Shadowing Practice: The Real Reason You Freeze In English - And It’s Fixable - Learn English Speaking with Video
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333 sentences
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Freezing in English is not a personality problem.
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It's not shyness.
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It's not nerves.
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It's not something you were born with and have to live with.
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It's a missing piece and once you see it, you can't unsee it.
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Here's the part nobody tells you.
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The fix isn't more studying.
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It's not more vocabulary.
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It's not another year of grammar.
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It's one thing.
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One thing that native speakers use every single day without even realizing it
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and once it's in your head your brain always knows what
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comes next that's what i'm giving you today are you ready
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well then let's jump right in section one the freeze i
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want us to name the moment someone asks you a question in english Your mouth opens and nothing comes out.
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Not the wrong word, not a small mistake, nothing.
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Half a second passes, then another, and you can feel it.
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That pause is getting louder.
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Your heart is beating.
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You can feel the silence.
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What does it feel like from the inside for you?
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Your face gets warm.
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You hear yourself say, um, while your brain runs somewhere else, You know this, you've studied this, you've read this, you've written it, you've passed tests on this.
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And right now in front of one person, you can't say it.
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What does this thou look like from the outside?
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You answer in one sentence and stop.
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Not because you finished, but because you ran out of words to say.
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You said the same idea twice in different words, trying to buy time, right?
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You end with the yes, so yeah, you give the short answer instead of the true answer
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because the short one ends faster or you say nothing at all and let someone else fill the space.
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This is the part though that hurts the most.
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You walk away.
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10 seconds later, 30 seconds later, the answer arrives.
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The whole thing, clear, complete, exactly what you meant.
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The words were there the entire time, they just showed up after the moment closed.
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So here's the question.
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Here's what I want you to sit with.
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If the English is already inside you, why doesn't it come out when you need it?
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It's not vocabulary.
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You have vocabulary.
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It's not grammar.
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You've studied grammar for years.
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Something else is happening in that silence.
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To show you what, I have to back up though, because this doesn't start with english it actually starts with your
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brain this leads us to section number two why the brain
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needs structure you see what structure actually is structure is a
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shape that's decided before the moment arrives it's a shape
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that has already been formed before the moment when you need it actually comes to you.
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It's not a rule that limits you.
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It's actually a path that removes the question.
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What comes next structure is actually a decision made in advance.
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So it doesn't have to be made under pressure.
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Now, why does the brain need structure?
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You see the brain actually hates open space given no direction it starts searching, right?
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Searching costs time though, and energy.
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So the brain can only hold a few things at once.
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Structure holds part of the load.
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So the mind is free to do the rest under pressure.
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However, when you're nervous, when you're stressed,
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the brain loses access as to what it knows structure survives pressure because it doesn't require thinking.
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It just requires following, just do what the structure says in a previous lesson.
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I mentioned that when you're stressed, you actually are unable to speak.
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Your brain is like, Hey, something's happening.
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I don't know what's going on.
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So we're going to, okay, we're going to retract.
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We're not going to, we're not going to do anything.
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You have to release that stress structure actually helps you not be as stressed because you know what to do.
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The brain actually moves faster on a known path than an unknown one.
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When there's just too much open space here, as opposed to having a structure, it doesn't turn out well.
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Familiar shapes equals speed.
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Knowing a structure equals speed.
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The brain trusts what it recognizes when it knows the pattern, calm replaces panic.
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That is why if you've been with me for a long time, I always speak about methods or strategies or patterns or structures because the brain.
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needs these to move quickly, to act fast.
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And you want to speak English fluently, so you need structure.
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Let me explain even more the power of structure.
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Structure replaces deciding with doing, actually acting, undoing something.
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It turns a large task into a sequence of small, obvious steps.
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It makes performance repeatable instead of accidental.
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It protects you on your worst day, not just your best one, the power of having a structure.
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And it makes you look prepared because you are.
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The preparation just happened earlier when you knew the structure.
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Now what happens in the opposite?
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When there's no structure.
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When there's no structure, that's when you hesitate.
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Not from ignorance because you are smart.
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You're intelligent.
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You have all the information.
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It's not that you don't have the information, but you hesitate because you have too many options and no order, no structure to follow.
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You start then stall.
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The beginning is easy, but the middle has no map.
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Where are we going?
