Shadowing Practice: Why Gen Z GAVE UP Having Kids - Learn English Speaking with Video
Kies een oefenmodus
Elke modus opent een volledig scherm oefenruimte.
221 zinnen
Als zinnen te kort of te lang zijn, klik op Bewerken om ze aan te passen.
1
According to the CDC, U.S birth rates have now fallen to the lowest point in American history, with Gen Z having over 50% fewer kids than the 1950s.
2
But when child care costs more than rent in all 50 states, while 60% of Americans can't afford a minimal quality of life, it raises the question, how is Gen Z expected to have kids
3
when they're struggling to afford even the most basic costs of living?
4
Well, headlines frame the nation's declining birth rate as a shocking phenomenon driven by individual selfishness,
5
As if genuine care and investment has been given to any emerging generation over the last 40 years, the reality is that this trend has actually been building for over two centuries,
6
as economic conditions have continuously redefined the true cost of having children.
7
Throughout early industrialization, children were not viewed as a personal choice, but as an economic necessity tied directly to national power and household survival.
8
In a 1791 report, Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton argued that children, who would otherwise be idle, could serve as a source of cheap labor,
9
helping build a domestic manufacturing base capable of competing with Great Britain.
10
Even in agricultural settings, children predominantly functioned as economic assets as they provided the necessary physical labor
11
while also serving as informal childcare for younger siblings.
12
We can see this ideology was also replicated in Europe with historians studying proto-industrial France, discovering that multiple sources of household income,
13
combined with the fact that children became profitable at an early age,
14
encouraged marriage and large families across both towns and rural areas as industries not only sustain larger populations,
15
but actively incentivize families to have more children as a means of surviving on minimal wages.
16
Even throughout the Gilded Age, with overall birth rates being cut practically in half through rapid urbanization, the underlying incentive for working-class families remained unchanged.
17
An analysis of Philadelphia households found that children contributed between 28 and 33 percent of total income in native-born two-parent families.
18
For Irish and German households, those figures rose as high as 46 and 35 percent,
19
forcing both parents and children to be largely opposed to child labor reforms not
20
because they supported exploitation but because they were financially dependent.
21
However, unlike the working-class households who were consistently fighting just to keep their heads above water,
22
middle and upper-class families had the luxury to prioritize the long-term outcomes of their children.
23
According to the study, Fertility Declined the United States,
24
by 1930, women married to men and in professional and managerial occupations had 18% fewer children than those married to farmers,
25
as larger families were increasingly viewed as an economic liability, as having fewer children allowed families to afford a better quality of life, often in the form of an improved education,
26
and sometimes even a college education, all in hopes to position them for upward mobility in an increasingly stratified society.
27
Suggesting real birth rate decline did not start with selfishness.
28
It began when children stopped being seen as economic assets.
29
And as we are once again seeing wealth inequality widen dramatically, we're unfortunately beginning to see elements of this dynamic re-emerge.
30
Between 2019 and 2023, the Department of Labor reported an 88% increase in overall child labor violations,
31
alongside a 31% rise in children employed in hazardous conditions, predominantly among lower-income and migrant households.
32
But for the majority of young people today, they're doing exactly what they were raised on.
33
If you can't afford to have kids, don't have them.
34
One of the most important aspects of being able to not only financially provide for oneself, but for a family, is having a job.
35
According to Revelio Labs, the average new hire was 42 years old in 2025.
36
Revelio chief economist Lisa Simon said years of economic and political uncertainty, along with the push to use artificial intelligence,
37
have led employers to place a higher value on experience
38
and become more risk-adverse in who they are hiring and willing to bet on in this labor market.
39
That so-called risk has resulted in the share of the workforce,
40
age 25 and younger, falling from 15% in 2022 to less than 9% today,
41
with hiring inflows for Gen Z dropping by nearly 50% in just the last three years.
42
And while some of you are already commenting that these lazy kids just need to get their hands dirty, well, many already are.
