Shadowing Practice: My Advice For Learning Languages As An Adult - Learn English Speaking with Video

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In today's video, I'm going to be sharing my tips for anyone who is studying a foreign language, especially as an adult.

Why the hell should we listen to you?

You're not an expert.

True.

I am neither a professor nor an expert in languages, but let me give you a little bit of background regarding my language learning journey.

So I'm Australian.

My dad is Australian.

My mum is Thai.

I was born and raised in Australia and my native language is English.

I grew up only speaking English.

When I was a child, my mom tried to teach me Thai and I distinctly remember me being like, this is the worst time ever and I do not enjoy this at all,

which resulted in me never learning Thai growing up.

Then at the magical age of 20 slash 21, I thought to myself, you know what?

I think the best thing for me to do right now would be for me to learn Thai and Japanese.

At the same time, I studied Japanese at university

and I studied Thai privately and it was actually kind of funny

when I was at university I took a linguistics unit

which was just about like linguistics and language in general no specific language

and the professor was explaining

that in a human's life in terms of the development of

the brain there's kind of two prime periods of time where

it's a lot easier to learn languages the first period is from

when you were born until you're like an older child

and then the second period is from when you're just about to go through puberty and you're becoming a teenager.

I think it ends around like 15 to 16 years old.

Anytime after that, your brain is like less inclined to just absorb languages through listening

and you have to actually manually study languages.

So 21 year old me at the time was like, well, that's great.

I picked the best time in life to start picking up two languages.

That being said, it ain't impossible because look at me now.

I'm not a native speaker.

I mean, I'm nowhere close to reaching like native levels of fluency, but I have managed to achieve an adequate level in both Thai

and Japanese to a level that was good enough where I can act in both languages on television.

So that's kind of something.

Anyway, what I'm saying is I have experience.

So I want to share my experience learning two languages as an adult, share the mistakes I've made,

the lessons I've learned, and hopefully it can make your language learning experience a lot smoother than mine was because, whew, did I make some mistakes?

So the tips I'm going to be sharing today, a lot of them can be applied to any language you are learning.

But like I just said, I specifically learned Thai and Japanese.

And I know a lot of you guys who watch my YouTube videos are learning either Thai or Japanese.

So some of the tips will be specific to those languages.

By the way, all these tips, they're just my opinion.

These are not based on scientific facts.

I have not done research into these.

These are just things that I've learned from my experience of learning languages.

The first tip that I want to give you guys today is it's important to identify your goals.

What I mean is why you're learning the language and what you want to use it for.

And also, it's good to be specific with your goals.

Like for example, if your goal is to speak Thai, it would be really good to identify at what level you want to speak Thai.

Because you don't need to speak a language perfectly or fluently to be able to communicate in that language.

In my particular case, I wanted to act in Thai on TV.

So I had to be able to speak Thai at quite a high level.

Otherwise, there would just be no roles for me to act because there aren't very many foreign roles.

I did get some foreign roles, but they're very few and far between.

But you know even within foreign roles They still expect you to speak a relatively high level of Thai

Because if you're speaking Thai on TV

and the people at home can't understand what you're saying It kind of defeats the purpose I guess

But for example if your goal is to just be conversational

And just be able to speak a little bit of Thai

on holiday Then you can set like your goal here

If your goal is to be able to use it at work Then obviously you need to set it higher

If you want to be an actor then you'll need to set like a higher bar

But identifying that is also really good too

Because you can save yourself a lot of stress If you just want to speak some Thai on holiday and be like, hey, like, where's the toilet?

Or like, where can I catch a taxi?

Or something like that.

It's fine if you make mistakes as long as you like get the main point across.

You get the key words and you can pronounce them correctly and get them across.

Your grammar doesn't need to be perfect or anything like that.

But, you know, the higher you set your goals or the higher standards you want to set for yourself,

it's going to require more time and most likely a higher depth in terms of the details in your study.

