Pratica di Shadowing: Why Socrates Hated Democracy - Impara a parlare inglese con i video
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What is the most important thing to think about democracy?
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We're used to thinking very highly of democracy, and by extension, of ancient Athens, the civilization that gave rise to it.
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The Parthenon has become almost a byword for democratic values, which is why so many leaders of democracies like to be photographed there.
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It's therefore very striking to discover that one of ancient Greece's greatest achievements, philosophy, was highly suspicious of its other achievement, democracy.
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The founding father of Greek philosophy, Socrates, is portrayed in the dialogues of Plato as hugely pessimistic about the whole business of democracy.
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In Book 6 of the Republic, Plato describes Socrates falling into conversation with a character called Adimantus
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and trying to get him to see the flaws of democracy by by comparing a society to a ship.
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If you were heading out on a journey by sea, asks Socrates, who would you ideally want deciding who was in charge of the vessel?
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Just anyone or people educated in the rules and demands of seafaring?
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The latter, of course, says Ademantus.
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So why then, responds Socrates, do we keep thinking that any old person should be fit to judge who should be the ruler of a country?
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Socrates' point is that voting in an election is a skill, not a random intuition.
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And like any skill, it needs to be taught systematically to people.
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Letting the citizenry vote without an education is as irresponsible as
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putting them in charge of a trireme sailing to Samos in a storm.
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Socrates was to have first-hand catastrophic experience of the foolishness of voters.
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In 399 BC, the philosopher was put on trial on trumped-up charges of corrupting the youth of Athens.
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A jury of 500 Athenians was invited to weigh up the case and decided, by a narrow margin, that the philosopher was guilty.
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was put to death by Hemlock in a process
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which is for thinking people every bit as tragic as Jesus' condemnation has been for Christians.
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Crucially, Socrates was not elitist in the normal sense.
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He didn't believe that a narrow few should only ever vote.
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He did, however, insist that only those who had thought about issues rationally and deeply should be let near a vote.
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We have forgotten this distinction between an intellectual democracy and a democracy by birthright.
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We have given the vote to all without connecting it to wisdom.
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And Socrates knew exactly where that would lead, to a system the Greeks feared above all.
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Demagoguery.
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Ancient Athens had painful experience of demagogues.
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For example, the loush figure of Alcibiades,
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a rich, charismatic, smooth-talking, wealthy man who eroded basic freedoms and helped to push Athens to its disastrous military adventures in Sicily.
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Socrates knew how easily people seeking election could exploit our desire for easy answers.
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He asked us to imagine an election debate between two candidates, one who was like a doctor and the other who was like a sweet shop owner.
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The sweet shop owner would say of his rival, Look, this person here has worked many evils on you.
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He hurts you, gives you bitter potions and tells you not to eat and drink whatever you like.
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He'll never serve you feasts of many and varied pleasant things like I will.
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Socrates asks us to consider the audience's response.
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Do you think the doctor would be able to reply effectively?
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The true answer, I cause you trouble and go against your desires in order to help you, would cause an uproar among the voters, don't you think?
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We have forgotten all about Socrates' salient warnings against democracy.
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We have preferred to think of democracy as an unambiguous good rather than as something
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that is only ever as effective as the education system that surrounds it.
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As a result, we have elected many sweet shop owners and very few doctors.
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Thank you.
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Vocabolario e note di pronuncia per questa lezione
Questa lezione di conversazione di livello C1 si basa sul video “Why Socrates Hated Democracy”. Le parole che ritornano più spesso: Socrates, democracy, Athens, vote, ancient. Questo video contiene 43 frasi e 645 parole da ripetere con lo shadowing. Il parlato dura 4:11. Chi parla ha un ritmo naturale di circa 154 parole al minuto, vicino a una conversazione quotidiana. Solo il 78% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| philosopher sostantivo | /fəˈlɑsəfɚ/ | filosofo, filosofa |
| birthright sostantivo | /ˈbɝθ.ɹaɪt/ | diritto di nascita |
| byword sostantivo | /ˈbaɪ.wɚd/ | proverbio |
| citizenry sostantivo | cittadinanza | |
| demagoguery sostantivo | /ˌdɛməˈɡɑɡəɹi/ | demagogia |
| foolishness sostantivo | /ˈfuːlɪʃnəs/ | malaccortezza, pazzia |
| pessimistic aggettivo | /ˌpɛ.səˈmɪs.tɪk/ | pessimista, pessimistico |
| potion sostantivo | /ˈpoʊ.ʃən/ | pozione |
| rationally avverbio | razionalmente | |
| salient aggettivo | /ˈseɪ.li.ənt/ | saliente, rilevante |
| unambiguous aggettivo | univoco | |
| uproar sostantivo | /ˈʌpɹɔːɹ/ | baraonda, clamore |
| systematically avverbio | /ˌsɪs.təˈmæt.ɪ.kli/ | sistematicamente |
| intuition sostantivo | /ˌɪn.tjuːˈɪʃ.ən/ | intuito |
| flaw sostantivo | /flɔ/ | fessura, cricca |
La grammatica di questo video
Le strutture che chi parla usa di più, con le parole esatte del video:
| Struttura | Nel video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect have/has + participio passato — un’azione passata che conta ancora adesso | has become · has been · have forgotten |
| Forma passiva be + participio passato — conta ciò che accade, non chi lo fa | be photographed · is portrayed · be taught |
| Frasi relative who / which + frase — un’informazione in più su una persona o una cosa | values, which is · those who had · man who eroded |
Pronuncia a cui fare attenzione
Chi parla usa 4 contrazioni e forme ridotte, come didn't, don't, he'll. Pronunciale nella forma breve, così come le senti.
- I suoni “sh” e “zh”: crucially /ˈkɹuːʃəli/, foolishness /ˈfuːlɪʃnəs/, potion /ˈpoʊ.ʃən/, condemnation /ˌkɑndəmˈneɪʃən/, intuition /ˌɪn.tjuːˈɪʃ.ən/
- Parole lunghe — attenzione all’accento: philosopher /fəˈlɑsəfɚ/, charismatic /ˌkɛɹəzˈmætək/, demagoguery /ˌdɛməˈɡɑɡəɹi/, pessimistic /ˌpɛ.səˈmɪs.tɪk/, systematically /ˌsɪs.təˈmæt.ɪ.kli/
I suoni difficili per chi parla italiano:
- Consonante finale — senza aggiungere una vocale dopo: birthright /ˈbɝθ.ɹaɪt/, byword /ˈbaɪ.wɚd/, charismatic /ˌkɛɹəzˈmætək/, foolishness /ˈfuːlɪʃnəs/, pessimistic /ˌpɛ.səˈmɪs.tɪk/
- /æ/ — più aperta della “e”: charismatic /ˌkɛɹəzˈmætək/, systematically /ˌsɪs.təˈmæt.ɪ.kli/, catastrophic /ˌkætəˈstɹɑfɪk/, disastrous /dɪˈzæs.tɹəs/, tragic /ˈtɹæd͡ʒɪk/
Come esercitarsi con questo video
- Ascolta tutto il video una volta senza parlare e annota le parole che non conosci.
- Inizia a velocità 0,75×, fai shadowing frase per frase e torna alla velocità normale quando diventa facile.
- Registrati e confronta con l’originale, facendo attenzione a parole come philosopher, birthright, byword.
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.