4 reasons to learn a new language
-
0:01 - 0:03The language I'm speaking right now
-
0:03 - 0:08is on its way to becoming
the world's universal language, -
0:08 - 0:10for better or for worse.
-
0:10 - 0:11Let's face it,
-
0:11 - 0:13it's the language of the internet,
-
0:13 - 0:15it's the language of finance,
-
0:15 - 0:18it's the language of air traffic control,
-
0:18 - 0:19of popular music,
-
0:19 - 0:20diplomacy --
-
0:20 - 0:22English is everywhere.
-
0:22 - 0:26Now, Mandarin Chinese
is spoken by more people, -
0:26 - 0:29but more Chinese people
are learning English -
0:29 - 0:32than English speakers
are learning Chinese. -
0:32 - 0:33Last I heard,
-
0:33 - 0:37there are two dozen universities
in China right now -
0:37 - 0:40teaching all in English.
-
0:40 - 0:41English is taking over.
-
0:42 - 0:43And in addition to that,
-
0:43 - 0:46it's been predicted
that at the end of the century -
0:46 - 0:49almost all of the languages
that exist now -- -
0:49 - 0:50there are about 6,000 --
-
0:50 - 0:52will no longer be spoken.
-
0:52 - 0:55There will only be some hundreds left.
-
0:55 - 0:57And on top of that,
-
0:57 - 1:02it's at the point where
instant translation of live speech -
1:02 - 1:05is not only possible,
but it gets better every year. -
1:05 - 1:08The reason I'm reciting
those things to you -
1:08 - 1:11is because I can tell
that we're getting to the point -
1:11 - 1:13where a question
is going to start being asked, -
1:14 - 1:17which is: Why should we
learn foreign languages -- -
1:17 - 1:21other than if English
happens to be foreign to one? -
1:21 - 1:24Why bother to learn another one
when it's getting to the point -
1:24 - 1:30where almost everybody in the world
will be able to communicate in one? -
1:31 - 1:32I think there are a lot of reasons,
-
1:32 - 1:35but I first want to address
-
1:35 - 1:38the one that you're probably
most likely to have heard of, -
1:38 - 1:42because actually it's more
dangerous than you might think. -
1:42 - 1:44And that is the idea
-
1:44 - 1:47that a language channels your thoughts,
-
1:47 - 1:51that the vocabulary
and the grammar of different languages -
1:51 - 1:55gives everybody
a different kind of acid trip, -
1:55 - 1:56so to speak.
-
1:56 - 2:00That is a marvelously enticing idea,
-
2:00 - 2:02but it's kind of fraught.
-
2:02 - 2:05So it's not that it's untrue completely.
-
2:05 - 2:09So for example, in French and Spanish
-
2:09 - 2:13the word for table is,
for some reason, marked as feminine. -
2:13 - 2:17So, "la table," "la mesa,"
you just have to deal with it. -
2:17 - 2:19It has been shown
-
2:19 - 2:21that if you are a speaker
of one of those languages -
2:21 - 2:24and you happen to be asked
-
2:24 - 2:28how you would imagine a table talking,
-
2:28 - 2:32then much more often
than could possibly be an accident, -
2:32 - 2:33a French or a Spanish speaker
-
2:34 - 2:38says that the table would talk
with a high and feminine voice. -
2:38 - 2:43So if you're French or Spanish,
to you, a table is kind of a girl, -
2:43 - 2:46as opposed to if you
are an English speaker. -
2:46 - 2:48It's hard not to love data like that,
-
2:48 - 2:50and many people
will tell you that that means -
2:50 - 2:55that there's a worldview that you have
if you speak one of those languages. -
2:55 - 2:56But you have to watch out,
-
2:56 - 3:00because imagine if somebody
put us under the microscope, -
3:00 - 3:03the us being those of us
who speak English natively. -
3:03 - 3:07What is the worldview from English?
-
3:07 - 3:09So for example,
let's take an English speaker. -
3:10 - 3:13Up on the screen, that is Bono.
-
3:13 - 3:14He speaks English.
-
3:14 - 3:17I presume he has a worldview.
-
3:17 - 3:21Now, that is Donald Trump.
-
3:21 - 3:22In his way,
-
3:22 - 3:24he speaks English as well.
-
3:24 - 3:25(Laughter)
-
3:28 - 3:31And here is Ms. Kardashian,
-
3:31 - 3:33and she is an English speaker, too.
-
3:33 - 3:36So here are three speakers
of the English language. -
3:36 - 3:39What worldview do those
three people have in common? -
3:39 - 3:44What worldview is shaped through
the English language that unites them? -
3:44 - 3:46It's a highly fraught concept.
