Shadowing Practice: 6.9k - Learn English Speaking with Video

They say, do what you love and you'll never work a day in your life.

But what happens when you stop loving it?

In high school, I was close with a few friends who loved art as much as I did.

But when college came around, I was the only one who applied art school.

I asked why, and they said they were afraid

that turning art into a job would make it feel like a chore and no longer fun.

And honestly, they had a point.

The longer I worked professionally, the more I started to feel the will to draw lessen.

And I suddenly became very afraid of what my friends had said.

Afraid that what they had warned had come true.

The thing I Love was on a path to becoming a thing I hate.

But then, thankfully, I saw other artists who always kept their love.

Kim Jung-gi's museum is located at the very top of South Korea.

So close that when you go, you can actually see North Korea across the border.

If you do not know who Kim Jung-gi is, oh my god.

I envy you because you get to witness literal magic for the first time in the form of art.

He was able to draw huge, intricate illustrations from memory and on sight with no reference, and he makes no mistakes.

And everything is so remarkably detailed, stuffed to the brim with story and humor.

His museum was in construction last year and is now open, and serves as a testament to Kim's legacy after his passing in 2022.

Original?

Yes, this is original.

Wow. That is so incredible.

And walking through the museum was definitely a testament because this man drew so much.

He was constantly drawing, as if he had absolutely no filter from his brain to his hands.

I'm not allowed to take any video because it's actually a very, very graphic concept.

If you plan on going, you should be 18 years or older and don't bring your kids.

We were very lucky to be able to get a tour by his lifelong friend Hyunjin Kim, who is an incredible painter by his own right.

We were traveling as a group of artists, and so we all excitedly asked him, How does Kim Jung-gi draw this much?

To which he answered, For him, it was as natural as going to the bathroom.

It just needs to come out.

He was a mischievous person who was curious about everything, and he never, ever missed a day of drawing.

To know a man went to his very last breath drawing every day because he found it fun was so wonderfully mind-blowing.

There was no grind set for him, no 10,000-hour mark to try and hit.

There was only curiosity and bliss, and mastery came naturally.

This is even more impressive given the culture that Korea has, especially as Kim Jong-hee was growing up.

While visiting, our tour guide for Korea introduced us to a common Korean phrase,

which means, hurry, hurry.

She would say to us to quickly move from one style to another, and we started picking it up.

We would say to anything that moved into each other all the time.

The spirit of it comes from Korea's rapid economic growth because they had to speed up, catch up, and move fast after World War II.

It's so soft!

Despite their small size and limited resources, the entire country literally propelled themselves forward,

going from one of the world's poorest countries in 1960 to a middle-income country by 1980.

and now I mean who doesn't know Blackpink and BTS?

I love how in Korea

and Seoul you can see this beautiful blend of like really old structures

but mixed with like touches of modernity like really old buildings but with CCTVs.

Almost all restaurants in fact I found out use the exact same metal bowls when serving food

because the country mass manufactured these to be a specific size to ration out rice.

In Korea, everyone uses these metal chopsticks to eat and I am so bad at using those metal chopsticks.

It reminded me so much of the creative world.

We're constantly in this pali pali mindset as creatives.

We have to keep up with trends.

We have to post often, improve quickly.

A lot of people call it the art grind, the grindset mindset, because the truth is there is a limited amount of art jobs.

There's a real competitive economy out there and certainly not made any easier with AI.

During art school, it's a known phenomenon that students barely sleep.

And during my own finals, I slept right in the classroom in order to save time on transportation to finish a painting.

It embedded this sense of urgency into my bones that if I wasn't constantly drawing, my life could fall apart.

And it really put this pressure on my art.

It wasn't a cute hobby anymore.

It genuinely felt like life or death.

And yet, there are people out there, like Kim Jung Gi, who never lose sight of the fun.

During this trip, when we, as a band of artists, went through all of Korea, we were just living life and experiences.

We would find time to sketch and draw, not because we felt like we had to, but purely because it was a fun thing to do together.

And it was honestly one of the best trips of my entire life.

We didn't do anything crazy like skydive or stay at luxury hotels,

but we just sketched when it felt right and we soaked in the journey when it didn't feel right.

