Angelina Jolie on her new film First They Killed My Father, based on the genocide in Cambodia, politics and her family.
Self-study activity:
Watch the interview and answer the questions below.
1. What changed Angelina’s life?
2. What happened 40 years ago?
3. In what ways is Angelina related to Cambodia, according to the reporter?
4. What was Angelina’s New Times op-ed piece about?
5. How is Angelina fighting against the intolerance rising in society these days?
6. What does the reporter say Angelina’s film is about?
7. How is Angelina coping after her separation?
8. Where does Angelina see herself in five years’ time?
9. Who’s Angelina sharing her room with?
I'm not here because I'm a director who wanted to make a movie. I'm here because 17 years ago I came to this country and found love with people and learned about its history and in doing so realized how little I actually knew in my early twenties about the world, and so this country for me was my awakening. And my son changed my life. Becoming a Cambodian family changed my life.
So there was never a plan to… we should make this movie. It's just I became a filmmaker and one day I thought what story, what story do I feel is really important to tell? And I felt that this war that happened 40 years ago and… and what happened to these people was not properly understood, and… and not just for the world but for the people of the country. I felt that I wanted them to be able to reflect on it in a way that they could absorb, so it's through the eyes of a child and it's a lot about love.
Do you think, though, this nation is ready for that?
I hope so. Yes, I do… I, I wouldn't have… when I… when I first started coming here… there's so much that’s changed. When many people spoke about this, 15-20 years ago, you know, since that happened there are many people denying the history or saying it wasn't as bad or trying to…, of course, many people want to forget or it's just the horrors, the horrors of war and you just simply…
I mean, it's interesting you say that, you know, this is a country which would have… is very much part of your own personal journey. Do you think that in many ways you've come full circle? You know, your humanitarian work started here, you became a mother here, that perhaps this is some sort of crossroads for you, it's come back here.
Yeah, yeah. I’ll always… I’ll always be very grateful to this country, and I hope, I hope I've given back as much as it's given me. I don't think I ever could give back as much as this country’s given me.
You wrote a New Times op-ed piece a few weeks ago and you spoke about having a truly international family. You said that the refugee policy should be about fact not fear. You also said that we shouldn't be departing from our values. Can you tell me what you meant by that?
It's funny, isn't it, some questions seem so obvious, don't they, you know, it's just… it’s these things we talk about and we… and we hear them spoken about often now, you know, what… what… what are our values? I value life equally, every single individual life. I don't separate people by race, colour, religion, and I… and and if I do, it’s because I celebrate the diversity in the world.
But we are seeing this rise of populist leaders, right, around the world. Do you think it's creating a more intolerant society?
This is… this is an old, an old trick and… and we should know better than to fall for it. And I see it, and I see it rising, and the only thing I can do is to use my voice and encourage others and raise my children to know right and wrong and to have a broad view of the world and… and to embrace their diversity and other people’s and and respect others. And I think that all we can do now is, each and every person, each… each one of your listeners, each one, we all just have to be the best of ourselves. If not… if not now more than ever we really have to rise up and find our rational center, our who are we and what do we stand for. And we know it, we know what's right and wrong.
If I take it back to your… your film, your film is about family and loss. I understand this is a very sensitive issue. We know that an incident occurred which led to your separation. We also know you haven't said anything about this. Would you like to say something?
Only that… I don't want to say very much about that, except to say that it was a very difficult time and… and we are a family, and we will always be a family, and we will get through this time and… and hopefully be a stronger family for it.
Can I ask how you’re coping?
I'm… I'm… many… many people find themselves in a situation and this kind of… you know, my whole… my family we're all… we've all been through a difficult time, you know it's not… my focus is my children, our children and… and it is them and my focus is finding this… this… this way through, and as I said, we are… we are and forever will be a family, and so that is my… that is how I'm coping. I'm coping with… with finding a way through to make sure that this somehow makes us stronger and closer.
This film is a combination of… of passions: Filmmaking as an art, your humanitarian work. In say, five years’ time, where would you like to see yourself? Where do you think you’ll be?
Five years time. Do I have all teenagers?
You have all teenagers at this stage.
