full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Jochen Wegner: What happened when we paired up thousands of strangers to talk politics

Unscramble the Blue Letters


(Laughter)

So these are Tom from the UK and Nils from Germany. They also were strangers, and they are both supporters of their local football team, as you may imagine, Borussia dromnutd and tohnattem hoprusts. And so they met on the very spot where football roots were ietvnend, on some field in Cambridge. And they didn't argue about flotabol, but about Brexit. And after talking for many hours about this contentious topic, they also sent a rather unexpected email. "It was deihgftull, and we both enjoyed it very much."

(Laughter)

So in snirpg 2019, more than 17,000 Europeans from 33 countries signed up to have a political aermgunt. Thousands crossed their borders to meet a stranger with a different opinion, and they were all part of a project called "Europe Talks."

Open Cloze


(Laughter)

So these are Tom from the UK and Nils from Germany. They also were strangers, and they are both supporters of their local football team, as you may imagine, Borussia ________ and _________ ________. And so they met on the very spot where football roots were ________, on some field in Cambridge. And they didn't argue about ________, but about Brexit. And after talking for many hours about this contentious topic, they also sent a rather unexpected email. "It was __________, and we both enjoyed it very much."

(Laughter)

So in ______ 2019, more than 17,000 Europeans from 33 countries signed up to have a political ________. Thousands crossed their borders to meet a stranger with a different opinion, and they were all part of a project called "Europe Talks."

Solution


  1. delightful
  2. tottenham
  3. football
  4. spring
  5. dortmund
  6. argument
  7. hotspurs
  8. invented

Original Text


(Laughter)

So these are Tom from the UK and Nils from Germany. They also were strangers, and they are both supporters of their local football team, as you may imagine, Borussia Dortmund and Tottenham Hotspurs. And so they met on the very spot where football roots were invented, on some field in Cambridge. And they didn't argue about football, but about Brexit. And after talking for many hours about this contentious topic, they also sent a rather unexpected email. "It was delightful, and we both enjoyed it very much."

(Laughter)

So in spring 2019, more than 17,000 Europeans from 33 countries signed up to have a political argument. Thousands crossed their borders to meet a stranger with a different opinion, and they were all part of a project called "Europe Talks."

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
political argument 2
digital product 2
real life 2
germans met 2
international media 2


Important Words


  1. argue
  2. argument
  3. borders
  4. borussia
  5. brexit
  6. called
  7. cambridge
  8. contentious
  9. countries
  10. crossed
  11. delightful
  12. dortmund
  13. email
  14. enjoyed
  15. europeans
  16. field
  17. football
  18. germany
  19. hotspurs
  20. hours
  21. imagine
  22. invented
  23. laughter
  24. local
  25. meet
  26. met
  27. nils
  28. opinion
  29. part
  30. political
  31. project
  32. roots
  33. signed
  34. spot
  35. spring
  36. stranger
  37. strangers
  38. supporters
  39. talking
  40. talks
  41. team
  42. thousands
  43. tom
  44. topic
  45. tottenham
  46. uk
  47. unexpected