Shadowing Practice: Aung San Suu Kyi: Nobel Peace Prize Lecture - Learn English Speaking with Video

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56 sentences
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Your Majesty, Your Royal Highness, Excellences, Ladies and Gentlemen,
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Now I have the pleasure to invite the Nobel Peace Prize laureate of 1991 to come forward to give us her lecture lecture.
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We do not have a gold medal because it was received by your son Alexander in 1991,
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but I am sure that your words to us today will be written in gold.
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Please.
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Thank you.
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Thank you.
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Your Majestries, Your Royal Highness, Excellencies, Distinguished Members of the Nobel Committee,
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Dear Friends, Long years ago, sometimes it seems many lives ago,
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I was at Oxford listening to the radio program Desert Island Disc with my young son Alexander.
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It was a well-known program, for all I know it still continues,
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on which famous people from all walks of life were invited to talk about the eight discs,
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the one book beside the Bible and the complete works of Shakespeare,
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and the one luxury item they would wish to have with them were they to be marooned on a desert island.
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At the end of the programme, which we had both enjoyed,
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Alexander asked me if I thought I might ever be invited to speak on desert island discs.
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Why not?
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I responded lightly.
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Since he knew that in general only celebrities took part in the programme,
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he proceeded to ask me with genuine interest why I thought I might be invited.
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I considered this for a moment and then answered, perhaps because I'd have won the Nobel Prize for Literature. And we both laughed.
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The prospect seemed pleasant, but hardly probable.
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I cannot now remember why I gave that answer, perhaps because I had recently read a book by a Nobel laureate,
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or perhaps because the Desert Island celebrity of that day had been a famous writer.
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In 1989, when my late husband, Michael Ayres, came to see me during my first term of house arrest, he told me that a friend,
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John Finnis, had nominated me for the Nobel Peace Prize.
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This time I also laughed.
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For an instant, Michael looked amazed.
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Then he realized why I was amused.
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The Nobel Peace Prize, a pleasant prospect, but quite improbable.
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So how did I feel when I was actually awarded the Nobel Prize for peace?
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The question has been put to me many times,
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and this is surely the most appropriate occasion on which to examine what the Nobel Prize means to me
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and what peace means to me.
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As I have said repeatedly in many an interview,
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I heard the news that I had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on the radio one evening.
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It did not altogether come as a surprise
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because I had been mentioned as one of the front runners
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for the prize in a number of broadcasts during the previous week.
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While drafting this lecture, I've tried very hard to remember what my immediate reaction to the announcement of the award had been.
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I think I can no longer be sure.
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I think it was something like, oh, so they've decided to give it to me.
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It did not seem quite real, because in a sense, I did not feel myself to be quite real at that time.
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Often, during my days of house arrest, it felt as though I were no longer a part of the real world.
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There was a house which was my world.
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There was a world of others who also were not free but who were together in prison as a community.
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And there was the world of the free.
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Each one was a different planet pursuing its own separate cause in an indifferent universe.
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What the Nobel Peace Prize did was to draw me once again into the world of other human beings
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outside the isolated area in which I lived to restore a sense of reality to me.
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This did not happen instantly, of course, but as the days and months went by and news of reactions to the award came over the airwaves,
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I began to understand the significance of the Nobel Prize.
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It had made me real once again.
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It had drawn me back into the wider human community.
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And what is more important, the Nobel Prize had drawn the attention of the world to the struggle for democracy and human rights in Burma.
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We were not going to be forgotten.

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Speaking Goals for This Clip

This video clip targets narrative fluency and emotional resonance in speech. Aung San Suu Kyi’s reflective tone and vivid storytelling provide a model for connecting personal anecdotes to larger themes—an essential skill for engaging conversations or presentations. Practicing this excerpt helps learners move beyond basic sentence structure to craft speeches that feel authentic and impactful, a key milestone in advanced English fluency.

Phrase Bank

  • "a pleasant prospect, but hardly probable" – Useful for balancing optimism with realism.
  • "draw me once again into the world of other human beings" – Expresses reconnection after isolation.
  • "restore a sense of reality to me" – Describes regaining perspective.
  • "pursuing its own separate cause in an indifferent universe" – Conveys detachment between groups.
  • "in a sense, I did not feel myself to be quite real" – Captures emotional disconnection.

Fix Your Weak Spots

This clip excels at improving rhythm and pausing in formal speech. Notice how Suu Kyi uses brief pauses after phrases like "Long years ago" or "I think I can no longer be sure" to emphasize reflection. These pauses create natural flow, avoiding the "rushed" sound common in intermediate learners. To practice, use a shadowing site or shadowing app to mimic her pace—repeat short sections, focusing on matching her pauses and intonation. This "shadow speech" technique trains your mouth and brain to adopt the cadence of polished English. Additionally, pay attention to her pronunciation of "isolated" (eye-suh-ley-ted) and "indifferent" (in-dif-ruhnt)—two words where vowel clarity often falters. Mastering these details will make your speech sound more confident and native-like.

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

StructureIn the video
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does itwas received · will be written · were invited
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters nowhas been put · have said · I've tried

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.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →