Shadowing Practice: VN-country profile - Learn English Speaking with Video

Vietnam is a fascinating country with a unique culture that's been influenced by its proximity to China, and to some extent by its relationship with the West.

It's located on the eastern side of the peninsula called Indochina, a name which stems from the Indian and Chinese influences on the region.

Unlike the other countries of the peninsula, Vietnam's civilization has been influenced more heavily by China than by India.

In fact, like Japan and Korea, it's considered to be part of the Sinosphere, or East Asia Cultural Sphere.

Vietnam shares a border with China to the north, as well as Laos to the northwest, and Cambodia to the southwest.

Aside from Indochina, the region is also referred to as Mainland Southeast Asia, as opposed to the island countries of Maritime Southeast Asia.

Vietnam has a population of approximately 96 .2 million people, making it the 15th most populous country in the world.

But in terms of economy, it's only number 40.

It's a developing country and has a per capita income of approximately 3 ,500 US dollars per year.

Its currency is the dong.

With an exchange rate of 23 ,095 dong to 1 US dollar,

it only takes $43 .35 American to have over 1 million units of the local currency.

That's why expats and locals alike joke that everyone there is a millionaire.

The country stretches 1 ,650 kilometers from north to south, a distance that would reach from Norway to Italy if transposed over Europe.

Because of its long and narrow shape, the entire country falls within a single time zone, Vietnam's standard time.

That's unlike the United States, for instance, where it might be 8am in Honolulu and 2pm in New York City.

Its three largest cities are Ho Chi Minh City, the capital city Hanoi, and Haiphong, a port city close to the capital in the Red River Delta,

where the Red River empties its waters and sediment into the Gulf of Tonkin.

The country has over 3 ,400 kilometers of coastline along the Gulf of Tonkin, the South China Sea, and the Gulf of Thailand in the south.

Almost all of Vietnam lies south of the Tropic of Cancer.

In other words, it lies within the tropical zone.

But there is significant variation in elevation, landscape, and climate.

The landscape in Vietnam is largely hilly and forested, with some mountainous areas.

The northern region is home to the nation's capital, Hanoi, which is situated on the Red River Delta, Vietnam's most densely populated area.

The climate in the north is humid subtropical, with hot rainy summers and cool winters.

But the mountainous highland areas have a more temperate or continental climate, which gets colder in winter, and it even snows in certain places.

The north is the region that has been under Vietnamese rule for the longest amount of time, and it's the original homeland of the Vietnamese ethnicity and culture.

The central region is the least populous of the three regions, though it's the largest.

Despite being the largest, it's very narrow at certain points.

At its most narrow point, this region measures only 50 kilometers from east to west.

The north -central coastal region is similar to the northern region in its climate, with cool to mild winters.

In contrast, the south -central coast is tropical, with warm weather year -round.

The central highlands is a plateau with rolling hills, mountains, and extensive forests.

The higher elevations result in a more temperate climate, like in northern Vietnam.

In the summertime, it's a popular place to escape from the heat of the low -lying coastal areas.

The southern region is the most populous region.

Its largest and best -known city is Ho Chi Minh City, which used to officially be known as Saigon.

This region has warm or hot weather year -round with only two seasons, a wet season and a dry season.

One of the most important features of the south is the Mekong River Delta, the wetlands of the Mekong River where it empties its waters and sediment into the South China Sea.

In fact, it empties so much sediment into the sea

that the delta moves 60 to 80 meters further into the sea each year.

The Mekong River is the 12th largest river in the world, starting on the Tibetan Plateau and flowing through China, Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, and finally Vietnam.

The southern region was the last region to come under Vietnamese rule.

Prior to the southward expansion of the Vietnamese into this region,

the area was known as the Kingdom of Champa and was home to a distinct civilization which boasted its own language, people, customs, and culture.

The people of this region were known as the Cham people.

They were predominantly Hindu, and as a result, many Hindu temples and architecture can still be found in this region now.

And the Cham people still remain a minority group in Vietnam today.

As I mentioned earlier, Vietnam is known as part of the Sinosphere, areas of East Asia and Southeast Asia heavily influenced by China.

