Shadowing Practice: Master English storytelling (secret technique) - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Do you struggle with telling stories in English and describing situations?

By the end of this video, you're going to learn the step-by-step process that I've implemented in my storytelling techniques

and why I'm able to describe situations in detail.

Then, you're going to look at what a linguistic expert says about the step-by-step process

that happens in the mind of a native so that you can imitate them as well.

You need to understand that English is a language that is obsessed with describing action, direction, and manner of a situation.

That's why a lot of students who comment on my post on Instagram, they say things like, Hey, I can't even describe this situation in my language.

And the reason for that is because your language was not made to describe situations in the same way.

This is exactly why English has a lot of phrasal verbs, a lot of these directional phrases.

It's because English is not just expressing yourself or describing situations in detail.

Does that make sense?

So just remember this.

Focus on the actions of what's happening in the direction,

how it's happening, the manner in which it moves through space and time, how the person was feeling as they moved.

That's why you have all these advanced verbs that you see in my videos.

They're not just like, oh, he jumped outside the window.

No. Or he put his hand back.

No. He flung his arm backwards because it's the way he did it, the direction, the dynamic of it.

Did it explode back?

Things like that right

and this is a linguist Luna Filipovic who she talks about this specific thing

that I'm gonna mention to you about English

and how English is different than Spanish when describing things that's what she says please

everything else is dark as night so you really need to remember the example so if If you're a speaker, you speak Spanish, right?

Yeah.

So if you see a man running out of the bank, across the street, into the park,

right, and you tell me what you witnessed in English, you would say, I saw a man, he ran out of the bank, across the street, into the park.

So I know that that man was running all the time.

If you say this to me in English.

Now you cannot say that in Spanish.

It's impossible because the language blocks this structure.

You have to say, he exited the bank running.

You have to say, salió del banco corriendo.

Cruzó la calle corriendo.

Entró en el parque corriendo.

So do you say that in Spanish, like repeating this corriendo?

No, nobody talks like this.

So what research has found of other people and mine is that if you speak Spanish,

you're less likely to talk about how something moved.

Oh, interesting.

That's really interesting.

And just because, you know, you can put corriendo at the beginning of the sentence saying that he exited and crossed and entered the park.

However, how many sentences start with gerund in Spanish?

You're a speaker.

How often do you put a gerund at the beginning?

Almost never.

Exactly.

So what Spanish speakers do, they actually do not express how something will, but they do express the direction.

Because you have to say where things were going.

Motion is about change of locations.

So of course you have to talk about entering, exiting, crossing, et cetera.

But the manner is a kind of extra bit of info

that you can mention and it's it's often omitted in in spanish

but not in english accounts of mandarin motion english on the

other hand typologically um prefers although we can say in english he exited the building

or exited the bank running that's not a preferred option You would say ran out, limped out, staggered out.

So the information that you get from...

You see that right there?

Staggered out.

That means like a way that he exited the building.

He ran out.

He staggered out.

He sneaked out.

You know, whereas other languages would not mention that.

Let's keep listening.

People who speak English, monolingual English speakers, is very detailed in the manner of motion.

and it's not so detailed from the Spanish speakers exactly and

so as a result

when I tested in my lab I then yes I'll tell

you a little bit about the career path I then specialized in psychology

and tested all of that in the lab in my experiments

and I realized that

if you're speaking English you're much more likely to give me details about the manner of motion and therefore

remember because language serves as aid to memory quite a lot

so you will tell me much more about the manner of motion

if you're a speaker of English whereas

if you're a speaker of Spanish you'll tell me less

and you'll remember less

because you can't really have these words to map onto the events you see

and they won't serve much as memory however this is not to say

that one language is better than the other and okay so notice how she said that it has to do with memory.

So if you're a Spanish speaker and you're asked to describe something,

you're not going to remember the actions because your language doesn't work that way in terms of motion and direction mixed together.

And so this is why phrasal verbs matter, right?

The simple version will not have phrasal verbs.

The nuanced version the native version will be enriched right

and here's a tip i'm going to give you a tip

if you're describing a movie scene so let's say we're going to go here

and we're going to describe the mission impossible scene right

which i have here already ready for you and you're going to describe let's watch this here

straight keep going straight go straight straight straight straight Okay, that's our right.

