Shadowing Practice: We Asked a CIA Spy 27 Tough Questions | Honesty Box - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Every government agency on earth can listen through your cell phone, can listen through your laptop, can listen to your cameras.
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It doesn't matter what it is.
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Any government on earth can listen to you if they want to.
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My name is Jason Hansen.
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I'm a former CIA officer and I'm here to answer questions in the honesty box.
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How are you recruited into the CIA?
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Well guess what?
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Probably 99 % of people are not recruited.
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process.
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So maybe 1 % of people are recruited, meaning they have ties to a country we need, they speak 17 languages, they're Harvard graduates, and that's not most people.
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So I applied to the agency, I went through the process, it took me about 12 months.
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That included polygraph examinations, that included medical exams, that included meeting with psychologists, psychiatrists, that included filling out mountains of paperwork,
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and after about 12 long months, I was very fortunate to get a job offer with the CIA, and that is how I got in.
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What kind of work did you carry out in the CIA?
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This is one you want me to get in trouble for.
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So I did a variety of things.
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I did surveillance.
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I did counter surveillance.
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I did some protection type of work.
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I loved it.
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It was wonderful.
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I had amazing mentors, but no, I'm not going to say anything that gets me in trouble.
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What's the difference between surveillance and counter surveillance?
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So with counter surveillance, I am watching the watchers.
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And what I mean by that is, let's say you're some high profile celebrity, right?
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And you have a bodyguard on you.
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Well, I want to know if anybody is surveilling you.
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So I'm counter surveillance.
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So if you're the high profile bodyguard, if you've got, or excuse me, if you're the high profile celebrity, if you've got your bodyguard, I am in plain clothes walking around to say,
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is anybody running surveillance on you and your bodyguard?
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Is anybody watching you?
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So counter surveillance, I'm basically saying, hey, is anybody watching you?
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Are you safe?
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Do you have a target on your back?
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Are there any threats I see where somebody's coming after you?
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Where surveillance means you're a high value target.
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I'm just watching you.
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watch if anybody's watching you.
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Clear as mud.
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Are there really spies walking among us?
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Absolutely there are.
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You have no idea how many spies are walking among us.
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So in the United States here, where we are right now, There are more Chinese spies in the U .S than any other country on Earth.
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And let me tell you, the Chinese are excellent espionage because they play the long game.
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They will put somebody in the university here in the U .S., and they will wait 20 years until they're very high up at the CIA, at the FBI, at the Secret Service,
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or any other government agency.
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Is that what sleeper agents are?
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So sleeper agents, yes and no.
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mark on a park bench you need to go put this bomb xyz
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that is obviously a very extreme case
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but yes there are many sleeper agents who have not been activated
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when they get activation from their country they're going to do certain things What are they trying to find out?
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Anything and everything.
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They want our technology.
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They obviously want to be in the CIA, the FBI, the Secret Service.
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We got so many different intelligence agencies now, NGA, NRO, all those kind of the NSA.
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And that is the ultimate plan.
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So yes, there are sleeper agents.
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Some are horrible, going to do things like blow up the United States.
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And others are, hey, we just need you to do X, Y and Z at a certain time.
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And it's not as threatening.
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What does carrying out surveillance really look like?
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Guess what?
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Carrying out surveillance really is boring, okay?
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It looks like nothing.
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You're never gonna notice when somebody's carrying out surveillance.
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Because guess what?
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That's what makes surveillance good.
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So me running surveillance, I'm pretty average.
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I don't stand out.
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Nobody gives me a second look, right?
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So surveillance is taking People who look boring, dress them to fit the baseline of the city.
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And the example when I say baseline is
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if you're running surveillance on a beach and you're walking around in a suit and tie and it's 95 degrees, well, guess what?
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You're not blending in with the baseline.
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You need to be in a bathing suit.
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That way you can blend in with surveillance.
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So surveillance is driving a normal car that matches the city.
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It's not driving a Porsche.
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It's not driving a Ferrari.
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Because again, that will stand out.
