bones you to the Mont human pal Emily
hola me llamo Emily hello everyone my
name is Tom Ian Emily Pham and today I
would like to talk to you all about the
language barrier and communication so as
you all probably noticed I just
introduced myself and a couple of
different languages Vietnamese and
French and Spanish and English probably
a little confusing since I was using all
these languages you probably all didn’t
understand every single word I said but
hopefully you got the gist of it it was
just an introduction however if I were
to continue this TED talk and one of
those languages that you didn’t quite
understand that wouldn’t be good for
either of us we would have lost that
connection between us that connection
that is the English language our
commonality that we share in the
language that we speak and the thing is
language can be a gift it’s something
that connects us but it can also be a
barrier that we have to acknowledge
according to the biblical story of the
Tower of Babel at the beginning of
humanity every single human spoke one
language everyone was in one community
they perfectly understood each other it
was perfect
so empowered by this connection that
they have they decide to build a great
tower a giant Tower to be at the same
level as God so God hears this here is
that the people are abusing their power
and says if as one people speaking the
same language they have come to do this
then nothing nothing they plan to do
will be impossible for them so God
decides to disperse the people all
around the world and makes it so they
can’t speak the same language anymore
and this isn’t good for the people they
can no longer finish their tower they
can no longer connect and understand
with one another and the thing is
connection and understanding is really
important for all of us as human beings
I bet we all desire to be heard we all
desire to be understood we all desire to
connect with one another and it’s hard
to do that all the way around the world
because now there are seven thousand and
ninety seven known living languages in
our world it’s a pretty big number so
there’s no way that every single one of
us is going to be able to learn all
seven thousand and ninety seven there’s
no way that we can be able to speak to
every single person around the world we
can’t really connect verbally with
everyone
we can’t understand everyone then why
don’t we just go back to having one
universal language it seemed to work
pretty well back in the day like we
could build a great tower again well the
thing is language has become tied into
each and every one of our culture’s and
culture is deeply set in each and every
one of our hearts you can’t just take
culture away from someone it’s their
sense of belonging it’s their sense of
how they understand the world in which
we live and then again you can’t take
away language from culture because
things are always lost in translation
when I looked further into this idea of
how language and culture are tied
together I read the book the house on
mango street by Sandra Cisneros this is
a story of a young girl named Esmeralda
she is a Mexican immigrant who moves to
America it’s the story of her journey
through acclimating to this new American
society the challenges she faces in
connecting with people one of her
challenges is the language barrier but
not in the common sense
Esmeralda speaks English but her
language barrier is hidden in a single
thing in her name
Esmeralda says at school they say my
name funny as if the syllables were made
out of tin and hurt the roof of your
mouth but in Spanish my name is made of
something softer and this is really what
the language barrier is it’s not just
our inability to have long and deep
conversations the people all across the
world know the language barrier can be
any small tiny nuanced thing any small
part of language that makes it hard for
us to connect with people for Esmeralda
it was her name every single time
her American peers or teachers or
anybody in her new country tried to
pronounce her name tried to connect with
her that simple tiny mispronunciation
that simple thing that distance her from
them that diminished the quality of her
connection of her communication with
everyone around her her name made her
feel foreign made her feel alien and
I’ve gone through the same struggle in
my life my name is Tommy and Emily two
names I’m the daughter of Vietnamese
immigrants they came to America after
the Vietnam War as refugees so in honor
of this they gave me two names my
Vietnamese name Hawaiian represents my
Vietnamese culture whereas Emily
represents my American birth I think
it’s really cool to be able to say that
I have two names to be able to say that
I have one foot in my Vietnamese culture
and one foot in my American culture but
sometimes it feels like those two feet
are way too far spread apart and so I’ve
come to hide from my name Tom Ian so
most of you guys probably know me as
Emmeline I remember every first day of
school ever since I was little
as the teacher would take roll call for
the first time he or she would always
hesitate stop right before pronouncing
