Shadowing Practice: Millions are choosing isolation over everything, and it’s a sign that… - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
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We live in a time right now where things are changing drastically.
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It seems like every single day It's something new.
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And along with our changing environment, There's also a major shift in our population.
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People are changing the way we do things are changing and
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I know I'm not the only one to notice this because I've heard a lot of y 'all
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and other people talk about this and as a matter of fact let me know in the comments below
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if you've seen this, just a shift in people.
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But, you know, among the shifts that have occurred, there's one that I've noticed recently, that I never thought I would see.
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And that is the fact that people are actually choosing Isolation.
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They're choosing to remove themselves from society and the modern world and they're isolating themselves.
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And this is kind of a weird one because up until just recently, being isolated was often thought to be a bad thing.
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If nobody wants to hang out with you, then there must be something wrong with you. But
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I think this is being flipped on its head because people are realizing that
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the reason people are isolating themselves is actually very justified
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and a lot of that has to do with the fact
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that we live in a very noisy world today everything's fighting for our attention We're constantly distracted.
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We have constant notifications.
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We're surrounded by people that don't care about us.
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we now exist in these large population centers, surrounded by thousands or millions of people and we can't relate to any of them.
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As a matter of fact, a lot of us can't relate to the modern world in general.
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We feel like that we've been plucked from our old timeline and dropped into this new one.
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Nothing makes sense.
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Some of us feel like old souls, like maybe we exist in the wrong era.
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And when you live in an environment that is that noisy, And that is that distracting.
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And just that draining...
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it makes sense that you would want to escape from that.
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And I think that's really what people are doing.
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They're just escaping.
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But the more I think about this...
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And the more I think about my own personal experience as someone who has been isolated most of my life, I think the reason here actually goes much deeper than this.
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And I think the real reason that this is happening is actually a massive silver lining.
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And to describe this, I'm going to use an analogy.
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Some of y 'all are probably familiar with this.
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Some of you maybe not. But...
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We're gonna tie this into dogs.
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Because dogs are nature.
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and we can learn a lot from nature.
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And there's something that dogs do, both wild and domesticated, that really ties into this.
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And I've witnessed this personally.
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So let me just take you back to my childhood.
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I used to have a dog...
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that was named Bear.
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She was part chow, part German Shepherd.
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Beautiful dog.
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She lived to be very, very old.
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And one day, Bear followed us to the end of our driveway, which was very long, because I grew up on a farm.
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And she ran out into the road, and she got hit.
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right in front of us it was me my dad and my brother in the truck it was very traumatizing
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very sad but she got hit pretty bad And my dad went out there in the road, picked her up, put her in the back of the truck, We took her back to the house.
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and my dad was going to put her down.
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While he was getting the stuff ready to put her down, We came back outside.
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and Bear disappeared.
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We went out every single day for three days straight and we called for bear.
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We searched the entire farm.
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We searched the surrounding areas.
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Couldn't find her she just vanished.
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And then one day I walked out on our back porch and to my disbelief Bear was standing there.
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I went outside to check on her.
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And she had miraculously...
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Completely healed herself.
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Yes, she had some scars.
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She was missing some fur.
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She had some scrapes and some cuts and stuff like that and
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She had all kinds of birds and stuff stuck in her fur from where she'd been
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doing who knows what But she was there.
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And she appeared to be totally fine.
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And she was because fast forward at least a decade later, she lived to be very, very old.
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I want to say 16 or 18 years old in human years, which is very old for a dog.
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But later on in life, when she was very old.
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She disappeared again.
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For no rhyme or reason.
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She just walked off into the woods...
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and she never came back.
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And we called for her the same way we did before.
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We went looking for her for weeks on end and never found her.
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So naturally this left me looking for answers
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and through my research I found that this is actually a very common thing that both wild and domesticated dogs do.
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When they reach the end of their lives, they will often isolate themselves and disappear and go off to die.
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And the reason they do this is because when they're in that state, They are very...
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vulnerable.
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And being in a vulnerable position puts not only the dog itself at risk, but it puts the rest of the pack at risk.
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To opposing forces, and to predators.
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So the dog will actually retreat from the pack and it will go off on its own.
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so that it can die.
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This is nature.
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This is a natural defense mechanism that is hardwired into these dogs from birth.
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Anytime that they feel a sense of impending doom, and they feel threatened and vulnerable, They isolate themselves.
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and they disappear.