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So there's surveillance you see is surveillance you really don't see.
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It could be anything.
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It could be that old lady pushing a stroller, which is a cliche.
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It could be the old man walking down the street.
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It could be the woman kicking a soccer ball.
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It is great surveillance.
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You will really never know.
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And that's what surveillance is.
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Who's better, the CIA or FBI?
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Do you even need to ask?
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Seriously, do you even need to ask?
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Obviously the agency.
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At times, the FBI brings in the CIA to help them on certain things.
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Now, with all that being said, I got plenty of FBI agents who are friends.
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Great guys.
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I love them.
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But the CIA are better at surveillance, better at pretty much everything else.
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So yes, we are better.
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Now all the FBI guys can hate me.
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I don't mind.
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Next question, what makes a good CIA officer?
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That is a good question because it's probably not what you think.
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A good friend of mine, one of my mentors, said that spying is common sense on steroids.
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So a good intelligence officer, you've got to have common sense, but you've got to have amazing people skills.
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Another friend of mine has this awesome saying that says, CIA officers are the world's best salesmen.
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The only difference is you sell vacuums, we sell treason.
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amazing with people.
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You'll be able to talk to a billionaire, to a homeless guy on the street.
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You need to be comfortable with every one of them.
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So one of the most important things Intel traits is being that have that ability to talk to anyone and everyone, to sell anyone and everyone,
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and to believe you are doing something worthwhile.
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So obviously, you don't join the agency because you're going to be rich, you're going to make a lot of money.
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You've got to love your country, and you've got to believe that the job you're doing is incredibly important.
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That gives you the passion to go out and sell and talk to anybody and everybody.
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Who has the highest security clearance in the US?
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So when I was at the CIA, I had a top secret, I think exactly what it was, a top secret SCI, with lifestyle poly.
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So top secret security clearance, secure compartmentalized information is the SEI part and lifestyle polygraph.
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But that was mine.
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That is what I know.
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Yes, there are other things you get on top, but it's basically like it's a need to know basis.
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When I talk about the agency, SEI secure compartmentalized information, you don't know what the right hand and left hand are doing and they want it that way.
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That way you can't topple the chain.
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So back in the day, there was When was he?
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80s, 90s?
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I don't remember.
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Before my time, when I was with the agency.
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But then they made everything very compartmentalized.
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So people always ask me, like, hey, Jason, you know, I had a cousin who worked for the CIA.
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Did you know?
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Probably not, unless he was in the exact thing I was doing at the time, because it's so compartmentalized.
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If one person gets compromised, if one person, heaven forbid, betrays the agency, you don't want them to be able to destroy everything, which is why it's so compartmentalized.
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And unfortunately, that's the way it has to be compartmentalized.
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Can the CIA make someone disappear without a trace?
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Absolutely.
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Piece of cake.
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How much time you got?
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I mean, there's a-- I'm going to try to think how to say it.
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First, There's obviously defectors, meaning somebody gives a tremendous amount of information to the CIA.
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The CIA has recruited them.
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Maybe they're a Russian general.
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We'll just use that.
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The Russian general's done wonderful work for us.
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And then he says, "Hey, I think they're on to me.
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I need to get out of the country." And so you get them out of the country.
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and you bring him to the US and you make him disappear.
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You give him a new name, you put him up in a house somewhere in the Washington DC area, Northern Virginia, Maryland, et cetera and they're a ghost.
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They don't exist, they're not obviously having anything tracing back to the normal life.
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So it's not hard to make people disappear.
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I actually do that for my job.
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I help people disappear.
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And unfortunately, a lot of times it's domestic violence victims.
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So people who have a husband beating them type of thing, and they come to me and say, hey, Jason, I need to disappear.
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And the hard part is you've got to leave your life behind.
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You can't have any of the same habits you used to have because if people are looking for you, That's what they're going to do.
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It really comes down to discipline.
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I can teach anybody how to disappear without a trace, but it means you're not going to Thanksgiving with your parents.
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You're not going to Christmas with your friends.
