Shadowing Practice: The Best Way to Learn English ALONE — The Full System - Learn English Speaking with Video
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You've been trying to study English on your own, watching the videos, reading the articles, doing everything right.
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But deep down, you're asking yourself the same question.
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Am I even doing this the right way?
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Is any of this actually working?
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And when you sit down alone, no teacher, no partner, no one to talk to you, freeze.
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You don't know what to study, how to study it, or whether it's making any difference at all.
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Here's the good news.
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You're not doing anything wrong.
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You're just missing the system.
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And once you have it, studying alone becomes the most powerful thing you can do.
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Today, I'm going to give you that full system, a way to study English completely alone,
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built around something you already carry with you everywhere you go, who you are.
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Are you ready?
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Well, then let's jump right in.
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To start, we must first dive deeper into why solo English learners must study through identity.
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I said a few moments ago that who you are, you carry your identity with you everywhere you go.
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Why do you have to study based on your identity?
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You see, the real problem with studying alone isn't the silence.
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It's the absence of a reason to speak.
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You see, there's no teacher asking you questions, no partner reacting to you and no room to perform in.
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You read, you watch, you understand, and nothing moves from your head to your mouth when you're studying alone.
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Identity, however, is the only thing that's always present.
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Who you are, your identity, it's always there.
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Endlessly detailed.
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Permanently available.
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emotionally charged.
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You are always with yourself.
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This gives you something urgent to say when no one is asking because you are with yourself.
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You see, but identity is too big to study.
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It has to be broken down into parts you can actually work with.
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Let me break this down.
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Your identity, who you are is made up of five components.
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That's right.
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Five components, no matter where you live, no matter what your background is as an individual,
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as a human, your identity is broken down into five specific parts, five components.
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The first component is life experiences, where you've been and what happened along the way.
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Your life experiences make up who you are as an individual.
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Number two, self-talk.
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The things you say to yourself about yourself, these things make up who you are.
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Component number three, what matters most your beliefs, your priorities, the things you won't compromise on.
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These make you who you are.
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Component number four, your daily habits, what you actually do day after day.
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These things make you who you are.
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And number five, your people, the circles you belong to and the relationships that hold you.
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These five components make you who you are.
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Together, these are the whole of who you are and the whole of what you have to say.
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Think about it.
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When you know your identity, you'll be able to express yourself properly in English and you'll also know how to study alone.
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Anything you learn behaves differently once it passes through your own life these five components,
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not just words, expressions, structures, pronunciation patterns, any way of responding,
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anything you study has to pass through these five components of your identity, who you are learned in the abstract though.
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These things stay just information.
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When you don't learn them through the components that make up who you are, they're just information that you're memorizing.
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However, when you learn things through your own experience, your thoughts, your priorities, your routines, your relationships.
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All of a sudden these things become a part of who you are and you are able to use them,
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the words, the expressions, these things will then come back faster.
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They'll stay longer and arrive without translation.
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Why?
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Because you've learned them based on the five components of who you are, your identity.
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Why is this true?
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Because your brain, the human brain files things based on your life, not based on a textbook.
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Here's the rule that this creates.
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Whatever you learn, whatever you learn, run it through all five components before you call it yours.
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It's making sense now, right?
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Before we get to this full system, we have to understand why the five components of your identity, why they're so important.
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So whatever you learn, you have to run it through all five components.
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Now we dive into the full system based on these five components, starting with component number one,
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life experiences, where you've been and what happened along the way.
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For example, you know me as your English teacher.
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I've told you before I lived in South Korea for 10 years as an English teacher.
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I was an English missionary teaching English and I loved my time in Korea.
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10 years is a long time to live in another country.
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That is a period of my life I will never forget.
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I have many experiences attached to my time in Korea.
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That time period makes me who I am.
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It's a part of my identity because component number one is life experiences.
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So when it comes to this full system, studying alone, why is it so important to make sure you're studying based on the first component of life experiences?
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Well, three reasons.
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First, it gives everything you learn a memory to live inside.
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When you connect to a real moment, when you learn a word, when you learn an expression and you connect it to a real moment from your life,
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it's stored automatically with images, emotions, and sensory detail.
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The smells, the way you felt when you touched something, the conditions your brain actually uses to make retrieval fast.