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What are we doing right now?
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That's why you halt.
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That's why you freeze.
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You repeat yourself because repeating is easier than choosing.
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You rush to the end just to escape the discomfort of not knowing where you are.
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You leave the moment and instantly know what you should have done.
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The knowledge was there.
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The order, the structure was not.
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You see, without structure, every step is a new decision.
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But with structure, the decision is already made.
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You only have to fill it.
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This leads us now to section three.
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You freeze because you have no structure for English.
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I want us to bring the two halves together.
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I want you to think about this.
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Think of the moment we started with.
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Without structure, every step is a new decision.
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Without structure, every step is a new decision.
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That's exactly what's happening in that silence.
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You're making a brand new decision for every single sentence.
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The freezing is not forgetting.
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It's your brain searching for a structure it doesn't have.
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Your brain is not empty.
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You're smart.
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You're intelligent.
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It's actually full English words, English patterns, English grammar, but it's completely unstructured.
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Too many possible sentences, no structure to put them in.
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So it stalls.
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It freezes.
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It's halts.
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The silence you hear isn't the absence of English.
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Listen to me.
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It's not the absence of English.
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It's the sound of a missing structure in your first language.
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The structure is already built.
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You don't decide what comes next.
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The structure decides for you in English.
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You have the words, you have the content, you have the grammar.
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What you don't have is a structure to put them in.
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Nobody ever gave you one and you notice where the freeze happens.
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Not at the first sentence.
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The first sentence is easy when you're answering it happens right after that because that's where the structure was supposed to be.
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So why does the answer arrive 30 seconds late after the conversation ends?
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Why does all of a sudden you get the answer because the pressure is gone.
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Remember I said, when you're stressed, when you feel under pressure, When you're nervous, your brain locks up your brain.
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After you release the pressure has room to search for the answer.
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It finds everything clear, complete, exactly what you meant.
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That proves once again, it was never a knowledge problem.
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Knowledge doesn't appear 30 seconds later access does.
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You don't need more English.
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You need a structure that works while the pressure is on.
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So here's the reframe.
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You've been treating this as a language problem.
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More vocabulary needed, more grammar needed, more studying time.
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But you don't freeze because you lack English.
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You freeze because you lack structure.
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More words won't fix a missing structure.
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It just gives your brain more to search through.
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This is why studying harder has not fixed this issue.
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You've been adding to a pile that has no shape
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so what's the bridge the real question isn't how do i learn more english
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the question is what's the structure that will tell me what to say next the bridge my friend is the structure.
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which leads us to section four, the structure is the five W's who,
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what, when, where, and why this is the structure that native English speakers use every single day,
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even without them realizing it, the structure itself again is who, what, when,
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where, and why the five W's who the people involved you
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or someone else what the thing that happened
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or the thing you're thinking about
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when the time period yesterday last year every morning where the place
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and why the reason this is where the real answer lives
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so why does this simple structure
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that i have talked about for years why is this structure
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so powerful you see it isn't something that i teacher tiffany invented literally every student in America learns this in school.
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I learned it in high school.
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I learned it in grade school.
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I continued using it throughout college and we keep using it in life.
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It's the shape English speakers organize thought in.
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It works on any, listen to me, on any topic.
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You don't need a different structure for work, for family, for travel, one structure for everything.
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It gives you five steps instead of one impossible question.
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You're no longer asking, what do I say?
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You're asking who, then what, then when, and each one is small enough to answer.
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You always know where you are and what comes next.
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The freeze happens, remember, after the first sentence.
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This structure, the five W's, hands you the second, the third, the fourth, and the fifth.
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With who, what, when, where,
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why it turns a one sentence answer into a full answer without adding a single new word to your English.
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And you don't have to use all five every single time.
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But when you go blank, there's always one you haven't used.
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You have the structure.
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Now you're asking teacher Tiffany, does this really work?
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Does this structure, the five W's that seems so simple, does it actually work on any topic?
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I'm so glad you asked.
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Let me show you.
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Let me prove it to you.
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Let's say our first topic is people.
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And the question is, tell me about someone who influenced you.
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The person wants you to tell them about someone who influenced you.
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Before knowing the structure, your mind would have probably went blank searching.
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Okay, I can go to this person, but what do I say about them?
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Nope.
