1 00:00:01,659 --> 00:00:02,809 Spoons. 2 00:00:04,944 --> 00:00:06,326 Cardboard boxes. 3 00:00:07,302 --> 00:00:09,722 Toddler-size electric trains. 4 00:00:10,522 --> 00:00:11,854 Holiday ornaments. 5 00:00:12,442 --> 00:00:13,832 Bounce houses. 6 00:00:14,292 --> 00:00:15,577 Blankets. 7 00:00:15,601 --> 00:00:16,751 Baskets. 8 00:00:17,228 --> 00:00:18,474 Carpets. 9 00:00:18,498 --> 00:00:19,649 Tray tables. 10 00:00:19,673 --> 00:00:21,077 Smartphones. 11 00:00:21,101 --> 00:00:22,381 Pianos. 12 00:00:23,284 --> 00:00:24,598 Robes. 13 00:00:24,622 --> 00:00:25,772 Photographs. 14 00:00:26,415 --> 00:00:28,447 What do all of these things have in common, 15 00:00:28,471 --> 00:00:31,904 aside from the fact they're photos that I took in the last three months, 16 00:00:31,928 --> 00:00:33,770 and therefore, own the copyright to? 17 00:00:33,794 --> 00:00:35,299 (Laughter) 18 00:00:35,323 --> 00:00:36,855 They're all inventions 19 00:00:36,879 --> 00:00:40,529 that were created with the benefit of language. 20 00:00:40,553 --> 00:00:43,249 None of these things would have existed without language. 21 00:00:43,273 --> 00:00:45,233 Imagine creating any one of those things 22 00:00:45,257 --> 00:00:48,003 or, like, building an entire building like this, 23 00:00:48,027 --> 00:00:50,383 without being able to use language 24 00:00:50,407 --> 00:00:54,949 or without benefiting from any knowledge that was got by the use of language. 25 00:00:54,973 --> 00:00:59,021 Basically, language is the most important thing 26 00:00:59,045 --> 00:01:00,219 in the entire world. 27 00:01:00,243 --> 00:01:03,284 All of our civilization rests upon it. 28 00:01:03,308 --> 00:01:05,760 And those who devote their lives to studying it -- 29 00:01:05,784 --> 00:01:10,776 both how language emerged, how human languages differ, 30 00:01:10,800 --> 00:01:13,310 how they differ from animal communication systems -- 31 00:01:13,334 --> 00:01:14,484 are linguists. 32 00:01:15,141 --> 00:01:20,120 Formal linguistics is a relatively young field, more or less. 33 00:01:21,099 --> 00:01:23,496 And it's uncovered a lot of really important stuff. 34 00:01:23,520 --> 00:01:26,052 Like, for example, that human communication systems 35 00:01:26,076 --> 00:01:28,837 differ crucially from animal communication systems, 36 00:01:28,861 --> 00:01:31,522 that all languages are equally expressive, 37 00:01:31,546 --> 00:01:33,585 even if they do it in different ways. 38 00:01:33,998 --> 00:01:37,272 And yet, despite this, 39 00:01:37,296 --> 00:01:41,918 there are a lot of people who just love to pop off about language 40 00:01:41,942 --> 00:01:45,561 like they have an equal understanding of it as a linguist, 41 00:01:45,585 --> 00:01:47,617 because, of course, they speak a language. 42 00:01:47,641 --> 00:01:50,813 And if you speak a language, that means you have just as much right 43 00:01:50,837 --> 00:01:52,930 to talk about its function as anybody else. 44 00:01:52,954 --> 00:01:54,946 Imagine if you were talking to a surgeon, 45 00:01:54,970 --> 00:01:56,474 and you say, "Listen, buddy. 46 00:01:56,498 --> 00:01:58,466 I've had a heart for, like, 40 years now. 47 00:01:58,490 --> 00:02:01,440 I think I know a thing or two about aortic valve replacements. 48 00:02:01,464 --> 00:02:03,679 I think my opinion is just as valid as yours." 49 00:02:03,703 --> 00:02:05,498 And yet, that's exactly what happens. 