Barack Obama's Inspirational Speech with Subtitles || One of the best English speeches ever 2023 — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00when I was young my family lived
2. 0:02overseas uh I lived in Indonesia for a
3. 0:05few years and my mother she didn't have
4. 0:07the money to send me where all the
5. 0:09American kids went to school but she
6. 0:11thought it was important for me to keep
7. 0:13up with an American education so she
8. 0:16decided to teach me extra lessons
9. 0:19herself Monday through Friday but
10. 0:22because she had to go to work the only
11. 0:24time she could do it was at 4:30 in the
12. 0:26morning but whenever I'd complain my
13. 0:28mother would just give me one looks and
14. 0:30she'd say this is no picnic for me
15. 0:32either
16. 0:35Buster so I know that some of you are
17. 0:37still adjusting to being back at school
18. 0:39but I'm here today because I have
19. 0:41something important to discuss with you
20. 0:45my father left my family when I was 2
21. 0:47years old and I was raised by a single
22. 0:49mom who had to work and who struggled at
23. 0:52times to pay the bills and wasn't always
24. 0:54able to give us the things that other
25. 0:55kids had there were times when I missed
26. 0:59having a father in my life there were
27. 1:01times when I was lonely and I felt like
28. 1:03I didn't fit in so I wasn't always as
29. 1:06focused as I should have been on school
30. 1:08and I did some things that I'm not proud
31. 1:09of and I got in more trouble than I
32. 1:11should have and my life could have
33. 1:14easily taken a turn for the
34. 1:17worst but I was I was lucky I got a lot
35. 1:21of Second Chances and I had the
36. 1:23opportunity to go to college and law
37. 1:24school and follow my
38. 1:27dreams my wife our First Lady Michelle
39. 1:29Obama mama she has a similar story
40. 1:32neither of her parents had gone to
41. 1:34college and they didn't have a lot of
42. 1:36money but they worked hard and she
43. 1:38worked hard so that she could go to the
44. 1:40best schools in this
45. 1:42country some of you might not have those
46. 1:44advantages maybe you don't have adults
47. 1:47in your life who give you the support
48. 1:49that you need maybe someone in your
49. 1:51family has lost their job and there's
50. 1:53not enough money to go around maybe you
51. 1:55live in a neighborhood where you don't
52. 1:57feel safe or have friends who are Pres
53. 2:00in you to do things you know aren't
54. 2:02right maybe you could be a great writer
55. 2:05maybe even good enough to write a book
56. 2:07or articles in a newspaper but you might
57. 2:10not know it until you write that English
58. 2:13paper uh that English class paper that's
59. 2:15assigned to you maybe you could be an
60. 2:18innovator or an inventor maybe even good
61. 2:20enough to come up with the next iPhone
62. 2:22or the new medicine or vaccine but you
63. 2:25might not know it until you do your
64. 2:27project for your science class
65. 2:30maybe you could be a mayor or a senator
66. 2:33or a Supreme Court Justice but you might
67. 2:36not know that until you join student
68. 2:38government or the debate
69. 2:41team and no matter what you want to do
70. 2:44with your life I guarantee that you'll
71. 2:46need an education to do it you want to
72. 2:48be a doctor or a teacher or a police
73. 2:50officer you want to be a nurse or an
74. 2:53architect a lawyer or a member of our
75. 2:55military you're going to need a good
76. 2:57education for every single one of those
77. 2:59careers
78. 3:02you cannot drop out of school and just
79. 3:04drop into a good
80. 3:06job you've got to train for it and work
81. 3:09for it and learn for it and this isn't
82. 3:13just important for your own life and
83. 3:14your own
84. 3:15future what you make of your education
85. 3:18will decide nothing less than the future
86. 3:20of this country the future of America
87. 3:23depends on
88. 3:25you what you're learning in school today
89. 3:27will determine whether we as a nation
90. 3:30can meet our greatest challenges in the
91. 3:33future you'll need the knowledge and
92. 3:35problem solving skills you learn in
93. 3:37science and math to cure diseases like
94. 3:40cancer and AIDS and to develop new
95. 3:41Energy Technologies and protect our
96. 3:44environment you'll need the insights and
97. 3:46critical thinking skills you gain in
98. 3:48history and social studies to fight
99. 3:50poverty and homelessness crime and
100. 3:52discrimination and make our nation more
101. 3:54fair and more
102. 3:56free you'll need the creativity and
103. 3:58Ingenuity you develop in all your
104. 4:00classes to build new companies that will
105. 4:02create new jobs and boost our economy we
106. 4:05need every single one of you to develop
107. 4:07your talents and your skills and your
108. 4:09intellect so you can help us old folks
109. 4:12solve our most difficult
110. 4:15problems if you don't do that if you
111. 4:18quit on school you're not just quitting
112. 4:21on yourself you're quitting on your
113. 4:23country I know it's not always easy to
114. 4:25do well in
115. 4:27school I know a lot of you have
116. 4:29challenges in your your lives right now
117. 4:31that can make it hard to focus on your
118. 4:32school
119. 4:33work I get it I know what it's like but
120. 4:37at the end of the day the circumstances
121. 4:40of your life what you look like where
122. 4:43you come from how much money you have
123. 4:45what you've got going on at home none of
124. 4:48that is an excuse for neglecting your
125. 4:50homework or having a bad attitude in
126. 4:52school that's no excuse for talking back
127. 4:55to your teacher or cutting class or
128. 4:57dropping out of school there is no
129. 4:59excuse for not
130. 5:02trying where you are right now doesn't
131. 5:05have to determine where you'll end up no
132. 5:08one's written your destiny for you
133. 5:10because here in America you write your
134. 5:12own destiny you make your own
135. 5:15future that's what young people like you
