hey everyone history science literature
TED Talks the pooling of knowledge from
one generation to the next from one
person to another without language this
incredible device that we have the human
brain
none of it would be possible and here’s
the device when you’re born it’s like a
smartphone with no apps yet powerful but
without much data then your environment
gives you a code a language and you plug
it into your device so you saying you
tell jokes you lament you philosophize
in Japan you do it in Japanese in Brazil
you do it in Portuguese and if you can
understand what I’m saying right now and
that means that your brain has adapted
to the code English and that means that
your language acquisition device your
brain is working perfectly and guess
what you can also learn a second
language regardless of your age or your
station in life and to do so all you
need to do is to add the app add the
skill to your device so let’s find out
who’s in the audience who here is a
polyglot someone who speaks three or
more languages wow that’s great
you’re joined by 17 percent of the
world’s population and now how about
bilinguals who are able to speak two
languages
that’s another 43 percent of the world’s
population all taken together as it
turns out to be bilingual is more than
norm than the exception because 60
percent of the world’s population is in
fact bilingual although unfortunately
here in our nation of immigrants we lag
a little bit behind the global average
but why is that our brains are designed
to do it
and we have resources right here in a
population that is diverse and
multilingual why aren’t more of us
bilingual well maybe you currently study
another language but still have a way to
go before you call yourself bilingual
perfect keep it up and maybe some have
tried a language in the past but have
given up in frustration or some others
may have really never had an opportunity
to get exposed to another language in
their environment maybe some never
really saw the point I get it most
people at some point have been in a
language class does your language class
look anything like the image portrayed
in this picture look at the stress on
the student’s face as he offers his hand
and there’s the teacher with his stick
in his hand ready to punish the students
and look at the at the young student
behind with his hand on his head
thinking oh man I’m next right now
fortunately nowadays our language
classes are not that draconian anymore
this is from the 18th century but the
memorization the grids the lists the
rules none of it leads to language skill
because that’s not actually how our
brains learn language and so it’s it’s
frustrating to everyone if you haven’t
learned a language in a language class
that’s okay because very few people can
actually learn that way we don’t learn
through error correction or worksheets
we learn through communication just like
we do when we’re children and world
language classrooms have improved but
still without fail when I’m waiting in
the line at the supermarket to check out
or at a party talking to people and they
find out what I do they say oh your
Spanish teacher Wow I studied Spanish
for five years and I can’t say much more
than K what is or como estas
and what they say is sadly I’m just not
good at this I’m just not good at
learning languages but nonsense because
we know you speak English perfectly so
what happened there are a lot of good
reasons to learn a second language a
second language will increase your job
prospects it’ll increase your social
life it’ll even increase your available
gene pool it’ll make you more empathetic
and it’ll make you more likely to travel
and you can sprinkle your vocabulary
with little bits of things like Sheena
Sigma and speaking a second language is
good for your cognitive health too
speaking two languages it’s a workout
that actually strengthens your brain
much like lifting weights your brain has
to hold all of that information and
balance it and instead of impeding your
ability to think and reason it actually
accentuates it and the result is
increased gray matter better mental
flexibility improved concentration and
you retain information better and the
benefits of being bilingual translate to
higher scores on all kinds of tests for
young people and for older people it
means a later onset of such things as
dementia and Alzheimer’s up to five
years in some studies as compared to our
monolingual peers and the most
interesting thing I think comes from a
2012 study from the University of
Cambridge that found that people who are
bilingual
are more likely to be able to find
solutions in conflict so it may be
possible that being bilingual actually
makes us a little bit nicer and that’s
that’s a that’s in short supply these
days so your brain obviously wants to be
bilingual and I hope you do too so I’ve
been at this for about 20 years learning
and speaking and teaching world language
and while it’s widely accepted that is
natural for a child to learn a second
language easily and managed the to a lot
of adults fear that if they don’t pick
up a language when they’re young that
ship has sailed and I myself am proof of
