Shadowing Practice: I Survived Sensory Deprivation - Learn English Speaking with YouTube
B2
Ryan: Sensory deprivation is straight up scary.
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Ryan: Sensory deprivation is straight up scary.
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What does it even mean to experience nothing?
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Especially when my screen time is ten hours a day, which led my father to say this.
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Ryan's dad: I bet you can last a few hours in one of these.
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Ryan: Okay. He might be right, but I'm too insecure to accept that, so I bet him that I could.
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And whoever loses the bet, has to paint themselves green and say in front of all of you...
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Ryan's dad: What are you doing in my swamp?
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On camera? Ryan: Next thing I know, I'm outside of a building that's probably on the cover of a Goosebumps book. It didn't take long to find the entrance and immediately be terrified by a cat waving at me, as well as a plethora of ducks.
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Why are there so many ducks here?
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That is a Superduck.
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I nervously waited for a few minutes when I was greeted by a man named Tom, legally known as the Master of Senses.
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I was then guided to the world's largest sensory deprivation pool.
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I'm not scared, you're scared.
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I feel like I walked into a nether portal at some point back there.
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You're telling me this isn't the most ominous door you've ever seen? Bruh!
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I'm gonna be doing the maximum legal time in this thing.
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3 hours. One with no gravity, one with no gravity or light, and one with no gravity, light or sound. Complete sensory deprivation, which apparently can have some side effects.
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I'm a little scared of hallucinating, like in a Simpsons episode, they hallucinate, so it must be true. But first I checked how deep the water is because I can barely swim, which Tom thought was hilarious.
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And now I'm ready.
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Yay! Oh, my goodness!
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Whoa! See ya!
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Tom: So when you get into a floating pool, generally the progression is as follows.
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You get in, you sit down, you lay back, and as you lay back, you float up to the surface of the water.
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Ryan: Oh, my gosh!
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I feel like a single-celled organism right now.
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I've got a timer on my phone that's gonna go off at the three hour mark.
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This pool is saltier than my ex-girlfriend.
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I don't have an ex-girlfriend.
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You guys know I can't swim really. Well, I can't float either.
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I am negative, buoyant somehow.
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So these pools have tons of salt.
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Like 2,500 lbs of salt.
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Even in Stranger Things, they show them filling up a pool of salt. And salt makes you float.
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I worked really hard on this visual.
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Please affirm me!
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Ryan: But in conclusion... Tom: I's like dropping an ice cube into a glass.
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If it's a person's first time, it's going to take maybe 5 to 10 minutes for them to start to release their body in a way that trusts the water.
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Ryan: I have never successfully floated before, and this is...well, this is crazy.
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I was only 18 minutes into this challenge when I had the actual scariest experience of my life. What the freak? A duck.
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Of course. Tom: You know, I would say 10 minutes to 20 minutes is, you know, mind dump.
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Ryan: I feel like a butterfly.
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<i>(Sings:)</i> "It's fun to stay at the Y-M- C-A..." Tom: BS. BS. BS.
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And then maybe around 25 to 30 minutes, the mind just goes, okay.
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I give up. Ryan: I don't see how people fall asleep in here.
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You know, this is why you don't say stuff like that.
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I'm completely asleep here, totally vulnerable.
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But the duck woke me up, and now it's time to turn off the lights.
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No light. Here we go.
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Turning off the lights added a completely new element to this, that I genuinely didn't expect to be that dramatic, but it was.
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I have lost all concept of time, but I still have my duck with me, so...
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Tom: You know, being glued to a phone or glued to a screen, I think increases, you know, your own personal suffering.
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Ryan: So I haven't even gotten to the silence yet, and I feel so weird because I've realized I have developed a habit of listening to something at all times, or watching something at all times. Like this screenshot is my life.
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I feel like the DVD icon that's like bouncing around, just hoping to get the corner perfectly.
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Oh, nope. Ryan: Not quite. Tom: We are the happiest, and this has been proven in study after study, when we are fully present in a moment. Right here, right now. And the moment is not on the screen.
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Ryan: It's so echoey. I feel like we're in the inside of my mind right now. And it's not a very familiar place.
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Tom: 60 to 90 minutes is enjoyable, relaxing, refreshing. Floating longer, it could be visionary.