In my particular case, when I was studying Japanese at the beginning to just be able to read manga in Japanese

Shoujo manga, manga that's like marketed towards like young girls It's a lot easier to read than manga like shounen manga

or like seinen manga Just because the language that they use is totally different In shoujo manga, it's like just everyday talking like high school is just talking and things like that In shounen manga,

no one talks like

that in real life A lot of the vocabulary they use is like stuff that you won't find in everyday conversation

So if I only wanted to read shoujo manga, then you can achieve that level quite early on.

If you want to read more like adult stuff.

Hey, listen.

Hey, get your mind on the gutter.

I don't mean like erotica.

I mean, you know, more adult stories.

The grammar is going to be harder.

The vocab is going to be harder.

So you're going to need a higher level of Japanese or whatever language you're studying for that case.

So yeah, identifying those goals early.

So you know what you're striving for is also really good

because I think your goals will be surprisingly a lot more achievable

and you'll be able to achieve them faster than you think, which is really cool.

If you can identify what learner you are, like for example, I like to write things out and remember every minor detail and aspect,

then you can find the studying process that suits you the best and it's gonna make the learning process a lot smoother.

For example, for me, the reason why I wanted to learn Thai was

because I wanted to be an actor and act on TV.

So to be an actor, I needed to be able to speak Thai, understand Thai, so listening.

Reading and writing Thai, I guess, wouldn't have been 100% necessary, but it makes the whole thing a lot easier

because I have to read scripts and communicate with people in Thai through written mediums like texting and stuff like that.

So for me, it was necessary to learn all four aspects of the language.

Whereas for Japanese, kind of embarrassing, you know, weeb tendencies or whatever.

I just really liked manga and anime.

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And if the only thing I got out of my Japanese study was the ability to read manga in Japanese

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and understand it all.

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That was good enough for me.

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That being said, I went down the same route.

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I did reading, writing, listening and speaking, and it's come in handy because now I can speak Japanese and I can continue working as an actor even in Japan.

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So that turned out really well.

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The reason why I think it's important to identify your language learning goals, especially as an adult learning languages, your time is limited.

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So if you just want to learn how to speak and you want to understand Thai when it's spoken to you, but you don't really care so much about reading and writing,

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you can devote that time to other things or better yet, devote it to practicing your speaking and listening skills.

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Also, you might be kind of thinking like, how can you learn a language without learning how to read and write it.

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In my experience, I've actually met quite a few people like that, especially in the entertainment industry.

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I've met foreigners who can speak Thai fluently, understand Thai, can't read it, can't write it, which I thought was pretty amazing.

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And just by the way, if you're wondering how these actors who can't read or write Thai memorize the script, there's two ways.

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One, the script gets written out in like karaoke, so the sounds are written out in English alphabet, or someone records it for them and they listen to it and memorize it that way, which is amazing.

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I couldn't do that, but it works for them.

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And whatever works for you is the best.

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And on the flip side, I used to be really into following a lot of manga translators that translate manga from Japanese to English.

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And surprisingly, there were quite a number of translators who can't speak or understand spoken Japanese, but they're like elite at reading and writing and also translating, which is their job.

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So in this particular case, their main goal is to be able to read because that's what they wanted to do with the language for their job.

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So they were able to devote their time to reading skills as opposed to speaking

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and listening which I guess these are all like pluses, but it doesn't serve their main purpose of studying the language.

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So I think that by setting clear goals in what you want to achieve with learning that particular language, it's gonna help study the language in a lot more of an efficient way, especially time management wise.

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The thing is like when you learn Thai, especially at the beginning, me coming from an English speaking background where we have like intonation, but it's like not fixed tones like in Thai,

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it's really hard for your ear to get used to it.

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So a lot of the times you think you're saying something right, but you're actually saying it wrong.

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I've had my teacher look me in the eye teach me a word

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and I'll say it back to them

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And I think I'm saying exactly the same way they are

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and they're like no It's like this and I was like I know what it is.

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That's what I said They're like you didn't say it right now.

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I was like I did I didn't I was making a mistake Big mistake

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and this is the kind of things that only

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Native speakers can help you identify when you speak your language the different nuances or native phrases

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that you're just not going to be able to pick up unless you're speaking to a native speaker.

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So being able to communicate and practice the language you're learning with a native speaker of that language, I really think is the most valuable experience as a learner, for sure.

