full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Suzanne Talhouk: Don't kill your language

Unscramble the Blue Letters


Second, there are many other things that we can do. We're not here today to cinvcnoe each other. We're here to birng attention to the necessity of preserving this language. Now I will tell you a secret. A baby first identifies its fatehr through language. When my daughter is born, I'll tell her, "This is your father, honey (Arabic)." I wouldn't say, "This is your dad, honey (English)." And in the supermarket, I promise my daughter Noor, that if she says to me, "Thanks (aaibrc)," I won't say, "Dis, 'Merci, Maman,'" and hope no one has heard her. (Applause)

Let's get rid of this cultural cgrnie.

Open Cloze


Second, there are many other things that we can do. We're not here today to ________ each other. We're here to _____ attention to the necessity of preserving this language. Now I will tell you a secret. A baby first identifies its ______ through language. When my daughter is born, I'll tell her, "This is your father, honey (Arabic)." I wouldn't say, "This is your dad, honey (English)." And in the supermarket, I promise my daughter Noor, that if she says to me, "Thanks (______)," I won't say, "Dis, 'Merci, Maman,'" and hope no one has heard her. (Applause)

Let's get rid of this cultural ______.

Solution


  1. convince
  2. bring
  3. arabic
  4. cringe
  5. father

Original Text


Second, there are many other things that we can do. We're not here today to convince each other. We're here to bring attention to the necessity of preserving this language. Now I will tell you a secret. A baby first identifies its father through language. When my daughter is born, I'll tell her, "This is your father, honey (Arabic)." I wouldn't say, "This is your dad, honey (English)." And in the supermarket, I promise my daughter Noor, that if she says to me, "Thanks (Arabic)," I won't say, "Dis, 'Merci, Maman,'" and hope no one has heard her. (Applause)

Let's get rid of this cultural cringe.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
arabic language 4
mother tongue 4
local product 2
poor woman 2


Important Words


  1. applause
  2. arabic
  3. attention
  4. baby
  5. born
  6. bring
  7. convince
  8. cringe
  9. cultural
  10. dad
  11. daughter
  12. english
  13. father
  14. heard
  15. honey
  16. hope
  17. identifies
  18. language
  19. maman
  20. necessity
  21. noor
  22. preserving
  23. promise
  24. rid
  25. secret
  26. supermarket
  27. today