Shadowing Practice: How to Think Fast Before You Speak: Framework Thinking - Learn English Speaking with Video

why do some people always know what to say it seems

like they're never flustered they can always answer questions on the fly i thought it was high iq

but it turns out

that we can train our brains to do the same as well welcome back to my channel i'm vicky

and today we are talking about the one thing you can

train your brain on in order to think fast before you

speak in the last video we talked about the one thing you need to focus on

when you're under high pressure and that is steer, don't follow.

In a nutshell, it means that when the other person is giving you pressure and you don't know where you're going, you want to be able to take back the control

and steer the conversation towards what you want to talk about instead of just following their logic.

If you want to see the details, you can check out this video below.

I'll put the link in the description as well.

But before you go, I want to talk about why a lot of people struggle with making sure they steer

and not follow.

And that's because a lot of people feel like it's hard to find a point they can steer the conversation towards.

They have to scramble and think, okay, where do I want this conversation to go?

So today we'll address exactly that.

The reason a lot of us find it really difficult to steer a conversation on the fly towards a point

that we want to talk about is because we haven't disciplined our mind to think in frameworks.

Frameworks are structures to help organize your thoughts so that you can identify the key levers that influence a result.

I think it's also important to reason from first principles rather than by analogy

because it's kind of mentally easier to reason by analogy rather than from first principles

but you kind of boil things down to the most fundamental truths

and say okay what are we sure is true

or as sure as possible is true

and then reason up from there for example revenue equals number

of units times price this is a framework for knowing what

influences revenue right there are only two things either you sell more units

or you increase the price or you increase both

so whenever someone talks about how can my company make more

money you know exactly what to say doesn't matter what version of the story it is

if their question is about revenue

and they want to know how to grow it it's very

simple you either talk about the number of units they can sell how they can increase

that or increase their price and how they might do that

or even increase both if there's an opportunity to do so

so immediately any question

that talks about revenue you can always bring it back to these two levers number of units

and price so simple right

so now it doesn't matter what people throw at you in terms of a company making revenue doesn't matter

if they say the vision of this and the strategic priorities of

that and the marketing creatives of this and

that doesn't matter you always come back to either number of units sold the price

or both of them

and the goal for framework thinking is to have a library of these frameworks on topics

that are important to you that you can talk about

and pro tip if you can connect different frameworks then the amount of depth

and insights you can provide is even greater let me give you just a simple example

so we talked about revenue

but a lot of people are want to focus on profits as well right

so how can i make more money to take home now

here you can use the very simple framework again profit equals

revenue minus cost revenue we've already talked about costs you can separate it into marginal cost

and fixed cost so now

if people want to talk about how can i make more

profits you know exactly again what to talk about you have to increase your revenue

or you have to decrease your cost

and pick one to focus on then you can double click into

that topic right now you've got the revenue framework you can say

if you want to increase your revenue let's look at how

many units are you selling what is the price what can we how can we tweak these things right or

if you want to talk about cost you can say okay

let's look at the cost structure where can you take things out right is it in the fixed cost

or is it in the marginal cost and this way now

if people ask you you know how can i make more

money you know exactly what to talk about you can use

these frameworks as almost an assessment tell me your situation

and i will tell you what you can tweak so

that in essence is you know how consulting firms sell hundreds

of thousands of dollars of projects millions of dollars of projects

based on frameworks like this as Charlie Munger says you can't really know anything

if you just remember isolated facts and try to bang them back

if the facts don't hang together on the latticework of theory you don't have them in a useful form.

To think fast, you need to put your knowledge

into frameworks sort them organize them

so you can very quickly recall what you want to talk about what are the key levers

that make sense

so where do you find these frameworks they don't really teach

them in school right well there are two ways i'll share with you

and the first one is to create them yourself

and it's really not

that hard hear me out here apple teaches their employees with

Picasso's art the bowl Picasso was drawing these bowls trying to

capture the essence of it he calls the spirit of the beast

and as you see at the beginning everything is very realistic there's a lot of detail

but as he iterates he tries to bring it down to the skull

and eventually down to something very abstract just a few lines

right to represent the horns to represent the body to represent the legs and

so we want to do the same things distill the things

we know down to the very essence of it once you know the essence then you can think faster right

because all you need to look for in your brain is a structure

and not just one piece of information that takes a lot of sorting through

that takes a lot of memory space but

if you're just looking for one structure it's a lot quicker

and that's how people think fast on their feet for example I work in business storytelling

and there are quite a few frameworks for that.

One of the ones I use is ethos, pathos, and logos, which means credibility, emotions, and logic.

Now, whenever people come to me with a question about, hey, why is my presentation not very compelling?

Why don't people take action when they visit my website?

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Or why is my marketing message not working?

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I start there, right?

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Let's look at the three levers and let's see what you're doing right now.

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By seeing the essence of something and then having multiple frameworks

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that connect you're going to be able to talk about a variety of things very quickly

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because you know the structures and you can connect them together.

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Now

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if you feel like whoa this is way too much work

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I don't want to start from scratch that's okay let's talk about the second way of finding frameworks.

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Finding hidden frameworks on the internet.

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Now why do I say hidden?

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Because we're not trained to thinking frameworks.

