Shadowing Practice: Off-White Founder Virgil Abloh Interview on Education, Art, Culture, and Design - Learn English Speaking with YouTube
You can't waste even a day subscribing to what someone thinks you can do versus knowing what you can do.
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You can't waste even a day subscribing to what someone thinks you can do versus knowing what you can do.
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Welcome to Creating for the Future.
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My name is Bees.
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My pronouns are she, her, and hers, and I'm a senior from USC, Iovine, and Young Academy, where I study design, technology, and entrepreneurship.
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The first person I am honored to introduce is XQ's CEO and co-founder, Ruslan Ali.
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Thank you, Bees.
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I am thrilled to be here with you.
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It is my pleasure to introduce you all to the one and only Virgil Adler.
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Thank you very much.
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So this is about sort of passing on things
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that I've learned to a generation of people that can maybe apply it in their own way to their own careers.
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activism is rooted in this idea that you can spread knowledge
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so that change can happen what drives me is curiosity
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and I promote giving students the platform to be curious
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and let their ideas wander I'm an eternal optimist
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so I you know I fundamentally believe
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that the world can be better you know I don't think
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about boundaries I don't think about boxes I'm an optimist
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that believes in creativity and of course when you do
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that all of a sudden you start drawing all over the paper and not within the lines.
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In this first slide, if you asked a human walking down the street,
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can you lift a car almost before even thinking they would say no. But as you can see by this image,
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like 10 people, 11 people can lift a car and save a life.
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And I think that that's how I metaphorically view optimism
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and view how you can change the physical world through a number of ways of sort of breaking your knee-jerk reaction.
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And I love this phrase that I heard this year, and I think it super applies to the moment we're in now, is that you have to know better to do better.
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And it's a simple statement, but I think that just means to me, it's like there's areas to learn.
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Like no one is born with a political stance in mind, or no one is born knowing the intricacies of right and wrong.
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And I think it's important to sort of live in a world and make open space for doing what exactly we're doing, is having dialogue and allowing people to talk.
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I was looking to be bird's eye view when all of the 2020 was sort of like swirling around us.
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And I wanted to sort of put out something to help me, myself, deal with this sort of like almost weekly impending doom of news.
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And so I wrote this and I put it on my Instagram and it was just, you know, watch the news cycle and understand the news cycle,
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which means like understanding where it comes from and what it means.
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And then insert a new idea to sort of break that cycle.
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You can see what works, basically look at the results and make a tweak and then insert
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that idea again and see if we can get to a better place.
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If we as members of society keep this mentality and know where we are in the system, we can change the world that we live in.
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I made this when I was a student.
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If you look at this block vertically as like your obstacle, there's a mentality just to go straight through it and thinking that that's the straightest route, that's going to be the most efficient.
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There's another way, which is sort of going the long, hard, roundabout way, which is 10 times longer, but actually ends up getting to your end result.
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That looks more like my career on the right.
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And I sort of came in at an early stage and sort of looked at that block and saying,
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hey, it's a tall task for me to dream and want to be the head at Louis Vuitton or work with Nike.
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But I'm still going to get there.
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And I don't care about when, I just care about if I get there or not.
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And that long winding road that doesn't, I don't know if I'm going towards B, I don't know if I'm going the right direction, but I'm learning all the way through, failing all the way through,
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actually makes my career today.
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Fostering community is a super important thing.
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You know, a lot of people individualize their trajectory, but as soon as you foster a community with the same trajectory, your success becomes real.
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This year has showed us that there's injustices that lurk in lots of different corners, but community effort does make change.
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The impossible is possible when unified and when sort of believing that it can occur.
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Rachel, can you walk us through your educational pathway?
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My parents are from Ghana and West Africa and came to this country with like largely not much to their name.
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My dad instilled in me to like do well in school.
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And when I went to choose a college, he was like, I want a son that's an engineer.
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And I was like, you get it.
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You get that.
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You know, like I didn't want to be an engineer.
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But I was like, this is fair.
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This is for what you sacrificed.
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You know, I'm living up to that.
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But as soon as I got on campus, I said to my friends, my community, I was like,
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I'm only going to put 50% of my effort into school,
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quote unquote school, and I'm going to raise my interest up 50% to actively treat them equal.
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That's when I started DJing.
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That's why hip hop and music.
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I was like, that's not low.
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That's not what I do outside of school.
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That's what I do.
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That's what I'm into skateboarding.
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And literally to get to where I'm at today, if I hadn't spent so much time on that other 50%,
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being curious about art and learning things that weren't on my curriculum, I wouldn't sit before you today.
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What would you say to a student who's encountering stigma or resistance in their family around design or a non-traditional curiosity?
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That's a great question.
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Probably the best question I got all year.
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The way to sort of communicate an idea, there's this philosopher called Kierkegaard
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that talks about the most effective way for me to transmit
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an idea from my brain to your brain is not to tell you what to do.
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just to rearrange the furniture in your head so that you arrive at the same conclusion.
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So to a parent that's like, hey, I want you to be an engineer.
