TED Talk English Club 2023: Vol 4 on 9 & 16 March

Welcome to TED Talk English Club season 2--of spring 2023--active each Thursday at 3-6 p.m. in 26 Jan through 27 April 2023:)

You're welcome to click on the black box below to read or download

the SUMMARY of 16 March on 'King of the Road' 

You're welcome to click on the brown box below to read or download 

the SUMMARY of 9 March on 'Busyness'.

CLUB Meeting on 16 March 2023 = Meeting 2 of Vol 4

CLUB Meeting  on 9 March 2023 = Meeting 1 of Vol 4

TOPIC for 9 March 2023: Is it all (the world) at our fingertips?

TOPIC for 16 March 2023: song 'King of the Road' by Roger Miller (1964), click for more info

Please click to LISTEN to it (or click over here)

1 more QUESTION about the VIDEO  for 16 March: 

• What do you make of the way Dorie (the TED-speaker) uses the phrase 'the world at our fingertips' in his talk about busyness? Do you think the world is at our fingertips? Kuidas Dorie kasutab väljendit 'the world at our fingertips' mul-on-kiire eluviisist rääkides? Kas (terve) maailm on meil n-ö käeulatuses?

3 QUESTIONS to TALK about the SONG on 16 March: 

• 16 March Question 1: Does it all make sense to you? Can you spot any metaphors? Millest see laul räägib? Milliseid ülekantud tähenduses ütlemisi siit võib leida? 
• 16 March Question 2: How does it sound in terms of grammar? On see grammatika mõttes klassikaline?
• 16 March Question 3: Who do you think is the King of the Road? Any way you can link the song to 'busyness'? Kellele võiks viidata laulu pealkiri? Kuidas/Kas seostub see laul mul-on-kiire eluviisiga?

I ain't got no cigarettes

Ah but two hours of pushing broom
Buys a eight by twelve four-bit room (NB! 2 bits = 25 cents in Am slang)
I'm a man of means, by no means
King of the road

Third boxcar, midnight train
Destination: Bangor, Maine
Old worn out suit and shoes
I don't pay no union dues

I smoke, old stogies I have found
Short, but not too big around
I'm a man of means, by no means
King of the road

I know every engineer on every train
All of the children and all of their names
Every handout in every town
Every lock that ain't locked when no one's around

I sing, trailers for sale or rent
Rooms to let, fifty cents
No phone, no pool, no pets
I ain't got no cigarettes

Ah but, two hours of pushing broom

Buys an eight by twelve four-bit room

I'm a man of means, by no means
King of the road

Trailer for sale or rent
Rooms to let, fifty cents
No phone, no pool, no pets

I ain't got no cigarettes

WORDS of the video on Quizlet = click the link (click automatic join link to access Quizlet)

• 9 March QUESTION 1: How do you relate to a saying like 'Strategic thinking (long-term thinking) is key to success'? Kas mõtled n-ö pikalt ette?
  
• 9 March QUESTION 2: Is a meeting (always) a contributor? Kas koosolek kui selline on (alati) vajalik?
• 9 March QUESTION 3: The speaker says, 'It (being busy or less/not busy) is a matter of choice. What is your take on it--are we free to make this choice? Dorie Clark ütleb, et kiire elutempo on meie enda valik. Mida sellest arvata? On meil selles suhtes valikuvabadust?

Time: 3 p.m. through 6 p.m. on 16 March 2023. NB! Please pick from: 3-3.30 .... /3.30-4.00 .Heli.../ 4-4.30 .../4.30-5.00 ..../ 5.00-5.30 ..Merge. /5.30-6 p.m. .../ and please submit by the form above. Toomas on Friday, 17 March this time

SCRIPT of the VIDEO for 9 March 2023:

VOC at https://quizlet.com/_cw9gmr?x=1jqt&i=2ma36

00:00 We live in a time-pressed culture. There is never enough time. And we see it, we feel it around us every day. We live in a world that valorizes väärtustame kõrgelt work, accomplishment, busyness töötegemist, millegi "ära tegemist" (lõpule/läbi viimist, saavutamist), (pidevat/kiiret) tegutsemist. And there's real upside to that; there's real value sellel on oma positiive, tõeliselt hea külg. We're pushed, we're driven toward achievement and action and creation selline (valitsev) suhtumine paneb meid saavutama, tegutsema, looma. And that's great suurepärane/tore, but there's also a downside varjukülg. And that's something that I think is worth talking about.

00:35 There was a study done a while back mõnda aega tagasi, by the Management Research Group, of 10,000 senior leaders uuriti 10 000 juhtival ametikohal töötavat inimest . And they asked them, "What is key to your organization's success?" And 97 percent said long-term strategic thinking. I mean, when was the last time that 97 percent of people agreed on anything? There is near unanimity peaaegu üksmeelne arvamus that being a long-term thinker -- having perspective kui sul on hea perspektiivitunnetus, suure pildi nägemise võime, having the ability to think and ask big questions -- is essential määrava tähtsusega to our success. And yet in a separate study, 96 percent of leaders were surveyed küsitleti, and they said they don't have time for strategic thinking pole aega pikalt ette mõelda.

01:18 (Laughter) 01:19 What is going on? Why is it -- how can it be that 96 percent of people are not doing the one thing that they say is most critical to their success?

