Many influencers are telling you that shadowing, or simultaneously repeating English content as you hear it, is the best way to improve listening and speaking.

許多有影響力的人都告訴你，跟讀，或在聽到英語內容時同時複述，是提高聽力和口語的最佳方法。

They claim that's how interpreters practice.

他們聲稱這就是口譯員的工作方式。

As a professional interpreter, I'm here to tell you they are wrong.

作為一名專業口譯員，我要告訴你，他們錯了。

Hello everyone, my name's Carrie.

大家好，我叫卡莉。

I spent 13 years as a conference interpreter working with leaders like Warren Buffett and Ray Dalio, and for organizations like the UN Goldman Sachs.

我曾擔任過 13 年的會議口譯員，與沃倫-巴菲特（Warren Buffett）和雷-達里奧（Ray Dalio）等領導人以及聯合國高盛集團（Goldman Sachs）等組織共事。

Now, I coach busy professionals like you to improve their English communication skills and build confidence at work.

現在，我指導像您這樣繁忙的專業人士提高英語交流技能，在工作中建立自信。

Before I dive in, let me clarify something important.

在我深入探討之前，請允許我澄清一些重要的事情。

There are actually two different practices that people both call shadowing.

實際上有兩種不同的做法，人們都稱之為影子教學。

The first type of shadowing is the interpreter-style shadowing.

第一種陰影是解釋器式陰影。

This is where you try to repeat everything simultaneously as you hear it, with minimum delay.

這時，你要儘量在聽到的同時重複所有內容，將延遲降到最低。

By the way, there's nothing wrong with the audio here.

順便說一句，這裡的音頻沒有任何問題。

What you are hearing right now is me shadowing myself.

你們現在聽到的是我自己的影子。

Many influencers are promoting this.

許多有影響力的人都在推廣這一點。

They claim this is how interpreters practice and get good at listening and speaking.

他們聲稱，口譯員就是這樣練習和掌握聽力和口語的。

This is what we are discussing today, and I will tell you why they are wrong.

這就是我們今天要討論的問題，我會告訴你為什麼他們錯了。

The second type of shadowing is the listen and repeat practice.

第二種影子練習是聆聽和重複練習。

When you listen to a sentence from an audio clip, and then you pause that audio clip, and then you repeat what you just heard, this is actually a very, very useful practice, and it's not what we are talking about today.

當你聽完一個音頻片段中的一句話，然後暫停該音頻片段，然後重複你剛才聽到的內容，這實際上是一種非常非常有用的練習，但這並不是我們今天要討論的內容。

Now we're clear on what type of shadowing we are talking about.

現在我們清楚了我們在談論哪種類型的陰影。

Let me explain why shadowing is not the best way to improve your listening or speaking.

讓我來解釋一下為什麼影子教學不是提高聽力和口語的最佳方法。

First of all, I need you to do something for me.

首先，我需要你為我做一件事。

Think back to when you first learned to drive.

回想一下你第一次學開車的情景。

You probably feel very stressed out by just keeping the car straight.

光是保持車身平直，你就可能感到壓力山大。

Your hands are tense on the steering wheel, you're nervous about drifting too close to other cars, you're constantly making small adjustments just to stay centered.

你的手緊張地握著方向盤，你擔心漂移時太靠近其他車輛，你不斷地做著微小的調整，只為保持中心位置。

Now imagine when you are struggling with that.

現在想象一下，當你為此苦苦掙扎的時候。

Your driving instructor, me, starts yelling at you.

你的駕駛教練，也就是我，開始對你大喊大叫。

Check your mirror, look at the traffic light, look at that car, make a U-turn right now.

看看後視鏡，看看紅綠燈，看看那輛車，馬上掉頭。

Now you will freeze.

現在你會凍僵。

You won't be able to do any of those tasks well, and now you cannot even stay in your lane anymore.

你將無法很好地完成這些任務中的任何一項，現在你甚至無法再保持自己的狀態。

That's exactly what happens when you try shadowing English.

這正是你嘗試跟班學習英語的結果。

Most of you are still struggling a little bit with just listening comprehension.