Right?

Now?

Yes, right.

Are you sure?

Yes, I'm...

Oh, it's left.

Turn left.

Sorry I had the screen lock on.

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Thank you.

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What are you waiting for?

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I'm jumping out a window.

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What do you mean you're jumping out of a...

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Oh, sorry.

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I had it in 2D.

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Good luck.

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Now, I've asked hundreds, maybe even a thousand people to describe this for me, right?

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And what I saw was that most of the time people

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that are like intermediate maybe lower intermediate tend to describe uh what they were talking about

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but not the actions for some reason they ignore the actions

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and more advanced students do describe the actions

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but they tend not to use the advanced nuanced phrasal verbs

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and idioms so if you're already upper intermediate

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or advanced then you want to focus on enhancing the way you describe things focusing on the actions

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but the enhanced nuanced ways of doing that that's why you're taking this course

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because i'm going to teach you how to do that and

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if you're lower intermediate you know maybe intermediate around there then you want to make sure

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that you um are i'm opening the door for my dog that's why that's

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that sound so you want to make sure

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that you are focusing on what's happening in the scene

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and one way you can do that this is a quick exercise

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is the following regardless if you're advanced or not advanced very quickly

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if you're interested in mastering not only storytelling for your personal life

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but also for business reasons presentations and meetings my name is daniel cordoba

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and we've helped over 600 students to find their fluency identity and personality

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if you're interested schedule a demo call down below this course is for latinos specifically who live in the usa

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and who want to get a better job or a better position

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you can take scene by scene so for example we see the scene here where tom cruise does this right okay

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go straight straight keep going straight straight straight straight

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so there you would say he ran into the building

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but maybe you can find another verb for ran he sprinted

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into the building sprinted means uh let me show you here to sprint means to run fast somewhere

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so you could say sprinted what was

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that sprinted into the building right he bolted is another way of saying running fast into the building

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so you want to find variations of the basic way of saying it that's

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if you're advanced

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if you're not advanced also you want to make sure you're saying he ran into the building start with

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that right notice i'm taking scene by scene you play you

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pause it you describe it okay that's not right right now yes right are you there you would describe that

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he turned around he looked to the left into the right

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if your basics say that because because right now you're not saying

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that if you're more advanced you want to find an adjective to modify

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that so you can say he right you can just say he looked to the left

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and to the right right look to the left what's happening

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here why can't I edit this okay there we go look to the left

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and to the right but you want to make sure

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that you make it a little bit more descriptive how well he was So find a nice advanced way of saying confused.

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You can say, he confusingly, right?

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Or in a panic, right?

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he looked to the left and to the right.

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Or desperately, he desperately, desperately,

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I'm not even spelling it right, but who cares?

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There we go.

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He desperately looked to the left and to the right.

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So find adverbs or adjectives to make it more enhanced.

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Does that make sense?

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So now I could have just said, he ran into the building, he looked to the left and to the right.

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But imagine me saying, he bolted into the building desperately, and then he, in a confused manner, looked to the left and to the right.

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Notice how that changes everything.

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It makes it more enriched, more detailed.

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That's what you want to do.

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Now let's take the next scene.

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What is that?

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Yes, I'm...

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Oh, it's left.

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Turn left.

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Sorry, I had the screen lock on.

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And by the way, you can say that, right?

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Oh, then his friend said, da-da, and then he said, da-da, right?

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We'll talk about that later in another video.

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You could even pause that and describe that, right?

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So after his friend tells him, left, he looks towards the window and has an epiphany, right?

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or he looks through the window and he gets an idea, right?

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That's one way of saying it.

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So notice I'm pausing after each scene and I'm describing it.

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Thank you.

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We can pause that there as well.

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The woman looks at Tom Cruise and she stands up and he looks towards the seat, he grabs it.

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And he, you can say throw.

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He throws it into the window, but you want to find other verbs to describe throw.

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I would have said he launches it through the window.

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He launches it.

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That's one way of saying it. And remember this too.

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There's a time and place for everything.

