Shadowing Practice: What is Emotional Intelligence? - Learn English Speaking with Video
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46 sentences
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Emotional intelligence is the quality that enables us to confront with patience,
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insight and imagination the many problems that we face in our affective relationship with ourselves and with other people.
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The term emotional intelligence may sound odd.
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We're used to referring to intelligence just as a general quality, without unpicking a particular variety a person might possess.
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and therefore we don't tend to highlight the value of a distinctive sort of intelligence
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which currently does not enjoy the prestige it should.
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Every sort of intelligence signals an ability to navigate well around a particular set of challenges mathematical, linguistic, technical, commercial.
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When we say that someone is clever but add that they've made a mess of their personal lives
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or that they've acquired a fortune but are restless and sad, or that they are powerful but intolerant and unimaginative,
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we're pointing to a deficit in what deserves to be called emotional intelligence.
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In social life, we can feel the presence of emotional intelligence in a sensitivity to the moods of others,
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and in a readiness to grasp the surprising things that may be going on for other people beneath the surface.
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Emotional intelligence recognizes a role for interpretation and knows that,
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for example, a fiery outburst might be a disguised plea for help, or that a long political rant may be provoked by hunger,
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or that concealed within a forceful jolliness may be a sorrow that has been sentimentally disavowed.
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In relation to ourselves, emotional intelligence shows up in a scepticism around our emotions, especially those of love, desire,
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anger, envy, anxiety and professional ambition.
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The emotionally intelligent refuse to just trust their first impulses or the inherent wisdom of their feelings.
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They know that hatred may mask love, that anger may be a cover for sadness and
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that we are prone to huge and costly inaccuracies around whom we desire and what we really want.
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Emotional intelligence is also what distinguishes those who are crushed by
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failure from those who know how to greet the troubles of existence with a melancholy and, at points, darkly humorous resilience.
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The emotionally intelligent appreciate the role of well-handled pessimism within the overall economy of a good life.
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intelligence isn't an inborn talent.
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It's always the result of education.
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Specifically, education in how to interpret ourselves, in where our emotions arise from, in how our childhoods influence us,
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and in how we might best navigate our fears and our wishes.
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In the ideal society, it would be routine to be taught emotional intelligence from the youngest age, before we'd had the opportunity to make too many mistakes.
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It's because we have, until now, not taken emotional education seriously enough that our species has grown ever more technically adept
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while retaining the level of wisdom of our earliest days with catastrophic results.
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We are now evolved monkeys with nuclear weapons.
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It appears that the fate of civilization depends on our capacity to master the mechanisms of emotional education before it's too late.
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An emotional education means something far beyond just normal education as we've conceived of it to date.
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Though it should ideally include courses in every year of school or college, emotional education is more than something that should just take place in classrooms, at the hands of teachers,
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and come to a halt around the age of 21.
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One, the central vehicle for the transfer of emotional intelligence is culture, from its highest to its most popular level.
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Culture is the field that can ritualize and consistently promote the absorption of emotional intelligence.
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The lessons might be embedded in a tragedy or a TV series, a pop song or a novel, a work of architecture or a YouTube film.
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We can envisage the entire apparatus of culture as a subtle mechanism designed to point us towards greater emotional intelligence.
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We will never progress as a species, and will indeed grow into ever greater, technologically armed menaces to ourselves,
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until we've accepted the challenges and opportunities of properly educating ourselves in emotional intelligence.
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Our technical intelligence is great of course.
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It's led us to tame nature and conquer this planet.
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But a wiser, saner future for the human race must depend on a capacity to master
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and then seductively teach one another the rudiments of emotional intelligence while there is still time.
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Thank you.
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About This Lesson
In this lesson, you’ll practice English speaking by diving into a video about emotional intelligence—perfect for building fluency while learning interesting ideas. You’ll use the shadowing technique to mimic the speaker’s tone and rhythm, which helps with pronunciation and natural flow. Whether you’re new to shadow speech or looking to refine your skills, this video’s conversational pace makes it a great fit for english speaking practice. Plus, you’ll pick up vocabulary that’s useful in both daily chats and deeper discussions.
Key Vocabulary & Phrases
- Emotional intelligence: The ability to understand and manage emotions, both your own and others’.
- Deficit: A lack of something important (e.g., “a deficit in patience”).
- Resilience: The capacity to recover quickly from difficulties.
- Ritualize: To make something a regular, meaningful practice.
- Catastrophic: Causing great damage or disaster.
Practice Tips
The video’s speed is moderate, with pauses that let you keep up—ideal for shadowing. Start by watching once to grasp the ideas, then play short 5-second clips. Pause, repeat, and try to match the speaker’s calm, reflective tone. Focus on how they stress words like “emotional intelligence” or “culture”—this helps with natural intonation. If you stumble, slow the video down (most platforms let you adjust speed!). Remember, shadowing isn’t just about copying words—it’s about capturing the rhythm of real speech. For extra practice, record yourself and compare it to the video. This is how shadowspeaks works: learning by doing, not just listening. With time, you’ll notice your English speaking flows more smoothly, and you’ll feel confident using these new phrases in conversations. Learn english with youtube, and let shadow speech become your go-to tool for progress!Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | they've made · they've acquired · has been |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | be called · may be provoked · are crushed |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | those who are · those who know |
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.