Shadowing Practice: YOU'RE NOT GOING TO MAKE IT? Fighting low self-esteem - Learn English Speaking with Video
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hello guys and welcome to my channel I want you to imagine this situation
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when you're applying to a foreign university or applying for a job
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or maybe dreaming to date that girl or whatever immigrating in a new country
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and then you think I'm probably not worth it and you think
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that other people who are actually in that university or working in
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that company they're so different from you they have this amazing education
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or they have this amazing parents who helped them get whatever they've got in their lives basically
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i had the same feeling i want to tell you my story
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when i was applying to those american universities who gave me full financial assistance
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and i was really scared to apply to the top universities although my gpa in russia
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that's where i'm from was high and i was like uh
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but nobody cares about me those guys in america they're
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so talented and they're so different and why should i apply to stanford
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or harvard they wouldn't even consider me because i'm different uh
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because they wouldn't be able to assess uh my success in russia
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because basically doesn't mean anything for them and
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so i didn't i didn't apply to those universities
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and I should tell you that I later regretted it
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so basically now I would never know whether they would have accepted me
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or not like I I've always had this problem with believing in myself
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and I'm very thankful to my parents who always told me like you're the best
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you're the best you're gonna do that but I always thought when I especially when I met
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Americans it's not just about you know
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Americans
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but I think people from the states are the best marketers ever
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they can market themselves like no one else in the world they would be able to highlight their success
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and to present their failure as a win
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and i actually met this company they are all the company was founded by american guys
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and they received investment from an accelerator
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and they were like flying in private jets to fundraise in different parts of the world
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and they were like showing off how well they're doing they haven't actually had a product
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but they said they're going to launch it like next week
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and then the next thing
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and the next week they would say they're going to launch it next week
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but they presented themselves so well
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and I thought wow this company is amazing I don't know what they're doing
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but they're doing the presentations the pictures they're doing that
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so well so I'm not even going to compete with them
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but later when they raised a lot of money yes they did it
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because as I said they're good sellers they hired like 20 people
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they shut down the shop in three months they were broke
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because they haven't had any products yes they were good sellers
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and this is what i'm telling you guys like
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if you see somebody bragging about their success maybe
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if you learn them a little better you would realize you're actually doing much better than they are um
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and like when i'm talking to people sometimes here in san francisco they would say
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so many awesome things about their startup but uh
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if you continue talking to them like three
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or four weeks you would realize their app
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or their product they're building it's not working they they just have this idea of it working
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and it happens everywhere uh the purpose of this video is to make
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you believe in yourself what we like russians
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and other nations i think lack is believing in yourself uh
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because for example if your country used to be communist like mine
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or you have this culture when
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if your father worked for some particular company then you would work for this particular company
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and any deviation would be seen as a failure so
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when i tried to start my own company my grandparents didn't really understand what i was doing
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because entrepreneurship in soviet countries was equal to crime because people thought
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that entrepreneurs actually um you know steal other people's money
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because they buy cheaper goods
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and they sell it for high prices sell them for high prices it was kind of non -standard path
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because many people would do what their parents used to do like go to work for the same company
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and everybody would tell me like hey are you sure you want to do
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that and my friends would be like are you sure you don't want to go
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and work for a bank and
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so just make sure you're doing what your heart tells you today I know this sounds
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so cliche or whatever what I don't know the exact word for
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that but don't think that you are worse than others don't think
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that you should do what others tell you to do
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because you would never be in a place where you want to be
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and it's always important to shoot higher there's another story from my life when we were building the start -up LinguaTrip.
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And my founder would always tell me, hey, we're going to be the biggest company in the industry.
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We're going to raise from the best investors in the world.
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And I was like, why do you think so?
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Because you see, I still have the Soviet, I still have it.
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And I thought, well, what are we here in America compared to other American people building startups?
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They are from here.
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They have education from Stanford.
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Why would the best investors ever invest in us?
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and he was like no we should try we should do
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that and we should really high so we shot for investors who invested in facebook
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and apple and we were just writing emails to them
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and i was surprised like some people even replied
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but of course they weren't serious so they didn't want to invest
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because they didn't know us we were back in russia you know
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but because we shot so high we were actually able to get higher than our expectations
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so we kind of expected to raise this amount of money from these investors
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but we hope that we might raise from these investors
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and we ended up raising from these investors
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so actually high than what we expected
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and this applies to everything in our life so
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if you're thinking of getting in this particular university like you think you're a good fit go on
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and try some universities that are a little high level or
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if you want to get
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that job try to apply for a little more complicated more well -paying job
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because if you should hire you would get a little higher than you expect
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so yeah basically as I said we were able to raise from the investors
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and we were able to get this company into the States
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but again I had my doubts and I'm very happy
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that I had a co -founder who actually believed and I want you guys to be like my co -founder, believing in yourself and shooting higher
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and not buying those stories from people who are bragging about themselves because actually people who are really successful,
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they don't go and brag around showing off how they sold
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that company and blah blah blah and don't get intimidated by that.
