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ENTERPRISING WOMEN

 

United Nations DPI

 

US Congress woman helps give a voice to new Americans - Loretta Sanchez

Loretta Sanchez is very proud when she talks about her father. “My father came to the US from Mexico and worked at a rubber and plastics factory,” she says. “Now, he owns a rubber and plastics factory. He’s an example of what the American Dream can do.” Like her father, Loretta Sanchez is an American success story, too. Last autumn, Sanchez was elected to the US Congress.

Education is very important to Sanchez. She has six brothers and sisters. One is a lawyer and three are engineers. “My parents kept education the focus of our home,” Sanchez says. “They made sure we did our homework. They were also very involved in our lives – being scout master, little league manager and den mother.”

She learned at a very early age to like learning and develop important skills. That is why she is successful today. She went on to graduate from college and get a master’s degree in business.

Sanchez knows from her own family’s experience that being an immigrant can be a wonderful thing. The combination of her parents’ Mexican culture and American values has given her a strong background. “I never forget my life-long values of placing family first, focusing on education and treating everyone as equals,” she says. “Because of these values, I never have to think twice before a vote in Congress. I simply vote for what is right.”

Source: New English Digest - Author: Bill Henning

"You have to change the way you see the world" - Jo Dickie, Malaysia

I want to set up my own marketing agency. I have taken a break in my career. I am using the time to build up my design skills and my understanding of what makes marketing work from a visual point of view.

Sometimes standing back from the everyday pressure of business is the only way to really get ahead and change the way you see the world.

I got married just before I left the UK for Malaysia. My husband and I decided to come to Kuala Lumpur. We thought it would be a real adventure to cross the world and experience life from a completely different cultural point of view. As I was unable to work, I started a course at art college. I found it really strange to be not only the oldest, but also the biggest student in the class - and the only one who could not speak in Bahasa Malaysia. Everyone was wonderful and the whole class ended up being run in English just to make me feel at home. That’s the kind of human value I’d like to be able to bring to my work - no matter where I find myself in the world!

Source: New English Digest - Author: Sara Hall

"In New York City people always need apartments" - Lan Lan Wang, New York

Looking for an apartment in New York City can be a full-time job. Lan Lan Wang found a way to make it easier. In 1993, she started Manhattan Listing Xpress (MLX). It is a service for the rental and sale of apartments. New Yorkers can now find an apartment more easily and also avoid the large fees that real estate brokers charge for finding an apartment.

Wang didn’t discover the problems with New York City house hunting until she moved there. She was born in Cleveland and is one of four children of Chinese immigrants. The family left their homeland after the Communist Party came to power in China. “My father and mother were studying in the US during the Chinese Communist takeover and they didn’t go back. We wanted to adjust, so we immersed ourselves in American culture,” she says.

Wang, 44, remembers being the only Asian in her grade school. It wasn’t until she went to college that Wang
rediscovered her Chinese heritage.

“My parents always told me that we had to do better,” she says. Wang listened carefully to her parents and she reinvented herself. After graduating from Smith College, she earned a master’s degree in business from Harvard University. She started her business in 1993 with the help of one assistant. Today MLX has 15 employees. There is a saying many people use: “The only things that will always be there are death and taxes.” In New York City, people say, “The only things that will always be there are death, taxes and people looking for apartments.”

Source: New English Digest - Author: Mario Quirce

GLOSSARY

proud: feeling self-respect (orgullosa)
owns: has, possesses (posee, es dueño de)
little league:
American baseball league for boys between 8 and 12 years old (equipo de béisbol).
den mother: a woman who supervises a den of Cub Scouts
(líder femenino de un grupo de Scouts Junior)
background: previous experience (experiencia  previa)
to set up: to establish (establecer)

to build up: to start, to grow (para desarrollar)
Bahasa Malaysia
: the Malaysian language (el idioma malayo)
ended up: finally was (terminó) 
looking for: searching (buscar)
avoid: prevent from happening (evitar)
takeover: a sudden and decisive change of government illegally or by forcetake control of (apropiación)
reinvented: made herself into a different, better person ("se reinventó")

 

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