Shadowing Practice: Systems Thinking Changes How You Solve Problems | B2 English Shadowing - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Have you ever fixed a problem, felt relieved, and then watched the same problem come back?
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You clean your room, and a few days later, it is messy again.
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You catch up on your work, and somehow, you are behind again next week.
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You promise yourself that you will sleep earlier, but every night, you stay up too late.
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At some point, you may start thinking, What is wrong with me?
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But maybe you are asking the wrong question.
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Maybe the problem is not you.
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Maybe you are fixing the wrong part of the problem.
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Sometimes, the thing you can see is only the surface.
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Underneath it, there may be a pattern that keeps producing the same result.
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In this Level B 2 shadowing practice, we will look at why some problems keep coming back, how one small action can create a larger cycle,
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and why the best solution may be to change the system behind the problem.
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Listen to my voice and speak just behind me.
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Follow the pronunciation, rhythm, and emotion.
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If you miss a word, do not stop.
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Keep going.
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Let's begin.
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Imagine that your room is always messy.
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Every Saturday, you clean it.
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You put the clothes away.
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You organize your desk.
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You throw away the things you do not need.
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For a few hours, everything looks great.
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Then Monday comes.
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You are tired after work, so you leave your jacket on a chair.
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You put a bag on the floor You leave a book on the table
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One thing becomes three Three things become ten And by Friday,
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the room looks almost the same again So you clean it again But what if cleaning is not the real solution?
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Maybe the problem is not that you are bad at cleaning
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Maybe your room has no simple place for the things you use every day Maybe you have too many things
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Maybe you come home tired and the easiest choice is to put everything wherever there is space.
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If that is true, then cleaning the room is only fixing the result.
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You are not changing what creates the result.
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And this idea is much bigger than a messy bedroom.
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Think about someone who is always late.
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We often say they need to manage their time better.
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But look more closely.
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Maybe they always schedule too many things.
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Maybe they think a 30-minute task will take 10 minutes.
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Maybe they leave no space between appointments.
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Maybe one small delay in the morning creates three more delays later.
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In that case, telling them to try harder may not solve the problem.
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The problem may be in the system around their time.
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This gives us a different question.
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Instead of asking, why did this happen?
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Ask.
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What keeps making this happen?
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That small change in the question is powerful.
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The first question looks for an event.
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The second looks for a pattern.
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And patterns are often more useful than events.
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Think about a problem in your own life that keeps returning.
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Maybe you are always short of money at the end of the month.
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Maybe you keep missing deadlines.
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Maybe you keep having the same argument with someone.
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Maybe you keep feeling tired, even after taking a day off.
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You can keep reacting every time the problem appears.
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Or you can step back and ask what is creating it.
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That is the beginning of systems thinking.
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You stop looking at one broken piece.
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You start looking at how the pieces work together.
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And sometimes, that is when the problem finally starts to make sense.
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But here is where things get strange
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Sometimes the solution becomes part of the problem
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Imagine that you are tired every morning You decide to drink coffee
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The coffee helps You feel more awake
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so you can work The next day you are tired again so you drink more coffee
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Then you drink coffee later in the afternoon.
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At night, you do not feel tired enough to sleep.
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So you go to bed late.
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The next morning, you wake up tired again.
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What do you do?
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You drink coffee.
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Now look at the whole cycle.
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Tiredness leads to coffee.
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Coffee later in the day leads to poor sleep.
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Poor sleep leads to more tiredness.
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And more tiredness leads to more coffee.
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The coffee was not necessarily the original problem, but it became part of the cycle that kept the problem alive.
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This is why systems thinking is different from simply finding a quick fix.
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It asks you to look at what happens next.
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One action can create another action.
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That action can create another result.
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And sometimes the final result comes back and affects the beginning.
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You can see the same thing at work.
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Imagine a team that is falling behind.
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The manager wants to solve the problem quickly.
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So everyone works longer hours.
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At first, it seems to work.
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More work gets done.
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The manager feels relieved.
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But after a few weeks, people become tired.
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When people are tired, they make more mistakes.
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The mistakes create more work.
