Shadowing Practice: This Is How You Become More Articulate - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
1
You once said the most dangerous person is one who is articulate.
2
What would you recommend to a one who wants to learn to speak in a more articulate manner?
3
Well, articulate is an interesting word, eh?
4
Because if your joints are articulated, and that means you can do things with them because they're articulated, right?
5
They're not one solid, vague mass.
6
They're differentiated.
7
And someone who's graceful is articulated.
8
And compelling because they're articulated.
9
And speech is a form of articulation in that manner because the act of speech itself is extremely complicated.
10
It's a very complicated motor activity, right?
11
It's a very complicated action to dance with your tongue, let's say.
12
And it is definitely the case
13
that there is no more exceptional form of the capacity to be dangerous than to be articulate.
14
And one of the things that really shocks me, part of the reason that my son and I and our co-workers developed this essay app,
15
is that young men in particular are never taught this.
16
It's like, well, why learn to, why be literate?
17
well do you want to be
18
do you want to be competent and dangerous or do you want to be vague and useless
19
because those are your options
20
and I don't care what your job is it doesn't matter what you end up doing if you're a plumber
21
great respect for plumbers by the way
22
and you're articulate you can negotiate with your clients you can
23
introduce your co-workers you can make a case for your employees
24
you can advertise your services you can think through your problems you're firing on all cylinders
25
our whole culture is based on the idea of the supremacy of the word
26
our whole culture is based on the idea
27
that it is the word itself that extracts habitable order from chaos and possibility
28
and the reason our culture is predicated on that is because it's a deep truth,
29
and to the degree that our culture actually embodies that, it works.
30
So, it's a great thing to be articulate.
31
And it would be so lovely
32
if our educators were wise enough to communicate this appropriately to young men who are striving forward,
33
and to let them know in no uncertain terms that if they want to make themselves into forces to be contended with,
34
that there's no surer route to that than an exceptional poetic literacy.
35
Now, it's not like young people don't have an intuition of this.
36
There are reasons they admire rap musicians,
37
for example, who are often extraordinarily articulate in their performance and their capacity for spontaneous poetic utterance.
38
And certainly, the greatest people I've met, including great warriors, you might say,
39
are great in no small part because they're articulate.
40
I know a former special services, special operations soldier, Jocko Willink.
41
Some of you might know about Jocko.
42
He's got a pretty decent online following, and you know, he's about four feet wide and about three feet thick, and he's one tough son of a bitch.
43
I'll tell you, you don't want to mess with him, and he knows perfectly well and is very
44
capable of articulating the fact
45
that his success as a eminent warrior is in no small part dependent on his ability to communicate.
46
Because he could communicate well, he could listen to the men who were under his command.
47
Because he was articulate, he could explain to his superiors the situation on the ground.
48
because he was articulate, he could make a case that the men under his command who were deserving would be promoted.
49
Because he could think in an articulate manner, he could plan strategically and not lose battles.
50
Okay, so that's the case for being articulate.
51
And what's the alternative?
52
You want to be inarticulate?
53
You want to say ah and like and mmm and pause and stumble and be unable to formulate a strategy,
54
be unable to elucidate a vision,
55
be unable to compel and convince other people to entice them with your articulated vision of what might be?
56
You want the opposite of that?
57
That's, why would you want that?
58
You would choose awkwardness over grace?
59
That's, it's preposterous.
60
It's beyond foolish.
61
And I cannot understand for the life of me why this case isn't made in a compelling manner, particularly to young men.
62
And I know it's not being articulated to young men because they're dropping out of the educational realm in droves. And it's unbelievably sad.
63
So, how do you become articulate?
64
Well, by paying attention to what you say, that's a good start and what do I mean by that?
65
I mean pay attention to what you say.
66
So you can think of this as an analogy.
67
So imagine that you're trying to walk across a swamp and the swamp is murky, but you know there's a path.
68
You know there's a path of stone under the water, but it twists and moves.
69
And if you stay on the path, you won't drown.
70
The crocodiles in the swamp won't devour you.
71
And as you walk forward, you can feel with your next step where the stone might be.
72
And then you feel it solid.
73
Then you take that step, and then you do the same thing with your foot again.
74
You search, and you find out what's solid, and you step on it and you move forward in that manner.
75
That's what you do with your words.
76
It's the same thing.
77
You feel and you feel.
78
Is this the right word?
79
Is the fact that I'm uttering it putting me together and making me intact and stronger,
80
or is it tearing me apart and making me dissolute and weak?
81
And you can learn to do that.
82
I learned this in part from reading Carl Rogers,
83
who's a great clinician, and Rogers believed that the integration of language
84
and action was a necessary precondition for operation as an effective clinician.
