Shadowing Practice: Why I Quit Learning Languages - Learn English Speaking with Video

When I first started learning languages, I was obsessed.

It was like I finally found my purpose in life.

I studied all day, every day, starting first with French.

I would wake up and immediately listen to the language, then eat breakfast while looking at a French textbook, drive to work, French podcast,

lunch break, study French, go home, study French, then sit in calls on the internet until the early morning speaking French.

Things evolved and I added other languages, and then in 2020 when I was stuck at home, I walked, I kid you not,

at least 10 miles every single day while listening to podcasts and learning lingos for countless hours.

It became my entire identity, and because I loved it so much, I improved so fast.

When I wasn't learning languages, I was practicing them, and if I wasn't practicing them, I was talking about them.

I saw it as a game, a way to unlock communication DLC with new NPCs around the world.

As a formerly sheltered American, I started studying maps, and I finally learned where every country is and which languages they all speak.

Then I'd fall asleep fantasizing about which languages I'd ultimately learn and where I could go travel to use them.

And I spent a ton of time watching polyglot YouTube.

I was so motivated seeing people who were ahead of me speaking even more languages.

Of course, some were better than others, some just wanted me to buy their course, but I was especially a fan of Steve Kaufman,

whose lifelong dedication to languages inspired me like none other.

I genuinely wanted to become the greatest language learner of all time, and I would stop at nothing to achieve that.

So funny enough, I started filming myself in private, roleplaying as a polyglot YouTuber, flexing all my languages.

So one day, I stopped LARPing, and I made my own YouTube channel.

I had always dreamed of being a YouTuber, but now I finally had my niche, an obsession that I was truly passionate about.

I started sharing my unique perspective in the community.

I wanted to convey that language learning is the most fun

and rewarding hobby in the world that doesn't need to be overly academic, serious, or complicated.

I also wanted to show that people who lie and exaggerate their levels in languages are cringe, and that French is gay.

And people liked my videos.

I mean, a lot of people hated them, but the controversy kept them coming back for more.

So after consistently making videos for a while, I was blessed with an amazing community, more subscribers and views than a man could ever dream of having,

and a sense of purpose in life that I finally felt aligned with.

And then my idol, the guy I looked to for advice on my favorite hobby, the guy I wanted to be like,

Steve Kaufman, publicly complimented my language skills.

I've only heard you in Arabic, I've heard you in Russian, and you are very good.

All of that success felt amazing, and I'm truly grateful for everything.

But behind the scenes, there was a lot going on in my head.

You see, pretty early on in my YouTube career, a major shift occurred.

That passionate, unrivaled energy I had for language learning started to fade.

Because the countless hours I would spend studying languages

and trying to become the best polyglot ever were now being spent making videos about language learning.

So anytime I'd sit down to study, I'd feel like I'm procrastinating the more important thing, the YouTube channel.

It always felt like my time would be better spent researching, writing, editing, or brainstorming ideas.

So for the first time since I started, I wasn't improving my languages.

And pretty quickly, this shift started to hurt me.

I lost a big part of myself.

Arguably the best and most positive part of me.

The part of me who lived for the joy of learning languages.

And I'd constantly try to fix this and start studying again.

I used to be able to stick to and not cheat on a language for a very long time,

but now I'd get excited about a language for a month or two before slowly drifting away from it.

I kept desperately trying to recreate that obsession I once had, but it just always felt forced.

The version of me that used to spend every waking hour thinking about languages just seemingly wasn't there anymore.

And it became a negative feedback loop, where the worse I felt about it, the less I'd try, which would make me feel worse about it, and I'd just avoid things more.

But in parallel, my YouTube success led me to great places.

I've now been to all sorts of different countries for language exchange events, and I've met so many remarkable people who are genuinely impressive with all the languages they speak fluently.

I am blown away seeing other people's passion for this hobby, and it is unbelievably inspiring seeing what people are capable of.

But often in these circles and at these events, I've just felt like such an imposter.

Everyone around me has continued to improve in their languages, but I've just stagnated in private and it's frustrating.

It's frustrating because I know I'm capable of so much more

and I miss that feeling of progress and achievement that I used to have all the time.

