TED Talk English Club 2022: Vol 2 on 21 Feb & 14 Feb

Welcome to TED Talk English Club active each Monday from 31 Jan through 16 May:)

Click the black box below for a SUMMARY of 14 Feb Meeting:)

Club Meeting on 21 Feb 2022 = Meeting 2 of Vol 2         (NB! Meeting 1 of Vol 2 was on 14 Feb)

 21 Feb TOPIC: Don't insist on English!

VIDEO for 21 Feb discussion: click 'Don't insist on English!'

WORDS for 21 Feb VIDEO: click here

• SCRIPT of the video: on the video site Click  kui video avaneb, klõpsa 'Read transcript' (next to the video title) video pealkirja kõrval or scroll down või keri allapoole to read it below
  
• 21 Feb Question 1 for discussion: Introversion is not a handicap (see 7 Feb). But what about a native language other than English? 
• 21 Feb Question 2 for discussion: A pure genius except for in languages. Do you think it happens? 
• 21 Feb Question 3 for discussion: In the script, which words and why do you think appear in font size 20?
• 21 Feb Question 4 for discussion: From the Talk, pick an idea you find inspiring/intriguing. Please comment on your pick. 
• Time: 3 p.m. through 6 p.m. on 21 Feb NB! Please pick from: Gertrud 21 Feb 3-3.30/ Toomas 21 Feb 3.30-4/ 4-4.30/ Heli 21 Feb 4.30-5/ 5-5.30/ Airi 21 Feb 5.30-6 p.m./ and submit by the form above.
  
• Format: one-on-one for 30 minutes
• Access 1: open to all of them who at some point--since 2012--have taken a course with Terje Keldoja😊
• Fee: 8 eur for a 30-minute Meeting, incl Quizlet & Script & the follow-up SUMMARY (of the ideas the Club members about the video/topic)
• NB! Access 2: Everybody else is indeed welcome, too. However, the fee is a little less generous (12 eur per 30 minutes one-on-one ) for the 'newcomers'.
• Participation: Choose between 14 Feb and 21 Feb or attend both.
• Register: terje.keldoja@gmail.com or submit the form above või täida ülal olev vorm
• TOPIC on 14 Feb: Can every child thrive by five?
• VIDEO for 21 Feb discussion: click How every child can thrive by five
• WORDS from the VIDEO: click here (NB! to join Quizlet click here)
• SCRIPT of the video: Click 'Read transcript' on the video site (next to the video title) or scroll down to read it below
• 14 Feb Question 1 for discussion: How do you make sense of the title of the video? Can you come up with a different title?
• 14 Feb Question 2 for discussion: Serve and return--isn't it kind of obvious when it comes to babies (= kui jutt on beebidest)?
• 14 Feb Question 3 for discussion: How do you think this TED talk relates to our previous TED (on shyness)?

Click on the brownish box above to download the SCRIPT for 21 Feb 'Don't insist on English!'

SCRIPT for 21 Feb 'Don't insist on English!'

00:00 I know what you're thinking. You think I've lost my way, and somebody's going to come on the stage in a minute and guide me gently back to my seat. (Applause) I get that minuga juhtub seda all the time in Dubai. "Here on holiday are you, dear?" (Laughter) "Come to visit the children? How long are you staying?"

00:27 Well actually, I hope for a while longer yet loodetavasti veel päris pikaks ajaks (jään veel siia Dubaisse). I have been living and teaching in the Gulf for over 30 years. (Applause) And in that time, I have seen a lot of changes. Now that statistic is quite shocking. And I want to talk to you today about language loss and the globalization of English. I want to tell you about my friend who was teaching English to adults in Abu Dhabi. And one fine day, she decided to take them into the garden to teach them some nature vocabulary. But it was she who ended up learning all the Arabic words for the local plants, as well as their uses -- medicinal uses, cosmetics, cooking, herbal. How did those students get all that knowledge? Of course, from their grandparents and even their great-grandparents. It's not necessary to tell you how important it is to be able to communicate across generations.

01:31 But sadly, today, languages are dying at an unprecedented rate. A language dies every 14 days. Now, at the same time, English is the undisputed global language. Could there be a connection? Well I don't know. But I do know that I've seen a lot of changes. When I first came out to the Gulf, I came to Kuwait in the days when it was still a hardship post. Actually, not that long ago. That is a little bit too early. But nevertheless, I was recruited by the British Council, along with about 25 other teachers. And we were the first non-Muslims to teach in the state schools there in Kuwait. We were brought to teach English because the government wanted to modernize the country and to empower the citizens through education. And of course, the U.K. benefited from some of that lovely oil wealth.

