Shadowing Practice: When Life Kicks You Down: How to Keep Going When You’ve Lost Hope | Matthew McConaughey - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Let's say someone has been kicked in the nuts a good bit by life.
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How do you advise them to sort of become the hero of their own story?
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Tomorrow is not today's measurement when the misery is bad enough, right?
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These people don't have to the suffering consideration.
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It's a privilege, man.
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I'm trying to put food on the table right now.
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I'm paying my rent tonight.
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You want to talk to me about investing in my future?
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And I say, and that's part of what faith and religion are for.
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To help those in misery hang on to a hope that will most likely not be served them in this life,
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to sell them belief and faith that they will be served in the next.
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And what if there is nothing there, man?
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What if there's nothing to hope for?
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What if there's no next?
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I don't know.
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But either way, in misery here or without a heaven there,
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not having any hope or faith in anything is a certain way to remain where you are forever.
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But if you can find something that you can keep going, something that no matter how small,
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to look forward to and continually have faith in and chase, well, then your life here is going to be better now.
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Heaven or not?
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That's a great question.
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You know, I sit here with a life where I have the luxury to project, to ask myself and ask others,
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no, make a sacrifice today.
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Sacrifice a plastic ring today for a gold crown tomorrow.
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Sacrifice something today for more freedom tomorrow.
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I'm going to sacrifice something today for a possible healthier future for your kids.
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I understand that's a luxurious position.
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I'm not going to apologize that I'm in it.
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But I understand to someone in misery, they're going, good for you, man.
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I'm trying to feed the family tonight.
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I'm not thinking past that.
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I can't think past that.
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What do you ask them to do?
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My indirect thing I would say and understand is, well, if you don't have the hope or believe in something,
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then you're definitely going to remain where you are.
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And if you have hope and faith in something, I'm not saying it's 100 % get out of jail.
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You're going to absolutely get out, but you've got the best chance to.
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God doesn't want to do everything.
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Some of it's up to you.
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Amen.
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And though free will and faith and self -reliance,
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they can seem contradictory, but I think they do rhyme.
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And you need both.
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And we, yes, there's a time for it, inshallah.
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God willing, there's a time for it.
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Well, if it's supposed to be, it will be.
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Yeah, usually right after it happens.
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Yeah, I think George Janko says every man knows God when he's at his lowest.
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That there are reliable times when people turn toward faith.
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And how many people turn at the end of their life?
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How do you think about forgiving betrayal?
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I kind of think of when I've been betrayed.
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When it's clearly betrayal, I know it's betrayal, and that person can look and go, yeah, that's what I did.
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I've been asked for forgiveness for that before, and I've been also seeing people go, yeah, that's what I did.
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And they're not asking for forgiveness.
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They're going, yeah, that's what I did.
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First response is, well, fuck you.
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The second one is, if that's on my mind, if that's keeping me up at night, that SOB or whatever that is,
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I got to flush that.
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I got to wonder why is that on my mind.
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I got to forgive that deed, that person for that deed.
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And again, not necessarily trust them, but do my best to forgive them.
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And that can take me a while.
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And I think who it takes me the most time to forgive the betrayal is me.
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When and if I betray myself.
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Forgiving myself.
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Because you know how it is, man.
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We forgive too quickly.
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We dust resilient.
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We hop up and dust yourself off and go, forgive you, let's do it again.
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And we do become repeat offenders because we didn't take time to put ourself
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or feel the guilt of the wrongdoing and pay a little penance to look at and go, I don't want to feel this again.
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I don't want to do that action again to make myself feel this way.
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I don't, it doesn't, it doesn't feel like me.
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I don't want to, I don't want that person to have
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that sadness or anger with me again or the world to have that sadness and anger from this.
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I don't want to feel that again.
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And that takes some pause to then go, now I forgive myself.
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Let's carry on and trust and be ready to do the work to say, we're not going to just let that slide anymore.
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It's not going to be a way to sneak that one in.
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I'm going to hold myself to a higher standard.
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Yeah.
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Where do you go?
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What do you think when I really, I gave it my all that I bad myself and I still got kicked in the nuts?
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Yeah.
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Not only did I feel like I deserve it, I feel like I earned it.
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And I still didn't get it.
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Wait a minute, but you said that's the playbook and I followed the playbook.
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You said these were the rules and the regulations.
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I followed it.
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and I was good at it.
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I still didn't get it.
