Shadowing Practice: What Diversity & Inclusion is REALLY About | Simon Sinek - Learn English Speaking with Video
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So here's what happens when you give someone cause, right?
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You look for all the ways to bring that cause to life
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and you need the diversity and inclusion to see opportunity or see gaps because we all have different perspectives and different upbringings.
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Not better or worse, different, different, right?
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It's like, let's just draw the line on like racial lines.
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We're like, rich people are happier than poor people. Are they?
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You know, it's like, I know some people who came from meager means,
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who they understand teamwork, they understand resilience, they understand loving your mother,
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they understand gratitude, they understand hard work better than anybody, and they are good.
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And I know some people who came from very wealthy means that never learned the skills of adaptability, that never learned the skills of coping because everything came easy,
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and they struggled through life.
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So it's how you approach it.
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It's not the circumstances.
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This is Viktor Frankl stuff.
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If you can't change your circumstances, you change yourself.
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You know, this is Viktor Frankl 101.
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We cannot control the world around us.
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What we control is our attitude.
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And so what diversity and inclusion is all about is about perspective.
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And so when you give people cause, they will look for ways to bring the cause to life through their perspective.
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So we have a cause in these United States.
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Our founding fathers wrote down for us in the Declaration of Independence, all men are created equal.
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This is an idealized state that we will never get to, but we will die trying.
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And different people who have different perspectives, you can see trying to bring that cause to life.
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The abolition of slavery, women's suffrage, civil rights, gay rights, somebody with diverse opinions and diverse upbringing said,
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hold on, I'm still not included in that.
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And so, you know, we start a new effort and all of those imperfect and ongoing in their own rights.
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So when we have a vision, when I say inspired, safe, and fulfilled, I only have my own perspective.
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And I have unconscious bias, and I have blinders.
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But if I have lots of people on my team, we all have our own unconscious biases, and we all have our own blinders.
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But together, we have a broad view.
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And I need people from different religions, different races, different sexuality, different job experiences.
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I need people who have experience in something we've done before.
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And I love hiring people who have no idea about this job because they'll bring a new perspective.
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I love putting people in jobs they don't know how to do.
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Just like I'd like taking people who are different than me and saying, how would you solve this problem?
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And that's the thing we forget, which is you said it's a program based on numbers and based on color or sexuality.
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It's none of those things.
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It's about perspectives.
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different perspectives and different upbringings and different perspectives and all the,
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you know, infinite number of perspectives that exist in the world because of all the combinations and permutations.
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And the best companies are diverse because they have diverse thinking, diverse ideas.
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We make jokes constantly about, you know, boards or companies that are made up of old white men.
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Why?
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Because there's one perspective.
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That's the joke.
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The joke is it's one perspective.
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Yeah.
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And so the counter to that is if it's not just old white men,
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but it's a diverse group of people with diverse experiences, magic happens.
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If there's a shared set of values and a shared vision.
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Without the shared values and the shared vision, then all of that diversity will subdivide into their little tribes
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and they'll go and eat at the lunch tables all completely separately.
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And then you need your diversity and inclusion program because you never understood it in the first place you
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This video has 54 sentences and 652 words to shadow. The speech runs for 3:59. The speaker talks at a natural 164 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 86% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| diverse adjective | /daɪˈvɜːs/ | Consisting of different elements; various. |
| diversity noun | /daɪˈvɜː(ɹ)sɪti/ | The quality of being diverse or different; a difference or unlikeness. |
| inclusion noun | /ɪnˈkluːʒən/ | An addition or annex to a group, set, or total. |
| skill noun | /skɪl/ | A capacity to do something well; a technique, an ability, usually acquired or learned, as opposed to abilities that are regarded as innate. |
| bias noun | /ˈbaɪ.əs/ | Inclination towards something. |
| unconscious adjective | /ˌʌnˈkɑnʃəs/ | Not awake; having no awareness (usually as the result of a head injury). |
| circumstance noun | /ˈsɝ.kəmˌstæns/ | Something which is related to, or in some way affects, a fact or event. |
| gap noun | /ɡæp/ | An opening in anything, made by breaking or parting. |
| solve verb | /sɒlv/ | To find an answer or solution to a problem or question; to work out. |
| hire verb | /ˈhaɪɹ/ | To obtain the services of in return for fixed payment. |
| ongoing adjective | /ɒnˈɡəʊ.ɪŋ/ | Continuing, permanent, lasting. |
| racial adjective | /ˈɹeɪʃəl/ | Of or relating to a race (or a people). |
| slavery noun | /ˈsleɪvəɹi/ | An institution or social practice of owning human beings as property, especially for use as forced laborers. |
| wealthy adjective | /ˈwɛl.θi/ | Possessing financial wealth; rich. |
| infinite adjective | /ˈɪnfɪnɪt/ | Indefinably large, countlessly great; immense. |
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | people who came · people who have · people who are |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | are created · are made |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 8 contractions and reduced forms, such as they'll, can't, don't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: inclusion /ɪnˈkluːʒən/, unconscious /ˌʌnˈkɑnʃəs/, racial /ˈɹeɪʃəl/, combinations /kɑmbɪˈneɪʃənz/, abolition /ˌæb.əˈlɪʃ.ən/
- Long words — get the stress right: diversity /daɪˈvɜː(ɹ)sɪti/, combinations /kɑmbɪˈneɪʃənz/, resilience /ɹɪˈzɪl.ɪ.əns/, abolition /ˌæb.əˈlɪʃ.ən/, adaptability /ədæptəˈbɪlɪti/
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 diverse, diversity, inclusion.
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.