I know what you're thinking. You think I've lost my way, and somebody's going to come on the stage in a minute and guide me gently back to my seat. (Applause) I get that all the time in Dubai. "Here on holiday are you, dear?" (Laughter) "Come to visit the children? How long are you staying?"
Xa sei o que estades a pensar. Pensades que me perdín e que alguén vai subir a este escenario agora mesmo e levarme ata o meu sitio amablemente. (Aplausos) En Dubai, sempre me pasa o mesmo. "Está aquí de vacacións, non?" (Risos) "Veu visita-los seus fillos? Canto tempo vai quedar aquí?"
Well actually, I hope for a while longer yet. I have been living and teaching in the Gulf for over 30 years. (Applause) And in that time, I have seen a lot of changes. Now that statistic is quite shocking. And I want to talk to you today about language loss and the globalization of English. I want to tell you about my friend who was teaching English to adults in Abu Dhabi. And one fine day, she decided to take them into the garden to teach them some nature vocabulary. But it was she who ended up learning all the Arabic words for the local plants, as well as their uses -- medicinal uses, cosmetics, cooking, herbal. How did those students get all that knowledge? Of course, from their grandparents and even their great-grandparents. It's not necessary to tell you how important it is to be able to communicate across generations.
Pois o certo é que espero quedar bastante tempo, porque vivo e imparto clases no Golfo dende hai máis de 30 anos. (Aplausos) E, en todo este tempo, vin moitos cambios. Agora as estatísticas son bastante sorprendentes. Hoxe quero falarvos sobre a desaparición das linguas e a globalización do inglés. Quero falarvos dunha amiga miña que ensinaba inglés para adultos en Abu Dhabi. Un bo día, decidiu levalos ao xardín para ensinarlles vocabulario sobre a natureza. Pero foi ela quen terminou aprendendo tódolos nombes árabes das plantas locais, e tamén os seus usos: medicina, cosmética, cociña, herboristería. Como tiñan eses estudantes tantos coñecementos? Por suposto, grazas aos seus pais e incluso aos seus avós. Non fai falla que vos diga o importante que é a comunicación entre distintas xeracións.
But sadly, today, languages are dying at an unprecedented rate. A language dies every 14 days. Now, at the same time, English is the undisputed global language. Could there be a connection? Well I don't know. But I do know that I've seen a lot of changes. When I first came out to the Gulf, I came to Kuwait in the days when it was still a hardship post. Actually, not that long ago. That is a little bit too early. But nevertheless, I was recruited by the British Council, along with about 25 other teachers. And we were the first non-Muslims to teach in the state schools there in Kuwait. We were brought to teach English because the government wanted to modernize the country and to empower the citizens through education. And of course, the U.K. benefited from some of that lovely oil wealth.
Pero, por desgraza, actualmente as linguas morren a un ritmo sen precedentes. Unha lingua morre cada 14 días. E, ao mesmo tempo, o inglés é indiscutiblemente a lingua global. Podería haber algunha relación? Non o sei. Pero o que si sei é que vin moitos cambios. Cando viñen ao Golfo por primeira vez, viñen a Kuwait, que daquela aínda se consideraba como un lugar complicado. En realidade, non foi hai tanto tempo. O caso é que o British Council contratoume xunto con outros 25 profesores, e fomos os primeiros non musulmáns que deron clase nas escolas públicas de Kuwait. Trouxéronnos aquí para ensinar inglés porque o goberno quería modernizar o país e darlles máis independencia aos cidadáns mediante a educación. E, por suposto, o Reino Unido beneficiábase desa marabillosa riqueza petrolífera.
Okay. Now this is the major change that I've seen -- how teaching English has morphed from being a mutually beneficial practice to becoming a massive international business that it is today. No longer just a foreign language on the school curriculum, and no longer the sole domain of mother England, it has become a bandwagon for every English-speaking nation on earth. And why not? After all, the best education -- according to the latest World University Rankings -- is to be found in the universities of the U.K. and the U.S. So everybody wants to have an English education, naturally. But if you're not a native speaker, you have to pass a test.
Vale. Pois ese é o maior cambio que vin. Como o ensino do inglés se transformou e pasou de ser unha práctica beneficiosa para ambas as partes a ser o gran negocio internacional que é hoxe. Xa non é simplemente unha lingua estranxeira que poñer no currículum, nin é soamente dominio da Nai Inglaterra. Converteuse nunha moda para tódolos países de fala inglesa do mundo. E por que non? Despois de todo, a mellor educación, segundo os últimos ránkings mundias de universidades, é a que ofrecen as universidades do Reino Unido e os Estados Unidos. Así que todo o mundo quere ter unha educación inglesa, naturalmente. Pero, se non es un falante nativo, tes que facer un exame.
