Shadowing Practice: Father unknown? Life as a sperm donor's child | DW Documentary - Learn English Speaking with Video
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129 oraciones
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Hannah is a single mother by choice.
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Her son was conceived through sperm donation.
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I came to the conclusion that having a child was more important to me than having a life partner.
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Leontina is also donor conceived and was shocked to find out just how many half siblings she has.
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The hardest part being donor conceived is that people think that I should be lucky to just exist exist.
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And Michael donated his sperm, a decision connecting him to dozens of children he may never know.
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I would love to see them all.
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I would love to see them, but I know it will not happen.
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Three people, one consequential decision.
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Sperm donation.
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Hannah from Sweden is living her dream.
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One year ago she became the mother of Adid.
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She's always wanted to be a mum.
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What's special about her?
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She's done it on her own, without a partner.
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Moments like this when he's sleeping or when he's running around and you can see the joy in his face, that's just pure love.
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Your heart just swells when you see him.
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So even if you love other people as well, it's not really comparable in a way.
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For years, Henna had been looking for someone.
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Then she decided to become a mother through sperm donation, partly funded by the state.
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It worked out on the fifth attempt.
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I came to the conclusion that having a child was more important to me than having a life partner.
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Like, of course I want a life partner, but I see that as a bonus.
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But having a child, I think that felt like really, really important.
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Like a life without a child for me felt empty.
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But building a family alone also means carrying the full weight of that choice.
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Alongside the joy, there have been difficult moments.
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When he was four months old, Arvid suddenly had to be taken to the hospital.
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Moments like that, when something happens, then I think it's hard to be a single mom by choice, I guess
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because you don't have anyone right there when it happens.
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Even if I have a great support system, in the end you're always a bit alone.
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Since 2016, single women like Hanna can legally become mothers in Sweden.
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It was one of the first countries to implement the scheme.
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By now, most other European states allow it.
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But especially in Central and Eastern Europe, it still remains illegal, like in Austria, Czech Republic, Italy, Lithuania, Poland and Slovakia.
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At this sperm bank in Sweden, couples and single mothers receive sperm donations.
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Stored in liquid nitrogen, each sample is carefully preserved.
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Lab head Ashling-Alström explains to us that only about 5-7% of men end up being approved donors.
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Many have a good quality sperm, but they still have to get through all these testing and screening.
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It's a good way of making sure that we're not just taking in any sample.
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Potential donors are screened not only physically but also psychologically.
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Sweden wants to make sure that they are donating responsibly and in a fully thought-out way.
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Here, every donor might one day be contacted by their offspring as Sweden banned anonymous sperm donation in 1985.
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It was thought donors would be more reluctant, but we haven't really been affected by the fact that they're non-anonymous.
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Maybe it's a cultural contribution, they feel like they're doing this as altruism.
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Many of them think it's something nice to do for the society and for people.
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Leontina was conceived through sperm donation in the 90s.
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knows what uncertainty about your heritage feels like.
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At the time, single women were not allowed to access sperm donation in Sweden.
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Her mother travelled to Denmark and used an anonymous donor there.
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But for Leontine, he was always more than that.
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I always called him my biological father or my biological dad or just dad.
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It was important for For me to make my humour and not just a donation, it's my heritage and it's not a donation.
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And also I wasn't a part of this agreement.
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I never received a donation, my mom did.
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As a child, Leontina didn't ask herself many questions.
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But as she got older, she wanted to know more about her origins.
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She turned to an online DNA database and made a discovery.
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I always noticed I had siblings, but they were just like shadows.
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I didn't know their faces or that they had any names or that they were human.
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So it was shocking, but also fun.
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It was fun to see them and that they exist.
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It's a shift.
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At first, she found seven half-siblings.
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Then the list kept growing.
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Today, she has identified 27 spread across Europe, more than the sperm bank ever disclosed.
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And there may be more who haven't taken the test yet.
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We share something very personal, but we're still strangers.
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And they would pop up on this DNA site at any time and we don't have any control.
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They probably don't know that they are only received then they will find out.
