Shadowing Practice: Think Less. Do More - George Mack - Learn English Speaking with Video
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What are some of the other low agency traps?
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Another one kind of related to what you mentioned there is the rumination trap.
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So, hey, any updates on breaking me out of this jail?
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Sorry for the slow reply.
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I've been thinking about it.
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I know I've spent the last year thinking about it.
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I think I just need more time to think.
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I'm trying to think about my overthinking problem.
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If I can solve that, I think I can start.
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So the rumination trap is one I began to learn a lot more from doing cognitive behavioral therapy.
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And it's just this endless loop.
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I mean, we were chatting about this the other day of
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if you could analyze the 50 to 60,000 thoughts per day and really see them.
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The problem with the human brain is you have these 50 to 60,000 thoughts, but because they're constantly in short-term memory.
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You don't fully, if you could see the graph- You'd love a dashboard.
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Yeah.
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If you could see the dashboard, you'd go, I've thought about, I've worried about that conversation with somebody 20% of the week for the last three years.
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And it's just ruminating around.
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But when it's there fresh in consciousness, you don't see the dashboard.
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You don't see that.
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So you just ruminate- Well, there's two things going on there.
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There's the fact that you're in a new place, a new time of life, and you can always have an old thought in a slightly new way gives it a sense of novelty.
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So you kind of are kidded into believing that it's something new.
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And the other part is that we're creatures of habit and old thoughts, even ones that are quite uncomfortable, are familiar to us.
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And that familiarity gives us a sense of comfort and that comfort gives us a sense of sort of habituation.
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You know, you might not, obviously not with this show because it's fantastic, but many people will watch or listen to YouTube channels that they kind of don't really enjoy anymore,
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but they just know where they're going to go.
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It's very predictive.
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It's like putting on an old, comfortable leather pair of shoes.
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Slide my feet into these.
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I know what his opinion's going to be.
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This is sweet.
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And the algorithm just keeps you in this static loop.
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Of course it does.
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So yeah, rumination trap.
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So the rumination trap, I'm going to guess, is diametrically opposed to bias for action.
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Yes.
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It's the opposite of that.
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So a personal rumination story that I had was,
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and the problem with rumination is you try and forecast into the future constantly.
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That's the big thing from cognitive behavioral therapy is they call it the crystal ball
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or you're trying to forecast in the future ahead.
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And unless you can get a perfect outcome, you just kick the can down the road.
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And then ultimately you end up with not much road left and just a lot of cans.
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So one that came to mind for me.
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So when I was thinking about clear thinking, there's the three big decisions, right?
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There's where you live, who you're with and what you're doing.
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And one thing I struggled with for ages was, I'm in this location right now.
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Maybe I could go to this other location.
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And what would happen in my head is I would have option A of me staying in current location, or option B going to new location.
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And when I would think of option A, it would go nightmare mode.
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So everything that could possibly go wrong would go wrong.
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And the other option has worked out perfectly.
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And then I'd flip to the other option and the reverse was true.
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When I had left and gone to that location, everything's gone wrong and I've now missed out on everything.
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And as a result, it's this doom loop that then begins to occur.
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And the more you kick the can down the road, the more you ruminate, the bigger this thing becomes.
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And it's this absolute doom loop cycle.
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And then you go, I don't want to think about this, which makes the thing bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger.
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Yeah.
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I mean, this is a conversation I heard recently about action being an antidote to anxiety
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and that the bias for action just, Just look, you might think that by worrying and obsessing
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and ruminating and thought looping and fearing and gripping your way through this problem, that it reduces down the likelihood of it happening somehow,
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that it brings to bear more control, that it almost like impacts reality in some sort of a way.
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It makes no difference.
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Again, what are we focused on?
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We're focused on outcomes, not on inputs.
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and the people that have that bias for action, they end up just finding out whether or not this thing is going to work way quicker.
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The biggest thing that I actually found for people listening who probably had
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that doom loop that I have and still have
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is in terms of getting a bias to action is rather than calling it a decision, just moving to experiments.
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So just looking at the two and going, okay, I think this one has 60% probability.
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This one has 40% probability.
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I'm going to go with the 60% one
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and I'm going to fully back the decision
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and I'll book time six months from now to review how it went and then change if not.
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Because I realized in the five years spent ruminating about the two different options, I could have lived in both cities multiple times.
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Both of us have done things where we've spent more time
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making a decision than it would have taken to have worked out whether it was going to work or not.
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Yes, so much time wasted.
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And the thing I love about that is if you actually just did the thing,
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the amount of real data that your amygdala can't just sit there creating these doomsday scenarios.
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The big realisation I had when I spoke to the CBT guy
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that I worked with was when you actually look at those nightmare modes that are playing,
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what's really strange about rumination is it skips like two to three years in the future.
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And the worst case scenario, it's always, I won't be able to cope.
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The worst case scenario will happen.
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I won't be able to cope and people will judge me.
