Shadowing Practice: SPEECH MASTERY | MARCO RUBIO: Decline Is a Choice! (English Subtitles) - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Thank you very much.
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We gather here today as members of a historic alliance, an alliance that saved and changed the world.
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You know, when this conference began in 1963, it was in a nation, actually it was on a continent, that was divided against itself.
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The line between communism and freedom ran through the heart of Germany.
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The first barbed fences of the Berlin Wall had gone up just two years prior.
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And just months before that first conference, before our predecessors first met here,
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here in Munich, the Cuban Missile Crisis had brought the world to the brink of nuclear destruction.
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Even as World War II still burned fresh in the memory of Americans and Europeans alike,
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we found ourselves staring down the barrel of a new global catastrophe, one with the potential for a new kind of destruction,
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more apocalyptic and final than anything before in the history of mankind.
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At the time of that first gathering, Soviet communism was on the march.
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thousands of years of Western civilization hung in the balance.
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At that time, victory was far from certain.
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But we were driven by a common purpose.
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We were unified not just by what we were fighting against.
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We were unified by what we were fighting for.
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But the euphoria of this triumph led us to a dangerous delusion.
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that we had entered, quote, the end of history, that every nation would now be a liberal democracy,
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that the ties formed by trade and by commerce alone would now replace nationhood, that the rules -based global order,
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an overused term, would now replace the national interest,
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and that we would now live in a world without borders where everyone became a citizen of the world.
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This was a foolish idea that ignored both human nature
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and it ignored the lessons of over 5 ,000 years of recorded human history.
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And it has cost us dearly.
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In this delusion, we embraced a dogmatic vision of free and unfettered trade,
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even as some nations protected their economies and subsidized their companies to systematically undercut ours,
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shuttering our plants, resulting in large parts of our societies being de -industrialized, shipping millions of working and middle -class jobs overseas,
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and handing control of our critical supply chains to both adversaries and rivals.
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We increasingly outsourced our sovereignty to international institutions
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while many nations invested in massive welfare states at the cost of maintaining the ability to defend themselves.
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This, even as other countries have invested in the most rapid military buildup in all of human history
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and have not hesitated to use hard power to pursue their own interests.
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To appease a climate cult, we have imposed energy policies on ourselves that are impoverishing our people,
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even as our competitors exploit oil and coal and natural gas and anything else, not just to power their economies,
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but to use as leverage against our own.
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And in a pursuit of a world without borders,
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we opened our doors to an unprecedented wave of mass migration that threatens the cohesion of our societies, the continuity of our culture,
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and the future of our people.
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We made these mistakes together
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and now together we owe it to our people to face those facts and to move forward to rebuild.
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Under President Trump, the United States of America will once again take on the task of renewal
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and restoration driven by a vision of a future as proud, as sovereign and as vital as our civilization's past.
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And while we are prepared, if necessary, to do this alone,
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it is our preference and it is our hope to do this together with you, our friends here in Europe.
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For the United States and Europe, we belong together.
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America was founded 250 years ago, but the roots began here on this continent long before.
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The men who settled
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and built the nation of my birth arrived on our shores carrying the memories
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and the traditions and the Christian faith of their ancestors as a sacred inheritance, an unbreakable link between the old world and the new.
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We are part of one civilization, Western civilization, we are bound to one another by the deepest bonds that nations could share,
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forged by centuries of shared history, Christian faith, culture.
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heritage, language, ancestry, and the sacrifices our forefathers made together for the common civilization to which we have fallen heir.
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And so this is why we
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Americans may sometimes come off as a little direct and urgent in our council.
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This is why
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President Trump demands seriousness and reciprocity from our friends here in Europe.
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The reason why, my friends, is because we care deeply.
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We care deeply about your future and ours.
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And if at times we disagree, our disagreements come from our profound sense of concern about a Europe with which we are connected,
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not just economically, not just militarily.
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We are connected spiritually, and we are connected culturally.
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We want Europe to be strong.
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We believe that Europe must survive.
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Because the two great wars of the last century served for us as history's constant reminder that ultimately,
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our destiny is and will always be intertwined with yours.
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Because we know.. applause applause applause applause applause
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applause Because we know that the fate of Europe will never be irrelevant to our own.
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National security, which this conference is largely about, is not merely a series of technical questions.
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How much we spend on defense or where, how we deploy it.
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These are important questions.
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They are.
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But they are not the fundamental one.
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the fundamental question we must answer at the outset is what exactly are we defending?
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Because armies do not fight for abstractions.
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Armies fight for a people.
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Armies fight for a nation.
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Armies fight for a way of life.
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And that is what we are defending.
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A great civilization that has every reason to be proud of its history,
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confident of its future, and aims to always be the master of its own economic and political destiny.
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But only if we are unapologetic in our heritage
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and proud of this common inheritance can we together begin the work of envisioning and shaping our economic and our political future.