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The thing is, in my particular case with Thai and Japanese, compared to all the languages spoken throughout the world, these are not the most common languages.

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And I know like depending on where you live, it might not be the easiest thing in the world to

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find a native speaker to practice the language you're learning but your boys got your back.

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So I tried using italki myself.

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First of all, it was really easy to use.

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and your work schedule there's also a huge number of teachers

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which makes it really easy to find someone who fits your language needs

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so for example what level of language you're at

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and also particular topics that you want to study

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and most importantly you should be able to find someone who

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fits your budget the other day i took a lesson with eric she teaches thai to foreigners

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and she teaches japanese to thai people i already speak thai

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and japanese but i wanted to use this opportunity to ask someone else who teaches languages for any advice

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or tips that they have for people learning foreign languages especially thai

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I can be a fan or a friend or a friend, or online, and listen to the music.

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I can be very important to hear the language of Thai language.

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So, I don't have to use my friends, I need to use the language of Thai language, so that you can use Thai language to get the music.

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It's important to use the language of what you can use.

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It's not possible to use the language.

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I can't do it.

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I think it's hard to learn a language.

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That's so hard to learn a language.

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We learn Italian.

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We know that Thai is hard to learn.

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Because we can't learn Thai.

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But we need to learn Thai language.

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I think we should learn Thai language.

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We like Thai food, have a good lifestyle.

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And we can have a good soul.

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We can stay together.

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Yes, it's a new one before I learn.

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It's all about the language.

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Some people just speak a lot of times because they love Thailand.

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So we have to be in my mindset.

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Thank you

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so much I talk you for sponsoring the video one question

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I get a lot from people who are studying Thai they

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asked me how do I get better at speaking Thai when you think about it?

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It's kind of straightforward the only way in my opinion

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that you can get better at speaking Thai or any language is by Practicing and speaking the language out loud

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Like if your goal is to speak the language fluently

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and you spend all your time like studying the grammar learning new vocab

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Or even like you spend all your time like watching like BLs

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or Thai dramas and stuff like that

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If you're not actually speaking the words with your mouth and practicing

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and trying to construct sentences I don't think it's gonna work

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out even though you might be fluent in all the other

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things Unless you're actually like producing the sounds with your mouth

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You're not like gonna magically be able to just speak it one day Which, you know, honestly, it would be really cool.

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I wish life was like that, but I don't think it is.

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Unless it is, but I don't think so.

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But if it is, tell me.

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No, no, no. But it's probably not.

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Listen to me.

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No, I'm just joking.

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But 100%, it sounds straightforward, but the best way to get better at whatever you want to do is just by doing it repetitively.

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Definitely your best friend is repetition.

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Just getting the reps in.

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It's like going to the gym, just doing a lot of reps of the same thing to get stronger at it.

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For me personally, I feel like language is like a muscle.

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The more reps you get in, The stronger and better you'll get so pick what you want to do do it

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and do it a lot of times I mean yeah, that's applicable to everything in life I know like what I'm saying sounds kind of straightforward

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But I wish I had someone tell this to me back

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when I first started studying languages that would have been really helpful so yeah, hopefully what I'm saying has some kind of value and Don't worry about making mistakes

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Because you will make mistakes and it will be embarrassing

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and most likely very funny So you need to just embrace the embarrassment, the cringe and just move forward because you're only going to learn by making the mistakes.

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Like that's the thing.

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It's like when you're speaking languages, you're communicating with other people.

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So you can feel very exposed.

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Like it's not like something that you practice in private because, you know, like language is a communication tool.

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So you need another person to use it with if you're just using it by yourself.

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I mean, I'm speaking to a camera right now by myself, but I'm speaking my native language.

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So I'm pretty confident, especially at the beginning of learning languages.

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I was very self-conscious and I didn't like making mistakes.

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It was embarrassing and quite like disheartening, especially if someone laughed.

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But like when you kind of think about it, it's pretty funny, especially like sometimes when you make like really like stupid mistakes

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or like you mix up words or like you mix up grammar

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and like you change the meaning of what you were trying to say.

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It's funny.

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So yeah, just embrace it, be brave and get over it.

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It sucks at the beginning, but you'll be fine.

