Riz ahmed class vocab

1. Riz Ahmed’s addressing the British
Parliament:
Write here all rhetorical repetitions
used in the
speech:
Important / pressing / urgent
questions
Seen / heard / represented
Narrative / story / history
What is the leitmotif of the
presentation/address? REPRESENT
(the concept is mentioned more
than 15 times
throughout the video)
We both have a big hand in
shaping culture...
 A role to play in
structuring / composing
culture

2. we've been taking large strides
in the right
direction, find other nouns
collocating with "in the
right direction"  steps
☐
sometimes too incremental, 
as opposed to exponential, one
step at a time
sometimes not really
seizing the bull by its horns 
same thing in French and
Spanish 
but we have fallen
short of the mark...  narrowly
miss / fail
☐
They retreat to other fringe
narratives...  separate from

3. mainstream / marginal narratives:
stories
☐
As thousands of qualified doctors
and nurses
huddle on our shores as
refugees...  se blottissent les
uns contre les autres sur nos
plages…
☐
back to our tried and tested
formula of all-white  éprouvé,
qui a fait ses preuves
period drama...  historical
fiction
☐
a new national story that
embraces  englobe and

4. empowers  gives power to as
many of us as possible rather than
excluding us and alienating large
sections of the
population...
☐
swimming against the current,
going against
the grain...  nager à contre-
courant, à rebrousse-poil
What other rhetorical device is he
using here?
and here: paraphrasing
it's an added extra, a frill  frou-
frou / volant, a luxury.
☐
a benchmark  reference
against which everything is
measured ☐

5. political polarization, economic
disenfranchisement 
désintérêt… ☐
systematic scapegoating 
désigner comme bouc-
émissaires of certain minorities ☐
In their  gender neutral mind
everyone thinks they're the
good
guy.
☐
number two on the list of
grievances  griefs, reproches
was the
depiction  la façon dont ils
sont dépeints / how they are
depicted or portrayed of
Muslims in the media.
☐

6. ...hero or heroine taking on a
massive challenge  relevant un
défi,
insurmountable odds  avec
d’infimes possibilités de
gagner right? Through a steep
learning curve  processus
d’apprentissage
relevé/raide/pentu, some hard
lessons and noble
sacrifices it's just about making it
through (réussir), save
the day  sauver la situation
☐
The power of stories to allow us to
relate to  s’identifier à
experiences that don't resemble
our own is
phenomenal and...

7. ☐
Our community coheres  is
coherent / works together only
within the bounds (limits or
frontiers) of
our imagination, as far as our
imagination will
stretch. I believe we really need to
step up to the
plate (asumir
responsabilidades / recoger el
testigo / prendre les devants),
and to push our imagination to be
as broad
as our community actually is.
☐
What it showed is that if black
minority ethnic
professional workers were
afforded / granted promotion at

8. the same rate and with the same
frequency as
their white counterparts
(homologues / peers) it could
add 24 billion
pounds to our economy each year.
☐
I think we need to take a leaf out
the
book of  prendre exemple sur
our music industry. Drum & Base,
Grime, Dubstep: these are world-
conquering
musical genres, that are only
possible by
tapping into  connecting to
our multiculturalism.
☐

9. this is about the bottom line
(profits): the creative
industries make up  constitute
7% of our GDP, second only
to (juste derrière) the financial
services industries...
☐
got into a private school, on a
scholarship  grant, bourse
d’études, where
my acting was nurtured 
enrichi, encouragé... ☐
West End theatre producer Thelma
Holt saw me in
a play in Oxford, offered to pay,
make up for  compensate
some of that gap (écart) in fees
(frais d’inscription). I'm indebted
 redevable to her to

10. this day
☐
That's a big run of luck  buena
racha, and I shudder to think 
je tremble à l’idée que…
about all the people who felt it was
just one of
those hurdles  haies, obstacles
☐
It's only when government steps
in  intervenes to set the
rules of the game that you will
foster  fomenter true
innovation...
☐
...and it brings a massive boon 
a timely and unexpected
benefit to how we're seen
around the world ☐

11. We're at this critical moment, let's
not allow future
generations to look back and
judge us when
centrifugal forces were
threatening to tear us
apart, because they really are.
☐