to be done.
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Otherwise you will not be able to reinvent yourself and you will not be able to grow.
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And that's honestly why I really love Dostoevsky as well, because when you look at so many videos on self -reinvention,
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on growth, on trying to become someone better, a lot of it can sound easy, a lot of it sounds practical and logical and makes sense,
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but it doesn't actually affect your life.
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You try and apply it and nothing really changes, and that's because they're making it sound easy on purpose.
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It's very light, it's very superficial, it's not actually going to work, because the things that are going to work don't sound positive,
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don't sound great, they sound incredibly challenging, incredibly confronting, but it's the only way.
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No matter what you're doing in life, it's going to be difficult.
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Anything good is going to be a struggle to achieve, and Dostoevsky understands that, and Dostoevsky didn't shy away from that,
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and that's why he's the best person to go and read
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when you are looking to try and develop your mind in certain areas of your life, because he doesn't pull any punches.
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He's incredibly honest, and I'm trying to be honest in this video as well and get across those ideas.
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And this video isn't going to be, you know, the most positive video.
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It's dark, it's hard, it's challenging to become who you want.
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But the thing is, we have to face those challenges because we only get one life.
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And in order to become that person, we need to push through these tough times, which leads me in to step number four,
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which is that the truth
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Now, Dostoevsky, a theme which runs through almost every character,
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every book, every line, is that some characters are ruthlessly pursuing truth and other characters are hiding from truth.
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Now, truth means whatever it is that you're interested in, whatever it is you want to go for, whatever's compelling you, whatever you feel strongly about,
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whatever you feel strongly for, that's where you need to step.
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That's the direction you need to move.
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And that's always the scariest direction to move.
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You know, when you feel compelled to start a YouTube channel, if you've never done that before, you can get nervous.
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What are other people going to think?
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Am I going to be good?
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Whatever it is, but it's going to be scary.
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But that's the truth.
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You need to follow that.
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And if you don't follow that, then you're literally turning your back on the path you're supposed to follow.
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And if you want the ultimate adventure in life, If you want to become the person you want to become, you need to follow truth.
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And then once you start that YouTube channel, for example, the videos you make need to be the videos you're interested in.
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Not the videos you think are going to go viral, not the videos you think other people are interested in or you've seen other people make,
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but the videos you feel compelled to make.
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You need to follow that truth.
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Will that get you views? Who knows?
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But that's the whole point.
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That's the adventure that's the passion of life is
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that you're stepping out into the unknown and that's the only place
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that you can actually find yourself and develop yourself and become the person you're looking to become.
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But outside of that YouTube example in anything in life
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when it comes to any job any passion any career any way you want to change yourself
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if you feel like someone who dresses in a t -shirt
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and shorts dress in a t -shirt and shorts
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if you feel like someone that you want to become someone who dresses in a suit and tie like me, for example.
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It's a little odd in today's world, in my generation in particular, but that's the truth.
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That's what you're interested in.
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That's what you're passionate about.
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That's what you like.
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That's who you want to become.
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You need to follow it.
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And honestly, I do that myself.
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And of course, it's nerve wracking.
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You may think...
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You know, what's a 25 year old doing in a suit and tie making YouTube videos?
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There are other people out there who make content in a similar niche to me about philosophy,
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about literature, about self -help in a more deeper intellectual way.
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And most of them don't dress like this.
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Am I going to be the odd one out?
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Honestly, who knows?
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But you have to just follow it if that's what you're passionate about, if that's what you like.
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And for me, this is what I like.
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This is how I think I want to dress, how I would like to dress, because I have my own philosophy behind that,
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which is that these ideas I talk about are so deep, are so honest, are so truthful,
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are so powerful and important that I want to leave myself at the door
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and I want to show almost a respect for these ideas and for these books and for these writers.
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And so I put on a suit and tie to remove myself, to almost put myself in this professional,
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respectful, reverent position where I'm not putting myself before the ideas, but I'm coming at these ideas from a humble way,
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from a way where I'm not showing radical personality.
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I'm just ordering myself and being professional in regards to what I talk about.
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That's the philosophy I have behind that.
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I have to follow that philosophy
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because that's the truth I'm supposed to follow that's my truth
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and so dostoevsky says here
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that to become the person you want to become to build the life
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you want you need to ruthlessly pursue truth and
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when you read dostoevsky you'll see this on every page
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that the characters where things go wrong the characters where they break down internally where they don't grow
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they don't develop are the characters who just cannot confront their
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truth who run from their truth for all sorts of reasons and we all know those reasons you know
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We've all faced them.