50 00:02:05,522 --> 00:02:09,949 This is Neil deGrasse Tyson, saying that in the film "Arrival," 51 00:02:09,973 --> 00:02:12,124 he would have brought a cryptographer -- 52 00:02:12,148 --> 00:02:15,966 somebody who can unscramble a message in a language they already know -- 53 00:02:15,990 --> 00:02:17,268 rather than a linguist, 54 00:02:17,292 --> 00:02:18,926 to communicate with the aliens, 55 00:02:18,950 --> 00:02:21,061 because what would a linguist -- 56 00:02:21,085 --> 00:02:23,299 why would that be useful in talking to somebody 57 00:02:23,323 --> 00:02:25,229 speaking a language we don't even know? 58 00:02:25,253 --> 00:02:27,990 Though, of course, the "Arrival" film is not off the hook. 59 00:02:28,014 --> 00:02:30,077 I mean, come on -- listen, film. Hey, buddy: 60 00:02:30,101 --> 00:02:33,141 there are aliens that come down to our planet in gigantic ships, 61 00:02:33,165 --> 00:02:36,951 and they want to do nothing except for communicate with us, 62 00:02:36,975 --> 00:02:39,250 and you hire one linguist? 63 00:02:39,274 --> 00:02:40,284 (Laughter) 64 00:02:40,308 --> 00:02:42,652 What's the US government on a budget or something? 65 00:02:43,029 --> 00:02:44,617 (Laughter) 66 00:02:44,641 --> 00:02:47,545 A lot of these things can be chalked up to misunderstandings, 67 00:02:47,569 --> 00:02:51,045 both about what language is and about the formal study of language, 68 00:02:51,069 --> 00:02:52,380 about linguistics. 69 00:02:53,568 --> 00:02:57,996 And I think there's something that underlies a lot of these misunderstandings 70 00:02:58,020 --> 00:03:02,559 that can be summed up by this delightful article in "Forbes," 71 00:03:02,583 --> 00:03:06,278 about why high school students shouldn't learn foreign languages. 72 00:03:06,302 --> 00:03:08,435 I'm going to pull out some quotes from this, 73 00:03:08,459 --> 00:03:10,517 and I want you to see if you can figure out 74 00:03:10,541 --> 00:03:14,171 what underlies some of these opinions and ideas. 75 00:03:14,929 --> 00:03:19,012 "Americans rarely read the classics, even in translation." 76 00:03:19,036 --> 00:03:21,737 So in other words, why bother learning a foreign language 77 00:03:21,761 --> 00:03:25,203 when they're not even going to read the classic in the original anyway? 78 00:03:25,227 --> 00:03:26,411 What's the point? 79 00:03:26,435 --> 00:03:29,213 "Studying foreign languages in school is a waste of time, 80 00:03:29,237 --> 00:03:32,897 compared to other things that you could be doing in school." 81 00:03:33,887 --> 00:03:37,799 "Europe has a lot of language groups clustered in a relatively small space." 82 00:03:37,823 --> 00:03:41,332 So for Americans, ah, what's the point of learning another language? 83 00:03:41,356 --> 00:03:44,712 You're not really going to get a lot of bang for your buck out of that. 84 00:03:44,736 --> 00:03:45,895 This is my favorite, 85 00:03:45,919 --> 00:03:48,062 "A student in Birmingham would have to travel 86 00:03:48,086 --> 00:03:50,572 about a thousand miles to get to the Mexican border, 87 00:03:50,596 --> 00:03:54,604 and even then, there would be enough people who speak English to get around." 88 00:03:54,628 --> 00:03:57,327 In other words, if you can kind of wave your arms around, 89 00:03:57,351 --> 00:03:59,171 and you can get to where you're going, 90 00:03:59,195 --> 00:04:02,251 then there's really no point in learning another language anyway. 91 00:04:02,275 --> 00:04:07,307 What underlies a lot of these attitudes is the conceptual metaphor, 92 00:04:07,331 --> 00:04:08,894 language is a tool. 93 00:04:08,918 --> 00:04:11,878 And there's something that rings very true about this metaphor. 