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It's what happens in the doom loop in the rumination cycle, but it always skips two to three years in the future.
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He made a great point of it's like a horror film.
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It just starts now and goes two to three years in the future.
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He goes, but real life's more like a documentary.
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What's you have agency?
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What's all the steps that lead you up?
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You can bail out or change or adjust course at any point along that.
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Yeah.
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I think a good way of moving out the rumination cycle, I kind of call it the difference between clear thinking and muddy thinking.
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And ultimately we spoke about this the other day, the kind of aphorism I have, you know, the Nietzsche thing of never trust a thought that happens indoors,
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never trust a thought that happens in your head is a good rule of thumb.
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And I like that Balaji idea of transformation.
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So if thought happens in my head, it's not true until I've drawn it out, written it down, spoken it out loud to another person,
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create an equation, put it in a spreadsheet, whatever it is.
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And I actually think probably 50% of the benefits of therapy
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is just going from head to out loud it's more it's more than
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that you know this is one of the reasons why uh i'm i'm not on substack
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but i'm an avatar for people having a substack
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or some form of written publicly consumed uh form of artistic output uh
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or self-reflection specifically for self-reflection uh i'm a really good avatar for someone
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that would not have been able to keep up a writing practice for four
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and a half years or however long it's been now since i launched my newsletter
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and now we're like a quarter of a million words written in whatever four
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and a half years something like that
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but it's invariably the best part of my week it's my favorite thing the guy
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that does the podcast his favorite thing is the hour
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and a half that he spends writing every week because of
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that precise reason it synthesizes down the most salient thing that I've learned from that one week.
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And I know I only have whatever 500 words or a thousand words to write this in.
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So I need to be like high in brevity.
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I need to be pretty precise.
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Uh, I need to triage what it is I want to talk about.
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So if I talk about this, I can't talk about that.
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So which one's it going to be, which one's more important to you, which one are you feeling more right now? and um
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yeah you know big big fan of people having especially a
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public facing version of this i understand here we go yeah we have a people that journal it's phenomenal in many ways
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because you're able to say things that you can't for public consumption but i get the sense that at least for me, when I write things for public,
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I'm held to such a rigorous standard for precision to really, really clarify my thinking that I'm sure I miss lots of advantages that proper journaling would allow.
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But it also does other things, which is, I think it's easier for you to create structures and frameworks and ideas that you can then later refer to,
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supposed to like referring to this messy thing that's kind of all over the place that's in a journal.
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So yeah, It's a mixed bag.
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One thing on the writing side that I found specifically useful related to that is a photo can't do this.
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A video can't quite do this.
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But writing actually gives you the ability to go back 10 years, let's say 10 years in the future now, and understand how you think today or be able to nap today, go back 10 years.
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It's a snapshot of your mind.
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Yeah, that's how I thought.
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And because so many of the thoughts just disappear completely down the drain, it's so beautiful in that regard.
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Thank you very much for tuning in.
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If you enjoyed that clip with George, the full-length conversation about agency in all its glory is available right here.
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Come on.
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Why This Clip Is Perfect for English Speaking Practice
This video’s conversational tone and relatable topic make it ideal for shadowspeak and IELTS speaking practice. The dialogue flows naturally, with pauses, filler words, and real-world examples that mirror how native speakers actually communicate. Unlike scripted content, it captures the rhythm of casual discussion, helping learners master intonation and pacing—key skills for exams and everyday interactions. Whether you’re practicing shadowing technique or building fluency, the clip’s focus on overcoming overthinking provides engaging material that keeps you motivated.
Breaking Down Natural English: Key Phrases
Let’s analyze 3 phrases that sound authentic and why they work:
- “I think I just need more time to think.” This repetition of “think” feels natural because it reflects how people stumble over their words when explaining uncertainty. It’s a common pattern in spoken English, showing hesitation without sounding forced.
- “It’s like putting on an old, comfortable leather pair of shoes.” Similes like this are a hallmark of conversational English. Comparing rumination to a familiar object makes the idea relatable and adds color to speech—something IELTS speaking practice rewards.
- “You end up with not much road left and just a lot of cans.” This metaphor (“kick the can down the road”) is idiomatic but easy to follow. Native speakers use such phrases to simplify complex ideas, and mastering them helps learners sound more fluent.
A Simple Shadowing Routine for This Video
Use the shadowing technique to practice with this clip in 3 steps: 1. Listen and repeat: Play a 5-second segment, pause, and repeat it immediately, mimicking the speaker’s tone and pace. Focus on matching stress (e.g., “rumination trap” emphasizes the first word). 2. Record yourself: After 5 repetitions, record your version. Compare it to the original—note differences in intonation or pauses. This helps refine your shadowspeak skills. 3. Expand to longer segments: Once comfortable, try 10-second clips. Focus on phrases like “kick the can down the road” to build confidence with idioms. This routine works for learn english with youtube content because it’s flexible and targets real-time communication—exactly what you need for exams and daily life.
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.