Shadowing Practice: what does success mean to you? - Learn English Speaking with Video
Choose a practice mode
Each mode opens a full-screen practice room.
90 sentences
If sentences are too short or too long, click Edit to adjust them.
1
Define success for yourself.
2
You already like that one?
3
Define success for yourself.
4
Now check this out.
5
I'm in South of New Orleans a few years ago and I went to a voodoo shop.
6
And they had this wooden partition against the wall of these columns.
7
And in these columns were all these vials of these magic potions, right?
8
And the headings above each potion defining what they would give you were things like fertility,
9
health, family, legal health, energy, forgiveness, money.
10
Guess which column was empty?
11
Money.
12
Let's admit it.
13
Money is king today.
14
It's what makes the world go round.
15
It is success.
16
The more we have, the more successful we are, right?
17
Now, I would argue that our cultural values have even been financialized.
18
Financialized.
19
Humility is not in vogue anymore.
20
It's too passive.
21
It's a get -rich -quick -on -the -internet -richest -fifteen -minutes -of -fame world that we live in, and we see it every day.
22
But we all want to succeed, right?
23
So the question that we've got to ask ourselves is, what success is to us?
24
What success is to you?
25
Is it more money?
26
That's fine.
27
I got nothing against money.
28
I don't.
29
Maybe it's a healthy family.
30
Maybe it's a happy marriage.
31
Maybe it's to help others, to be famous, to be spiritually sound, to leave the world a little bit better place than you found it.
32
Continue to ask yourself that question.
33
Now, your answer may change over time, and that's fine.
34
But do yourself this favor.
35
Whatever your answer is, don't choose anything that will jeopardize your soul.
36
Prioritize who you are, who you want to be, and don't spend time with anything that antagonizes your character.
37
Don't drink the Kool -Aid, man.
38
It tastes sweet, but you will get cavities tomorrow.
39
Life is not a popularity contest.
40
Be brave, take the hill, but first answer that question, what's my hill?
41
So, me, how do I define success for me, myself?
42
Well, for me, it's a measurement of five things.
43
We got fatherhood, we got being a good husband, we got my health, mind, body and spirit, we got career and we got friendships.
44
These are what's important to me in my life right now.
45
So I try to measure these five things each day.
46
I check in with them.
47
I like to see whether or not I'm in the debit section or the credit section with each one.
48
Am I in the red or am I in the black?
49
You follow?
50
For instance, sometimes say my career is rolling.
51
All right, it's way up here in the black, but I see how my relationship with my wife maybe could use a little bit more of my attention.
52
I got to pick up the slack on being a better husband.
53
Get that one out of the red.
54
Or say my spiritual health could use some maintenance.
55
It's down here, but hey, man, my friendships and my social life, they're in high gear, right?
56
I got to recalibrate.
57
checks and balances.
58
I got to go to church.
59
Remember to say thank you more often, something.
60
But I got to take the tally because I want to keep all five in healthy shape.
61
And I know that if I don't take care of them, if I don't keep up maintenance on them, one of them is going to get weak, man.
62
It's going to dip too deep into the debit section.
63
It's going to go bankrupt.
64
It's gonna get sick, die even.
65
So first, we have to define success for ourselves.
66
And then, we have to put in the work to maintain it.
67
Take that daily tally.
68
Tend our garden.
69
Keep the things that are important to us in good shape.
70
I mean, let's admit it.
71
We've all got two wolves in us.
72
A good one and a bad one.
73
And they both wanna eat.
74
The best I can tell, we just gotta feed that good one a little more than the other one.
75
If you're gonna do it, do it.
76
say what you can do do what you say you can't
77
do it don't say you can do it don't over leverage yourself don't over leverage the decision
78
and then jump in
79
and kind of dip a toe i think i'll try it out no think
80
if you're going to try it out beforehand but when it's time to go dive
81
finish it find out come out the other side don't leave it and go
82
if i just would uh -uh
83
that keeps me up at night i think it keeps a lot of us up at night
84
when you half -ass something and you just don't know whether you failed or succeeded, got what you want or didn't get what you want, finding out and looking in the mirror and going,
85
I didn't half -ass it.
86
I went all the way.
87
I found out.
88
And that ain't for me.
89
Or I found out and you're damn right that is for me.
90
That's a great place to get to.
