John McWhorter: 4 reasons to learn a new language
John McWhorter: 4 grunde til at lære et nyt sprog
Linguist John McWhorter thinks about language in relation to race, politics and our shared cultural history. Full bio
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the world's universal language,
for hele verden,
is spoken by more people,
are learning English
der lærer engelsk,
are learning Chinese.
in China right now
i Kina - lige nu
that at the end of the century
at ved århundredskiftet
that exist now --
instant translation of live speech
af direkte tale
but it gets better every year.
men bliver bedre år for år
those things to you
that we're getting to the point
is going to start being asked,
at stille dette spørgsmål:
learn foreign languages --
happens to be foreign to one?
hvis det er fremmed for os?
when it's getting to the point
når vi er nået et punkt
will be able to communicate in one?
vil være i stand til at bruge engelsk?
most likely to have heard of,
dangerous than you might think.
end man måske tror
and the grammar of different languages
ordforråd og grammatik
a different kind of acid trip,
for some reason, marked as feminine.
anden grund, markeret for hunkøn.
you just have to deal with it.
det skal man bare leve med.
of one of those languages
et bord lyder når det taler
than could possibly be an accident,
der kan tilskrives tilfældighed,
with a high and feminine voice.
med en lys og feminin stemme.
to you, a table is kind of a girl,
ser du et bord lidt som noget piget,
are an English speaker.
will tell you that that means
at det betyder
if you speak one of those languages.
hvis du taler et af de her sprog.
put us under the microscope,
putter os under mikroskop,
who speak English natively.
med engelsk som modersmål.
let's take an English speaker.
en engelsktalende person.
of the English language.
der alle taler engelsk.
three people have in common?
the English language that unites them?
det engelske sprog har de til fælles?
that language can shape thought,
enighed om at sprog kan forme tanker,
obscure psychological flutters.
enestående bidder af sproget.
a different pair of glasses on the world.
forskellige briller at se verden med.
the way you think,
at ændre måden du tænker,
want to imbibe a culture,
tilegne dig en kultur,
if you want to become part of it,
være en del af den,
the language channels the culture --
happens to be conducted in.
illustration of this.
but really you should seek it out.
men I bør virkelig tjekke det ud.
film director Denys Arcand --
canadiske instruktør Denys Arcand --
"Dennis Ar-cand,"
sige "Dennis Ar-cand"
der hedder "Jesus of Montreal,"
interesting French-Canadian,
spændende fransk-canadiske
to an Anglophone hospital.
til et engelsksproget hospital.
they have to speak English.
but it's not their native language,
men det er ikke deres modersmål,
that you've fallen in love with
du har forelsket dig i,
they're shadows of themselves.
skygger af sig selv.
through that kind of skrim curtain
of languages will be left,
sprog vil være tilbage,
to being able to participate
who speak them,
dem der taler sproget,
that it is their code.
dementia is less likely to set in,
mindre chance for at få demens,
a better multitasker.
lessons in another language.
eller juniorinden, timer i et andet sprog.
Arabic: "kataba," he wrote,
Arabisk: "kataba," han skrev,
in the middle like pillars.
i midten som grundpiller.
dance around the consonants.
rundt om konsonanterne.
that around in their mouths?
dét rundt i deres mund?
main language, Amharic.
hovedsprog, Amharisk.
with different word order
of a street if you go to certain country,
af vejen når du rejser til nogle lande,
put Witch Hazel around your eyes
troldnød rundt om øjnene
we all often return to,
vi alle ofte genlæser,
"Do you know where I found him?
"Ved du hvor jeg fandt ham?"
He was eating cake in the tub,
Han spiste kage i badekaret,
in Mandarin Chinese,
lære det på Mandarin,
for years and years at a time.
at snakke sådan år ind og år ud.
not some baker's dozen of vowels
ikke bare de små 13 vokaler,
in the Cambodian mouth
den cambodianske mund,
easier to teach yourself another language.
været nemmere at lære sig selv nye sprog.
to go to a classroom,
et klasselokale
some diligent teacher --
in there at certain times
på bestemte tider
you had something called a record.
havde du noget der hed en plade
kunne kun have en vis længe,
that didn't work,
any language that you want to
det sprog du har lyst til,
such as Rosetta Stone.
the lesser known Glossika as well.
det mindre kendte Glossika.
kan du gøre det mere og bedre
pleasures in various languages.
på forskellige sprog.
languages every single morning;
på forskellige sprog hver eneste morgen;
any language you wanted
lige det sprog du kunne tænke dig
to very sophisticated people.
for selv de mest sofistikerede folk.
other than the one that I'm speaking,
end det jeg taler nu,
a better time to do it.
nemmere end det er nu.
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