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Like later, like when you make mistakes, you just be like, yeah, you know what I it doesn't really matter kind of thing

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also regarding getting better at speaking specifically yes do speak as much as you can and

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when it's possible always try to practice with native speakers especially

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early on i think that's definitely one of the things that's helped me the most picking up languages is conversing

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and trying to communicate with native speakers specifically for thai thai is a language with five tones

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so depending on the tone even though you're saying like the same word

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when the tone changes the meaning of the word can change

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and this is super important on to the next tip I

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think it's really important to identify what kind of learner you are

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and what I mean by

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that is using myself as an example I'm like an analog human being what I mean by

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that is I like to know everything

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and just do it a bunch of times like for example

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when I learned Thai which is tonal one thing that helped me remember words is is remembering how they're spelt.

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So all the words that I can use like in the Thai language, I'd say I could write like 95% of the words.

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I don't know why, especially like when I'm trying to remember the tones because in the Thai language, the tones are like written into the language.

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So when you see a word for the first time, even if you don't know what it means, you can read it out loud.

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That's just the way the language is.

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It's not like Japanese or for example, Chinese that uses characters.

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Like if you've never seen a character before, Maybe you can make an educated guess, but chances are you just won't be able to read it.

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Whereas in Thai, it's a lot like English where you can see the sounds.

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And in the case of Thai, the tones, it's all written on the page so you can read it out loud.

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So when I'm speaking Thai, I find it very useful to be able to remember how the word is spelt.

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So I remember the correct tone when I'm speaking.

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But that's what works for me.

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This is not what works for everyone.

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And I think it's really important to identify what learning process suits you the best.

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This is the kind of cool thing with languages is because it's kind of artistic in a way.

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Oh my god, languages, art.

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I'm kind of taking the piss, but what I'm saying is the same method of study doesn't suit everyone.

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Just referring to the example before, I've met people who are fluent in Thai, can understand everything, but can't write or read a word.

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For me, it would be impossible because that's just not the way my brain works.

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But obviously for these people, I would say that they work a lot more off feeling.

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Well, first of all, they have really good ears to be able to pick up tonal languages without like writing anything down

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But I think it's more of a vibe thing They just learn from feelings interacting with people

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and picking up languages that way, which is like awesome for them I could never do that

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because I would just like make mistakes all the time

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And also I wouldn't be able to remember anything for me

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writing things down makes it enter my brain more easily Like when I was studying japanese, I would just write characters like a hundred times I don't know why I thought it was really fun.

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I mean it was fun.

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I didn't think it was fun.

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It was fun I just repeated the crap out of everything until I could remember.

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It's very time consuming, but I haven't found anything that works better for me so far.

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It's another kind of trial and error process.

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But I think if you can identify the type of study that works the best for you, it's going to make your language learning journey a lot smoother for sure.

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All right.

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So now I'm going to get a little bit more specific about Thai and Japanese.

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Don't ignore intonation and tones at the beginning.

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please do not I did it with both Thai and Japanese

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and after having learned it for a while now I have to go back

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and fix it all and it's just it sucks

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and it just takes more time than it should have

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so with Thai you really want to master the five tones as early as possible

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and it's not just being able to speak them it's training

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your ear to be able to hear them as well after speaking Thai for a

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while you'll actually get to the point where you can start picking up on your own mistakes

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which is the best because then you can fix yourself without having someone to tell you

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and the only way to train your ear is by listening a lot

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and speaking a lot you know coming from an english-speaking background

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i was kind of just like hey it'll be fine like

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it'll be fine like it like like i'm speaking the language

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it'll work out it probably won't you really need to buckle down

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and learn those tones early be strict with yourself about getting the tones correct

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because you don't want be like me and be like a year

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and a half in

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and have someone be like your tones are right like 30 to 40 percent of the time

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and you're like what but no one said anything

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and they just kind of like yeah no one said anything

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but um I'm telling you now

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and you kind of like thanks I did the same thing with Japanese

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so Japanese is not tonal in the way

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that Thai is it doesn't have tones written into the words like in the alphabet

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but it's like English you know like for example

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if we say computer we have the stress on pew it's

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not like computer computer like you know what I mean like there's a natural way to say things

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and an unnatural way to say things this was not on my mind at all when I was learning Japanese.

