Shadowing Practice: Is it time to dismantle the puzzle? - Learn English Speaking with Video

Hello.

I'm trying something new and I'm gonna get my son right out of my face.

My face out of the sun.

My son out of the face.

I thought we could have a little chat here in front of my lemon tree because,

I don't know, I was pondering and thinking about how I want to do videos right now in this season.

And I feel that my videos have been getting a bit lengthy

because there's always so much I want to include in them.

and I thought it could be an interesting idea to post like shorter videos every now

and then of just talking that way maybe give a little bit more context

and like be content for the people that enjoy the catch-ups

and the discussions on the talking and kind of like intersperse those between videos

that take a lot more time and effort and like include capturing the process of something else.

So that's what I'm doing.

And the next video, at least I think the next video

that I'll be posting is turning my dining room into an art studio.

And this is big, okay?

Because if you've been watching, you probably have heard me talk about how my art studio,

which is a bedroom in our house is just really dark.

And I've tried so many different things to get around that

and to work with it and to bring things out onto the patio

or get my work to fit in like a specific window where the light is okay

or get a better artificial lighting situation that doesn't depress me and make me not want to paint.

And some of those things I've tried have worked more or less.

But I kind of came to this realization recently

when I was in my dining room painting because I so often just bring all my supplies into there.

It's the best light in the house and there's a big table.

And so yeah, I find myself spending a lot of time carting supplies in

and out of that room and painting in there.

And I thought, why not just turn this into my art studio

and bring all my supplies in here to live permanently so

that I'm not wasting all this potential painting time moving things back and forth.

And the things that I'll need to displace can go in that bedroom.

We can use the bedroom for something else.

We could use it for storage.

So many possibilities that that opens up.

And I really do think that I can keep the dining room like a functional dining room and also an art studio.

As soon as I told Ethan, he was like, yeah, absolutely do that.

That makes so much sense.

So I got the green light, we're doing it, and I've been working on it already.

It's quite the transition though, and it will take some time.

And then another exciting transition that I'm making this year is I'm shifting my hours at work.

So this was a similar kind of light bulb moment that I had where, so what I do is I wake up, I go for a run or, you know, take a shower,

whatever I'm doing that morning in my morning routine.

And I have my quiet time and my mornings are really sacred for me.

Like I love the morning.

I love having an extended period to just be in the silence, to be by myself, to write,

to read, to pray, to do all the good things.

Exercise too.

I'm like not an afternoon or evening exercise person.

Absolutely not.

I need the morning energy.

Okay, so that's my morning.

And then I always just speed off to work.

And so it also puts this kind of weird pressure on.

I sometimes feel I have to rush my sacred morning time because for whatever reason, I've gotten a later start and I feel I have to speed off to work

when I would like to take more time.

And then sometimes it's like the inverse and my work suffers

because I get there later because I was so insistent that I wanted that morning time.

And then also another observation that I've made is that my energy right after that life-giving morning time is so good.

Like I have just like a vibrance and an enthusiasm naturally at that time of day.

And then I go to work and I paint.

So I paint for work.

So that's wonderful.

And I love it, but it's not the type of paintings that I'm doing for myself.

And it's not like my work, if that makes sense.

So there's work and then there's my work.

And when I go to work, I'm using those vital hours where I'm the most energetic

and I'm the most inspired and like refreshed

and I'm using them on something that doesn't necessarily need

that part of me because that type of painting is a lot more routine.

I paint the same thing a lot over and over or

when I paint landscapes there it is very much like I'm told what to paint

so I get to decide how I interpret that landscape

but I am painting what the customer and so I don't really need inspiration in the same way.

So I just realized I was like misallocating my resources.

I was trying to paint in a dark room when I had a perfectly good bright room.

And I was trying to, well, I guess I didn't finish that story.

So when I'd get home from work, that energy would be gone, right now it's late afternoon getting into evening

and I have no longer have that inspiration that vitality

that creativity where I'm like wanting to work on my own paintings

so that's been a huge struggle for me for a long time

so anyway yes I was using a dark room

when I had a light room I was using these hours where I'm more sluggish

and not inspired for my own art where I kind of need more of that energy and excitement.

So it's not that I don't have what I need.

It's just that it's all jumbled up, you know, it's misallocated.

And I thought of a good parallel or metaphor or analogy.

I don't know.

We were playing this game that my mom got for Christmas.

It's called Uzzle, I think, like puzzle without the P.

And basically, it's kind of like a survivor puzzle where you see, everyone sees at the same time what the puzzle is meant to look like,

and we all are working with the same blocks that have symbols on each side.

And you have to try to make yours look like the picture, and whoever gets it fastest wins.

So as you're working on it, there are multiple ways where you can get it almost right,

but I'm pretty sure in every case there's only one way where you can fully get it right.

So you would have part of the puzzle built and you kind of grow attached to that part,

that those pieces, that those symbols were all correct.

And you feel this resistance to having to dismantle it even after you realize in order to win

100

and actually solve the puzzle fully, I'm going to need to dismantle what I've already built.

101

Because even though it's right for part of the puzzle,

102

actually having those pieces where they are is preventing me from solving the puzzle for every single piece.

