Shadowing Practice: Malcolm X's Letter from Hajj - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Never have I witnessed such sincere hospitality
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and overwhelming spirit of true brotherhood as it is practiced by the people of all colors
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and races here in the ancient Holy Land, the home of Abraham, Muhammad, and all the other prophets of the Holy Scriptures.
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For the past week I have been utterly speechless
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and spellbound by the graciousness I see displayed all around me by people of all colors.
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I have been blessed to visit the holy city of Mecca.
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I have made my seven circuits around the Kaaba, led by a young Mutawwaf named Muhammad.
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I drank water from the well of Zamzam.
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I ran seven times back and forth between the hills of Manasafa and Marwa.
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I have prayed in the ancient city of Mina, and I have prayed on Man 'arafa.
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There were tens of thousands of pilgrims from all over the world.
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They were of all colors, from blue -eyed blondes to black -skinned Africans.
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But we were all participating in the same ritual, displaying a spirit of unity and brotherhood
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that my experiences in America had led me to believe never could exist between the white and the non -white.
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America needs to understand Islam, because this is the one religion that erases from its society the race problem.
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Throughout my travels in the Muslim world, I have met, talked to, and even eaten with people who in America would have been considered white
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but the white attitude was removed from their minds by the religion of Islam.
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I have never before seen sincere and true brotherhood practiced by all colors together, irrespective of their color.
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You may be shocked by these words coming from me, but on this pilgrimage what I have seen and experienced has forced me to rearrange much of my thought patterns previously held,
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and to toss aside some of my previous conclusions.
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This was not too difficult for me, Despite my firm convictions, I have always been a man who tries to face facts
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and to accept the reality of life as new experience and new knowledge unfolds it.
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I have always kept an open mind, which is necessary to the flexibility that must go hand in hand with every form of intelligent search for truth.
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During the past 11 days here in the Muslim world, I have eaten from the same plate, drunk from the same glass and slept on the same bed
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or on the same rug while praying to the same God with fellow Muslims whose eyes were the bluest of blue,
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whose hair was the blondest of blond and whose skin was the whitest of white.
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And in the words and in the actions and in the deeds of the white Muslims, I felt the same sincerity that I felt among the black African Muslims of Nigeria, Sudan, and Ghana.
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We were truly all the same brothers because their belief in one God had removed the white from their minds, the white from their behavior and the white from their attitude.
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I could see from this that perhaps if white Americans could accept the oneness of God, then perhaps too they could accept in reality the oneness of man,
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and cease to measure and hinder and harm others in terms of their differences in color.
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With racism plaguing America like an incurable cancer,
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the so -called Christian white American heart should be more receptive to a proven solution to such a destructive problem.
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Perhaps it could be in time to save America from imminent disaster, the same destruction brought upon Germany by racism that eventually destroyed the Germans themselves.
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Each hour here in the Holy Land enables me to have
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greater spiritual insight into what is happening in America between black and white.
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The American Negro can never be blamed for his racial animosities.
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He's only reacting to 400 years of the conscious racism of the American whites.
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But as As racism leads America up the suicide path, I do believe, from the experiences that I've had with them, that the whites of the younger generation in the colleges
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and universities will see the handwriting on the walls and many of them will turn to the spiritual path of truth,
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the only way left to America to ward off the disasters that racism inevitably must lead to.
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Never have I been so highly honored.
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Never have I been made to feel more humble
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and unworthy who would believe the blessings that have been heaped upon an American Negro.
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A few nights ago, a man who would be called in America a white man, a United Nations diplomat, an ambassador,
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a companion of kings, gave me his hotel suite, his bed.
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Never would I have even thought of dreaming that I would ever be the recipient of such honors,
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honors that in America would have been bestowed upon a king, not a Negro.
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All praises due to Allah, the Lord of the world.
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Sincerely, Al -Hajj Malik Al -Shabazz
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “Malcolm X's Letter from Hajj”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: America, color, racism, Muslim, holy. This video has 49 sentences and 831 words to shadow. The speech runs for 4:40. The speaker talks at a natural 178 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 |
|---|---|---|
| brotherhood noun | /ˈbɹʌðɚˌhʊd/ | The state of being brothers or a brother (also figuratively). |
| oneness noun | The state of being one or undivided; unity. | |
| blond adjective | /blɑnd/ | Of a bleached or pale golden (light yellowish) colour. |
| sincere adjective | /sɪnˈsɪɹ/ | Genuine, honest, and free from pretense or deceit; heartfelt. |
| animosity noun | /æn.ɪˈmɒs.ɪ.ti/ | Violent hatred leading to active opposition; active enmity; energetic dislike. |
| bestow verb | /bɪˈstoʊ/ | To apply or make use of (someone or something); to employ, to use. |
| graciousness noun | The state of being gracious. | |
| hinder verb | /ˈhɪndɚ/ | To make difficult to accomplish; to act as an obstacle; to frustrate. |
| incurable adjective | /ˌɪnˈkjʊɹəbl/ | Of an illness, condition, etc, that is unable to be cured; healless. |
| irrespective adjective | /ɪɹɪˈspɛktɪv/ | Heedless, regardless. |
| overwhelm verb | /ˌoʊ.vɚˈwɛlm/ | To engulf, surge over and submerge. |
| pilgrim noun | /ˈpɪlɡɹɪm/ | Any traveler. |
| pilgrimage noun | /ˈpɪlɡɹɪmɪd͡ʒ/ | A journey made to a sacred place, or a religious journey. |
| rearrange verb | /ˌɹiːəˈɹeɪndʒ/ | To change the order or arrangement of (one or more items). |
| receptive adjective | /ɹəˈsɛptɪv/ | Capable of receiving something. |
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 | have been · have been blessed · have made |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | is practiced · have been blessed · have been considered |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | people who in · man who tries · mind, which is |
Pronunciation to watch
- The “th” sounds: brotherhood /ˈbɹʌðɚˌhʊd/, unworthy /ʌnˈwɝði/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: conviction /kənˈvɪkʃən/, conscious /ˈkɑn.ʃəs/
- Long words — get the stress right: animosity /æn.ɪˈmɒs.ɪ.ti/, irrespective /ɪɹɪˈspɛktɪv/, sincerity /sɪnˈsɛɹəti/, inevitably /ɪˈnɛvɪtəbli/, hospitality /ˌhɑ.spɪˈtæl.ə.ti/
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 brotherhood, oneness, blond.
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.