Shadowing Practice: You're Using Anki WRONG - Learn English Speaking with Video

What's up grinders?

So in today's video I'm going to expand on something I commonly talk about in my videos

or I mention in my videos which is that Anki or SRS programs should be used for review as opposed to learning.

Now I took this as a given until I got a

comment I believe yesterday where someone was saying isn't like learning

and reviewing the exact same thing and on the surface yeah it is

but it's how the process is used that makes all the difference

and I'm going to give you guys some examples

that aren't language related

but I'm going to draw parallels with language learning to help you clearly see the differences

and what I'm trying to get at here.

So let's start with how you would learn to use a firearm.

Because I was in the military a long time ago, I learned how to use weapons.

It's a skill that to this day I will never forget.

So when you first get a gun, you're given a firearm and you need to learn how to use it, the first part you need to do is learn the components of the gun.

So this would be your sentence that you've mined from a video that you're watching.

So you look at the sentence and now you need to learn the components of the sentence.

What does each little piece in this sentence actually mean?

Now, with the gun, you've got the components.

Now you need to know how they work together.

So you've got to take the cartridge, you've got to put it in, do safety, you've got to cop the weapon, you know, shoulder it, all that type of stuff, maybe adjust focus and things like that.

For your sentence, now you're going to figure out how these parts fit together

and what parts can be swapped in and out with other components.

So here you're seeing the overall process, and you're kind of learning how it all works together.

And then finally with the weapon you'll do an initial practice, which is where you're going to hold up to your shoulder, aim at the target, and you're going to take some pot shots and probably miss, but it's all good.

You're just learning the entire process from beginning to end, and it's the same with learning.

At the end, you're going to do some practice with your sentences.

I don't know why I'm still holding a gun with your sentences, where you're going to just try to say them a few times, and maybe swap out some parts, and try some creative stuff with it, but now that you've done that,

you know the whole thing.

You're going to slap it nanky, and you're going to leave it for the next day.

Now, the next day when it pops up is your review day.

So with a weapon, the next day you come, you pick up your weapon.

You're not going to try and learn all these parts.

You've got a general idea.

You may fumble as you put the cartridge in.

You may fumble a little bit with like cocking it or forget some steps here and there.

And you're going to aim.

You're probably going to miss your target, but it doesn't matter.

You understand the overall thing.

All you're trying to do now is get into the flow of using this and practicing using it.

And it's the same with the sentence.

When you see that sentence pop up, you're not going to be trying to break it down

and understand all the parts

because you already kind of know all the parts now you're just trying to practice saying them

or practice listening to them it's no longer about learning it

all it's about just using it now now why is this

important to keep these two things apart well the reason you

would keep them apart is it's all about the flow

and getting immersed within the language so

when you've got ankyo let's say you've got a hundred cards sitting in here

and this could be the same as if you're watching something as well When you're in your review phase, you're just going to listen, repeat, move forward, listen, repeat, and slowly what's going to happen,

and depending on how advanced you are within the language, your brain is going to swap over to your target language.

Because if you're just listening and repeating and thinking about what you're saying

and going to the next and going to the next, your brain is going to swap.

At least if you're slightly above beginner, you're going to swap and start thinking a little bit in this language.

And the more advanced you are, the faster you're going to swap and the more you're going to start thinking this language.

Now, here's where the issue comes up.

If you're reviewing, reviewing, reviewing, then boom, you're hit with something you've never seen before because you've just slapped it nanky and you haven't learned it.

You're going to sit there and go, oh, okay, especially if it's got concepts you've never encountered before, and you're going to break that flow, go over to your dictionary,

start looking up words, maybe looking up grammar, stuff like that, because obviously you've never seen these words before, or you've never heard them before, and your brain's going to swap back to English.

And it's always a process of going from one language to another.

It takes a while, and it takes a while to go back.

And this is going to break your flow.

And what do we want to do when we're, like, practicing a language, whether we're using comprehensible input or we're using this,

we want to stay engaged and within the language without swapping our brain back to our native language.

That way our brain gets trained to use this actual language.

And that's why I say you should just always keep your learning separate from your review

because it allows your review to work more to your favor.

And finally, there's one last like after effect to this.

So if you've done a ton of review and you've stayed immersed in your language, as soon as you put down that app, let's say you want to go speak to someone or you even just want to practice around your room,

you're already thinking this language and you're not going to have

that slow grinding cog process where your brain has to kind of swap over.

If you've practiced your language or you've learnt a language at any stage, you would have noticed that at the initial stages, especially if you're not like super fluent,

it takes a little bit for your brain to kind of like start thinking in the language.

Some people have little ways of doing it.

Some people start counting to 10 in the language and that helps to swap their brain over.

But if you're like at a lower level within the language, it can take a while to get those cogs like realigned basically.

So I've actually discovered before and I've done kind of like tests with Chinese where if I just like, if I'm just sitting here in front of the computer talking English,

watching English movies, and then I walk downstairs and I start speaking Chinese, I can fumble for quite a bit and I'm like really, it's like rusty type of thing.

But if I've been like studying Chinese for an hour and my brain's in Chinese mode, I walk downstairs, suddenly lots of stuff, even stuff that I haven't studied, is just flowing out smoothly.

It's coming out nice and clean.

I don't even have to think about it.

And that's because I've warmed up that part of my brain.

I've been using it for like a good while now.

So it has like a lot of extra benefits.

So if you do your review, you finish your review, instantly put down, watch something in the language and you'll notice,

strangely, you seem to understand it better and you seem to be able to replicate it better.

And that's because you've warmed up that part of your brain.

So that's why I keep the two separate because I believe that it helps you stay more engaged within the language.

But again, at the end of the day, everyone's got their own learning method

and you should do whatever you think will help you keep learning

and moving forward in your language and I'll see you all in the next video.

And for those who don't know, I'm probably going to be on the plane before the next video back to Australia.

Sad face, I have to go back and work for a living.

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.

Shadowing Practice: You're Using Anki WRONG - Learn English Speaking with Video

Context & Background

Top 5 Phrases for Daily Communication

Step-by-step Shadowing Guide

What is the Shadowing Technique?