full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Graham Shaw: Why people believe they can't draw


Unscramble the Blue Letters


Tijana mhivjaloić, Translator

Mile Živković, Reviewer

Hi. I've got a question for you: how many people here would say they can draw? (Laughter) I think we've got about one or two pecrnet of the hdnas going up, and it's interesting, isn't it? It's a little bit like pelope think of spelling or sinngig. They think,"You can either do it, or you can't." But I think you can. Because when people say they can't draw, I think it's more to do with beliefs rather than tlaent and ability. So I think when you say you can't draw, that's just an iiuolsln, and taody I'd like to prove that to you. When I say "draw", I'm not saying we're all going to draw like Michelangelo. We are not going to be painting the Sistine Chapel's ceiling. But would you be happy if, by the end of this session, you could draw pictures a little bit like this? (Audience murmuring) Oh, yes! (Laughter) Or even a little bit like this? (Laughter) Actually, there are only two things you need to do to be able to achieve this. One is have an open mind. Are you up for that? (Audience) Yes! And two, just be prepared to have a go. So grab a pen and a piece of paper. OK, so here's how it's going to work: I’ll show you the first cartoon we're going to do, so just watch to begin with. Here we go. Just whtiancg. That's going to be our first cartoon. It's a chtcaaerr celald Spike. I'd like you to draw along with me. I'll draw the first line, you draw, and when you've done that, look up, and I'll know you're ready for the next line. Okay, here we go. Start with the nose. Now the eyes. They're like 66s or speech marks. That's it. Next, the mouth. Nice, big simle. Now, over here, the ear. Next, some spiky hair. Next, put the pen to the left to the mouth, little line like that. Pen under the ear, drop a line like that. Pen to the left of the neck, top of the T-shirt. Line to the left, line to the right. Just hold your drawings up and show everyone. (Laughter) How are we all doing? (Laughter) OK. OK, ftstaniac. So, it looks like you've just learned to draw one cartoon, but you've actually learned more than that; you've learned a sequence that would ealnbe you to draw heunrdds and thousands of different cartoons, because we're just going to do little variations on that sequence. Have a go at this. Draw along with me. Nose. Eyes. Smile. That's it. Now some hair. Pen to the left of the mouth, under the hair, little V-shape for the top, line to the left, line to the right. So we've got another character. Let's call her Thelma. (Laughter) So, we've got Spike and Thelma. Let's try another one. Here we go. Another little variation. You're getting the idea. Starting with the nose. But this time we'll change the eyes slightly. Look, two circles together like that. That's it. Then, two little dots in for the eyes. And this time we'll cgahne the mouth sgitlhly. Watch. Little circle colored in there. Have a go at that. Next, the ear. Now, we'll have some fun with the hair, watch. Nice curly hair. Then same thing: pen to the left to the mouth, little line like that. Under the ear, drop a line. Top of the T-shirt. Line to the left, line to the right. I think we'll call him Jeff. (luhgtaer) We'll do one more. One more go. Here we go. You're getting the idea. (Laughter) So we'll start with a nose again. nitoce we're doing little viiaratnos. Now we'll change the eyes, so we've got them apart. We'll put some little dots in like that. Next, the mouth slightly different. Let's put a little V-shape like that. Triangle. And a little line across, and we'll just color this a little bit in. Now, wcath this bit carefully; some hair, watch. Here we go, little line like that. Next, a bit more there. And watch, a couple of triangles to make a little bow. Triangle at the bottom, rest of the hair. Pen to the left of the mouth again. You get the idea. Drop a line for the neck. Now the V-shape. Line to the left, line to the right. There we go. Let's call her Pam. (Laughter) So you've done... (Laughter) So you've done four cartoons. You can have a little rest now. (Laughter) Take a rest. You're getting the idea. All we're doing is little variations. I'll just demonstrate a couple to you. We could go on all day, couldn't we? You could do someone looking unhappy, a bit like that, or you could experiment with, perhaps, someone who is… just draw a straight line, someone looking a bit fed up. Or perhaps, you could do anything you like, really, just try things out. Look at this. Little squiggle. There we are. So, all sorts of things we could do. Actually, one more I'll let you do, one more idea. This is a great little technique. Have a go at this: people with geassls on. Just draw a nose a bit like Spike's. Next, draw some frames, so two circles like that with a little bit in between. Now, just put some dots inside for the eyes like that. Next, the ear. So it's little bit like we did before, but this time we'll join up the frames. That's it. Watch this bit. (Laughter) And this bit I really like. Watch. (Laughter) And then, little bit there. Pencil under the mcusahte, line down, top of the shirt, left and right. So there we have it. We could carry on, couldn't we? Hopefully, we've done enough to covnncie you that in fact we can all draw. And not just people here. I've worked with… I'm going to give you three examples of other people who've learned to draw, and that actually surprised them, too. I'm going to save what I think is my fartvoie, most siprsnriug example until last. The first