Luyện nói tiếng Anh bằng Shadowing qua video: Matthew Dicks at The Moth GrandSLAM Championship | A Masterclass in Storytelling

Please welcome Matthew Dix to the stage.

Thank you.

I'm standing on the playground behind my school.

It's recess duty.

When my son was very little, he asked me, is recess duty like duty?

Like poop?

And I said, yeah, actually, it is just like that.

And I sent him away.

I am sure that conversation created enormous problems for him at some point in his life, but it was an accurate description of recess duty.

I waste my precious time putting band-aids on cuts that are not cuts, pretending to listen to stories about cousins' birthday parties,

and telling mean children that they have no one to play with because they are mean.

And so I'm standing there doing all of these things when I hear these four words that strike fear into my heart.

Never have I ever.

And I look over and I see three of my students, 10-year-old girls, on the sidewalk, and apparently they are playing this game.

So now I am running, because I have played Never Have I Ever.

I understand the dynamics of this game.

This is not a benevolent game where we acquire knowledge about our friends.

This is social combat.

This is...

We extract information from foolish children, and then we sharpen it, and we stab them with it later on.

So I'm running over.

Like 1985, Jimbo Powers' birthday party.

Melissa says, Matt, never have you ever kissed someone?

And immediately I have to figure out, do I tell the truth?

Basically what I'm wondering is, is everyone else in this room kissed somebody?

Because if so, now I have to lie and say yes, and I have to prepare myself for the questions that will come, which will undoubtedly be, who did you kiss?

And since no one has ever kissed me in my school, and probably never will, I have to make up a story about the time my parents took me to the far-flung land of or Pawtucket,

Rhode Island, or Woburn, and I was in a candy store, and I had a tryst by a licorice stand with a girl.

A story that did not work.

A kid once asked me, never have you ever gone to third base?

And I knew it wasn't about baseball, but that is all I knew about that question.

So I am running to these girls, and as I get close, I hear one of them say, never have I ever gone to bed without brushing my teeth.

And I sort of grind to a halt, because this is not 1985 sex and drugs, never have I ever.

This is like Paw Patrol Never Have I Ever.

It's fine.

There's nothing wrong here.

And as I turn to walk away, the girls say, Mr. Dix, you want to play Never Have I Ever?

And they explain to me that their game's a competition.

They stand on the sidewalk, and if you've never, ever done something, you take a step forward, and whoever gets to the bench first wins.

And now I'm all in, because I love competition.

I love to crush small children in games

that are utterly meaningless They're utterly meaningless so I can feel better about myself as a human being.

So I'm standing there on the line with the girls and the first girl says, never have I ever climbed a mountain.

And all three of them step forward.

I'm like, are you kidding me?

You're 10 and you've never gone up a mountain?

Like no lie, when I'm 12 I get lost in the white mountains of New Hampshire for two days and nobody cares including me.

They've never climbed a mountain before?

And the next girl says, never have I ever gone to bed without a nightlight on.

And I think, oh my god, lady, don't say that, because we're all going to make fun of you for it.

And then I realize, oh my god, I'm the only one who's going to make fun of her for this.

Like this group of children that I'm taking care of, they're so different than I was.

Like they've taken all their daggers and put them away.

They're sweet.

They're accepting.

It's not all good.

No, no, it's not all good.

Like they, this generation of children can't get ten feet from a water

bottle without being They're the most hydrated group of kids I've ever met in my entire life.

It is a nightmare.

They can't go through my math lessons without a squishy thing or a stuffed animal.

I had a girl last week in my math lesson with a blanket wrapped around her.

I said, what's up with the blanket?

She said, it makes me happy during math.

I said, math isn't happy.

It's awful.

It's hard.

It's onerous.

I would have loved to have a water bottle and a blanket

and a stuffed animal during math when I was a kid.

All I had was angst and despair.

It made me who I am.

I can't stand these kids.

