Shadowing Practice: I Was Losing Myself | Tom Holland - Learn English Speaking with Video

I was in New York

and I was having a really hard time with the job just because of how taxing it was, the emotional capacity that I was having to get to every day

and I decided to delete my Instagram because I just felt like I was

so addicted to this kind of false version of my life that it was just taking over.

I would be on set working, I'd come and sit in my chair and just scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll and it was, it was becoming a problem.

I was just obsessed with it

and i was obsessed to find out what people were saying and how people what they thought about me

so i decided to make an announcement which unfortunately we have to do

and say that i'm taking a break from social media

and i try to position myself

and say like i'm taking a break from social media

because i feel like my mental health will benefit from it

and the thing that really upset me is the press ran with

that and they tried to make out that i was having this mental breakdown

if i was having a mental breakdown that's not for you

to report on they they took the story in the wrong direction

and they tried they painted again this negative light on mental

health rather than saying oh he's doing it it's okay

that he's doing it

so we should all feel okay to do it too they

were saying oh look he's not the perfect happy -go -lucky

kid you think he is he's having a nervous breakdown in

new york like the the message of our show is

that asking for help should be something that we celebrate yeah if you're struggling if you need help

if you feel bad and you wake up and

and you go to a friend a therapist a teacher an employee

or a colleague and say i'm really struggling i need some help

that should be something

that we give you a pat on the back like i would love to help you

that i'm delighted

that you asked me yeah it doesn't have to be a professional yeah i go to my friends a lot

and and you know some friends are better than others in certain situations i've got some friends

that are very much like pull your socks up

and get on with it and then other friends who are like come here

and have a cry on my shoulder but like it it varies

so i i just really hope

that that's what the show could do is sort of paint

this positive picture of asking for help is something to be proud of well that's a great message

and and i think we all we all need to hear it

and i want to go back a little bit

because you decided to take a break from acting it's only a break from acting

because i'm an actor yeah it's not like the acting itself i just have been

so lucky that in my life i've been working

so much i just wanted to take a break i just wanted to be in one place for a

while i wanted to be with my friends be with my family move into my house

so it wasn't necessarily oh my god i need to have a break from acting

because it's too much i just needed to have a break from traveling

and working and and also i've done so much of my growing up on the road

I needed to do a lot of growing up at home paying my water bill paying my

Council tax and sorting out my bins and all

that sort of stuff that they don't teach you at school Which I think there should be a lesson.

I think there should be a lesson at school.

It's called life which is like laundry basic cooking like I Didn't realize you have to pay for your water.

I just thought that was a luxury of living in England Yeah, it comes out the sky and then it comes out your tap.

I was so behind on my water bill.

I didn't realize

i'm up to date now don't worry

so yeah i just wanted to take this break

and it's a shame again talking about the press

and how they can spin things and

that they kind of ran with this idea

that yes the show did break me and yes it was difficult

but i could have gone back to work i was always

planning on taking this break after this job i've definitely walked away from a lot

and i think had i not walked away from certain situations let's just put it at

that i would be a very different person today i've been

really good at keeping in touch with my friends keeping my

family close listening to the lessons not getting caught up in

the hollywood hype like i really am a massive fan of making movies

but i really do not like hollywood it is not for me

that the business really scares me i understand that i'm a part of

that business and i enjoy my kind of interactions with it but

that said i am always looking for ways to kind of

remove myself from it to kind of just live as normal a life as possible

but yeah i definitely think it has been an ongoing thought

which is don't lose yourself i've seen so many people come before me

and lose themselves and i've had friends that i've grown up with

that aren't friends of mine anymore because they've lost themselves to this business

and i just am really really keen to focus on what makes me happy

which is my family it's my friends it's my carpentry my golf um the charity

that my mum runs like that is the stuff

that makes me really happy and that's the stuff

that i should protect my relationship is the thing

that i keep most sacred i don't talk about it i

try my best to keep it as private as possible we both feel very strongly

that that is the healthiest way for us to move on as a couple

so i do try to keep as removed from it as

possible like you'll never see me at an award show that I don't have to be at.

