Shadowing Practice: Meet WW2's Villains - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
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World War 1?
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Well, that was pretty bad.
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But World War 2?
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It's the reason we know how the world ends today.
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But I'm not gonna tell you what happened in World War 2.
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We just covered the first world war.
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Give me a break, man.
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Come on.
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Let's stitch some grass.
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Psst!
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Hey kid!
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This painting is called "The March on Rome" my most priced museum exhibit
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because this is where the story of World War II begins.
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Take a closer look!
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Come on, don't be shy.
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Heh!
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you Bye bye!
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Historically Facts Part 18 Oh my god, are you okay?
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My name is Italian Jojo Oliver.
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What's your name?
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What a nice name.
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Anyway, bad time to jump out of a painting, buddy.
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Things ain't how they used to be around here in 1922.
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Let me explain.
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Turns out, the Great War really wasn't that great.
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And specifically Italy after the First World War was in a rough shape.
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They joined the First World War because they were promised all these juicy lands if they did so.
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But turns out Britain and France kinda lied to us Italians.
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At the Treaty of Versailles, the agreement that ended the war, we only received a teeny tiny amount of what was promised to us.
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Which made the winners not at all feel like winners.
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Some of the local Marios wrote it off as a minor nuisance, but the Luigi's?
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Those Italian nationalists took the betrayal to heart and felt humiliated by the Intant powers, to the point they called their victory in WWI, Vittoria Mutilata.
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A mutilated victory.
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Might sound a bit extreme or childish, but it kinda made sense that they were this butthurt.
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They sank their whole economy, all their men and trade into the first world war effort, because they thought they would be heavily rewarded for it.
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But when they didn't get all of that land, a whole lot of debt, and a couple dead husbands.
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By the way, get off the floor man.
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Look around you, amico mio.
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Unemployment, political instability, factories occupied by unions, things around here are going heavily downhill.
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And I guess what's going to happen any second now is the reason that magical painting brought you to specifically 1922.
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Even though the big war is not going to happen for another 17 years.
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See that fat guy?
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No, no, the one without That is Benito Mussolini.
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Once a socialist and anti -war guy, during the first world war he felt the war was actually necessary so Italy could become stronger.
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So he became a bro -war guy.
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Which was highly unpopular among the socialists.
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So he got thrown out of the group.
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That's it, I'm starting my own thing.
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And he did.
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It's called fascism.
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A word your modern politics seems loaded with, yet most people don't even know what it truly is.
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Also why is your twitter called x now?
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Nani?
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Dude, I hate to be like this, but I have to tell you about the sponsor of this video.
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Happy Birthday America!
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250 years old already, huh?
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Well, that calls for a pretty massive celebration.
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And what better place to celebrate than in World of Warships?
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The game is currently running its special 250th US anniversary event, where players can battle true history,
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command iconic American warships, and unlock exclusive anniversary content inspired by the events that shaped highly detailed ships,
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Whether you prefer destroyers, cruisers, battleships, aircraft carriers, or submarines, there is a playstyle for everyone.
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And best of all, it's completely free to play.
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During the event, you will progress through a unique historical journey, unlocking artwork, stories, commemorative rewards,
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and special anniversary content simply by playing battles.
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mostly the most important part.
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And if you are a new or returning player, use my link below and enter code USA250 for a bunch of bonus goodies to help kickstart your fleet,
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including premium time, in -game currency, ships and many other exclusive rewards.
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The event runs from June 17th through July 15th, so if you have ever wanted to command some of history's most legendary warships, now is the perfect time to jump in.
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Download World of Warships today, who knows, it might just become your next favorite game.
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Political ideology built around one main idea: the nation comes before everything.
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Before your political party, before your personal freedoms, before your opinions and before even yourself.
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According to fascism, people fighting each other over class, wealth or politics only makes the country weaker.
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In fact, Mussolini thought Italy had become weak
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because everybody was too busy arguing and protesting instead of working together for the nation.
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So his solution was basically: Stop fighting each other, we are all Italians.
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Now, on paper, fascism sounds kinda wholesome, but there is one teeny tiny little problem.
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Who actually decides what's best for the nation?
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Yeah, this guy.
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Fascists believed democracy was weak because politicians spent too much time debating things instead of actually doing things.
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There were too many elections, too many parties and too many old dudes yelling in parliament.
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Instead, fascism believed the country needed one strong leader who could So far, fascism doesn't seem too bad.
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If anything, it seems like calling someone a fascist might actually be a compliment.
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But that's because you're not looking at the fine print, because this all so far seems somewhat fine, until it turns out your leader is actually insane.
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Now, remember those factory occupations and communist movements I mentioned earlier?
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A lot of Italians were terrified of communism at the time.
