TED : Don't insist on English

1. Summary    

     The speaker is Patrica Ryan, who is from the UK, has already taught English in Gulf for 30 years. At the first, she talked about the connection of losing languages and globalization of English. Indeed, we need to enter those best universities in the world, which are almost in the UK or the USA, to get the better chance of our lives. We need to pass couple tests of English, such as TOEFL and IELTS, so these test become the barrier to get into this school. Although Ryan worked as English teacher, she didn’t think we should set the English as a barrier, it means we decline people who are talented but can’t afford the test fees. On the other hand, these tests equate English and knowledge. Some people do not need so many language skills and are not good at English on their work like scientists or engineers are also declined. This circular situation will make English more and more important and many other languages die.    In addition, there are 2 more points she mentioned in this speech why we should not insist on English. The first is the importance of cross-generation communication. If we can only speak English, we can’t learn the valuable knowledge from the elders who speak their or our mother language. Second, when we stuck in a thought, other languages maybe figure it out with different vocabularies; and through the cooperation we can benefit each other whom use different languages. In conclusion, she reminded us that we should celebrate the diversity and mind our own languages.

2. What can listeners learn from this talk?  

    Listeners can learn the importance of the diversity of languages. There is no wrong to strengthen our abilities of English to communicate with people form the different countries easily. Nevertheless, we shouldn’t ignore our language or even other languages in the world. It is because that once we learn these language, we can see the brand-new culture that we haven’t ever seen. The late but not the least, different languages can help us think in multiple angles so that we can figure problems out much easier.