I'm never going to a red carpet event

that i'm not in the film of you know i don't want the attention when i don't need it

i love the spotlight i love the pressure

that comes with it there's a quote from billy jean king

that's on the um stand at her stadium in new york that says pressure is a privilege

and that is so true like oh my god feeling pressure on a daily basis in the capacity

that we feel is such a privilege i love feeling pressure

i feel like i thrive under pressure the best golf i've ever played in my life is

when there are cameras around and people are watching i just think

that that is a real amazing thing to be able to experience

so i enjoy it while i can and then

100

when it becomes a bit much i kind of become a bit of a recluse

101

and i disappear i come back to kingston i play golf i play tennis i hang out with my friends

102

and my family do the pub quiz and all

103

that sort of stuff yeah um so yeah

104

so it is something i actively try to do as i

105

get older it only gets easier yeah one of the things

106

that you mentioned recently was that you gave up drinking about a year

107

and a half ago yes

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and you said it was the hardest thing you ever did yes

109

and I wanted to know what was

110

so hard about it for you why was it

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so hard it's interesting I didn't one day wake up

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and say I'm giving up drinking I just like many Brits

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had had a very very boozy December Christmas time I was on vacation I was drinking a lot

114

and I've always been able to drink a lot I think I get my genes from my mum's side in

115

that thing like I can I can drink

116

and I decided to just give up for January I just wanted to do dry January

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and all I could think about was having a drink it's

118

all I could think about I was waking up thinking about it I was checking the clock when's it 12

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and it just really scared me I just was like wow

120

maybe maybe i have a little bit of an alcohol thing

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so i sort of decided to punish myself

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and say i'll do february as well and do two months off

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if i can do two months off then i can prove

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to myself i don't have a problem two months go by

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and i was still really struggling i felt like i couldn't

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be social i felt like i couldn't go to the pub

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and have a lime soda i couldn't go out for dinner i was really really struggling

128

and i started to really worry that maybe i had an alcohol problem

129

so I decided that I would wait until my birthday

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which is June 1st I said to myself

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if I can do six months without alcohol then I can prove to myself

132

that I don't have a problem

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and by the time I had got to June 1st I

134

was the happiest I've ever been in my life I could sleep better I could handle problems better things

135

that would go wrong on set

136

that would normally set me off i could take in my stride i had

137

so much such better mental clarity i felt healthier i felt fitter

138

and i just sort of said to myself like why why am i enslaved to this drink why am i

139

so obsessed by the idea of having this drink

140

and i would look back and recognize

141

that i would go to events for for work

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and you know i can't enjoy myself until i've had a few beers

143

and i just felt

144

so much pressure i'm happy to say like i was definitely addicted to alcohol not shying away from

145

that at all anyone

146

that has a beer every day it's probably got a little bit of a problem

147

but yeah you're right i would drink and drink and drink

148

and drink and then you would just reach

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that moment where you're like wow i shouldn't have had

150

that last beer and you wake up the next day

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and you have a terrible headache and you're suffering i bought one of those rings

152

that will tell you about your sleep yeah or a ring yeah

153

and it was amazing

154

because i couldn't sleep i was like why can't sleep i'm

155

working 14 hours a day i'm doing two hours in the gym i'm eating really healthily

156

and i can't sleep what's wrong with me i bought this ring

157

and it was booze it just it was completely affecting my sleep

158

and since i've given it up i can sleep anywhere you

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know it's also interesting as well going on nights out

160

and having a great time as the sober person

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and then getting to

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that point in the night where people start you know spitting in your ear

163

and everyone's i love you man i love you

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so much you're like yeah brilliant i love you too i'll see you tomorrow i'm going to bed

165

but i love being

166

that person now i love seeing my friends on the golf

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course at 8 a .m in the morning feeling fresh

