International Women's Day: Who inspires you?

Who inspires you? Perhaps it's a famous woman, or maybe it's someone from your family. Watch some people talking about this question in the video.

Do the preparation task first. Then watch the video and do the exercises. Remember you can read the transcript at any time.

Transcript

A woman who has recently inspired me is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who is the youngest woman ever to be elected to Congress. She's going to become a fantastic role model for both young women and young men.

A woman who really inspires me is Leslie Feinberg. She was a feminist and gender theorist. She was brave enough to live her truth in an unforgiving world, to live as a butch lesbian in '70s and '80s America despite all the discrimination and violence that she faced.

My friend Kate is a real inspiration to me. When I first met her she had a stable, regular job. Then she surprised all of us by moving to Guatemala to help young women who are experiencing sexual violence find a place of safety in a refuge.

A woman who inspires me is Marie Colvin. She was an American journalist and paid the ultimate price for discovering the truth. She was killed in Syria doing her job and was perhaps the bravest woman to ever be a journalist.

JK Rowling. When she wrote the Harry Potter books she was in a really difficult place in her life. She managed to make this contribution, a massive contribution to children's literature.

A woman that inspires me is my grandmother. She moved from London to South Africa and worked at a newspaper. She was a kind, loving, amazing human being and she set up a life for myself and my family.

Phillis Wheatley. She was born in West Africa and was sold as a slave at the age of eight and she went to the US, where she learned to read and write. When she was 20 she wrote her first book of poetry – and it was the first book to be published by an African American woman ever – and lived the rest of her life as a free woman.

A woman that inspires me is my aunt. She's had a couple of really rough years with my uncle having ALS and she always puts on a brave face and she always puts her family first and is just always super positive.

Another woman that inspires me is Dian Fossey, just a phenomenal woman, when conservation wasn't cool it wasn't trendy and she actually got killed for something that she believed in and she just really inspires me, and I cry every time I hear the music.

A woman who's really inspired me is my mum.

A woman that has inspired me my whole life is my mother, Anita.

A woman that inspires me is my mum.

Because she has always told me to go after what I want in life and take every opportunity given to me.

She always inspires me to go after what I want, no matter what roadblocks stand in my way.

She's tough but caring and she's a great fashionista.

She was the first person in her family to get a degree and she got that degree when she went back to school at 36 years old, and she was pregnant with me. 

Also she has the best chorizo pasta recipe and she's passed it down to me, so, yeah, for that I am thankful.

She just inspires me with her capability basically.

© Mumsnet

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Profile picture for user OlaIELTS

Submitted by OlaIELTS on Sun, 29/03/2020 - 02:27

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The woman that inspired me is my mother. However, just as in this text, she always informed me to go after what I want in life, no matter what roadblocks that might be in the way.

Submitted by Evgeny N on Wed, 11/03/2020 - 15:45

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A woman who inspires me is Barbara Pym. She was an English writer and died in 1980. She is famous for being forgotten for 14 years between 1963 and 1977. But despite of this she was writing new books during this difficult period of her life. In 1977 she was nominated for the Booker Prize that year for her novel "Quartet in Autumn". She is the most under-rated writer of the 20th century. There is a wonderful short movie "Miss Pym's day out". You can find it on YouTube

Submitted by Paula Aranda F… on Sat, 07/03/2020 - 13:43

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Hello everyone!! I have a questions for you. Some days ago there was a video related to Women's day. I remember it was something like " We are women..." and it started to mention many professions, occupations and things, we women, do..and by now I cant find it. It was great to work with it!! I hope you can help me!!! Thanks in advance!!

Hello Paula

Did you see this video here on LearnEnglish? Was it in the past few weeks that you saw it? I'm afraid that doesn't ring a bell, but I'll ask the rest of the team if they know anything about it.

All the best

Kirk

The LearnEnglish Team

Profile picture for user luis avellar

Submitted by luis avellar on Sun, 01/03/2020 - 17:51

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A woman who inspires me nowadays, she is faced to the media, a woman have a child on arms, she is a figure who protect a childhood, no matter if they are experiencing a pleasure to live. she is work every day. the women are reported like if truth and trust do not belong or seeming, or dress a seeming appearance. I love you.

Submitted by AhilKannan on Sun, 01/03/2020 - 09:11

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Thank you for your valuable service.

Submitted by derrick.voma on Sat, 29/02/2020 - 15:00

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She was a kind, loving,neat and soft spoken woman. She was so time conscious and surprisingly she could read time from the clock though she wasn't literate. She would not spare us any time we went against the norms. She is my late aunt who brought me up.