Deus Ex Machina: TED study - 20.10.16 (John McWhorter - 4 reasons to learn a new language “TED2016, Gefilmt Feb. 2016”)

https://www.ted.com/talks/john_mcwhorter_4_reasons_to_learn_a_new_language?utm_source=tedcomshare&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=tedspread

0:11
The language I'm speaking right now is on its way to becoming the world's universal language, for better or for worse. Let's face it, it's the language of the internet, it's the language of finance, it's the language of air traffic control, of popular music, diplomacy -- English is everywhere.

diplomacy : 1. (국가간) 외교(술) 2. (사람들 사이의) 사교 능력

0:33
Now, Mandarin Chinese is spoken by more people, but more Chinese people are learning English than English speakers are learning Chinese. Last I heard, there are two dozen universities in China right now teaching all in English. English is taking over.

Mandarin Chinese : 중국어(본토)

dozen : 12 (cf. two dozen : 24)

take over :

1. take over (from somebody) ; (~을) 인계받다

2. take over (from something) ; (~보다) 더 커지다[중요해지다]; (~을) 대체하다

0:52
And in addition to that, it's been predicted that at the end of the century almost all of the languages that exist now -- there are about 6,000 -- will no longer be spoken. There will only be some hundreds left. And on top of that, it's at the point where instant translation of live speech is not only possible, but it gets better every year.

predict : 예측하다

some hundreds : 몇 백개

instant :

noun

an infinitesimal or very short space of time; a moment: They arrived not an instant too soon. -> 아주 짧은 동안
the point of time now present or present with reference to some action or event. -> (특정한 일이 일어나는 바로 그) 순간
a particular moment: at the instant of contact. -> 순간
a food or beverage, especially coffee, specially processed for quick preparation.

adjective

succeeding without any interval of time; prompt; immediate: instant relief from a headache. -> 즉각적인
pressing or urgent: instant need.

not A but B : A 가 아니라 B 이다

1:16
The reason I'm reciting those things to you is because I can tell that we're getting to the point where a question is going to start being asked,which is: Why should we learn foreign languages --other than if English happens to be foreign to one? Why bother to learn another one when it's getting to the point where almost everybody in the world will be able to communicate in one?

recite : ~(sth) (to sb) 1. 암송[낭송/낭독]하다 2. (열거하듯) 죽 말하다, 나열하다

bother :

verb (used with object)

to give trouble to; annoy; pester; worry: His baby sister bothered him for candy. -> 신경쓰이게 하다, 괴롭히다.
to bewilder; confuse: His inability to understand the joke bothered him. -> 어리둥절하게 만들다

verb (used without object)

to take the trouble; trouble or inconvenience oneself: Don’t bother to call. He has no time to bother with trifles. -> 신경 쓰다, 애를 쓰다

noun

something troublesome, burdensome, or annoying: Doing the laundry every week can be a terrible bother. -> 성가신 일
effort, work, or worry: Gardening takes more bother than it’s worth. -> 성가심

1:41
I think there are a lot of reasons, but I first want to address the one that you're probably most likely to have heard of, because actually it's more dangerous than you might think. And that is the idea that a language channels your thoughts, that the vocabulary and the grammar of different languages gives everybody a different kind of acid trip, so to speak. That is a marvelously enticing idea, but it's kind of fraught.

be likely to : ~ 할 것 같다.

acid trip : 환각 체험 (속어)

marvelously : 놀라울 만큼, 믿을 수 없을 만큼

marvelous : 놀라운, 믿기 어려운, 신기한

entice : 유도/유인하다

fraught : 1. (좋지 않은 것들이) 가득한 2. 걱정스러운; 걱정하는

2:12
So it's not that it's untrue completely. So for example, in French and Spanish the word for table is, for some reason, marked as feminine. So, "la table," "la mesa," you just have to deal with it. It has been shown that if you are a speaker of one of those languages and you happen to be asked how you would imagine a table talking, then much more often than could possibly be an accident, a French or a Spanish speaker says that the table would talk with a high and feminine voice. So if you're French or Spanish, to you, a table is kind of a girl, as opposed to if you are an English speaker.

feminine : 1. 여성스러운 2. 여성을 가리키는

accident : 1. 사고 2. 우연

as opposed to : ~와는 대조적으로; ~이 아니라

2:56

It's hard not to love data like that, and many people will tell you that that means that there's a worldview that you have if you speak one of those languages. But you have to watch out, because imagine if somebody put us under the microscope, the us being those of us who speak English natively. What is the worldview from English?

worldview : 세계관

3:17

So for example, let's take an English speaker. Up on the screen, that is Bono. He speaks English. I presume he has a worldview. Now, that is Donald Trump. In his way, he speaks English as well.

presume : 1. 추정하다 2. 간주하다

3:34

(Laughter)

