Shadowing Practice: I lost my job to AI... now what? - Learn English Speaking with Video

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so I wasn't even planning on making a video I was just trying to do some work

I recently moved house like literally a few days ago

so I'm still setting up my office it's a bit of a mess there's all this stuff behind me

and next to me but I've had my working space set up to how I wanted

and I was just doing some work and then I got this email saying that let me bring it up

and the email says invitation to discuss changes to my role and

And there was also like a letter included.

And everything in it kind of sounds like it's a redundancy.

But it doesn't like explicitly say it.

It just says there's going to be changes to your role.

They said they're not making any decisions yet,

but the meeting is conducted by the head of tech and also an HR person.

And when I noticed that an HR person is involved, I automatically started thinking, this is not good news.

and i should probably clarify so i'm a software developer

and recently my company has heavily invested into like ai and ai is doing

a lot of our work at the moment like it's increased my productivity the the amount of work

I would do in two weeks.

I can probably do in two days now.

Maybe three days.

So it's definitely improved productivity.

And the last few months, everyone has been reassured

that all the permanent full -time employees are safe no one's job is at risk

but a few weeks back i think three developers were made redundant and now it seems like there's more to come

and it sucks because the job market is terrible at the moment especially in software development and we just bought this house

this is frustrating we just bought a new house

I don't know what to do

Because I know some people

Who were In a similar position I know they couldn't find a job for like 6 months

in the particular tech stack that I work in.

So it's not looking good.

Like, I don't know for sure.

I'll find out tomorrow.

I don't want to react too soon, but based on everything I've read, this is not good news.

So I may have to potentially figure out a way to change careers

I need to do something that can pay the same amount of money so I can pay my new mortgage

Yeah, this sucks, this really sucks

Yeah, I don't know what's going to happen.

I'll wait till tomorrow and have like a follow -up tomorrow.

How did you get a job?

So it's five minutes before the meeting starts.

The meeting that will kind of decide whether I have a job or not.

But I've spoken to a couple of people who got the same email as me.

They had the exact same meetings and yeah, it's basically a redundancy.

I think they will cut around 30 jobs company -wide.

So it's not looking good for me.

I kind of wish we didn't buy that house.

If I knew this was going to happen, we wouldn't have bought the house.

Yeah, this is shit.

It's really shit.

I don't know what else to say.

here we go the meeting has started just gotta join it now so what's going on is that due to

economic challenges uh during this review

we identified your role as being at risk no final decision

has been made yet this is just a start of a consultation process

you know a few few weeks back we were all assured

that you know all the permanent employees are safe and

that the contractors were going to be like removed at the end of

or in october when contract runs out and everyone was saying

that you know all the onshore developers are safe and

that doesn't seem to be the case

so i kind of wish i knew earlier so i could have looked for work

it's just the timing of this sucks like it's like the worst possible time

because we just bought a new house and our mortgage doubled

and the job market sucks so i don't know what i'm gonna do I understand

Is it not

Fuck Fuck Fuck

What makes this worse is I've got my kids photos on my computer

And it's like I get that decision

And then I look at my screen And I see them And I'm like

What the fuck am I gonna do oh oh I gotta turn that off

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This speaking lesson is built on the video “I lost my job to AI... now what?”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: sucks, meeting, bought, developer, email. This video has 70 sentences and 769 words to shadow. The speech runs for 8:15. The speaker talks slowly, about 93 words per minute, so there is time to copy every sound. 85% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.

Key vocabulary in this video

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

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
suck verb	/sʌk/	To use the mouth and lips to pull in (a liquid, especially milk from the breast).
developer noun	/dɪˈvɛləpɚ/	A person or entity engaged in the creation or improvement of certain classes of products.
mortgage noun	/ˈmoɹ.ɡɪd͡ʒ/	A legal agreement in which a borrower pledges real property as collateral for a loan used to purchase or refinance that property.
productivity noun	/ˌpɹɒdʌkˈtɪvəti/	The state of being productive, fertile, or efficient.
potentially adverb	/pəˈtɛnʃ(ə)li/	In a manner showing much potential; with the possibility of happening in a given way.
invest verb	/ɪnˈvɛst/	To spend money, time, or energy on something, especially for some benefit or purpose; used with in.
react verb	/ɹiːˈækt/	To act in response.
invitation noun	/ɪnvɪˈteɪʃən/	The act of inviting; solicitation; the requesting of a person's company.
contractor noun	/ˈkɒnˌtɹæk.tə(ɹ)/	A person or company that builds or improves buildings or structures.
assure verb	/əˈʃʊɹ/	To make sure and secure; ensure.
stack noun	/stæk/	A large pile of hay, grain, straw, or the like, larger at the bottom than the top, sometimes covered with thatch.
consultation noun	/ˌkɑnsəlˈteɪʃən/	The act of consulting.
explicitly adverb		In an explicit manner.
clarify verb	/ˈklæɹ.ɪ.faɪ/	To make or become clear or bright by freeing from impurities or turbidity.
litter noun	/ˈlɪt.ɚ/	Straw, grass, and similar loose material used as bedding for people or animals.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
figure out verb		To come to understand; to discover or find a solution; to deduce.
find out verb		To discover, as by asking or investigating.
follow up verb		To take further actions remaining after an event; to continue, revisit, or persist; especially, to maintain communication or verify.
run out verb		To use up or consume all
set up verb	/ˌsɛt ˈʌp/	To make ready for use.

Sentences worth repeating

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

How did you get a job?
I kind of wish we didn't buy that house.
I don't know what else to say.

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	I've had · has heavily invested · has been reassured
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	is conducted · is involved · has been reassured

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 27 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, I'm, I've. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “sh” and “zh” sounds: potentially /pəˈtɛnʃ(ə)li/, invitation /ɪnvɪˈteɪʃən/, assure /əˈʃʊɹ/, consultation /ˌkɑnsəlˈteɪʃən/, onshore /ˈɒnʃɔː/
Long words — get the stress right: developer /dɪˈvɛləpɚ/, productivity /ˌpɹɒdʌkˈtɪvəti/, potentially /pəˈtɛnʃ(ə)li/, invitation /ɪnvɪˈteɪʃən/, consultation /ˌkɑnsəlˈteɪʃən/

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 suck, developer, mortgage.

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: I lost my job to AI... now what? - Learn English Speaking with Video

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