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When you learn based on the first component life experiences, it will help you keep the memory inside.
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It's connected.
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Reason number two, it creates an unlimited supply of speaking material.
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You'll never run out of things to describe.
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And unlike textbook topics, you already know exactly what happened.
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Why?
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Because they're your lived experiences.
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And reason number three, it builds your ability to tell stories.
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You know how I like to tell stories during story time.
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Don't worry.
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It's coming at the end.
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You're building up this skill as well, which is what real conversation is made up of.
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Native speakers do not exchange facts.
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We're not just delivering facts to each other.
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No, we exchange narratives.
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So practicing your own past, your own past experiences trains you the exact way an American would actually train.
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You're actually learning the exact skill, conversation skill that will help you sound more like a native speaker.
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So component number one, part of our full system is learning based on life experiences.
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So what does this look like?
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Here's the practical application.
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Let's say the word you're learning is relentless after me, relentless.
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Good.
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Now relentless just means never stopping, never easing up, continuing without pause or mercy.
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That's the definition of the term relentless, but remember component number one of our identity.
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The full system now is life experiences.
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So you have to find a period of your life that would not let up.
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You can say the pressure that year was relentless.
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For example, for me, when I was in South Korea and I was studying for my exam to get my master's degree, it was not easy.
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I had to study from morning until night every day on Saturdays.
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I took a break.
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I wanted to, you know, worship God and I took a break from it.
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But every other day from Sunday to Friday morning, tonight, I was studying.
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It was relentless.
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The pressure during that time period was relentless.
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It never stopped.
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It never eased up.
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I was always on edge.
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The stress and pressure was relentless.
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Again, I connected that term to an experience that happened in my life.
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You have to do the same.
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What about an expression now?
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Hold my ground.
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Again, after me, hold my ground.
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Excellent.
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Now this just means to refuse to back down or change your position.
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When someone pushes against you, you refuse to back down.
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No, I'm holding my ground.
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I am standing on this.
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This is my perspective, my view, and I will not change to refuse to back down.
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So think about recalling a moment you were pushed and did not move.
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For example, I remember I went to this study with one of my friends and when I got to the study,
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there were about 15 or 20 people there and it was a Bible study.
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Now, what was being presented by the leader of the Bible study was something totally opposite of what I believe.
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And to me, it was opposite of what the Bible actually teaches.
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But everyone in that room outside of myself and my friend believed what this man was saying.
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So when I raised my hands to ask questions, he started pushing back against my view, but I held my ground and I supported my perspective with Bible verses.
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I held my ground.
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I refused to back down.
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I said, well, wait a minute.
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This is what the Bible says.
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I held my ground.
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So what happens now?
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This expression, hold my ground is now connected to a life experience from my life.
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So you want to connect it to a life experience.
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We have a word and expression.
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What about an idiom?
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The idiom is where my heart on my sleeve.
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Good.
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Again, where my heart on my sleeve.
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Excellent.
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All right.
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Now this idiom just means to show your emotions openly instead of hiding them, just to show exactly what you're feeling.
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Where my heart on my sleeve.
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So think about a time that your face gave you away.
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Let's say for example, in my life, when I wore my heart on my sleeve, I had unfortunately a disagreement with one of my friends.
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We're good now, but it was a disagreement that led to us not talking for quite a while.
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So when we finally came back together to discuss the issue, to discuss the tension, I didn't hold my feelings back.
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I made sure she knew what I was feeling because I cared about her.
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We've been friends for so long.
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So I wore my heart on my sleeve.
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I showed all of my emotions openly so that she would know I was so sorry and that I missed our friendship.
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I wore my heart on my sleeve during that conversation.
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So again, I have this idiom where my heart on my sleeve
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and I have a life experience that is now tied to this idiom.
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Remember component number one of our full system is life, excuse me, life experiences.
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You want to make sure you're connecting what you're learning to your life experiences.
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Why?
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Because we're looking at your identity, which is made up of five components.
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The first component being your life experiences.
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This leads us to our second component.
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The second component of our identity is self-talk, self-talk.
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Now, what is self-talk?
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The things you say to yourself about yourself.
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Listen, the words you use when you're speaking about yourself, think about it.
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The internal dialogue you have, whether you like certain things about yourself or you don't like certain things about yourself,
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the things you say to yourself about yourself, component number two, self-talk.