Download App
Everything you need to speak fluently
AI PronunciationScore every sentence
IPA PracticeMaster every sound
VocabularyBuild your word bank
Vocab GameLearn while playing
Same Channel
C13
stop running away from reality.
Daily ConversationUniversity Students
B27
You can’t live like this forever.
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B28
What if it actually works out?
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B22
You still have a lot to fight for.
Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B2you can be anything.
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
FOR YOU
Recommend Video
B289 sentences
10 Habits Of All Successful People!
Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B22
44 sentences
What Makes a Good Life Lessons from the Longest Study on Happiness | Inspired by Robert Waldinger
Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B22
47 sentences
For those feeling behind in life
Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B211
751 sentences
7 Conversations Every Ambitious Person Needs to Hear | Dear Leila
American AccentBusiness EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B22
217 sentences
The 15 Minutes You Need When You Stop Believing | Lewis Hamilton Motivation
Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B226
18 sentences
What Is Greater Than Happiness I Robert Greene
Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B26
9 sentences
What is Success? - Ralph Waldo Emerson (Powerful Life Poetry)
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B212
26 sentences
B2 DAY 1 Shadowing 1
Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B23
217 sentences
6 Steps To Reclaim Your Life, Start Today
American AccentBusiness EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B21
315 sentences
How To Live A Successful Life - Robert Greene
Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
C19
25 sentences
Should I Choose Passion or Duty?
British AccentBusiness EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B27
88 sentences
I'M GOING TO WIN - Best Motivational Speech Video (Featuring Denzel Washington)
Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “what does success mean to you?”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: success, define, column, section, answer. This video has 90 sentences and 849 words to shadow. The speech runs for 5:13. The speaker talks at a natural 163 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 86% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| financialized adjective | Made into a financial issue; governed by or dependent on financial institutions. | |
| potion noun | /ˈpoʊ.ʃən/ | A small portion or dose of a liquid which is medicinal, poisonous, or magical. |
| tally verb | /ˈtæli/ | To count something. |
| debit noun | /ˈdɛb.ɪt/ | In bookkeeping, an entry in the left hand column of an account. |
| leverage noun | /ˈlɛv.(ə.)ɹɪd͡ʒ/ | A force compounded by means of a lever rotating around a pivot. |
| columns noun | /ˈkɑləmz/ | pattern which involves throwing props in the air alternately. |
| antagonize verb | /ænˈtæɡ.ɪ.naɪz/ | To work against; to oppose (especially to incite a reaction). |
| fatherhood noun | /ˈfɑːðəːˌhʊd/ | The state of being a father (biological father, stepfather, adoptive father, foster father; sometimes the biological father specifically). |
| jeopardize verb | /ˈd͡ʒɛp.ə.dʌɪz/ | To put in jeopardy, to threaten. |
| prioritize verb | /pɹaɪˈɒɹ.ə.taɪz/ | To value, do, or choose something first, or before other things. |
| recalibrate verb | /ˌɹiˈkæl.ə.bɹeɪt/ | To calibrate for a second or subsequent time. |
| spiritually adverb | In a manner affecting, relating or pertaining to the spirit or the soul. | |
| humility noun | /hjuːˈmɪlɪti/ | The characteristic of being humble; humbleness in character and behavior. |
| cavity noun | /ˈkæv.ɪt.i/ | A hollow area within the body. |
| beforehand adverb | /bɪˈfɔɹhænd/ | At an earlier or preceding time. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| find out verb | To discover, as by asking or investigating. | |
| come out verb | /ˌkʌm ˈaʊt/ | To be discovered; to be revealed. |
| go round verb | To physically swirl or rotate. | |
| keep up verb | To maintain; to preserve; to prevent from deteriorating or falling. | |
| pick up verb | To lift; to grasp and raise. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- You already like that one?
- What success is to you?
- Am I in the red or am I in the black?
- I mean, let's admit it.
- We've all got two wolves in us.
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 28 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, you're, didn't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: potion /ˈpoʊ.ʃən/, partition /pɑɹˈtɪ.ʃən/, measurement /ˈmɛʒ.ə.mənt/
- Long words — get the stress right: antagonize /ænˈtæɡ.ɪ.naɪz/, prioritize /pɹaɪˈɒɹ.ə.taɪz/, recalibrate /ˌɹiˈkæl.ə.bɹeɪt/, humility /hjuːˈmɪlɪti/, fertility /fɝˈtɪləti/
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 financialized, potion, tally.
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.