Shadowing Practice: In 'The Emperor of Gladness,' Ocean Vuong explores chosen family and acts of kindness - Learn English Speaking with YouTube

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He's a writer who draws deeply from personal experience to explore the wider story of working class life in America.
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He's a writer who draws deeply from personal experience to explore the wider story of working class life in America.
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In his latest novel, just released, Ushun Vuong blends grief, healing, and resilience into a powerful and poetic narrative.
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Senior arts correspondent Jeffrey Brown sits down with him for our arts and culture series, Canvas.
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There's just something connected to the brain with the way the hand moves.
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He writes by hand.
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OCEAN VONG, When you're writing by hand, every sentence takes about 10, 15 seconds longer.
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JEFFREY BROWN, Author, The Emperor of Gladness, Types drafts on a vintage typewriter.
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In an age of instant output, poet and novelist Ocean Vuong takes the long way in.
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His latest novel, The Emperor of Gladness, is a meditation on pain, unexpected acts of kindness, and a reckoning with the history that shaped him personally.
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OCEAN VONG, I have always been fixated on kindness without power.
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There's so many people in America who don't have the means to alter each other's lives,
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the communities that I grew up with, working-class, poor folks, who don't have money or positions or means to rescue each other.
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And yet I have watched people still commit themselves to kindness, even though they know it won't change anything.
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JEFFREY BROWN, An immigrant from Vietnam, Vuong, now 36, spent most of his childhood in a working-class community in Hartford, Connecticut,
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much like the one where he set his novel, a fictional New England town called Gladness, where his young protagonist, like Vuong himself, is shaped by a post-industrial landscape after the 2008 financial meltdown and the ongoing opioid crisis.
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VONG, I saw the opioid epidemic before it was this convenient term used by politicians.
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I saw lunch ladies overdose overnight, teachers, your friend's mom,
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everyday Americans who lost themselves to this drug so quickly as kind of this pharmaceutical slaughter, wherein they were so ashamed of it.
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JEFFREY BROWN, Ph.D.: Vuong also tapped into another aspect of Americana he himself experienced working in fast-food restaurants, for him part of the illusion of the American dream, one offering a different kind of family.
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MARGARET WARNER, The fast-food restaurant is all about deception.
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We truly didn't cook anything.
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We were one giant microwave.
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But we presented our food as if it was home-cooked.
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It was made by some grandmother in the back, like, you know.
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And so there was...
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JEFFREY BROWN, The myth of it.
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MARGARET WARNER, The fast food, but it was made by grandma in the back.
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MARGARET WARNER, It's like impossible, right?
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A lot of this country is founded on the nuclear family.
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And one alternative to that, you can say, is the found family, chosen family.
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But there's a huge sector I think I wanted to tap into, which is the circumstantial family, the family at work, the family cobbled arbitrarily together during a shift.
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And there's an intimacy and bond and kinship there that actually corrodes ideology.
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We all had different politics.
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We came from different parts of life.
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JEFFREY BROWN, The New York Times, The New York Times, The New York Times, The New York Times, Where we all come from and how we got here is a longtime obsession of Wong's, a subject of his poetry in two volumes, Night Sky with Exit Wounds and Time as a Mother, and an earlier novel On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous.
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He's often tackling the feeling of being an outsider, queer, an immigrant, and, as he puts it, caught in tragic history, descended from an American grandfather who served in the Vietnam War and a Vietnamese
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BROWN, How much of that past history still lives on and kind of finds itself even into a story of your, of a young man living in Hartford, Connecticut?
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DR. HENRY HENRY, History doesn't leave us.
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I think history is something that we pass through.
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through, and it's almost like this web you pass through, like a spider's web.
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You pass through a spider's web, and it clings to you.
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I have been caught by history.
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I have also been made by history.
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I joke, and I say suffering is diverse in this one, many lineages of trouble.
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JEFFREY BROWN, But sometimes you bring it to the surface in different ways, right?
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Yes, because I think we don't get to choose how we get a life.
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And we don't get to choose whether we're victims or not.
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But we do get to choose whether we live in victimhood.
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And I think, for me, being a writer, creating stories is my way of saying I'm not marked by my history.
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But also, there is no solution to my history.
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There's no easy way to say that the Vietnam War cost millions of Vietnamese lives, thousands of American soldiers who did not want to fight in this war, drafted against their will.
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And yet I owe my life to such a black page in history.
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JEFFREY BROWN, A rich history and a literary voice that has resonated with students.
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He's a professor at NYU and with many readers, especially in this moment.
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While Vong didn't set out to become a public voice, he finds himself settling into that role.
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You are representing people, and you are speaking for people, whether you like it or not.
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VONG VONG, You are representing people, and you are speaking for people, whether you like it or not.
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VONG VONG, You are representing people, and you are speaking for people, whether you like it or not.
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VONG VONG VONG, You have to now put more care and concern into the words.
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And then I thought, oh, but that's what I've been doing anyway as a writer, care and concern.
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I mean, who wakes up and decides to maneuver one of the smallest, fragile mediums in our species as letters around the smallest, fragile forms of a poem?
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Who does that without care?
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is an act of care.
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JEFFREY BROWN, The desire underneath all this that brings everything together is a central question in my life,
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trying to understand why there is so much suffering in our life as people.
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And yet, why is there so much beauty?
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Why do we suffer so much?
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yet have the capacity to recognize with absolute mystery and wonder the beauty of the world, I don't know the answer, but I'm always writing towards that and figuring that out.
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JEFFREY BROWN, For the PBS NewsHour, I'm Jeffrey Brown in New York.
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Thank you.

