Shadowing Practice: The Moth StorySLAM Winner: Matthew Dicks “MIT Restroom” - Learn English Speaking with Video
Choose a practice mode
Each mode opens a full-screen practice room.
119 sentences
If sentences are too short or too long, click Edit to adjust them.
1
Matthew Dix.
2
You're next.
3
Thank you.
4
Thank you.
5
I'm walking down a hallway yesterday in the mathematics building at MIT.
6
It's a long hallway.
7
They call it the infinite hallway because it's a building full of mathematical nerds.
8
And they really are nerds.
9
It's a building full of geniuses.
10
And it's really odd to be in a building where objectively
11
you know you are the stupidest person in the building right now.
12
But I was, I'm not an MIT student or a faculty member.
13
I was just there that day to teach people storytelling, people who put rockets in space and move atoms at a subatomic level.
14
I was talking to geniuses and I felt like an idiot.
15
I was in classrooms where the chalkboards were covered with these equations, but none of the equations had numbers in them.
16
Like there's a point in math, I guess, where numbers just fall away.
17
And there's just squiggles that I don't understand.
18
It's incredible.
19
I was walking down this hallway, and I walked past these two guys, 20-somethings, students, and I hear them talking.
20
And one of them is saying, well, if you take 4 and 1 half, and you divide it by the differential, then you're going to take the variable.
21
And that's what they're talking about.
22
I thought, like in a movie at MIT, that's what they would be talking about, but it's in real life.
23
And it was yesterday.
24
It was opening day at Fenway and the last day of the NCAA tournament.
25
And they were talking about math.
26
And I just knew I didn't belong.
27
And it was just like when I went to college.
28
I got to college late in life.
29
I started when I was 24.
30
And I was with a bunch of really smart people, like 18 and 19 and 20 year olds, who had done high school right and gotten into college the real way.
31
And when I went to college, at the same time I was managing a McDonald's restaurant full time.
32
And I had just been homeless for a period of time, and I had been in jail.
33
and I arrived on this beautiful pristine campus with these geniuses and I just felt like I never belonged.
34
I would see signs on the walls for frat parties
35
that I knew I would not be invited to
36
and I would hear them talk about places to go on campus
37
that I couldn't get to
38
because I had to go worry about whether the fryer later was working properly
39
and I never told anyone who I went to college with this truth about me.
40
I just thought they would never want to know.
41
It was an imposter situation there as well.
42
And so I'm walking down this hallway of geniuses, and I'm going to the bathroom.
43
I just finished my workshop.
44
I gave everybody a break.
45
I open the door to the bathroom.
46
I walk in.
47
I'm six steps in when I look up, and I see there's three women at the sink.
48
And there's another one in the stall.
49
I can hear her peeing.
50
And the looks on their faces tell me this is not a gender-neutral restroom.
51
And so I've walked into the women's room in the mathematical building at MIT.
52
And so I apologize and slink out.
53
I close the door, I see the men's room.
54
It's clearly marked, it's right there.
55
I look to see if the sign on the women's room door was marked, it was.
56
Like I can't even read at this place.
57
So I go into the men's room.
58
It's eight urinals, nobody else is in the room.
59
So I choose urinal number two.
60
I step up to it, I start doing my business.
61
I hear a guy walk in behind me a second later, and then he sidles up to the urinal right next to me.
62
Which is weird.
63
If you don't use urinals, it's weird.
64
If there's eight guys, sure, we'll all get close and we'll pee.
65
But if there's only one of us and there's eight, you just shouldn't bring exposed penises that close if it's not necessary.
66
We don't need to cuddle while we pee.
67
And I'm thinking, is this like a power move?
68
Is he trying to like dominate me?
69
Or is he just weird?
70
Like, is he socially awkward and he doesn't understand how restrooms work?
71
And then I wondered, is this my hang up?
72
Like, do I have a problem?
73
Do I have insecurity that I don't know about and I need to deal with?
74
All of that goes through my head while I'm peeing.
75
And I wash my hands and I leave without even seeing the guy.
76
And I go back to my workshop.
77
And as I walk in, it occurs to me, I was just teaching the geniuses before I left
78
that we should find small moments in our lives to tell stories about.
79
Those are the best ones to tell.
80
And it occurs to me, I just had two small moments.
81
They're not really worth the stage, but I'll share them.
82
It's a good example.
83
And so I do.
84
When all the geniuses sit down, I tell them about how I plowed into the women's restroom and I'm an idiot.
85
and then I tell them about how this crazy person stood next to me in the men's room, like a socially awkward, overly aggressive fool,
86
and how it got in my head while I was trying to do something else.
87
And then one of the geniuses raises his hand and he says, that was me in the restroom.
88
And I go, oh God.
89
And he's been in front of me the whole time.
90
For an hour I've been talking to this guy, and he was the guy next to me.
91
He's a faculty member.
92
He's a genius.
93
And so I start to apologize, and he says, no, no, no, hold on.
94
He says, I had a moment too.
95
He said, I walked into that restroom in a fog.
