Shadowing Practice: Will Vietnam get old before it gets rich? - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Asia's latest success story isn't here.
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Or even here.
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It's Vietnam.
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This Southeast Asian nation is experiencing a period of rapid economic growth.
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But as the country grows richer, it is also growing older.
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The government has set a target of reaching upper-middle income status by 2030 and high income status by 2045.
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This means that by 2045, Vietnam needs to have an income per capita that is 3.3 times higher than what it is now.
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In a race against the clock, can Vietnam get rich before it gets old?
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This sentiment among young people in Vietnam has experts and the government worried.
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Fewer couples are deciding to have children.
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Vietnam's fertility rate sank to a record low of 1.91 births per woman in 2024,
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a figure that puts it below the replacement rate of 2.1.
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In 2034, we will be an age country where we will reach 14% of the population aged 65 and over.
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But at that time, from now to there, only eight years.
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So we expect to be a high-income country or not.
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It depends on how we grow from now until then.
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Vietnam's aging population woes could mean big problems down the line, as the country has evolved into a global manufacturing powerhouse.
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It has a strategic geographical location and low labor costs, which have proved advantageous in trade wars.
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U.S imports from China have plummeted since the Trump administration's first trade war.
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The annualized figure of 550 billion U.S dollars in 2018 was down to 270 billion dollars by early 2026.
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In contrast, imports from Vietnam surged from 50 billion U.S dollars to $240 billion during the same period.
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But the falling number of working-age people could prove to be a chokehold on its booming manufacturing industry.
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Last year, Vietnam scrapped its long-standing two-child policy.
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Its new population law, which took effect on July 1st, is designed to nudge couples towards having larger families.
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The legislation offers things like seven months of maternity leave for a second child, lower costs for prenatal and newborn screenings,
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cash bonuses of up to 6 million dong, and priority housing for young parents who have two children before the age of 35.
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But will it be enough to reverse the population decline?
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It's a big issue that is to help people to live their children.
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That's a big issue to encourage everyone, children to live their children.
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But there are some points that the money is not enough, so the movement is not enough.
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It's enough to encourage everyone to live.
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Vietnam is looking to solve another problem that could potentially keep it from hitting its 2045 financial target.
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The country's informal workforce makes up around 63% of the total labor force.
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That means well over 33 million workers operate outside formal regulatory frameworks.
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And they don't have pensions set up for when they retire.
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Ministry of Home Affairs also tries the best to include people from the informal sector to the social protection system.
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As you know, informal workers usually don't participate in any social insurance system.
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And if they don't participate, meaning that they will get owed without any kind of social protection benefit.
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And it will become like a very huge burden for the future generation to pay tax in order to support them.
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The United Nations Population Fund found that 76% of Vietnam's elderly population do not have pensions.
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Vietnam revised its social insurance law in July 2025 to specifically bring informal,
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part-time and household workers under the national safety net.
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The revision reduced the minimum number of years required to contribute to social insurance from 20 to 15,
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making it more possible for aging informal workers to secure a future retirement pension.
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Last year we had Resolution 72 by the Central Party saying that we have universal healthcare for everyone.
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And we have a particular program for taking care of older persons.
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So we hope that older persons will be accessed more easily to all healthcare services at different places in Vietnam.
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And then they can improve their health status.
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So, can Vietnam break the trend and continue to get richer as it gets older?
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Dong says yes, so long as it plays its cards right.
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If we have a healthy older person, I don't think that is a really big concept.
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Because healthy older person, they continue contributing to the country.
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Because they are healthy, so we will not have health care costs as much as we expect
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if the older person is sick.
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That is why it depends on how older person at the time of Vietnam reached the age population threshold.
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We will see whether Vietnam faces a lot of problems or maybe opportunities for each population.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This video has 56 sentences and 770 words to shadow. The speech runs for 5:59. The speaker talks at a steady 129 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. 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 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| informal adjective | /ɪnˈfɔɹ.m(ə)l/ | Not formal or ceremonious. |
| worker noun | /ˈwɝ.kɚ/ | One who works: a person who performs labor for a living; traditionally, especially, manual labor. |
| pension noun | /ˈpɛnʃən/ | An annuity paid regularly as benefit due to a retired employee, serviceman etc. in consideration of past services, originally and chiefly by a government but… |
| encourage verb | /ɪnˈkʌɹ.ɪd͡ʒ/ | To mentally support; to motivate, give courage, hope or spirit. |
| participate verb | /pɑːˈtɪs.ɪ.peɪt/ | To join in, to take part, to involve oneself (in something). |
| contribute verb | /kənˈtɹɪb.jut/ | To give something that is or becomes part of a larger whole. |
| depend verb | /dɪˈpɛnd/ | To be contingent or conditioned; to have something as a necessary condition |
| import noun | /ˈɪm.pɔɹt/ | Something brought in from an exterior source, especially for sale or trade. |
| dong noun | /dɔŋ/ | The currency of Vietnam, 100 xus. Symbol: ₫ |
| universal adjective | /ˌjunəˈvɜɹs(ə)l/ | Of or pertaining to the universe. |
| household adjective | /ˈhaʊshoʊld/ | Belonging to the same house and family. |
| contrast noun | /kənˈt(ʃ)ɹæst/ | The degree of this difference. |
| bonus noun | /ˈbəʊ.nəs/ | Something extra that is good; an added benefit. |
| formal adjective | /ˈfɔɹməl/ | In accordance with established forms. |
| replacement noun | /ɹɪˈpleɪsmənt/ | A person or thing that takes the place of another; a substitute. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| make up verb | /ˌmeɪk ˈʌp/ | To constitute, to compose. |
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 | has set · has evolved · have proved |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | is designed · will be accessed |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 5 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, isn't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: pension /ˈpɛnʃən/, contrast /kənˈt(ʃ)ɹæst/, potentially /pəˈtɛnʃ(ə)li/, threshold /ˈθɹɛʃ(h)oʊld/, revision /ɹəˈvɪʒ.ən/
- Long words — get the stress right: participate /pɑːˈtɪs.ɪ.peɪt/, universal /ˌjunəˈvɜɹs(ə)l/, priority /pɹaɪˈɒɹɪti/, potentially /pəˈtɛnʃ(ə)li/, regulatory /ˈɹɛɡ.jʊ.lə.t(ɔː.)ɹi/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Shadow it sentence by sentence at normal speed, repeating each one until your rhythm matches the speaker.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like informal, worker, pension.
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.