168

and ready to go and they're sort of crawling out their car

169

and so yeah

170

so i i am over the moon to be sober i

171

love it i really ask myself like why do you drink why are you drinking

172

and a lot of the time my answer would be to feel more comfortable in the social environment yeah

173

and i just put myself in those environments

174

and just would force myself to be there i'd force myself to hang out

175

and and go to a club or go to a bar go to a dinner

176

but then after a

177

while i sort of was like mate you've got to pull your socks up here

178

and you can't just live in your house all the time you've got to go out

179

and enjoy yourself and and if you're only enjoying yourself

180

because you're drinking then you really do have a problem

181

but i think it's different for everyone i had a great support system jack is one of my best mates

182

and we travel all over the world he doesn't drink and doing it with him was it was a really

183

helpful experience for me my brother is always on the road with me he was very supportive

184

and yeah i just really set my mind to it i

185

was like i really want to do this i want to prove to myself i can do it yeah

186

and then once i'd felt the health benefits

187

and started really feeling like my full self yeah it's like oh my god this is this is the best

188

but do you not drink i haven't drank for 17 years

189

no way congratulations that's amazing amazing yeah it's incredible wow

190

so one the best feelings in the world i was really lucky

191

that like my life changed slowly i started when i was really young

192

and then i had about 10 years before the spider -man

193

thing happened the spider -man of it all was the

194

that was the big turning point of where like everything changed

195

and i was lucky

196

that i had those formative years to sort of grow up

197

make mistakes learn about set life learn about the world of movie making

198

and then spider -man happened but it definitely was a steep learning curve for sure especially

199

when i was like really young maybe i was even 19

200

when i was shooting civil war

201

and you know i was a die hard well i am

202

a die hard fan of the studio i felt like i sort of won some competition

203

and was allowed to like be on set for the day

204

but then when i had to take my mark

205

and do my scene with downey it was a really overwhelming experience

206

and i'm very grateful to Downey because when I did my audition, my audition was like eight pages of dialogue.

207

It was a long scene.

208

I was told by my agents to learn the lines exactly.

209

And that was kind of like a bit of advice, but also because I'd been really lazy earlier in self -tapes

210

and I would rewrite things and change it so it fit my mouth better.

211

But they said, in this instance, you have to learn it perfectly.

212

And then when we did my first take with Downey, he just started improvising and changing everything in the script

213

which kind of gave me license to kind of follow him

214

so in that scene i just kind of followed his lead

215

and we improvised and we did a bunch of stuff

216

and i thought after that audition i was like oh i've definitely got this like

217

that went so well but what he did which is

218

so great and so sweet is

219

when i got to set my scene had been cut down

220

significantly from what i'd done in the audition to now a page

221

and a half or maybe even two pages

222

and we start shooting the scene and down he piped up

223

and was like where's all the kids lines gone

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and the russo sort of said well look you know this

225

is already a 140 page script like we can't um spend too much time on this

226

and down he was the one

227

that was like no no you're going to want to spend

228

some time on this like let's shoot the whole thing from the audition you can always cut it

229

but you'd want to have it and they used all of it yeah

230

so i owe that to him that's cool

231

and i think that's really cool and i'd love to one day do

232

that if i'd be lucky enough to somehow bring miles morales into my spider -man universe

233

and into the mcu i'd love to to do for a young kid what downy did for me

234

when i signed my contract

235

for spider -man one i signed a six picture deal i

236

was 18 years old i was more excited than i'd ever been about anything ever

237

and for the last 10 years i have been at the beck

238

and call of marvel and sony and proudly

239

so it's been the best experience of my life i'm now at a juncture where

240

i can say no and now that i've been afforded

241

that power i am struggling to figure out what is the right thing to do the learning curve

242

that i'm on right now is dealing with

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that new sense of power making sure that i don't abuse it

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but making sure that i do the best thing for me

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rather than for the studio

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and really the best thing for the character i don't want

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to make another movie for the sake of making it

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but i want to do it for the right reasons and now i am