example is: I've worked a lot with children and students in sholcos. Actually the little ones, they just draw fine, but when they get to about 15 or 16, most of them think they can't draw. But I worked with them. I worked this week in a school where I was coihacng them on using pictures for memory. A girl was trying to remember what red blood cells do, and she drew this little picture of a red blood cell cnriryag a hbandag with O2 on it to remind her that the red blood cells carry oygxen to all parts of the body. That was a great one. The other people I wrkoed with are many adults in all walks of life, and particularly in business, and they often will want to make presentations memorable. So again, a quick cartoon or sketch could be really good for that. And again, most people think they can't draw, but take this example. Couple of wavy lines, little boat could be a metaphor to rpensreet we're all in this together. So that, if that was just drawn in the psnetroaeitn, would really stay in the memory, wouldn't it? Yeah. But the third example is - you shouldn't have ferivatos, should you? This is my favorite. Have you ever been at the party when someone asks you what you do? It gets a little bit skeptical when people ask me that. This lady said to me, well - I said, "I do a little bit of training, and I tceah people to draw," and she said, "Would you come along and do some for our group?" She said, "I work with some people" - she was a volunteer - a gorup of people who have sfeuefrd strokes. So I said, "Sure, I could spare some time for that." So I said I would, and I beookd the time in. Have you ever done that? You get near of that time and you think, "What have I let myself in for here?" "Will I be able to do it?" I thought, "What could I do with them?" you see. "I know. I'll do my coatorn dnwarig. They'll like that." But then, as I got near of the time, I got more apprehensive, because then I was thinking, "I've worked with cdrhieln, with all sorts of adults; I've never worked with a group like this." It turns out it was all part of a charity called TALK. This TALK charity is a wonderful charity that helps people who've suffered strokes, but have a particular condition known as aphasia. You might have heard of ahipsaa, sometimes called dysphasia. The key thing is it affects their ability to communicate. So, for example, they might have tolurbe reading, wiritng, speaking, or understanding. It can be quite an isolating condition; it can be very, very frustrating and can lead to a loss of confidence. Anyway, so I pepearrd all this stuff, what to do for this session - for a couple of hours, tea break in the mdlide - and I got more apprehensive. But actually, I needn't have worried, because I'm going to show you now the work that they did. It was one of the best things I've ever done. I'm going to show you the first slide. I taught them Spike, just like I did for you, and I want you to see the reaction on their faces when they did this. (Audience) Oh. What you can see here are two of the stroke recoverers on the left and right, and one of the voeeuntlr helpers in the cetner. Each stroke recoverer, there are about 36 in the room with volunteers as well, there's one-to-one helpers. You can just see the dlhgeit on their fecas, can't you? Let's look at another picture. This is a gentleman called David, and he's holding up his picture, and you can tell it was the putrcie of Spike, can't you? In fact, I think he's darwn spkie even better there. But what I didn't realize until even after the session was that the number of the people in this session, including David, were drawing with their wrong hand. David's stroke manet that it affected the right side of his body, and he drew with his left hand, as many did. Nobody mentioned it to me, nobody complained. They just got on with it. It was an iatirsanionpl session for me. It was quite a humbling session, one of the best things I felt I've ever done. At the end of it, I had a lolvey eaiml from doctor Mike Jordan, and he's the cahir of the TALK group; happens to be a medical doctor, but he's the chair of the group. He wrote to me, and I'm qntiuog, he said, "Our roerecevrs leaenrd today that they can draw. It's a bit more than that; this sort of activity really builds their confidence." So I was happy, he was happy, everyone was happy, they've invited me back again, and I go in there now about every three or four months. So it's gerat. I thought that was a lovely example to share. Fancy one more drawing? (auiecdne) Yes. Here we go. Grab your pens. Here we go. Right. I'm going to get you to draw someone that you would recognize. So start with a big nose, a bit like Spike's. Next, we'll do some eyes, and you might be thinking, "This is also a bit like Spike." Watch the next bit. You're getting warm. There you go. Little line down there. Down here. Little V-shape, line to the left, line to the right. And you've got albret esneiitn. (Laughter) So you've got the pens with you, you've proved that you can draw. You're very welcome to take the pens with you and have a paicrtce at home, even show somebody else. But actually, I'd like to leave you with a final thought. When you walked in here today, many of you didn't believe you could draw. I've got a question for you about that. How many other beliefs and limnitig thoughts do we all carry around with us every day? bleiefs that we could perhaps potentially clhanelge and think differently about. If we did challenge those beliefs and think differently about them, apart from drawing, what else would be possible for us all? Thank you very much. (Applause)

