Shadowing Practice: What is time? - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
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What is time?
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It's a difficult question, and part of the difficulty is that it can mean several different things.
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It could mean, why does it feel like time passes?
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And why does it feel like there is a special moment that we call now, which separates the past from the future?
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A second meaning is, where does time come from?
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And a third, what do we even mean by time?
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I'll start with the third question because it's the easiest, meaning it'll only hurt your brain moderately.
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In physics, we use the word time in two different ways.
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The one refers to the role of time in Einstein's theories.
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Einstein taught us that time is a coordinate, like space.
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This means that time becomes a label to order events.
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This time coordinate isn't uniquely fixed.
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You can change it just like you can change coordinates in space where you can use, say, Euclidean or spherical coordinates.
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You can make different choices for the time coordinate too.
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This doesn't actually change time.
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It's just a different way to describe the same thing.
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This coordinate time in Einstein's theory is a way to describe what happens in our universe.
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It isn't in any way directly related to our perception of time.
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The second way we use the word time is in a constructive sense.
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Time is what a clock measures.
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But this brings up the question, what is a clock?
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Clocks are made of matter, and from this matter, we identify some quantity that tells us how time passes.
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For example, because the motion of the system recurs periodically, like, say, the swing of a pendulum, the beat of a heart,
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or Kevin checking his phone.
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In Einstein's theory, this matter time should correspond to the length of a particle's path in space -time.
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It's also called the prop time.
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In quantum physics, actually, we don't really know what time is.
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Physicists have made attempts to define clocks in quantum physics to define time from that,
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but I think it's fair to say that there is no general agreement on how to do it.
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Let's then talk about the second question.
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Where does time come from?
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Maybe it just doesn't come from anything.
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Maybe time just is.
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It's one of the fundamental ingredients of the universe.
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But another possibility is that time arises from something else.
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We then say that time is emergent.
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This is why you sometimes hear physicists say time is an illusion because it might come from something else.
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But what's this something else?
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One quite well -trodden path is that time is a consequence of causality.
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Because for causality to make sense, you need an order in how things happen.
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This causality -first approach has been pursued in a variety of ways in Raphael Sorkin's causal sets,
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but also in Stephen Wolfram's hypergraphs and Felix Finster's causal fermion systems.
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A completely different take comes from Julian Barber, who says that really fundamentally there's no such thing as time.
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What's real is merely that the relations of particles to each other can differ, and time is the way that we order them so that it makes sense.
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I don't really understand this, so please don't ask.
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Somewhat more digestible is the idea that the universe was once a four -dimensional space, and at some boundary in that space, one of the dimensions turn to time.
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This is what happens, for example, in the Hawking -Hartell No Boundary Proposal.
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So it's quite possible that time ultimately comes from something else.
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We just haven't really figured out how.
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Let's then come to the most difficult of the questions.
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Why do we have the feeling that time passes?
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And why do we have the feeling that there is a special moment that we call now?
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Part of this question asks about what's going on in the human brain.
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How does the brain keep track of time?
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Well, I'm a physicist and I don't have the slightest idea how the human brain works.
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But basically, the issue is that we can remember the past, but not the future.
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Einstein was bothered by this greatly and called it the problem of now.
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In our maths, we don't have a now.
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Do we need one?
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On the one hand, one could argue that physics isn't meant to describe human's subjective experience, so who really cares?
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On the other hand, if you believe that fundamentally everything, including the human brain, is made of particles,
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then this Now experience must come from something.
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There are only two ways to resolve this conundrum.
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Either our perception of being in a particular moment doesn't correspond to anything in the fundamental structure of the universe.
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Every moment is special when it happens, but all moments are the same in this, so none is special.
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The other way to resolve the problem is to postulate a physical notion of now.
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There is really only one example I know for this, which comes from George Ellis.
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He says that what creates the present moment is the collapse of the wave function.
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Personally, I lean towards the causality first interpretation and think that now doesn't have a fundamental meaning.
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But maybe more importantly, this is a pretty big question
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which most physicists don't take very seriously and I find this rather unfortunate.
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I believe that causality is the key to understanding how nature fundamentally works.
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I spend so much time thinking about time that I should be getting an interest rate.
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And if it's really an illusion, then it's certainly doing an amazing disappearing act.
