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自分が読んで興味深く感じた英文記事を中心に取り上げる予定です

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Above & Beyond

 
雑誌TimeでAbove & Beyondという不定期連載が始まったようです。以下のような説明があります。

In the first of an occasional series, we look at a woman's bid to use soccer as a force for change

BeyondするんだなんてTOEIC学習者が使っていますが、Above & Beyondなんて表現もできるんですね。こちらの方が圧倒的な感じがでています。

さて、紹介されていたのはインドで女子サッカーをやっているBhabani Mundaさんです。女子がそんなことをするなという地元や家族の反対を押し切り、自らクラブハウスまで作って奮闘していく様子が描かれています。国際政治や科学的発見の大きなニュースも勉強になりますが、地球の片隅で奮闘している人を紹介する今回のような記事は自分も頑張ろうと勇気づけてもらえます。

Best Foot Forward
By Nilanjana Bhowmick / Kalchini Monday, Sept. 30, 2013

Words checked = [926]
Words in Oxford 3000™ = [86%]

A slight figure in jeans, backpack slung over her shoulder, runs up and down the touchline, shouting instructions to 11 girls chasing a ball. Loud Bollywood music wafts from the edges of the pitch, where cheering spectators have taken shelter under tents in the late monsoon rain. It is Aug. 15, 2013 — the 66th anniversary of India's independence. The theme for the local celebration is women's empowerment, and that's what Dooars XI, a women's soccer team from Jalpaiguri district of West Bengal state, is playing for. "When I see they are struggling, I join the game," says Bhabani Munda, the team's player-coach. "Otherwise, I like to cheer them from the sidelines."

Munda is not one to seek the spotlight. But this 24-year-old has been quietly challenging the social norms in West Bengal's hilly tea estates since the 1990s, when she got together with a few friends to form the area's first women's soccer team. A player since she was 7, Munda wanted to do something uplifting for local girls who, as often is the case in India, lag behind males economically and socially. UNICEF estimates that nearly 55% of women in West Bengal are married off before they turn 18, higher than the national average of 43%. Female literacy in Munda's Jalpaiguri district, one of India's most backward, is 52%, compared with 73% for men. "Women's place in society in these areas has always been shaky," says Munda. "[The team] is trying to bring about a change in this attitude through our example."


何かを変革していくには、嫌がらせに屈せず、毅然として立ち向かう事が大事だとこの記事を読むと実感できます。

最後の部分を紹介してしまいますが、生活費とクラブハウス建設費を稼ぐため、スナックを販売しているようで、練習終わりの夜にスナック作りに励んでいるようです。

Finding money to keep the team going is getting harder. In addition to covering daily expenses, Munda has to repay a $900 loan that she took out to build a clubhouse, where she also sells tea and snacks to supplement the team's income. That's why her day doesn't end with the closing of the clubhouse shutters. Munda lives in a small, thatched two-room cottage with three teammates. From 9 p.m. until midnight, amid the trophies Dooars XI has won, Munda makes snacks to sell the next day. If she sells them all, she can make about $2. "Every little thing counts," she says. "I don't know what the future holds. I don't know how long I can run. But I am never giving up."

最後にあった彼女の言葉にはぐっときますね。

"Every little thing counts," she says. "I don't know what the future holds. I don't know how long I can run. But I am never giving up."
(こつこつやることが大切。将来がどうなるか分からないし、いつまで走れるかわからないけど、絶対あきらめないから)
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Yuta

Author:Yuta
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