Shadowing Practice: Speak With Me: Realistic English Speaking Practice - Learn English Speaking with Video

Hi, hi guys.

Oh my god, it feels so weird to be back doing this, but I'm really excited.

It's been a while.

I've been doing conversations with my friends, with my buddies the past few videos.

And today we have a great video.

I've been doing something really fun with some of my students

that I talk to in my private conversation classes and also with the people who are in my WhatsApp group chat.

I have a private WhatsApp group chat for people who pay a monthly subscription to be part of that group.

And I share audio messages and we talk about things.

We have conversations, texting, you know.

Lately, I've been doing this exercise where I give them, I give the students like a hypothetical situation.

You know, I give them some context or a random situation of something that could happen in real life.

For example, your neighbor knocks on your door and says, hey, can you turn down the music?

Basically, you have to imagine that situation and say what you would say in that situation or think like,

huh, what would I say in that situation?

How would I respond?

How would I react?

And this is a great exercise for many reasons, but there's not just one answer.

There can be many answers.

People have different ways of reacting and responding to things.

So this is a way for you to not just practice English, but also show your uniqueness.

And, you know, everybody has a different answer and how they would react.

You can do these activities with yourself to practice English at home.

I know a lot of you are always like, I want to practice my speaking, but you know, like when I'm by myself, I don't know what to talk about.

I don't know what to do.

Well, this is a great thing that you can do.

So you can go on the internet.

And I mean, the internet is full of tons of questions

and websites like English learning websites that have different topics

and things that can help spark like some ideas of things you could talk about.

But if you want to also, you can use AI to be totally honest with you.

I would love to stop using AI so much.

I have decreased my AI usage.

When I first discovered it, I used to use it a lot and now I don't use it as much.

I'm trying to only use it for stuff related to my work and, you know, English teaching and learning stuff.

For my personal things, my personal life, I try not to use it.

I don't think it's good for us to be too dependent on AI.

And I don't know, there's a lot of issues with AI.

So, but anyways, if you're going to use AI, I think probably one of the best uses for it, if not the best use is to learn a language,

improve your language skills.

However, be careful because a lot of times AI doesn't always give the best,

most realistic advice about learning a language, about how native speakers really talk.

So when I have a question about Spanish, for example, and I want to know how realistic is this phrase,

you know, what is the most common way of saying something really, truly?

I will ask my friends.

I have a Mexican friend.

I have a Colombian friend.

I have Puerto Rican friends.

I have Argentinian friends.

I will ask them and say, in your country, in your experience, what is the most common way of saying this or whatever?

That is way better.

Like I get way better results doing that than asking AI.

Now I understand not everybody has friends in the, you know, native speaker friends to ask.

That's why I really recommend taking conversation classes with a native speaker.

It could be with me.

I offer conversation classes.

The link is on my page.

Or it could be with someone else.

There's tons of teachers on these websites that offer conversation classes.

All you have to do is Google conversation classes with native speaker teachers.

And if you have these types of classes, it could be once a week.

It could be even once a month.

What you can do is you can write down your questions, you can ask them, you can ask,

you can use your class time to ask the native speaker about all these questions you have, these phrases you want to know,

these situations, you know, what should I say in this situation, all of that stuff.

It's good to have contact with a native speaker.

Even if you don't have friends who are native speakers that you can text or whatever,

it's good to, it's worth it to at least once a month, pay for it.

So you pay for, you know, this contact so you can ask your questions.

Because yeah, sometimes AI is not really super great at giving me the answer that I'm looking for.

And sometimes it can be misleading so you do have to be careful

when asking ai questions about languages i know this is from personal experience trust me um

but ai can be useful at giving you ideas of things

to talk about giving you prompts giving you situations like this exercise

that i want to do today the one that i'm talking about

so you can ask it to give you random

but realistic make sure you let it know

because sometimes it gives you stuff that's just not realistic

so i always tell it give me like super super realistic situations life situations of something

that could happen and so that i can practice responding to it

or reacting to it in english

or in any language um that's what i do to find these random situations

and then i give them to my students so i'm we're gonna do a little little bit of that today.