103

So really what I have is just a half-built puzzle.

104

And as I was thinking about that aspect of the game.

105

I kind of thought that that's what life is like, especially in these instances where we're trying to like, put our lives together like a puzzle,

106

put the hours of our day together like a puzzle.

107

And sometimes I feel like I can't move it around because part of it works so well.

108

Like there are aspects of me going to work first thing in the morning or,

109

you know, after my morning routine that work well and that just makes sense.

110

And so I think that's why I've never really thought to change it

111

because even though it completely screwed the rest of my day, essentially,

112

it felt like an immovable piece like well I gotta somehow

113

figure out the rest of the puzzle without moving this

114

because it's necessary when all along

115

if I just flipped it maybe I could build it a different way

116

so I hope that illustration was like shining more light on this idea rather than obscuring it. But yeah.

117

So I share this story

118

because I think I'm going to make a whole video about turning my dining room into an art studio.

119

And I want you guys to have the story behind that and to know why I'm making that decision.

120

And to possibly ask yourself, is there something you could shift in your own life?

121

Is there something you could shift about your workspace or your schedule

122

that you've kind of been blind to that you haven't considered

123

that might make it easier or more exciting

124

or even just add like a freshness like a fresh start feeling

125

that I think really benefits our artwork because it makes us feel excited again

126

and inspired and yeah so I just thought I'd share

127

that um let me know if you like this format I'm just like a short chat

128

and maybe I'll do more of them

129

because I know I threw around the idea of doing a podcast

130

and this is kind of like that

131

so I don't know another thing I'm embracing is just trying things out instead of coming up with an idea

132

and being married to that idea I'd like to feel comfortable just trying things

133

and seeing what works and what doesn't and same goes for this dining room art studio video idea.

134

Like there's a chance it won't work and that in my mind it's way better than it will be in real life, but I'll never know unless I try it.

135

So that's my encouragement to you.

136

Try something new this week and let me know what it is in the comments or maybe drop some ideas.

137

I cannot wait to hear what you guys are up to and the changes that you're going to make.

138

See you next time.

139

Bye.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “Is it time to dismantle the puzzle?”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: puzzle, paint, painting. This video has 139 sentences and 1759 words to shadow. The speech runs for 10:52. The speaker talks at a natural 162 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 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

The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
puzzle noun	/ˈpʌzəl/	The state of feeling confused or mystified because one cannot understand a complicated matter, a problem, etc.; bewilderment, confusion; (countable) often in…
dine verb	/daɪn/	To eat; to eat dinner or supper.
inspire verb	/ɪnˈspaɪə(ɹ)/	To infuse into the mind; to communicate to the spirit; to convey, as by a divine or supernatural influence; to disclose preternaturally; to produce in, as by…
dismantle verb	/dɪsˈmæntəl/	To take apart; to disassemble; to take to pieces.
excite verb	/ɪkˈsaɪt/	To stir the emotions of; to cause to feel excitement.
misallocate verb		To allocate incorrectly or inappropriately.
depress verb	/dɪˈpɹɛs/	To press down.
displace verb	/dɪsˈpleɪs/	To put out of place; to disarrange.
freshness noun	/ˈfɹɛʃnəs/	The state or quality of being fresh.
immovable adjective	/ɪˈmuːvəb(ə)l/	Incapable of being physically moved: fixed.
insistent adjective	/ɪnˈsɪstənt/	Urgent in dwelling upon anything; persistent in urging or maintaining.
intersperse verb	/ˌɪntəˈspɜːs/	To mix two things irregularly, placing things of one kind among things of other.
inverse adjective	/ɪnˈvɝs/	Opposite in effect, nature or order.
jumble noun	/ˈd͡ʒʌmbəl/	A mixture of often unrelated things.
ponder verb	/ˈpɑn.dəɹ/	To wonder, think of deeply.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
come up with verb		To manage to produce, deliver, or present (something) by inventing, creating, thinking of, or obtaining it.
figure out verb		To come to understand; to discover or find a solution; to deduce.
get around verb		To move to the other side of (something, such as an obstruction) by deviating from a direct course or following a curved path.
open up verb		To open.
wake up verb	/ˌweɪk ˈʌp/	To stop sleeping; to awake.

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Present perfect continuous have/has been + -ing — an action that started earlier and is still going on	have been getting · you've been watching · I've been working
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	have heard · I've tried · I've gotten

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 56 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, I've, don't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “sh” and “zh” sounds: freshness /ˈfɹɛʃnəs/, sluggish /ˈslʌɡɪʃ/, refresh /ɹɪˈfɹɛʃ/, realization /ˌɹɪə.laɪˈzeɪ.ʃən/, illustration /ˌɪləsˈtɹeɪ̯ʃən/
Long words — get the stress right: immovable /ɪˈmuːvəb(ə)l/, vitality /vaɪˈtælɪti/, energetic /ˌɛn.əɹˈdʒɛt.ɪk/, analogy /əˈnæləd͡ʒi/, realization /ˌɹɪə.laɪˈzeɪ.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 puzzle, dine, inspire.

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: Is it time to dismantle the puzzle? - Learn English Speaking with Video

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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?