Shadowing Practice: Taylor Swift's inspirational commencement speech to NYU | favorite moments/words - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
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I never got to have a normal college experience per se.
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I went to public high school until 10th grade
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and then finished my education doing homeschool work on the floors of airport terminals.
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Then I went out on the road for a radio tour,
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which sounds incredibly glamorous, but in reality it consisted of a rental car,
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motels, and my mom and I pretending to have loud mother-daughter fights with each other during boarding
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so no one would want the empty seat between us on Southwest.
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As a kid, I always thought I would go away to college, imagining the posters I would hang on the wall of my freshman dorm.
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I even set the ending of my music video from my
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song Love Story at my fantasy imaginary College where I meet a male model reading a book on the grass
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and with one single glance we realized we had been in love in our past lives.
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Which is exactly what you guys all experienced at some point in the last four years, right?
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But I really can't complain about not having a normal college experience to you
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because Because you went to NYU during a global pandemic,
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being essentially locked into your dorms and having to do classes over Zoom.
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Everyone in college during normal times stresses about test scores.
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But on top of that, you also had to pass like a thousand COVID tests.
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I imagine the idea of a normal college experience was all you wanted to.
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But in this case, you and I both learned
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that you don't always get all the things in the bag
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that you selected from the menu in the delivery surface that is life.
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You get what you get.
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And as I would like to say to you wholeheartedly, you should be very proud of what you've done with it.
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you leave New York University and then go out into the world searching what's next. And so will I.
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The first of which is, life can be heavy, especially if you try to carry it all at once.
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Part of growing up and moving into new chapters of your life is about catch and release.
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What I mean by that is knowing what things to keep and what things to release.
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You can't carry all things, all grudges, all updates on your ex,
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all enviable promotions your school bully got at the hedge fund his uncle started.
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Decide what is yours to hold and let the rest go.
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Oftentimes, the good things in your life are lighter anyway, so there's more room for them.
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One toxic relationship can outweigh so many wonderful, simple joys.
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You get to pick what your life has time and room for. Be discerning.
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Secondly, learn to live alongside cringe.
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No matter how hard you try to avoid being cringe,
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you will look back on your life and cringe retrospectively.
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Cringe is unavoidable over a lifetime.
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Even the term cringe might someday be deemed cringe.
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I promise you, you're probably doing or wearing something right now
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that you will look back on later and find revolting and hilarious.
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You can't avoid it, so don't try to.
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For example, I had a phase where for the entirety of 2012,
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I dressed like a 1950s housewife. But you know what?
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I was having fun.
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Trends and phases are fun.
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Looking back and laughing is fun.
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And while we're talking about things that make us squirm but really shouldn't,
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I'd like to say, I'm a big advocate for not hiding your enthusiasm for things.
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It seems to me that there is a false stigma around eagerness in our culture of unbothered ambivalence.
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This outlook perpetuates the idea that it's not cool to want it.
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The people who don't try are fundamentally more chic than people who do.
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And I wouldn't know because I've been a lot of things, but I've never been an expert on chic.
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But I'm the one who's up here, so you have to listen to me when I say this.
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Never be ashamed of trying.
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Effortlessness is a myth.
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The people who wanted it the least were the ones I wanted to date and be friends with in high school.
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The people who want it the most are the people I now hire to work for my company.
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I started writing songs when I was 12
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and since then it's been the compass guiding my life and in turn my life guided my writing.
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Everything I do is just an extension of my writing whether it's directing videos or a short film,
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creating the visuals for a tour, or standing on a stage performing.
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Everything is connected by my love of the craft.
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The thrill of working through ideas and narrowing them down and polishing it all up in the end, Editing, waking up in the middle of the night,
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throwing out the old idea because you just thought of a new or better one, or a plot device that ties the whole thing together.
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There's a reason they call it a hook.
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Sometimes a string of words just ensnares me, and I can't focus on anything until it's been recorded or written down.
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As a songwriter, I've never been able to sit still or stay in one creative place for too long.
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I've made and released 11 albums and in the process, I've switched genre from country to pop to alternative to folk.
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And this might sound like a very songwriter-centric line of discussion,
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but in a way, I really do think we are all writers.
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And most of us write in a different voice for different situations.
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You write differently in your Instagram stories than you do your senior thesis.
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You send a different type of email to your boss than you do your best friend from home.
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We are all literary chameleons, and I think it's fascinating.
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It's just a continuation of the idea that we are so many things all the time.
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And I know it can be really overwhelming figuring out who to be and when.
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who you are now and how to act in order to get where you want to go.
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I have some good news.
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It's totally up to you.
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I have some terrifying news.
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It's totally up to you.
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See, I was a teenager at a time
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when our society was absolutely obsessed with the idea of having perfect young female role models.
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It felt like every interview I did included slight barbs by the interviewer about me one day running off the rails.
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And that meant a different thing to every person who said it to me.
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So I became a young adult while being fed the message that if I didn't make any mistakes,
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all the children of America would grow up to be perfect angels.
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However, if I did slip up, the entire earth would fall off its axis
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and it would be entirely my fault and I would go to pop star jail forever and ever.
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It was all centered around the idea that mistakes equal failure
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and ultimately the loss of any chance at a happy or rewarding life.
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This has not been my experience.
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My experience has been that my mistakes led to the best things in my life.
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And being embarrassed when you mess up is part of the human experience.
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Getting back up, dusting yourself off, and seeing who still wants to hang out with you afterward and laugh about it, that's a gift.
