Shadowing Practice: EMOTIONAL: Obama's FINAL Speech as President - Try Not to CRY ! - Learn English Speaking with Video
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113 sentences
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You made me a better president.
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And you made me a better man.
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And every day I have learned from you.
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My conversations with you, those conversations are what have kept me honest, and kept me inspired, and kept me going.
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So I first came to Chicago when I was in my early 20s.
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And I was still trying to figure out who I was, still searching for a purpose in my life.
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Not far from here where I began working with church groups in the shadows of closed steel mills.
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It was on these streets where I witnessed the power of faith
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and the quiet dignity of working people in the face of struggle and loss.
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Now this is where I learned that change only happens
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when ordinary people get involved and they get engaged and they come together to demand it.
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After eight years as your president, I still believe that.
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It's the conviction that we are all created equal, endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights,
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among them life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
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Yes, our progress has been uneven.
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The work of democracy has always been hard.
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it's always been contentious.
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Sometimes it's been bloody.
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For every two steps forward, it often feels we take one step back.
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But the long sweep of America has been defined by forward motion,
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a constant widening of our founding creed to embrace all, and not just some.
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But politics is a battle of ideas.
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That's how our democracy was designed.
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In the course of a healthy debate, we prioritize different goals and the different means of reaching them.
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Now, we can and should argue about the best approach to solve the problem.
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But to simply deny the problem not only betrays future generations,
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It betrays the essential spirit of this country,
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the essential spirit of innovation and practical problem solving that guided our founders.
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As my mom used to tell me, reality has a way of catching up with you.
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In his own farewell address, George Washington wrote that self-government is the underpinning of our safety, prosperity, and liberty.
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But from different causes and from different quarters,
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much pains will be taken to weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth.
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And so we have to preserve this truth with jealous anxiety
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that we should reject the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest,
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or to enfeeble the sacred ties that make us one.
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Show up.
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Dive in.
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Stay at it.
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Sometimes you'll win.
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Sometimes you'll lose.
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And there will be times when the process will disappoint you.
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Presuming a reservoir of goodness in other people, That can be a risk,
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but for those of us fortunate enough to have been part of this work and to see it up close,
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let me tell you, it can energize and inspire.
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You have everything you need to get started.
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You've got no excuses.
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You have no excuses not to change the world.
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Did you study business?
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Go start a company.
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Or why not help a struggling non-for-profit find better, more effective ways to serve folks in need.
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You study nursing?
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Go understaff clinics and hospitals across this country are desperate for your health.
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You study education?
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Teach in a high-need school where the kids really need you.
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Give a chance to kids who can't who can't get everything they need maybe in their neighborhood, maybe not even in their home,
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but we can't afford to give up on them.
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Prepare them to compete for for any job anywhere in the world.
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No one expects you to take a vow of poverty, but I will say it betrays a poverty of ambition
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if all you think about is what goods you can buy instead of what good you can do.
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So yes, go get that law degree, but if you do, ask yourself if the only option is to defend the rich and the powerful,
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or if you can also find some time to defend the powerless.
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Sure, go get your MBA or start that business.
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We need black businesses out there,
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but ask yourselves what broader purpose your business might serve in putting people back to work or transforming a neighborhood.
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The most successful CEOs I know didn't start out intent just on making money.
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Rather, they had a vision of how their product or service would change things and the money followed.
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Find somebody to be successful for.
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Raise their hopes.
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Rise to their needs.
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That's what's made a difference in our lives, and it's going to make an even greater difference in your lives.
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Not just for your own success, but for the success of other people's children and grandchildren.
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Because we live in a new world now.
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We have always believed that the future of our children
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and grandchildren will be better if other people's children and grandchildren are more prosperous and more free.
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And if we fail to meet that responsibility, who would take our place?
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And what kind of world would we pass on?
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The hard road does not end here.
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Your journey has just begun.
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With power comes responsibility.
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Our action, our leadership, is essential to the cause of human dignity.
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And so we must act, with confidence in our ideals and an abiding faith in the character of our people.
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Our brave men and women in uniform, tempered by the flames of battle, are unmatched in skill and courage.
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Our law enforcement agencies are more effective and vigilant than ever.
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We have taken out tens of thousands of terrorists, including bin Laden lot.
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Our citizens, seared by the memory of those we have lost, know too well the price that is paid for liberty.
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The knowledge of their sacrifice will keep us forever vigilant against those who would do us harm.