Open Cloze


Tijana __________, Translator

Mile Živković, Reviewer

Hi. I've got a question for you: how many people here would say they can draw? (Laughter) I think we've got about one or two _______ of the _____ going up, and it's interesting, isn't it? It's a little bit like ______ think of spelling or _______. They think,"You can either do it, or you can't." But I think you can. Because when people say they can't draw, I think it's more to do with beliefs rather than ______ and ability. So I think when you say you can't draw, that's just an ________, and _____ I'd like to prove that to you. When I say "draw", I'm not saying we're all going to draw like Michelangelo. We are not going to be painting the Sistine Chapel's ceiling. But would you be happy if, by the end of this session, you could draw pictures a little bit like this? (Audience murmuring) Oh, yes! (Laughter) Or even a little bit like this? (Laughter) Actually, there are only two things you need to do to be able to achieve this. One is have an open mind. Are you up for that? (Audience) Yes! And two, just be prepared to have a go. So grab a pen and a piece of paper. OK, so here's how it's going to work: I’ll show you the first cartoon we're going to do, so just watch to begin with. Here we go. Just ________. That's going to be our first cartoon. It's a _________ ______ Spike. I'd like you to draw along with me. I'll draw the first line, you draw, and when you've done that, look up, and I'll know you're ready for the next line. Okay, here we go. Start with the nose. Now the eyes. They're like 66s or speech marks. That's it. Next, the mouth. Nice, big _____. Now, over here, the ear. Next, some spiky hair. Next, put the pen to the left to the mouth, little line like that. Pen under the ear, drop a line like that. Pen to the left of the neck, top of the T-shirt. Line to the left, line to the right. Just hold your drawings up and show everyone. (Laughter) How are we all doing? (Laughter) OK. OK, _________. So, it looks like you've just learned to draw one cartoon, but you've actually learned more than that; you've learned a sequence that would ______ you to draw ________ and thousands of different cartoons, because we're just going to do little variations on that sequence. Have a go at this. Draw along with me. Nose. Eyes. Smile. That's it. Now some hair. Pen to the left of the mouth, under the hair, little V-shape for the top, line to the left, line to the right. So we've got another character. Let's call her Thelma. (Laughter) So, we've got Spike and Thelma. Let's try another one. Here we go. Another little variation. You're getting the idea. Starting with the nose. But this time we'll change the eyes slightly. Look, two circles together like that. That's it. Then, two little dots in for the eyes. And this time we'll ______ the mouth ________. Watch. Little circle colored in there. Have a go at that. Next, the ear. Now, we'll have some fun with the hair, watch. Nice curly hair. Then same thing: pen to the left to the mouth, little line like that. Under the ear, drop a line. Top of the T-shirt. Line to the left, line to the right. I think we'll call him Jeff. (________) We'll do one more. One more go. Here we go. You're getting the idea. (Laughter) So we'll start with a nose again. ______ we're doing little __________. Now we'll change the eyes, so we've got them apart. We'll put some little dots in like that. Next, the mouth slightly different. Let's put a little V-shape like that. Triangle. And a little line across, and we'll just color this a little bit in. Now, _____ this bit carefully; some hair, watch. Here we go, little line like that. Next, a bit more there. And watch, a couple of triangles to make a little bow. Triangle at the bottom, rest of the hair. Pen to the left of the mouth again. You get the idea. Drop a line for the neck. Now the V-shape. Line to the left, line to the right. There we go. Let's call her Pam. (Laughter) So you've done... (Laughter) So you've done four cartoons. You can have a little rest now. (Laughter) Take a rest. You're getting the idea. All we're doing is little variations. I'll just demonstrate a couple to you. We could go on all day, couldn't we? You could do someone looking unhappy, a bit like that, or you could experiment with, perhaps, someone who is… just draw a straight line, someone looking a bit fed up. Or perhaps, you could do anything you like, really, just try things out. Look at this. Little squiggle. There we are. So, all sorts of things we could do. Actually, one more I'll let you do, one more idea. This is a great little technique. Have a go at this: people with _______ on. Just draw a nose a bit like Spike's. Next, draw some frames, so two circles like that with a little bit in between. Now, just put some dots inside for the eyes like that. Next, the ear. So it's little bit like we did before, but this time we'll join up the frames. That's it. Watch this bit. (Laughter) And this bit I really like. Watch. (Laughter) And then, little bit there. Pencil under the ________, line down, top of the shirt, left and right. So there we have it. We could carry on, couldn't we? Hopefully, we've done enough to ________ you that in fact we can all draw. And not just people here. I've worked with… I'm going to give you three examples of other people who've learned to draw, and that actually surprised them, too. I'm going to save what I think is my ________, most __________ example until last. The first example is: I've worked a lot with children and students in _______. Actually the little ones, they just draw fine, but when they get to about 15 or 16, most of them think they can't draw. But I worked with them. I worked this week in a school where I was ________ them on using pictures for memory. A girl was trying to remember what red blood cells do, and she drew this little picture of a red blood cell ________ a _______ with O2 on it to remind her that the red blood cells carry ______ to all parts of the body. That was a great one. The other people I ______ with are many adults in all walks of life, and particularly in business, and they often will want to make presentations memorable. So again, a quick cartoon or sketch could be really good for that. And again, most people think they can't draw, but take this example. Couple of wavy lines, little boat could be a metaphor to _________ we're all in this together. So that, if that was just drawn in the ____________, would really stay in the memory, wouldn't it? Yeah. But the third example is - you shouldn't have _________, should you? This is my favorite. Have you ever been at the party when someone asks you what you do? It gets a little bit skeptical when people ask me that. This lady said to me, well - I said, "I do a little bit of training, and I _____ people to draw," and she said, "Would you come along and do some for our group?" She said, "I work with some people" - she was a volunteer - a _____ of people who have ________ strokes. So I said, "Sure, I could spare some time for that." So I said I would, and I ______ the time in. Have you ever done that? You get near of that time and you think, "What have I let myself in for here?" "Will I be able to do it?" I thought, "What could I do with them?" you see. "I know. I'll do my _______ _______. They'll like that." But then, as I got near of the time, I got more apprehensive, because then I was thinking, "I've worked with ________, with all sorts of adults; I've never worked with a group like this." It turns out it was all part of a charity called TALK. This TALK charity is a wonderful charity that helps people who've suffered strokes, but have a particular condition known as aphasia. You might have heard of _______, sometimes called dysphasia. The key thing is it affects their ability to communicate. So, for example, they might have _______ reading, _______, speaking, or understanding. It can be quite an isolating condition; it can be very, very frustrating and can lead to a loss of confidence. Anyway, so I ________ all this stuff, what to do for this session - for a couple of hours, tea break in the ______ - and I got more apprehensive. But actually, I needn't have worried, because I'm going to show you now the work that they did. It was one of the best things I've ever done. I'm going to show you the first slide. I taught them Spike, just like I did for you, and I want you to see the reaction on their faces when they did this. (Audience) Oh. What you can see here are two of the stroke recoverers on the left and right, and one of the _________ helpers in the ______. Each stroke recoverer, there are about 36 in the room with volunteers as well, there's one-to-one helpers. You can just see the _______ on their _____, can't you? Let's look at another picture. This is a gentleman called David, and he's holding up his picture, and you can tell it was the _______ of Spike, can't you? In fact, I think he's _____ _____ even better there. But what I didn't realize until even after the session was that the number of the people in this session, including David, were drawing with their wrong hand. David's stroke _____ that it affected the right side of his body, and he drew with his left hand, as many did. Nobody mentioned it to me, nobody complained. They just got on with it. It was an _____________ session for me. It was quite a humbling session, one of the best things I felt I've ever done. At the end of it, I had a ______ _____ from doctor Mike Jordan, and he's the _____ of the TALK group; happens to be a medical doctor, but he's the chair of the group. He wrote to me, and I'm _______, he said, "Our __________ _______ today that they can draw. It's a bit more than that; this sort of activity really builds their confidence." So I was happy, he was happy, everyone was happy, they've invited me back again, and I go in there now about every three or four months. So it's _____. I thought that was a lovely example to share. Fancy one more drawing? (________) Yes. Here we go. Grab your pens. Here we go. Right. I'm going to get you to draw someone that you would recognize. So start with a big nose, a bit like Spike's. Next, we'll do some eyes, and you might be thinking, "This is also a bit like Spike." Watch the next bit. You're getting warm. There you go. Little line down there. Down here. Little V-shape, line to the left, line to the right. And you've got ______ ________. (Laughter) So you've got the pens with you, you've proved that you can draw. You're very welcome to take the pens with you and have a ________ at home, even show somebody else. But actually, I'd like to leave you with a final thought. When you walked in here today, many of you didn't believe you could draw. I've got a question for you about that. How many other beliefs and ________ thoughts do we all carry around with us every day? _______ that we could perhaps potentially _________ and think differently about. If we did challenge those beliefs and think differently about them, apart from drawing, what else would be possible for us all? Thank you very much. (Applause)

