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?"
E di ç'ju shkon ne mend mendoni se e kam gabur rrugen e qe dikush do te dal ne skene se shpejti te me ule ngadale ne vendin tim (Duartrokitje) Nje gje e tille me ndodh shume shpesh ne Dubai "E dashur, jeni ketu per pushime?" (Qeshje) "Po vizitoni femijet? Sa do te qendroni?"
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.
Ne te vertet, shpresoj per nje kohe te gjate Kam duket jetuar dhe dhene mesim ne Gjirin (persik) per me shume se 30 vjet (Duartrokitje) Dhe gjate kesaj kohe, kam pare shume ndryshime statistikat jane mjaft shokuese Dhe dua te flas me ju sot rreth humbjes se gjuhes dhe globalizimit te gjuhes angleze Dua t'ju tregoj per nje miken time qe u mesonte gjuhen angleze te rriturve ne Abu Dhabi Nje dite te bukur, ajo vendosi t'i nxjere ata ne kopesht qe t'ju mesoje dicka nga fjalori i natyres Por, ishte ajo qe arriti te mesoje te gjitha fjalet arabike per bimet lokale si dhe perdorimin e tyre ne mjekesi, kosmetike, ne gatim, barerat e ndryshme Si e kane fituar gjithe kete dituri keta studente? Sigurisht, prej gjysherve e bile edhe prej stergjysheve Nuk eshte nevojshme t'ju tregoj sa rendesi ka komunikimi midis gjeneratave.
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.
Mirepo fatkeqesisht, sot, gjuhet po vdesin ne shkalle te paimagjinueshme. Nje gjuhe vdes cdo 14 dite. Ne te njejten kohe, gjuha angleze pa diskutim eshte gjuha globale A mund te kete ndonje lidhje? S'e di. Por, di qe kam pare shume ndryshime Kur erdha ne Lindjen e Mesme, ne fillim isha ne Kuwait ishin ditet kur ende kishte veshtiresi Ne te vertete, jo edhe aq shume kohe me pare. Kjo eshte paksa me heret. Por sidoqofte, Une isha punesuar nga Keshilli Britanik se bashku me rreth 25 mesues te tjere. Dhe ne ishim jo-Muslimanet e pare te jepnim mesim ne shkollat shteterore ne Kuwait. Na sollen per te dhene Anglisht sepse qeveria deshironte te modernizonte vendin dhe t'u jepte mundesi qytetareve permes edukimit. Dhe sigurisht, U.K ka perfituar ca nga pasuria e naftes.
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.
Ok Tani ky eshte ndryshimi kryesor qe kam pare-- se si mesimdhenia e Anglishtes eshte shnderruar nga të qenit një praktikë e dobishme reciprokisht Listen Read phonetically Jo vetem nje gjuhe e huaj ne programin mesimor te shkolles. Dhe jo vetem nje fushe e veçante e Anglise. Eshte bere nje fitimtare per cdo shtet Anglisht- foles ne rruzullin tokesor Dhe perse jo? Ne fund te fundit, edukimi me i mire-- sipas renditetjeve te Universiteteve boterore eshte qe te mesohet ne universitetet e U.K dhe te U.S. Pra te githe deshirojne te kene nje edukim Anglez, natyrisht. Por nese nuk eke gjuhen e memes, duhet te kaloni nje test.
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.
Tani, a eshte e drejte te refuzojme nje student vetem nga aftesia gjuhesore? Ndoshta nje shkenctar kompjuteri i cili eshte gjeni. A i duhet atij e njejta gjuhe sikurse avokatit, per shembull? Une nuk mendoj ashtu. Ne mesuesit e Anglishtes i refuzojme ata tere kohen. Ne vendosim nje shenje stopi, dhe i ndalojme ata ne rrugen e tyre. Ata nuk mund t'a vazhdojne endrren e tyre me tutje, derisa te kuptojne Anglishten. Tani më lejoni të shtroj në këtë mënyrë, nese takoj nje foles Holandez njegjuhesh qe ka gjetur kuren per kancerin, a do ta ndaloja ate te hyje ne Universitin Britanik? Nuk mendoj ashtu. Por ne te vertete, kjo eshte tamam ajo qe bejme. Ne mesuesit e Anglshites jemi portieret. Dhe ju duhet te na kenaqni se pari neve qe anglishtja e juaj te jete e mjaftueshme Tash mund te jete e rrezikshme per t'i dhene shume fuqi nje segmenti te kufizuar te shoqerise. Ndoshta barriera do te jete shume universale.
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.
