02 avril 2011

English Fail


At TEDxDubai, longtime English teacher Patricia Ryan asks a provocative question: Is the world's focus on English preventing the spread of great ideas in other languages? (For instance: what if Einstein had to pass the TOEFL?) It's a passionate defense of translating and sharing ideas.

3 commentaires:

HarryTuttle a dit…

"Although a native English speaker, I learnt about Globish in the late 1990s, after translators emailed me endless questions because my insider jokes and obscure metaphors could not be translated. To avoid complications, I tried to simplify my writing. But my attempts to shift from English to Globish were not always appreciated by my fellow anglophones. One Canadian editor told me that my reviews sounded like traffic signs: No Parking Any Time.

To my ears that’s a great sentence. I wish more anglophones would simplify for globophones. I’ve been at too many conferences where an anglophone reads a paper that no one in the audience can understand. If someone speaks English well – or ‘so good’ – that doesn’t mean she can listen attentively to a densely written text. Anglophones may not be ready to give up the imperialist privileges of knowing more than non-native speakers. Instead of being intimidated, non-natives should tell the natives to speak Globish too."
Speak Easy. The ramifications of ‘Globish’ – global English (Jennifer Allen; Frieze; Issue 137, March 2011)

HarryTuttle a dit…

"English has become the lingua franca of the art world, spoken by people of many nationalities from around the globe. Whose English then are we speaking, and how does its ambiguous status affect what we say?"
Do you speak English? (Frieze Projects 2011; ) podcast 1h22'28"

HarryTuttle a dit…

Against Interpretation (Susan Sontag; 1966)