Language is the way people communicate using their personal culture. Patricia Ryan's TED talk explained the importance of different cultures' ways of communicating. She also identified the importance of the ability to communicate through generations. This, I thought, was an interesting thing to ponder because so much history is relayed verbally and in different jargon or context. In Ryan's speech, she also unveiled the British and American agenda of "selling" the English language. A common world language is useful in terms of trading and doing business, but Ryan explained that the language of English has now become the business. An education in English has been ranked the best of the best, therefore English speakers have pushed all other languages out the door, no matter the ties to cherished culture, in order to supposedly better the world. And when analyzed, the real motive of helping these "illiterate" nations is to make connections for natural resources; using the excuse of "empowering the rest of the world".
Patricia Ryan has a powerful presence, probably because she is a cute, old British woman! She engaged her audience first by cracking a joke at this. After everyone laughed, she went right into story mode, which I believe is a strong move, considering stories are easy to remember, as Dan Pink points out in A Whole New Mind. She then presented her topic with a few statistics, which gave viewers a mental picture of the depth of the situation. She noted that a language dies every fourteen days. This fact allows viewers a grasp on the true effects of English spread; but, I would have liked her to acknowledge other causes so that there would be an ability to connect larger ideas here.
Ryan's presentation was aided by many pictures and short stories. I do think these tactics help in most cases but there were too many in her talk. The small tales and simple pictures did not link to the harder to understand pieces of the talk, but rather some that were also simple in nature. In other words, I do believe Patricia Ryan presented herself well as a wise educator, but used too many uncomplicated visuals/stories to really be useful as a tool. Instead, the became a distraction. This is one area I need to think about for my own TED talk because much of it is not based on facts, but stories in media as well as my own life. I hope to use detailed and rich tales that tie into every piece of my main topic.
The idea of "not insisting on English" is simply the fact that too much of this good thing turns out to be not so good, as a dietitian would say about nutritional value. In the minds of the USA and UK, English has been the main ingredient for a peaceful and harmoniously educated world. Some of this is true, but the conquest has become an obsession. Ryan describes the situation now not as a gateway to world trade and communication, but a barrier. A story about two scientists that were puzzling over the meanings of scientific words illustrates this point. The two English scientists did not understand the word for what they were experimenting with, until a third, from Germany, explained that in German it made much more sense. Her point here is that cooperating with other languages can get people very far, because each has a different and creative way of thinking. This statement ultimately led to her great call to action, asking the audience to celebrate diversity and "mind your language, (and) use it to spread great ideas."
Much of this talk is simply connecting the English language "empire" to the world and how it has been used in education. Ryan pointed out that the top universities are in the USA and UK. This is why everyone is going crazy for our language. English means opportunity. However, the culture piece and "outside of the English box" thinking is lost by this. A solution, in my mind, is the prospect of students abroad. I have several teachers that have studied around the world and not only understand more of other languages, but come back a more thoughtful and whole person. This is one experience I would like to have growing up in order to expand my own mind. Using the techniques described in Pink's novels about thinking a new way can help people understand foreign ideas that are learned on trips such as those. On the world stage, languages are simply dying. However, Ryan used an example of how a young man in Kenya helped his village using his own ideas and culture. Evans Wadongo saw a need in his community for light after dark, in order to improve homework abilities. Through the power of his own initiative and cultural resources, he built a solar powered lamp and increased his community's test scores greatly. Leadership such as this in the world, and using one's own different cultural knowledge (e.g. plants as medicine), means many conclusions can be made to the world's toughest questions and issues.
Pics: 1) http://images.ted.com/images/ted/ec53a437b299ac1a83e2c52de5b1ea972e403bef_389x292.jpg
2) http://www.home.co.ke/images/stories/evans-wadongo.jpg
Patricia Ryan has a powerful presence, probably because she is a cute, old British woman! She engaged her audience first by cracking a joke at this. After everyone laughed, she went right into story mode, which I believe is a strong move, considering stories are easy to remember, as Dan Pink points out in A Whole New Mind. She then presented her topic with a few statistics, which gave viewers a mental picture of the depth of the situation. She noted that a language dies every fourteen days. This fact allows viewers a grasp on the true effects of English spread; but, I would have liked her to acknowledge other causes so that there would be an ability to connect larger ideas here.Ryan's presentation was aided by many pictures and short stories. I do think these tactics help in most cases but there were too many in her talk. The small tales and simple pictures did not link to the harder to understand pieces of the talk, but rather some that were also simple in nature. In other words, I do believe Patricia Ryan presented herself well as a wise educator, but used too many uncomplicated visuals/stories to really be useful as a tool. Instead, the became a distraction. This is one area I need to think about for my own TED talk because much of it is not based on facts, but stories in media as well as my own life. I hope to use detailed and rich tales that tie into every piece of my main topic.
The idea of "not insisting on English" is simply the fact that too much of this good thing turns out to be not so good, as a dietitian would say about nutritional value. In the minds of the USA and UK, English has been the main ingredient for a peaceful and harmoniously educated world. Some of this is true, but the conquest has become an obsession. Ryan describes the situation now not as a gateway to world trade and communication, but a barrier. A story about two scientists that were puzzling over the meanings of scientific words illustrates this point. The two English scientists did not understand the word for what they were experimenting with, until a third, from Germany, explained that in German it made much more sense. Her point here is that cooperating with other languages can get people very far, because each has a different and creative way of thinking. This statement ultimately led to her great call to action, asking the audience to celebrate diversity and "mind your language, (and) use it to spread great ideas."
Much of this talk is simply connecting the English language "empire" to the world and how it has been used in education. Ryan pointed out that the top universities are in the USA and UK. This is why everyone is going crazy for our language. English means opportunity. However, the culture piece and "outside of the English box" thinking is lost by this. A solution, in my mind, is the prospect of students abroad. I have several teachers that have studied around the world and not only understand more of other languages, but come back a more thoughtful and whole person. This is one experience I would like to have growing up in order to expand my own mind. Using the techniques described in Pink's novels about thinking a new way can help people understand foreign ideas that are learned on trips such as those. On the world stage, languages are simply dying. However, Ryan used an example of how a young man in Kenya helped his village using his own ideas and culture. Evans Wadongo saw a need in his community for light after dark, in order to improve homework abilities. Through the power of his own initiative and cultural resources, he built a solar powered lamp and increased his community's test scores greatly. Leadership such as this in the world, and using one's own different cultural knowledge (e.g. plants as medicine), means many conclusions can be made to the world's toughest questions and issues.Pics: 1) http://images.ted.com/images/ted/ec53a437b299ac1a83e2c52de5b1ea972e403bef_389x292.jpg
2) http://www.home.co.ke/images/stories/evans-wadongo.jpg
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