Shadowing Practice: My Twin Sister - Learn English Speaking with Video

This is my twin sister.

I'll call her Rhubarb or Roo for short because I don't like rhubarbs.

Roo and I are identical twins.

Yay!

We've seen a few twins in some shows, but the identical twins are always so similar that you can barely tell them apart.

That's definitely not the case for us.

Now, obviously, when we were babies, we looked pretty similar.

I was the older one and I was born with a few complications, while Rue was a normal baby.

But ever since we were in, like, kindergarten, we really didn't want to be labeled as the same.

So we eventually tried to look really different from each other, which wasn't very hard.

I kept my hair as long as possible and always parted my bangs.

I had this outrageous side part my whole childhood because I thought it looked cool.

It really didn't.

We didn't really share our clothes just because our styles were vastly different even back when we were kids.

I only wanted to wear black and as I said in my first video that I probably deleted now,

it was just because I found colors really uncomfortable to look at and wear even now.

It's not much of an "I'm so edgy and I hate color" kind of thing, but it's more like colors make me really nauseous and the look of it makes me really uncomfortable,

If I was required to wear color, I would totally lose it.

If it was in public though, I would comply but I'd cry.

Anyways, Rue on the other hand wore everything.

If I wore something baggy, it was considered tacky and dull and I'd look like a bum.

But if she wore the same thing, it'd be adorable, it'd be cute, it'd be gorgeous.

If any of you guys have ever felt like a homeless man in baggy clothes, but then you see that other girls still look really girly and pretty with the same clothes,

it's like that feeling.

Academics wise, we were both pretty smart.

We started the gifted program in first grade, I mean, honestly, I heard those kinds of tests aren't that accurate, but...

Anyways.

And of course, lots of people were smart in primary school.

It was before puberty, so a lot of kids were smart.

The problem was after primary school, but I'll talk about our personalities first.

I was nonverbal with selective mutism for the first 14 -ish years of my life and in ADHD kids, so I was ostracized a lot.

I was too quiet and acted too weird.

And even though I really wanted friends, I despised everyone and trusted no one.

who really liked me were the teachers, which was only in primary school, but I think that made the really mean kids hate me even more.

I was bullied for the smallest things like getting rewarded for completing extra credit work.

They were bigger and stronger than me so at the time I was genuinely terrified of them.

Unfortunately, I have a very selective memory so I don't remember much about Rue back then, but I do remember she was the complete opposite of me.

She was really outgoing and popular so she always had like a line of kids following her.

Also, this was something I vividly remember but every single day during recess in third grade, some little bowl cut prick would come up to me and say,

"Hmm, let me guess which twin you are.

Oh, wait." You're the mute one.

I would imagine just slamming that twerp's head on the concrete.

Fast forward to middle school, that was when the quarantine from COVID took place.

I fell off so hard.

I got addicted to unrestricted internet instead of the resourceful fun books around me.

I didn't do any of my work and since puberty had hit me, I just looked 90 times uglier than I already did.

Ruth stayed having good grades and she even somehow made a lot of friends who were at the same middle school, even though we were all completely online.

She'd call them a lot while I'd just be sleeping for either 16 minutes or 16 hours a day.

And then when we could finally start going back in person, I wish I'd just stayed online.

The bullying in middle school was the absolute worst.

You get picked on for no reason at all.

I also slept in all of my classes because for some reason I couldn't fall asleep at home.

I didn't get held back.

I dropped all of my gifted classes, moved down to honors, then down to the standard.

But Rue, she was doing great.

She dated a fellow popular kid and blew up on the internet for looking pretty.

We were at the age where we could start picking our own clothes alone, so she went out to the mall with her friends every week.

People would approach her, saying her style was so cool.

They were actually two underclassmen that would often give her handwritten letters because of how much they admired her.

Sometimes she'd say how she's so sick of all the compliments, and I'm I get what she means, but that amount of glazing definitely feels nice way more times than not,

especially when you're an extrovert like her, and she brags about it like every day in my face.

Rue never told any of her friends or fans that she had a twin sister, but I'm not gonna blame her for that.

I see how it'd be kind of embarrassing seeing this really cool girl have an autistic twin sister

that makes her look bad.

This only applies to shallow people, by the way, which I think applies to her whole audience.

I mean, who fans over someone they just because they look good.

That's like the definition of shallow.

Anyways, then we have high school, which was pretty eventful.

Rue already started working, and this specific workplace was a goldmine for her.

Her co -workers were all older than her and either very popular or very rich.

So drugs, vapes, alcohol, tattoos, piercings, all of that was now accessible to her.

Some of her co -workers were alumni of our high school, so they put in a good word to other high schoolers,

Now, I have a lot of sh *t to say, but basically, my family treated me like a black swan.

