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TEDx Talks
Published: 2014-10-23
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=488ZBeaGo6s
how many languages do you speak it's not a rhetorical question I'd like everyone to take a moment and get a number in your head how many languages do you speak some you're like that's easy Hamdan it's one you're talking about others of you need you need a little more time you're kind of counting your languages maybe deciding whether that a language that an ex boyfriend or
girlfriend taught you where you just learn the cuss words whether it counts or not go hadn't counted could be nice to yourself when I ask myself this question I came up with four arguably five if I've been drinking my hands are but then all closer on closer examination I realize at that number was closer to eighty three eighty three languages at which point I just got
tired and I and I stopped counting and it forced me to re visit that definition that we have of language and we can scroll through this but the first part says the method of human communication either spoken or written consisting of use of words in a structured in conventional way and at the bottom we see the phraseology in vocabulary of a certain profession we know that
special I'd feel like medicine science but I'm most concerned with the secondary definition number two the system of communication use by particular community or country and I'm not interested in altering this definition I'm interested in applying it everything we do because I believe we speak far more languages then we realize that for the rest of our time I am going to speak in one language that
is native to everyone here so if you came to see Ted talk I'm sorry disappoint you Ted's not here it's me and you're stuck with me and if you came here to talk I'm sorry disappoint you there too because we're gonna have a conversation and as in any conversation it's not a real conversation unless there's an interaction and at various points I'm gonna ask you to
interact you can ask any woman on whether or not it's a real conversation if you're not interacting it doesn't count and I agree with that definition so before we can get started I need to do a test to make sure we're clear on what this participation of this conversation looks like if you're happy and you know it clap your hands okay very good we can proceed
sue sellout us on your portfolio opponents if you okay we've also got some number Roma experiment the weather put Hubble middle upper so nice with Asia I can discuss and go you come inside I leave which I assets go ahead take a seat now if you felt a little bit uncomfortable I can assure you there was no joke being had at your expense simply ask the
Spanish population to and up look at a person to their right that was sitting at to laugh and I know that wasn't nice some sorry okay but in that one moment you got to experience a part of language were often on aware of we know when someone speaks our language it automatically connects us and behind what we often forget that if you don't speak that language
what it does to isolate and what it does to exclude and it's a very important thing to remember as we go along with this journey of languages but I have a kiss on Q. Farsi so what we gonna I don't do Semenya total photos he bid them carefully too many tabs Amish Akemi sack that if you heard some chuckles that was the Farsi speaking population laughing
a little bit inside because I'm going to attempt to explain a word total in our culture which has no equivalent in the English language the best way we can describe it is a combination of words thing like things like an extreme humility or extreme grace are extreme politeness and really the only way I can get you to understand how deep this goes is to give you
an example if two guys were to seek shelter in the street me very common for one to walk up to the other one and say Melissa town right which that means I am indebted do you to which the second guy would respond back chocolate at ten which means I tear my shirt open for you to which the first guy would respond back nope chatted tam which
means I am your servant the first guy would then respond back if it worked out for hokey Zita part time which literally means I am the dirt beneath your feet exhibit a this extreme humility has no parallel in the English lexicon and I share that example with you just to know that merely speaking another language can introduce a new concept into our lives that previously didn't
exist and that's one example from one language if I were to flash this series of coded words on the screen some of you right away can recognize that you know what it is others of you would have no clue and I could probably make a pretty clear cut right around the age of thirty five and younger or thirty five and older unless you're really hit thirty
five rights but some of you who are maybe in that bracket that understands you know exactly what this is and those of you others might be staring at the screen like W. T. H. what the heck right and of course for those of us that know this is text meager SMS language a series of mobile phone texting coded words that seek to use the least number
of letters to convey the most amount of meaning it sounds very similar to our definition of language have to show that applies even further what if I were to tell you that this is in fact a modern day love letter follow with me as I go through these letters for the time being I love you lots because you positively bring out all the best in and
I laughed out loud in other words let me know what's up you are a Cutie in my opinion this far as I know to see you if you're not seeing someone would make me happy for your information all be right there forever in any case keep in touch no response necessary all my best wishes don't know don't care if anyone sees this so don't go there
see you later bye for now hugs and kisses you only that wants okay if you just laughed right now you just spoke another universal language and that's laughter it's an amazing thing we don't need to translate it and were born speaking it and that's why things like music and comedy are so prevalent in every single culture everything we do is a portal to another language and
the more languages that we speak the more we can learn it's a very common thing we all do we take any new concept and we compare it to an existing axis of reality within us by which we learned that new concept so the more languages that we have at our disposal the easier it becomes to learn these other languages and despite all these languages that we've
covered so far I still believe we haven't covered what I believe to be the most profound and important language of all which is the language of experience this is why you can get back from a trip or you can have an amazing experience and you come and see someone you know your best friend and you sit down and you go into detail about all these things
