The language I'm speaking right now is on its way to becoming the world's universal language, for better or for worse. Let's face it, it's the language of the internet, it's the language of finance, it's the language of air traffic control, of popular music, diplomacy -- English is everywhere.
A lingua que estou falando agora está en camiño de converterse na lingua universal, para ben ou para mal. Afrontémolo, é a lingua da Internet, é a lingua das finanzas é a lingua do control de tráfico aéreo da música popular, da diplomacia... O inglés está por todos os lados.
Now, Mandarin Chinese is spoken by more people, but more Chinese people are learning English than English speakers are learning Chinese. Last I heard, there are two dozen universities in China right now teaching all in English. English is taking over.
O chinés mandarín fálao máis xente, pero hai máis xente chinesa aprendendo inglés que falantes de inglés aprendendo chinés. Segundo o último que escoitei, actualmente hai dúas ducias de universidades en China que ensinan todo en inglés. O inglés está tomando o poder.
And in addition to that, it's been predicted that at the end of the century almost all of the languages that exist now -- there are about 6,000 -- will no longer be spoken. There will only be some hundreds left. And on top of that, it's at the point where instant translation of live speech is not only possible, but it gets better every year.
E ademais, prevese que a finais de século case todas as linguas que existen hoxe, hai ao redor de 6000, deixarán de falarse. Quedarán só algúns centos. E por riba, estamos nun momento en que a tradución instantánea en directo non só é posible senón que mellora cada ano.
The reason I'm reciting those things to you is because I can tell that we're getting to the point where a question is going to start being asked, which is: Why should we learn foreign languages -- other than if English happens to be foreign to one? Why bother to learn another one when it's getting to the point where almost everybody in the world will be able to communicate in one?
A razón por que estou dicindo estas cousas é porque creo que estamos chegando a un punto en que vai empezar a xurdir unha pregunta: Por que deberiamos aprender linguas estranxeiras, á parte do inglés no caso dos que non a teñen como lingua materna? Por que aprender outra cando estamos chegando a un punto en que case todas as persoas no mundo serán capaces de comunicarse nunha soa?
I think there are a lot of reasons, but I first want to address the one that you're probably most likely to have heard of, because actually it's more dangerous than you might think. And that is the idea that a language channels your thoughts, that the vocabulary and the grammar of different languages gives everybody a different kind of acid trip, so to speak. That is a marvelously enticing idea, but it's kind of fraught.
Penso que hai moitas razóns, pero primeiro quero nomear aquela da que probablemente escoitastes falar máis porque, en realidade, é máis perigosa do que se pensa. Trátase da idea de que a lingua canaliza os pensamentos, que o vocabulario e a gramática de linguas diferentes dálle a todos un tipo diferente de "viaxe alucinóxeno", para entendérmonos. Esa é unha idea marabillosa, pero ten riscos.
So it's not that it's untrue completely. So for example, in French and Spanish the word for table is, for some reason, marked as feminine. So, "la table," "la mesa," you just have to deal with it. It has been shown that if you are a speaker of one of those languages and you happen to be asked how you would imagine a table talking, then much more often than could possibly be an accident, a French or a Spanish speaker says that the table would talk with a high and feminine voice. So if you're French or Spanish, to you, a table is kind of a girl, as opposed to if you are an English speaker.
Non é que sexa completamente falsa. Por exemplo, en francés e en español a palabra "mesa" é, por algunha razón, feminina. Entón, "la table", "la mesa" é así e punto. Demostrouse que se sodes falantes dunha desas linguas e vos preguntan como imaxinariades unha mesa falar, moito máis a miúdo do que podería ser por coincidencia, un falante de francés ou de español di que a mesa falaría cunha voz aguda e feminina. Así que se sodes franceses ou españois, para vós, unha mesa é como unha rapaza, ao revés do que ocorre se sodes falantes de inglés.
It's hard not to love data like that, and many people will tell you that that means that there's a worldview that you have if you speak one of those languages. But you have to watch out, because imagine if somebody put us under the microscope, the us being those of us who speak English natively. What is the worldview from English?
É difícil non apreciar este tipo de datos, e moita xente dirá que iso significa que hai unha visión do mundo que tes se falas unha desas linguas. Pero hai que ter coidado, imaxinade se alguén nos pon debaixo dun microscopio, con "nós" refírome aos que falamos inglés como nativos. Cal é a visión do mundo desde o inglés?
So for example, let's take an English speaker. Up on the screen, that is Bono. He speaks English. I presume he has a worldview. Now, that is Donald Trump. In his way, he speaks English as well.
Por exemplo, collamos un falante nativo de inglés. O da pantalla é Bono. Fala inglés. Supoño que ten unha visión do mundo. Agora, este é Donald Trump. Á súa maneira tamén fala inglés.
