Shadowing Practice: What Do I Project onto Other People? - Learn English Speaking with Video
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One of the most continuously fascinating ideas in psychotherapy is the concept of projection.
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What this means, simply put, is that all of us have a storehouse of assumptions about what other people are like and how they will behave,
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which owes very little to actual people who we meet today
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and has a lot more to do with complications in our childhoods which we have generally forgotten all about.
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Furthermore, these projections tend to be distinctly and unfruitfully negative.
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We think worse of people than we should.
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We are quicker to be afraid, to be angry and to be uncooperative than we need to be
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because our imaginations are filled with dark experiences which reflect our painful origins and yet fail to do justice to a broader,
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more innocent and more hopeful present.
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As a result, our projections gum up our relationships with the world around us.
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We arrive in the presence of other people with a great deal more aggression, suspicion, fear or doubt than is warranted in the here and now.
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The theory of projections sounds simple and plausible enough.
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The difficulty is that it's extremely hard to work out what it is that we are actually projecting.
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We are far too much inside ourselves to see our own biases.
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We can't tell how we're distorting our assessments of other people.
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There's no gap between our judgements and our reason.
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Yet we stand to make a little bit of progress through a simple exercise
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which involves a a little bit of reflection on our most characteristic assumptions of other people, taken as a whole.
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In a quiet, reflexive mood, we should title a blank sheet of paper, What I Expect Other People Will Be Like.
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And then we should see what comes up for us.
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A list might look like this.
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Older men in authority are judgmental and angry.
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Or other people can suddenly turn around and viciously attack you, or people only respect money and status,
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or nice people aren't very competent or worthy of respect, or people can't be relied upon to help when you need them,
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or people might be laughing or silently ridiculing.
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The list might, to an extent that surprises us, be extremely negative.
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The next question should be, why are we thinking this way?
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Why do we make these sorts of generalisations?
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Common sense tells us, because this is what reality is actually like.
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But a more psychotherapeutic line answers back, only because this is what our childhood was like,
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and this is what has unconsciously influenced and, if you like, poisoned, our assessment of all strangers in the present.
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In order to honour the true complexity as well as hopefulness of the world as it is now,
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we should then ask what specific individuals from our past might be held responsible for inspiring our range of particular
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and particularly dark assumptions about people.
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To every generalisation, on our sheet of paper, we should, with a different coloured pen,
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write down a particular name who might have inspired an especially caustic assessment of humanity.
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If we've had a certain sort of childhood, we should in time be able to arrive at definite sets of names and memories.
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Once we start to explore, we'll be able to see that a statement like, older men in authority are judgmental and angry,
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really relates to a very particular man in a very particular situation.
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While the unhelpful idea
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that no one can be relied upon might be the sediment of an earlier situation in
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which specific people didn't help us when we badly needed them to have done so.
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There are few things harder to see than our own biases, but we can, with the help of exercises,
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learn to free ourselves from some of their more vicious, though invisible, tentacles.
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Other people can often be extremely difficult – of that there is no doubt.
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But, to an extent that may well surprise us, it isn't really people in general who are the problem.
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It's almost certainly people in particular who troubled us a long time ago
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and who we've taken great care to forget all about.
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We may develop a lot more faith in humanity once we can be more forensic
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and sad about a few key figures in the past, once we learn to unpick our projections.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This video has 50 sentences and 724 words to shadow. The speech runs for 4:33. The speaker talks at a natural 159 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 |
|---|---|---|
| projection noun | /pɹəˈd͡ʒɛkʃən/ | Something which projects, protrudes, juts out, sticks out, or stands out. |
| assessment noun | /əˈsɛsmənt/ | The act of assessing or an amount (of tax, levy or duty etc) assessed. |
| assumption noun | /əˈsʌm(p).ʃ(ə)n/ | The act of assuming, or taking to or upon oneself; the act of taking up or adopting. |
| extent noun | /ɪkˈstɛnt/ | A range of values or locations. |
| sheet noun | /ʃit/ | A thin bed cloth used as a covering for a mattress or as a layer over the sleeper. |
| arrive verb | /əˈɹaɪv/ | To reach; to get to a certain place. |
| humanity noun | /hjuˈmænɪti/ | Humankind; human beings as a group. |
| rely verb | /ɹɪˈlaɪ/ | To trust; to have confidence in; to depend. |
| bias noun | /ˈbaɪ.əs/ | Inclination towards something. |
| 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… |
| innocent adjective | /ˈɪnəsənt/ | Free from guilt, sin, or immorality. |
| badly adverb | /ˈbæd.li/ | In a bad manner. |
| mood noun | /muːd/ | A mental or emotional state, composure. |
| reflect verb | /ɹɪˈflɛkt/ | To bend back (light, etc.) from a surface. |
| honour noun | /ˈɑnəɹ/ | British, Canadian, Commonwealth, and Ireland standard spelling of honor. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| turn around verb | To physically rotate (usually around a vertical axis) for a half turn (180 degrees), a whole turn (360 degrees), or an indefinite amount. | |
| work out verb | /ˌwɝk ˈaʊt/ | To calculate. |
| write down verb | To produce or set (something) down in writing; to record something. |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 9 contractions and reduced forms, such as can't, we've, aren't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: worthy /ˈwɝ.ði/, furthermore /ˈfɜː(ɹ).ðə(ɹ)ˌmɔː(ɹ)/, psychotherapy /ˌsaɪkoʊˈθɛɹəpi/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: projection /pɹəˈd͡ʒɛkʃən/, assumption /əˈsʌm(p).ʃ(ə)n/, sheet /ʃit/, imagination /ɪˌmæd͡ʒəˈneɪʃən/, reflection /ɹɪˈflɛkʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: humanity /hjuˈmænɪti/, difficulty /ˈdɪfɪkəlti/, imagination /ɪˌmæd͡ʒəˈneɪʃən/, invisible /ɪnˈvɪzəb(ə)l/, complexity /kəmˈplɛk.sɪ.ti/
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 projection, assessment, assumption.
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 | are filled · is warranted · can't be relied |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | we've had · we've taken |
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.