Shadowing Practice: AC/DC Drummer Chris Slade Believes in One God for all Religions - Learn English Speaking with Video

Creating lesson...
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Hello this is Chris Slade, drummer from ACDC and you're watching Bending Reality TV.
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So what's been your experience of life from the perspective of being a rock drummer?
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You know I've traveled a lot and especially on buses
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and things and planes and I've been doing this for about 45 years
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and the great thing with that is that you can read.
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So I used to read all sorts of esoteric books.
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I started off with martial arts in the mid 60s And that philosophy from the martial arts took me into meditation.
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I used to meditate on the road.
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I was also a vegetarian.
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I'm not anymore, but I was right through the 70s.
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And that meditation, anything that was Zen meditation,
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anything that was a mystery appealed to me.
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I did lots of martial arts such as Karate, Aikido, Jodo, Iaido which is sword drawing.
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I did Kyudo for about 12 years which is Japanese archery.
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And in the last few years I've done Tai Chi,
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which is a really fantastic, complete system.
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I was just talking about it to one of my friends who's thinking I've started it
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and I couldn't recommend that more highly.
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Tai Chi or Qi Gong is a wonderful practice.
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And that brings with it a different perspective to the rock world, if you like.
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Anything cosmic seems to be the huge mystery.
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And for many years I didn't know why I was doing it, but I was also interested on a very,
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very layman level in quantum physics.
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And I had no idea why I like quantum physics and spirituality.
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I just.. and today, these days, they're just coming together like that.
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quantum physics and spirituality, especially say Kabbalah said, that's where I met Michael by the way,
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was at the Kabbalah Center in Los Angeles.
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I've investigated many, many pathways.
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Kabbalah said 5,000 years ago, and it was written down, that there are 10 dimensions to reality.
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And I think it was five years ago that quantum physics agreed with that.
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So then I went, bingo!
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Now I know why I've been interested in quantum physics.
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The first book I read on quantum physics was The Dancing Wu Li Masters.
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Gary Zukov, I think, was the writer.
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And that explained it beautifully.
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So those sort of books I've been reading all my life.
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The first thing I saw, I'll never forget, was in Liverpool when I was about 18 or 19 is my guess.
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And it was late at night and I looked in the book and this word, this book was turned the wrong way around and I looked at this word and I thought, What is that word?
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And the word was Zen.
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And it was a book written by Christmas Humphreys, a British judge actually, who was head of the Buddhist society.
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And that word just absolutely fascinated me.
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What Zen?
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It doesn't even make sense.
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What is it?
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And that was my first taste of thinking.
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You can almost say I was attracted to that book because of past lives or something. Who knows?
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But in those days Zen was not a very popular subject.
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Nobody knew what Zen was back then.
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Mid 60s, you know, no way.
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I was brought up as a Christian in the Church of England.
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I would call myself more of a Buddhist today.
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And I think it doesn't matter what religion we should all get on anyway there is one God it's
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that God it doesn't matter whether you're Jewish or Afghani that
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that God is there and we can see it as we look into the universe I think.
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I went to Afghanistan actually and I looked up at the sky,
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this was about three years ago and I couldn't believe what I saw.
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I've sailed a little bit and I've seen the sky
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and sea on the mountain top was just unbelievable there wasn't
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a point between the stars it was like an ocean of
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stars unbelievable I've never seen anything like it not even in the movies
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so I'm sort of waffling on a little bit here
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but the Zen thing led me into meditation as I said I used to meditate twice a day.
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I've done a lot of self work.

Why This Clip Is Great for Speaking Practice

This video features Chris Slade sharing personal stories with a relaxed, conversational tone—perfect for IELTS speaking practice and honing natural speech patterns. The mix of anecdotes, specific details (like martial arts and quantum physics), and reflective thoughts provides diverse vocabulary and sentence structures. Its pace is moderate, making it ideal for shadowing technique exercises, where you mimic pronunciation, intonation, and rhythm. The content also sparks critical thinking, helping you practice organizing ideas coherently, a key IELTS skill.

Breaking Down Natural Speech

Let’s analyze a few lines to see why they sound authentic: 1. “I used to read all sorts of esoteric books.” The phrase “used to” smoothly conveys past habits, and “all sorts of” adds a casual, native touch—avoiding stiff phrases like “many types of.” 2. “I’m not anymore, but I was right through the 70s.” Short, conversational clauses (“I’m not anymore”) and time references (“right through the 70s”) mirror how people speak in real life, prioritizing clarity over formality. 3. “Who knows? But in those days Zen was not a very popular subject.” Rhetorical questions (“Who knows?”) and transitions like “But” create flow, showing how speakers connect ideas naturally. These elements are easy to mimic with shadow speak to improve fluency.

A Simple Shadowing Practice Routine

Try this loop to master the dialogue:

  1. Watch the video once to understand the context.
  2. Play a 5-second clip, pause, and repeat it aloud using the shadowing technique—focus on matching Slade’s tone and pauses.
  3. Record yourself, then compare to the original. Note differences in stress (e.g., “fantastic complete system”) and intonation (rising at the end of questions like “What is it?”).
  4. Move to longer clips (10–15 seconds) as you improve, focusing on connecting ideas smoothly.
This routine builds confidence in speaking extemporaneously, a must for IELTS speaking practice. Over time, you’ll notice your speech sounds more natural, with better rhythm and vocabulary range—skills that shine in exams and real conversations.

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.