Shadowing Practice: J.K. Rowling's Ultimate Advice For Every 20 Year Old | One of the Best Motivational Speeches Ever - Learn English Speaking with YouTube

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Given a time-turner, I would tell my 21-year-old self
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Given a time-turner, I would tell my 21-year-old self
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that personal happiness lies in knowing that life is not a checklist of acquisition or achievement.
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Your qualifications, your CV, are not your life,
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though you will meet many people of my age and older who confuse the two.
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Life is difficult and complicated and beyond anyone's total control
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and the humility to know that will enable you to survive its vicissitudes.
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You might never fail on the scale I did but some failure in life is inevitable.
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It is impossible to live without failing at something unless you live so cautiously
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that you might as well not have lived at all,
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in which case you fail by default.
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We all have to decide for ourselves what constitutes failure,
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but the world is quite eager to give you a set of criteria if you let it.
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One of the many things I learned at the end of that classics corridor,
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down which I ventured at the age of 18,
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in search of something I could not then define,
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was this, written by the Greek author Plutarch.
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What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.
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That is an astonishing statement and yet proven a thousand times every day of our lives.
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It expresses in part our inescapable connection with the outside world.
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The fact that we touch other people's lives simply by existing.
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But how much more are you likely to touch other people's lives?
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Your intelligence, your capacity for hard work,
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the education you have earned and received,
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give you unique status and unique responsibilities.
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If you choose to use your status and influence to raise your voice on behalf of those who have no voice,
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if you choose to identify not only with the powerful but with the powerless,
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if you retain the ability to imagine yourself into the lives of those who do not have your advantages,
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then it will not only be your proud families who celebrate your existence,
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thousands and millions of people whose reality you have helped change.
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We do not need magic to transform our world.
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We carry all the power we need inside ourselves already.
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We have the power to imagine better.
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Looking back at the 21 year old
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that I was at graduation is a slightly uncomfortable experience
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that I was at graduation is a slightly uncomfortable experience for the 42-year-old that she has become.
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Half my lifetime ago, I was striking an uneasy balance between the ambition I had for myself
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and what those closest of to me expected of me.
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I was convinced that the only thing I wanted to do ever was write novels.
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However, my parents, both of whom came from impoverished backgrounds and neither of whom had been to college,
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took the view that my overactive imagination was an amusing personal quirk that would never pay a mortgage or secure a pension.
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I know the irony strikes with the force of a cartoon anvil now.
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So they hoped that I would take a vocational degree.
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I wanted to study English literature.
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A compromise was reached that in retrospect satisfied nobody and I went up to study modern languages.
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Hardly had my parents' car round the corner at the end of the road,
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then I ditched German and scuttled off down the classics corridor.
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I cannot remember telling my parents that I was studying classics.
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They might well have found out for the first time on graduation day.
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Of all the subjects on this planet,
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I think they would have been hard put to name one less useful than Greek mythology
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when it came to securing the keys to an executive bathroom.
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Now, I would like to make it clear in parenthesis that I do not blame my parents for their point of view.
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There is an expiry date on blaming your parents for steering you in the wrong direction.
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So why do I talk about the benefits of failure?
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Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential.
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I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was
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and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me.
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Had I really succeeded at anything else,
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I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena where I believed I truly belonged.
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I was set free because my greatest fear had been realized
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and I was still alive and I still had a daughter whom I adored
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and I had an old typewriter and a big idea and
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so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.
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Failure gave me an inner security that I had never attained by passing examinations.
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Failure taught me things about myself that I could have learned no other way.
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I discovered that I had a strong will and more discipline than I had suspected.
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I also found out that I had friends whose value was truly above the price of rubies.
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The knowledge that you have emerged wiser and stronger from setbacks
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means that you are ever after secure in your ability to survive.
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You will never truly know yourself or the strength of your relationships until both have been tested by adversity.
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Such knowledge is a true gift for all that it is painfully won
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and it has been worth more than any qualification I ever earned.
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I have one last hope for you,
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which is something that I already had at 21.
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The friends with whom I sat on graduation day have been my friends for life.
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They are my children's godparents,
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the people to whom I've been able to turn in times of real trouble.
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People who have been kind enough not to sue me when I took their names for Death Eaters.
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At our graduation, we were bound by enormous affection,
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by our shared experience of a time that could never come again,
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and of course, by the knowledge that we held certain photographic evidence
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that would be exceptionally valuable if any of us ran for Prime Minister.
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So today I wish you nothing better than similar friendships.
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And tomorrow I hope that even if you remember not a single word of mine,
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you remember those of Seneca,
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another of those old Romans I met
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when I fled down the classics corridor in retreat from career ladders in search of ancient wisdom.
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As is a tale, so is life.
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Not how long it is,
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but how good it is, is what matters.
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About This Lesson

In this lesson, you will practice your English speaking skills by engaging with a motivational speech by J.K. Rowling. You will focus on the themes of personal growth, resilience, and the impact of our choices on both ourselves and the wider world. By shadowing her speech, you'll not only improve your pronunciation and fluency but also gain insights into meaningful life lessons. This practice is particularly beneficial for preparing for IELTS speaking assessments, as it encourages expressive language use and critical thinking.

Key Vocabulary & Phrases

  • Personal happiness - the state of being content with one's life.
  • Checklist of acquisition - a list of goals or items one seeks to achieve.
  • Life's vicissitudes - the unexpected changes and challenges in life.
  • Powerless - lacking power or control over a situation.
  • Transform our world - the ability to create change in society.
  • Imagination - the ability to think about or create things in one's mind.
  • Inwardly - relating to one’s internal thoughts and feelings.
  • Unique responsibilities - special duties that come with one's position or status.

Practice Tips

When using shadow speech in your practice, start by listening to a segment of J.K. Rowling’s speech. Pay attention to her tone and pacing, and then try to mimic her speech by speaking along with her. Rowan's delivery is thoughtful yet conversational, making it ideal for shadow speaking practice. Use a shadowing app to loop sections that resonate with you; this will enhance your retention and improve your rhythm as you speak. Aim to pause after important phrases and consider their meanings before continuing. This method not only helps in mirroring her pronunciation but also encourages deeper understanding of the content, which is crucial for effective IELTS speaking practice. By regularly participating in this exercise, you’ll find yourself becoming more confident and expressive in your English speaking abilities.

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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