-
3:46 - 3:51And so gradual consensus is becoming
that language can shape thought, -
3:51 - 3:58but it tends to be in rather darling,
obscure psychological flutters. -
3:58 - 4:02It's not a matter of giving you
a different pair of glasses on the world. -
4:03 - 4:05Now, if that's the case,
-
4:05 - 4:07then why learn languages?
-
4:07 - 4:10If it isn't going to change
the way you think, -
4:10 - 4:11what would the other reasons be?
-
4:12 - 4:13There are some.
-
4:14 - 4:19One of them is that if you
want to imbibe a culture, -
4:19 - 4:22if you want to drink it in,
if you want to become part of it, -
4:22 - 4:26then whether or not
the language channels the culture -- -
4:26 - 4:28and that seems doubtful --
-
4:28 - 4:30if you want to imbibe the culture,
-
4:30 - 4:32you have to control to some degree
-
4:32 - 4:36the language that the culture
happens to be conducted in. -
4:36 - 4:37There's no other way.
-
4:37 - 4:40There's an interesting
illustration of this. -
4:40 - 4:44I have to go slightly obscure,
but really you should seek it out. -
4:44 - 4:48There's a movie by the Canadian
film director Denys Arcand -- -
4:48 - 4:51read out in English on the page,
"Dennis Ar-cand," -
4:51 - 4:52if you want to look him up.
-
4:52 - 4:55He did a film called "Jesus of Montreal."
-
4:55 - 4:57And many of the characters
-
4:57 - 5:02are vibrant, funny, passionate,
interesting French-Canadian, -
5:02 - 5:04French-speaking women.
-
5:04 - 5:06There's one scene closest to the end,
-
5:06 - 5:10where they have to take a friend
to an Anglophone hospital. -
5:10 - 5:12In the hospital,
they have to speak English. -
5:12 - 5:15Now, they speak English
but it's not their native language, -
5:15 - 5:16they'd rather not speak English.
-
5:16 - 5:18And they speak it more slowly,
-
5:18 - 5:20they have accents, they're not idiomatic.
-
5:20 - 5:23Suddenly these characters
that you've fallen in love with -
5:23 - 5:27become husks of themselves,
they're shadows of themselves. -
5:27 - 5:29To go into a culture
-
5:29 - 5:33and to only ever process people
through that kind of skrim curtain -
5:33 - 5:36is to never truly get the culture.
-
5:36 - 5:39And so to the extent that hundreds
of languages will be left, -
5:39 - 5:40one reason to learn them
-
5:40 - 5:44is because they are tickets
to being able to participate -
5:44 - 5:46in the culture of the people
who speak them, -
5:46 - 5:49just by virtue of the fact
that it is their code. -
5:49 - 5:50So that's one reason.
-
5:51 - 5:53Second reason:
-
5:53 - 5:54it's been shown
-
5:54 - 5:59that if you speak two languages,
dementia is less likely to set in, -
5:59 - 6:02and that you are probably
a better multitasker. -
6:03 - 6:06And these are factors that set in early,
-
6:06 - 6:08and so that ought to give you some sense
-
6:08 - 6:12of when to give junior or juniorette
lessons in another language. -
6:12 - 6:15Bilingualism is healthy.
-
6:15 - 6:17And then, third --
-
6:17 - 6:20languages are just an awful lot of fun.
-
6:21 - 6:23Much more fun than we're often told.
-
6:23 - 6:26So for example,
Arabic: "kataba," he wrote, -
6:26 - 6:29"yaktubu," he writes, she writes.
-
6:29 - 6:32"Uktub," write, in the imperative.
-
6:32 - 6:34What do those things have in common?
-
6:34 - 6:36All those things have in common
-
6:36 - 6:40the consonants sitting
in the middle like pillars. -
6:40 - 6:41They stay still,
-
6:41 - 6:44and the vowels
dance around the consonants. -
6:44 - 6:48Who wouldn't want to roll
that around in their mouths? -
6:48 - 6:49You can get that from Hebrew,
-
6:49 - 6:53you can get that from Ethiopia's
main language, Amharic. -
6:53 - 6:54That's fun.
-
6:54 - 6:58Or languages have different word orders.
-
6:58 - 7:00Learning how to speak
with different word order -
7:00 - 7:05is like driving on the different side
of a street if you go to certain country, -
7:05 - 7:09or the feeling that you get when you
put Witch Hazel around your eyes -
7:09 - 7:11and you feel the tingle.
-
7:11 - 7:13A language can do that to you.
