Shadowing Practice: You Will Never Be Ready | Denzel Washington - Learn English Speaking with Video
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89 sentences
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I found that nothing in life is worthwhile unless you take risks.
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Nothing.
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Nelson Mandela said, there is no passion to be found playing small
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and settling for a life that's less than the one you're capable of living.
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I'm sure people have told you to make sure you have something to fall back on.
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Make sure you got something to fall back on, honey.
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But I never understood that concept having something to fall back on
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if I'm going to fall I want to fall forward
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I figure at least this way
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I'll see what I'm going to hit Reggie Jackson struck out
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2 ,600 times in his career the most in the history of baseball
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but you don't hear about the strikeouts people remember the home runs
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fall forward Thomas Edison conducted 1 ,000 failed experiments did you know that?
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I didn't know that.
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Because the 1 ,001st was the light bulb.
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Fall forward.
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Every failed experiment is one step closer to success.
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There's an old saying, you hang around the barbershop long enough sooner or later you're gonna get a haircut.
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So you will catch a break and I did catch a break.
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Last year I did a play called Fences on Broadway.
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But here's the kicker.
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It was at the Court Theatre.
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It was at the same theatre that I failed that first audition 30 years prior.
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Here's my second point about failure.
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If you don't fail, you're not even trying.
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I'll say it again.
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If you don't fail, you're not even trying.
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My wife told me this great expression.
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To get something you never had, you have to do something you never did.
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Les Brown's a motivational speaker, he made an analogy about this.
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He says, imagine you're on your deathbed and standing around your deathbed are the ghosts representing your unfulfilled potential.
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The ghost of the ideas you never acted on.
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The ghost of the talents you didn't use.
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And they're standing around your bed angry, disappointed and upset.
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They say we came to you
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because you could have brought us to life they say and now we have to go to the grave together.
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So I ask you today how many ghosts are going to be around your bed when your time comes?
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So have dreams but have goals.
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Life goals, yearly goals, monthly goals, daily goals.
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I try to give myself a goal every day and understand
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that to achieve these goals you must apply discipline
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and consistency in order to achieve your goals you must apply discipline
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which you were already done and consistency every day not just on Tuesday
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and miss a few days you have to work at it every day
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you have to plan every day you've heard the saying we don't plan to fail we fail to plan
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hard work works working really hard is what successful people do and in this text tweet
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twerk world that you've grown up in.
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Remember, just because you're doing a lot more doesn't mean you're getting a lot more done.
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Remember that.
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Just because you're doing a lot more doesn't mean you're getting a lot more done.
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Don't confuse movement with progress.
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My mother told me, she said, yeah, because you can run in place all the time and never get anywhere.
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So continue to strive, continue to have goals, continue to progress.
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Number three, you'll never see a U -Haul behind a hearse.
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I'll say it again.
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You'll never see a U -Haul behind a hearse.
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I don't care how much money you make, you can't take it with you.
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The Egyptians tried it.
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They got robbed.
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That's all they got.
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You can't take it with you, with you.
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And it's not how much you have.
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It's what you do with what you have.
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The most selfish thing you can do in this world is help someone else.
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Why is it selfish?
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Because the gratification, the goodness that comes to you, the good feeling, the good feeling that I get from helping others.
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Nothing's better than that.
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Well, one or two things, but nothing's better than that.
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Not jewelry, not big house I have, not the cars, but it's the joy.
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That's where the joy is in helping others.
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That's where the success is in helping others.
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You'll see everything I'm talking about today.
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You'll see what I mean about taking risk or being willing to fail.
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Because taking risk is not just about going for a job.
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It's also about knowing what you know and what you don't know.
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It's about being open to people and to ideas.
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In the course of the film, the character I play begins to take small steps, small risks he very,
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very, very slowly begins to overcome his fears.
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And I feel ultimately his heart becomes flooded with love.
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And I can't think of a better message as we send you off today.
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To not only take risks, but to be open to life, to accept new views, and to be open to new opinions.
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While it may be frightening, it will also be rewarding.
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Because the chances you take, the people you meet, the people you love, the faith that you have,
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that's what's going to define you.
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Never be discouraged.
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Never hold back.
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Give everything you've got.
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And when you fall throughout life, and maybe even tonight after a few mini glasses of champagne, remember this.
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fall forward.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “You Will Never Be Ready”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: goal, fall, fail, risk, ghost. This video has 89 sentences and 902 words to shadow. The speech runs for 6:48. The speaker talks at a steady 133 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 |
|---|---|---|
| ghost noun | /ɡoʊst/ | A disembodied soul; a soul or spirit of a deceased person; a spirit appearing after death. |
| experiment noun | /ɪkˈspɛɹ.ə.mənt/ | A test under controlled conditions made to either demonstrate a known truth, examine the validity of a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of… |
| discipline noun | /ˈdɪsəplɪn/ | A controlled behaviour; self-control. |
| selfish adjective | /ˈsɛlf.ɪʃ/ | Holding one's own self-interest as the standard for decision making. |
| consistency noun | /kənˈsɪs.tən.si/ | Local coherence. |
| mini adjective | /ˈmɪn.i/ | Miniature, tiny, small. |
| passion noun | /ˈpæʃən/ | A true desire sustained or prolonged. |
| disappointed adjective | /ˌdɪsəˈpɔɪnɪd/ | Defeated of expectations or hope; experiencing disappointment; let down. |
| honey noun | /ˈhʌni/ | A sweet, viscous, gold-colored fluid produced from plant nectar by bees, and often consumed by humans. |
| settle verb | /ˈsɛtəl/ | To determine (something which was exposed to doubt or question); to resolve conclusively; to set or fix (a time, an order of succession, etc). |
| rob verb | /ɹɑb/ | To steal from, especially using force or violence. |
| flood noun | /flʌd/ | An overflow of a large amount of water (usually disastrous) from a lake or other body of water due to excessive rainfall or other input of water. |
| reward noun | /ɹɪˈwɔɹd/ | Something of value given in return for an act. |
| define verb | /dɪˈfaɪn/ | To determine with precision; to mark out with distinctness; to ascertain or exhibit clearly. |
| grave noun | /ɡɹeɪv/ | An excavation in the earth as a place of burial. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| fall back on verb | To turn to as a substitute; to rely on as a backup. |
| stand around verb | To stand without doing anything; to do nothing productive; to waste time. |
| hang around verb | To stay, linger, or loiter. |
| hold back verb | To act with reserve; to contain one's full measure or power. |
| strike out verb | To lash out; to strike or hit at someone or something, particularly something in arm's length of the striker and at or near the level of the striker's head. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- Here's my second point about failure.
- If you don't fail, you're not even trying.
- The ghost of the talents you didn't use.
- You can't take it with you, with you.
- It's what you do with what you have.
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 | have told · you've heard · you've grown |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | be found · be discouraged |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 39 contractions and reduced forms, such as you're, don't, I'm. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: worthwhile /ˌwɜː(ɹ)θˈwaɪl/, deathbed /ˈdɛθˌbɛd/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: selfish /ˈsɛlf.ɪʃ/, passion /ˈpæʃən/, champagne /ʃæmˈpeɪn/, audition /ɑˈdɪʃən/, gratification /ˌɡɹætɪfɪˈkeɪʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: experiment /ɪkˈspɛɹ.ə.mənt/, consistency /kənˈsɪs.tən.si/, disappointed /ˌdɪsəˈpɔɪnɪd/, analogy /əˈnæləd͡ʒi/, gratification /ˌɡɹætɪfɪˈkeɪʃən/
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 ghost, experiment, discipline.
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.