TEDxDubai 2010| Patricia Ryan | Mind your language.mov

Patricia Ryan | Mind your Language

English is big business and languages are dying as never before. Is there a connection? Is this another manifestation of McDonaldisation -- the undesirable face of globalization? Do we want to lose the variety of languages and all the rich culture that comes with them?

Patricia is British of Irish descent and has spent most of the past 40 years teaching English in the countries of the Arabian Gulf.
She is currently teaching at Zayed University in Dubai, and is studying for a second Masters degree in Law.

She is married and has five children, all of whom are bi-lingual Arabic-English speakers.

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The theme for TEDxDubai 2010 is REBOOT. But what does it mean?

For the technology addicts, it is a way to prompt a fresh start. Sometimes there is nothing else one can do other than start again.

REBOOT is sometimes forced upon us, so we should celebrate and share the events that prompt a fresh start, the failures that inspire new ventures and the ideas worth spreading from that journey.

When we Reboot we embrace failure and celebrate it as an opportunity to Re-think, Re-start.
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At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group.

These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x=independently organized TED event.

The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)

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TEDxDubai is produced by Zer0 | giorgio@tedxdubai.com

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Nonprofits & Activism

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• TED TEDx TEDxEvent TEDxDubai
• Dubai Giorgio Ungania

[superwsuperw]

She's saying that if we lost a language, we lost some knowledge with that language. Barrier or ''Advanced language'' is not her point.

[maelalva2011]

deseo tener este video en traducido o con subtitulos, ojala me puedan ayudar

mil gracias

[noipsel]

this is sooo wrong...

if she believes that the language affects the way you think ... does that implies european language are more "advanced" than the rest....?

She never address the dark side language barrier in your education ....

[MrDarkbloom]

Well, this is kind of contradictory. On the one hand, she says we need a global language (English), but then she says people should be protecting themselves from the global language (English). And frankly, I understand the death of languages means a lack of diversity, but really... how many languages do we need in the world? 600 is still a lot.

[wbrutus22]

Very thought-provoking video. I teach English in Jeju, South Korea. Foreigners here definitely feel the rush to learn English in Asia. As English speakers, we also fail to realize how much we've borrowed from other languages. For example, Arabic Numerals are used world-wide--most English speakers often fail to realize that simple fact. Chinese Mandarin has taken considerable ground now. I highly doubt it'll compete with English though--perhaps English speakers should be bilingual as well.

[MegaContented]

I can adore true human spirit. I hope one day UK leaders think like this for a change.

All Eoropeans, We in the US join.

We will change the world.

[MegaContented]

honest ,truth.