Shadowing Practice: Barack Obama on His Multiracial Identity | Letterman - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Nice to see you.

Thank you very much for being here.

Thank you for having me.

Right off the top here, tell me, what were the dreams from your father?

What is that referencing?

Well, you know, my...

I have a mixed -up background.

First thing people ask me is, where do you get that funny name, Barack Obama?

Although, you know, you had a top -ten list, but you missed a couple.

Yeah, ways to mispronounce Barack Obama.

I mean, there was Alabama and Yo Mama.

But, you know, my father was from Kenya, from Africa, and he was part of that first generation of students that came to study in the United States, and he met my mother, who was from Kansas.

And so what the book references is sort of what his ambitions were coming to this country

and some of the disappointments he went through

and sort of the difficult times that my parents went through as people of different races and backgrounds and cultures.

When you were a child, did you know that you were trying to emulate his wisdom, or it was only till not until later

that you realized what he was teaching you lyndon johnson who i don't quote

that often had a great saying he said uh every man is trying to make up for his father's mistakes

or live up to his expectations and i think

that i was probably trying to do both i think in

some ways he made a lot of mistakes especially with his family

and i've tried to compensate for those but he was a very bright man

and a very uh somebody who accomplished a lot and

so i think i was trying to live up to those as well

so it's interesting good

and bad they all provided lessons for you they all provide lessons for you

and you as a kid you were in hawaii i was in hawaii

and and so i think the main reason my wife married me was

because i still have family in hawaii

and she figured she's vacation yeah that's what i'm saying you

know she's from chicago she's thinking yeah i've been looking for a warm mother everywhere

um and let's talk about

that was i right about you've been in the state senate

for i was i was in the state senate for eight years

and then uh i decided to run for the united states senate

and people's general estimation was uh he'd probably be the best u .s senator the guy's

done good work but he's got no money he's got no organization

and nobody can pronounce his name so it's not likely he's going to win

but the thing about your name it's easy to pronounce

and it's it's cool well that's what i think yeah that's

what i think you know there were some advisors who told me to change my name really yeah

and uh somebody suggested kat stevens for example

other than uh usually the mayor of chicago is named daily

right i know very little about illinois politics jane byrne i guess was in there for a while

and then uh was there a guy who was running for

senate maybe an incumbent maybe not me i think a republican

and he had a problem because he

and his wife would go to strip clubs and have sex well did i dream that or

does any of this ring a bell i uh there were some issues some allegations yeah uh

but uh we didn't we didn't touch

that stuff i see we we took the high road this

is who you were running against well yeah he dropped out

you know the republicans uh you know they seem to have a lot of fun given and all their moral value stuff, uh, they -they enjoyed themselves.

It sounded like fun to me.

Yeah.

Uh...

But -but he was the, uh, seated senator, is that correct?

Well, no, he -he, we -it was an open seat.

Open seat.

And so we were running against each other.

He dropped out, and then, um, the Republicans, for about a month and a half, couldn't find anybody out of the 12 million people in Illinois to run against me,

and so they finally brought in this guy from Maryland, uh, Alan Keyes.

Yes.

Who, uh, who's a pretty intense guy.

Yeah.

Uh, and that didn't work out too well for them and

and and now uh you one of the keynote speakers of the democratic convention

and your star is certainly beginning to rise well you know

it was a great honor speaking uh at the democratic convention it's a big crowd another like 15 000 people

so i walked in and you know it's packed

and people with signs and funny hats

and you know there are celebrities you know peter jennings is down on one end

and puff daddies over here and uh

so i uh i turned to my wife i said uh

you know this is this is kind of a big speech yeah i'm feeling kind of nervous

and my wife's wonderful she she held my hand

and looked me in the eye and she said honey uh don't screw it up

yeah well sure yeah that's exactly what i needed absolutely uh

all right we got we got plenty uh to talk about i wanted

and i don't know if this is even in your jurisdiction as a senator but that

pistons pacers game oh that was a problem i was uh surprised uh to learn

that currently there are no african -american senators you're the uh current one now

when i get when i get sworn in i will be the only one is

that seems uh hard to believe now isn't it yeah we we need to make some progress on

that front and there's going to be a gentleman joining me ken salazar who will be the only Hispanic United States senator.

So, you know, we're going to have a...

A small caucus, the, uh... And is...

How many African -American senators have we had in the history of this?

We have had five.

There were two during Reconstruction.

They were basically appointed by the Union armies.

And then there have been three who were elected.

So we've got progress to make on that front.

