Shadowing Practice: President Alan Garber | Harvard Alumni Day 2026 - Learn English Speaking with Video
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60 sentences
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(attendees applauding) - Thank you, Will.
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Greetings, alumni and friends.
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Thank you for that warm, warm welcome.
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Last year, I mentioned Jonny Kim in my remarks.
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This year, he is our featured speaker.
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(attendees applauding) (attendees cheering) That is proof, some would argue, that the gravitational force of this university exceeds the gravitational force of the Earth itself.
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(attendees applauding) (attendees laughing) We should probably let Jonny weigh in on that.
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What draws us to this institution?
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What holds us to it year after year?
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I have the immense good fortune of being claimed by both the Harvard College Class of 1976, (attendees applauding) (attendees cheering) and the Harvard College Class of 1977, not quite so represented today, (attendees applauding) (attendees cheering) which means that I am celebrating my 50th anniversary this year and the next.
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I really have to give a lot of credit to my past self.
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A 25% reduction in tuition, fees, room and board, forgone earnings yielded a 100% increase in the number of my classmates, the best return on investment I've ever seen.
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And they're some of the most amazing people I've ever known, A plus people, if you will.
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(attendees laughing) My double-feature reunion has made me think more than usual about my own beginnings here, about what it was that drew me here as a young man.
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I remember thinking of Harvard as many people I believe still do, a stellar ideal, brilliant, remote, forbidding, unattainable.
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But that impression became more textured when I first set foot on campus between my junior and senior years of high school.
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Walking through the Yard, I began to see the university for what it truly is, a collection of people whose talents, interests, and ambitions fuel difficult and serious work, work at the edges of what is known and understood, work that holds the promise of a better future.
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That is as true today as it was in the summer of 1972.
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Although it's been decades since I left Rock Island, Illinois, I still recognize a bumper crop when I see one.
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This year, we celebrated dozens of faculty newly elected to the National Academies and dozens of students who received the most competitive scholarships and fellowships in the world, Marshalls and Rhodes among them.
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We celebrated Guggenheim and MacArthur Fellows, Breakthrough Prize winners, a Berggruen Prize Laureate, and a John Bates Clark medalist.
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Last month, our list of accolades lengthened by half a dozen Pulitzer Prizes awarded to faculty and alumni, in biography, drama, history, and journalism, from audio reporting to criticism to public service.
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This is an abridged version of a very long list.
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Last week, Harvard awarded 10,413 degrees.
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I cannot begin to imagine all that our newest alumni will achieve, but I can tell you that the bar has been set spectacularly high.
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After delivering a rousing speech, our Latin salutatorian returned to the stage to add a stunning musical flourish to Audra McDonald's honorary degree citation, playing keyboard, as a pair of her classmates sang "Wheels of a Dream." Kiesse concentrated in classics and economics.
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She's proficient in Greek and Latin, of course, but she's also pretty good in ancient Egyptian.
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She'll be touring the world with the Din and Tonics this summer, she's their musical director after all, before starting law school in the fall.
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Have you ever gotten the feeling that you haven't really done anything with your life?
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(attendees laughing) Of course, she has the benefit of a more recent Harvard education.
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The excellence that exists among us, the good that it does in the world, makes me optimistic about the future, even when so many beliefs we had about the future have been shaken.
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Two years ago, when I first spoke at this gathering, I was confident that we would be able to address the legitimate concerns of our critics and to create an environment in which each person at Harvard could thrive.
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I was confident because my time as provost had afforded me a front row seat to our capabilities as a community.
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But, I thought it would take a long time before we would see, and more importantly, feel progress on our campus.
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I don't think I have ever been happier to be proven wrong.
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Harsh scrutiny created urgency and urgency drove change.
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People across the university embraced the work of nurturing and promoting open inquiry and constructive dialogue with renewed energy and purpose, eager to restore and cultivate an environment that would more effectively and consistently foster excellence in teaching, learning, and research.
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The Chatham House rule was adopted widely.
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Sincere and rigorous debate was fostered through the refinement and practice of essential communication skills.
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Curiosity, generosity, and humility were foregrounded.
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And efforts and projects to connect across differences, many of them created and led by students themselves, flourished.
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I attended an interfaith dinner in February that brought together hundreds of students, from different schools with different perspectives, faiths, and beliefs, who wanted to learn from one another, to know one another better, and to reach greater levels of understanding, respect, and appreciation.