43
The question is whether you prioritize completely changing careers or starting a family without any form of job stability.
44
Now, traditionally, another way to overcome a failing job market was to go to college.
45
But unlike a minimum wage worker in 1989 who could pay an entire year of tuition, fees, and room at board with roughly 24 and a half hours of work a week,
46
A Gen Z student today would need to earn $21.27 an hour to do the same,
47
with nearly 40% of the entire American workforce earning less than $22 an hour.
48
And while Gen Z is on track to become the most educated generation in history, the outcome has been higher unemployment than those without degrees,
49
alongside increasing displacement, whether from the 37% of employers who say they would rather hire AI than a college graduate, or from large-scale H-1B replacement. And
50
when we compare paying an average of $526 a month in student
51
loans to the average child care cost sitting at around $1,100 a month,
52
or a monthly increase of $600 when adjusted for inflation compared to a parent in 1985.
53
We once again run into the same question.
54
Does Gen Z prioritize paying off student loans or starting a family, all without any form of job stability?
55
And while there are certainly those who have managed to find or create stable income, they are still running into rising healthcare costs, historic housing prices, and growing economic uncertainty,
56
all compounded by a dollar that is now worth roughly 86% less than what baby boomers entered adulthood with.
57
So when the median Gen Z income is sitting around $50,000, while it costs roughly $23,000 a year to raise a child,
58
it highlights that while Gen Z selfishness may make for a convenient headline, the reality of a declining birth rate has far more to
59
do with Gen Z living with the consequences of decades of self-serving decisions made by those in power.
60
However, even with economic conditions playing a massive role in child creation, another critical factor
61
is that people are willing to endure hardship when there is a shared belief that tomorrow would be better than today.
62
This is most clearly represented with the generation that is directly responsible for the baby boom.
63
Throughout the worst economic crisis in American history, birth rates dropped 26% between 1926 and 1936,
64
with the nation's fertility rate now falling to one of the lowest in the Western world, where families weren't just having fewer children,
65
they were rapidly abandoning the idea of family expansion altogether, with marriage rates decreasing 22% between 1929 and 1939.
66
Alongside this cultural shift in the nation's perspective on having children also emerged a growing disdain of capitalism.
67
Journalist John Chamberlain, who would later become a central figure in shaping 20th century American libertarianism, warned that the crisis was reshaping an entire generation's political and economic identity.
68
Chamberlain feared that the prolonged stagnation was creating a resentful generation, writing, young people have no memory of a good economy with plentiful opportunities.
69
They are a trapped generation that will explode.
70
He illustrated this volatility through the story of Joe Carnes, a young office boy who once identified as communist,
71
convinced this economic system is never going to spread out enough to take us all in, yet abandoned politics entirely after a modest promotion.
72
To Chamberlain, it proved that ideology was rarely the problem.
73
Opportunity was.
74
and without vocational training, night schools, domestic investment, and real job pipelines,
75
he argued, education is a weak bulwark for democracy if democracy can't deliver the goods in the form of jobs, a future, or just plain hope,
76
almost perfectly mirroring the reality that young Americans face today.
77
However, by the late 1930s, New Deal programs like the Civilian Conservation Corps and the Works Progress Administration provided jobs for millions of young men,
78
with federal investment in public infrastructure resulting in the construction of over 40,000 new schools, libraries, and hospitals between 1933 and 1939.
79
And even though the actual cost of raising children had not substantially decreased, nor had the depression massively improved, this renewed sense of optimism and societal investment,
80
alongside the rise of American mass media, introducing characters like Superman, offered the nation's youth a sense of hope that a better tomorrow was always possible,
81
resulting in both fertility and merit rates beginning to rise by the end of the decade,
82
with some historians and demographers even stating that the baby boom originally began prior to the war, proving that despite economic hardship,
83
even a fragile sense of optimism is enough for families to begin planning for the future.
