Shadowing Practice: Creating Capabilities – Martha Nussbaum - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
1
Well, of course, GDP has been used for many years as a measure of quality of life.
2
But what we want, if we're measuring quality of life, is we want to know how people are really doing.
3
And for several reasons, GDP really doesn't get at that.
4
First of all, it doesn't take account of distribution.
5
So it can give very, it's an average, so it can give very high marks to nations
6
that have huge and alarming inequalities where the people at the top may be doing very well, so the average is high,
7
but then a lot of people at the bottom are living very miserable lives.
8
Second, because it funnels all parts of human life together in a single number,
9
it doesn't really tell you how people are doing in separate areas of life that you really want to care about,
10
such as health, education, political liberty, race relations.
11
So there's so many things that bear on the quality of a human life.
12
You might argue that GDP is a good proxy for all of them
13
and that if you just simply push for economic growth, it'll trickle down and improve these other things, but actually that's not true.
14
Empirical research by now has shown that health and education are not very robustly correlated with increased GDP.
15
In the different Indian states, health and education are subjects that are left for the states to manage.
16
So you can use them as experimental laboratories
17
and it's really quite interesting to see that some
18
that have shot for increased GDP and have achieved that have very poor achievements in health and education.
19
While Kerala, which is a relatively poor state whose economy has not grown well,
20
actually has 99% adolescent literacy in both males and females and health achievements that are comparable to inner-city New York,
21
which is I think shameful for New York, but it's actually quite fine for a poor Indian state.
22
But then if you think about political liberty, gender relations, race relations, it's even more obvious that that's not highly correlated with GDP.
23
I mean, everyone admires China for the stunning economic growth, but we know very well that there are lots of things that are lacking there.
24
Well, the first time that the United Nations published a human development report using this approach.
25
The great Pakistani economist, Mahbub ul Haq, said the real wealth of the nation is its people
26
and the purpose of development is to create an enabling environment for people to live long, healthy and creative lives.
27
So that's the purpose of the approach.
28
So essentially it asks the very basic question, what are people actually able to do
29
and to be in a wide range of areas
30
which are thought to be of central importance for the quality of a human life.
31
Now I've actually made a list of 10
32
because I'm interested in constitutional law and so I'm interested in the way
33
that you could actually write this down and put it into constitutional documents.
34
But other people don't make a list
35
but they pick out certain things to compare and then you have to figure out how to measure each of them.
36
So what would be a good proxy for education and
37
so of course data have to be reshaped to the new approach
38
and I think right now the Human Development Reports use mean years of schooling as a proxy for education, and that's because they can get data on that.
39
It's much harder to get inside the school and figure out exactly what people are able to do.
40
So I think we always need to be pushing for better measures.
41
It's again very hard to know what you should be looking at when you measure health.
42
Health opportunities is what you really want to look at, not health achievements, because we do think that people should have choices about how to live their lives.
43
And so what's important is that they should have opportunities to have good health, and then some may choose to live an unhealthy life.
44
But there's a huge difference between fasting and starving, you know.
45
And if people are fasting for reasons of their own choice, that's one thing.
46
But if they are malnourished and they're starving, that's another.
47
So it's very hard to know how to measure that.
48
And of course, one of the things you just do is look at the incidence of different kinds of diseases, nutritional diseases, then you look at longevity,
49
which of course is a very good proxy for health opportunities.
50
What are the books of human vulnerability?
51
Those books are about how political arrangements can address problems of human vulnerability.
52
And prior to that, we have to ask what forms of vulnerability should be addressed.
53
Some forms of vulnerability, such as being open to love
54
or caring about your children we don't want to remove from human life
55
but we do want to support them
56
and make them fruitful rather than sources of just constant daily agonizing uncertainty you know
57
so if you think about my work on the emotions it's all really about love
58
and it's about attachments that people have and i'm certainly trying to send the message that people should not shrink from attachments.
59
But then, you know, it's just not the case
60
that we want people to be as vulnerable as possible when they have children and they love them.
61
No, you know, how would a decent society support
62
that relationship of love and attachment and make it not the case that you have to worry from day to day, are my children going to get their food or not?
63
And so, yeah, thinking about how vulnerability plays out
64
and how good governments can leave room for the good kinds of vulnerability where you're open to loving somebody,
65
but get rid of the bad sorts where you're afraid
66
that you're going to be beaten up if you walk outside your house or you're afraid that your children might starve.
67
I guess the first thing to say is it's a persuasive document.
68
It's not meant to be imposed by force of arms or even by economic threats.
69
And actually I think those things are almost never justified.
70
I do think that when you're thinking about what you want to fund, if you're a nation in the developed world,
71
it might make sense to give priority to things like health and education.
72
But most of the time, I mean, I'm really a big supporter of national sovereignty.
73
I think you should do it by giving it to the nation and let them decide what to do with it.
74
So it's a template for nations to consult when they think what they might want to protect.
75
And I have some arguments, which I think are good arguments, that these are things that they should pay attention to.