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What felt at first like a dining hall transformed into something more like an intimate seminar, with food of course.
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The best of Harvard was on full display.
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I appreciated anew the role that this institution can and must play in advancing the common good.
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I expect that most of you feel the same way.
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If there is one message I have heard in my conversations and exchanges with alumni and friends this past year, it is that our efforts to nurture a culture of understanding continue to be a special point of pride.
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When we were called to defend and protect Harvard, we answered with resolve and action across the university.
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(attendees applauding) (attendees cheering) Across the university and far beyond it.
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The work continues, but I am heartened by the progress we've made thus far.
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Community draws us in and holds us close.
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Community drives our mission and makes it possible for each of us to do more good in the world than we could ever hope to do alone.
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Thank you now and always for being part of this great and venerable enterprise.
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In ten years, we will celebrate the 400th anniversary of our founding.
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(attendees applauding) Between now and then, we will continue to navigate a landscape in flux, buffeted by political, social, and technological forces.
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This is no time for complacency.
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Fortunately, if our response to recent events is any indication, we will meet our moment with both confidence and determination, proud of our mission and bound to this place as surely as we humans are bound to this planet.
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Present company excluded, of course.
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(attendees laughing) Thank you.
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(attendees applauding)
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This video has 60 sentences and 1119 words to shadow. The speech runs for 11:22. The speaker talks slowly, about 98 words per minute, so there is time to copy every sound. Only 75% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 less common words from the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
- cheer /t͡ʃɪɹ/ (verb) — To gladden; to make cheerful; often with up.
- belief /bɪˈliːf/ (noun) — Mental acceptance of a claim as true.
- institution /ˌɪn.stɪˈtʃuː.ʃən/ (noun) — A long-established organization or type of organization, particularly one involved with education, public service, or charity work.
- foster /ˈfɒstə/ (verb) — To nurture or bring up offspring, or to provide similar parental care to an unrelated child.
- faculty /ˈfæk.əl.ti/ (noun) — The academic staff at schools, colleges, universities or not-for-profit research institutes, as opposed to the students or support staff.
- excellence /ˈɛksələns/ (noun) — The quality of being excellent; brilliance
- bind /ˈbaɪ̯nd/ (verb) — To tie; to confine by any ligature.
- urgency /ˈɜː.d͡ʒən.si/ (noun) — The quality or condition of being urgent.
- flourish /ˈflʊ̈ɹ.ɪʃ/ (verb) — To thrive or grow well.
- audio /ˈɔ.di.oʊ/ (adjective) — Focused on audible sound, as opposed to sight.
- defend /dɪˈfɪnd/ (verb) — To ward off attacks against (something or someone).
- argue /ˈɑɹ.ɡju/ (verb) — To show grounds for concluding (that); to indicate, imply.
- ideal /aɪˈdi(ə)l/ (adjective) — Pertaining to ideas, or to a given idea.
- economics /ˌiːkəˈnɒmɪks/ (noun) — The study of resource and wealth allocation, consumption, and distribution, of capital and investment, and of management of the factors of production.
- newly /ˈnuli/ (adverb) — Very recently/lately; in the immediate past.
Phrasal verbs you will hear
- bring together (verb) — To cause people to do something together; to bring about togetherness.
- do in (verb) — To kill or end; to defeat.
- play in (verb) — Of a batsman, to settle and become comfortable with the conditions at the beginning of his innings.
- walk through (verb) — To explain (something) to (someone), step by step.
- work at (verb) — To make a physical or mental effort to progress some specified task; to endeavor or struggle on an issue or project.
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 7 contractions and reduced forms, such as I've, don't, haven't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: gather /ˈɡæðɚ/, thrive /θɹajv/, lengthen /ˈlɛŋθən/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: institution /ˌɪn.stɪˈtʃuː.ʃən/, flourish /ˈflʊ̈ɹ.ɪʃ/, reduction /ɹɪˈdʌk.ʃən/, impression /ɪmˈpɹɛʃn̩/, shake /ˈʃeɪk/
- Long words — get the stress right: institution /ˌɪn.stɪˈtʃuː.ʃən/, economics /ˌiːkəˈnɒmɪks/, inquiry /ɪnˈkwaɪ(ə)ɹi/, consistently /kənˈsɪstəntli/, legitimate /lɪˈd͡ʒɪt.ɪ.mət/
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 cheer, belief, institution.
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 | I've ever seen · I've ever known · has made |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | being claimed · is known · has been set |
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.