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Now, why is this so important when you're studying alone?
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Again, based on your identity, three reasons why this works.
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First, you are the subject that you know best.
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So whatever you learn, you can apply it to yourself instantly.
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There's no context to invent, no example to search for, even though you're alone studying, you know, yourself reason number two,
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anything about you carries weight.
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Your brain refuses to discard.
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It's about yourself.
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It's about your identity.
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So your brain holds onto it.
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So when you attach new English to yourself and it inherits that importance,
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it stops being information and starts being personal.
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When you attach what you're learning to yourself, talk to your identity, it becomes important.
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And reason number three, what you can say about yourself becomes what you believe about yourself.
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So the words turn into a self description and self description turns into identity.
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Again, this is why our full system for studying alone is based on the five components of your identity.
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Number two being self-talk.
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So let's look at practical applications for this component.
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Again, we have the word relentless, right?
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Our word is relentless.
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So you're going to turn it toward yourself.
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Use this word to describe who you are to say something about yourself.
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Let's say for example, you want to say it like this.
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I'm relentless when something actually matters to me.
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I'm relentless.
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I won't give up.
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I won't back down.
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I'm relentless when something matters to me.
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I'm describing myself.
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This is my self-talk.
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Now I've added a sentence to my self-talk dialogue using this word.
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What about the expression hold my ground?
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So say what you're like under pressure.
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Think about yourself, analyze yourself, do some self-reflection.
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How am I under pressure?
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How can I use the expression hold my ground to describe myself?
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Ah, you could say, I don't argue much, but I hold my ground.
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Again, you're describing yourself using the expression.
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I don't argue much, but I hold my ground.
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And then what about the idiom?
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Wear my heart on my sleeve.
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Describe your own nature.
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Are you someone who wears their heart on their sleeve or not?
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You could say, I wear my heart on my sleeve.
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I've never been good at hiding what I feel.
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Three different terms giving you and showing you how you can apply.
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Component number two, self-talk when you're studying alone, whatever you're learning, apply it to yourself, describe yourself.
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This moves us now to component number three, what matters most.
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In other words, the beliefs and priorities you won't compromise what you believe in,
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what you hold to be true, things you won't compromise.
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Again, part of your identity.
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Component number three, what matters most.
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Why is it important as you're studying alone for you to keep this in mind,
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to keep in mind what matters most and to apply what you're learning to this component of yourself, your identity.
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Reason number one, opinions force complexity.
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You see, expressing what you believe demands nuance hedging and structure.
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The exact language advanced learners avoid and most need.
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When you have to prove your point, when you have to state your opinion, you have to organize your thoughts in the same way that native English speakers do.
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So component number three is what matters most.
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You have to know your belief system.
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Number two, it's where your personality actually lives.
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The beliefs you hold the priorities, you won't compromise.
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This is actually where your personality lives.
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So when you can't express what you care about, you sound simpler than you actually are.
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This is what lets people meet the real you when you allow this component, what matters most to shine.
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And reason number three, emotional weight makes language stick.
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So anything tied to conviction is retained far more strongly than just neutral material material
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that doesn't mean anything to you because the brain prioritizes what feels important.
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This is why component number three, what matters most is so important to your full system of studying alone.
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So what does this look like?
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You're studying alone.
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You have these three terms, practical application.
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Now the word you have again is relentless, but the component of your identity, the third component again is what matters most.
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So you're going to name what deserves that kind of effort.
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Think about to you, what deserves the kind of effort attached to the word relentless?
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You can say, I think you have to be relentless about the people you love.
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This is your opinion.
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Now you're stating your opinion.
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You're studying alone, but you're organizing your thoughts based on your identity and the five components of your identity.
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What about the second term, the expression, hold my ground.
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You want to name the thing you won't bend on.
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Think about yourself.
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Think about your values.
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Think about the things you won't bend on.
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You won't back down on.
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You can say this when it comes to my family's time, I hold my ground.
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And then our third one idiom, wear my heart on my sleeve, take a position on it.
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Do you wear your heart on your sleeve or don't you wear your heart on your sleeve?
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Think about your position.
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You could say, I'd rather wear my heart on my sleeve than pretend I don't care.
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That's your position.
