Shadowing Practice: Mo Moharrak | Pilot | The Mo Show - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Hello and welcome to the first episode of the Mo Show.
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I've got my very, very good friend and first guest on the Mo Show, Mr. Mohamed Maharak.
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Welcome.
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Wow, where do we start?
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I've known my guest for about 15 years
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now we we met in Dubai in 2005 all of a sudden that's 15 years ago
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but obviously into you you know you were born
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and raised in in Jeddah
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I believe your your father migrated from the south of Saudi Arabia Giza yes
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he did how old we did you ever live in the south
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or was it me or my dad you you know I was born and raised in Jeddah until 17,
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graduated high school here, and then moved to the UAE to pursue university.
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Do you look back at childhood over here and being a schoolboy fondly?
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Is it something you miss?
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My childhood was a very happy one.
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I loved living in Jeddah.
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I loved my friends.
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Jeddah was much smaller back then you'd leave in the morning going to school
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and you'd know every single car around
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you who's in it who's going where I miss those days I'm glad I had
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that experience did the changed completely from those days
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but to sum it up really a very happy childhood
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that's amazing two sisters two sisters II man at her yeah
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and and then obviously when you moved your sisters also moved to the UAE with you?
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So Iman was the first one.
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My dad was very against letting his kids,
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especially the female ones, to go abroad.
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So to kind of soften the blow, my mom said, you know what, she can go to the UAE, it's very close.
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So she paved the way.
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I was one of the people that graduated in 2002.
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So, you know, September 11 happened.
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The States was on my mind.
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It was very difficult back then.
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So, AUS was a natural decision. So, Dubai.
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Dubai was a good five, six, seven years for you.
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Maybe a bit more.
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Nine.
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And then you...
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Nine years.
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Nine years.
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That's quite some time.
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Yeah.
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and then you made the mother of all moves, didn't you?
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You went to New York City.
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Not New York.
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I went to Barcelona.
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Sorry, I jumped the gun.
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You went to Barcelona first, a city that is so close to your heart.
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Unreal.
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I mean, you speak the damn language.
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You know, when I first moved there, I've never been to Barcelona before.
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Okay.
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So I literally landed with my luggage moving there.
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I went there to do my MBA, had the time of my life, had the opportunity to do my last semester in new york
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and it's it has been always been a dream there's
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so much energy uh and in
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that city it's it's just unbelievable that's what a city is truly
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i feel like there's a community from every country in in like the five boroughs uh yemenis okay
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there's a there's an actual mandy shop the goat over rice
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that we love here one has opened in new york city the happy yemeni is it
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that i've been no way you did
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or the smiling yemeni one of those one of those
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you know it's moroccan has been popular
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there for the longest time like it's a delicacy like one
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of the best uh food carts uh is owned by egyptians yeah
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i don't remember the name falafel brothers something i might have just made that up not falafel brothers something
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and it's rice and chicken and local food.
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Like a kushari.
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Super good.
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Yeah.
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Super good.
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Your mom is Egyptian, right?
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No. My mom's half Turkish.
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Half Turkish?
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Why do I keep forgetting that?
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I thought she was...
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But she was born and raised in Egypt and Lebanon.
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All right.
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So she lived in both.
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So you're not as a thoroughbred
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Saudi as you portray yourself to be.
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Do I portray that?
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You look like...
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I mean, if you were to Google Saudi man...
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I look like that.
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Absolutely.
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Definitely.
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Jizani man.
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It's a strong bloodline.
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Is it being the good -looking one?
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Absolutely.
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I'm just making sure.
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Stunning.
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Stunning.
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You should see me.
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Honestly, so basically I left when I was 17.
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I came back, I think, at 28, 29.
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So I did a lot of growing up abroad on my own.
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You come, you see your parents and family and friends that live here from time to time.
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when i moved back in 2013 it was like a big slap on the face.
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I had my first panic attack.
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Having moved back, that's when you experienced it.
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You know, you move back, you're in your old room.
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As a teenager, you're like, okay, so I traveled all over the world and it brings me back to the starting point.
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So it's kind of discouraging at that point.
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And I got anxiety, I went through depression, all these feelings.
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But you know, you start realizing that it's actually not point zero.
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It's starting something new.
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And this is when I decided after living, I think two or three years with my parents again, that I needed to move out.
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I needed to have my own physical space, my own mental space to start whether it's creating
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or thinking outside of that childhood room that you've been in
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because it can be extremely limiting to be back with your parents.
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And, you know, parents, being parents, are going to tell you, you know, where are you going?
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When are you coming back?
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What are you going to do today?
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Out of love.
