Shadowing Practice: Los Angeles is a Sh*thole - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
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by drawing attention to the decrepit state of major leftist -run cities.
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Wonder where he got that idea from.
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But forget about Baltimore.
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If Baltimore was a toilet, LA would be a 500 -acre landfill.
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LA can truly lay claim to the accolade of being king of the shitholes.
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There are now an estimated 60 ,000 homeless people living on the streets of LA.
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That's a 75 % rise in homelessness since 2012.
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Did you ever see I Am Legend?
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Yes.
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zombie people running at once?
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That's what it's like.
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Are you serious?
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I'm telling you, you can't believe the volume.
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To illustrate the homeless problem, Look at this comparison between 2015 and 2017.
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Look at the increase in trash and tents in a period of little over two years.
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And what's the mayor's solution?
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To paint murals of homeless people, because painting a mural of people who can't afford to live in California is really gonna help homeless people live in California.
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Look at me, I'm helping!
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They're aggressive and because there's an awful lot of them together, they're gang -y," he said.
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When this guy, "How would you like a nice smack in the head?" is worried about other people being too aggressive, chances are they're quite aggressive.
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Thanks to ever lighter prison sentences, crime in Los Angeles County is also on the rise.
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According to Bob Lindsay, a 40 -year veteran of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, murders in one area he patrols were up 900 % last year.
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FBI stats also showed a 56 % increase in murders in Los Angeles County.
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Crime amongst the homeless population rose by 50 % over the last year.
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A nasty attack inside a Westside McDonald's.
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Business owners, Rick and Susie, and the workers down here say they see this all the time.
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They weren't at all surprised to hear about this violent attack on the security guard.
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They say every single day is a struggle and they watch the homeless and violence.
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It `s a standoff and it `s about to get very scary.
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A shirtless maniac armed with rocks is taunting motorists.
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Windows, but they are shatterproof.
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The rocks just bounced off.
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The terrified driver leaps out and flees that's when it gets really scary the shirtless dude jumps on board
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It looks like he's trying to hijack the bus.
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some of the passengers run out the back.
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Residents of modern cities often complain about the loss of tradition.
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But what could be more traditional than the return of diseases not seen since medieval times?
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Thanks to LA's ever increasing piles of uncollected trash, typhus has made a spectacular comeback.
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Rats gorge on the trash, multiply, and then spread the fleas that transmit the typhus.
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Typhus is a third world disease caused by a breakdown in society where trash pickup becomes a luxury.
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It's only normally seen in socialist hellscapes like Caracas, Venezuela.
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And it's not just the homeless who are getting typhus.
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Deputy City Attorney Liz Greenwood caught it because City Hall is infested with rats.
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"Who gets typhus?
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It's a medieval disease that's caused by trash." Piles of trash like those on Cirrus Avenue.
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"I thought I was gonna die." And there you were thinking Baltimore was notorious for its rats.
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LA is known as the city of rats.
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According to pest control companies, requests for rat exterminations are up 60 % in the last 12 months alone.
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There are now an estimated 12 million plus rats in Los Angeles.
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Pest control professionals warn of a quote "alarming increase in rats" that is quote "highly abnormal".
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But they can't properly clean up the mess
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because hysterical environmentalists are lobbying to get bills passed that ban effective rodenticides that kill them.
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"I want you to take a look at this.
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It says number 98 upside down.
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That's a rat trap.
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And they're all over City Hall." "Our citizens are going to start contracting diseases
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that are dangerous." "Guess what other progressive little goody is making a comeback in LA.
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Bubonic plague." 1 .5 % of the rats in Los Angeles are now believed to be carrying the plague.
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If that figure hits 2%, it will start jumping to humans.
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We cleaned up the plague even before antibiotics because of public health.
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Here we are back in middle ages type situation.
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If Los Angeles doesn't sort out its trash problem and its homeless problem, the return of bubonic plague is virtually guaranteed.
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We have complete breakdown of the basic needs of civilization in Los Angeles right now.
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This is unbelievable.
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I can't believe I live in a city where this is not third world, Laura.
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This is medieval.
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Third world countries are insulted if they are accused of being like this.
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No city on earth tolerate this.
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The entire population is at risk.