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There's a time and place to be very descriptive, use nuanced phrasal verbs and idioms, but then there's a time and place to be basic. Does that make sense?

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So let's review.

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What do we talk about today?

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Well, we talked about English being a locomotion language that is obsessed with describing situations in actions,

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verbs, the manner of the situation, and direction, whereas other languages are not like that.

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For example, Spanish.

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We saw the expert Luna Filipovic,

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who's a linguist, talk about the differences between English and Spanish and how that even affects your memory,

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which then affects the way you tell a story, right?

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But that can change if you change your mentality and if you learn.

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And we also learned that that's the reason why there are so many phrasal verbs in English.

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and we also learned that a tip or a hack to doing this

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and practicing this is going through a movie scene pausing after every scene

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and finding enriched way to describe it you can do

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that using a dictionary chat gpt

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or google that's totally fine you can put the basic way on chat gpt

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and tell it to give you a nuanced native way of saying

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that same thing you repeat it

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and obviously in my course you guys know you can put it into your vocab tracker right?

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Well, my students, let me know what you thought about this lessons down below.

205

And in the next lesson, we're going to learn something else.

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So I'll see you soon.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This video has 206 sentences and 2157 words to shadow. The speech runs for 14:23. The speaker talks at a natural 150 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
verb noun	/vɝb/	A word that indicates an action, event, or state of being.
exit noun	/ˈɛɡzət/	An act of going out or going away, or leaving; a departure.
intermediate adjective	/ɪn.tə(ɹ)ˈmi.di.ət/	Being between two extremes, or in the middle of a range.
pause noun	/pɔːz/	A temporary stop or rest; an intermission of action; interruption; suspension; cessation.
desperately adverb	/ˈdɛs.p(ə.)ɹət.li/	In a desperate manner; without regard to danger or safety; recklessly.
sprint noun	/spɹɪnt/	A short race at top speed.
whereas	/(h)wɛɹˈæz/	In contrast; whilst on the contrary; although.
enhance verb	/ɪnˈhæns/	To augment or make something greater.
confused adjective	/kənˈfjuːzd/	unable to think clearly or understand
lesson noun	/ˈlɛs.ən/	A section of learning or teaching into which a wider learning content is divided.
cruise noun	/kɹuz/	A sea or lake voyage, especially one taken for pleasure.
bolt noun	/boʊlt/	A (usually) metal fastener consisting of a cylindrical body that is threaded, with a larger head on one end. It can be inserted into an unthreaded hole up to…
storytelling noun		The act and skills of presenting stories and tales.
descriptive adjective	/dəˈskɹɪptɪv/	Of, relating to, or providing a description.
ignore verb	/ɪɡˈnɔː/	To deliberately not listen or pay attention to.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Meaning
run out verb	To use up or consume all
call down verb	To bring (punishment, condemnation etc.) upon someone, as from above.
go through verb	To travel from one end of something to the other.
hand back verb	To return (something) to where it came from.
jump out verb	To emerge suddenly.
look through verb	To take a view of the contents of; search in, either with the eyes or by hand.
stand up verb	To rise from a lying or sitting position.
turn around verb	To physically rotate (usually around a vertical axis) for a half turn (180 degrees), a whole turn (360 degrees), or an indefinite amount.

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	I've implemented · has found · I've asked
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	was not made · will be enriched
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	students who comment · People who speak

Pronunciation to watch

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

The “sh” and “zh” sounds: presentation /ˌpɹɛzn̩ˈteɪʃn̩/, variation /ˌvɛəɹiˈeɪʃn̩/, dictionary /ˈdɪk.ʃəˌnɛ.ɹi/, directional /dɪˈɹɛk.ʃə.nəl/, locomotion /ləʊ.kəˈməʊ.ʃən/
Long words — get the stress right: intermediate /ɪn.tə(ɹ)ˈmi.di.ət/, desperately /ˈdɛs.p(ə.)ɹət.li/, experiment /ɪkˈspɛɹ.ə.mənt/, psychology /saɪˈkɑ.lə.d͡ʒi/, dictionary /ˈdɪk.ʃəˌnɛ.ɹi/

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 verb, exit, intermediate.

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: Master English storytelling (secret technique) - 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?