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Deindustrialization was not inevitable.
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It was a conscious policy choice, a decades -long economic undertaking that stripped our nations of their wealth, of their productive capacity, and of their independence.
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And the loss of our supply chain sovereignty was not a function of a prosperous and healthy system of global trade.
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It was foolish.
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It was a foolish but voluntary transformation of our economy
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that left us dependent on others for our needs and dangerously vulnerable to crisis.
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Mass migration is not, was not, is some fringe concern of little consequence.
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It was and continues to be a crisis which is transforming and destabilizing societies all across the West.
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Together, we can re -industrialize our economies and rebuild our capacity to defend our people.
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But the work of this new alliance should not be focused just on military cooperation and reclaiming the industries of the past.
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It should also be focused on together advancing our mutual interests and new frontiers, unshackling our ingenuity, our creativity,
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and the dynamic spirit to build a new Western century.
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Commercial space travel and cutting -edge artificial intelligence, industrial automation and flex manufacturing,
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creating a Western supply chain for critical minerals not vulnerable to extortion from other powers,
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and a unified effort to compete for market share in the economies of the global South.
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Together we cannot only take back control of our own industries and supply chains, we can prosper in the areas that will define the 21st century.
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But we must also gain control of our national borders.
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Controlling who and how many people enter our countries, this is not an expression of xenophobia, it is not hate.
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It is a fundamental act of national sovereignty and the failure to do
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so is not just an abdication of one of our most basic duties owed to our people.
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It is an urgent threat to the fabric of our societies and the survival of our civilization itself.
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And finally, we can no longer place the so -called global order above the vital interests of our people and our nations.
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We do not need to abandon the system of international cooperation we authored,
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And we don't need to dismantle the global institutions of the old order that together we built.
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But these must be reformed.
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These must be rebuilt.
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For example, the United Nations still has tremendous potential to be a tool for good in the world.
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But we cannot ignore that today on the most pressing matters before us, it has no answers and has played virtually no role.
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It could not solve the war in Gaza.
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Instead, it was American leadership that freed captives from barbarians and brought about a fragile truce.
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It has not solved the war in Ukraine.
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It took American leadership
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and partnership with many of the countries here today just to
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bring the two sides to the table in search of a still -elusive peace.
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It was powerless to constrain the nuclear program of radical Shia clerics in Tehran.
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That required 14 bombs dropped with precision from American B -2 bombers.
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And it was unable to address the threat to our security from a narco -terrorist dictator in Venezuela Instead,
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it took American special forces to bring this fugitive to justice.
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In a perfect world, all of these problems and more would be solved by diplomats and strongly worded resolutions.
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But we do not live in a perfect world.
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And we cannot continue to allow those who blatantly
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and openly threaten our citizens
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and endanger our global stability to shield themselves behind abstractions of international law which they themselves routinely violate.
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This is the path that
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President Trump and the United States has embarked upon.
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It is the path we ask you here in Europe to join us on.
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It is a path we have walked together before and hope to walk together again.
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But together, our predecessors recognized that decline was a choice and it was a choice they refused to make.
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This is what we did together once before and this is what
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President Trump and the United States want to do again now together with you.
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And this is why we do not want our allies to be weak because that makes us weaker.
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We want allies who can defend themselves so that no adversary will ever be tempted to test our collective strength.
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This is why we do not want our allies to be shackled by guilt and shame.
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We want allies who are proud of their culture and of their heritage, who understand that we are heirs to the same great
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and noble civilization and who together with us are willing and able to defend it.
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And this is why we do not want allies to rationalize
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the broken status quo rather than reckon with what is necessary to fix it.
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For we in America have no interest in being polite and orderly caretakers of the West's managed decline.
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We do not seek to separate, but to revitalize an old friendship and renew the greatest civilization in human history.
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What we want is a reinvigorated alliance that recognizes
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that what has ailed our societies is not just a set of bad policies, but a malaise of hopelessness and complacency.
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An alliance is what the alliance that we want is one that is not paralyzed into an action by fear.
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Fear of climate change, fear of war, fear of technology.
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Instead, we want an alliance that boldly races into the future.
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And the only fear we have is the fear of the shame of not leaving our nations prouder, stronger, and wealthier for our children.
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an alliance ready to defend our people, to safeguard our interests, and to preserve the freedom of action that allows us to shape our own destiny,
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not one that exists to operate a global welfare state and atone for the purported sins of past generations,
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an alliance that does not allow its power to be outsourced, constrained, or subordinated to systems beyond its control,
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one that does not depend on others for the critical necessities of its national life, and one that does not maintain the polite pretense
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that our way of life is just one among many and that asks for permission before it acts.
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And above all, an alliance based on the recognition that we, the West, have inherited together,
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what we have inherited together is something that is unique and distinctive and irreplaceable because this,
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after all, is the very foundation of the transatlantic bond.
