Shadowing Practice: NYU's 2020/2021 Commencement Student Speaker Amy Dong - Learn English Speaking with YouTube

C2
Please welcome Amy Gung, who received the Bachelor of Science from the Leonard N.
⏸ Paused
78 sentences
If sentences are too short or too long, click Edit to adjust them.
1
Please welcome Amy Gung, who received the Bachelor of Science from the Leonard N.
2
Stern School of Business in 2020,
3
and who will now address her fellow alumni.
4
Hello class of 2020!
5
And class of 2021, we're glad you're here too.
6
To all of us, I lift an imaginary toast goblet to say congratulations on officially graduating again.
7
My name's Amy, but if you don't know who I am, that's totally cool.
8
I got dinner a month ago with a few study abroad friends from 2017
9
and our conversation literally started with someone pointing at me and saying,
10
oh my god, I totally forgot you existed.
11
We all laughed and then we admitted to each other just how far and long ago everything NYU felt.
12
Things like study abroad, exams, even each other.
13
Today, with all of us gathered here at Yankee Stadium,
14
of course we're reminded about everything NYU again.
15
Today, we all chose to consciously hit pause on our now adult lives to take a look back.
16
And because this isn't a normal commencement,
17
and because these past two years haven't been normal years,
18
I'm sure I'm the first one who's told you that,
19
I'll forego the usual let's go change the world speech
20
and instead ask us all to spend the next few minutes on the past.
21
If I asked you to recall one memory at NYU that'll last you for a lifetime,
22
I'm sure you'd have one.
23
In fact, not just one,
24
but dozens and hundreds that made you want to come back here and celebrate today.
25
I know that I've been thinking about this particular moment for a long time now,
26
because for me, to be standing here is nothing short of a miracle.
27
In 2017, after my fall semester in Prague,
28
I was diagnosed with an eating disorder and told I was lucky to be alive.
29
I was extremely underweight, had a shrunken heart,
30
and was this close to having a heart attack in my life.
31
I was pulled out of NYU in the spring and I spent it at home alone,
32
recovering my weight and more importantly, my sense of self.
33
What did it mean to be alive?
34
To live a life truly worth living?
35
And when I returned, I felt acutely aware that I was lucky to be able to do the smallest things.
36
like walk in the city,
37
see a friend, even go to class.
38
I knew I had been granted a second chance at life,
39
so damn it, I was gonna make it worthwhile.
40
And then, thank you.
41
And then COVID hit and we all went home again and we all graduated remotely in front of our computer screens.
42
And then it wasn't just me,
43
but all of us who had to think about or rethink what we really wanted out of life.
44
In my case, I moved to Taiwan.
45
I went to go teach English under a Fulbright scholarship.
46
And everything was really good for a couple of months.
47
And then last April, I almost lost my life for the second time in a freak train accident.
48
Two of my friends, including my roommate at the time,
49
were not as lucky.
50
Now I'm telling this story not to evoke pity or to make you sad, I promise.
51
I'm telling it because I bet every single one of us sitting here
52
or standing here has experienced loss or grief or sacrifice in some way over the last few years.
53
And in spite of it all,
54
we are here today with our friends and family and we are very much alive.
55
And if that isn't the definition of resilience,
56
I don't know what is.
57
And though we've lost much, we've also gained much.
58
We've gained perspective.
59
We've gained patience for our others and also for ourselves.
60
And we've gained a collective sense of how precious life really is.
61
Near-death experience or not, we've all had to grapple with the meaning of life these past few years.
62
And at the wise old age of 23,
63
I think I found the answer.
64
For me, the meaning of life is twofold.
65
One, it's about enjoying the passage of time.
66
It's about looking forward, yes,
67
but it's also about looking back like we are today
68
and just appreciate every single beautiful moment
69
that we've been able to collect in this short amount of time we call one life.
70
And the second part is recognizing just how short life can be if nothing else COVID taught us this.
71
So class of 2020, if there's just one thing you take away from this speech today,
72
it's that you matter.
73
Your life matters.
74
Your time
75
matters and
76
because our time here as a family as a human group
77
we owe it to ourselves to take advantage of every single moment thank you and congratulations again
78
Thank you.

Download App

AI scoring for every sentence you speak

Scan To Download
Scan To Download
Download on theApp Store
Get it onGoogle Play
TRENDING

Popular

About This Lesson

In this lesson, you'll practice improving your English speaking skills through the engaging commencement speech of Amy Dong, a former student speaker at NYU. By focusing on her personal stories and emotions, you will develop your listening comprehension and oral expression skills, which are essential for IELTS speaking practice. This lesson is designed not only to enhance your vocabulary but also to increase your confidence in using English in real-life contexts.

Key Vocabulary & Phrases

  • Commencement - a ceremony of graduation.
  • Toast - a ritual in which a drink is taken in honor of a person or event.
  • Memory - something remembered from the past.
  • Sense of self - an understanding of one's identity and values.
  • Second chance - an opportunity to try again after a failure or difficulty.
  • Freak accident - an unexpected and unusual event causing harm.
  • Look back - to reflect on past experiences.
  • Celebrate - to honor an event or accomplishment, typically with a gathering.

Practice Tips

To effectively use the shadowing technique with Amy Dong’s speech, follow these tailored tips:

  • Start by watching the video without attempting to repeat anything. Focus on understanding the context and emotions behind her words.
  • Play the speech in short segments, pausing after each sentence or phrase. Listen closely to the intonation and pronunciation, which helps you mimic the natural flow of speech.
  • After listening, try to repeat the sentence out loud, matching the speed and tone. This is where you apply the shadow speech method to enhance your fluency.
  • If you find her speech fast, slow it down using playback settings. Gradually increase the speed as you become more comfortable.
  • Record yourself while shadow speaking, then play it back to compare with Amy’s speech. This will help you identify areas for improvement in pronunciation and rhythm.
  • Focus not only on words but also on expressing emotions and pauses—this can significantly improve your conversational skills, essential for IELTS speaking practice.

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.

☕ Buy us a coffee