Shadowing Practice: Where Dollars Die and Are Reborn - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
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- Money.
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It's everywhere.
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But what happens when your bills get old and need to be replaced by new ones?
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That means old cash needs to be destroyed.
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A lot of cash.
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This is not, however, the story of money growing on trees, but of trees, growing out of money.
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Well, more like vegetables.
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- We are here at the Federal Reserve Bank in New Orleans, and this is where we shred millions of dollars.
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My name is Dean Wortha, I'm the lead business analyst for cash services here at the New Orleans Fed.
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We are the nation's bank.
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Our job is to make sure that we have a supply of currency.
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Also part of that is to ensure that we remove unfit, old dirty currency from circulation.
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So here on average, we shred about six million dollars in dirty money every day.
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This could be for any number of reasons.
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It could be because the note has rips in it, holes in it, tears in it.
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It could have tape on it, it could have graffiti written all over it.
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We don't want that note going back into circulation.
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If it has any sort of those qualities, it will be shredded.
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What we used to do is take all of these currency shreds and they would just wind up as waste, going to a landfill.
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Now, through a lot of work and effort, we finally figured out a way where we can take these shreds and ultimately recycle them.
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- So all that green leaves the Fed and heads to a compost facility where it turns into something quite useful.
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- What you're looking at right now is 24 million dollars.
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But the soil that is creates will be priceless.
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My name is Johnathan Christian.
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We turn cash into soil.
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It is definitely one of our secret ingredients.
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It's little in content, but it's huge in what it provides.
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Currency that's deemed unfit is brought to our facility at Wooden Materials.
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From there we go through a simple composting process where we convert that into a healthy soil.
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Our compost is used primarily by urban farmers in the greater New Orleans area.
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- One of these farmers is Simond Menasche.
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- And this is a million dollar farm.
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We are making fresh, local food accessible in New Orleans.
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We've grown veggies, herbs, cucumbers, tomatoes and peppers.
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The vegetables we grow here are made out of composted cash.
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It is very fulfilling to be growing, using a material that would otherwise go to waste.
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One man's trash is another man's treasure.
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- And that's the story of how we grow tomatoes out of cash.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This video has 38 sentences and 436 words to shadow. The speech runs for 2:51. The speaker talks at a natural 153 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 84% 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 less common words from the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
- currency /ˈkʌɹ.ən.si/ (noun) — Money or other items used to facilitate transactions.
- soil /sɔɪl/ (noun) — A mixture of mineral particles and organic material, used to support plant growth.
- farmer /ˈfɑɹ.mɚ/ (noun) — A person who works the land and/or who keeps livestock; anyone engaged in agriculture on a farm.
- circulation /ˌsɝkjʊˈleɪʃən/ (noun) — The act of moving in a circle, or in a course which brings the moving body to the place where its motion began.
- vegetable /ˈvɛd͡ʒ.tə.bəl/ (noun) — A plant raised for some edible part of it, such as the leaves, roots, fruit or flowers, but excluding any plant considered to be a fruit, grain, herb, or spice…
- tomato /təˈmeɪ.toʊ/ (noun) — A widely cultivated plant, Solanum lycopersicum, having edible fruit.
- unfit /ʌnˈfɪt/ (adjective) — Not fit; not having the correct requirements.
- primarily /ˈpɹaɪ.mə.ɹə.li/ (adverb) — Of a primary or central nature, first and foremost.
- tape /teɪ̯p/ (noun) — Flexible material in a roll with a sticky surface on one or both sides; adhesive tape.
- trash /tɹæʃ/ (noun) — Useless physical things to be discarded; rubbish; refuse.
- tear /tɛɹ/ (verb) — To rend (a solid material) by holding or restraining in two places and pulling apart, whether intentionally or not; to destroy or separate.
- rip /ɹɪp/ (verb) — To divide or separate the parts of (especially something flimsy, such as paper or fabric), by cutting or tearing; to tear off or out by violence.
- leaf /lif/ (noun) — The usually green and flat organ that represents the most prominent feature of most vegetative plants.
- accessible /əkˈsɛs.ɪ.bəl/ (adjective) — Easy of access or approach.
- treasure /ˈtɹɛʒəɹ/ (noun) — A collection of valuable things; accumulated wealth; a stock of money, jewels, etc.
Phrasal verbs you will hear
- figure out (verb) — To come to understand; to discover or find a solution; to deduce.
- go through (verb) — To travel from one end of something to the other.
- grow on (verb) — To become more likeable to someone.
- grow out of (verb) — To emerge from (something); to take a particular shape as a result of (something); to come to exist from (an origin).
- look at (verb) — To observe or watch.
- make out of (verb) — To construct from; to create (something) using (a material or substance).
- turn into (verb) — To become.
- wind up /waɪnd ˈʌp/ (verb) — To wind (rope, string, mainsprings, etc.) completely.
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 4 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, I'm, we've. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: circulation /ˌsɝkjʊˈleɪʃən/, trash /tɹæʃ/, treasure /ˈtɹɛʒəɹ/, shred /ʃɹɛd/
- Long words — get the stress right: circulation /ˌsɝkjʊˈleɪʃən/, primarily /ˈpɹaɪ.mə.ɹə.li/, accessible /əkˈsɛs.ɪ.bəl/, ingredient /ɪnˈɡɹiːdi.ənt/
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 currency, soil, farmer.
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 | be replaced · be destroyed · will be shredded |
| Present continuous am/is/are + -ing — something happening right now or around now | you're looking · are making |
| Future with “will” will + verb — a decision, promise or prediction | will be |
| Obligation: must / have to / need to saying that something is necessary | need to be · needs to be |
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.