So let's get into it.

So it gives, it's giving me a situation and then it's telling me like what I could say.

And I'm going to react to that and I'm going to say, okay, that's all right.

But this is what I would really say me, Lao in real life.

Okay.

Because a lot of times what AI tells me to say is like, it's too formal.

It's too complicated.

It's too long.

It's unnecessary.

And what I really want to communicate always to students is that you can keep it super simple.

Native speakers actually speak very simple and straightforward.

And this is what I do even in Spanish.

You guys know I speak Spanish.

I'm advanced in Spanish.

I'm not a native speaker of Spanish.

Sometimes I'm in Spanish speaking countries and like most of the time.

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And like, for example, the other day I was at this store, this place, and I was like hanging out near the checkout.

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And it looked like maybe I, or not the checkout, the, the place where you order some food.

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It was like a grocery store that had a place where you can order food.

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And I was like hanging out near the place where you ordered.

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And it looked like maybe I wanted to order some food.

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And so the lady came over and she's like, um, you know, can I help you or whatever in Spanish?

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And I was like, Oh, um, nothing.

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I don't want anything.

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And like, sometimes when I'm like, you know, in the moment and I, I don't really know what to say.

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And I don't have a long thing to say.

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I just want to say something quick that gets the point across that communicates to them that, you know, like I just wanted to communicate to her that I know I'm not ordering anything.

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I don't need any, I don't want anything.

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So I literally just said that.

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And maybe it was a little abrupt, like maybe it would have sounded more polite or friendly to like say a longer thing or maybe whatever,

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maybe in an ideal world, if I could go back and do it again, I would have said something different.

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But honestly, I think it's fine.

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It's fine to keep it simple, to keep it short.

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Native speakers do that.

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The reason why I was hanging out over in that area was

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because I was waiting for my friend to get out of the bathroom.

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The bathroom was right near the place to order.

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And that's why I was over there.

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But in the moment, I didn't think to say, like, I'm waiting for my friend, but he's in the bathroom, whatever.

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I didn't want to say all that.

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And you don't have to.

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You don't owe people all these big explanations of things.

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You can literally just say, oh, no, no, I'm not in line, or I'm not waiting, or I don't want anything, or no, no, no, I'm fine.

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Like you can say just that and that's fine.

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You don't need to have this complex answer.

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You don't need to always have some elaborate thing to say.

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You can just communicate like the bare minimum of what you need to express to people.

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And that's fine.

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You know, so sometimes AI will recommend that I say this long thing and you don't have to.

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And I want to show you that. So, okay.

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So first situation, you're walking down the street, someone's off leash dog.

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Okay someone's dog is off the leash someone's dog just walking has no no leash you know no string

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string it's not really a string

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but you know the leash is the thing like the dog has a collar

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and then it's attached to a leash and the leash is the thing

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that you hold it's kind of like a string you know

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but it's bigger than a string it's like a rope thing yeah a leash it's to walk your dog

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so someone's off-leash dog runs up to you and sniffs, you know, smells, sniffs your leg.

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The owner jogs over, jogs, like runs over to you laughing and says, don't worry, he's friendly.

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So you could say, uh, that's good, but I'd still prefer you keep him on the leash.

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Okay.

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So that's AI's suggestion.

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Now, I wouldn't say that.

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I would just be like, okay, but I don't really like dogs.

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Or like, okay, but I don't really like to be around dogs.

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Or I'm not really comfortable with dogs.

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Or I don't know.

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I mean, most people are fine with dogs.

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So this is maybe not super realistic.

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But that's what you could say if it bothers you.

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It wouldn't bother me.

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I would just probably start petting the dog and be like, hi, and talk to the dog.

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You know, I guess it just depends on your personal preference.

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Yeah, I don't know.

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This is a weird situation.

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I feel like most of the time people are okay with saying hi to the dog.

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But if it bothers you, you can just say, I don't feel comfortable around dogs or I don't like dogs or whatever.

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You don't need to like go out of your way to sugarcoat everything you say, to say everything in a super nice, soft way.

