Shadowing Practice: Shakira: Education Changes Everything - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Thank you, Matthew.
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Hello everyone, Secretary of Genoa, Director Lake, panelists, Secretary Duncan.
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I am so excited to see you all here today to discuss this important issue.
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So thank you very much for coming.
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Now, for those of you expecting hip shaking of any kind, it's not going to happen.
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It's just me speaking this time.
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Sorry.
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We are here because each of us can make a significant difference.
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And my hope is that your presence today is a pledge of your commitment and your passion to do everything,
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everything that there is in our hands to ensure that every child gets the best start in life.
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The first years of life are crucial, are crucial in the development of a human brain.
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And the advances in neuroscience are revealing striking information, striking discoveries about how early experiences in the first five years
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of life can have a huge impact on the developing brain of a child and repercussions that can last a whole lifetime.
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For example, in the early years, there are 700 to 1,000 new neural connections being formed every second.
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And to me, this information is astonishing.
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I just delivered a baby seven months ago, so you can imagine.
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This is the moment when we want to be doing things right for a baby, because as we get older,
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the brain loses plasticity, and it becomes more difficult to change its architecture.
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Because we have a very, very small window to affect change and to affect the child's life and his future.
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We need to provide kids with proper care, nutrition, and stimulation in the first five years of their lives.
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Because it is proven that children who benefit from ECD programs do better in school
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and later in life as opposed to kids who don't count on that and are more likely to have severe learning disabilities,
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lack attentiveness, and lack the ability to interact well with others.
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And unfortunately, the disadvantage can be especially drastic when a child is exposed to violence due to war or conflict
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because it affects the development of the brain and can cause aggressive behavior later in the adult.
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and as a person who comes from a country marked by violence and civil and social strife, I've seen this firsthand because sadly in Colombia,
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where I come from, like in many other countries in the developing world, if one is born poor, one is destined to die poor.
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And this lack of social mobility is due in great part to education being perceived as a luxury
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and not as a birthright.
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And as a consequence, people don't have access to equal opportunities.
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And this perpetuates the cycle of poverty and unrest.
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The good news is that there is an exit strategy.
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And that is the reason why we're here today.
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And that's what keeps us here advocating for this cause.
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In our schools in Colombia, the role of ECD is vital for the kids, especially in order to complete their education successfully.
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And now I'd like to show you some images that will help illustrate my point.
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We've worked over the years with my Barefoot Foundation
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in vulnerable places around the world where many live with less than a dollar a day.
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And here are some specific examples in Colombia.
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This is a typical home in La Playa.
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This is near my hometown, Barranquilla, where 9,000 kids were out of school when we first arrived.
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And most of them lived in homes like this one,
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shacks with tin roofs or cardboard ceilings and in very precarious conditions you can see it in the picture.
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This is the outskirts of Cartagena,
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an area plagued by gangs and thousands of displaced families without portable water,
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electricity or even paved roads.
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Many of our students had been victims of violence themselves or have lost family members.
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So you can imagine the obstacles that we had to encounter, I'm sorry, that we encountered that we had to deal with
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that ranged from behavior issues to problems of basic infrastructure to malnourishment, you name it.
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In order to overcome many of these difficulties, we had to find creative solutions, of course.
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So we came up with school feeding programs and parents
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and teacher training and psychosocial support for the kids and community at large.
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we were very very successful you can imagine um what it was like uh to deal with the many difficulties
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and and the satisfaction after we saw um our projects being completed
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and you can see it here in the picture this is the barranquilla school for 2 000 students um
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and this is the cartagena school for 1800 students
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and these are two of the six schools that we have built in Colombia.
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We've been able to impact over 60,000 family,
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sorry, people, 60,000 people, and virtually eliminate them on nutrition and child labor and local gangs disbanded from the area.
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And we were able to commit the government to do their part by bringing electricity, portable water, and even paving roads.
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So it has been incredibly, incredibly exciting.
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And it has been, aside from that, a process of trial and error.
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It hasn't been a path of roses because we had a hard time at some point, a really hard time keeping kids in school
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because they never received adequate care and nutrition and stimulation in the first five years of their lives.
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So that's when we realized that we were getting to these kids too late.
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And it was then when I was introduced to research on ECD, and we made that a priority.
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And believe me, that made all the difference in the world.
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Kids who had access to ECD programs were more school-ready, could learn the information better.
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And today, we have virtually no school dropouts.
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So we started forging public and private alliances and expanded throughout Latin America,
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building four centers in Mexico in partnership with the local government,
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13 in Argentina, and 19 in Colombia.
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Here are the pictures again.
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You can see actually very pretty centers.
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Very proud of them.
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The success stories paint the picture much better than I can.
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I'd like to talk to you about one of the girls who attends our school, Tania, who used to attend our schools.
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Her name was Tania Araque, for example, who entered one of our schools in Soacha, Colombia, at the age of nine.
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Yeah, she was nine years old.
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And she had been previously expelled from school for serious conduct issues.
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And Tania was able to rise above her situation and even become an example to many other students.
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She started her own group and started to help other children to keep them out of trouble.
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Now she's 19 and at the university, starting to one day become a child psychologist herself.
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And this is one of many, many, many examples that I could give you of kids who have turned their lives around in our schools.
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And that is the beauty of investing in education.
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And that is what keeps me so passionate.
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Because the change is real.
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And it's immediate.
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And it's tangible.
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And even from day one, you start witnessing the impact on the children, their families, and entire communities.
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So from my personal experience over nearly 20 years working in education, I promise you, I have had the time of my life.
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I really have.
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Apart from my musical career, of course, it's one of the most exciting things that I've done and it really is incredibly encouraging,
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knowing that I haven't wasted my time or money because nobody likes that.
