Shadowing Practice: The Emptiness We All Feel I Robert Greene - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
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We humans have a spiritual side to us.
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We have a hunger for something larger that aren't just our egos than just making money, than just surviving.
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We need to feel connected to something larger.
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It's part of our nature.
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That never goes away.
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I don't care how sophisticated we are.
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I don't care if it's 3,000 years in advance and we're all like Borgs, we're part cyborgs, et cetera.
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It's still a part of human nature.
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It isn't going away.
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Organized religion was the main source of that for centuries.
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And it kind of became dead in a way.
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It wasn't really connected to people's authentic experience anymore, particularly as we became technologically so sophisticated.
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It seemed like something kind of superstitious, something from the past.
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And also it wasn't appealing to our lived experience.
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I remember as a child going to the synagogue and it's just like, what does this have to do with my life here in Los Angeles?
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It's the 60s.
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People are going nuts in the streets and the Vietnam War and, you know, sex and everything and hear this like these prayers
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and like it had no connection to my life as a child
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and to my world so i couldn't understand organized religion
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but people still have this need they still have this hunger
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they still are looking for some kind of meaning they want to connect to something bigger than just their egos
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and there's nothing out there that's supplying that and you find
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because of that a lot of people are going into these sort of niche spiritual world
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that at least feel a little more direct and part of their everyday life, but aren't connected to anything larger, any kind of movement.
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And so it shifts.
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Now I'm interested in this little form of Buddhism.
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Then in six months, it'll be getting drug therapy.
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And then in six months, it'll be something else.
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So there's nothing kind of solid and it's an emptiness that people feel.
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And so the book that I wrote was trying to deal with
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that kind of emptiness and how you as an individual or we as a collective can find our way back
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to finding this kind of higher meaning in our life.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “The Emptiness We All Feel I Robert Greene”. This video has 32 sentences and 377 words to shadow. The speech runs for 1:50. The speaker talks fast, about 206 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 86% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.
Key vocabulary in this video
The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| connect verb | /kəˈnɛkt/ | To join (to another object): to attach, or to be intended to attach or capable of attaching, to another object. |
| spiritual adjective | /ˈspɪɹɪt͡ʃuəl/ | Of or pertaining to the spirit or the soul. |
| hunger noun | /ˈhʌŋɡɚ/ | A need or compelling desire for food. |
| sophisticated adjective | Of a person: having obtained worldly experience, and lacking naiveté; cosmopolitan, worldly-wise. | |
| ego noun | /ˈiɡoʊ/ | The self, especially with a sense of self-importance. |
| organize verb | /ˈɔɹɡənaɪz/ | To arrange in working order. |
| everyday adjective | /ˈɛvɹiˌdeɪ/ | Appropriate for ordinary use, rather than for special occasions. |
| prayer noun | /pɹɛɚ/ | A practice of communicating with one's God, or with some spiritual entity. |
| collective adjective | /kəˈlɛktɪv/ | Formed by gathering or collecting; gathered into a mass, sum, or body. |
| authentic adjective | /ɔˈθɛn.tɪk/ | Of the same origin as claimed; genuine. |
| niche noun | /nɪt͡ʃ/ | A cavity, hollow, or recess, generally within the thickness of a wall, for a statue, bust, or other erect ornament. |
| emptiness noun | The state or feeling of being empty; an emotion that combines hollowness, numbness, disconnection and a lack of meaning in life, resulting in existential… | |
| cyborg noun | /ˈsaɪ.boɹɡ/ | A being which is part machine and part organic. |
| superstitious adjective | /ˌs(j)u.pɚˈstɪ.ʃəs/ | Susceptible to superstitions. |
| synagogue noun | /ˈsɪnəˌɡɑɡ/ | A place of worship for Jews. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| go away verb | To depart or leave a place. |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 13 contractions and reduced forms, such as aren't, don't, it'll. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
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 connect, spiritual, hunger.
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.