96
I was thinking about what you had just talked about, and I just went up to a urinal, and I started using it, and then I thought, oh my God, why did I choose this one?
97
And then he looked, and he said, I looked, I looked and I saw it was you.
98
He said, oh my god, it's Matt the Storyteller.
99
What do I do?
100
What do you do when you're standing next to a storyteller who's peeing next to you?
101
He said, I had that moment too.
102
And I think, oh my god.
103
He's a genius, but he's just a guy who has weird urinal moments like I do.
104
And his name is Tom.
105
Later on, he gives me a tour of the nanotech facility.
106
He gives me nanotech swag and a bag to bring home to my kids.
107
He offers me to tour MIT the next time with my family when we come back.
108
And I start to think, maybe I did have a hang-up, but it was back in college when I didn't want to tell anyone that I was different than them.
109
Like, maybe if I had told them I'm a manager at McDonald's, they wouldn't have thought anything of it.
110
Maybe they would have thought well of it.
111
And maybe if I had told them I was homeless before I showed up to college, they wouldn't have judged me.
112
Like maybe I have been thinking that these people are more than people.
113
Like they're geniuses.
114
I am not smarter than anyone at MIT.
115
But maybe they're not better than me too.
116
Maybe people are just people.
117
And maybe I have a lot to learn.
118
Thank you.
119
Matthew Dicks.
Download App
Everything you need to speak fluently
AI PronunciationScore every sentence
IPA PracticeMaster every sound
VocabularyBuild your word bank
Vocab GameLearn while playing
Same Channel
C11
Matthew Dicks at The Moth GrandSLAM Championship | A Masterclass in Storytelling
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B21
The Moment I Realized I Was Wrong | The Moth StorySLAM Winner
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B24
The Moth GrandSLAM Winner | “I Completely Lost Control of My Classroom”
Business EnglishDaily ConversationHigh School Students
FOR YOU
Recommend Video
B21
37 sentences
I Was Going Somewhere With This
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B21
166 sentences
DISCURSO STEVE JOBS (legendado) COMPLETO
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B1153
27 sentences
Mindset: The Power of 'Not Yet'
American AccentDaily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B21
226 sentences
Caught Lying in a Job Interview | Charles Engle | Stand Up Comedy
Interview EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B22
151 sentences
The Tragic Story of William Sidis: The Man Smarter Than Einstein
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C12
814 sentences
What It Means To Be A Good Man Today With Tom Junod
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C11
21 sentences
Solve at MIT: Her Majesty Queen Rania on "Youth, Skills, and the Workforce" Challenge
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B2175 sentences
Tristan Jimerson | A Dish Best Served Cold | Minneapolis Moth Mainstage 2011
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B22
7 sentences
Professor Shocks High School by Speaking Gen Z Slang
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B22
72 sentences
You still have a lot to fight for.
Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
About This Lesson
In this lesson, you will practice your English speaking skills through a captivating storytelling session by Matthew Dicks. This transcript features a personal anecdote set in an academic environment, which provides rich context for vocabulary related to education and personal experiences. By engaging with this content, you will enhance your ability to express feelings of belonging, the contrast between self-perception and others, and experience unique conversational phrases that occur in real life. This will not only improve your spoken English but also your listening comprehension as you learn to recognize different pronunciation and intonation patterns, essential for effective communication.
Key Vocabulary & Phrases
- Hallway - a long passage in a building from which doors lead into rooms.
- Infinite - without limits; extending forever.
- Genius - a person with exceptional intellectual or creative power.
- Imposter - a person who pretends to be someone else in order to deceive others.
- Frat party - a social gathering hosted by members of a fraternities, typically involving drinking and entertainment.
- Gender-neutral restroom - a restroom that anyone can use, regardless of gender.
- Workshop - a session where a group engages in intensive discussion or activity on a particular subject.
- Pristine - in its original condition; unspoiled or clean.
Practice Tips
To effectively utilize the shadowing technique with this video, follow these recommendations:
- Listen Actively: First, watch the video without attempting to repeat what is being said. Focus on understanding the emotions and expressions of the speaker.
- Slow It Down: If necessary, adjust the playback speed to 0.75x. This will help you catch the nuances in Matthew Dicks' speech, making it easier to replicate.
- Practice Shadow Speech: After familiarizing yourself with the content, start to shadow the speaker by repeating phrases immediately after you hear them. Listen carefully to the pronunciation, emphasizing the unique cadence and tone.
- Record Yourself: Use your phone or computer to record your shadowing practice. Compare your recording to the original video to identify areas for improvement.
- Engage with the Content: Consider the relatable themes of belonging and self-doubt presented in the story as you practice. Reflecting on these can help you connect emotionally with what you’re learning, making it easier to recall vocabulary and phrases.
By engaging in these practices, you will strengthen your confidence and fluency as you learn English with YouTube, enhancing your experience with the shadowspeak technique and this intriguing storytelling piece.
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 | I've been talking · have been thinking |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | were covered · would not be invited · was marked |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | people who put · anyone who I · guy who has |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | I've walked · he's been |
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.