94 00:04:11,902 --> 00:04:13,149 Language is kind of a tool 95 00:04:13,173 --> 00:04:16,777 in that, if you know the local language, you can do more than if you didn't. 96 00:04:16,801 --> 00:04:19,801 But the implication is that language is only a tool, 97 00:04:19,825 --> 00:04:21,817 and this is absolutely false. 98 00:04:21,841 --> 00:04:25,142 If language was a tool, it would honestly be a pretty poor tool. 99 00:04:25,166 --> 00:04:28,776 And we would have abandoned it long ago for something that was a lot better. 100 00:04:28,800 --> 00:04:30,332 Think about just any sentence. 101 00:04:30,356 --> 00:04:33,995 Here's a sentence that I'm sure I've said in my life: "Yesterday I saw Kyn." 102 00:04:34,019 --> 00:04:35,268 I have a friend named Kyn. 103 00:04:35,292 --> 00:04:38,076 And when I say this sentence, "Yesterday I saw Kyn," 104 00:04:38,100 --> 00:04:39,826 do you think it's really the case 105 00:04:39,850 --> 00:04:43,072 that everything in my mind is now implanted in your mind 106 00:04:43,096 --> 00:04:44,278 via this sentence? 107 00:04:44,302 --> 00:04:46,839 Hardly, because there's a lot of other stuff going on. 108 00:04:46,863 --> 00:04:48,251 Like, when I say "yesterday," 109 00:04:48,275 --> 00:04:51,584 I might think what the weather was like yesterday because I was there. 110 00:04:51,608 --> 00:04:52,758 And if I'm remembering, 111 00:04:52,782 --> 00:04:56,226 I'll probably remember there was something I forgot to mail, which I did. 112 00:04:56,250 --> 00:04:59,566 This was a preplanned joke, but I really did forget to mail something. 113 00:04:59,590 --> 00:05:02,440 And so that means I'm going to have to do it Monday, 114 00:05:02,464 --> 00:05:04,657 because that's when I'm going to get back home. 115 00:05:04,681 --> 00:05:06,501 And of course, when I think of Monday, 116 00:05:06,525 --> 00:05:09,471 I'll think of "Manic Monday" by the Bangles. It's a good song. 117 00:05:09,495 --> 00:05:12,752 And when I say the word "saw," I think of this phrase: 118 00:05:12,776 --> 00:05:15,863 "'I see!' said the blind man as he picked up his hammer and saw." 119 00:05:15,887 --> 00:05:17,038 I always do. 120 00:05:17,062 --> 00:05:20,133 Anytime I hear the word "saw" or say it, I always think of that, 121 00:05:20,157 --> 00:05:22,254 because my grandfather always used to say it, 122 00:05:22,278 --> 00:05:24,149 so it makes me think of my grandfather. 123 00:05:24,173 --> 00:05:26,814 And we're back to "Manic Monday" again, for some reason. 124 00:05:26,838 --> 00:05:30,100 And with Kyn, when I'm saying something like, "Yesterday I saw Kyn," 125 00:05:30,124 --> 00:05:33,227 I'll think of the circumstances under which I saw him. 126 00:05:33,251 --> 00:05:36,030 And this happened to be that day. Here he is with my cat. 127 00:05:36,054 --> 00:05:37,879 And of course, if I'm thinking of Kyn, 128 00:05:37,903 --> 00:05:40,371 I'll think he's going to Long Beach State right now, 129 00:05:40,395 --> 00:05:43,032 and I'll remember that my good friend John and my mother 130 00:05:43,056 --> 00:05:44,830 both graduated from Long Beach State, 131 00:05:44,854 --> 00:05:47,698 my cousin Katie is going to Long Beach State right now. 132 00:05:47,722 --> 00:05:49,156 And it's "Manic Monday" again. 133 00:05:49,180 --> 00:05:51,962 But this is just a fraction of what's going on in your head 134 00:05:51,986 --> 00:05:54,278 at any given time while you are speaking. 