Solution


  1. convince
  2. favorites
  3. people
  4. percent
  5. meant
  6. slightly
  7. favorite
  8. represent
  9. watching
  10. children
  11. oxygen
  12. mustache
  13. presentation
  14. notice
  15. albert
  16. group
  17. middle
  18. inspirational
  19. drawn
  20. called
  21. character
  22. schools
  23. practice
  24. cartoon
  25. audience
  26. illusion
  27. mihajlović
  28. carrying
  29. worked
  30. center
  31. quoting
  32. talent
  33. suffered
  34. singing
  35. trouble
  36. writing
  37. picture
  38. glasses
  39. email
  40. coaching
  41. watch
  42. today
  43. variations
  44. chair
  45. surprising
  46. learned
  47. challenge
  48. great
  49. einstein
  50. aphasia
  51. change
  52. spike
  53. beliefs
  54. lovely
  55. delight
  56. teach
  57. faces
  58. smile
  59. handbag
  60. hands
  61. laughter
  62. recoverers
  63. fantastic
  64. volunteer
  65. drawing
  66. limiting
  67. hundreds
  68. prepared
  69. enable
  70. booked

Original Text


Tijana Mihajlović, Translator

Mile Živković, Reviewer

Hi. I've got a question for you: how many people here would say they can draw? (Laughter) I think we've got about one or two percent of the hands going up, and it's interesting, isn't it? It's a little bit like people think of spelling or singing. They think,"You can either do it, or you can't." But I think you can. Because when people say they can't draw, I think it's more to do with beliefs rather than talent and ability. So I think when you say you can't draw, that's just an illusion, and today I'd like to prove that to you. When I say "draw", I'm not saying we're all going to draw like Michelangelo. We are not going to be painting the Sistine Chapel's ceiling. But would you be happy if, by the end of this session, you could draw pictures a little bit like this? (Audience murmuring) Oh, yes! (Laughter) Or even a little bit like this? (Laughter) Actually, there are only two things you need to do to be able to achieve this. One is have an open mind. Are you up for that? (Audience) Yes! And two, just be prepared to have a go. So grab a pen and a piece of paper. OK, so here's how it's going to work: I’ll show you the first cartoon we're going to do, so just watch to begin with. Here we go. Just watching. That's going to be our first cartoon. It's a character called Spike. I'd like you to draw along with me. I'll draw the first line, you draw, and when you've done that, look up, and I'll know you're ready for the next line. Okay, here we go. Start with the nose. Now the eyes. They're like 66s or speech marks. That's it. Next, the mouth. Nice, big smile. Now, over here, the ear. Next, some spiky hair. Next, put the pen to the left to the mouth, little line like that. Pen under the ear, drop a line like that. Pen to the left of the neck, top of the T-shirt. Line to the left, line to the right. Just hold your drawings up and show everyone. (Laughter) How are we all doing? (Laughter) OK. OK, fantastic. So, it looks like you've just learned to draw one cartoon, but you've actually learned more than that; you've learned a sequence that would enable you to draw hundreds and thousands of different cartoons, because we're just going to do little variations on that sequence. Have a go at this. Draw along with me. Nose. Eyes. Smile. That's it. Now some hair. Pen to the left of the mouth, under the hair, little V-shape for the top, line to the left, line to the right. So we've got another character. Let's call her Thelma. (Laughter) So, we've got Spike and Thelma. Let's try another one. Here we go. Another little variation. You're getting the idea. Starting with the nose. But this time we'll change the eyes slightly. Look, two circles together like that. That's it. Then, two little dots in for the eyes. And this time we'll change the mouth slightly. Watch. Little circle colored in there. Have a go at that. Next, the ear. Now, we'll have some fun with the hair, watch. Nice curly hair. Then same thing: pen to the left to the mouth, little