Shadowing Practice: I Travelled To Afghanistan... And Left Within 3 hours - Learn English Speaking with Video
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146 sentences
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okay here goes nothing this trip was stepping out my comfort
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zone i was on my way to afghanistan a country now ruled
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and run by the taliban statistically the most dangerous country in the world
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and a place which is just advised not to go
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but i wanted to see the real side of afghanistan not
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just what you hear online the idea was to spend five
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days there no bad agenda whatsoever just me traveling around meeting locals trying the food
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but it didn't go to plan i left the country within
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24 hours of being there let me let me explain why
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but just before i want to clarify this is not like a hate video no one is to blame
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but myself for this you know i made the decision to
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enter someone else's country where they have their own rules
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and regulations and everything that led up to it was ultimately my decision i'm my own person
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and i take responsibility for it anyway with all
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that out of the way let me take you to the
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very start of the trip where everything started to unfold we're in Istanbul
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which is our connection to Kabul the capital of Afghanistan that's
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where we're going after a few hours of waiting we boarded
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the final plane a four -hour flight from Istanbul to Kabul
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as the flight got near I remember this being the most
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nervous i'd been are you getting nervous um yeah a little bit i'm gonna be honest yeah yeah same
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what to expect when i get to the airport you know what i mean
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eventually the flight pulled in we've made it i walked through the airport into airport security
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and at this point i'm now officially on their land
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so nerves were even higher i started to overthink everything
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and as i walked up to the airport border control no
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just see see the place they were completely fine there was no issues whatsoever
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thank you bro as we were getting to the final security checkpoint a member of Taliban came over to us and
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he was
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super friendly towards us and that
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continued like leaving the airport all the locals were starting conversations with us they were asking
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if we needed help offering us to use their phones like
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the hospitality was amazing we've made it welcome to afghanistan how
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are you doing you good joe nice to meet you now with our tour guide manmoon
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and he was honestly such a sound kind genuine guy i'm
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a travel guide in afghanistan now i'm busy with the nice guys we first got checked into the hotel
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very nice
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really nice to meet you how you doing nice to meet
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you all right look at this this is beautiful how you
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doing you good nice to meet you man nice to meet you man
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thank you very much thank you amazing man thank you very
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much thank you here we are as the flight was pulling in i was pretty nervous i'll be honest
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and as soon as like i spoke to the first person
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that worked at the airport my nerves went like
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so far everyone has been
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so nice man moon told us to change into the local
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clothing this one is for you this is what we've been
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told to wear jack is all right jack is a fan like it let's head out into the city of kabul
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the first location we came to was this giant taliban flag
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and as i'm sure you can imagine there were tons of
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taliban around it again they were all incredibly friendly towards us how are you we're good man very good
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that is crazy we were making good conversation in fact one of them asked for my number
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and he sent me like loads of afghanistan memes you just wouldn't expect
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that but yeah things were positive at this point we were in a we're in a good good mood
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but this is where things took a slight u -turn as we left
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that area we headed to the streets of kabul where are
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we now we are doing the inside of the crime okay we came to this beautiful mosque
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which our tour guide recommended
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and we wanted to check out guarding it however were some officials officials are just like Taliban members, security, they spotted us instantly.
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And one of them started searching me.
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What is this?
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It's a microphone.
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You see, I was wearing a microphone like I do whenever I film.
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And he didn't like that.
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Do you have a journalist visa?
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No, I didn't.
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I only had a tourist visa.
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You see, this is a bit of a grey area
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because filming a YouTube video on one hand can be seen as a journalist video
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but on the other hand it can just be seen as
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you know making an innocent tourist youtube video before the trip
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i did a ton of due diligence on this i spoke to companies who have organized trips here before
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and they said look a tourist visa is fine you don't need a journalist visa
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but now i was actually in the country
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that didn't seem to be the case it seemed to be a problem
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when the microphone had been spotted i could sense tensions kind
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of rose a little bit the official was speaking back
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and forth with my tour guide they were making sure
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that the camera lenses were fully blocked they took our passports
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and took photos of them
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and they basically just said look you can't film eventually my tour guide managed to de -escalate the situation
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and i just thought it was best that we got out of
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that area what what happened to those two youtubers um
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so now i think they are in jail something why
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because it's against all of these guys i'm talking about these guys you mean the officials
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so the officials spotted the youtubers
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and then they sent them to jail well that's quite scary
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yeah how long how long were they put in jail for
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maybe for three months something three months yeah this was not
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what i wanted to hear after what just happened apparently like
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very recently as in within the last couple days there were
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new rules put in by the taliban in regards to filming
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and you heard about the youtubers who got put in jail
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yeah why did they get put in jail they didn't have the pyramids they didn't have the wrong patterns The government, they think between the tourist people, there's some spies.
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Spies?
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I was panicking a little bit at this point because, you know, my passport's just been scanned and I technically don't have the right permit.
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So I said to the tour guide, look, can we just go somewhere a bit quieter, a bit more out the way?
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We are heading now to an amusement park here in Afghanistan.
