ted summary and reflection

DON’T INSIST ON ENGLISH

By : Patricia Ryan

Summarized by Najmiatul Fauza

Mrs Ryan told about language loss and the globalization of English . today, languages are dying at an unprecedented rate a language dies every 14 days and at the same time English is the undisputed global language.

She had seen a lot of changes. She had been choosing by British council to teach English in Kuwait, because the government wanted  to modernize the country and to empower the citizens through education. The major change of how teaching English had morphed from being a mutually beneficial practice to becoming a massive international business as today. English is no longer just a foreign language on the school curriculum and no longer the sole domain of mother England. It had become a bandwagon for every English speaking people? And why not? After all the best education is to be found in the university of the U.K and the U.S.

Nowadays, English teachers are the gatekeepers and people have to satisfy them first that their English is good enough. Now it can be dangerous to give much power to a narrow segment of society may be the barrier would be too universal. She is not against teaching English. She loved it that we have global language and we need one today more than ever. But it is against using it as a barrier.

The giants upon whose shoulders today’s intelligentsia  stand did not have to have English, they didn’t have to pass English test. For instance, Einsten was considered remedial at school because he was dyslexic. Fortunately, that he didn’t have to past an English test because it wasn’t invented yet until 1964 as the TOEFL.

The reasons why people would focus on English because they wanted to get the best chance in life . the best job go to people out of the western universities. When students come to US from abroad we may not be giving them enough credit for what they know it in their language . when a language dies we don’t know what we lose with that language use it to spread great idea. She ended the speech by showing the sentence from Thomas Gray”full many a flower is born to blush unseen and waste its Sweetness on the desert air”.

Finally, her point of view about English is quite different from other people today who think about English as international language that represent hope and the language of problem solving . mind your language and let spread great idea and celebrate diversity.