Patricia Ryan: Don't insist on English!

Translator: Ereblir Kadriu Reviewer: Helena Bedalli

I know what you're thinking.

E di ç'ju shkon ne mend

You think I've lost my way,

mendoni se e kam gabur rrugen

and somebody's going to come on the stage in a minute

e qe dikush do te dal ne skene se shpejti

and guide me gently back to my seat.

te me ule ngadale ne vendin tim

(Applause)

(Duartrokitje)

I get that all the time in Dubai.

Nje gje e tille me ndodh shume shpesh ne Dubai

"Here on holiday are you, dear?"

"E dashur, jeni ketu per pushime?"

(Laughter)

(Qeshje)

"Come to visit the children?

"Po vizitoni femijet?

How long are you staying?"

Sa do te qendroni?"

Well actually, I hope for a while longer yet.

Ne te vertet, shpresoj per nje kohe te gjate

I have been living and teaching in the Gulf

Kam duket jetuar dhe dhene mesim ne Gjirin (persik)

for over 30 years.

per me shume se 30 vjet

(Applause)

(Duartrokitje)

And in that time, I have seen a lot of changes.

Dhe gjate kesaj kohe, kam pare shume ndryshime

Now that statistic

statistikat

is quite shocking.

jane mjaft shokuese

And I want to talk to you today

Dhe dua te flas me ju sot

about language loss

rreth humbjes se gjuhes

and the globalization of English.

dhe globalizimit te gjuhes angleze

I want to tell you about my friend

Dua t'ju tregoj per nje miken time

who was teaching English to adults in Abu Dhabi.

qe u mesonte gjuhen angleze te rriturve ne Abu Dhabi

And one fine day,

Nje dite te bukur,

she decided to take them into the garden

ajo vendosi t'i nxjere ata ne kopesht

to teach them some nature vocabulary.

qe t'ju mesoje dicka nga fjalori i natyres

But it was she who ended up learning

Por, ishte ajo qe arriti te mesoje

all the Arabic words for the local plants,

te gjitha fjalet arabike per bimet lokale

as well as their uses --

si dhe perdorimin e tyre

medicinal uses, cosmetics,

ne mjekesi, kosmetike,

cooking, herbal.

ne gatim, barerat e ndryshme

How did those students get all that knowledge?

Si e kane fituar gjithe kete dituri keta studente?

Of course, from their grandparents

Sigurisht, prej gjysherve

and even their great-grandparents.

e bile edhe prej stergjysheve

It's not necessary to tell you how important it is

Nuk eshte nevojshme t'ju tregoj sa rendesi ka

to be able to communicate

komunikimi

across generations.

midis gjeneratave.

But sadly, today,

Mirepo fatkeqesisht, sot,

languages are dying

gjuhet po vdesin

at an unprecedented rate.

ne shkalle te paimagjinueshme.

A language dies every 14 days.

Nje gjuhe vdes cdo 14 dite.

Now, at the same time,

Ne te njejten kohe,

English is the undisputed global language.

gjuha angleze pa diskutim eshte gjuha globale

Could there be a connection?

A mund te kete ndonje lidhje?

Well I don't know.

S'e di.

But I do know that I've seen a lot of changes.

Por, di qe kam pare shume ndryshime

When I first came out to the Gulf, I came to Kuwait

Kur erdha ne Lindjen e Mesme, ne fillim isha ne Kuwait

in the days when it was still a hardship post.

ishin ditet kur ende kishte veshtiresi

Actually, not that long ago.

Ne te vertete, jo edhe aq shume kohe me pare.

That is a little bit too early.

Kjo eshte paksa me heret.

But nevertheless,

Por sidoqofte,

I was recruited by the British Council,

Une isha punesuar nga Keshilli Britanik

along with about 25 other teachers.

se bashku me rreth 25 mesues te tjere.

And we were the first non-Muslims

Dhe ne ishim jo-Muslimanet e pare

to teach in the state schools there in Kuwait.

te jepnim mesim ne shkollat shteterore ne Kuwait.

We were brought to teach English

Na sollen per te dhene Anglisht

because the government wanted to modernize the country

sepse qeveria deshironte te modernizonte vendin

and to empower the citizens through education.

dhe t'u jepte mundesi qytetareve permes edukimit.