But one of the nice things about my campaign was that, you know, people, I think, anticipated me just getting votes from the black community or just from the city.

And we ended up winning in places like Iroquois County and Kankakee County and Sangamon County.

And as you might anticipate, there aren't a lot of African -Americans in those places.

And I'm guessing that there are more congressmen, African -American congressmen.

But does this, in the African -American community, does this have the kind of disenfranchising effect that one might think, that the representation at the Senate level is small?

100

I think it's a problem.

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Part of the problem is that you've got to run statewide

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and for as opposed to just these congressional districts and

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when you run statewide there are no states in the union

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where african -americans are majority you've got to raise a lot of money

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and african -americans oftentimes have difficult times raising the kind of money that's needed for these TV ads

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so it's a challenge but I'm hopeful that as a consequence of my election

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and the the terrific faith that the people of Illinois placed in me

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that we're going to be able to improve on

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that uh around the country good for you good for you

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uh what do you think of uh things since the election

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first of all did the election surprise you did did the democrats make mistakes did everything go right

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and it just didn't work

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or what happened no i i think we made some mistakes

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look you've got to give credit george bush had one of

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the best political teams that's ever been put together uh they ran a very smart campaign and a tough campaign

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and we made some mistakes uh there's no doubt about it

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i think john kerry picked up steam right at the end uh

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but you know we probably lost some opportunities what were the mistakes well

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you know i it's always easy to second guess i i think probably even john would acknowledge

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that you know windsurfing uh is is you know that you probably want to play softball or something

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you know just to kind of kind of relate to folks

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more have you uh have you met the president you well

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you know he called me he was very gracious after the after the election he he gave me a call

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and and we both agreed that we had married up uh

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and uh and then then he invited me over the white house

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and we had breakfast uh with uh dick cheney and carl rove

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and it was a real fun time yeah it That sounds like,

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yeah, it sounds like Mardi Gras.

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And what is the status now?

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The Senate is pretty much hamstrung by the president. Is that...

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Well, look, I mean, you've got Republicans are in charge of the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives if

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so in terms of sweatshirts you're gonna have to go talk

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to them i i can't i can't help you i don't know why these prices are

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so high what what do you do as the new guy what is

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that yeah they make you sharpen pencils yeah you know is there any kind of indoctrination are there uh seminars

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or well we had an orientation last week

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and you know they described for you you know how the process gets started and

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and how to hire up a staff the biggest challenge uh

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though i think for somebody like myself is just making sure that you're answering the mail and

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answering people's people get angry

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if you're not responsive right I mean they want to know your position on Medicaid

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and Medicare but the most important thing they want to know is

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when they send a letter about their Social Security check

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that somebody's responding to them

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so we're gonna have to spend a lot of time just focusing on that and

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and folks back home in the state of Illinois what do

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you know about Colin Powell Secretary of State was did he quit or was he pushed out?

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Well, what's clear is that he was not the advisor that really had the ear of the president.

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And I think people would acknowledge that generally, that the president had more confidence in Condoleezza Rice and Donald Rumsfeld.

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And I'm sure he felt frustrated over time.

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He had a different vision of how our foreign policy should operate.

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Now, I don't begrudge the president his right to hire the person that he thinks best represents him.

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And the nice thing is now, when condoleezza rice goes overseas i don't think people are going to second guess they know

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that they're talking to somebody who's got the president's here what happened at

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that basketball game in detroit honestly i uh now my i

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said i said this earlier in the week from looking at it i have to blame there's two things

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that i think are responsible uh the fans and being drunk

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because everything was okay everything was basketball until ron artest gets pelted with a beer then that's not basketball.

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And I know there are professionals that are supposed to rise above it and supposed to just look the other way, but my God, you know, who really puts up with that?

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Honestly.

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Yeah, nobody except politicians.

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I mean, I think it looked like Washington.

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It was a melee.

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You know, I played basketball, and you know, your emotions get riled up.

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Sure, sure.

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But, you know, I think everybody's got to step back.

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I think it is an example of a culture, generally, where, you know, people are quick to anger and people,

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I think, take out their frustrations on each other in ways that aren't appropriate.

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And I think both in our politics, in our sports, in our day -to -day interactions, you know, we should be able to be a little more agreeable.

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Right.

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And will something be done to change it?

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Or will we just wait until something really, really, really ugly happens and then it will change automatically?