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We've all had periods of our life where we aren't following our truth,
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where we aren't doing the things we would like to do because we're afraid of what others may think.
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But that's not how you develop.
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That's not how you have the adventure of life.
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And that's what Dostoevsky believes to be the most crucial and important guiding light of your life,
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which is ruthlessly pursuing truth or you can swap that out for curiosity if that works as well.
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And so that wraps up the steps, the four steps that I've learned from reading Dostoevsky in regards to self -reinvention.
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But now to get into the practical guide as to how
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you can actually implement these steps in your own life and actually make an impact today and actually change your life today.
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And the practical guide here I call the three essay guideline.
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And what this is are three different essays that you need to sit down and write.
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And these don't have to be long.
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They shouldn't be too short, but they don't have to be ridiculously long.
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However long it is, it takes you to write them.
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Whatever it is you need to get down on the page.
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But basically what it is, is that you write one essay about the person you want to be.
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And you were very descriptive here.
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You talk about temperament, you talk about their habits, you talk about their hobbies, you talk about their work,
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you talk about the things they listen to, the content they consume.
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Whatever it is, be as descriptive as possible and write an essay about this person, who they are, where they're living, everything about them.
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And then secondly, you write another essay where you're writing a journal diary entry as this person
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and you write about what you did on a specific day.
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Choose a random day like a Tuesday or a Wednesday
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or a Thursday and write down from like a POV angle what you did that day,
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how it works so that you're getting this on a granular level and you're actually putting yourself in that position.
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And then the third essay is to write what you are today and what you need to change.
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Look at who you are today, compare it to the POV angle and to the other essay
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that you wrote about who the person is that you want to become.
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And then see exactly where you need to change and how you need to go about that.
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And what you need to cut out of your life, what you need to cull you can see a real contrast between where you are today
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and where it is you want to become.
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And then after you write these essays, after you're as descriptive as possible, you go as deep as possible, you take this super seriously,
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you need to sit down and meditate upon this.
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You need to really go deep.
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You really need to think about this in a deep way.
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And that's going to be uncomfortable.
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You're going to feel the uncomfort of the change you need to make.
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You're going to see how far you are from that person, how far you are from what you want to achieve.
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But it's in that uncomfort.
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that you're then going to be able to find the strength
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and the compulsion and the motivation to actually push forward and become that person.
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And you really need to, this is crucial, after you write these essays, you can't just gloss over this sit -down meditation period.
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You really need to sit down, no phones, no distractions, in a room, lie on your bed, stare at the ceiling, wherever it is.
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But this needs to be for a good hour, if not more and you really need to go deep.
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Because what's important here too, is that this is really who you want to become.
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It's easy to have an idea in your head on a random day, you're just feeling inspired, you want to become this person,
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but you really got to dig deep and think, is this really the person you want to be?
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Is this just a pipe dream?
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You know, in my mind, I would love to be a 100 meter sprint Olympic champion.
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Never going to happen.
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Ridiculous.
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There's no point even trying to come up with a blueprint.
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for how that might happen.
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It's just not going to happen.
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So this last step is very crucial, because it allows you to actually think, is this real?
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Is this who I am?
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Is this what I want to be?
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Is this something I really want to go through pain and challenge for?
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Because we all have something we want to go through pain for.
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We all have something that we will struggle for, but not everything.
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And we might even have dreams that we really won't struggle for, so they should just remain dreams because we can we can do many things
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but we can't do everything and so you really need to be honest here
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and that's why this last step is so crucial
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because you actually need to dig deep and feel it in your bones
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and know if this is really the thing you want to go for and
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if it is then great you've written the essays
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you know what you need to change you know where you need to go you've dug deep.
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This has gone into your soul at this point.
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This isn't superficial change.
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This is real deep change.
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And then you can start the work to make it happen.
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It's not going to be easy.
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It's going to take time.
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But the best thing about this is that you've carved out today.
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You've carved out this one day to completely construct a blueprint and reconstruct who you are today.
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And then all you need to do is follow this blueprint.
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And of course, you're going to go up and down.
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Of course, it's not going to be a smooth ride, as I said at the beginning of the video, but you have a clear vision now.
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You've been in that vision in a POV angle.
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You've written about that vision from a bird's eye view.
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You see where you are today.
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You've contrasted it with where you want to be.
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And you've also thought about the deepest, darkest demons that are that are affecting your subconscious habits,
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that are affecting your entire life, and you're also thinking about the things that you think are trivial
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that you actually need to change in order to reinvent yourself.