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Like, genuinely terrified!
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Russia had already gone communist a few years earlier, and many rich people thought Italy was next.
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So when Mussolini showed up saying things like: "I will restore order,
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stop the communists, and make Italy great again !" who were just tired of all the chaos.
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And this is where fascism starts to show its cracks.
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See, when Mussolini said, let's all unite for the nation, that sounded nice, but what if somebody disagrees?
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What if somebody says, actually, I don't think uniting under one guy is a good idea, because if that guy is ill -intended, we are all screwed.
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Well, according to fascism, that thought train is problematic.
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The nation is supposed to be united after all.
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So under fascism, people who disagree start looking less like political opponents and more like enemies.
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Pretty quickly, Mussolini's idea of national unity starts looking a lot less like wholesome teamwork
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and a lot more like "agree with me" or "else".
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And the "else" are the black shirt.
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They were Mussolini's elite group, who attacked socialist newspapers, broke up strikes and intimidated Mussolini's opponents.
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And the Italian government was so weak at this point that nobody really stopped those bullies.
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Which brings us to October 1922.
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The March on Rome.
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Thousands of the blackshirts gathered and marched together towards Rome.
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Not to take over just yet, it was mainly a show of force to intimidate the government, which they really did.
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The liberal Italian government panicked and wanted to call in the army to show they were even stronger than the fascist army.
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All they needed to issue the order was for the Italian king to approve the military action.
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But he didn't.
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At that point the government collapsed.
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The king wanted to avoid bloodshed, so he called forth Mussolini to appoint him as the prime minister.
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Which actually took a while since Mussolini didn't even participate in the march.
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Yeah, he was chilling in Milan, kind of just eyeing where things ended up going.
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So he hurried over, took the title, and fascism became a very real national ideology.
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Over the next decade, Mussolini concentrated more and more power.
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He came to rule Italy as its unquestioned dictator and styled himself Il Duce aka the leader.
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map a little bit, as he officially made Vatican City a country
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and gave them tons of money in return for catholic support.
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So hey, that's a fun fascist fact.
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And he also conquered Ethiopia, which was essentially poor people with swords and a few guns,
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versus 800 tanks, airplanes and 330 tons of horrific mustad gas that killed armies, civilians and water supplies.
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A completely one sided battle for sure, but to the Italian nationalists?
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Absolute proof that fascism The Italians also decided to occupy Albania to control the entrance to the Adriatic Sea.
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Now, not to be that kind of guy, but since I am here with a white shirt and you are completely white, it's probably time for you to go before we start the shirt race war.
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Oh, but before you go, here, a sticker of approval.
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May the Italian Jojo Gods be with you!
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Bye my friend!
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Hello again!
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Did you like my painting?
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Yeah, they always react like that.
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World War 2 still hasn't happened.
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In fact, we are only in 1922.
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So why did I push you all the way into fascist Italy?
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Well, because history is kinda like a domino chain. And Mussolini?
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He is one of the first dominoes, but he is not the biggest one.
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Watch your head!
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Du Hund?
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Well, this is awkward.
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My name is Beer Oliver, and let me guess, the Italian guy already explained fascism?
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Perfect, that saves me like 5 pages of dialogue.
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Anyway, Germany was basically having the same problem as Italy, but instead of being winners that felt like losers, they were losers that felt like ultra losers.
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Unlike Italy, Germany wasn't upset because they didn't get enough,
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they were upset because they got stuck with the 5 to 10 trillion dollars in today's money!
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On top of that, they lost these territories, had to demilitarize the Rhineland, reduced their army to just 100 ,000 men, weren't even allowed to have an air force,
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and were forced to watch our Delton heist video 3 times per day as punishment for being a bad boy.
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Needless to say, the Germans were not having a Wunderbar time.
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Suddenly, a lot of Germans started looking for somebody to blame.
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See that angry guy big headache.
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He fought in World War 1, Somat was a surprisingly brave soldier, running as a trench messenger which earned him 2 medals and 2 injuries.
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When he was laying blindfolded in bed recovering from his second injury sustained from mustard gas, he finally heard the news: Germany had surrendered.
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Hitler was absolutely devastated and furious.
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Like many radical German soldiers, he refused to believe the German military had actually lost on the battlefield.
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So he started to give speeches of speeches.
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He joined a small political party, took it over and transformed it into the National Socialist German Workers' Party.
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Or as normal people call it, the Nazi Party.
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No, they weren't actually socialists.
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Despite the name, the Nazis hated socialism, hated communism and spent a lot of their time beating up socialists.
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Now before you think Hitler was just a German Mussolini, he kinda was, but with one very important difference.
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Hitler cared about the nation, and race.