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But for you, it's like, yeah, don't control my space, my time.
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Yeah, and I don't blame us because we've been, you know, on our own watch for 10 years and we got used to that.
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And we've all experienced it.
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I think, Shouf, and this is a huge generalization, but I think us as Arabs,
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we start understanding responsibilities end of 20s,
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beginning of 30s, as opposed to other nationalities where they take on responsibility very early on in life.
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Much sooner.
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We lived through our 20s having fun, you know, silver spoon.
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And then we come to realize, okay, life is going to hit us hard.
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And I think that's what happened to me.
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So I told a friend that I'm coming to a podcast.
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And he asked me, what's it about? Can you tell me? In a nutshell?
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Yeah.
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So the idea came in the middle of Corona and I was like,
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okay, my day job consists of me working and thinking and doing everything in Arabic, which is not my strength.
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English is my strength.
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When I'm on my own time, I think in English.
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I process things in English.
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And I've been following a guy who I think is, you know, one of the smartest guys out there, very inspiring.
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Don't say it.
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It's not who you think I'm going to say.
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Okay.
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Naval.
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Okay.
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And Naval preaches that exercise your talents, create your own job, work for yourself,
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stop building someone else's dream.
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Beautiful.
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So it just was a light bulb moment in my mind.
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And the West and the East, basically everyone who's not from Saudi Arabia, has a different interpretation of our country.
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and they only hear about us from a political level
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and never from the man on the street yeah
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i'm the man on the street in a language they can understand in an accent
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that they're comfortable hearing and i realized that if
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if i don't do it okay if i don't kind of bridge
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that that gap or make
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that introduction where i have people you know who are regular people
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that go about their day you know they're running their own businesses launching their businesses um
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and i want the world to get a chance to hear from them
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you know in in english this is you know what we what's going on in saudi
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and this is what we're up to for example
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you have started a couple of businesses in the last two years um sarwa al -falina
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which uh is nothing short of genius um you took a purchasing behavior that is so old school
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and almost just not important to anyone.
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You buy it as you would like a pen or a pencil, like anything will do, which is what you're wearing under what you're wearing.
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A white t -shirt and paper -thin tracksuit bottom is probably the best way I can describe it.
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We'd go to these places.
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I'd go to a place like that every two or three years, all right, and I'll just get whatever's off the shelf.
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And within a year, I'd have to replace it.
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But I wouldn't replace it because I can't be bothered to go back to that place.
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You digitalized a very old -school consumer behavior method of purchase.
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Yeah.
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I think I spoke a bit too much about it, but can you just chime in a little bit on that?
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Sure.
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So, you know, direct to consumer is.
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is what the future is and what everyone is currently doing.
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And if COVID taught us anything, you're going to purchase a lot online,
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whether it's your groceries, your high -end clothes, whatever it might be.
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The idea came two years ago.
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I wanted to find something that's a passive buying behavior, which is Ciroalo Fanila.
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It's something that you almost wear every day because under the thawb you wear silhoua vanilla.
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I wanted to innovate a bit with it, make it look smarter because once you go back home,
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you actually lounge in it and relax in it.
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You're wearing it day and night really.
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Yeah.
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And what we currently have doesn't look very appealing.
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So innovated with the material
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and with the kind of structure of it to look more appealing and that's how the idea came about.
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Created a very simple website for people to order from.
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We don't have a store.
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Other places have stores, and that's the majority of their businesses.
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And, you know, they've transitioned online, but that's not what their bread and butter is based on.
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And you're purely on, you know, no brick and mortar whatsoever, completely online.
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Healthy Home is the second company that you launched a few years ago.
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Yes, sir.
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So Healthy Home is a sanitation business based out of Dubai.
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It was a service I used to use when I was there.
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And really, like both businesses, Sirwa La Fanila and Healthy Home, are things that I use or I would buy.
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And I think it's very important.
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I'm not trying to be a business guru.
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But I think it's important if you go into a business, it's something that you would use to be able to sell it.
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So it's a home sanitation and office sanitation business.
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Created a joint venture with a company in Dubai.
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Started operations in 2018.
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Launched in Jeddah first.
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It was really exciting.
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Launched in Riyadh end of 2019.
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And we're soon to launch in Shirgi, inshallah.
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That's awesome.
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Covering the three major regions of Saudi Arabia.
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And there is an awareness.