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The more homeless, the more crime, the more trash.
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The more trash, the more rats.
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The more rats, the more disease.
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If Democrats really care about the plight of the homeless, why are they enacting policies that create and worsen poverty and homelessness?
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Homeless in Los Angeles, where you have to earn nearly $50 an hour just to afford the median monthly rent.
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The state's gas tax hiked fees by 40 % to a wealthy liberal living in Malibu, that's nothing.
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So someone living paycheck to paycheck, That's everything.
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And despite raising billions from this tax, 75 % of LA's homeless population don't have access to shelters.
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Compare that figure to just 5 % who don't in New York.
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And just like San Francisco, lax drug laws encouraged addicts to get trapped in a cycle of dependency.
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Because we made drugs legal essentially in California, all my people are here.
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The drug users are here now because they don't get hassle.
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He can barely stand up straight.
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Officials don't know what he took, but it's likely a drug called spice.
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"And it's not long before he's loaded into an ambulance." Despite having a massive housing shortage, the area has absorbed at least one million illegal immigrants,
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10 % of the nation's total.
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They all seem to be finding homes a lot easier than LA's vast homeless population.
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Los Angeles is also a perfect illustration of late stage capitalism's visceral disregard for quality of life.
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For a modern city, LA's public transport system is shockingly poor.
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Which means most people travel everywhere by car and the traffic is notoriously horrendous.
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Los Angeles is the global leader in urban congestion.
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Worse than Delhi, Beijing or anywhere on the planet.
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A Texas A &M study found
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that sitting in traffic eats up $1 ,300 a year for the average Angeleno in fuel prices and time wasted alone.
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Angeleno spend an average 104 hours.
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stuck in traffic jams every single year.
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The smog in LA is so bad, sunsets look like nuclear bomb blasts.
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They also have something called purple alert days, which means if you go outside and breathe, you basically just get cancer and die.
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LA is also a death trap for pedestrians and cyclists.
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Pedestrian fatalities from being hit by a car are triple the national average, while cyclist fatalities are double the national average.
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So it's no surprise that according to the American Psychological Association, Los Angeles is America's most stressful city.
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"I'm really sorry." "Yeah, well hey, I'm really sorry too." All those yoga studios,
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new -age gurus, juice bars and hippie retreats aren't doing shit.
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Avocado on gluten -free toast isn't gonna hide the fact that you live in a superficial, congestured, trash -strewn, dystopian, rat -infested hellscape.
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You're all relentlessly miserable.
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No wonder LA is the most stoned city in America.
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Without six lanes of traffic all heading away from or towards a McDonald's or a shopping mall, doesn't provide you with a transcendent purpose in life.
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Imagine my shock.
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Given all this, is it any wonder that people are fleeing Los Angeles in droves?
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"The recent breakdown of last year's census numbers show a trend that's hard to ignore.
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More people are leaving Orange and LA counties than are moving in." Soaring rents and home prices have eviscerated the middle class.
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So what are you left with?
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A grossly affluent, isolated, sneering elite,
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and a resentful, with very little in between.
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How long can this tenuous veneer of civilization hold firm before something snaps?
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It's fine.
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The 1992 LA riots led to 63 deaths, thousands of injuries, 12 ,000 arrests,
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and property damage of over $1 billion.
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A poll found that for the first time since the 92 riots, there is an increase in the number of people living in Los Angeles who fear
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that more civil unrest is likely within five years.
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I asked some of my followers on Twitter who aren't biased at all what life is like in Los Angeles
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and if it had changed.
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I've been here for about seven years, trash increasing, tents and homelessness increasing, places I used to walk are now virtually unwalkable.
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Too many illegals, no one speaks English around here anymore, things are getting worse.
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Downtown LA looks like the walking dead at night.
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My post office just posted a note that it will no longer be open 24 hours a day because of
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bathroom and graffiti in the mailbox area.
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Downtown LA is the worst.
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Last month a politician talked about leveling a certain area and institutionalizing the homeless, giving them shelter, healthcare and amenities of daily life along with therapy for addicts.
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He was actually trounced.
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I lived in LA for 20 years until I left a year ago.
