Embracing Multilingualism and Eradicating Linguistic Bias | Karen Leung | TEDxWWU

Gaga ho oh c'mon honk away okay my son Tony konkwon you using Casey I'm just kidding I heard some sighs of relief were you expecting me to continue in Cantonese now that I've switched to English were you expecting an accent if you did you are not the only one I'm not sure if you've thought about this before but this kind of stereotyping is a form of discrimination throughout my family's time here in the US we have faced discrimination due to our race ethnicity culture in the use of our language to give you a bit more background on my family I would like to introduce you to the two most intelligent people I know the two people beside me in this photo are my parents they're geniuses they're ridiculously smart they taught themselves how to read and write traditional Chinese how to speak Mandarin how to play multiple instruments and have thrived since coming to the US the only questionable thing I like to joke about them doing is that they name my siblings and I Carmen Karen and Ricky that's not even the worst part the our sound that exists in English does not exist in Cantonese so instead they have to accommodate for it with a w sound which makes us common k1 and Wicky my poor brother [Music] now my parents they know English they're just not fluent and they can speak English just not the way a native English speaker would like I am right now let me give you an example say I have a guest over at my house for dinner out of courtesy it's obvious I would ask something like are you full or have you had enough to eat my parents in this situation would ask you eat full yet which may not follow conventional English grammatical structure but it is still understandable this sentence shows incredible linguistic abilities in the sentence my parents are using English vocabulary words paired with Cantonese sentence structure you eat full yet is directly translated from the Cantonese equivalent of have you had enough to eat which is Nasik vowel may this proves to us that my parents are very knowledgeable in both Cantonese and English yet they're still seen as an intelligent their English is still labeled as broken and we still hear things like speak American you're an American now so speak like it this is an example of discrimination the immigrant families experience in our communities and in our country so let's explore this idea of speaking American true or false the United States has an official language follow up true or false the official language of the United States is English okay you guys were right that's false and a whole thing about like believe it or not it's false so the United States does not have an official language so why are there so many people out there who think that there is and why are people like my parents being told to speak American when American isn't even a language in and of itself if you've ever taken any language classes [Laughter] and I have another question for you guys give me a show of hands how many of you have taken a foreign language in school before it for Wow almost everyone how many of you would say was pretty challenging all of you and now the hard question how many of you with their hands up just now would be comfortable moving to a country that speaks primarily that foreign language with the amount that you know I lost like 90% of hands I took French and I'm not moving to France ever this is what immigrant people experience when they move to the US and start learning English the only difference is that native English speakers learning a foreign language don't receive the same social shame that an immigrant would when they learn English as a second or even third language instead a native English speaker learning any foreign language receives praise why is that this is a double standard that we need to do something about the United States was meant to be a melting pot yet look at the people we have put on a pedestal for the sake of silencing others it is shocking the kind of reactions and responses I get when people find out I'm bilingual and that English is my second language usually my English proficiency is celebrated whoo Chara's because English but my native tongue is swept under the rug I get compliments like your English is so good and you don't even have an accent if those are compliments at all here's my question though why is it so important for me to speak perfect English would it make a difference if I spoke with an accent what if I spoke it the way my parents do does my proficiency in one language really define my intelligence what about the fact that I can speak to you know it actually takes an intelligent person to learn a master more than one language due to the benefits of being multilingual are very overwhelming your cognitive flexibility your attention span your multitasking abilities and your problem-solving skills are all enhanced by simply being multilingual and you can think about it this way when you're jogging doing yoga weightlifting you are making your physical body healthier you can think of being multilingual as giving your brain an intense workout 24/7 which would make it healthier to which Lysa delay also have Alzheimer's and decreased cemento and that's fantastic news for me our account REE has greatly undervalued multilingualism and the benefits that come with it because we're afraid of the unfamiliar just the other day as I was at work closing down the shop counting you know I lose count very often so I've learned this new trick to count and Cantonese in my head in case I know one speaks English to me and speak of the devil my coworker comes over and starts telling me a story in English I didn't lose count because I was counting in Cantonese in my head and I processed everything she said to me in English that is an incredible feat that a multilingual brain can do in the arts we have music movement dance visual arts like sculptures and paintings all of which are ways for us to express ourselves through art if we can learn to value the different expressions through art I know that we can come to embrace diversity and the different expressions in all languages and dialects you're here today because you want to better the world in your community is through positive impact so I am calling all of you to step up no more excuses as a country we have a shared communicative burden it is our responsibility to communicate with each other and try to understand the messages that are being conveyed we cannot simply expect one group to assimilate as the rest of us sit idly by so the next time that you hear a person say something in a way that you don't understand lean in listen closely try to understand because what we say is far more important than how we say it thank you [Applause]

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 21,638

Rating: 4.9058824 out of 5

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, Global Issues, Culture, Education, Education reform, Language, Social Change, Teaching

Id: S8QrGsxeEq8

Length: 8min 43sec (523 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 25 2018