Shadowing Practice: BTN Teen Financial Anxiety - Learn English Speaking with Video

NEWS REPORT: In breaking news, the RBA has delivered an increase in the cash rate.

NEWS REPORT: Australia’s cost-of-living is predicted to further increase over the next year.

PERSON: It's just like inflation's gone up so much and stuff recently, and it's just tough on everybody.

PERSON: I mean, I think the housing crisis is something that's on everyone's minds at the moment.

NEWS REPORT: Australia’s property market is charging in 2026 with prices still on the rise.

PERSON: If I'm feeling that worry at 16 years old, then it's probably a problem.

NEWS REPORT: Rents surged almost three times faster than wages.

PERSON: Trying to escape getting caught in rent and being able to buy a house for example, is seeming more and more unrealistic as time goes by.

NEWS REPORT: The wage price index rose 0.8 per cent over the December quarter. It’s below the rate of inflation, which means real wages fell.

JOE BARONIO, BTN REPORTER: We've been hearing for a while now that a lot of people are struggling with the cost of living, and increasingly, young Aussies say they're not just worried about now, but also what it means for the future.

PERSON: It has been definitely on my mind, and every paycheck I'm like, ‘okay, what can I buy, what can I not buy?’ So yeah, definitely on my mind.

Late last year, UNICEF Australia released a study which looked into the wellbeing of children and youth across the country, and of the more than two-thousand 12 to 17-year-olds surveyed, 55 per cent have mixed or unsure feelings about the future, saying financial security and housing is a top concern. Likewise, in Mission Australia's 2025 Youth Survey of more than 17,000 14 to 19-year-olds, the most pressing issue for young people was the cost of living, with one-in-five agreeing that they felt money-stress. And reports from Curtin University and Monash University in 2025 also found financial difficulties to be a top concern.

PERSON: Your parents talk about how they were, you know, looking to moving out at this stage and settling down and building their families and like it just, it seems like it's not like really that achievable anymore or maybe it's like starting to slip away.

PERSON: I do think it is something that I am a little bit concerned about because house prices seem to just like continually increase like disproportionately to incomes.

PERSON: I think when I was 18, coming out of high school, I would have liked to have moved out as soon as possible. And I now realise that's quite unrealistic.

PERSON: I've realised now that I'll probably never, if I'm still living in the city after uni, I'll probably never be able to own, I won't be able to own my own house for a, a long time.

AUCTIONEER: And sold to you! Congratulations Sir!

KATRINA SAMIOS, FINANCIAL BASICS FOUNDATION: I think it is tougher for young people, but it's definitely not hopeless.

This is Katrina. She's the CEO of the Financial Basics Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation helping young people learn about their personal finances. She says that young people can start their financial literacy journey at any age, but the earlier the better, ideally starting from primary school age, which is something some Aussie kids miss out on.

KATRINA SAMIOS: That is actually part of the problem and the fact that money is still a taboo topic and that we're not speaking about it more openly, not only in the school environment, but at, at home, that it's not being spoken about at home, that's where the foundations come from and the confidence.

PERSON: Mum and Dad talked about, never really talked about finances a whole lot.

It's important because obviously your parents are there to set you up for your future, and finance is a little bit a part of that.

PERSON: Definitely yeah, and not to put a stress on your child or whatever, but just sort of showing them a bit of what it's about and teaching them.

PERSON: We grew up as like second generation immigrants, so I think that was really big for my family growing up and yeah, investing, saving money, you know, eating at home instead of going out to eat when we can, and all that kind of thing, I think was really big growing up. In terms of like taxes and more like the adult finance or stuff, I haven't really had much of that.

PERSON: For my parents, they're both immigrants from overseas. So, saving was a really big thing for them because they came from nothing.

KATRINA SAMIOS: We're asking young people to engage and make financial decisions the minute that they leave school, and yet we haven't prepared them for it. Certainly, the key is building your financial toolkit early so that you are more resilient, or you are resilient regardless of what's happening in the market and with those cost-of-living pressures.

Part of that financial toolkit is saving, and despite the rising cost of well, everything really, a lot of young people have been putting money aside. In fact, new data from NAB shows that 18 to 29-year-olds are the most committed savers of any age group, with 89 per cent of young women and 85 per cent of young men actively putting money aside.

PERSON: I don't necessarily put it into a savings account, but that's because I have such a, a strong foundation of saving in my mindset.

PERSON: I do a lot of like saving, a lot of investing as well.

PERSON: I'm not really earning enough to be able to do that, so it's kind of most of my money is coming in and then leaving by the next paycheck.

PERSON: I make sure to like spend money and enjoy it, but like at the end of the day, I always make sure I have enough savings.

PERSON: Unfortunately, I spend all of my money. So, I don't save much no.

What do you spend it on?

PERSON: Motorbikes, cars.

