Shadowing Practice: Should You Build Your Own Keyboard? - Learn English Speaking with Video

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I think getting into the mechanical keyboard hobby is more accessible than it's ever been.

Let me explain.

I've been interested in mechanical keyboards for a few years now.

Sort of.

Interested being the keyword there.

Along with a lot of other people out there, I was first introduced to mechanical switches through gaming keyboards.

Like a bunch of different gaming keyboards that I've used over the last couple years.

So while working at the MKB-HC studio, we get a lot of random packages showing up at our door.

And we started to slowly get these really high-quality mechanical keyboards, like this Kekul.

And when I started using these enthusiast-grade keyboards, I started to realize that all those gaming keyboards, even though they use mechanical switches,

they're just built to be flashy or highly marketable.

And there's nothing wrong with gaming keyboards.

There are plenty of people out there who still love their Logitech G Pro or their SteelSeries Apex,

but there's this whole other world of people who are building keyboards and taking it to a whole new level.

And it's not just customized to fit your style visually or to look nice, but to make your typing experience feel and sound exactly how you want.

Funny enough, right around this time I did a little editing work for a channel called Ski with Pete.

He did live streams of building keyboards, and as someone who loves tinkering with electronics, watching him meticulously build these keyboards made me want to try it myself.

But that's where I ran into some issues.

As I started looking at different keycaps and keyboard kits, I was very quick to realize that, at that time, it wasn't that easy to just buy the parts that you needed.

A lot of these components you'd find would be a raffle, or they'd be out of stock, or they'd be really expensive, or they'd be in something called a group buy,

which is essentially a Kickstarter where someone would design something like a keycap set, but that order wouldn't go into production until X amount of people agreed to place an order.

And because of that, it could take months or even years before you ever actually got the thing you ordered.

So just as quickly as I started my keyboard building journey, I ended it.

But now it's 2024, and there have been a lot of changes to the industry, to the point where I think it is easier to get into the mechanical keyboard building hobby than it ever has been.

And that's based on four different reasons.

Inventory, pricing, variety of parts, and the amount of helpful information.

And just before we start, there is decades of history behind this hobby.

So everything I'll be talking about is fairly broad.

There will always be exceptions that I won't cover in this video.

And just to back me up, I invited a few creators that I really respect to help me explain a little better.

So like I mentioned before, it is really easy to give up when you spend hours online,

maybe days online researching for that perfect keycap set or the right color keyboard kit that you want,

only to be met with like a low chance raffle or a really long wait time.

But some brands, Mike, will just use Wu-Chai or even QK being QWERTY keys, OWLabs, stuff like that.

They have done more stuff on scale at an accessible price point.

The other thing is vendors listening to the demand of the hobby and being like,

okay, well, we can now get in stock product because we've been running a little bit longer.

We have a few extra dollars in capital so we can invest towards that as well.

So in today's world, you have more of a chance of researching parts

and finding things that are in stock and able to ship out immediately.

Cheaper options that are in stock mean more people are able to start their building journey, which in turn creates more popularity and more competition.

If you've ever been searching for keycaps before, you may have seen the letters GMK, and that's because they're a super popular,

very high quality, very expensive ABS keycap.

But as a less expensive option, you can look for something called PBT keycaps.

They're made out of a different material and they're generally much cheaper.

And there's some people out there who actually prefer the sound profile or the durability more than GMK, but that's all subjective.

But that's kind of the fun part about this is everything is subjective.

Some people might like one thing way better than the other and that's totally okay.

And with more companies creating in-stock products, you have the better chance of something not selling and going on sale in the future.

So maybe that premium item you've had your eye on will be on sale for a more affordable price.

I've jumped on more sales than I like to admit from places like Space Cables, Drop, Kinetic Labs actually just used the Novel Keys New Year's sale

and bought five pairs of keycaps for like a little over $200.

There are GMK sets that are $200 by themselves.

So companies like Omnitype had a lot of success with products like this, their Bauer II line, which sold for over $500 and there were super limited quantities,

but through the success of this, they started working on this, the Omnitype Bauer Lite, which is about a fifth of the price and available in stock.

Our Bauer 2 run, we had 500 units available and we had 8,000 people sign up for our raffle form.

We couldn't make them fast enough for the people that wanted them.

Well, then the goal is to make this lower cost injection

molded board as close to the experience of that $500 board as possible with the constraints that it presents.

That was my goal and I think, in my opinion, I'm very biased, but I think I came pretty close.

Like I think it's pretty close when you have it built and you're typing on it as far as sound and feel.

It's pretty comparable to something that costs four or five times more.

This is actually the first keyboard that I've ever built from start to finish correctly.

I lubed all the switches, I lubed all the stabilizers, all thanks to Alex's videos.

And not only was it really fun, but the process of building the keyboard made it

that much more special to me since I did every single part by myself.

And with a variety of parts out there, the actual task of putting the keyboard together is far less daunting than it ever used to be.

The Bauer Lite came with a handy little build guide with step-by-step instructions.

Hotswap PCBs are usually only about an extra $10 and they eliminate the need of having to learn how to solder.

And most switches now are factory lubed and sound pretty great out of the box.

And while I highly suggest hand lubing your switches for the best experience, if you value your time more than your money, you can grab something like these Kinetic Labs Moon V2 linear switches,

which are hand lubed with Krytox 205 Grade Zero, and they feel fantastic with zero effort needed.

Or maybe you finished this whole video, started researching some parts, but putting everything together still feels very daunting and you just want a nice keyboard.

A lot of keyboards have been releasing as fully built kits where you don't need to get your keycaps and switches separately.

