Shadowing Practice: this strange habit SKYROCKETS your charisma. - Learn English Speaking with Video
Choose a practice mode
Each mode opens a full-screen practice room.
61 sentences
If sentences are too short or too long, click Edit to adjust them.
1
I spent the last month doing this strange habit, and it made me insanely charismatic.
2
Let me explain.
3
Charisma is that invisible magnetic force that attracts people to you.
4
It's the superpower that celebrities, actors, and the world's most popular people have that makes them so likable.
5
And you know what the single biggest killer of charisma is?
6
This.
7
The iPhone.
8
iPhone.
9
iPhone.
10
iPhone.
11
iPhone.
12
Now let's talk about iPhone.
13
Every morning, millions of people wake up, and before we've even spoken to another human being,
14
we spent 30 minutes consuming content from the most entertaining people on Earth.
15
Professional comedians, world -class storytellers, a curated feed of the funniest moments from millions of people's lives.
16
So by the time you step out into the real world, real life doesn't stand a chance in comparison.
17
It's not nearly as interesting.
18
You become desensitized to reality.
19
Ordinary life isn't as interesting anymore because you feel like you've seen it all.
20
Which brings me to Dale Carnegie, author of the most popular book on charisma, How to Win Friends and Influence People.
21
And in it, he summed up the secret to charisma in just five words.
22
To be interesting, be interested.
23
And what he means is really simple.
24
When you're genuinely interested in getting to know the people around you, when you're asking them questions, trying to figure out what makes them excited,
25
what their interests are, you make them feel important.
26
And they attribute that good feeling to you.
27
But when your phone numbs you to the real world, when you're no longer genuinely curious about other people,
28
when the world around you no longer feels interesting, you lose the very thing that makes you interesting.
29
Your charisma quietly disappears.
30
But you see, all hope is not lost because there is one impossibly simple way to fix this.
31
Every day for one month, I stared at this wall for an hour.
32
No phone, no music, no distractions, just my own thoughts and the wall.
33
I had one simple goal.
34
Make ordinary life interesting again.
35
Oh, that was hard.
36
Okay, that was hard.
37
For the first week, it was brutal.
38
I was restless.
39
I felt distracted.
40
I was checking the clock constantly.
41
And somehow an hour felt like four.
42
But that's kind of the point.
43
My brain was so used to getting a new reward every few seconds, a new video, a new song I haven't listened to,
44
that I really wasn't ready for the silence.
45
But then, you see, something clicked.
46
When you remove that constant stream of stimulation, Your brain has to adjust to a much quieter environment.
47
And slowly, things that used to feel too boring to hold your attention, start grabbing your attention again.
48
By week two, I really started to notice the effects of this experiment.
49
I'd sit down and actually watch the light move across the wall.
50
I'd hear birds outside.
51
I started to notice things that I never noticed before.
52
And even outside of my apartment, I found myself to be more curious.
53
Walks were more interesting.
54
Strangers were more interesting conversations were more interesting.
55
The world hadn't changed, you see.
56
My threshold for what I found interesting had.
57
And that's when I realized that this experiment is positively affecting my charisma.
58
Remember when Dale Carnegie said, to be interesting, be interested?
59
When you're not completely jaded by stimulation, you notice more, you ask more questions,
60
you listen because you actually want to know what someone is going to say.
61
You become interested again, which strangely makes you interesting again.
Download App
Everything you need to speak fluently
AI PronunciationScore every sentence
IPA PracticeMaster every sound
VocabularyBuild your word bank
Vocab GameLearn while playing
Same Channel
FOR YOU
Recommend Video
B22
224 sentences
If You Only Watch One Charisma Video, Make It This
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B2453
24 sentences
How Cell Phones Impact Our Relationships
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B211
49 sentences
Doing These 5 Things Every Day Will Rewire Your Brain
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B21
423 sentences
Romanticize your life
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B22
95 sentences
A Simple Habit That (Sort of) Fixed My Social Skills for Good.
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B27
489 sentences
7 Habits That Will Make You Silently Attractive | Jim Rohn Motivation
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B21
856 sentences
The Art of Charm Podcast 716 - 8 Tips for Compelling Conversation
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B21
67 sentences
I Simplified My Phone (So It Doesn't Ruin My Life)
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B21
140 sentences
The Real Secret to Having Aura (It’s Not What You Think)
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B22
156 sentences
No one has personality anymore
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C1359 sentences
The Traits That Make You Strange Are The Gifts That Make You Special | Robin Sharma
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B21
539 sentences
How to Become the Version of You Who Already Has It
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “this strange habit SKYROCKETS your charisma”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: interesting, charisma, iphone, interested, notice. This video has 61 sentences and 594 words to shadow. The speech runs for 3:48. The speaker talks at a natural 156 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 83% 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
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| curious adjective | /ˈkjʊɹ.i.əs/ | Tending to ask questions, or to want to explore or investigate; inquisitive; (with a negative connotation) nosy, prying. |
| ordinary adjective | /ˈɔɹdɪnɛɹi/ | Having regular jurisdiction; now only used in certain phrases. |
| experiment noun | /ɪkˈspɛɹ.ə.mənt/ | A test under controlled conditions made to either demonstrate a known truth, examine the validity of a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of… |
| genuinely adverb | /ˈd͡ʒɛn.ju.ɪn.li/ | In a genuine manner; truthfully, truly. |
| stimulation noun | /stɪm.jʊˈleɪ.ʃən/ | A pushing or goading toward action. |
| killer noun | /ˈkɪlɚ/ | One who or that which kills. |
| silence noun | /ˈsaɪ̯ləns/ | The absence of any sound. |
| clock noun | /klɑk/ | A chronometer, an instrument that measures time, particularly the time of day. |
| sum noun | /sʌm/ | A quantity obtained by addition or aggregation. |
| reward noun | /ɹɪˈwɔɹd/ | Something of value given in return for an act. |
| celebrity noun | /səˈlɛb.ɹɪ.ɾi/ | Fame, renown; the state of being famous or talked-about. |
| stranger noun | /ˈstɹeɪnd͡ʒɚ/ | A person whom one does not know; a person who is neither a friend nor an acquaintance. |
| habit noun | /ˈhæb.ɪt/ | An action performed on a regular basis. |
| attract verb | /əˈtɹækt/ | To pull toward without touching. |
| magnetic adjective | /mæɡˈnɛtɪk/ | Of, relating to, operating by, or caused by magnetism. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| figure out verb | To come to understand; to discover or find a solution; to deduce. | |
| sit down verb | To assume a sitting position from a standing position. | |
| sum up verb | To produce a total by adding. | |
| wake up verb | /ˌweɪk ˈʌp/ | To stop sleeping; to awake. |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 13 contractions and reduced forms, such as you're, I'd, doesn't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: stimulation /stɪm.jʊˈleɪ.ʃən/, threshold /ˈθɹɛʃ(h)oʊld/, distraction /dɪsˈtɹæk.ʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: ordinary /ˈɔɹdɪnɛɹi/, experiment /ɪkˈspɛɹ.ə.mənt/, genuinely /ˈd͡ʒɛn.ju.ɪn.li/, stimulation /stɪm.jʊˈleɪ.ʃən/, celebrity /səˈlɛb.ɹɪ.ɾi/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like curious, ordinary, experiment.
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.