And I'm losing the game because I have done everything and they've done nothing.

So they're nine steps ahead of me.

And then the tallest girl says, never have I ever met my father's expectations.

And I think that is nonsense because I know your fathers.

They're all fine men.

What are you talking about?

And one of the girls says, well, I'm a swimmer and when I get a PR in the pool and I come out, my dad's happy for me.

But then he says, but just imagine how much better you could have been

if you had nailed the kick turn on the third lap.

And the next girl says, well, I mastered my multiplication facts last month, and when I came home to my dad, he said, that's great, but why didn't you do it in October when you were supposed to?

And the third one says, my dad always tells me how I can be better, and I know he does it because he loves me, but it never feels like love.

And now I'm panicking, I'm thinking, what about my children, Charlie and Clara?

Have I ever told them that they've met my expectations?

They never have.

I mean, they don't even come close.

But how have I at least fooled them into believing that they occasionally meet my expectations?

And so as I'm panicking about this situation, the tall girl says, Mr. Dix, have you ever met your father's expectations?

And I catch for a minute.

I don't know what to say.

But then I know exactly what to say, because I've been working with kids for 25 years as a teacher, and I know they're more capable than we all know.

And so I tell her, I say, my father left when I was seven and he never came back.

And so I don't think he ever had expectations for me.

And three hands reach out and they grab my wrist and they pull me forward.

And that girl says, that counts, Mr. Dix.

And then she tells me, I'm sorry your father abandoned you when you were a kid.

And it is crazy, but from the age of 7 to 52,

100

I have basically been waiting for my father to come back.

101

And it is not until I'm on a sidewalk with a 10-year-old girl

102

that I understand for the first time that he is not coming back.

103

It is the first time I have ever in my life heard the word abandoned used to describe what happened to me.

104

And it is the first time ever that a human being has ever said to me, I'm sorry that happened to you.

105

My friends have said, that sucked, it was terrible.

106

I know that my wife hates what happened to me as a boy.

107

But that 10-year-old girl, she was the first person to tell me, I am sorry for what happened to you when you were seven.

108

When people ask me today why I am still a public school teacher after 25 years, with all of the unspeakable,

109

ridiculous, nonsensical, impossible things that school teachers go through today,

110

and with, quite honestly, all the other opportunities I have to leave a classroom and go do other things with my life,

111

my answer is always immediate and simple.

112

I love kids, but far more important than that,

113

kids understand me, and they speak truth to me, and they love me.

114

Thank you.

115

Thank you.

116

Thank you.

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Matthew Dix.

Phương Pháp Shadowing Là Gì?

Shadowing là kỹ thuật học ngôn ngữ có cơ sở khoa học, ban đầu được phát triển cho chương trình đào tạo phiên dịch viên chuyên nghiệp và được phổ biến rộng rãi bởi nhà đa ngôn ngữ học Dr. Alexander Arguelles. Nguyên lý cốt lõi đơn giản nhưng cực kỳ hiệu quả: bạn nghe tiếng Anh của người bản xứ và lặp lại to ngay lập tức — như một "cái bóng" (shadow) đuổi theo người nói với độ trễ chỉ 1–2 giây. Khác với luyện ngữ pháp hay học từ vựng bị động, Shadowing buộc não bộ và cơ miệng phải đồng thời xử lý và tái tạo ngôn ngữ thực tế. Các nghiên cứu khoa học xác nhận phương pháp này cải thiện đáng kể phát âm, ngữ điệu, nhịp điệu, nối âm, kỹ năng nghe và độ lưu loát khi nói — đặc biệt hiệu quả cho người luyện IELTS Speaking và muốn giao tiếp tiếng Anh tự nhiên như người bản ngữ.

Luyện nói tiếng Anh bằng Shadowing qua video: Matthew Dicks at The Moth GrandSLAM Championship | A Masterclass in Storytelling

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Phương Pháp Shadowing Là Gì?