Shadowing Practice: Psalm 103:14 || Reflection - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Good morning, SPA family.
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Sorry about that technical difficulty.
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How are we doing?
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Good.
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Glory be to God indeed.
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We are in a season.
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We're always in a season.
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But what season are we in right now?
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We talked about it briefly.
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I know last week we didn't have an explanation.
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SPA holiday.
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How are we recovering from that?
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Was that a good holiday?
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How are you guys feeling?
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It's been a week.
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It's been good?
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Glory to God.
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I mean, I'm not going to lie.
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Sunday night I got home, I slept until Thursday.
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I didn't come back until Thursday.
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But yeah, so we are currently in the season of rain.
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We talked about it for the first week, two weeks ago, and now this is a very much an important season where we have said bye to Holy 50.
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We have said bye to talking about the ascension and the resurrection and the Holy Spirit descending upon the disciples.
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And now we're talking about rain.
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You may be thinking, is the Orthodox Church like an environmentalist church?
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Why are we talking about rain?
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Why are we talking about the ground?
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No, we're talking about it Because we see, and Sanyadi speaks about it in these hymns for this entire season,
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is that the Lord chose his love for mankind through how he sustains us through rain, right?
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There's a consistent thing seen from the old times of the Israelites to this day.
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It's the truth.
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That rain down from the heavens.
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It's from the sky.
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And so people always saw rain as a divine providence from God, God providing for his children, for mankind.
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And rain is very important because, though we live in 2026 now, where we just go to Whole Foods or Lidl or Aldi to get our, you know, food.
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There used to be a time where if you wanted to go to get food, you have to go to your backyard and pray to God that there was enough rain that had, you know, nurtured your crops so you could be able to eat, right?
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So rain was very important because it showed that it also provided for food and for sustenance.
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So David says in today's psalm, he causes the grass to grow for the cattle and herb for the service of man, that it may bring forth fruit out of the land.
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And so this Psalm 104 is a psalm really pondering on Genesis,
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where the psalmist speaks about and recounts the account of creation, how God created everything, and He created it for the providence and the love that he has for mankind.
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So, a very important thing is that with a without man, God provides grass to sustain his creation, right?
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And this is what the commentary says, and they really emphasize that.
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We ought not to overlook every small little thing God does for us.
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Even like how we are able to go to our car in safety, or go to work in safety, and all these things.
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Like, God is, there's a reason we call the Lord in our divine theology, we call him the Pantocrator, which is like the almighty, ultimate governor of the universe, right?
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There's not a single atom, a single molecule, a single raindrop, a single anything, a single hair on your head that is God, that does not happen without his permission and without him knowing, right?
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So, Him providing for us through rain and through all of these things,
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it points to the fact that mankind relies on the Lord for life.
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He is our very life.
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And really, not just that we feed on food or we need the crops that are sustained by rain,
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but that it points to a deeper thing.
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That we feed on the divine lotus that is the Word of God.
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Similarly to how the crops and the cattle, they wait for the season of rain.
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Because before rain, the ground is dry.
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There's no crops.
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There's no grass.
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There's nothing for them to feed on.
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And then when rain comes, we see, again, the grass grows for the cattle.
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Once the rain comes, the cattle can go into the mountains and graze.
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We talked about it in two weeks.
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We talked about how we are mountains.
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We're supposed to be grazed upon, right, by the faithful.
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They feed on the Word of God through in our souls, right?
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And similarly so, the cattle come from the rain to go and graze and eat.
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And so it points to how we also feed on the divine logos.
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And that, yes, it's very important to give thanks to God for the fact
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that He gives us very intimate and very literal things.
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Like food, water, a house to live in, four walls, clothing, all of these things.
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But it's all supposed to point to the greatest thing, and that Christ is the one who we feed on the most.
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So the question we're asking is, do you feel as though you are fed by the Lord?
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Do you feel as though you are fed by the Lord?
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Every single morning, I mean, fasting season is over, so I don't know if people are going back to eating breakfast.
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I kind of just forgot to do it, but they're eating lunch or dinner, whatever you're doing.
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Every single day, because you're hungry, you go to a certain plate.
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You go somewhere, you order something, you do something and you eat because your body craves, it needs, right?
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And without it, some things may happen.
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You may get hangry, you may get cranky, you may get angry, like I need food, I need food.
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You're thirsty, you need water.
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You crave for certain things and it's a consistent everyday thing, right?
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Similarly so, how do you crave for the Lord?
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How do you crave for God?
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Cattle and mankind itself looked for the rain because they know from the rain they would get nourishment for food, right?
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And this is going to be like, you're going to hear me say this 80 million times for the next, because this season goes all the way until New Year, not January, not January.
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New Year meaning September, our New Year.
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So this is going to be a consistent theme where we see cattle loves the rain.
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Mankind loves rain because it comes and brings forth nourishment.
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How are we nourished by the Lord?
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Do we look into the iconography of our church?
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Do we see the icon of Christ?
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And is our soul satisfied?
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We wake up in the morning to go to our prayer corner?
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Do we even go to our prayer corner?
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What is, because it's not even just about are you going to Him, but also why are you going to Him?
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The same exact way, it's not about are you eating?
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You could be eating, but your health could still be horrendous.
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You could just be eating junk food and nasty stuff.
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Okay, you're eating, but what are you eating?