I used to be able to talk about languages for countless hours without stopping, but now, if someone even mentioned them,

it would bring up deep feelings of shame and remind me of all the lost time.

So due to all that, I quit learning languages.

I seemingly didn't like them anymore, and there was too much self-imposed negativity for me to even consider trying again.

I'd pop on YouTube to make videos that I did genuinely enjoy,

but there was a huge disconnect between the guy making videos about language learning and the guy actually learning languages,

which just further amplified things and made me pretty depressed.

So I went and spent time with other hobbies, but under the surface, it was just escapism.

I never was able to find anything that scratched the same itch.

So why am I making this video and saying this all now?

Well, recently, something changed.

A little while ago, I finally had the clarity to see what went wrong.

I was looking at things backwards.

I was putting the cart before the horse.

I kept waiting for the passion to magically reappear before I started learning again, and that just wasn't working.

I just spent my days depressed about all the time I had seemingly lost.

So instead of waiting for the magical motivation fairy to come visit me, I just started.

I started studying again.

And I picked something I'd been procrastinating for years, improving my Spanish.

For so long, I felt that my Spanish was underdeveloped.

So I started showing up every single day and learning it again.

And most importantly, I did it without judging myself.

And I made it the priority ahead of making videos.

And then something unexpected happened.

All of the positive feelings around language learning slowly started to come back and I became excited again.

I began to reconnect with the past version of myself whose life was consumed by language learning and it feels so good.

I've started to daydream again about the future and all the adventures I could go on with my languages.

And as I'm writing this video, last night for the first time in a long time, I fell asleep thinking of the languages I could learn in the future.

I thought that I had to find passion to create action, but it was the other way around.

Taking action rekindled my passion.

So now I'm proud to tell you

that I've been sharing what I learn every single day for more than 120 days with my supporters on Patreon.

And now I feel reconnected to my dream of becoming the best language learner ever, and I'm gonna do it.

And as for YouTube, yeah, it's gotten in the way at times, but that's because my priorities were backwards.

I don't need to quit YouTube.

Perhaps this could be a new beginning of sorts for me.

But if I'm gonna share my passion for languages again, I need to be actively living it.

So from now on, I'll always prioritize my hobby and my mission, and then my videos will naturally follow from that.

And I'm very sorry, mother, but I think it's time we grow the beard back out.

That beard I had in 2022 was a symbol of my undying dedication towards polyglottism, and shaving it was the worst mistake of my life.

Half of my languages were stored in there.

And I think it's time I do what most YouTubers do when they get a bit more serious.

100

I'm gonna change my channel name from Language Simp to my actual legal birth name.

101

Language Simp.

102

I'd like to continue to inspire people to join me in this wonderful hobby, the greatest hobby that the universe has ever given us.

103

And as always...

104

...Vseem i di naaaaaaach!

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273 cümleler

Bu dersin kelimeleri ve konuşma notları

Bu B2 seviyesindeki konuşma dersi “Why I Quit Learning Languages” videosuna dayanıyor. En çok tekrarlanan kelimeler: language, learning, Youtube, French, felt. Bu videoda gölgeleme çalışması için 104 cümle ve 1551 kelime var. Konuşma bölümü 8:35 sürüyor. Konuşmacı hızlı konuşuyor, dakikada yaklaşık 181 kelime; bu yüzden birbirine bağlanan ve zayıflayan sesler duyacaksınız. Kelimelerin yalnızca %78’i İngilizcede en sık kullanılan 3.000 kelime arasında, bu yüzden kelime dağarcığı zorlayıcı.