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And it's not that fun to be part of that negative surprise.
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Limiting the number of children per donor is now a heated debate across Europe.
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As rules vary widely, eight countries led by Sweden are pushing for stricter limits, an initiative Germany has not joined.
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It currently has no legal cap.
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Critics warn stricter laws could make fertility treatment harder to access especially as birth rates fall across Europe.
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Donors like Michael want to help.
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We meet him in the Netherlands.
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He decided to donate sperm after hearing from friends who were unable to have children.
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Michael himself grew up with many siblings.
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The main reason for me was that I saw how deeply touched people can be
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when not being able to get a child of their own.
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And I knew there were a lot of techniques, and maybe I could not help my friends, but I could help other people in similar situations.
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For years, Michael donated regularly and openly, meaning any child could contact him later.
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None did.
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Eventually, he joined a DNA database and found out he's fathered 21 children.
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I've met three of them from three different families.
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And they're all very different from each other.
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But very interesting because in every child you recognize also a part of yourself, of course.
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You can see that it's a child of mine.
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But the satisfaction from helping others faded as Michael learned about scandals in the sperm donation system,
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including cases where children were never told that they were donor-conceived.
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When I was asked would I do it all over again, I would do it in a different way.
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I would say now to parents, you can have my semen and conceive a child under one condition,
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that you tell your child that you be honest to it.
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Michael supports a national and international donor register, giving people like him the chance to know what became of their donation.
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Aisling Alström agrees that a unified European donor register is needed, as well as more regulation.
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It becomes quite a large number when it's not regulated.
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And as we've seen, is it okay to have 100 genetic siblings?
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Or is it better to be regulated so that it's more of a number which you can maybe have a relationship with?
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At this clinic, they try to avoid cases of so-called superdonors, some linked to dozens or even hundreds of offspring.
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But safeguards can only go so far.
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We try to control the donors
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that are coming to our clinics in a contractual agreement where we are asking them not to donate anywhere else.
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But many of these donors may go international or may go to another country and donate.
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And that makes the numbers very hard to trace.
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Leontina knows that not all men want contact with their donor-conceived children, just as not all donor-conceived children seek contact either.
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But when they do wish to meet their biological father, that desire can often remain unfulfilled if his consent isn't given.
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I think it's a human right to know where you came from and who you're related to, and decide if you want to know them or not.
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And to know your medical history and things like that.
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It's personal information and I think it belongs to everyone.
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Avid was conceived in Sweden, where donations are identifiable by law.
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When he turns 18 he can ask for his donor's identity.
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But that doesn't mean the donor has to respond or ever meet him.
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A child needs people in their life that they feel love them unconditionally and that they feel safe with.
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But if that's one person or several persons, I think it's fine either way.
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But of course, the more persons the better.
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But it doesn't have to be a biological father.
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Many parents do not want to conceal their child's origins.
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Sperm donation is their only option.
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And they stand by their decision.
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He might be mad at me about it, that I denied him that part of his life, I guess.
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But in the end, and I think what I'm going to say to him is
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that if I hadn't chosen to do this, then there would be no you.
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There might be another child, but it wouldn't be you.
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So in the end, this is the life you got and we have to work with what we got.
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And while sperm donation is increasing in many countries, Europe is still grappling with whose rights matter most.
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Those of the parents, the donor or the child.
128
You will also get upset. Can you go down?
129
We should go to the car a little bit.
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Vocabulario y notas de pronunciación para esta lección
Este vídeo tiene 129 frases y 1631 palabras para practicar shadowing. La parte hablada dura 12:24. El hablante mantiene un ritmo constante de unas 131 palabras por minuto, cómodo para el shadowing. El 82 % de las palabras está entre las 3.000 más comunes del inglés; conviene repasar el resto antes de empezar.