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In some cases it's so that they can heal.
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In other cases it's so that they can die.
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And when I think about how this might relate to us, I think that is exactly what's happening.
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I think a lot of us feel so threatened and so vulnerable by the current situation that we're in,
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that there is a natural innate sense This thing that is hardwired into us that is being triggered.
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And it's causing us to retreat, and isolate ourselves.
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In some cases, it's so that we can heal, and in other cases, it's so that we can die.
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But when we die in this situation, it's not the same as what these dogs are going through.
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Because what I believe is happening when we die, is that it's not us physically that is...
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going away.
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It is a version of ourselves that was created based off of lies and manipulation.
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Because what happens when that defense mechanism is triggered, and we find ourselves in isolation, is everything starts to come into focus.
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All the stuff that we've been told to avoid, All the things that we buried...
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the version of ourselves that we buried, it starts to resurface.
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When we give ourselves that time and that space to just be present, and to just feel that is when we start to heal.
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that is when the version of ourselves that was created based off of societal groupthink.
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and all of these inceptions and these false ideas these
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These false beliefs that were planted into our minds that version of ourselves begins to die.
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But this death isn't permanent and it doesn't mean the end.
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This is just us getting out of our own way and creating space for healing and rebirth.
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And that's exactly what I believe is happening.
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I believe that by isolating ourselves, we are giving ourselves the space and the permission to essentially lay waste to the person that we created
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and that we have become Based off of who society has told us to be, and in the peace and the silence that we find in isolation, we are rediscovering our true selves.
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And that true self, it's been there all along.
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We've just been too distracted...
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and too preoccupied with all the noise to remember that we exist.
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So the next time you feel yourself leaning into isolation, and you feel like you're kind of being pushed there by an unseen force,
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Try to think about it this way: try to remember that Maybe it's just your body's natural defense mechanisms.
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Maybe it's just you.. creating that space for yourself to regain your focus and to see things more clearly.
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to see things for what they really are.
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And maybe that focus and that clarity that you gain from being in isolation
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is going to be the very thing that allows your true self to be reborn.
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Context & Background
The speaker in the video discusses a notable trend where people are increasingly choosing isolation amidst a rapidly changing world. This choice is often seen as a response to the overwhelming distractions and noise that modern life presents. Through personal reflections and observations, the speaker aims to shed light on the deeper reasons behind this phenomenon, emphasizing the struggle of relating to an increasingly disconnected society. This discourse opens up various themes about human connection, distraction, and the pursuit of peace in isolation.
Top 5 Phrases for Daily Communication
- “Things are changing drastically.” - A powerful phrase that captures the essence of ongoing transformation in society.
- “People are choosing isolation.” - A clear way to explain one’s desire for solitude in today’s fast-paced world.
- “Constantly distracted.” - A useful expression to convey feelings of being overwhelmed by external stimuli.
- “I feel like an old soul.” - Use this phrase to reflect feelings of being out of place in modern times.
- “We exist in large population centers.” - This phrase highlights the struggle of feeling alone even when surrounded by many people.
Step-by-step Shadowing Guide
To improve your English speaking skills using the shadowing technique, follow these steps while watching the video:
- Watch and Listen: Begin by watching the video without pausing. Focus on the speaker's tone, pronunciation, and pace. This is essential for understanding the context and emotional weight behind the words.
- Pause and Repeat: Use the shadow speech method by pausing after each sentence. Try to repeat what the speaker says, mimicking their intonation and rhythm. This practice is crucial for developing natural speech patterns.
- Break it Down: If you encounter complex phrases or sections, break them down further. Repeat challenging segments multiple times until you feel comfortable. For example, "I feel like an old soul" can be practiced several times to internalize its structure.
- Speak Aloud: After several repetitions, move away from the video and practice speaking out loud from memory. Try to summarize the speaker’s core ideas in your own words. This reinforces vocabulary retention and boosts confidence in speaking.
- Engage in Conversations: Finally, discuss the themes of the video with a friend or language partner. Use the phrases learned in context. Engaging in discussions about isolation, societal changes, and personal experiences enables real-life application of your English speaking practice.
Utilizing resources like this video, you can effectively learn English with YouTube and enhance your speaking abilities through shadowspeaks, making your language learning journey more relatable and enjoyable.
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 heard · you've seen · have occurred |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | being isolated · being flipped · we've been plucked |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | someone who has · driveway, which was · years, which is |
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.