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1、MBA handouts for English interactionsPatricia Ryan: Dont insist on English! About this talkAt TEDxDubai, longtime English teacher Patricia Ryan asks a provocative question: Is the worlds focus on English preventing the spread of great ideas in other languages? (For instance: what if Einstein had to
2、pass the TOEFL?) Its a passionate defense of translating and sharing ideas.About the speakerPatricia RyanPatricia Ryan has spent the past three-plus decades teaching English in Arabic countries - where she has seen vast cultural (and linguistic) change. TranscriptI know what you are thinking. You th
3、ink Ive lost my way, and somebodys 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? Well actually, I hope for a while longer yet. I
4、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 Engl
5、ish 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
6、all that knowledge? Of course, from their grandparents and even their great-grandparents. Its not necessary to tell you how important it is to be able to communicate across generations. But sadly, today, languages are dying at an unprecedented rate. A language dies every 14 days. Now, at the same ti
7、me, English is the undisputed global language. Could there be a connection? Well I dont know. But I do know that Ive 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.
8、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 empower the citizens through educa
9、tion. And of course, the U.K. benefited from some of that lovely oil wealth. Okay. Now this is the major change that Ive 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
10、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
11、. So everybody wants to have an English education, naturally. But if youre not a native speaker, you have to pass a test. Now can it be right to reject a student on linguistic ability alone? Perhaps you have a computer scientist whos a genius. Would he need the same language as a lawyer, for example
12、? Well, I dont think so. We English teachers reject them all the time. We put a stop sign, and we stop them in their tracks. They cant pursue their dream any longer, till 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
13、from entering my British University? I dont 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 w
14、ould be too universal. Okay. But, I hear you say, what about the research? Its 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 t
15、hink 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 dont get me wrong
16、; 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. (Applause) And I want
