Shadowing Practice: Munk Debate on Ukraine – John Mearsheimer Closing Statement - Learn English Speaking with Video

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I want to make it clear, I disagree completely with Radek on the point that

Russia is an imperial great power and that Ukraine is the first train station on the line.

And when they're done conquering and incorporating Ukraine, there'll be additional countries.

There is no evidence to support that.

It's true if you look at the July 12, 2021 talk.

It's true if you look at Putin's February 21 and February 24 talks this year.

This is all about the West's effort to make

Russia, excuse me, to make Ukraine a bulwark, a Western bulwark on Russia's border.

And the key prong in our strategy is NATO expansion.

If you just go look at the documentation,

you'll see an abundance of evidence of that and you can find no evidence that Putin is an imperialist.

What we have here...

No, what we have here...

What we have here is a choice between two bad alternatives.

One alternative is we can reach an accommodation with the Russians and, through diplomacy, work to create a neutral Ukraine.

That's one alternative, and it's the alternative that Steve and I favor.

The other alternative, and this is the Biden administration's policy,

is to double down and to try to defeat the Russians in Ukraine,

to bring the Russian economy down through comprehensive sanctions, and as I said on a number of occasions,

to knock the Russians out of the ranks of the great powers.

That's the alternative.

You have to choose between those two.

And our argument is that the second alternative is extremely dangerous and it's going to be terribly damaging for the Ukrainians.

It makes more sense to cut a deal here.

And what you really want to think about is the one crisis before this

that looks a lot like the situation we're in today, and that's the Cuban Missile Crisis.

We now know that when the United States got involved in the Cuban Missile Crisis,

what President Kennedy did was he went to enormous lengths to shut the crisis down.

He cut a deal with Khrushchev.

He cut a deal with Khrushchev that he thought was

so objectionable to the American people that he told Khrushchev

that he was going to have to lie about the Jupiter missiles in Turkey which he was going to take out.

Kennedy understood.

We were talking back then about the threat of nuclear war.

And Kennedy understood that you definitely wanted to do everything you can to avoid that.

So what I'm saying to all you folks in the audience is you want to think like John F.

Kennedy in this crisis, not like Joe Biden.

Wow.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This speaking lesson is built on the video “Munk Debate on Ukraine – John Mearsheimer Closing Statement”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: alternative, Ukraine, crisis, Kennedy, Russian. This video has 38 sentences and 441 words to shadow. The speech runs for 3:04. The speaker talks at a steady 144 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. 85% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.

Key vocabulary in this video

15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
rank noun	/ˈɹæŋk/	A row of people or things organized in a grid pattern, often soldiers.
occasion noun	/əˈkeɪ̯ʒən/	A favorable opportunity; a convenient or timely chance.
comprehensive adjective	/ˌkɑm.pɹəˈhɛn.sɪv/	Broadly or completely covering; including a large proportion of something.
knock verb	/nɑk/	To rap one's knuckles against something, especially wood.
enormous adjective	/ɪˈnɔː.məs/	Extremely large; greatly exceeding the common size, extent, etc.
neutral adjective	/ˈnuː.tɹəl/	Not taking sides in a conflict such as war; nonaligned.
folk noun	/foʊk/	People, persons.
imperial adjective	/ɪmˈpɪɹ.i.əl/	Related to an empire, emperor, or empress.
missile noun	/ˈmɪs.aɪl/	Any object used as a weapon by being thrown or fired through the air, such as stone, arrow or bullet.
disagree verb	/dɪsəˈɡɹi/	To fail to agree; to have a different opinion or belief.
accommodation noun	/əˌkɒm.əˈdeɪ.ʃən/	Lodging in a dwelling or similar living quarters afforded to travellers in hotels or on cruise ships, or students, etc.
documentation noun	/ˌdɑkjəmɛnˈteɪʃən/	A documentary.
terribly adverb	/ˈtɛɹ.ɪ.bli/	Very; extremely.
abundance noun	/əˈbʌn.dn̩s/	A large quantity; many.
incorporate verb	/ɪŋˈkɔɹ.pɚ.eɪt/	To include (something) as a part.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Meaning
double down verb	To double one's wager, particularly, the name of a specific doubling bet allowed in blackjack.
take out verb	To remove.
talk back verb	To reply impertinently or rudely; to answer in a cheeky or rude manner.

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 5 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, there'll, they're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “sh” and “zh” sounds: occasion /əˈkeɪ̯ʒən/, accommodation /əˌkɒm.əˈdeɪ.ʃən/, documentation /ˌdɑkjəmɛnˈteɪʃən/, sanction /ˈsæŋkʃən/
Long words — get the stress right: comprehensive /ˌkɑm.pɹəˈhɛn.sɪv/, imperial /ɪmˈpɪɹ.i.əl/, accommodation /əˌkɒm.əˈdeɪ.ʃən/, documentation /ˌdɑkjəmɛnˈteɪʃən/, incorporate /ɪŋˈkɔɹ.pɚ.eɪt/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Shadow it sentence by sentence at normal speed, repeating each one until your rhythm matches the speaker.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like rank, occasion, comprehensive.

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: Munk Debate on Ukraine – John Mearsheimer Closing Statement - Learn English Speaking with Video

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