Shadowing Practice: Leading with Courage in an Age of Uncertainty - Learn English Speaking with Video
Choose a practice mode
Each mode opens a full-screen practice room.
29 sentences
If sentences are too short or too long, click Edit to adjust them.
1
Why did you think that now was a good time to write about this topic?
2
Is it a difficult time for business leaders and organizations collectively to be courageous?
3
So to understand that question, you have to first ask the question, what triggers fear?
4
So what triggers fear is uncertainty.
5
Now, let me back up on that.
6
What is uncertainty?
7
Uncertainty is different from risk.
8
There was a very famous essay written by an economist, Frank Knight.
9
Risk is where you know the distribution of outcomes and you can put a probability on them.
10
Uncertainty is where you don't know.
11
If you look at what's happening around us today, what do we have?
12
We have geopolitical uncertainty.
13
We have political uncertainty.
14
We have technological uncertainty.
15
We have economic uncertainty.
16
We have health uncertainty.
17
We have environmental uncertainty.
18
And I can go on and on.
19
And I'm not the only one feeling it.
20
In a recent essay, an author talked about how in earnings calls,
21
CEOs mention the word uncertainty three times as often in this last quarter than they did the previous quarter.
22
If you look at the VIX index, which people in the stock market loosely call the fear index, you know, it has spiked.
23
So we have manifest uncertainty around us, which naturally normally will trigger fear,
24
which naturally and normally leads to the classic freeze response.
25
Let's wait.
26
We don't know what to do.
27
Let's not invest right now.
28
We need to just see how this tariffs and whatever else is going to play out.
29
And sometimes that may be the prudent response, but sometimes you need to be willing to lean into that fear.
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
C11
Walls and Moats Won't Save You. Innovation Will.
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C12
Fighting Workaholism: You Are Not a Success Machine
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C11
Deliver Hard News with Compassion
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C151
You Need to Be Bored. Here's Why.
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C14
Leisure's Not a Luxury. It's a Requirement for Top Leaders
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B21
How to Find a Mentor Who Can Accelerate Your Career | Christine vs. Work
Business EnglishInterview EnglishUniversity Students
C15
Lean Into Imposter Syndrome, Don't Give In to It
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C17
Turn Anxiety into Action
Business EnglishWorking Adults
B2Stand Out in a Job Interview | The Harvard Business Review Guide
Business EnglishInterview EnglishUniversity Students
C15
How to Be Creative on Demand
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C15
Commander's Intent Enables Great Leadership
Business EnglishWorking Adults
C13
The Five Competitive Forces That Shape Strategy
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C13
What Makes a Great Leader?
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C14
If Your Team Never Fails, It Isn’t Learning
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C14
Can Work Make You Happy? Should It?
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C13
Use Strategic Thinking to Create the Life You Want
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C14
How AI Is Changing Strategy—and 4 Skills Leaders Need Next
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C16
A Smarter Way to Delegate: What to Keep vs. What to Hand Off
Business EnglishWorking Adults
C13
Identity Crisis: Why Defining Yourself by Your Career Is a Problem
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C14
A Plan Is Not a Strategy
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
FOR YOU
Recommend Video
C11
79 sentences
An economist’s 4-point framework for making decisions in volatile times | Dambisa Moyo
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C11
18 sentences
This Is Why You're Afraid to Change Your Life
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C14
36 sentences
The Most Powerful Leadership Question | Simon Sinek
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C11
623 sentences
The Only SaaS Moats Left in 2026
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C15
173 sentences
Be careful..
Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
C11
140 sentences
Stop Playing Small. Go All In.
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C111
480 sentences
The Devastating Note That Nearly Made Adam Grant Quit Teaching
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C12
32 sentences
A Reason Not to Worry What Others Think
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C14
75 sentences
Become a great strategic thinker | Ian Bremmer
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C11
83 sentences
Leading AI CEOs Warn UN Security Council of Existential Risks | Sam Altman On AI Controls | N18G
Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
C13
39 sentences
Charlie Kirk: The Last Interview
Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “Leading with Courage in an Age of Uncertainty”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: uncertainty, fear, trigger. This video has 29 sentences and 278 words to shadow. The speech runs for 1:51. The speaker talks at a natural 150 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 83% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start. 5 of its 29 sentences are questions, so it is good practice for question intonation and short answers.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| uncertainty noun | /ʌnˈsɜːtənti/ | Doubt; the condition of being uncertain or without conviction. |
| trigger noun | /ˈtɹɪɡɚ/ | A finger-operated lever used to fire a gun. |
| naturally adverb | /ˈnæt͡ʃ.(ə.)ɹə.li/ | In a natural manner. |
| essay noun | /ˈɛs.eɪ/ | A written composition of moderate length, exploring a particular issue or subject. |
| topic noun | /ˈtɑpɪk/ | A subject; a theme; a category or general area of interest. |
| outcome noun | /ˈaʊtkʌm/ | That which is produced or occurs as a result of an event or process. |
| invest verb | /ɪnˈvɛst/ | To spend money, time, or energy on something, especially for some benefit or purpose; used with in. |
| earnings noun | Wages, money earned, income. | |
| lean verb | /ˈliːn/ | To incline, deviate, or bend, from a vertical position; to be in a position thus inclining or deviating. |
| freeze verb | /ˈfɹiːz/ | Especially of a liquid, to become solid due to low temperature. |
| technological adjective | /ˌtɛk.nəˈlɑ.dʒɪ.kəl/ | Of, relating to, or involving technology, especially modern scientific technology. |
| probability noun | /ˌpɹɑ.bəˈbɪl.ə.ti/ | The state of being probable. |
| spike noun | /spaɪk/ | A sort of very large nail. |
| economist noun | /iˈkɑ.nə.mɪst/ | An expert in economics, especially one who studies economic data and extracts higher-level information or proposes theories. |
| collectively adverb | In a collective manner; viewed together as a whole; to be treated as a single unit, rather than the items that make up the collection separately. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| play out verb | To play (a game etc.) to its conclusion. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- Uncertainty is where you don't know.
- We don't know what to do.
- Let's not invest right now.
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 3 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, I'm. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- Long words — get the stress right: uncertainty /ʌnˈsɜːtənti/, naturally /ˈnæt͡ʃ.(ə.)ɹə.li/, technological /ˌtɛk.nəˈlɑ.dʒɪ.kəl/, probability /ˌpɹɑ.bəˈbɪl.ə.ti/, economist /iˈkɑ.nə.mɪst/
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 uncertainty, trigger, naturally.
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.