Shadowing Practice: How mass tourism is destroying cities - Learn English Speaking with Video

Is tourism destroying cities?

Residents of some of the most beautiful cities around the world have been protesting against tourism.

And there has been anti-tourist violence in places like Barcelona and Venice. But why?

There are four ways that tourism can affect cities.

Overcrowding, pollution, bad behavior, and rising prices.

Let's begin with overcrowding.

Venice, a city of 60,000 people, welcomes nearly 30 million visitors a year.

That's 76,000 tourists a day.

Spain had 82 million visitors in 2017, with 9 million visiting Barcelona alone.

There are even traffic dams climbing Mount Everest now.

Overcrowding has an obvious effect on traffic, footpaths, and queues.

It can also affect a city's culture and identity, like in Barcelona where locals are complaining tourism is diluting its vibrancy and history.

Tourists also bring with them pollution and waste.

They consume heaps of water and food while causing environmental damage to the destination.

In Thailand, a beach has been closed to protect its coral reefs from tourists.

In Indonesia, Bali's famously pristine beaches are now being swamped by garbage, and their underground water sources are being drained too quickly.

The island predicts it will run out of its water supply by 2020.

In Venice, cruise ships that bring thousands of tourists each day are damaging the local environment with engine pollution and water displacement.

Tourism even accounts for 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions, mainly from transportation.

And then there's the issue of tourists' bad behavior.

There are many viral videos that show tourists behaving inappropriately,

from airport check-in meltdowns and assaults on cabin crews to deliberately damaging ancient ruins.

Locals in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro are furious at drunk tourists at their infamous Ipanema beach.

In Croatia, people are fed up with loud and rude tourists, so fines are being issued to those who drink alcohol in public.

And Bali is even considering imposing restrictions on temples after tourists continue to climb on the holy sites or oppose in swimwear.

Finally, tourism causes a rise in prices, especially when it comes to short-term rentals.

Like with Airbnb, an accommodation app where users can share their homes with tourists.

It has grown enormously with over 5 million lodgings across 81,000 cities.

But it has its downsides.

Landlords in major cities make more money out of short-term leases on Airbnb, forcing local tenants to pay more.

In some cities, it can raise housing prices as people look to invest in Airbnb homes.

These rising prices are not just limited to Airbnb though.

In Cambodia, citizens were evicted from fishing villages so that resorts could be built on the beaches.

The increased cost of living is forcing residents out from some of the most beautiful cities in the world.

But there's hope.

Cities are starting to recognize the impacts of mass tourism and are looking to introduce measures to deal with the load.

Fines for behavior are being introduced in cities all over the world.

regulations are starting to hit Airbnb, with their listings in San Francisco, Barcelona and Paris dropping.

Iceland and Greece are instituting caps on arrivals.

Venice is planning to divert massive cruise liners to reduce some of the environmental damage,

and growing recognition of over-tourism could push visitors into more environmentally and culturally friendly tourism,

in an attempt to save some of these delicate sights for generations to come.

Thank you.

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Vocabulario y notas de pronunciación para esta lección

Esta lección de conversación de nivel B2 se basa en el vídeo “How mass tourism is destroying cities”. Las palabras que más se repiten: tourist, tourism, cities, Airbnb, Venice. Este vídeo tiene 43 frases y 557 palabras para practicar shadowing. La parte hablada dura 3:40. El hablante habla a un ritmo natural de unas 152 palabras por minuto, cercano a una conversación cotidiana. Solo el 74 % de las palabras está entre las 3.000 más comunes del inglés, por lo que el vocabulario es exigente.

Vocabulario clave de este vídeo

Las 15 palabras más avanzadas del vídeo, con su pronunciación y significado:

Palabra	Pronunciación	Significado
visitor sustantivo	/ˈvɪzɪtɚ/	visita
pollution sustantivo	/pəˈluʃən/	polución, contaminación
dilute verbo	/daɪˈljuːt/	diluir
divert verbo	/daɪˈvɝt/	distraer, desviar
enormously adverbio		enormemente
environmentally adverbio		ambientalmente
famously adverbio		famosamente
footpath sustantivo	/ˈfʊtˌpæθ/	acera, vía peatonal
inappropriately adverbio		inapropiadamente
lodging sustantivo	/ˈlɑd͡ʒɪŋ/	alojamiento, hospedaje
pristine adjetivo	/ˈprɪˌstin/	prístino, pristino
downside sustantivo	/ˈdaʊnˌsaɪd/	inconveniente
meltdown sustantivo	/ˈmɛltˌdaʊn/	copelación/fundición nuclear, derretimiento nuclear
displacement sustantivo	/dɪsˈpleɪsmɪnt/	desplazamiento
culturally adverbio		culturalmente

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	has been closed · being swamped · are fed
Present perfect have/has + participio pasado — una acción pasada que sigue importando ahora	has been · has been closed · has grown

Pronunciación a tener en cuenta

Los sonidos de “sh” y “zh”: pollution /pəˈluʃən/, emission /ɪˈmɪʃ.ən/, restriction /ɹɪˈstɹɪkʃən/, accommodation /əˌkɒm.əˈdeɪ.ʃən/
Palabras largas — cuida el acento: deliberately /dɪˈlɪb.(ə.)ɹət.li/, accommodation /əˌkɒm.əˈdeɪ.ʃən/

Sonidos difíciles para hispanohablantes:

/v/ — no es /b/: los dientes tocan el labio inferior: visitor /ˈvɪzɪtɚ/, divert /daɪˈvɝt/, behave /bɪˈheɪv/, viral /ˈvaɪɹəl/
/z/ — sonora, no /s/: visitor /ˈvɪzɪtɚ/, oppose /əˈpoʊz/
/dʒ/ — no es la “y” ni la “ch”: lodging /ˈlɑd͡ʒɪŋ/, garbage /ˈɡɑɹ.bɪd͡ʒ/

Cómo practicar con este vídeo

Escucha el vídeo entero una vez sin hablar y anota las palabras que no conoces.
Empieza a velocidad 0,75×, haz shadowing frase por frase y vuelve a la velocidad normal cuando te resulte fácil.
Grábate y compara con el original, prestando atención a palabras como visitor, pollution, dilute.

¿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.

Técnica de shadowing: lee la guía completa paso a paso →

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