4 reasons to learn a new language | John McWhorter

Translator: Linea Andersen Reviewer: Anders Finn Jørgensen

The language I'm speaking right now

Det sprog jeg taler lige nu

is on its way to becoming the world's universal language,

er ved at blive et universelt sprog for hele verden,

for better or for worse.

hvad end vi kan lide det eller ej.

Let's face it,

Lad os se det i øjnene,

it's the language of the internet,

Det er internettets sprog

it's the language of finance,

Finansverdenens sprog

it's the language of air traffic control,

Sproget i kontrollen med luftfart

of popular music,

i populærmusikken,

diplomacy --

i diplomati --

English is everywhere.

Engelsk er overalt.

Now, Mandarin Chinese is spoken by more people,

Der er flere mennesker der taler Mandarin,

but more Chinese people are learning English

men der er flere kinesere der lærer engelsk,

than English speakers are learning Chinese.

en engelsktalende som læser kinesisk.

Last I heard,

Det seneste jeg har hørt,

there are two dozen universities in China right now

er at der er 25 universiteter i Kina - lige nu

teaching all in English.

som kun underviser på engelsk.

English is taking over.

Engelsk dominerer.

And in addition to that,

Derudover -

it's been predicted that at the end of the century

er det blevet forudset, at ved århundredskiftet

almost all of the languages that exist now --

Vil næsten ingen af de sprog der findes nu

there are about 6,000 --

omkring 6000 -

will no longer be spoken.

blive talt længere.

There will only be some hundreds left.

Der vil kun være nogle få 100 tilbage.

And on top of that,

Desuden er vi i en tid

it's at the point where instant translation of live speech

hvor øjeblikkelig oversættelse af direkte tale

is not only possible, but it gets better every year.

ikke kun er muligt, men bliver bedre år for år

The reason I'm reciting those things to you

Grunden til jeg fortæller jer alt dette

is because I can tell that we're getting to the point

er fordi jeg kan mærke vi er nået et punkt

where a question is going to start being asked,

hvor folk begynder at stille dette spørgsmål:

which is: Why should we learn foreign languages --

Hvorfor skal vi lære fremmedsprog

other than if English happens to be foreign to one?

- udover at lære engelsk, hvis det er fremmed for os?

Why bother to learn another one when it's getting to the point

Hvorfor bruge tid på at lære nye sprog, når vi er nået et punkt

where almost everybody in the world will be able to communicate in one?

hvor næsten alle i verden, vil være i stand til at bruge engelsk?

I think there are a lot of reasons,

Jeg synes der er mange grunde,

but I first want to address

men først vil jeg tage fat på den,

the one that you're probably most likely to have heard of,

som I højst sandsynligt har hørt før,

because actually it's more dangerous than you might think.

for den er langt farligere end man måske tror

And that is the idea

Det er idéen om

that a language channels your thoughts,

at sprog styrer dine tanker,

that the vocabulary and the grammar of different languages

at forskellige sprogs ordforråd og grammatik

gives everybody a different kind of acid trip,

skaber unikke verdener vi kan leve i,

so to speak.

kan man vel sige.

That is a marvelously enticing idea,

Det er en vidunderligt tillokkende idé

but it's kind of fraught.

men det er også lidt fup.

So it's not that it's untrue completely.

Det er ikke fordi det er helt usandt.

So for example, in French and Spanish

Altså, på fransk og spansk for eksempel

the word for table is, for some reason, marked as feminine.

er ordet for bord, af en eller anden grund, markeret for hunkøn.

So, "la table," "la mesa," you just have to deal with it.

Så, "la table,", "la mesa," det skal man bare leve med.

It has been shown

Det er blevet vist

that if you are a speaker of one of those languages

at hvis du taler et af de sprog,

and you happen to be asked

og nogen skulle spørge dig,

how you would imagine a table talking,

hvordan du forestiller dig et bord lyder når det taler

then much more often than could possibly be an accident,

så vil det ske oftere, end hvad der kan tilskrives tilfældighed,

a French or a Spanish speaker

at en der taler fransk eller spansk

says that the table would talk with a high and feminine voice.

siger at bordet ville tale med en lys og feminin stemme.

