Shadowing Practice: No one has personality anymore - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
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Why does it feel like everyone is dressing the same, reading the same books, and going on holiday to the same places?
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In this episode of Under the Influence, I explore the idea that influencer marketing might be causing the death of personality and how by aimlessly following trends,
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you might be losing yours.
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I'm Em and I'm extremely passionate about getting us all to think more critically when we engage with media online, especially when it comes to influencer culture.
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If you're interested in being de-influenced daily, you're more than welcome to join my free newsletter under the influence on substack
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or follow me on instagram as ordinary m personalities used to
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be the reason we follow people now there's something you can
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manufacture used to follow someone who is a bit quirky had niche habits
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and maybe made you look at the world differently perhaps they encouraged you directly
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or indirectly to be more yourself to lean into what made
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you different now we have cores cottagecore goblin core grandma core
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barbie core gorp core also known as aesthetics soft girl aesthetic y2k aesthetic clean girl
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and most recently the cool girl an aesthetical core as it
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relates to the internet is just visual vibes really they signal a lifestyle
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and attempt to quickly tell you a lot about a person purely on the way they dress
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and style themselves your aesthetic doesn't just tell us about your fashion sense
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but also your hobbies maybe your taste in music
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and even your coffee order cause our personalities that are manufactured
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so that it is easier to sell us stuff
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because it means we see ourselves
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and the people they are using to market their products and
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if they have it we should have it but more on
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that later basically influencers are no longer inspiring people to be
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more themselves they're trying to get us to be more like
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them exhibit a fashion content fashion content used to be bear
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with me maybe you remember this time people who loved fashion sharing their tips
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and tricks showing off a wardrobe sometimes huge full of clothes they loved clothes
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that they had curated over years
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and years from all over the world from all over the
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country from you know like not just trending fast fashion stores they wanted people to experiment.
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They were clearly so inspired and passionate about fashion.
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Now it just feels like fashion content is just affiliate marketing.
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It seems like it's just new in or hauls with endless links.
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It feels so much less personal.
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I'd say even it goes so far as to feel a bit soulless.
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And what this content does is get us to all buy
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the exact same clothes from the same fast fashion store to keep up with the same trends
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which means we all end up looking like everyone else instead of more ourselves.
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We used to go to the shops a long time ago and decide for ourselves what we liked.
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Of course there was some advertising and magazines and posters but it wasn't so in your face.
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You could choose how to style that cardigan that you really loved or the accessories you bought at a random little store.
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It also wasn't like there was the five big brands that you had to shop at.
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You could be wearing clothes from anywhere and you weren't just buying entire outfits linked by someone.
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It's almost like we didn't need the validation of everyone else
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being obsessed with a piece in order for us to buy it.
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We just bought what we liked.
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Obviously even back then there was an illusion of choice but you know what I mean.
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It was maybe one or two YouTubers that had mentioned a product or worn a certain pair of jeans.
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Not a hundred plus influencers all buying the exact same bag.
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Which leads me to exhibit B, what's in my bag?
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I think what's in my bag is a great case study for my hypothesis on the death of personality.
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And for those who don't know, it was YouTubers basically who would post videos, what's in my bag, using bags they'd had for years.
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That was so iconic and bags they were known to have.
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You could see they'd had this bag for years.
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It'd been dragged through.
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These weren't brand new, pristine, shiny things they just bought a few days ago that they claimed to be obsessed with.
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No, they were obsessed with these bags.
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They'd have the same bag for multiple months, multiple years.
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And it was full of things that were so unique to them and their lives.
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And they'd basically be unpacking it or packing it.
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And whilst they were doing that, they would share some genuine recommendations.
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And you knew they were genuine because none of it was an ad.
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You could very clearly see that someone's lipstick had been used.
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You know, the branding's worn off.
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Do we even see that anymore?
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And you knew then that they actually really liked it.
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You'd learn so much about a person through these videos and their personality.
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But now, if someone in today's online culture was to make content of this nature,
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it's with a bag everyone has and will probably never use again once the new trending bag has been chosen.
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My bet is that it will have the same hand sanitizer that everyone else has, the same book that everyone on BookTok is reading, the same shade of lip liner that is trending,
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and it would most definitely be an ad.
