Pratica di Shadowing: Vietnam’s Insane Economic Boom Explained - Impara a parlare inglese con YouTube

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A few decades ago, Vietnam was quite literally one of the poorest countries in the world.
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A few decades ago, Vietnam was quite literally one of the poorest countries in the world.
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GDP was stagnant, it did a negligible amount of trade with the rest of the world,
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and the economy was so unproductive that it had to import food,
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despite being mostly agrarian.
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Today, however, this has all changed.
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Vietnam is both one of the most open and fastest growing economies in the world,
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and its GDP is now expected to overtake that of Thailand,
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one of the richest countries in the region sometime this year.
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So in this video, we thought we'd take a look at Vietnam's economic miracle,
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what's driving it, and how it's weathered the protectionism we've seen in recent years.
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So to understand quite how incredible Vietnam's economic boom has been,
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you need a bit of context.
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After the Vietnam War against the US,
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which finished with the unification of North and South Vietnam in 1975,
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Vietnam was, somewhat unsurprisingly, quite literally one of the poorest countries in the world.
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According to UN data, in 1975,
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Vietnam had a GDP per capita of just $84 at current prices,
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roughly a quarter that of Thailand,
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and even less than Cambodia,
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which was then ruled by Khmer Rouge and entering the first phase of the Cambodian genocide.
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The ruling Communist Party of Vietnam,
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or CPV, originally tried to essentially mimic the Soviet Union,
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pursuing a centralised form of economic planning.
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But by the mid-80s, it had become apparent that this wasn't really working.
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GDP per capita had barely budged,
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and the Soviet Union itself was showing signs of decline.
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So in the mid-80s, the government embarked on a series of liberalizing reforms,
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with the aim of transforming Vietnam's command economy into a more market-oriented one.
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The CPV were at least partly inspired by opening up reforms implemented by Deng Xiaoping in China in the late 70s,
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which paved the way for an economic boom that began in the 80s and is continued to this day.
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Anyway, these reforms were remarkably successful.
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According to UN data, Vietnam's GDP per capita quadrupled between 1990 and 2000,
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and then quadrupled again between 2000 and 2010.
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According to World Bank data,
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which is a bit more up-to-date than the UN data we've been using so far,
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Vietnam now has a GDP per capita of nearly $5,000,
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roughly double that of Cambodia and Laos,
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higher than that of the Philippines and on par with Indonesia.
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It's hard to overstate quite how impressive this is.
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In 1990, Vietnam was way poorer than all these countries
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and has since seen by far and away the fastest growth in the region.
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Nor are things showing any signs of slowing down.
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Growth came in at 8% in 2025,
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well above estimates, and the government has set a target of 10% for 2026.
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In terms of aggregate GDP,
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Vietnam is now expected to overtake Thailand in the coming years,
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a prospect that would have been unimaginable a decade or two ago.
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So what's driven this boom?
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Well, we see at least three big reasons.
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First, Vietnam's enthusiastic embrace of free trade,
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which began with the aforementioned reforms,
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does seem to have really paid off.
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Vietnam joined ASEAN in 1995,
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signed a free trade agreement with the US in 2000,
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and joined the World Trade Organization in 2007.
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The net effect has been to dramatically reduce Vietnam's trade barriers,
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and Vietnam is now one of the most trade-dependent economies in the world,
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with total trade amounting to 174% of GDP.
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Economic liberalization has also attracted copious amounts of foreign investment,
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largely as a consequence of big multinationals setting up shop in Vietnam to take advantage of the relatively low labor costs.
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Vietnam has also been a beneficiary of manufacturers' efforts to de-risk their exposure to China.
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Companies like Google, Microsoft and Apple have all shifted parts of their supply chain out of China
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and into Vietnam in recent years,
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as part of what's become known as the China Plus One strategy.
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This has all helped Vietnam establish itself as a manufacturing powerhouse,
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exporting not just to the West,
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but also to nearby Asian countries.
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There was some anxiety that Trump,
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who threatened Vietnam with an eye-watering 46% tariff on Liberation Day,
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would throw a spanner into all this,
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but the CPV have actually handled him remarkably well.
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They promptly negotiated a new tariff rate of 19%,
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which was low enough to keep Vietnamese exports competitive.
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Anyway, the second reason is human capital.
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Vietnam has pretty great demographics.
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It has a large and relatively young workforce,
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with a median age of about 33 and thus a relatively low so-called dependency ratio,
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that is, the number of dependents relative to working-age people.
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But it's not just demographic structure.
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Vietnam's population is also incredibly well-educated.
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In the latest PISA rankings,
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for instance, Vietnamese students scored about on par with the OECD average,
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despite being quite literally the poorest country to take part,
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and having a GDP per capita roughly one-tenth that of the OECD average.
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It's hard to overestimate quite how impressive this is.
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In maths, Vietnamese students actually outperformed their counterparts in the US,
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and way outperformed their peers in Indonesia and the Philippines,
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two nearby countries with similar GDP per capita.
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A well-educated workforce is one of the big reasons why Vietnam has,
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unlike other middle-income countries, been able to move up the manufacturing value chain,
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with high-tech products accounting for an ever-growing fraction of all exports.
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This is also one of the big reasons why Vietnam's score on the World Bank's Human Capital Index,
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which combines indicators of health and education into a measure of the human capital
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that a child born today can expect to obtain by their 18th birthday,
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is, somewhat astonishingly, on a par with that of the US and Luxembourg,
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despite being many times poorer.
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Finally, Vietnam's economy benefits from the country's relatively progressive attitudes towards the role of women in the workforce.
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Low female labour participation rates have often been a barrier to economic development in middle-income countries,
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but Vietnam has quite literally one of the highest rates in the world,
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exceeding even the OECD average.
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The third and final reason is political stability.
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The CPV have proved remarkably competent stewards and embarked on successive liberalisation drives to make the country more attractive to foreign businesses.
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These seem to have paid off.
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According to the Economist Intelligence Unit,
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between 2003 and 2023, Vietnam's business environment improved more than that of any other country.
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Now, to be clear, this is not a general defense of authoritarianism over democracy,
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and Vietnam's political system is appallingly repressive in certain respects.
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Nonetheless, it's hard to deny that Vietnam's relative political stability has helped its economy,
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and the comparison with Thailand,
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where recurrent political crises have given way to economic stagnation, is telling.
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As is so often the case these days,
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a lot of how this plays out depends on influence.
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Not only who technically has the power to make things happen,
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but also who has the sway to make sure it does.
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That's why last year we put together a list of the world's 25 most influential people,
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using rankings from you, our audience,
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as well as from our journalists.
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This year we've done the same,
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producing a brand new ranking for 2026.
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In the upcoming issue of our magazine Too Long,
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we explore our list, telling the stories of a number of people who made the list,
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from the return of Donald Trump and the calculated moves of Xi Jinping to the AI frontiers of Sam Altman.
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We look to the new entries,
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New York's first Muslim mayor Zohran Ramdani,
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the radical shift of Pope Leo XIV,
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and bastions of technocracy, like Prime Minister Mark Carney,
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as well as the shadows that still linger, like Jeffrey Epstein.
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As always, this issue of Too Long features a whole lot more than just our most influential people ranking though.
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We also have a whole featured segment on how the UK became more divided than ever,
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and how a broken country could rebuild,
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the fragmentation emerging within the EU,
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how religion is being used by politicians around the world,
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and much, much more you can pre-order your copy at too long dot news
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or to get the best deal you can just subscribe to the magazine doing
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Informazioni su questa lezione