135 00:05:54,302 --> 00:05:56,897 And all we have to represent the entire mess 136 00:05:56,921 --> 00:05:59,815 that is going on in our head, is this. 137 00:05:59,839 --> 00:06:01,141 I mean, that's all we got. 138 00:06:01,165 --> 00:06:02,329 (Laughter) 139 00:06:02,353 --> 00:06:04,958 Is it any wonder that our system is so poor? 140 00:06:04,982 --> 00:06:07,460 So imagine, if I can give you an analogy, 141 00:06:07,484 --> 00:06:10,626 imagine if you wanted to know what is it like to eat a cake, 142 00:06:10,650 --> 00:06:13,006 if instead of just eating the cake, 143 00:06:13,030 --> 00:06:16,252 you instead had to ingest the ingredients of a cake, 144 00:06:16,276 --> 00:06:17,807 one by one, 145 00:06:17,831 --> 00:06:19,343 along with instructions 146 00:06:19,367 --> 00:06:22,752 about how these ingredients can be combined to form a cake. 147 00:06:22,776 --> 00:06:24,680 You had to eat the instructions, too. 148 00:06:24,704 --> 00:06:25,768 (Laughter) 149 00:06:25,792 --> 00:06:27,851 If that was how we had to experience cake, 150 00:06:27,875 --> 00:06:29,386 we would never eat cake. 151 00:06:30,485 --> 00:06:34,045 And yet, language is the only way -- the only way -- 152 00:06:34,069 --> 00:06:38,263 that we can figure out what is going on here, in our minds. 153 00:06:38,287 --> 00:06:40,141 This is our interiority, 154 00:06:40,165 --> 00:06:41,609 the thing that makes us human, 155 00:06:41,633 --> 00:06:44,871 the thing that makes us different from other animals, 156 00:06:44,895 --> 00:06:46,728 is all inside here somewhere, 157 00:06:46,752 --> 00:06:50,696 and all we have to do to represent it is our own languages. 158 00:06:50,720 --> 00:06:53,835 A language is our best way of showing what's going on in our head. 159 00:06:53,859 --> 00:06:56,110 Imagine if I wanted to ask a big question, like: 160 00:06:56,134 --> 00:06:58,467 "What is the nature of human thought and emotion?" 161 00:06:58,491 --> 00:06:59,581 What you'd want to do 162 00:06:59,605 --> 00:07:02,768 is you'd want to examine as many different languages 163 00:07:02,792 --> 00:07:04,387 as possible. 164 00:07:04,411 --> 00:07:06,426 One isn't just going to do it. 165 00:07:06,450 --> 00:07:07,812 To give you an example, 166 00:07:07,836 --> 00:07:10,685 here's a picture I took of little Roman, 167 00:07:10,709 --> 00:07:13,688 that I took with a 12-megapixel camera. 168 00:07:13,712 --> 00:07:17,144 Now, here's that same picture with a lot fewer pixels. 169 00:07:17,168 --> 00:07:21,051 Obviously, neither of these pictures is a real cat. 170 00:07:21,075 --> 00:07:24,709 But one gives you a lot better sense of what a cat is than the other. 171 00:07:26,649 --> 00:07:28,633 Language is not merely a tool. 172 00:07:28,657 --> 00:07:29,816 It is our legacy, 173 00:07:29,840 --> 00:07:32,282 it's our way of conveying what it means to be human. 174 00:07:32,306 --> 00:07:36,697 And of course, by "our" legacy, I mean all humans everywhere. 175 00:07:36,721 --> 00:07:41,786 And losing even one language makes that picture a lot less clear. 176 00:07:41,810 --> 00:07:45,855 So as a job for the past 10 years 177 00:07:45,879 --> 00:07:49,164 and also as recreation, just for fun, 178 00:07:49,188 --> 00:07:50,899 I create languages. 179 00:07:50,923 --> 00:07:52,783 These are called "conlangs," 180 00:07:52,807 --> 00:07:54,942 short for "constructed languages." 181 00:07:54,966 --> 00:07:57,045 Now, presenting these facts back to back, 182 00:07:57,069 --> 00:07:59,047 that we're losing languages on our planet 183 00:07:59,071 --> 00:08:00,890 and that I create brand-new languages, 184 00:08:00,914 --> 00:08:03,696 you might think that there's some nonsuperficial connection 185 00:08:03,720 --> 00:08:04,886 between these two. 186 00:08:04,910 --> 00:08:07,826 In fact, a lot of people have drawn a line between those dots. 187 00:08:07,850 --> 00:08:09,877 This is a guy who got all bent out of shape 188 00:08:09,901 --> 00:08:12,715 that there was a conlang in James Cameron's "Avatar." 