Shadowing Practice: Why can’t prices just stay the same? - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Inflation is causing stress.
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Bad news about prices in the grocery store.
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Historically high inflation.
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In 2022, much of the world experienced a period of uncommonly high inflation, with the US, UK and Eurozone all peaking at around 10%,
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meaning that prices on average were a full 10% higher than one year before.
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Though that's probably not a surprise to anyone watching this.
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It's thankfully now closer to the normal range, if still a bit high.
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But infuriatingly, since this chart just shows a rate of change, that doesn't mean that prices are down, just that they've stopped climbing as fast.
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And that really sucks.
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Consumers are stressed, businesses are suffering and governments are scrambling.
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But at the same time, if you were to, I don't know, find yourself reading and watching a ton of inflation related content, you'll also keep hearing this.
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A little inflation is a good thing.
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A little inflation is a good thing.
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A little inflation now would be a good thing.
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Everybody wants a little inflation.
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Why?
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If rising prices hurt seemingly everyone, why can't they just stay the same?
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Why can't inflation be zero?
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The first reason inflation can't stay at zero is because governments and their central banks don't want it to.
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Lots of countries actively pursue what is called an inflation target.
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In the US right now, it's about 2%.
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That's the number that's used by most central banks across the world.
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But the truth of it is, that's a pretty arbitrary number.
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The goal is what economists consider a virtuous cycle.
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Here's what that looks like.
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In times when prices are generally rising, people tend to expect them to rise further.
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And that actually encourages people to spend money now on big, durable purchases like cars or appliances, in order to avoid having to pay more for the same thing later.
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And the stuff we need to buy no matter what, goods like food or clothing, gets more expensive too, which requires us to spend more.
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Either way, companies make more money.
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Which means more people have jobs and more of their own money to spend.
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And that means more demand and therefore higher prices.
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So the cycle continues.
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But this bit of the cycle is crucial to its virtue.
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It's okay if prices rise so long as wages rise too.
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still be able to afford the same goods if your wages keep pace with inflation.
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Emphasis on the if.
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In the U.S., for two years, wage growth lagged behind inflation.
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That trend has reversed starting in mid-2023.
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Wages, especially at the bottom, have kept up with inflation.
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In fact, in many cases, surpassed inflation.
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And that is a good thing.
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That also we have to remember, wages in this country are rock bottom and have been for way, way too long, right?
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So wage growth rising, good?
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Are wages high enough?
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No.
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And a disruption at any point in this loop can lead
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to the kind of high inflation we've experienced over the past few years,
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when supply chain interruptions created product shortages and some companies artificially drove up prices to increase their profits, which along with some other causes,
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effectively turned this virtuous cycle into a vicious one.
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With Digital Credit Union, you'll get a world of financial possibilities, starting with their award-winning primary savings account and a zero-fee checking account
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Like all credit unions, DCU is a not-for-profit, which says its primary focus is to serve their members, unlike banks, which primarily serve their shareholders.
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From community give-back initiatives to innovative products and services, their mission adheres to these three principles.
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People come first, do the right thing, and make a difference.
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DCU does not influence the editorial process of our videos, but they do help make videos like this possible.
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The government does have tools to combat rising inflation.
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They usually shift things here by raising interest rates, which makes all borrowing, including credit cards and bank loans, more expensive.
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When the cost of borrowing goes up, it becomes more expensive to make investments, to hire people, and that eventually slows the economy down.
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what the U.S.
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Federal Reserve did in 2022, which did help bring inflation closer to that 2% target,
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while placing an even higher financial strain on families who may need to borrow just to make ends meet.
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When the Fed uses interest rates to bring down inflation, what they're doing is tamping down that demand, right?
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They're telling people, you can't have a job.
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Like, let's put you out of work so that demand slows, that, you know, price growth slows.
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The Fed raises interest rates to slow down spending across the economy, partly by signaling to markets that they're taking the problem seriously, which creates an expectation that inflation will fall.
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But we also have to talk about what happens when prices fall instead of rise.
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That's called deflation.
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And falling prices honestly sounds pretty good.
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But they can also introduce another kind of cycle.
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A deflationary spiral.
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When prices fall, consumers may hold off on making big purchases, hoping for even lower prices in the future.
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And the stuff we need costs less.
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So we just spend less in general.
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If people are spending less, companies make less.
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They start to cut costs.
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And ultimately they lay off employees.
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Unemployed people spend less, and even the people who are employed might choose to save more to stave off financial loss.
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So prices go down even further as demand goes down.
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So ultimately all of that adds up to slower economic growth as a whole.
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Which is really hard to fix because governments don't have the same ability to respond to deflation as they do to inflation.
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Look at this chart again.
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The last time inflation dipped below 2% in spring of 2020, the US brought interest rates all the way down to 0.05%.
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And after bottoming out for a bit, that seemed to work.
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Inflation inched back up.
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But if inflation hadn't come back up, the government would have had limited options.
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Their rates were already getting almost out zero.
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And then things could get dicey.
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Historically, periods of true deflation are pretty rare.
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But when they do happen, it seems that fixing them requires a pretty serious shock to the economy.
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The Great Depression was in part a deflationary spiral, solved only by the outbreak of World War II when the government supercharged spending and employment.
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And Japan is finally emerging from decades of chronic deflation.
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But that's thanks, in no small part, to the high inflation that most of the world battled over the last few years.
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You don't want to rely on those kinds of things.
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If inflation goes below zero, it is hard to fix.
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The cost of deflation is really high and that's something that we want to avoid.
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This is where inflation targets come in.
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Let's look at this chart again.
