Running Head: CULTURE REPORT

Culture Report

Mengzi Cai

Colorado State University

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Culture report
“4 Reasons to learn a new language”
TED Talk
John McWhorter
October 7, 2016

To consider cultural perspectives, I watched a TED talk which focuses on language

culture. The topic was “Four Reasons to Learn a New Language”. The speaker began his speech

with the idea that English is used in a lot of areas of life, such as traffic control, popular music

and diplomacy. Even though Chinese is the most widely spoken language in China, people, most

people study English in universities. Then the speaker, John McWhorter, explained that it is

predicted that there about 6000 languages which exist now that will no longer be spoken at the

end of the century. He asked the audience why should we learn foreign languages other than

English, even if English happens to be a foreign language to that person. The speaker listed

reasons and explained them. One important reason was that a language can channel one’s

thoughts. An example was provided in his speech. People who speak French and Spanish would

mark “table” as feminine, such as la table, la mesa. If they imagine a table can talk, they tend to

have an image that the table would speak with a high and feminine voice. However, English

speakers may have the opposite thought because “table” is not feminine in English. Language

helps shape the general worldview of people, but it is hard to conclude how large the impact is.

Another reason to learn a language is that if we want to understand a culture, language is a vital

way to help us to do that. The speaker said that understanding language is a ticket for

understanding culture. A third reason was that learning two languages can help prevent

dementia. The fourth reason given was that learning a new language can be a lot of fun. For

example, the speaker said that in Arabic, kataba means “he wrote” and yaktubu means “he

writes” or “she writes”. Uktub means the imperative “write”. The consonants in these words are

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the same and the vowels move around the consonants. Moreover, according to the speaker, the

same thing happens in Hebrew, and in Ethiopia’s main language, Amharic. The speaker talked

about his own experiences to prove that learning a language can be fun. Finally, he

recommended some learning tools, like cassettes, books and Apps.

The TED talk I watched discussed language culture. Also, I think language can have

influence on one’s behavior too. The honorific used in Chinese and Japanese always remind us

that we should respect elders. Moreover, I think our thought might reflect on language. Chinese

is written with character. Two or more characters can consist of one Chinese word. For example,

劣 means poor quality or lower level and it consist of 少（which means less）and 力（which

means effort）. Chinese people think if someone don’t work hard and make no effort for one

thing, that people or the thing he/she completes must be in lower level or poor quality. It is

important and beneficial to learn a new language, but I also believe that language protection or

culture inheritance is also vital. For instance, in China, there are different dialects in different

provinces. However, teachers have to speak Mandarin instead of dialects in school to make sure

all students from different parts of China can understand the teaching in a class. Students are

asked to speak Mandarin in school too. It leads to problem that many students prefer to use

Mandarin rather than dialects so dialects cannot be well protected or inherited. Therefore,if

people focus on learning a new language but pay no attention on native language, it can cause

problem too.

I have some opinions which connect the talk and my experience with English education

in China. In China, many schools have English classes. English is usually a compulsory lesson in

high school, which means that students are supposed to take the English exam in the University

Entrance Exam. This situation pushes many students to work hard in English class in order to

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gain a high grade on the exam. However, the students pay more attention to their grade in

English class instead of developing an interest in learning English. They have no motivation to

learn the English language and they encounter a lot of difficulties in English learning. For

example, they recite the words or English sentences without any comprehensive understanding.

More precisely, they might not understand the phonemes of a word or the structure of a sentence

in English. Regardless of introducing the advantages of learning English to students, it is hard

for students to gain efficient methods to develop their English skills. From this TED talk, I was

introduced to the advantages of learning a new language. I think this talk has inspired me for my

future English teaching. When I teach English for Chinese students, I can clarify the importance

and benefits of learning English, then introduce them some fun ways to learn English. For

instance, I can have them watch an interesting English movie or use Apps which design games

for English learning, like KAHOO.

In conclusion, the topic of the TED talk was about language culture and gave me some

suggestions and tips for my own English teaching. It was beneficial for me to watch it and learn

from it.