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That's what matters most to you.
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Component number three of our full system, again, connected to your identity is what matters most.
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Stating your opinion, stating your perspective, stating what you stand on.
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Again, even when you're studying alone, this can be done and it will help your English improve.
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Moving us now to component number four, daily habits.
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Again, looking at your identity and the five components were on daily habits.
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what you actually do day after day.
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So why is it important as you're studying alone to think about your daily habits?
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Why does this work?
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You see, reason number one, it fills the gap advanced learners are embarrassed by.
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Listen closely.
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You can discuss economics, but not describe your morning.
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Everyday language is where the real holes hide.
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You might know the terms connected to your job, but you're not able to express yourself about your daily routines.
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This fills that gap.
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Reason number two, it provides built-in daily repetition.
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Because you repeat the routine over and over again, you naturally repeat the English attached to it.
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Spaced repetition happens without effort.
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When you're studying alone, make sure this fourth component is there
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because it will build your ability to speak about your daily routine.
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And reason number three, it makes English part of your life instead of an addition to it.
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When your routine has English attached practice stops requiring willpower.
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It's just a part of your daily life.
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Even when you're studying alone, this is important.
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You can do this.
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So practical application.
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Again, we have three terms, relentless, hold my ground and wear my heart on my sleeve.
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So our fourth component of your identity is daily habits.
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So what about the word relentless?
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Attach it to something you do every day without fail.
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Here's an example.
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My alarm is relentless.
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It goes off whether I'm ready or not.
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So you have to wake up every day.
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That happens every single day.
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The word relentless is now attached to the alarm that wakes you up.
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My alarm is relentless.
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It goes off whether I'm ready or not.
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What about the expression, hold my ground?
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Find that daily moment.
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You defend, you make sure you defend this moment.
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For example, every morning, someone wants my attention before eight and I hold my ground.
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Not before eight.
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I won't answer any emails.
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I won't answer any calls every morning.
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Someone wants my attention before eight and I hold my ground again.
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That's a daily habit.
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And what about the idiom?
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Wear my heart on my sleeve.
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Notice where it shows up in your routine, where you show your emotions, where people can tell what you're thinking, what you're feeling without saying anything,
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without you even giving them a hint of what you're thinking with your words.
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You could say by the end of a long workday, I wear my heart on my sleeve.
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My face says everything again, by the end of a long workday, I wear my heart on my sleeve.
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My face says everything.
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So component number four, again, your identity daily habits, study English.
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When you're alone, connecting them to your daily habits, the words, the expressions, the idioms, what you're learning.
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And then our fifth component, your people.
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This connects to the circles you belong to and the relationships that hold you.
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Making you who you are.
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So as you're studying, when you're alone, you want to make sure you're studying based on these five components.
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Why does this work?
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Why is it so important to study with this fifth component?
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You see, there are three reasons.
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First reason people are specific and especially it's important to be specific and specificity is what makes language stick.
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So it's attached to a real person.
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When you're learning something, then English now lands on a face instead of a definition.
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When you're thinking of that term, not just the words come out, but a person you've connected it to someone in your life, your person, your people.
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Reason number two, you already have strong feelings about these people.
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That emotional charge tells your brain, the language matters.
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Something no textbook example can manufacture.
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You're connecting that word to someone who's already important.
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Someone who's living in your heart, someone who is in your mind, who you care about.
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So the word naturally will stick and latch onto that person.
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And reason number three, describing people is what conversations are made of.
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Real talk is dominated by others.
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What they said, what they did, what they're like.
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You're constantly describing other people as you're having conversations.
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So when you're alone, as you learn new things,
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practice doing this, attaching what you're learning to the people that are important to you in your life.
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Here's the practical application.
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Again, the three terms we've been using throughout this lesson, relentless, hold my ground and wear my heart on my sleeve.
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Relentless pointed at someone real.
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For example, my mother is relentless.
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She has never once let something go.
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Maybe your mom is relentless and she's never going to let anything go.
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My mother is relentless.
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She has never once let something go.
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The term is now connected to someone you love.
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What about the expression, hold my ground?
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Describe how someone else handles pressure.
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Your sister, your brother, your spouse, your friend.
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My closest friend holds her ground better than anyone I know.
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My friend, she's not going to back down.
