Shadowing Practice: What's the Best Age to Get Married? - Learn English Speaking with Video

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what is the best age to get married do some age

groups have a higher divorce rate is age really a factor let's break this down

hi i'm dr wendy walsh for local now

and i'm here for you most of my work centers around relationships the science of love

so i read statistics all day long we do know

that the age of first -time marriage has been going up

in america right now it's the age of 28 for men

and the age of 26 for women

if i had to pick a perfect age to get married i would say wait until at least you're 25

when your prefrontal cortex is fully developed in fact research shows

that there's a magic number to prevent divorce and it's the age of 23.

if you get married younger than 23 you have the highest divorce rate.

It's something like 90%.

But I think more important than an age is how well do you know yourself?

How well established are you with your education and career plans, no matter your gender?

And how well have you assessed a potential mate?

So think of those things as being really important as much as age.

Now let's talk about the fact that people are getting married at every age across the lifespan.

One trend that I've noticed, no science here, but I've noticed it, is that people tend to couple up and get married at two important times of their life, either in their late 20s,

early 30s, when it's about child rearing, right?

Because what's a relationship?

It's an exchange of care.

And that care may be financial care, sexual care, let's see, domestic care, child care, emotional care, intellectual care,

and you really need a lot of care for each other when you're raising small children.

The other time I notice a lot of marriages happening is over the age of 50.

It's almost like our bodies start to decline and we need that care again.

We need the emotional support and we need the physical care.

No matter what age you are, I do want you to ask yourself how important marriage is to you and why you need to do it.

If you're doing it for your parents, maybe not a good idea.

If you're doing it because you really believe in the teachings of your religion and so does your partner, maybe a good reason.

If you're doing it because you want to make sure that you have a financially stable household to raise kids in, another good reason.

But if you're doing it because you're excited and aroused by a new partner, mm -mm, don't do it.

If you're doing it because you're being pressured by anybody, including the person you're about to marry, mm -mm, don't do it.

You know, it's okay to actually not marry in America too.

That option's there for some people.

What can I say?

Finally, my last bit of advice is do not marry anybody that you have not had an argument with.

You need to see their conflict style

and you need to see how they make repair because the road to intimacy is one paved with ruptures followed by repairs.

It's during that repair process where you say, I'm sorry, I see you, forgive me, I understand that you really grow emotional intimacy.

And the research says, emotional intimacy is the glue that keeps couples together for a long time.

I'm Dr. Wendy Walsh.

Thanks for watching here on Local Now.

You can find me anywhere on my social media.

That's at Dr. Wendy Walsh.

See you next time.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “What's the Best Age to Get Married?”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: married, emotional, intimacy, wendy, walsh. This video has 46 sentences and 604 words to shadow. The speech runs for 3:35. The speaker talks at a natural 168 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 89% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is easy to follow.

Key vocabulary in this video

The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
repair verb	/ˈɹiːpɛɚ/	To restore to good working order, fix, or improve damaged condition; to mend; to remedy.
marry verb	/ˈmæɹi/	To enter into the conjugal or connubial state; to take a husband or a wife.
divorce noun	/dɪˈvɔːs/	The legal dissolution of a marriage.
intimacy noun	/ˈɪn.tɪ.mə.si/	Intimate relationship.
stable noun	/ˈsteɪ.bəl/	A building, wing or dependency set apart and adapted for lodging and feeding (and training) ungulates, especially horses.
household adjective	/ˈhaʊshoʊld/	Belonging to the same house and family.
establish verb	/ɪˈstæb.lɪʃ/	To make stable or firm; to confirm.
decline verb	/dɪˈklaɪn/	To move downwards, to fall, to drop.
intellectual adjective	/ˌɪntəˈlɛkt͡ʃʊəl/	Pertaining to, or performed by, the intellect; mental or cognitive.
forgive verb	/fɚˈɡɪv/	To pardon (someone); to waive any negative feeling towards or desire for punishment or retribution against.
assess verb	/əˈsɛs/	To determine, estimate or judge the value of; to evaluate; to estimate.
financially adverb		In terms of finance or money.
glue noun	/ɡlu/	A hard gelatin made by boiling bones and hides, used in solution as an adhesive; or any sticky adhesive substance.
cortex noun	/ˈkɔɹtɛks/	The outer layer of an internal organ or body structure, such as the kidney or the brain.
arouse verb	/əˈɹaʊz/	To stimulate or induce (feelings); pique.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Meaning
go up verb	To move upwards.

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 noticed · have not had
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	is fully developed · being pressured

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 18 contractions and reduced forms, such as you're, I'm, don't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

Long words — get the stress right: intimacy /ˈɪn.tɪ.mə.si/, intellectual /ˌɪntəˈlɛkt͡ʃʊəl/

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 repair, marry, divorce.

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: What's the Best Age to Get Married? - Learn English Speaking with Video

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