about this experience and they just cut to give you this blank look I just had to be there right and that's why you can go up to a stranger and before you even two words in they start finishing your sentence if they've had that experience if they speak that language because that language that experience is the most binding one that we have you don't need to
tell them what language you're speaking they know just like I'm not going to tell you what language I'm going to be speaking I'm gonna ask for them short amount of time we have left that if I am speaking your language gonna speak a few languages fine speaking your language your experience I'm gonna ask for the sake in the spirit of what we're doing that you just
merely stand and you stay standing do you speak this language of I don't know about you but I remember in school at the end of the year we have these %HESITATION graduation parties right and the whole student body would would vote on where to have the party now for me I would hope that the party wasn't at a water park because then I'd have to be
in a bathing suit and I don't think anybody wanted to see me in a bathing suit right or maybe this I don't know if you've ever been in a dressing room and don't you want to punch a hole through the door of that dressing room because the way things fit on you didn't look the way they did on that medication right or I remember at family
gatherings going to get seconds or wanting to get seconds and that was the whole exercise in cost benefit analysis for me because I knew I was hungry but it at family everyone's in your business so I knew that walk of and those looks of annoying you really need that yeah hits and and it did my cheeks because they were kind around the big have a pinch
me sign on on that no one told me about and for those of you who stand or begin to stand or stand you know of course I'm speaking the language of growing up fat kid and draw any body image issue is a dialect of that language I'm gonna ask that you stay standing and see about another language do you speak this language when we heard the
diagnosis I thought anything but that please not that I hate that word and then you ask a series of questions are you sure arms isn't removable as it spread how long doctor how long and the pattern of those answers determine someone's life and I remember when %HESITATION yet an appetite we would all rushed to the table to eat because as you know this thing takes away
your appetite and it wasn't very often that that you felt hungry so we all rush because we always ate together that's what we did and I was taught that if you fight something that you're supposed to win if you have the right spirit and we had the right spirit and I don't understand why we were losing and if you're standing of course you know the language
I'm speaking is watching a loved one battle cancer and any terminal illness is a derivative or a dialect of that language Massachusetts a standing do you speak this language when the buildings fell I I was in shock because I don't really believe it I heard the news but all the words they were like white noise right I I could make sense of it and it was
more of a disbelief or denial and then I remember seeing the first plane and the absolutely incomprehensible visual of what I was seeing and then I saw the second one and all I could do was shake my head no like like it wasn't it wasn't really happening and I saw the ground and I saw a city with more gots more courage in any city I've ever
known in the world and they were in total fear and total panic and then a little bit of time after I heard the stories stories of bravery to stories of courage the final minutes the phone calls and every time every year right around that time I had this eerie sense of sadness and his appreciation for those I love and for those of you standing of course
you know I'm speaking the language of September eleventh two thousand one some of you stood within four words when the buildings fell that's all I said and the interesting thing about that languages that's America's language and many cultures and communities have their own language and it's not what they're speaking we all speak that language because that's part of America's language and if you're still not standing
you probably know what it's like to be left out right you know what it's like that everyone is a part of something and you're not you know what it's like to be the outsider in fact you know what it's like being a minority and so now that we're speaking the same language I'm gonna ask that you go ahead and stay because I believe this language of
being the minority is one of the most important languages you can never learn because at some point in our life we will all be in that position of compromise at some point we'll all be in that position of power and if you can tap into what you felt when you were that minority how you handle that power being a mensa men's gifted can give to the
world thank you for participating mass use it for a moment I want to speak one last language Stan I just want to see if you recognize it most the girls in the world a plane in about it most the poems in the world have been written about it most the music on the radio is kicking about it written about or speaking about it most diverse in
the game people talking about it most the broken hearts I know or walking without it started to doubt it were lost without it most the shadows in the darker forgotten about it everybody in the world would be tripping without every boy and every girl would be dead without it struggle without it nothing without most the fingers that are drunk dialing about it most people that are
in it smiling about most people that I felt that are crying about it or try to get it back or lying most the pages that are filled our field about it tears that are spill or spilled about the people that I felt it a real about it a life without it be lost without when I'm in a Philadelphia shouting about it everybody in the whole world
knowing about it I'm her broke down to be flown about it going about it wrong because I didn't like she can't a wound a scar here without can't the way that you feel be concealed about it everybody has their own idea about it dream about it appeal about it the deal about it are you about about it to know that life is a trip and unreal
without it everything that you feel is so real about it but I'm just a writer so what can I reveal about why is it that the most spoken about language in the world is the one we have the toughest no matter how many books how many movies how many seminars we go to we still can't get enough of it so I ask you has that number
that you had in your head at the beginning has that changed and I also ask you next time you see someone to ask yourself what languages do we share and if you don't see any the second question is what language could we share let's find out and if you still don't see any this is the most important question what languages can I learn and no matter