my name I could see that concentration
in their eye as they tried to deduce how
to pronounce just those two syllables
Italian and it’s not that hard to
pronounce it’s just two syllables but
the thing is the name Tom Ian looks kind
of foreign to American eyes and in the
mouths of an English speaker like all of
you it feels foreign so every first day
of school I’ve come used to
automatically raising my hand really
high and saying it’s all right you can
call me Emily ever since I was little I
was afraid of the language barrier that
was in my first names Howie in I would
subconsciously just hide away and push
away my Vietnamese identity the language
barrier hidden in those two syllables
made it feel like if I went by my first
name I wouldn’t be able to connect with
my teacher and that fear was in both me
and my teacher my teacher is probably
afraid that I would be some weird
student that didn’t speak English and so
I go by Emily but the thing is over time
I have found one language that I’m
completely fluent in and that everyone
around the world universally understands
and this is the language of movement the
language of dance so she would call my
introduction I was saying a bunch of
different words it was kind of confusing
but I was also waving my hand and the
thing is I could have just been standing
up on this stage waving my hand not
saying a word not making a sound and you
probably would have understood the gist
of it I was saying hello might have been
kind of awkward for me to stand up here
and just wave but you would have gotten
the point that’s the language of
movement it’s commonly understood around
the world that this can be a sign for
hello you don’t have to speak a language
to understand that and as a dancer I’ve
learned that movement and language can
tell so much more than just one word
hello it can tell long stories it can
express deep emotions in the words of
the mother of modern dance Martha Graham
as pictured here she says I believe that
dance was the first art because its
gesture it’s communication dance is the
hidden language of the body of the soul
and I think this really expresses what
I’m trying to say to you all dance can
tell so much and the thing is everyone
in the route everyone around the world
dances everyone around the world moves
we can all see or feel and interpret
movement and that’s a language in itself
in further research of how dance can be
language I talked to a former
professional dancer and a current PhD
student in dance anthropology and
education
her name is Katherine Doolin as pictured
here I talked to her about her previous
career as a professional dancer she
worked for many dance companies all
around Europe in a bunch of different
countries that all spoke different
languages she was originally English
speaking but she didn’t pick up a couple
of different languages but she said that
the most effective way that she
communicated with her co-workers fellow
dancers teachers everyone was through
dance through movement it was this
commonality that
commonality that they shared they didn’t
have to speak the same language to
understand one another in a dance studio
or on stage this is actually a picture
of her in a performance in Germany she
doesn’t speak German fluently but she
was able to communicate to everyone in
that audience through dance in her
research as a dance anthropologist she
talks about how dance education can help
all of us understand cultures better
understand the world better this idea of
the abilities to understand nonverbal
communication so in my own life I said
I’m a dancer
I’ve been dancing since I was 3 years
old little Emily just dancing around and
as I’ve grown up as a dancer I’ve
definitely gotten better at expressing
myself I’m communicating without words
that understanding movement I remember
as a little kid I would always go to
visit my grandparents they live kind of
far away and I don’t speak Vietnamese
very well they don’t speak English very
well but I would always give my
grandparents little dance performances
my way of communicating to them that I
love them that I appreciate them through
little dance performances through
movement I was able to express these
feelings and last winter I went on a
service trip to Vietnam to teach dance
and art classes to underprivileged and
disabled kids there and again there was
a language barrier but I was teaching
dancing aren’t things that we all
understand around the world so I was
able to use my body use my body language
used visuals to communicate with all
these children so my message to you guys
is to acknowledge that there is a
language barrier sometimes that’s scary
sometimes it makes us feel like we can’t
connect with other people but once we
acknowledge that it’s there and that it
can inhibit us from doing some great
things we can get creative we can work
around it we can transcend this language
barrier you can connect with people all
around the world through different
things like through music through sports
through art or through dance so gummin
merci beaucoup
gracias and read my language of dance
thank you [Applause]