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Why practice speaking with this video?

In the video featuring Ocean Vuong discussing his latest novel, The Emperor of Gladness, English learners can immerse themselves in an authentic and powerful dialogue that touches on significant themes such as kindness, resilience, and the complex tapestry of American life. This context not only enhances vocabulary but also fosters an understanding of various cultural nuances. Engaging with such content allows you to practice speaking skills in a way that is both educational and relatable.

Practicing shadow speak with this video helps learners not just to improve pronunciation but also to understand the emotional weight carried by specific phrases and tones. Reflecting on Vuong’s experiences as an immigrant and a member of the working class can provide deeper insights into the language used to express pain and hope. This emotional connection aids in memorization and confident expression, essential for IELTS speaking practice.

Grammar & Expressions in Context

Examining the language used in the transcript reveals several key grammatical structures and expressions that can be particularly useful for learners:

  • “There was a kind of…” – This phrase introduces a concept or idea, which helps to create a vivid image.
  • “I have always been fixated on…” – The use of the present perfect tense here indicates a continued interest or belief, useful for discussing personal preferences.
  • “Caught in tragic history” – This metaphorical expression conveys complex emotions and can be a great addition to personal storytelling.
  • “We don't get to choose…” – This expression highlights the inevitability of certain circumstances, providing context for discussions about fate and choice.

By focusing on these structures, learners can practice developing their own sentences, adding depth to their speaking abilities in conversations or even during IELTS speaking practice.

Common Pronunciation Traps

While watching the video, learners may encounter specific words or phrases that pose pronunciation challenges:

  • “Resilience” – The stress on the second syllable can be tricky; practice emphasizing it correctly.
  • “Kindness” – The “d” sound can sometimes be softened; ensure clear articulation to avoid confusion.
  • “Epidemic” – This term has several syllables, and stress falls on the third syllable; practice this to sound more fluent.
  • “Cobbled” – The /b/ and /ld/ sounds can blend; practicing this word will help with clarity in conversation.

By focusing on these pronunciation traps and incorporating them into your shadowspeak practice, you can enhance your speaking fluidity and confidence when discussing complex themes in English.

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.

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