And of course, the U.K. benefited

Dhe sigurisht, U.K ka perfituar

from some of that lovely oil wealth.

ca nga pasuria e naftes.

Okay.

Ok

Now this is the major change that I've seen --

Tani ky eshte ndryshimi kryesor qe kam pare--

how teaching English

se si mesimdhenia e Anglishtes

has morphed

eshte shnderruar

from being a mutually beneficial practice

nga të qenit një praktikë e dobishme reciprokisht

to becoming a massive international business that it is today.

Listen Read phonetically

No longer just a foreign language on the school curriculum,

Jo vetem nje gjuhe e huaj ne programin mesimor te shkolles.

and no longer the sole domain

Dhe jo vetem nje fushe e veçante

of mother England,

e Anglise.

it has become a bandwagon

Eshte bere nje fitimtare

for every English-speaking nation on earth.

per cdo shtet Anglisht- foles ne rruzullin tokesor

And why not?

Dhe perse jo?

After all, the best education --

Ne fund te fundit, edukimi me i mire--

according to the latest World University Rankings --

sipas renditetjeve te Universiteteve boterore

is to be found in the universities

eshte qe te mesohet ne universitetet

of the U.K. and the U.S.

e U.K dhe te U.S.

So everybody wants to have an English education, naturally.

Pra te githe deshirojne te kene nje edukim Anglez, natyrisht.

But if you're not a native speaker,

Por nese nuk eke gjuhen e memes,

you have to pass a test.

duhet te kaloni nje test.

Now can it be right

Tani, a eshte e drejte

to reject a student

te refuzojme nje student

on linguistic ability alone?

vetem nga aftesia gjuhesore?

Perhaps you have a computer scientist

Ndoshta nje shkenctar kompjuteri

who's a genius.

i cili eshte gjeni.

Would he need the same language as a lawyer, for example?

A i duhet atij e njejta gjuhe sikurse avokatit, per shembull?

Well, I don't think so.

Une nuk mendoj ashtu.

We English teachers reject them all the time.

Ne mesuesit e Anglishtes i refuzojme ata tere kohen.

We put a stop sign,

Ne vendosim nje shenje stopi,

and we stop them in their tracks.

dhe i ndalojme ata ne rrugen e tyre.

They can't pursue their dream any longer,

Ata nuk mund t'a vazhdojne endrren e tyre me tutje,

'til they get English.

derisa te kuptojne Anglishten.

Now let me put it this way:

Tani më lejoni të shtroj në këtë mënyrë,

if I met a monolingual Dutch speaker

nese takoj nje foles Holandez njegjuhesh

who had the cure for cancer,

qe ka gjetur kuren per kancerin,

would I stop him from entering my British University?

a do ta ndaloja ate te hyje ne Universitin Britanik?

I don't think so.

Nuk mendoj ashtu.

But indeed, that is exactly what we do.

Por ne te vertete, kjo eshte tamam ajo qe bejme.

We English teachers are the gatekeepers.

Ne mesuesit e Anglshites jemi portieret.

And you have to satisfy us first

Dhe ju duhet te na kenaqni se pari neve

that your English is good enough.

qe anglishtja e juaj te jete e mjaftueshme

Now it can be dangerous

Tash mund te jete e rrezikshme

to give too much power

per t'i dhene shume fuqi

to a narrow segment of society.

nje segmenti te kufizuar te shoqerise.

Maybe the barrier would be too universal.

Ndoshta barriera do te jete shume universale.

Okay.

Ne rregull.

"But," I hear you say,

" Por," degjoj ju qe thoni,

"what about the research?

" Po rreth hulumtimit?

It's all in English."

Eshte i gjithi ne Anglisht."

So the books are in English,

Pra librat jane ne Anglisht,

the journals are done in English,

gazetat jane bere ne Anglisht,

but that is a self-fulfilling prophecy.

por kjo eshte nje vet-permbushje e profecise.

It feeds the English requirement.

Ajo furnizon kerkesat e anglishtes.

And so it goes on.

Dhe keshtu vazhdon.

I ask you, what happened to translation?

T'ju pyes, cfare ndodhi me perkthimin?

If you think about the Islamic Golden Age,

Nese mendoni ne Kohen e Arte Islame

there was lots of translation then.

kishte shume perkthime.

