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?"
Vem, kaj razmišljate. Da sem se izgubila in da bo v kratkem nekdo prišel na oder in me nežno pospremil nazaj do mojega sedeža. (Aplavz) To se mi stalno dogaja v Dubaju. »Ste tukaj na počitnicah, gospa?« (Smeh) »Ste prišli obiskat otroke?« »Kako dolgo boste ostali?«
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.
Pravzaprav upam, da še nekaj časa. V Zalivu živim in poučujem že več kot 30 let. (Aplavz) In v tem času sem videla veliko sprememb. Ta statistika je precej pretresljiva. In danes bi rada govorila z vami o izumiranju jezikov in globalizaciji angleščine. Rada bi vam povedala o prijateljici, ki je poučevala angleščino za odrasle v Abu Dabiju. Nekega lepega dne pa se je odločila, da jih odpelje na vrt, da bi se naučili nekaj besedišča o naravi. Ampak na koncu se je ona naučila vseh arabskih besed o lokalnih rastlinah in spoznala njihovo rabo ― za medicinske namene, kozmetiko, kuhanje, zelišča. Kako so oni pridobili vse to znanje? Od svojih starih staršev, seveda. In celo od prastaršev. Ni potrebno razlagati, kako pomembna je zmožnost komunikacije med generacijami.
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.
Ampak na žalost, dandanes jeziki izumirajo tako hitro, kot še nikoli do zdaj. En jezik izumre vsakih 14 dni. Istočasno pa je angleščina nesporno postala svetovni jezik. Bi lahko bila tukaj povezava? No, tega ne vem. Vem pa, da sem opazila ogromno sprememb. Ko sem prvič prišla v Zaliv, sem prišla v Kuvajt v časih, ko je bila to še težka destinacija. V bistvu ne tako dolgo od tega. To je malce prezgodaj. Pa vendar, zaposlil me je Britanski svet skupaj s približno 25 učitelji. Bili smo prvi nemuslimani, ki so kdajkoli poučevali v državnih šolah v Kuvajtu. Pripeljali so nas, da bi učili angleščino, ker je vlada želela modernizirati državo in okrepiti državljane z izobraževanjem. Seveda pa je Združeno kraljestvo pridobilo nekaj tega čudovitega naftnega bogastva.
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.
Dobro. Glavna sprememba, ki sem jo opazila: kako se je poučevanje angleščine prelevilo iz obojestransko koristne prakse v tako velik mednarodni posel, kot je danes. Angleščina ni več samo tuji jezik v šolskem učnem načrtu in ne več izključna domena matere Anglije, postala je trend za vse angleško govoreče narode na svetu. Zakaj pa ne? Konec koncev najboljšo izobrazbo, glede na najnovejšo Svetovno letvico, pridobimo na univerzah v ZK in ZDA. Zato si vsi želijo angleške izobrazbe, razumljivo. Ampak če nisi rojeni govorec, moraš opraviti preizkus.
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.
Ali bi bilo prav zavrniti študenta samo na osnovi njegove jezikovne sposobnosti? Lahko imaš računalniškega znanstvenika, ki je genij. Ali bi on potreboval enako besedišče kot odvetnik, na primer? No, mislim, da ne. Mi, učitelji angleščine, pa jih zavračamo ves čas. Postavimo stop znak in jih zaustavimo na njihovi poti. Ne morejo več slediti svojim sanjam, dokler ne obvladajo angleščine. Naj povem drugače: če bi spoznala enojezičnega govorca nizozemščine, ki bi poznal zdravilo za raka, ali bi mu preprečila vstop na svojo britansko univerzo? Verjetno ne. Ampak to je točno to, kar počnemo. Mi, profesorji angleščine, smo vratarji. In najprej moraš prepričati nas, da je tvoja angleščina dovolj dobra. Mogoče je nevarno, če ozek segment družbe pridobi preveč moči. Mogoče bi bila prepreka preveč univerzalna.
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.