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And if it wasn't an ad, odds are they link the bag.
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To me, this content always feels like product placement now because it's just so boring.
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It's actually hilarious to me as well
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that now brands are trying to sell us personalized bag charms to make you seem cool
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and quirky like you know you're sentimental and you've collected things
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that you really love
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when in fact you're literally like everyone else our bags used to represent us
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and how we lived and loved and now
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that can be further from the truth as we all flippantly
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merge into the same kind of person with the exact same hobbies.
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But before we get into exhibit c I just wanted to remind you to subscribe especially
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if you're enjoying the video and don't want to miss the next one.
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Exhibit c the shopification of hobbies.
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You're not going crazy
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if you think everyone on the internet is knitting then coloring
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then junk journaling then painting by numbers all at the same time and for a very limited amount of time.
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Hobbies aren't normally something we pick up in our childhood then forget as we grow older
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and kind of come back to us in adulthood.
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We know doing stuff with our hands and not being on a screen is so good for us.
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And this is not me saying that I don't think people should post their crafts and their hobbies.
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I just want to point out how I've noticed it being done
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and how it adds to my hypothesis of the death of personality.
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People used to spend years creating home libraries with books that they had actually read.
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Now people just do a to-be-read book haul and create libraries that I know they will never be able to get through,
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especially if they keep ordering books at the same frequency and quantity that they're doing now.
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People used to spend years honing a craft, investing in classes and slowly acquiring all the tools needed to take it up a level.
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Now it seems like people are just buying stuff for hobbies
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and treating the buying of stuff for a hobby like a hobby.
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I'm not saying you can't try hobbies people.
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Of course dip your toes in as many as you can
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and find what you really like to do
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but there's no need to leave a wake of waste behind
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you you can thrift a lot of the things you need
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and if you're genuinely wanting to try something out you can borrow
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or start small until you really know you like it
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and want to carry it on for a couple of months a couple of years i've also watched
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so many people primarily at the beginning of this year create analog bags
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if you don't know what
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that is was basically a bag where you kept a bunch of offline activities
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that you could then go to and have all in one place
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when you're trying to spend less time on a screen
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but it was more about making it look aesthetic than about making it useful
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and when i saw amazon
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and other shitty fast fashion stores selling analog bags i knew
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we'd just taken it too far again hobbies are deeply personal parts of our lives
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and you should do what you really love whether it's trending
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or not and please don't let the internet ruin a hobby that you've had forever.
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I promise you do not need the latest
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most aesthetic set of coloring markers and the latest trendy coloring book to prove that you're a colorer.
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You don't need to prove anything about your hobbies.
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And yes, this does all sound absolutely ridiculous to me too.
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The internet is a weird place and it's where a lot of people spend their time.
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I know that most people on the planet aren't consuming hobbies in the way
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that people do online or purchasing a new bag every single week.
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But unfortunately, a lot of people let social media warp their normal and I don't want that to happen to you.
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So how do we get here?
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Well, it's because influencers hop on these trends on these cores
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because they can make money off of us buying into their
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lifestyles they need us to want to be like them that's why they deem it a must-have
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or an essential we are seeing more and more of this content
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and it makes it feel like it's everyone else but us
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so we buy it too and in that process you lose all of the wonderful things that make you
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you aka your personality if you're buying what they're selling
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because you want to fit in i need to remind you
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that you will never be able to keep up that's literally the entire point of trends
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if you're buying whatever they're selling
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because you want to feel like you're a part of something then i beg you to go
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and spend time in real community if you don't have friends
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or family nearby see what your local community is up to
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or go to events that local clubs are putting on
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if you're buying whatever they're selling
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because you want to be cool then I need you to
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take a second maybe even a couple minutes to just think about what you really deem cool
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and it's probably the courage and confidence that someone has to seemingly be themselves
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that you're trying to replicate but you're not going to be able to do
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that by trying to look like them you can't copy
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that you need to go and figure it out for yourself and spoiler alert it doesn't normally include buying more things.
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As cliche as it sounds, just be yourself.
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We need more of it.
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Follow people who actually inspire you, follow people who encourage you to find your own style
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and not just click links and earn them commission
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and follow people who don't just make you feel like you need more shit.