189 00:08:12,739 --> 00:08:14,446 He says, 190 00:08:14,470 --> 00:08:16,692 "But in the three years it took James Cameron 191 00:08:16,716 --> 00:08:18,969 to get Avatar to the screen, a language died." 192 00:08:18,993 --> 00:08:20,921 Probably a lot more than that, actually. 193 00:08:20,945 --> 00:08:24,389 "Na'vi, alas, won't fill the hole where it used to be ..." 194 00:08:24,413 --> 00:08:26,725 A truly profound and poignant statement -- 195 00:08:26,749 --> 00:08:29,366 if you don't think about it at all. 196 00:08:29,390 --> 00:08:30,545 (Laughter) 197 00:08:30,569 --> 00:08:32,612 But when I was here at Cal, 198 00:08:32,636 --> 00:08:34,015 I completed two majors. 199 00:08:34,039 --> 00:08:36,840 One of them was linguistics, but the other one was English. 200 00:08:36,864 --> 00:08:39,452 And of course, the English major, the study of English, 201 00:08:39,476 --> 00:08:42,438 is not actually the study of the English language, as we know, 202 00:08:42,462 --> 00:08:43,857 it's the study of literature. 203 00:08:43,881 --> 00:08:45,678 Literature is just a wonderful thing, 204 00:08:45,702 --> 00:08:49,493 because basically, literature, more broadly, is kind of like art; 205 00:08:49,517 --> 00:08:51,180 it falls under the rubric of art. 206 00:08:51,204 --> 00:08:52,752 And what we do with literature, 207 00:08:52,776 --> 00:08:57,855 authors create new, entire beings and histories. 208 00:08:57,879 --> 00:09:00,895 And it's interesting to us to see 209 00:09:00,919 --> 00:09:06,006 what kind of depth and emotion and just unique spirit 210 00:09:06,030 --> 00:09:08,638 authors can invest into these fictional beings. 211 00:09:08,662 --> 00:09:11,283 So much so, that, I mean -- take a look at this. 212 00:09:11,307 --> 00:09:13,561 There's an entire series of books 213 00:09:13,585 --> 00:09:15,824 that are written about fictional characters. 214 00:09:15,848 --> 00:09:19,815 Like, the entire book is just about one fictional, fake human being. 215 00:09:19,839 --> 00:09:22,010 There's an entire book on George F. Babbitt 216 00:09:22,034 --> 00:09:23,871 from Sinclair Lewis's "Babbitt," 217 00:09:23,895 --> 00:09:26,562 and I guarantee you, that book is longer than "Babbitt," 218 00:09:26,586 --> 00:09:27,784 which is a short book. 219 00:09:27,808 --> 00:09:29,547 Does anybody even remember that one? 220 00:09:29,571 --> 00:09:32,762 It's pretty good, I actually think it's better than "Main Street." 221 00:09:32,786 --> 00:09:34,156 That's my hot take. 222 00:09:34,180 --> 00:09:37,889 So we've never questioned the fact that literature is interesting. 223 00:09:38,434 --> 00:09:39,989 But despite the fact, 224 00:09:40,013 --> 00:09:44,077 not even linguists are actually interested in what created languages can tell us 225 00:09:44,101 --> 00:09:47,968 about the depth of the human spirit just as an artistic endeavor. 226 00:09:48,520 --> 00:09:51,397 I'll give you a nice little example here. 227 00:09:51,421 --> 00:09:54,144 There was an article written about me 228 00:09:54,168 --> 00:09:57,008 in the California alumni magazine a while back. 229 00:09:57,032 --> 00:09:58,633 And when they wrote this article, 230 00:09:58,657 --> 00:10:01,077 they wanted to get somebody from the opposing side, 231 00:10:01,101 --> 00:10:03,561 which, in hindsight, seems like a weird thing to do. 232 00:10:03,585 --> 00:10:05,275 You're just talking about a person, 233 00:10:05,299 --> 00:10:08,442 and you want to get somebody from the opposing side of that person. 