line like that. Under the ear, drop a line. Top of the T-shirt. Line to the left, line to the right. I think we'll call him Jeff. (Laughter) We'll do one more. One more go. Here we go. You're getting the idea. (Laughter) So we'll start with a nose again. Notice we're doing little variations. Now we'll change the eyes, so we've got them apart. We'll put some little dots in like that. Next, the mouth slightly different. Let's put a little V-shape like that. Triangle. And a little line across, and we'll just color this a little bit in. Now, watch this bit carefully; some hair, watch. Here we go, little line like that. Next, a bit more there. And watch, a couple of triangles to make a little bow. Triangle at the bottom, rest of the hair. Pen to the left of the mouth again. You get the idea. Drop a line for the neck. Now the V-shape. Line to the left, line to the right. There we go. Let's call her Pam. (Laughter) So you've done... (Laughter) So you've done four cartoons. You can have a little rest now. (Laughter) Take a rest. You're getting the idea. All we're doing is little variations. I'll just demonstrate a couple to you. We could go on all day, couldn't we? You could do someone looking unhappy, a bit like that, or you could experiment with, perhaps, someone who is… just draw a straight line, someone looking a bit fed up. Or perhaps, you could do anything you like, really, just try things out. Look at this. Little squiggle. There we are. So, all sorts of things we could do. Actually, one more I'll let you do, one more idea. This is a great little technique. Have a go at this: people with glasses on. Just draw a nose a bit like Spike's. Next, draw some frames, so two circles like that with a little bit in between. Now, just put some dots inside for the eyes like that. Next, the ear. So it's little bit like we did before, but this time we'll join up the frames. That's it. Watch this bit. (Laughter) And this bit I really like. Watch. (Laughter) And then, little bit there. Pencil under the mustache, line down, top of the shirt, left and right. So there we have it. We could carry on, couldn't we? Hopefully, we've done enough to convince you that in fact we can all draw. And not just people here. I've worked with… I'm going to give you three examples of other people who've learned to draw, and that actually surprised them, too. I'm going to save what I think is my favorite, most surprising example until last. The first example is: I've worked a lot with children and students in schools. Actually the little ones, they just draw fine, but when they get to about 15 or 16, most of them think they can't draw. But I worked with them. I worked this week in a school where I was coaching them on using pictures for memory. A girl was trying to remember what red blood cells do, and she drew this little picture of a red blood cell carrying a handbag with O2 on it to remind her that the red blood cells carry oxygen to all parts of the body. That was a great one. The other people I worked with are many adults in all walks of life, and particularly in business, and they often will want to make presentations memorable. So again, a quick cartoon or sketch could be really good for that. And again, most people think they can't draw, but take this example. Couple of wavy lines, little boat could be a metaphor to represent we're all in this together. So that, if that was just drawn in the presentation, would really stay in the memory, wouldn't it? Yeah. But the third example is - you shouldn't have favorites, should you? This is my favorite. Have you ever been at the party when someone asks you what you do? It gets a little bit skeptical when people ask me that. This lady said to me, well - I said, "I do a little bit of training, and I teach people to draw," and she said, "Would you come along and do some for our group?" She said, "I work with some people" - she was a volunteer - a group of people who have suffered strokes. So I said, "Sure, I could spare some time for that." So I said I would, and