They thought being autistic was an evil and bad thing, and they thought it meant I was some sort of psychopath and I needed prayers.

Instead of proper medication, my parents gave me church.

The people at church were a whole nother story.

Those people are unreal, especially the old ones.

This isn't a purposeful jab at religion, by the way, so any comments on religion will be deleted, whether it's positive or not.

I'm just tired of it, honestly, because my whole childhood was sent to me around it.

Anyways, my parents neglected me a lot, treating me like an animal just because of my diagnoses, and always compared me to Rue.

Like, I'd get my ass beat for literally anything, even if they were just in a bad mood.

And they don't believe in mental illness, whatever that's supposed to mean.

So after I got diagnosed as a child with the many conditions I have, my parents got mad at the psychiatrist himself, and they refused to give me any treatment.

They wholeheartedly

it can easily be fixed by me getting my ass beat i'll probably make a separate video for this

but moving on at this point in high school rue already

had her future planned out she was learning about stocks paying for advisors

and taking lessons on college planning her goal was the ivy leagues

and i honestly believe she can do it the teachers loved her saying they've never seen such good essays

or good art and a lot of them are lenient on her letting her do things that other kids

school was pretty much the same as middle school.

I was pushed around a lot and a bit more than just that.

Now you might be wondering, did Rue know you were getting bullied?

And if you didn't wonder that, well now you do and I'm going to tell you my answer anyways.

A lot of the people who bullied me and pushed me around were her own friends.

She knew that they teased me, but she didn't think it was that deep.

I guess the fact

that it wasn't happening to me directly in front of her made her think it was okay to act oblivious.

This wasn't anything new since she's been friends with those school.

100

Rue had always still been a sister to me though, that was the main thing about her.

101

But I think high school was when it really conflicted me and I started thinking about hating her, even when I felt extremely guilty about it.

102

Even though we were different, we still defended each other when we could.

103

She'd defend me in situations where people were directly being mean to me in front of her, but that's about it.

104

We had the same moral values for everything, but that was back when we didn't really have much room to think independently.

105

We were just projecting whatever our parents and punished for thinking otherwise.

106

But in high school, I feel like we just went our own ways.

107

When we argued on certain topics, I realized she's very different from me in a negative way.

108

Everyone's entitled to their own opinions and such, but I'm not the kind of person that acts kindly towards people with selfish values.

109

I know that makes me a bad person, but that's how I honestly feel.

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I don't tolerate what I consider intolerant, and I don't think I'm obliged to.

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I'll give you an example.

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There was this one girl at my high school that bullied me the most.

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I'll call her Cabbage, or Cab for short.

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And Cab was the epitome of the popular kid stereotype.

115

Like, every time she saw a foreigner, she would say racial slurs, acting up in front of her friends and boys, all while telling everyone that she's a devoted Christian.

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This is literally 90 % of high schoolers, which is why I don't hang out with them, or anyone at all, because I know they're like that.

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And I'm not trying to say that I think I'm superior to all of them, but honestly, anybody's better than a racist.

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because of cab, and she's the biggest reason why I would skip my lunch period every day

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so I can hide in the bathroom stalls.

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Sitting on the toilet seat for 45 minutes continuously was so uncomfortable, but I'd rather have back and butt pain than be humiliated and pushed around in front of everyone.

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But during periods where she's unavoidable, she would bully me.

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She would trip me or push me to the floor to threaten me, throw garbage at me when I'm not looking, and use my phone to record her and her friends pushing me as a group.

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They did go insanely extreme at times, but those are all for later.

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I think you get the gist.

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Some of Cab's friends were hesitant at first, but seeing that everyone else was doing it, they would chime in too.

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After I came home from school, I would immediately lock myself in my room if I wasn't in the hospital, and I would cry non -stop.

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I'm talking casually about my experience now because it's just the vague details and not the ultimate focus of my point.

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But back then, that stuff really happened to me.

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I seriously felt like I was being punished for existing back then.

130

If I ever went out of my room for whatever reason, set.

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And all of that is… whatever, that was my daily high school life, that was normal for me.

132

Again, Rue would always get mad at those people for me if it happened directly in front of her.

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But it was high school, so we never had the same classes for anything.

134

So later on, maybe after a few months of the bullying happening, Cab and Rue started following each other on Instagram.

135

I forgot to mention that Cab was also popular on social media for being pretty.

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I felt a little off about person in general.

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So I asked her about it.

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She was acting all annoyed, saying, yeah, I don't know why she followed me.

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I just blocked her.

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But I checked again and she didn't.

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I know it's just a follow on social media, but that was when I started to feel a little uneasy.

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Fast forward to a few weeks later, we were just chilling together.

