Shadowing Practice: Life at Its Simplest - Learn English Speaking with Video
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93 sentences
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Welcome back to North of Finland, to our fading four seasons, our wondrous wild nature
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and my little corner of the world where I gather little moments of beauty
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and let life unfold in its own gentle and simple way.
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Summer has been gone for quite some time now and even autumn is slowly beginning to fade.
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Somewhere along the way life has found its own quiet rhythm again.
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The days follow one another, filled with familiar routines and, before I know it, another week has passed.
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Since the summer holidays we have settled back into our everyday life.
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My husband is back at work and I am home with our little one.
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And as anyone with children knows, there is so much more to everyday life than just caring for a little one.
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The laundry still piles up and bills need paying,
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the car needs fixing and life keeps finding its way into all the little spaces in between. been.
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I think I have always been a little slow as a person, and I don't mean in a sense of intelligence I hope, but in the way I like to do things.
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I enjoy taking my time and getting lost in something
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and giving my full attention rather than jumping from one little task to another.
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But now in this new chapter of life my days have become a collection of tiny moments.
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Little pockets of time here and there and I'm still learning how to find my rhythm in between them.
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So lately these familiar routines of mine, baking and knitting
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and taking care of little things around the house have become
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a way of finding my footing again in the gentle chaos of this season of life.
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They give me something steady to return to, a little sense of calm and continuity.
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At times I catch myself wishing that everyday life felt little less repetitive,
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as if everyday should be worth remembering or something meaningful should always be happening.
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I do not mean constant excitement or changing the next big thing.
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I just love when life feels alive with something to look forward to.
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Something that sparks curiosity and a feeling of moving forward.
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Maybe that is also why I have been thinking more about the way I spent my days.
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I have a tendency to fill them with too many things at once.
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With our days shaped by little hands, changing routines and all the ordinary things that need tending to, I am slowly realizing that I simply cannot do it all.
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The strange part is that I generally enjoy most of those things.
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I want to do them all but right now there simply is not enough time
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and I still find it hard to let any of them go.
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Maybe that is why focusing deeply on one thing feels so good.
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For a little while I am not somewhere else, thinking ahead or juggling several things at once.
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I can simply be there, completely absorbed in what I'm doing.
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It is a skill I'm still learning but
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when it happens it feels surprisingly good almost like finally hitting the right note or keeping the paint inside the lines.
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Let's get started.
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I am slowly learning that a full life does not have to mean a full schedule.
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Some things can wait and some things can be left unfinished.
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And perhaps there is something comforting in knowing that I do not have to fit everything I love into every single day.
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For now I'm trying to make a little more room for the things that bring me back to myself.
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A loaf of bread, a few rows of knitting, something slowly taking shape under my hands.
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Small things perhaps, but they make the days feel a little more like my own.
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After all, the ordinary days are often the ones I love the most.
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Maybe I will not remember each of them 10 years from now, but I might remember how they felt.
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The slowness, the familiar rhythm, the repetition that gave me enough space to do things without always feeling like I had to rush to the next one.
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There is something quietly beautiful about that too.
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I think that is what I'm learning in this season of life.
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That not every day needs to feel significant to be meaningful.
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Some days are simply bread in the oven, laundry waiting to be folded and little moments at home and the same familiar things happening all over again.
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And that can be enough.
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And honestly, I do need a lot of these days when it feels like nothing much is happening.
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I've always needed plenty of space, quiet and stillness to find my way back to myself.
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Sometimes even leaving home for a little
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while means I need the next day to simply slow down and feel like myself again.
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Sometimes even a short time away from home can leave me needing the next day to slow down
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and settle back into myself.
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It's not that I do not want to go to places, meet people or do things that take a little more energy.
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I do, and I generally enjoy many of those things.
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I've simply learned that I need a little more time afterward to feel grounded again,
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to let everything settle and to find my own rhythm once more.
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This is now the hardest part because the other one is.. just one moment.
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So what I was saying is that this is not the hardest part because the bread is out of the oven, the other one is in the oven,
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but I still have to wait like an hour or so before I can have a taste of this.
