Pratica di Shadowing: Business Partner B1+ Unit 4.1.1 - Impara a parlare inglese con i video
Creazione lezione...
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When business leaders develop strategies to tackle problems, they often have to take risks.
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Nobody can predict the future, but businesses do have to anticipate it and make judgments.
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The Kraft Heinz Company, based in the U.S., is a major player in the food industry.
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Over 90 years, Kraft built up a portfolio of well-known food brands, including confectionery, biscuits, snacks, and dairy products.
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In the first decade of the 21st century, Kraft's performance was poor.
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Markets lacked confidence in the company's growth prospects.
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Its profits were disappointing.
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Kraft's products were less appealing to a new generation of consumers.
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It was seeing demand for the processed food and drinks
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that it manufactured from dairy all the way to Oreo biscuits decline and that the profit margin,
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the amount of money it was making for every unit of sales, had been squeezed almost to the thinness of a piece of paper.
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This was only the first of Kraft's problems.
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The second issue that Kraft had to tackle was that it relied too heavily on its home US market.
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That meant it was missing opportunities in fast-growing emerging markets around the world.
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The company's third problem was that its costs were too high.
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That meant it was not making enough profits on its sales.
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Crafts management came up with a bold plan to tackle these issues.
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It started with a takeover bid for the chocolate maker Cadbury.
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Cadbury had a 200-year history of making chocolate in the UK.
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Its products were well-established around the world, especially in emerging markets.
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There was clearly an attraction of having an even larger portfolio of internationally recognised brands
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that they could seek to take into different markets.
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So, inevitably, attracting a bigger international audience was part of Kraft's interest in Cadbury's.
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Kraft took a gamble that combining the operations of two established companies would be successful and solve another one of its problems.
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Kraft's primary interest in Cadbury was it enabled it to,
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because it became a bigger company, essentially cut costs.
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Where there was overlap between the two companies, it found a way of saving money and increasing therefore the profit margin
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that it was able to get from each one of its products.
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The second stage of the strategic solution was a merger.
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Kraft merged with another food giant, Heinz, and became the Kraft Heinz company.
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The merger created the world's fifth largest food company.
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As with the Cadbury deal, there was an opportunity to cut costs.
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There were other potential advantages, which helped to solve Kraft's problems.
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Heinz was considered more innovative in its development of new product lines that met changing consumer preference.
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The immediate results were positive.
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The Kraft Heinz company's share price rose 17% on news of the merger.
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The combined company has been successful in cutting costs.
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Looking at the Kraft story, it is clear the solutions involved considerable risks.
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Takeovers and mergers do not always work.
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Irene Rosenfeld was Kraft's chief executive.
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She was responsible for the company's strategy.
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I think there were a number of folks that we're questioning our acquisition of Cadbury.
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We said it was going to be important to us to expand our portfolio, to expand our footprint, particularly in developing markets, and it's played out that way.
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We are very much on track with the integration.
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It's enabled us to outperform our peers around the world.
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For Kraft Heinz, it seems that the risks paid off, but finding solutions to large corporate problems is not straightforward,
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and taking risks can lead to business failures as well as successes.
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Outro Music
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Vocabolario e note di pronuncia per questa lezione
Questa lezione di conversazione di livello B1 si basa sul video “Business Partner B1+ Unit 4.1.1”. Le parole che ritornano più spesso: Kraft, Heinz, Cadbury, product, merger. Questo video contiene 48 frasi e 599 parole da ripetere con lo shadowing. Il parlato dura 4:18. Chi parla mantiene un ritmo costante di circa 139 parole al minuto, comodo per lo shadowing. Solo il 79% delle parole rientra nelle 3.000 più comuni dell’inglese, quindi il lessico è impegnativo.