02:28 Okay. Now this is the major change that I've seen -- how teaching English has morphed from being a mutually beneficial practice to becoming a massive international business that it is today. No longer just a foreign language on the school curriculum, and no longer the sole domain of mother England, it has become a bandwagon sellest (inglise keele õpetamisest) on saanud populaarne tegevus for every English-speaking nation on earth. And why not? After all, the best education -- according to the latest World University Rankings ülikoolide ülemaailmne edetabel-- is to be found in the universities of the U.K. and the U.S. So everybody wants to have an English education, naturally. But if you're not a native speaker, you have to pass a test.

03:19 Now can it be right to reject a student on linguistic ability alone? Perhaps you have a computer scientist who's a genius. Would he need the same language as a lawyer, for example? Well, I don't think so. We English teachers reject them all the time. We put a stop sign, and we stop them in their tracks. They can't pursue their dream any longer, 'til they get English. Now let me put it this way: if I met a monolingual Dutch speaker who had the cure for cancer, would I stop him from entering my British University? I don't think so. But indeed, that is exactly what we do. We English teachers are the gatekeepers. And you have to satisfy us first that your English is good enough. Now it can be dangerous to give too much power to a narrow segment of society. Maybe the barrier would be too universal. Kas see (inglise keele oskusest/oskamatusest tekkiv) barjäär peab ikka olema igas valdkonnas, st olema nö universaalne?

04:26 Okay. "But," I hear you say, "what about the research? It's all in English." So the books are in English, the journals are done in English, but that is a self-fulfilling prophecy. It feeds the English requirement. Inglise keele oskus nõue toetub sellele (uskumusele, et "kõik oluline on inglise keeles") And so it goes on. I ask you, what happened to translation? If you think about the Islamic Golden Age, there was lots of translation then. They translated from Latin and Greek into Arabic, into Persian, and then it was translated on into the Germanic languages of Europe and the Romance languages. And so light shone upon the Dark Ages of Europe. Now don't get me wrong; I am not against teaching English, all you English teachers out there. I love it that we have a global language. We need one today more than ever. Me vajame seda ühist keelt rohkem kui kunagi varem But I am against using it as a barrier. Do we really want to end up with 600 languages and the main one being English, or Chinese? We need more than that. Where do we draw the line? This system equates intelligence with a knowledge of English, which is quite arbitrary.

05:46 (Applause) 05:52 And I want to remind you that the giants upon whose shoulders today's intelligentsia stand did not have to have English, they didn't have to pass an English test. Case in point, Einstein hea näide on Einstein. He, by the way, was considered remedial at school because he was, in fact, dyslexic. But fortunately for the world, he did not have to pass an English test. Because they didn't start until 1964 with TOEFL, the American test of English TOEFL testidega hakati pihta alles 1964. Now it's exploded. There are lots and lots of tests of English. And millions and millions of students take these tests every year. Now you might think, you and me, "Those fees aren't bad, they're okay," but they are prohibitive to so many millions of poor people. So immediately, we're rejecting them.

06:43 (Applause) 06:46 It brings to mind a headline I saw recently: "Education: The Great Divide." Haridus "lööb inimesed kahte lehte", diskrimineerib Now I get it, I understand why people would want to focus on English. They want to give their children the best chance in life. And to do that, they need a Western education. Because, of course, the best jobs go to people out of the Western Universities, that I put on earlier. It's a circular thing.

07:12 Okay. Let me tell you a story about two scientists, two English scientists. They were doing an experiment to do with genetics and the forelimbs and the hind limbs tagajäsemed of animals. But they couldn't get the results they wanted. They really didn't know what to do, until along came a German scientist kuni ilmus välja üks saksa teadlane who realized that they were using two words for forelimb and hind limb, whereas genetics does not differentiate and neither does German. So bingo, problem solved. If you can't think a thought, you are stuck. But if another language can think that thought, then, by cooperating, we can achieve and learn so much more.

08:01 My daughter came to England from Kuwait. She had studied science and mathematics in Arabic. It's an Arabic-medium school kool, kus õppekeeleks on araabia keel. She had to translate it into English at her grammar school. And she was the best in the class at those subjects. Which tells us that when students come to us from abroad, we may not be giving them enough credit for what they know võibolla me ei tunnusta õpilasi piisavalt selle eest, mida nad teavad, and they know it in their own language. When a language dies, we don't know what we lose with that language.

08:35 This is -- I don't know if you saw it on CNN recently -- they gave the Heroes Award to a young Kenyan shepherd boy who couldn't study at night in his village, like all the village children, because the kerosene lamp, it had smoke and it damaged his eyes. And anyway, there was never enough kerosene, because what does a dollar a day buy for you? So he invented a cost-free solar lamp. And now the children in his village get the same grades at school as the children who have electricity at home. (Applause) When he received his award, he said these lovely words: "The children can lead Africa from what it is today, a dark continent, to a light continent." A simple idea, but it could have such far-reaching consequences.

