Shadowing Practice: Henry Kissinger - Address on Foreign Policy - Learn English Speaking with Video
Choose a practice mode
Each mode opens a full-screen practice room.
24 sentences
If sentences are too short or too long, click Edit to adjust them.
1
The President, Senator Helms, ladies and gentlemen,
2
this very eloquent introduction left me a little bit in the position I was once at a reception,
3
where a lady came up to me and said, said, I understand you are a fascinating man, she said.
4
Fascinate me.
5
It turned, I tell
6
Well, you had turned into one of the less successful conversations that I have had.
7
Now I want to talk to you about the world in which America finds itself in the post -Cold war period.
8
It is a perplexing world because we are fresh from a huge victory.
9
I don't know any other nation that can say,
10
comparing what it said 40 years earlier with what then finally happened,
11
which can say it has so completely achieved its objectives.
12
If you compare what American leaders were saying at the beginning of the Cold War
13
with what happened at the end of the Cold War, we have really achieved everything we set out to do.
14
but George Bernard Shaw once said there are two tragedies in life one that you fail to achieve your heart's desire
15
and the second tragedy is that you achieve your heart's desire because what are you going to do
16
so for the United States now the question is where do we go from here and it's all the more important
17
because when you travel around the world with all the difficulties we have at home we are the most cohesive society
18
We are the people whose style of living with each other is the most generous.
19
And without us, most solutions are not possible.
20
but we also have to know where to engage ourselves and where not to do it and for what the United States
21
has no foreign policy tradition comparable to that of any other nation we are the only major nation in the world world,
22
whose history can be precisely dated to a specific day when it began.
23
We are the only major nation in the world that has been populated almost entirely by immigrants.
24
Thank you.
Download App
Everything you need to speak fluently
AI PronunciationScore every sentence
IPA PracticeMaster every sound
VocabularyBuild your word bank
Vocab GameLearn while playing
Same Channel
C122
Malcolm X: "Democracy Is Hypocrisy" – Speech on Police Brutality & Justice
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B25
President Lyndon B. Johnson "I Will Not Run" Address to the Nation
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
B24
President Dwight D. Eisenhower Farewell Address to the Nation
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
FOR YOU
Recommend Video
C1180 sentences
SPEECH MASTERY | MARCO RUBIO: Decline Is a Choice! (English Subtitles)
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C1168 sentences
Thailand in Conversations EP1 Part 1 : “Thai Diplomat’s Journey: A Life in Service”
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C11
719 sentences
View From The Top with Roelof Botha, Managing Partner of Sequoia Capital
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C11
71 sentences
Take Action If You Want Changes - President Obama Motivational Speech
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B23
301 sentences
Watch CNBC's full interview with former Secretary of State Antony Blinken
Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
C11
184 sentences
ENGLISH SPEECH | RISHI SUNAK & S. JAISHANKAR: Power is Changing (English Subtitles)
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C1324 sentences
Exclusive Interview: Jeffrey Sachs on China’s Global Role: Growth, Balance, and Cooperation
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C11
236 sentences
【日英字幕】2026ハーバード卒業演説 自身のハーバード学生生活から人生の教訓まで、ユーモアを交えて語るコナン流感動の卒業スピーチ
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C11
175 sentences
ENGLISH SPEECH | ANGELINA JOLIE: What We Stand For? (English Subtitles)
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C12
152 sentences
Both Russia and America only pursue power, not principle, argues Moosa Haraj
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C16
261 sentences
The Human Element
Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
C13
260 sentences
【TED】優れたリーダーはどうやって行動を促すか/サイモン・シネック （日本語字幕）
Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “Henry Kissinger - Address on Foreign Policy”. This video has 24 sentences and 344 words to shadow. The speech runs for 3:56. The speaker talks slowly, about 87 words per minute, so there is time to copy every sound. 89% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is easy to follow.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 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… |
| tragedy noun | /ˈtɹæd͡ʒ.ɪ.di/ | A drama or similar work, in which the main character is brought to ruin or otherwise suffers the extreme consequences of some tragic flaw or weakness of… |
| engage verb | /ɪnˈɡeɪd͡ʒ/ | To engross or hold the attention of; to keep busy or occupied. |
| objective noun | /ɒbˈd͡ʒɛk.tɪv/ | A material object that physically exists. |
| difficulty noun | /ˈdɪfɪkəlti/ | The state of being difficult, or hard to do. |
| reception noun | /ɹɪˈsɛp.ʃn̩/ | The act of receiving. |
| generous adjective | /ˈd͡ʒɛn(ə)ɹəs/ | Noble in behaviour or actions; principled, not petty; kind, magnanimous. |
| precisely adverb | /pɹɪˈsaɪs.li/ | In a precise manner; exactly. |
| gentleman noun | /ˈd͡ʒɛn.təl.mən/ | Any well-bred, well-mannered, or charming man. |
| comparable adjective | /ˈkɒmpəɹəbəl/ | Able to be compared (to). |
| immigrant noun | /ˈɪmɪɡɹənt/ | A non-native person who comes to a country from another country to permanently settle there. |
| fascinate verb | /ˈfæsɪneɪt/ | To evoke an intense interest or attraction in someone. |
| cohesive adjective | /kəʊˈhiː.sɪv/ | Having cohesion. |
| eloquent adjective | /ˈɛl.əˌkwənt/ | Fluently persuasive and articulate. |
| perplex verb | /pɚˈplɛks/ | To cause to feel baffled; to puzzle. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| come up to verb | To approach. |
Pronunciation to watch
- Long words — get the stress right: difficulty /ˈdɪfɪkəlti/, comparable /ˈkɒmpəɹəbəl/
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 compare, tragedy, engage.
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.