Nice! PERSON: I don't have a savings account, but I do actively try and save money from my job, and not like splurge or buy anything super expensive.

KATRINA SAMIOS: We understand that young people are navigating a very complex financial system now, one that previous generations never had to. And, the solution to that is building financial literacy because it helps, it arms you with the skills, the behaviours and the attitudes that you need.

While Katrina believes personal finance should be more prominent in the Australian Curriculum to help future generations, she says teens and young adults now can start by setting up basic financial habits like keeping track of income and spending, putting away even tiny amounts into savings, and then looking at ways money can make you money in the long run.

KATRINA SAMIOS: Which is understanding compound interest, understanding and exploring opportunities where you might invest in whatever way that you're comfortable with, risk, reward. So those kinds of concepts that not only is about the behaviour of that setting money aside but understanding how you can build wealth through that habit is, is a critical part of, of the whole opportunity that you have, if you have got that good saving plan in place.

But if all those words sound a little confusing, there are lots of resources online to help.

KATRINA SAMIOS: Certainly places like us, Financial Basics Foundation, the ATO, ASIC, all those government sites have really good quality, independent, credible information.

And while things may be tough right now, these guys are optimistic about the future.

PERSON: I'm hopeful. I hope it will be all right.

PERSON: I've done, I’ve worked it out, I’ve done my budget, worked hard last year to get myself in a position where I can be quite comfortable at the moment and I'm the very start of my uni journey so I've still got like three, still got three years.

PERSON: Yeah, it is going to be tough, but everything is and you'll just work your way through it.

PERSON: Don't stress, because stress doesn't get you anywhere. But be smart and be conscious and really invest your money, not necessarily into investments, but into things that matter.

PERSON: As long as you're committed to the bit, that's what I say, everything will work out...

Commit to the bit?

PERSON: And stress is the biggest killer so.

PERSON: So just have a plan, know what you're doing and stick to it. That's it.

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54 sentences

Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This video has 49 sentences and 1428 words to shadow. The speech runs for 7:26. The speaker talks fast, about 192 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
distress noun	/dɪˈstɹɛs/	Physical or emotional discomfort, suffering, or alarm, particularly of a more acute nature.
invest verb	/ɪnˈvɛst/	To spend money, time, or energy on something, especially for some benefit or purpose; used with in.
wage noun	/weɪd͡ʒ/	An amount of money paid to a worker for a specified quantity of work, usually calculated on an hourly basis and expressed in an amount of money per hour.
commit verb	/kəˈmɪt/	To give in trust; to put into charge or keeping; to entrust; to consign; used with to or formerly unto.
necessarily adverb	/ˌnɛs.əˈsɛɹ.ə.li/	Inevitably; of necessity.
behaviour noun		British standard spelling of behavior.
realise verb		Non-Oxford British standard spelling of realize.
habit noun	/ˈhæb.ɪt/	An action performed on a regular basis.
actively adverb	/ˈæktɪvli/	In an active manner.
immigrant noun	/ˈɪmɪɡɹənt/	A non-native person who comes to a country from another country to permanently settle there.
literacy noun	/ˈlɪtəɹəsi/	The ability to read and write.
unrealistic adjective		Not realistic.
topic noun	/ˈtɑpɪk/	A subject; a theme; a category or general area of interest.
earn verb	/ɝn/	To gain (success, reward, recognition) through applied effort or work.
regardless adverb	/ɹɪˈɡɑɹd.lɪs/	Without attention to warnings or indications of bad consequences.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
grow up verb		To mature and become an adult.
go up verb		To move upwards.
move out verb		To leave one's present location; to leave somewhere for another place.
put away verb		To put (something) in its usual storage place; to place out of the way, clean up.
set up verb	/ˌsɛt ˈʌp/	To make ready for use.
settle down verb		To make or become quiet and calm after a period of disturbance or restlessness.
work out verb	/ˌwɝk ˈaʊt/	To calculate.

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 30 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, I've, don't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “sh” and “zh” sounds: organisation /ˈɔː.ɡə.naɪˌzeɪ.ʃən/, conscious /ˈkɑn.ʃəs/, inflation /ɪnˈfleɪ.ʃən/, disproportionately /ˈdɪs.pɹəˌpɔɹ.ʃən.ət.li/
Long words — get the stress right: necessarily /ˌnɛs.əˈsɛɹ.ə.li/, literacy /ˈlɪtəɹəsi/, organisation /ˈɔː.ɡə.naɪˌzeɪ.ʃən/, difficulty /ˈdɪfɪkəlti/, continually /kənˈtɪnjuəli/

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 distress, invest, wage.

Grammar in this video

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

Structure	In the video
Present perfect continuous have/has been + -ing — an action that started earlier and is still going on	We've been hearing · have been putting
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	has delivered · has been · have mixed
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	is predicted · being spoken
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	inflation, which means · age, which is

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 →

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