Shadowing Practice: Even Scarier than we thought | Faye D'Souza - Learn English Speaking with Video
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65 sentences
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You've probably missed this number in the news, but the RBI survey of households expects inflation to be at 10 % for the next one year.
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This is what has happened.
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The RBI surveys about 6 ,000 people across 19 cities in the month of September
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and their median expectation is that the next one year inflation will be at 10 % for households.
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Now compare that to the actual number right now, the consumer price inflation according to the RBI is a 4 .8 %
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and the RBI's expectation is that it will do up to 6%.
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Big difference from the 10 % that we are seeing from this survey.
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This is what families are experiencing which is different from the RBI's calculation and they're thinking about groceries, about milk, about transport,
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about the money left over at the end of the month
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and for a family that has to spend most of its income on food, this will really pinch.
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Now, it's also pinching the RBI because alongside this survey, the RBI has changed a major direction.
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Remember yesterday, the RBI raised interest rates by a quarter of a percent for the first time in three years
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and eight months.
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And it also said that this is calibrated tightening, which in simple English means that it believes
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that inflation has gone up a lot
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and they're going to over the next several months keep increasing the rates to keep
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that inflation under control
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so this is not the only interest rate hike
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there will be others where is the inflation pressure coming from
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first of all obviously the war in first day in west asia is adding energy pressure
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so that means petrol diesel lpg cng becomes more expensive everything
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that comes to your city on the back of a truck whether it's vegetables or milk
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or any other consumer will become more expensive anything that's made in a factory will become more expensive fertilizer
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which also gets imported and brought in will become more expensive
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because of the pressure on shipping second problem india is facing this year rainfall
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because of that el nino effect poor rains have affected crops they've affected animal fodder
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which means there's pressure on both your petrol tank
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and your food the second very big problem sugarcane
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and corn are suffering because of ethanol production sugarcane has been diverted to ethanol
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and so sugar prices jaggery prices every derivative
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or product made using sugar think of the festive season including biscuits
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and cakes and everything else
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that you buy has become more expensive the other problem is corn
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or maize diverted for ethanol is used as fodder for poultry
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which has made chicken
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and eggs more expensive it's also fodder for cows that's made milk more expensive
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and for dairy farmers it's not just a maize
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but also the drought that we're expecting in many of our states mean there's not enough water
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or food to feed the cows which has made milk paneer butter curd everything
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that comes out of milk also more expensive
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so now think about your festive season and consider the fact
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that sugar milk ghee energy delivery everything is going to become more expensive in the coming months add to
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that the rbi's interest rate hike
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now for floating rate borrowers who have a floating rate home loan your home loan emis will go up immediately
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it will suck up all of the extra room
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you have in your household budget for people who take small
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loans to sort of tide off the end of the month
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that is also going to become more expensive and
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that is going to hurt more you can't fix poor rainfall you can't fix expensive oil
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but what the rbi is going to do is hike interest
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rates to suck up all the extra liquidity in our market what does this mean it means
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that business loans will become more expensive it is going to be more expensive to actually run a business
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and more expensive to buy anything big.
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So most families will say fridge abhi ne karete agle saal karete.
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So they will put off a lot of their things that they would buy this festive season for next festive season.
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That will then actually cut the knees off our consumer budgets which means businesses that depend on people spending money.
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You know for example soap, shampoo, fridges, white goods all of the things
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that you expect to sell in the festive season is going to take a hit.
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And that is going to hurt not just the economy, not just household budgets is going to hurt all of us.
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It's a number that has popped up today in the news.
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And there's a lot of noise around protests.
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And that's an important thing.
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But this is also something to pay attention to.
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Leave your comment in the comment section
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if you've seen something else become more expensive that I have not mentioned in this video.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “Even Scarier than we thought”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: expensive, rbi, rate, inflation, milk. This video has 65 sentences and 824 words to shadow. The speech runs for 4:32. The speaker talks fast, about 182 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 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 |
|---|---|---|
| inflation noun | /ɪnˈfleɪ.ʃən/ | An act, instance of, or state of expansion or increase in size, especially by injection of a gas or liquid. |
| festive adjective | /ˈfɛstɪv/ | Having the atmosphere, decoration, or attitude of a festival, holiday, or celebration. |
| household adjective | /ˈhaʊshoʊld/ | Belonging to the same house and family. |
| hike noun | /haɪk/ | A long walk, usually for pleasure or exercise. |
| suck verb | /sʌk/ | To use the mouth and lips to pull in (a liquid, especially milk from the breast). |
| corn noun | /ˈkɔːn/ | Any cereal plant (or its grain) that is the main crop or staple of a country or region. |
| cow noun | /kaʊ/ | An adult female of the species Bos taurus, especially one that has calved. |
| expectation noun | /ˌɛk.spɛkˈteɪ.ʃən/ | The act or state of expecting or looking forward to an event as about to happen. |
| float verb | /fləʊt/ | To be supported by a fluid of greater density (than the object). |
| rainfall noun | The amount of rain that falls on a single occasion | |
| pinch verb | /pɪnt͡ʃ/ | To squeeze a small amount of a person's skin and flesh, making it hurt. |
| petrol noun | /ˈpɛt.ɹəl/ | A fluid consisting of a mixture of refined petroleum hydrocarbons, primarily consisting of octane, commonly used as a motor fuel. |
| egg noun | /ɛɡ/ | An approximately spherical or ellipsoidal body produced by birds, insects, reptiles, and other animals, often housing an embryo within a membrane or shell… |
| alongside | /əˌlɔŋˈsaɪd/ | Side by side with. |
| compare verb | /kəmˈpɛɚ/ | To assess the similarities and differences between two or more things [“to compare X with Y”]. Having made the comparison of X with Y, one might have found it… |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| go up verb | To move upwards. |
| pop up verb | To come up with a "pop" sound. |
| put off verb | To postpone, especially through procrastination. |
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 | You've probably missed · has happened · has changed |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | experiencing which is · cows which has · people who take |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | is calibrated · has been diverted |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 8 contractions and reduced forms, such as can't, they're, you've. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: inflation /ɪnˈfleɪ.ʃən/, expectation /ˌɛk.spɛkˈteɪ.ʃən/, calculation /ˌkælkjuˈleɪʃn̩/, shampoo /ʃæmˈpuː/
- Long words — get the stress right: expectation /ˌɛk.spɛkˈteɪ.ʃən/, derivative /dɪˈɹɪvətɪv/, liquidity /lɪkˈwɪdəti/
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 inflation, festive, household.
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.