3:38

And here is Ms. Kardashian, and she is an English speaker, too. So here are three speakers of the English language. What worldview do those three people have in common? What worldview is shaped through the English language that unites them? It's a highly fraught concept. And so gradual consensus is becoming that language can shape thought, but it tends to be in rather darling, obscure psychological flutters. It's not a matter of giving you a different pair of glasses on the world.

in common : 공동으로

shape :

noun

the quality of a distinct object or body in having an external surface or outline of specific form of figure. -> 형태
this quality as found in some individual object or dory form : This lake has a peculiar shape.
something seen in outline, as in silhouette: A vague shape appeared through the mist.
an imaginary form; phantom.

verb (used with object), shaped, shaping

to give definite form, shape, organization, or character to; fashion or form. -> 형성하다
to couch or express in words: to shape a statement
to adjust; adapt: He shaped everything to suit his taste.
to direct (one’s course, future, etc.)

verb (used without object), shaped, shaping

to come to a desired conclusion or take place in a specified way: If discussions shape properly, the companies will merge.

Verb phrases

shape up

to assume a specific form: The plan is beginning to shape up.
to evolve or develop, especially favorably.
to improve one’s behavior or performance to meet a required standard.
to get oneself into good physical condition.

gradual : 1. 점진적인 2. (경사가) 완만한

consensus : 의견 일치, 합의

tend to : ~하는 경향이 있다

obscure : 1. 잘 알려져 있지 않은, 무명의 2. 이해하기 힘든, 모호한

psychological : 1. 정신의, 정신적인 2. 심리학적인

flutter : v. 1. 흔들리다 2. 파닥이다 3. 훨훨 날아가다 n. 1. 흔들림 2. 소동, 혼란 3. 두근거림

4:13

Now, if that's the case, then why learn languages? If it isn't going to change the way you think, what would the other reasons be? There are some. One of them is that if you want to imbibe a culture, if you want to drink it in, if you want to become part of it, then whether or not the language channels the culture -- and that seems doubtful -- if you want to imbibe the culture, you have to control to some degree the language that the culture happens to be conducted in. There's no other way.

If S+V(현재), would + be : 가정법 현재

imbibe : 1. (술을) 마시다 2. (정보를) 흡수하다

doubtful : 확신이 없는, 의심을 품은

4:48

There's an interesting illustration of this. I have to go slightly obscure, but really you should seek it out. There's a movie by the Canadian film director Denys Arcand -- read out in English on the page, "Dennis Ar-cand," if you want to look him up. He did a film called "Jesus of Montreal." And many of the characters are vibrant, funny, passionate, interesting French-Canadian, French-speaking women. There's one scene closest to the end, where they have to take a friend to an Anglophone hospital. In the hospital, they have to speak English. Now, they speak English but it's not their native language, they'd rather not speak English. And they speak it more slowly, they have accents, they're not idiomatic. Suddenly these characters that you've fallen in love with become husks of themselves, they're shadows of themselves.

seek : (sought, sought)

verb (used with object)

to go in search or quest of: to seek the truth.
to try to find or discover by searching or questioning: to seek the solution to a problem

verb (used with object)

to try to obtain: to seek fame
to try or attempt (usually followed by an infinitive): to seek to convince a person

verb (used without object)

to make inquiry

cf. seek sb/st out : (특히 많은 노력을 기울여) ~을 찾아내다.

read out : (소리내어) 읽다

look sb up : (특히 오랫동안 못 만난 사람을) 방문하다, 연락하다

vibrant : 활기찬, 생기넘치는, 강렬한, 선명한

idiomatic : (언어 표현이 모국어 사용자가 쓰는 것같이) 자연스러운

husk : (곡물의) 겉껍질

cf. from urban dict. : A person who has no substance, personality, character or knowledge. An empty shell of a human.

5:38

To go into a culture and to only ever process people through that kind of skrim curtain is to never truly get the culture. And so the extent that hundreds of languages will be left, one reason to learn them is because they are tickets to being able to participate in the culture of the people who speak them, just by virtue of the fact that it is their code. So that's one reason.

skrim

curtain

virtue

6:02

Second reason: it's been shown that if you speak two languages, dementia is less likely to set in, and that you are probably a better multitasker. And these are factors that set in early, and so that ought to give you some sense of when to give junior or juniorette lessons in another language. Bilingualism is healthy.

dementia

6:25

And then, third -- languages are just an awful lot of fun. Much more fun than we're often told. So for example, Arabic: "kataba," he wrote, "yaktubu," he writes, she writes. "Uktub," write, in the imperative. What do those things have in common? All those things have in common the consonants sitting in the middle like pillars. They stay still, and the vowels dance around the consonants. Who wouldn't want to roll that around in their mouths? You can get that from Hebrew, you can get that from Ethiopia's main language, Amharic. That's fun.

imperative

consonant