@ProfASAr
Hello Steve! I hope you have been well since last we met in person at the conference in Japan a few years back. Someone just now informed me that you had made this video about a month ago. Thank you so much for being open minded and giving this technique another try! For your own information and that of your viewers who are interested, I have rather recently begun making videos again, and last fall I made four more videos about shadowing that demonstrate it and discuss it in far more detail than the Chinese bridge march video does. I'd put the links here but am afraid it might send this comment to spam. One is called Advanced Shadowing, the other Shadowing Demonstration: Ojibwe in Bemidji State Park; then there are two that take questions and answers about these. If you are still exploring and experimenting with this technique, one quick hint for you is to close your eyes when you do it while seated (to block out visual distractions). If you would like, I would be happy to give you a one-on-one tutorial in the technique.
@lifeinbetween97
My native language is Persian. And I used Shadowing technique to improve my pronunciation and fluency of English. I think it really helped me to become aware of my weak spots and I tried to imrove them. Most of my friends notice that my pronunciation is getting better.
@TheCompleteGuitarist
I learnt of this technique from Alexander Argüelles' videos. It's difficult but powerful. I use it to help with my Spanish. Children use this method. I live in Uruguay and we have a 5 year old grandson and he shadows me when I speak even though his native language is Spanish. He often repeats without knowing what he's saying but he's learning phrases from English speaking movies and using the language contextually. The other day while walking on the beach he suddenly blurted out "wait for me" and I wondered where it came from. Today I heard the expression in one of his favourite movies (that he re-matches over and again). Shadowing is similar to the method of transcribing music where musicians learn other songs by ear and play along note for note. I am also a music/improvisation teacher and we do this constantly.
@lonewolfMBI
Hey Steve, you did pretty well in Persian (I'm a native speaker by the way) First of all congratulations, and keep it up. I'm a huge fan of your content. Secondly, I think the things you're listening to are pretty complex. As a Persian speaker we don't talk a lot about those historical subjects. Maybe that's why you feel stuck speaking with Iranians. But I know (from consuming a lot of your content) you're a fan of history and I can guess that's why you've chosen this. But your pronunciation is pretty clear and I enjoy listening to you, speaking my native language. Good luck.
@corinavalderrama868
Hello, Steve! I'm a Spanish native speaker. I've learned English for so many years and I've been learning French for a bit more than three years now. I'd never heard about this shadowing technique before, not even when I was learning English so many years ago, but what I've found is that I usually tend to repeat (shadow) the content that I've been listening to so many times. That is to say that it comes a time when I am naturally inclined to shadow it, and I do it precisely when I go out for a walk while taking my dog to the park. So I mean this shadowing technique could be, in fact, just a natural tendency for most of us to start preparing ourselves to speak in our target language and in that way we could benefit from it as it is something that we really feel like doing it at some point. But I think it works only if you have previously heard the material many times so your brain is already used to the content and you understand the message. At least, that has been my experience so far and I like it because I feel it is part of my workout to start speaking. Thank you very much for sharing your experience in learning languages. It really helps us a lot.
@tomdoesstuff1978
It is good to see your open mindedness with this method Steve. I too have gone back and forth over whether to utilise shadowing when learning languages but concluded that the professor comes from an academic background and appears to be both highly analytical and an accomplished polyglot (as you are, of course) therefore there must be something to what he is saying/doing. It will be interesting to see your experience with this as time goes on.
@azizazicojan3979
It's just a fantabulous technique! I've been doing shadowing of short stories in English for 3 months, and I really feel the progress I've made. I've become way more fluent. Plus, reading aloud for an hour every day will help you nail it completely. Besides, it looks like my listening got better. It's a bit challenging, but it's worth doing.
@husseinhashim1973
Hi I did shadowing method with English,, thanks for God the results was astonishing,,, I became a fluent with about 1 year .. it is difficult but worthy Thanks steve .. we love you
@baranvabaharan
آقای استیو شما خیلی مهربان و دوست داشتنی هستید. You are so kind and friendly
@deansantucci9356
Like you , I’ve just started using the shadowing technique. So far the benefit I see is that I listen to my own voice and the tutor is also pointing out common pronunciation mistakes that I didn’t realize I was making .
@shinobukomaki2112
I'm really looking forward to your future videos about shadowing. I did shadowing for about 100 hours this autumn, sitting at the desk for the most part and I felt like my English had improved faster than ever. Not only I can speak and listen a lot better than before, but also I can read much faster. You're a really great linguist that speaks a number of languages, so I'm really interested in your results!
@reemmohammed2767
As an Egyptian I must say that your pronunciation was good and clear..
@joshuamarcano350
I vouch for walking. At the least being on your feet. It creates energy. Even in telemarketing great salesmen stand up and they sound more excited and convincing than the ones sitting down. I have attempted shadowing and was pacing back and forth in my house while doing it. I also do it and go for walks as well. Great video Steve-O.
@gondishapur
I have learned some Arabic by listening and watching youtube videos. I have reached possibly about 75% comprehension of the Arabic contents within the last 16 months. I use google translate to translate from English to Arabic and back (mainly the comments under the videos). There is an impasse in my effort to excel any farther. When listening to Arabic, the English meaning comes to me much easier that if I want to find an equivalent Arabic word for the English counterpart. I think that if I can breach this impasse, I might notice a substantial leap in my eventual mastery of Arabic. I am a native Persian speaker.
@gudeatoo1521
I have to say you did a pretty good job with Persian
@ahmadmayahi
I speak both Arabic and Farsi fluently, and I could say that your Farsi pronunciation is brilliant 👏🏽
@abdulmalikalzughaibi8193
مرحبًا، ستيف! شكرًا على كل شيء تقوم به، أتمنى لك التوفيق💚🇸🇦.
@melikafarzane1687
omg youre persian pronunciation is really good.
@nargesziyaee2495
The Persian part was really impressive Sir.
@Thelinguist