Shadowing English with Barack Obama

President Obama’s Message for America’s StudentsThe Obama White House · start from the beginning

• Video: President Obama’s Message for America’s Students, from the The Obama White House channel · watch it on YouTube
• Length: 19 min · 230 caption lines
• Speed: a typical line runs at about 170 words a minute by the caption timing
• Accent: American. A label for the variety of English, not a promise about anyone’s voice.
• Practice lines: 8 on this page, each with the exact times of its caption line

Who is Barack Obama?

Barack Obama was the 44th President of the United States. The video below is an address to students on the first day of school, introduced by a student at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia; his own part begins after the introduction. This page is about the language only: pace, pauses and stress.

Why practise with Barack Obama?

The address is about school and study, and it is spoken to a room of students, so the sentences are clear and the lists are easy to hear. The Obama White House channel published it with human-written captions, so what you practise matches what is said, and there are 230 caption lines. A typical line runs at about 170 words a minute by the caption timing. The first minutes are a student’s introduction, so the lines chosen below start with his own remarks.

Practice lines, with what to listen for

Each line is one caption line of the video, with its time. Press a line to open it in Sada, ready to record, then read the note under it before you listen.

President Obama’s Message for America’s Students · The Obama White House

1. 3:55 I know that feeling.

   Four short words after a long sentence about summer. Listen for the word that carries the stress, and for the fall of the voice at the end.

2. 5:02 Now, I've given a lot of speeches about education.

   Listen for the pause after “Now,” that sets up the topic, and for how “given a lot of” runs together.

3. 6:30 And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is.

   A long line with one idea. Listen for the words he leans on, and for the small words in between, such as “to” and “that”, which are usually said lightly.

4. 6:36 That's the opportunity an education can provide.

   Short and complete. It follows the line above, so it is a good pair to say one after the other.

5. 7:25 You want to be a doctor, or a teacher, or a police officer?

   A question made of a list. Listen for what the voice does at the end of each item, and where it ends.

6. 7:38 You cannot drop out of school and just drop into a good job.

   Two “drop” phrases side by side: “drop out of” and “drop into”. Listen for which word is stressed in each half.

7. 7:43 You've got to train for it and work for it and learn for it.

   A list of three with the same ending: “train for it… work for it… learn for it”. Listen for how light “for it” is each time.

8. 7:57 The future of America depends on you.

   A short closing statement. Listen for where it lands and how long the pause is before the next line.

What to listen for

Three things to listen for in these lines. They are prompts for your ears, not claims about how anyone sounds.

• Pauses: Listen for the short break after “Now,” in “Now, I’ve given a lot of speeches about education”, and for how long he waits before a new idea.
• Linking: In “given a lot of” and “drop out of”, listen for words that run into each other, then say them without a gap.
• Stress: In “train for it and work for it and learn for it”, listen for which words carry the weight and which are quick and light, and copy that pattern.

Sada compares the words it recognises in your take, and their timing, with the caption line; it does not grade accent, pitch or individual sounds. How close a take sounds is for you to judge by ear, with the two playing side by side in Compare.

How to practise with Barack Obama

1. Open the first line under “Practice lines” and play it two or three times before you record. This video is quick, so set the playback speed to 0.75× first and raise it later.
2. Press Record and say the line after the speaker (Repeat mode) or along with them (Shadow mode), then open Compare and play your take beside the original.
3. Read the note for that line, listen to the original once more with it in mind, and go again until Sada shows every word as recognised.
4. Move to the next line. When a few lines feel easy, say them one after another as a short passage.
5. Come back to the same lines on another day: Sada shows your first take against your latest, so you can hear the change.

Keep going

• Shadowing English with Taylor Swift
• Shadowing English with Emma Watson
• Shadow the person you want to sound like: all the people and shows
• American accent practice
• Sentence stress: content and function words
• Question intonation: rising and falling
• English pronunciation for Arabic speakers: the common problems in order
• How to sound like a native speaker
• Shadow any other captioned YouTube video
• Famous talks to shadow

Sada is not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to Barack Obama or The Obama White House; names identify the video only. The video plays in YouTube’s own player from its official channel, Sada keeps no copy of it, and the lines quoted are the short caption lines needed for practice.