Shadowing Practice: Learn To Write And You Will Become Unstoppable. It's That Simple - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Today's video is the most important video I think I have ever made on this channel, and that is because it is about the most crucial
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and fundamental lesson that I have been able to learn through studying history and studying prominent figures throughout history,
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which is the importance of writing.
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Unfortunately, today we live in a society which is slowly becoming more of an oral society.
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We talk about our problems, we debate, we discuss in the public forum.
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You see a lot more interviews and videos like this one, but less and less people are writing.
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And the few people who are writing in their own time, and I'm not talking here about writers and journalists and media figures,
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but the average person, the average person in life, less and less of them are writing and writing well.
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And the few people that are, are writing in diaries and journal entries where it's more stream of consciousness just to get something off their chest,
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get something off their shoulders, as opposed to trying to write really proficient and well -structured prose.
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And the reason why this is dangerous is
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because there is a fundamental link between being able to write and being able to think, learn, and direct your life.
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And this was very much commonplace.
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This was known to be a fundamental link when you go back through history.
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It was very common for anybody who was educated
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or for anyone who wanted to advance professionally in life to put a lot of focus on their writing ability.
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Even if they didn't want to be writers,
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even if they didn't want to work in a career where writing was necessary for them to do their job,
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they still put a lot of effort into learning to write well
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and learning to communicate on paper well because they understood that that helps them learn better, think better, think more uniquely,
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and also direct their life in a better way.
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And so in this video, I'm going to go over how writing can help you learn better, think better, and find meaning and direction in life.
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And for each of those topics, I'm going to pluck a historical figure who best showcases how it is so useful.
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And with that said, let's get into part number one, which is how you can use writing to help you learn.
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I think the best example of this was Napoleon Bonaparte, because before he would go into war campaigns,
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he would write out these long essays about what his strategy was going to be on the battlefield
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and he would write it out what he wanted to do, what he expected the enemy would try and do back,
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and then after he'd write out this essay, he would look over it and read over it
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and give him this bird's -eye view angle of what his strategy was going to be on the battlefield,
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and he would start to pluck holes in it.
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He would start to critique it.
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He would start to push back on it.
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Because he understood that you can't really push back on your own strategy in your own mind.
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You need to get it out of your mind on a page so that you can view it from an external angle,
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so that you can almost look at yourself as though you are the enemy attacking yourself.
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And this gives you a better angle over your flaws and where your shortcomings are.
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And this would allow him then to refine his strategy, change things, and make it more bulletproof
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and then he would write out another essay and do this process over
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and over again until he felt comfortable and understood that he had the best strategy going into the battle.
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And I think this is a great example of how being able to write and using writing can help you learn better.
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Because unfortunately, in modern schooling, they treat writing as this tool that showcases your knowledge and your proficiency of knowledge at the end of your study.
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You study by taking notes, highlighting sections, thinking about things, and then you package it in an essay.
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But I don't think essay and writings are just a package and just a way to showcase your knowledge.
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I think they're a way to learn in of itself.
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It's also a way for you to explore your learnings and constantly refine it.
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Because like Napoleon did, it allows you to humble yourself.
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It allows you to see where your shortcomings are in your learnings.
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If you put this into an example in life and something I'm sure we can all relate to,
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we can constantly read about a topic or a subject
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or try and educate ourselves around something and feel as though we have coherent and proficient knowledge over that subject or idea.
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And then you find yourself in a conversation trying to communicate your understanding, trying to talk about it.
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And all of a sudden, you realize you can't communicate it in a very effective way.
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And you start to realize that what you thought were coherent ideas
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and knowledge in your head was actually just a jumbled mismatch representation of what you were trying to learn.
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And you don't know as much about it as you thought you did.
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And this is where the process of writing comes in handy
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and why you should always look to be writing
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and writing mini essays because it constantly humbles yourself and allows you to see where your shortcomings of knowledge are,
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where the gaps in your learning are.
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And so then you can go back and re -educate
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and refocus on those gaps and become more proficient in what it is that you're learning.
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Whereas if you just do stream of consciousness diary entries or note takings or just talk about it orally,
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you won't be able to see the true gaps in your knowledge
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and you won't be able to steel man opposite arguments
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or opposite ideas and critique your own ideas and grow more proficient in your knowledge.
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I think we've seen more macro, this on a macro scale affecting our society and leading to more chaos
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and division in the way that people are engaging more in an oral society, more in an oral dialogue where we have these arguments online
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and these debates online and these mass divisions
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and chaos of people talking about ideas that they really have no idea about
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or they really have they're not proficient in their knowledge, but they think they are because they've never focused on writing it out and critiquing it.
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They've never taken the literary process seriously, and that's affected their knowledge,
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and they think they're smarter or more educated in a topic than they truly are.
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And this leads to mass division and mass chaos on a macro scale, but if we shrink it down to a micro scale as well,
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it allows you to not learn as effectively as you really could.
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Which leads us in to part number two, which is how you can use writing to think better and think more clearly and effectively,
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and most importantly, think for yourself.