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There is growth, surely, in that people are becoming more aware perhaps even more hygienic after covid yeah
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so it catapulted the business um because
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when we first launched
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there was a lot of educational part why would you bring a company to do your sanitation
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you're cleaning the house but it doesn't mean you're dirty
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or anything it's just an extra step
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that you take after covet people are more receptive to the service
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and i'm sure now when people think let's sanitize my home it's it's the healthy home
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that comes to mind
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because you've you know you've created a footprint for yourself that's two years old
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so in a way covid um you know happened at quite an ideal time for you you have winners
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and losers all right yeah in in anything the uh the online space you know pharmaceutical medicine all
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that took off during covid the tourism
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and transportation business kind of you know went to shit yeah food business is food business booming through the roof
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it's uh it's it's really nice to see that there are some people
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that have benefited from this amongst the chaos
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and you know the disaster of it all honestly listen everyone got hurt uh in some way
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or not including sanitation businesses
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because still during covid you're not going to let strangers into your home correct to do the sanitation
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so we all got hit hard um
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but you know just as you you want to put a positive spin on it you come out
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you know you go back and and fix your papers all over again
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and see how you can become more efficient to run the business
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and whoever survives survives whoever doesn't hopefully pivots into something that's profitable you've also suffered something
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that i've suffered from
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but i think you have suffered from it to a to a bigger degree being heart issues yeah um is
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that something that stemmed from anxieties, panic attacks, or was that something that you've had for a longer time?
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So I didn't know I had that issue until I got a panic attack.
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And actually, I got it while traveling.
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So when I came back, I went to see all these different doctors and what's going on, not understanding that, you know,
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panic attacks could stem from stress and anxiety and depression and all of these things.
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How did you interpret it when you had your first?
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Did it feel like?
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I felt like I was dying.
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Dying, yeah.
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Heart attack.
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Scary.
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You know, just for a second, just to deviate from that point, there are so many things that they don't teach us in school.
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And one of them, I mean, you know, we can have another episode about what they should be teaching us in school and they don't.
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But one thing that they don't teach us about, that we know nothing about until it smacks us in the face, is anxieties, is panic attacks.
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You know, because if I knew what it what the sensation was like, I it probably my first one probably wouldn't have lasted as long.
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I would have known how to tackle it.
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I would have, you know, told myself some, you know, assuring things to to to recognize that this is not the end of my life.
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This is something called a panic attack and it will pass.
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And you'll actually feel quite good after it because the rush of adrenaline through your system just makes,
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you know, you feel like you ran a marathon when it's all said and done.
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But at the time, nobody can convince me that it didn't feel like death.
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Yeah, yeah.
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Mental health in general is something that's not spoken of.
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But now a lot of people are speaking about it.
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It's becoming an open subject.
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Funny story.
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When I first, you know, we're sitting with friends and I talk about like my anxiety,
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what medication I took to deal with it and all of these things.
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You know, you're talking with friends.
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I got approached by two other people later.
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I'm talking about one of the nights back in like six years ago.
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Okay.
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And two of my friends called me and they're like, you know what?
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I'm actually going through the same thing.
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Can you help me out?
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And, you know, you would not know that they're going through that.
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But once you speak about it and you normalize it and, you know, there is no shame in being human.
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Absolutely not.
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And you actually get a lot better when you do discuss it.
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Women empowerment.
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Super excited about that.
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Ten years ago, it would have been borderline unheard of for women to be in the workplace.
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No, just driving around and seeing that there are women driving around you is super exciting.
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Them being an equal of us is groundbreaking.
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They are equal.
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And that's really...
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But ten years ago, there was a stigma about men are here and women are here.
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Today, that stigma is neutralized.
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It's not even there and when it's all said and done from the progress that has happened in the past five years,
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that's top for me in terms of real net gain,
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women so the progress of where we're going as a country is really incredible who would have thought cinemas, women driving
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just the changes that we saw and the pace
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that we saw them at is nobody could have forced off I think this is what the country needed, a big shock, you know,
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to bring it to where it is right now.
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We're in a good place.
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It's beautiful.
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I like where we're going.
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Yes, sir.
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You, of course, have become a father before.
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You actually became a father.
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You are, you know, the ultimate father figure to your nephew.
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Hamoudi.
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And I take note of that because I have a son three years old,
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a little younger than your nephew, Hamoudi and there's nothing quite fulfilling like supporting, being there, teaching.
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It really puts us...
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I mean, looking at you right now, there is a smile imprinted on your face that just screams.
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It's a rewarding sensation.
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He's hilarious, honestly speaking.
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Such a good boy.
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It's a difficult responsibility.
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So my sister is a single mom.
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She's bringing up a beautiful boy.
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You know, you pitch in when you can pitch in.
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But it's very fulfilling to see that, you know, you're helping raise a young person into someone that's funny,
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someone that's, you know, independent in their personality.
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It's just a really beautiful thing to see.
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Yeah.
