Shadowing Practice: China-youth unemployment - Learn English Speaking with Video
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China Youth unemployment.
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Who needs a real job?
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Youth joblessness entrenches itself.
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Few could have predicted the fallout last month after Xingyu Automotive Lighting, a big car parts maker in eastern
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China, decided it had hired too many people over the summer.
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The company gave an ultimatum to some 140 fresh graduates who had been employed there for just a few weeks,
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either resign with half a month's salary or pick up a screwdriver and take a poorly paid job on the factory floor.
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More than 100 chose to leave.
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In China, where worker protection laws are feeble, sudden layoffs of this sort are nasty but hardly unheard of.
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Yet when the news became public, it sparked an unusual outpouring of outrage.
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The People's Daily, a Communist Party mouthpiece, slammed the company for trampling on society's trust.
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Volkswagen, a German carmaker supplied by Xing Yu, said it was investigating the dismissals.
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As the pressure built, the company apologized, then fired its head of human resources and cut some of its executive salaries as an act of contrition.
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Why the FOSS?
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The layoffs tapped into a deep well of public sympathy for China's young people.
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They are struggling in a brutal job market that has upended people's expectations of what it takes to succeed in China.
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A decade ago, a university degree was still a ticket to a decent career, but a record 12 .7 million graduated this year,
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nearly 500 ,000 more than last year, and twice the number that did so a decade ago.
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Demand for these young workers, meanwhile, has plummeted amid a property market slump and flagging consumption, and despite government attempts to fix it,
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the problem is becoming only more entrenched.
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When China's official gauge of youth employment reached 20 % in 2023,
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it caused so much alarm that officials suspended the data series,
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and after a few months started releasing an optimized and much lower rate, based on a different methodology.
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But this summer, even the adjusted rate has been creeping up towards 20 % as well.
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Officials have already ordered state -owned companies to hire more graduates.
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They will be hoping that Xing Yu's humiliation will prompt private companies also to take note,
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says Jenny Chan, a sociologist at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
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She says the government wants everyone to share the national responsibility and avoid layoffs, if at all possible.
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The industries that once soaked up a lot of young people are now struggling.
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A regulatory crackdown has destroyed hundreds of thousands of tutoring jobs.
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Chinese entertainment companies, meanwhile, are rapidly adopting artificial intelligence to churn out shows without the need for actors or producers.
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Tech companies are quietly laying off engineers, and China's vast gig economy, once a reliable last resort for job seekers,
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is now overstuffed with underemployed drivers, so average earnings have slumped.
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Years of high youth unemployment are starting to reshape Chinese society.
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This intensely competitive country places a higher value on hard work than most,
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but now many young people are getting used to the fact that no one wants their labor.
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Some have dropped out of the rat race altogether
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and say they are now lying flat or giving up finding a job until the economy improves.
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Others have become self -described full -time children, staying at home to cook and clean for their parents for pocket money.
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Those who cannot cope with so much family time can at least pretend to go to work.
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Since last year, offices have been set up in several cities across
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China by firms with names like the Pretend to Work Company.
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For a small daily fee of 30 yuan, that's $4 .50 or so, people can sit at a desk, hang out by the office water cooler,
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and enjoy the routine of office life as they submit job applications or scroll on their phones.
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Public libraries are another favoured place for the pretend workforce to hang out.
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On a recent Thursday afternoon, the tables in Beijing's Capital Library, one of the city's biggest, were packed with young folk.
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Some were polishing CVs, others playing computer games.
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There's loads of pretend workers around here," said one man in a t -shirt
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and shorts who had been laid off from a tech firm six months ago.
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For his part, he said, he was taking a voluntary break from full -time employment to work on some of his own software projects
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and read a lot more books.
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Woordenschat en spreektips bij deze les
Deze spreekles is gebaseerd op de video “China-youth unemployment”. Deze woorden komen het vaakst terug: China, pretend, youth, companies, layoffs. Deze video bevat 51 zinnen en 731 woorden om na te spreken. Het gesproken deel duurt 4:49. De spreker praat in een natuurlijk tempo van ongeveer 152 woorden per minuut, dicht bij een alledaags gesprek. Slechts 77% van de woorden hoort bij de 3.000 meest gebruikte Engelse woorden, dus de woordenschat is pittig.