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I think a great example of this is Winston Churchill during the build -up to World War II.
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Winston Churchill was a writer, along with being a politician, and he would constantly use writing to think out his thoughts,
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to write out what his beliefs were, what his ideas were, what his arguments were, and then critique his own arguments, read them back.
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And he would famously dictate his arguments to a secretary to write it down.
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And then he would read it back and using a red pen, cross out what he disagreed with, push back on his own arguments,
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refine his arguments, and come to a more firm conclusion
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that he could truly believe in and felt truly confident in
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and comfortable in and believed was the right approach or the right idea or the right argument for life.
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And this, in the build -up to World War II, allowed him to critique his fellow companions in politics who were saying
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that they needed to cut a deal with Germany and that if they cut a deal with Germany,
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they could secure peace and that it wouldn't boil over into a terrible conflict.
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But Churchill, through his own arguments through this writing process, said that he came down to the belief,
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which was a rare belief at the time and an unpopular belief, that you couldn't cut a deal with Germany,
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that due to the actions that Germany was taking, they would go behind your backs.
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They would sign a deal and then not follow the deal.
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And you wouldn't end up with peace.
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You would just end up decimated in a war that you weren't prepared for.
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And he attributed this idea and this confidence in this idea, which was a rare idea at the time, and made him a unique thinker
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and someone who was able to think for himself due to the fact
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that he was writing it out on paper and really questioning his own beliefs.
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And I think when we apply this in our own lives, we can very often become these empty vessels
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that just harbour the beliefs of other people or harbour the beliefs of the majority.
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And we don't really understand why we believe it.
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We think we do but all of our arguments for a belief system
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or an idea or whatever we do in life is just someone else's argument that they've given us.
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But if you focus on writing and trying to communicate your argument in a coherent way,
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where you write out these manifestos or you write out essays in a personal diary,
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you can start to see where perhaps your argument for something isn't the best
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or where perhaps you're arguing for something that you truly don't believe in.
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When you start trying to write it out and make it and communicate it effectively and structure your writing well,
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you can start to see that perhaps you don't really believe in what you're believing in.
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Perhaps these are just other people's opinions and they don't quite make sense to you.
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And the important thing to do here is to argue something and critique it on paper and argue back.
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And therefore you can come to your own conclusions through the writing process.
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But if you don't put in this process of trying to write it, if you don't write it out,
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just like when Napoleon was trying to learn going into battle, you can't really critique it in your own mind.
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You can try, but it doesn't quite work.
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And then if you get in debates and oral conversations,
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you end up becoming more focused on defending your position than trying to come to any sense of the truth
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or any sense of the good.
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Whereas if you write it down on a piece of paper
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and you do this in your own time and you try
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and structure it well and you probe your own argument
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and you critique it and you battle with it and you grapple with it,
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you can find a better sense you can remove emotion from the equation
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and try and get to the truth so that you can stand firm on a solid argument and a solid idea.
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And so it's where this literary process of trying to write often
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and writing well can allow you to think in a more unique way.
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This is precisely why bad faith actors throughout history who have
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tried to manipulate society really crack down on people's ability to write, what they can write about, how they approach the written word,
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because they understand that if you can write and write well, and if you focus on writing, even if it's not your job,
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you just do it in your own time, that will allow you to think better, think more clearly, and come to,
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I would say, a better sense of truth and goodness.
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Writing is the best way to humble yourself, to remove your own self -importance, and allow you to pursue truth in your own mind,
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Whereas if you try and do it all orally or mentally, you won't pursue truth.
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You will just defend your own biased claims and arguments.
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And writing is so important for being able to think well in that regard as well.
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Which leads me in to part three, which is how you can use writing to guide your life.
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I think the best example of this, which might be a bit of an obscure example, is Abraham Lincoln.
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Because at the time, he had to navigate such a complex social hierarchy, political hierarchy, which was so divided.
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And he could only do that by writing out these great ideas,
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great manifestos, and communicating so effectively that he could change people's minds,
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get people on board, galvanize people to fight for an objective good in treating people equally.
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Now, this was a very complex thing, and on this huge scale, which resulted in a terrible, terrible war.
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But Abraham Lincoln would constantly go to write himself, refine his writing, and figure out how he could communicate these ideas most effectively,
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and win people over, make the best verbal case for something.
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And this allowed him to galvanize a side of the country, galvanize an army,
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unite people to go out and win the battle and achieve this objective good of treating people better and more equally.
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And so I think what the lesson is we can take from this
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and the importance of writing and the importance of constantly trying to clarify your thoughts, writing all the time and making sure that you're succinct
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and you communicate effectively and see the world clearly with more direction
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and clarity and purpose and know
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that you're pursuing the good is it allows you to navigate your own life
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and become a much more powerful and an effective force in the world.
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Because anyone can just have brute muscle, anyone can just have brute strength,
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but what allows you to achieve in life and move forward in your life is your mental clarity,
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the ideas you have and how well you can make a case for something.
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When it comes to your relationships, when it comes to your workplace, the people who get the promotions, the people who move up,
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the people who build a more successful career are the people
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who are able to navigate these complex social hierarchies more effectively because they're able to make the best case for something.
