Shadowing Practice: Something is missing from life today, and people everywhere are realizing that… - Learn English Speaking with Video

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You know, we're in kind of a tough situation right now

because there are millions of people out there that feel like something in their life is missing.

There's a void in people's souls.

And this is becoming more and more common with every single day that passes.

And I think it's even more prevalent with our youth.

Anyone from millennial and above, they feel this.

I feel this.

As a matter of fact, let me know in the comments below if you too feel this.

But it's very, very prevalent today.

And it's something that people can't quite put their finger on.

it's something we can't quite explain, but it's very intuitive.

For me personally, there's not a single day

that goes by where I don't feel like I was born a century or two too late.

And I feel like the time period around the 1700s

and 1800s probably resonates with me the most because people lived with intention back then.

Everything that everyone did was very purpose-driven and it was that way because it had to be.

That was just the lifestyle.

People were farming, they were gardening, They were doing things to produce and provide for their tribe

and for their families And it was a sense of being productive, but it was productive for a purpose Today we're productive.

As a matter of fact, I would say that we're maxing out production But in my view, we're doing it for the wrong reasons

because now we're productive for Someone else we're literally fulfilling Someone else's dream the jobs

that we show up at and the careers that we put under our belts We do that for other people

We do it for the greater good, for the economy and for the industry.

But we're not really doing it for ourselves.

We're not doing it for the people around us that mean something to us.

And when I think about this void that I myself have, I believe that void for me is a longing.

It's a longing for a past that we can't access anymore.

It's a time period that's completely gone.

Because the things I long for, the void that I'm trying to fill, it's nature.

It's that lifestyle, you know, doing stuff that is productive, doing stuff for tribe and that is purpose driven and just living a life with intention.

And I find myself trying to establish that life around myself as much as I possibly can.

And the closer I get to that, the better I feel, the more intentional my life feels, the more purpose I have, the more fulfilled I am.

And for me, I think the drive for self-reliance and living a life with intention stems from my background.

because my background is Cherokee.

It's Native American.

And I know that my ancestors, they live that way.

And this brings up a very interesting point

that I truly believe explains exactly why so many of us are feeling this way.

And it all comes down to a scientific breakthrough that a 10 year So if you're not familiar with this experiment, there's a 10-year-old boy named Joe Nagai.

And he ran an experiment on swallowtail butterflies, trying to determine whether or not memory could be passed down not only through metamorphosis,

but whether or not it could be passed down generationally to the offspring.

And to do this, he took a caterpillar, he placed it on his arm and he shocked it.

Every time that he shocked it, he exposed it to lavender.

And after doing that several times a day, several days in a row,

eventually what happened is the caterpillar began to associate lavender with a negative experience.

And after repeating that process for several days in a row, he eventually put the caterpillar into a tube.

And at the end of the tube there was a Y.

One direction of the Y led to lavender and the other direction led to an area that did not have lavender.

And every single time after training this caterpillar to associate lavender with a negative experience it went in the direction

that did not have the lavender.

He then waited until the caterpillar morphed and turned into a butterfly

and then he repeated that experiment and every single time the butterfly went to the area that did not have the lavender.

And after that He waited until the butterfly had offspring, and then he ran this same scenario on the butterfly's offspring.

He didn't shock them, but he put them into the tube, and he monitored to see which direction they would go.

And every single time, the butterfly's offspring would not go anywhere near the lavender.

So what did he prove here?

He proved that memory is genetic.

And I think it's safe to assume that if memory is passed down through generations of caterpillars, it's probably passed down through us.

It's probably passed down through pretty much every other species out there.

And when you look around at nature, this becomes pretty clear.

Because there are a lot of things that nature does that simply don't make any sense.

Because there's nobody sitting down teaching nature to do these things.

Nature just inherently knows what to do.

And I truly believe that we do too.

But we've forgotten that.

We do everything in our power to separate ourselves from nature.

But we're not separate from it.

We're very much a part of it.

As a matter of fact, we are nature.

Nature is us.

And when you understand that, you also begin to understand that everything that nature does, we do too.

