Using language in understanding culture and communication

1. Language

2. What’s the best language for
intercultural communication?

3. It depends

4. Maybe language isn’t important
• Cross-cultural competence
• Knowledge about other cultures
• Understanding other people’s feelings
• Confidence in your own knowledge and self
• Cultural identity (knowledge of your own
culture)
• Language ability?!

5. Language isn’t important?

6. Adaptability

7. Even if you are great at languages …

8. … you might NOT be a great
communicator

9. … you might not be aware of others.

10. You might have the wrong kind of
understanding

11. But language IS important

12. English IS important

13. The MOST important?

14. It depends on you

15. But it’s not a BAD idea

16. It’s not BAD to study English HARD

17. It won’t do any HARM

18. So study hard anyway

19. Maybe in 10 years, you’ll be living in
Russia

20. Maybe you should be studying
Russian?

21. Who knows?

22. But studying ENGLISH hard …

23. … is good preparation anyway

24. OK, but how about China?

25. ONLY 144 million speakers of Russian
in the world!

26. But Chinese is different

27. Mandarin Chinese

28. How many native speakers of English?

29. Less than 400 million!

30. That’s almost no one!!

31. How about Mandarin Chinese?

32. One billion people!

33. Almost 15% of the world’s population!

34. English native speakers – less than 6%

35. That’s almost no one!!

36. Less than Spanish!!

37. More native speakers of Spanish!

38. … than English!!?

39. Forget about English!

40. English is rubbish!

41. Why does anyone care about English?

42. Are English native speakers BETTER
than others?

43. Better than English native speakers?

44. Yes

45. Yes

46. English-speaking dogs are better, too!

47. OK, that’s not true

48. But why, oh why, oh why …?

49. … is English SO important?

50. Simple answer:
• It’s not native speakers
• It’s NOT me
• It’s YOU
• NON-native speakers are the reason

51. How many non-native speakers?
• For every 1 native speaker of English …
• … there are about 3 non-native speakers of
English
• So YOU have the power
• Work like crazy to GET English
• And make the power work for YOU
• That’s my advice

52. • If you are an English major …
• … and you’re not studying like crazy …
• … then you ARE crazy!!

53. The people here

54. And here

55. And here …

56. Are ALL learning English

57. That’s why English IS important

58. Don’t blame me

59. It’s you

60. But it’s not JUST language

61. Understanding people’s attitudes is
important

62. English is complicated

63. English spread because of Empire

64. People like him

65. Captain Henry Morgan

66. 17th century pirate

67. In the Caribbean

68. Pirates of the Caribbean

69. Britain had lots of coal

70. The conditions were just right

71. To take advantage of industrial
advances

72. Economic opportunities

73. And the Empire spread

74. The English-speaking world had power

75. Maybe it still does

76. About 27% of internet USERS are
English speakers

77. About 55% of CONTENT is in English

78. That’s not fair

79. • About 25% of internet USERS are Chinese
speakers
• Only about 4% of internet CONTENT is in
Chinese
• So maybe English is TOO powerful
• OK, so study like crazy to get power for
YOURSELF!

80. But the spread of English is a REALITY

81. People from the Caribbean are native
speakers of English

82. • About 100% of Jamaicans are English speakers
• Only about 85% of Canadians (French is also
spoken)
• 90% of people from the Netherlands
• 85% of Swedish people
• 80% of Singaporeans
• 65% of Germans
• 55% of people from the Philippines

83. How about Japan?

84. Who cares?

85. • Just study like crazy
• Get all the power you can get
• Speak for your country
• Be a hero

86. But try to understand how people feel

87. Everyone has a complicated
relationship to English

88. Except for ENGLISH people

89. Here’s England

90. England

91. Here’s where I’m from -- Wales

92. Wales is an ancient culture

93. The culture of Wales 2,000 years ago

94. The culture of Wales today

95. • Everyone speaks English
• But some people speak Welsh nearly all the
time
• And many people don’t really like speaking
English
• They don’t want to speak English to English
people

96. Similar situation in Ireland

97. People are happy to speak English

98. But they were treated very badly by
the English

99. They used the English language to fight
for independence

100. Independence from England

101. Similar to Ireland

102. High standards of English

103. They used English to fight for
independence

104. So understanding culture …

105. … isn’t ALL about English …

106. … but you can use the language…

107. … to get the power YOU NEED

108. So study like crazy