the opposite in my own life and
experience has taught me that there’s
three things that are really key to
getting the most out of your language
learning experience one is to recognize
teachers master teachers in your
environment one is to communicate with
purpose and another is to have the
tolerance for ambiguity to be
comfortable with not having all the
answers and not knowing everything good
teachers matter this is via Andres Singh
he’s in the first row second from the
right and the guy in the scarf behind
him she looked familiar that’s me at 20
years you’ll notice the glasses are the
same he taught me Hindi when I was in
college in preparation for a year abroad
I was at the University of Wisconsin and
I studied Hindi with Virendra and his
passion and his joy in the language in
teaching the language in being in
teaching through the culture was
contagious and even though I never
achieved a very high level of
proficiency in India we were all able to
go to India and communicate and have a
wonderful experience and the thing I’d
like to point out here in this picture
is that we’re all adults we’re not
learning these second language as
children so it’s possible and when we’re
faced with experience where we don’t
know the language it can be really
intimidating but the single best way to
learn any language is by immersion so
here I am in Morocco and while I may not
be able to communicate very much in
Arabic
I was I was walking through the
mountains and I there was this farmer
and he offered me some figs and if I’m
unable to say shukran if I’m unable to
connect with him in his language even
for such a simple thing as thank you
then I’m really missing out on something
really important I’m missing an
important opportunity and what’s the
next word that I’m going to learn is
FIGS
and who’s the teacher who’s going to
teach me that it’s him
so I say shukran and then he tells me
FIGS and that’s how it all starts and
when we travel we need to use language
to find the bathroom to get something to
eat to find a place to sleep and that
becomes the basis for our language skill
if that becomes the foundation upon
which we build our fluency in a language
and life is ambiguous when you’re living
in and traveling in a new culture and in
a new language Here I am about ten years
ago when I was studying my master’s
degree in Spain and I’m in the mountains
around Salamanca and there’s a pig
walking in the street so for me to be
able to connect this is an opportunity
for a conversation right like what’s
this big doing here do pigs just walk in
the street and Spain is this normal well
not in Madrid but in this small town
yeah and so to be able to go into an
environment and have the humility to say
I don’t have all the answers I don’t
know how this works how does this work
tell me about it that is a real
opportunity for language learning and
the and a really important thing to be
able to do is to view anyone who speaks
the language as a potential teacher so
just a couple of months ago I was
traveling with a group of students and
in Spain and we went into this
incredible bakery and so I walked in
there and I started to have
a conversation with a with a baker there
and I said wow this rye bread is
incredible can you tell me more about
this so we’re having a conversation
there and if you notice our body
language you’ll see that we’re sort of
standing the same right and when you do
that naturally when we’re in
conversation with other people and
there’s simple simply between the two
people we actually connect physically
and you may notice that when you’re when
you’re with your friends your speech
changes in some ways to mirror what’s
happening when you’re in a job interview
your register is going to be a little
bit different and actually this happens
on a neurological level too so in fact
our neurons are actually firing in the
same areas of the brain when one person
is speaking to another it’s absolutely
incredible it’s magical
it is really incredible but
communication isn’t always that smooth
right I feel quite comfortable in
Spanish I’m feeling great yeah we’re in
Spain I’m Spanish teacher it’s great
right but on this same trip just a
couple of months ago and we decided we
could just go over the bar into France
go to the beach great so we get to the
beach
everything’s great perfect beautiful and
um I noticed something none of us have
towels right and of course the students
want to swim whatever so I go up to the
boardwalk and I look around and I see
okay is there a shop where I can buy
some towels so I go out in search of
towels no towels no tell a shop so I see
a man sitting there and I think man how
do you say towel in French so I decide
okay well you know what I know chef food
today right I want right so I’m gonna
I’m gonna start with that and then I’m
just gonna like try to adapt my Spanish
so I say chef Luther a a compre une
Hawaii because comprar una tahuayo of
course is Spanish
I think it’s gonna be close enough and
the guy looks at me like I don’t speak
caveman right so and I start to gesture
over a Hawaii and he says I stay wound
