Shadowing Practice: Upper Intermediate (B2) English Listening - Publicly Embarrassed Online | Comprehensible Input - Learn English Speaking with Video
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So here we have yet another, yet another thought -provoking picture here.
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And so, let's take a look.
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So to kick off right kick off We're gonna start by just taking a look at the picture itself, okay?
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Okay So just to kick off, we're going to look at the picture.
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before we start getting into the deeper messages behind the picture.
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So in the picture we can see a man here and he's sweating.
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He's sweating profusely.
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Look at that.
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He's sweating profusely.
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Means he's sweating a lot.
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He's really sweating and he's also holding his hands near his groin area.
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just down here.
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This is kind of the groin area.
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To put it politely, yes, he's got his hands covering his groin area.
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He looks incredibly embarrassed here, right?
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He's sweating profusely.
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He's covering up his groin area.
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he's very embarrassed and on the smartphone here he is completely naked
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so on the smartphone he's also covering his groin area and
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and he's completely naked and if we look at his eyes His eyes are in the shape of a spiral.
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Yes, it's a spiral.
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So you see this shape where his eyes are.
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It's a spiral like this, right?
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He's got spiral shapes for his eyes.
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That's how the artist has drawn his eyes.
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The artist has drawn his eyes in the shape of a spiral.
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Like that.
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So that's the picture.
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So now that we've got that out of the way, now we've got that out of the way, let's move on to the deeper meaning of the picture.
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What do you think the artist is trying to convey with this picture?
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What message do you think the artist is trying to convey?
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Obviously this is yet another picture about technology and the modern world.
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You know I think I understand, I think I understand this picture in that in today's day and age, right?
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In today's day and age
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it's quite easy to be publicly embarrassed on social media right
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people are recording things on their phones all the time all the time
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if you embarrass yourself in public you can end up going viral right
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if somebody records you doing something embarrassing in public that video can then be put onto social media.
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And if you are really unlucky, that video can then go viral.
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And everybody in the world will see it.
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There are a lot of cases of people who have been recorded against their will, completely against their will.
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They didn't know they were being recorded, but somebody recorded them.
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or took a picture of them,
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and they ended up going viral and now their image is now all over the internet all over the world
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they are turned into a meme.
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Yes, do you know what a meme is?
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M -E -M -E a meme, they end up being turned into a meme.
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And all of this is of course completely against their will.
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And the problem with going viral on social media
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with a picture of you or a video of you is that you have no means by which to control this, right?
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You have no means by which to stop this video or image spreading like wildfire, yes, online.
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Because the thing is, online, embarrassing pictures and videos, they tend to spread like wildfire.
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embarrassed yes they really enjoy Watching other people get embarrassed now.
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There is a term for this in German.
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There's a German word for this and that is schadenfreude Okay, this is a German word.
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Schadenfreude means getting pleasure by watching the misfortune of others or by watching the embarrassment of others you get pleasure.
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and this is incredibly common online and when an embarrassing video surfaces online,
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when an embarrassing video surfaces online, it often spreads like wildfire.
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So imagine, imagine you're walking down the street and then you trip over and you end up
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landing in a bucket of paint or something.
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Something ridiculous.
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You trip over and then your head ends up in a bucket of red paint or something.
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And then, unbeknownst to you, unbeknownst to you, there's a teenager recording the incident on his phone.
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Completely unbeknownst to you, there's a teenager right there recording it.
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This teenager then puts it on TikTok, And then, because it's so embarrassing,
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because you've tripped over, landed in a bucket of red paint,
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and then your face is covered in red paint something like that something really embarrassing because it's so embarrassing It's very funny.
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It's hilarious for other people to watch.
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And this teenager uploads it to TikTok and the video spreads like wildfire all over TikTok.
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Really gets millions and millions of views.
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And all of this, of course, is completely outside of your control.
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There is nothing you can do to stop this video spreading like wildfire online.
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And I think that's how a lot of us feel today in a way.
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A lot of us are kind of have been embarrassed online.
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Or we are scared of this happening to us, especially...
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young people and teenagers right?
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Teenagers nowadays have to grow up in a world where all of their actions are recorded forever online.