Personally, I think this is a great thing as a ton

of people can get into the hobby for a lot cheaper

and without having to worry about group buys and worrying about picking out parts, basically like the entryway or the entryway drug.

And I think going this route is a great idea

because you immediately get a keyboard that works well straight out of the box.

If you're going the pre-built route, there's probably gonna be a couple sacrifices you make, but there are so many great options at different price points that sound really solid right away.

This Womir SK-71 is under $100 and sounds like this straight out of the box.

But maybe after a little while, you wanna change things up.

Maybe you want a new set of keycaps or you wanna switch the style of your switches.

Maybe you wanna try tactiles or you want to try linears.

There are so many different small parts

and mods you can do to your keyboard to gradually make it fit exactly how you want.

And even when you think your keyboard's totally complete, there's also a ton of accessories you can do to compliment it.

Custom cables, there's a ton of different desk mats, you can get some Artisan key caps, or you can even get a macro pad like this one from Treasure.

Which brings me to my next point, available helpful information.

I think it's not just a case of things are now in stock and affordable,

like switches, keycaps, keyboard kits, pre-built kits even.

I think it's also that there is

so much more information about what you should buy and why you should buy it that makes it so much more user-friendly.

Like you don't have to go down some rabbit hole of a page

that was made in 2006 and has four responses to find what you need in the keyboard you're looking to get.

The amount of information on the internet now versus, say, 10 years ago is just exponentially higher.

There are so many great YouTube channels, Discord servers, websites, build guides, that have so much information for you to look for

and have so many people who are willing to help you try and find what works best for you.

I've learned so much from so many different creators online

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and each person I've talked to just seems genuinely happy to see more people getting into the hobby.

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There's creators like Alex Otos

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and Teha Types who both post some great videos on some of the most premium keyboard builds you'll ever see,

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and they also both have some of the best guides to lubing stabilizers and switches.

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I've personally used both of them.

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There's Hippio Tech, who focuses on a ton of great budget keyboard options

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and different ways that you can make those keyboards sound and feel better.

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Daily Setup Tech has some great videos, one specifically where he made a keyboard that Marques actually used for a while and it was under $100.

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There's also people like Random Frank P or Bad Seed Tech that focus a little more on gaming-oriented mechanical keyboards.

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And then there's Glarses, who actually visited the studio pretty recently to make a frisbee keyboard video, and after having a long conversation with him during his visit,

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that's what inspired me to make this video.

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And I even started a small YouTube channel for keyboards.

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LMNO Key is now a channel where we'll be posting just sound tests of different keyboards we're working on, and I'll be streaming there from time to time.

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So yeah, if you've ever been even slightly interested in building your own keyboard, whether it's for gaming, whether it's for work, whether it's just because you think building things is fun,

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I highly encourage you to go check out some of the creators I mentioned before and just dive in.

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If you had one tip for somebody who was looking to get into building their first mechanical keyboard, what is the best piece of advice you can give to them?

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I think, okay, this maybe applies for every hobby, is don't rush for end game.

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There is absolutely no reason to rush enjoy the process of the hobby, like any hobby, right?

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Enjoy that process more than just chasing that end goal.

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But I mean, if that's your thing, you wanna chase an end goal, do you.

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But I think enjoying the process is way more important than chasing

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that final keyboard that's gonna end the entire journey for you, you know?

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Thanks so much for watching.

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Please consider subscribing for more awesome content from other people at the MKBHD Studio.

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Because every good keyboard video needs some solid typing sound tests, Here's a little montage of a couple of the boards I have in my collection.

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Thank you.

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243 sentences

What You'll Practice in This Lesson

Get ready to boost your English speaking skills with a fun, engaging topic: building mechanical keyboards! In this lesson, you'll practice listening to conversational English, picking up new vocabulary, and honing your "shadow speak" technique—repeating phrases aloud to match the speaker's tone and rhythm. Whether you're prepping for IELTS speaking practice or just want to learn English with videos, this lesson offers real-world language use that's easy to connect with.

Key Vocabulary & Phrases to Master

Enthusiast-grade: High-quality, designed for people with a strong interest (e.g., "enthusiast-grade keyboards").
Group buy: A collaborative purchase where a product is made only after enough orders are placed (e.g., "keycap sets sold via group buy").
Sound profile: The unique sound a keyboard makes when typing (e.g., "prefer the sound profile of PBT keycaps").
Tinkering with: Experimenting or fixing something (e.g., "loves tinkering with electronics").
Subjective: Based on personal opinion (e.g., "what's best is subjective").

Practice Tips for Perfect "Shadow Speech"

The video's tone is friendly and conversational, with a moderate speed—perfect for shadowing! Here's how to practice: First, watch a 10-second clip, then pause and repeat it immediately, mimicking the speaker's emphasis (like on "more accessible" or "whole other world"). Focus on matching the natural pauses and enthusiasm. For tricky phrases like "meticulously build these keyboards," break them into chunks: "meticulously build" + "these keyboards." Repeat daily, and you'll notice your fluency improve—great for IELTS speaking practice or casual conversations. Remember, "shadowspeaks" is about progress, not perfection. Even 5 minutes a day will help you sound more natural!

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Present perfect continuous have/has been + -ing — an action that started earlier and is still going on	we've been running · you've ever been searching · have been releasing
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	it's ever been · I've been · I've used
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	people who are · someone who loves · Lite, which is
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	be met · was made

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.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

Shadowing Practice: Should You Build Your Own Keyboard? - Learn English Speaking with Video

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What You'll Practice in This Lesson

Key Vocabulary & Phrases to Master

Practice Tips for Perfect "Shadow Speech"

Grammar in this video

What is the Shadowing Technique?