Shadowing Practice: Why food is getting more expensive for everyone - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Have you noticed that the price of your groceries has gone up?
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Bread, milk, cheese, eggs are all more expensive, and it's something we're seeing throughout most of the globe.
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So what is behind the price increase?
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The United Nations Food Price Index tracks the monthly change in the price of a basket of food items.
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The five commodities making up this basket are cereals, vegetable oils, sugar, meats and dairy products.
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In March of 2022, the index recorded the highest price levels in its three -decade history.
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It has since come off that high slightly, but is still well above levels seen in previous years.
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The UN body's chief economist warned prices won't be going back to normal anytime soon.
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They will continue increasing because we will not have the regular planting season for these two countries
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and that could have a significant effect in the world.
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The two countries he's referring to here are, unsurprisingly, Russia and Ukraine.
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Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine and rising energy prices are the two main reasons why food is getting more costly.
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But why is food price inflation so widespread?
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Let's take a closer look.
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Prices are really complicated.
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They're shaped by all sorts of things.
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We've had the Ukraine crisis, which has really thrown the world's food system into disarray in some respects.
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Ukraine is one of the bread baskets of Europe.
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It's where we produce lots of our crops.
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Many of those crops have been unable to leave the country.
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And farmers right now in Ukraine are meant to be planting the next season's crops, and they haven't been able to.
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So we can expect these issues to continue as well.
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Ukraine is known for its fertile soils.
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It is a top exporter of sunflower oil, corn and grains.
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Ukraine and Russia combined produce more than a quarter of the global wheat supply.
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So you can understand how disruptions in these markets can cause massive shocks to our global food supply.
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For sure it is becoming a global problem.
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We are talking of around 50 countries
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that have more than 30 % of their imports dependent from Russian Federation
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and Ukraine and of those 20 countries have 50 % of their exports depending on Ukraine.
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For instance, look at some of the countries that are highly dependent on Russia and Ukraine for wheat imports.
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Eritrea, Armenia, Mongolia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Somalia get more than 90 % of their wheat imports from the two countries alone.
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Distressingly, there's a growing number of analysts, academics and policy makers saying that
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Russia is intentionally weaponizing food supplies as a part of Vladimir Putin's war strategy.
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The fear is that much of the developing world will starve as a result.
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As if that weren't enough to contend with, energy prices were already high before the war.
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The conflict has only made things worse.
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And that has trickled down to your food bill.
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We've seen rising gas prices, and that's increased the cost of fertilizers.
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And many farmers are reliant on these fertilizers, these industrially produced fertilizers, which rely on natural gas for their manufacture.
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So that's edged food prices up.
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Natural gas, which is used as a raw material and fuel for making nitrogen fertilizers, accounts for about 80 % of the production cost.
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With natural gas prices in Europe soaring almost 300 % over the last 12 months, the cost of fertilizers has naturally gone up too.
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Major producers such as China and Russia have also put export bans in place to protect their domestic markets.
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This is adding to the upheaval, affecting the type of crops being planted and the planting season.
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Some crops like wheat, rice and corn, for example, are highly reliant on fertilizers.
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In addition, the demand for alternatives to fossil fuels has led to the growth of biofuels, such as vegetable oils like palm and rapeseed oil.
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As more farmers grow these cash crops, this drives up the prices for other crops competing for a limited amount of land.
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And with inflation going through the roof, some governments have started to impose restrictions on the exports of their energy crops too.
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Towards the end of April, Indonesia, the world's largest exporter of vegetable oil, imposed a three -week ban on the international sales of its palm oil.
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Meanwhile, India also decided to ban exports of wheat, which, you may remember, is a fertilizer -intensive crop.
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Europe's trade chief says these decisions only make the situation worse.
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Countries are starting to take export restrictive measures and we think
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that this is a tendency which can actually only aggravate the problem.
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Financial services company Nomura warned that several major economies will fall into a recession next year.
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You could see recessions in certain countries more likely than others.
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For example, Europe.
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Europe spends a lot more money on food and fuel relative to GDP than for example the US or the UK.
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So it could be that that has a more direct and larger impact on people's ability to spend.
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Expand a little bit on that point.
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Let's step back and explain why this increase in food prices is a problem.
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So it's a problem because it limits the amount of disposable income that people have to spend on other items.
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And if you think about the people who are affected the most,
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it tends to be the poor because they have a much greater spend on those items relative to their total spending.
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So it could be really constraining for those households in particular, but for the economy as a whole.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “Why food is getting more expensive for everyone”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: price, Ukraine, crop, countries, fertilizer. This video has 49 sentences and 922 words to shadow. The speech runs for 5:52. The speaker talks at a natural 157 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. Only 80% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| crop noun | /kɹɑp/ | A plant, grown for it, or its fruits or seeds, to be harvested as food, livestock fodder, or fuel or for any other economic purpose. |
| export noun | /ˈɛks.pɔɹt/ | Something that is exported. |
| wheat noun | /ˈwiːt/ | Any of the several cereal grains, of the genus Triticum, that yields flour as used in bakery. |
| farmer noun | /ˈfɑɹ.mɚ/ | A person who works the land and/or who keeps livestock; anyone engaged in agriculture on a farm. |
| import noun | /ˈɪm.pɔɹt/ | Something brought in from an exterior source, especially for sale or trade. |
| basket noun | /ˈbæskɪt/ | A lightweight woven container, generally round, open at the top, and tapering toward the bottom. |
| vegetable noun | /ˈvɛd͡ʒ.tə.bəl/ | 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… |
| relative noun | /ˈɹɛl.ə.tɪv/ | Someone connected by blood, marriage, or adoption; someone in the same family. |
| dependent adjective | /dɪˈpɛndənt/ | Relying upon; depending upon. |
| palm noun | /pɑm/ | The inner and somewhat concave part of the human hand or other primate hand that extends from the wrist to the bases of the fingers. |
| corn noun | /ˈkɔːn/ | Any cereal plant (or its grain) that is the main crop or staple of a country or region. |
| inflation noun | /ɪnˈfleɪ.ʃən/ | An act, instance of, or state of expansion or increase in size, especially by injection of a gas or liquid. |
| warn verb | /woɹn/ | To make (someone) aware of impending danger, evil, etc. |
| recession noun | /ɹɪˈsɛʃn̩/ | The act or an instance of receding or withdrawing. |
| meanwhile adverb | /ˈmiːnwaɪl/ | During the time that something is happening, often specifically in a different place. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| go up verb | To move upwards. | |
| come off verb | To become detached. | |
| drive up verb | To cause or force a price, quantity, rate, etc. to increase. | |
| go back to verb | To stem from; to originate in. | |
| make up verb | /ˌmeɪk ˈʌp/ | To constitute, to compose. |
| step back verb | /stɛp ˈbæk/ | To stop what one is doing and evaluate the current situation. |
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 | Have you noticed · We've had · have been |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | are meant · is known · being planted |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | crisis, which has · gas, which is · tendency which can |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 7 contractions and reduced forms, such as we've, haven't, they're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: inflation /ɪnˈfleɪ.ʃən/, recession /ɹɪˈsɛʃn̩/, shock /ʃɔk/, invasion /ɪnˈveɪʒən/, intentionally /ɪnˈtɛn(t)ʃənəli/
- Long words — get the stress right: naturally /ˈnæt͡ʃ.(ə.)ɹə.li/, complicated /ˈkɑm.plɪˌkeɪ.tɪd/, economist /iˈkɑ.nə.mɪst/, commodity /kəˈmɑdəti/, intentionally /ɪnˈtɛn(t)ʃənəli/
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 crop, export, wheat.
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.