So to me, it makes total sense that genetic memory is something that our ancestors probably passed down to us.

We just never realized it.

And now that this experiment has been done and the information is coming out, it really allows us to connect the dots.

And I think it does a great job at explaining what's happening.

The reason why people feel like they have a void in their soul and like they're lacking something

Could it not be because there's a genetic memory tied to something that we no longer have access to?

Could it not be because our world has changed so much?

Because when you think about our species and where we've been versus where we are now, we're in uncharted territory.

Our entire existence, thousands of years that we've been here, was spent living life a certain way.

It was spent living life more simply.

We lived in a much more natural way.

And it ties back to this idea that we lived a life full of intention.

The things we did were meant for purpose.

Every move that we made had a reason behind it.

But now, that's not the case.

We went from being outdoors to being stuck in cubicles and boxes.

We went from being surrounded by a loyal tribe and family to now not being surrounded by any of that stuff.

We're now surrounded by a false perception of tribe and community and family.

I mean, look around at society.

How many strong, structured families are there still in existence?

It's very few.

We feel like we're surrounded by loyal people, friends that we can count on and trust, but in reality, most of our interactions are done through social media.

It's done through the internet.

We live in these sprawling apartment complexes in these large cities surrounded by all these people that don't know us, that don't care about us.

And we know deep down, we can feel it in our gut, that there's nobody out there we can trust anymore.

The timeline that we once existed in, the one where all of these genetic memories were made, it's not there anymore.

And we can no longer associate these memories with anything tangible because it doesn't exist.

And I think this is especially true for our younger generations.

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And it's probably why they feel this so much more because they live in a world where this is what they know.

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They don't even have a reference point when it comes to living that kind of lifestyle.

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Those of us that grew up before technology, At least we remember what it was like, but for the younger generations, they have no idea.

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And I think that's why it's so confusing for them because they feel this emptiness.

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They feel this void.

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They know something's missing, but there's no way they could ever possibly understand what it is

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because they have no association on what that life was like.

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That genetic memory that's been burned into their DNA, they can't possibly pinpoint it because it's something they've never even experienced.

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So maybe the genetic memory explains everything.

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Maybe that's the reason so many of us feel like we're missing something.

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Maybe it's because we're programmed with data that we can't associate with the world around us because that world doesn't exist anymore.

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Maybe the information and the knowledge that's been passed down

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is something we can't even use anymore because things have changed that much.

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And to me this is very profound because if you think about our entire existence as being a football field and

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every single blade of grass on that football field being our past

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and now our future

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and our current present moment is one single blade of grass in the far corner near the goalpost

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That's where we are today All of those genetic memories were

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made out there at a time where things made sense

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and now we've been pulled from that that massive sprawling past

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and that history

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and we've been forced down into this single blade of grass

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this very tiny microscopic piece of existence where we are today

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so to me it makes sense that we could be mourning a past

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that we've never experienced simply

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because it was programmed in there from our ancestors without them knowing it

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but it was likely programmed in there because back then

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that was the stuff that was important those are the things that mattered so now beginning to know and understand that, where do we go from here?

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Is there anything that we can do to fill this void?

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Or are we just stuck in this situation?

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I think this is a massive silver lining because

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when you think about the experiences it would take to form a genetic memory, those experiences would have to be quite profound.

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And they could be positive or negative.

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For the caterpillar, the experience of lavender meant being shocked.

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That's a profound experience.

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In other cases, a genetic memory could be formed from simply doing something you love, surrounding yourself with people you love, because those moments, they matter.

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And those are things that you remember.

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So maybe filling that void and that emptiness that

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so many of us are experiencing is as simple as creating new genetic memories, doing things that are worth remembering, memories that you would be proud to pass on.

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Because I think today in our modern world, we do a lot of stuff that's not really worthy of passing on.

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People surround themselves with things that aren't worth remembering instead of experiencing things that are.

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Maybe a life of intention isn't about doing more.

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Maybe it's not about trying to prove ourselves to people that don't care about us.