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Really, really.
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And we're more friends, you know.
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He's six now?
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He's seven.
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He's seven.
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He's almost eight.
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So he's starting, he was supposed to start first grade,
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I guess this um is it it's yeah six seven yeah first first grade these new systems
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they call it ey i don't know what
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and why eb no no yeah i'm not used to
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that is he at the british school he's at noon
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which is a swedish system
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and all arabic all arabic uh some english yeah my aunt uh founded
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that yeah yeah yeah super proud of her she's amazing and it's all in arabic uh old school Arabic.
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So Hamoudi doesn't say I don't even know how to say it.
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So it's proper classical Arabic.
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What I love is that whenever there's an incident, an unfortunate incident, there was an unfortunate incident on London Bridge six or seven months ago.
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When the news broke, you had a camera, You had like six or seven people with their phones filming what had happened.
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News broke hashtag global before
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Sky News or BBC made the scene for them to put their spin on what happened.
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So it tells you that the individual media person, me and you on the street with our iPhones or Samsungs.
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are much stronger than corporations, you know, news corps being there for them.
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So there's something to say about what the future holds in terms of news coverage where everyone is a journalist.
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Your phone is your weapon nowadays.
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Anything bad happens, you take a video.
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Anything good, you're taking a video.
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I mean...
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In our country, maybe not all countries, but in our country, social media really helped it.
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It brought a sense of transparency to things, you know, anything that is good or bad will trend on Twitter.
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I think we're the, are we top users?
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User per person, we're definitely in the conversation.
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I know you.
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I don't have Twitter.
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You don't?
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I don't.
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You've got to get on it.
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If for no other reason, just check out what's being discussed, the top 10 topics being discussed every day.
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That's the equivalent of opening the newspaper 20 years ago.
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Yeah.
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So just to have a pulse on what's happening.
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Now, many people will say, avoid the news altogether
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if it's important enough it'll find you
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but I don't know maybe I I chase news too much I got to check what's happening two
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or three times if I mean if your consumption doesn't affect your mental state
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and all of
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that then chase it fair play how do you feel about
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marriage is something gonna do one day not at the moment no not on your mind no
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when the times right yeah I'm happy but You're not saying no or yes.
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I'm not saying no or yes.
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Right now, today, no. I'm too busy with my job or my work.
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I don't have capacity to do that right now.
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Not mentally, not physically, not financially.
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It'll take up a lot of your time.
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Yeah, I don't think I have that.
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Especially with kids.
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I'm happy with my four cats.
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They're already a handful.
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Yeah, you're allowed four cats in our religion as you're allowed four wives.
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Four wives.
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Make sure you don't get that fifth.
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We're in trouble.
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That's a different story.
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Looking back on a Mo Maharag at the age of 2021.
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Oh, my God.
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If you can, like, send a message, send a text or WhatsApp to him, that we had it back then, you know, a line or two,
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what advice would you give your younger self of 10, 12 years ago?
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um wow that's uh i know it's it's a heavy question i mean listen one one thing is
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that everything works out really everything really does uh i would i would tell myself to actually
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not worry too much because i'm a huge worrier
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and i exaggerate things in my head you obsess about perfection yeah
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so I would I would tell myself actually go
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and work on yourself go see someone a therapist to start dealing with those issues at
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that age therapies underrated yeah I go I go to therapy every Monday it's an incredible really that's something else
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that should be discussed in schools along with the panic attacks anxiety the importance of compound interest
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so so many things and financial acumen, saving, investing, not geography.
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How to achieve financial freedom is discussed in any economics or business class that I've taken.
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Super important.
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You know, you'd have to go to Tony Robbins for that.
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They don't teach you in school.
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I know, I know how, you know, but he'll cover the basics for you to then make a decision that you want?
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I'll recommend someone else.
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Okay.
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Al -Khass.
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Al -Khass.
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Yeah.
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No, super important.
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Definitely.
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I mean, because therapy means not leaving things in.
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And when you leave things in, that's when you eventually one day blow up.
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Yeah.
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In, in, and which translates to a panic attack.
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Panic attack.
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Yeah.
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A crucial element.
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Absolutely.
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Anything you want to close with, Mo?
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Wallahi, Shuf.
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Thank you so much for including me.
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It's my first podcast.
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I hope it goes well.
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I hope, you know, whoever listens to this will get one or two takeaways.
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We'll just enjoy listening to our voices.
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Listen, podcasts are like art, you know, you interpret it the way you want to interpret it.
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Unless there is like a clear message that you're sending or a topic, you know, I'm going to teach you how to do an income statement.