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You know, I think part of what has to happen is people have

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to set a tone um you know one of the things

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i'm proud about in our campaign is we didn't run negative

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ads you know what we said was we can disagree with somebody

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but that doesn't mean they're they're bad people and and i think

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that part of what happens in our politics

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and in other walks of life is

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that we spend a lot of time vilifying and

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and denigrating people who don't agree with us and and

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and that's something that our children pick up on they they see

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that on television they they hear it in their leadership

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and they start acting that way paul

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and i run negative ads against each other it just doesn't make any difference we don't care um

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but now the other thing

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that i found disturbing about watching i didn't see it during the game i just saw the endless replays of

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that episode i i was watching it and i just couldn't help

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but say to myself that's kind of cool you know it

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actually you know what it sort of was yeah it's a

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little different in a form of basketball you sort of like

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that yeah it's just like and then and then at the end

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when the big tubby guy comes out

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and just says all right somebody poof me

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and jermaine o 'neill comes out just okay boom

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that was kind of cool don't you think dave this is

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what i was talking about you're you're you're you're contributing the

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coarsening of the culture now listen well too late there's no

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surprise there now listen uh you make me a promise now

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and and you know what i'm talking about when you run for president

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when you whenever when you run for president and i have the feeling

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and you have the feeling just you come back

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and see us then all right well i I hope you invite me before then.

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All right, all right, but we will.

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But when you make the run, we'll come back and see us.

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All right, a pleasure.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This video has 206 sentences and 2467 words to shadow. The speech runs for 12:28. The speaker talks fast, about 198 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 85% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.

Key vocabulary in this video

15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
lesson noun	/ˈlɛs.ən/	A section of learning or teaching into which a wider learning content is divided.
hire verb	/ˈhaɪɹ/	To obtain the services of in return for fixed payment.
invite verb	/ɪnˈvaɪt/	To ask for the presence or participation of someone or something.
folk noun	/foʊk/	People, persons.
acknowledge verb	/əkˈnɑ.lɪd͡ʒ/	To admit the knowledge of; to recognize as a fact or truth; to declare one's belief in.
advisor noun	/ædˈvaɪ.zə(ɹ)/	One who offers advice.
congressman noun		A male member of congress.
anticipate verb	/ænˈtɪs.ɪ.peɪt/	To act before (someone), especially to prevent an action.
pronounce verb	/pɹəˈnaʊns/	To declare formally, officially or ceremoniously.
statewide adjective	/steɪtˈwaɪd/	Happening in or affecting an entire state (political subdivision of a federal union).
tone noun	/ˈtəʊn/	A specific pitch.
moral adjective	/ˈmoɹəl/	Of or relating to principles of right and wrong in behaviour, especially conforming to principles of rectitude.
anger noun	/ˈæŋɡə/	A strong and unpleasant feeling of displeasure, hostility, or antagonism, usually combined with an urge to yell, curse, damage or destroy things, or harm…
jane noun	/d͡ʒeɪn/	A female client of a prostitute.
ugly adjective	/ˈʌɡli/	Displeasing to the eye; aesthetically unpleasing.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
come back verb		To return to a place.
come out verb	/ˌkʌm ˈaʊt/	To be discovered; to be revealed.
drop out verb		To leave (school, a race, etc.) prematurely and voluntarily.
go through verb		To travel from one end of something to the other.
end up verb		To bring to a conclusion.
mix up verb		To mix or blend thoroughly and completely.
pick up verb		To lift; to grasp and raise.
pick up on verb		To notice, observe, learn, or understand, especially something otherwise overlooked.

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 57 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, you're, I'm. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “sh” and “zh” sounds: vacation /veɪˈkeɪ.ʃən/, representation /ˌɹɛp.ɹə.zɛnˈteɪ.ʃən/, interaction /ˌɪn.təˈɹæk.ʃən/, congressional /kəŋˈɡɹɛ.ʃə.nəl/, emotion /ɪˈməʊ.ʃən/
Long words — get the stress right: anticipate /ænˈtɪs.ɪ.peɪt/, representation /ˌɹɛp.ɹə.zɛnˈteɪ.ʃən/, celebrity /səˈlɛb.ɹɪ.ɾi/, interaction /ˌɪn.təˈɹæk.ʃən/, congressional /kəŋˈɡɹɛ.ʃə.nəl/

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 lesson, hire, invite.

Grammar in this video

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

Structure	In the video
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	i've tried · you've been · have had
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	is named · were elected · been put
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	somebody who accomplished · guy who was · people who don

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 →

Shadowing Practice: Barack Obama on His Multiracial Identity | Letterman - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

Key vocabulary in this video

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Pronunciation to watch

How to practise with this video

Grammar in this video

What is the Shadowing Technique?