Shadowing Practice: YouTube has Changed (me) - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
1
Right now, you're watching a YouTube video.
2
But what was the first YouTube video ever posted?
3
Unfortunately, we don't know.
4
There's just too many videos to keep track of.
5
But here's a fun game you can play if you were born after the year 2005.
6
I know that rules out a lot of you, but if you're one of those Gen Alpha kids, then this game is a whole bucket of fun.
7
More fun than a skibbity toilet, I say.
8
I said skip it first open internet explorer second go to google .com third type in these exact words
9
fourth this game is four steps long I'm sorry we're almost done go into tools
10
and set the custom date to the day you were born
11
and what you'll hopefully find is a list of videos that are all posted on your birthday.
12
Have fun exploring Gen Alpha and half of Gen Z.
13
Personally, I think this game should replace tarot cards.
14
Now, perhaps some of you watching were, like me, regrettably born a bit before 2005 and would still like to play this game.
15
While we might not get to watch a video posted on the exact day of our birth, maybe we can find the earliest video posted on our birthday.
16
So for me, I'll set the parameters to May 14th, 2005, and what we get is this one video.
17
There's nothing wrong with your speakers, by the way.
18
There's no audio in this entire clip of a random girl enjoying a frosty in 2005.
19
Wow, she's really going for that frosty.
20
Be careful, you're gonna get brain freeze. So silly.
21
You know, I can't help but notice
22
that this video seems different than the videos i normally watch
23
these days like where's the pizzazz the editing the custom thumbnail
24
or the audio while there's no shortage of videos right here on youtube
25
that showcase the simple mundane experience of ordering fast food in the 80s
26
or 90s and they have audio
27
but what i think sets apart free frosty weekend from all these other home movies is
28
that not only does it show what life was like in 2005, but it also tells the story of what the internet was like in 2005.
29
Part 1.
30
The Birth of YouTube.
31
By 2005, the World Wide Web had already existed for over 10 years, and its popularity was growing rapidly.
32
Streaming videos over the net was made possible with programs like Macromedia Flash, but there was still a huge problem.
33
If you wanted to find a specific video like this ocean tsunami
34
or this lady's wardrobe malfunction at the Super Bowl halftime show, in the early 2000s, there weren't five major websites that everyone flocked to.
35
Instead, there were millions of different websites with just as many search engines for people to use to search for said websites.
36
So that's why these three boys made YouTube.
37
YouTube opened the door for any Joe schmo with an internet
38
connection to share any video they ever wanted to a different schmo with an internet connection let's pretend it's 2005
39
and you just recorded a video of your british baby biting his older brother's fingers
40
and you wanted to share that video with your friends
41
and family before youtube you would have to email everyone a compressed version of
42
that video individually or figure out how to set up
43
and host your own website i mean how hard can
44
that millions of other people thought it but now with youtube all you had to do was create an account that really hurt charlie
45
but even though these three boys created something revolutionary it took
46
a few months to really catch on youtube was just another
47
random website lost in the ether of the internet pretty soon
48
however people started spreading the good news of this flicker for video It's kind of like Flickr for videos.
49
Flickr, if you don't know, it's like YouTube for pictures.
50
YouTube went from having less than one video being posted a day to now reporting they've been receiving many videos a day.
51
And ever since then, the amount of videos getting uploaded to YouTube has never slowed down.
52
According to How to Upload a YouTube Video, the site had already reached thousands of videos,
53
with 134 of them just being this guy's collection of gameplay from the video game Super Cosplay War Ultra.
54
And I think that's beautiful.
55
Also, this how to upload a YouTube video is so funny to me because it was created by Intern Craig.
56
And at first I was like, oh, that's cool.
57
The boys have an intern now, neat.
58
But then I realized we don't actually know if this guy was a real intern or just some guy.
59
I LARPing as one?
60
And I think that's beautiful too.
61
As more and more videos were getting uploaded, and some being viewed over a million times,
62
our boys reported they were now moving 8 terabytes of data per day.
63
To put that into perspective, that's the equivalent of moving one blockbuster store a day.
64
Okay, if for whatever reason that analogy didn't make any sense,
65
only two months later, they were now serving over 45 terabytes of videos per day.
66
This is equal to 75 ,000 dial -up modems running at full speed.
67
Okay, these analogies need some work.
68
20 ,000.
69
That's how many videos were being uploaded daily in February 06.
70
I bet you can't even name 20 ,000 videos.
71
As the website continued to explode in popularity, one of the three boys said something like, Wait a second, guys.
72
How's our business supposed to make any money if all the services we're offering are completely free.
73
Oh, what if we...
74
Uh, are you going to say something?
75
Our boys were in quite the pickle.
76
While we're all extremely excited and thankful for the tremendous viral growth we've been experiencing, we've got a lot more bills to pay these days.
77
Videos would buffer, people were pretending to be interns, and don't even get me started on all the rats in the office.
78
If we don't get some tech giant to step in and bail us out for $1 .6 billion,
79
I'm not sure how much longer we can keep this business afloat. Is that Google?
80
Like the search engine?
81
Google absolutely knew YouTube's worth, with the current CEO at the time calling it the next step in the evolution of the internet.