In questa lezione, esploreremo il sorprendente boom economico del Vietnam, analizzando i fattori che hanno contribuito a questa straordinaria crescita. Gli studenti avranno l'opportunità di praticare l'inglese attraverso materiale ermeneutico, migliorando la loro comprensione e le abilità di conversazione. Focus particolare sarà dato al shadowing, una tecnica utile per migliorare la pronuncia e la fluidità nella lingua inglese. Approfondendo il contesto storico e la terminologia economica, i partecipanti potranno sviluppare una maggiore padronanza e confidenza nell'utilizzo dell'inglese in ambiti economici e di business.

Vocabolario e frasi chiave

  • GDP (Prodotto Interno Lordo) - Indica il valore totale dei beni e servizi prodotti in un paese.
  • economy (economia) - Rappresenta il sistema di produzione e scambio di beni e servizi.
  • reforms (riforme) - Cambiamenti implementati per migliorare un sistema economico o politico.
  • market-oriented (orientato al mercato) - Riferito a un approccio economico che si basa sulla domanda e offerta.
  • liberalizing (liberalizzazione) - Processo di apertura di un sistema economico a pratiche di mercato.
  • protectionism (protezionismo) - Politica economica volta a proteggere le industrie locali da concorrenti stranieri.
  • growth (crescita) - Aumento del valore economico nel tempo.
  • developing country (paese in via di sviluppo) - Nazione con un’economia in crescita, solitamente caratterizzata da un più basso reddito pro capite.

Consigli per la pratica

Per massimizzare i benefici delle vostre sessioni di shadowing in inglese, considerate i seguenti suggerimenti:

  • Scegliete un passaggio breve dal video e ascoltatelo ripetutamente. Il ritmo di questo video è moderato, quindi potete facilmente seguire il parlato.
  • Ripetete ogni frase subito dopo averla ascoltata. Cercate di imitare l'intonazione e il ritmo del narratore; questo è essenziale nel shadow speak.
  • Focalizzatevi sulle parole chiave del vocabolario elencato. Inseritele nelle vostre frasi durante la pratica per rinforzare il loro significato e uso.
  • Registratevi mentre parlate. Ascoltandovi, noterete aree di miglioramento, come la pronuncia e la fluidità.
  • Partecipate a conversazioni di pratica, utilizzando parole e frasi apprese. Potrebbe essere utile combinare il shadowing site con incontri di pratica di conversazione in inglese.

Usando queste tecniche in modo regolare, i vostri progressi nel parlare l'inglese miglioreranno notevolmente, permettendovi di affrontare anche argomenti complessi con maggiore sicurezza.

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.

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