Now can it be right to reject a student on linguistic ability alone? Perhaps you have a computer scientist who's a genius. Would he need the same language as a lawyer, for example? Well, I don't think so. We English teachers reject them all the time. We put a stop sign, and we stop them in their tracks. They can't pursue their dream any longer, 'til they get English. Now let me put it this way: if I met a monolingual Dutch speaker who had the cure for cancer, would I stop him from entering my British University? I don't think so. But indeed, that is exactly what we do. We English teachers are the gatekeepers. And you have to satisfy us first that your English is good enough. Now it can be dangerous to give too much power to a narrow segment of society. Maybe the barrier would be too universal.
Pero está ben rexeitar a un estudante xulgándoo só polo seu dominio lingüístico? Ao mellor hai un informático que é un xenio. Por exemplo, necesita o mesmo nivel de lingua que un avogado? Ben, eu creo que non. Nós, os profesores de inglés, rexeitámolos todo o tempo. Poñemos un sinal de stop para que se deteñan no camiño. Non poden seguir perseguindo os seus soños ata que saiban inglés. Permítanme dicilo desta forma: se coñecese a un falante monolingüe de neerlandés que tivese a cura para o cancro, impediríalle entrar na miña universidade británica? Non creo. Pero o certo é que iso é precisamente o que estamos a facer. Os profesores de inglés somos os porteiros, e primeiro tedes que convencernos de que o voso inglés é suficientemente bo. E pode ser perigoso outorgarlle tanto poder a un sector da sociedade tan reducido. Quizais a barreira sexa moi universal.
Okay. "But," I hear you say, "what about the research? It's all in English." So the books are in English, the journals are done in English, but that is a self-fulfilling prophecy. It feeds the English requirement. And so it goes on. I ask you, what happened to translation? If you think about the Islamic Golden Age, there was lots of translation then. They translated from Latin and Greek into Arabic, into Persian, and then it was translated on into the Germanic languages of Europe and the Romance languages. And so light shone upon the Dark Ages of Europe. Now don't get me wrong; I am not against teaching English, all you English teachers out there. I love it that we have a global language. We need one today more than ever. But I am against using it as a barrier. Do we really want to end up with 600 languages and the main one being English, or Chinese? We need more than that. Where do we draw the line? This system equates intelligence with a knowledge of English, which is quite arbitrary.
De acordo. Pero óiovos dicir: "E que pasa coa investigación?" "Está todo en inglés". Os libros están en inglés, as publicacións edítanse en inglés, pero isto é unha profecía en si mesma. que alimenta os requerimentos de inglés. E así seguen as cousas. E eu pregúntovos, que pasou coa tradución? Creo que sabedes que na Idade de Ouro do Islam facíanse moitas traducións. Traducíase do latín e o grego para o árabe e o persa, e despois traduciuse para as linguas xermánicas europeas e para as linguas romances. E así puido haber luz nunha época escura para Europa. Pero espero que os profesores de inglés non me malinterpreten. Non estou en contra do ensino do inglés. Paréceme moi ben que haxa unha lingua global, e hoxe necesitámola máis que nunca. Estou en contra de usala como barreira. De verdade queremos acabar tendo 600 linguas e que a máis importante delas sexa o inglés ou o chinés? Necesitamos máis que iso. Onde poñemos o límite? Este sistema equipara a intelixencia co dominio do inglés, o que é bastante arbitrario.
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And I want to remind you that the giants upon whose shoulders today's intelligentsia stand did not have to have English, they didn't have to pass an English test. Case in point, Einstein. He, by the way, was considered remedial at school because he was, in fact, dyslexic. But fortunately for the world, he did not have to pass an English test. Because they didn't start until 1964 with TOEFL, the American test of English. Now it's exploded. There are lots and lots of tests of English. And millions and millions of students take these tests every year. Now you might think, you and me, "Those fees aren't bad, they're okay," but they are prohibitive to so many millions of poor people. So immediately, we're rejecting them.
E quero recordarvos que os xigantes que sosteñen cos seus ombros a intelectualidade de hoxe non tiveron que estudar inglés nin facer exames de inglés. Poñamos por caso a Einstein, a quen, por certo, consideraban mediocre na escola porque era disléxico. Por sorte para o mundo, non tivo que facerr exames de inglés, porque isto non se impuxo ata 1964 co TOEFL, o exame de inglés americano. Agora estourou a bomba e hai moreas e moreas de exames de inglés e millóns e millóns de estudantes que teñen que facelos cada ano. Pode que vós, e mais eu, pensemos que as taxas non están tan mal, pero o certo é que son prohibitivas para moitos millóns de persoas pobres. Así que estamos a rexeitar a estas persoas automaticamente.