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I suppose that's why we have entrepreneurs and criminals.
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I have to, I think I naturally come back.
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And look, I hustle.
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I'm not puritanical.
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I'm not making, I'm not trying to preach an absolute straight and narrow way to go things.
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I've bullshitted my way into things and faked my way into making things, pulled off stunts.
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But I've never been able to really live with, by hook or by crook, I'll get it how I can get it.
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I'll lie, cheat, and steal to get it.
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I got the prize, and I'm still okay.
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I got it.
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My own shadow chases me down in the middle of the night, and those nightmares do become my own daymares.
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Now, the going for it and not getting it, which we see a lot now.
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Right now, I think we're living in times where one of the indirect examples we're seeing from some leadership is who's got the power?
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Winner.
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Okay.
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So what are the ethics?
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whatever the winner does yeah but the winner like and pillaged
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and lying cheating still to get the prize
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but he won wait a minute you move the goalpost
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while I had the ball was in the air man is
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that okay they won and to I'm not buying to say I'm not ready to purchase
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that okay that's just how it is
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “When Life Kicks You Down: How to Keep Going When You’ve Lost Hope”. This video has 114 sentences and 1161 words to shadow. The speech runs for 6:23. The speaker talks fast, about 182 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 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 |
|---|---|---|
| forgive verb | /fɚˈɡɪv/ | To pardon (someone); to waive any negative feeling towards or desire for punishment or retribution against. |
| sacrifice noun | /ˈsæk.ɹɪ.faɪs/ | Originally, the killing (and often burning) of a human being or an animal as an offering to a deity; later, also the offering of an object to a deity. |
| misery noun | /ˈmɪz(ə)ɹi/ | Great unhappiness; extreme pain of body or mind; wretchedness; distress; woe. |
| betrayal noun | /bɪˈtɹeɪəl/ | The act of betraying. |
| chase verb | /t͡ʃeɪs/ | To follow at speed. |
| anger noun | /ˈæŋɡə/ | A strong and unpleasant feeling of displeasure, hostility, or antagonism, usually combined with an urge to yell, curse, damage or destroy things, or harm… |
| dust noun | /dʌst/ | Fine, dry particles of matter found in the air and covering the surface of objects, typically consisting of soil lifted up by the wind, pollen, hair, fiber… |
| cheat verb | /ˈt͡ʃiːt/ | To violate rules in order to gain, or attempt to gain, advantage from a situation. |
| indirect adjective | /ˌɪn.daɪˈɹɛkt/ | Not direct |
| sadness noun | /ˈsædnəs/ | The state or emotion of being sad. |
| forgiveness noun | /fɚˈɡɪvnəs/ | The action of forgiving. |
| deed noun | /diːd/ | An action or act; something that is done. |
| earn verb | /ɝn/ | To gain (success, reward, recognition) through applied effort or work. |
| naturally adverb | /ˈnæt͡ʃ.(ə.)ɹə.li/ | In a natural manner. |
| necessarily adverb | /ˌnɛs.əˈsɛɹ.ə.li/ | Inevitably; of necessity. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| come back verb | To return to a place. |
| get out verb | To leave or escape. |
| get out of verb | To leave, exit or escape from; to become free of. |
| look forward to verb | To anticipate, expect, or wait for, especially with a feeling of approval or pleasure; to be excited or eager to. |
| pull off verb | To remove by pulling. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- I'm paying my rent tonight.
- You want to talk to me about investing in my future?
- What if there's nothing to hope for?
- What do you ask them to do?
- How do you think about forgiving betrayal?
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 | has been kicked · I've been betrayed · I've been asked |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | has been kicked · be served · will be served |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 47 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, don't, I've. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: shadow /ˈʃædəʊ̯/, regulation /ˌɹɛɡjʊˈleɪʃən/, luxury /ˈlʌk.ʃə.ɹi/, consideration /kənˌsɪd.əˈɹeɪ.ʃən/, measurement /ˈmɛʒ.ə.mənt/
- Long words — get the stress right: naturally /ˈnæt͡ʃ.(ə.)ɹə.li/, necessarily /ˌnɛs.əˈsɛɹ.ə.li/, regulation /ˌɹɛɡjʊˈleɪʃən/, consideration /kənˌsɪd.əˈɹeɪ.ʃən/, apologize /əˈpɑləˌd͡ʒaɪz/
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 forgive, sacrifice, misery.
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.