84
And when you combine genuine domestic investment and amends post-war optimism alongside economic stability, such as low-interest home loans,
85
increased wages, pensions, employer-covered child care services, and health insurance, well, America's youth turned to family formation,
86
where between 1946 and 1964, over 76 million babies were born, creating what we now call the baby boom,
87
signaling that while governments across the world are doing everything they can to encourage Gen Z to have kids, the reality is that the internet has brought young people together all over the world.
88
And if Gen Z collectively views the future as an AI dystopian reality filled with immense wealth inequality, working till death, a lack of any ownership,
89
climate concerns, wars continuously on the horizon, domestic unrest, endless amounts of covered up filth from our leaders,
90
and a lack of any actual signs of real investment into the youth, then it once again poses a question.
91
Does Gen Z wait and do everything they can to try
92
and build up their own stability or go ahead and have children?
93
This question is especially relevant when the generation predominantly using the selfish label went through this very same reality.
94
As Cold War anxiety mounted, the 1980s saw a surge in research papers from psychologists and psychiatrists calling for intervention,
95
warning that entire generations were growing up with a sense of helplessness, with the Department of Psychology at Harvard University stating,
96
this fear of nuclear annihilation fostered a sense of having no future, an anxiety that persisted into adulthood,
97
influencing personal decisions like delaying marriage and creating a future generation.
98
In England, the School of Humanities and Social Sciences described a similar trend, writing, the threat of nuclear war involves an overwhelming threat to the individual's future,
99
that he or she will have no future, that there is no point in planning for marriage, children, or a career.
100
And as the FDA approved the first oral contraceptive in 1960, for a generation coming of age amidst rising divorce rates,
101
growing disillusionment, a cultural rejection of traditional societal norms, and the dismantling of the nuclear family, having children became deliberate and intentional,
102
particularly as more young Americans began to question whether the future would be more prosperous than the past.
103
And for the Gen X viewers out there, this is a reason why your generation is so small. So
104
when you have researchers at the University of Sydney pointing to
105
a growing Gen Z mental health crisis driven by economic insecurity and social instability.
106
Gen Z in South Korea, referring to the country as Helljosen, a hellish, hopeless society.
107
Gen Z in China, calling themselves rat people, a way to describe burnout, high unemployment, and disillusionment with the rat race.
108
Gen Z across Europe, effectively facing the same struggles of a failing job market being blamed on laziness and entitlement.
109
While in Canada, despite Gen Z saving more than any previous generation, they have effectively given up on home ownership.
110
If the powers that be genuinely cared about a potential population collapse, then they must stop having these pointless discussions of selfishness and redirect attention to real change.
111
And to just prove the impact of shared struggles all across the world, I'm 26 years old and I live in Austin, Texas.
112
Because of this channel, I receive emails from people my age all over the world, from Brazil to Russia, telling me that while my content is American focused,
113
they are still experiencing similar issues.
114
So I just do not understand why our so-called leaders frame this birth rate collapse as some sort of unbelievably complex issue.
115
If you cannot financially provide for yourself and you do not see hope on the horizon, you are not going to have kids.
116
And until that is changed, this trend will continue.
117
And something else that we need to put further emphasis on beyond the fact
118
that teenage pregnancy is at like the lowest point ever in human history.
119
I think that there are more 40-year-olds that are having kids than those that are teenagers.
120
I would argue that that's something that we probably want to be seen as a society, but that does affect the birth rate.
121
Beyond that, what I am finding is a lot of these individuals, whether it's on the internet or social media or in the news,
122
so-called experts, are spending all of their time focusing on the birth rate collapse
123
as if it's solely responsible for modern dating culture
124
or the selfishness or the laziness or people just wanna go out and travel on vacation
125
or a lot of these other things.
126
Obviously, there's some validity to it, right?
127
I think the dating pool sucks.
128
What I think that we're missing here is the meat and potatoes of this argument.
129
The economy is not working at least for the average person.
130
I think it's probably working for whoever it's intended to work for, but not the average person, not the majority of individuals.