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Just be yourself, believe in yourself and I like to think that
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i should try like i just have one life
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if i don't try i would never know if i would get in
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if i don't get in it's okay like my life doesn't end here
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because if we're talking about universities you're still applying not to just one you're applying to six
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or five which is the best number
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of universities to apply in one round um
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and this is not the last job you're getting
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if you fail during the interview it's okay
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but you would just have this experience
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and you would know what it feels like to be on
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that level you will see those people and maybe
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when you meet them as i said
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i had this amazing um well weird feeling about people who studied in stanford
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because i thought they are some geniuses they're from mars
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so you cannot become like those people but
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when i met those people i realized they just you know
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they're smart they're nice they're ordinary they're just like us basically
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they're just people who believed in their dreams who shot higher and who were a little lucky,
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of course, but luck comes to those who work a lot.
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I hope this video motivates you guys to reach higher than you expect
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and let me know what you think about this topic.
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Have you ever had this feeling that you're not worth it and you will never get what you want?
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And I hope it helps you to make this first step towards your dream
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and believe in yourself and let this video be a kick in the ass.
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If you like it, please put a like, share this video with your friends and please subscribe to my channel.
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Thank you so much for watching this video.
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And I had this puppy sleeping next to me today while shooting this video and he wanted to say bye bye.
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Bye bye guys, believe in yourself, yes?
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “YOU'RE NOT GOING TO MAKE IT? Fighting low self-esteem”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: investors, universities, higher. This video has 133 sentences and 1588 words to shadow. The speech runs for 8:49. The speaker talks fast, about 180 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 88% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| investor noun | /ɪnˈvɛs.tə(ɹ)/ | A person who invests money in order to make a profit. |
| founder noun | /ˈfaʊ̯n.dəː/ | One who founds or establishes (a company, project, organisation, state, etc.). |
| invest verb | /ɪnˈvɛst/ | To spend money, time, or energy on something, especially for some benefit or purpose; used with in. |
| hire verb | /ˈhaɪɹ/ | To obtain the services of in return for fixed payment. |
| seller noun | /ˈsɛlɚ/ | Someone who sells; a vendor; a clerk. |
| startup noun | /ˈstɑɹtˌʌp/ | The act or process of starting a process or machine. |
| topic noun | /ˈtɑpɪk/ | A subject; a theme; a category or general area of interest. |
| complicated adjective | /ˈkɑm.plɪˌkeɪ.tɪd/ | Difficult or convoluted. |
| compare verb | /kəmˈpɛɚ/ | To assess the similarities and differences between two or more things [“to compare X with Y”]. Having made the comparison of X with Y, one might have found it… |
| ordinary adjective | /ˈɔɹdɪnɛɹi/ | Having regular jurisdiction; now only used in certain phrases. |
| steal verb | /stiːl/ | To take illegally, or without the owner's permission, something owned by someone else without intending to return it. |
| compete verb | /kəmˈpiːt/ | To be in battle or in a rivalry with another for the same thing, position, or reward; to contend. |
| regret verb | /ɹɪˈɡɹɛt/ | To feel sorry about (a thing that has or has not happened), afterthink: to wish that a thing had not happened, that something else had happened instead. |
| genius noun | /ˈd͡ʒin.jəs/ | Someone possessing extraordinary intelligence or skill; especially somebody who has demonstrated this by a creative or original work in science, music, art… |
| communist noun | /ˈkɑ.mjə.nɪst/ | An advocate of a society based on the common ownership of property; a proponent of communism. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| show off verb | To exhibit the best attributes of something. | |
| end up verb | To bring to a conclusion. | |
| shut down verb | To close, terminate, or end; to stop operating, either permanently or temporarily. | |
| start up verb | /stɑɹˈtʌp/ | To rise suddenly. |
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Conditional sentences if + clause, will/would + verb — a condition and its result | if you should hire you would get · if i don't try i would never |
| “Used to” used to + verb — a past habit or state that is no longer true | used to be · used to do |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | people who are · five which is · people who studied |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | I've always had · haven't actually had · haven't had |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 64 contractions and reduced forms, such as they're, you're, don't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: presentation /ˌpɹɛzn̩ˈteɪʃn̩/, expectation /ˌɛk.spɛkˈteɪ.ʃən/, entrepreneurship /ˌɑn.tɹə.pɹəˈnɝ.ʃɪp/, cliché /kliˈʃeɪ/, deviation /ˌdiː.viˈeɪʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: complicated /ˈkɑm.plɪˌkeɪ.tɪd/, ordinary /ˈɔɹdɪnɛɹi/, entrepreneur /ˌɑn.tɹə.pɹəˈnɝ/, expectation /ˌɛk.spɛkˈteɪ.ʃən/, entrepreneurship /ˌɑn.tɹə.pɹəˈnɝ.ʃɪp/
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 investor, founder, invest.
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.