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It brings to mind a headline I saw recently: "Education: The Great Divide." Now I get it, I understand why people would want to focus on English. They want to give their children the best chance in life. And to do that, they need a Western education. Because, of course, the best jobs go to people out of the Western Universities, that I put on earlier. It's a circular thing.
Isto lémbrame a un titular que vin hai pouco. "Educación: o gran divisor" Agora o entendo. Entendo por que a xente se centra no inglés. Queren darlles aos seus fillos as mellores oportunidades e, para iso, necesitan unha educación occidental. Porque, por suposto, os mellores postos de traballo dánselles ás persoas das universidades occidentais que mencionaba antes. É un círculo vicioso.
Okay. Let me tell you a story about two scientists, two English scientists. They were doing an experiment to do with genetics and the forelimbs and the hind limbs of animals. But they couldn't get the results they wanted. They really didn't know what to do, until along came a German scientist who realized that they were using two words for forelimb and hind limb, whereas genetics does not differentiate and neither does German. So bingo, problem solved. If you can't think a thought, you are stuck. But if another language can think that thought, then, by cooperating, we can achieve and learn so much more.
Vale. E agora vouvos contar a historia de dous científicos. Dous científicos ingleses. Estaban facendo un experimento sobre xenética e as extemidades anteriores e posteriores dos animais, pero non conseguían os resultados que esperaban. Non sabían que facer ata que chegou un científico alemán que se decatou de que estaban a usar dúas palabras para "extremidade anterior" e "extremidade posterior", mentres que a xenética non as diferencia, nin tampouco o alemán. ¡Eureka! Problema resolto. Se non podes chegar a un pensamento, estás atascado. Pero se outra lingua pode chegar a ese pensamento, cooperando poderíamos ter éxito e aprender moito máis.
My daughter came to England from Kuwait. She had studied science and mathematics in Arabic. It's an Arabic-medium school. She had to translate it into English at her grammar school. And she was the best in the class at those subjects. Which tells us that when students come to us from abroad, we may not be giving them enough credit for what they know, and they know it in their own language. When a language dies, we don't know what we lose with that language.
A miña filla foi de Kuwait a Inglaterra. Estudiara ciencias e matemáticas en árabe. Nun instituto árabe. Tiña que traducir todo para o inglés nas súas clases de gramática e foi a mellor da súa clase nesas materias. Isto demostra que cando veñen estudantes de fóra quizais non lle demos suficiente valor ao que saben, cando o saben na súa propia lingua. Cando unha lingua morre non sabemos o que perdemos con ela.
This is -- I don't know if you saw it on CNN recently -- they gave the Heroes Award to a young Kenyan shepherd boy who couldn't study at night in his village, like all the village children, because the kerosene lamp, it had smoke and it damaged his eyes. And anyway, there was never enough kerosene, because what does a dollar a day buy for you? So he invented a cost-free solar lamp. And now the children in his village get the same grades at school as the children who have electricity at home. (Applause) When he received his award, he said these lovely words: "The children can lead Africa from what it is today, a dark continent, to a light continent." A simple idea, but it could have such far-reaching consequences.
Non sei se viron a cadena CNN ultimamente: Déronlle un premio a un rapaz pastor de Kenia que non podía estudar á noite na súa aldea como o resto de nenos da aldea, porque a lámpada de queroseno botaba fume e lastimáballe os ollos. E, de tódolos xeitos, nunca tiña suficiente queroseno, porque que se pode comprar cun dólar ao día? Así que este rapaz inventou unha lámpara solar, e agora os rapaces da súa aldea teñen as mesmas notas que os nenos que teñen electricidade na casa. (Aplausos) Cando lle deron o premio pronunciou estas fermosas palabras: "Os nenos poden convertir a África de hoxendía, un continente escuro, nun continente de luz". Unha idea simple, pero que pode ter consecuencias moi importantes.
People who have no light, whether it's physical or metaphorical, cannot pass our exams, and we can never know what they know. Let us not keep them and ourselves in the dark. Let us celebrate diversity. Mind your language. Use it to spread great ideas.
A xente que non ten luz, ben sexa real ou metafórica, non pode facer exames, e nunca poderemos saber o que esa xente sabe. Non deberiamos deixalos a eles nin a nós mesmos, nesa escuridade. Deberíamos aledarnos da diversidade. Sede conscientes da vosa propia lingua e usádea para estender grandes ideas.
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Thank you very much.
Moitas grazas.
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