Shadowing Practice: Why Plastic Straws Suck - Learn English Speaking with Video
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You've probably seen this video.
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That's a plastic straw being pulled out of a sea turtle's nose.
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The video went viral in 2015, sparking a public outcry to, quote, say no to plastic straws.
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And over the years, the campaign has gained traction.
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Starbucks says by 2020 it will eliminate plastic straws, pivoting to biodegradable straws and a newly designed lid.
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McDonald's UK, American Airlines, and Marriott hotels have all announced similar changes.
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So why do plastic straws suck?
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Starbucks says, quote, "...one of the major issues with plastic straws is
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that they are too small and lightweight to be captured in modern recycling equipment."
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We reached out to various recycling plants across North America to see if that was true.
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While some facilities told us they do recycle straws, two of the largest recycling facilities in the U.S.
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said its machines don't always catch straws.
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So they end up in the trash and eventually in landfills. So frustrating.
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I know.
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Another place straws tend to end up?
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Beaches.
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Dr. George Leonard is the chief scientist for Ocean Conservancy.
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The data from our 2017 International Coastal Cleanup,
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and there were 643,000 plastic straws that were picked up around beaches and waterways all over the world.
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To limit the use of straws, Starbucks introduced a new lid that resembles a sippy cup.
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These new lids are made from polypropylene, which, according to Starbucks, can be widely recycled.
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But there's one major problem.
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You know, the objective really was to phase out straws because they're not recyclable.
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The shift to this lid really increases the amount of plastic that Starbucks is using per cut.
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I think it could be part of a solution, but I don't think it's the whole picture.
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Some critics have pointed out that straws only make up a fraction of our plastic waste.
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So why is everyone so worked up about them?
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I think straws are a bit of a poster child here
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for the bigger question of society's kind of over-reliance on single-use plastics
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and the fact that a lot of this stuff is ending up in our marine environment.
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All plastics ultimately sort of break down and fracture into smaller
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and smaller bits of plastic as a result of being tossed around by the waves
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and then by the fact that sunlight basically makes the plastic brittle.
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And so they create what we call microplastics.
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We're finding these flecks of plastic in everything from the forage fish
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that are at the base of the food web up through the kinds of fish
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that we end up putting on our dinner plate.
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If we get the kind of global plastic users
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and the major brands like Starbucks and some of these other companies like Coca-Cola
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that everybody knows about to really take ownership of their contribution to this problem and alter their business practices,
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they can be real leaders here and they can bring the rest of the plastic supply chain along with them.
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So how do we start?
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We need to be more thoughtful about how we use plastic.
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We do know that there's about 8 million metric tons of plastic overall
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that ends up in the world's oceans every year
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and that's kind of thought to be one garbage truck worth you know per mile a beach per day.
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About half of that plastic comes from countries in Southeast Asia that don't have formal waste management systems.
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Much of their local waste is disposed in sort of informal ways whether it's behind a house
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or at a community dump which is essentially sort of an open pit
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or in in some cases directly dumped into the ocean itself.
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In countries like the U.S., plastic can also be swept down drains into rivers leading to the sea.
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It can be flushed down the toilet or left behind by beach goers.
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So what should we be doing differently?
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For starters, pay closer attention to your personal habits.
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Get into the habit of bringing our own cup, fork, bag, straw.
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That's what I have in my bag at all times.
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Stop flushing things other than human waste and toilet paper down the toilet.
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And remember, anything that goes down the toilet, drain, or into sewers goes to the ocean.
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All drains lead to the ocean, kid.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “Why Plastic Straws Suck”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: plastic, straw, Starbucks, ocean, lid. This video has 59 sentences and 718 words to shadow. The speech runs for 4:33. The speaker talks at a natural 158 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
The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| straw noun | /stɹɔ/ | A dried stalk of a cereal plant. |
| recycle verb | /ɹəˈsaɪkəl/ | To break down and reuse component materials. |
| drain noun | /dɹiːn/ | A conduit allowing liquid to flow out of an otherwise contained volume; a plughole (UK) |
| flush verb | /ˈflʌʃ/ | To cleanse by flooding with generous quantities of a fluid. |
| dump verb | /dʌmp/ | To release, especially in large quantities and chaotic manner. |
| biodegradable adjective | /(ˌ)baɪoʊdəˈɡɹeɪdəbl̩/ | Capable of being decomposed by biological activity, especially by microorganisms. |
| brittle adjective | /ˈbɹɪtəl/ | Inflexible; liable to break, snap, or shatter easily under stress, pressure, or impact. |
| forage noun | /ˈfoɹɪd͡ʒ/ | Fodder for animals, especially cattle and horses. |
| frustrate verb | /ˈfɹʌsˌtɹeɪt/ | To disappoint or defeat; to vex by depriving of something expected or desired. |
| landfill noun | /ˈlæn(d).fɪl/ | A site at which refuse is buried under layers of earth. |
| microplastic noun | Small particles of plastic (typically less than 5 mm) produced by the degradation of plastic products, found in high levels in the marine environment and… | |
| outcry noun | /ˈaʊtkɹaɪ/ | A loud cry or uproar. |
| polypropylene noun | A thermoplastic resin made by the polymerization of propylene, and used for films, fibres, or moulding materials. | |
| recyclable adjective | Able to be recycled. | |
| waterway noun | /ˈwɔːtəweɪ/ | A body of water, such as a river, channel or canal, that is navigable. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| end up verb | To bring to a conclusion. | |
| break down verb | To stop functioning. | |
| go down verb | To descend; to move from a higher place to a lower one. | |
| leave behind verb | To abandon. | |
| make up verb | /ˌmeɪk ˈʌp/ | To constitute, to compose. |
| pick up verb | To lift; to grasp and raise. | |
| point out verb | To identify among a group of similar subjects, or in a scene where the subject might not be readily seen or noticed, with a gesture of the body. |
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 | being pulled · be captured · were picked |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | You've probably seen · has gained · have pointed |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 6 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, they're, we're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: flush /ˈflʌʃ/, traction /ˈtɹæk.ʃən/, fraction /ˈfɹæk.ʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: biodegradable /(ˌ)baɪoʊdəˈɡɹeɪdəbl̩/, eliminate /ɪˈlɪm.ɪ.neɪt/
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 straw, recycle, drain.
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.