Shadowing J.K. Rowling

• Level: B2
• Accent: British
• Length: 21 min · 216 lines to practise
• Speed: about 139 words a minute (slower than most talks)
• Words: about 2,850; the talk asks 2 questions
• Timing: Sada measures how far behind the speaker you are on every line

What to focus on in this talk

Break the longer sentences into clauses, then repeat the complete caption passage.

What this talk trains

J.K. Rowling speaks for about 21 minutes: roughly 2,850 words in 216 caption lines. The pace picks up as the talk goes on, from about 123 words a minute in the first quarter to 141 in the last. Overall it is faster than 5 of the other 66 talks on Sada. Its sentences average 18.7 words, longer than the middle of the library (14.3), and 17.6% of its words fall outside the 3,000 most common English words (library middle: 12.9%). Phrases that fast speech often shortens come up again and again: “going to” (2 times) and “out of” (2 times).

Lines from across the talk, and what each one trains

One line from each quarter of the talk. Press a line to open it in Sada, ready to record. “Linking” marks words that run together: a word ending in a consonant sound joins the vowel that starts the next one.

1. 3:22 I want to extol the crucial importance of imagination.

   “want to”: fast speech often shortens it to “wanna” when a verb follows. Listen for whether the speaker does here. Linking: say “crucial importance”, “of imagination” without a break between the words.

2. 6:15 At your age, in spite of a distinct lack of motivation at university,

   Linking: say “your age”, “of a”, “lack of” without a break between the words. Several commas: say it in short chunks first, then as one line.

3. 12:23 There in my little office, I read hastily scribbled letters smuggled out of totalitarian regimes

   “out of”: fast speech often shortens it to “outta”. Listen for whether the speaker does here. Linking: say “smuggled out”, “out of” without a break between the words.

4. 18:02 But how much more are you, Harvard graduates of 2008, likely to touch other people's lives?

   A question: listen to where the voice rises or falls at the end, and copy it. Several commas: say it in short chunks first, then as one line.

Words that keep coming up

Words outside the 3,000 most common English words that J.K. Rowling uses more than once. The number is how often each is said. Look up any you don’t know, then press it to practise the line where it first comes up.

• graduation ×7
• imagination ×6
• poverty ×5
• corridor ×4
• amnesty ×4
• commencement ×3
• ourselves ×3
• truly ×3

How the pace changes through the talk

The fastest minute starts at 18:56 (about 169 words a minute): practise that minute once the rest feels easy. The slowest starts at 1:46 (about 85): a good minute to warm up with.

Measured from the caption timing, so the numbers are close, not exact.

How the talk opens: press any line to practise it

1. 0:25 President F, members of the Harvard Corporation and the board of overseers,
2. 0:31 members of the faculty, proud parents, and above all graduates.
3. 0:38 The first thing I would like to say is thank you.
4. 0:42 Not only has Harvard given me an extraordinary honor,
5. 0:45 but the weeks of fear and nausea I have endured
6. 0:52 at the thought of giving this commencement address have made me lose weight.

How to practise this talk

1. Warm up on the slowest minute (from 1:46) or on the opening lines above.
2. Then take the chosen lines above one at a time: a shortened phrase, linked words, a line said in chunks, a question.
3. On each line, press Record and say it after J.K. Rowling (Repeat) or along with them (Shadow), then open Compare and go again until every word is green.
4. Save the fastest minute (from 18:56, about 169 words a minute) for last.
5. At one minute a day you finish the whole talk in about 21 days, and Sada shows your first try against your latest.

More talks to practise

• Brené Brown — Listening to Shame (B2 · 141 words a minute · same level)
• Brené Brown — Brené Brown on Empathy (B2 · 132 words a minute · same level)
• Matt Walker — Sleep Is Your Superpower (B1–B2 · 139 words a minute · same accent)
• Graham Shaw — Why People Believe They Can’t Draw (B1 · 140 words a minute · same accent)

Famous talks to shadow →