That's because Vietnam spent approximately a millennium under Chinese rule.

Though the country returned to Vietnamese control intermittently during this time period,

country was under nearly continuous Chinese rule from the year 111 BCE until 938 CE.

The Chinese language was used for formal purposes, and by the 9th century the Vietnamese language started to be written in Chinese characters,

and a substantial amount of loanwords started to be adopted from Chinese.

Even today, Chinese -derived words make up about a third of the Vietnamese lexicon, and 60 % or more for words used in formal texts.

After the period of Chinese rule, Vietnam gradually expanded southward and conquered the Kingdom of Champa in a number of stages, the last one ending in 1832,

as well as annexing a part of the Khmer Kingdom.

Believe it or not, in the late 1700s, the location of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam's largest city, was not yet a part of Vietnam.

In 1858, in response to the persecution of Catholic missionaries by the Vietnamese authorities, the French military began attacking Vietnam,

but they clearly had bigger goals.

By 1867, the southern third of Vietnam had been seized, and by 1884, the rest of the country came under French rule during the Sino -French War,

a war between France and China.

Vietnam remained under French control for nearly 70 years, for most of that time as part of French Indochina, which also included Laos and Cambodia.

Vietnam was influenced by the French in many ways.

Some of these influences are still visible today.

For instance, bánh mì is a well -known type of bread and staple of Vietnamese cuisine,

but it wasn't eaten in the country until the 1860s when the French colonists introduced Vietnam to the baguette.

The French also introduced them to coffee, which they hadn't been familiar with before that.

That may be surprising because Vietnam has since gone on to become the second largest coffee producer in the world.

Vietnam is famous for robusta coffee bean production, and has created a unique drink known as egg coffee by

using an egg yolk whisked with condensed milk rather than regular milk or cream.

In addition to cuisine, France has left an indelible mark on Vietnam in the form of architecture.

Some French buildings have been destroyed, but many remain, including St. Joseph's Cathedral in Hanoi, based on the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris,

the Hanoi Opera House, based on the Palais Garnier, also in Paris, and the People's Committee Building in Ho Chi Minh City.

Furthermore, the French encouraged the use of a Latin -based script for the Vietnamese language, which had originally been created by Portuguese missionaries.

Use of this alphabet ultimately replaced the use of the complicated Chinese -Vietnamese characters that were previously used in writing.

Some French loanwords were also adopted into the Vietnamese language, because French was widely spoken by the upper classes during the times of French rule.

During World War II, Vietnam was occupied by Japan, who removed the French from power, and after the war, a Vietnamese communist government led by Ho Chi Minh took over.

But the French tried to reconquer the country, leading to a war, the First Indochina War, that lasted until 1954 and left the country divided,

with the North under communist rule.

The United States' opposition to communism caused them to side with the non -communist South in another war beginning in 1955,

the Vietnam War, which is referred to as the resistance war against America in Vietnam.

The United States lost the war when the communist North took control of the South and unified the country in 1975.

Though Vietnam is still officially a socialist country today, in 1986 the ruling Communist Party initiated a series of economic reforms

that helped Vietnam become part of the global economy

and to rapidly become much more modern

and developed today vietnam is a thriving developing country

that ranks high in the human development index its two major cities hanoi

and ho chi minh are bustling and exciting cities

that are home to over 7 .5 million people each mopeds are the primary form of transportation

and the traffic they cause in vietnam's cities is notoriously chaotic

one of vietnam's draws is its eight unesco world heritage sites and other tourist attractions.

Some of its most popular sites to visit are the Golden Bridge, a footbridge designed to look as if it's being upheld by two giant stone hands,

the Hang Sun Dong Cave, a cave so large that it contains its own subterranean forest and ecosystem, the Imperial City of Hue,

the formal imperial capital of Vietnam, and Mi Sun, a cluster of abandoned and partially ruined Hindu temples

that were constructed over a thousand years ago by the former kings of Champa.

Vietnam is an exciting country to visit and travel in.