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It's a very lonely existence, and you would only want to disappear without a trace if you had an extreme threat.
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If somebody was threatening to kill you, if you thought you might be murdered, then you'd want to do it.
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So it's not sexy like Hollywood makes it look.
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It's very lonely.
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And again, you'd only want to do it in a life or death situation.
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Is it always an expectation that you might have to give up your identity?
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Thank you.
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Well, I mean, the mission is the mission, meaning the CIA is the CIA.
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So if they call and you say, "Hey, you need to get on a plane in 30 minutes," I mean, they'll give you more time than that, but you know, you got to go.
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So it comes first, which is why it's hard to have a wife and kids and all that kind of stuff.
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And I saw it happen all the time.
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I mean, I had many wonderful friends who got divorced, and it was terrible.
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It was tragic.
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And a good buddy of mine, a divorced guy, he used to walk up to people, like new guys at the agency or new guys we started working with, and he'd say, so are you married or are you happy?
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And that was his intro line.
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I was, well, I was single, so I was happy. But anyway.
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All right, what is your favorite spy tactic?
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I like that question.
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Listen, I'm about to tell you the most important spy skill you will ever learn, okay?
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And it's not evasive driving.
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It's not like jumping out of helicopters.
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The most important spy tactic that anybody can use, including you, is called an SDR, surveillance detection route, okay?
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So what is an SDR?
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What is a surveillance detection route?
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In plain English, it means not going from point A to B in a straight line.
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Let's say you're a spy, right?
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You're going to meet an asset somewhere.
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So you're in your house.
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You're going to meet your asset at McDonald's.
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You don't just drive straight from your house to McDonald's because if surveillance was on you and somebody's following you, well, you would get caught and your asset would get caught.
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That would be no good.
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So you run a surveillance detection route.
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What does that mean?
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It means you're at your apartment.
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You might go to Starbucks to get some coffee.
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Then you might go to the gym and work out.
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Then you might go to the grocery store and go shopping.
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Then you might go to the post office.
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and mail a letter, then you might go get gas, and then you're gonna go to McDonald's, which is your final meeting point.
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Because running the surveillance detection route in all those places allows you to see if there are cars or people following you, and you can know if you are safe and free of surveillance.
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So now you can run a surveillance detection route if you're ever being followed.
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The world's easiest surveillance detection route, which I run every time I drive home from my office, is just go around the block.
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Go in a circle and see if the same car is following you.
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And if they are, don't go home.
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You're welcome.
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Does the CIA listen-- oh, Jason's going to dance around this one.
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Does the CIA listen through our phones and laptop cameras?
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Listen.
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Every government agency on earth can listen through your cell phone, can listen through your laptop, can listen to your cameras.
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It doesn't matter what it is.
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If you think you have a cell phone
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that is going to be like magic and the agency is not going to listen in, they can.
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So I, because I'm more paranoid than the average person, this kid is what we call a flip phone.
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Yes, this is my real cell phone.
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It is a flip phone.
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So I don't have apps tracking me.
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I don't have all this stuff tracking me.
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But I still know that if the CIA really wanted to listen on me, yes, of course they can listen to my flip phone.
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And so anywhere you go, if you think you are, "Hey, I'm not going to have surveillance on me.
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I'm not going to have somebody listening on me," they can do it if they want to.
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I do a lot of private security training.
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If I have a very important meeting, I leave my cell phone at home or my hotel room.
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I go to that meeting without any electronics whatsoever on me.
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And I have that meeting in person.
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And I make sure we go to a place Mostly a park.
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Parks are great.
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Where I know that nobody has any devices or anything and I know certain locations to go.
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But if you really value your privacy, if you really have anything quote unquote top secret you want to talk about, no electronics nearby has to be in person.
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Because any government on earth can listen to you if they want to. Are hitmen real?
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Jeez, you guys are asking questions that are going to make me nervous.
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I'm speaking hypothetically, of course.
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I'm speaking as just an average Joe who knows nothing about nothing.
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Many government agencies around the world hire people to do their dirty work.