Ne rregull. " Por," degjoj ju qe thoni, " Po rreth hulumtimit? Eshte i gjithi ne Anglisht." Pra librat jane ne Anglisht, gazetat jane bere ne Anglisht, por kjo eshte nje vet-permbushje e profecise. Ajo furnizon kerkesat e anglishtes. Dhe keshtu vazhdon. T'ju pyes, cfare ndodhi me perkthimin? Nese mendoni ne Kohen e Arte Islame kishte shume perkthime. Perkthenin nga Latinishtja dhe Greqishtja ne Arabisht, ne Persisht, dhe pastaj ishte perkthyer ne ne gjuhet Gjermanike te Europes dhe ne gjuhet Romantike. Dhe keshtu drita ndriconte mbi Kohet e erreta te Europes. Tani mos me keqkuptoni; Une nuk ja kunder mesimdhenies Anglisht, per te gjithe ju mesuesit e Anglishtes. E dua faktin qe ne kemi nje gjuhe boterore. Neve na duhet sot me shume se kurre me pare. Por jam kunder perdorimit te saj si nje barriere. A deshirojme qe t'i japim fund 600 gjuheve dhe kryesorja te jete Anglishtja , ose Kinezshtja? Neve na duhet me shume se kaq. Ku e vendosim kufirin? Ky sistem barazon inteligjencen me njohurite per Anglishten e cila eshte paska e pa arsyshme.
(Applause)
Duartrokitje
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.
Dhe dua t'ua kujtoj se gjigandet mbi krahet e te cileve qendron inteligjenca e sotme nuk ju nevojitej Anglishtja ata nuk duhet te kalonin testin e Anglishtes Rasti ne fjale, Einstein. Ai, meqe ra fjala, konsiderohej nxenes me probleme sepse ai ishte, ne fakt, disleksik. Por fatmiresisht per boten, ai nuk duhej te kalonte testin e angishtes. Sepse kjo filloi ne 1964 me TOEFL testi American i Anglishtes Tani ka shperthyer gjithandej. Ka shume e shume testime te anglishtes. Dhe miliona e miliona studenta qe hyjne ne keto teste cdo vit. Ti dhe une, tani mund te mendojme keto tarifa nuk jane edhe aq keq, por ato jane pengese per miliona njerez te varfer. Pra menjehere, po i refuzojme ata.
(Applause)
Duartrokitje
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.
Me sjell ne mendje nje titull artikulli qe pashe se fundmi: "Edukimi: Ndarja e madhe." Tani e kuptoj ate, E kuptoj pse njerezit do te fokusohen ne Anglisht. Ata deshirojne t'u japim femijeve te tyre mundesine me te mire ne jete. Dhe per ta bere ate, kane nevoje per nje edukim Perendimor. Sepse, sigurisht, punet me te mira shkojne tek njerezit e Universiteteve Perendimore, qe e ceka me perpara. Eshte ne forme rrethi.
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.
Ne rregull. t'ju tregoj nje histori per dy shkenctare, dy shkenctare te angleze. Ata po benin nje eksperiment qe kishte te beje me gjenetiken dhe gjymtyret e parme dhe gjymtyret e pasme te kafsheve. Por nuk mund te arrinin rezultatet qe deshironin. Ata me te vertete nuk dinin cfare te benin, perderisa erdhi nje shkenctar gjerman i cili hetoi se po perdornin dy fjale per gjymtyre te parme dhe gjymtyre te pasme, ne nje kohe qe gjenetika nuk i diferencon po keshtu as germanishtja. Pra, bingo, problemi u zgjidh. Nese nuk mund te mendoni nje mendim ju ngecur. Por nese nje gjuhe tjeter mund te mendoje ate mendim pastaj, duke bashkepunuar, mund te mberrijme dhe mesojme shume me shume.
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.
Vajza ime, erdhi ne Angli nga Kuwait-i. Ajo kishte studiuar shkenca dhe matematike ne Arabisht. ne shkolle te mesme Arabike Asaj u desh te perkthente ne Anglisht ne shkollen e gjuhes. Dhe ishte ma e mira ne klase ne keto lende. Qe na tregon se, kur studentet vine tek ne prej jashte vendit, mund te mos ju japim aq shume kredit per ate qe dine, dhe ata e dine ne gjuhen e tyre . Kur nje gjuhe vdes, ne nuk ke dime se cka humbim me ate gjuhe.
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.
Kjo eshte-- Une nuk ke di nese e pate ne CNN-- ata i dhane titullin e Heroit nje te riu Kenyan çoban i cili nuk mund te mesonte naten ne fshatin e tij si te gjithe femijet e fshatit, sepse lampa e vajgurit, kishte tym dhe i demtonte syte. Dhe sidoqofte, kurre nuk kishte aq vajguri, sepse cfare do blesh perpara me nje dollar ne dite? Keshtu ai zbuloi nje llamp diellore te lire. Dhe tani femijet ne fshatin e tij marrin nota te njejta ne shkolle sikurse femijet qe kane elektricitet ne shtepi. Duartrokitje Kur morri çmimin, Ai tha keto fjale te bukura: " Femjet mund te udheheqim Afriken nga ajo cka eshte sot, nje kontinent i erret ne nje kontinent te ndritshem." Nje ide e thjeshte, por mund te kishte pasoja qe mberrinin larg.
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.
Njerezit qe nuk kane drite, qofte fizikisht ose metaforikisht, nuk mund ti kalojne provimet tona, dhe ne kurre s'mund te dime cka ata dine. Le te mos i mbajme ata dhe veten tone ne erresire. Le te festojme diversitetin. Mbaj mend gjuhen tende. Perdore te shperndash ide te mrekullushme.
(Applause)
Duartrokitje
Thank you very much.
Faleminderit shume
(Applause)
Duartrokitje