Shadowing Practice: There Is No Such Thing As Failure - Oprah Winfrey Speech to Young People - Learn English Speaking with Video
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86 sentences
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I want you to know this, remember this, there is no such thing as failure.
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Failure is just life trying to move us in another direction.
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It doesn't matter how far you might rise, at some point you are bound to stumble because if you're constantly doing what we do,
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raising the bar, if you are constantly pushing yourself higher, higher, the law of averages, not to mention the myth of Icarus,
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predicts that you will at some point fall.
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And when you do, I want you to know this.
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Remember this.
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There is no such thing as failure.
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Failure is just life trying to move us in another direction.
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Now, when you're down there in a hole, it looks like failure.
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So this past year, I had to spoon feed those words to myself.
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And when you're down in the hole, when that moment comes it's really okay to feel bad for a little
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while give yourself time to mourn what you think you may have lost
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but then here's the key learn from every mistake
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because every experience encounter and particularly your mistakes are there to cheat you
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and force you into being more of who you are
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and then figure out what is the next right move
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and the key to life is to develop an internal moral emotional GPS
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that can tell you which way to go
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and in 1986 I launched my own television show with a relentless determination to succeed at first
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I was nervous about the competition and then I I became my own competition, raising the bar every year,
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pushing, pushing, pushing myself as hard as I knew.
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Sound familiar to anybody here?
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Eventually, we did make it to the top, and we stayed there for 25 years.
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The Oprah Winfrey Show was number one in our time slot for 21 years, and I have to tell you,
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I became pretty comfortable with that level of success.
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But a few years ago, I decided, as you will at some point, that it was time to recalculate,
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find new territory, break new ground.
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So I ended the show and launched OWN, the Oprah Winfrey Network.
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The initials just worked out for me.
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So one year later, after launching on,
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nearly every media outlet had proclaimed that my new venture was a flop.
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Not just a flop, but a big bold flop, they call it.
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I can still remember the day I opened up USA Today and read the headline,
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Oprah not quite standing on her own.
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I mean really USA Today now that's the nice newspaper
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it really was this time last year the worst period in my professional life I was stressed
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and I was frustrated and quite frankly I was I was actually I was embarrassed
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and the words came to me trouble trouble don't last always from that hymn, this too shall pass.
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And I thought I am gonna turn this thing around and I will be better for it.
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So I'm here today to tell you I have turned that network around.
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And as a young girl from rural Mississippi I learned long ago
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that being myself was much easier than pretending to be Barbara Walters.
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although when I first started
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because I had Barbara in my head I would try to sit like Barbara talk like Barbara move like Barbara
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and then one night I was on the news reading the news
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and I called Canada Canada and
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that was the end of me being Barbara I cracked myself up on TV couldn't stop laughing
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and my real personality came through
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and I figured out oh gee I can be a much better Oprah than I could be a pretend Barbara.
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But no matter what challenges or setbacks or disappointments you may encounter along the way,
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you will find true success and happiness if you have only one goal.
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There really is only one, and that is this.
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To fulfill the highest, most truthful expression of yourself as a human being.
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You want to max out your humanity.
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by using your energy to lift yourself up, your family, and the people around you.
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Theologian Howard Thurman said it best.
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He said, don't ask yourself what.. the world needs, ask yourself what makes you come alive and then go do that.
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Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.
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I have to say
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that the single most important lesson I learned in 25 years talking every single day to people was
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that there is a common denominator in our human experience.
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Most of us, I tell you, we don't want to be divided.
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What we want, the common denominator that I found in every single interview, is we want to be validated.
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We want to be understood.
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I've done over 35 ,000 interviews in my career and as soon as that camera shuts off
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Everyone always turns to me and inevitably in their own way ask this question.
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Was that okay?
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I heard it from President Bush.
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I heard it from President Obama.
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I've heard it from heroes and from housewives.
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I've heard it from victims and perpetrators of crimes.
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I even heard it from Beyonce and all of her Beyonce -ness.
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She finishes performing, hands me the microphone and says, was that okay?
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They all want to know one thing.
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Was that okay?
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Did you hear me? Do you see me?
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Did what I say mean anything to you?
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From time to time you may stumble, fall.
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You will for sure count on this no doubt you will have questions
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and you will have doubts about your path but I know this
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if you're willing to listen to be guided by
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that still small voice
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that is the GPS within yourself to find out what makes
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you come alive you will be more than okay you will be happy you will be successful and
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you will make a difference in the world
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “There Is No Such Thing As Failure - Oprah Winfrey Speech to Young People”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: Barbara, failure, heard, Oprah, pushing. This video has 86 sentences and 991 words to shadow. The speech runs for 7:15. The speaker talks at a steady 137 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. 85% 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
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| flop verb | /flɑp/ | To fall heavily due to lack of energy. |
| pretend verb | /pɹəˈtɛnd/ | To speak or behave so as to give a false or simulated appearance. |
| encounter verb | /ɪnˈkaʊntɚ/ | To meet (someone) or find (something), especially unexpectedly. |
| lesson noun | /ˈlɛs.ən/ | A section of learning or teaching into which a wider learning content is divided. |
| moral adjective | /ˈmoɹəl/ | Of or relating to principles of right and wrong in behaviour, especially conforming to principles of rectitude. |
| happiness noun | /ˈhæpinɪs/ | The emotion of being happy; joy; elation. |
| crack noun | /kɹæk/ | A thin and usually jagged space opened in a previously solid material. |
| humanity noun | /hjuˈmænɪti/ | Humankind; human beings as a group. |
| succeed verb | /səkˈsiːd/ | To follow something in sequence or time. |
| bold adjective | /ˈbəʊld/ | Courageous, daring. |
| venture verb | /ˈvɛn.t͡ʃɚ/ | To undertake a risky or daring journey. |
| determination noun | /dɪˌtɜːmɪˈneɪʃən/ | The act, process, or result of any accurate measurement, as of length, volume, weight, intensity, etc. |
| divide verb | /dɪˈvaɪd/ | To split or separate (something) into two or more parts. |
| slot noun | /slɑt/ | A narrow depression, perforation, or aperture; especially, one for the reception of a piece fitting or sliding into it. |
| myth noun | /mɪθ/ | A traditional story which embodies a belief regarding some fact or phenomenon of experience, and in which often the forces of nature and of the soul are… |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| figure out verb | To come to understand; to discover or find a solution; to deduce. | |
| come through verb | To come into a room or other space through a door or passageway. | |
| do over verb | /ˈduˌoʊvɚ/ | To cover with; to smear or spread on to. |
| find out verb | To discover, as by asking or investigating. | |
| open up verb | To open. | |
| shut off verb | To stop or turn off by closing something, such as a valve. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- I've heard it from heroes and from housewives.
- I've heard it from victims and perpetrators of crimes.
- She finishes performing, hands me the microphone and says, was that okay?
- Did you hear me?
- Did what I say mean anything to you?
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 | are bound · was frustrated · be divided |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | have turned · have come · I've done |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 14 contractions and reduced forms, such as you're, don't, I've. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: myth /mɪθ/, theologian /ˌθi.əˈloʊd͡ʒən/, truthful /ˈtɹuːθ.f(ə)l/
- Long words — get the stress right: humanity /hjuˈmænɪti/, determination /dɪˌtɜːmɪˈneɪʃən/, disappointment /ˌdɪsəˈpɔɪntmənt/, inevitably /ɪˈnɛvɪtəbli/, denominator /dɪˈnɒmɪneɪtə(ɹ)/
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 flop, pretend, encounter.
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.