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And I'm not, I'm talking normally.
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I'm not talking about terrorists when they're going out and taking terrorists in Iraq, Afghanistan, that kind of stuff.
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I'm talking about like, hey, walking down the street kind of thing is no, the U .S government is not going to do that.
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The Russians will, The Russians, as we know, they love to use poison.
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The reason the Russians love to use poison is you can do it and not be anywhere near
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So I can go and spray your door handle, and then I can be on a plane, or I can be, you know, two hours away in another city.
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When you come out of your work, you grab your door handle, there's poison underneath there, you've touched it, you're dead an hour later.
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because they sprayed your door handle.
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So be careful the Russians, they don't play games.
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Bye.
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What's the most dangerous country in the world?
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Well, what's today?
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What day is it?
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That is a great question.
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Well, obviously Russia is very dangerous to operate in.
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Right now, Iran, extremely dangerous.
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Iran is what we call in the intelligence business a denied area.
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And what I mean by
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that is there are not CIA officers who look like me walking around in Iran trying to recruit people.
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We use what is called an access agent.
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So let's say you and I met in, well, right now I'm in Atlanta.
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Let's say you and I met in Atlanta
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and I found out you're Iranian and you've got all your cousins and aunts and uncles and brothers and parents in Iran.
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I may recruit you as an access agent because you can fly to Iran.
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You've got all these relatives in Iran who can gather intel.
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But me, I can't go to Iran right now or anytime because I would end up dead.
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world.
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Of course, North Korea is too.
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Same thing as a U .S intelligence officer is not going to go walk into North Korea.
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Not good.
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They won't last long.
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Not going to happen.
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Say you recruit an Access agent, how do you, can you ever trust them?
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That is great.
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Great question.
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So if you recruit an access agent, how do you trust them?
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Well, obviously, you're going to polygraph them.
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And you're going to check their intelligence against other people's intelligence.
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So let's say I have an access agent and they come to me and they tell me something about Iran.
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Well, they're obviously not the only person we've recruited to spy on Iran for us.
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We may have 10 other people.
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So if you come to me and you say, "Hey, Jason," on -- I'm just making this date up, obviously -- "On March 25th, Iran is going to attack the United States." Well, I'm going to polygraph you.
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I'm going to verify that.
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So if I go to other people and they say, hey, on March 25th, on March 25th, March 25th, I verify that intelligence and I know, uh -oh, we're in trouble.
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So yeah, you always have to check the intelligence you're getting, because obviously it can lead to very serious decisions, which is why you're verifying it, which is why you're polygraphing the people.
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Why won't they release the Epstein files?
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Well, this is an obvious one.
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Why won't they release the Epstein files?
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Because what is on there?
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Many important people's names and information.
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Epstein was a prominent figure.
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He was whining and dining with prominent politicians.
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So they won't release him because there are people's names in there.
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They don't want to get out.
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I've seen so many things where members of the US government have said, "Oh, we looked at them.
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There was nothing on there.
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Remember how I tell you I can detect lies?
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They're lying." So why would they lie?
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Because they want to keep their job.
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They want to be up there prominently under the president, under whoever, under Congress, under, you know, they want to be a senator, etc. So they lie because they want to keep their job.
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And Unfortunately, most people, like I said, care more about keeping their job than doing what is right, and that is what is with the Epstein files.
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They don't want their names getting out, and it's very obvious when they're like, yeah, we saw nothing bad.
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You can tell they're lying.
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It doesn't take a trained intelligence officer.
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Should they be released?
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Do the public have the right to that information?
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Sure, I absolutely think the Epstein file should be released.
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Why not?
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I mean, it's a huge case.
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Horrible things will happen to these women.
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So yeah, it should be released.
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Give these women some closure.
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Give these women some justice.
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So absolutely should be done.
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But it's the government.
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Remember, this is the government to protect itself.
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It doesn't care about the public.
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one is it is your smart speakers it is your fridge it is your thermostat we're gonna hack into
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that and say hey they usually set it at 70 degrees but it's been at 60 degrees now, so they're probably going on vacation.