So if you're French or Spanish, to you, a table is kind of a girl,

Så hvis du er fransk eller spansk, ser du et bord lidt som noget piget,

as opposed to if you are an English speaker.

men ikke hvis du er engelsk.

It's hard not to love data like that,

Sådan nogle resultater er jo spændende

and many people will tell you that that means

og mange mennesker vil sige at det betyder

that there's a worldview that you have if you speak one of those languages.

at du har et specielt verdenssyn, hvis du taler et af de her sprog.

But you have to watch out,

Men man skal passe på,

because imagine if somebody put us under the microscope,

for forestil dig at nogen putter os under mikroskop,

the us being those of us who speak English natively.

med os mener jeg os med engelsk som modersmål.

What is the worldview from English?

Hvilke verdenssyn får man fra Engelsk?

So for example, let's take an English speaker.

Så for eksempel, lad os tage en engelsktalende person.

Up on the screen, that is Bono.

Deroppe på skærmen ser I Bono.

He speaks English.

Han taler engelsk.

I presume he has a worldview.

Jeg går ud fra han har et verdenssyn.

Now, that is Donald Trump.

Det her er Donald Trump.

In his way,

Han taler på sin vis

he speaks English as well.

også en slags engelsk.

(Laughter)

(Latter)

And here is Ms. Kardashian,

Og her er Fru Kardashian,

and she is an English speaker, too.

og hun taler også engelsk.

So here are three speakers of the English language.

Så her har vi tre personer der alle taler engelsk.

What worldview do those three people have in common?

Hvilket verdenssyn har de til fælles?

What worldview is shaped through the English language that unites them?

Hvilket verdenssyn skabt gennem det engelske sprog har de til fælles?

It's a highly fraught concept.

Det er et meget ladet koncept.

And so gradual consensus is becoming that language can shape thought,

Og derfor, opstår der gradvist enighed om at sprog kan forme tanker,

but it tends to be in rather darling, obscure psychological flutters.

men det er som regel på lidt obskure, enestående bidder af sproget.

It's not a matter of giving you a different pair of glasses on the world.

Det er ikke fordi man får forskellige briller at se verden med.

Now, if that's the case,

Hvis man ikke får nye briller,

then why learn languages?

hvorfor skal man så lære nye sprog?

If it isn't going to change the way you think,

Hvis det ikke kommer til at ændre måden du tænker,

what would the other reasons be?

Hvad kunne der så være af grunde?

There are some.

Der er et par stykker.

One of them is that if you want to imbibe a culture,

En af dem er, at hvis du vil tilegne dig en kultur,

if you want to drink it in, if you want to become part of it,

hvis du vil omsluttes af den, være en del af den,

then whether or not the language channels the culture --

så uanset om sproget styrer kulturen --

and that seems doubtful --

selvom det virker usandsynligt --

if you want to imbibe the culture,

hvis du vil tilegne dig kulturen

you have to control to some degree

må du til en vis grad mestre det sprog

the language that the culture happens to be conducted in.

som kulturen nu engang udtrykker sig i.

There's no other way.

Sådan er det bare.

There's an interesting illustration of this.

Der findes et interessant eksempel.

I have to go slightly obscure, but really you should seek it out.

Jeg går lige lidt ud af en tangent, men I bør virkelig tjekke det ud.

There's a movie by the Canadian film director Denys Arcand --

Der er en film af den canadiske instruktør Denys Arcand --

read out in English on the page, "Dennis Ar-cand,"

eller måske skal jeg sige "Dennis Ar-cand"

if you want to look him up.

Hvis I vil slå ham op.

He did a film called "Jesus of Montreal."

Han har lavet en film der hedder "Jesus of Montreal,"

And many of the characters

og mange af karaktererne er

are vibrant, funny, passionate, interesting French-Canadian,

livlige, sjove, passionerede spændende fransk-canadiske

French-speaking women.

fransk talender kvinder.

There's one scene closest to the end,

Der er en scene i slutningen,

where they have to take a friend to an Anglophone hospital.

hvor de skal tage en ven til et engelsksproget hospital.

