Shadowing Practice: Ronnie James Dio talks religion - Learn English Speaking with Video
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I don't believe in either heaven and hell as a place to go to
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that you know when we die we're going to go down
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and burn for a while or if we're good we're going to go up there
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and be happy for a while
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or purgatory where all the poor unbaptized babies are hanging out you know I think anybody who's got
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that kind of anybody who came up with that idea that there's going to be a place where a little
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little children are going to be hanging out for the rest of their lives, you know, is either the sickest person on earth or the most stupid person on earth.
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I think both of those things apply.
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So I don't believe in any of those things.
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My belief in heaven and hell is heaven and hell is right here.
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This is where we are.
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This is heaven, this is hell.
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You make your own heaven, you make your own hell.
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Hell, good and evil, God, the devil, reside in each one of us.
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I don't have to go to a place to pray.
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Yeah, pray inside myself.
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I can pray to whomever I want to inside myself and get the same results.
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I don't need to be told by a priest.
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that I'm bad or to be told by a nun
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that I'm not learning my project properly and get smacked on the hand with a ruler.
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Who the hell are you to do that to me?
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Or to be told that Here's God.
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And God is a guy who's been nailed upon a piece of wood.
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It's not the way I want to think of life.
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I don't think of it that way.
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And with all the religions that they are preaching all the same things, it's real one great big homogenized thing anyway.
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At the end of the day, if we all just believe in the same thing, You know, that we got a choice between good and evil.
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Hey, make your choice.
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That's all it's about to me.
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So writing those songs perhaps brought out a little bit of my cynical side, but what it brought out of me is what I believe in life.
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And that is that we are the last in line.
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And there is heaven and hell if you consider that it's what people do to you that make it heaven and hell, which goes right to the song.
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The world is full of kings and queens who blind your eyes and steal your dreams.
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That's heaven and hell.
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That's what heaven and hell is.
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The heaven when the people tell you how good they're going to treat you
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and the hell when you find out it was all a lie, wasn't it?
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That's what heaven and hell is to me.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This video has 38 sentences and 472 words to shadow. The speech runs for 1:51. The speaker talks fast, about 256 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 89% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is easy to follow.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| pray verb | /pɹeɪ/ | To direct words, thoughts, or one's attention to a deity or any higher being, for the sake of adoration, thanks, petition for help, etc. |
| belief noun | /bɪˈliːf/ | Mental acceptance of a claim as true. |
| steal verb | /stiːl/ | To take illegally, or without the owner's permission, something owned by someone else without intending to return it. |
| priest noun | /ˈpɹiːst/ | A religious clergyman (clergywoman, clergyperson) who is trained to perform services or sacrifices at a church or temple. |
| devil noun | /ˈdɛvəl/ | An evil creature, the objectification of a hostile and destructive force. |
| nail noun | /neɪl/ | The horny plate or appendage at the ends of the digits of various animals, including most reptiles, birds, and mammals (both nonhuman and human). |
| ruler noun | /ˈɹulɚ/ | A (usually rigid), flat, rectangular measuring or drawing device with graduations in units of measurement; a straightedge with markings. |
| preach verb | /pɹit͡ʃ/ | To give a sermon. |
| reside verb | /ɹɪˈzaɪd/ | To dwell permanently or for a considerable time; to have a settled abode for a time; to remain for a long time. |
| smack verb | /smæk/ | To slap or hit someone. |
| cynical adjective | /ˈsɪnɪkəl/ | Of or relating to the belief that human actions are motivated only or primarily by base desires or selfishness. |
| homogenize verb | /həˈmɑːd͡ʒənaɪz/ | To make or treat as homogeneous or uniform. |
| purgatory noun | /ˈpɝɡəˌtɔɹi/ | Any situation where suffering is endured, particularly as part of a process of redemption. |
| unbaptized adjective | Not baptized. | |
| whomever | /humˈɛvɚ/ | Whatever person or persons (as object of verb or preposition). |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| bring out verb | To elicit, evoke, or emphasize (a particular quality). |
| come up with verb | To manage to produce, deliver, or present (something) by inventing, creating, thinking of, or obtaining it. |
| find out verb | To discover, as by asking or investigating. |
| go down verb | To descend; to move from a higher place to a lower one. |
| go up verb | To move upwards. |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 12 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, we're, I'm. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- Long words — get the stress right: homogenize /həˈmɑːd͡ʒənaɪz/, purgatory /ˈpɝɡəˌtɔɹi/
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 pray, belief, steal.
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.