Shadowing Practice: AI challenges human identity | Vietnam Today - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
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As AI becomes increasingly capable of generating realistic images,
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voices and even personalities, questions about identity in AI-generated contents have received more attention than ever.
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And why boundaries between the real and the artificial continue to blur.
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A growing number of initiatives are encouraging people to rethink what makes us uniquely human.
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More in the following.
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This AI generated video created by content creator Thay Anh Toan has attracted millions of views on social media.
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With the help of AI, it only took him a few minutes to create a digital version of himself.
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However, as AI becomes increasingly accessible to creators,
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preserving his personal identity in every piece of content remains one of Toan's biggest concern.
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I always start from something personal, observation, live experience, my own text, then I use AI to bring it to life.
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I deliberately avoid ready-made presents or prompts from community because that's the fastest way to play into the crowd.
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As AI makes it easier than ever to create digital versions of ourselves,
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questions of identity and ownership are becoming increasingly important to encourage more responsible use of AI.
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Many initiatives have been launched.
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One of them is the Alien Self Exhibition, where visitors can experience firsthand how AI recreates human faces, voices and behavior.
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Every movement I make is instantly mirrored by this AI-generated face.
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It smiles when I smile and follows all my facial expression in real time.
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This experience highlights how easily AI can replicate the way humans behave,
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human behave, prompting visitors to rethink the issues of authenticity, privacy and identity.
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It was a really interesting experience.
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At the same time, I found it a little frightening.
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Even though AI technology is still developing, seeing my own image recreated in that virtual environment made me feel quite uncomfortable.
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While visitors leave with different impressions,
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the experience also reflects a broader shift in how society is beginning to think about the relationship between people and AI.
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Progress that comes with artificial intelligence is very important as well.
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It's going to help countries, including Vietnam, develop at a faster rate.
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But we also need to think of everything that goes with artificial intelligence so that we keep our humanity, we keep our identity.
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I know identity is a very important aspect for Vietnam as well.
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So how can we keep that in the age of AI?
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So these are the kind of things that we hope the public will think about.
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The more human AI appears, the more important the question of human identity becomes.
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In the years ahead, the challenge will be not only to embrace innovation, but also to preserve the values and creativity that shape our identity.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This video has 32 sentences and 452 words to shadow. The speech runs for 3:08. The speaker talks at a steady 144 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. Only 77% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| generate verb | /ˈd͡ʒɛn.ə.ɹeɪt/ | To bring into being; give rise to. |
| increasingly adverb | Increasing in amount or intensity. | |
| artificial adjective | /ˌɑː.tɪˈfɪʃ.əl/ | Man-made; made by humans; of artifice. |
| visitor noun | /ˈvɪzɪtɚ/ | Someone who visits someone else; someone staying as a guest. |
| encourage verb | /ɪnˈkʌɹ.ɪd͡ʒ/ | To mentally support; to motivate, give courage, hope or spirit. |
| initiative noun | /ɪˈnɪʃ.ə.tɪv/ | A beginning; a first move. |
| creator noun | /kɹiːˈeɪ̯təː/ | Something or someone which creates or makes something. |
| preserve verb | /pɹəˈzɝv/ | To protect; to keep from harm or injury. |
| behave verb | /bɪˈheɪv/ | To conduct (oneself) well, or in a given way; to conform. |
| prompt verb | /pɹɑmpt/ | To lead (someone) toward what they should say or do. |
| recreate verb | /ˈɹɛk.ɹi.eɪt/ | To give new life, energy or encouragement (to); to refresh, enliven. |
| mirror noun | /ˈmiɹɚ/ | A smooth surface, usually made of glass with reflective material painted on the underside, that reflects light so as to give an image of what is in front of it. |
| aspect noun | /ˈæspɛkt/ | Any specific feature, part, or element of something. |
| ownership noun | /ˈoʊnɚʃɪp/ | The state of having complete legal control of something; possession; proprietorship. |
| reflect verb | /ɹɪˈflɛkt/ | To bend back (light, etc.) from a surface. |
Pronunciation to watch
- The “th” sounds: authenticity /ɑθɛnˈtɪsɪti/, rethink /ɹiːˈθɪŋk/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: artificial /ˌɑː.tɪˈfɪʃ.əl/, initiative /ɪˈnɪʃ.ə.tɪv/, ownership /ˈoʊnɚʃɪp/, impression /ɪmˈpɹɛʃn̩/, innovation /ˌɪn.əˈveɪ.ʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: artificial /ˌɑː.tɪˈfɪʃ.əl/, initiative /ɪˈnɪʃ.ə.tɪv/, humanity /hjuˈmænɪti/, innovation /ˌɪn.əˈveɪ.ʃən/, uncomfortable /ʌnˈkʌm.fɚ.tə.bl̩/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Shadow it sentence by sentence at normal speed, repeating each one until your rhythm matches the speaker.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like generate, increasingly, artificial.
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.