76
So we hope that people will be persuaded.
77
But it's certainly, I think it's not imperialism if you try to persuade people of something.
78
So that's the first thing to say.
79
Second thing is that it's, unless you defend certain things, you don't have meaningful pluralism.
80
For example, the freedom of speech, the freedom of association, the freedom of religion.
81
Unless you give those a very strong place in your nation, in your constitution, or whatever you have as your founding document,
82
then it's very hard for meaningful pluralism to even exist.
83
So the relationship between universalism and pluralism is complicated.
84
And you have to say, this we defend for everyone, if you're going to have the difference in the plurality that really I think we all want to see.
85
The third thing is that this is a list of capabilities, and it's not a list of functionings.
86
It's not meant to dragoon people into pursuing one of these.
87
It's a set of opportunities.
88
So you might hate religion
89
and still think it's a fine thing to protect the freedom of religion
90
so that the people who do care about religion can use it when they want to use it.
91
Similarly, you know, many of us love to work.
92
We work a lot.
93
But we still think that there should be maximum hours protections and that people shouldn't have to work all the time.
94
They shouldn't, lives should not be swallowed up by that, so that if they want leisure time, they should be able to have it.
95
You know, again, some people may want to engage in fasting for religious reasons or personal reasons,
96
but what's important is they should have the opportunity to be well-nourished.
97
So I think that's a very permissive approach.
98
It's an approach that really is all about opportunity and choice.
99
So the last thing I'll say is that because I'm thinking so much about constitutional law,
100
I think that what I put on my list is something extremely abstract in general with the idea
101
that each nation will do it somewhat differently and
102
that they'll take some abstract thing like the freedom of speech
103
and then they'll think what version of that they want to endorse.
104
As we know, different nations around the world have very different doctrines of free speech
105
and the doctrine of free speech in the US is extremely speech protective,
106
for example defending anti-Semitic protesting and marching in Skokie, whereas in Germany anti-Semitic speech is illegal.
107
Well, I actually think both are right, given their different histories and traditions.
108
So the whole point of the list is to say, well here's kind of a general idea, now you think what you want to do with that in keeping with your history and traditions.
109
Thank you.
✨ Recommend Video
C179
16 sentences
What is the Capability Approach to development?
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
C117
18 sentences
Quốc gia đáng sống nhất | TED-Ed | Học Tiếng Anh song ngữ #shorts #hoctienganh #tienganh
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
C1177
24 sentences
The uncomfortable truth | Yuval Noah Harari
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
C12
311 sentences
Eco 155: Principles of Macroeconomics Class 1
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepCambridge Exam Prep
C15
25 sentences
Health is all about people – it’s time to invest in social participation!
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
C16
233 sentences
UK universities are being killed by deliberately designed neoliberal government policy.
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
C11
117 sentences
How China Could Fall Into the Middle-Income Trap
IELTS PrepBusiness EnglishUniversity Students
C110
221 sentences
ENGLISH SPEECH | AKASH BANERJEE: India’s Path (English Subtitles)
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
C19
193 sentences
Amartya Sen interview (1999)
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
C11
105 sentences
POLITICAL THEORY - Karl Marx
British AccentIELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
C12
117 sentences
IASNR 2022 Conference Presentation
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
B23
12 sentences
Bill Gates - Population - Vaccines
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
Understanding Quality of Life Beyond GDP: A Real-World Discussion
In the video, philosopher Martha Nussbaum discusses why GDP fails to measure true quality of life and introduces a "capabilities approach" focused on people’s actual opportunities. This engaging dialogue is perfect for practicing English—full of complex ideas, natural arguments, and varied vocabulary. It’s a great example of how to discuss social issues, making it ideal for learn english with youtube sessions.
Useful Chunks & Collocations to Master
- "trickle down": (e.g., "Economic growth doesn’t always trickle down to improve health.")
- "enabling environment": (e.g., "Development should create an enabling environment for people.")
- "meaningful pluralism": (e.g., "Freedom of speech supports meaningful pluralism.")
- "bear on": (e.g., "Many factors bear on the quality of life.")
- "proxy for": (e.g., "Mean years of schooling is a proxy for education.")
These phrases are common in academic and casual discussions, so memorizing them will boost your fluency.
Your Shadowing Challenge: Practice Like a Pro
Ready to try the shadowing technique? Here’s how: Pick a 30-second clip from the video (try the part where Nussbaum talks about "the real wealth of the nation"). Play the clip, pause, and repeat it immediately, mimicking her tone, speed, and pronunciation. Focus on matching her rhythm—this helps with improve english pronunciation and fluency. For an extra challenge, use "shadowspeak": repeat the words while she’s speaking (like a shadow). Do this 5 times, then record yourself. Compare your version to the video—you’ll notice progress fast! This task works because it trains your brain to think and speak in English simultaneously. Keep going—you’re building real, practical skills!
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 | are left · are thought · be reshaped |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | has been · has shown · have shot |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | Kerala, which is · people who do |
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.