你們中的大多數人還在為聽力理解而苦苦掙扎。

When native speakers talk fast, your brain is already working overtime to try to understand and catch every word, even with 100% focus.

當以英語為母語的人語速很快時，你的大腦已經在加班加點地試圖理解和抓住每一個單詞，即使是在 100% 集中注意力的情況下。

Fully understanding fast and complex English is very, very stressful.

要完全理解快速而複雜的英語，壓力非常非常大。

Now with shadowing, you are forcing your overwhelmed brain to do Mission Impossible.

現在有了陰影，你就得強迫自己不堪重負的大腦去完成不可能完成的任務。

Now you not only have to understand and catch everything you hear, you also are trying to speak at the same time and monitor if you sound right, because you are also practicing speaking at the same time, right?

現在，你不僅要理解和抓住聽到的一切，還要同時嘗試說話，並監測自己的聲音是否正確，因為你也在同時練習說話，對嗎？

Coordinate your mouth with your ears and somehow keep up with the speed.

協調好嘴巴和耳朵，以某種方式跟上速度。

The end result is that you cannot do anything well.

最終的結果是，你什麼都做不好。

I know some of you are thinking, but Carrie, interpreters use shadowing.

我知道你們中有些人在想，但是 Carrie，口譯員會使用影子翻譯。

If that's what professional interpreter use for training, it must work.

如果這就是專業口譯員的訓練方法，那一定行之有效。

No, we don't use it for training.

不，我們不用它來訓練。

I studied at one of the best interpreting programs in the world.

我曾就讀於世界上最好的口譯專業之一。

You know what?

你知道嗎？

Barely did any shadowing.

幾乎沒有任何陰影。

And I also talked to many of the top interpreters I worked with in the market.

我還與市場上與我共事的許多頂級口譯員進行了交談。

Most of them, like me, do not shadow at all, because it doesn't work.

他們中的大多數人和我一樣，根本不做影子，因為它不起作用。

Or to be more precisely, it doesn't improve your listening or speaking.

或者更準確地說，它不會提高你的聽力或口語。

Why doesn't it work?

為什麼不起作用？

Because to learn a skill or to make real progress, you need to focus.

因為要學習一門技能或取得真正的進步，你需要集中精力。

That's not just my opinion.

這不僅僅是我的觀點。

It's backed by science.

這是有科學依據的。

The world's leading expert on performance, Anders Ericsson.

世界頂級績效專家安德斯-愛立信。

You probably have heard about him because he is the writer for Peak, very, very famous book.

你可能聽說過他，因為他是《匹克》這本非常非常有名的書的作者。

He studied thousands of top performers to understand why they are different.

他研究了數以千計的傑出人士，以瞭解他們與眾不同的原因。

Why do these people make fast progress when other people make almost no progress?

為什麼這些人進步很快，而其他人卻幾乎沒有進步？

In his study, he discovered something fascinating.

在研究中，他發現了一些令人著迷的東西。

People who progress rapidly all share one key trait.

進步迅速的人都有一個共同的關鍵特徵。

They practice with laser sharp focus on one skill at a time.

他們在練習時，每次只專注於一項技能。

Meanwhile, people who don't make any progress, they try to improve multiple things simultaneously, spreading their attention to a thing.

與此同時，那些不思進取的人，卻試圖同時改進多件事情，把注意力分散到一件事情上。

Just think about it.

你想想看

Which is more powerful, a focused laser beam or a scattered flashlight?

聚焦的激光束和散射的手電筒哪個更有威力？

Now I wanna show you exactly how this will play out in real life.

現在，我想向你們展示一下在現實生活中，這到底會是怎樣發生的。

Let me tell you a story about one of my students.

讓我給你們講一個我的學生的故事。

Like many of you watching this video right now, she really believed in shadowing.

就像你們中的許多人正在觀看這段視頻一樣，她非常相信影子。

She did it for one hour every single day for six months straight.

她連續六個月每天堅持一小時。

That is some serious dedication there.

你可真夠敬業的。

But in her global team meetings, she still couldn't understand or speak up.

但在全球團隊會議上，她還是聽不懂，也說不出話來。

She was very frustrated and asked me why is she putting so much effort and is getting so little result?

