Shadowing Practice: Everything is better than it used to be — or is it? | Agustín Fuentes - Learn English Speaking with Video
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- Traditionally, when you measure success, evolutionarily speaking, it's about a species or a population's ability to sort of continue through time, to successfully adapt, and to grow.
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So under that definition, there are 8 billion humans living everywhere on the planet.
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We are super successful in the traditional sense.
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At the same time, there's 8 billion humans living on the planet, many of them suffering horribly.
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The planet is suffering horribly.
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The climate crisis; a variety of other really horrible things are going on.
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There's a massive extinction event where plants and animals are disappearing at an unbelievable rate because of human action.
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So one might ask, "Is this evolutionary success?" "Just based on sheer number of humans, is that the way to measure it?" In the recent past, and today, there are many people who argue that like, "Wait a minute! Wait a minute! Don't complain so much, humans are doing better than they ever have done.
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There's air conditioners, there's warm showers, there's restaurants, and food, and yeah, so there's some inequality- some people don't have as much as others, but overall, we are living longer and doing better than we ever have done." So I have three responses to that: Number one, who is "we"?
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Are we talking about the entire human species?
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Well, it turns out that different humans are living very, very different lives.
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So we need to clarify that.
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Before one says, "We are doing better," let us define who that we is.
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The second problem I have with that is that these arguments are coming from one broad culture- this sort of Euro-American cultures, these intellectual traditions of a particular way of being in the world, of a particular political and economic process saying, "Well, this is the way it should be, things are better." Well, there are other ways of being in the world.
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There's lots of societies, lots of languages, lots of cultures, lots of people; many of whom have suffered enormously from this particular way of being.
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So again, how do we rectify that?
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How do we understand that?
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And the third thing, my third response to people saying, "Hey, stop complaining, things are better, we're living longer," is "Look, what is the measure of success for humans?" It has to do with how are we doing the human thing?
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How are we being human?
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And how can we minimize, not get rid of, but minimize suffering and injustice?
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Humans are always gonna have inequity and injustice: there's a lot of us, and human history always have hierarchies, and some have more and some have less, there's these incredible dynamics.
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But when it comes down to it right now, we can see that the inequity, the discrepancy in political, economic, technological, health, and many other outcomes for humans is bigger than it ever has been in the entirety of human history.
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If that's the case, something is wrong, 'cause that direction is not good for humans; we already have data that suggests and shows that it's not good for the planet.
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So, to those who say, "Calm down, everything is better than it used to be." I say, "No, it's not." It's not just surviving longer, it's not just having more, it's not just having access to technology- to really understand success, evolutionarily speaking in humans, we need to also talk about the capacity for flourishing.
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Are human bodies and societies reaching at least these minimal levels of flourishing, of health, of security, of interaction, and of well-being.
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So, I would argue, in the modern context, to understand evolutionary success for humans, we need to understand the capacity for human flourishing, and how that is distributed across our species.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “Everything is better than it used to be — or is it?”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: success, planet, flourishing, suffering, measure. This video has 26 sentences and 619 words to shadow. The speech runs for 3:56. The speaker talks at a natural 157 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 89% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is easy to follow. 7 of its 26 sentences are questions, so it is good practice for question intonation and short answers.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| suffer verb | /ˈsʌfɚ/ | To undergo hardship. |
| flourish verb | /ˈflʊ̈ɹ.ɪʃ/ | To thrive or grow well. |
| argue verb | /ˈɑɹ.ɡju/ | To show grounds for concluding (that); to indicate, imply. |
| complain verb | /kəmˈpleɪn/ | To express feelings of pain, dissatisfaction, or resentment. |
| evolutionary adjective | /ˌiː.vəˈluː.ʃən.ɛɹ.i/ | Of or relating to the biological theory of evolution. |
| injustice noun | /ɪnˈd͡ʒʌs.tɪs/ | Absence of justice; unjustice. |
| minimize verb | /ˈmɪn.ɪˌmaɪz/ | To make (something) smaller or as small as possible; shrink; reduce. |
| successfully adverb | /səkˈsɛs.fə.li/ | In a successful manner; with success; without failing. |
| horrible adjective | /ˈhɔɹ.ɪ.bəl/ | Causing horror; terrible; shocking. |
| outcome noun | /ˈaʊtkʌm/ | That which is produced or occurs as a result of an event or process. |
| define verb | /dɪˈfaɪn/ | To determine with precision; to mark out with distinctness; to ascertain or exhibit clearly. |
| intellectual adjective | /ˌɪntəˈlɛkt͡ʃʊəl/ | Pertaining to, or performed by, the intellect; mental or cognitive. |
| interaction noun | /ˌɪn.təˈɹæk.ʃən/ | The situation or occurrence in which two or more things act upon one another to produce an effect; the effect resulting from such a situation or occurrence. |
| minimal adjective | /ˈmɪn.ə.məl/ | The smallest possible amount, quantity, or degree. |
| disappear verb | /dɪsəˈpɪɹ/ | To vanish. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| calm down verb | To become less excited, intense, or angry. |
| come down to verb | To reach by moving down or reducing. |
| turn out verb | To end up; to result. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- Are we talking about the entire human species?
- How do we understand that?
- How are we being human?
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 done · have suffered · has been |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | people who argue · those who say |
| Comparatives -er than / more … than — comparing two things | better than · bigger than |
| Present continuous am/is/are + -ing — something happening right now or around now | is suffering · are going · are disappearing |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 4 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, gonna, we're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: flourish /ˈflʊ̈ɹ.ɪʃ/, evolutionary /ˌiː.vəˈluː.ʃən.ɛɹ.i/, interaction /ˌɪn.təˈɹæk.ʃən/, traditionally /tɹəˈdɪʃ.ə.nə.li/, sheer /ʃɪɚ/
- Long words — get the stress right: evolutionary /ˌiː.vəˈluː.ʃən.ɛɹ.i/, successfully /səkˈsɛs.fə.li/, intellectual /ˌɪntəˈlɛkt͡ʃʊəl/, interaction /ˌɪn.təˈɹæk.ʃən/, unbelievable /ˌʌnbɪˈliːvəbl̩/
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 suffer, flourish, argue.
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.