Shadowing Practice: Noah Kahan Is the Guy Fieri of Gas Stations; Reveals “Pretty Sad” Vibe of The Great Divide - Learn English Speaking with YouTube
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Welcome to the show.
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Welcome to the show.
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Congratulations.
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It is officially out, because it's at midnight.
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Now the album's out.
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It's released in the world.
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It's in the world.
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This is it.
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Yeah.
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I'm, uh...
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I'm excited.
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I'm nervous.
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I've been name-searching myself all evening.
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You really are?
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No. But you're having a great time right now.
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You have a new album.
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You have a new documentary.
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You're gonna be on Saturday Night Live.
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Um...
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And you're about to go on a huge stadium tour this summer.
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We have a lot coming up.
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I'm booked and busy right now.
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You are booked and busy.
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By the way, the tour is already breaking records.
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I want to say that you're the first artist to play four consecutive nights at Fenway Park.
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And you not only...
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Not only that, you already sold them out.
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Yeah.
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You sold them out.
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Boom!
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Let's go!
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Hi, man.
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I, uh...
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How does that feel?
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It feels good.
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I feel like Drew Barrymore in Fever Pitch.
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Oh.
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The best movie ever made.
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Yeah.
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I did recreate that scene the last time I was there.
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I sprinted across the outfield.
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Yeah, spongy.
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Yeah, oh, yeah.
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Took it all in.
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Dude, it's the greatest.
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It's one of the coolest places to ever be.
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And what a great city.
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I mean, everyone...
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I mean, you've done Fenway before, right?
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We did two Fenways.
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Last year was the most unbelievable moment of my life.
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Like, we stood up on the Green Monster and played a set-up there,
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and my family was there,
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and everyone I knew came.
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It was amazing.
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You do stuff like that.
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You sell out a stadium.
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But then, like, ten years ago,
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didn't you, like, you sold 77 tickets to a concert?
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Yeah, and that was a big deal for me.
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That was, like, $80 profit after it was all said and done.
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But I remember I used to, uh...
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I used to use my mom's credit card to buy the remaining tickets that weren't sold out to my shows.
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And, uh...
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To just have a sold-out show?
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I just wanted it to say sold out,
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and so I would use my mom's card,
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and she would get, like, a $500 charge.
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She'd be like, what the hell happened?
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And I'm like, well, I sold the show out, technically.
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Your son's a star, yeah.
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A lot has changed, for sure.
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When did you start writing music and decided to make a career out of it?
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I started writing music when I was nine or ten years old.
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Um, yeah, I listened to the Beatles with my dad,
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and, like, I had the Beatles songbook,
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and then I started writing my own songs.
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And they were all super sad and depressing,
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so I don't know what was going on.
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We went to the Bahamas.
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I had a great childhood.
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But...
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You had to really pull from a different...
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I don't know what was going on back then.
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Something was happening within me that I still don't understand.
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Uh, let's talk about, uh,
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I want to talk about the documentary that was released last week on Netflix.
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It's called Noah Kahn Out of Body.
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It goes really deep into you and your family and the recording of the record,
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but also very personal stuff.
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Yeah, it was definitely a...
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It was an amazing experience filming it
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because I was just having conversations with my family that I might not have ever had without being prompted to by,
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like, the folks filming.
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That's interesting.
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It was the releasing that I didn't like.
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I was compartmentalizing the fact that it might ever come out,
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And I was like, yeah,
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something will probably happen in production that doesn't allow this thing to see the light of day.
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And it kept getting closer and closer.
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And it came out, and it was scary,
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but also beautiful to see people connect with it and to draw their own connections with their family and their lives.
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And it's been really special to see it out in the world.
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Congrats.
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Congrats on that.
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Thank you.
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One of your more popular songs,
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of course, is Stick Season.
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Yes.
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From your last album.
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In the film, you talk about how you wrote that song.
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And it's a pretty interesting story.
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Yeah, so I basically was just at this Airbnb,
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and I was just putting songs on TikTok just to kind of see what they would do.
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Um, I put a song,
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like, a verse of Stick Season on,
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uh, and basically just talking about how much I suck and how lonely I am,
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uh, which is my almost always inner dialogue, which is great.
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Uh, and then I took an edible and went to sleep.
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And then I...
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And I was...
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Right before, like, I got started to kind of...
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The edible started to kick in.
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I started getting really insecure.
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I was like, I'm gonna delete this,
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no one's looking at it.
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And then I...
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The Edible really kicked in,
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so I fell asleep before I could do anything.
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Good.
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And then I woke up the next morning,
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and, like, all these people had commented on it,
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and suddenly I was like, there's something here.
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And that's kind of how the song started.
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And it became this huge TikTok sensation, I guess.
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Yeah.
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And now you have to finish the song.
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Yeah, and I basically, like,
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I wrote the first verse and chorus in, like, 45 minutes.
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And then once I found out that people liked it,
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it took me a year and a half to finish it,
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because I was like, now people care about it,
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and I can't do anything good if people are watching, so.
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Imposter syndrome was on full display,
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but we eventually got a second verse down for it.
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Is it tough to write all this stuff?
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Because what album is this for you?
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This is my fourth album.
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A lot of music.
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It's a lot of music.
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Do you have writer's block, or do you ever...
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Always.
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I remember when I was 16 years old,
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before I'd even released any music,
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I had writer's block just on my own,
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and I was the only person listening to the music.
