Shadowing Practice: Thinking of Quitting Coding? Watch This First - Learn English Speaking with Video

This video isn't for everyone.

It's for the person who opened their laptop, looked at it for a while, and then closed it again.

And if that's you, I want you to stay for a few minutes.

And in this video, I don't wanna give you a roadmap or a list of tips.

I just wanna talk to you honestly, because I've been where you're at right now.

And there are a few things that I wish someone had said to me at that point.

Let me start with the part that nobody tells you about quitting.

And that's that quitting almost never feels like quitting.

If it did, you would notice and you would stop yourself.

Because nobody sits down and decides, that's it, I'm giving up on the thing that could change my entire life.

That's just not how it goes.

It's usually much quieter than that.

It feels like being reasonable.

It sounds like, I'll pick this back up when work calms down.

Or I'll start again properly in the new year.

Or maybe I'll start again when I find a better course.

Or maybe I should research a different path.

Every one of these sentences sounds sensible.

And that is the whole problem.

You never make the decision.

You just stop gently and let the decision be made for you by default.

So if you're at this point right now, I want you to at least be honest with yourself right now that this is the moment.

All right.

Not some future moment, but now.

And here is the second thing which matters more.

I want you to look at when you're making this decision because you're not deciding this on a good day.

Nobody quits after a session where everything went well and everything worked.

You're deciding it right now, when you're tired, frustrated, after a week where nothing's been clicking and you're just staring at the screen feeling stupid.

You're letting the most exhausted, defeated version of yourself sign the paperwork for your entire future.

And that version of you has terrible judgment, not because you're weak, but because everyone's judgment is terrible in that state.

For example, if you angrily texted someone at 2am feeling like that, you would probably wake up and instantly regret it.

And this is the same thing, except this message is going to affect your entire life.

So at the very least, don't decide today.

Decide on a random Tuesday when you've slept and you feel good.

Now the third thing, and this is the one that actually kept me going, you are treating difficulty as evidence.

So here's what I mean by that.

You hit something hard, you couldn't solve it, and somewhere in that, your brain quietly converted this is difficult into I'm not capable of this.

Those are two completely different statements and one of them is not even supported by anything.

Difficulty is not information about you, it's information about the thing.

Everything worth having is hard at the start and this in particular is hard in a very specific way.

You're asking your brain to think in a way it has never thought before.

So of course it's going to resist, but that resistance is the process.

It's not a review of your potential.

I promise you every single developer you admire sat exactly where you are right now and felt that exact same feeling.

But the only reason you don't know that is that people don't post about the weeks that they almost quit.

Let me tell you about my version of this.

Before any of this worked out, I was working in a warehouse and I was learning to code around

that job at night when I was already worn out.

And there was this stretch of time where I genuinely thought I had made a mistake.

I had been learning long enough to feel like I should be competent, but I wasn't.

And I remember thinking there, thinking, maybe this just isn't for me.

Maybe I'm not cut out for this.

Maybe I should just accept the situation that I'm in and stop torturing myself with the idea of something better.

And that is the part that people don't see

when they hear me say I went from working in a warehouse to landing an $80,000 coding job in under six months.

They hear a clean story, but it was not clean.

There were very real moments where this whole thing nearly ended quietly and nobody would have known, including me.

And the only reason it didn't is that I didn't quit on that particular night.

That's it.

That's the entire difference.

I wasn't more disciplined than you.

I just chose not to close the laptop for good on my worst evening.

And everything that I've built in my life now sits on top of that one decision.

Now, I'm not going to sit here and tell you to never quit.

All right.

That would be dishonest.

There is a good reason to stop.

Right.

And it's this, that you don't genuinely want the outcome.

You've realized that you don't actually want to become a developer.

Maybe the work doesn't interest you anymore.

And if that's true, go ahead.

Stop.

Seriously.

Go do something you actually want and don't waste another month.

And I can make a bet that that is almost never what is happening.

What's usually happening is you still want it.

You still want it badly.

You want the job, you want the salary, you want all the benefits that come with working in tech.

You're just tired and you want the discomfort to finally stop.

