Shadowing Practice: How Foreign Aid Keeps Africa Poor | 5-Minute Videos | PragerU - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Foreign aid is not the solution to poverty in Africa.
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It's one of the reasons why Africa is poor.
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Yes, you heard that right.
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For years, we've been sold the idea that aid from organizations like USAID helps lift Africa out of its poverty.
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But here's the truth.
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If foreign aid worked, Africa would be the richest continent on Earth by now.
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Free market advocate and former U .S.
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Congressman Ron Paul described it perfectly.
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Foreign aid is taking money from the poor people of a rich country
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and giving it to the rich people of a poor country.
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Walk through the streets of Dakar, Senegal, where I'm from, and you'll see exactly where your aid money goes.
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The city is filled with foreign residents working for the UN, non -governmental organizations, NGOs, and embassies.
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They live in a parallel economy, one that most Senegalese can only observe from the outside.
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These aid workers enjoy lives of luxury, fine dining at expensive restaurants, driving new SUVs, occupying the best apartments in town,
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employing multiple household staff and hosting lavish parties.
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And by the way, they receive hardship pay for the sacrifice of living in faraway places filled with malaria, tropical diseases and tough climates.
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This creates a devastating ripple effect throughout our local economy.
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These organizations, flush with seemingly unlimited cash, inflate the cost of everything, from housing to basic services.
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A local business owner like me has to compete with these inflated prices while running a real business with real constraints.
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But the damage goes deeper than just raising the cost of living.
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These organizations also poach our best and brightest talents with salaries that no local business can match.
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Instead of building new enterprises, innovating solutions or creating economic value,
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our most capable people are diverted into bureaucratic jobs pushing papers and writing reports nobody will ever read.
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I've seen brilliant minds reduced to professional workshop attendees, moving from one donor -funded meeting to another, producing nothing of lasting value.
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When I travel across Africa, I don't see sustainable prosperity created by aid programs.
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Instead, I see the destruction of local markets and the creation of dependency cycles.
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Consider what happens in our villages.
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When free mosquito nets arrive, local merchants who sell them go bankrupt.
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The same thing happens with shoes.
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Donated shoes flood local markets, making it impossible for local shoe manufacturers to compete.
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And the desperately needed food aid?
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Much of that gets hijacked by corrupt government officials and sold at below market prices.
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African farmers can't compete against this free food.
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So they stop farming and move into the already crowded cities.
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Local food producing ecosystems are destroyed, which only worsens the hunger problem.
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These are the real costs of humanitarian aid.
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To be clear, I'm not speaking about aid in response to an emergency like a natural disaster.
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But these disasters are rare.
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Development aid is an ever -flowing river of money and goods, and it's destroying a continent.
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Like all government -sponsored efforts, this is as true within the U .S and Europe as it is in Africa.
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There is no accountability for the money spent.
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The budgets of these aid organizations make no sense in any real -world context.
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They measure success by money spent and goods distributed, not by actual economic development or the creation of profitable businesses.
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Even more frustrating is how this system creates a culture of dependency that diminishes Africans' dignity.
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The narrative becomes one of Africa needing constant help rather than Africa needing fair opportunities to compete and grow.
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When you think of Africa, what comes to your mind?
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Dynamic entrepreneurs or stabbing children?
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I thought so.
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I recently approached the head of a San Francisco venture fund
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looking for investment in a business I wanted to start in Africa.
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He didn't want to give me capital.
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He wanted to give me charity.
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Can we dig wells?
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He asked.
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They need fresh water, right?
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That's what got him excited.
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Condescension cloaked in do -goodism.
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That's the typical Western attitude toward Africa foreign aid indeed creates jobs
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and careers just not for the people it's supposed to help every successful economy in history has developed through entrepreneurship
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and trade not through handouts no matter how well intentioned the
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sooner we stop treating foreign aid as a sacred cow the
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sooner we can start focusing on what actually works economic freedom and policies that empower people to build their own futures.
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The first step towards the prosperous Africa is to eliminate what's poisoning it.
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This toxic aid that has created a parallel economy most Africans are locked out of
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and diverted our resources away from productive activities.
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Only then can we build the Africa we know is possible, where ambition is rewarded, dignity is preserved,
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and prosperity is created for our own efforts rather than the misguided kindness of strangers.
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Africa doesn't need more foreign aid.
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It needs more freedom.
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I'm Magat Wade, author of The Heart of a Cheetah,
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how we've been lied to about African poverty and what that means for human flourishing for Prager University.
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Thank you for watching this video.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “How Foreign Aid Keeps Africa Poor”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: aid, Africa, foreign, organizations, compete. This video has 73 sentences and 868 words to shadow. The speech runs for 5:37. The speaker talks at a natural 155 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. Only 78% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.
Key vocabulary in this video
The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| divert verb | /daɪˈvɝt/ | To turn aside from a course. |
| inflate verb | /ɪnˈfleɪt/ | To enlarge an object by pushing air (or a gas) into it; to raise or expand abnormally |
| dependency noun | /dɪˈpɛndənsi/ | A state of dependence; a refusal to exercise initiative. |
| prosperity noun | /pɹɑˈspɛɹ.ɪ.ti/ | The condition of being prosperous: having good fortune and a fortune. |
| dignity noun | /ˈdɪɡnɪti/ | The state of being dignified or worthy of esteem: elevation of mind or character. |
| continent noun | /ˈkɑntɪnənt/ | One of the main contiguous landmasses, separated by water or geological features, on the surface of a planet, sometimes including its continental shelves and… |
| attendee noun | A person who is in attendance or in the audience of an event. | |
| bureaucratic adjective | /ˌbjʊəɹəˈkɹætɪk/ | Of or pertaining to bureaucracy or the actions of bureaucrats. |
| constraint noun | /kənˈstɹeɪnt/ | Something that constrains; a restriction. |
| deductible adjective | [dɪˈdʌktəbəɫ] | Eligible to be deducted. |
| devastate verb | /ˈdɛv.ə.steɪt/ | To ruin many or all things over a large area, such as most or all buildings of a city, or cities of a region, or trees of a forest. |
| diminish verb | /dɪˈmɪnɪʃ/ | To make smaller. |
| faraway adjective | /ˈfɑɹəweɪ/ | Distant. |
| frustrate verb | /ˈfɹʌsˌtɹeɪt/ | To disappoint or defeat; to vex by depriving of something expected or desired. |
| handout noun | /ˈhændˌaʊt/ | An act of handing out something. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| walk through verb | To explain (something) to (someone), step by step. |
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | we've been sold · is filled · are diverted |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | we've been sold · I've seen · has developed |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 11 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, we've, can't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: diminish /dɪˈmɪnɪʃ/, lavish /ˈlævɪʃ/, flourish /ˈflʊ̈ɹ.ɪʃ/, hardship /ˈhɑɹdˌʃɪp/, entrepreneurship /ˌɑn.tɹə.pɹəˈnɝ.ʃɪp/
- Long words — get the stress right: dependency /dɪˈpɛndənsi/, prosperity /pɹɑˈspɛɹ.ɪ.ti/, bureaucratic /ˌbjʊəɹəˈkɹætɪk/, deductible [dɪˈdʌktəbəɫ], entrepreneurship /ˌɑn.tɹə.pɹəˈnɝ.ʃɪp/
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 divert, inflate, dependency.
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.