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I would, like, I would write a song,
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and then I would cry to my mom,
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like, I'll never write anything good again.
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And that's been, like, following me around my whole career a little bit.
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It's not funny at all.
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No, no, it's just sad.
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It's actually really sad.
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But you keep writing great music.
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You're getting great reviews for this album.
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It's fantastic.
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People have only heard a couple of songs,
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but now it's out, but you're getting great reviews.
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Congrats.
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Thank you so much.
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Yeah, it's been really cool.
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Thank you.
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You keep doing it.
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You keep topping yourself.
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You sell out Fenway, and now you sell it out four times.
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Don't stop, dude.
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Keep going.
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I know.
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There's got to be a ceiling to all this that I have to approach at some point.
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No, no, you can't stop.
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Your video for The Great Divide,
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by the way, a lot of the Internet is talking because you're in the gas station here,
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and you find yourself kind of a gas station connoisseur?
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I feel like I'm like the Michelin guide for gas stations.
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Thank you.
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Yeah.
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The Guy Fieri of gas stations, some might say.
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Some might say.
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I have a ranking system.
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Uh...
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Talk to me about it.
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And look, okay, yeah, so it's basically,
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like, you start with friendliness.
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Like, if the person behind the counter will look you in the eye,
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it's always a good start.
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Oh, I like that.
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Doesn't happen as much as you think.
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Second is bathroom cleanliness.
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Like, if I am going to get some kind of disease from walking into the bathroom
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that puts you down pretty low in the rankings.
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Yeah, sometimes you don't even want to touch the handle.
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You're like, I'm gonna kick it open.
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A Dyson fan is always good.
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One of those fans where you don't have to touch the...
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Those blades?
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Yeah, the blades.
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I don't know how they work.
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But, yeah, Dyson fan is big.
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And then, of course, I need some, like, deep-cut snacks.
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I'm talking, like, those pickles and the weird juice.
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I'm talking...
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Yeah.
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What are those?
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Dude, I got a pickle once and I love gas stations as well.
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I got a pickle in Kool-Aid.
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What is...
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I've never actually tried one of those.
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What does it taste...
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Does it just taste like a pickle?
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It's not good.
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I can't imagine.
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It doesn't look very good.
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But I do it again.
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Oh, God.
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In a heartbeat.
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Yeah, I was like, I live to tell the story, yeah.
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But what snacks are you talking about?
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Like, the pickles, the Muddy Buddies,
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um, Muddy Buddies, any kind of,
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like, those cinnamon toast breakfast bars that they tried to pretend were healthy for a couple years.
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I remember this.
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I was like, but it says it's for breakfast.
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It's like, that's just straight sugar.
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800 calories, yeah, yeah.
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Um, yeah, and then all sorts of different kind of Dr. Pepper.
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They have the Dr. Pepper strawberries and cream one.
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I really like that one.
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Just some more deep cut stuff.
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Lemon heads, grape heads, watermelon heads,
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any of the heads are good.
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Yes.
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This is fantastic.
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That kind of stuff.
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Next time you come on,
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we all want to talk about specific gas stations,
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and we give them props.
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Oh, yeah.
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We'll give them shout-outs.
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Congrats again on this album.
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What's the vibe of it?
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What can people expect in this one?
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Ooh.
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Yeah, it's pretty sad.
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It's pretty, um...
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I don't know.
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If something's going wrong in your life and it's raining, I recommend...
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Perfect!
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Nothing more needs to be said.
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Noah Kahn, everybody.
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The Great Divide is available now,
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and the documentary Out of Body is streaming on Netflix.
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More tonight show after the break.
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.
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Context & Background
Noah Kahan, a rising music star, recently released a new album and is embarking on a stadium tour. In a lively discussion, he shares his emotions surrounding this significant moment in his career, including detailed references to his experiences at Fenway Park and the excitement of performing there. His relatable reflections not only provide insight into his professional journey but also capture casual conversational dynamics that are exemplary for English language learners.
Top 5 Phrases for Daily Communication
- "I’m excited!" - A simple expression of enthusiasm, perfect for showing your feelings.
- "Let’s go!" - A motivational phrase to encourage action or energy in a conversation.
- "How does that feel?" - A great way to ask someone about their emotions or reactions.
- "I’ve been name-searching myself." - A humorous way to describe checking for mentions online; can be adapted in various contexts.
- "It feels good." - A straightforward response expressing positive emotions; useful in many conversations.
Step-by-step Shadowing Guide
To effectively practice your English speaking skills using the shadowing technique, follow this step-by-step guide based on Noah Kahan’s engaging conversation.
- Select the Video: Find the video that features Noah Kahan discussing his album and tour.
- Listen Actively: Before attempting to shadow, listen carefully to the entire dialogue. Pay attention to the tone, intonation, and pacing.
- Practice Shadow Speak: As you listen, start to repeat the phrases immediately after hearing them. Focus on mimicking Noah's accent and intonation.
- Utilize a Shadowing App or Site: For enhanced practice, use a shadowing app or a dedicated shadowing site that allows you to overlay your voice with the original speaker for comparison.
- Record and Compare: Record yourself while shadowing. Listen back to assess your pronunciation and fluency against the original dialogue.
- Repeat Frequently: Regularly revisit the video and practice these steps until you feel comfortable with the vocabulary and expressions.
Practicing with the shadowing technique will help you not only improve your speaking abilities but also enhance your confidence when engaging in everyday conversations, drawing inspiration from authentic interactions like Kahan's.
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.
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