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Who, what, when, where, why let's start.
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Tell me about someone who influenced you, who organize it in your mind, the person's name, their relationship to you, what they did.
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You can say, uh, my aunt Rosa influenced me more than anyone.
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Next.
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What organize in your head, what she actually did or said one specific action response,
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uh, she taught me how to handle money before I ever had a job.
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Next, when?
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Organize your age, the year, or the season of life.
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You could say, this was when I was about 15, right before I started working.
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What's next? Where?
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Organize the room, the city, the setting.
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You can say, we'd sit at her kitchen table on Sunday afternoons.
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And finally, the last W, the why.
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Organize why it mattered.
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What changed in you?
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You can say, because nobody in my family talked about money and she made it normal.
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I still think about those conversations.
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Now, what does the combined response sound like?
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Listen closely.
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The person again says, hey, tell me about someone who influenced you.
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You use the structure who, what, when, where, why, the five W's, and you respond like this.
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My aunt Rosa influenced me more than anyone.
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She taught me how to handle money before I ever had a job.
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This was when I was about 15, right before I started working.
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We'd sit at her kitchen table on Sunday afternoons and just talk.
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And it mattered because nobody in my family talked about money.
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She made it normal.
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I still think about those conversations.
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Come on.
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Excellent response.
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Why?
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It's built on the structure.
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Five W's.
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What about a different topic though?
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The topic being work.
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Discussion question.
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What's the hardest part of your job?
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You already have the structure five W's question.
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What's the hardest part of your job?
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Who organize your role, your team, the people involved.
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You can say, I managed a small team of four people.
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Next, what organize the actual difficulty, name it plainly.
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You can say the hardest part is telling someone their work.
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Isn't good enough.
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Next. When.
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Organize how often, what time of year, which moments you can say it comes up every quarter when we do reviews next,
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where organize office or remote or a specific meeting you can say, usually in a one -on -one, just the two of us.
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And finally, why organize the reason it's hard for you specifically.
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You can say, because I like these people and I know they're trying,
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but if I don't say it nothing changes you've organized based on the structure who what
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when where why now listen to the combined response once again
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the question what's the hardest part of your job the response i manage a small team four people
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and honestly the hardest part is telling someone their work isn't good enough it comes up every quarter
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when we do reviews usually in a one -on -one just the two of us.
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It's hard because I like these people.
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I know they're trying, but if I don't say it, nothing changes.
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The answer was good because it was built on the structure.
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What about a different topic?
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The topic being health.
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Here's the question.
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The question is how do you take care of yourself?
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How do you take care of yourself?
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We have our structure five who organize who's involved?
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You alone, a friend, a doctor, a family response.
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I do most of it on my own, but my sister keeps me honest.
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What?
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Organize the actual habit or activity.
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I walk.
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That's it.
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40 minutes, no music, no phone.
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Next, when?
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Organize the time of day.
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How often?
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Every morning before everyone else is up.
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Next, the where?
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Organize the place.
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You can say, there's a park about 10 minutes from my apartment.
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And finally the why organize the real reason.
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Notice the obvious one.
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Honestly, it's less about my body and more about my head.
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It's the only part of the day.
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Nobody needs anything from me.
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So we have our structure, the five W's we use them.
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Now listen to the combined response based on this structure.
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Again, the question, how do you take care of yourself?
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The response.
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I do most of it on my own
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but my sister keeps me honest mostly i just walk that's
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it 40 minutes no music no phone every morning before anyone
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else is up there's a park about 10 minutes from my apartment
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so i go there and honestly it's less about my body
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and more about my head it's the only part of the
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day nobody needs anything from me once again you're seeing it you're hearing it the Simple structure, five W's.
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When you have a structure, you won't freeze.
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What about this next topic?
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Travel discussion question.
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Tell me about a trip you'll never forget.
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Can you tell me about a trip you'll never forget?
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I'm so glad you asked because I have my structure, the five W's who organize who you went with or who you met there.
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You can say, I went with two friends from university.
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What organized the one thing that made it memorable.
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We got completely lost and ended up at somebody's family dinner. When?
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Organize the year, your age, the season.
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That was six years ago in the summer.
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Now the where?
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Organize the country, city, or the specific spot.
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You can say a small town outside Oaxaca.
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I couldn't find it on a map now.