82
And boy, have truer words never been spoken.
83
Now, obviously, when you sell your year -and -a -half -old company for $1 .6 billion, things are bound to change.
84
Google implemented features that were.. questionable.
85
But they also implemented a lot of good features, too, that we shouldn't overlook.
86
And if it wasn't for Google's resources and infinite money supply, I doubt anyone could have kept a website of YouTube size running.
87
By 2007, YouTube contained as much bandwidth as the entire internet did in the year 2000.
88
However, while Google was able to keep the lights on in YouTube's office,
89
I wouldn't say that Google is the sole reason YouTube still exists.
90
There was another, dare I say, more important group of people keeping YouTube alive.
91
They were the sole reason YouTube still exists.
92
Soul being a human soul.
93
You get what I'm trying to say.
94
Our boys had always recognized this crucial and extremely humble group of people,
95
thanking them in blog posts and video messages about a Google acquisition I'm of course talking about.
96
Yeah, thanks.
97
Thanks to every one of you guys that have been contributing to YouTube community.
98
Part 2 the community so we know that YouTube was moving blockbusters
99
and dial -up modems daily but what exactly were all these videos
100
that thousands of people were posting anyone know what they were
101
uploading okay there's a copyrighted music some Dutch person's farm animals
102
a lot of dudes lip -syncing random songs in their bedrooms actually
103
and huh that's interesting some of these people are making elaborate, well -edited videos for the sole purpose of entertaining others.
104
Like for fun?
105
And YouTube always knew it was in their best interest to support and incentivize these YouTubers.
106
The first time YouTube ever rewarded a person with something of monetary value was just six months after the site's creation.
107
They were given out free iPod Nanos to anyone who posted a video.
108
Here's a video of someone getting their iPod Nano.
109
But I think YouTube knew that while trophies and iPods were nice,
110
the best incentive to get people to make videos was probably money.
111
I would still like an iPod Nano, personally.
112
And Google knew exactly how they were going to start paying creators.
113
I get it.
114
Having to watch ads on an internet video is annoying,
115
but ultimately monetizable videos allowed some users to halt their college education and have making YouTube videos be their full -time career.
116
Can you imagine what that would do to a person?
117
As this quirky little internet video streaming service now owned by Google continued to grow, so did the proverbial YouTuber grow with it.
118
By 2009, there were a whopping 4 channels with over a million subscribers.
119
That was such a big deal at the time.
120
Even the news talked about it.
121
But I haven't really seen any articles talking about a new channel getting a million subscribers these days.
122
Have YouTubers just stopped hitting a million or something?
123
Oh jeez, that's like 80 ,000 channels.
124
I remember a time when I would randomly discover a channel with over a million subs and think, what?
125
How did this slip under my radar
126
and now i see a channel with a million
127
and i think oh that's decent there's no denying
128
that within the last 20 years part three youtube has changed
129
asterix these days it seems like youtube is full of attention grabbing thumbnails advertisements
130
and people trying to exploit the algorithm stuff like
131
that didn't used to happen well did you know for the first three years of YouTube's existence,
132
their method of choosing every video's thumbnail was to just take a screenshot of the exact middle of the video.
133
It's weird to imagine every video on here having a thumbnail that's just a random frame of the video, but that's how it was.
134
And some people, even back then, exploited this quirk and purposely made the middle of their video,
135
So, let's just say, a little too spicy for YouTube.
136
So if you added a risque clip to your video of cute puppies in the hopes
137
that the split -second bikini shot will end up as a thumbnail which might gain more view counts, we will have to flag your video as having adult content.
138
What do they mean by MIGHT gain more view counts?
139
Well at least YouTube was full of these calm, relaxing videos with no ulterior motives like this one.
140
Ah, I love these videos!
141
This next example is kinda niche, but it's too perfect not to talk about.
142
People say that YouTube is full of ads now.
143
But check out this channel I found that was posting videos before monetization was even a thing.
144
So check out the site.
145
Check out the site.
146
And uh, we got a quick commercial break for you.
147
Subscribe to the PJK Podcast.
148
Ha!
149
Looks like people were doing sponsorships back then too.
150
This was the only example of a sponsorship I could find, so it doesn't really count, but...
151
whatever, it's my channel, I wanted to talk about it.
152
I guess some things never really change, huh?
153
At least back then, everyone on the internet was all super nice and respectful to one another, right?
154
We've seen some comments lately that have really disturbed us as human beings things.
155
We're talking about the hateful comments directed at users who've done nothing to hurt anyone.
156
Please treat each other decently and kindly.
157
It's really not too much to ask.
158
Wow, okay, turns out bringing anonymous people together with no repercussions on what they say has somehow always brought out the worst in people.
159
But even with all these examples showing you how some things on YouTube never really change,
160
I'm absolutely not denying the fact that within the last 20 years, YouTube has changed.
161
Of course it has.
162
Everything about our culture and technology changes every decade, and YouTube is just a reflection of that.
163
You're not the same person you were 20 years ago either.
164
You were a baby.