131
And I got to say, when is anybody going to say that the way
132
that society is functioning and that the direction that we're heading is not a great one?
133
I just feel like so many of these so-called leaders or voices or different things like that
134
are making careers out of talking about the seasoning on top of the meat and potatoes.
135
It's like they don't actually know anything.
136
I would say that you could fix a dating pool and a lot of these other issues if people made more money.
137
If a house didn't cost, if my 600 square foot apartment didn't cost what it was that a mortgage payment was just a decade ago.
138
I'm spending as, I'm almost spending $2,000 a month just on my rent and my health insurance.
139
And the craziest thing is, is that for a lot of you watching that or watching this, that's fantastic.
140
So then I'm going to add what another $1,100 a month for childcare.
141
So I'm spending over $3,000 a month and I haven't even bought groceries yet or car insurance or, you know, all of these other things.
142
It's, it's, it's unreal how, I think what I'm really just wanting to stress is that this birth rate collapse.
143
Well, I would say for like humans to survive, I am a proponent for human survival.
144
I think the way that it's been, I just don't think that the people that are discussing it actually, actually cared to see it better.
145
Because if you did, you would talk about the obvious things.
146
And, you know, I'm going to bring, I'm going to bring in one other thing here.
147
So, you know, some of you guys are going to hate me a bit,
148
but I look at my closest friends absolute just top performers, great individuals.
149
The parents was infidelity, physical abuse,
150
mental abuse, other types of abuse, unfortunately.
151
The amount of divorce is like near 100%.
152
With that being said, again, all great individuals, but their perception of the future, including myself, I have great parents,
153
but I have to say the majority of my childhood was consumed by divorce.
154
Our collective thoughts about the future is we are
155
so concerned about what direction it is that we're heading
156
because we have seen it through our parents
157
that we feel like we have to provide as much stability as we possibly can.
158
What I'm ultimately saying is that when I used to work at a bank from 18 to 22 or whatever it was,
159
24, I guess, I would see individuals that were the parents of my friends and other individuals I went to school with, they would come in.
160
I would see that they were cheating on their husband or their wife.
161
I would see that they were lying about credit card debt, that they had extra lines of credit on their home equity lines of credit, that they were drowning in debt,
162
that they had liquidated their 401ks because of gambling issues.
163
I think it's just, I'm ultimately trying to say
164
that I'm shocked how a lot of these individuals saying you're selfish for not having kids weren't great role models.
165
And I'm sorry to say that.
166
That isn't a great thing.
167
And a lot of you are fantastic parents.
168
But man, the amount of comments I've got that have said my parents beat me and all of these other things,
169
it hasn't necessarily been the best environment to foster the desire to want to have kids when things are so difficult.
170
And I don't think anybody else is saying that.
171
Again, I had fantastic parents.
172
And I think what you want for every generation is to
173
want to give the next generation a better life than what you had.
174
So what I see is, man, I'm going to do everything in my power to make sure
175
that I have some financial stability to be there when my kid is young, to be able to help them out a little bit,
176
to make sure that I don't have to do some of these other things, to just be more present, to offer a little bit of stability for them, and to make sure that I am rock steady with my partner.
177
I just think that we're shying away from the important conversations
178
and I'm going to say it because some of you might be
179
questioning everything that I'm saying is
180
that I want to have kids I've said it many times in my videos the only thing that I really want,
181
my main goal is to be a father it has been the driving force of everything that I've done
182
I've worked at least two jobs, the majority three jobs since I was 18 and it was solely because I wanted to create a stability some sort of,
183
I wanted to create a foundation to be able to be a father at some point.
184
I'm now working 60, 65 hours a week on this channel, trying to do everything I can to make whatever change I can,
185
because at some point I know I'm going to try to be a dad.
186
And when that happens, I won't be able to balance both.
187
I won't be able to be somebody that is really trying to make a difference and to be a real present father.
188
And to me, being a present father is important, but I have to do this other thing first.
189
And if you want to call that selfishness, which I've actually been called selfish.