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Maybe it's not about trying to optimize every aspect of our lives

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and adopt all of these efficiencies and all this technology and surround ourselves with all this materialistic stuff.

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Maybe it's about doing less.

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Maybe it's about tapping into something that we feel like we no longer have access to.

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And maybe that something is the very thing

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that our ancestors programmed us with

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because they knew throughout thousands of years of their existence that that was the stuff that mattered.

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And I don't think that necessarily means reverting completely back to the way our ancestors used to live, but maybe it's just about finding that balance.

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Maybe it simply means allowing ourselves to feel and tapping into something real, something that's been there all along calling to us, begging us to remember it.

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114 sentences

Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “Something is missing from life today, and people everywhere are realizing that…”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: genetic, lavender, memory, nature, void. This video has 151 sentences and 2049 words to shadow. The speech runs for 10:56. The speaker talks fast, about 187 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 86% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.

Key vocabulary in this video

The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
lavender noun	/ˈlæv.ən.dɚ/	Any of a group of European plants, genus, Lavandula, of the mint family.
surround verb	/səˈɹaʊnd/	To encircle something or simultaneously extend in all directions.
void adjective	/vɔɪd/	Containing nothing; empty; not occupied or filled.
caterpillar noun	/ˈkætɚˌpɪlɚ/	The larva of a butterfly or moth; leafworm.
ancestor noun	/ˈæn.sɛs.tɚ/	One from whom a person is descended, whether on the father's or mother's side, at any distance of time; a progenitor; a forefather; a forebear.
offspring noun	/ˈɔfspɹɪŋ/	A person's daughter or son; a person's child.
butterfly noun	/ˈbʌ.tə(ɹ).flaɪ/	A flying insect of the order Lepidoptera, distinguished from moths by their diurnal activity and generally brighter colouring.
profound adjective	/pɹəˈfaʊnd/	Descending far below the surface; opening or reaching to great depth; deep.
blade noun	/bleɪd/	The (typically sharp-edged) part of a knife, sword, razor, or other tool with which it cuts.
emptiness noun		The state or feeling of being empty; an emotion that combines hollowness, numbness, disconnection and a lack of meaning in life, resulting in existential…
sprawl verb	/spɹɔːl/	To sit with the limbs spread out.
prevalent adjective	/ˈpɹɛvələnt/	Widespread or preferred.
fulfill verb	/fʊlˈfɪl/	To satisfy, carry out, bring to completion (an obligation, a requirement, etc.).
loyal adjective	/ˈlɔɪəl/	Having or demonstrating undivided and constant support for someone or something.
cubicle noun	/ˈkjuːbɪkəl/	A small separate part or one of the compartments of a room, especially in a work environment.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
pass down verb		To hand over, pass through or transfer to a lower level, next generation, etc.
bring up verb		To mention.
come down to verb		To reach by moving down or reducing.
come out verb	/ˌkʌm ˈaʊt/	To be discovered; to be revealed.
grow up verb		To mature and become an adult.
make out verb	/meɪk aʊt/	To draw up (a document etc.), to designate (a cheque).
put under verb		To anesthetize someone or render them unconscious through the use of narcotic substances, usually either alcohol or pharmaceutical drugs.
sit down verb		To assume a sitting position from a standing position.

Sentences worth repeating

Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:

We're very much a part of it.
Could it not be because our world has changed so much?
Is there anything that we can do to fill this void?

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	we've forgotten · has been done · has changed
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	was born · could be passed · is passed

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 43 contractions and reduced forms, such as we're, don't, can't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “sh” and “zh” sounds: intentional /ɪnˈtɛnʃənəl/, perception /pɚˈsɛpʃ(ə)n/
Long words — get the stress right: caterpillar /ˈkætɚˌpɪlɚ/, materialistic /məˌtɪəɹ.i.əˈlɪs.tɪk/, metamorphosis /ˌmɛtəˈmɔːfəsɪs/, microscopic /ˌmaɪ.kɹəˈskɑ.pɪk/, millennial /mɪˈlɛn.ɪ.əl/

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 lavender, surround, void.

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 →

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