serviette and I’m thinking ah in Spanish
said we yet that means napkin so I’m
like Wii Wii console yet right like a
big a big a big in napkin and so so he
indicates where it is and stuff like
that I go over to the shop and I walk in
and I say chef food today I just a you
need to save yet and oh of course here’s
a towel and I’ve learned from this
master teacher from the shopkeeper from
the man sitting there and all of it
happens because I’m willing to be
vulnerable I’m willing to not have all
the answers now not all of us can travel
not all of us can just well we have jobs
we have families we have limited
resources sometimes we lack both the
time and the money to be able to immerse
ourselves for oh let’s go for six months
and immerse ourselves in a new language
it’s not possible for everyone but we
can seek immersion experiences right
here at home
there are bilingual communities here
throughout the United States where there
are people that would love to speak with
you one of the things that you can do is
have an intercom be over that we in
Spanish we call in an intercom bial when
you say okay we’re gonna speak 15
minutes in English we’re gonna speaks 15
minutes in our native language and we
both learn and there’s a great way to
connect with immigrant communities and
welcome people you are that person who’s
welcoming a new person and you’re
learning from each other it’s a great
way to do it another great thing is that
you can participate in a community this
is cafe Cumberland this is a group of
adults here in the Chattanooga area we
get together every month and we just
speak Spanish and you know some of some
people here have you know
this is the first language or Spanish as
their first language or Portuguese or
Tagalog or German but the focus is on
communication and on community and if
you’re unable to travel to find a local
community or to find a class you can
still connect to the internet and in the
same way that TED Talks allow people who
can’t be in the room to connect to ideas
we can also get exposed to language
through using technology well it’s all
up to you you need to be the one to take
the first step you need to plan your
trip you need to find some bilingual
friends you need to join a class and I
believe that in the simple act of using
a language we can improve our own lives
and the world at the same time by
building empathy and connections between
people of vastly different backgrounds I
wish you well on your journey the world
is filled with seven and a half billion
master teachers go discover a few for
yourself
yes
[Applause]
TED Talks the pooling of knowledge from
one generation to the next from one
person to another without language this
incredible device that we have the human
brain
none of it would be possible and here’s
the device when you’re born it’s like a
smartphone with no apps yet powerful but
without much data then your environment
gives you a code a language and you plug
it into your device so you saying you
tell jokes you lament you philosophize
in Japan you do it in Japanese in Brazil
you do it in Portuguese and if you can
understand what I’m saying right now and
that means that your brain has adapted
to the code English and that means that
your language acquisition device your
brain is working perfectly and guess
what you can also learn a second
language regardless of your age or your
station in life and to do so all you
need to do is to add the app add the
skill to your device so let’s find out
who’s in the audience who here is a
polyglot someone who speaks three or
more languages wow that’s great
you’re joined by 17 percent of the
world’s population and now how about
bilinguals who are able to speak two
languages
that’s another 43 percent of the world’s
population all taken together as it
turns out to be bilingual is more than
norm than the exception because 60
percent of the world’s population is in
fact bilingual although unfortunately
here in our nation of immigrants we lag
a little bit behind the global average
but why is that our brains are designed
to do it
and we have resources right here in a
population that is diverse and
multilingual why aren’t more of us
bilingual well maybe you currently study
another language but still have a way to
go before you call yourself bilingual
perfect keep it up and maybe some have
tried a language in the past but have
given up in frustration or some others
may have really never had an opportunity
to get exposed to another language in
their environment maybe some never
really saw the point I get it most
people at some point have been in a
language class does your language class
look anything like the image portrayed
in this picture look at the stress on
the student’s face as he offers his hand
and there’s the teacher with his stick
in his hand ready to punish the students
and look at the at the young student
behind with his hand on his head
thinking oh man I’m next right now
fortunately nowadays our language
classes are not that draconian anymore
this is from the 18th century but the
memorization the grids the lists the
rules none of it leads to language skill
because that’s not actually how our