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These lines are pretty shaky because there are a lot of really complicated factors that affect inflation.
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The macro economy is made up of the decisions of millions of people, of millions of businesses.
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The way those decisions interact, I mean, try thinking about how to map everything out and it's just, it's mind blowing, right?
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Inflation will always fluctuate, even if it's just a little.
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And this is the last big reason why they don't want inflation to be 0%.
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If inflation sits here, that basic shakiness is constantly at risk of dropping down into the deflation zone, triggering the bad cycle.
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And the way to prevent that is to have it sit just a little bit higher. So...
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A little inflation is usually a good thing.
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Yeah.
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That's annoying.
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Woordenschat en spreektips bij deze les
Deze spreekles op niveau B2 is gebaseerd op de video “Why can’t prices just stay the same?”. Deze woorden komen het vaakst terug: inflation, price, wage, deflation, cycle. Deze video bevat 107 zinnen en 1296 woorden om na te spreken. Het gesproken deel duurt 7:23. De spreker praat in een natuurlijk tempo van ongeveer 176 woorden per minuut, dicht bij een alledaags gesprek. 84% van de woorden hoort bij de 3.000 meest gebruikte Engelse woorden; de rest kun je beter vooraf bekijken.
Belangrijke woorden in deze video
De 15 moeilijkste woorden uit de video, met uitspraak en betekenis:
| Woord | Uitspraak | Betekenis |
|---|---|---|
| inflation zelfstandig naamwoord | /ɪnˈfleɪ.ʃən/ | inflatie |
| deflation zelfstandig naamwoord | /dɪˈfleɪʃən/ | deflatie |
| deflationary bijvoeglijk naamwoord | /dəˈfleɪ.ʃənˌɛɹ.i/ | deflatoir |
| virtuous bijvoeglijk naamwoord | /ˈvɝt͡ʃuəs/ | deugdzaam |
| spiral zelfstandig naamwoord | /ˈspaɪɹəl/ | spiraal |
| appliance zelfstandig naamwoord | /əˈplaɪ.əns/ | toestel, huishoudstoestel |
| interruption zelfstandig naamwoord | /ˌɪntəˈɹʌpʃən/ | onderbreking |
| macroeconomics zelfstandig naamwoord | /ˌmæk.ɹoʊˌiː.kəˈnɒ.mɪks/ | macro-economie |
| surpass werkwoord | /sɚˈpæs/ | overstijgen, overtreffen |
| adhere werkwoord | /ædˈhɪə/ | kleven, plakken |
| durable bijvoeglijk naamwoord | /ˈdʊɹəbəl/ | duurzaam |
| disruption zelfstandig naamwoord | /dɪsˈɹʌpʃən/ | onderbreking, ontregeling |
| thankfully bijwoord | gelukkig | |
| arbitrary bijvoeglijk naamwoord | /ˈɑː.bɪ.tɹə.ɹi/ | willekeurig, arbitrair |
| economist zelfstandig naamwoord | /iˈkɑ.nə.mɪst/ | econoom |
Phrasal verbs die je zult horen
| Woord | Betekenis |
|---|---|
| go down werkwoord | afdalen |
| back up werkwoord | teruggaan |
| lay off werkwoord | ontslaan, de zak geven |
| slow down werkwoord | afremmen |
Zinnen om te herhalen
Korte, volledige zinnen uit de video die je in alledaagse gesprekken kunt gebruiken:
- Why can't inflation be zero?
- They're telling people, you can't have a job.
- Let's look at this chart again.
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 | they've stopped · has reversed · have kept |
| Lijdende vorm be + voltooid deelwoord — het gaat om wat er gebeurt, niet om wie het doet | is called · are employed · is made |
| Betrekkelijke bijzinnen who / which + zin — extra informatie over een persoon of ding | rates, which makes · people who are |
Uitspraak om op te letten
De spreker gebruikt 18 samentrekkingen en verkorte vormen, zoals don't, can't, they're. Spreek ze kort uit, zoals je ze hoort.
- De klanken “sh” en “zh”: inflation /ɪnˈfleɪ.ʃən/, deflation /dɪˈfleɪʃən/, deflationary /dəˈfleɪ.ʃənˌɛɹ.i/, interruption /ˌɪntəˈɹʌpʃən/, shareholder /ˈʃɛəˌhəʊl.də(ɹ)/
- Lange woorden — let op de klemtoon: deflationary /dəˈfleɪ.ʃənˌɛɹ.i/, historically /hɪˈstɔɹɪkli/, interruption /ˌɪntəˈɹʌpʃən/, macroeconomics /ˌmæk.ɹoʊˌiː.kəˈnɒ.mɪks/, arbitrary /ˈɑː.bɪ.tɹə.ɹi/
Klanken die Nederlandstaligen lastig vinden:
- Stemhebbende eindmedeklinker — /b/, /d/, /g/, /z/, /v/ niet verscherpen: lag /læɡ/, emerge /ɪˈmɝd͡ʒ/, unemployed /ˌʌnɪmˈplɔɪd/, shortage /ˈʃɔː(ɹ)tɪd͡ʒ/, innovative /ˈɪn.əˌveɪtɪv/
- /æ/ — opener dan de Nederlandse “e”: macroeconomics /ˌmæk.ɹoʊˌiː.kəˈnɒ.mɪks/, scramble /ˈskɹæmbl̩/, surpass /sɚˈpæs/, adhere /ædˈhɪə/, lag /læɡ/
- /g/ — een harde plofklank, geen Nederlandse “g”: lag /læɡ/, grocery /ˈɡɹəʊ.s(ə.)ɹi/
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 inflation, deflation, deflationary.
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.