Shadowing Practice: GTA July 2026 Newsletter - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Hello advocates and welcome to the July Global Tech Advocates newsletter.
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It was great to see many of you here in London
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during the month of June for London Tech Week for South by Southwest London.
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I got to see many of you here and
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so there's information in your newsletter about everything that happened in the month of June if you weren't here in London.
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I've also been to Toronto recently with our new Tech Canada Advocates leadership
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and I did what I call an East Coast swing with New York, Boston and DC meeting with our advocates there.
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A lot of great things happening across North America which you can read about in the newsletter.
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I'm really delighted to introduce three great advocates on this video to talk about GTA Istanbul 2026
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which is our next GTA summit happening in October.
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So I'm going to ask each to just share their perspectives on what's got them excited.
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So Atta, let me come to you first.
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Why is this the right moment for Turkey and what makes Istanbul such a fitting location for our next GTA summit?
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Thank you, Ravaz.
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Well, why Istanbul?
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Why now?
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Just look at the calendar.
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This week, NATO leaders are meeting in Ankara.
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In September, JITEX makes its Turkey debut in Istanbul.
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In October, we've got the GTA summit, obviously.
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In November, world leaders arrive in Antalya for COP31.
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Next year, Istanbul is hosting European games before the 2036 Olympics.
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Formula One is coming back to Istanbul.
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We've got the Europa League final and Turkey will co-host Euro 2032.
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So the world is booking Turkey and our summit puts the global tech community right in the middle of the momentum.
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And the tech story has earned its place on the calendar as well.
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Turkey's exports have cost $5 billion, up nearly 38% year over year.
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Total startup deal volume reached around $2.6 billion in 2024.
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So we've got over six unicorns being built at home.
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And Turkish founders are building more abroad, from Falei to Carbon Health in San Francisco to Udemy before them.
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So what we're looking at is basically the global network of founders with Istanbul in its center.
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Which brings me to geography.
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Don't want to use the tired East meets West cliché.
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We were talking about the Turkic Tech Corridor now.
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An arc from Brazil through Europe, across Turkey and to the Turkey Republics, all the way to Japan.
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And it's already real.
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Kazakhstan's Caspi acquired Epsu Borada for over a billion dollars, which was the capital moving along the secure corridor
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and Istanbul is where a London investor for example
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or a founder from Tashkent and a fund from Almaty can sit at the same table.
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And finally the community TechTurkey Advocates has grown past 150 members now in its first year.
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And TechTurkey Advocates played a really significant role during London Tech Week.
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Turkey had the largest pavilion during London Tech Week.
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The Turkish ambassador hosted a great reception where we talked about the GTA summits.
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Thank you for that context and clearly And really, Istanbul, where we're going to be, is such an important meeting point.
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So Andrew, I want to come to you next, which is very much, you know, describe this meeting point of future-ready leaders that we're going to bring together.
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What does being future-ready mean to you?
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And what should people take away from this trip to Istanbul?
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If we think about future-ready, it isn't about predicting the future because no one is able to do that.
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No one knows exactly what is coming.
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It's really about building that capacity to adapt, to learn, to reinvent before circumstances forces to do that.
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And technology alone doesn't make organizations future ready.
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What matters more is people, it's leadership, it's culture, and most of all,
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it's the ability to make better decisions during uncertainty and
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if we look at that it's skyrocketing at the moment
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so the most successful ecosystems are the ones that collaborate
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that experiment and
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that really learn faster than the world around changes that's why i would say the summit is really really important
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and we're bringing together very different perspectives as atas said from turkia to Central Asia,
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but also to communities rebuilding under extraordinary circumstances.
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All of that to understand that future ready leadership needs to define itself.
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We need to understand what it really looks like in practice.
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And if people leave Istanbul, I would like them to not ask what's next, but I would like them to say,
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how do I become ready for whatever comes next?
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And if that happens, we have achieved something meaningful.
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Thank you for that.
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And Yildiz, this summit is being built around collaboration and connection.
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So which opportunities do you hope it will create for founders, investors, and technology communities across the region?
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Connectivity and collaboration is really what we have been working towards during the last one year for this upcoming summit.
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We are very excited about that.