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Then Rue was laughing and brought up how Cab was texting her all of this funny stuff.

144

I looked at her and I said, wait, you talked to Cab?

145

And she just looks I honestly didn't say anything for a while.

146

I was just in shock.

147

But she bullies me.

148

You even saw her call that one girl a hard R.

149

No, I talk to her a lot and it's just her friends that are like that.

150

She's a really nice person and she's just misunderstood.

151

I was very disgusted with my sister then.

152

A bad past doesn't justify harming people who did nothing to you.

153

And if Cab's friends are considered bad, then I will assume that she's just as bad as them.

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exist everywhere and will just blame their terrible actions towards others on their young age

155

or traumatic past without any accountability disgusts me.

156

I would argue that 99 .9 % of bad people have been through something bad themselves and it really doesn't justify anything.

157

That was when I realized that Rue was becoming different.

158

So I told her, "Dude, her dumb past doesn't justify bullying, you know that." Rue got all mad and defensive and she said, "You don't even know her or what

159

I'm actually very positive that Rue knew

160

that what she was doing was something against the morals she preached so hard about online.

161

But she must take after my mother because she refuses to admit she's in the wrong and argues instead.

162

Now, every time me and Rue get into an argument, instead of trying to counter my argument, the only things she brings up are that I have no friends, I don't go out, and she has a life while I don't.

163

She'd go for my weak spots, saying, At least I'm not depressed.

164

Or, Your autism doesn't excuse you being lazy.

165

Or, and nobody ever will.

166

These insults make me feel really frustrated because she genuinely doesn't know what it's like to be me, and she never will.

167

There is one more insult Rue loves to use.

168

It's when she says, you're just jealous of me.

169

That one gives me more conflicting emotions because it hits me kind of hard, you know?

170

I would never choose to act like her, but at the same time, I really am jealous of the fact that she's the one who's been living on a pedestal her whole life.

171

Her friends and everyone who knows her make sure to make that known to me.

172

Like, there was this one time where I had just made a new personal Instagram account, and some dude from my high school followed me.

173

I'll call him Celery.

174

I didn't ever talk to him at school, so I considered removing him, but then he texted, Hi.

175

In my mind, I was thinking, oh, maybe he wants to talk to me.

176

Rightfully so.

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So naturally, I texted hi back.

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And then this dude wrote, I have a few things for room.

179

Meet me near the vending machine when you arrive.

180

I was pretty annoyed.

181

wasn't the first or last time something like that had happened to me.

182

People always walk up to me just to make me give something to Rue.

183

I'm not some servant you give specific instructions to.

184

Like, bro, do it yourself and the least you could have done is ask.

185

There was another time where a guy did this and his friends thought he was giving it to me, but he gagged and was like, ew, no, no, it's for Rue,

186

not, not her, ew, bro.

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Like, damn, okay.

188

Back to the story, so when Celery I texted back.

189

You should give those things to her yourself.

190

Rue likes confident guys.

191

I didn't have the intention of texting rudely and even now I don't think it sounded rude.

192

Does that sound rude?

193

Am I an asshole?

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He just said never mind and I removed him from my followers.

195

The next day, you know what Celery did?

196

He went around and told his friends that I'm jealous of Rue because Celery likes Rue and not me.

197

I was baffled.

198

There's not even any good points to him.

199

I have really high confused because they didn't even know Rue had a twin sister.

200

It's so embarrassing every time somebody says right in front of me, wait, Rue, you had a twin sister?

201

Then they look me up and down and say, oh, you guys look so different.

202

Again, I'm already used to that, but it's still embarrassing every time.

203

After the argument we had about Cab, Rue just acted like it never happened and we argue every time Cab is brought up, but Rue still happily brings her up anyways.

204

I've totally given up at me like every slur in the book and she has no regrets for anything she's done.

205

And I know that when we're older, I'm just gonna be the one shunned because what she did was back

206

when she was just a high schooler

207

and I'm gonna be the one to be told by everybody else to just forgive and forget, which honestly to me is one of the stupidest things you can say when someone talks about their experience.

208

I will never forget Cab and I will never forgive her either.

209

So yeah, I am jealous the fact that she's so ignorant of others makes me feel like she didn't go through much.

210

She's a type who has a friend group that treats quiet kids like animals, and then she acts like a saint towards them herself.

211

I see so many of my fellow quiet kids falling for this.

212

Please don't fall for it.

213

She talks shit behind your back.

214

She turns a blind eye and acts like she's not a part of the problem

215

when she actively involves herself with the problem.

216

She's friends with racists, homophobes, misogynists, groomers, ableists, and everything else.

217

But oh, she herself isn't bigoted, so it right?

218

At the end of the day, we're still twins, so we treat each other like sisters.

219

We spend money on each other, share our food whenever, and I listen to her talk about school.

