Shadowing Practice: The world is poorly designed. But copying nature helps. - Learn English Speaking with Video
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In 1989, Japan's Shinkansen bullet train had a problem.
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It was fast, really fast, like pushing 170 miles per hour fast.
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But every time it exited a tunnel, it was loud.
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The noise was coming from a variety of sources, but whenever a train sped into a tunnel, it pushed waves of atmospheric pressure through the other end.
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The air exited tunnels with a sonic boom that could be heard 400 meters away.
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In dense residential areas, that was a huge problem.
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So an engineering team was brought in to design a quieter, faster, and more efficient train.
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And they had one secret weapon.
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Eiji Nakatsu, the general manager of the technical development department, was a bird watcher.
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Different components of the redesigned bullet train were based on different birds.
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owls inspired the pantograph that's the rig that connects the train to the electric wires above
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nakatsu modeled the redesign after their feathers reducing noise by using the same serrations and curvature
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that allow them to silently swoop down to catch prey the adeli penguin whose smooth body allows it to swim
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and slide effortlessly inspired the pantograph supporting shaft redesigned for lower wind resistance.
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And perhaps most notable of all was the kingfisher.
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The kingfisher is a bird that dives into water to catch its prey.
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The unique shape of its beak allows it to do that while barely making a splash.
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Nakatsu took that shape to the design table.
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The team shot bullets shaped like different train -nose models down a pipe to measure pressure waves
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and dropped them into water to measure the splash size.
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The quietest nose design was the one modeled most closely after the Kingfisher's beak.
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When the redesign debuted in 1997, it was 10 % faster, used 15 % less electricity, and stayed under the 70 decibel noise limit in residential areas.
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And it did all that with the wings of an owl, the belly of a penguin, and the nose of a Kingfisher.
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There's a name for design like this.
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It's called biomimicry.
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The people who design our world usually never take a biology class, believe it or not.
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So they're novices in how the world works.
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That's Janine Benyus.
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Back in 1997, she wrote the book that coined the term biomimicry.
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It told the story of the innovations in computing, energy, and health that were inspired by structures in the natural world.
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Stick like a gecko, compute like a cell, even run a business like a redwood forest.
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Benyus has since worked as a consultant for various companies, trying to get them to understand how to take design ideas from nature.
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That might mean studying prairie dog burrows to build better air ventilation systems, mimicking shark skin to create bacteria -resistant plastic surfaces for hospitals,
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or arranging wind turbines in the same drag -reducing pattern that schools of fish swim in.
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Designers get inspiration from a lot of different places, but Benyus thinks many of them could benefit from looking more at the natural world.
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So there's a lot of sort of looking at what other people have done
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and what they do is they look at all the others and they get ideas.
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They literally do, you know, a lot of designers have lots of magazines that they look through.
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They They tear those out and they put them on inspiration boards.
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But they're looking at other human technologies.
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Her idea was simple.
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Designers should get in the habit of bringing a biologist to the table and let them help solve problems by mimicking nature.
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And there are three main ways they can do that.
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You know, you can mimic its form or its shape.
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You might create a paint for a building that when it dries, it's got the same structure as self -cleaning leaves.
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Lotus leaves are notoriously great.
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They let rainwater clean the leaf because they have these bumps.
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The rainwater balls up on the bumps and then it pearls away the dirt.
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So that lotus effect is physical.
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And you can create a physical structure on the outside of any product.
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Imagine that on the outside of your car.
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Rainwater would clean your car.
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So that's mimicking form.
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But there's also a mimicking process the processes in the natural
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world it might even be you know how you mimic how
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ants communicate in order to efficiently find sources of food
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or new new places to live and those processes
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that self -organization has been mimicked in software you know in things like all you know autonomous cars
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and how they're gonna move in flocks through the city by talking to one another that's mimicking nature's process
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and then you jump up
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to the level of mimicking whole ecosystems right there's a thing
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called that's a buzzword right now that's really hot called the circular economy
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which is essentially you know industry saying you know there are
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there's no there should be no such thing as a byproduct in our manufacturing facility
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that goes to landfill it should be used by something else right
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and at the end of a product's life
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that product should be upcycled into something else it's being called the circular economy ecosystems do
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that really really really well you've got a log on the forest floor
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and those materials move up into the body of the fungus that eats it those materials move up into a
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mouse and that mouse material moves up into a hawk right
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and if you think about
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that is what we'd like to do with local materials being
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upcycled constantly in our cities for instance those These ecosystem lessons are really big for us.
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And that's the end goal for biomimetic design, making products, systems, and cities functionally indistinguishable from the natural world.
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Life has been around on Earth for 3 .8 billion years, and what designers are starting to realize is that that is a lot of research and development time.
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The people who design our world have a lot to learn from the natural world.
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All they have to do is take a look.
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Thank you so much for watching.
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This is one of a series of videos that we're doing in collaboration with 99 % Invisible.
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They are a podcast that does stories all about design.
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We loved working with them.
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You should definitely check them out at 99pi .org or on any podcast app.
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How Biomimicry Solved a Train's Noise Problem: A Real-Life Scenario
Imagine a high-speed train that’s so loud it disturbs neighborhoods—until engineers turn to nature for answers. The video shares how Japan’s Shinkansen Bullet Train was redesigned using ideas from owls, penguins, and kingfishers, cutting noise and boosting efficiency. This story isn’t just about innovation; it’s a goldmine for learn english with videos—packed with vivid language and real-world examples perfect for IELTS speaking practice.
Useful Chunks & Collocations to Master
- "pushing [speed] miles per hour" – Describes extreme speed (e.g., "The car was pushing 120 miles per hour on the highway").
- "secret weapon" – A hidden advantage (e.g., "Her ability to stay calm under pressure was her secret weapon in the debate").
- "coined the term" – Invented a new phrase (e.g., "The scientist coined the term 'green energy' in the 1970s").
- "buzzword right now" – A popular, trendy term (e.g., "Sustainability is a buzzword right now in business").
- "upcycled into something else" – Transformed waste into a better product (e.g., Old tires were upcycled into garden planters).
Your Shadowing Challenge: Speak Like a Storyteller
Ready to practice shadowspeak (also called shadow speech or shadow speak)? Here’s your task: Watch the video segment about the kingfisher-inspired train nose (1–2 minutes). Pause after each sentence, then repeat it aloud—matching the tone, speed, and stress. Focus on phrases like "barely making a splash" and "10% faster, 15% less electricity." Do this 3 times, then try speaking the segment without pausing. This trains your mouth to move like a native and builds confidence for IELTS speaking practice. You’ll be amazed how quickly you’ll start using these chunks in your own conversations!
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | could be heard · was brought · were based |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | have done · has been mimicked · has been |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | people who design |
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.