136. 5:17are doing every day all across
137. 5:20America that's why today I'm calling on
138. 5:22each of you to set your own goals for
139. 5:24your education and do everything you can
140. 5:26to meet
141. 5:27them your goal can be something as
142. 5:29simple as doing all your homework paying
143. 5:32attention in class or spending some time
144. 5:35each day reading a
145. 5:38book maybe you'll decide to get involved
146. 5:40in an extracurricular activity or
147. 5:42volunteer in your
148. 5:43community maybe you'll decide to stand
149. 5:46up for kids who are being teased or
150. 5:48bullied because of who they are or how
151. 5:50they look because you believe like I do
152. 5:54that all young people deserve a safe
153. 5:56environment to study and learn
154. 5:59maybe you'll decide to take better care
155. 6:01of yourself so you could be more ready
156. 6:03to learn but whatever you resolve to do
157. 6:07I want you to commit to it I want you to
158. 6:09really work at
159. 6:10it I know that sometimes you get that
160. 6:13sense from TV that you can be rich and
161. 6:15successful without any hard work that
162. 6:17your ticket to success is through
163. 6:19rapping or basketball or being a reality
164. 6:22TV
165. 6:24star chances are you're not going to be
166. 6:26any of those
167. 6:28things the truth truth is being
168. 6:30successful is
169. 6:33hard you won't love every subject that
170. 6:36you
171. 6:37study you won't click with every teacher
172. 6:40that you
173. 6:41have not every homework assignment will
174. 6:45seem completely relevant to your life
175. 6:47right at this
176. 6:49minute and you won't necessarily succeed
177. 6:52at everything the first time you
178. 6:55try that's
179. 6:57okay some of the most successful people
180. 6:59in the world are the ones who've had the
181. 7:01most
182. 7:02failures JK
183. 7:04Rollins who wrote Harry
184. 7:07Potter her first Harry Potter book was
185. 7:09rejected 12 times before it was finally
186. 7:13published Michael Jordan was cut from
187. 7:16his high school basketball
188. 7:18team he lost hundreds of games and
189. 7:20missed thousands of shots during his
190. 7:23career but he once said I have failed
191. 7:25over and over and over again in my life
192. 7:28and that's why I sued succeed these
193. 7:31people succeeded because they understood
194. 7:33that you can't let your failures Define
195. 7:36you you have to let your failures teach
196. 7:39you you have to let them show you what
197. 7:42to do differently the next
198. 7:44time so if you get into trouble that
199. 7:46doesn't mean you're a troublemaker it
200. 7:49means you need to try harder to act
201. 7:52right if you get a bad grade that
202. 7:54doesn't mean you're stupid it just means
203. 7:56you need to spend more time studying
204. 8:00no one's born being good at all things
205. 8:04you become good at things through hard
206. 8:07work you're not a varsity athlete the
207. 8:10first time you play a new sport you
208. 8:11don't hit every note the first time you
209. 8:13sing a song you've got to practice the
210. 8:16same principle applies to your
211. 8:19schoolwork you might have to do a math
212. 8:21problem a few times before you get it
213. 8:23right you might have to read something a
214. 8:25few times before you understand it you
215. 8:27definitely have to do a few drafts of a
216. 8:29paper before it's good enough to hand
217. 8:32in don't be afraid to ask questions
218. 8:35don't be afraid to ask for help when you
219. 8:37need it I do that every
220. 8:39day asking for help isn't a sign of
221. 8:42weakness it's a sign of strength because
222. 8:44it shows you have the courage to admit
223. 8:46when you don't know something and that
224. 8:48then allows you to learn something
225. 8:50new so find an adult that you trust a
226. 8:54parent a grandparent or a teacher a
227. 8:56coach or a counselor and ask them to
228. 8:58help you stay on track to meet your
229. 9:02goals and even when you're struggling
230. 9:04even when you're discouraged and you
231. 9:06feel like other people have given up on
232. 9:09you don't ever give up on
233. 9:12yourself because when you give up on
234. 9:14yourself you give up on your
235. 9:17country the story of America isn't about
236. 9:19people who quit when things got tough
237. 9:22it's about people who kept going who
238. 9:23tried harder who loved their country too
239. 9:25much to do anything less than their
240. 9:28best it's the story of students who sat
241. 9:31where you sit 250 years ago and went on
242. 9:34to wage a revolution and they founded
243. 9:36this nation young
244. 9:38people students who sat where you sit 75
245. 9:41years ago who overcame a depression and
246. 9:43won a World War who fought for civil
247. 9:46rights and put a man on the
248. 9:48moon students who sat where you sit 20
249. 9:51years ago who founded Google and Twitter
250. 9:53and Facebook and change the way we
251. 9:55communicate with each other so today I
252. 9:58want to ask all of you what's your
253. 10:01contribution going to be what problems
254. 10:04are you going to
255. 10:05solve what discoveries will you
256. 10:09make what will a president who comes
257. 10:11here in 20 or 50 or 100 years say about
258. 10:13what all of you did for this
259. 10:17country you know your families your
260. 10:19teachers and I are doing everything we
261. 10:21can to make sure you have the education
262. 10:22you need to answer these
263. 10:25questions I'm working hard to fix up
264. 10:27your classrooms and get you the books
265. 10:28and the equipment and the computers you
266. 10:30need to
267. 10:31learn but you've got to do your part
268. 10:34too so I expect all of you to get
269. 10:37serious this
270. 10:39year I expect you to put your best
271. 10:41effort into everything you do I expect
272. 10:45great things from each of
273. 10:47you so don't let us down don't let your
274. 10:51family down or your country down most of
275. 10:53all don't let yourself
276. 10:56down make us all proud
277. 11:06[Music]