Vocabulario clave de este vídeo
15 palabras del vídeo que vale la pena aprender, con su pronunciación y significado:
| Palabra | Pronunciación | Significado |
|---|---|---|
| donor sustantivo | /ˈdəʊnə/ | donador, donante |
| donation sustantivo | /doʊˈneɪʃən/ | donación, donativo |
| donate verbo | /ˈdoʊˌneɪt/ | donar, delejar |
| sibling sustantivo | /ˈsɪb.lɪŋ/ | hermano, hermana |
| biological adjetivo | /ˌbaɪ.əˈlɑ.d͡ʒɪ.kəl/ | biológico |
| anonymous adjetivo | /əˈnɒn.ə.məs/ | anónimo |
| shock sustantivo | /ʃɔk/ | choque |
| conclusion sustantivo | /kənˈkluːʒən/ | conclusión, neta |
| heritage sustantivo | /ˈhɛɹ.ɪ.tɪd͡ʒ/ | herencia, heredad |
| database sustantivo | /ˈdeɪtəˌbeɪs/ | base de datos, banco de datos |
| clinic sustantivo | /ˈklɪn.ɪk/ | clínica |
| regulate verbo | /ˈɹɛɡ.jə.leɪt/ | reglamentar |
| offspring sustantivo | /ˈɔfspɹɪŋ/ | descendencia, linaje |
| technique sustantivo | /tɛkˈniːk/ | técnica |
| carefully adverbio | /ˈkɛɹf(ə)li/ | cuidadosamente |
Phrasal verbs que vas a escuchar
| Palabra | Pronunciación | Significado |
|---|---|---|
| find out verbo | averiguar, anoticiarse | |
| end up verbo | terminar, ir a parar | |
| get through verbo | /ɡɛt ˈθɹu/ | aguantar, salir adelante |
Pronunciación a tener en cuenta
El hablante usa 23 contracciones y formas reducidas, como don't, they're, didn't. Dilas en su forma corta, tal como las oyes.
- Los sonidos de “sh” y “zh”: donation /doʊˈneɪʃən/, shock /ʃɔk/, conclusion /kənˈkluːʒən/, shadow /ˈʃædəʊ̯/, regulation /ˌɹɛɡjʊˈleɪʃən/
- Palabras largas — cuida el acento: biological /ˌbaɪ.əˈlɑ.d͡ʒɪ.kəl/, anonymous /əˈnɒn.ə.məs/, regulation /ˌɹɛɡjʊˈleɪʃən/, initiative /ɪˈnɪʃ.ə.tɪv/, contribution /ˌkɑntɹɪˈbjuʃən/
Cómo practicar con este vídeo
- Escucha el vídeo entero una vez sin hablar y anota las palabras que no conoces.
- Haz shadowing frase por frase a velocidad normal, repitiendo cada una hasta que tu ritmo coincida con el del hablante.
- Grábate y compara con el original, prestando atención a palabras como donor, donation, donate.
Gramática en este vídeo
Las estructuras que más usa el hablante, con las palabras exactas del vídeo:
| Estructura | En el vídeo |
|---|---|
| Voz pasiva be + participio pasado — importa lo que ocurre, no quién lo hace | was conceived · be taken · being approved |
| Present perfect have/has + participio pasado — una acción pasada que sigue importando ahora | have been · haven't really been affected · has identified |
¿Qué es la Técnica de Shadowing?
Shadowing es una técnica de aprendizaje de idiomas respaldada por la ciencia, desarrollada originalmente para la formación de intérpretes profesionales y popularizada por el políglota Dr. Alexander Arguelles. El método es simple pero poderoso: escuchas audio en inglés nativo y lo repites en voz alta de inmediato, como una sombra que sigue al hablante con solo 1-2 segundos de retraso. A diferencia de la escucha pasiva o los ejercicios de gramática, el shadowing obliga a tu cerebro y músculos de la boca a procesar y reproducir simultáneamente patrones de habla reales. Las investigaciones muestran que mejora significativamente la precisión de la pronunciación, la entonación, el ritmo, el habla conectada, la comprensión auditiva y la fluidez al hablar, convirtiéndola en una de las metodologías más efectivas para la preparación del IELTS Speaking y la comunicación en inglés en el mundo real.