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times I was told no or wasn't included, wasn't chosen, didn't win, didn't make the cut,
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looking back it really feels like those moments were as important if not more crucial than the moments I was told yes.
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Not being invited to the parties and sleepovers in my hometown made me feel hopelessly lonely.
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But because I felt alone, I would sit in my room and write the songs that would get me a ticket somewhere else.
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Having label executives in Nashville tell me that only 35 year old housewives listen to country music,
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and there was no place for a 13 year old on their roster, made me cry in the car on the way home.
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But then I'd post my songs on my MySpace.
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And yes, MySpace.
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And I would message with other teenagers like me who loved country music, but just didn't have anyone singing from their perspective.
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Having journalists write in-depth,
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oftentimes critical pieces about who they perceived me to be made me feel like I was living in some weird simulation.
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But it also made me look inward to learn about who I actually am.
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Having the world treat my love life like a spectator sport in
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which I lose every single game was not a great way to date in my teens and twenties.
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But it taught me to protect my private life fiercely.
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Being publicly humiliated over and over again at a young age was excruciatingly painful.
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But it forced me to devalue the ridiculous notion of minute by minute ever fluctuating social relevance and likability.
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Getting canceled on the internet and nearly losing my career gave me an excellent knowledge of all the types of wine.
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I know I sound like a consummate optimist but I'm really not.
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I lose perspective all the time.
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Sometimes everything just feels completely pointless.
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I know the pressure of living your life through the lens of perfectionism.
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And I know that I'm talking to a group of perfectionists because you are here today graduating from NYU.
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So this might be hard for you to hear.
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your life you will inevitably misspeak trust the wrong person
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underreact overreact hurt the people who didn't deserve it overthink not
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think at all self-sabotage create a reality where only your experience exists ruin perfectly good moments for yourself
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and others deny any wrongdoing not take the Steps to make it right.
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Feel very guilty.
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Let the guilt eat at you.
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Hit rock bottom.
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Finally address the pain you caused.
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Try to do better next time.
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Rinse, repeat.
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And I'm not going to lie.
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These mistakes will cause you to lose things.
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I'm trying to tell you that losing things doesn't just mean losing.
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A lot of the time when we lose things, we gain things too.
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Now you leave the structure and framework of school and chart your own path.
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Every choice you make leads to the next choice, which leads to the next.
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And I know it's hard to know which path to take.
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There will be times in life where you need to stand up for yourself.
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Times when the right thing is actually to back down and apologize.
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Times when the right thing is to fight.
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Times when the right thing is to turn and run.
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Times to hold on with all you have.
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Times to let go with grace.
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Sometimes the right thing to do is to throw out the old schools of thought in the name of progress and reform.
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Sometimes the right thing to do is to sit and Listen to the wisdom of those who have come before us.
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How will you know what the right choice is in these crucial moments?
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You won't.
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How do I give advice to this many people about their life choices?
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I won't.
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The scary news is, you're on your own now.
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But the cool news is, you're on your own now.
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I leave you with this.
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We are led by our gut instincts, our intuition, our desires and fears, our scars and our dreams.
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And you will screw it up sometimes.
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So will I.
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And when I do, you will most likely read about it on the internet.
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Anyway, hard things will happen to us.
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We will recover.
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We will learn from it.
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We will grow more resilient because of it.
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And as long as we are fortunate enough to be breathing, we will breathe in, breathe through,
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breathe deep, and breathe out.
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And I am a doctor now, so I know how breathing works.
Context & Background
Taylor Swift's commencement speech at New York University (NYU) serves as an inspiring message for graduates navigating the complex transition from academic life to the real world. Despite not having the traditional college experience—instead opting for homeschooling and a music career—Swift shares insights that resonate deeply with students today. She acknowledges the unique challenges faced by the graduating class during a global pandemic, highlighting their resilience and adaptability. This context is vital for English learners, as it showcases real-life conversational language and offers learners an opportunity to practice critical speaking skills through relatable content.
Top 5 Phrases for Daily Communication
- “You get what you get” - A reminder to accept life's unpredictability.
- “Don't try to carry it all at once” - Encouragement to prioritize what's truly important in life.
- “Learn to live alongside cringe” - An invitation to embrace awkward moments as part of life.
- “Pick what your life has time and room for” - Advice on discerning what relationships and experiences to hold on to.
- “Don’t hide your enthusiasm” - A call to express excitement and passion, challenging societal norms.
These phrases can be useful in everyday conversations, helping learners articulate their thoughts and feelings more effectively.
Step-by-step Shadowing Guide
The shadowing technique is a powerful method for improving English pronunciation and fluency. Here’s how to effectively apply this technique to Taylor Swift's speech:
- Listen Actively: Play the speech multiple times while focusing on the tone, rhythm, and intonation. This helps you understand how emphasis and emotion are conveyed.
- Repeat in Segments: Break the speech into smaller parts. For each segment, listen and then repeat what you've heard, trying to mimic Swift's pronunciation as closely as possible.
- Practice with Context: Use the phrases listed above. Create your own sentences using similar structures to improve your English speaking practice. For instance, express your own experiences alongside Swift’s ideas.
- Record Yourself: After several practice rounds, record your own voice while shadowing the speech. Analyze this recording for pronunciation and fluency, identifying areas for improvement.
- Engage in Conversations: Share your favorite phrases from the speech during discussions with friends or other learners. This not only solidifies your understanding but also helps you become more confident in casual conversations.
By following this structured approach to shadow speech, you will not only enhance your speaking skills but also gain a deeper appreciation for the nuances of English communication.
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.