Dobro. »Ampak,« vas slišim reči, »Kaj pa raziskave?« »Vse so v angleščini.« Vse knjige so v angleščini, časopisi so napisani v angleščini, ampak to je samouresničujoča prerokba. To hrani zahteve po angleščini. In tako se vse nadaljuje. Naj vas vprašam: »Kaj se je zgodilo s prevajanjem?« Če pomislite na zlato dobo islama, so takrat ogromno prevajali. Prevajali so iz latinščine in grščine v arabščino, perzijščino in nato so prevajali dalje v germanske jezike Evrope in tudi romanske jezike. In tako je svetloba posijala na evropsko temno dobo. Ne razumite me narobe; ne nasprotujem učenju angleščine, vsi vi učitelji angleščine. Všeč mi je, da imamo svetovni jezik. Danes ga potrebujemo bolj kot kdajkoli. Nasprotujem pa temu, da ga uporabljamo kot prepreko. Res želimo imeti na koncu 600 jezikov in angleščino ali kitajščino kot glavnega? Potrebujemo več kot to. Kje potegnemo črto? Sistem enači inteligenco z znanjem angleščine, kar je precej arbitrarno.
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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.
Želim vas opomniti, da gigantom na čigar ramenih stoji današnji sloj inteligence, ni bilo treba opraviti preizkusa iz angleškega jezika. Tipičen primer: Einstein. Njega so šteli za učenca z učnimi težavami, saj je bil disleksik. Ampak, na srečo celega sveta, mu ni bilo treba opravljati izpita iz angleščine, kajti niso se začeli pred letom 1964, ko se je uveljavil TOEFL, ameriški test angleškega jezika. Zdaj pa so eksplodirali. Ogromno je testov iz angleščine. In na milijone študentov opravlja te teste vsako leto. Lahko si mislite, vi in jaz, da te šolnine niso tako visoke, so v redu. Vendar so nedostopne milijonom revnim ljudem. In tako jih sproti zavrnemo.
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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.
To me spomni na naslovnico, ki sem jo videla pred kratkim: »Izobrazba: velika ločnica.« Jasno mi je, razumem, zakaj se želijo ljudje osredotočiti na angleščino. Svojim otrokom želijo nuditi najboljše možnosti v življenju. In da bi jim to uspelo, potrebujejo zahodnjaško izobrazbo. Saj najboljša delovna mesta gredo tistim, ki prihajajo iz zahodnjaških univerz, ki sem jih omenila prej. To je začarani krog.
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.
Naj vam povem zgodbo o dveh znanstvenikih, angleških znanstvenikih. Izvajala sta eksperiment, ki ima opravka z genetiko, sprednjimi in zadnjimi udi pri živalih. Ampak nista dobila želenih rezultatov. Nista več vedela, kaj bi naredila, dokler nista naletela na nemškega znanstvenika, ki je spoznal, da sta uporabljala dve različni besedi za sprednji in zadnji ud, medtem ko genetika tega ne razlikuje in prav tako ne nemški jezik. Zadetek v polno, problem rešen. Če se ne moreš nečesa domisliti, si obstal. Če pa se lahko drug jezik domisli tega, potem lahko, s sodelovanjem, dosežemo in se naučimo veliko več.
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.
Moja hči je prišla v Anglijo iz Kuvajta. Študirala je znanost in matematiko v arabščini. Torej v arabski srednji šoli. V gimnaziji je morala prevajati v angleščino. In pri teh predmetih je bila najboljša v razredu. Kar nam pove, da tujim študentom morda ne priznavamo dovolj vsega, kar znajo. in to znajo v svojem jeziku. Ko umre jezik, ne vemo, kaj vse izgubimo hkrati s tem jezikom.
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.
Ne vem, če ste to videli pred kratkim; CNN je podelil nagrado Heroes mlademu kenijskemu pastirju, ki se ponoči ni mogel učiti v svoji vasi, kot vsi ostali vaški otroci, ker je dim kerozinske svetilke škodoval njegovim očem. Tako in tako pa ni bilo nikoli dovolj kerozina. Kaj pa lahko kupiš za dolar na dan? Tako je izumil brezplačno sončno svetilko. In zdaj otroci v njegovi vasi dobivajo enake ocene v šoli kot tisti, ki imajo elektriko doma. (Aplavz) Ko je prejel nagrado, je izrekel te čudovite besede: »Otroci lahko povedejo Afriko iz tega, kar je danes ― temni kontinent, v svetli kontinent.« Preprosta ideja, ki lahko ima daljnosežne posledice.
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.
Ljudje, ki nimajo svetlobe, pa naj bo ta fizična ali metaforična, ne morejo opraviti naših izpitov, mi pa ne moremo nikoli izvedeti, kar vedo oni. Ne zadržujmo njih in sebe v temi. Slavimo raznolikost. Skrbite za svoj jezik. Uporabljajte ga za širitev velikih idej.
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Thank you very much.
Najlepša hvala.
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