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Okay, thanks for watching.
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See you next time.
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Bye!
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “No one has personality anymore”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: bag, hobbies, buying, fashion. This video has 156 sentences and 1963 words to shadow. The speech runs for 10:13. The speaker talks fast, about 192 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 86% 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
The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| hobby noun | /ˈhɑ.bi/ | An activity that one enjoys doing in one's spare time. |
| influencer noun | /ˈɪnflu.ənsə(ɹ)/ | A person who or a thing which influences. |
| aesthetic adjective | /ɛsˈθɛ.tɪk/ | Concerned with beauty, artistic effect, or appearance. |
| cloth noun | /klɒθ/ | A fabric, usually made of woven, knitted, or felted fibres or filaments, such as used in dressing, decorating, cleaning or other practical use. Sometimes… |
| exhibit verb | /ɪɡˈzɪbɪt/ | To display or show (something) for others to see, especially at an exhibition or contest. |
| obsess verb | /əbˈsɛs/ | To be preoccupied with a single topic or emotion. |
| inspire verb | /ɪnˈspaɪə(ɹ)/ | To infuse into the mind; to communicate to the spirit; to convey, as by a divine or supernatural influence; to disclose preternaturally; to produce in, as by… |
| deem verb | /dim/ | To hold in belief or estimation; to adjudge as a conclusion; to regard as being; to evaluate according to one's beliefs; to account. |
| quirky adjective | /ˈkwɜːki/ | Given to quirks or idiosyncrasies; strange in a somewhat silly, awkward manner, potentially cute. |
| analog adjective | /ˈænəlɔɡ/ | In which the value of a data item (such as time) is represented by a continuous(ly) variable physical quantity that can be measured (such as the shadow of a… |
| hypothesis noun | /haɪˈpɒθɪsɪs/ | A tentative conjecture explaining an observation, phenomenon or scientific problem and that can be tested by further observation, investigation, or… |
| haul verb | /hɔl/ | To transport by drawing or pulling, as with horses or oxen, or a motor vehicle. |
| passionate adjective | /ˈpæʃənɪt/ | Fired with intense feeling. |
| aesthetical adjective | Of or pertaining to aesthetics. | |
| aimlessly adverb | /ˈeɪmləsli/ | Without an aim, purpose or direction; in an aimless manner. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| end up verb | To bring to a conclusion. | |
| get through verb | /ɡɛt ˈθɹu/ | To overcome; to endure. |
| keep up verb | To maintain; to preserve; to prevent from deteriorating or falling. | |
| keep up with verb | To manage to remain beside or just behind someone or something that is moving away from one. | |
| point out verb | To identify among a group of similar subjects, or in a scene where the subject might not be readily seen or noticed, with a gesture of the body. | |
| show off verb | To exhibit the best attributes of something. | |
| wear off verb | to diminish in effect |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- You could see they'd had this bag for years.
- You know, the branding's worn off.
- Do we even see that anymore?
- I'm not saying you can't try hobbies people.
- You don't need to prove anything about your hobbies.
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| “Used to” used to + verb — a past habit or state that is no longer true | used to follow · used to be · used to go |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | are manufactured · being obsessed · were known |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | has been chosen · you've collected · I've noticed |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | someone who is · people who loved · those who don |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 56 contractions and reduced forms, such as you're, don't, they're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: aesthetic /ɛsˈθɛ.tɪk/, cloth /klɒθ/, hypothesis /haɪˈpɒθɪsɪs/, thrift /ˈθɹɪft/, aesthetics /ɛsˈθɛt.ɪks/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: passionate /ˈpæʃənɪt/, cliché /kliˈʃeɪ/, validation /ˌvæl.əˈdeɪ.ʃən/, illusion /ɪˈl(j)uːʒ(ə)n/, recommendation /ˌɹɛkəmɛnˈdeɪʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: influencer /ˈɪnflu.ənsə(ɹ)/, hypothesis /haɪˈpɒθɪsɪs/, personalize /ˈpɜː.sə.nə.laɪz/, sanitizer /ˈsænɪtaɪzɚ/, accessory /əkˈsɛs.(ə.)ɹi/
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 hobby, influencer, aesthetic.
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.