249

navigating and figuring out what having that kind of power means

250

and that responsibility yeah and i'm by no means complaining it's a wonderful place to be

251

but it is something that keeps me up at night

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and i'm constantly thinking of like is this the right thing

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to do am i going to do justice to the character

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am i going to do justice to the fans i definitely

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don't want to just make a movie for the sake of it

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because that's not what spider -man represents i owe everything to the fans of of marvel

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and and myself they've been so kind

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and generous to me like after civil war came out i

259

felt like civil war was my audition to the world like i'd gotten the part of spider -man

260

i did the film with the russo brothers and that came out

261

and that to me felt like my will you embrace me as spider -man

262

and they did and i'm so grateful that they did

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This video has 262 sentences and 3140 words to shadow. The speech runs for 14:40. The speaker talks fast, about 214 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 84% 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
spider noun	/ˈspaɪ̯dɚ/	Any of various eight-legged, predatory arthropods, of the order Araneae, most of which spin webs to catch prey.
audition noun	/ɑˈdɪʃən/	A performance, by an aspiring performer, to demonstrate suitability or talent.
scroll noun	/skɹoʊl/	A roll of paper or parchment; a writing formed into a roll.
lesson noun	/ˈlɛs.ən/	A section of learning or teaching into which a wider learning content is divided.
breakdown noun	/ˈbɹeɪkˌdaʊn/	A failure, particularly one which is mechanical in nature.
sake noun	/ˈseɪ̯k/	Cause, interest or account.
script noun	/skɹɪpt/	A writing; a written document.
grateful adjective	/ˈɡɹeɪtf(ə)l/	Of a person or their actions, feelings, etc.: expressing gratitude or appreciation; appreciative, thankful.
privilege noun	/ˈpɹɪv.(ɪ.)lɪd͡ʒ/	A particular benefit, advantage, or favor; a right or immunity enjoyed by some but not others; a prerogative, preferential treatment.
marvel verb	/ˈmɑɹvəl/	To become filled with wonderment or admiration; to be amazed at something.
curve noun	/kɚv/	A bend, such as in a road.
scare verb	/skɛɚ/	To frighten, terrify, startle, especially in a minor way.
sober adjective	/ˈsoʊ.bɚ/	Not drunk; not intoxicated.
addict noun	/ˈæd.ɪkt/	A person who is addicted, especially to a harmful drug.
sock noun	/sɑk/	A knitted or woven covering for the foot.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
come out verb	/ˌkʌm ˈaʊt/	To be discovered; to be revealed.
wake up verb	/ˌweɪk ˈʌp/	To stop sleeping; to awake.
figure out verb		To come to understand; to discover or find a solution; to deduce.
give up verb		To surrender (someone or something); to inform on (someone).
walk away from verb		To abandon or leave; to shun; to refuse.
cut down verb		To cut downward.
find out verb		To discover, as by asking or investigating.
get on with verb		To proceed with; to begin or continue, especially after an interruption.

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 been · i've done · i've definitely walked
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	was just obsessed · was obsessed · was definitely addicted
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	friends who are · life which is · did which is

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 93 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, I've, don't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “th” sounds: therapist /ˈθɛɹəpɪst/, thrive /θɹajv/
The “sh” and “zh” sounds: audition /ɑˈdɪʃən/, congratulations /kənˌɡɹæt͡ʃəˈleɪʃ(ə)nz/, vacation /veɪˈkeɪ.ʃən/, luxury /ˈlʌk.ʃə.ɹi/, interaction /ˌɪn.təˈɹæk.ʃən/
Long words — get the stress right: necessarily /ˌnɛs.əˈsɛɹ.ə.li/, congratulations /kənˌɡɹæt͡ʃəˈleɪʃ(ə)nz/, interaction /ˌɪn.təˈɹæk.ʃən/

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 spider, audition, scroll.

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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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

Key vocabulary in this video

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Grammar in this video

Pronunciation to watch

How to practise with this video

What is the Shadowing Technique?