09:35 People who have no light, whether it's physical or metaphorical, cannot pass our exams, and we can never know what they know. Let us not keep them and ourselves in the dark. Let us celebrate diversity. Mind your language Your language matters. Use it to spread great ideas.

10:01 (Applause) 10:08 Thank you very much. 10:10 (Applause)

Click on the brownish box above to download the SCRIPT for 14 Feb 'Thrive by five'

SCRIPT for 14 Feb 'How every child can thrive by five'

[Baby cooing]

00:20 What if I was to tell you that a game of peekaboo näopeitmise mäng could change the world? Sounds impossible, right? Well, I'm here today to prove it's not.

00:36 Hi, I'm Molly and I'm seven. And this is my little friend, Ari. Say "Hi," Ari. Hi. Oh, and this is my neighbor, Amarjot. He has to take Ari away now to get ready for our experiment. But don't worry, they'll be back.

00:56 My talk today is about some powerful things you grownups can do that shape us as children and the adults we become. How do I know? Because my parents and people around me did them (= did these things) early and often. I know not all kids are as lucky (neil pole nii hästi vedanud nagu minul). Some of my friends, some kids at my school and many around the world. And I would really like to help change that. Thanks to scientists, we now know just how important the first five years are for our health and development, especially our brains. Ari started learning long before he was even born, from inside his mommy's tummy. When Ari was born, he was tiny and he cried all the time. He was always hungry and he pooped a lot.

01:47 [Laughter] 01:49 Now he laughs and giggles and makes funny noises. But those are just the changes we hear and see. There's way more (palju enam) going on inside.

02:00 So, let's talk more about our brains. The blue bag is a rough size (enam-vähem see suurus) and weight of a healthy baby's brain at birth. The red one is a baby's brain after the first year. It almost doubles in volume. And by my age, it's almost 90 percent the (90% mahust) volume of an adult brain. Our brains develop faster in our early years than at any other time in our lives. It can create up to one million neural connections every second. But we need your help. Our healthy development depends on these top five things, One, connecting; two, talking; three, playing; four, a healthy home, five; community (kogukond, inimesed lapse läheduses). All of this helps our brains and us reach our full potential (kaasa sündinud võimeid välja arendada).

03:00 So what's something you can do that can really make a difference? Scientists call it serve and return. That's just a grown-up way of saying connect, talk and play with us. And here's the really big news. Amarjot, Ari, you ready?

03:19 (Audio) Amajat: Ready? 03:21 Molly Wright: Copycat jäljendamise games build imagination and empathy. 03:25 (Amarjot and Ari laughing) 03:29 Naming games see-on-see mängud build vocabulary and attention. 03:33 Amarjot: Daddy. Ari. Daddy. Ari.

03:38 MW: And games like peekabo käega näo peitmise mäng-yep jah, just, peekaboo -- actually build memory and trust. 03:44 Amarjot: Peekaboo!

03:46 MW: Each time you talk to us, play with us, make us laugh, it not only builds and strengthens our relationships and mental health, it actually teaches us some of the most important life skills, from making friends to taking the test, to getting a job, to one day maybe even starting a family of our own. Interactions early and often matter. Take it from me vaadake mind!, the seven-year-old up here talking about brain science. 04:17 (Laughter)

04:18 OK, now let's see what happens when the connection is taken away. So now he's trying to get his dad's attention again. He's reaching out like, "That was fun, why have you stopped?" 04:34 (Ari cries)

04:36 I know it's important for adults to use their devices sometimes, but kids are hardwired to neile on kaasa sündinud seek out püüd/tahe meaningful connections, not receiving them causes confusion and stress. OK, Amarjot, please re-engage jätka lapsega tegelemist. 04:54 Amarjot: Ah, there's Ari.

04:56 (Ari laughs)

05:01 MW: Now what if our whole childhood was like that last 30 seconds? How hard it would be for a child to feel calm. To feel safe. To learn to trust anyone. And the lifelong impact that would have. That makes me feel sad. Ari only reacted the way he did and recovered so quickly because the connection between him and his dad is usually so strong. The positive relationships with the grown-ups in our lives gives kids the confidence we need to try new things, to explore and be a kid.

05:49 So please, try to remember the most special period for our development is the first five years. Starting from inside mommy's tummy. What's something really impactful you can do? Serve and return. And when? Early and often. Please give it up for tehke aplaus a Amarjot and Ari. 06:17 (Applause)

06:25 Every moment together is an opportunity to connect, talk and play. Imagine the difference we could make ja mis kõik oleks teisiti if everyone everywhere did this. To us, the children, it's so much more than just a game. It's our future.06:54 Thank you. 06:55 (Applause)

06:56 See? Peekaboo really can change the world. 06:59