Shadowing Practice: Inflation - Professor Ryan - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Alright folks, what we're going to do in this lesson is we're going to continue with talking about our three main goals in macroeconomics.

We talked about full employment in the last set of lessons, and in this set of lessons we're going to talk about price level stability.

This is the second goal that we mentioned in macroeconomics.

Now, in order to understand price level stability, there are several concepts that you need to understand, that you need definitions for.

So the first concept that you're going to need to understand is a word that you're probably familiar with, you've probably heard of this word before,

and it is called inflation.

Now first I'm going to give you sort of the official textbook definition, then I'm going to give you a more casual, less formal definition.

Inflation is a sustained in the general price level within an economy.

Alright, so let me see if I can give you an example that may help you understand this.

I got gas the other day from my car and when I got gas,

the price for the gas was $2.69 per gallon.

I had gone maybe about a month ago and gotten gas at the same gas stations, the same type of gas,

and it was $2.99 per gallon.

So obviously the price had gone down.

If you go to the gas station and get gas from time to time, you probably noticed that the price fluctuates, right?

You know, the price might be $2.43 one day and the next day it's $2.47.

Then it's $2.39, maybe a week later.

We have these fluctuations in prices.

Depending on the week or depending on the month, you know, the price could be up or down by 10, 15, 20 cents.

So there's this window, all right, this window of a lowest price and a highest price in, let's say, a one year period.

So let's say that at one time during the year the price is as low as $2.65 a gallon,

and then the highest is like $3.02 per gallon.

And that is all the prices for the whole year sort of fall between that window.

But now I think back to when I first started driving,

which was in 1990, and in 1990 the The price of one gallon of gas was about maybe 95 cents per gallon.

Ok, so less than a dollar per gallon.

So in 1990, I'd say probably the lowest price that I saw was about 89 cents a gallon, and probably the highest price I saw was maybe about 98 cents a gallon.

So that window was a lot lower than the window that I've experienced this year in terms of prices of gas.

So inflation is a sustained rise in the general price level of stuff,

ok, in the economy.

It's not just when the price of something goes up, because we have fluctuations in the prices of things,

especially because of let's say coupons or sales and that kind of stuff.

A sustained rise in the general price level of stuff in an economy is almost, is basically that window of prices,

like, you know, in 1990, the window of prices of gas went from, you know, 89 cents a gallon to 98 cents a gallon, but here we are, like,

almost 30 years later, and the price window is a lot higher.

It's between, you know, $2.70 a gallon and maybe $3 a gallon.

And the fact that that window of fluctuation of price over 30 years has risen,

that is what we're talking about when we say inflation.

Okay?

So now let me give you a more casual definition.

A more casual definition of inflation is going to be a loss in money value over time.

So you might say, well you were just talking about prices rising.

Why are you talking now about money value going down?

Well, think about this.

Whenever the prices of things go up, you can buy less with your money.

So if you have $10 and you go to the store, you know, you go to a dollar store and everything costs $1, you can buy 10 of them.

But if 10 years later all those things are now $1.50, you can't buy as many of them.

Your money has lost value over time, not because the money itself isn't $10 anymore,

but because it can't buy as much because prices have risen in the economy.

So the effect of inflation, the effect of prices rising,

the price levels of things rising over time basically causes your money to have less value

because you can get less value out of your money.

Alright, so there are two,

I'm going to identify two main problems associated with inflation.

Problems with inflation.

The first problem is this.

Let's say that you have $100 in cash and you put it in your sock drawer at home,

okay, so that you can hide it from people from taking it.

So it's just sitting in your sock drawer, but you're not going to do anything with it.

Okay.

Well, because the prices of things are going up,

the price level of products in general is going up that a hundred dollars sitting in your sock drawer one year later,

won't be able to buy a hundred dollars worth of stuff.

Now, if you, if you spend it today, you can go buy $100 worth of stuff, but because the the prices of things are going up,

one year later you may only be able to buy $98 worth of stuff because prices are increasing,

the value of your money is decreasing.

So one of the problems with inflation is holding on to money causes you to lose money over time.

And so people really don't like this.

This frustrates people.

If they're saving up a lot of money over the course of 5, 6, or 7 years, as they're saving up this money,

it's becoming less and less valuable as it sits there as they save it up before they spend it.

Okay?

So people get very upset over losing value of the money that they have worked so hard to earn.

The second main problem with inflation is that the amount of utility,

right, that individuals can get per dollar decreases.

decreases.

Alright, so this per dollar utility, meaning whenever you spend money, you're getting utility for what you buy.

And I think I can explain this amount of utility per dollar decreases with an example.

Let's say that when I buy one gallon of gas, gasoline for for my car,

one gallon of gas, that that gives me 50 utility.

Now you may say, what is 50 utility?

