Shadowing Practice: Data centres and U.S. midterm elections | Vietnam Today - Learn English Speaking with Video
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The U .S midterm elections are approaching.
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One issue emerging in this election cycle is the impact of
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data centers on people living in communities where these facilities are being built.
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Across the country, communities are debating the economic benefits of data centers against concerns over quality of life and the environment.
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And that is the focus of our report today from our correspondent in the United States.
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A proposed 99 megawatt data center near a community park is now undergoing public review in San Jose, California.
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The public hearing is a required step in the approval process at the public meeting.
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Many residents voiced concerns about the potential impact of the project on their communities.
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Fortunately, we have four applications just within my school district
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that will impact my families and my students
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and my schools out in South San Jose and we've had no say so
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and the most concerning one is at Hitachi where we just
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approved a land use split to allow for a data center
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that's right next to our community right next to a park
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that the children are playing at
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and we actually at one point was supposed to be a community center for district 2
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and so we're going the wrong way I believe we need to have a moratorium
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and talk about over concentration within our community they're all saying the same thing
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that we don't want them here it's going to cause
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so many problems you in dust you zone the ibm property for industrial it's right next to residential we have
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so many housing issues silicon valley's san jose is home to many of the world's largest technology companies
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and has also become a major location for data centers city
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officials say each proposal must be carefully reviewed with the goal
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of balancing economic benefits with the concerns of local residents we're committed to making sure
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that data centers are done right in san jose meaning
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that we strike that balance between the economic opportunity
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and tax -based growth with all of the things the community
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is rightly concerned about quality of life environmental sustainability ensuring
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that there are actual community benefits we've got to regulate tech to ensure
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that any new development investment is a win for the broader
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community some environmental activists in san jose are documenting the growing
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concentration of data centers across the city they're using the footage
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to show candidates running in the midterm elections how close these facilities are to homes parks children and wildlife
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We're actually using that footage to talk to elected representatives, to show them with their own eyes the proximity of children,
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of parks, of wildlife, and of the population that they're responsible for, how close they are to these data centers.
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Data center is one of the issues in America today.
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And in order to provide more information about that issue.
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I have the interview with the official from the Laodau County.
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The county has been seen the data center capital city of the United States.
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Thank you very much for being interviewed with Vietnam today.
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The first question I'd like to ask you is
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that why some of the people are particularly concerned about the data center in midterm election.
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It's a good question and And data centers need to be managed.
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And because they are unique community challenges, they need to be managed at the community level.
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So to the extent that they are properly managed from the outset, data centers can be a real benefit to a community.
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But they have to be properly managed preemptively.
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And what happened was the explosive growth
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that began in the summer of 2022 caused a lot of data centers to simply roll into communities that were unprepared,
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didn't know what a data center was had never dealt with data centers
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and offer enormous amounts of money to be able to build
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a data center with no regard whatever to the impact on the community.
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And it didn't take a whole lot of bad actors like that to really cause this resistance movement among populations.
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I talk to communities all the time
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and I say it's specific to each community and
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if you pay attention
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and you get all the stakeholders to talk preemptively at the
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beginning of the discussion you can build really effective community partners with data centers
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but if you don't and
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if you simply sign on the dotted line for the amount of money
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that they're offering you you can end up with a data center
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that has a real negative impact on the community
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and I think it's those examples
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that are making the news the really bad examples of data centers
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that were built too fast in the wrong place without the right kinds of mitigation of the impacts on the community
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In this scenario,
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what is the company should do to balance between building the new data center and to meet the requirements from the community?
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It's a great question.
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The data center community right now is facing historic demand, really, truly historic demand.
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And so as a business entity, they want to respond to that demand.
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And the default position is to respond to that demand exactly as they've always responded to it.
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Build more, build bigger, build faster.
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The demand and the constant building is, if it's not managed correctly from the data center side,
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can be just as damaging as if it's not managed from the community side.
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If I were building a data center now, recognizing community resistance that's out there,
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I would sit down preemptively and go talk to community leaders and all the stakeholders.
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I'd bring it around the table, the community, the other data centers,
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perhaps, utilities, water resources, all the stakeholders that are going to have something to do with my data center.
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And we would come to a mutually agreed solution for how this data center should go forward so that I, as the data center, am creating a community partnership right from the outset set.
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It's not an afterthought.
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So the data centers, I believe now, they don't just have a blank check anymore.
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They can't just build any way they want to, anywhere they want to.
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I think now, for their own self -interest, they should start collaborating with community leaders, elected leaders, early on in the process.
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And that will reduce a lot of the resistance and allow them to build really productive campuses.
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Thank you very much for being interviewed with Vietnam Today.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This video has 84 sentences and 1091 words to shadow. The speech runs for 6:43. The speaker talks at a natural 162 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 87% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is easy to follow.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| resident noun | /ˈɹɛzɪdənt/ | A person, animal or plant living at a certain location or in a certain area. |
| wildlife noun | /ˈwaɪldlaɪf/ | undomesticated animals, especially mammals, birds, and fish, which live in the wild. |
| footage noun | /ˈfʊtɪd͡ʒ/ | An amount of film or tape that has been used to record something, or the content of the recording. |
| concentration noun | /ˌkɑn.sənˈtɹeɪ.ʃən/ | The act, process or ability of concentrating; the process of becoming concentrated, or the state of being concentrated. |
| elect verb | /ɪˈlɛkt/ | To choose or make a decision (to do something). |
| partnership noun | /ˈpɑɹtnɚʃɪp/ | The state of being associated with a partner. |
| extent noun | /ɪkˈstɛnt/ | A range of values or locations. |
| proposal noun | /pɹəˈpoʊzəl/ | A scheme or design. |
| carefully adverb | /ˈkɛɹf(ə)li/ | With care; attentively, circumspectly. |
| dust noun | /dʌst/ | Fine, dry particles of matter found in the air and covering the surface of objects, typically consisting of soil lifted up by the wind, pollen, hair, fiber… |
| resource noun | /ɹɪˈzɔːs/ | Something that one uses to achieve an objective, e.g. raw materials or personnel. |
| regard noun | /ɹɪˈɡɑːd/ | A steady look, a gaze. |
| commit verb | /kəˈmɪt/ | To give in trust; to put into charge or keeping; to entrust; to consign; used with to or formerly unto. |
| residential adjective | /ˌrɛzɪˈdɛnʃəl/ | Of or pertaining to a place of personal residence or to a location for such places. |
| default noun | /dɪˈfɔlt/ | The condition of failing to meet an obligation. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| sit down verb | To assume a sitting position from a standing position. |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 18 contractions and reduced forms, such as they're, don't, we're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: concentration /ˌkɑn.sənˈtɹeɪ.ʃən/, partnership /ˈpɑɹtnɚʃɪp/, residential /ˌrɛzɪˈdɛnʃəl/, mitigation /mɪtɪˈɡeɪʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: concentration /ˌkɑn.sənˈtɹeɪ.ʃən/, residential /ˌrɛzɪˈdɛnʃəl/, utility /juːˈtɪlɪti/, entity /ˈɛn.tə.ti/ [-tʰi], fortunately /ˈfɔɹ.t͡ʃə.nɪt.li/
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 resident, wildlife, footage.
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 | being built · must be carefully reviewed · has been seen |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | we've had · has also become · has been seen |
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.