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Come to think of it, though, the first key to understanding nature is clearly mathematics.
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And while watching YouTube videos is a great entry point, if you want to really understand something,
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you need to actively engage with the subject.
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This is why I recommend you check out the science and maths courses on Brilliant.
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All courses on Brilliant have interactive visualizations and come with follow -up questions.
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What you see here is from their newly updated maths courses.
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No matter how abstract the topic seems, Brilliant's courses have intuitive visualizations that really click into my brain.
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I found it to be a highly effective way to build up knowledge.
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And Brilliant covers a large variety of topics in science, computer science, and maths, from general scientific thinking to dedicated courses,
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just what I'm interested in.
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And of course, I have a special offer for viewers of this channel.
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If you use my link brilliant .org slash Sabine or scan the QR code, you'll get 20 % off the annual premium subscription.
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So go and check this out.
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Thanks for watching.
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See you tomorrow.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This video has 89 sentences and 1115 words to shadow. The speech runs for 7:16. The speaker talks at a natural 153 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 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
15 less common words from the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
- coordinate /koʊˈɔɹ.dəˌneɪt/ (verb) — To place in the same order or rank.
- mathematics /mæθ(.ə)ˈmæt.ɪks/ (noun) — An abstract representational system studying numbers, shapes, structures, quantitative change and relationships between them.
- clock /klɑk/ (noun) — A chronometer, an instrument that measures time, particularly the time of day.
- physics /ˈfɪz.ɪks/ (noun) — The branch of science concerned with the study of the properties and interactions of space, time, matter and energy.
- fundamental /ˌfʌn.dəˈmɛn.təl/ (adjective) — Related to a foundation, base, or basis; serving as a foundation.
- fundamentally (adverb) — In a fundamental or basic sense; reaching the very core of the matter.
- topic /ˈtɑpɪk/ (noun) — A subject; a theme; a category or general area of interest.
- define /dɪˈfaɪn/ (verb) — To determine with precision; to mark out with distinctness; to ascertain or exhibit clearly.
- perception /pɚˈsɛpʃ(ə)n/ (noun) — The organisation, identification and interpretation of sensory information.
- resolve /ɹɪˈzɑlv/ (verb) — To find a solution to (a problem).
- boundary /ˈbaʊndɹi/ (noun) — The dividing line or location between two areas.
- quantum /ˈkwɑntəm/ (noun) — The total amount of something; quantity.
- illusion /ɪˈl(j)uːʒ(ə)n/ (noun) — A distortion of sensory perception where real stimuli lead to a false or misleading impression of reality.
- particle /ˈpɑɹtək(ə)l/ (noun) — A very small piece of matter, a fragment; especially, the smallest possible part of something.
- correspond /ˌkoɹəˈspɑnd/ (verb) — To be equivalent or similar in character, quantity, quality, origin, structure, function etc.
Phrasal verbs you will hear
- come from (verb) — To have as one's origin, birthplace or nationality.
- bring up (verb) — To mention.
- build up (verb) — To erect; to construct.
- check out (verb) — To record the departure or withdrawal of someone or something (such as guests, employees, books, etc.).
- come with (verb) — To join and come along.
- figure out (verb) — To come to understand; to discover or find a solution; to deduce.
- follow up (verb) — To take further actions remaining after an event; to continue, revisit, or persist; especially, to maintain communication or verify.
- get off (verb) — To move from being on top of (something) to not being on top of it.
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 19 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, doesn't, isn't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: mathematics /mæθ(.ə)ˈmæt.ɪks/, bother /ˈbɑðɚ/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: perception /pɚˈsɛpʃ(ə)n/, illusion /ɪˈl(j)uːʒ(ə)n/, relation /ɹɪˈleɪʃ(ə)n/, interpretation /ɪnˌtɜːpɹəˈteɪʃən/, notion /ˈnoʊʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: coordinate /koʊˈɔɹ.dəˌneɪt/, mathematics /mæθ(.ə)ˈmæt.ɪks/, fundamental /ˌfʌn.dəˈmɛn.təl/, difficulty /ˈdɪfɪkəlti/, interpretation /ɪnˌtɜːpɹəˈteɪʃən/
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 coordinate, mathematics, clock.
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 made · has been pursued · was bothered |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | have made · has been pursued · haven't really figured |
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.