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He became obsessed with the idea that Germany's problems weren't just caused by bad politicians, but by entire groups of people, especially Jews.
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This is probably the fascism people mean when they call you a fascist for disliking the color purple.
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Anyway, while Hitler was busy giving speeches, which he was extremely good at, Germany was busy falling apart.
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So Hitler looked over to his neighbors down below and decided to copy their a bunch of supporters, marched into a beer hall, which is probably why we are here,
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and tried to overthrow the German government while downing some Jägermeister.
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Unsurprisingly, it failed and he got thrown into prison and his party got banned.
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But then 1929 happened.
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The Great Depression hit everyone, but Germany got hit the hardest.
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Suddenly the guy over there screaming angrily at the local Jews didn't seem so crazy.
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People lost everything stopped sounding crazy to a lot of desperate Germans.
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As Germany's economy got worse, Hitler's popularity got better.
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And in 1933, he finally gathered enough support to become chancellor of Germany.
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And he instantly did all the stuff that Mussolini did.
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He banned opposition power, made the place a dictatorship and named himself the German version of Il Dost, Führer.
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Now remember that giant list of things Germany wasn't allowed to do after World War 1?
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Checklist no army.
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Let's build one no air force.
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Let's build one stay out of the Rhineland.
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Let's build one I mean, let's just put soldiers there just for good measures France
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and Britain saw what Hitler was doing and did exactly nothing about it Yeah, shocker right?
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That lack of response made Hitler cocky.
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If he can put troops in the Rhineland and not get punished for it, why can't he also put troops in, let's say Austria?
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Reuniting the German people?
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That was a big no no for the entant powers, so they ultimately decided to give Hitler a very firm talk.
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They told him what he was doing was uncalled for, so Hitler sincerely apologized, promised to never do it again,
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and Chamberlain's appeasement policy, "Save the world from a second world war.
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Daddy, I want Czechoslovakia.
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Damn it !" After annexing Austria, Hitler set his sights on Czechoslovakia.
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There was a large German minority inside the country and Hitler demanded that they should unite with Germany.
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However, this territory, the Sudutenland, was also vital for Czechoslovakia's defenses.
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Hitler and Mussolini met with Chamberlain and the French Prime Minister Dalladier and concluded the rest of Czechoslovakia alone.
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Hitler, being a very trustworthy guy, promised to definitely not maybe perhaps take it.
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Czechoslovakia suddenly lost all their defenses to the Germans without having anything to say about it.
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And Chamberlain's appeasement policy saved a I ate Czechoslovakia.
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Damn it!
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Okay, listen up you little st.
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If you take one more piece of land, me and France are definitely going to perhaps maybe supposedly declare war on you.
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And World War II will start.
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I'm hungry.
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By 1939, war loomed all over Europe.
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In fact, you could argue it had already started.
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Not in Germany, not in Poland, but in Spain.
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A failed military coup in 1936 had Republicans, and before anyone knew it,
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half of Europe had picked a side.
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Germany and Italy backed the nationalists, the Soviet Union backed the republicans.
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Though the Germans and Soviets were actively trying to kill each other in southern Europe, meanwhile back at home the two nations signed the Molotov -Ribbentrop pact,
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which established the 10 year no attacking each other pact between the two countries.
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Secretly, it also included a segment that divided the entirety of Eastern Europe from Finland to Romania between the two states,
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I decided to take that for some reason.
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Daddy?
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I want Poland.
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Oh, for the love of - .
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Okay, mein Freund, gotta stop you there.
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First of all, I am way over the legal limit of what you should be allowed to drink, so take this sticker of being a certified drinking pal.
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And secondly, there is one more country that made up the excess for a strafakti, you know?
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Okay, so basically what happened was - *pfft
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pfft pfft pfft pfft pfft *
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*pfft
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pfft pfft pfft pfft pfft *
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*pfft
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pfft pfft pfft pfft pfft *
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*pfft
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pfft pfft pfft pfft pfft *
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Because, you know, I have morals.
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Anyway, look at that beautiful painting!
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It's small, I know, but not that each painting's story has to be big.
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I mean, check it out yourself!
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Whoops!
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Oh hey, Doodly -chan!
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My name is Oliver -san, my favorite anime is One Piece, and welcome aboard the Mukden Express!
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I'm now going to talk normal.
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I know you were deep into the Versailles treatment and unlike Italy,
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Japan wasn't trying to recreate the Roman Empire.
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Japan had a different problem.
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The country was rapidly industrializing, building factories, ships and an enormous military,
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but realized rather late that they didn't have the resources to feed any of it.
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So naturally, they resourced it from their neighbors by invading them.