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My closest friend holds her ground better than anyone I know.
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And finally, the idiom, wear my heart on my sleeve.
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Use it to describe a person.
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Think about your circle.
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Someone, you know, my youngest brother, where's his heart on his sleeve.
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You always know exactly what he is thinking and you know exactly where he stands.
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What happened?
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We connected the idiom where my heart on my sleeve to my youngest brother.
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This is how you study alone.
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This full system again, using the five components of your identity.
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Number one, life experiences.
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Number two, self-talk.
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Number three, what matters most.
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Number four, daily habits.
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And number five, your people.
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Study based on your identity.
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These five components and I guarantee even when you're alone, your English will improve.
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Hope you enjoyed this lesson.
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And if you want to continue studying with me, I want you to join me and our family
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by going to speak English with Tiffany.com forward slash native N A T I V E
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and learn even more about thinking in English and speaking like a native speaker.
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I'll talk to you in the next lesson.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “The Best Way to Learn English ALONE — The Full System”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: component, identity, relentless, alone, hold. This video has 384 sentences and 3925 words to shadow. The speech runs for 26:52. The speaker talks at a steady 146 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. 88% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| relentless adjective | /ɹɪˈlɛntləs/ | Unrelenting or unyielding in severity. |
| sleeve noun | /sliv/ | The part of a garment that covers the arm. |
| idiom noun | /ˈɪdiəm/ | A manner of speaking, a mode of expression peculiar to a language, language family, or group of people. |
| attach verb | /əˈtæt͡ʃ/ | To fasten, to join to (literally and figuratively). |
| compromise noun | /ˈkɑmpɹəˌmaɪz/ | The settlement of differences by arbitration or by consent reached by mutual concessions. |
| emotion noun | /ɪˈməʊ.ʃən/ | A person's internal state of being and involuntary physiological response to an object or a situation, based on or tied to physical state and sensory data. |
| learner noun | /ˈlɜɹnəɹ/ | One who is learning; one receiving instruction. |
| textbook noun | /ˈtɛkst.bʊk/ | A coursebook, a formal manual of instruction in a specific subject, especially one for use in schools or colleges. |
| repetition noun | /ˌɹɛp.əˈtɪʃ.ən/ | The act or an instance of repeating or being repeated. |
| workday noun | Any of the days of a week on which work is done; any day in a workweek. | |
| disagreement noun | /dɪsəˈɡɹiːmənt/ | An argument or debate. |
| organize verb | /ˈɔɹɡənaɪz/ | To arrange in working order. |
| youngest adjective | /ˈjʌŋ.ɡɪst/ | Most recently begun or formed. |
| openly adverb | /ˈoʊpənli/ | In an open manner; visibly. |
| dive verb | /daɪv/ | To swim under water. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| back down verb | To take a less aggressive position in a conflict than one previously had, or has planned to have. | |
| make up verb | /ˌmeɪk ˈʌp/ | To constitute, to compose. |
| come back verb | To return to a place. | |
| go off verb | To explode. | |
| pass through verb | To go through, to travel through, to transit or lie across a place or from one place to another. | |
| build up verb | To erect; to construct. | |
| come out verb | /ˌkʌm ˈaʊt/ | To be discovered; to be revealed. |
| give up verb | To surrender (someone or something); to inform on (someone). |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- Am I even doing this the right way?
- You're not doing anything wrong.
- What about the expression hold my ground?
- How am I under pressure?
- What about the expression, hold my ground?
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect continuous have/has been + -ing — an action that started earlier and is still going on | You've been trying · we've been using |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | be broken · is made · is broken |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | you've been · you've learned · I've told |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | well, which is · identity, which is · someone who wears |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 103 contractions and reduced forms, such as you're, won't, don't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: emotion /ɪˈməʊ.ʃən/, repetition /ˌɹɛp.əˈtɪʃ.ən/, pronunciation /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/, emotionally /ɪˈməʊʃənəli/, conviction /kənˈvɪkʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: repetition /ˌɹɛp.əˈtɪʃ.ən/, disagreement /dɪsəˈɡɹiːmənt/, prioritize /pɹaɪˈɒɹ.ə.taɪz/, specificity /spɛsɪˈfɪsɪti/, pronunciation /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/
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 relentless, sleeve, idiom.
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.