Shadowing Practice: Learning to be alone. - Learn English Speaking with Video
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161 sentences
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I'll see you next time.
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It's a great day.
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It's a great day.
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It's a great day.
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It's a great day.
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It's a great day.
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It's a great day.
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It's a great day.
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It's a great day.
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It's a great day.
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It's a great day.
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It's a great day.
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It's a great day.
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It's a great day.
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It's a great day.
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It's a great day.
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I can't get it.
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Oh, that's so beautiful!
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Don't go far away, Keilani!
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Come here!
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Come here!
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Come here!
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You're full of dirt!
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I think we've got to use our intuition here.
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At the moment, I'm kind of following everyone else, but I don't know how much that's helping me here.
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Gonna need it.
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Gonna need it.
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Might not get out of here today.
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it's okay to be alone for a while
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you know and it's so important because being alone going through a stage of isolation is
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vital to your personal development you know I firmly believe that
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if you want to be the best version of yourself
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you have to go through a stage of isolation of being alone for a bit
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and that can be extremely uncomfortable but the problem is a lot of people soothe
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that discomfort through distraction by doing scrolling for like 8 -10 hours a day you know
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and what's that doing absolutely nothing in fact it's leading to your long -term detriment
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so I wanted to show you guys what a day looks like for me
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I'm not around friends I'm not very social with people
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that I don't know I'm not going to events I'm not socializing
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I don't talk a whole lot you know
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I just kind of am in my own little world as many people say
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and I have been for for a long time a while a while a while a while a long time but um
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yeah it's real it's real yeah I say a long time like kind of jokingly
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but also not at the same time it's been a while you know and a lot of the people that
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made life feel joyous for me are no longer here and I had to learn how to
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how to manage that how to cope with
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that um not easy it's not easy and it's life honestly is not all
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that joyous for me right now i'm not happy it doesn't mean i'm sad
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or like depressed or anything
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but i'm just not overly joyous every day i'm certainly going through a stage in life that is
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focused on patience and discipline and a lack of stimulation
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and I'm okay with that because I know what
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that leads to in the long run you know like I know what role that skill serves in my future
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and the day that I do have a wife and children
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and we share Christmas mornings together and I take my kids to baseball practice
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or cheer or whatever they want to do we have family meals around the table
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when we talk about our day those days are going to mean so so much more
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um because i certainly won't take it for granted and those are the most joyous times
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those are the purest moments in life the ones that you get to share with family and friends
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um but it goes the same with everything you know you can't really have
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that much of an appreciation for a sunny day unless you've been through a lot of rain
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you know you can't exactly appreciate
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achievement success if you don't also know what it feels like to experience failure time
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and time again and so it's almost like it's a universal law
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so whenever I'm going through something that feels bad I know
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that it is adding to the cup
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that I will drink from in my future which will feel joyous which will feel fulfilling and
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rewarding and on that note I want to thank you guys I see you I see you
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um your comments and words truly mean a lot to me
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and I really want to put an emphasis on how much I really mean that because
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if I'm being completely honest with you I don't feel
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you know like people will look at my life
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and they'll say you have done so much you've accomplished
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so many things and you've come
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so far you're such a you know like you should be proud of yourself
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and I don't feel that I like I am but I don't feel
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satisfaction in a lot of things anymore
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and that's for a very important reason like I was saying earlier
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I'm not feeling satisfaction in the right things I don't feel satisfied
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by wasting my time I don't feel satisfied by going out and partying
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or drinking I don't feel satisfied talking about mindless things just to pass the time I don't feel satisfied
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and a lot of the small things
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that people tend to do to distract themselves in fact I'm
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so hyper aware of when I'm doing it
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that it's the complete opposite of satisfying so I say all this to say
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that there are very few things in my life at the moment
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that make me feel satisfied and when I read comments on my videos
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that say things like you have no idea what your videos
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have done for me they say things like you know
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I know we don't know each other we never met before
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but your videos have changed my life entirely I get satisfaction from
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that and that's enough for me that's enough for me
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and just to relay this back to you guys
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you may be in a stage of life where not a whole lot is going on perhaps
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you've chosen the path of personal development
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and you've taken a leap to stop hanging around a certain group of people
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or doing certain things and you're left in this state of being alone you know it is a lonely path
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uh certainly especially in the beginning because you're choosing a path that most people are
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they don't want to go down because it's difficult people don't want to do hard things
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um but you've chosen the right thing and i'll tell you why
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what you have chosen is a path of good right there's good and there's evil in this world
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you've chosen the path of good the path of righteousness you want to be your best for you and those
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that you love you want to be your best for god
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you want to live in his light as best as you can
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and point people to him through your actions etc what is required in order to take steps down
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that path you can't put into words what it really means to bear
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that weight over time you just can't but the the dynamic is that you're bearing a struggle today
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for long -term fulfillment right you're doing the hard stuff here
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and now you're doing things that make you uncomfortable you're doing things
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that are difficult for long -term fulfillment evil the path of evil
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or hedonism is falling into temptation
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and choosing temptation more often than you're choosing good most people fall in
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that boat and not not saying they're evil in fact humans we are of God right
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and so we are not evil we are separate from evil
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but we have the free will to choose to give evil power to lean into evil to lean into temptation
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and pursue that path if we wish
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and unfortunately most people do it does make sense that's why so many people choose the path of temptation
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it is offering you alleviation from the discomfort
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that you would bear pursuing the path of good or righteousness
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but at the cost of your long -term detriment and if you get caught in this loop of
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satisfying or alleviating yourself of
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that discomfort you get stuck you get stagnant you get caught in this loop of stagnation
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and it's really hard to get out you know once you've there for a
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while it becomes easier
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and easier to choose the path of evil the less things you have in your life
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that satisfy you the less people you have around you reassuring
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that you're doing the right thing the less rewards you get from the actions
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that you partake in every day that cause you to be tired
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that cause mental fatigue in pursuit of this path of good of righteousness
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and so we are human everyone every now and then at least chooses temptation
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But it's not because you really want temptation.