And quitting is the fastest way to get that discomfort to stop.

That's not a decision about your future.

That is just pain management.

So be honest with yourself about which one you're doing, because one of those is a legitimate choice about your future and where you want to go.

And the other one is just chasing some quick pain relief that you'll regret in another three weeks.

So here's what I'd actually ask of you.

Don't commit to six more months.

Don't commit to a roadmap.

Right now, you're not in a state to promise anything big and you don't have to.

Just do one small thing this week.

Open your editor and change one line of something that you've already built.

20 minutes.

That's the whole ask.

Not because 20 minutes will make you a developer, but because the thing you're fighting right now isn't actually a technical problem.

It's a stopped engine and you don't restart an engine by planning.

You restart it by turning it over once.

Do that once and you'll notice something.

The dread is almost always worse than doing.

In the future, you're going to look back on this specific week.

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Either as the week that you quietly stopped and you always wonder what could have been, or as the week you took one step closer to where you wanted to be.

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So don't make the call now, just don't stop this week.

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And if any of this landed with you, let me know in the comments where you're at now and what you're dealing with.

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I read them

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and there are more people in the comment section who are feeling exactly what you're feeling right now than you'd believe.

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And if you're tired of trying to do this on your own

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and want me to help you one-on-one to get past this roadblock

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and land your first coding job and show you the whole way there, click the first link in the description to apply to join my one-on-one coding bootcamp.

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It's where I help career changes and transitioners like yourself land high-paying coding jobs guaranteed.

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Or if you want to keep learning for free, watch the free course that's about to pop up on the screen now.

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Thank you for watching, like, comment, and subscribe, and I'll see you in the next video.

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What You'll Practice in This Lesson

In this lesson, you'll dive into a relatable, conversational video about overcoming self-doubt while learning a new skill. You'll practice understanding natural speech patterns, emotional tone, and everyday phrases used to discuss challenges. Whether you're learning coding or another tough skill, the dialogue will help you improve your listening comprehension and speaking fluency—plus, you'll pick up tips for staying motivated!

Key Vocabulary & Phrases

Default (noun): The automatic result when no active choice is made. Example: "She let the decision be made by default."
Defeated (adjective): Feeling like you've lost hope. Example: "The defeated version of herself wanted to quit."
Resist (verb): To fight against something. Example: "Her brain started to resist the new way of thinking."
Competent (adjective): Having the necessary skills. Example: "He felt he should be competent after months of practice."
"Pick this back up": To start doing something again. Example: "I'll pick coding back up when I have more time."
"Sign the paperwork for your future": To make a big decision that affects your life. Example: Don't let stress sign the paperwork for your future.

Practice Tips for Shadowing

This video uses a conversational, empathetic tone with pauses that mimic real speech—perfect for practicing natural rhythm. Here's how to use shadowing (repeating aloud immediately after the speaker) to improve your English pronunciation and fluency:

Start with short clips (10-15 seconds). The speaker's pace is moderate, so focus on matching their intonation when they talk about frustration ("I felt stupid") or encouragement ("You're not alone").
Use a shadowing app or shadowing site to loop tricky phrases like "treating difficulty as evidence"—this helps train your mouth to form new sounds. Tools like Shadowspeak or Shadowspeaks can slow down the audio without changing the pitch, making it easier to catch subtle details.
Pay attention to connected speech: The speaker often links words, like "pick this back up" (sounds like "pickthisbackup"). Repeat these links to sound more natural.
After shadowing, record yourself and compare. Notice if you're stressing the right words (e.g., "NOT a review of your potential"—stress "NOT" and "potential").

Remember, shadowing isn't just about copying—it's about feeling the emotion behind the words. This video's honest tone makes it a great tool to practice sounding genuine in English!

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	I've been · you've slept · has never thought
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	be made · is not even supported · was already worn
Advice with “should” should + verb — saying what is a good idea	should research · should be · should just accept
Comparatives -er than / more … than — comparing two things	quieter than · more disciplined than · worse than

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.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

Shadowing Practice: Thinking of Quitting Coding? Watch This First - Learn English Speaking with Video

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