Shadowing Practice: My Country Is Choosing Extinction (Korea) - Learn English Speaking with Video
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171 sentences
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My country, Korea, is collapsing.
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Collapsing.
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Collapsing.
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Many foreign experts say, Korea will face demographic collapse within the next 50 years.
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But almost no one understands why Koreans stop having children.
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Now, as a Korean insider, I'm going to dig into the pants.
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No more sugarcoating.
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No more excuses.
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I know, the topic of Korea's birth rate is more boring than a Kevin Hart movie.
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A lot of YouTuber have covered this.
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But here's the thing, most of them are outsiders looking in.
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Just like only Asians can use the word Ching word, only Koreans can properly criticize Korea.
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Through these three questions, I'm going to expose the dark, twisted truth of Korea that everyone's too scared to talk about.
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First, how shitty is it to live as a working adult in Korea?
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Second, what does raising a child here actually require?
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And last, the children who are disappearing from this country.
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What kind of life are they growing up in?
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It's just not just a big reason.
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I can't do everything I want to do.
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Why do I want to do it?
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I don't want to do everything I want to do.
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You can do it.
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Yes.
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You don't think I'll work?
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You're working?
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To answer this, I decided to live it.
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I visited the house of my friend who lives the core area of Seoul.
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He is a devout Christian and a huge fan of Harry Styles.
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Despite that, I like this friend very much.
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Here's a thousand dollars.
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A thousand dollars.
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This is all the space.
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Here's a house.
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Here's a little food.
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A table.
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Here's a kitchen.
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This is the kitchen.
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$250.
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But a hundred dollars.
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Actually, it's hard to get money.
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So, you can get married money.
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I love you.
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Now, let's indirectly experience Korean office workers.
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Koreans call the subway during rush hour hell train.
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It's not a metaphor.
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It's just a normal Tuesday.
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Just as
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all the world's problems began in Europe, all of Korea's problems were created by urban overcrowding.
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In my opinion, this country needs to collapse.
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I'll be honest with you, I was working in a very good working environment for this shoot.
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I once jokingly reported my younger sister as a communist, so I know.
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Korean companies definitely use the same lighting as interrogation rooms.
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And some bosses treat their employees the way Hollywood treats Asians.
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They don't give a shit.
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By the end of the day, I had zero desire to go outside.
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No energy to date anyone.
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At that moment, even Sydney Sweeney wouldn't have been able to keep me awake.
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Maybe Taylor Lautner, though.
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Then how about living by using a car?
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Today we're going to experience the daily commute from Seodei Moon where housing prices hit the Seoul average
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all the way to the office-packed district of Gangnam.
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Of course, if I had a BMW, I wouldn't be doing YouTube.
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I was with my friend on their way to work.
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Officially, this is a 90 road, maybe 100 if you're pushing your luck.
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But during the commute, you can't even hit 10.
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I think it's a certain time.
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That's all.
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OK.
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OK.
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Now, let's say we solve the money problem entirely.
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Hypothetically, economic anxiety gone.
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What then?
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We have to pay attention to the energy and time, and money.
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But we have to pay attention to the burden of our children.
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We have to pay attention to the burden of our children.
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We have to pay attention to our children.
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Then, what were the older generations in Korea like back then, before the birth rate started to drop?
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In 50 years, Korea went from one of the poorest countries on the planet to one of the richest.
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GDP per capita increased 350 times.
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The military regime's policies at the time certainly played a role.
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The state pushed the narrative that national wealth was the only path to strength.
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And the older generation grew up with the belief that their personal sacrifice was the foundation of the country's progress.
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It fostered a spirit of working for family, neighbors and the nation, even at the cost of one's own self.
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So we'll get to the end of the day.
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So that's not a long time.
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How many of us are we here to get out of the day?
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We'll get out of the day.
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We'll get out of the day.
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So we can't eat the day, but we'll eat the day.
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We'll eat the day after we go.
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I'll do it.
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But we'll do that.
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We'll eat the day after we go.
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So we'll get out of the day.
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The environment is not complicated and complicated.
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So, I was the main goal of the children to grow healthy.
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The fuel was a specific combination.
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Confucian collectivism mixed with raw capitalist hunger.
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But somewhere in that transformation, something broke.
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The sacrifice mentality didn't disappear when the poverty did.
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The competition didn't stop when everyone had enough to eat.
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And women are, if they're a big company, they feel the power of the company is bigger.
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We've invited a Korean parenting expert to dive deeper into this issue. that much on me.
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Yeah, it shows.
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In Seoul, the cost of raising a child is heavily influenced by school districts.
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Better neighborhoods demand higher tuition for elite education and much higher rent.
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Naturally, parents want to provide the best possible environment for their children's education.
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This is Daiichi Dong, the epicenter of Korea's academic fever.
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Every season, parents line up since dawn just to secure a seat in a star teacher's class.
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For context, this guy's annual salary is even higher than Travis Kelcey's.
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The city built these booths for student health, but all I saw inside was students studying.
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10am.
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Can you ask me if you are happy? Are you happy?
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I don't know.
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I don't know.
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I don't know.
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I don't know.
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Shut up.
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It's not that Asian students are uniformly unhappy.
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The idea that all Asian kids are either anxious and suppressed
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or naturally gifted geniuses is nothing more than a lazy western stereotype.
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I once lost my entire fortune in a poker game to a 3-year-old Chinese kid, but that boy was special special
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and especially in Korea most competitive education districts do you know
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how much parents are paying every month I said just fucking say it at least 900 done
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I'm a little bit of a home in a home in
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a home in a home in a city How many hours do you go to school?
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5.6pm So, you go to school at school at 6.10pm 10.10pm So, do you do that for the week of 5 days?