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They're able to communicate and effectively communicate the best ideas.
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Think about a company.
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The person who gets the promotion is the person who understands the direction of the company better.
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The person who understands how to galvanize a team better.
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The person who understands what course of direction to take.
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And you can only find that true clarity through writing and trying to communicate it effectively.
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And then when you can, then you can go into work.
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You can go into meetings.
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You can communicate in an effective manner, knowing what you're going for, win people over, make the best case,
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and all of a sudden you're moving up and assuming this leadership position in life.
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And it allows you to just navigate it more effectively.
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I think this is why writing is so important because when you clarify your thoughts, when you learn more effectively,
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those two forces come together and allow you to direct your life
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and navigate your life in a more effective manner and move forward in a better way.
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When you think about life the most destructive and most.. powerful
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and most efficient and effective forces are the people who are able to communicate effectively
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and have clear ideas over what they are trying to pursue and what their meanings are.
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Now, this can work in two ways.
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We've seen this work in bad ways with bad people using effective communication
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and effective literature and effective writing to push the world forward in a bad direction.
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And we've also seen it work in the opposite way.
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And so obviously it's up to you what direction you go down.
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But both sides show you that in order to be effective, in order to live a life of direction,
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meaning clarity and purpose, you need to be able to write well.
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You need to be able to effectively communicate
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and structure the most effective arguments and cases for your own ideas and your own life.
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But with that said, that wraps up my video today
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and my lesson on why writing is so important
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and why we need to have a renewed focus on trying to write well
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and more people need to practice writing even if you don't want to do it in your career or your life.
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It is such a useful tool and I would even go as far as saying it is an absolute superpower.
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But with that said, hope you guys enjoyed this video and until next time, take care.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “Learn To Write And You Will Become Unstoppable. It's That Simple”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: writing, write, argument, communicate, effectively. This video has 188 sentences and 2882 words to shadow. The speech runs for 16:07. The speaker talks at a natural 179 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 87% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is easy to follow.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| communicate verb | /kəˈmjuːnɪkeɪt/ | To impart or transmit (information or knowledge) to someone; to make known, to tell. |
| belief noun | /bɪˈliːf/ | Mental acceptance of a claim as true. |
| essay noun | /ˈɛs.eɪ/ | A written composition of moderate length, exploring a particular issue or subject. |
| critic noun | /ˈkɹɪt.ɪk/ | A person who appraises the works of others. |
| navigate verb | /ˈnæv.ɪ.ɡeɪt/ | To plan, control and record the position and course of a vehicle, ship, aircraft, etc., on a journey; to follow a planned course. |
| oral adjective | /ˈɔː.ɹəl/ | Relating to the mouth. |
| pursue verb | /pɚˈsu/ | To follow urgently, originally with intent to capture or harm; to chase. |
| educate verb | /ˈɛd͡ʒ.əˌkeɪt/ | To instruct or train. |
| clarity noun | /ˈklæɹ.ɪ.ti/ | The state or measure of being clear, either in appearance, thought or style; lucidity. |
| topic noun | /ˈtɑpɪk/ | A subject; a theme; a category or general area of interest. |
| gap noun | /ɡæp/ | An opening in anything, made by breaking or parting. |
| lesson noun | /ˈlɛs.ən/ | A section of learning or teaching into which a wider learning content is divided. |
| argue verb | /ˈɑɹ.ɡju/ | To show grounds for concluding (that); to indicate, imply. |
| whereas | /(h)wɛɹˈæz/ | In contrast; whilst on the contrary; although. |
| angle noun | /ˈæŋ.ɡəl/ | A figure formed by two rays which start from a common point (a plane angle) or by three planes that intersect (a solid angle). |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| write out verb | To write at full length or in expanded form. | |
| end up verb | To bring to a conclusion. | |
| go back verb | To return to a place or state after having been there at a previous time. | |
| move up verb | To promote, put onto a higher level. | |
| come down to verb | To reach by moving down or reducing. | |
| come together verb | /ˈkʌm tʊˈɡɛðɚ/ | To assemble; to congregate; to combine. |
| cross out verb | To strike out (something); to draw a line through (something). | |
| figure out verb | To come to understand; to discover or find a solution; to deduce. |
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | society which is · people who are · anybody who was |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | have ever made · have been · we've seen |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 46 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, you're, they're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: showcase /ˈʃoʊˌkeɪs/, promotion /pɹəˈmoʊʃn̩/, conclusion /kənˈkluːʒən/, consciousness /ˈkɑnʃəsnəs/, efficient /ɪˈfɪʃənt/
- Long words — get the stress right: communicate /kəˈmjuːnɪkeɪt/, fundamental /ˌfʌn.dəˈmɛn.təl/, hierarchy /ˈhaɪ.ə.ɹɑː(ɹ).ki/, literary /ˈlɪt.(ə.)ɹə.ɹi/, manifesto /ˌmæn.əˈfɛs.toʊ/
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 communicate, belief, essay.
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.