190
I don't know.
191
I think that you might need to get your priorities set.
192
So again, I'm doing everything that I can and I'm really doing my best to provide stability, but it's a very difficult time to do so.
193
And we start, we have to start having these conversations.
194
And, you know, I know a lot of you out there aren't maybe, you know, thinking, oh yeah, you're selfish for not having kids.
195
But man, that is a prevailing thought process out there.
196
And I almost just want to offer like a rebuttal back of, then why did you make it seem like it was so damaging to your life being a parent?
197
Again, this isn't directed towards my parents, but man, that is something I've seen a lot of.
198
And it's really frustrating.
199
I wish that I could have talked about other things in this video.
200
I feel like I'm having to do so much damage control of societal narratives because we're just not having the right conversation.
201
I don't know.
202
It feels like that's what this is all designed for.
203
It's not to actually address anything, not to pursue any way forward.
204
It's just to keep wasting our time.
205
So I don't know.
206
I think it's really frustrating.
207
But again, I hope this was able to provide some value.
208
I just really want to see us go in a better direction.
209
I want to, I want, I'm actively trying to plant the seeds so my kids
210
and my grandkids and my great grandkids can benefit the shade from the tree.
211
And previous generations, why didn't you do that?
212
Why are you so focused on my selfishness that you didn't plant more trees?
213
I think we got to start asking that question.
214
But anyway, I hope this was able to provide some value to you.
215
Thank you all so much for your support.
216
Make sure you hit the like and the subscribe.
217
It greatly helps me be able to get the message out there to the people that want to see this.
218
I'm actively trying to make a change and I'm doing my best.
219
I'm doing the best that I can to be able to make sure that that happens.
220
Anyway, until next time.
221
Bye-bye.
App downloaden
Alles wat je nodig hebt om vloeiend te spreken
AI UitspraakScoor elke zin
IPA OefeningBeheers elk geluid
WoordenschatBouw je woordenschat op
WoordenspelLeren terwijl je speelt
FOR YOU
Aanbevolen Video
C124
19 zinnen
What is the “generation gap problem”?
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C16
69 zinnen
Kids don’t always make you happier. Here’s why people have them anyway. | Paul Bloom
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C11
51 zinnen
China-youth unemployment
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C12
184 zinnen
Why Gen Z Doesn't Want To Work
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B21
60 zinnen
Why Finnish parents leave their babies outside unattended
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
C16
55 zinnen
Your genes affect your education. Here’s why that’s controversial. | Kathryn Paige Harden
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C11
166 zinnen
Gen Z's Morality Crisis
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C13
235 zinnen
The Psychology of Money in 20 minutes
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B21
485 zinnen
Chinese Billionaire Used American Surrogates to Have 300 Kids?? How Is This Legal?
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B22
19 zinnen
Generation pantado
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B2279 zinnen
What Old Fashioned Moms Understood About Parenting That We Forgot
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
C11
284 zinnen
Why do people smoke?
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
Woordenschat en spreektips bij deze les
Deze spreekles op niveau B2 is gebaseerd op de video “Why Gen Z GAVE UP Having Kids”. Deze woorden komen het vaakst terug: Gen, generation, economic, rate. Deze video bevat 221 zinnen en 3609 woorden om na te spreken. Het gesproken deel duurt 21:10. De spreker praat in een natuurlijk tempo van ongeveer 170 woorden per minuut, dicht bij een alledaags gesprek. Slechts 81% van de woorden hoort bij de 3.000 meest gebruikte Engelse woorden, dus de woordenschat is pittig.