Bu videodaki önemli kelimeler

Videodaki en ileri düzey 15 kelime, telaffuzu ve anlamıyla:

Kelime	Telaffuz	Anlam
hobby isim	/ˈhɑ.bi/	hobi, merak
polyglot sıfat	/ˈpɑlɪˌɡlɑt/	çokdilli
countless sıfat	/ˈkaʊntləs/	hesaplanamaz, hesapsız
inspire fiil	/ɪnˈspaɪə(ɹ)/	esinlemek, ilham vermek
procrastinate fiil	/pɹoʊˈkɹæs.tə.neɪt/	gecikme, geciktirmek
backward sıfat	/ˈbækwɚd/	geri
obsession isim	/əbˈsɛʃən/	saplantı, takıntı
beard isim	/bɪɹd/	sakal
passionate sıfat	/ˈpæʃənɪt/	tutkulu
depressed sıfat	/dɪˈpɹɛst/	çökkün, keyifsiz
podcast isim	/ˈpɑdˌkæst/	podcast
brainstorming isim		beyin fırtınası, fikir fırtınası
escapism isim	/ɪˈskeɪpɪzəm/	gerçeklerden kaçma
exaggerate fiil	/ɛɡˈzæd͡ʒ.ə.ɹeɪt/	abartmak, mübalağa etmek
fantasize fiil	/ˈfæntəˌsaɪz/	kurgulamak

Duyacağınız deyimsel fiiller

Kelime	Telaffuz	Anlam
show up fiil		ortaya çıkmak
wake up fiil	/ˌweɪk ˈʌp/	uyanmak

Bu videodaki dil bilgisi

Konuşmacının en çok kullandığı yapılar, videodaki sözcüklerin aynısıyla:

Yapı	Videoda
“Used to” used to + fiil — artık geçerli olmayan eski bir alışkanlık ya da durum	used to be · used to spend · used to have
Edilgen yapı be + fiilin üçüncü hâli — kimin yaptığı değil, ne olduğu önemli	was obsessed · was stuck · was blessed
Present perfect have/has + fiilin üçüncü hâli — geçmişte olan ama şimdi de önemli olan bir eylem	I've only heard · I've now been · I've just felt
İlgi cümlecikleri who / which + cümle — bir kişi ya da şey hakkında ek bilgi	people who were · people who lie · people who are

Dikkat edilecek telaffuzlar

Konuşmacı I'd, I'm, I've gibi kısaltılmış biçimleri 40 kez kullanıyor. Bunları duyduğunuz gibi kısa söyleyin.

“sh” ve “zh” sesleri: obsession /əbˈsɛʃən/, dedication /ˌdɛdɪˈkeɪʃən/, passionate /ˈpæʃənɪt/, shave /ˈʃeɪ̯v/
Uzun kelimeler — vurguyu doğru yere koyun: genuinely /ˈd͡ʒɛn.ju.ɪn.li/, procrastinate /pɹoʊˈkɹæs.tə.neɪt/, dedication /ˌdɛdɪˈkeɪʃən/, escapism /ɪˈskeɪpɪzəm/, exaggerate /ɛɡˈzæd͡ʒ.ə.ɹeɪt/

Bu videoyla nasıl çalışılır

Videonun tamamını konuşmadan bir kez dinleyin ve bilmediğiniz kelimeleri not edin.
0,75× hızla başlayın, cümle cümle tekrar edin ve kolaylaşınca normal hıza dönün.
Kendinizi kaydedin ve orijinaliyle karşılaştırın; hobby, polyglot, countless gibi kelimelere özellikle dikkat edin.

Gölgeleme Tekniği Nedir?

Gölgeleme, başlangıçta profesyonel tercüman eğitimi için geliştirilen ve çok dilli Dr. Alexander Arguelles tarafından popüler hale getirilen, bilim destekli bir dil öğrenme tekniğidir. Yöntem basit ama güçlüdür: ana dili İngilizce olan bir sesi dinler ve hemen yüksek sesle tekrar edersiniz — konuşmacıyı 1-2 saniye gecikmeyle takip eden bir gölge gibi. Pasif dinleme veya dilbilgisi alıştırmalarının aksine, gölgeleme beyninizi ve ağız kaslarınızı gerçek konuşma kalıplarını eşzamanlı olarak işlemeye ve yeniden üretmeye zorlar. Araştırmalar, telaffuz doğruluğu, tonlama, ritim, bağlı konuşma, dinleme anlama ve konuşma akıcılığını önemli ölçüde geliştirdiğini göstermektedir — bu da onu IELTS Konuşma hazırlığı ve gerçek dünya İngilizce iletişimi için en etkili yöntemlerden biri yapar.

Shadowing tekniği: adım adım eksiksiz rehberi okuyun →

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