At that stage, I hope just standing. Yeah, in five years’ time I would like to be travelling around the world visiting my children, hoping that they're just happy and doing really interesting things. And I imagine in many different parts of the world and I’ll be supporting them and everything I do I hope is that I represent something and I represent the right things to my children and give them the right sense of what they're capable of and… and… and the world as it should be seen, not… not through the prism of… of Hollywood or through a certain kind of life, but really take them into the world where they have a really good sense and become rounded people.
What do you really want to do when you wake up first thing in the morning?
Get through the day. It's been a difficult few months. Right now, I'm going through a moment where there's just everybody's in my room, two hamsters, two dogs and two children at the moment, so it's wonderful but it's a… yes so usually I just wake up trying to figure out who's going to get the dog out, who’s going to start the pancakes and did anybody brush their teeth?
KEY:
1 Becoming a Cambodian family
2 The war in Cambodia
3 Her humanitarian work started there, she became a mother in Cambodia
4 About her having an international family, about how American values should be about celebrating diversity and not being afraid of diversity
5 By using her voice to denounce the situation and raising her children to be tolerant
6 Family and loss
7 By making sure that her family is stronger and closer together
8 Travelling around the world visiting her children and supporting them and continuing doing things her children feel proud of
9 two hamsters, two dogs and two children
Mostrando entradas con la etiqueta Adoption. Mostrar todas las entradas
Mostrando entradas con la etiqueta Adoption. Mostrar todas las entradas
martes, 14 de marzo de 2017
sábado, 30 de enero de 2016
Reading test: I found my identical twin on YouTube
In this week's reading test we are going to use the article I found my identical twin on YouTube from The Guardian's feature Experience to practise the multiple choice reading comprehension task.
Read the text and choose the option A, B or C which best completes each sentence. 0 is an example.
I found my identical twin on YouTube
I’ve always known I was adopted. I was born in Busan, South Korea, but raised in France by parents who look nothing like me, with blond hair and blue eyes. My adoption records say I was born an only child to a very young, unmarried woman.
In December 2012 I was in London, studying fashion, when another student posted a YouTube video of me on my Facebook page. But I’ve never made a YouTube video in my life. When I watched it, I realised it wasn’t me at all, it was an American girl who looked exactly like me. I watched the video over and over again, looking for differences, but we were identical, except for her clothes and her accent. Her name wasn’t on the video, so I had no idea how to contact her.
A month later, I was on a bus in Hackney when a friend told me there was a new video online of my doppelganger. I immediately watched it on my phone. It was a trailer for a film, so I looked up the cast and finally had her name: Samantha Futerman. I found out she was also born in Korea and her birthday was 19 November 1987, the same as mine. I was so shocked I had to get off the bus. I called my mum and she said the words I’d been afraid to even think: “Do you think she might be your twin?”
I spent a long time composing a message to Samantha, telling her to check out my Facebook photos. When she wrote back, she sent a picture of her adoption records. We had been born in the same clinic. Sam wrote, “Dude, we’re totally twins!” We started exchanging photos and then had a conversation on Skype. I was so nervous. We had the same mannerisms, the same laugh, even our hairstyle was similar. We talked about everything and nothing for three hours. After that, every morning I’d check her Instagram feed to remind myself she was real.
Dr Nancy Segal, a specialist in twin studies at California State University, contacted us when Sam started working on a documentary about us. She offered us DNA testing, so we swabbed our cheeks together on Skype, and we agreed to meet.
Sam, her parents and two brothers came to meet me in London last May. I took my mum and some friends for support. I was incredibly nervous. When I first saw Sam, I was trying not to stare, but she just started laughing. I went over and awkwardly poked her in the head – I just wanted to make physical contact. I didn’t know what to do. I wasn’t aware how small I was. Her feet looked tiny and I realised mine must be, too, and suddenly I knew how I looked from behind.
We wanted to be by ourselves, so we went to have lunch, and on the way we kept stopping to look at our reflections in shop windows. It was like a parallel universe: she reacts to things the same way I do. We’re both awkward and have the same strange sense of humour. She doesn’t have to explain herself to me and she understands me perfectly, too. That night, we had a Skype call with Dr Segal, who gave us the DNA results. She said, “You should hug, you’re identical twins!” So we did. Around us, it was like somebody had won a football match. Everyone was cheering.
I would like to know why we were separated, but we still have no idea. Sam had tried to contact our birth mother before she knew about me, but the woman named on her adoption papers said Sam had the wrong person. I’m not worried about that, as I was never anxious to find my birth mother, and now I have Sam anyway. Sam lives in LA and I’m in France, so we meet when we can, spending special occasions together. We have discovered a love of surfing, so when I visit we often head to the beach. Our parents have become great friends and all say they have a second daughter.