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Rents are skyrocketing, number of homeless is increasing dramatically as they are in Orange County,
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I've never seen so many rats and needles in the Brontanous.
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Not kidding.
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It's slowly but surely becoming the city from the movie Idiocracy.
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It's horrible.
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Homeless tents everywhere in the valley and all the surrounding areas as well.
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Trash, drugs, smell of urine all over.
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Getting worse.
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In summary then.
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Not great.
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It's fine.
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Let's face it, rich liberals see the creeping destitution, wealth inequality, tent cities, And they don't care.
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So long as they can be privately chauffeured around, so long as they can retreat to the safety of their Beverly Hills mansions,
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so long as they can avoid the immediate consequences of the squalor,
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and so long as the miserable underclass keeps voting Democrat and fixing their toilets, They don't care.
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"Who is going to be cleaning your toilet, Donald Trump?" "Oh, that's..." America's future: rat -infested,
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disease -ridden shitholes inhabited by a two -caste society.
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The elite and the sickly poor who continue to vote for their own slave masters because they know no better.
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Democrat voters, Democrat politicians.
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But don't take my word for it.
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Listen to what this Guardian journalist said about how guilty liberals assuage their cognitive dissonance.
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"Got on with life, enjoyed the weather, the food, the ocean, the concerts.
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I could pretend that it was hard, that I felt forever nagged by the extreme inequality.
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It wasn't, and I didn't." The great terrible truth is that the wonders and distractions of Los Angeles made it easy, over the years, to look away.
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To no longer care quite so much.
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Ignorance is bliss.
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But does any of this matter?
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Given that Los Angeles is probably going to be wiped out by natural disasters anyway.
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Andreas fault one big earthquake could devastate the city, but it gets worse
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if there's a massive quake off the coast of Alaska It
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could create a tsunami large enough to wipe out Long Beach
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and parts of Orange County 750 ,000 people would be forced to flee toxic debris would ruin all the beaches
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and sewage would flood the cities and when that day comes We can truly say for sure that Los Angeles is
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is literally a shithole link in description.
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And also signing up for my free newsletter at summit .news /newsletter.
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About This Lesson
In this lesson, you will practice your English listening and speaking skills by analyzing a provocative commentary on the current state of Los Angeles. By engaging with this content, you will not only improve your understanding of current events but also enhance your English vocabulary and pronunciation. The dramatic tone and vivid imagery in the transcript will help you grasp the nuances of spoken English, making this a valuable resource for those looking to learn English with YouTube.
Key Vocabulary & Phrases
- Homeless: Referring to individuals without a permanent place to live.
- Aggressive: Describing a behavior that is hostile or violent.
- Typhus: A disease associated with unsanitary conditions often caused by a buildup of trash.
- Rats: Common pests that thrive in filthy environments; they can spread diseases.
- Murals: Artistic paintings on walls, often used to beautify or convey messages.
- Crime rates: Statistics reflecting the frequency of criminal activities in a given area.
- Landfill: A site for the disposal of waste materials.
- Decrepit: In a state of disrepair or ruin as a result of age or neglect.
Practice Tips
To effectively improve your English pronunciation and speaking skills, try the following:
- Shadowing Technique: Use the transcripts to shadow the speaker. Listen closely to the intonation, rhythm, and emotional tone. Repeat phrases immediately after you hear them. This mimics natural speech patterns and aids retention.
- Focus on Speed: The speaker's tone is dramatic and fast-paced. Practice by listening to short segments at normal speed first, then try slow-motion features if available, to catch every word before speeding up again.
- Record Yourself: Use a shadowing app or any recording device to capture your attempts. Play it back to identify areas for improvement, adjusting your pronunciation and pacing accordingly.
- Engage with the Content: After shadowing, discuss the themes with a partner or online community. This not only reinforces what you've learned but also provides valuable English speaking practice.
Utilizing these methods will enrich your learning experience as you delve into the complex narrative presented in the video, while enhancing your English communication skills in an engaging way.
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Conditional sentences if + clause, will/would + verb — a condition and its result | If Baltimore was a toilet, LA would be · If that figure hits 2%, it will start |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | is infested · is known · are now believed |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | has made · has absorbed · have eviscerated |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | people who can · days, which means |
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.