Shadowing Practice: How Americans see EU Tech - Learn English Speaking with Video

Les maken...
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Fun, beautiful and with beautiful women.
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And a great bravo to your colleagues and comrades from Prisma Media.
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AI!
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For me, I think it's dangerous.
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Welcome to the most innovative country in the world, the European Union.
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America gave the world the iPhone, but we developed its cookie banner.
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Everyone knows our legendary innovations.
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The printing press, the steam engine.
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And we are confident there will be a third.
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Just look at our most valuable tech company.
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Procurement software company SAP.
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Everyone in the DAX100 loves SAP.
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What Europe really shines with is the vast amount of talent that we train before we give them to California.
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California.
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But in Europe we don't chase unicorn status always.
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We have something better.
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Bye-bye!
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67 vacation days.
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We are going to conquer the American market soon.
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But this year has 23 national holidays in June, so we shifted it to last year.
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Nokia was the past.
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Skype was was the present.
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Spotify was the future.
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Today I will give you a tour of an overlooked but high potential and GDPR protected ecosystem.
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The European tech scene.
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This is our biggest data center.
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Old Nokia headquarters, Europe's biggest chip factory.
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This is the vehicle of the future.
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The 24-hour cash ATM.
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Every morning after I wake up I send out my GDPR notices.
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We just raised 4.7 thousand euros in our series A.
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Our lead investor is a regional fund.
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The other portfolio is a vineyard.
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I commute exclusively by bike with a GDPR compliant app, which doesn't work on Tuesdays to offset data center emissions.
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This is a powerworking space.
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It's bring your own marcher, bring your own cat.
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Bring your own dog is not allowed because of building regulations.
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All of our employees get three hours of lunch break.
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We like to go to tech conferences to see what technology the US is building.
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And then we ban the technology immediately.
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If you try to compete with us, we will report this as EU illegal content.
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Me and my co-founder, who's on 36 months of fraternity leave, we have already achieved all ISO certificates.
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Our national pastime, fighting for labor loss.
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The Americans don't even have a word for entrepreneur.
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We have access to frontier technologies, 5KB transformer models that fit on 3 floppy disks.
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Our 3G towers are the best ones in the world, so get your air conditioners ready.
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In six to eight months, once the grand committee responds.
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Quick espresso break.
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Three works about Paris.
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Fun, beautiful and with beautiful women.
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Fashion and cool and beautiful people.
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Spontaneous, community, cool.
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I think it's really cool.
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Three words about the EU.
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The chance to, you know, freedom.
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We can move and work everywhere.
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You know, I'm from Spain, I live in the UK, now I live in the Netherlands.
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It's inclusion, it's melting pot, it's culture.
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Safety, community, this is not a word, but like a feeling of belonging somewhere.
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Finally, three words about AI.
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AI?
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AI.
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Try GPT, GPT.
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This is the trend now, but it's gonna be over soon because humans wanna be together and they wanna work.
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Dumb question, dumb question.
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For me, I think it's dangerous for me.
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It's very dangerous.
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If you wrong utilization, call me.
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Have you used AI before?
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No. Maybe one day.
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You're in a certain position?
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Yes.
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It won't go!
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Like, I don't know man.
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Honestly, I'm a little bit drunk.
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I don't like the that much.
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AI, ehm...
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It's also a debate, a question about the right remuneration of the work of journalists
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because their production will be found in the data sources of artificial intelligence.
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Mmm.
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Ehm.
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Then, after my 2pm swim party, I went to Europe's biggest tech conference,
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where I met various unregulated robots and handed them an up-to-date booklet about data privacy laws.
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I also exchanged business cards with lots of rising talent and then signed mutual GDPR forms to use those contacts.
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The European Union Innovation Council was of course still on summer vacation and not present on the fourth day, meant to target young adults and students.
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So I stepped in and educated the people.
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Do you have a form, anybody?
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Do you have a template?
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Do you have a template?
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Ah, no. I don't know.
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I don't know.
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Well, I'm going to leave a companionship, but I start at level one.
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OK, well, what is the funding that we're talking about?
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I don't remember now.
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I would say it's working, but I need to test it in the area.
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The platform, the company, that have organization to check the compliance related to AI Act.
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I understand, right?
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Waiting for a business angel, a companionship accelerator, anything.
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Well, I met one VC in the US, in Colorado, then VC'd into startups in one year, 13 billion US dollars.
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That's the total of what was invested in Europe in one year.
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As I was walking down the streets, I was finally able to sit down with the real European founder, who was working hard at 4pm at a nearby cafe.
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I'm Emmanuel Doucet, and I'm the CEO of DatFlow.
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And we're building a product for our ATP, for the Parisian Metro Network.
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How much did you guys raise?
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Nothing.
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So you actually are profitable?
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Yeah, yeah.
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Barely, but we're profitable.
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We worked for a full year undercover.
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And eventually someone took an interest and we signed a contract and
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two co-founders also are researchers originally we worked in the automotive industry for driverless
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a business teacher i had who said the the european founders are like ducks
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so above the surface they are all quiet and calm and under the surface They're peddling like crazy to deliver actual value.
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Yeah, we have great engineers and a lot of them are going abroad.
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A lot of them are going to the US and building companies there.
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And you can get funding without an actual product.
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So you can grow quicker and test quicker and break things quicker and fail quicker.
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Though I think the culture is starting to change a bit, but it's slow and it's...
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How many pages did you have to fill out before you could register your company?
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I know that's usually something people complain about.
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As for me, I mean in an hour it was done.
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So we had a great platform which did everything for us.
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Great!
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Keep it up.
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Don't die like the other European companies.
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We're trying our best.
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Yeah, and I believe bureaucracy somehow is a shield as well.
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Once you've cracked it, man, that's a big shield around you, because cracking it is tough,
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so that's a real barrier protecting you once you've done it.
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Okay, you can let go of my head now.
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I'm sorry.
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He explained to me that EU founders do not seem like the most hardworking kind only on the surface.
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They do not have time to scream about their grind on Twitter, as they are busy delivering real value in an environment without unlimited monopoly money.
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I mean VC funding.
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His real job is of course the musician.
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So learn how you too can receive the 500 euro grant for registering your AI startup.
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While it is still legal, see you back in mid-September.
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If OpenAI offered you 400k base salary and some stock, would you go over it?
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No. No. What about 500k?
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Maybe.
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Everyone has a price.
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That's true.

