Shadowing Practice: Diébédo Francis Kéré: How to build with clay... and community - Learn English Speaking with YouTube

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Reviewer Gopalco
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133 sentences
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Reviewer Gopalco
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I would like to show you how architecture has helped
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to change the life of my community and have open opportunities to hope.
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I am a native of Burkina Faso.
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According to the World Bank, Burkina Faso is one of the poorest countries in the world.
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But what does it look like to grow up in a place like that?
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I am an example of that.
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I was born in a little village called Gando.
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In Gando, there was no electricity, no access to clean drinking water, and no school.
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But my father wanted me to learn how to read and write.
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For this reason, I have to leave my family
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when I was seven and to stay in a city far away from my village with no contact with my family.
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In this place, I sat in a class like that with more than 150 other kids.
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and for six years.
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And this time, it just happened to me to come to school to realize that my classmate was died.
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Today, not so much has changed.
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There is still no electricity in my village, people still die in Burkina Faso,
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and access to clean drinking water is still a big problem.
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I had a luck.
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I was lucky.
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Because this is a fact of life when you grow up in a place like that.
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But I was lucky.
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I had a scholarship.
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I could go to Germany to study. So now,
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I suppose I don't need to explain to you how great
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a privilege it is for me to be standing before you today.
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From Gando, my home village in Burkina Faso, to Berlin in Germany to become an architect,
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it's a big, big step.
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But what to do with this privilege?
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Since as a student, I wanted to open up better opportunities to other kids in Gano, I just wanted to use my skills and build a school.
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But how do you do when you're still a student and you don't have money?
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Oh yes, I started to make drawings and ask for money.
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Fundraising was not an easy task.
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I even asked my classmates to spend less money on coffee and cigarettes but to sponsor my school project.
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You will wonder, two years later, I was able to collect 50,000 US dollars.
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When I came home to Ghandu to bring the good news, my people were over the moon.
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But when they realized that I was planning to use clay, they were shocked.
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A clay building is not able to stay in the rainy season.
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And Francis wants us to use it and build a school.
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Is this the reason why he spends so much time in Europe studying instead of working on the field with us?
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My people build all the time with clay, but they don't see any innovation with math.
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So I have to convince everybody.
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I started to speak with the community, I could convince everybody and we could start to work.
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And the women, the men, everybody from the village paths was part of this building process.
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I was allowed to use even traditional techniques.
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So, clay floor for example, the young men come and stand like that, beating.
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Hours, four hours, and then their mother came.
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And they beat in this position.
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for hours, giving water, giving water and beating.
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And then the polisher cap, they start polishing it with a stone for hours.
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And then, you have this result.
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Very fine, like a baby button.
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It's now Photoshop.
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This is the school built with the community.
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The walls are totally made out of compressive clay blocks from Gander.
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The roof structure is made with cheap steel bars normally hiding inside concrete.
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In the classroom, the ceiling is made out of both of them used together.
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In this school there was a simple idea to create comfort in the classroom.
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Don't forget, it can be 45 degrees in Burkina Faso.
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So with simple ventilation, I wanted to make the classroom good for teaching and learning.
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And this is the project today.
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Twelve years old, still in the best condition.
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And the kids, they love it.
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And for me and my community, this project was a huge success.
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It has opened up opportunities to do more projects in Gano.
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So I could do a lot of projects
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and here I'm going to share with you only three of them three of them.
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The first one is the school extension, of course.
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How do you explain drawings and engineering to people who are neither able to read nor write?
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I start to build a prototype like that.
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The innovation was to build a clay vault.
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And then I jump on the top like that with my team, and it works.
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The community is looking, it still works.
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So we can build.
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And we keep building, and that is the result.
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The kids are happy and they love it.
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The community is very proud.
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We made it.
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And even animals, like these donkeys, love our buildings.
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The next project is the library in Gander.
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You see now, we try to use, introduce different ideas in our buildings, but we often don't have so much material.
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Something we have in Ghandlo are clay pots.
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We wanted to use them to create openings.
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So we just bring them, like you can see, to the building site.
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We start to cut them, and then we place them on the top of the roof before we pour the concrete.
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And you have this result.
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The openings are letting the hot air out and lighting.
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Very simple.
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My most recent project in Gando is a high school project.
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I would like to share with you this.
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The innovation in this project is to cast mud, like you would cast concrete.
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How do you cast mud?
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We start making a lot of models, like you can see, like you can see, and when everything is ready, when you know what is the best receipt and the best form,
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you start working with the community.
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And sometimes, I can leave.
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They will do it themselves.
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I came to speak to you like that.
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Another factor in Gando is rain.
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When the rains come, we hurry up to protect our fragile walls against the rain.
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Don't conform with Christon Jean-Claude.
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It is simply how we protect our walls.
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The rain in Burkina comes very fast.
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And after that, you have flood everywhere in the country.
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But for us, the rain is good.
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It brings sand and gravel to the river.
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We need to use the build.
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We just wait for the rain to go.
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We take the sand, we mix them with clay, and we keep building. That is it.
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The Gando project was always connected to training the people because I just wondered, one day, when I fall down and die,
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I will die that at least one person from Gando keeps doing this work.
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But you will be surprised, I'm still alive.
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And my people now can use their skills to earn money themselves.
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Usually for a young man from Gando, to earn money, you have to leave the country to the city, Sometimes they leave the country,
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and some never come back, making the community weaker.
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But now, they can stay in the country and work on different building sites and earn money to feed their family.
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It's a new quality in this work.
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Yes, you know it.
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I have won a lot of awards through this work.
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For sure, it has open opportunities.
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I have become myself now.
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But the reason why I do what I do is my community.
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When I was a kid, I was going to school, I was coming back every holiday to Gando.
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By the end of every holiday, I have to say goodbye to the community, going from one compound to another one.
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All women in Gando will open their clothes like that and give me the last penny.
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In my culture, this is a symbol of deep affection.
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As a seven-year-old guy, I was impressed.
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I was just asking my mother one day, why all these women love me so much?
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She just answered, they are contributing to pay for your education,
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hoping that you will be successful and one day come back and help improve the quality of life of the community.
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I hope now that I was able to make my community proud through this work.
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And I hope I was able to prove you the power of community.
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and to show you that architecture can be inspiring for communities to shape their own future.
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Merci beaucoup.