I had a very happy childhood and never felt anything was missing, but there was one thing I wanted: to look like someone else in my family and to have that physical connection to someone. But what could be better than an identical twin? I’ll always have her in my life now.
0 Example:
Anaïs found out she was adopted
A because she made her own deductions.
B through the adoption records.
C through her adoptive parents.
1 In December 2012
A An American girl posted a video of Anaïs.
B Anaïs posted a video on YouTube.
C Anaïs was told about her online video.
2 In Hackney
A Anaïs discovered all the details about her sister.
B Anaïs’ realized that she might have a sister.
C Anaïs saw a film where her sister played.
3 Anaïs
A didn’t take the initiative to contact her sister.
B received a document of her sister’s adoption records.
C sent her sister photos eventually.
4 When the two sisters finally met Anaïs
A hugged her sister.
B kept staring at her sister.
C realized what she really looked like.
5 On their first day together the two sisters
A behaved similarly.
B didn’t want to be alone.
C were at ease.
6 Anaïs
A has made a dream come true.
B is still trying to find her biological parents.
C sees her sister very often.
Photograph: John Francis Peters for the Guardian
KEY: 1C 2B 3C 4C 5A 6A
Read the text and choose the option A, B or C which best completes each sentence. 0 is an example.
I found my identical twin on YouTube
I’ve always known I was adopted. I was born in Busan, South Korea, but raised in France by parents who look nothing like me, with blond hair and blue eyes. My adoption records say I was born an only child to a very young, unmarried woman.
In December 2012 I was in London, studying fashion, when another student posted a YouTube video of me on my Facebook page. But I’ve never made a YouTube video in my life. When I watched it, I realised it wasn’t me at all, it was an American girl who looked exactly like me. I watched the video over and over again, looking for differences, but we were identical, except for her clothes and her accent. Her name wasn’t on the video, so I had no idea how to contact her.
A month later, I was on a bus in Hackney when a friend told me there was a new video online of my doppelganger. I immediately watched it on my phone. It was a trailer for a film, so I looked up the cast and finally had her name: Samantha Futerman. I found out she was also born in Korea and her birthday was 19 November 1987, the same as mine. I was so shocked I had to get off the bus. I called my mum and she said the words I’d been afraid to even think: “Do you think she might be your twin?”
I spent a long time composing a message to Samantha, telling her to check out my Facebook photos. When she wrote back, she sent a picture of her adoption records. We had been born in the same clinic. Sam wrote, “Dude, we’re totally twins!” We started exchanging photos and then had a conversation on Skype. I was so nervous. We had the same mannerisms, the same laugh, even our hairstyle was similar. We talked about everything and nothing for three hours. After that, every morning I’d check her Instagram feed to remind myself she was real.
Dr Nancy Segal, a specialist in twin studies at California State University, contacted us when Sam started working on a documentary about us. She offered us DNA testing, so we swabbed our cheeks together on Skype, and we agreed to meet.
Sam, her parents and two brothers came to meet me in London last May. I took my mum and some friends for support. I was incredibly nervous. When I first saw Sam, I was trying not to stare, but she just started laughing. I went over and awkwardly poked her in the head – I just wanted to make physical contact. I didn’t know what to do. I wasn’t aware how small I was. Her feet looked tiny and I realised mine must be, too, and suddenly I knew how I looked from behind.
We wanted to be by ourselves, so we went to have lunch, and on the way we kept stopping to look at our reflections in shop windows. It was like a parallel universe: she reacts to things the same way I do. We’re both awkward and have the same strange sense of humour. She doesn’t have to explain herself to me and she understands me perfectly, too. That night, we had a Skype call with Dr Segal, who gave us the DNA results. She said, “You should hug, you’re identical twins!” So we did. Around us, it was like somebody had won a football match. Everyone was cheering.
I would like to know why we were separated, but we still have no idea. Sam had tried to contact our birth mother before she knew about me, but the woman named on her adoption papers said Sam had the wrong person. I’m not worried about that, as I was never anxious to find my birth mother, and now I have Sam anyway. Sam lives in LA and I’m in France, so we meet when we can, spending special occasions together. We have discovered a love of surfing, so when I visit we often head to the beach. Our parents have become great friends and all say they have a second daughter.