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As we walked in, it was like a ghost town, but there was one other person, another official wow look at this hello how are you doing
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at this point i didn't know what was going on the official was speaking back
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and forth with my tour guide in the local language he was also going on call and speaking to other people
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and i remember just saying to my tour guide like what's going on
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and his reply is what just scared me
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and it was the main reason why we got out of there i asked what's going on
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and he replied they're starting an investigation on you when we heard
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that like me and my cameraman jack just looked at each other obviously thinking the worst you said
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that they they want to investigate us yeah okay that's not good all right i think um i think me
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and jack we might we might get a flight home just
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because if we're not allowed to video like there's probably not much point
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and we don't want to risk going to jail and all of
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that you know i mean so we might have to buy a flight today get
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and get out of here just i just don't want to
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take the risk you know you're telling me about the youtubers
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who got put in jail like we don't want to we don't want to risk
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that as a normal tourist you can film yeah yeah
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but we just don't want to risk it yeah yeah anyway we got back to the hotel
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and we spoke to our travel guide on his opinion on
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what we should do just just go just let's get out
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of there yeah you think yeah yeah 100 100 i want
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to say look there's a very high likelihood we would have
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been completely fine i just didn't want to take the risk
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i don't think we want to push it push it to the limit where it ends up coming back
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and buying it so we booked the next available flight
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which was early
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that next morning you nervous
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a little bit i'm just like they're gonna wonder why we're leaving
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so soon that's yeah and then if we are flagged up plus leaving
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so soon like that's not a good look no exactly that's what i'm thinking
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off we go on the way to the airport i was worrying a little bit
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because in my head I was thinking one are they not going to be suspicious
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that we're leaving within 24 hours of getting there and two
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if our passports get scanned are we going to flag up on the system
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because of what happened the day before as we made our way through the airport the nerves were very high
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but just wanted to act as calm and composed as possible
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and then I made it to border control this was the moment of truth I handed him my passport
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and as he scanned it we were completely fine he ushered me on my way
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and uh got the flight back relieved now to end this
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video i want to say look there's a very high likelihood
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we would have been completely fine the people of afghanistan were lovely i genuinely believe
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if you're just going there to be a tourist you'll be completely fine there'll be no issues
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but ultimately we'd gone into that country we didn't know
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if we were breaking the rules or not
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and we just didn't want to take the risk it's as simple as
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that yeah i'm definitely going to travel to afghanistan again at some point in the future like non -filming
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because i really want to explore the country but um
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that is why we left afghanistan so soon after getting there thank you guys for watching
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This video has 146 sentences and 1817 words to shadow. The speech runs for 10:49. The speaker talks at a natural 168 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 86% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| visa noun | /ˈviːzə/ | A permit to enter and leave a country, normally issued by the authorities of the country to be visited. |
| journalist noun | /ˈd͡ʒɝnəlɪst/ | The keeper of a personal journal, who writes in it regularly. |
| nerve noun | /nɝv/ | A bundle of neurons with their connective tissue sheaths, blood vessels and lymphatics. |
| scan verb | /skæn/ | To examine sequentially, carefully, or critically; to scrutinize; to behold closely. |
| passport noun | /ˈpæspɔɹt/ | An official document normally used for international journeys, which proves the identity and nationality of the person for whom it was issued. |
| microphone noun | /ˈmaɪ.kɹəˌfəʊn/ | A device (transducer) used to convert sound waves into a varying electric current; normally fed into an amplifier and either recorded or transmitted over radio. |
| spy noun | /spaɪ/ | A person who secretly watches and examines the actions of other individuals or organizations and gathers information on them (usually to gain an advantage). |
| whatsoever adverb | /ˌ(h)wʌtsoʊˈɛvɚ/ | In any way; at all; whatever. |
| likelihood noun | /ˈlaɪklihʊd/ | The probability of a specified outcome; the chance of something happening; probability; the state or degree of being probable. |
| grey adjective | /ɡɹeɪ/ | Commonwealth standard spelling of gray. |
| clothing noun | /ˈkloʊðɪŋ/ | Any of a wide variety of articles, usually made of fabrics, animal hair, animal skin, or some combination thereof, used to cover the human body for warmth, to… |
| innocent adjective | /ˈɪnəsənt/ | Free from guilt, sin, or immorality. |
| mood noun | /muːd/ | A mental or emotional state, composure. |
| ghost noun | /ɡoʊst/ | A disembodied soul; a soul or spirit of a deceased person; a spirit appearing after death. |
| comfort noun | /ˈkʌm.fət/ | Contentment, ease. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| get out of verb | To leave, exit or escape from; to become free of. |
| check out verb | To record the departure or withdrawal of someone or something (such as guests, employees, books, etc.). |
| come back verb | To return to a place. |
| end up verb | To bring to a conclusion. |
| get back to verb | Return to (an activity) |
| get out verb | To leave or escape. |
| step out verb | To exit a place on foot, often for a short time. |
| walk through verb | To explain (something) to (someone), step by step. |
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 | we've made · has been · we've been |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | is just advised · can be seen · be seen |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 51 contractions and reduced forms, such as didn't, I'm, don't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: regulation /ˌɹɛɡjʊˈleɪʃən/, tension /ˈtɛnʃən/, suspicious /səˈspɪʃ.əs/, usher /ˈʌʃəɹ/
- Long words — get the stress right: whatsoever /ˌ(h)wʌtsoʊˈɛvɚ/, incredibly /ɪŋˈkɹɛdɪbli/, regulation /ˌɹɛɡjʊˈleɪʃən/, investigate /ɪnˈvɛs.tə.ɡeɪt/, genuinely /ˈd͡ʒɛn.ju.ɪn.li/
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 visa, journalist, nerve.
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.