TED Talks
Denise Herzing: Could we speak the language of dolphins?
For 28 years, Denise Herzing has spent five months each summer living with a pod of Atlantic spotted dolphins, following three generations of family relationships and behaviors. It's clear they are communicating with one another -- but...
TED Talks
John McWhorter: Txtng is killing language. JK!!!
Does texting mean the death of good writing skills? John McWhorter posits that there’s much more to texting -- linguistically, culturally -- than it seems, and it’s all good news.
TED Talks
TED: The nit-picking glory of The New Yorker's Comma Queen | Mary Norris
Copy editing for The New Yorker is like playing shortstop for a Major League Baseball team -- every little movement gets picked over by the critics, says Mary Norris, who has played the position for more than thirty years. In that time,...
TED Talks
Sugata Mitra: Kids can teach themselves
Speaking at LIFT 2007, Sugata Mitra talks about his Hole in the Wall project. Young kids in this project figured out how to use a PC on their own -- and then taught other kids. He asks, what else can children teach themselves?
TED Talks
Alan Siegel: Let's simplify legal jargon!
Tax forms, credit agreements, healthcare legislation: They're crammed with gobbledygook, says Alan Siegel, and incomprehensibly long. He calls for a simple, sensible redesign -- and plain English -- to make legal paperwork intelligible...
TED Talks
Terry Moore: Why is 'x' the unknown?
Why is 'x' the symbol for an unknown? In this short and funny talk, Terry Moore gives the surprising answer.
TED Talks
Erin McKean: The joy of lexicography
Is the beloved paper dictionary doomed to extinction? In this infectiously exuberant talk, leading lexicographer Erin McKean looks at the many ways today's print dictionary is poised for transformation.
TED Talks
Patricia Ryan: Don't insist on English!
Patricia Ryan is a longtime English teacher who asks a provocative 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...
Crash Course
How Does Language Move? Crash Course Geography
While we can’t explore every cultural trait in the world, language is an important system of spoken, signed, or written symbols humans use to express themselves. It’s a major marker of identity that often unites members of the same...
SciShow
Why Can't Monkeys Talk Like Us?
For decades scientists believed that monkeys could not speak human language due to an anatomical difference in vocal tracts. Today, we're not so sure that this is the limiting factor after all.
TED Talks
Tyler DeWitt: Hey science teachers -- make it fun
High school science teacher Tyler DeWitt was ecstatic about his new lesson plan on bacteria (how cool!) -- and devastated when his students hated it. The problem was the textbook: it was impossible to understand. He delivers a rousing...
TED Talks
Bunker Roy: Learning from a barefoot movement
In Rajasthan, India, an extraordinary school teaches rural women and men -- many of them illiterate -- to become solar engineers, artisans, dentists and doctors in their own villages. It's called the Barefoot College, and its founder,...
TED Talks
TED: Why I keep speaking up, even when people mock my accent | Safwat Saleem
Artist Safwat Saleem grew up with a stutter -- but as an independent animator, he decided to do his own voiceovers to give life to his characters. When YouTube commenters started mocking his Pakistani accent, it crushed him, and his...
TED Talks
ShaoLan: Learn to read Chinese ... with ease!
For foreigners, learning to speak Chinese is a hard task. But learning to read the beautiful, often complex characters of the Chinese written language may be less difficult. ShaoLan walks through a simple lesson in recognizing the ideas...
TED Talks
TED: The unexpected challenges of a country's first election | Philippa Neave
How do you teach an entire country how to vote when no one has done it before? It's a huge challenge facing fledgling democracies around the world -- and one of the biggest problems turns out to be a lack of shared language. After all,...
TED Talks
Es Devlin: Mind-blowing stage sculptures that fuse music and technology
It starts with a sketch. Then it evolves into a larger-than-life visual masterpiece, a celebration of human connection. Follow along as legendary artist and designer Es Devlin takes us on a visual tour of her work -- including iconic...
TED Talks
Un polyglotte sommeille en vous
Un polyglotte sommeille en vous Les langues, comme les espèces, ont évolués au cours des siècles et de nombreuses langues modernes ont des racines communes. Linguiste et polyglotte, Sébastien Roger de Nuñez nous explique comment il est...
TED Talks
Sandra Fisher-Martins: The right to understand
Medical, legal, and financial documents should be easy to read, but too often they aren't. With spot-on (and funny) examples, Sandra Fisher Martins shows how overly complex language separates us from the information we need -- and three...
TED Talks
TED: How I'm using LEGO to teach Arabic | Ghada Wali
After a visit to a European library in search of Arabic and Middle Eastern texts turned up only titles about fear, terrorism and destruction, Ghada Wali resolved to represent her culture in a fun, accessible way. The result: a colorful,...
TED Talks
Daniel Bögre Udell: How to save a language from extinction
As many as 3,000 languages could disappear within the next 80 years, all but silencing entire cultures. In this quick talk, language activist Daniel Bögre Udell shows how people around the world are finding new ways to revive ancestral...
SciShow
What We Often Get Wrong About the Brain’s 'Language' Centers
About 150 years ago, scientists found the two main areas that are responsible for language production and comprehension in the brain. But it turns out they might have over-exaggerated what these parts actually do.
SciShow
5 Computer Scientists Who Changed Programming Forever
It's taken the work of many programmers to turn computers into something we carry in our pockets, and here are five (technically 10!) that we think you should be aware of.
Crash Course
How Words Can Harm: Crash Course Philosophy
Content warning: today’s episode contains language that some viewers might find upsetting and that may not be viewable in all settings. We’ve talking about how language works and how powerful it can be. Sometimes, that power can be...
TED Talks
TED: Beautiful new words to describe obscure emotions | John Koenig
John Koenig loves finding words that express our unarticulated feelings -- like "lachesism," the hunger for disaster, and "sonder," the realization that everyone else's lives are as complex and unknowable as our own. Here, he meditates...