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I always thought to myself, I was like, oh, thank God.

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Japanese doesn't have that intonation, that pesky intonation like Thai.

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It does.

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It has intonation and stresses and things like that.

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And I just started acting in Japan from August last year.

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The first thing that I was in was a musical called New Prince of Tennis.

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And I got the script and we started practicing.

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and I was like, I'm pretty good at reading Japanese.

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I got this shit.

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And I was like, oh.

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And then one of the English speaking members of staff came up to me

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and some of the other foreign actors who were in the cast and were like, did you wanna just like go through your lines?

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And I was like, oh yeah, sure.

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Like, is there something I need to fix?

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And they were kind of like, well, like all of it.

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I was like, all of it?

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All of it.

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So I had to go back and like relearn all the intonation for all these words and that sucked.

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That was a really big eye opener.

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Since then, I've also like appeared in some like TV dramas

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and I'm in a musical again this year I'm improving at fixing my intonation a lot faster But

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if I had started all of these things way at the

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beginning I wouldn't have to be putting in all this extra time now to fix all of my mistakes

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So for learners of Thai, get your tones down the five tones master them early.

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I actually used to make uh languages teaching Thai on this YouTube channel There are a few reasons why I stopped.

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One of them is because the more detail I go into teaching Thai, the longer and longer the videos become.

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I myself am not a native speaker, so I'm not like 100% confident in being able to teach it without making mistakes.

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Like I can teach very basic things.

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I'm confident in teaching basic vocab and basic phrases

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But the longer you study Thai the more detailed

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and intricate it gets and it was just a little bit too much for me to handle

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And also my channel was like kind of like more about

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me I wasn't like trying to be like the Thai learning channel

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because there are plenty of those already But I just wanted to make something

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that could kind of get you kick-started

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and a few little things you could use Especially if you're interested in like Thai BLs and stuff like that yeah, I just wanted to make some fun and hopefully easy to understand educational content.

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But another thing was like being able to match it with the goals of my viewers, because some people don't want to learn how to read or write.

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They just want to learn how to speak it, which is also fine.

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But trying to accommodate my teaching style

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and video format to meet everybody's needs was also just a little bit too much for me.

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So that was like another factor into why I kind of stopped.

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For learners of Japanese.

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The thing is with Japanese is that we didn't learn intonation at university.

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Like that wasn't like part of the course because it's not an easy thing to teach, but there are a lot of great resources out there, especially on the YouTubes.

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There are some Japanese people who teach intonation.

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For me, I actually joined Dogen.

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He's a American YouTuber professor, I think, who is fluent in Japanese.

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He made a very comprehensive course on Japanese intonation

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And he has a patreon so I joined that

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so that's what I've been using as my resource to fix my Japanese intonation

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And also just you know trying to be more aware of it in everyday life

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And my ears are getting better at picking up Japanese intonation is not the best yet

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But it's way better than it was before this is the thing like having lived abroad for a

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while I've met a lot of people who are

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Multilingual some people just watched a lot of cartoons in other languages

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when they were younger as a kid just picked it up

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Which is awesome and I'm super jealous of

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because it would have saved a lot of time

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But like I said before like

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when you're an adult your brain just doesn't suck all the information in as easily as it used to

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So you have to kind of put in the time

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which is rewarding But also kind of sucks like getting language learning burnout.

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I've had it multiple times.

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It sucks It's a lot of like hours and and and and and elbow grease Determination power of will nah,

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but you just really need to Try really hard.

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I mean I could have just said that yeah, I mean try really hard guys.

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I know a lot of the tips or advice that I've been giving out today, they sound pretty obvious to me,

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but I mean, these are my experience looking back on them.

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Yeah, I guess they're obvious, but I kind of feel like if someone had told me these things way earlier on, then I could have saved a lot of time now.

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So that's kind of why I wanted to put this video together.

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Don't be slack at the beginning of your language learning journey.

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Be tough on yourself and be detailed because all the lack of detail now, like, yeah, like you can move forward faster at the beginning,

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but it's going to come back to bite you in that sweet, sweet booty later on.