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The extra work creates more pressure.
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And the pressure leads to even longer hours.
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The team is now working harder to solve a problem that their working system is helping to create.
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That is the strange part.
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More effort did not necessarily produce a better result.
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It may have made the cycle stronger.
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So instead of asking, how can we work faster?
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A better question might be, why is there so much unnecessary work?
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Maybe there are too many meetings.
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Maybe priorities change every day.
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Maybe two people are doing the same task.
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Maybe nobody knows which work matters most.
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Now the focus has changed.
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You are no longer pushing the people inside the system.
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You are examining the system itself.
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This way of thinking can also help in everyday life.
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If you are always stressed, taking a weekend off may help.
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But what happens on Monday?
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If your schedule is still full, if you still say yes to everything, and if you still expect yourself to do everything perfectly,
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the stress may return.
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The weekend was not useless.
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You needed the rest.
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But rest alone may not change the pattern.
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Sometimes the better solution is not more recovery.
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It is changing what keeps making recovery necessary.
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That is a much harder question, but it can lead to a much better answer.
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And this is where many smart solutions fail.
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They solve a problem in front of them, but they do not consider what happens next.
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Imagine a company that keeps losing employees.
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The company needs people, so it hires more.
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The empty positions are filled.
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For a while, everything looks better.
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But then more employees leave.
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So the company hires again.
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What if hiring is not the real solution?
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Maybe people are leaving
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because the workload is too high Maybe managers do not give
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enough support Maybe employees have no chance to grow Maybe the company keeps losing people because the conditions have not changed
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Hiring more people fills the empty chairs It does not necessarily
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change why the chairs became empty This is an important difference A quick solution asks How do we stop this problem now?
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A systems thinker also asks, What will this solution cause later?
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That second question can change everything.
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Think about a simple example.
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A company wants to save money, so it cuts its staff.
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At first, the numbers look better.
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The company spends less.
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But now fewer people have to do the same amount of work.
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They become exhausted.
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The quality of the service falls.
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Customers become unhappy.
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Some customers leave.
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Now, the company has another problem.
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The original solution created a new problem somewhere else.
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This does not mean cost-cutting is always wrong.
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It means every Every solution exists inside a larger system.
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When you change one part, other parts may react.
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That is why good problem solving requires you to look beyond the first result.
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Ask, what happens next?
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Then, what happens after that?
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You do not need to predict everything.
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That would be impossible.
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you can learn to look for possible consequences before they become new problems.
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The same idea works in your personal life.
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Suppose you are always running out of time.
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You decide to wake up one hour earlier.
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That may help.
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But if you keep adding more tasks to your day, you may soon become busy again.
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The real problem may not be that you wake up too late.
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It may be that you expect one day to hold more than one day can hold.
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So the solution may not be another productivity trick.
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It may be learning what to remove.
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This is one of the most useful parts of systems thinking.
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Sometimes the answer is not.
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What should I add?
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It is.
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What should I stop doing?
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That question can feel uncomfortable.
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But it can reveal more than another quick fix.
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Because when a problem keeps returning, the answer may not be more effort.
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It may be a different structure.
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Systems thinking does not mean making every problem complicated.
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In fact, it can make problems easier to understand.
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When something goes wrong, pause before you react.
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Look at what happened.
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Then look at what happened before it.
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Look at what happened after it.
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Look for the habits, decisions, and conditions connected to the result.
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If you are always tired, do not only ask how to rest.
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Ask what keeps making you tired.
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If you are always late, do not only ask how to move faster.
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Ask what keeps making your schedule impossible.
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If you keep making the same mistake, do not only ask who made it.
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Ask what allowed the mistake to happen.
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This does not mean that nobody is responsible.
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It means you are looking for a solution that can actually last.
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You are moving from blame to understanding.
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And understanding gives you more choices.
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You may discover that the problem is not where you first thought it was.
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You may discover that one small habit is connected to five other habits.
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You may even discover that something you thought was helping you is keeping the cycle alive.
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That can be uncomfortable, but it is also hopeful.
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Because if a pattern was created by a system, the system can be changed.
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You may not need to work harder.