85
That you had to align what you said with who you were.
86
And that one of the things that your clients would be evaluating you for was that capability.
87
And you might say that someone with that capability manifests themselves as genuine and trustworthy.
88
and more than that I would say also as compelling and interesting
89
although that can be gamed but the entire combination
90
that emerges out of the domain of articulate communication can't
91
be gamed it's not easily you feel your way I noticed 40 years ago
92
when I started thinking these things through that much of what I said actually made me feel weak.
93
I didn't know why exactly, but sometimes some of the things I said didn't have that effect.
94
They weren't accompanied by a sense of shame, let's say.
95
They weren't accompanied with a sense of vulnerability.
96
They were solid.
97
And at the beginning, that was probably only about 5% of what I said.
98
The rest of it was instrumental.
99
You know, it was language I was using to get my way in the manner
100
that Tammy described when she introduced me tonight There was an arrogance in my use of language
101
that had to do with the desire to attain proximal victories, right?
102
To appear smart, let's say, to win an argument, something like
103
that A very different idea than merely feeling my way along to see what word was appropriate for what moment
104
But you can learn to do that
105
and you can listen to yourself and you can stop humming
106
and hawing and using like and you know and fillers
107
and you can take the time necessary to craft your words carefully
108
and you can practice merely saying what you believe to be true
109
and you can read and you can read great writers and you can write
110
and you can write about what you think about the problems that obsess you
111
and you can become articulate as a consequence and there'll be nothing about that that isn't the adventure of your life.
112
And so it's a moral endeavor in some real sense.
113
To become articulate is to become the master of your own tongue and to become properly articulate is to
114
is to make the Word divine and to treat it in that manner
115
and to decide whether or not you believe that it is the case
116
that the divine Word creates the order that's habitable and good.
117
And if you do believe that, well, if you don't believe that, then what do you believe?
118
And if you do believe that, well, go all in.
119
See what happens.
120
see what happens
121
if you become
122
articulate I'll
123
give you one more small example Tammy touched on this in the introduction too she said she'd learned to pause.
124
You can pause.
125
It's a prayerful pause in some sense.
126
When you're in a discussion with someone, you can ask yourself, they might present you with a question or a conundrum or a proposition,
127
and instead of responding with what you know to be right, so to speak, you could just ask yourself, what do I actually think about that?
128
But it has to be a real question.
129
It has to be the kind of question that you pose to someone you didn't know.
130
It has to be a question predicated on the idea that you might not know who you are.
131
And that you could ask.
132
And so someone will present you with a question, you think, okay.
133
What do I think about that?
134
But you have to want to know the answer, and then the answer will make itself known.
135
Because that's how thought works, and then you can just communicate that answer.
136
and if you do that you'll be interesting right away
137
you'll be interesting to the person that you're talking to and
138
if they do that to you they'll be interesting too
139
and then if you both do that you'll have an interesting conversation
140
and if you have an interesting conversation you'll both grow as a consequence
141
and that's actually the pathway to growth and you just wait,
142
you can wait you can open yourself up to the possibility that what needs to be said will make itself manifest
143
if that's what you are striving for, if that's what you're asking for.
144
And then you can merely communicate that.
145
You have to abandon instrumentality to do that.
146
So one of the reasons Joe Rogan is so successful, by the way, is that that's what Joe does.
147
He just asks questions.
148
He isn't trying to get something from his guests.
149
He's not trying to become more famous.
150
he doesn't need any more money, there's no instrumental utilization of language in his discourse.
151
He's just a humble lunkhead, you know, in the most profound sense, who would like to know more than he knows,
152
and who asks all the stupid questions he can think up.
153
And it turns out that he's actually very, very smart, and very well educated now, after talking to hundreds and hundreds of people and listening.
154
And so the stupid questions he asks aren't stupid, and they're questions that are shared by virtually everyone who's listening.
155
And he takes his listeners along on this process of exploratory endeavor, and it's the pathway to success.
156
And the same thing can be true of your life.
157
The pathway to success is much...
158
It's a...
159
If you're guided by the spirit of honest inquiry
160
and every word you say is reflective of what you believe to be the truth, then the pathway that you walk on is a golden pathway to success.
161
And I know that, I know that to be true.