-
7:13 - 7:15So for example,
-
7:15 - 7:17"The Cat in the Hat Comes Back,"
-
7:17 - 7:19a book that I'm sure
we all often return to, -
7:19 - 7:20like "Moby Dick."
-
7:20 - 7:25One phrase in it is,
"Do you know where I found him? -
7:26 - 7:28Do you know where he was?
He was eating cake in the tub, -
7:28 - 7:29Yes he was!"
-
7:29 - 7:32Fine. Now, if you learn that
in Mandarin Chinese, -
7:32 - 7:33then you have to master,
-
7:33 - 7:35"You can know, I did where him find?
-
7:35 - 7:37He was tub inside gorging cake,
-
7:37 - 7:39No mistake gorging chewing!"
-
7:39 - 7:40That just feels good.
-
7:40 - 7:45Imagine being able to do that
for years and years at a time. -
7:45 - 7:49Or, have you ever learned any Cambodian?
-
7:49 - 7:52Me either, but if I did,
-
7:52 - 7:57I would get to roll around in my mouth
not some baker's dozen of vowels -
7:57 - 7:58like English has,
-
7:58 - 8:01but a good 30 different vowels
-
8:01 - 8:05scooching and oozing around
in the Cambodian mouth -
8:05 - 8:07like bees in a hive.
-
8:07 - 8:10That is what a language can get you.
-
8:10 - 8:12And more to the point,
-
8:12 - 8:16we live in an era when it's never been
easier to teach yourself another language. -
8:16 - 8:18It used to be that you had
to go to a classroom, -
8:18 - 8:20and there would be
some diligent teacher -- -
8:20 - 8:22some genius teacher in there --
-
8:22 - 8:24but that person was only
in there at certain times -
8:24 - 8:25and you had to go then,
-
8:25 - 8:27and then was not most times.
-
8:27 - 8:29You had to go to class.
-
8:29 - 8:32If you didn't have that,
you had something called a record. -
8:32 - 8:33I cut my teeth on those.
-
8:33 - 8:36There was only so much data on a record,
-
8:36 - 8:37or a cassette,
-
8:37 - 8:40or even that antique object known as a CD.
-
8:40 - 8:42Other than that you had books
that didn't work, -
8:42 - 8:44that's just the way it was.
-
8:44 - 8:47Today you can lay down --
-
8:47 - 8:49lie on your living room floor,
-
8:49 - 8:50sipping bourbon,
-
8:51 - 8:53and teach yourself
any language that you want to -
8:53 - 8:56with wonderful sets
such as Rosetta Stone. -
8:56 - 8:59I highly recommend
the lesser known Glossika as well. -
8:59 - 9:00You can do it any time,
-
9:00 - 9:03therefore you can do it more and better.
-
9:03 - 9:07You can give yourself your morning
pleasures in various languages. -
9:07 - 9:11I take some "Dilbert" in various
languages every single morning; -
9:11 - 9:13it can increase your skills.
-
9:13 - 9:15Couldn't have done it 20 years ago
-
9:15 - 9:18when the idea of having
any language you wanted -
9:18 - 9:20in your pocket,
-
9:20 - 9:21coming from your phone,
-
9:21 - 9:25would have sounded like science fiction
to very sophisticated people. -
9:26 - 9:28So I highly recommend
-
9:28 - 9:32that you teach yourself languages
other than the one that I'm speaking, -
9:32 - 9:36because there's never been
a better time to do it. -
9:36 - 9:37It's an awful lot of fun.
-
9:37 - 9:39It won't change your mind,
-
9:39 - 9:42but it will most certainly blow your mind.
-
9:42 - 9:43Thank you very much.
-
9:43 - 9:48(Applause)
- Title:
- 4 reasons to learn a new language
- Speaker:
- John McWhorter
- Description:
-
English is fast becoming the world's universal language, and instant translation technology is improving every year. So why bother learning a foreign language? Linguist and Columbia professor John McWhorter shares four alluring benefits of learning an unfamiliar tongue.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 10:01
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for 4 reasons to learn a new language | ||
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for 4 reasons to learn a new language | ||
Brian Greene approved English subtitles for 4 reasons to learn a new language | ||
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for 4 reasons to learn a new language | ||
Joanna Pietrulewicz accepted English subtitles for 4 reasons to learn a new language | ||
Joanna Pietrulewicz edited English subtitles for 4 reasons to learn a new language | ||
Joanna Pietrulewicz edited English subtitles for 4 reasons to learn a new language | ||
Leslie Gauthier edited English subtitles for 4 reasons to learn a new language |