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And you're like, oh, I want to be a fine painter.
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My logic is always like absorb the information and then re-deliver it in a way that makes them sort of understand,
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but also that you're still going to go your own path.
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Virgil and Bees.
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I mean, you all are quite a pair.
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I could watch you all day.
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We have a lot of educators on the line today.
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What advice do you have for them as we're trying to
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help them unleash the potential of young people to think out of the boxes?
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Like I always say, like, say it's this, like I'm designing this candle, right?
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Or like the student or the classroom is this.
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Like, if I put this candle in an all white gallery space, it looks like a piece of art.
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If I put it in a garage, it looks like a piece of trash.
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You know, like someone would throw it away.
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It's dented.
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And I think I often use this analogy in design.
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I could either design the candle and spend a lot of time telling you about the candle, or I could just design the room that it sits in.
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And I would say that to an educator,
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as we break off the shackles of traditional education and the flaws that have been baked into that over time.
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It's not just the student, but also the classroom and the ambiance of where that classroom sits
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and how it operates and what it reflects of the outside world.
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Is that, of course the student is this, but the room around it, is that influenced by the way it's been done?
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Can it be changed?
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Can you take that room and put it outside in order to sort of build an ecosystem,
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build a classroom, the space around it that allows for learning not of the traditional sense, but the modern sense?
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I'm positive that the educator's expertise and also focusing on the room around it, so to speak, will yield solutions.
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Virgil, who have been some of the creators that you've looked to in your career?
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You know, for me, that's why I always put pop culture references in my presentation, you know, because I was, it was always burned into my head,
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which like you have to find these, that your inspiration should be in a book or someone that has like the luxury of history and context to, to say they're great.
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You know, like I like Picasso just as much as anyone else, but I also like Futura,
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who's graffiti artist from Brooklyn who comes from hip-hop
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and I understand hip-hop
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because I identify with it like hip-hop is just as important
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as fine art why is it different you know engineering wasn't me
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but I was gonna do it if you widened out
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that classroom to campus there was a there was a nightclub
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that I was DJing you know there was a farmers market
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that my roommate and I we were getting like Like we weren't eating fast food.
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He was like, I want to be a chef.
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And I was like, you're my roommate.
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Let's do this.
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So my classroom just kept getting bigger.
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You know, that's why I travel.
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That's why I don't see a limit between Paris and Chicago.
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It's like, I live here, but no, that's not, there's no limit.
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And I think that young people, I know it's hard.
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It's lofty gold to be like, don't believe in, abolish the stereotype.
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And don't believe the box that they put you in.
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but life is so short
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that you can't waste even a day subscribing to what someone
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thinks you can do versus knowing what you can do
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and that's like the switch it's it's like the switch in your head is
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if you can get to a place where you can act on that
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and the next hour after we're done speaking i guarantee you
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it's a domino effect all everything just starts like sort of like you know, obliterating itself away.
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Virgil, thank you.
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It's a pleasure.
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And thanks again to all those involved.
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It's an honor to just sit and talk.
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You know, I think when you talk, things can crystallize and hopefully they can lead to change.
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Thank you.
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Context & Background
The interview featuring the renowned designer Virgil Abloh provides invaluable insights into education, creativity, and community involvement. As a figure who has shaped various cultural landscapes, Abloh emphasizes the importance of curiosity and knowledge sharing as catalysts for change. He challenges conventional thinking, encouraging individuals to break through limitations and explore their potential. His journey in the design world serves as a model for those aiming to navigate their careers amidst obstacles and uncertainty. By focusing on fostering community and collective growth, Abloh presents a refreshing perspective on how we can collectively impact the world around us.
Top 5 Phrases for Daily Communication
- "You can't waste even a day subscribing to what someone thinks you can do."
- "Know better to do better."
- "I'm an eternal optimist who believes in creativity."
- "Fostering community is super important."
- "Change can happen when you spread knowledge."
These phrases not only embody the spirit of innovation and optimism but can also be essential for everyday conversations. Incorporating them into your discussions can enrich your vocabulary and enhance your English speaking practice.
Step-by-step Shadowing Guide
To effectively learn English through the interview with Virgil Abloh, follow this shadowing technique to enhance your speaking skills:
- Listen Actively: Start by watching the video without subtitles. Pay attention to Abloh’s tone, pace, and intonation.
- Focus on Key Phrases: Identify the top phrases listed above. Repeat them several times until you feel comfortable with their pronunciation.
- Pause and Repeat: Use the shadow speech method. Play small segments of the video, pause, and repeat what Abloh says. This helps you mimic his accent and rhythm.
- Record Yourself: Use a shadowing site or any recording application to capture your voice while practicing. Compare your pronunciation with that of the speaker.
- Engage with the Content: Reflect on the ideas discussed. Try to use them in your conversations or writing, allowing you to practice these phrases in a meaningful context.
By systematically applying this shadowing technique while engaging with motivational content, you can significantly improve your English skills. Make the practice enjoyable and learn English with YouTube by exploring other inspiring videos that resonate with your interests and career goals.
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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