Shadowing Practice: Contemporary Topics Unit 9 Lecture Video - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Today, we're going to look at a relatively new global epidemic.

Now, when most people hear the word epidemic, they think of an infectious disease that spreads quickly, like hepatitis or Ebola.

However, infectious diseases are just one type of epidemic.

Today we're going to talk about another kind of epidemic, one that is non-infectious.

This is the epidemic of obesity, which is now officially a global health problem.

Obesity is a health condition in which a person has an excess amount of body fat.

The World Health Organization, also known as the WHO, measures obesity by Body Mass Index or BMI.

The formula for calculating your BMI is your body weight in kilograms divided by your height in meters squared.

An adult BMI of 18.5 to 25 is considered normal, 30 and up is considered obese.

According to the WHO, worldwide obesity has more than doubled in the past 35 years.

Today, approximately 600 million adults are considered obese, and obesity in children has increased sharply.

One of the countries with the highest percentage of obese people is the United States, with a whopping 33% according to the National Institutes of Health.

That's probably no surprise because the US, like the UK and Japan, is a developed country.

But what's important to point out is

that the number of individuals classified as obese is now increasing at a faster rate in economically developing countries like Brazil,

China and India.

And surprisingly, the rate of increase for children in these economically developing countries is 30% greater than in developed countries.

So that's what's going on.

The world is putting on weight at an alarming rate.

Today we want to look at the causes of this new epidemic, which are economic, social and behavioural.

From an economic standpoint, something has clearly changed.

In the past, obesity was considered a disease of affluence.

This means that typically only affluent people became obese.

Why?

Because wealthy people were the ones who could afford to eat lots of rich foods

and enjoy the leisurely kinds of lifestyles that led to being overweight.

Nowadays, obesity is no longer just the disease of the affluent.

Increasingly, we're witnessing the occurrence of obesity all over the world with middle and low income people.

Why?

Because more and more people are adopting a modern lifestyle.

Increased use of technology for work and leisure, less physical activity, greater use of cars,

growing access to inexpensive, high-fat, high-sugar fast food.

But there's something else going on here.

We're seeing a social or cultural shift.

The food people prefer is changing.

We now see fast food replacing traditional food in many parts of the world.

We're also seeing a behavioral shift.

The role of food is changing.

Food is being used as entertainment, as a stress release.

We all have easy access to sweet and fatty foods and drinks.

Modern life also presents conveniences that give us choices about activity.

If you can take the escalator or walk up the stairs in a train station, which will you choose?

If you can drive your car versus biking to work or school, what will you decide?

If you can play a video game or take a walk, which will you do?

So in addition to economics, social and behavioural factors contribute to obesity.

In short, we're seeing that as countries develop economically,

people make lifestyle changes that seem like improvements but actually have a negative impact on their health.

So we know obesity is a growing global epidemic.

And we also know from research that any successful obesity treatment program must have a three-level approach.

It must focus on nutrition, lifestyle and strong community support.

So what can and are public health workers doing to respond to this epidemic?

First, for nutrition, people are encouraged to eat more fruits, vegetables and grains, less sugar and fat.

And families are encouraged to have shared meal times, rather than grabbing fast foods throughout the day.

In Finland, for example, officials are addressing the problem of obesity in children by changing the food standards in daycares and schools.

working to reduce access to sugary high-fat snacks and drinks in school vending machines.

In another example, China now has a national healthy eating campaign

that encourages people to eat a more traditional diet and less fast food.

Second, for lifestyle.

We know children need 60 minutes of vigorous physical activity every day.

And for adults at least 30 minutes a day is recommended.

But we also know it doesn't work simply to tell people to be more active.

we have to find ways to include activity into daily routines.

A number of global companies like Genentech and Zappos are now including dance classes and gym sessions during the work day.

And schools in Japan are now implementing new guidelines to be

sure students get a minimum of an hour of physical activity during the school day.

And third, we know that individuals are only likely to change their habits if they have strong group support.