她非常沮喪，問我為什麼她付出了這麼多努力卻收效甚微？

When I explained why simultaneous shadowing doesn't work, everything clicked for her.

當我向她解釋為什麼同時跟班行不通時，她才恍然大悟。

She decided to try separating her practice, focused listening sessions, and then dedicated speaking practice.

她決定嘗試將自己的練習分開，先進行集中聽力練習，然後再進行專門的口語練習。

The difference was immediate.

差異立竿見影。

First, she told me she felt so much better during practice.

首先，她告訴我她在練習時感覺好多了。

Instead of juggling multiple things at the same time, now she could actually concentrate on improving one skill at a time.

現在，她不再需要同時處理多件事情，而是可以集中精力一次提高一項技能。

Then the real results started showing.

然後，真正的成果開始顯現。

Because she could focus properly on listening practice, her meeting comprehension went up.

因為她能正確地專注於聽力練習，她的會議理解能力也隨之提高。

She could finally follow complex discussions without getting lost.

她終於可以跟上覆雜的討論，而不會迷失方向。

And because she practiced speaking separately with proper materials, her fluency improved dramatically when she spoke up.

而且，由於她使用適當的材料單獨練習說話，當她開口說話時，她的流利程度顯著提高。

This is what real progress look like.

這才是真正的進步。

Let me be brutally honest with you.

讓我對你們說句殘酷的實話。

The only thing that should matter to a professional like you is real progress, not how trendy your practice method is, not how many social media likes it gets, and definitely not the moment of pride when you show off your shadowing skills to your friends.

對你這樣的專業人士來說，唯一重要的應該是實實在在的進步，而不是你的練習方法有多新潮，不是你的練習方法在社交媒體上獲得了多少點贊，更不是你向朋友炫耀你的影子技能時的那一刻自豪感。

Let me say this again.

讓我再說一遍。

None of these translate to real results.

這些都沒有轉化為實際成果。

None of this will save you when it's time for you to actually perform at work.

當你真正開始工作時，這些都救不了你。

Your boss doesn't care if you spend hours doing the most popular practice technique.

你的老闆並不在乎你是否花幾個小時去練習最流行的技巧。

Your boss cares if you can lead the global meeting without missing a beat.

你的老闆關心的是你能否不失時機地上司全球會議。

Your clients don't give a damn about your fancy shadowing skills.

你的客戶根本不在乎你花哨的跟班技能。

They need you to solve their urgent problems as fast as possible.

他們需要您儘快解決他們的緊急問題。

And your colleagues, they don't give a shit about how many hours you've spent practicing shadowing.

至於你的同事，他們才不管你花了多少時間進行影子練習。

They care if you can explain that complex technical issue in a way that saves them time.

他們關心的是，你能否以一種節省他們時間的方式解釋複雜的技術問題。

So stop lying to yourself about your progress.

所以，不要再自欺欺人了。

At the end of the day, the only thing that matters is can you actually perform at work.

歸根結底，唯一重要的是你能否真正完成工作。

Now, I'll be fair.

現在，我說句公道話。

If you are getting real results with shadowing, if your meeting engagement is getting better, if your presentations are getting better, if you are getting more clients, keep doing it.

如果你的跟班學習取得了實際效果，如果你的會議參與度越來越高，如果你的演講越來越好，如果你的客戶越來越多，那就繼續做下去。

Clearly it's working for you.

顯然，這對你很有效。

But if you're like 99% of the people that I talk to who are frustrated with their progress, please stop shadowing.

但如果你和我交談過的 99% 的人一樣，對自己的進步感到沮喪，請停止跟班學習。

If you want to learn the practices that actually work, check out this video.

如果您想了解真正有效的做法，請觀看這段視頻。

In this video, I talked about the three highest impact practices that actually work.

在這段視頻中，我談到了三種實際有效的影響最大的做法。

These practices are not fancy or sexy as shadowing, but they will give you real results.

這些做法不像跟班學習那樣花哨或性感，但會給你帶來實實在在的效果。

I'll see you in the next video.

我們下期視頻再見。