Shadowing Practice: Quentin Tarantino Shares His Secret of Self Discipline - Learn English Speaking with YouTube
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I did fall asleep for a few years.
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I did fall asleep for a few years.
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You know, it was because working at that store,
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I just got caught up in the little life there and it's,
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you know, it's interesting because You know,
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you spent your 20s going to comedy clubs and you know, building a career.
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So I'm selling my 20s there and Well,
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it's one of those things where it's like,
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well This isn't my dream This isn't what I wanted to do working at a video store for years.
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Uh, I wanted to actually make movies.
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It's not my dream, what I'm doing. But it's dream adjacent!
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It's close to my dream!
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It's close to my dream!
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I get to watch movies all fucking day.
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I get to talk about movies all fucking day.
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I don't have to work at a pizza parlor.
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I don't have to- I'm not delivering pizzas.
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I'm not- I'm not busting ass, uh, as a bartender.
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I'm not busting ass doing menial jobs.
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I mean this is the kind of job I
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That you know I do if I I'd go to the store if I wasn't paid to go to the store Yeah,
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so it's like you know,
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but but for a couple years it did put me to sleep
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It did kind of put me to sleep It put my ambitions to sleep a little bit because I was happy enough.
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Yeah, I was happy and just like one of these days I'll Rob you didn't have the fire.
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I didn't have the fire and And when I got the fire,
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when I eventually got the fire back again,
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and it was a life-changing thing,
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it was a life-changing day.
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It was, um, we had a buddy of ours named Steve-o.
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Yeah.
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And he was one of,
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uh, uh, um, we had different living arrangements.
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And at one point in time,
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me and Steve-o were living in the same house together.
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Running in the back of the,
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towards the back of the store.
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The dude house.
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Yeah.
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It was where everyone would hang out. And, um...
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But now, Stevo was older than the rest of us.
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So, he was almost five years older than us,
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but he didn't seem like it.
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He was a young guy.
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Yeah, like five years younger mentally.
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Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or emotionally.
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Yeah, yeah.
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And, um, but... So he hits 30. And he starts changing.
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He starts changing, like, drastically.
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I mean, he was like one of the funniest guys I ever knew,
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and he was this really,
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really funny stoner dude, and really cool.
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And all of a sudden,
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he's like angry about things,
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and now he's not quite as funny,
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and now he's got this.. issue.
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And so we're roommates and there's this one night that he's kind of like all,
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he's kind of disgusted with his life.
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And he starts ranting and he's describing a situation
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that was very common if you were a kid growing up without a degree or anything in the 80s,
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especially in California, where it's like,
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you can't get any really good jobs.
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But like You could work at Licorice Pizza.
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And if you're an okay employee,
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you could work at Licorice Pizza for a couple of years.
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And maybe you could even become assistant manager or a manager.
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Maybe they send you to another store.
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And maybe you worked there for three years and that's really great.
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But then, you know, all of a sudden the district manager doesn't like you.
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You run a file of somebody higher up in corporate.
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And all of a sudden,
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next thing you know, you're fired and you're out in the street.
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Again it's management.
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Yeah.
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Okay.
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And so, now you've just spent three years at Licorice Pizza.
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Now you could get a job at TRW or some places like a real job job or,
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well those are kind of hard to get,
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but you can work at Warehouse Records and Tapes tomorrow because you just had three years at Licorice Pizza.
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Same thing with Wild West Clothier,
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same thing with Miller's Outpost,
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same thing with any of these kind of stores.
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Next thing you know, you're 28
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and the only jobs you've ever had are minimum wage jobs behind a counter
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that were designed for kids to pay for their gas.
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And you've like spent your entire 20s doing that.
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And then you start getting bitter.
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And you start getting bitter.
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And but, but he was not just bitter about the job aspect of it.
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He, but I knew he,
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oh my God, he's telling me the truth.
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I'm learning something here.
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Because he goes, you know,
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Quentin, you think that we're this really great team,
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we're this really great crew.
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Well, we are.
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I mean, this is that time of your 20s.
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We're like your group of friends or your family.
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And I'm like, well, we are.
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Quentin, at 20, I worked at South Bay Cinemas.
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And I hung out with a bunch of guys just like you.
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And some girls there too.
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But it was a bunch of guys just like you.
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And then I stopped working at South Bay Cinema.
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Then I worked at Miller's Outpost.
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I hung out with a bunch of guys just like you.
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And we did everything, just like we do.
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We went to movies together,
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we went out and we dated amongst the girls there, everything.
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Then I worked at Alicia Pisa for four years with a bunch of guys just like you.
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I wasted my life hanging out with a bunch of guys just like you.
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And they all go away at a certain point And I realized this guy's kind of telling the truth.