234 00:10:08,466 --> 00:10:09,742 (Laughter) 235 00:10:09,766 --> 00:10:12,425 Essentially, this is just a puff piece, but whatever. 236 00:10:12,449 --> 00:10:14,972 So, they happened to get 237 00:10:14,996 --> 00:10:17,321 one of the most brilliant linguists of our time, 238 00:10:17,345 --> 00:10:20,371 George Lakoff, who's a linguist here at Berkeley. 239 00:10:20,395 --> 00:10:23,957 And his work has basically forever changed the fields of linguistics 240 00:10:23,981 --> 00:10:25,458 and cognitive science. 241 00:10:25,482 --> 00:10:28,757 And when asked about my work and about language creation in general, 242 00:10:28,781 --> 00:10:32,426 he said, "But there's a lot of things to be done in the study of language. 243 00:10:32,450 --> 00:10:35,206 You should spend the time on something real." 244 00:10:35,230 --> 00:10:36,381 Yeah. 245 00:10:36,405 --> 00:10:38,864 "Something real." Does this remind you of anything? 246 00:10:38,888 --> 00:10:42,627 To use the very framework that he himself invented, 247 00:10:42,651 --> 00:10:45,346 let me refer back to this conceptual metaphor: 248 00:10:45,370 --> 00:10:46,638 language is a tool. 249 00:10:46,662 --> 00:10:50,093 And he appears to be laboring under this conceptual metaphor; 250 00:10:50,117 --> 00:10:54,184 that is, language is useful when it can be used for communication. 251 00:10:54,208 --> 00:10:57,506 Language is useless when it can't be used for communication. 252 00:10:57,530 --> 00:11:00,372 It might make you wonder: What do we do with dead languages? 253 00:11:00,396 --> 00:11:01,612 But anyway. 254 00:11:01,636 --> 00:11:03,043 So, because of this idea, 255 00:11:03,067 --> 00:11:06,929 it might seem like the very height of absurdity 256 00:11:06,953 --> 00:11:10,366 to have a Duolingo course on the High Valyrian language 257 00:11:10,390 --> 00:11:12,938 that I created for HBO's "Game of Thrones." 258 00:11:12,962 --> 00:11:16,586 You might wonder what, exactly, are 740,000 people learning? 259 00:11:17,368 --> 00:11:19,630 (Laughter) 260 00:11:19,654 --> 00:11:21,717 Well, let's take a look at it. 261 00:11:21,741 --> 00:11:23,376 What are they learning? 262 00:11:23,400 --> 00:11:25,760 What could they possibly be learning? 263 00:11:25,784 --> 00:11:28,583 Well, bearing in mind that the other language for this -- 264 00:11:28,607 --> 00:11:31,141 it's for people that speak English -- 265 00:11:31,165 --> 00:11:33,220 English speakers are learning quite a bit. 266 00:11:33,244 --> 00:11:36,558 Here's a sentence that they will probably never use for communication 267 00:11:36,582 --> 00:11:37,746 in their entire lives: 268 00:11:37,770 --> 00:11:39,336 "Vala ābre urnes." 269 00:11:39,360 --> 00:11:40,733 "The man sees the woman." 270 00:11:40,757 --> 00:11:42,647 The little middle line is the gloss, 271 00:11:42,671 --> 00:11:44,887 so it's word for word, that's what it says. 272 00:11:44,911 --> 00:11:47,700 And they're actually learning some very fascinating things, 273 00:11:47,724 --> 00:11:49,600 especially if they're English speakers. 274 00:11:49,624 --> 00:11:52,854 They're learning that a verb can come at the very end of a sentence. 275 00:11:52,878 --> 00:11:55,846 Doesn't really do that in English when you have two arguments. 276 00:11:55,870 --> 00:11:57,608 They're learning that sometimes 277 00:11:57,632 --> 00:12:01,490 a language doesn't have an equivalent for the word "the" -- it's totally absent. 