Shadowing Practice: You can’t live like this forever. - Learn English Speaking with Video
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95 sentences
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In case I don't see ya.
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Good afternoon, good evening, and good night.
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Now fear is going to be a player in your life.
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But you get to decide how much.
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You can spend your whole life imagining ghosts, worrying about the pathway to the future, but all there will ever be is what's happening here.
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and the decisions we make in this moment, which are based in either love or fear.
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Because life doesn't happen to you, it happens for you.
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My father could have been a great comedian, but he didn't believe that that was possible for him.
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And so he made a conservative choice.
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Instead, he got a safe job as an accountant.
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And when I was 12 years old, he was let go from that safe job.
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And our family had to do whatever we could to survive.
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I learned many great lessons from my father not the least of
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which was that you can fail at what you don't want
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so you might as well take a chance on doing what
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you love I watched the effect of my father's love
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and humor and how it altered the world around me
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and I thought that's something to do that's something worth my
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time it wasn't long before I started acting up you know people would come over to the house
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and they'd be greeted by a seven -year -old throwing himself down a large flight of stairs.
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They would say, what happened?
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And I would say, I don't know.
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Let's check the replay.
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I'd go back to the top of the stairs and come back down in slow motion.
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It was a very strange household.
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My father used to brag that I wasn't a ham, I was the whole pig.
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And he treated my talent as if it was his second chance.
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When I was about 28, after a decade as a professional comedian,
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I realized one night in LA that the purpose of my life had always been to free people from concern, just like my dad.
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How will you serve the world?
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What do they need that your talent can provide?
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That's all you have to figure out.
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As someone who's done what you're about to go and do, I can tell you from experience, the effect you have on others is the most valuable currency there is.
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Because everything you gain in life will rot and fall apart, and all that will be left of you is what was in your heart.
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My choosing to free people, my choosing to free people from concern got me to the top of a mountain.
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Look where I am.
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Look what I get to do.
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To find real peace, you have to let the armor go.
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Your need for acceptance can make you invisible in this world.
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Don't let anything stand in the way of the light that shines through this form.
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Risk being seen in all of your glory.
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Now I'm always at the beginning.
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I have a reset button, and I ride that button constantly.
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Once that button is functioning in your life, there's no story that the mind could create that will be as compelling.
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The imagination is always manufacturing scenarios, both good and bad, and the ego tries to keep you trapped in the multiplex of the mind.
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Our eyes are not viewers.
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They are also projectors.
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that are running a second story over the picture that we see in front of us all the time.
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Fear is writing that script and the working title is I'll Never Be Enough.
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Are you gonna look at a person like me
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and say how could we ever hope to reach those kind of heights, Jim?
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How can we make a painting that's too big for our home?
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How do you fly so high without a special breathing apparatus?
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This is the voice of the ego.
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And if you listen to it, there will always be someone who is doing better than you.
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No matter what you gain, ego will not let you rest.
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It will tell you that you cannot stop until you've left an indelible mark on the earth, until you've achieved immortality.
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How tricky is this ego,
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that it would tempt us with the promise of something we already possess? So...
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I just want you to relax.
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You know?
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That's my job.
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Relax and dream up a good life.
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I had a substitute teacher from Ireland in the second grade
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that told my class during morning prayer that when she wants something, anything at all, she prays for it and promises something in return, and she always gets what she wants.
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Well, I'm sitting at the back of the classroom, you know, thinking, wow, my family can't afford a bike you know
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so I went home and I prayed for one
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and I promised I would recite the rosary every night in exchange broke it broke that promise
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but two weeks later I got home from school to find a brand new Mustang bike with a banana seat
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and easy rider handlebars yeah
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from fool to cool my family informed me
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that I had won the bike in a raffle
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that a friend of mine had entered my name in without my knowledge whatsoever.
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So that type of thing has been happening to me ever since.
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As far as I can tell, it's just about letting the universe know what you want
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and working toward it while letting go of how it comes to pass.
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Your job is not to figure out how it's going to happen for you, but to open the door in your head.
