Name: TEDx】注意你的語言。帕特里夏-瑞安在TEDxDubai 2010上的演講 (【TEDx】Mind your language: Patricia Ryan at TEDxDubai 2010)
Uploaded: 2021-01-14T05:27:17.000Z
Duration: 10 min 25 s
Description: 【看影片學英語】數萬部 YouTube 影片，搭配英漢字典即點即查，輕鬆掌握單字發音與用法，長久累積看電影不必再看字幕。

Well, actually I hope for a while longer yet.

I have been living and teaching in the Gulf for over 30 years

and in that time I have seen a lot of changes.

That statistic is quite shocking, and I want to talk to you today

about language loss and the globalization of English.

who was teaching English to adults in Abu Dhabi

and one fine day, she decided to take them into the garden

But it was she who ended up learning all the Arabic words

for their local plants, as well as their uses:

medicinal uses, cosmetics, cooking, herbal.

How did those students get all that knowledge?

Of course, from their grandparents and even their great-grandparents.

It's not necessary to tell you how important it is

to be able to communicate across generations.

But sadly, today, languages are dying at an unprecedented rate.

I don't know how they know that but that's what they say, right?

At the same time, English is the undisputed global language.

Could that be a connection? Well, I don't know.

But I do know that I have seen a lot of changes.

When I first came out to the Gulf, I came to Kuwait,

in the days when it was still a hardship post.

Actually, not that long ago; that is a little bit too early.

But nevertheless, I was recruited by the British Council

and we were the first non-Muslims to teach in the state schools there, in Kuwait.

because the government wanted to modernize the country,

and to empower the citizens through education.

And of course, the UK benefited from some of that lovely oil wealth.

This is the major change that I have seen:

from being a mutually beneficial practice

to becoming a massive international business

No longer just a foreign language on the school curriculum,

and no longer the sole domain of mother England.

for every English-speaking nation on Earth.

according to the latest world university rankings,

is to be found in the universities of the UK and the US.

So, everybody wants to have an English education, naturally.

But if you are not a native speaker, you have to pass a test.

Perhaps you have a computer scientist who is a genius.

Would he need the same language as a lawyer, for example?

We, English teachers, reject them all the time.

We put a stop sign, and we stop them in their tracks;

they can't pursue their dream any longer till they get English.

would I stop him from entering my British university?

We, English teachers, are the gatekeepers,

to give too much power to a narrow segment of society,

maybe the barrier would be too universal.

"What about the research? It's all in English."

It feeds the English requirement, and so, it goes on.

If you think about the Islamic Golden Age,

— there were lots of translation then —

and then it was translated on into the Germanic languages of Europe,

and so light shone upon the Dark Ages of Europe.

— I am not against teaching English, all you English teachers out there —

I am fine with it, I love it that we have a global language,

Do we really want to end up with 600 languages

and the main ones being English or Chinese?

字幕列表影片播放

TEDx】注意你的語言。帕特里夏-瑞安在TEDxDubai 2010上的演講 (【TEDx】Mind your language: Patricia Ryan at TEDxDubai 2010)

applause

barrier

language

English