How to Choose a YouTube Video for Your Level
Choosing the right video is the most important step in shadowing. This guide helps you find videos at your level so you learn without getting discouraged.
Why choosing the right video matters
When you practise shadowing (listening and echoing), the video you choose largely decides your success. A video that's too hard leaves you confused, stumbling, and quick to quit. One that's too easy gives you no new words or pronunciation to improve. The goal is the "just a little beyond you" zone — challenging enough to grow, but not so hard you give up.
The good news: with TryShadowing you can practise with any YouTube video. So the single most important skill is knowing how to choose the right one.
The 80% rule for checking difficulty
A simple test: play the video and listen for about a minute without looking at the captions. If you understand around 80% of it, that's your ideal video. The other 20% is exactly what you'll learn.
- Understand under 50%: too hard — save it for later.
- Understand 90–100%: a bit easy — good for building fluency and intonation.
- Understand around 80%: perfect for learning while you shadow.
Don't rush ahead. Choosing a video at your level lets you repeat many times while staying comfortable.
Suggestions by level
Beginner (A1–A2)
Choose videos that are slow and clear, with visuals and accurate English captions. Some ideas:
- Videos that teach English for beginners
- Simple children's storytelling channels
- Short conversations on everyday topics (greetings, shopping, ordering food)
Prefer short videos, 1–3 minutes. You'll shadow the whole thing without burning out.
Intermediate (B1–B2)
Now you can move to more natural content:
- Everyday vlogs and gentle podcasts
- Short interviews and explainer videos
- TED-Ed lessons or short TED talks
Pick speakers with a clear voice and a moderate pace. Start getting used to how native speakers link sounds and stress words.
Advanced (C1–C2)
Challenge yourself with:
- Talk shows and stand-up comedy
- Fast podcasts and debates
- Films and series full of slang and colloquial speech
The goal here is to catch the rhythm, emotion and subtle nuances of natural speech.
Other things to look for
Audio quality. Avoid videos with background noise, loud music, or muffled recording. When shadowing, you need to hear each sound clearly to reproduce it.
The accent you want. If your goal is an American accent, choose American speakers. Staying consistent with one accent early on makes your pronunciation more stable.
A topic you love. This is underrated but crucial. If you're into cooking, football or tech, pick videos on that. Genuine interest keeps you repeating — the heart of shadowing.
A sensible length. Instead of a 20-minute video, pick a 2–5 minute clip and practise it thoroughly. Repeating a short clip many times beats watching a long video once.
Start small and adjust
Don't worry if your first pick isn't perfect. Treat each video as an experiment: too hard, drop to something easier; too easy, level up.
A great tip is to split a long video into small chunks and shadow each until it flows, then move on.
Once you've found a video you like, open TryShadowing, paste the YouTube link, and start. Choosing the right video is half the battle — the other half is repeating it a little every day. You can also browse by level or by topic to find your fit.