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What foods are you eating?
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Are you eating like a balanced diet?
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That matters also.
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So then, are you coming to the Lord?
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And why are you coming to Him?
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To what extent are you fulfilled by Him?
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Are you like the Israelites who in the time of Moses, came to him, yes, but they came to him only for monetary gain.
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They came to him only to gain something.
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And then they left.
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And then they forgot God.
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And then they came back because the Egyptians are coming.
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And they came back because they needed manna and they came back
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because they wanted quails and they came back because because
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because were they satisfied by the Lord even the Psalms say David said they were satisfied
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but not in the way in
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which God wanted to satisfy them they're satisfied in the way they wanted to be satisfied
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so are you fed by him in the way he wants to feed you?
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That's the question we have to ask ourselves.
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Because we move from glory to glory to glory
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and the beautiful thing about our bridegroom and that he is Christ is
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that he has a certain vision and how he wants to really fulfill his creation
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and fulfill every single one of our souls
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and heal every single one of our traumas and wipe away every single one of our tears, right?
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But he has a way of doing it.
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A lot of the time, we have like a small 1% image of what that is.
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God solved this as a financial problem, or God do this.
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But he wants to continue to show his love upon us forevermore.
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It doesn't stop there.
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So similar to how cattle and mankind, when they saw the rain, they were happy to see the rain.
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And they were fulfilled by the rain, and that they were able to continue living from the nourishment they got, right?
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Similarly so, we have to look into ourselves.
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The rain is here, what am I using the rain for?
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God's hand is upon me.
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He's stretching His hand out to provide for me.
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He's stretching out with multiple solutions.
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Am I only taking two that I like and leaving the other infinity behind?
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How am I really taking advantage of this undeserving, graceful hand that is Christ?
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So I pray that just like cattle.
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Yes, believe it or not.
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We can learn from the cattle.
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We can learn from cows and sheep.
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just like the cattle and the sheep and those who are grazing on the mountains and also look to rain for nourishment.
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I pray that we all look toward Christ for nourishment and for the rain.
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Glory to God.
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Let's call up choir.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “Psalm 103:14 |”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: rain, cattle, eating, Lord, mankind. This video has 142 sentences and 1638 words to shadow. The speech runs for 8:12. The speaker talks fast, about 200 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 87% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is easy to follow. 42 of its 142 sentences are questions, so it is good practice for question intonation and short answers.
Key vocabulary in this video
The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| cow noun | /kaʊ/ | An adult female of the species Bos taurus, especially one that has calved. |
| mankind noun | /mænˈkaɪnd/ | The human race in its entirety. |
| satisfy verb | /ˈsætɪsfaɪ/ | To be enough (for) |
| nourishment noun | /ˈnɝɪʃmənt/ | The act of nourishing or the state of being nourished. |
| crave verb | /kɹeɪv/ | To desire strongly, so as to satisfy an appetite; to long or yearn for. |
| graze verb | /ɡɹeɪz/ | To feed or supply (cattle, sheep, etc.) with grass; to furnish pasture for. |
| fulfill verb | /fʊlˈfɪl/ | To satisfy, carry out, bring to completion (an obligation, a requirement, etc.). |
| crop noun | /kɹɑp/ | A plant, grown for it, or its fruits or seeds, to be harvested as food, livestock fodder, or fuel or for any other economic purpose. |
| psalm noun | /sɑm/ | A sacred song; a poetical composition for use in the praise or worship of God. |
| sustain verb | /səˈsteɪn/ | To maintain, or keep in existence. |
| providence noun | /ˈpɹɑvɪdəns/ | The careful governance and guidance of God (or another deity, nature, etc.). |
| sheep noun | /ˈʃiːp/ | A woolly ruminant of the genus Ovis. |
| ascension noun | /əˈsɛnʃən/ | The act of ascending; an ascent. |
| bridegroom noun | /ˈbɹaɪdˌɡɹuːm/ | A man in the context of his own wedding; one who is going to marry or has just been married. |
| cranky adjective | /kɹæki/ | Not in good working condition; defective, faulty. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| come back verb | To return to a place. |
| call up verb | To retrieve from personal or computer memory. |
| go back to verb | To stem from; to originate in. |
| wipe away verb | To remove or erase with a wiping motion. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- How are we recovering from that?
- How are you guys feeling?
- Why are we talking about rain?
- Why are we talking about the ground?
- Do we look into the iconography of our church?
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | are sustained · be grazed · are fed |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | Pantocrator, which is · one who we · those who are |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | have said |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 17 contractions and reduced forms, such as we're, you're, didn't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: thirsty /ˈθɝs.ti/, theology /θiˈɒ.lə.d͡ʒi/, faithful /ˈfeɪθ.fl̩/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: nourishment /ˈnɝɪʃmənt/, sheep /ˈʃiːp/, ascension /əˈsɛnʃən/, nourish /ˈnʌɹ.ɪʃ/, resurrection /ɹɛzəˈɹɛkʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: forevermore /fɔːɹˈɛv.ɚ.mɔːɹ/, iconography /ˌaɪkəˈnɒɡɹəfi/, undeserving /ˌʌndɪˈzɝvɪŋ/, resurrection /ɹɛzəˈɹɛkʃən/, infinity /ɪnˈfɪnɪti/
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 cow, mankind, satisfy.
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.