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We, the people, declare today that the most evident of truths that all of us are created equal,
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is the star that guides us still, just as it guided our forebears through Seneca Falls and Selma and Stonewall,
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just as it guided all those men and women, sung and unsung, who left footprints along this great mall,
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to hear a preacher say that we cannot walk alone,
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to hear a king proclaim that our individual freedom is inextricably bound to the freedom of every soul on earth.
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It is now our generation's task to carry on what those pioneers began.
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For our journey is not complete until our wives, our mothers, and daughters can earn a living equal to their efforts.
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For if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well.
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Our journey is not complete until all our children know that they are cared for and cherished and always safe from harm.
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That is our generation's task.
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I'm hopeful and I'm excited about what all of you can achieve.
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you're ready to make your mark on the world. So thank you.
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Thanks for inspiring me.
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My fellow Americans, it has been the honor of my life to serve you.
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I won't stop.
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In fact, I will be right there with you as a citizen for all my remaining days.
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But for now, whether you are young or whether you're young at heart, I do have one final ask of you as your president.
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The same thing I asked when you took a chance on me eight years ago.
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I am asking you to believe, not in my ability to bring about change, but in yours.
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That creed reaffirmed by those who planted flags from foreign battlefields to the surface of the moon.
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A creed at the core of every American whose story is not yet written.
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Yes, we can.
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Yes, we did.
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Yes, we can.
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Thank you.
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God bless you.
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May God continue to bless you.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This video has 113 sentences and 1321 words to shadow. The speech runs for 10:12. The speaker talks at a steady 130 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. 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 |
|---|---|---|
| liberty noun | /ˈlɪbəti/ | The condition of being free. |
| inspire verb | /ɪnˈspaɪə(ɹ)/ | To infuse into the mind; to communicate to the spirit; to convey, as by a divine or supernatural influence; to disclose preternaturally; to produce in, as by… |
| creed noun | /kɹid/ | That which is believed; accepted doctrine, especially religious doctrine; a particular set of beliefs; any summary of principles or opinions professed or… |
| defend verb | /dɪˈfɪnd/ | To ward off attacks against (something or someone). |
| harm noun | /hɑːm/ | Physical injury; hurt; damage. |
| poverty noun | /ˈpɑːvɚti/ | The quality or state of being poor; lack of money |
| solve verb | /sɒlv/ | To find an answer or solution to a problem or question; to work out. |
| bless verb | /blɛs/ | To make something holy by religious rite, sanctify. |
| conviction noun | /kənˈvɪkʃən/ | A firmly held belief. |
| dignity noun | /ˈdɪɡnɪti/ | The state of being dignified or worthy of esteem: elevation of mind or character. |
| earn verb | /ɝn/ | To gain (success, reward, recognition) through applied effort or work. |
| practical adjective | /ˈpɹæk.tɪ.kəl/ | Relating to, or based on, practice or action rather than theory or hypothesis. |
| argue verb | /ˈɑɹ.ɡju/ | To show grounds for concluding (that); to indicate, imply. |
| founder noun | /ˈfaʊ̯n.dəː/ | One who founds or establishes (a company, project, organisation, state, etc.). |
| anxiety noun | /æŋˈzaɪ.əti/ | An unpleasant state of mental uneasiness, nervousness, apprehension and obsession or concern about some uncertain event. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| figure out verb | To come to understand; to discover or find a solution; to deduce. | |
| show up verb | To appear, arrive, or attend, especially suddenly or erratically. | |
| start out verb | To emerge suddenly; to jump out. | |
| step back verb | /stɛp ˈbæk/ | To stop what one is doing and evaluate the current situation. |
| step forward verb | to take one or more steps forward, especially in response to a request for identification | |
| take out verb | To remove. |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 12 contractions and reduced forms, such as can't, I'm, you'll. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: conviction /kənˈvɪkʃən/, shadow /ˈʃædəʊ̯/, innovation /ˌɪn.əˈveɪ.ʃən/, ambition /æmˈbɪʃ.ən/, cherish /ˈt͡ʃɛɹɪʃ/
- Long words — get the stress right: anxiety /æŋˈzaɪ.əti/, ordinary /ˈɔɹdɪnɛɹi/, innovation /ˌɪn.əˈveɪ.ʃən/, prosperity /pɹɑˈspɛɹ.ɪ.ti/, alienate /ˈeɪ.li.ə.neɪt/
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 liberty, inspire, creed.
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | have learned · have kept · has been |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | has been defined · was designed · will be taken |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | kids who can · those who would · those who planted |
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.