In the hospital, they have to speak English.

Her er de nødt til at tale engelsk.

Now, they speak English but it's not their native language,

Det kan de også godt, men det er ikke deres modersmål,

they'd rather not speak English.

De ville hellere være fri.

And they speak it more slowly,

Og de taler langsommere,

they have accents, they're not idiomatic.

de har accent, de er ikke idiomatiske.

Suddenly these characters that you've fallen in love with

De her karakterer som du har forelsket dig i,

become husks of themselves, they're shadows of themselves.

er pludselige tomme skaller af sig selv, skygger af sig selv.

To go into a culture

Når man møder en kultur,

and to only ever process people through that kind of skrim curtain

og kun oplever folk gennem sådan et filter

is to never truly get the culture.

forstår man aldrig rigtig kulturen.

And so to the extent that hundreds of languages will be left,

Så hvis kun nogle hundrede sprog vil være tilbage,

one reason to learn them

er én grund til at lære dem,

is because they are tickets to being able to participate

at de er billetter til at kunne deltage

in the culture of the people who speak them,

i kulturen der tilhører dem der taler sproget,

just by virtue of the fact that it is their code.

udelukkende fordi det er deres kode.

So that's one reason.

Så det er én grund.

Second reason:

Grund nr. 2

it's been shown

Det er blevet vist,

that if you speak two languages, dementia is less likely to set in,

at hvis du taler to sprog, er der mindre chance for at få demens,

and that you are probably a better multitasker.

og du er sikkert bedre til at multitaske.

And these are factors that set in early,

Og det er faktorer der begynder tidligt,

and so that ought to give you some sense

hvilket burde give dig en idé om,

of when to give junior or juniorette lessons in another language.

hvornår du skal starte med at give junior eller juniorinden, timer i et andet sprog.

Bilingualism is healthy.

Det er sundt at være flersproget.

And then, third --

Og, for det tredje,

languages are just an awful lot of fun.

er sprog bare frygteligt sjovt.

Much more fun than we're often told.

Meget sjovere end folk tit siger.

So for example, Arabic: "kataba," he wrote,

Så, for eksempel, Arabisk: "kataba," han skrev,

"yaktubu," he writes, she writes.

"yaktubu," han skriver, hun skriver,

"Uktub," write, in the imperative.

"uktub," skriv i bydeform.

What do those things have in common?

Hvad har de ting til fælles?

All those things have in common

De har alle det til fælles,

the consonants sitting in the middle like pillars.

at konsonanterne står i midten som grundpiller.

They stay still,

De står stiller,

and the vowels dance around the consonants.

og vokalerne danser rundt om konsonanterne.

Who wouldn't want to roll that around in their mouths?

Hvem ville ikke gerne svinge dét rundt i deres mund?

You can get that from Hebrew,

Du kan få det fra hebraisk,

you can get that from Ethiopia's main language, Amharic.

du kan få det fra Etiopiens hovedsprog, Amharisk.

That's fun.

Det er sjovt.

Or languages have different word orders.

Eller, sprog har forskellige ordfølger.

Learning how to speak with different word order

At lære at tale med forskellig ordfølge,

is like driving on the different side of a street if you go to certain country,

er som at lære at køre i den forkerte side af vejen når du rejser til nogle lande,

or the feeling that you get when you put Witch Hazel around your eyes

eller den følelse du får når du putter troldnød rundt om øjnene

and you feel the tingle.

og det kilder.

A language can do that to you.

Et sprog kan gøre det samme ved dig.

So for example,

Så, for eksempel,

"The Cat in the Hat Comes Back,"

"The Cat in the Hat Comes Back,"

a book that I'm sure we all often return to,

en bog jeg er sikker på vi alle ofte genlæser,

like "Moby Dick."

ligesom "Moby Dick."

One phrase in it is, "Do you know where I found him?

Et stykke derfra er: "Ved du hvor jeg fandt ham?"

Do you know where he was? He was eating cake in the tub,

Ved du hvor han var? Han spiste kage i badekaret,

Yes he was!"

Ja han gjorde!"