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I've learned that it is the best way
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because it's still kind of moist inside so
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if I let it sit for an hour or
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so the crust gets even better and the inside is not
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so how do you say like mushy it's somehow I don't know what it is
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but it works but the smell is so good
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and the whole house smells like bread but yeah I'm going to wait
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and at the same time I need the up too.
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As much as I love the quietness of home, sometimes I need to step outside of it all, to leave the little routines behind,
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head into the fells and stand under a sky that seems to stretch on forever.
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It does take some energy to get myself out of the door and sometimes it does not feel easy at first, but it is always worth it.
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My husband has a saying that I have come to completely agree with.
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You never regret going outside and I never have.
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We are on our way to our first overnight trip with the family.
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We have here a girl who is here with me
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and I have a backpack and here's my husband hello
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and of course the dogs it's a little bit of a circus with all of these five creatures
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but it's still
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so much fun I think I need both little nest at home where life can become small
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and slow and the wildness outside where everything suddenly feels wide
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and open again
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that is what balance
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looks like for me knowing when i need to turn inward
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and when i need to step out into the world perhaps neither one is meant to replace the other
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I need the quiet to hear myself and I need the vastness to remember
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that there is a whole world beyond my own little thoughts.
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We got to the hut.
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It was quite a journey with all of these.
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Thank you. To be continued...
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “Life at Its Simplest”. This video has 93 sentences and 1291 words to shadow. The speech runs for 12:48. The speaker talks slowly, about 101 words per minute, so there is time to copy every sound. 85% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| everyday adjective | /ˈɛvɹiˌdeɪ/ | Appropriate for ordinary use, rather than for special occasions. |
| routine noun | /ɹuˈtin/ | A course of action to be followed regularly; a standard procedure. |
| rhythm noun | /ˈɹɪð.əm/ | The variation of strong and weak elements (such as duration, accent) of sounds, notably in speech or music, over time; a beat or meter. |
| settle verb | /ˈsɛtəl/ | To determine (something which was exposed to doubt or question); to resolve conclusively; to set or fix (a time, an order of succession, etc). |
| oven noun | /ˈʌ.vn̩/ | A chamber used for baking or heating. |
| ordinary adjective | /ˈɔɹdɪnɛɹi/ | Having regular jurisdiction; now only used in certain phrases. |
| gentle adjective | /ˈd͡ʒɛntl̩/ | Tender and amiable; of a considerate or kindly disposition. |
| meaningful adjective | /ˈmiː.nɪŋ.fl̩/ | Having meaning, significant. |
| laundry noun | /ˈlɔːn.dɹi/ | A laundering; a washing. |
| fade verb | /feɪd/ | To hit the ball with the shot called a fade. |
| knit verb | /nɪt/ | To turn thread or yarn into a piece of fabric by forming loops that are pulled through each other. This can be done by hand with needles or by machine. |
| pocket noun | /ˈpɑ.kɪt/ | A bag stitched to an item of clothing, used for carrying small items. |
| rush verb | /ɹʌʃ/ | To hurry; to perform a task with great haste, often not properly or without thinking carefully. |
| deeply adverb | /ˈdi(ː)pli/ | To a deep extent or degree; very greatly. |
| afterwards adverb | /ˈæf.tɚ.wɚdz/ | At a later or succeeding time; after that; |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| slow down verb | To decelerate. |
| look forward to verb | To anticipate, expect, or wait for, especially with a feeling of approval or pleasure; to be excited or eager to. |
| move forward verb | To cause to make progress. |
| pile up verb | To form a pile, stack, or heap. |
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 | has been · has found · has passed |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | can be left · be folded · is meant |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 11 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, I've, don't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: rhythm /ˈɹɪð.əm/, gather /ˈɡæðɚ/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: rush /ɹʌʃ/, unfinished /ʌnˈfɪnɪʃt/, mushy /ˈmʌ.ʃi/, repetition /ˌɹɛp.əˈtɪʃ.ən/
- Long words — get the stress right: ordinary /ˈɔɹdɪnɛɹi/, surprisingly /səˈpɹaɪzɪŋli/, curiosity /ˌkjʊɹ.iˈɑ.sə.ti/, continuity /ˌkɑn.tɪˈn(j)u.ə.ti/, repetitive /ɹɪˈpɛtɪtɪv/
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 everyday, routine, rhythm.
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.