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Shadowing practice: How to Find Fulfilling Work

Listen to the line, then say it out loud
Line 1

Full transcript

  1. The idea that work might be fulfilling rather than just painfully necessary is a strikingly recent invention.0:01
  2. Opened Dr Johnson's celebrated dictionary published in 1755 and the word fulfilment doesn't even appear.0:09
  3. Nowadays in the prosperous world, we don't only expect to obtain money through our labour, we also, to a greater or lesser extent, expect to find meaning and satisfaction.0:16
  4. It's a big ask and helps to explain why so many of us have career crises, often on a Sunday evening as the sun begins to set.0:26
  5. To help us on the quest for fulfilling work, here are six useful ideas.0:34
  6. Firstly, accept that being confused about careers is perfectly normal.0:38
  7. In the pre -industrial world, there were at most some two thousand different trades out there.0:43
  8. Nowadays, there are estimated to be half a million different options.0:48
  9. The result, we can become so anxious about making the wrong choice, we end up making no choice at all.0:52
  10. Psychologists call this the paradox of choice, paralysis stemming from too many options.0:57
  11. We should acknowledge that confusion is natural and fear entirely normal, but let neither of these scupper our chances forever.1:02
  12. Secondly, know yourself.1:10
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  1. It's the oldest philosophical recommendation and is of particular relevance to careers.1:12
  2. For 99 % of us, knowing what we want to do doesn't arise spontaneously, like for example knowing what to eat.1:17
  3. Most of us don't have a calling, we don't hear a commanding godlike voice directing us to accountancy or packaging and distribution.1:24
  4. That isn't to say we don't have tastes or inclinations, we just don't know them clearly enough, which is a perilous position to be in, as not having a plan1:31
  5. quickly puts us at the mercy of those who do have one.1:38
  6. We only catch glimpses, little hints of our tastes, so what we have to do is learn to pick up on their faint sounds.1:42
  7. Start by parking any concerns for money for a time, financial panic too often kills all dialogue with the more authentic, passionate sides of one's nature.1:48
  8. Write down, without being too logical or analytical about it, everything you've ever enjoyed doing or making, which might include building a tree house or sorting out the winter clothes,1:57
  9. the weirder and more offbeat the list the better.2:06
  10. In the long and confused tangle that follows, there will somewhere be the shape of an ideal future working self, but it'll be very messed up and in need of2:09
  11. being analysed thoroughly.2:17
  12. That's where philosophy comes in.2:19
  13. Philosophy is the art of clearing up and demanding logic of our first thoughts.2:21
  14. Thirdly, think a lot.2:26
  15. If it might take a couple of days, even a week, to choose a new car, it could fairly take a year or more of sustained daily reflection to start2:28
  16. to identify a career that fits.2:35
  17. We tend to feel guilty about this, imagining we're being self -indulgent, far from it.2:37
  18. We may need to empty every weekend for months to sort out the biggest conundrum of our lives.2:42
  19. To make sure we don't continue to spend the rest of our lives trapped in a job unwittingly chosen for us by our unknowing 16 year old selves, we need2:46
  20. to be properly generous about the amount of time we'll need to give this.2:54
  21. Fourthly, try something.2:58
  22. It's tempting to imagine we'll be able to work out the shape of the workplace and of our own characters simply through a pure process of reflection, but we need3:00
  23. data and we only understand ourselves and others by colliding with the real world in the process getting to know both it and our own natures.3:08
  24. We need to take small, non -irrevocable steps to gather information, for example by shadowing, interning or volunteering.3:16
  25. We mustn't think we always have to resign on Monday.3:23
  26. We can investigate our futures through branching projects on the side of existing jobs.3:25
  27. Five, reflect on what makes people unhappy.3:30
  28. Every successful business is at heart an attempt to solve someone else's problem.3:34
  29. The bigger and more urgent the problem, the greater the opportunity.3:38
  30. To flex your entrepreneurial muscles, consider an average day and everything in it that might make someone unhappy, from losing the house keys to finding the food a little greasy3:42
  31. to arguing yet again with their spouse.3:50
  32. Each of these is a business opportunity waiting to be exploited.3:53
  33. It's a chance for us to serve, which is what work really is.3:57
  34. It's easy to imagine that everything's been done and tried.4:00
  35. Nonsense.4:03
  36. We're unhappy enough for capitalism to have many more centuries of invention and creativity to it.4:04
  37. Six, be confident.4:10
  38. So many bad self -help books are about confidence.4:12
  39. It can be tempting to dismiss the whole topic as nonsense, but in a peculiar and rather humbling way, it truly does seem as if the difference between success and4:14
  40. failure is sometimes nothing less than the courage to give it a go.4:22
  41. The ability to imagine oneself into a role, to surmise one doesn't need to ask anyone for permission.4:26
  42. That many of the top positions simply belong to those who dare to boldly ask for them.4:31
  43. A lack of confidence is at heart a misunderstanding of the way the world works.4:36
  44. It's an internalised feudalism which imagines that only certain people, but not oneself, have the right, preordained to get certain things.4:40
  45. It isn't true, as we know, a lot more is possible than we might think at our moments of timidity and doubt.4:48
  46. That's the start of the path towards a job we won't regret on our deathbeds, which should always be the ultimate criterion.4:54