brains learn language and so it’s it’s
frustrating to everyone if you haven’t
learned a language in a language class
that’s okay because very few people can
actually learn that way we don’t learn
through error correction or worksheets
we learn through communication just like
we do when we’re children and world
language classrooms have improved but
still without fail when I’m waiting in
the line at the supermarket to check out
or at a party talking to people and they
find out what I do they say oh your
Spanish teacher Wow I studied Spanish
for five years and I can’t say much more
than K what is or como estas
and what they say is sadly I’m just not
good at this I’m just not good at
learning languages but nonsense because
we know you speak English perfectly so
what happened there are a lot of good
reasons to learn a second language a
second language will increase your job
prospects it’ll increase your social
life it’ll even increase your available
gene pool it’ll make you more empathetic
and it’ll make you more likely to travel
and you can sprinkle your vocabulary
with little bits of things like Sheena
Sigma and speaking a second language is
good for your cognitive health too
speaking two languages it’s a workout
that actually strengthens your brain
much like lifting weights your brain has
to hold all of that information and
balance it and instead of impeding your
ability to think and reason it actually
accentuates it and the result is
increased gray matter better mental
flexibility improved concentration and
you retain information better and the
benefits of being bilingual translate to
higher scores on all kinds of tests for
young people and for older people it
means a later onset of such things as
dementia and Alzheimer’s up to five
years in some studies as compared to our
monolingual peers and the most
interesting thing I think comes from a
2012 study from the University of
Cambridge that found that people who are
bilingual
are more likely to be able to find
solutions in conflict so it may be
possible that being bilingual actually
makes us a little bit nicer and that’s
that’s a that’s in short supply these
days so your brain obviously wants to be
bilingual and I hope you do too so I’ve
been at this for about 20 years learning
and speaking and teaching world language
and while it’s widely accepted that is
natural for a child to learn a second
language easily and managed the to a lot
of adults fear that if they don’t pick
up a language when they’re young that
ship has sailed and I myself am proof of
the opposite in my own life and
experience has taught me that there’s
three things that are really key to
getting the most out of your language
learning experience one is to recognize
teachers master teachers in your
environment one is to communicate with
purpose and another is to have the
tolerance for ambiguity to be
comfortable with not having all the
answers and not knowing everything good
teachers matter this is via Andres Singh
he’s in the first row second from the
right and the guy in the scarf behind
him she looked familiar that’s me at 20
years you’ll notice the glasses are the
same he taught me Hindi when I was in
college in preparation for a year abroad
I was at the University of Wisconsin and
I studied Hindi with Virendra and his
passion and his joy in the language in
teaching the language in being in
teaching through the culture was
contagious and even though I never
achieved a very high level of
proficiency in India we were all able to
go to India and communicate and have a
wonderful experience and the thing I’d
like to point out here in this picture
is that we’re all adults we’re not
learning these second language as
children so it’s possible and when we’re
faced with experience where we don’t
know the language it can be really
intimidating but the single best way to
learn any language is by immersion so
here I am in Morocco and while I may not
be able to communicate very much in
Arabic
I was I was walking through the
mountains and I there was this farmer
and he offered me some figs and if I’m
unable to say shukran if I’m unable to
connect with him in his language even
for such a simple thing as thank you
then I’m really missing out on something
really important I’m missing an
important opportunity and what’s the
next word that I’m going to learn is
FIGS
and who’s the teacher who’s going to
teach me that it’s him
so I say shukran and then he tells me
FIGS and that’s how it all starts and
when we travel we need to use language
to find the bathroom to get something to
eat to find a place to sleep and that
becomes the basis for our language skill
if that becomes the foundation upon
which we build our fluency in a language
and life is ambiguous when you’re living
in and traveling in a new culture and in
a new language Here I am about ten years
ago when I was studying my master’s
degree in Spain and I’m in the mountains
around Salamanca and there’s a pig
walking in the street so for me to be
able to connect this is an opportunity
for a conversation right like what’s
this big doing here do pigs just walk in
the street and Spain is this normal well
