Shadowing Practice: Some Lessons Cost More Than Money | A2 English Shadowing - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Some lessons are easy to learn.
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You read a book, watch a video, or listen to a teacher.
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But some lessons are very different.
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They do not come from books.
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They come from life.
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These lessons are not free.
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Sometimes they cost money.
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Sometimes they cost time, trust, or happiness.
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That is why people say, experience is the best teacher.
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Experience teaches us things that we never forget.
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The price may be high, but the lesson often stays with us forever.
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Think about a young woman named Anna.
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She gets her first full-time job after college.
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Every month, she receives her salary and feels very excited.
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She wants to enjoy her new life.
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She buys beautiful clothes, expensive shoes, and the newest phone.
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She also eats at nice restaurants every weekend.
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Her friends think she is living a perfect life.
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Anna feels proud because she can buy almost anything she wants.
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One year later, something unexpected happens.
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The company has money problems and many workers lose their jobs.
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Anna is one of them.
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She looks at her bank account and feels afraid.
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She has almost no savings.
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She has many nice things, but she cannot use them to pay her rent or buy food.
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At that moment, she understands an important lesson.
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Looking rich is not the same as being safe.
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Saving money may not feel exciting today, but it can protect you tomorrow.
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This lesson costs much more than money.
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It also brings fear, stress, and many sleepless nights.
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Money is important, but time may be even more valuable.
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Many people think they have plenty of time.
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They often say, I will do it tomorrow.
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Tomorrow becomes next week.
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Next week becomes next month.
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Before they know it, many years have passed.
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They wanted to learn a new language, start a business, or spend more time with their family.
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But they always waited for the perfect day.
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Sadly, the perfect day never came.
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Imagine a father who works every day from morning until late at night.
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He wants to earn more money for his family.
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His little daughter often asks him to play with her.
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He smiles and says, maybe tomorrow.
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Tomorrow becomes another busy day.
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His daughter slowly grows up.
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One day, she is ready to leave home for university.
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The father suddenly realizes that he missed many special moments.
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He has enough money, but he cannot buy those lost days back.
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This lesson is very painful because time is something that no one can earn again.
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Another expensive lesson is about trust.
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When we are young, We often believe that everyone is honest.
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We think that if we are kind to others, they will always be kind to us.
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Sometimes this is true.
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But sometimes people disappoint us.
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Maybe a close friend tells other people about our private secret.
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Maybe someone promises to help us but never comes.
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These moments hurt more than losing money.
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After this happens, many people become careful.
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They do not trust others so quickly anymore.
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This does not mean they stop being kind.
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It means they learn to choose the right people.
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Trust is like a piece of glass.
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When it breaks, it is very difficult to make it look the same again.
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The lesson is painful, but it helps us understand the value of honest friendships.
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Health can also teach expensive lessons.
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Many young people think they are always strong.
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They stay awake until very late.
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They eat unhealthy food because it is fast and easy.
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They spend hours looking at their phones and almost never exercise.
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At first, they feel fine.
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They think nothing bad will happen.
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Then one day, their body begins to send a message.
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They feel tired every morning.
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They cannot sleep well.
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They get sick more often than before.
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Now they have to visit doctors, take medicine, and change their lifestyle.
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They finally understand that good health is a gift.
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It is much easier to protect your health than to get it back after you lose it.
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This lesson often costs a lot of time, energy, and money.
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Many people wish they could learn these lessons without making mistakes.
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Of course, listening to good advice can help us avoid some problems.
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But life is different for everyone.
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Sometimes we only understand a lesson after we make the mistake ourselves.
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We hear the advice many times, but we truly believe it only after we feel the pain.
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That is why experience is such a powerful teacher.
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It speaks quietly at first, but it's This message stays in our hearts for a very long time.
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Every mistake gives us a choice.
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We can keep feeling sorry for ourselves, or we can ask, what can I learn from this?
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People who ask this question become stronger every year.
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They understand that some lessons cost much more than money
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but those lessons can also become the beginning of a wiser
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and better life love can also teach us expensive lessons sometimes we love another person so much that we forget about ourselves.
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We spend all our time trying to make that person happy.
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We stop doing our hobbies.
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We stop meeting our friends.
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We think love means giving everything.
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But if the relationship ends, we feel lost.
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We do not only lose someone we love, we also lose a part of ourselves.
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After some time, we begin to understand something important.
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Real love should help us grow.
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not make us disappear.
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Two people can love each other and still have their own dreams and interests.
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This lesson is not easy to learn.
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It may bring many tears and lonely days,
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but after learning it, we can build healthier and happier relationships in the future.
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Failure is another teacher that asks for a high price.
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Nobody likes to fail.
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When we fail an exam, lose a job, or make a big mistake, we feel embarrassed.
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We may think that everyone is better than us.
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Some people stop trying because they're afraid of failing again.
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But failure is often the beginning of success.
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Imagine a young man who wants to open a small coffee shop.
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He works hard and uses all his savings.
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After a few months, the business closes because there are not enough customers.
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He feels very sad.
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He thinks he has lost everything.
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After some time, he starts to study business more carefully.
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He learns how to manage money, how to understand customers, and how to make better plans.
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A few years later, he opens another coffee shop.
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This time, it becomes successful.
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His first business failed, but it gave him knowledge that no book could teach.
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The first failure was expensive, but the lesson helped him succeed later.
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Sometimes life teaches us to be thankful.