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Yes As you can see, Korean children's daily routines were more grotesque than the Tiger music videos Will the child's life be solved?
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The gender-aligned Do you think of any other thing?
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I feel like living alone But, they were very bright and smart kids At that age, I gave Scrub Daddy as a birthday present to my mother.
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Okay then, why are Koreans so obsessed with education to this extent?
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In Korea, the university you attend determines which community you belong to, which company you join, and what your next 40 years will look like.
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That's why both parents and kids feel like getting into a good university is the only way.
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Some students in Gangnam even take ADHD medication to improve their focus.
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Their parents get the prescriptions for them.
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It is the same context as teenagers in the hood dealing drugs to become great musicians.
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They compete for good universities, then for good jobs, thinking that at the end of the tunnel there is a good life.
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That may be true to some extent, but a society where you compete from 13 to 20 only
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to face even more competition is definitely not the right place to love.
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I think the culture of men is a good thing.
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I think that if you want to grow a child, you have to have a lot of money.
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If you want to marry, you have to have a lot of money.
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The land is a small land, but we know each other very well.
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No, no, don't talk with my- get out!
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Get the fk out!
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Get out!
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So, we end up with people who are masters of competition, but strangers to unconditional love.
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Competition leads to comparison, and comparison makes our choices purely rational and calculating.
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But, love is not a performance metric.
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Marriage is not a result that can be optimized.
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Having children is of course the same.
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It is a choice made by emotion, not reason.
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These generations inherited the prosperity, and apparently also the bill. But
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what
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you must understand is that whenever Korea is in crisis,
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Korean citizens miraculously band together and face the situation with razor sharp focus and blame each other until suicide.
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Do you think you want to give a child a little bit?
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Yes.
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Do you want to give a child a little bit?
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Yes.
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I want to give a child a little bit.
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I think it's right now, but later it will have a whole lot of success.
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I think it's something that's going to happen.
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I think it's a change of mind.
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I'm happy with a child and I'm happy.
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I don't know if we can experience it without a child.
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I don't think the real story is that Koreans just don't want kids.
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I think a lot of people do, but somewhere along the way, those things stopped feeling like a dream and started feeling like a burden.
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I genuinely hope my country becomes a better place, a place where people can give love to one another without holding back.
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I pose a question to the world watching this video.
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Would you have children in here?
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “My Country Is Choosing Extinction”. This video has 170 sentences and 1635 words to shadow. The speech runs for 14:22. The speaker talks at a steady 114 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. 83% 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
The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| collapse verb | /kəˈlæps/ | To break apart and fall down suddenly; to cave in. |
| commute verb | /kəˈmjuːt/ | To exchange substantially; to abate but not abolish completely, a penalty, obligation, or payment in return for a great, single thing or an aggregate; to cash… |
| disappear verb | /dɪsəˈpɪɹ/ | To vanish. |
| collectivism noun | [kəˈlɛk.tə.vɪ.zm̩] | An economic system in which the means of production and distribution are owned and controlled by the people collectively |
| devout adjective | /dɪˈvaʊt/ | Devoted to religion or to religious feelings and duties; pious; extremely religious; godly. |
| epicentre noun | /ˈɛpɪˌsɛntɚ/ | The point on the land or water surface directly above the focus, or hypocentre, of an earthquake. |
| grotesque adjective | /ɡɹoʊˈtɛsk/ | Distorted and unnatural in shape or size; abnormal, especially in a hideous way. |
| hypothetically adverb | In a hypothetical way; as a hypothesis. | |
| jokingly adverb | /ˈdʒoʊ.kɪŋ.li/ | In a joking manner. |
| miraculously adverb | /məˈɹækjələsli/ | In a miraculous manner. |
| obsess verb | /əbˈsɛs/ | To be preoccupied with a single topic or emotion. |
| optimize verb | /ˈɑptɪmaɪz/ | To act optimistically or as an optimist. |
| overcrowding noun | The situation where a space holds more occupants than it can comfortably accommodate. | |
| stereotype noun | /ˈstɛ.ɹi.əˌtaɪp/ | A conventional, formulaic, and often oversimplified or exaggerated conception, opinion, or image of (a person or a group of people). |
| sugarcoat verb | /ˈʃʊɡɚˌkoʊt/ | To coat with sugar. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| get out of verb | To leave, exit or escape from; to become free of. | |
| get out verb | To leave or escape. | |
| hold back verb | To act with reserve; to contain one's full measure or power. | |
| line up verb | /laɪnˈʌp/ | To align; to put in alignment; to put in correct adjustment for smooth running. |
| shut up | /ʃʌt ʌp/ | Stop talking (usually in the form of making annoying, irrelevant, or false comments, during a period of peace and quiet, or when one is not allowed to talk)… |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- I can't do everything I want to do.
- Why do I want to do it?
- You don't think I'll work?
- Can you ask me if you are happy?
- Would you have children in here?
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 | were created · be solved · can be optimized |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | children who are · friend who lives · people who are |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | have covered · We've invited |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 39 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, we'll, I'm. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: sugarcoat /ˈʃʊɡɚˌkoʊt/, unconditional /ˌʌnkənˈdɪʃənəl/, interrogation /ɪnˌteɹ.əˈɡeɪ.ʃən/, tuition /tjuːˈɪʃən/, prescription /pɹəˈskɹɪp.ʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: collectivism [kəˈlɛk.tə.vɪ.zm̩], epicentre /ˈɛpɪˌsɛntɚ/, miraculously /məˈɹækjələsli/, stereotype /ˈstɛ.ɹi.əˌtaɪp/, unconditional /ˌʌnkənˈdɪʃənəl/
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 collapse, commute, disappear.
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.