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We know the house is going to be empty kind of thing.
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So it's all these electronic devices you bring into your house, which lets us spy on you when I say us.
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I mean governments around the world.
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I don't work for government anymore.
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It's you bringing in here.
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Back in the day, another hypothetical story.
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There was a person in Europe we wanted to spy on.
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Well, we had an access agent, meaning we recruited his best friend or one of his best friends.
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This person in Europe who we wanted to spy on was a lover of fine art.
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He was looking for a specific painting.
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So what did we do?
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Well, one of his good friends happened to find that painting, and of course inside that painting was a listening device.
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So this guy's friend, our access agent, gave the painting to the prominent European person.
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The prominent European person takes the painting and puts it inside his house, and he has no idea there's a listening device in it, and we can listen all day long.
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That's a lot of work.
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These days we don't have to do any work.
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You bring him into the house and we can hack him, so we don't have to give you a gift anymore to bring in your house.
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So on behalf of all the spies out there, even though I'm not one anymore, thank you for bringing all those listening devices in your house because it makes it so much easier.
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All right.
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I'm messing these up in here.
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I grabbed two.
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Okay.
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Would you ever log into public Wi -Fi?
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If I log into public Wi -Fi, the only time I would ever do it is if I'm using a VPN, a virtual private network.
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So basically, it encrypts my traffic, all that kind of stuff.
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But I'm not just going to my hotel or I'm not going when I'm flying on an airplane.
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I'm logging into that public Wi -Fi without a VPN.
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So I want to make sure that my traffic is encrypted.
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I want to make sure it makes me look like, even though I live in Utah, when I'm on my VPN, the other day I said I was in New Jersey.
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But yeah, if you log into public Wi -Fi without using a VPN, or something else, you're absolutely out of your mind because they're just gonna read your mail.
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They're gonna know everything about you.
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It is very unsafe and On the public Wi -Fi thing, would it just be the government that would be able to access that?
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Or would other organizations?
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Well, any organization.
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If you're on public Wi -Fi, I mean, any hacker can.
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I mean, I have buddies that can do it.
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We wouldn't do anything illegal.
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But yeah, if I was trying to gather your information and you're on public Wi -Fi, you don't have to be anywhere sophisticated as U .S government
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to start being able to read people's mail to get their computer.
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I mean, there's a million ways to do it.
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And that ain't hard these days, unfortunately.
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But here's the thing, if the US government wants to read your mail, they're going to do it anyway.
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This is also why I don't have anything smart in my house.
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I don't have any like Alexa.
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I don't have any smart doorbells.
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I don't have any smart speakers.
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I have a quote unquote dumb house.
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because I know how the government works.
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I've got my security cameras that are hardwired to my home.
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And yes, my home is like a fortress.
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I've got door barricades in front of every door.
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I've got my security cameras.
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I have a driveway alarm, which is a passive infrared sensor.
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So when you come down my driveway, you cross that sensor.
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It chimes in my house.
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I know somebody's entered my driveway.
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And of course, I got guns galore all over my house.
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in a rapid access safe because I have eight young children.
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I didn't have kids until after I left the CIA.
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So every gun is locked up in my house.
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But yes, on every floor of my house, I got guns, and I'm ready to rock and roll in a worst -case scenario, which I pray there's never a worst -case scenario.
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How does the CIA recruit agents in foreign countries?
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Well, there is a cycle called the SADR cycle, spotting, assessing, developing, and recruiting.
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So the way you recruit them is you have to have a task first.
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So maybe the task is, hey, we want you to find a Russian scientist who's working on a nuclear bomb.
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Well, you've got to spot who are the 10 Russian scientists who are doing that or however many they are.
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Then you've got to assess who actually has access to that information, and it may be one scientist who has access to that information.
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Developing is another word for making them fall in love with you.
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So developing means taking them to dinner, spending money on them.
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You're probably familiar with the law of reciprocity and that means I'm taking you out to dinner left and right.
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I'm saying I work for an American company.
