[originaltext] Hello Ladies and Gentlemen, it gives me great pleasure to int

Hello Ladies and Gentlemen, it gives me great pleasure to introduce our speaker for today’s talk. [16] Patricia Ryan is a longtime English teacher who asks a thought-provoking question: Is the world’s focus on English preventing the spread of great ideas in other languages? In other words: What if Einstein had to pass the TOEFL? It’s a passionate defense of translating and sharing ideas. Now, let’s welcome Patricia Ryan.
    Patricia Ryan:
    Thank you. I have been living and teaching in the Gulf for over 30 years. And in that time, I have seen a lot of changes. [17] And I want to talk to you today about language loss and the globalization of English. Today, languages are dying at an unprecedented rate. A language dies every 14 days. Now, at the same time, English is the undisputed global language. Could there be a connection? Well I don’t know. But I do know that I’ve seen a lot of changes.
    [18] Now the major change that I’ve seen is how teaching English has shifted from being a mutually beneficial practice to becoming a massive international business that it is today. It has become a current trend for every English-speaking nation on earth. And why not? After all, the best education— according to the latest World University Rankings—is to be found in the universities of the U.K. and the U.S. So everybody wants to have an English education, naturally. But if you’re not a native speaker, you have to pass a test.
    Now can it be right to reject a student on linguistic ability alone? Perhaps you have a computer scientist who’s a genius. Would he need the same language as a lawyer, for example? Well, I don’t think so. We English teachers reject them all the time. They can’t pursue their dream any longer, till they get English. But now it can be dangerous to give too much power to a narrow segment of society.
    Okay. "But," I hear you say, "what about the research? It’s all in English." So the books are in English, and the journals are done in English, but I ask you, what happened to translation? If you think about the Islamic Golden Age, there was lots of translation then. They translated from Latin and Greek into Arabic, into Persian, and then it was translated on into the Germanic languages of Europe and the Romance languages. And so light shone upon the Dark Ages of Europe. [19] Now don’t get me wrong; I am not against teaching English. I love it that we have a global language. We need one today more than ever. But I am against using it as a barrier. Let us celebrate diversity. Mind your language. Use it to spread great ideas. Thank you very much.
    16. What is Patricia Ryan’s profession?
    17. What is the focus of Patricia Ryan’s speech?
    18. What does the speaker say about the change of teaching English"?
    19. What is the speaker’s attitude towards English?