Community-based programs can be set up at a school, at a company, in a neighborhood.

We can see examples of this kind of support happening in Nigeria, where there are neighborhood programs to teach families about nutrition,

or in the US where cities organize programs like Keep Moving or Weight Loss programs.

To sum up, we know obesity is now a global epidemic.

The fact that the rate is increasing, especially for children, is a call to action.

And there are complex economic, social and behavioural factors why people become obese obese.

I'd like you to make a list of five questions you would ask

if you were a public health worker assigned to talk to a family that was obese.

What questions would you ask about their daily habits and lifestyle?

Okay, see you next time.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “Contemporary Topics Unit 9 Lecture Video”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: obesity, epidemic, obese, lifestyle, activity. This video has 76 sentences and 973 words to shadow. The speech runs for 7:14. The speaker talks at a steady 134 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. 83% 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

The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
obesity noun	/ə(ʊ)ˈbiːsɪti/	The state of being obese.
epidemic noun	/ˌɛpɪˈdɛmɪk/	A widespread disease that affects many humans in a population.
obese adjective	/oʊˈbis/	Extremely overweight, especially: weighing more than 20% (for men) or 25% (for women) over their conventionally ideal weight determined by height and build…
behavioural adjective	/bɪˈheɪvjɚəl/	Of or pertaining to behaviour.
infectious adjective	/ɪnˈfɛk.ʃəs/	Caused by an agent that enters the host's body (such as a bacterium, virus, parasite, or prion); often, also, transmitted among hosts via any of various routes…
economically adverb	/ˌiː.kəˈnɒm.ɪ.kli/	In an economical manner; not wastefully; not extravagantly.
nutrition noun	/njuːˈtɹɪʃ.ən/	The organic process by which an organism assimilates food and uses it for growth and maintenance.
affluent adjective	/ˈæf.lu.ənt/	Abundant; copious; plenteous.
affluence noun	/ˈæf.lu.əns/	An abundance of wealth.
classify verb	/ˈklæs.əˌfaɪ/	to identify by or divide into classes; to categorize
daycare noun	/ˈdeɪkeə(ɹ)/	Daytime supervision, usually of children or pets.
escalator noun	/ˈɛs.kə.leɪ.tɚ/	Anything that escalates.
guideline noun	/ˈɡaɪdˌlaɪn/	A non-specific rule or principle that provides direction to action or behaviour.
kilogram noun	/ˈkɪləɡɹæm/	In the International System of Units, the base unit of mass; conceived of as the mass of one litre of water, but now defined by taking the fixed numerical…
leisurely adverb	/ˈliʒɚli/	In a leisurely manner.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Meaning
point out verb	To identify among a group of similar subjects, or in a scene where the subject might not be readily seen or noticed, with a gesture of the body.
sum up verb	To produce a total by adding.

Sentences worth repeating

Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:

We're seeing a social or cultural shift.
We're also seeing a behavioral shift.
What questions would you ask about their daily habits and lifestyle?

Grammar in this video

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

Structure	In the video
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	is considered · are considered · was considered
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	one that is · obesity, which is · epidemic, which are
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	has increased · has clearly changed

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 8 contractions and reduced forms, such as we're, doesn't, I'd. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “sh” and “zh” sounds: infectious /ɪnˈfɛk.ʃəs/, nutrition /njuːˈtɹɪʃ.ən/, leisurely /ˈliʒɚli/, sharply /ˈʃɑɹpli/, leisure /ˈlɛʒə(ɹ)/
Long words — get the stress right: obesity /ə(ʊ)ˈbiːsɪti/, epidemic /ˌɛpɪˈdɛmɪk/, economically /ˌiː.kəˈnɒm.ɪ.kli/, escalator /ˈɛs.kə.leɪ.tɚ/, hepatitis /ˌhɛpəˈtaɪ̯tɪs/

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 obesity, epidemic, obese.

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: Contemporary Topics Unit 9 Lecture Video - Learn English Speaking with Video

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