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When we find information on the internet, most of the authors who have done a lot of condensing and finding the key levers to problems, they don't call it a framework.

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So all you have to do is take that information

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and structure it so that it becomes a framework for you to reference very easily

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when you are thinking fast before you talk.

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Let's use an example to make this more concrete.

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Say you're talking about how to make money doing what you

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love right there isn't per se a framework out there on google

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but there is this concept of ikigai

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which means like the purpose of your life in japanese

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and already ikigai breaks down the four elements the four key

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levers you need in order to make money doing what you

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love they are what you love what you're good at what you can be paid for

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and what the world needs so easy all the work is done for you, all you need to do is just remember

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that there are four levers there and you make that connection between the four levers and the topic, which is how to make money doing what you love.

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So now whenever people ask you, hey, I hate my job.

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I don't know what to do.

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How can I be happy and make money doing what I really love?

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You can just take these four levers

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and talk them through it of course the information you provide

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might still be very surface level right unless you have the expertise you have the experience

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so with that in mind really it's about building

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that library of frameworks so that you can expand the things

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that you can talk about very comfortably and then you have the direction knowing

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which areas which topics which levers i need to look further into in order to expand.

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If you're interested in learning more mental models or frameworks, let me know in the comments below.

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I can always share the ones I use almost on a daily basis.

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And if you found this helpful, please give this a thumbs up.

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Subscribe if you haven't already.

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It really helps the channel and I'll see you in the next video.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This speaking lesson is built on the video “How to Think Fast Before You Speak: Framework Thinking”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: framework, cost, revenue, conversation, units. This video has 25 sentences and 1074 words to shadow. The speech runs for 9:23. The speaker talks at a steady 114 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. 84% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start. 4 of its 25 sentences are questions, so it is good practice for question intonation and short answers.

Key vocabulary in this video

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

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
framework noun	/ˈfɹeɪm.wɜːk/	A support structure comprising joined parts or conglomerated particles and intervening open spaces of similar or larger size.
steer verb	/stɪɹ/	To guide the course of a vessel, vehicle, aircraft etc. (by means of a device such as a rudder, paddle, or steering wheel).
lever noun	/ˈliː.və/	A rigid piece which is capable of turning about one point, or axis (fulcrum), and in which are two or more other points where forces are applied; — used for…
bull noun	/bʊl/	Specifically, one that is uncastrated.
essence noun	/ˈɛsəns/	The inherent nature of a thing or idea.
topic noun	/ˈtɑpɪk/	A subject; a theme; a category or general area of interest.
helpful adjective	/ˈhɛlp.fl̩/	Furnishing help; giving aid; useful.
connect verb	/kəˈnɛkt/	To join (to another object): to attach, or to be intended to attach or capable of attaching, to another object.
principle noun	/ˈpɹɪn.sɪ.pəl/	A fundamental assumption, fundamental law or guiding belief.
insight noun	/ˈɪnsaɪ̯t/	A sight or view of the interior of anything; a deep inspection or view; introspection; frequently used with into.
organize verb	/ˈɔɹɡənaɪz/	To arrange in working order.
analogy noun	/əˈnæləd͡ʒi/	A relationship of resemblance or equivalence between two situations, people, or objects, especially when used as a basis for explanation or extrapolation.
marginal adjective	/ˈmɑː.d͡ʒɪ.nəl/	Of, relating to, or located at or near a margin or edge; also figurative usages of location and margin (edge).
element noun	/ˈɛləmənt/	One of the simplest or essential parts or principles of which anything consists, or upon which the constitution or fundamental powers of anything are based.
strategic adjective	/stɹəˈti.dʒɪk/	Of or pertaining to strategy.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Meaning
check out verb	To record the departure or withdrawal of someone or something (such as guests, employees, books, etc.).
figure out verb	To come to understand; to discover or find a solution; to deduce.
sort through verb	To look through (a collection of documents, facts, etc.) to make sense of them or put them in order.
take back verb	To retract or withdraw (an earlier statement).
turn out verb	To end up; to result.

Sentences worth repeating

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

Today, we’ll address exactly that.
We’ve already discussed revenue, so let’s talk about costs.
For revenue, you’ll look at units sold and price.

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	haven't disciplined · we've already talked · have done
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	can be paid · is done
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	logos, which means · topic, which is

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 30 contractions and reduced forms, such as you're, don't, isn't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “th” sounds: thumb /ˈθʌm/, ethos /ˈiθɑs/, pathos /ˈpeɪˌθɑs/
The “sh” and “zh” sounds: presentation /ˌpɹɛzn̩ˈteɪʃn̩/, emotion /ɪˈməʊ.ʃən/, actionable /ˈæk.ʃə.nə.bəl/, iteration /ˌɪt.əˈɹeɪ.ʃən/, nutshell /ˈnʌt.ʃɛl/
Long words — get the stress right: analogy /əˈnæləd͡ʒi/, priority /pɹaɪˈɒɹɪti/, fundamental /ˌfʌn.dəˈmɛn.təl/, unexpected /ʌnɪkˈspɛktɪd/, credibility /kɹɛd.əˈbɪ.ɫɪ.ti/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Shadow it sentence by sentence at normal speed, repeating each one until your rhythm matches the speaker.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like framework, steer, lever.

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 →

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