Shadowing Practice: My Life Lesson from a Trip to India - Learn English Speaking with Video
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67 sentences
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It was May of 2006, and I was traveling 8,600 miles from my home in Phoenix,
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Arizona, to Bangalore, India.
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I grew up in Maine.
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Traveling to India was something I had never thought was going to be in my future.
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But I was heading there to onboard a team of employees.
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It was important to me not only to know their skills, what they wanted out of the job,
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but about them, them as people, their culture.
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So with that in mind, I decided to take a trip to what they call City Market.
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Now, City Market in Bangalore, India can best be described as an assault on all of your senses.
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It's not a tourist destination.
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In fact, they kept looking at me incredulously when I said, I really want to go there.
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They're like, no. No, no, no, no, no. An assault on the senses.
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Sights I had never seen before.
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Bright-colored fruits and spices.
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Lots of people.
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Smells.
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Not all of them are great.
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There was a lot of livestock around.
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And did I mention it was May and really, really humid.
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So crowds of people, all these scents, all these smells, all of these noises that I had never experienced in my life.
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It was a little overwhelming, to be honest.
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I kind of stuck out like a sore thumb.
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So when I spied over in the corner of the market, this alcove, this concrete alcove, that not only offered some shade,
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but it also offered a beautiful visual.
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See, it was in this basement-like structure that the ladies were sitting there, stringing flowers together, making lays for the temple.
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These colors in these flowers was absolutely amazing.
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And the smell of the jasmine in the air was incredible.
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And they sat there and they delicately strung these together.
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And as I was walking by and looking at them, one woman caught my eye.
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You see, she caught my eye because she was probably older than my grandmother.
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And I thought, oh, my gosh, she's sitting on that hard concrete floor,
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little bent hands, stringing these flowers for rupees.
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She had no teeth.
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She had probably nothing.
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So I unzip my very fancy fanny pack, as American tourists do, and I pull out my rupees.
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She doesn't speak English, I don't speak Hindi, so the international sign for, hey, I want to buy your things, right?
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And she looks at me up and down and she goes, devastated.
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I'm so embarrassed that I'm backing away from her into my guide and I say, Danny, my guide, I did something to offend her.
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Can you please go make it right?
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So he walks over, he has a little conversation with her, and then he waves me over.
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And she gets up and she picks the most beautiful jasmine lei I've ever seen.
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And with her arthritic hands, she pins it in my hair.
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And again, unzip the fanny pack.
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And she, I said, I don't understand.
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Danny said, Belinda, you picked her.
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You honored her by wanting her flowers.
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Your debt is paid in full.
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That moment changed my life because I realized I had gotten it all wrong.
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I was a child of the 80s.
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I was climbing that corporate ladder.
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Next title, next promotion, corner office.
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I had it all wrong.
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I was defining my value by what I earned and not by who I was serving.
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When we put money before honor, we're only going to get so far.
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But when we truly serve from our hearts, the people who honor us with their time, their trust, their money, we will be abundantly rich.
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I have a journal from that time in India.
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When I open that journal, I see that lay preserved.
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Flowers are now brown and wilted, but they are my constant reminder of a woman who had nothing,
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yet was the wealthiest person I have ever met in my life.
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Made a lot of changes in my life after that.
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I left India a new woman, my heart full, my mind full, and actually my arms were full too.
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Because not only did I go home and quit my job, I went home with a dog I had adopted off the streets of Bangalore.
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And he was my reminder as well of what we can do in this world.
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So I would leave you with this.
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Service over sales, honor over hustle,
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and most importantly, people over profits.
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Thank you.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “My Life Lesson from a Trip to India”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: flowers, India, Bangalore, smell, honor. This video has 67 sentences and 750 words to shadow. The speech runs for 5:35. The speaker talks at a steady 134 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. Only 80% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.
Key vocabulary in this video
The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| alcove noun | /ˈæl.koʊv/ | A small recessed area set off from a larger room. |
| rupee noun | /ɹuˈpi/ | Any of the monetary currencies used in modern India, Mauritius, Nepal, Pakistan, the Seychelles, or Sri Lanka. |
| unzip verb | To open something using a zipper. | |
| jasmine noun | /ˈd͡ʒæzmɪn/ | Any of several plants, of the genus Jasminum, mostly native to Asia, having fragrant white or yellow flowers. |
| reminder noun | /ɹɪˈmaɪndə(ɹ)/ | Someone or something that reminds. |
| abundantly adverb | /əˈbʌn.dn̩t.li/ | In an abundant manner; in a sufficient degree; in large measure. |
| arthritic adjective | /ɑː(ɹ)θˈɹɪtɪk/ | Of, or affected by arthritis. |
| delicately adverb | /ˈdɛlɪkətli/ | In a delicate manner; exquisitely. |
| incredulously adverb | In an incredulous manner; tending to disbelieve; skeptically. | |
| overwhelm verb | /ˌoʊ.vɚˈwɛlm/ | To engulf, surge over and submerge. |
| humid adjective | /ˈhjuːmɪd/ | Containing perceptible moisture (usually describing air or atmosphere); damp; moist; somewhat wet or watery. |
| onboard adjective | /ɒnˈbɔːd/ | Carried or used on or in a vehicle or vessel. |
| offend verb | /əˈfɛnd/ | To hurt the feelings of; to displease; to make angry; to insult. |
| hustle verb | /ˈhʌsəl/ | To push someone roughly; to crowd; to jostle. |
| devastated adjective | /ˈdɛv.əˌsteɪ.təd/ | Ruined, ravaged. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| get up verb | To move in an upward direction; to ascend or climb. |
| pull out verb | To withdraw; especially of military forces; to retreat. |
| stick out verb | To protrude. |
| walk over verb | To gain an easy victory. |
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 ever seen · have ever met |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | be described · is paid |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | people who honor · woman who had |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 8 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, I'm, doesn't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: arthritic /ɑː(ɹ)θˈɹɪtɪk/, thumb /ˈθʌm/, grandmother /ˈɡɹæn(d)ˌmʌðɚ/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: gosh /ɡɑːʃ/, shade /ʃeɪd/
- Long words — get the stress right: delicately /ˈdɛlɪkətli/, devastated /ˈdɛv.əˌsteɪ.təd/, importantly /ɪmˈpɔɹ.tənt.li/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Shadow it sentence by sentence at normal speed, repeating each one until your rhythm matches the speaker.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like alcove, rupee, unzip.
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.