They translated from Latin and Greek

Perkthenin nga Latinishtja dhe Greqishtja

into Arabic, into Persian,

ne Arabisht, ne Persisht,

and then it was translated on

dhe pastaj ishte perkthyer ne

into the Germanic languages of Europe

ne gjuhet Gjermanike te Europes

and the Romance languages.

dhe ne gjuhet Romantike.

And so light shone upon the Dark Ages of Europe.

Dhe keshtu drita ndriconte mbi Kohet e erreta te Europes.

Now don't get me wrong;

Tani mos me keqkuptoni;

I am not against teaching English,

Une nuk ja kunder mesimdhenies Anglisht,

all you English teachers out there.

per te gjithe ju mesuesit e Anglishtes.

I love it that we have a global language.

E dua faktin qe ne kemi nje gjuhe boterore.

We need one today more than ever.

Neve na duhet sot me shume se kurre me pare.

But I am against using it

Por jam kunder perdorimit te saj

as a barrier.

si nje barriere.

Do we really want to end up with 600 languages

A deshirojme qe t'i japim fund 600 gjuheve

and the main one being English, or Chinese?

dhe kryesorja te jete Anglishtja , ose Kinezshtja?

We need more than that. Where do we draw the line?

Neve na duhet me shume se kaq. Ku e vendosim kufirin?

This system

Ky sistem

equates intelligence

barazon inteligjencen

with a knowledge of English,

me njohurite per Anglishten

which is quite arbitrary.

e cila eshte paska e pa arsyshme.

(Applause)

Duartrokitje

And I want to remind you

Dhe dua t'ua kujtoj

that the giants upon whose shoulders

se gjigandet mbi krahet e te cileve

today's intelligentsia stand

qendron inteligjenca e sotme

did not have to have English,

nuk ju nevojitej Anglishtja

they didn't have to pass an English test.

ata nuk duhet te kalonin testin e Anglishtes

Case in point, Einstein.

Rasti ne fjale, Einstein.

He, by the way, was considered remedial at school

Ai, meqe ra fjala, konsiderohej nxenes me probleme

because he was, in fact, dyslexic.

sepse ai ishte, ne fakt, disleksik.

But fortunately for the world,

Por fatmiresisht per boten,

he did not have to pass an English test.

ai nuk duhej te kalonte testin e angishtes.

Because they didn't start until 1964

Sepse kjo filloi ne 1964

with TOEFL,

me TOEFL

the American test of English.

testi American i Anglishtes

Now it's exploded.

Tani ka shperthyer gjithandej.

There are lots and lots of tests of English.

Ka shume e shume testime te anglishtes.

And millions and millions of students

Dhe miliona e miliona studenta

take these tests every year.

qe hyjne ne keto teste cdo vit.

Now you might think, you and me,

Ti dhe une, tani mund te mendojme

"Those fees aren't bad, they're okay,"

keto tarifa nuk jane edhe aq keq,

but they are prohibitive

por ato jane pengese

to so many millions of poor people.

per miliona njerez te varfer.

So immediately, we're rejecting them.

Pra menjehere, po i refuzojme ata.

(Applause)

Duartrokitje

It brings to mind a headline I saw recently:

Me sjell ne mendje nje titull artikulli qe pashe se fundmi:

"Education: The Great Divide."

"Edukimi: Ndarja e madhe."

Now I get it,

Tani e kuptoj ate,

I understand why people would want to focus on English.

E kuptoj pse njerezit do te fokusohen ne Anglisht.

They want to give their children the best chance in life.

Ata deshirojne t'u japim femijeve te tyre mundesine me te mire ne jete.

And to do that, they need a Western education.

Dhe per ta bere ate, kane nevoje per nje edukim Perendimor.

Because, of course, the best jobs

Sepse, sigurisht, punet me te mira

go to people out of the Western Universities,

shkojne tek njerezit e Universiteteve Perendimore,

that I put on earlier.

qe e ceka me perpara.

It's a circular thing.

Eshte ne forme rrethi.

Okay.

Ne rregull.

Let me tell you a story about two scientists,

t'ju tregoj nje histori per dy shkenctare,

two English scientists.

dy shkenctare te angleze.

They were doing an experiment

Ata po benin nje eksperiment

to do with genetics

qe kishte te beje me gjenetiken

and the forelimbs and the hind limbs of animals.

dhe gjymtyret e parme dhe gjymtyret e pasme te kafsheve.