📺 Same Channel
B22
Learn How To Write and It Will Change Your Life
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C15
How Personality Predicts Success in Different Fields
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B2Why You Can't Force Yourself to Do Anything
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C1This One Skill Will Change Your Life
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
✨ Recommend Video
B22
380 sentences
How to Be More Articulate How to Speak Confidently and Clearly by Daniel Goleman
Business EnglishInterview EnglishUniversity Students
C15
49 sentences
Jordan Peterson - The Real Purpose of Universities
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C12
65 sentences
How To Beat Fear And Anxiety | Jordan Peterson | Powerful Life Advice
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C11
157 sentences
How To Become Dangerously Self-Educated (Complete Plan)
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C12
335 sentences
How to articulate your thoughts more clearly than 99% of people
Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
C17
175 sentences
The Lost Art Of The Intellectual Life
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C11
260 sentences
Quick Thinks: Network Smarter and Make Better Connections
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C12
162 sentences
The Secret to Business Writing: Crash Course Business - Soft Skills #3
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C120
53 sentences
Harvard negotiator explains how to argue | Dan Shapiro
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B22
224 sentences
If You Only Watch One Charisma Video, Make It This
Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B21
325 sentences
You can progress more in 6 minutes than you would in a month | Daniel Coyle
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This C1 speaking lesson is built on the video “This Is How You Become More Articulate”. This video has 161 sentences and 1940 words to shadow. The speech runs for 14:20. The speaker talks at a steady 135 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. 85% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.
Key vocabulary in this video
The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| articulate verb | /ɑːɹˈtɪk.jə.leɪt/ | To make clear or effective. |
| pathway noun | /ˈpæθˌweɪ/ | A footpath or other path or track. |
| compel verb | /kəmˈpɛl/ | To overpower; to subdue. |
| pause noun | /pɔːz/ | A temporary stop or rest; an intermission of action; interruption; suspension; cessation. |
| swamp noun | /ˈswɑmp/ | An area of wet (water-saturated), spongy (soft) land, often with trees, generally a rich ecosystem for certain plants and animals but ill-suited for many… |
| clinician noun | /klɪˈnɪʃən/ | Any healthcare practitioner working at the point of care, in clinical practice (e.g., physicians in clinical medicine, nurses in nursing practice, or allied… |
| habitable adjective | /ˈhæbɪtəbəl/ | Safe and comfortable, where humans, or other animals, can live; fit for habitation. |
| plumber noun | /ˈplʌm.əɹ/ | One who furnishes, fits, and repairs pipes and other apparatus for the conveyance of water, gas, or drainage. |
| predicate noun | /ˈpɹɛd.ɪ.kɪt/ | The part of the sentence (or clause) which states a property that a subject has or is characterized by. |
| endeavor noun | /ɛnˈdɛv.ɚ/ | A sincere attempt; a determined or assiduous effort towards a specific goal; assiduous or persistent activity. |
| manifest noun | /ˈmæn.ɪ.fɛst/ | A list or invoice of the passengers or goods being carried by a commercial vehicle or ship. |
| poetic adjective | /poʊˈɛtɪk/ | Relating to poetry. |
| strive verb | /ˈstɹaɪv/ | To try to achieve a result; to make strenuous effort; to try earnestly and persistently. |
| accompany verb | /əˈkʌm.pə.ni/ | To go with or attend as a companion or associate; to keep company with; to go along with. |
| vague adjective | /veɪɡ/ | Not clearly expressed; stated in indefinite terms. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| end up verb | To bring to a conclusion. |
| find out verb | To discover, as by asking or investigating. |
| think through verb | To fully consider, so as to understand all the consequences of. |
| think up verb | To create in one’s mind; to invent. |
| turn out verb | To end up; to result. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- You want to be inarticulate?
- You want the opposite of that?
- That's, why would you want that?
- You would choose awkwardness over grace?
- What do I think about that?
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Conditional sentences if + clause, will/would + verb — a condition and its result | if you do that you'll be · if they do that to you they'll be · if you both do that you'll have |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | are articulated · is articulated · are never taught |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | one who is · one who wants · men who are |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 44 contractions and reduced forms, such as you're, they're, don't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: pathway /ˈpæθˌweɪ/, trustworthy /ˈtɹʌst.wɜː.ði/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: clinician /klɪˈnɪʃən/, exceptional /ɪkˈsɛpʃənəl/, articulation /ɑɹˌtɪk.jəˈleɪ.ʃən/, precondition /ˈpɹiːkənˌdɪʃən/, intuition /ˌɪn.tjuːˈɪʃ.ən/
- Long words — get the stress right: articulate /ɑːɹˈtɪk.jə.leɪt/, habitable /ˈhæbɪtəbəl/, accompany /əˈkʌm.pə.ni/, instrumental /ɪnstɹəˈmɛntəl/, exceptional /ɪkˈsɛpʃənəl/
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 articulate, pathway, compel.
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.