I booked the time in. Have you ever done that? You get near of that time and you think, "What have I let myself in for here?" "Will I be able to do it?" I thought, "What could I do with them?" you see. "I know. I'll do my cartoon drawing. They'll like that." But then, as I got near of the time, I got more apprehensive, because then I was thinking, "I've worked with children, with all sorts of adults; I've never worked with a group like this." It turns out it was all part of a charity called TALK. This TALK charity is a wonderful charity that helps people who've suffered strokes, but have a particular condition known as aphasia. You might have heard of aphasia, sometimes called dysphasia. The key thing is it affects their ability to communicate. So, for example, they might have trouble reading, writing, speaking, or understanding. It can be quite an isolating condition; it can be very, very frustrating and can lead to a loss of confidence. Anyway, so I prepared all this stuff, what to do for this session - for a couple of hours, tea break in the middle - and I got more apprehensive. But actually, I needn't have worried, because I'm going to show you now the work that they did. It was one of the best things I've ever done. I'm going to show you the first slide. I taught them Spike, just like I did for you, and I want you to see the reaction on their faces when they did this. (Audience) Oh. What you can see here are two of the stroke recoverers on the left and right, and one of the volunteer helpers in the center. Each stroke recoverer, there are about 36 in the room with volunteers as well, there's one-to-one helpers. You can just see the delight on their faces, can't you? Let's look at another picture. This is a gentleman called David, and he's holding up his picture, and you can tell it was the picture of Spike, can't you? In fact, I think he's drawn Spike even better there. But what I didn't realize until even after the session was that the number of the people in this session, including David, were drawing with their wrong hand. David's stroke meant that it affected the right side of his body, and he drew with his left hand, as many did. Nobody mentioned it to me, nobody complained. They just got on with it. It was an inspirational session for me. It was quite a humbling session, one of the best things I felt I've ever done. At the end of it, I had a lovely email from doctor Mike Jordan, and he's the chair of the TALK group; happens to be a medical doctor, but he's the chair of the group. He wrote to me, and I'm quoting, he said, "Our recoverers learned today that they can draw. It's a bit more than that; this sort of activity really builds their confidence." So I was happy, he was happy, everyone was happy, they've invited me back again, and I go in there now about every three or four months. So it's great. I thought that was a lovely example to share. Fancy one more drawing? (Audience) Yes. Here we go. Grab your pens. Here we go. Right. I'm going to get you to draw someone that you would recognize. So start with a big nose, a bit like Spike's. Next, we'll do some eyes, and you might be thinking, "This is also a bit like Spike." Watch the next bit. You're getting warm. There you go. Little line down there. Down here. Little V-shape, line to the left, line to the right. And you've got Albert Einstein. (Laughter) So you've got the pens with you, you've proved that you can draw. You're very welcome to take the pens with you and have a practice at home, even show somebody else. But actually, I'd like to leave you with a final thought. When you walked in here today, many of you didn't believe you could draw. I've got a question for you about that. How many other beliefs and limiting thoughts do we all carry around with us every day? Beliefs that we could perhaps potentially challenge and think differently about. If we did challenge those beliefs and think differently about them, apart from drawing, what else would be possible for us all? Thank you very much. (Applause)