Belangrijke woorden in deze video
De 15 moeilijkste woorden uit de video, met uitspraak en betekenis:
| Woord | Uitspraak | Betekenis |
|---|---|---|
| selfishness zelfstandig naamwoord | /ˈsɛl.fɪʃ.nəs/ | zelfheid, eigenheid |
| selfish bijvoeglijk naamwoord | /ˈsɛlf.ɪʃ/ | egoïstisch, zelfzuchtig |
| collapse werkwoord | /kəˈlæps/ | instorten |
| societal bijvoeglijk naamwoord | [səˈsaɪ.ɪ.tɫ̩] | maatschappelijk |
| optimism zelfstandig naamwoord | /ˈɑptɪmɪzəm/ | optimisme |
| fertility zelfstandig naamwoord | /fɝˈtɪləti/ | vruchtbaarheid |
| childcare zelfstandig naamwoord | kinderopvang | |
| disillusionment zelfstandig naamwoord | /ˌdɪsɪˈluːʒənmənt/ | desillusie |
| frustrate werkwoord | /ˈfɹʌsˌtɹeɪt/ | frustreren |
| laziness zelfstandig naamwoord | /ˈleɪ.zi.nəs/ | luiheid |
| hardship zelfstandig naamwoord | /ˈhɑɹdˌʃɪp/ | ellende, ondraaglijkheid |
| adulthood zelfstandig naamwoord | volwassenheid | |
| emerge werkwoord | /ɪˈmɝd͡ʒ/ | opduiken |
| historian zelfstandig naamwoord | /hɪˈstɔɹi.ən/ | historicus, geschiedkundige |
| inequality zelfstandig naamwoord | /ˌɪn.ɪˈkwɑ.lɪ.ti/ | ongelijkheid |
Phrasal verbs die je zult horen
| Woord | Betekenis |
|---|---|
| build up werkwoord | opstapelen |
| go out werkwoord | naar buiten gaan |
| pay off werkwoord | aflossen |
Zinnen om te herhalen
Korte, volledige zinnen uit de video die je in alledaagse gesprekken kunt gebruiken:
- It's just to keep wasting our time.
- I think it's really frustrating.
- And previous generations, why didn't you do that?
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 now fallen · has been given · have led |
| Lijdende vorm be + voltooid deelwoord — het gaat om wat er gebeurt, niet om wie het doet | has been given · were not viewed · was also replicated |
Uitspraak om op te letten
De spreker gebruikt 65 samentrekkingen en verkorte vormen, zoals I'm, don't, I've. Spreek ze kort uit, zoals je ze hoort.
- De klanken “sh” en “zh”: selfishness /ˈsɛl.fɪʃ.nəs/, selfish /ˈsɛlf.ɪʃ/, disillusionment /ˌdɪsɪˈluːʒənmənt/, hardship /ˈhɑɹdˌʃɪp/, traditionally /tɹəˈdɪʃ.ə.nə.li/
- Lange woorden — let op de klemtoon: prioritize /pɹaɪˈɒɹ.ə.taɪz/, optimism /ˈɑptɪmɪzəm/, fertility /fɝˈtɪləti/, predominantly /pɹɪˈdɒmɪnəntli/, disillusionment /ˌdɪsɪˈluːʒənmənt/
Klanken die Nederlandstaligen lastig vinden:
- Stemhebbende eindmedeklinker — /b/, /d/, /g/, /z/, /v/ niet verscherpen: prioritize /pɹaɪˈɒɹ.ə.taɪz/, grandkid /ˈɡɹæn(d)ˌkɪd/, emerge /ɪˈmɝd͡ʒ/, incentive /ɪnˈsɛntɪv/, subscribe /səbˈskɹaɪb/
- /æ/ — opener dan de Nederlandse “e”: collapse /kəˈlæps/, grandkid /ˈɡɹæn(d)ˌkɪd/, capitalism /ˈkæp.ə.təlˌɪzm̩/, abandon /əˈbæn.dən/, gambling /ˈɡæm.bl̩.ɪŋ/
- /g/ — een harde plofklank, geen Nederlandse “g”: grandkid /ˈɡɹæn(d)ˌkɪd/, altogether /ɔl.tuˈɡɛð.ɚ/, gambling /ˈɡæm.bl̩.ɪŋ/
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 selfishness, selfish, collapse.
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.