Shadowing Practice: You Will Only Like Half of This Video - Learn English Speaking with Video
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39 sentences
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1
Hey, wake up!
2
AI is rotting your brain.
3
That's not an empty hook, but a real thing called cognitive atrophy.
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The loss of core skills like problem solving, critical thinking and even creativity.
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This is not only bad for you, but catastrophic for progress and innovation for our whole society.
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When we offload all mental work to these tools and stop questioning what they spit out, we stop being curious about the world around us.
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Human ingenuity gets lost, creativity will decrease, and we may lose what makes us human in our core.
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Today, the number of AI written articles online is approaching the number written by humans.
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Last year, hundreds of AI slop channels had over 40 billion views.
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That's 10 times 13 years of kurzgesagt, and it's likely even worse today.
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We can't even measure this anymore since detecting AI content with certainty has become impossible.
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It's harder and harder to compete with the massive wave of AI slop uploaded every day
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and human creators across all platforms are struggling tremendously.
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But that will not stop us.
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Our mission at Kurzgesagt is to spark curiosity and encourage a science -based, humanist and optimistic worldview you.
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That's the reason we don't stop talking about topics important to us, investing the time and effort to research,
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illustrate and animate them to upload science videos for free and for everyone.
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We live for that, but it's not easy to stay afloat.
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Sponsors and ads alone do not fund us.
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Animated videos are very expensive.
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That's why we could never do all of this without you.
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For the last 10 years the Kurzgesagt shop became the most important source of income.
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You can join our cause and get something valuable, sciency and pretty in return.
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The Schumannera calendar sales take the biggest part.
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It pays a huge chunk of our team's salary,
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allows us to plan for next year and provides training opportunities to improve with every video we make.
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In a nutshell, every year this calendar saves our ass.
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But it's also a passion project that celebrates all of humanity.
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We reframe time itself by starting 12 ,000 years ago instead of 2000 at the dawn of civilization.
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The calendar on your wall pays actual humans who debate topics,
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research, find compositions, recolor and pour endless love into every little detail.
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Full of passion and dedication, AI can't imitate.
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This time, our calendar explores the dark tales and legends that helped us make sense of the world before science.
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These are stories about human curiosity and humans who kept asking questions.
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Each month takes you on a journey through forgotten worlds and human imagination.
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Dive into 12 magical artworks like the taming of volcanoes.
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Learn about mythical creatures that stem from early fossil finds and many more legends.
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AI could literally never!
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From the entire team at Kurzgesagt, thank you for your support and for choosing human art and passion.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “You Will Only Like Half of This Video”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: kurzgesagt, calendar, passion, science. This video has 28 sentences and 481 words to shadow. The speech runs for 3:16. The speaker talks at a steady 147 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. Only 79% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| calendar noun | /ˈkæl.ən.də/ | Any system by which time is divided into days, weeks, months, and years. |
| passion noun | /ˈpæʃən/ | A true desire sustained or prolonged. |
| topic noun | /ˈtɑpɪk/ | A subject; a theme; a category or general area of interest. |
| legend noun | /ˈlɛd͡ʒ.ənd/ | The life story of a saint (such stories are often embellished, but any kind is called a legend). |
| creativity noun | /kri.eɪˈtɪv.ᵻ.ti/ | The ability to use imagination to produce a novel idea or product. |
| upload verb | /ˈʌpˌloʊd/ | To transfer data to a computer on a network, especially to a server on the Internet. |
| curiosity noun | /ˌkjʊɹ.iˈɑ.sə.ti/ | Inquisitiveness; the tendency to ask and learn about things by asking questions, investigating, or exploring. |
| curious adjective | /ˈkjʊɹ.i.əs/ | Tending to ask questions, or to want to explore or investigate; inquisitive; (with a negative connotation) nosy, prying. |
| encourage verb | /ɪnˈkʌɹ.ɪd͡ʒ/ | To mentally support; to motivate, give courage, hope or spirit. |
| skill noun | /skɪl/ | A capacity to do something well; a technique, an ability, usually acquired or learned, as opposed to abilities that are regarded as innate. |
| solve verb | /sɒlv/ | To find an answer or solution to a problem or question; to work out. |
| compete verb | /kəmˈpiːt/ | To be in battle or in a rivalry with another for the same thing, position, or reward; to contend. |
| hook noun | /hʊk/ | A rod bent into a curved shape, typically with one end free and the other end secured to a rope or other attachment. |
| salary noun | /ˈsæləɹi/ | A fixed amount of money paid to a worker, usually calculated on a monthly or annual basis, not hourly, as wages. Implies a degree of professionalism and/or… |
| composition noun | /ˌkɑm.pəˈzɪʃ.ən/ | The act of putting together; assembly. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| wake up verb | /ˌweɪk ˈʌp/ | To stop sleeping; to awake. |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 3 contractions and reduced forms, such as can't, don't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: passion /ˈpæʃən/, composition /ˌkɑm.pəˈzɪʃ.ən/, innovation /ˌɪn.əˈveɪ.ʃən/, imagination /ɪˌmæd͡ʒəˈneɪʃən/, civilization /ˌsɪv.ɪ.laɪˈzeɪ.ʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: creativity /kri.eɪˈtɪv.ᵻ.ti/, curiosity /ˌkjʊɹ.iˈɑ.sə.ti/, composition /ˌkɑm.pəˈzɪʃ.ən/, humanity /hjuˈmænɪti/, innovation /ˌɪn.əˈveɪ.ʃən/
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 calendar, passion, topic.
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.