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And really, every dollar invested has been proven to produce results.
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The plan is to continue developing models for comprehensive ECD centers and programs in Latin America and here in the U.S.
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And by the way, we could use partners like you.
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So if you're interested in joining us, I'll buy you a coffee after the event and we can chat.
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Colombian coffee.
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This is not about charity.
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It's about human investment.
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It's about being proactive rather than reactive and preventing rather than looking at prescriptive solutions.
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Economic studies demonstrate that for every dollar invested in a child's early education,
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the same child returns from 10 to 17 dollars in his adult life to the state.
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Just like my hips, numbers don't lie.
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those who have done the math is Nobel Prize winning economist James Heckman, who says that ECD interventions lower the risk of disease,
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increase the wages of children in their adult lives, and also produce benefits for society that are massive,
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up to 10% a year either in savings or in revenue.
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The simple truth is that ECD programs boost economic growth
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and are one of the most effective ways to guarantee global stability and security.
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I recently read a study by the Brookings Institution that caught my attention,
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and it states that a national ECD program would add $2 trillion to America's annual GDP within a generation.
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I'm no economist, but wow.
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I can only imagine what we'd be looking at if we multiply
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that number several times with ECD programs in the rest of the world.
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It's no wonder that politicians and world leaders are all dedicating effort to this issue now.
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Not to mention that for the first time in history, ECD is being included in the global UN agenda.
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And also China, I mean, look at China, for instance, are making ECD a priority on their national agendas.
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But ECD is one of those challenges that can be met only if society works together as a team.
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A joint approach is needed.
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And the private sector should pick up where governments live off.
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It's the only way.
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We need a new generation of philanthropists and entrepreneurs to make this issue their own.
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And some of you know the importance of being ahead of the curve.
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I am convinced that each one of you in this room can be tremendously influential.
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And we can be the first society that eradicates poverty
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and figures out an intelligent way to bring education to the most disenfranchised people on earth.
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So the challenge for each and every one of us here is what are we going to do about it?
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How do we scale it up?
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Today we're dealing with issues like world hunger,
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like climate change, crime, poverty, civil wars, and threats of violence,
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and the tragedy of the refugees.
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And the old-fashioned way of addressing issues, one by one, as if they aren't interrelated, as if they existed in a vacuum, simply will not work today.
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We need a newer, fresher, smarter, and more holistic approach to solving the global issues that concern us all.
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ECD initiatives to all has to be the cornerstone upon which we build and design strategies for the world's greatest problems.
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That's what I believe.
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So we need to keep, or we need to start at least applying the brains
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and the strategies of business and use the assets of your companies to do social good and to solve our social problems.
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That is financial capitalism.
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I often wonder, for example, why there isn't a fund for early childhood development,
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a global fund, much like the AIDS fund or like the tuberculosis and malaria fund.
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Money in this fund could be used to encourage countries to agree on initiatives for ECD.
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That's an idea.
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But even before there is a fun of this kind, I want to urge you all to commit to being leaders in forming national ECD strategies in countries where you have influence.
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Too often in the past,
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the world has under-invested in strategies that involve significant upfront costs to generate long-run benefits that are many times larger.
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And ECD is the test of whether the world can rise
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above short-termism to do what is in our best interest in the long run.
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Every year that passes, without us making significant investments in ECD,
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millions and millions of kids will be born into the same cycle of poverty and lack of opportunity.
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Today, there are still 59 million kids out of school.
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We cannot afford this.
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From an economic perspective, it is important, sure.
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But now take that to a human level and the case becomes so much more stronger.
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Because money isn't everything in the end.
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But investing in humans and the future of our society is.
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I strongly believe that the best is yet to come.
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But we need to move faster.
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Our children and our collective future depend on it.
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Thank you very much.
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Why Practice Speaking with This Video?
Learning English with YouTube videos like "Shakira: Education Changes Everything" is a fantastic way to boost your speaking skills. The video features a natural, conversational tone—perfect for shadowing practice (or "shadowspeaks," as it’s often called). Shakira’s speech balances clarity with emotional depth, making it ideal for IELTS speaking practice, where expressing ideas coherently and passionately matters. By mimicking her rhythm and emphasis, you’ll learn to communicate complex thoughts, like advocating for a cause, in everyday English. Plus, the real-world context—discussing education and social change—gives you practical vocabulary for discussions beyond the classroom.
Grammar & Expressions in Context
Let’s explore key structures from the video that can elevate your speaking:
- "This is the moment when we want to be doing things right": The present continuous ("be doing") here emphasizes urgency. Use it to highlight actions happening *now* in important situations.
- "if one is born poor, one is destined to die poor": The conditional structure ("if + present, present") states a general truth. Practice this to explain patterns or societal issues, a common IELTS speaking task.
- "the role of ECD is vital for the kids, especially in order to complete their education successfully": "In order to" connects purpose clearly. Replace "to" with this phrase to add formality, useful for academic or professional speaking.
Common Pronunciation Traps
Notice these tricky words to refine your accent:
- "Neuroscience": Break it down: "nur-oh-SY-en-ce" (not "nur-oh-SIGH-ence"). Stress the third syllable for clarity.
- "Perpetuates": Pronounce it "per-PECH-oo-ates" (not "per-PEH-choo-ates"). The "ch" sound is soft, like in "church."
- "Vulnerable": Many learners skip the "l"—say "VUL-ner-uh-bul" (not "VUL-ner-uh-buh"). The "l" is subtle but important.
Use a shadowing site to repeat these phrases aloud, matching Shakira’s pace and intonation. With practice, you’ll turn these challenges into strengths—making your English sound more natural and confident.
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 seen · We've worked · have lost |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | being formed · is proven · is exposed |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | children who benefit · kids who don · person who comes |
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.