Shadowing Practice: The Aroace Experience - Learn English Speaking with Video

you Oh, who's this?

Your better half?

Uh, no. Just friends.

Oh, I see.

So, best friends.

Ah.

I'm Arrow Ace.

Ta -da!

Let me just start by saying that I know every airways person has different experiences.

This is just my own.

If I had to explain my own flavor of arrow ace, it's not that I think everyone around me is ugly or anything.

I very much pass by people I think are attractive.

But rather than romantic interest, it's the same feeling as when I pass by a particularly cute dog.

Like, oh my gosh, God was having a very good day when he made you.

Same with people.

I see someone attractive and go, "Oh wow, he's so handsome, can I pet him?" And this isn't to compare people to dogs, it's just, you know, the feeling.

An uncomplicated feeling of affection for something I think is cute.

The same affection I feel for my fictional crushes.

To be honest, being Arrow Ace has not been difficult, not for me anyway.

There are moments that are annoying certainly, but it very rarely comes up in conversation.

I think it's mostly because it's just more accepted now for people to want to stay single, so I'm rarely in a situation where it gets questioned.

Explaining to my parents has been...

Well, I've never explained it to my parents.

I mean, these things with gender and sexuality are like, They're Asian parents, you know?

You know.

Even if I try to explain, they just...

Wouldn't believe me?

Arrow Ace, you young people come up with the strangest things.

You just haven't met the right person yet, blah blah blah.

So it was simpler to tell them that I just don't want to get married or have kids because I...

I just don't want to.

And that was kind of the end of it.

Yahoo!

Yippee!

That's that conversation over with!

I could never envision myself liking anyone when I was younger

and I quite literally just went through my entire life not ever thinking about it.

I know that some people will go through school seeing

that their peers have started dating and feel pressure to start dating as well, but look, I didn't even have friends, let alone something like a boyfriend.

I just wanted someone to talk to.

Romance

and dating were far -fetched ideas for someone who had to skip lunch every day to read in the library

because I was too embarrassed to sit by myself at a cafeteria table.

So it was only in high school that I actually discovered a label for my condition,

but it was never a moment of realization or anything.

Just, oh, that's what it's called.

Cool.

That being said, I have had people ask me out, mostly in college and not many, mind you, but it happened, I guess.

But the thing is, once I realize that someone sees me that way, and okay, I feel really bad saying this because it's not their fault,

but I start to feel genuine disgust, and it, uh, I don't know, this is why I don't go outside.

And, okay, if someone's upfront about it, I can just tell them no and go about my day.

No reason to stew over it if we'll never see each other again.

But there is one time someone who, and they never explicately said it, but I have a hunch, that they were interested in me.

Like, they just asked me out to play pool and I, who generally assumes that I'm a loser who no one likes,

thought that they just wanted to be friends.

But while we were walking, it was raining and he would constantly try and hold his umbrella over my head even though I already had a hood.

And I didn't want to walk shoulder to shoulder with him

so I'd skip forward a little bit to walk in front of him

and he'd immediately follow and stand next to me again, uncomfortably close.

Hmm, okay.

Weird vibes.

And it only got worse when he kept texting me afterwards asking if I'd eaten dinner, and I didn't understand, like, why is this guy so obsessed with whether I ate dinner or not?

So I asked my mom, and she was like, oh, he's probably trying to ask you out for a meal.

You know, like a date. And.

In this moment, I can't quite describe it, but there is this wave of sudden, visceral, unfiltered revulsion.

And because I have no emotional maturity to speak of, the only way I knew how to cope was to pretend

that this guy did not exist until he eventually stopped contacting me.

I must have been like this since I was little.

I remember in elementary school I found out a kid liked me so Um, I started harassing him.

And I don't know if he took this as a sign

that I was doing it for attention because

when our class was playing tag

and I was in the middle of trying to pull him off the jungle gym by a shirt, he turns his head, looks me in the eyes and asks,

"Does this mean you like me back?" Nope, I just genuinely fucking hated him.

For no other reason than him liking me.

It's been nearly 20 years and I still feel guilt over this.

Sorry, kid.

Shockingly, I do have guy friends, or rather, one guy friend.

I don't have many friends in general, but I have one guy friend who is fully aware that I'm AeroAce and I can feel comfortable talking to.

But even though we know that our relationship is just friends, we cannot escape other people's perceptions.