Vocaboli chiave di questo video
Le 15 parole più avanzate del video, con pronuncia e significato:
| Parola | Pronuncia | Significato |
|---|---|---|
| merger sostantivo | /ˈmɜː.d͡ʒə/ | fusione, unione |
| tackle verbo | /ˈtækəl/ | affrontare, contrastare |
| portfolio sostantivo | /pɔːtˈfəʊ.liˌəʊ/ | cartella |
| biscuit sostantivo | /ˈbɪs.kɪt/ | biscotto, biscottino |
| emerge verbo | /ɪˈmɝd͡ʒ/ | emergere, venire fuori |
| dairy sostantivo | /ˈdɛə.ɹi/ | latticini |
| combine verbo | /kəmˈbaɪn/ | combinare, mischiare |
| margin sostantivo | /ˈmɑɹ.d͡ʒɪn/ | margine |
| enable verbo | /ɪˈneɪ.bəl/ | permettere |
| confectionery sostantivo | /kənˈfɛkʃənəɹi/ | dolciumi |
| footprint sostantivo | /ˈfʊtpɹɪnt/ | orma, impronta |
| disappoint verbo | /ˌdɪsəˈpɔɪnt/ | deludere, dispiacere |
| overlap verbo | /ˌəʊvəˈlæp/ | embricare, accavallare |
| anticipate verbo | /ænˈtɪs.ɪ.peɪt/ | anticipare |
| merge verbo | /mɝd͡ʒ/ | fondersi, unirsi |
I phrasal verb che sentirai
| Parola | Significato |
|---|---|
| build up verbo | accumulare |
| come up with verbo | ideare, escogitare |
| pay off verbo | corrompere |
| play out verbo | svolgere |
La grammatica di questo video
Le strutture che chi parla usa di più, con le parole esatte del video:
| Struttura | Nel video |
|---|---|
| Forma passiva be + participio passato — conta ciò che accade, non chi lo fa | had been squeezed · was considered |
| Past continuous was/were + -ing — un’azione in corso in un momento del passato | was seeing · was making · was missing |
| Obbligo: must / have to / need to dire che qualcosa è necessario | have to take · have to anticipate · had to tackle |
Pronuncia a cui fare attenzione
- I suoni “sh” e “zh”: confectionery /kənˈfɛkʃənəɹi/, attraction /əˈtɹækʃn̩/, integration /ˌɪn.tɪˈɡɹeɪ.ʃən/, acquisition /ˌæk.wɪˈzɪʃ.ən/
- Parole lunghe — attenzione all’accento: portfolio /pɔːtˈfəʊ.liˌəʊ/, confectionery /kənˈfɛkʃənəɹi/, anticipate /ænˈtɪs.ɪ.peɪt/, inevitably /ɪˈnɛvɪtəbli/, innovative /ˈɪn.əˌveɪtɪv/
I suoni difficili per chi parla italiano:
- Consonante finale — senza aggiungere una vocale dopo: biscuit /ˈbɪs.kɪt/, emerge /ɪˈmɝd͡ʒ/, footprint /ˈfʊtpɹɪnt/, disappoint /ˌdɪsəˈpɔɪnt/, overlap /ˌəʊvəˈlæp/
- /æ/ — più aperta della “e”: tackle /ˈtækəl/, overlap /ˌəʊvəˈlæp/, anticipate /ænˈtɪs.ɪ.peɪt/, gamble /ˈɡæm.bəl/, snack /snæk/
Come esercitarsi con questo video
- Ascolta tutto il video una volta senza parlare e annota le parole che non conosci.
- Fai shadowing frase per frase a velocità normale, ripetendo ognuna finché il tuo ritmo coincide con quello di chi parla.
- Registrati e confronta con l’originale, facendo attenzione a parole come merger, tackle, portfolio.
Cos'è la tecnica dello Shadowing?
Shadowing è una tecnica di apprendimento delle lingue supportata da studi scientifici, originariamente sviluppata per la formazione dei traduttori professionisti e resa popolare dal poliglotta Dr. Alexander Arguelles. Il metodo è semplice ma potente: ascolti un audio in inglese di madrelingua e lo ripeti immediatamente ad alta voce — come un'ombra che segue il parlante con un ritardo di solo 1–2 secondi. A differenza dell'ascolto passivo o degli esercizi di grammatica, lo shadowing costringe il tuo cervello e i muscoli della bocca a elaborare e riprodurre simultaneamente i modelli di discorso reale. La ricerca dimostra che migliora significativamente la precisione della pronuncia, l'intonazione, il ritmo, il discorso connesso, la comprensione dell'ascolto e la fluidità del parlato — rendendolo uno dei metodi più efficaci per la preparazione alla prova di speaking dell'IELTS e per la comunicazione reale in inglese.