Shadowing Practice: Everything is better than it used to be — or is it? | Agustín Fuentes - Learn English Speaking with Video
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- Traditionally, when you measure success, evolutionarily speaking, it's about a species or a population's ability to sort of continue through time, to successfully adapt, and to grow.
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So under that definition, there are 8 billion humans living everywhere on the planet.
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We are super successful in the traditional sense.
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At the same time, there's 8 billion humans living on the planet, many of them suffering horribly.
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The planet is suffering horribly.
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The climate crisis; a variety of other really horrible things are going on.
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There's a massive extinction event where plants and animals are disappearing at an unbelievable rate because of human action.
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So one might ask, "Is this evolutionary success?" "Just based on sheer number of humans, is that the way to measure it?" In the recent past, and today, there are many people who argue that like, "Wait a minute! Wait a minute! Don't complain so much, humans are doing better than they ever have done.
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There's air conditioners, there's warm showers, there's restaurants, and food, and yeah, so there's some inequality- some people don't have as much as others, but overall, we are living longer and doing better than we ever have done." So I have three responses to that: Number one, who is "we"?
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Are we talking about the entire human species?
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Well, it turns out that different humans are living very, very different lives.
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So we need to clarify that.
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Before one says, "We are doing better," let us define who that we is.
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The second problem I have with that is that these arguments are coming from one broad culture- this sort of Euro-American cultures, these intellectual traditions of a particular way of being in the world, of a particular political and economic process saying, "Well, this is the way it should be, things are better." Well, there are other ways of being in the world.
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There's lots of societies, lots of languages, lots of cultures, lots of people; many of whom have suffered enormously from this particular way of being.
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So again, how do we rectify that?
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How do we understand that?
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And the third thing, my third response to people saying, "Hey, stop complaining, things are better, we're living longer," is "Look, what is the measure of success for humans?" It has to do with how are we doing the human thing?
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How are we being human?
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And how can we minimize, not get rid of, but minimize suffering and injustice?
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Humans are always gonna have inequity and injustice: there's a lot of us, and human history always have hierarchies, and some have more and some have less, there's these incredible dynamics.
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But when it comes down to it right now, we can see that the inequity, the discrepancy in political, economic, technological, health, and many other outcomes for humans is bigger than it ever has been in the entirety of human history.
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If that's the case, something is wrong, 'cause that direction is not good for humans; we already have data that suggests and shows that it's not good for the planet.
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So, to those who say, "Calm down, everything is better than it used to be." I say, "No, it's not." It's not just surviving longer, it's not just having more, it's not just having access to technology- to really understand success, evolutionarily speaking in humans, we need to also talk about the capacity for flourishing.
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Are human bodies and societies reaching at least these minimal levels of flourishing, of health, of security, of interaction, and of well-being.
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So, I would argue, in the modern context, to understand evolutionary success for humans, we need to understand the capacity for human flourishing, and how that is distributed across our species.
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Woordenschat en spreektips bij deze les
Deze spreekles is gebaseerd op de video “Everything is better than it used to be — or is it?”. Deze woorden komen het vaakst terug: success, planet, flourishing, suffering, measure. Deze video bevat 26 zinnen en 619 woorden om na te spreken. Het gesproken deel duurt 3:56. De spreker praat in een natuurlijk tempo van ongeveer 157 woorden per minuut, dicht bij een alledaags gesprek. 89% van de woorden hoort bij de 3.000 meest gebruikte Engelse woorden, dus de woordenschat is goed te volgen. 7 van de 26 zinnen zijn vragen, dus het is goede oefening voor vraagintonatie en korte antwoorden.
Belangrijke woorden in deze video
15 woorden uit de video die het leren waard zijn, met uitspraak en betekenis:
| Woord | Uitspraak | Betekenis |
|---|---|---|
| suffer werkwoord | /ˈsʌfɚ/ | lijden |
| flourish werkwoord | /ˈflʊ̈ɹ.ɪʃ/ | floreren, bloeien |
| argue werkwoord | /ˈɑɹ.ɡju/ | redetwisten |
| complain werkwoord | /kəmˈpleɪn/ | klagen |
| evolutionary bijvoeglijk naamwoord | /ˌiː.vəˈluː.ʃən.ɛɹ.i/ | evolutionair |
| injustice zelfstandig naamwoord | /ɪnˈd͡ʒʌs.tɪs/ | onrecht, onrechtvaardigheid |
| successfully bijwoord | /səkˈsɛs.fə.li/ | met succes |
| horrible bijvoeglijk naamwoord | /ˈhɔɹ.ɪ.bəl/ | verschrikkelijk |
| define werkwoord | /dɪˈfaɪn/ | bepalen, determineren |
| intellectual bijvoeglijk naamwoord | /ˌɪntəˈlɛkt͡ʃʊəl/ | verstandelijk |
| interaction zelfstandig naamwoord | /ˌɪn.təˈɹæk.ʃən/ | wisselwerking, interactie |
| minimal bijvoeglijk naamwoord | /ˈmɪn.ə.məl/ | minimaal |
| disappear werkwoord | /dɪsəˈpɪɹ/ | verdwijnen, verzwinden |
| dynamics zelfstandig naamwoord | /dɑɪˈnæm.ɪks/ | dynamica, stromingsleer |
| unbelievable bijvoeglijk naamwoord | /ˌʌnbɪˈliːvəbl̩/ | ongelofelijk |
Phrasal verbs die je zult horen
| Woord | Betekenis |
|---|---|
| calm down werkwoord | bedaren |
| turn out werkwoord | uitvallen, resulteren |
Zinnen om te herhalen
Korte, volledige zinnen uit de video die je in alledaagse gesprekken kunt gebruiken:
- Are we talking about the entire human species?
- How do we understand that?
- How are we being human?
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 | have done · have suffered · has been |
| Betrekkelijke bijzinnen who / which + zin — extra informatie over een persoon of ding | people who argue · those who say |
| Vergrotende trap -er than / more … than — twee dingen vergelijken | better than · bigger than |
| Present continuous am/is/are + -ing — iets dat nu of in deze periode gebeurt | is suffering · are going · are disappearing |
Uitspraak om op te letten
De spreker gebruikt 4 samentrekkingen en verkorte vormen, zoals don't, gonna, we're. Spreek ze kort uit, zoals je ze hoort.
- De klanken “sh” en “zh”: flourish /ˈflʊ̈ɹ.ɪʃ/, evolutionary /ˌiː.vəˈluː.ʃən.ɛɹ.i/, interaction /ˌɪn.təˈɹæk.ʃən/, traditionally /tɹəˈdɪʃ.ə.nə.li/, sheer /ʃɪɚ/
- Lange woorden — let op de klemtoon: evolutionary /ˌiː.vəˈluː.ʃən.ɛɹ.i/, successfully /səkˈsɛs.fə.li/, intellectual /ˌɪntəˈlɛkt͡ʃʊəl/, interaction /ˌɪn.təˈɹæk.ʃən/, unbelievable /ˌʌnbɪˈliːvəbl̩/
Klanken die Nederlandstaligen lastig vinden:
- /æ/ — opener dan de Nederlandse “e”: interaction /ˌɪn.təˈɹæk.ʃən/, dynamics /dɑɪˈnæm.ɪks/, adapt /əˈdæpt/, clarify /ˈklæɹ.ɪ.faɪ/
- /w/ — met ronde lippen: inequality /ˌɪn.ɪˈkwɑ.lɪ.ti/, inequity /ɪnˈɛkwɪti/
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 suffer, flourish, argue.
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.