165
But I can empathize with these comments left on old, dusty videos from 2005 wishing that YouTube could go back to
166
that simpler time when it wasn't full of influencers fighting for your attention,
167
but instead being full of random people talking about something they're passionate about to their cameras in their bedroom.
168
But the thing I'd like to point out to these commenters is that I feel like the old YouTube never really left.
169
Yes, YouTube will usually recommend videos that are attention -grabbing
170
or made by a clanker
171
but there's over 500 hours worth of videos being uploaded every minute that's over two blockbuster stores a day and
172
if you know how to search for them you could find
173
an endless supply of the most low -budget videos of a stranger talking about something they're passionate about
174
that feel very reminiscent of that early 2005 era of youtube So to answer your question,
175
goblins are real enough to send your soul to hell.
176
Amazing.
177
As long as our society and culture changes, YouTube will change with it.
178
I don't know what the next 20 years of YouTube's future will look like,
179
but I hope whoever's in charge never forgets that the real soul of YouTube is right in its name.
180
You.
181
The community.
182
While we might not ever find the first video ever posted on YouTube, I did stumble across this video of a guy at a zoo.
183
Now, I have no clue who this guy is or what zoo he's even at, but the way he ends this video,
184
I think perfectly encapsulates the ending of every video ever posted on this site.
185
And that's pretty much all there is to say.
📺 Same Channel
B11
Work Stories (sooubway)
American Accent, en-USUniversity Students+3
B11
Academy Anecdotes (School Stories)
American Accent, en-USTeens+2
B11
The End of TikTok
American Accent, en-USTeens+2
B15
My First Pokemon Nuzlocke
American Accent, en-USTeens+2
B21
My Thoughts on Reality Shifting
American Accent, en-USTeens+2
B12
Hobbies
American Accent, en-USTeens+2
B21
The IKEA Experience
American Accent, en-USUniversity Students+3
B12
Why I STILL Love Comics
American Accent, en-USTeens+3
B119
Chaperoning 7th Graders
American Accent, en-USKids+1
B12
Times I Plagiarized
American Accent, en-USTeens+4
B13
Annoying Customers
American Accent, en-USBusiness English+2
B27
My Thoughts On Cleaning
American Accent, en-USUniversity Students+3
B2My Thoughts on Bluey
American Accent, en-USHigh School Students+3
✨ Recommend Video
B22
33 sentences
My Random Thoughts
American Accent, en-USTeens+3
B11
171 sentences
Watching My Old Videos
American Accent, en-USUniversity Students+3
B21
98 sentences
Why Young People Love Old Things
TeensHigh School Students+2
B21
10 sentences
The year that changed everything 🥹
TeensHigh School Students+2
B22
496 sentences
TikTok’s Teenage Trad Wife Cult
TeensHigh School Students+3
B11
181 sentences
Reading Your Assumptions About Me…
TeensHigh School Students+2
B21
451 sentences
We Tried EVERY Pudding Flavor
American Accent, en-USUniversity Students+3
B12
329 sentences
I Actually Bought 100 TikTok Ads
American Accent, en-USTeens+4
B23
84 sentences
My ONE comment changed EVERYTHING!...
TeensHigh School Students+3
B11
578 sentences
Nasty Cooking
TeensHigh School Students+2
B22
293 sentences
Why Kids Can't Read Anymore
TeensHigh School Students+2
B24
182 sentences
Life As A Mom | moving on, home reset, my son is five!
American Accent, en-USTeens+4
Exploring YouTube's Early Days: A Real-Life Language Scenario
The video takes us on a journey through YouTube's beginnings, blending nostalgia with a fun activity: finding videos posted on your birthday. This casual, conversational style mirrors real-life discussions about technology and personal stories, making it perfect for practicing everyday English. Whether you're talking about "old websites" or "fun games," the dialogue uses relatable language that native speakers use to share experiences.
Useful Chunks & Collocations to Memorize
- "a whole bucket of fun": A lively way to say something is very enjoyable. Example: "Trying new coffee shops is a whole bucket of fun."
- "lost in the ether": Describes something obscure or hard to find online. Example: "My old blog is lost in the ether now."
- "catch on": To become popular. Example: "That new app caught on quickly with students."
- "flock to": To go to a place in large numbers. Example: "Locals flock to the market on weekends."
- "set the parameters": To define limits or conditions. Example: "I set the parameters for my search to 2005."
Your Shadowing Challenge: Practice "Shadow Speak" Like a Pro
Shadowing—repeating speech immediately after hearing it—is a powerful way to improve pronunciation and fluency. For this challenge, focus on the video's casual tone. Pause the clip when the speaker says, "There's nothing wrong with your speakers, by the way," then repeat it aloud, matching the pace and emphasis. Notice how "by the way" is spoken quickly, like a natural aside. Next, try "YouTube opened the door for any Joe schmo with an internet connection"—copy the relaxed rhythm. This practice, called shadowspeak, helps you internalize natural speech patterns. Do this for 5 minutes daily, and you'll soon feel more confident speaking like a native. Remember, shadow speech isn't about perfection; it's about mimicking the flow and tone of real English. Use videos like this to make learning engaging and effective—after all, learn English with videos is one of the best ways to master everyday conversation.
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.