Shadowing Practice: 48 hours to build the future | Vietnam Today - Learn English Speaking with Video
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33 sentences
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1
It's already 11pm and the energy around here has not slowed down one bit.
2
It's truly amazing to be in a space with so much creativity, focus and passion at the same time.
3
So come with me, let's have a chat with one of these teams and see what they've been building.
4
Hi, I have to say the energy of your team looks amazing.
5
What are your names and where are you from?
6
We're from VFuture Labs.
7
I'm Hugh.
8
I'm from the Alfred Noble School.
9
This is my teammate, A.
10
So can you tell me what you guys have been building?
11
We're building an agentic system for reviewing bank loans for business clients.
12
So we're almost reaching the 36-hour mark of the hackathon.
13
How are you guys feeling right now?
14
We're pretty tired but we're very excited.
15
We believe in our product and we'll bring it to life.
16
Well, I wish you guys the very best of luck tomorrow.
17
Scenes like this are playing out across the venue, energy drinks, quick take-out meals, and laptops glowing way into the night.
18
But behind the chaos is a tightly run operation, with organizers working around the clock to keep hundreds of hackers fed, focused and functioning.
19
48 hours, we have to do a lot of preparations for the events.
20
So we are grateful to have the full team of volunteers,
21
almost more than 100 volunteers on site to get everything ready for the hackathon.
22
For example, we prepare meals for the hackers with notes to encourage them throughout the challenging times of the hackathon.
23
It's because of the organizers' dedicated round-the-clock support that contestants are able to discover their potential,
24
push their own limits, and grow within a community of innovative, passionate AI builders.
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AI is shaping the future, and competitions like this create an important environment for young engineers like us to learn, explore, and develop.
26
There's a special energy in the room tonight.
27
Focused, determined, a little sleep deprived, but nowhere near giving up.
28
For the young engineers here, this weekend isn't just about winning a prize.
29
It's a chance to test their knowledge and skills against real-world demands
30
and to prove that Vietnam's next generation of AI talent is already wide awake.
31
The USPF, hold our dream.
32
Leader for the future.
33
The AI for the future.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “48 hours to build the future”. This video has 33 sentences and 389 words to shadow. The speech runs for 2:25. The speaker talks at a natural 161 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. Only 81% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.
Key vocabulary in this video
The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| hackathon noun | /ˈhæ.kə.θɑn/ | An event where programmers and others meet for collaborative software development, usually over several days. |
| organizer noun | /ˈɔɹɡənaɪzɚ/ | A person who arranges the details of a public event. |
| hacker noun | /hækəɹ/ | Someone who hacks. |
| agentic adjective | /eɪˈd͡ʒɛn.tɪk/ | That behaves like an agent: able to express or expressing agency or control on one's own behalf or on the behalf of another. |
| contestant noun | /kənˈtɛstənt/ | A participant in a contest; specifically, a person who plays a game, as on a TV game show. |
| deprive verb | /dɪˈpɹaɪv/ | Used with “of”, to take something away from (someone) and keep it away; to deny someone something. |
| dedicate verb | /ˈdɛdɪˌkeɪt/ | To set apart for a deity or for religious purposes; consecrate. |
| tightly adverb | /ˈtaɪtli/ | In a tight manner. |
| teammate noun | /ˈtiːmˌmeɪt/ | One who is on the same team. |
| builder noun | /ˈbɪl.dəɹ/ | One who builds or constructs things. |
| glow verb | /ɡloʊ/ | To emit heat and light without a flame. |
| creativity noun | /kri.eɪˈtɪv.ᵻ.ti/ | The ability to use imagination to produce a novel idea or product. |
| passionate adjective | /ˈpæʃənɪt/ | Fired with intense feeling. |
| innovative adjective | /ˈɪn.əˌveɪtɪv/ | Characterized by the creation of new ideas or inventions. |
| awake verb | /əˈweɪk/ | To become conscious after having slept. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| give up verb | To surrender (someone or something); to inform on (someone). |
| play out verb | To play (a game etc.) to its conclusion. |
| slow down verb | To decelerate. |
| take out verb | To remove. |
| work around verb | To bypass or circumvent (a problem or obstacle). |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- What are your names and where are you from?
- How are you guys feeling right now?
- We're pretty tired but we're very excited.
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 10 contractions and reduced forms, such as we're, I'm, isn't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- Long words — get the stress right: organizer /ˈɔɹɡənaɪzɚ/, creativity /kri.eɪˈtɪv.ᵻ.ti/, innovative /ˈɪn.əˌveɪtɪv/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like hackathon, organizer, hacker.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.