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It's not that you want to pursue the path of evil.
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Everyone has their vices.
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And you hate them, but you do them.
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Why?
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That tells you don't like its nature.
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You hate its nature.
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You want nothing to do with it, but you do it.
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Why?
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Why?
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it's
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because of the discomfort the lack of stimulation the lack
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of reward the lack of reaping benefits quick enough a reduction
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of faith in your vision a a disconnection from God many things can lead to this
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but there's a reason you know and
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that that's at least something to to work with I just know
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that there's a lot of you out there
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that are feeling the pain you know that are feeling the discomfort the
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when is it gonna work out when am i gonna feel satisfied
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when am i gonna reap the reward
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when am i going to be repaid for my efforts you know
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when is it gonna when is it gonna stop when
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when will the weight be be taken off my shoulders you know
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what I have to say to you is that God will not allow you to bear any more weight than necessary.
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There is a purpose for every hardship you face, my friend.
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And you may not see it now.
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You may not reap the benefit now.
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But there's a day in your future that you'll look back on a day like today, on this stage in your life.
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and you will be fueled and filled and invigorated with euphoria
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and gratitude and love and passion and you have to see that you have to hold on to that
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and god is always present never forget that i appreciate your time and i will see you soon
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “Learning to be alone”. This video has 161 sentences and 1746 words to shadow. The speech runs for 15:22. The speaker talks at a steady 114 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. 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 |
|---|---|---|
| satisfy verb | /ˈsætɪsfaɪ/ | To be enough (for) |
| temptation noun | /ˌtɛmpˈteɪʃən/ | The act of tempting. |
| discomfort noun | /dɪsˈkʌmfɚt/ | Mental or bodily distress. |
| reward noun | /ɹɪˈwɔɹd/ | Something of value given in return for an act. |
| pursue verb | /pɚˈsu/ | To follow urgently, originally with intent to capture or harm; to chase. |
| satisfaction noun | /sætɪsˈfækʃən/ | A fulfilment of a need or desire. |
| reap verb | /ˈɹiːp/ | To cut (for example a grain) with a sickle, scythe, or reaping machine. |
| loop noun | /luːp/ | A length of thread, line or rope that is doubled over to make an opening. |
| uncomfortable adjective | /ʌnˈkʌm.fɚ.tə.bl̩/ | Not comfortable; causing discomfort. |
| lean verb | /ˈliːn/ | To incline, deviate, or bend, from a vertical position; to be in a position thus inclining or deviating. |
| isolation noun | /ˌaɪsəˈleɪʃən/ | The state of being isolated, detached, or separated; the state of being away from other people. |
| stimulation noun | /stɪm.jʊˈleɪ.ʃən/ | A pushing or goading toward action. |
| universal adjective | /ˌjunəˈvɜɹs(ə)l/ | Of or pertaining to the universe. |
| meal noun | /ˈmiːl/ | Food that is prepared and eaten, usually at a specific time, and usually in a comparatively large quantity. |
| passion noun | /ˈpæʃən/ | A true desire sustained or prolonged. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| go through verb | To travel from one end of something to the other. |
| get out verb | To leave or escape. |
| get out of verb | To leave, exit or escape from; to become free of. |
| go down verb | To descend; to move from a higher place to a lower one. |
| go out verb | To leave, especially a building. |
| hang around verb | To stay, linger, or loiter. |
| step down verb | To resign or retire from an office or position of authority. |
| take off verb | To remove. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- I'll see you next time.
- I think we've got to use our intuition here.
- That tells you don't like its nature.
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 · it's been · you've been |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | is required · be taken · will be fueled |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 69 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, I'm, you're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: temptation /ˌtɛmpˈteɪʃən/, satisfaction /sætɪsˈfækʃən/, isolation /ˌaɪsəˈleɪʃən/, stimulation /stɪm.jʊˈleɪ.ʃən/, passion /ˈpæʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: satisfaction /sætɪsˈfækʃən/, uncomfortable /ʌnˈkʌm.fɚ.tə.bl̩/, isolation /ˌaɪsəˈleɪʃən/, stimulation /stɪm.jʊˈleɪ.ʃən/, universal /ˌjunəˈvɜɹs(ə)l/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Shadow it sentence by sentence at normal speed, repeating each one until your rhythm matches the speaker.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like satisfy, temptation, discomfort.
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.