It's an arbitrary measure.

It's just, I get 50 units of satisfaction.

And so 50 units of satisfaction is more happiness than 30 units of satisfaction,

but it's not as much happiness as 60 units of satisfaction.

It doesn't matter.

I know we don't think about satisfaction and happiness in terms of numbers,

but in economics, it helps us to understand these concepts when we put a number on it.

So let's say that I get 50 units of utility whenever I consume a gallon of gas.

Now let's say that a gallon of gas costs $2, so $2 per gallon.

What I can now do is I can identify how much utility I'm getting from each dollar by dividing my utility,

50, by how many dollars I spent.

So if I divide 50 divided by 2 dollars,

I get 25, and what that means is I'm getting 25 utility per dollar.

So for every dollar I spend, for each one of the $2, I got 25 utility.

Now let's say that the price of gasoline goes up to $2.50 per gallon.

Now I'm still going to get 50 utility out of each gallon of gas, but I have to spend more money to get a gallon of gas,

gas, which means I have to spend more money to get 50 utility.

So now, if I divide the 50 utility I'm getting by the $2.50 that I have to spend to get the 50 utility,

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it now becomes 20 utility per dollar.

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So even though for one gallon of gas I'm still getting the of happiness from the one gallon of gas,

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it's costing me more to get that one gallon of gas

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and therefore the amount of utility that I get out of every dollar has gone down.

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I was getting 25 utility for every dollar spent,

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now I'm getting 20 utility for every dollar spent and that's because the price went up.

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So when the prices of products go up, the amount of utility that individuals can get per dollar decreases.

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Now the good news is that we usually over time also earn more money.

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So even though prices are going up,

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our income usually also goes up and as long as our income paces the inflation,

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then we can have the same amount of utility, the same amount of satisfaction and happiness.

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our income exceeds inflation, then we can get more happiness and more satisfaction.

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So we really want inflation, if there is going to be inflation, if prices are going to go up over time,

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we want it to happen not in huge jumps.

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We don't want a lot of inflation to happen in a short period of time.

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Now I want to give you one more situation,

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sort of a fictional manufactured example that might help you understand inflation a little bit better.

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Let's say that there's an economy where, or a society where there are a thousand people.

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There are exactly one thousand people in this society.

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The population is not growing and it's not shrinking.

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There's just a thousand people.

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And all thousand people work in this economy.

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All 1,000 people get paid $10 every month.

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And so every single month they come together and every person receives $10 for what it was that they did that month.

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And what that means is that every month there is $10,000 that can be spent in that economy.

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Now, there's only one thing sold in the economy, just one product.

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It's a magical item.

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Let's say it's a box,

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and in that box is everything that each person needs or wants just to be basically happy and satisfied.

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So each of these people can take their $10 and they can buy some of these boxes of stuff that they can enjoy,

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they take it home and they enjoy it, and every month they can go buy more of these boxes.

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Now, every month this economy produces exactly 10,000 of these magical boxes that people consume.

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So, these people, they come together every month, each Each one of them gets $10, so now there's $10,000.

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And there's this pile of 10,000 of these boxes.

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And so an important question is this, if all 10,000 of the boxes are identical in every way

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and there is $10,000 that these people can spend to buy the boxes,

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then how much is each box going to cost?

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Meaning for them, what is the price of each one of these boxes going to be?

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Well there's $10,000 to spend and they want to sell all of the boxes, the people want to buy all the boxes for this month

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so that they can consume them and have satisfaction and happiness, right?

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Utility.

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And therefore, the people are going to use their money to bid the price of each box.

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They're going to sell every one of them.

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They're going to spend all their money because they don't have a reason to save up their money.

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There's only one thing to buy.

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And therefore, the price of each box is going to wind up being $1.

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So it's going to cost $1 per box.

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And each of the people has $10 and so each person is going to buy 10 boxes.

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So, a thousand people each buying 10 boxes, that's 10,000 boxes.

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So they're going to sell all the boxes, they're going to use up all the money, and now each person for a month is going to have

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10 boxes to consume throughout the month to have enjoyment and happiness and satisfaction.

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So one day somebody has this idea.

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They think to themselves, wow, I only get ten boxes and that's fine, I'm happy with ten boxes,

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but wouldn't it be great if I could have more boxes?

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I would like to have fifteen boxes instead of only ten boxes every month.

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That way I could have, enjoy one box every two days instead of every three days.

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I would get more satisfaction.

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I would be, I would have a happier life.

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I would like to have a happier life.

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Why don't people want me to have 15 boxes?

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Why can't, why do I have to only have 10 boxes?

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And so they get this idea.

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They think to themselves, well the boxes are all one dollar each.

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So if I had fifteen dollars instead of ten dollars,

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if I had fifteen dollars instead of ten dollars,

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I could buy fifteen boxes instead of only ten boxes.

