Shadowing Practice: The Love of My Life (and Why I Need to Share It with You) | Ann Patchett | TED - Learn English Speaking with YouTube
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I had just turned 22 when I finished my first semester of graduate school at the Iowa Writers' Workshop.
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I had just turned 22 when I finished my first semester of graduate school at the Iowa Writers' Workshop.
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I was also taking classes in the printmaking program, ambitious young art-loving thing that I was.
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I had flown from Iowa City to Chicago O'Hare, where I'd change planes and go home to Nashville for Christmas.
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I had my Hermes 3000 typewriter with me, technically portable at 14 pounds, because I wrote stories.
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I also had a shoulder bag of zinc plates, which I planned to engrave over the break.
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Have you ever traveled with a bag of zinc plates?
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They're a lot heavier than a typewriter.
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In O'Hare, I got very, very lost.
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I put my typewriter down, stood there lopsided, looking at my ticket, when a young man walked up and asked me if I needed help.
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Time changes memory, but I remember him clearly.
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He had on khaki pants and a pink Oxford shirt.
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He had straight, sandy blonde hair and wire-rimmed glasses.
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He looked like the young John Denver.
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I gave him my ticket.
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You are really lost, he said.
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And then he took my extraordinarily heavy bag from my shoulder
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and the typewriter from my hand and said he would walk me to my gate.
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Side note, this was 1986.
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I was shy and I was plain.
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I was not the kind of girl whose typewriter was carried by men who look like John Denver.
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And my heart expanded with the wonder.
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Together, we traversed many concourses, and I began to worry about the time.
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I said, he shouldn't risk missing his flight so that I could make mine.
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That's when he told me he didn't have a flight.
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I asked him if he worked in the airport, and he said, yeah, sort of.
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He said he was a Hare Krishna.
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What a beautiful world it was when you could still get lost in an airport,
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when zinc plates sharp as meat cleavers filled your carry-ons, when Hare Krishnas, those dancing,
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chanting members of a religious sect, roamed freely from gate to gate.
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I was terrified. But of what?
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That he'd kidnap me and make me a vegetarian?
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I was already a vegetarian.
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I had to keep walking with him because he had my typewriter, and I was in love with my typewriter.
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In those days, there were no screens updating travelers as to departure times,
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So I didn't know that my flight was two hours delayed until I reached the gate.
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The Hare Krishna laid my burdens down and said he'd wait with me.
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Would I have chosen to spend two hours in O'Hare with a Hare Krishna.
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No. But I lacked the courage to bolt.
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I decided that, given the circumstances, the only thing I could do was listen.
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The ability to really listen to another person is an essential skill for a novelist.
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It's an essential skill for all human beings.
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And what the Hare Krishna told me was one of the most remarkable things I had ever heard in my life.
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He said, imagine loving God so much
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that you would be willing to stand in an airport all day so that you could tell people about God's love.
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All day long, people rushed past him,
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even after he had forsaken his traditional saffron robes to mitigate first impressions.
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They buried their faces in their newspapers as soon as he started to speak,
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and still he kept showing up because God's love was the greatest thing he had ever known,
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and he wanted to share it.
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When I finally made it home to Nashville, I told this story to everyone.
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In fact, I told it for years.
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Two hours in an airport with a Hare Krishna.
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But as I got older, I could see myself becoming that Hare Krishna,
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wanting to testify about the greatest love in my life, which is reading.
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So great is my need to share this love that it outweighs my significant need for privacy.
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I gave up printmaking when I left Iowa, but books have been my steadfast companions,
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my solace, my teachers, my joy.
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I can't imagine what life would be without reading.
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And so pretty much every day, in every situation I find myself in, I'm out there sharing the good news.
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For a long time, my love for books was more cloistered, less zealot.
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But in 2011, all of that changed.
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The two major bookstores in Nashville closed, and after waiting around for someone else to open a bookstore, I decided to do it myself.
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This was not the fulfillment of a lifelong dream.
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It was more like irritation.
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People love to tell me that bookstores are dead,
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that books themselves are hobbling towards the dust heap of cultural irrelevance.
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Heresy, I say.
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Books are the rock on which I built my church.
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Like the Hare Krishna, I didn't do this because of what I needed.
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I had books.
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I would always have books.
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I fought for books because you need them.
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The summer before we opened Parnassus Books, I went on tour.
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I've been going on tour regularly since 1992.
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This one for a novel I wrote called State of Wonder was going to be my fact-finding mission.
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I collected information from from all the booksellers I knew,
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but the most valuable came from my friend Daniel Golden at Boswell Books in Milwaukee.
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He told me people were desperate to buy anything that was hanging from the ceiling, which is true.
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More importantly, he told me to put the children's section as far away from the front door as possible
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so that when a child makes a break for it, you have the maximum opportunity to catch her.
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Daniel talked a lot about the children's section, which was not a part of bookstores I knew much about.
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If you want customers, he said, you have to raise them yourself. That made sense.
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Small children coming to storytime, being read to, learning to read themselves, will grow up to be great customers.
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Fifteen years later, I can attest that this is true.
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We have raised up a raft of customers.