Belangrijke woorden in deze video
15 woorden uit de video die het leren waard zijn, met uitspraak en betekenis:
| Woord | Uitspraak | Betekenis |
|---|---|---|
| pretend werkwoord | /pɹəˈtɛnd/ | voorgeven |
| worker zelfstandig naamwoord | /ˈwɝ.kɚ/ | arbeider, arbeidster |
| meanwhile bijwoord | /ˈmiːnwaɪl/ | intussen, ondertussen |
| hire werkwoord | /ˈhaɪɹ/ | huren |
| salary zelfstandig naamwoord | /ˈsæləɹi/ | salaris, loon |
| unemployment zelfstandig naamwoord | /ʌn.ɪmˈplɔɪ.mənt/ | werkloosheid |
| vast bijvoeglijk naamwoord | /væst/ | enorm |
| pocket zelfstandig naamwoord | /ˈpɑ.kɪt/ | zak |
| unusual bijvoeglijk naamwoord | /ʌnˈjuːʒ(u)əl/ | ongebruikelijk, ongewoon |
| producer zelfstandig naamwoord | /pɹəˈdjuːsə/ | producent, vervaardiger |
| desk zelfstandig naamwoord | /dɛsk/ | bureau, schrijftafel |
| decent bijvoeglijk naamwoord | /ˈdiː.sənt/ | integer, fatsoenlijk |
| sudden bijvoeglijk naamwoord | /ˈsʌd.ən/ | plotseling, plotselinge |
| resource zelfstandig naamwoord | /ɹɪˈzɔːs/ | bron, hulpbron |
| resort zelfstandig naamwoord | /ɹɪˈzɔɹt/ | vakantieoord |
Phrasal verbs die je zult horen
| Woord | Betekenis |
|---|---|
| give up werkwoord | zich overgeven |
| lay off werkwoord | ontslaan, de zak geven |
| pick up werkwoord | oppakken, optillen |
Grammatica in deze video
De structuren die de spreker het meest gebruikt, met de exacte woorden uit de video:
| Structuur | In de video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect have/has + voltooid deelwoord — iets uit het verleden dat nu nog telt | has upended · has plummeted · have already ordered |
| Lijdende vorm be + voltooid deelwoord — het gaat om wat er gebeurt, niet om wie het doet | had been employed · is now overstuffed · have been set |
Uitspraak om op te letten
- De “th”-klanken: altogether /ɔl.tuˈɡɛð.ɚ/, sympathy /ˈsɪm.pəθ.i/, methodology /ˌmɛθ.əˈdɑ.lə.d͡ʒi/, mouthpiece /ˈmaʊθˌpiːs/
- De klanken “sh” en “zh”: unusual /ʌnˈjuːʒ(u)əl/, consumption /kənˈsʌmp.ʃən/, polish /ˈpɑ.lɪʃ/, artificial /ˌɑː.tɪˈfɪʃ.əl/, expectation /ˌɛk.spɛkˈteɪ.ʃən/
- Lange woorden — let op de klemtoon: unemployment /ʌn.ɪmˈplɔɪ.mənt/, unusual /ʌnˈjuːʒ(u)əl/, investigate /ɪnˈvɛs.tə.ɡeɪt/, artificial /ˌɑː.tɪˈfɪʃ.əl/, regulatory /ˈɹɛɡ.jʊ.lə.t(ɔː.)ɹi/
Klanken die Nederlandstaligen lastig vinden:
- Stemhebbende eindmedeklinker — /b/, /d/, /g/, /z/, /v/ niet verscherpen: pretend /pɹəˈtɛnd/, succeed /səkˈsiːd/, apologize /əˈpɑləˌd͡ʒaɪz/, gauge /ˈɡeɪd͡ʒ/, amid /əˈmɪd/
- /æ/ — opener dan de Nederlandse “e”: salary /ˈsæləɹi/, vast /væst/, rapidly /ˈɹæpɪdli/, nasty /ˈnæs.ti/, slam /ˈslæm/
- /g/ — een harde plofklank, geen Nederlandse “g”: investigate /ɪnˈvɛs.tə.ɡeɪt/, regulatory /ˈɹɛɡ.jʊ.lə.t(ɔː.)ɹi/, altogether /ɔl.tuˈɡɛð.ɚ/, gauge /ˈɡeɪd͡ʒ/
Zo oefen je met deze video
- Luister de hele video één keer zonder te spreken en noteer de woorden die je niet kent.
- Begin op 0,75× snelheid, spreek zin voor zin na en ga terug naar normale snelheid zodra het makkelijk gaat.
- Neem jezelf op en vergelijk met het origineel; let daarbij op woorden als pretend, worker, meanwhile.
Wat is de Shadowing-techniek?
Shadowing is een wetenschappelijk onderbouwde taalleermethode die oorspronkelijk is ontwikkeld voor professionele tolkentraining en gepopulariseerd door polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. De methode is eenvoudig maar krachtig: je luistert naar native Engelse audio en herhaalt het onmiddellijk hardop — als een schaduw die de spreker volgt met slechts 1–2 seconden vertraging. In tegenstelling tot passief luisteren of grammaticadrills, dwingt shadowing je hersenen en mondspieren om echte spraakpatronen tegelijkertijd te verwerken en te reproduceren. Onderzoek toont aan dat het de uitspraaknauwkeurigheid, intonatie, ritme, verbonden spraak, luisterbegrip en spreekvaardigheid aanzienlijk verbetert — waardoor het een van de meest effectieve methoden is voor IELTS Speaking-voorbereiding en echte Engelse communicatie.