01:33 Well, I think we know the answer ... or at least we think we do. The average professional attends 62 meetings per month. That sounds pretty outrageous kohutav. How could that be? But if you actually break it down, it's not that many seda polegi nii palju. It's two to three meetings per day, which is probably average for many of you. So 62 meetings a month. That does not help see ei aita selgitas mul-on-kiire olekut, and that is not wrong. It is a contributor (koosolek) on vajalik.

02:00 Also, we know -- we know what else ... email. A study a while back by McKinsey showed that the average professional spends 28 percent of their time just responding to email. Of course that drains us, of course that makes us busy.

02:19 But the truth is, it's also, I believe, not the full picture. Those are manifestations välised ilmingud, nähtav pool. Those are problems, legitimately neid probleeme me teadvustame/tunnistame. But there are also some other things going on underneath the surface, reasons that perhaps we are, in some ways, working at cross-purposes erinevatel põhjustel. Because for so long almost all of us have said we want desperately to be less busy, and yet we keep making choices that put ourselves in the position where we're just as busy as we've always been.

02:53 What is going on? Well, some research out of Columbia University sheds a little bit of light on this. Silvia Bellezza and her colleagues have done interesting research into the fact that in some cultures--American culture chief among them--(1) busyness is actually a form of status. When we say, "Oh, I am so crazy busy," what we're really saying is a societally-accepted version of "I am so important --

03:24 (Laughter) 03:25 "I am so popular! I am so in demand!" And the truth is that feeling can be hard to give up ... even if we say that we want to.

03:38 That's not the only reason, of course. It turns out it is very hard for the human mind to deal with conditions of uncertainty teadmatust/ebakindlust tajume pingeolukorrana. And in modern life, there's a lot of it. Sometimes we are given tasks or challenges, and the truth is, tactically, we just don't know how to do it. "Increase sales by 30 percent." Well, how? There's a lot of ways you could do it. You're not sure how. Sometimes it's easier, frankly, to just double down tõstad panuseid (pingutad/rügad veel rohkem), vrd lähed täispanga peale välja and keep doing more of what you're already doing. That might not be the best answer, but it's an answer, and (2A) it removes uncertainty see (st veel rohkem pingutamine/rügamine) on üks viis, kuidas pingeolukorraga toime tulla.

04:19 The picture gets even worse when we're talking about existential questions küsimused, mis panevad (inimest oma) elu üle järele mõtlema; when we're talking about uncomfortable matters kui räägime neil ebamugavust tekitavatel (eksistentsiaalsetel teemadel) that we might not actually really want to deal with. That might be, "Am I in the right job?" It might be, "Am I in the right career?" Those are often questions, truth be told tõsi ta on, we might not want the answer to neile küsimustele me võib-olla ei tahagi vastust. And (2B) so we become busy (vastamise asemel) kukume tegutsema as a way so that we don't even have to ask the question et siis ehk neid küsimusi ei peaks üldse küsimagi.

04:52 Now, there's a third reason, and I'll admit it's one that I know well, personally, and that is that sometimes (3) we use busyness as a way to numb ourselves out pidevalt n-ö  sekeldades muudamr end tundetuks/tuimaks. I've experienced that. This is my boy Gideon, and he died in 2013. I'd had him for 17 years, and he was my best friend. And after he died, I'll be honest, I didn't want to be home because I knew that he wouldn't be there. And so for two years, my life basically was an Uber to uber taksoga an airport, to a hotel and back again, because I just really didn't want to face that ei tahtnud tulla koju, kus Gideoni ei olnud (enam). For a lot of us, there are things we sometimes don't want to face. What we're really looking for with work is an anesthetic. töötame, sest see võib mõjuda valuvaigistina (mida me tegelikult otsimegi) And as I like to say, work is better than crack kokaiin--

05:53 (Laughter) 05:54 so if you're choosing ... 05:56 (Laughter) 05:57 it's not the worst. 05:59 (Laughter)

06:01 But the truth is, it's also not a sustainable solution see aitab vaid mõnda aega, mitte lõputult. For many of us, we get trapped in the pattern of busyness, of overwork. It's hard sometimes even to remember what it was like before. Oftentimes in our mind's eye oma vaimusilmas, kujutlustes, when we think of busyness, what we think of is this. What we think of is triumphant success and the world at your fingertips kõik siin maailmas on n-ö käeulatuses, sh minu kontrolli all. The truth is, more often, busyness looks like this. It looks like loneliness. It looks like frustration. It looks like having a life that's not really in your full control.

06:45 So I would like to propose that we make a change. Because if we are ever going to succeed in beating back busyness kui me kunagi üldse saame lahti sellest mul-on-nii-kiire-tundest once and for all nüüd ja igavesti, s.o alatiseks, first of all siis kõigepealt, we have to get real peame tõele näkku vaatama and acknowledge what is actually behind some of the busyness that is filling our days. We have to really get honest about what it is that's motivating us so that we can make a different choice. Because it is about our choice kas meil on kiire (või mitte), on meie valik (on valikute küsimus). We need to recognize that real freedom is about creating the space so that we can breathe, the space so that we can think. Ultimately, real freedom is about choosing tõeline vabadus tähendab vabadust valida how and with whom we want to be spending our time. 07:39 Thank you. 07:40 (Cheers) 07:41