not in Madrid but in this small town
yeah and so to be able to go into an
environment and have the humility to say
I don’t have all the answers I don’t
know how this works how does this work
tell me about it that is a real
opportunity for language learning and
the and a really important thing to be
able to do is to view anyone who speaks
the language as a potential teacher so
just a couple of months ago I was
traveling with a group of students and
in Spain and we went into this
incredible bakery and so I walked in
there and I started to have
a conversation with a with a baker there
and I said wow this rye bread is
incredible can you tell me more about
this so we’re having a conversation
there and if you notice our body
language you’ll see that we’re sort of
standing the same right and when you do
that naturally when we’re in
conversation with other people and
there’s simple simply between the two
people we actually connect physically
and you may notice that when you’re when
you’re with your friends your speech
changes in some ways to mirror what’s
happening when you’re in a job interview
your register is going to be a little
bit different and actually this happens
on a neurological level too so in fact
our neurons are actually firing in the
same areas of the brain when one person
is speaking to another it’s absolutely
incredible it’s magical
it is really incredible but
communication isn’t always that smooth
right I feel quite comfortable in
Spanish I’m feeling great yeah we’re in
Spain I’m Spanish teacher it’s great
right but on this same trip just a
couple of months ago and we decided we
could just go over the bar into France
go to the beach great so we get to the
beach
everything’s great perfect beautiful and
um I noticed something none of us have
towels right and of course the students
want to swim whatever so I go up to the
boardwalk and I look around and I see
okay is there a shop where I can buy
some towels so I go out in search of
towels no towels no tell a shop so I see
a man sitting there and I think man how
do you say towel in French so I decide
okay well you know what I know chef food
today right I want right so I’m gonna
I’m gonna start with that and then I’m
just gonna like try to adapt my Spanish
so I say chef Luther a a compre une
Hawaii because comprar una tahuayo of
course is Spanish
I think it’s gonna be close enough and
the guy looks at me like I don’t speak
caveman right so and I start to gesture
over a Hawaii and he says I stay wound
serviette and I’m thinking ah in Spanish
said we yet that means napkin so I’m
like Wii Wii console yet right like a
big a big a big in napkin and so so he
indicates where it is and stuff like
that I go over to the shop and I walk in
and I say chef food today I just a you
need to save yet and oh of course here’s
a towel and I’ve learned from this
master teacher from the shopkeeper from
the man sitting there and all of it
happens because I’m willing to be
vulnerable I’m willing to not have all
the answers now not all of us can travel
not all of us can just well we have jobs
we have families we have limited
resources sometimes we lack both the
time and the money to be able to immerse
ourselves for oh let’s go for six months
and immerse ourselves in a new language
it’s not possible for everyone but we
can seek immersion experiences right
here at home
there are bilingual communities here
throughout the United States where there
are people that would love to speak with
you one of the things that you can do is
have an intercom be over that we in
Spanish we call in an intercom bial when
you say okay we’re gonna speak 15
minutes in English we’re gonna speaks 15
minutes in our native language and we
both learn and there’s a great way to
connect with immigrant communities and
welcome people you are that person who’s
welcoming a new person and you’re
learning from each other it’s a great
way to do it another great thing is that
you can participate in a community this
is cafe Cumberland this is a group of
adults here in the Chattanooga area we
get together every month and we just
speak Spanish and you know some of some
people here have you know
this is the first language or Spanish as
their first language or Portuguese or
Tagalog or German but the focus is on
communication and on community and if
you’re unable to travel to find a local
community or to find a class you can
still connect to the internet and in the
same way that TED Talks allow people who
can’t be in the room to connect to ideas
we can also get exposed to language
through using technology well it’s all
up to you you need to be the one to take
the first step you need to plan your
trip you need to find some bilingual
friends you need to join a class and I
believe that in the simple act of using
a language we can improve our own lives
and the world at the same time by
building empathy and connections between
people of vastly different backgrounds I
wish you well on your journey the world
is filled with seven and a half billion
master teachers go discover a few for
yourself
yes
[Applause]
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