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You can just be straight to the point and, you know, you can just smile and it's fine.

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It's fine.

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Okay.

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You're at, you're at a grocery store checkout.

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You're, so you're checking out at the grocery store at the cashier, the person of ahead of you, the person ahead of you or in front of you ahead of you

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or in front of you has a ton of items, has a lot of stuff.

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Okay.

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A ton, a ton of items or a ton of food, a lot of, yeah.

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So we say a ton of something or a lot of something, a lot of stuff, a lot of food, and sees that you only have one thing.

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So the person ahead of you has a lot of stuff.

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They see that you only have one thing.

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They turn to you and say, oh, do you want to go ahead of me?

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Do you want to go?

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Do you want to go ahead of me?

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Or do you want to go in front of me?

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Or do you want to go first?

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Or sometimes we say, oh, you can cut, you can cut the line or you can, you can go ahead of me.

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You can go.

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Yeah, you can go.

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you only have one thing.

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You can go first.

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You can go ahead of me.

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You can go in front of me.

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And you could say, are you sure?

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Are you sure?

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Or, oh, really?

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Okay.

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That'd be great.

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That'd be great.

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Oh, that'd be great.

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Thank you so much.

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Thank you.

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Oh, awesome.

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Thank you.

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Yeah.

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You can literally be that simple.

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Like, oh, awesome. Or great.

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Thank you.

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You know, like, oh, thank you so much.

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I swear a lot of the times I consider myself advanced in Spanish.

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And yet when I'm out in public in Spanish speaking countries, I still feel like, you know, 75% of what I say is just, thank you.

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Like you, you can get through a lot of life in public, just being like, thank you.

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Like someone holds the door for you.

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Thank you.

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You buy your, your food or your items at the store

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and you go thank you like a lot of life is

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just thank you thank you have a nice day thank you

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have a nice day thank you have a nice have a good one have a good one you heard

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that that's very very american have a good one have a good it's have a good day

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but we say have a good one have a nice one

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yeah that's it have a good night have a good day

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um all right next one a friend shows you a photo

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of their new haircut okay maybe they text it to you

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i don't know why it's a photo maybe the situation is

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that you see them with their new haircut in person either way uh you think it looks bad they ask

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so what do you actually think what do you really think that's what they're saying

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so so what do you really think

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so honestly honestly give me give me your opinion what do

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you think about my new haircut what do you think about

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it be honest what do you think you could say okay this This is like trying to be polite.

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I think it's really different.

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The main thing is whether you like it.

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Okay.

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So it's funny.

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I asked this.

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I asked this in my group chat and some people were like, oh, I would just tell my friend I think it looks bad.

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Like, I just be honest.

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And then other people were saying like, oh, well, if they like it, then I would just say, well, if you like it, it looks good.

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Like they would just agree with their friend, you know, depending on if their friend likes it or not.

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I guess this just depends on you.

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There's no one right answer.

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Sometimes people might think that just, you know, honesty is best.

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Like they feel like they value that more in a friendship, just brutal, pure honesty.

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And some people really value that more.

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I personally really value that more.

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But other people don't value that as much.

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And they would rather have someone kind of not tell them

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if they don't like it or just kind of soften it or something.

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The thing is, you got to be careful, though.

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sometimes if you try to try to be nice

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but it's not genuine

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because it could sound like a backhanded compliment do you know this phrase backhanded compliment that's

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when it you're kind of presenting it like it's a compliment like it's a nice thing

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but it's not really right it's like for example

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if you tell someone like wow i could never wear that

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but you're you're so brave you know it's like is that a compliment or are you talking shit?

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You know, it's like, are you saying that what I'm wearing is ugly and I'm brave because I'm wearing this ugly thing?

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You don't want to say a backhanded compliment because that's even worse, I think, than if you just be brutally honest or I don't know.

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I don't know if it's worse, but it's maybe equally bad.

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I don't know.

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So I think you got to be careful when you say like, oh, that's different.

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That's unique.

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That's interesting, right?