I had a very happy childhood and never felt anything was missing, but there was one thing I wanted: to look like someone else in my family and to have that physical connection to someone. But what could be better than an identical twin? I’ll always have her in my life now.
0 Example:
Anaïs found out she was adopted
A because she made her own deductions.
B through the adoption records.
C through her adoptive parents.
1 In December 2012
A An American girl posted a video of Anaïs.
B Anaïs posted a video on YouTube.
C Anaïs was told about her online video.
2 In Hackney
A Anaïs discovered all the details about her sister.
B Anaïs’ realized that she might have a sister.
C Anaïs saw a film where her sister played.
3 Anaïs
A didn’t take the initiative to contact her sister.
B received a document of her sister’s adoption records.
C sent her sister photos eventually.
4 When the two sisters finally met Anaïs
A hugged her sister.
B kept staring at her sister.
C realized what she really looked like.
5 On their first day together the two sisters
A behaved similarly.
B didn’t want to be alone.
C were at ease.
6 Anaïs
A has made a dream come true.
B is still trying to find her biological parents.
C sees her sister very often.
KEY: 1C 2B 3C 4C 5A 6A
miércoles, 19 de noviembre de 2014
Talking point: Adoption
Our talking point this week is adoption. Before getting together with the members of your conversation group, go over the questions below so that ideas flow more easily with you meet up with your friends and you can work out vocabulary problems beforehand.
My parents have always sat me down from, from the age of two, from when I could talk really, and really sort of said you’re adopted, you know, told me what it’s about, so when I’ve always had relevant information given to me throughout the years.
Being adopted now feels no different from being normal because I have a family, so it’s great.
Did you, did you not ever feel like you didn’t have anyone to speak to anything?
It’s not been a huge issue for me actually, no, because I’ve never actually felt it’s been a bad thing, I’ve always seen the positive side of it, I’m not sure how it has been, for you has it been the same?
You know, it’s been different for me like before we had the Talk Adoption Group I literally, I felt so lonely like I didn’t have really anyone to talk to about it, so I don’t know, I just thought maybe you might have felt the same because I didn’t know anyone in Cardiff who was adopted, I just, I didn’t realize there were so many people out there.
I knew about the adoption but my family has always put positive on it, so I’ve never really seen the downside of being adopted.
Did you not have like, like in primary school I had this one time when they asked me to do like a family tree and I didn’t have any photos of myself and I felt really bad. Did you ever have that?
I have had photos of myself when I was quite small, I mean a small baby but not when I was like newly born, or anything like that, so it kinda started if on the family tree it kind of started from a few months old and then it kind of escalated from there really, so I kind of had a family tree but wasn’t from the very, very beginning.
Yeah, because I didn’t make one at all because I was told in primary school like because I didn’t have picture, I couldn’t take part.
Oh!
I know, it’s a bit harsh.
Yeah, that was a bit harsh.
I know, I felt, you know I was younger so I saw, I just, you know went along with it.
I think that’s the thing when you’re younger. You don’t quite understand why people are saying things like that, why people are acting towards you in that way. When you get older, you kind of understand it a lot more and you understand.
And the people do as well I find.
Yeah, yeah, I mean, to you you’re completely normal and I think to other people who have a family from the start, I think that’s kind of normal to them and then adoption is normal to us, so it works two ways, and I think that in-between there’s a kind of misunderstanding possibly with them. I mean, I’ve really never been asked the question, would you want to contact them, would you want to do this, and I mean, if I’m gonna answer that now, it would be not really, because I have a family, they’ve been there for me all my life and I don’t really think I need anyone else intruding in the kind of happy family I have now.
Yeah, well I see what you mean like but for me it’s different because a lot of my best friends I’ve told, like they do ask me like quite a lot what you gonna do when you’re 18, like you know, like which is fine for me because it helps me think about it, if I’m not thinking about it I wouldn’t know what I would do, so for that question at the moment I think I am definitely thinking about like having a look at my files and…
Yeah, of course.
… and then I’m gonna like make a decision on that whether I meet my birth parents, but at the moment I think I would like to because I feel like there is something missing and I’d like to see what they look like and things like that.
I think it’s nice to kind of know there is a bit of explanation in the files, but I’m not sure whether I’d actually want to have a look at them.
Really?