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I may have mispronounced that, guys.
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And the why?
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Organize why it stayed with you
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because it was the part we didn't plan everything we planned i've forgotten we used the structure the five w's
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so now let's see the combined response based on the structure
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again the question the topic travel can you tell me about
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a trip you'll never forget here's the combined response i went
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with two friends from university we got completely lost one night and somehow ended up at somebody's family dinner.
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This was six years ago in the summer in a small town outside Oaxaca.
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I couldn't even find it on a map now.
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And that's the part I still think about because it was the one thing we didn't plan.
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Everything we planned, I've forgotten.
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The structure was there so we were able to answer.
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We were able to respond fluently.
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And finally, what about this topic?
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You're seeing it doesn't matter what the topic is.
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This structure, the five W's, it simply works.
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Here's our last topic, culture.
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The question, what's something about your culture people misunderstand?
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Using the structure, who?
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Organize who misunderstands it and who it affects.
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You can say, people I meet abroad mostly, coworkers or new friends.
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What?
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Organize the misunderstanding itself or stated simply.
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They think we're always late.
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We're not late.
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We just start differently. When?
329
Thank you.
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Thank you.
331
Thank you.
332
Thank you.
333
Thank you.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This video has 333 sentences and 2988 words to shadow. The speech runs for 22:23. The speaker talks at a steady 133 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. 89% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is easy to follow.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| organize verb | /ˈɔɹɡənaɪz/ | To arrange in working order. |
| topic noun | /ˈtɑpɪk/ | A subject; a theme; a category or general area of interest. |
| freeze verb | /ˈfɹiːz/ | Especially of a liquid, to become solid due to low temperature. |
| grammar noun | /ˈɡɹæm.ə(ɹ)/ | A system of rules and principles for the structure of a language, or of languages in general. |
| combine verb | /kəmˈbaɪn/ | To bring (two or more things or activities) together; to unite. |
| silence noun | /ˈsaɪ̯ləns/ | The absence of any sound. |
| vocabulary noun | /vəˈkæb.jə.lə.ɹi/ | A usually alphabetized and explained collection of words e.g. of a particular field, or prepared for a specific purpose, often for learning. |
| arrive verb | /əˈɹaɪv/ | To reach; to get to a certain place. |
| absence noun | /ˈæb.s(ə)n̩s/ | A state of being away or withdrawn from a place or from companionship |
| intelligent adjective | /ɪnˈtɛlɪd͡ʒənt/ | Of high or especially quick cognitive capacity, bright. |
| aunt noun | /ɑːnt/ | The sister or sister-in-law of one’s parent. |
| blank noun | /ˈblæŋk/ | The white spot in the centre of a target; hence (figuratively) the object to which anything is directed or aimed, the range of such aim. |
| hesitate verb | /ˈhɛz.ə.teɪt/ | To stop or pause respecting decision or action; to be in suspense or uncertainty as to a determination. |
| stall noun | /stɔːl/ | A compartment for a single animal in a stable or cattle shed. |
| tiffany noun | A kind of gauze, or very thin silk. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| come out verb | /ˌkʌm ˈaʊt/ | To be discovered; to be revealed. |
| come up verb | To emerge or become known, especially unexpectedly. | |
| back up verb | To move backwards, especially for a vehicle to do so. | |
| lock up verb | /ˌlɒk ˈʌp/ | To imprison or incarcerate (someone). |
| show up verb | To appear, arrive, or attend, especially suddenly or erratically. | |
| turn out verb | To end up; to result. | |
| walk away verb | To withdraw from a problematic situation. |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 77 contractions and reduced forms, such as you're, don't, you've. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: rush /ɹʌʃ/, preparation /ˌpɹɛpəˈɹeɪʃ(ə)n/, shyness /ˈʃaɪnəs/
- Long words — get the stress right: vocabulary /vəˈkæb.jə.lə.ɹi/, intelligent /ɪnˈtɛlɪd͡ʒənt/, difficulty /ˈdɪfɪkəlti/, preparation /ˌpɹɛpəˈɹeɪʃ(ə)n/, differently /ˈdɪf.ə.ɹənt.li/
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 organize, topic, freeze.
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 treating · You've been adding |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | you've studied · has already been formed · you've been |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | were born · been formed · be made |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | someone who influenced |
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.