jueves, 1 de diciembre de 2011

Talking point: Who is your role model?

A few weeks ago The New York Times invited readers to comment on the topic Who is your role model?

They refered to the figure of Steve Jobs as a sprinboard to kindle this debate, and they used an article by Jan Hoffman on singer Kelly Clarkson to illustrate the topic.

So read Mr Hoffman's article to gain some insight into the talking point and then think about the questions below before you get together with your English-speaking friends to discuss it.
  • Do you have any role models?
  • Is Kelly Clarkson, or Steve Jobs, among them?
  • How have your role models influenced your life?
  • Is your role model someone you aspire to be like when you get older? 
  • Have you ever been disappointed by news about a person you admire?
  • Are there people who view you as a role model?
  • If so, does this honor bring extra responsibilities or affect your actions?
  • Do you want to be a role model?
  • If so, for whom?

Gaining time
When you talk, ideas don't always come to mind immediately, and we need some thinking time to collect our thoughts.

The phrases below may be of some use to give you some extra seconds until you get inspiration.

Well, …
Let me see now…
You know
You see
Actually
As a matter of fact …
In fact, …
Hang on, please.
Let me think for a second, the thing about ...