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Acting together in this way, we will not just help recover a sane foreign policy.
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It will restore to us a clear sense of ourselves.
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It will restore a place in the world.
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And in so doing, it will rebuke and deter the forces of civilizational erasure that today menace both America and Europe alike.
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So in a time of headlines heralding the end of the transatlantic era,
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let it be known and clear to all that this is neither our goal nor our wish.
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Because for us
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Americans, our home may be in the Western Hemisphere, but we will always be a child of Europe.
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Together we rebuilt the shattered continent in the wake of two devastating world wars.
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When we found ourselves divided once again by the Iron Curtain,
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the Free West linked arms with the courageous dissidents struggling against tyranny in the East to defeat Soviet communism them.
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We have fought against each other, then reconciled, then fought, then reconciled again.
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And we have bled and died side by side on battlefields from Kep 'yong to Kandahar.
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And I am here today to leave it clear that America is charting the path for a new century of prosperity,
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and that once again, we want to do it together with you, our cherished allies.
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and our oldest friends.
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We want to do it together with you, with a Europe that is proud of its heritage and of its history,
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with a Europe that has the spirit of creation and liberty that sent ships out into uncharted seas and birthed our civilization,
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with a Europe that has the means to defend itself and the will to survive.
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We should be proud of what we achieved together in the last century,
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but now we must confront and embrace the opportunities of a new one.
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Because yesterday is over.
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The future is inevitable.
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And our destiny together awaits.
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Thank you.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “SPEECH MASTERY”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: Europe, nation, alliance. This video has 180 sentences and 2438 words to shadow. The speech runs for 16:58. The speaker talks at a steady 144 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. Only 81% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| alliance noun | /əˈlaɪ.əns/ | The state of being allied. |
| civilization noun | /ˌsɪv.ɪ.laɪˈzeɪ.ʃən/ | An organized culture encompassing many communities, often on the scale of a nation or a people; a stage or system of social, political, or technical… |
| defend verb | /dɪˈfɪnd/ | To ward off attacks against (something or someone). |
| ally noun | /ˈæl.aɪ/ | A person who co-operates with or helps another; an associate; a friend. |
| applause noun | /əˈplɔːz/ | The act of applauding; approbation and praise publicly expressed by the clapping of hands, stamping or tapping of the feet, acclamation, huzzas, or other… |
| heritage noun | /ˈhɛɹ.ɪ.tɪd͡ʒ/ | An inheritance; property that may be inherited. |
| destiny noun | /ˈdɛs.tɪ.ni/ | That to which any person or thing is destined; a predetermined state; a condition predestined by the Divine or by human will. |
| rebuild verb | /ɹiːˈbɪld/ | To build again or anew. |
| ignore verb | /ɪɡˈnɔː/ | To deliberately not listen or pay attention to. |
| solve verb | /sɒlv/ | To find an answer or solution to a problem or question; to work out. |
| fundamental adjective | /ˌfʌn.dəˈmɛn.təl/ | Related to a foundation, base, or basis; serving as a foundation. |
| continent noun | /ˈkɑntɪnənt/ | One of the main contiguous landmasses, separated by water or geological features, on the surface of a planet, sometimes including its continental shelves and… |
| foolish adjective | /ˈfuː.lɪʃ/ | Lacking good sense or judgement as a general trait; unwise; stupid. |
| sovereignty noun | /ˈsɑv(ə)ɹənti/ | Of a ruler (especially a monarch): supreme authority or dominion over something. |
| communism noun | /ˈkɒmjᵿnɪz(ə)m/ | Any far-left political ideology or philosophy advocating holding the production of resources collectively, especially by seizing it through revolution. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| come off verb | To become detached. |
| go up verb | To move upwards. |
| run through verb | To summarise briefly. |
| take back verb | To retract or withdraw (an earlier statement). |
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 | has cost · have invested · have not hesitated |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | was divided · were driven · were unified |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | men who settled · crisis which is · those who blatantly |
Pronunciation to watch
- The “th” sounds: gather /ˈɡæðɚ/, threaten /ˈθɹɛt.n̩/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: civilization /ˌsɪv.ɪ.laɪˈzeɪ.ʃən/, foolish /ˈfuː.lɪʃ/, destruction /dɪsˈtɹʌkʃən/, cooperation /koʊˌɑ.pəˈɹeɪ.ʃən/, migration /maɪˈɡɹeɪʃ(ə)n/
- Long words — get the stress right: civilization /ˌsɪv.ɪ.laɪˈzeɪ.ʃən/, fundamental /ˌfʌn.dəˈmɛn.təl/, sovereignty /ˈsɑv(ə)ɹənti/, cooperation /koʊˌɑ.pəˈɹeɪ.ʃən/, inevitable /ɪˈnɛvɪtəbəl/
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 alliance, civilization, defend.
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.