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I just would like to mention that we established this summit on four pillars.
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Turkey as a regional anchor, Central Asia as a rising region, Re-Invention, EdSpeed and GTA community's future.
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So in addition to Turkey and future readiness under pressure,
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we will be talking about Central Asia as the raising power and we will connect all the relevant people in one room.
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So these topics are between GTA community in every room,
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but we are bringing together all these teams in one room with the most relevant to the point people.
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We will be also discussing the GTA Future State 2036.
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So we will be covering all the topics relevant to GTA community.
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That's great.
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Thank you, Yildiz.
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And thank you to all three of you and your communities.
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This summit is co-supported by TechTurkia Advocates and TechEurasia Advocates.
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It's the 7th, 8th and 9th of October in Istanbul.
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There's a link in the newsletter to the website page that summarizes all of the information.
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We will continue to update that as more details come into play for what we're planning to have happen in October.
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So in the meantime, do register your interest.
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We'd love to know if you're interested in coming.
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We hope to see you at GTA Istanbul 2026 in October.
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Thanks, everyone.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This video has 88 sentences and 1051 words to shadow. The speech runs for 6:32. The speaker talks at a natural 161 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 84% 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 less common words from the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
- summit /ˈsʌmɪt/ (noun) — The highest point of a hill, mountain, or similar geographical feature.
- advocate /ˈæd.və.kət/ (noun) — Someone whose job is to speak for someone's case in a court of law; a counsel.
- founder /ˈfaʊ̯n.dəː/ (noun) — One who founds or establishes (a company, project, organisation, state, etc.).
- newsletter /ˈn(j)uzˌlɛtɚ/ (noun) — A periodically sent publication containing current events or the like, generally on a particular topic or geared toward a limited audience.
- topic /ˈtɑpɪk/ (noun) — A subject; a theme; a category or general area of interest.
- calendar /ˈkæl.ən.də/ (noun) — Any system by which time is divided into days, weeks, months, and years.
- collaboration /kəˌlæbəˈɹeɪʃən/ (noun) — The act of collaborating.
- investor /ɪnˈvɛs.tə(ɹ)/ (noun) — A person who invests money in order to make a profit.
- corridor /ˈkɒɹɪdɔː/ (noun) — A narrow hall or passage with rooms leading off it, as in a building or in a railway carriage.
- circumstance /ˈsɝ.kəmˌstæns/ (noun) — Something which is related to, or in some way affects, a fact or event.
- earn /ɝn/ (verb) — To gain (success, reward, recognition) through applied effort or work.
- establish /ɪˈstæb.lɪʃ/ (verb) — To make stable or firm; to confirm.
- formula /ˈfɔː.mjʊ.lə/ (noun) — Any mathematical rule expressed symbolically.
- abroad /əˈbɹɔːd/ (adverb) — Beyond the bounds of a country; in foreign countries.
- arrive /əˈɹaɪv/ (verb) — To reach; to get to a certain place.
Phrasal verbs you will hear
- bring together (verb) — To cause people to do something together; to bring about togetherness.
- look at (verb) — To observe or watch.
- talk about (verb) — Used to draw attention to the speaker's characterization of someone or something.
- come into (verb) — To obtain (usually money or property), especially through inheritance.
- get over (verb) — To overcome.
- move along (verb) — To continue without being distracted; to keep going.
- take away from (verb) — To subtract a quality from; make something seem not so good or interesting.
- talked about (adjective) — Discussed by many people.
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 17 contractions and reduced forms, such as we're, we've, I'm. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: collaboration /kəˌlæbəˈɹeɪʃən/, establish /ɪˈstæb.lɪʃ/, reception /ɹɪˈsɛp.ʃn̩/
- Long words — get the stress right: collaboration /kəˌlæbəˈɹeɪʃən/, experiment /ɪkˈspɛɹ.ə.mənt/, extraordinary /ɪksˈtɹɔːrdɪn(ə)ɹi/, ambassador /æmˈbæs.ə.dɚ/, momentum /ˌmə(ʊ)ˈmɛntəm/
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 summit, advocate, founder.
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 | I've also been · has earned · have cost |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | being built |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | dollars, which was · next, which is |
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.