I let go of expectations, I stopped fearing mistakes, and I ended up drawing so much more than I had imagined.

We shared tools, traded stories, and filled our sketchbook with memories.

This is the South Korean flag.

That's me.

And then there's me, um, there's a really sick guy right next to me.

Oh!

And I was just like, me side-eyeing him a little bit.

Traveling with artists reminded me how lucky I am to love what I do, to be connected through art,

and to rediscover this simple joy of creating.

Before we left, Hyunjin showed us Kim Jung Gi's very last unfinished drawing, a workshop scene in France.

Scene at half-finished was already haunting, but what Hyunjin said next sent shivers down my spine.

He pointed to the back of Kim Jung Gi's head in the illustration, which had a crying eye,

and he said in all his life he had never seen Jung Gi draw a crying eye.

And in the corner, you see a vase with white flowers.

Kim Jung Gi rarely drew flowers, and it seemed like a decorative choice until we learned that white chrysanthemums, which is what he drew, symbolized death in Korea.

Perhaps Kim Jung Gi knew that he was gonna die.

I asked Hyun Jin if Kim Jung Gi had any hobbies outside of art, and Hyun Jin said no. Aside from recently picking up motorcycling, he just drew.

He would eat, sleep, and draw.

In this moment, seeing quite honestly probably the pinnacle of human capability when it comes to art,

I thought to myself, I admire that kind of dedication, but I don't want it for myself.

This was how Kim Jung-gi had fun in his life.

But the way that I have fun are things like cafe hopping, dancing, live music, deep conversations,

and not bringing my sketchbook to those things.

And if loving those things means I can't become the world's greatest artist, I'm okay with that.

And right then, I felt a burden released from my shoulders.

Hello and welcome to...

Inventory Intermission.

The person who always asks, what are you using?

which I answer, I got you.

I think in every single video where I talk about sketching, I'm literally using the same three things.

Has not changed.

100

Color pencil, Sailor Shiki Yori, and mild liner.

101

But when I do go to a different country, I do enjoy trying to find something completely new that I haven't seen before.

102

My friends and I, we went to this little art shop in Korea called Homey Art Shop.

103

I call it little, it's actually not very little at all.

104

We stumbled upon some of the most ridiculous art tools ever and we literally just bought whatever we thought looked ridiculous

105

so the brush is made of squirrel hairs oh yeah wait wait wait let me look at this brush

106

yeah how many squirrels how did you need many squirrels did you need?

107

How many squirrels diapers?

108

Does it look like it's low-key, like, bondage or, I don't know, like a- Oh, it's one of those.

109

What?

110

Wait, wait, you can use it on your finger?

111

I would be so down to get this if it was not.

112

$32.

113

Okay, imagine this.

114

This is for your artist training art.

115

You should have, like, like- Bootcamp.

116

Yeah, bootcamp.

117

Yeah, exactly.

118

This is hilarious to me.

119

I have no idea what this is for.

120

What?

121

So one of the things that I took home is this Viarco, I don't even know what it's called.

122

I just saw it.

123

It looks so silly and

124

when I was doing this piece I really wanted to do

125

a piece inspired by what I saw with Kim Jung Gi where he was just having

126

so much fun I wasn't taking it too seriously and with this when you're you're trying with this I'm sorry, but I I can't take this seriously whatsoever

127

So I sketched with this to be super super loose

128

and to do a sketch inspired by some of the things I saw in Korea For example, there's a really strong toothbrushing culture in Korea and also Honde

129

which is kind of like this up-and-coming hipster scene with a lot of like Y2K shops Homemade goods.

130

It was a place that was super fun and artsy

131

that just made me so happy when I was there And

132

so I want to do a piece inspired by like all of those things all while being super silly and super fun.

133

Would I recommend this to draw with?

134

It's incredibly artistic.

135

No, truly it's incredibly artistic.

136

Yeah, it does look like drawing.

137

Honestly, I don't know.

138

I don't think I'm using this correctly, but it's my money and I will use it how I like it.

139

So with that, happy sketching!

140

Everything my friends had feared about becoming a professional artist turned out to be true.

141

Art stopped being just a hobby.

142

It became all-consuming, exhausting, and at times incredibly isolating.