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But like I said at the beginning, I mean, it depends on the level that you're trying to achieve as well.

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I'm trying to speak Japanese at a level where I can act in it, appear on TV and have it not sound too weird to native speakers of the language.

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But if your goal, you know, is just to speak a little bit

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when you come on holiday then you don't really need to

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worry too much about it it's coming full circle now going back to identifying your language learning goals

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but learning language as an adult in life is one hell

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of a challenge it ain't easy i found it a very rewarding experience

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because being to converse with people from all around the world

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from different cultures different countries in their own native language it's really fun

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because a lot of things get lost in translation oh my god that's

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so cheesy dude shut the hell up

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but it's true it really is true that's why there's a

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movie anyway what i'm saying is speaking to someone in their second language

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and being able to speak to someone in their native language

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it's like a whole different experience you can like get a

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better understanding of like people's personalities you get a deeper understanding of

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that country's culture as well which is really awesome it's super rewarding honestly super hard

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but if you are on a language learning journey hey even

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if you're not an adult but especially if you are it's tough

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but hang in there and hopefully this discussion and these tips

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that i've given today come in kind of helpful let me know in the comment section below

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if you also have any tips that you want to share with language learners

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or you want to share any stories of your own language

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learning journey please let me know would be really fun to

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read them i would really enjoy to hear any funny stories

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or moments you had or any tips you have from learning languages as an adult

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so yeah as always guys thank you so much for watching today's video

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and i'll see you in another one coming very very soon see ya

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164 sentences

Adult Language Learning: Insights from a Bilingual Journey

Context & Background

The speaker, an Australian with a Thai mother, shares their experience learning Thai and Japanese as an adult. Growing up, they rejected Thai lessons but later took on both languages at 20–21, a time when the brain is less inclined to absorb languages naturally. Despite this, they achieved functional fluency, even acting in both languages on television. Their tips, rooted in personal mistakes and lessons, aim to smooth others' learning paths, with some tailored to Thai and Japanese.

Key Tip: Start with Clear, Specific Goals

One of the speaker's core pieces of advice is identifying why you're learning a language and how you'll use it. Vague goals like "speak Thai" aren't enough—define your level, such as "hold a 10-minute conversation about travel." This focus helps prioritize practice, as fluency isn't required for basic communication. For example, if your goal is to order food, mastering restaurant phrases matters more than perfect grammar.

Shadowing for Adult Learners: A Practical Guide

Shadowing—repeating phrases immediately after a native speaker—is a powerful tool, especially for adult learners. Here's how to apply it to this video's content:

Step 1: Listen actively. Watch the video once to grasp the main ideas. Notice the speaker's tone and pace, which are conversational and relatable.
Step 2: Break it down. Pause after short segments (3–5 seconds) and repeat. Focus on mimicking intonation, not just words. For instance, when the speaker says, "it ain't impossible," emphasize the casual "ain't" to match their tone.
Step 3: Record yourself. Compare your recording to the video. Note differences in stress or rhythm—this helps refine your pronunciation.
Step 4: Focus on high-frequency phrases. Extract lines like "identify your goals" or "adequate level" and practice them daily. These phrases are useful for discussing language learning itself, a common topic for learners.
Step 5: Use a shadowing app. Apps can slow down audio or loop segments, making it easier to keep up. Look for ones that let you adjust speed without distorting pitch—this is key for mastering Thai or Japanese, which have unique tonal or rhythmic patterns.

Remember, shadowing isn't about perfection. It's about building muscle memory and confidence, two critical skills for adult learners. Even small daily practice sessions (10–15 minutes) can lead to noticeable progress.

Whether you're learning Thai, Japanese, or another language, the speaker's journey shows that consistency and clear goals matter more than age. By combining purposeful practice with tools like shadowing, you can achieve functional fluency and connect with others in your target language.

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Present perfect continuous have/has been + -ing — an action that started earlier and is still going on	I've been using · I've been giving
“Used to” used to + verb — a past habit or state that is no longer true	used to be · used to make
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	have managed · I've made · I've learned
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	anyone who is · guys who watch · think, 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.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

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