Fine. Now, if you learn that in Mandarin Chinese,

Okay, men, hvis du skal lære det på Mandarin,

then you have to master,

skal du beherske,

"You can know, I did where him find?

"Du kan vide, jeg gjorde hvor ham finde?

He was tub inside gorging cake,

han var badekar inde i smaske kage,

No mistake gorging chewing!"

ikke fejl, smaske tygge!"

That just feels good.

Det føles bare godt,

Imagine being able to do that for years and years at a time.

forestil dig at være i stand til at snakke sådan år ind og år ud.

Or, have you ever learned any Cambodian?

Eller, har I lært lidt cambodiansk?

Me either, but if I did,

Heller ikke mig, men hvis jeg havde,

I would get to roll around in my mouth not some baker's dozen of vowels

ville jeg få chancen for smage på, ikke bare de små 13 vokaler,

like English has,

som engelsk har,

but a good 30 different vowels

men op mod 30 forskellige vokaler,

scooching and oozing around in the Cambodian mouth

som læsker og fryder den cambodianske mund,

like bees in a hive.

som lækre delikatesser.

That is what a language can get you.

Det er hvad sprog kan give dig.

And more to the point,

Og hvis det ikke er nok,

we live in an era when it's never been easier to teach yourself another language.

lever vi i en tid, hvor det aldrig har været nemmere at lære sig selv nye sprog.

It used to be that you had to go to a classroom,

Man plejede at skulle finde et klasselokale

and there would be some diligent teacher --

og der ville være en flittig lærer --

some genius teacher in there --

en genial lærer i skolen --

but that person was only in there at certain times

Men læren var kun tilstede på bestemte tider

and you had to go then,

hvor du kunne komme

and then was not most times.

og den tid var begrænset.

You had to go to class.

Du måtte gå i skole.

If you didn't have that, you had something called a record.

Hvis ikke det var muligt, havde du noget der hed en plade

I cut my teeth on those.

Sådan trådte jeg mine barnesko.

There was only so much data on a record,

Optagelserne på en plade kunne kun have en vis længe,

or a cassette,

eller på kassette bånd,

or even that antique object known as a CD.

eller på antikviteten vi kalder en CD

Other than that you had books that didn't work,

Ellers havde man bøger, som ikke virkede,

that's just the way it was.

det var bare sådan det var.

Today you can lay down --

I dag kan du ligge ned,

lie on your living room floor,

på gulvet i din stue,

sipping bourbon,

mens du drikker bourbon,

and teach yourself any language that you want to

og lære dig selv lige det sprog du har lyst til,

with wonderful sets such as Rosetta Stone.

med skønne systemer, såsom Rosetta Stone.

I highly recommend the lesser known Glossika as well.

Jeg kan også varmt anbefale det mindre kendte Glossika.

You can do it any time,

Du kan gøre det

therefore you can do it more and better.

når som helst, derfor kan du gøre det mere og bedre

You can give yourself your morning pleasures in various languages.

Du kan nyde din morgenunderholdning på forskellige sprog.

I take some "Dilbert" in various languages every single morning;

Jeg snupper lidt "Dilbert" på forskellige sprog hver eneste morgen;

it can increase your skills.

sådan kan man blive bedre.

Couldn't have done it 20 years ago

Det kunne ikke ske for 20 år siden

when the idea of having any language you wanted

da tanken om at have lige det sprog du kunne tænke dig

in your pocket,

i din lomme,

coming from your phone,

direkte fra din telefon,

would have sounded like science fiction to very sophisticated people.

ville have lydt som science fiction, for selv de mest sofistikerede folk.

So I highly recommend

Jeg vil varmt anbefale,

that you teach yourself languages other than the one that I'm speaking,

at du lærer dig selv andre sprog, end det jeg taler nu,

because there's never been a better time to do it.

for det har aldrig været nemmere end det er nu.

It's an awful lot of fun.

Det er virkelig sjovt.

It won't change your mind,

Det vil ikke ændre din hjerne,

but it will most certainly blow your mind.

men det vil være en vild oplevelse.

Thank you very much.

Mange tak.

(Applause)

(Klapsalver)