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Because these kind of words it's like it's like you don't want to say

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that it's good but you don't want to say

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that it's bad yeah you just have to ask yourself

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if you're the type of person who's just going to be totally honest or

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if you're just going to kind of tell um like a

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white lie a white lie is like a small lie like a like a little lie

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that doesn't really have a big consequence you know like for example

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if your friend gets a new haircut

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and they seem to like it telling them

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that you like it is not it's a lie

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but it's not a lie that has like a bad consequence

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because the worst thing that's going to happen is that they think

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that you like the haircut and who

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so what like it doesn't result in anything bad um maybe

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good maybe they feel more confident at the end of the day

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and like ai suggests

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that you say right here it says the main thing is

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whether you like it really that's the important thing the important thing is whether you like it

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but if you say that to your friend your friend's gonna say oh

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so what you're really saying is that you don't like it you're just saying

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that oh well if you like it because you're saying

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that you don't like it but as long as i like it it's fine

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so i wouldn't say that yeah i'm the type of person if i really didn't like it i would say

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honestly i liked how your hair was before better like i

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liked your other haircut better like this one's okay i would say i would say

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that i would say it's okay it's okay it could be worse

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but i like the other one better

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or i liked i liked how you looked before i would say something like

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that probably okay next one is uh you're at a cafe

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and a stranger sits at your small table uh by mistake you know by accident

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because it's it's crowded it's crowded in the in the coffee shop the cafe

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and they didn't realize that they were sitting at a table

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that you were sitting at and they realize it

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and they say oh sorry is someone sitting here they might ask you this question even

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if they did notice you and they just want to see

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if someone is sitting here

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because it's a it's a free chair i mean it's a it's a it's an available chair

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so sometimes people ask if someone is sitting here or

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if this is occupied if this chair is is taken

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or occupied or um if

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if someone is sitting here someone is using it sometimes people ask

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if we can take this chair

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and what you could say well it depends right it depends

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if if if you're actually waiting for a friend or someone if If you're actually like waiting for someone, if someone is actually going to take that chair that,

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that, you know, some, someone you're waiting on waiting for, um, you could, you could say that like I'm saving it for a friend.

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Uh, I'm yeah, I'm waiting for a friend.

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My friend is coming.

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Uh, my friend is coming soon and I'm, I'm saving it for them.

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I'm saving it for a friend who's coming.

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Sorry about that.

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Sorry.

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I'm saving it for a friend.

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Fantastic.

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If not, then you can say no, no, it's fine.

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Take it.

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Go ahead.

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Take it.

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No, it's, it's all yours.

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It's all yours.

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Go ahead.

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Take it.

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Yeah.

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No, no, it's not.

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It's not taken anything like that.

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Okay.

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You're at a, you're at a party, you're at a dinner party or wherever.

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It doesn't really matter.

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You could be anywhere.

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Uh, you're at an event with people and someone's kid, someone's young kid, like little kid comes up,

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comes up to you, like comes near you, comes up, he comes, he or she comes up to you or walks up to you and walks to you,

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comes to you and very seriously says, you have a big nose and you, and the parents see it.

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And they're like, they look mortified.

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They look like, you know, Oh my God, what did he just say?

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They look embarrassed, you know?

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And you know how kids are, you know, kids, they have no filter.

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Kids just say what they think.

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They just walk up to you and they're like, you're fat.

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That's how kids are.

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And so obviously you can't take that personally.

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I mean, you can't get upset about that.

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It's a kid and whatever.

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You just kind of have to accept that

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but you can make the best of it you can make a joke out of it

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or you can like have fun with it

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and laugh it off uh i love interacting with kids

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so yeah i would just you know so ai ai recommends

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that you do this so the ai is saying um you can say

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when they say you have a big nose you could say say, yep, it's been there a while.

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It's been there a while.

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Good observation.

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And then to the parents, you can say, don't worry, I've heard worse.

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Yeah.

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So the point is, is just have fun with it, right?

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If a kid says something like a lot of times kids just, you know, they're out here stating facts.

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And, you know, it's kind of true, but they're just, you know, they have no filter.

