full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Farhad Mohit: The beautiful paradoxes of a multicultural identity

Unscramble the Blue Letters


I am so honored to be onstage representing TED's growing recognition of the iapmntocre of its immigrant diaspora cnimumtoy.

I am an Iranian-American, a kind of free-range Iranian, lucky to be here with all of you and free to embrace all my native culture’s positive elements: the poetry, the music, phosohlpiy and htisiolptay, every day, in ways that many Iranians inside Iran cannot. But I also love having the bow of my identity stretched between two seemingly opposed poles of "Iranian" and "American," because that gives the arorw of my life a unique perspective on things.

I want to srhae a couple of American ideals that ectiaxlpe this multicultural dtocohmiy in me. The first is independence. In America, independence is foundational, the bedrock of our freedom that makes us all, all us Americans, feel eoneiacpxtl. Unlike my Iranian side, where everyone is in everyone's business, I'm free, maybe even driven, to pursue my own happiness, and that feels so liberating.

Open Cloze


I am so honored to be onstage representing TED's growing recognition of the __________ of its immigrant diaspora _________.

I am an Iranian-American, a kind of free-range Iranian, lucky to be here with all of you and free to embrace all my native culture’s positive elements: the poetry, the music, __________ and ___________, every day, in ways that many Iranians inside Iran cannot. But I also love having the bow of my identity stretched between two seemingly opposed poles of "Iranian" and "American," because that gives the _____ of my life a unique perspective on things.

I want to _____ a couple of American ideals that _________ this multicultural _________ in me. The first is independence. In America, independence is foundational, the bedrock of our freedom that makes us all, all us Americans, feel ___________. Unlike my Iranian side, where everyone is in everyone's business, I'm free, maybe even driven, to pursue my own happiness, and that feels so liberating.

Solution


  1. community
  2. hospitality
  3. arrow
  4. importance
  5. dichotomy
  6. philosophy
  7. share
  8. explicate
  9. exceptional

Original Text


I am so honored to be onstage representing TED's growing recognition of the importance of its immigrant diaspora community.

I am an Iranian-American, a kind of free-range Iranian, lucky to be here with all of you and free to embrace all my native culture’s positive elements: the poetry, the music, philosophy and hospitality, every day, in ways that many Iranians inside Iran cannot. But I also love having the bow of my identity stretched between two seemingly opposed poles of "Iranian" and "American," because that gives the arrow of my life a unique perspective on things.

I want to share a couple of American ideals that explicate this multicultural dichotomy in me. The first is independence. In America, independence is foundational, the bedrock of our freedom that makes us all, all us Americans, feel exceptional. Unlike my Iranian side, where everyone is in everyone's business, I'm free, maybe even driven, to pursue my own happiness, and that feels so liberating.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
iranian side 2


Important Words


  1. america
  2. american
  3. americans
  4. arrow
  5. bedrock
  6. bow
  7. business
  8. community
  9. couple
  10. day
  11. diaspora
  12. dichotomy
  13. driven
  14. embrace
  15. exceptional
  16. explicate
  17. feel
  18. feels
  19. foundational
  20. free
  21. freedom
  22. growing
  23. happiness
  24. honored
  25. hospitality
  26. ideals
  27. identity
  28. immigrant
  29. importance
  30. independence
  31. iran
  32. iranian
  33. iranians
  34. kind
  35. liberating
  36. life
  37. love
  38. lucky
  39. multicultural
  40. music
  41. native
  42. onstage
  43. opposed
  44. perspective
  45. philosophy
  46. poetry
  47. poles
  48. positive
  49. pursue
  50. recognition
  51. representing
  52. seemingly
  53. share
  54. side
  55. stretched
  56. unique
  57. ways