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But over time, this charming bit of wisdom has changed.
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I don't think of it as cultivating shoppers anymore.
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I think of it as cultivating readers, and not just for the books I write or the books I sell,
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but for all books.
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I've come to believe that if you're interested in living in a society where people read, it's also your responsibility to cultivate readers.
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What does that even mean?
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Well, reading to children the same way people read to us,
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you can buy books for children who are in Title I schools who might not have books of their own.
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We do a lot of this at Parnassus.
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You can speak out against book banning.
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Because books are not the things endangering our children.
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and speak up for teachers and librarians who are doing the jobs that they've been trained for.
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Also, you can just read a book.
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Do you wish that people read books instead of, say, constantly scrolling on their phones?
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Then read books.
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Do you want your children to be readers?
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then model that behavior.
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Of course you're going to read to them, but they also have to see you read.
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Like all the people who told me not to open a bookstore, you may be wondering if books are even relevant in this golden age of technology.
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Think of it this way.
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Every piece of information coming out of your computer or phone is a single thread.
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At any given moment, you are holding countless threads which range in quality from vital to worthless.
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What a novelist does is takes all of those threads and weaves them into a tapestry.
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Maidens, unicorns, pear trees.
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This is no small job, but when it's done right, the outcome is both beautiful and enduring.
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Novels teach us empathy by putting us into another person's life,
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and they define our history by showing us how we've changed and will continue to change.
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Think of Harriet Beecher Stowe.
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Now, think of John Updike.
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And if this wasn't reason enough to love books, they also help us develop and preserve of what I like to call a long-format brain.
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The problems of the world cannot be seen one thread at a time, nor can they be solved.
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The ability to think with depth and complexity is greatly enhanced by reading more than 280 characters at a time.
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If you haven't read a novel in a while, it may feel strange at first, but stick with it.
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What you put in is what you'll get back.
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What surprised me most about owning a bookstore
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and practically everything about it surprises me is that it's not just books people come in for.
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Reading that solitary endeavor has proven to be a means of connection.
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Our monthly book club at Parnassus is now so large, we've broken it into three sections.
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We also have a classics book club and a romance book club, and once a year, those two groups come together to read a classic romance.
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Most recently, Pride and Prejudice.
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Our author events have ranged from Jeff Kenney to Percival Everett, to Barbara Kingsolver to RF Kuang, to Ina Garten to Bono.
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And whether it's presidential histories or mysteries, What we see is that books give people the means by which to connect.
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The conversations may start with books, but they go everywhere.
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Reading shines the light that disrupts the dark isolation so many people find themselves in.
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Go to your local bookstore and see what I'm talking about.
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Every time I change planes in O'Hare, I think about the Hare Krishna,
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a person I was afraid of, a person I had nothing in common with,
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a person whose only intention was to help me,
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both to find my gate and to find a force in the world greater than myself.
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Through experience, we had both come to see that we were part of the larger human fabric.
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He, through his faith, and me, through a different kind of faith.
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Maybe this time we would sit at the gate a little bit longer, and I would ask him what he was reading.
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I would tell him how much I admired the courage of his convictions.
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I would thank him for helping me find my way.
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Context & Background
In her TED talk, Ann Patchett recounts a profound and formative experience from her youth. At the age of 22, she was navigating life as a graduate student in creative writing while also immersed in the world of printmaking. On a journey home for Christmas, she encountered a young man who not only helped her with her burdens but also shared a life-altering perspective about love and connection. This moment, filled with vulnerability and authenticity, showcases the importance of listening—a vital skill not just for writers but for everyone seeking to build meaningful relationships.
Top 5 Phrases for Daily Communication
- “Do you need help?” - A helpful and friendly way to offer assistance.
- “I was lost.” - A common phrase for expressing confusion about a location.
- “Thank you for your kindness.” - A gracious response to someone who has helped you.
- “Imagine loving something so much…” - A phrase that opens up a conversation about passion and devotion.
- “I want to share this with you.” - An inviting expression that emphasizes sharing experiences and emotions.
Step-by-step Shadowing Guide
For English learners seeking to enhance their speaking skills through shadowing, particularly using this engaging transcript, here’s a structured approach:
- Listen to the Video: Start by watching Ann Patchett’s TED talk. Focus on her tone and delivery, noticing how she conveys emotion through her speech.
- Select a Short Segment: Choose a specific segment from the transcript, ideally one that includes the phrases listed above, to help you with IELTS speaking practice.
- Practice Shadowing: Play the selected segment again, this time repeating what Ann says in real-time. Focus on mimicking her intonation and rhythm to improve your fluency. Utilizing a shadowing site can facilitate this process.
- Record Yourself: Use a recording tool to capture your attempts. Listening to your own voice will help you identify areas for improvement in pronunciation and pacing.
- Review and Refine: Compare your recording to the original segment. Pay attention to specific phrases and try to adjust your speech to match the native speaker’s cadence.
By consistently practicing through techniques like shadowspeak, you will not only develop greater fluency but also gain confidence in your English speaking practice. Embrace the journey as you learn to express yourself with authenticity and compassion, just like Ann Patchett in her memorable story.
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.
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