But they couldn't get the results they wanted.

Por nuk mund te arrinin rezultatet qe deshironin.

They really didn't know what to do,

Ata me te vertete nuk dinin cfare te benin,

until along came a German scientist

perderisa erdhi nje shkenctar gjerman

who realized that they were using two words

i cili hetoi se po perdornin dy fjale

for forelimb and hind limb,

per gjymtyre te parme dhe gjymtyre te pasme,

whereas genetics does not differentiate

ne nje kohe qe gjenetika nuk i diferencon

and neither does German.

po keshtu as germanishtja.

So bingo,

Pra, bingo,

problem solved.

problemi u zgjidh.

If you can't think a thought,

Nese nuk mund te mendoni nje mendim

you are stuck.

ju ngecur.

But if another language can think that thought,

Por nese nje gjuhe tjeter mund te mendoje ate mendim

then, by cooperating,

pastaj, duke bashkepunuar,

we can achieve and learn so much more.

mund te mberrijme dhe mesojme shume me shume.

My daughter

Vajza ime,

came to England from Kuwait.

erdhi ne Angli nga Kuwait-i.

She had studied science and mathematics in Arabic.

Ajo kishte studiuar shkenca dhe matematike ne Arabisht.

It's an Arabic-medium school.

ne shkolle te mesme Arabike

She had to translate it into English at her grammar school.

Asaj u desh te perkthente ne Anglisht ne shkollen e gjuhes.

And she was the best in the class

Dhe ishte ma e mira ne klase

at those subjects.

ne keto lende.

Which tells us

Qe na tregon

that when students come to us from abroad,

se, kur studentet vine tek ne prej jashte vendit,

we may not be giving them enough credit

mund te mos ju japim aq shume kredit

for what they know,

per ate qe dine,

and they know it in their own language.

dhe ata e dine ne gjuhen e tyre .

When a language dies,

Kur nje gjuhe vdes,

we don't know what we lose with that language.

ne nuk ke dime se cka humbim me ate gjuhe.

This is -- I don't know if you saw it on CNN recently --

Kjo eshte-- Une nuk ke di nese e pate ne CNN--

they gave the Heroes Award

ata i dhane titullin e Heroit

to a young Kenyan shepherd boy

nje te riu Kenyan çoban

who couldn't study at night in his village,

i cili nuk mund te mesonte naten ne fshatin e tij

like all the village children,

si te gjithe femijet e fshatit,

because the kerosene lamp,

sepse lampa e vajgurit,

it had smoke and it damaged his eyes.

kishte tym dhe i demtonte syte.

And anyway, there was never enough kerosene,

Dhe sidoqofte, kurre nuk kishte aq vajguri,

because what does a dollar a day buy for you?

sepse cfare do blesh perpara me nje dollar ne dite?

So he invented

Keshtu ai zbuloi

a cost-free solar lamp.

nje llamp diellore te lire.

And now the children in his village

Dhe tani femijet ne fshatin e tij

get the same grades at school

marrin nota te njejta ne shkolle

as the children who have electricity at home.

sikurse femijet qe kane elektricitet ne shtepi.

(Applause)

Duartrokitje

When he received his award,

Kur morri çmimin,

he said these lovely words:

Ai tha keto fjale te bukura:

"The children can lead Africa from what it is today,

" Femjet mund te udheheqim Afriken nga ajo cka eshte sot,

a dark continent,

nje kontinent i erret

to a light continent."

ne nje kontinent te ndritshem."

A simple idea,

Nje ide e thjeshte,

but it could have such far-reaching consequences.

por mund te kishte pasoja qe mberrinin larg.

People who have no light,

Njerezit qe nuk kane drite,

whether it's physical or metaphorical,

qofte fizikisht ose metaforikisht,

cannot pass our exams,

nuk mund ti kalojne provimet tona,

and we can never know what they know.

dhe ne kurre s'mund te dime cka ata dine.

Let us not keep them and ourselves

Le te mos i mbajme ata dhe veten tone

in the dark.

ne erresire.

Let us celebrate diversity.

Le te festojme diversitetin.

Mind your language.

Mbaj mend gjuhen tende.

Use it to spread great ideas.

Perdore te shperndash ide te mrekullushme.

(Applause)

Duartrokitje

Thank you very much.

Faleminderit shume

(Applause)

Duartrokitje