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So I think I think it would be cool to because, you know, so many of us humans, we grew up in a world where from from our childhood,

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we were kind of taught like culturally brainwashed to have a bad relationship with our bodies

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and to criticize ourselves and to have, you know, insecurities about our bodies.

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And so I think if we try to change that programming,

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that narrative, we try to do better for the next generations to not have this problem, it would be a lot better for humanity.

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And so I think

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that the only reason like someone would get offended about having a big nose is

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if they're insecure about having a big nose, you know, because they're critical of their big nose.

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But having a big nose to one person might be like a bad thing, but having a big nose to another person might be a good thing.

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I mean, me personally, to be totally honest with you guys, I love people with big noses.

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Like I'm very, I'm more attracted to men who have bigger noses than men who have smaller noses.

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I love big noses, but someone else might disagree and might get a nose job to make their, you know, they might get plastic surgery to make it small, or they might feel embarrassed about it.

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But meanwhile, I think it's like more attractive or more beautiful to have a big nose.

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So beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

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It's subjective.

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It depends on, you know, how you perceive it.

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And I think it's very important for us to help shape children's psychology in a way

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that doesn't criticize bodies and just sees them for how they are and just sees them in a kind of neutral,

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factual way, but not in like a critical beauty standards kind of way.

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So I think it would be great that if a kid came up to me and said, you have a big nose, I would like to say, oh, thank you.

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Thank you.

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I like my big nose, you know, something like that.

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I think that would be great at reshaping the narrative.

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You know, I think it's those little interactions that we have with children and also with adults, because you can do this with adults too.

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This helps change the psychology around our bad relationship with our bodies and with ourselves, right?

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We're so critical of ourselves and it only hurts ourselves.

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It only hurts us. So, yeah.

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So I think every interaction with someone, whether it's, you know, an adult or child,

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especially children though, in relation to physical appearance or, you know, not just physical appearance,

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other things too, I think is super important at helping to change the world

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and shape the way that we perceive things and judge things, right?

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Because judgment is not bad.

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I mean, to simply say that you have a big nose is not inherently bad or to be aware of this.

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It's a judgment, but it's not.

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The only reason we think it's bad is because we make it bad in our mind.

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But it doesn't have to be bad, right?

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It's all in how we perceive it.

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Because, yeah, who says that having a big nose is bad, right?

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This is, it's just a, um, a created beauty standard that we don't have to believe, or we don't have to uphold.

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Right.

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So this goes for a lot of things in life.

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This can be applied to a lot of things in life.

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Once again, my videos start out as like, I'm going to teach you some English today.

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They somehow always turn out to be like a philosophical, psychological, um, inspirational, like life lesson.

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Uh, but I like that.

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I like to keep my videos like that.

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I mean, that's who I am.

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And I like to talk about these things

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because a lot of things I would like to talk to the world about because humanity has a lot of issues, you know, and a lot of it.

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I mean, essentially all of it, the root of all of our issues really is like psychological.

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So that's why it's important to, you know, talk about these things, because our language is very important, not just in communicating to each other,

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literally, but also shaping the way that we view things, shaping our psychology, right?

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The language that we use, the phrases that we choose to say, the sentences, the things we choose to say,

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help shape our perception on things.

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So when speaking a language, yes, it's important to like, you know, speak in a way that communicates what you're trying to communicate effectively.

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But another important thing to think about is, is what I'm communicating actually beneficial for

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like humanity for our psychology for our relationship with each other

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with ourselves with the world some important things to think about language is very powerful

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so i'll leave you with

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that for today thank you for watching to the end those of you who do

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that are my pride and joy that's what people say about their children my pride

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and joy no i um you guys are um you i would be nothing without you.

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I am worthless without you.

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No, I'm kidding.

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I'm kidding.

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I don't judge my worth based on numbers of views, but I love you and I appreciate you.

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And if you watch until the end, let me know in the comments.

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Tell me that you're someone who watches my videos until the end because you enjoy them.

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It would make my day, would make my week.

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Thank you.

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Love you. And bye-bye.

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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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