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Why practice speaking with this video?

This engaging video featuring Diébédo Francis Kéré provides a rich context for English learners to practice their speaking skills. By sharing his personal story of overcoming challenges in Burkina Faso and his journey to becoming an architect, Kéré's narrative is both inspiring and thought-provoking. As he discusses building a school using clay and engaging with his community, learners can practice expressing their thoughts on social issues, architecture, and community involvement.

Practicing speaking with this video enhances your understanding of real-life English, making it a valuable resource for those who wish to learn English with YouTube. By shadowing Kéré's speech, you will improve your pronunciation, fluency, and ability to articulate complex ideas clearly and confidently. The shadow speech method allows you to repeat phrases and sentences as you listen, enabling you to absorb vocabulary and expressions effectively.

Grammar & Expressions in Context

Throughout the video, Kéré utilizes several key grammatical structures and expressions that are beneficial for English learners to analyze:

  • Use of Past Simple Tense: Kéré frequently refers to his past experiences, such as, “I was born in a little village" and “I left my family when I was seven.” Mastering this tense is essential for discussing past events.
  • Conditional Sentences: He employs conditional structures like “If I had a scholarship, I could go to Germany.” Understanding conditionals can help learners express hypothetical situations.
  • Direct Speech: Phrases like “I started to convince everybody” illustrate how to quote thoughts and actions. This technique is key to narrating conversations in storytelling.
  • Expressions of Privilege: Kéré states, “I suppose I don’t need to explain to you how great a privilege it is.” This expression is a good example of how to articulate personal insights and reflections.

Common Pronunciation Traps

As you practice speaking with Kéré’s video, be mindful of some common pronunciation traps. His accent carries distinct sounds that may challenge non-native speakers:

  • “Privileged”: The pronunciation of this word often varies; ensure you practice the two syllables distinctly: priv-i-leged.
  • “Architecture”: This word can be tricky. Focus on the correct syllable stress: ar-ki-tecture, with emphasis on the third syllable.
  • “Community”: Make sure to practice the pronunciation by breaking the word down: com-mu-ni-ty. Pay attention to the rhythm and flow.

By utilizing the shadowing technique, you can repeat Kéré's phrases to refine your accent and manage tricky pronunciations, enhancing your overall spoken English skills.

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.

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