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I'm a rich American businessman and hey my company gives me a per diem
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and we're walking down the street and I see a $2 ,000 suit and I say hey
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My company gives me a per diem, a thousand dollars a month.
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I don't use it.
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I'm going to buy a suit.
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You want one too?
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I'm buying all this stuff.
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So the law of reciprocity, you want to do something for me.
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And guess what?
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The first time I asked you to do something, I really don't care what it is.
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I just want to see if you'll do it.
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I may say, "Hey, can you give me the phone number of your boss of your office?" And you say, "Yes." Well, then I start a slippery slope going down to what I really want to get.
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So spotting, assessing, developing, and then recruiting is when I tell you, "Hey, by the way, you're a smart guy.
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You probably realize I'm not really an American businessman.
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I work for the US government.
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How would you like to work for us?
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And by the way, I'll make it worth your while.
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I'm going to give you $5 ,000 a month or $10 ,000 a month or $50 ,000 or whatever the amount is, depending on the level of intelligence.
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So the SADR cycle, it's the world's greatest sales model, is basically what it is.
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And obviously doesn't happen overnight.
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It takes time.
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But that is how you recruit somebody.
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How long were you a CIA agent?
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Well, fun fact, we are actually CIA officers.
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So the FBI, they are agents.
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So a lot of times you do hear people say, hey, you're a CIA agent, and I never correct them because that's what people think it is.
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But actually, we are CIA officers.
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Now, how long was I with the agency for seven years?
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Seven awesome years, wonderful years.
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But guess what?
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It is a single man's job.
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I was single at the time, but I did want to get married.
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I did want to have a wife and kids.
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Now I went a little overboard.
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I've got a lot of people.
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I had eight kids, so I overdid it.
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But I had these amazing mentors at the agency And I joined at 23, so I was young, but I had these mentors who were in their 50s where when you're 23, you think 50 is old.
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And a lot of them were divorced or they were alcoholics or they hated their wife and kids.
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And I was like, you know what?
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I've been here seven years.
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I've had an amazing time.
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I see the writing on the wall.
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So I left to start my own security company.
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And I'm glad I did.
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I don't really for one bit, even though the agency treated me very well and was a great place to work.
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Who is really running America right now?
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This feels like a deep state question.
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I'm going to tell you the truth about the deep state, okay?
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Because everybody thinks the deep state is like the Wizard of Oz, the magic boogeyman.
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The deep state.. is not what you think.
432
The deep state is the person who is the middle manager in the U .S government.
433
So think of any intelligence organization, every government agency, the CIA, the FBI, the Secret Service.
434
It is that person who's a middle manager, who gets on the job, who pretty much can't get fired, who's there for the next 30 plus years.
435
They're the ones who are the deep state.
436
They're the ones who cause problems.
437
Because the president, he's gone in four years or eight years.
438
Politicians
439
and go to and they're political appointees they come and go
440
so it's not
441
that you have to worry about these people you have to
442
worry about the people who are embedded in the u .s
443
government who are going to be here next 30 years those are the deep state those are the problem solvers
444
and yes i saw it in my time with the cia
445
unfortunately they're everywhere uh oh speaking british friends will the u .s
446
and the uk continue to be allies yes forever hopefully uh we're awesome we get along
447
that we work with the UK on that I can't mention right now.
448
But yes, I hope we'll continue to be allies for a very long time.
449
Should we trust the government?
450
Of course not.
451
Come on.
452
The governments have their own self -interest, right?
453
Governments want to do what's good for governments.
454
They don't really care about the American public.
455
Remember when I talked about government?
456
What is the government full of?
457
Politicians who care about getting re -elected.
458
Not really about you and me, which is why you got to prepare.
459
I'm a prepper.
460
I have a year supply of food storage for every member of my family.
461
I have hundreds of gallons of water stored.
462
I got guns and ammo.
463
Get her done.
464
Yes, I do.
465
I am prepared for the apocalypse, my friends if the world ends.
466
Does the CIA listen through our phones and laptop cameras?
467
Yes.