143

But even through the hardest parts, I have no regrets.

144

This trip and the amazing artists I met along the way reminded me of something important.

145

The joy in creating never truly disappears.

146

Sometimes it just needs room to breathe.

147

So if you ever feel burnt out or disconnected from your art,

148

or have had the same fear of ever falling out of love with your practice, I want to give you peace of mind.

149

That love will always be there.

150

It's simply waiting to be rediscovered.

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198 sentences

Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

The speaker keeps coming back to these words: Kim, Jung, Korea, artist. This video has 149 sentences and 1885 words to shadow. The speech runs for 12:58. The speaker talks at a steady 145 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. 82% 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
sketch noun	/ˈskɛt͡ʃ/	A rapidly executed freehand drawing that is not intended as a finished work, often consisting of a multitude of overlapping lines.
squirrel noun	/ˈskwɪ.ɹ(ə)l/	Any of the rodents of the family Sciuridae.
hobby noun	/ˈhɑ.bi/	An activity that one enjoys doing in one's spare time.
inspire verb	/ɪnˈspaɪə(ɹ)/	To infuse into the mind; to communicate to the spirit; to convey, as by a divine or supernatural influence; to disclose preternaturally; to produce in, as by…
rediscover verb		To discover again; especially something previously lost or forgotten.
sketchbook noun	/ˈskɛt͡ʃˌbʊk/	A book or pad with blank pages for sketching; a sketch pad.
mindset noun	/ˈmaɪn(d)ˌsɛt/	A way of thinking; an attitude or opinion, especially a habitual one.
illustration noun	/ˌɪləsˈtɹeɪ̯ʃən/	The act of illustrating; the act of making clear and distinct.
grind verb	/ˈɡɹaɪnd/	To reduce to smaller pieces by crushing with lateral motion.
testament noun	/ˈtɛs.tə.mənt/	A solemn, authentic instrument in writing, by which a person declares his or her will as to disposal of his or her inheritance (estate and effects) after his…
hurry verb	/ˈhʌ.ɹi/	To do things quickly.
artistic adjective	/ɑɹˈtɪs.tɪk/	Having or revealing creative skill.
bondage noun	/ˈbɑn.dɪd͡ʒ/	The state of being enslaved or the practice of slavery.
chrysanthemum noun	/kɹɪˈsænθəməm/	Any of many flowering perennial plants, of the genus Chrysanthemum, native to China, that have showy radiate heads.
disconnect verb	/dɪskəˈnɛkt/	To sever or interrupt a connection.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
catch up verb		To pick up suddenly.
come around verb	/kʌ.məˈɹaʊnd/	To change one's mind, especially to begin to agree or appreciate what one was reluctant to accept at first.
come out verb	/ˌkʌm ˈaʊt/	To be discovered; to be revealed.
end up verb		To bring to a conclusion.
fall apart verb		To disintegrate, to break into pieces.
find out verb		To discover, as by asking or investigating.
go through verb		To travel from one end of something to the other.
grow up verb		To mature and become an adult.

Sentences worth repeating

Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:

We're constantly in this pali pali mindset as creatives.
The person who always asks, what are you using?
Wait, wait, you can use it on your finger?
Would I recommend this to draw with?

Grammar in this video

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

Structure	In the video
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	friends who loved · one who applied · person who was
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	is located · be connected · is made
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	Has not changed · haven't seen

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 25 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, I'm, wasn't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “th” sounds: chrysanthemum /kɹɪˈsænθəməm/, toothbrush /ˈtuːθ.bɹʌʃ/
The “sh” and “zh” sounds: illustration /ˌɪləsˈtɹeɪ̯ʃən/, ration /ˈɹæʃən/, shiver /ˈʃɪvɚ/, toothbrush /ˈtuːθ.bɹʌʃ/, unfinished /ʌnˈfɪnɪʃt/
Long words — get the stress right: illustration /ˌɪləsˈtɹeɪ̯ʃən/, chrysanthemum /kɹɪˈsænθəməm/, modernity /məˈdɝnɪti/, remarkably /ɹɪˈmɑɹkəbli/, decorative /ˈdɛk.ə.ɹə.tɪv/

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 sketch, squirrel, hobby.

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 →

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