British narration on career fulfilment: english speaking practice at B2 pace

This is a narrated video essay from The School of Life, spoken in a British accent at 208 words per minute, faster than 67% of the catalogue. It sits at CEFR B2, so expect long sentences with several clauses rather than short exchanges. There is no dialogue, one speaker builds an argument about why fulfilling work is a modern expectation, opening with Dr Johnson's 1755 dictionary and moving into the paradox of choice.

The single unbroken voice and the pace make it a good clip for british english pronunciation practice, since stress and pause carry the argument rather than turn taking. Because the sentences run long, it also rewards learners who want to speak english fluently in full clauses, not just in short phrases.

The sentences in this clip on fulfilling work: three lines worth shadowing this line

Three lines from the opening show why this clip is worth this kind of english shadowing practice rather than a quick read.

  • "The idea that work might be fulfilling rather than just painfully necessary is a strikingly recent invention." The claim rides on one word, strikingly, sitting right before the noun it modifies. Shadow it and match where the stress lands.
  • "Psychologists call this the paradox of choice, paralysis stemming from too many options." Two technical nouns back to back, paradox and paralysis, plus the phrase stemming from, which learners often recognise on the page but rarely produce out loud.
  • "Start by parking any concerns for money for a time, financial panic too often kills all dialogue with the more authentic, passionate sides of one's nature." One long sentence with no pause beyond the commas, good practice for holding breath control across a full clause before the voice drops on nature.

A line by line order for practising this clip on finding fulfilling work

Work through the clip in the order the ideas arrive rather than jumping around, this keeps the english speaking practice tied to the argument instead of isolated sentences.

  • Start at line 1 and shadow it alone five times, "strikingly recent invention" is the phrase to get comfortable with first.
  • Line 5, "To help us on the quest for fulfilling work, here are six useful ideas," is the hinge of the whole clip, everything after is one of six points, so anchor here before line 6.
  • Take lines 6 through 11 as one block, the first of the six ideas, ending on "let neither of these scupper our chances forever", a natural stopping point to check your own recording against the original.
  • Lines 12 to 19 are the second idea, know yourself, slow down on line 15, "we don't hear a commanding godlike voice directing us to accountancy or packaging and distribution", the two examples at the end are where most learners lose the rhythm.
  • Repeat line 19 on its own once you can say lines 12 to 19 in one pass, it is the longest sentence in this stretch and the best one for improving your english accent on stacked clauses before you continue into the rest of the clip.
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