I get in a Discord call with his friends, this your girlfriend?

We bump into someone he knows.

Girlfriend?

In our year, 2026, we still cannot be normal about male -female friendships.

Just let me exist in peace.

Also, being Arrow Ace doesn't mean I'm disinterested in romance.

I mean, look at my past videos.

I love consuming and writing romance.

I just need it to not involve me in any way.

Which I think is why I enjoy fucked up romances so much.

Because I'm so detached from it in reality that I can only judge it purely based off entertainment value.

And I've read so much romance at this point that these green flag relationships are getting boring.

Where is my gore and murder and unhealthy obsession?

I am but a simple creature who needs shock value to continue reading.

Speaking of my past videos, there are so many fellow romance -loving Aero Aces in my comments, it makes me so happy.

Look at us, just existing.

100

We're doing so well.

101

So for any fellow Arrow Aces, I'd love to hear about your experiences as well.

102

That's it.

103

Yep.

✨ Recommend Video

233 sentences

Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This video has 103 sentences and 1157 words to shadow. The speech runs for 6:42. The speaker talks at a natural 173 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. Only 81% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.

Key vocabulary in this video

15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
romance noun	/roʊˈmæn(t)s/	An intimate relationship between two people; a love affair.
arrow noun	/ˈæɹəʊ/	A projectile consisting of a shaft, a point and a tail with stabilizing fins that is shot from a bow.
rarely adverb	/ˈɹɛəɹli/	Not occurring at a regular interval; seldom; not often.
skip verb	/skɪp/	To move by hopping on alternate feet.
affection noun	/əˈfɛk.ʃən/	The act of affecting or acting upon.
meal noun	/ˈmiːl/	Food that is prepared and eaten, usually at a specific time, and usually in a comparatively large quantity.
shock noun	/ʃɔk/	A sudden, heavy impact.
compare verb	/kəmˈpɛɚ/	To assess the similarities and differences between two or more things [“to compare X with Y”]. Having made the comparison of X with Y, one might have found it…
label noun	/ˈleɪ.bəl/	A small ticket or sign giving information about something to which it is attached or intended to be attached.
romantic adjective	/ɹoʊˈmæn(t)ɪk/	Fantastic, unrealistic (of an idea etc.); fanciful, sentimental, impractical (of a person).
afterwards adverb	/ˈæf.tɚ.wɚdz/	At a later or succeeding time; after that;
ugly adjective	/ˈʌɡli/	Displeasing to the eye; aesthetically unpleasing.
sudden adjective	/ˈsʌd.ən/	Occurring quickly with little or no warning or expectation; instantly.
discover verb	/dɪˈskʌvə/	To find or learn something for the first time.
friendship noun	/ˈfɹɛn(d)ʃɪp/	The condition of being friends.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Meaning
go through verb	To travel from one end of something to the other.
come up with verb	To manage to produce, deliver, or present (something) by inventing, creating, thinking of, or obtaining it.
find out verb	To discover, as by asking or investigating.

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	has not been · has been · I've never explained
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	someone who had · friend who is

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 29 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, I'm, didn't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “sh” and “zh” sounds: affection /əˈfɛk.ʃən/, shock /ʃɔk/, friendship /ˈfɹɛn(d)ʃɪp/, perception /pɚˈsɛpʃ(ə)n/, crush /kɹʌʃ/
Long words — get the stress right: elementary /ˌɛləˈmɛntəɹi/, genuinely /ˈd͡ʒɛn.ju.ɪn.li/, maturity /məˈtjʊəɹɪti/, realization /ˌɹɪə.laɪˈzeɪ.ʃən/, cafeteria /ˌkæ.fə.ˈtɪ(ə).ɹi.ə/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like romance, arrow, rarely.

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 →

Shadowing Practice: The Aroace Experience - Learn English Speaking with Video

Being Not Straight

Ultimate DATING ADVICE: You must FIX this one thing! | Hey Tablo Ep. 34

ArrDee Answers Assumptions About Him | Capital XTRA

16 Personalities' Inner Monologues When They Like Someone

My summer arc

My ONE comment changed EVERYTHING!...

relationships are hard.

Every Romantic Orientation Explained in 10 Minutes [ Vol.2 ]

Tugboat_Spenny's FAQ

SAN DIEGO SERIES | Matt Rife crowdwork

Wait What!? EP 9: Modern Love, Modern Mess

Growing Up with My Stepdad