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And when the door opens in real life, just walk through it.
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And don't worry if you miss your cue, because there's always doors opening.
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They keep opening.
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And when I say, life doesn't happen to you, it happens for you, I really don't know if that's true.
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I'm just making a conscious choice to perceive challenges as something beneficial
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so that I can deal with them in the most productive way.
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You'll come up with your own style.
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That's part of the fun.
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Oh, and why not take a chance on faith as well?
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Take a chance on faith.
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Not religion, but faith.
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Not hope, but faith.
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I don't believe in hope.
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Hope is a beggar.
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Hope walks through the fire and faith leaps over it.
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You are ready and able to do beautiful things in this world.
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And after you walk through those doors today, you will only ever have two choices love or fear.
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Choose love and don't ever let fear turn you against your playful heart.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This video has 95 sentences and 1114 words to shadow. The speech runs for 8:03. The speaker talks at a steady 138 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. 87% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is easy to follow.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| pray verb | /pɹeɪ/ | To direct words, thoughts, or one's attention to a deity or any higher being, for the sake of adoration, thanks, petition for help, etc. |
| relax verb | /ɹɪˈlæks/ | To make something loose. |
| stairs noun | /ˈstɛɹz/ | A contiguous set of steps connecting two floors. |
| comedian noun | /kəˈmiː.di.ən/ | An entertainer who performs in a humorous manner, especially by telling jokes. |
| household adjective | /ˈhaʊshoʊld/ | Belonging to the same house and family. |
| lesson noun | /ˈlɛs.ən/ | A section of learning or teaching into which a wider learning content is divided. |
| ghost noun | /ɡoʊst/ | A disembodied soul; a soul or spirit of a deceased person; a spirit appearing after death. |
| prayer noun | /pɹɛɚ/ | A practice of communicating with one's God, or with some spiritual entity. |
| currency noun | /ˈkʌɹ.ən.si/ | Money or other items used to facilitate transactions. |
| glory noun | /ˈɡlɔːɹi/ | Great beauty and splendor. |
| script noun | /skɹɪpt/ | A writing; a written document. |
| trap noun | /tɹæp/ | A machine or other device designed to catch (and sometimes kill) animals, either by holding them in a container, or by catching hold of part of the body. |
| breathe verb | /bɹiːð/ | To draw air into (inhale), and expel air from (exhale), the lungs in order to extract oxygen and excrete waste gases. |
| imagination noun | /ɪˌmæd͡ʒəˈneɪʃən/ | The image-making power of the mind; the act of mentally creating or reproducing an object not previously perceived; the ability to create such images. |
| productive adjective | /pɹəˈdʌk.tɪv/ | Capable of producing something, especially in abundance; fertile. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| walk through verb | To explain (something) to (someone), step by step. | |
| figure out verb | To come to understand; to discover or find a solution; to deduce. | |
| act up verb | /ækt ˈʌp/ | To misbehave; to cause trouble. |
| come back verb | To return to a place. | |
| come up with verb | To manage to produce, deliver, or present (something) by inventing, creating, thinking of, or obtaining it. | |
| fall apart verb | To disintegrate, to break into pieces. | |
| go back to verb | To stem from; to originate in. |
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 based · was let · be greeted |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | moment, which are · someone who is |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 25 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, I'm, doesn't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: breathe /bɹiːð/, pathway /ˈpæθˌweɪ/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: imagination /ɪˌmæd͡ʒəˈneɪʃən/, conscious /ˈkɑn.ʃəs/, shine /ʃaɪn/, beneficial /ˌbɛn.ɪˈfɪʃ.əl/
- Long words — get the stress right: comedian /kəˈmiː.di.ən/, imagination /ɪˌmæd͡ʒəˈneɪʃən/, invisible /ɪnˈvɪzəb(ə)l/, beneficial /ˌbɛn.ɪˈfɪʃ.əl/, whatsoever /ˌ(h)wʌtsoʊˈɛvɚ/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Shadow it sentence by sentence at normal speed, repeating each one until your rhythm matches the speaker.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like pray, relax, stairs.
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.