John McWhorter: 4 reasons to learn a new language
John McWhorter: 4 raons per aprendre una nova llengua
Linguist John McWhorter thinks about language in relation to race, politics and our shared cultural history. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
the world's universal language,
llengua universal,
is spoken by more people,
el parla més gent,
are learning English
aprenent anglès
are learning Chinese.
aprenent xinès.
in China right now
d'universitats a la Xina
that at the end of the century
that exist now --
que ara existeixen,
instant translation of live speech
instantània d'un discurs en viu
sinó que millora cada any.
but it gets better every year.
those things to you
ens estem apropant a un punt
that we're getting to the point
is going to start being asked,
learn foreign languages --
llengües estrangeres,
happens to be foreign to one?
llengua estrangera per a nosaltres?
when it's getting to the point
una altra quan arribarem
will be able to communicate in one?
podrà comunicar-se en una?
most likely to have heard of,
tots n'haureu sentit a parlar,
dangerous than you might think.
del que penseu.
les idees,
and the grammar of different languages
de les diferents llengües
a different kind of acid trip,
de "viatge d'àcid",
for some reason, marked as feminine.
una paraula femenina.
you just have to deal with it.
és així i punt.
of one of those languages
d'una d'aquestes llengües
than could possibly be an accident,
que si fos coincidència,
with a high and feminine voice.
aguda i femenina.
to you, a table is kind of a girl,
per a tu, una taula és com una noia,
are an English speaker.
will tell you that that means
si parles una d'aquestes llengües.
if you speak one of those languages.
put us under the microscope,
sota un microscopi
who speak English natively.
angloparlants.
des de l'anglès?
let's take an English speaker.
de veure la vida.
of the English language.
angloparlants.
three people have in common?
aquests tres en comú?
the English language that unites them?
a partir de la llengua que els uneix?
that language can shape thought,
que la llengua pot modelar el pensament,
obscure psychological flutters.
obscura i predilecta.
a different pair of glasses on the world.
unes altres ulleres per veure el món.
the way you think,
want to imbibe a culture,
if you want to become part of it,
si vols convertir-te en part d'aquesta,
the language channels the culture --
la cultura o no,
happens to be conducted in.
es transmet la cultura.
illustration of this.
sobre això.
but really you should seek it out.
però, de debò, deuríeu buscar-ho.
film director Denys Arcand --
canadenc, Denys Arcand,
"Dennis Ar-cand,"
"Dennis Ar-cand",
"Jesús de Montreal".
interesting French-Canadian,
franc-canadenques,
to an Anglophone hospital.
a un hospital de parla anglesa.
they have to speak English.
but it's not their native language,
llengua materna,
that you've fallen in love with
de qui t'has enamorat
they're shadows of themselves.
són les seves pròpies ombres.
through that kind of skrim curtain
a travès d'una cortina opaca
de debò.
of languages will be left,
es perdran,
to being able to participate
permetran participar
who speak them,
que les parlen,
that it is their code.
dementia is less likely to set in,
és menys probable patir demència,
a better multitasker.
mil coses a la vegada.
en marxa aviat,
lessons in another language.
en un altre idioma als més joves.
Arabic: "kataba," he wrote,
"kataba", ell va escriure,
in the middle like pillars.
com si foren pilars.
dance around the consonants.
al voltant de les consonants.
that around in their mouths?
aquestes paraules amb la boca?
main language, Amharic.
d'Etiòpia, amhàric.
de forma diferent.
with different word order
of a street if you go to certain country,
si vas a certs països,
put Witch Hazel around your eyes
una flor al voltant dels ulls
we all often return to,
tots rellegim sovint,
"Do you know where I found him?
el vaig trobar?
He was eating cake in the tub,
un pastís al bany,
in Mandarin Chinese,
for years and years at a time.
durant anys i anys alhora.
not some baker's dozen of vowels
no només tretze vocals
in the Cambodian mouth
easier to teach yourself another language.
tan fàcil auto-ensenyar-se una llengua.
to go to a classroom,
some diligent teacher --
in there at certain times
estava en certs moments
you had something called a record.
es tenia una gravació.
que es diu CD.
that didn't work,
per res,
any language that you want to
que vulguis
such as Rosetta Stone.
com les de Rosetta Stone.
the lesser known Glossika as well.
més sovint i millor.
pleasures in various languages.
en diferents llengües
languages every single morning;
en diferents llengües cada matí;
any language you wanted
qualsevol llengua desitjada
to very sophisticated people.
per als més sofisticats.
other than the one that I'm speaking,
a part de la que estic utilitzant,
a better time to do it.
que ara per fer-ho.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
John McWhorter - LinguistLinguist John McWhorter thinks about language in relation to race, politics and our shared cultural history.
Why you should listen
John McWhorter is Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, teaching linguistics, Western Civilization and music history. He is a regular columnist on language matters and race issues for Time and CNN, writes for the Wall Street Journal "Taste" page, and writes a regular column on language for The Atlantic. His work also appears in the Washington Post, the Chronicle of Higher Education, Aeon magazine, The American Interest and other outlets. He was Contributing Editor at The New Republic from 2001 until 2014.
McWhorter earned his PhD in linguistics from Stanford University in 1993 and is the author of The Power of Babel, Doing Our Own Thing, Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue, The Language Hoax and most recently Words on the Move and Talking Back, Talking Black. The Teaching Company has released four of his audiovisual lecture courses on linguistics. He guest hosted the Lexicon Valley podcast at Slate during the summer of 2016.
Beyond his work in linguistics, McWhorter is the author of Losing the Race and other books on race. He has appeared regularly on Bloggingheads.TV since 2006, and he produces and plays piano for a group cabaret show, New Faces, at the Cornelia Street Cafe in New York City.
John McWhorter | Speaker | TED.com