Shadowing Shawn Achor

• Level: B2–C1
• Accent: American
• Length: 12 min · 162 lines to practise
• Speed: about 210 words a minute (faster than most talks)
• Words: about 2,520; the talk asks 8 questions
• Timing: Sada measures how far behind the speaker you are on every line

What to focus on in this talk

The fastest talk on this list — practise at 0.75× first. Asides like “I mean, I’m two years older than her now” are thrown away quickly; at first aim to keep every word audible, and only then to keep up with him.

What this talk trains

Shawn Achor speaks for about 12 minutes: roughly 2,520 words in 162 caption lines. The pace stays fairly even, about 211 words a minute in the first quarter and 217 in the last. Overall it is faster than 65 of the other 66 talks on Sada. Its sentences average 19.2 words, longer than the middle of the library (14.3), and 15.5% of its words fall outside the 3,000 most common English words (library middle: 12.9%). It asks 8 questions, so there is plenty of question intonation to copy. Phrases that fast speech often shortens come up again and again: “want to” (4 times) and “have to” (4 times).

Lines from across the talk, and what each one trains

One line from each quarter of the talk. Press a line to open it in Sada, ready to record. “Linking” marks words that run together: a word ending in a consonant sound joins the vowel that starts the next one.

1. 1:57 I said, "Amy, wait. Don't cry. Did you see how you landed?

   “did you”: fast speech often shortens it to “didja”. Listen for whether the speaker does here. A question: listen to where the voice rises or falls at the end, and copy it.

2. 5:16 Whatever it is, instead of deleting you, what I want to do is study you.

   “want to”: fast speech often shortens it to “wanna” when a verb follows. Listen for whether the speaker does here. Linking: say “Whatever it”, “it is”, “instead of” without a break between the words.

3. 6:35 When I got a military scholarship two weeks later, they let me go.

   “let me”: fast speech often shortens it to “lemme”. Listen for whether the speaker does here. Linking: say “When I”, “got a” without a break between the words.

4. 10:27 Your brain at positive is 31% more productive than your brain at negative, neutral or stressed.

   Linking: say “brain at”, “brain at”, “neutral or” without a break between the words. A number (31): practise saying it at the speaker’s speed.

Words that keep coming up

Words outside the 3,000 most common English words that Shawn Achor uses more than once. The number is how often each is said. Look up any you don’t know, then press it to practise the line where it first comes up.

• happiness ×14
• sister ×7
• formula ×6
• bunk ×5
• unicorn ×5
• graph ×5
• classroom ×4
• reverse ×4

How the pace changes through the talk

The fastest minute starts at 0:15 (about 238 words a minute): practise that minute once the rest feels easy. The slowest starts at 5:27 (about 184): a good minute to warm up with.

Measured from the caption timing, so the numbers are close, not exact.

How the talk opens: press any line to practise it

1. 0:15 When I was seven years old and my sister was just five years old, we were playing on top of a bunk bed.
2. 0:21 I was two years older than my sister at the time -- I mean, I'm two years older than her now --
3. 0:26 but at the time it meant she had to do everything that I wanted to do,
4. 0:29 and I wanted to play war.
5. 0:31 So we were up on top of our bunk beds.
6. 0:33 And on one side of the bunk bed, I had put out all of my G.I. Joe soldiers and weaponry.

How to practise this talk

1. Warm up on the slowest minute (from 5:27) or on the opening lines above.
2. Then take the chosen lines above one at a time: a shortened phrase, a question, linked words, a number.
3. On each line, press Record and say it after Shawn Achor (Repeat) or along with them (Shadow), then open Compare and go again until every word is green.
4. Save the fastest minute (from 0:15, about 238 words a minute) for last.
5. At one minute a day you finish the whole talk in about 12 days, and Sada shows your first try against your latest.

More talks to practise

• Elizabeth Gilbert — Success, Failure and the Drive to Keep Creating (B2–C1 · 210 words a minute · same level)
• Derek Sivers — Weird, or Just Different? (B2–C1 · 205 words a minute · same level)
• Dan Gilbert — Why We Make Bad Decisions (C1 · 195 words a minute · same accent)
• Terri Trespicio — Stop Searching for Your Passion (B2 · 191 words a minute · same accent)

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