It's generally a safe country with a low incidence of crime, though tourists should watch out for scammers, of course.

Its complex history makes it a remarkable nation that fuses elements of numerous cultures into something altogether unique, compelling, and exciting.

100

Now, over to you.

101

What's something interesting that you learned about Vietnam from this video?

102

Before watching, did you know about Vietnam's historical ties to China, France, and the Kingdom of the Cham people?

103

And if you're from Vietnam, what else would you like everyone to know about your country?

104

Leave your answers in the comments down below.

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If you liked this video, then be sure to click the like button and have a nice day.

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18 sentences

Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This speaking lesson is built on the video “VN-country profile”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: vietnam, region, French, Vietnamese, Chinese. This video has 105 sentences and 1747 words to shadow. The speech runs for 10:23. The speaker talks at a natural 168 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. Only 78% 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
communist noun	/ˈkɑ.mjə.nɪst/	An advocate of a society based on the common ownership of property; a proponent of communism.
delta noun	/ˈdɛltə/	The fourth letter of the modern Greek alphabet Δ, δ.
formal adjective	/ˈfɔɹməl/	In accordance with established forms.
narrow adjective	/ˈnæɹəʊ/	Having a small width; not wide; having opposite edges or sides that are close, especially by comparison to length or depth.
dong noun	/dɔŋ/	The currency of Vietnam, 100 xus. Symbol: ₫
refer verb	/ɹɪˈfɜː/	To direct the attention of (someone toward something).
temple noun	/ˈtɛm.pl̩/	A house of worship dedicated to a polytheistic faith.
architecture noun	/ˈɑː.kɪˌtɛk.t͡ʃə/	The art and science of designing and managing the construction of buildings and other structures, particularly if they are well proportioned and decorated.
currency noun	/ˈkʌɹ.ən.si/	Money or other items used to facilitate transactions.
landscape noun	/ˈlan(d)skeɪp/	A portion of land or territory as defined by its landform, its geographical (and architectural) features.
imperial adjective	/ɪmˈpɪɹ.i.əl/	Related to an empire, emperor, or empress.
cave noun	/keɪv/	A large, naturally-occurring cavity formed underground or in the face of a cliff or a hillside.
adopt verb	/əˈdɑpt/	To take voluntarily (a child of other parents) to be in the place of, or as, one's own child.
coastal adjective	/ˈkoʊstəl/	Relating to the coast; on or near the coast; longshore.
tropical adjective	/ˈtɹɑ.pɪ.kəl/	Of or pertaining to the tropics, the equatorial region between 23 degrees north and 23 degrees south.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Meaning
come under verb	To come underneath (something).
have over verb	To host (a visiting guest) at one's house.
take over verb	To assume control of something, such as a business or enterprise, and sometimes by force.

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	been influenced · has been influenced · is also referred
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	that's been influenced · has been influenced · has been
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	Hanoi, which is · War, which is

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 3 contractions and reduced forms, such as hadn't, wasn't, you're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “th” sounds: furthermore /ˈfɜː(ɹ).ðə(ɹ)ˌmɔː(ɹ)/, northwest /nɔɹθˈwɛst/, southwest /saʊθˈwɛst/, altogether /ɔl.tuˈɡɛð.ɚ/, ethnicity /ɛθˈnɪsɪti/
The “sh” and “zh” sounds: civilization /ˌsɪv.ɪ.laɪˈzeɪ.ʃən/, elevation /ˌɛlɪˈveɪʃn̩/, contrast /kənˈt(ʃ)ɹæst/, substantial /səbˈstænʃəl/, socialist /ˈsoʊ.ʃə.lɪst/
Long words — get the stress right: architecture /ˈɑː.kɪˌtɛk.t͡ʃə/, imperial /ɪmˈpɪɹ.i.əl/, peninsula /pəˈnɪn.sə.lə/, civilization /ˌsɪv.ɪ.laɪˈzeɪ.ʃən/, complicated /ˈkɑm.plɪˌkeɪ.tɪd/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like communist, delta, formal.

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.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

Shadowing Practice: VN-country profile - Learn English Speaking with Video