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You may need to remove one unnecessary step
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You may not need more motivation You may need a simpler
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routine You may not need another quick solution You may need to change the conditions
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that keep creating the same problem So the next time a problem comes back
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Do not immediately fight it Pause and look underneath it Ask what keeps creating it Ask what is connected to it
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Ask what your solution might create next.
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Then choose where to make the change.
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Because solving a problem once is useful.
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But changing the system that keeps creating the problem is much more powerful.
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Stop fighting the symptom.
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Change what keeps creating it.
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You have completed this Level B 2 English Shadowing Practice.
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If some sentences felt difficult, listen again and follow the rhythm.
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Then practice once more and focus on speaking naturally, not perfectly.
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Each repetition helps you become clearer and more confident.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “Systems Thinking Changes How You Solve Problems”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: solution, tired, coffee, create, result. This video has 212 sentences and 1879 words to shadow. The speech runs for 14:10. The speaker talks at a steady 133 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. 92% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is easy to follow.
Key vocabulary in this video
The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| tiredness noun | The state of being tired. | |
| messy adjective | /ˈmɛsi/ | In a disorderly state; chaotic; disorderly. |
| react verb | /ɹiːˈækt/ | To act in response. |
| relieve verb | /ɹɪˈliːv/ | To ease (a person, person's thoughts etc.) from mental distress; to stop (someone) feeling anxious or worried, to alleviate the distress of. |
| pause noun | /pɔːz/ | A temporary stop or rest; an intermission of action; interruption; suspension; cessation. |
| rhythm noun | /ˈɹɪð.əm/ | The variation of strong and weak elements (such as duration, accent) of sounds, notably in speech or music, over time; a beat or meter. |
| underneath adverb | /ˌʌndɚˈniθ/ | Below; in a place beneath. |
| fixing noun | /ˈfɪksɪŋ/ | The act of subverting (fixing) a vote. |
| unnecessary adjective | /ʌnˈnɛs.əˌsɛɹ.i/ | Not needed or necessary. |
| uncomfortable adjective | /ʌnˈkʌm.fɚ.tə.bl̩/ | Not comfortable; causing discomfort. |
| repetition noun | /ˌɹɛp.əˈtɪʃ.ən/ | The act or an instance of repeating or being repeated. |
| thinker noun | /ˈθɪŋ.kɚ/ | One who spends time thinking, contemplating or meditating. |
| workload noun | The amount of work assigned to a particular worker, normally in a specified time period. | |
| pronunciation noun | /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/ | The formal or informal way in which a word is made to sound when spoken. |
| symptom noun | /ˈsɪm(p)təm/ | A perceived change in some function, sensation or appearance of a person that indicates a disease or disorder, such as fever, headache or rash; strictly, a… |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| come back verb | To return to a place. | |
| wake up verb | /ˌweɪk ˈʌp/ | To stop sleeping; to awake. |
| fall behind verb | To be late (for a regular event) | |
| stay up verb | To remain awake; to not go to bed. | |
| step back verb | /stɛp ˈbæk/ | To stop what one is doing and evaluate the current situation. |
| throw away verb | To discard (trash, garbage, or the like), to toss out, to put in the trash. | |
| work together verb | To be coworkers with someone; to share a workspace with someone. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- What do you do?
- What should I add?
- What should I stop doing?
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | are always stressed · are filled · is connected |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | has changed · have not changed · have completed |
Pronunciation to watch
- The “th” sounds: rhythm /ˈɹɪð.əm/, underneath /ˌʌndɚˈniθ/, thinker /ˈθɪŋ.kɚ/, cloth /klɒθ/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: repetition /ˌɹɛp.əˈtɪʃ.ən/, pronunciation /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/, emotion /ɪˈməʊ.ʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: unnecessary /ʌnˈnɛs.əˌsɛɹ.i/, uncomfortable /ʌnˈkʌm.fɚ.tə.bl̩/, repetition /ˌɹɛp.əˈtɪʃ.ən/, pronunciation /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/, productivity /ˌpɹɒdʌkˈtɪvəti/
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 tiredness, messy, react.
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.