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
red blood 3
hair pen 2
mouth slightly 2
blood cells 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
red blood cells 2


Important Words


  1. ability
  2. achieve
  3. activity
  4. adults
  5. affected
  6. affects
  7. albert
  8. aphasia
  9. applause
  10. apprehensive
  11. asks
  12. audience
  13. beliefs
  14. big
  15. bit
  16. blood
  17. boat
  18. body
  19. booked
  20. bottom
  21. bow
  22. break
  23. builds
  24. business
  25. call
  26. called
  27. carry
  28. carrying
  29. cartoon
  30. cartoons
  31. ceiling
  32. cell
  33. cells
  34. center
  35. chair
  36. challenge
  37. change
  38. character
  39. charity
  40. children
  41. circle
  42. circles
  43. coaching
  44. color
  45. colored
  46. communicate
  47. complained
  48. condition
  49. confidence
  50. convince
  51. couple
  52. curly
  53. david
  54. day
  55. delight
  56. demonstrate
  57. differently
  58. doctor
  59. dots
  60. draw
  61. drawing
  62. drawings
  63. drawn
  64. drew
  65. drop
  66. dysphasia
  67. ear
  68. einstein
  69. email
  70. enable
  71. examples
  72. experiment
  73. eyes
  74. faces
  75. fact
  76. fancy
  77. fantastic
  78. favorite
  79. favorites
  80. fed
  81. felt
  82. final
  83. fine
  84. frames
  85. frustrating
  86. fun
  87. gentleman
  88. girl
  89. give
  90. glasses
  91. good
  92. grab
  93. great
  94. group
  95. hair
  96. hand
  97. handbag
  98. hands
  99. happy
  100. heard
  101. helpers
  102. helps
  103. hold
  104. holding
  105. home
  106. hours
  107. humbling
  108. hundreds
  109. idea
  110. illusion
  111. including
  112. inspirational
  113. interesting
  114. invited
  115. isolating
  116. jeff
  117. join
  118. jordan
  119. key
  120. lady
  121. laughter
  122. lead
  123. learned
  124. leave
  125. left
  126. life
  127. limiting
  128. line
  129. lines
  130. loss
  131. lot
  132. lovely
  133. marks
  134. meant
  135. medical
  136. memorable
  137. memory
  138. mentioned
  139. metaphor
  140. michelangelo
  141. middle
  142. mihajlović
  143. mike
  144. mile
  145. mind
  146. months
  147. mouth
  148. murmuring
  149. mustache
  150. neck
  151. nice
  152. nose
  153. notice
  154. number
  155. open
  156. oxygen
  157. painting
  158. pam
  159. paper
  160. part
  161. parts
  162. party
  163. pen
  164. pencil
  165. pens
  166. people
  167. percent
  168. picture
  169. pictures
  170. piece
  171. potentially
  172. practice
  173. prepared
  174. presentation
  175. presentations
  176. prove
  177. proved
  178. put
  179. question
  180. quick
  181. quoting
  182. reaction
  183. reading
  184. ready
  185. realize
  186. recognize
  187. recoverer
  188. recoverers
  189. red
  190. remember
  191. remind
  192. represent
  193. rest
  194. reviewer
  195. room
  196. save
  197. school
  198. schools
  199. sequence
  200. session
  201. share
  202. shirt
  203. show
  204. side
  205. singing
  206. sistine
  207. skeptical
  208. sketch
  209. slide
  210. slightly
  211. smile
  212. sort
  213. sorts
  214. spare
  215. speaking
  216. speech
  217. spelling
  218. spike
  219. spiky
  220. squiggle
  221. start
  222. starting
  223. stay
  224. straight
  225. stroke
  226. strokes
  227. students
  228. stuff
  229. suffered
  230. surprised
  231. surprising
  232. talent
  233. talk
  234. taught
  235. tea
  236. teach
  237. technique
  238. thelma
  239. thinking
  240. thought
  241. thoughts
  242. thousands
  243. tijana
  244. time
  245. today
  246. top
  247. training
  248. translator
  249. triangle
  250. triangles
  251. trouble
  252. turns
  253. understanding
  254. unhappy
  255. variation
  256. variations
  257. volunteer
  258. volunteers
  259. walked
  260. walks
  261. warm
  262. watch
  263. watching
  264. wavy
  265. week
  266. wonderful
  267. work
  268. worked
  269. worried
  270. writing
  271. wrong
  272. wrote
  273. yeah
  274. živković