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I know what you're thinking.

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You think I've lost my way,

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

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and guide me gently back to my seat.

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(Applause)

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I get that all the time in Dubai.

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"Here on holiday are you, dear?"

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(Laughter)

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"Come to visit the children?

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How long are you staying?"

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Well actually, I hope for a while longer yet.

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I have been living and teaching in the Gulf

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for over 30 years.

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(Applause)

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

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Now that statistic

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is quite shocking.

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And I want to talk to you today

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about language loss

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and the globalization of English.

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I want to tell you about my friend

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who was teaching English to adults in Abu Dhabi.

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And one fine day,

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she decided to take them into the garden

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to teach them some nature vocabulary.

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But it was she who ended up learning

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all the Arabic words for the local plants,

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as well as their uses --

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medicinal uses, cosmetics,

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cooking, herbal.

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How did those students get all that knowledge?

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Of course, from their grandparents

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and even their great-grandparents.

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

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to be able to communicate

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across generations.

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But sadly, today,

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languages are dying

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at an unprecedented rate.

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A language dies every 14 days.

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Now, at the same time,

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English is the undisputed global language.

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Could there be a connection?

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Well I don't know.

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

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

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in the days when it was still a hardship post.

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Actually, not that long ago.

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That is a little bit too early.

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But nevertheless,

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I was recruited by the British Council,

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along with about 25 other teachers.

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And we were the first non-Muslims

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to teach in the state schools there in Kuwait.

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We were brought to teach English

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because the government wanted to modernize the country

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and to empower the citizens through education.

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And of course, the U.K. benefited

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from some of that lovely oil wealth.

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Okay.

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

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how teaching English

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has morphed

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from being a mutually beneficial practice

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to becoming a massive international business that it is today.

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No longer just a foreign language on the school curriculum,

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and no longer the sole domain

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of mother England,

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it has become a bandwagon

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for every English-speaking nation on earth.

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And why not?

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After all, the best education --

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according to the latest World University Rankings --

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is to be found in the universities

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

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So everybody wants to have an English education, naturally.

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But if you're not a native speaker,

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you have to pass a test.

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Now can it be right

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to reject a student

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on linguistic ability alone?

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Perhaps you have a computer scientist

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who's a genius.

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

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Well, I don't think so.

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We English teachers reject them all the time.

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We put a stop sign,

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and we stop them in their tracks.

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They can't pursue their dream any longer,

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'til they get English.

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Now let me put it this way:

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if I met a monolingual Dutch speaker

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who had the cure for cancer,

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would I stop him from entering my British University?

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I don't think so.

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But indeed, that is exactly what we do.

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We English teachers are the gatekeepers.

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And you have to satisfy us first

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that your English is good enough.

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Now it can be dangerous

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to give too much power

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to a narrow segment of society.

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Maybe the barrier would be too universal.

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Okay.

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"But," I hear you say,

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"what about the research?

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It's all in English."

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So the books are in English,

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the journals are done in English,

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but that is a self-fulfilling prophecy.

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It feeds the English requirement.

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And so it goes on.

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I ask you, what happened to translation?

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If you think about the Islamic Golden Age,

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there was lots of translation then.

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They translated from Latin and Greek

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into Arabic, into Persian,

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and then it was translated on

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into the Germanic languages of Europe

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and the Romance languages.

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And so light shone upon the Dark Ages of Europe.

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Now don't get me wrong;

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I am not against teaching English,

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all you English teachers out there.

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I love it that we have a global language.

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We need one today more than ever.

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But I am against using it

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as a barrier.

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Do we really want to end up with 600 languages

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and the main one being English, or Chinese?

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

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This system

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equates intelligence

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with a knowledge of English,

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which is quite arbitrary.

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(Applause)

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And I want to remind you

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that the giants upon whose shoulders

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today's intelligentsia stand

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did not have to have English,

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they didn't have to pass an English test.

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Case in point, Einstein.

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He, by the way, was considered remedial at school

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because he was, in fact, dyslexic.

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But fortunately for the world,

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he did not have to pass an English test.

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Because they didn't start until 1964

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with TOEFL,

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the American test of English.

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Now it's exploded.

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There are lots and lots of tests of English.

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And millions and millions of students

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take these tests every year.

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Now you might think, you and me,

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

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but they are prohibitive

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to so many millions of poor people.

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So immediately, we're rejecting them.

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(Applause)

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It brings to mind a headline I saw recently:

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"Education: The Great Divide."

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Now I get it,

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I understand why people would want to focus on English.

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

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And to do that, they need a Western education.

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Because, of course, the best jobs

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go to people out of the Western Universities,

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that I put on earlier.

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It's a circular thing.

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Okay.

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Let me tell you a story about two scientists,

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two English scientists.

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They were doing an experiment

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to do with genetics

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and the forelimbs and the hind limbs of animals.

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But they couldn't get the results they wanted.

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They really didn't know what to do,

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until along came a German scientist

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who realized that they were using two words

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for forelimb and hind limb,

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whereas genetics does not differentiate

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and neither does German.

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So bingo,

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problem solved.

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If you can't think a thought,

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you are stuck.

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But if another language can think that thought,

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then, by cooperating,

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we can achieve and learn so much more.

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My daughter

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came to England from Kuwait.

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She had studied science and mathematics in Arabic.

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It's an Arabic medium school.

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

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And she was the best in the class

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at those subjects.

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Which tells us

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that when students come to us from abroad,

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we may not be giving them enough credit

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for what they know,

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and they know it in their own language.

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When a language dies,

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

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

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they gave the Heroes Award

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to a young Kenyan shepherd boy

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who couldn't study at night in his village,

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like all the village children,

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because the kerosene lamp,

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it had smoke and it damaged his eyes.

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And anyway, there was never enough kerosene,

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because what does a dollar a day buy for you?

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So he invented

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a cost-free solar lamp.

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And now the children in his village

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get the same grades at school

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as the children who have electricity at home.

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(Applause)

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When he received his award,

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he said these lovely words:

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

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a dark continent,

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to a light continent."

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A simple idea,

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but it could have such far-reaching consequences.

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People who have no light,

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whether it's physical or metaphorical,

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cannot pass our exams,

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and we can never know what they know.

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Let us not keep them and ourselves

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in the dark.

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Let us celebrate diversity.

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Mind your language.

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Use it to spread great ideas.

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(Applause)

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Thank you very much.

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(Applause)