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People often do not notice the good things they already have.
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They complain because their phone is old or because their house is small.
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They always want more.
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Then one day, they lose something important.
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Maybe they lose their health.
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Maybe they lose a family member.
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Maybe a close friend moves far away.
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Only then do they understand how valuable those things were.
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They wish they had enjoyed those moments more.
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They learn that happiness does not always come from having more.
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Sometimes happiness comes from loving what we already have.
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This lesson can change the way we see our lives every day.
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Older people often say that life becomes easier when we learn from our mistakes instead of running away from them.
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Mistakes are not our enemies.
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They are teachers.
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Of course, They are not kind teachers.
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Sometimes they make us cry.
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Sometimes they make us feel lonely.
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But they also make us wiser, stronger, and more careful.
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Think about a child learning to walk.
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The child falls many times.
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No one laughs at the child because everyone knows falling is part of learning.
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Adults are not very different.
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We also fall.
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We make bad choices.
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We trust the wrong people.
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We waste time.
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We lose money.
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The important thing is to stand up again and keep moving forward.
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Every difficult experience gives us two choices.
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We can become bitter or we can become better.
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People who become bitter only remember the pain.
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They keep asking, why did this happen to me?
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But people who become better ask a different question.
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They ask, what can this experience teach me?
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This small change in thinking can change a whole life.
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Many successful people have learned expensive lessons.
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They did not become strong because life was easy.
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They became strong because they did not stop after making mistakes.
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They accepted the pain, learned from it, and tried again.
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Step by step, they became wiser than before.
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In the end, some lessons really cost more than money.
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They may cost our time, our trust, our health, our love, or our confidence.
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At first, these losses feel very painful.
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We may even think they have destroyed our lives.
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But if we choose to learn, they can become our greatest teachers.
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The pain will not stay forever, but the wisdom can stay for the rest of our lives.
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So, do not be afraid when life becomes difficult.
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Every problem brings a new lesson.
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Every mistake gives you a chance to grow.
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You cannot avoid every painful experience, but you can decide what you will do after it.
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Learn, become stronger, and keep moving forward.
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One day, you may look back and realize
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that the most expensive lessons were also the most valuable gifts life ever gave you.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This A2 speaking lesson is built on the video “Some Lessons Cost More Than Money”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: lesson, learn, lose, mistake, expensive. This video has 177 sentences and 1591 words to shadow. The speech runs for 12:04. The speaker talks at a steady 132 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. 91% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| lesson noun | /ˈlɛs.ən/ | A section of learning or teaching into which a wider learning content is divided. |
| painful adjective | /ˈpeɪn.fl̩/ | Causing pain or distress, either physical or mental. |
| happiness noun | /ˈhæpinɪs/ | The emotion of being happy; joy; elation. |
| earn verb | /ɝn/ | To gain (success, reward, recognition) through applied effort or work. |
| lonely adjective | /ˈloʊnli/ | Unhappy due to feeling isolated from contact with other people. |
| bitter adjective | /ˈbɪ.tɚ/ | Having an acrid taste (usually from a basic substance). |
| carefully adverb | /ˈkɛɹf(ə)li/ | With care; attentively, circumspectly. |
| worker noun | /ˈwɝ.kɚ/ | One who works: a person who performs labor for a living; traditionally, especially, manual labor. |
| friendship noun | /ˈfɹɛn(d)ʃɪp/ | The condition of being friends. |
| salary noun | /ˈsæləɹi/ | A fixed amount of money paid to a worker, usually calculated on a monthly or annual basis, not hourly, as wages. Implies a degree of professionalism and/or… |
| tear verb | /tɛɹ/ | To rend (a solid material) by holding or restraining in two places and pulling apart, whether intentionally or not; to destroy or separate. |
| wisdom noun | /ˈwɪzdəm/ | An element of personal character that enables one to distinguish the wise from the unwise. |
| lifestyle noun | /ˈlaɪfˌstaɪl/ | A style of living that reflects the attitudes and values of a person or group. |
| succeed verb | /səkˈsiːd/ | To follow something in sequence or time. |
| examination noun | /ɪɡˌzæm.ɪˈneɪ.ʃən/ | The act of examining. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| move forward verb | To cause to make progress. |
| grow up verb | To mature and become an adult. |
| look back verb | To think of (past events) in retrospect (in hindsight). |
| run away from verb | To avoid or shirk a problem or consequences; to rush to back away from or disclaim responsibility for something. |
| stand up verb | To rise from a lying or sitting position. |
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | have passed · has lost · have learned |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | People who ask · man who wants · People who become |
| Possibility with “might / may” might/may + verb — something that is possible but not certain | may be · may not feel · may bring |
| Verb + -ing enjoy, keep, stop… + -ing — verbs that are followed by the -ing form | stop meeting · stop trying · keep moving |
Pronunciation to watch
- The “th” sounds: cloth /klɒθ/, thankful /ˈθæŋkfəl/, unhealthy /ʌnˈhɛl.θi/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: friendship /ˈfɹɛn(d)ʃɪp/, examination /ɪɡˌzæm.ɪˈneɪ.ʃən/, shoe /ˈʃu/
- Long words — get the stress right: examination /ɪɡˌzæm.ɪˈneɪ.ʃən/, unexpected /ʌnɪkˈspɛktɪd/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Shadow it sentence by sentence at normal speed, repeating each one until your rhythm matches the speaker.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like lesson, painful, happiness.
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.