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I had this he's showing me a truth about him He's he I'm I'm
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This is coming from somewhere and then all of a sudden he still hung around us He still liked us,
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but then he started making it a point to Touch base with some of his high school friends.
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They were still around so he's not just hanging out with guys Four years younger five years younger than him anyway,
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I'm turning 25 around this time So I'm having my own little okay,
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but what have I done with my life so far so far fucking nothing
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So I'm having my own little anxiety hitting 25,
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but I've seen what it's like five years from now Yeah,
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when you turn 30 a window to the future when you're to 30 and you're in this situation and and
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And there was like one night that I had what I used to call,
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I would do it every once in a while,
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I haven't done it in a long time, thankfully.
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I would have a Quentin Detest Fest,
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where I would stay up all night long and rather than give myself excuses,
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I would look at everything that I'm fucking up in my life
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or everything I'm not doing or whatever and just not give myself any fucking excuses out.
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Just like nail it.
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And I would spend like all night laying out everything I'm doing that's wrong
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and then I would spend the last two hours figuring out how I can change it.
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And as opposed to just doing it and then going to get some sleep
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and then you forget about it and fall back into your routine,
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I decided to change my life.
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I was like, look, the problem is that I'm living in the South Bay,
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and even though I drive to Los Angeles,
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one, I've got to not worry about this job anymore.
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I've got to just move to Hollywood.
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I've got to get involved there.
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I've got to meet other people that are in the business.
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And if I have to work manpower jobs,
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you know, where you just work like four days at this place and four days at that place,
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well, then that's fine.
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And by the way, I shouldn't be making money until I'm making money doing what I want to do.
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And that was ever a danger.
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All right.
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But then, you know, the next thing I knew,
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you know, I moved out of the South Bay.
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And then I couldn't move into Hollywood.
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I couldn't afford Hollywood, but I got to Fort Koreatown.
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And I was close enough.
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And literally, the minute I kind of moved out there,
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I met a guy who wrote low-budget horror movies.
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And then through him I met other guys that wrote low-budget horror movies
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and this guy who directs a few low-budget horror And this guy who produces a couple and well But yeah,
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you meet one person and
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that introduces you to three other people now all of a
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sudden I actually knew people who were actually making movies
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and the thing about it was it was like also Well if these guys can do what I can do
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Hmm because they weren't too special right yeah,
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you know that's the weird realization that you end up having yeah Yeah,
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and then literally, it wasn't like everything changed,
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but like within a year and a half,
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from moving out of the South Bay,
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moving into the Hollywood area,
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within a year and a half,
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I was finally able to make a living as a writer.
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About This Lesson
In this lesson, you will practice your English speaking skills by shadowing the intriguing thoughts of filmmaker Quentin Tarantino on self-discipline and ambition. By engaging with this content, you'll learn how to express complex ideas in English, enhance your listening comprehension, and improve your pronunciation. As you shadow Tarantino’s passionate narrative, you will not only practice speaking but also gain insights into the importance of pursuing your dreams and the challenges that come with it. This activity is designed to enrich your IELTS speaking practice and boost your confidence in conversing in English.
Key Vocabulary & Phrases
- Dream adjacent - Close to one's dreams or aspirations.
- Put to sleep - To become complacent, losing motivation or ambition.
- Fire - Passion or strong motivation to pursue goals.
- Life-changing - A significant change that impacts one's life positively or negatively.
- Busting ass - To work very hard, often in menial or labor-intensive jobs.
- Ambition - A strong desire to achieve something, typically requiring determination and hard work.
- Living arrangements - The way in which individuals or groups share a living space.
- Drastically - In a way that is very noticeable or impactful.
Practice Tips
To get the most out of your shadow speech practice, follow these tips:
- Listen carefully: Play the video at a slower speed if necessary, especially during complex sections, to fully grasp Tarantino's diction and intonation.
- Pause and repeat: After hearing a phrase or sentence, pause the video and repeat it out loud, mirroring Tarantino's tone and emotion.
- Focus on emotion: Pay attention to how Tarantino expresses his passion and disappointment. Try to imbue your practice with similar feelings to make your speech more engaging.
- Record yourself: Use your phone or a recording device to capture your speaking. Compare your pronunciation and rhythm to Tarantino’s, and adjust accordingly.
- Engage with the content: Reflect on the ideas shared in the video. Write down your thoughts about your own ambitions and how you overcome complacency. This will improve your fluency during speaking practice.
- Use shadowspeaks: Repeat segments multiple times throughout the week. Regular practice will help solidify your learning and increase your comfort with English speaking.
Integrating this engaging video into your learn english with youtube strategy will enhance your English speaking practice, making it both effective and enjoyable!
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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