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Everybody does dumb things as a teenager, yes? everybody does stupid things as a teenager,
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however the difference is, when I was younger and I did dumb things, It was not really recorded to the extent that it is today.
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right?
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Although when I was younger we did have Facebook, social media was not quite as big as it is today.
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And I think there's a big difference between growing up now and growing up 20 years ago.
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In fact, the difference is night and day.
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right the difference between growing up nowadays and growing up say 10 20 years ago it's really night and day
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because of how social media has changed everything.
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Social media has changed the experience of adolescence, yes, becoming a teenager, going through adolescence.
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And the difference is really night and day, I think.
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And I think a lot of teenagers are really terrified of having this happen to them, right?
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Teenagers nowadays are a lot more careful about what they do in public.
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They don't do as many stupid things because they may be recorded.
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unbeknownst to them they may be recorded put online
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and then their video may spread like wildfire online
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and then everybody in their class will see it and not only
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that but everybody in the world will see how they have embarrassed themselves.
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And I think that's maybe the message if I had to hazard a guess
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if I had to hazard a guess I would say that's the kind of message that this artist
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wanted to convey with this picture you know, if I had to hazard a guess,
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I would say that's probably what the artist is getting at with this picture.
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I don't know exactly what they're trying to say, but I think that is probably what the artist is getting at.
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I think that's what they're trying to get at with this picture.
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Anyway, that's the end of the video.
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Thank you for watching.
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Keep listening to English and I will see you in the next one.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “Upper Intermediate (B2) English Listening - Publicly Embarrassed Online”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: picture, teenager, online, embarrassed, embarrassing. This video has 103 sentences and 1207 words to shadow. The speech runs for 8:51. The speaker talks at a steady 136 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 |
|---|---|---|
| teenager noun | /ˈtiːnˌeɪ̯d͡ʒə/ | A person between thirteen and nineteen years old (inclusive). |
| embarrass verb | /ɪmˈbæɹəs/ | To disrupt someone's composure or comfort with acting publicly or freely. |
| embarrassed adjective | /ɪmˈbæɹ.əst/ | Having a feeling of shameful discomfort. |
| wildfire noun | /ˈwaɪldˌfaɪər/ | A rapidly spreading fire, especially one occurring in a wildland area. |
| sweat verb | /swɛt/ | To emit sweat. |
| groin noun | /ˈɡɹoɪ̯n/ ~ /ˈɡɹɔɪ̯n/ | The crease or depression of the human body at the junction of the trunk and the thigh, together with the surrounding region. |
| spiral noun | /ˈspaɪɹəl/ | A curve that is the locus of a point that rotates about a fixed point while continuously increasing its distance from that point. |
| unbeknownst adjective | /ˌʌnbɪˈnoʊnst/ | Without the knowledge of. |
| meme noun | /miːm/ | Any unit of (originally cultural) information, such as a practice or idea, that is transmitted verbally or by repeated action from one mind to another in a… |
| viral adjective | /ˈvaɪɹəl/ | Of or relating to a biological virus. |
| profusely adverb | /pɹəˈfjusli/ | In great quantity or abundance; in a profuse manner. |
| convey verb | /kənˈveɪ/ | To move (something) from one place to another. |
| hazard noun | /ˈhæzəd/ | The chance of suffering harm; danger, peril, risk of loss. |
| bucket noun | /ˈbʌkɪt/ | A container made of rigid material, often with a handle, used to carry liquids or small items. |
| nowadays adverb | /ˈnaʊ.ə.deɪz/ | At the present time; in the current era. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| end up verb | To bring to a conclusion. |
| grow up verb | To mature and become an adult. |
| kick off verb | To make the first kick in a game or part of a game. |
| cover up verb | To conceal or disguise. |
| go through verb | To travel from one end of something to the other. |
| walk down verb | To continually advance (on an opponent) and punch (the opponent) in order to control the fight and dominate the opponent, while shrugging off the opponent's… |
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 | be put · have been recorded · being recorded |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | has drawn · have been recorded · you've tripped |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 12 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, they're, we're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- Long words — get the stress right: adolescence /ˌædəˈlɛsəns/, schadenfreude /ˈʃɑː.dənˌfɹɔɪ.də/, embarrassment /ɪmˈbæɹ.əs.mənt/
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 teenager, embarrass, embarrassed.
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.