Because you’ve always got that chance that it may not be as exciting as you thought it would be, it may, might disappoint you, it may have something a bit kind of negative and I think I might kind of be like, well this is kind of weird because the people who actually gave birth to me weren’t ideal and I think, I don’t know, it’s, it’s a strange, strange thing, actually. I’m inquisitive to see what will be in the files. Whether I’d actually end up meeting them personally, I don’t really know.
- What can couples who are unable to have children do to resolve their problem?
- Would you adopt even if you could have, or already have, your own children?
- Why might some couples prefer to have children that are biologically their own? Why do other couples choose to adopt?
- If a couple wants to adopt a child, do you think they have a right to choose the child's age,sex and race?
- When should parents tell the child that he/she was adopted?
- Where possible, should the adoptive parents maintain contact with the natural parents?
- Should the adoptive parents try to let their child be interested in his/her natural cultural background?
- Why do you think some people object to international adoptions?
- Why do some couples volunteer to be foster families (to look after a child for a period of time when the child's natural parents have problem or are in jail)? Would you volunteer to be a foster parent?
My parents have always sat me down from, from the age of two, from when I could talk really, and really sort of said you’re adopted, you know, told me what it’s about, so when I’ve always had relevant information given to me throughout the years.
Being adopted now feels no different from being normal because I have a family, so it’s great.
Did you, did you not ever feel like you didn’t have anyone to speak to anything?
It’s not been a huge issue for me actually, no, because I’ve never actually felt it’s been a bad thing, I’ve always seen the positive side of it, I’m not sure how it has been, for you has it been the same?
You know, it’s been different for me like before we had the Talk Adoption Group I literally, I felt so lonely like I didn’t have really anyone to talk to about it, so I don’t know, I just thought maybe you might have felt the same because I didn’t know anyone in Cardiff who was adopted, I just, I didn’t realize there were so many people out there.
I knew about the adoption but my family has always put positive on it, so I’ve never really seen the downside of being adopted.
Did you not have like, like in primary school I had this one time when they asked me to do like a family tree and I didn’t have any photos of myself and I felt really bad. Did you ever have that?
I have had photos of myself when I was quite small, I mean a small baby but not when I was like newly born, or anything like that, so it kinda started if on the family tree it kind of started from a few months old and then it kind of escalated from there really, so I kind of had a family tree but wasn’t from the very, very beginning.
Yeah, because I didn’t make one at all because I was told in primary school like because I didn’t have picture, I couldn’t take part.
Oh!
I know, it’s a bit harsh.
Yeah, that was a bit harsh.
I know, I felt, you know I was younger so I saw, I just, you know went along with it.
I think that’s the thing when you’re younger. You don’t quite understand why people are saying things like that, why people are acting towards you in that way. When you get older, you kind of understand it a lot more and you understand.
And the people do as well I find.
Yeah, yeah, I mean, to you you’re completely normal and I think to other people who have a family from the start, I think that’s kind of normal to them and then adoption is normal to us, so it works two ways, and I think that in-between there’s a kind of misunderstanding possibly with them. I mean, I’ve really never been asked the question, would you want to contact them, would you want to do this, and I mean, if I’m gonna answer that now, it would be not really, because I have a family, they’ve been there for me all my life and I don’t really think I need anyone else intruding in the kind of happy family I have now.
Yeah, well I see what you mean like but for me it’s different because a lot of my best friends I’ve told, like they do ask me like quite a lot what you gonna do when you’re 18, like you know, like which is fine for me because it helps me think about it, if I’m not thinking about it I wouldn’t know what I would do, so for that question at the moment I think I am definitely thinking about like having a look at my files and…
Yeah, of course.
… and then I’m gonna like make a decision on that whether I meet my birth parents, but at the moment I think I would like to because I feel like there is something missing and I’d like to see what they look like and things like that.
I think it’s nice to kind of know there is a bit of explanation in the files, but I’m not sure whether I’d actually want to have a look at them.
Really?
Because you’ve always got that chance that it may not be as exciting as you thought it would be, it may, might disappoint you, it may have something a bit kind of negative and I think I might kind of be like, well this is kind of weird because the people who actually gave birth to me weren’t ideal and I think, I don’t know, it’s, it’s a strange, strange thing, actually. I’m inquisitive to see what will be in the files. Whether I’d actually end up meeting them personally, I don’t really know.
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