Understanding the Humor and Context of the Video

The video offers a lighthearted, satirical take on how some Americans might perceive EU tech, blending jokes about work-life balance, regulations like GDPR, and cultural quirks. The dialogue is casual, with playful exaggeration—perfect for practicing conversational English. It’s full of idioms, sarcasm, and quick transitions, making it a fun challenge for learners aiming to grasp natural speech patterns.

Top 5 Phrases for Daily Communication

  • "a big bravo to" – A warm way to praise someone (e.g., "A big bravo to the team for finishing the project!").
  • "overlooked but high potential" – Describes something underrated with promise (e.g., "This neighborhood is overlooked but high potential for growth").
  • "shifted it to last year" – To reschedule something to a previous time (e.g., "We shifted the meeting to last week due to conflicts").
  • "national pastime" – A popular, common activity (e.g., "In my country, cooking is a national pastime").
  • "frontier technologies" – Cutting-edge, innovative tech (e.g., "The company specializes in frontier technologies like AI").

Step-by-Step Shadowing Guide for This Video

The shadowing technique is ideal here—imitate the speaker’s tone, pace, and emphasis to improve English pronunciation. Start by watching the video once to get the gist. Then, play short 5-10 second clips and repeat immediately, "shadow speaking" as closely as possible. Focus on the sarcastic intonation (e.g., "We developed its cookie banner") and quick jokes. Pause to practice tricky phrases like "GDPR compliant app" or "36 months of paternity leave"—break them into syllables if needed. For "shadowspeaks" practice, record yourself and compare to the video; note where your rhythm or stress differs. This dialogue’s mix of humor and casual speech will help you sound more natural in real conversations. Keep at it—you’re mastering not just words, but the art of conversational flow!

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.