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And so that's honestly why I think Dostoevsky is probably the most important writer to have ever lived.
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He's certainly a writer who, if you pay attention to, if you really feel his ideas and you read his books time and time again,
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it's not enough to just read them once, and you let those ideas dig deep into your bones, he will radically change your life.
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And he has truly radically changed mine.
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And I hope this video helps his ideas radically change yours.
384
But of course, go out and read him too, because there will be things that you can learn yourself that maybe I didn't cover here,
385
or I didn't pick up myself either.
386
But with that said, I hope you guys got some value from today's episode.
387
Let me know down below in the comments.
388
Once again, thank you for all the support, all the continued growth.
389
It's really growing fast and it just shocks me every day.
390
And I think I say this on every video, but I truly am grateful for this.
391
So thank you.
392
Hope you guys liked this episode and until next time, take care.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “How To Reinvent Yourself From Scratch - Dostoevsky Method”. This video has 392 sentences and 5340 words to shadow. The speech runs for 29:06. The speaker talks fast, about 184 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 89% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| confront verb | /kənˈfɹʌnt/ | To stand or meet facing, especially in competition, hostility or defiance; to come face to face with. |
| essay noun | /ˈɛs.eɪ/ | A written composition of moderate length, exploring a particular issue or subject. |
| radical noun | /ˈɹædɪkəl/ | A root (of a number or quantity). |
| habit noun | /ˈhæb.ɪt/ | An action performed on a regular basis. |
| trivial adjective | /ˈtɹɪv.i.əl/ | Ignorable; of little significance or value. |
| practical adjective | /ˈpɹæk.tɪ.kəl/ | Relating to, or based on, practice or action rather than theory or hypothesis. |
| crucial adjective | /ˈkɹuː.ʃəl/ | Essential or decisive for determining the outcome or future of something; extremely important; vital. |
| demon noun | /ˈdiː.mən/ | An evil being resident in or working for Hell; a devil. |
| incredibly adverb | /ɪŋˈkɹɛdɪbli/ | In an incredible manner; not to be believed. |
| regards noun | /ɹɪˈɡɑɹdz/ | A greeting to pass on to another person. |
| unconscious adjective | /ˌʌnˈkɑnʃəs/ | Not awake; having no awareness (usually as the result of a head injury). |
| imaginary adjective | /ɪˈmæd͡ʒɪˌn(ɛ)ɹi/ | Existing only in the imagination. |
| radically adverb | /ˈɹædɪkli/ | In a radical manner; fundamentally; very. |
| adventure noun | /ədˈvɛn.t͡ʃə/ | A feeling of desire for new and exciting things. |
| solve verb | /sɒlv/ | To find an answer or solution to a problem or question; to work out. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| push through verb | To force (legislation or a plan) to be passed or agreed to or a decision to be reached. | |
| come up with verb | To manage to produce, deliver, or present (something) by inventing, creating, thinking of, or obtaining it. | |
| sit down verb | To assume a sitting position from a standing position. | |
| go through verb | To travel from one end of something to the other. | |
| lay out verb | /ˌleɪ ˈaʊt/ | To expend or contribute money to an expense or purchase. |
| add up verb | To take the sum of; to total. | |
| add up to verb | To have a particular effect in combination. | |
| break down verb | To stop functioning. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- How do I actually become?
- Am I going to be good?
- Will that get you views?
- Am I going to be the odd one out?
- Is this who I am?
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | have learned · I've had · you've already thought |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | someone who listens · two, which is · reinvention, which is |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | can be born · be done |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 132 contractions and reduced forms, such as you're, don't, I'm. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: smooth /smuːð/, ruthlessly /ˈɹuːθ.ləs.li/, forthright /ˈfɔɹθˌɹaɪt/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: crucial /ˈkɹuː.ʃəl/, unconscious /ˌʌnˈkɑnʃəs/, organizational /ˌɔː(ɹ)ɡənɪˈzeɪʃənəl/, contrast /kənˈt(ʃ)ɹæst/, shock /ʃɔk/
- Long words — get the stress right: incredibly /ɪŋˈkɹɛdɪbli/, imaginary /ɪˈmæd͡ʒɪˌn(ɛ)ɹi/, organizational /ˌɔː(ɹ)ɡənɪˈzeɪʃənəl/, motivation /ˈmoʊ.tə.veɪ.ʃən/, psychologist /ˌsaɪˈkɑl.ə.d͡ʒɪst/
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 confront, essay, radical.
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.