278 00:12:01,514 --> 00:12:03,133 That's something language can do. 279 00:12:03,157 --> 00:12:06,942 They're learning that a long vowel can actually be longer in duration, 280 00:12:06,966 --> 00:12:08,927 as opposed to different in quality, 281 00:12:08,951 --> 00:12:12,133 which is what our long vowels do; they're actually the same length. 282 00:12:12,157 --> 00:12:15,657 They're learning that there are these little inflections. 283 00:12:15,681 --> 00:12:16,836 Hmm? Hmm? 284 00:12:16,860 --> 00:12:20,172 There are inflections called "cases" on the end of nouns -- 285 00:12:20,196 --> 00:12:21,212 (Laughter) 286 00:12:21,236 --> 00:12:24,537 that tell you who does what to whom in a sentence. 287 00:12:24,561 --> 00:12:27,588 Even if you leave the order of the words the same 288 00:12:27,612 --> 00:12:29,334 and switch the endings, 289 00:12:29,358 --> 00:12:32,350 it changes who does what to whom. 290 00:12:32,374 --> 00:12:38,138 What they're learning is that languages do things, the same things, differently. 291 00:12:38,513 --> 00:12:40,845 And that learning languages can be fun. 292 00:12:41,997 --> 00:12:45,767 What they're learning is respect for Language: capital "L" Language. 293 00:12:45,791 --> 00:12:49,974 And given the fact that 88 percent of Americans only speak English at home, 294 00:12:49,998 --> 00:12:52,609 I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. 295 00:12:52,633 --> 00:12:56,436 You know why languages die on our planet? 296 00:12:56,796 --> 00:13:02,018 It's not because government imposes one language on a smaller group, 297 00:13:02,042 --> 00:13:04,556 or because an entire group of speakers is wiped out. 298 00:13:04,580 --> 00:13:07,656 That certainly has happened in the past, and it's happening now, 299 00:13:07,680 --> 00:13:09,705 but it's not the main reason. 300 00:13:10,268 --> 00:13:13,046 The main reason is that a child is born to a family 301 00:13:13,070 --> 00:13:16,625 that speaks a language that is not widely spoken in their community, 302 00:13:16,649 --> 00:13:18,656 and that child doesn't learn it. 303 00:13:18,680 --> 00:13:19,965 Why? 304 00:13:19,989 --> 00:13:24,291 Because that language is not valued in their community. 305 00:13:24,315 --> 00:13:26,228 Because the language isn't useful. 306 00:13:26,252 --> 00:13:31,236 Because the child can't go and get a job if they speak that language. 307 00:13:31,260 --> 00:13:35,291 Because if language is just a tool, 308 00:13:35,315 --> 00:13:37,692 then learning their native language 309 00:13:37,716 --> 00:13:39,961 is about as useful as learning High Valyrian, 310 00:13:39,985 --> 00:13:41,449 so why bother? 311 00:13:43,387 --> 00:13:44,537 Now ... 312 00:13:46,514 --> 00:13:50,903 Maybe language study isn't going to lead to a lot more linguistic fluency. 313 00:13:50,927 --> 00:13:53,177 But maybe that's not such a big deal. 314 00:13:53,855 --> 00:13:56,966 Maybe if more people are studying more languages, 315 00:13:56,990 --> 00:13:59,608 it will lead to more linguistic tolerance 316 00:13:59,632 --> 00:14:01,520 and less linguistic imperialism. 317 00:14:01,949 --> 00:14:04,933 Maybe if we actually respect language for what it is -- 318 00:14:04,957 --> 00:14:09,849 literally, the greatest invention in the history of humankind -- 319 00:14:09,873 --> 00:14:11,079 then in the future, 320 00:14:11,103 --> 00:14:14,992 we can celebrate endangered languages as living languages, 321 00:14:15,016 --> 00:14:16,683 as opposed to museum pieces. 322 00:14:17,182 --> 00:14:18,968 (High Valyrian) Kirimvose. Thank you. 323 00:14:18,992 --> 00:14:20,388 (Applause)