(Laughter)
(Risos)
And here is Ms. Kardashian, and she is an English speaker, too. So here are three speakers of the English language. What worldview do those three people have in common? What worldview is shaped through the English language that unites them? It's a highly fraught concept. And so gradual consensus is becoming that language can shape thought, but it tends to be in rather darling, obscure psychological flutters. It's not a matter of giving you a different pair of glasses on the world.
E aquí está a Sra. Kardashian, que tamén é falante de inglés. Aquí hai tres falantes da lingua inglesa. Que visión do mundo teñen estas tres persoas en común? Que visión do mundo se formou a través da lingua que as une? É un concepto moi perigoso. Estase chegando a un consenso de que a lingua pode modelar o pensamento, pero non se trata máis que de lixeiras e escuras variacións psicolóxicas. Non é cuestión de darvos outro par de lentes para ver o mundo.
Now, if that's the case, then why learn languages? If it isn't going to change the way you think, what would the other reasons be? There are some. One of them is that if you want to imbibe a culture, if you want to drink it in, if you want to become part of it, then whether or not the language channels the culture -- and that seems doubtful -- if you want to imbibe the culture, you have to control to some degree the language that the culture happens to be conducted in. There's no other way.
Entón, se é así, por que aprender linguas? Se non vai cambiar a forma en que penso, cales serían as razóns? Hai unhas cantas. Unha delas é que se queredes empaparvos dunha cultura, se queredes absorbela, se queredes ser parte dela, entón canalice esa cultura ou non, --e iso parece dubidoso-- se queredes empaparvos da cultura, tedes que controlar ata certo punto a lingua a través da que se vehicula esa cultura. Non hai outra.
There's an interesting illustration of this. I have to go slightly obscure, but really you should seek it out. There's a movie by the Canadian film director Denys Arcand -- read out in English on the page, "Dennis Ar-cand," if you want to look him up. He did a film called "Jesus of Montreal." And many of the characters are vibrant, funny, passionate, interesting French-Canadian, French-speaking women. There's one scene closest to the end, where they have to take a friend to an Anglophone hospital. In the hospital, they have to speak English. Now, they speak English but it's not their native language, they'd rather not speak English. And they speak it more slowly, they have accents, they're not idiomatic. Suddenly these characters that you've fallen in love with become husks of themselves, they're shadows of themselves.
Hai unha ilustración interesante sobre isto. Teño que poñerme un pouco escuro pero, de verdade, deberiades velo. Hai unha película do director canadense Denys Arcand, pronunciado en inglés "Dennis Ar-cand", se queredes buscalo. Fixo unha película chamada "Xesús de Montreal". Moitas das personaxes son franco-canadenses vibrantes, graciosas, apaixonadas e interesantes, mulleres que falan francés. Hai unha escena cara ao final na que teñen que levar un amigo a un hospital anglófono. No hospital, teñen que falar inglés. Falan inglés pero non é a súa lingua materna, preferirían non falar inglés. E fálano máis devagar, teñen acento, non soan naturais. De súpeto, esas personaxes das que vos namorastes convértense en caricaturas, sombras de si mesmas.
To go into a culture and to only ever process people through that kind of skrim curtain is to never truly get the culture. And so to the extent that hundreds of languages will be left, one reason to learn them is because they are tickets to being able to participate in the culture of the people who speak them, just by virtue of the fact that it is their code. So that's one reason.
Entrar nunha cultura e comprender as persoas a través dese tipo de cortina opaca implica non chegar nunca a entender a cultura. Entón, na medida en que queden centos de linguas, unha razón para aprendelas é porque son billetes que nos permiten participar na cultura da xente que a fala, só polo feito de que é o seu código. Así que esa é unha razón.
Second reason: it's been shown that if you speak two languages, dementia is less likely to set in, and that you are probably a better multitasker. And these are factors that set in early, and so that ought to give you some sense of when to give junior or juniorette lessons in another language. Bilingualism is healthy.
A segunda razón: Demostrouse que se falamos dúas linguas é menos probable que suframos demencia e que probablemente sexamos mellores en multitarefas. Eses son factores que se establecen axiña e debería darnos algunha indicación sobre cando darlle ao neno ou á nena clases noutra lingua. O bilingüismo é saúde.
And then, third -- languages are just an awful lot of fun. Much more fun than we're often told. So for example, Arabic: "kataba," he wrote, "yaktubu," he writes, she writes. "Uktub," write, in the imperative. What do those things have in common? All those things have in common the consonants sitting in the middle like pillars. They stay still, and the vowels dance around the consonants. Who wouldn't want to roll that around in their mouths? You can get that from Hebrew, you can get that from Ethiopia's main language, Amharic. That's fun.
E agora, a terceira: As linguas son moi divertidas. Moito máis divertidas do que nos din. Por exemplo, en árabe: "kataba", el escribiu, "yaktubu", el escribe, ela escribe. "Uktub", escribe, no imperativo. Que teñen en común? Todos estes verbos teñen en común as consoantes postas no medio como piares. Quedan aí, e as vogais bailan ao redor das consoantes. Quen non querería enrolalas na boca? O mesmo ocorre no hebreo, o mesmo ocorre coa lingua principal de Etiopía, o amhárico. É divertido.