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This is a good idea.

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And so he tells his idea to good idea.

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And so he tells his idea to a whole bunch of friends and all 1,000 people like this idea.

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They think it's a great idea.

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They're all thinking, man, I'd also like to have 15 boxes.

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If I had $15, then I could get 15 boxes because they're a dollar each.

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So all 1,000 each.

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So all 1,000 people agree in this society that they are going to get paid $15 every month instead of $10 every month.

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And so now the total amount of money that they're going to be able to spend is $15,000 instead of $10,000.

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And so they print up a bunch of extra money so that everybody can get $15 instead of $10,

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and now there's $15,000 in the economy. But here's the problem.

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They finally get together at the end of the month.

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This is the first month where everybody's going to get $15.

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They get together.

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There's the pile of boxes.

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There's the pile of 10,000 boxes.

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And the problem now is, I hope you already see the problem.

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Here's the problem, is that there aren't enough boxes for everybody to buy 15 boxes.

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So they think the price is going to be one dollar.

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So they start walking up and they got their 15 dollars and say, okay, I'll take 15 of the boxes out of the pile.

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But in order for all 1,000 people to get 15 boxes,

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there would need to be 15,000 boxes boxes.

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But there's not 15,000 boxes.

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There's only 10,000 boxes.

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There's only enough boxes for each of the 1,000 people to have 10 boxes.

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And therefore, each of the 1,000 people, if they're all going to agree that everybody's going to get the same number of boxes,

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then each of the boxes is going to have to go up in price.

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And what's going to happen here is there is $15,000 available to purchase 10,000 boxes,

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the price of each box is going to be bid up to $1.50 per box.

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And now, they're going to pay $1.50 per box with their $15, and with $15 you can get 10 boxes at $1.50 per box.

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Each person is going to get 10 boxes, and they're still only going to enjoy one box every three days.

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So nothing in the situation changed except the price of each box went up from $1 to $1.50.

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Other than that, nothing else about this society changed.

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That, in a very basic example, that is what inflation is.

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It is a sustained rise in the general price level within an economy.

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The price level of the stuff that's being purchased.

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And in this economy, there's only one product, and its price went up by 50%.

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That's a lot of inflation.

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But nothing else about this society changed at all.

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Each person this next month is still only going to enjoy 10 boxes.

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Now what we're going to talk about after price level in lesson 9 is we're going to talk about

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that this is where the change needs to happen, not here.

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It's not an issue of having more money, it's an issue of having more stuff.

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If there were more than 10,000 boxes in the economy,

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then each person could have more boxes.

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But this is a question of output, not a question of income or wages,

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and also not a question of price.

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So this concept of simply just giving people more money so that they can buy more stuff, if output doesn't go up,

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then all you're going to result in in the economy is inflation.

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44 sentences

Understanding Inflation: A Real-Life Economic Scenario

The video uses a relatable example—gas prices over time—to explain inflation. Professor Ryan contrasts short-term price fluctuations (like gas costing $2.43 one day and $2.47 the next) with a sustained rise in the "window" of prices. In 1990, gas hovered around 95 cents per gallon; today, it’s $2.70–$3.00. This long-term increase, and the resulting loss in money’s purchasing power, brings the concept of inflation to life. It’s a practical scenario that helps learners connect economic terms to daily experiences, making complex ideas easier to grasp.

Useful Chunks & Collocations to Memorize

Sustained rise in the general price level – The formal definition of inflation, key for academic or professional discussions.
Price fluctuations – Describes short-term ups and downs in costs, a common phrase in everyday and business contexts.
Loss in money value – A casual way to explain inflation’s effect, useful for simplifying ideas in conversations.
Purchasing power – Refers to how much goods money can buy, a critical term in personal finance and economics.
Set of lessons – A natural phrase for organizing learning, often used in classrooms or online courses.

Your Shadowing Challenge: Practice Like a Pro

Ready to improve your English speaking with the shadowing technique? Here’s your task: Watch the video segment where Professor Ryan explains gas prices (from 1990 to today). Pause after each 5-second clip, then repeat it aloud, mimicking his tone, pace, and stress. Focus on phrases like "sustained rise in the general price level" and "loss in money value"—these chunks will boost your fluency. For extra practice, use a shadowing app to record yourself and compare it to the original. This method, often called "shadowspeaks," helps you master natural pronunciation and rhythm. Keep practicing, and you’ll soon speak with more confidence, whether discussing economics or daily life. Remember: shadow speak is about imitation—so don’t worry about mistakes; just focus on matching the speaker’s flow.

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	you've probably heard · I've experienced · has risen
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	is called · can be spent · being purchased

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.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

Shadowing Practice: Inflation - Professor Ryan - Learn English Speaking with Video

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