220

But I will never fully like her as a person, and I'm very much jealous of her.

221

Even now, people rarely say my name, they just call me Rue's sister.

222

So it makes me happy when people actually use my name for once.

223

My name's Seiyu, by the way.

224

Hello.

225

I feel like the fact that I spent over 200 hours making a whole video on her says enough about my jealousy.

226

And right now, as I'm recording this, Rue is currently outside, underage drinking with Cab and her gang who are now her best friends.

227

I'm still 17, but I don't physically go to school anymore and the bullying was the majority of the reason why.

228

All of this stuff, with Cab and the bullying, happened in my freshman year of high school, so a few years ago.

229

But, fortunately, that does mean that I don't experience bullying on the daily anymore.

230

Yay!

231

Now I have to worry about bullying in college.

232

Anyways, thanks for listening to my rant.

233

If any of you guys are twins or siblings in general, or maybe you have a friend like this, I want to hear how your experience differs from mine or how it's similar,

234

which I really hope it's not.

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Oh, oh, oh, also.

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Join my Discord server.

237

I'm very lonely.

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36 sentences

Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This video has 237 sentences and 3396 words to shadow. The speech runs for 17:34. The speaker talks fast, about 193 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 82% 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 less common words from the video, with pronunciation and meaning:

twin /twɪn/ (noun) — Either of two people (or, less commonly, animals) who shared the same uterus at the same time; one who was born at the same birth as a sibling.
anyways /ˈɛn.iˌweɪz/ (adverb) — Anyway, anyhow, in any case.
bullying /ˈbʊ.li.ɪŋ/ (noun) — An act of intimidating a person to do something, especially such repeated coercion.
bully /ˈbʊli/ (noun) — A person who is intentionally physically or emotionally cruel to others, especially to those whom they perceive as being vulnerable or of less power or…
jealous /ˈd͡ʒɛl.əs/ (adjective) — Suspecting rivalry in love; troubled by worries that one might have been replaced in someone's affections; suspicious of a lover's or spouse's fidelity.
argue /ˈɑɹ.ɡju/ (verb) — To show grounds for concluding (that); to indicate, imply.
uncomfortable /ʌnˈkʌm.fɚ.tə.bl̩/ (adjective) — Not comfortable; causing discomfort.
justify /ˈd͡ʒʌstɪfaɪ/ (verb) — To provide an acceptable explanation for.
defend /dɪˈfɪnd/ (verb) — To ward off attacks against (something or someone).
moral /ˈmoɹəl/ (adjective) — Of or relating to principles of right and wrong in behaviour, especially conforming to principles of rectitude.
forgive /fɚˈɡɪv/ (verb) — To pardon (someone); to waive any negative feeling towards or desire for punishment or retribution against.
rude /ɹuːd/ (adjective) — Lacking in refinement or civility; bad-mannered; discourteous.
delete /dɪˈliːt/ (verb) — To remove, get rid of or erase, especially written or printed material, or data on a computer or other device.
identical /ɪˈdɛntɪkl̩/ (adjective) — Bearing full likeness by having precisely the same set of characteristics; indistinguishable.
genuinely /ˈd͡ʒɛn.ju.ɪn.li/ (adverb) — In a genuine manner; truthfully, truly.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

bring up (verb) — To mention.
fall for (verb) — To be fooled by; to walk into (a trap) or respond to (a scam or trick).
look at (verb) — To observe or watch.
talk about (verb) — Used to draw attention to the speaker's characterization of someone or something.
come up to (verb) — To approach.
fall off (verb) — To become detached or to drop from.
get into (verb) — To move into (an object), such that one ends up inside it.
go for (verb) — To try for, to attempt to reach.

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 96 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, didn't, don't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “sh” and “zh” sounds: shallow /ˈʃæloʊ/, punish /ˈpʌnɪʃ/, shock /ʃɔk/, intention /ɪnˈtɛnʃn̩/, racial /ˈɹeɪʃəl/
Long words — get the stress right: uncomfortable /ʌnˈkʌm.fɚ.tə.bl̩/, genuinely /ˈd͡ʒɛn.ju.ɪn.li/, naturally /ˈnæt͡ʃ.(ə.)ɹə.li/, superior /sʊˈpɪɹ.i.ɚ/, accessible /əkˈsɛs.ɪ.bəl/

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 twin, anyways, bullying.

Grammar in this video

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

Structure	In the video
Conditional sentences if + clause, will/would + verb — a condition and its result	if she wore the same thing, it'd be
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	was born · be labeled · was required
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	teachers, which was · friends who were · school, which was
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	We've seen · have ever felt · they've never seen

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

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

Shadowing Practice: My Twin Sister - Learn English Speaking with Video

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