Or languages have different word orders. Learning how to speak with different word order is like driving on the different side of a street if you go to certain country, or the feeling that you get when you put Witch Hazel around your eyes and you feel the tingle. A language can do that to you.
Ou as linguas que ordenan as palabras de forma diferente. Aprender a falar cunha orde diferente nas palabras é como conducir polo outro carril se ides a certo país, ou a sensación cando poñemos hamamelis ao redor dos ollos e sentimos o formigo. A lingua pode darvos iso.
So for example, "The Cat in the Hat Comes Back," a book that I'm sure we all often return to, like "Moby Dick." One phrase in it is, "Do you know where I found him? Do you know where he was? He was eating cake in the tub, Yes he was!" Fine. Now, if you learn that in Mandarin Chinese, then you have to master, "You can know, I did where him find? He was tub inside gorging cake, No mistake gorging chewing!" That just feels good. Imagine being able to do that for years and years at a time.
Por exemplo, "The Cat in the Hat Comes Back", un libro ao que estou seguro todos volvemos, como "Moby Dick". Unha frase do libro di: "Sabes onde o atopei? Sabes onde estaba? Estaba comendo torta na bañeira, Si, estaba!" Ben, se o dicides en chinés mandarín, teriades que esforzarvos: "Podes saber, eu souben onde o atopar? Estaba na bañeira dentro engulindo torta, Sen dúbida, engulindo mastigando!" Iso está moi ben. Imaxinade poder facer iso durante anos e anos.
Or, have you ever learned any Cambodian? Me either, but if I did, I would get to roll around in my mouth not some baker's dozen of vowels like English has, but a good 30 different vowels scooching and oozing around in the Cambodian mouth like bees in a hive. That is what a language can get you.
Ou, algunha vez aprendestes algo de cambodjano? Eu tampouco, pero se o fixese, enrolaría na boca non só unha ducia de vogais como o inglés, senón unhas 30 vogais diferentes dando voltas na boca cambodjana como abellas nunha colmea. Iso é o que unha lingua pode darnos.
And more to the point, we live in an era when it's never been easier to teach yourself another language. It used to be that you had to go to a classroom, and there would be some diligent teacher -- some genius teacher in there -- but that person was only in there at certain times and you had to go then, and then was not most times. You had to go to class. If you didn't have that, you had something called a record. I cut my teeth on those. There was only so much data on a record, or a cassette, or even that antique object known as a CD. Other than that you had books that didn't work, that's just the way it was.
E centrándonos máis, vivimos nunha era na que nunca foi máis sinxelo aprender sós outra lingua. Antes había que ir a unha clase, onde estaría un profesor dilixente, un profesor brillante, pero esa persoa estaba alí só en certos momentos e tiñas que ir alí entón, e ás veces non era a miúdo. Tiñas que ir a clases. Se non podías, tiñas algo chamado gravación. Eu aprendín o básico con elas. Pero había demasiada información nunha gravación, ou nunha casete, ou mesmo neses obxectos antigos coñecidos como CD. Ademais, había libros que non funcionaban, así era a cousa.
Today you can lay down -- lie on your living room floor, sipping bourbon, and teach yourself any language that you want to with wonderful sets such as Rosetta Stone. I highly recommend the lesser known Glossika as well. You can do it any time, therefore you can do it more and better. You can give yourself your morning pleasures in various languages. I take some "Dilbert" in various languages every single morning; it can increase your skills. Couldn't have done it 20 years ago when the idea of having any language you wanted in your pocket, coming from your phone, would have sounded like science fiction to very sophisticated people.
Hoxe podemos tombarnos, deitarnos no chan no salón bebendo whisky e aprender calquera lingua que nos apeteza con marabillosas leccións como as de Rosetta Stone. Eu tamén recomendo a menos coñecida Glossika. Pódese facer en calquera momento, polo tanto, pódese facer máis e mellor. Podemos ter os praceres matinais en diferentes linguas. Eu leo tiras cómicas de "Dilbert" en varias linguas cada mañá, isto pode mellorar as vosas destrezas. Non o podería facer hai 20 anos cando a idea de ter calquera lingua que desexásemos no peto, saíndo do móbil, soaría a ciencia ficción para xente moi sofisticada.
So I highly recommend that you teach yourself languages other than the one that I'm speaking, because there's never been a better time to do it. It's an awful lot of fun. It won't change your mind, but it will most certainly blow your mind.
Así que recomendo moito que estudedes pola vosa conta linguas distintas da que estou falando, porque nunca houbo mellor momento para facelo. É moi divertido. Non nos vai cambiar a mente, pero con certeza vaina sorprender.
Thank you very much.
Moitas grazas.
(Applause)
(Aplausos)