468
I hate to say it.
469
They can take over your smart television and turn the speaker into a microphone
470
so that they can listen to what's being said in the room even when the TV is turned off.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “We Asked a CIA Spy 27 Tough Questions”. This video has 470 sentences and 5157 words to shadow. The speech runs for 24:41. The speaker talks fast, about 209 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 85% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start. 73 of its 470 sentences are questions, so it is good practice for question intonation and short answers.
Key vocabulary in this video
The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| surveillance noun | /sɚˈveɪ.ləns/ | Close observation of an individual or group; person or persons under suspicion. |
| recruit verb | /ɹɪˈkɹut/ | To enroll or enlist new members or potential employees on behalf of an employer, organization, sports team, the military, etc. |
| disappear verb | /dɪsəˈpɪɹ/ | To vanish. |
| compartmentalize verb | /kəmˌpɑɹtˈmɛntəlˌaɪz/ | To separate something into different categories, or compartments. |
| detection noun | /dɪˈtɛk.ʃən/ | The act or process of detecting, uncovering, or finding out, the discovery of something new, hidden, or disguised. |
| polygraph noun | /ˈpɒliɡɹæf/ | A device which measures and records several physiological variables such as blood pressure, heart rate, respiration and skin conductivity while a series of… |
| bodyguard noun | /ˈbɑːdiɡɑːɹd/ | A person or group of persons, often armed, responsible for protecting someone. |
| sleeper noun | /ˈsliːpə(ɹ)/ | Someone who sleeps. |
| mentor noun | /ˈmɛn.tɔː/ | A wise and trusted counselor or teacher. |
| trace noun | /tɹeɪs/ | An act of tracing. |
| driveway noun | /ˈdɹaɪvˌweɪ/ | A short private road that leads to a house or garage. |
| baseline noun | /ˈbeɪslaɪn/ | A line that is a base for measurement or for construction. |
| verify verb | /ˈvɛɹɪfaɪ/ | To substantiate or prove the truth of something. |
| assess verb | /əˈsɛs/ | To determine, estimate or judge the value of; to evaluate; to estimate. |
| poison noun | /ˈpɔɪ.zən/ | A substance that is harmful or lethal to a living organism when ingested. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| carry out verb | /ˈkæ.ɹi aʊt/ | To hold while moving it out. |
| 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… | |
| find out verb | To discover, as by asking or investigating. | |
| get out verb | To leave or escape. | |
| go out verb | To leave, especially a building. | |
| stand out verb | To jut out, protrude (from a surface etc.). | |
| blow up verb | To explode or be destroyed by explosion. | |
| come down verb | To descend, fall down, collapse. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- Do you have a target on your back?
- Are there any threats I see where somebody's coming after you?
- Are there really spies walking among us?
- Do you even need to ask?
- Seriously, do you even need to ask?
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| “Used to” used to + verb — a past habit or state that is no longer true | used to have · used to walk |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | are not recruited · are recruited · have not been activated |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | People who look · stroller, which is · everything, which is |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | have not been activated · has recruited · you've touched |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 179 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, you're, don't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: threaten /ˈθɹɛt.n̩/, thermostat /ˈθɝməstæt/, hypothetical /ˌhaɪpəˈθɛtɪkəl/, worthwhile /ˌwɜː(ɹ)θˈwaɪl/, underneath /ˌʌndɚˈniθ/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: detection /dɪˈtɛk.ʃən/, cliché /kliˈʃeɪ/, espionage /ˈɛs.pi.əˌnɑːʒ/, activation /ˌæktəˈveɪʃən/, expectation /ˌɛk.spɛkˈteɪ.ʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: compartmentalize /kəmˌpɑɹtˈmɛntəlˌaɪz/, reciprocity /ˌrɛsəˈprɑsəti/, electronics /ɪˌlɛkˈtɹɑ.nɪks/, espionage /ˈɛs.pi.əˌnɑːʒ/, prominently /ˈpɹɑmɪnəntli/
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 surveillance, recruit, disappear.
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.