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This is not i don't think this is what it is what this is this is a conversation between friends
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and uh yeah i had no idea where this was going to go obviously i told you
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that i want to change the perception um and the impression
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that people have on saudi arabia through the voice of a
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man on the street to another man on the street
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but obviously it's not going to be the only uh you know thing
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that people are going to get out of it it's going to be a discussion
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i don't know where it's going ago but um i think we should start introducing eating while we uh while we podcast
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To talk about the food?
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Yes.
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Introduce our local delicacy to the world.
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It's been a pleasure having you, Mo.
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Thank you, Mo.
427
Hopefully you can come check in with us when we reach episode 50.
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But I'd love to have you back, talk about where the country is when we check in again, where your businesses are.
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And hopefully maybe you'd be married with a couple of kids.
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Yalla! Who knows?
431
He's single, ladies and gentlemen.
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and he's into cat raising and bird watching and he's a great father.
433
Ask Hammoudi.
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Thank you, Mo.
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Thanks so much for your time, Mo.
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It's my pleasure.
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We'll see you soon.
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Inshallah.
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Check it out.
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Bye -bye.
441
Bye -bye.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This video has 441 sentences and 4150 words to shadow. The speech runs for 25:42. The speaker talks at a natural 161 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 84% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| panic noun | /ˈpænɪk/ | Overwhelming fear or fright, often affecting groups of people or animals; (countable) an instance of this; a fright, a scare. |
| anxiety noun | /æŋˈzaɪ.əti/ | An unpleasant state of mental uneasiness, nervousness, apprehension and obsession or concern about some uncertain event. |
| arabic adjective | /ˈæɹəbɪk/ | Only used in arabic acid |
| sanitation noun | /ˌsænɪˈteɪʃən/ | The hygienic disposal or recycling of waste. |
| podcast noun | /ˈpɑdˌkæst/ | A program, especially an audio program, produced on a regular basis, delivered over the Internet in a compressed digital format and designed for playback on… |
| whoever | /huˈɛvɚ/ | Who ever: an emphatic form of who. |
| interpret verb | /ɪnˈtɜː.pɹɪt/ | To decode the meaning of a topic and then act, whether to continue researching the topic, follow through, act in opposition, or further the understanding… |
| topic noun | /ˈtɑpɪk/ | A subject; a theme; a category or general area of interest. |
| chase verb | /t͡ʃeɪs/ | To follow at speed. |
| pitch noun | /pɪt͡ʃ/ | A throw; a toss; a cast, as of something from the hand. |
| abroad adverb | /əˈbɹɔːd/ | Beyond the bounds of a country; in foreign countries. |
| spin verb | /spɪn/ | To rotate, revolve, gyrate (usually quickly); to partially or completely rotate to face another direction. |
| introduce verb | /ˌɪntɹəˈdus/ | To cause (someone) to be acquainted (with someone else). |
| stem noun | /stɛm/ | The stock of a family; a race or generation of progenitors. |
| unfortunate adjective | /ʌnˈfɔː.t͡ʃə.nɪt/ | Not favored by fortune. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| come back verb | To return to a place. | |
| go through verb | To travel from one end of something to the other. | |
| go back verb | To return to a place or state after having been there at a previous time. | |
| move back verb | To reschedule (something) to a later date or time. | |
| blow up verb | To explode or be destroyed by explosion. | |
| bring up verb | To mention. | |
| check out verb | To record the departure or withdrawal of someone or something (such as guests, employees, books, etc.). | |
| come out verb | /ˌkʌm ˈaʊt/ | To be discovered; to be revealed. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- Wow, where do we start?
- Is it something you miss?
- Why do I keep forgetting that?
- When are you coming back?
- I think we're the, are we top users?
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 known · I've never been · has been |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | were born · was born · is owned |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | Arabic, which is · guy who I · behavior, which is |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 116 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, you're, I'm. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: thin /ˈθɪn/, bother /ˈbɑðɚ/, marathon /ˈmæɹəθən/, altogether /ɔl.tuˈɡɛð.ɚ/, therapist /ˈθɛɹəpɪst/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: sanitation /ˌsænɪˈteɪʃən/, sensation /sɛnˈseɪʃən/, rush /ɹʌʃ/, shock /ʃɔk/, efficient /ɪˈfɪʃənt/
- Long words — get the stress right: anxiety /æŋˈzaɪ.əti/, sanitation /ˌsænɪˈteɪʃən/, unfortunate /ʌnˈfɔː.t͡ʃə.nɪt/, economics /ˌiːkəˈnɒmɪks/, hilarious /hɪˈlɛə.ɹi.əs/
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 panic, anxiety, arabic.
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.