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You could see either things that you have seen or things that you've not.
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Ryan: Around 2 hours and 4 minutes-ish is where something actually crazy happened.
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I really feel like my mind was the only thing working at this point.
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I suddenly felt like I infiltrated this memory that I haven't thought of in years, because I felt so still.
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Please don't judge me when you watch this!
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I feel like this reminded me of when I was little in the summertime, so I didn't have to go to school. My grandma, she was like my... she like, raised me.
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My grandma would like, take naps the day and I hated taking naps, but I always took a nap with her. And I just remember feeling so still.
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Well, that's embarrassing.
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Uh...but it was real.
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Anyways...we got 2 earplugs. Maxed out sensory deprivation.
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Tom: When you cut off sensory input to the body, it's pretty amazing, right?
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So you have no gravity, no light, no sound.
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You're reducing the workload that your brain and central nervous system has to process pretty dramatically. Ryan: Bye!
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Oh! Hey! All I can hear is the noises inside my ear that are like...
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I fell asleep immediately.
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Hour 3. Let me tell you about hour 3!
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It hits different.
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Okay? Tom: It's like everything in the world.
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It's a wave. It starts at a certain level, you know?
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And then you sink down into a deep relaxation, and then the mind comes back and asserts itself.
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Ryan: Ah! You could tell me I've been in here for 30 minutes or 10 hours.
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Seriously. I'm not just saying that.
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And now you're about to watch me reach the threshold of hallucinations, confusion, constipation...
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I don't remember the full list, but this is it.
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If I had to explain what I was feeling in this moment, or what I was seeing, is basically on screen. I felt like my mind just started creating content because what even is nothing? Like the absence of every sense, every thought, my identity on this planet, everything.
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It was just gone for a bit.
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The last 20 minutes was a spiritual experience, and it took me another 10 minutes to even realize my timer was going off.
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But what I did next is the real story here.
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I did it! I immediately started checking my notifications.
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And if you heard this sound throughout this video, that's because there were 62 of them.
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One for every notification I missed while in this tank.
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Ryan: And so I guess the question is: Were they worth missing? Ryan's dad: Is this thang on?
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What am I supposed to say?
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What are you doing in my swamp?
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So that's basically just gonna pop up and... Let me do it one more time!
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Why practice speaking with this video?
This video titled "I Survived Sensory Deprivation" offers a unique perspective on a thrilling experience—sensory deprivation. Engaging with this content can greatly enhance your English speaking practice as it immerses you in a narrative filled with humor and personal reflection. By practicing shadowing, or mimicking the speaker's intonation and rhythm, you can improve your ability to express emotions, handle humor, and relate personal experiences, which are crucial for effective communication. This type of speaking practice not only builds your vocabulary but also helps you become more confident in spontaneous conversational settings.
Grammar & Expressions in Context
Analyzing key expressions and grammatical structures used by Ryan can provide insights into everyday conversational English:
- Conditional Statements: Ryan uses conditional phrases like "Whoever loses the bet, has to paint themselves green..." This structure is common in casual conversation for expressing consequences.
- Present Continuous Tense: Phrases such as "I'm going to be doing the maximum legal time in this thing" illustrate how the present continuous tense is often used to describe planned future actions.
- Expressions of Emotion: Words like "terrified" and "scary" convey feelings effectively. Understanding how to use such emotional vocabulary will enrich your conversations.
- Colloquial Language: Phrases like "What the freak?" and "This is crazy" reflect casual expressions that make dialogue sound more natural and relatable.
Common Pronunciation Traps
During the video, you may encounter a few pronunciation challenges, particularly related to casual speech patterns:
- Contractions: Words like "I'm" and "you’re" may be pronounced quickly, making them difficult for non-native speakers to distinguish.
- Slang and Colloquialisms: Phrases such as "Bruh!" and "BS" may require practice to grasp their casual meanings and proper pronunciation.
- Vowel Sounds: Listen carefully to how Ryan contrasts words like "float" and "freak." The short and long vowel sounds can change meanings and must be understood in context.
Utilizing a shadowing app could enhance your proficiency; try repeating the phrases as you hear them to master the natural flow. Incorporating the shadowing technique into your practice not only improves your pronunciation but also boosts your overall speaking skills.
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.
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