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TEDx video to encourage speaking | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6376 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes  Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 25 of 30 17 January 2012 at 7:13am | IP Logged | ||
Please don't! I suspect you're already not going to do this, Benny, but yeah, don't make language learning out to be an exotic adventure. That'll just make most people go "Wow, that sounds amazing. I wish I could do that. But of course, I can't." It'll put them in Hollywood-induced escapism mode. Language learning needs to look like something for Jane and Joe Average, not for the James Bonds and Lara Crofts of the world. Edited by Ari on 17 January 2012 at 7:13am 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| cathrynm Senior Member United States junglevision.co Joined 5919 days ago 910 posts - 1232 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Finnish | Message 26 of 30 17 January 2012 at 10:03am | IP Logged | ||
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I'm not sure people really believe language learning is hard. Everyone I talk to thinks all you have to do is buy Rosetta Stone. Then, it's easy. This is the power of infomercials.
Americans get maybe about 2 weeks of vacation a year, if their job is stable. 3 months is maybe 6 years of accumulated vacation time. I'm sure some are interested in language, but how many are really going to use that precious time to fly to Hungary and talk to random Hungarians? Most people, more likely, would rather go to Hawaii and lie around on the beach, eat big slabs of pork, and suck down Banana Daiquiris, one after another. That's what you're up against. If I was trying to sell Japanese language as a product, I wouldn't talk about how easy it was. I'd start right off with Ninja. Yeah. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6376 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 27 of 30 17 January 2012 at 10:30am | IP Logged | ||
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You may be right, but that's Americans for you. TED is aimed at an international audience, most of which is probably not as saturated by infomercials.
Also, seriously, 2 weeks a year? Over here I don't think that's even legal. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| s_allard Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5224 days ago 2704 posts - 5425 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish Studies: Polish | Message 28 of 30 17 January 2012 at 1:55pm | IP Logged | ||
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I think Ari's point it that you want to present this as something that anybody (or at least most people can do) in some form. What you don't want is people saying, "Well, if I were young and had nothing else to do, I would galavant around the world learning all these cool languages and having a great time before settling down. But now I'm too old, I have a career, two kids and a mortgage. So, this is not for me." The challenge here is to extrapolate from Benny's exotic lifestyle and learning methods what can to transposed to more average situations.
5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| SueK Groupie United States Joined 4545 days ago 77 posts - 133 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 29 of 30 17 January 2012 at 2:37pm | IP Logged | ||
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Benny, great job!! I found it inspiring. As to how much to demonstrate your polyglottery, I think you have the perfect balance to appeal to someone that hasn't taken a leap into their first language. It's enough to make it appealing, without taking too much precious time. Any more would come off as showing off. IMO
Nervousness in front of groups is normal and makes you seem human, I think it's adds the 'you don't have to be genius' thing (not that genius' are never nervous!) I think this video is great as is, and Ted should include it their offering. That said, there's always some interest in providing something constructive, so here's mine: When you talk about the similarity between words in the romance language that would allow you to 'just start speaking', it's very understandable and beleivable to me. This is important, as the majority of western learners are interested in French, German, English and Spanish (at least within what I see as your target audience). When you try to extend that to unrelated languages and suggest you can communicate via brands, I struggle. I can see it as effective for buying food or clothes, but if I didnt have money to shop, I struggle to see how brands would help. An extra sentence or two there to demonstarte where you might start might add some credibility that your technique is more universal. Again, great job! I thnk you could inspire a lot of people with this just as is! 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5175 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 30 of 30 17 January 2012 at 4:50pm | IP Logged | ||
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I think you did very well and I enjoyed it.
If you do give this talk again, I would make 2 suggestions for you to consider. First, I felt like you sometimes oversimplified things. You could prune out some chatter and be more to the point; the audience can take it. Secondly, the main message of your talk is that you shouldn't wait and you must start using the language right away. Therefore, I would encourage you to put more emphasis on that specific message and to expose in greater detail how to do this and how everyone in the audience could start tomorrow and be successful. Edited by Arekkusu on 17 January 2012 at 5:17pm 4 persons have voted this message useful |
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