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Yeah, that idea was People lied to have an excuse,
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fortunately the Japanese military happened to find one, or more accurately, they made one.
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Uh oh, guess that's their excuse.
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Looks like somebody blew up the railway, though it was most likely the Japanese themselves.
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Japan though accused the Chinese and then threw the army at them.
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Nevertheless, Japan used the incident as an excuse to invade Manchuria, which was a large chunk of northeastern China and to say it softly took over the place.
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After another convenient incident at the Marco Polo Bridge, the Japanese launched a second invasion against China,
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where they captured the biggest Chinese cities and shortly after the capital at the time, Nanking, where they did such horrible things to the Chinese that if I would explain them in detail,
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the YouTube senpais would instantly ban our channel.
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And uh yeah, Doodly Chan, that's about all you need to know before the second world war starts.
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Sorry about the bumpy train ride, I really like One Piece by the way.
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4 ,092.
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So basically Luthor gets really strong and then he kills all the enemies.
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Hey hey, and with that you are finally ready my friend!
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World War 2, the video is finally happening!
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I can't believe it guys.
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We waited so long for this moment.
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Alright, so all you have to do now is jump in this painting in the middle of your screen.
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You can click it and it will take you straight to the beginning of the war.
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Unless it's not there of course.
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Does that mean I promised to not leave you on a cliffhanger yet I did?
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Well, if the worst person in history is allowed to lie, surely the second worst person in history is allowed to lie too.
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Hey, see you soon, man.
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Bye, friend.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “Meet WW2's Villains”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: pfft, Hitler, German, fascism, Italian. This video has 258 sentences and 3008 words to shadow. The speech runs for 18:57. The speaker talks at a natural 159 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. Only 80% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| pfft | [p͡ɸːt] | Used to signify a sudden ending or disappearance. |
| fascist noun | /ˈfæʃɪst/ | A proponent of fascism. |
| warship noun | /ˈwɔɹˌʃɪp/ | Any ship built or armed for naval combat. |
| nationalist noun | /ˈnæʃ.ə.nə.lɪst/ | An advocate of nationalism. |
| loser noun | /luzɚ/ | A person who loses; one who fails to win or thrive. |
| appeasement noun | /əˈpiːz.mənt/ | The state of being appeased; the policy of giving in to demands in order to preserve the peace. |
| teeny adjective | /ˈti.ni/ | Very small; tiny. |
| terrify verb | /ˈtɛɹɪfaɪ/ | To frighten greatly; to fill with terror. |
| wholesome adjective | /ˈhoʊl.səm/ | Promoting good physical health and well-being. |
| sticker noun | /ˈstɪkə/ | Something or someone that sticks (pierces, or adheres). |
| pact noun | /pækt/ | An agreement; a compact; a covenant. |
| communism noun | /ˈkɒmjᵿnɪz(ə)m/ | Any far-left political ideology or philosophy advocating holding the production of resources collectively, especially by seizing it through revolution. |
| unite verb | /juˈnaɪt/ | To bring together as one. |
| occupy verb | /ˈɑkjəpaɪ/ | To fill. |
| ideology noun | /aɪ.diˈɑ.lə.d͡ʒi/ | Doctrine, philosophy, body of beliefs or principles belonging to an individual or group. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| turn out verb | To end up; to result. |
| take over verb | To assume control of something, such as a business or enterprise, and sometimes by force. |
| beat up verb | To give a severe beating to; to assault violently with repeated blows. |
| blow up verb | To explode or be destroyed by explosion. |
| break up verb | To break or separate into pieces. |
| end up verb | To bring to a conclusion. |
| fall apart verb | To disintegrate, to break into pieces. |
| get off verb | To move from being on top of (something) to not being on top of it. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- That's it, I'm starting my own thing.
- Also why is your twitter called x now?
- Who actually decides what's best for the nation?
- Did you like my painting?
- Let's build one no air force.
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | is called · were promised · was promised |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | people who disagree · Ethiopia, which was · hall, which is |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | have ever wanted · hasn't happened |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 33 contractions and reduced forms, such as didn't, kinda, I'm. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: fascist /ˈfæʃɪst/, warship /ˈwɔɹˌʃɪp/, nationalist /ˈnæʃ.ə.nə.lɪst/, childish /ˈt͡ʃaɪldɪʃ/, socialism /ˈsoʊʃəlɪzəm/
- Long words — get the stress right: nationalist /ˈnæʃ.ə.nə.lɪst/, ideology /aɪ.diˈɑ.lə.d͡ʒi/, entirety /ɪnˈtaɪ.əɹ(ə)ti/, instability /ɪnstəˈbɪlɪti/, devastated /ˈdɛv.əˌsteɪ.təd/
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 pfft, fascist, warship.
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.