TED Community » Wiktor Kostrzewski
About Me
http://flavors.me/wiktor_kostrzewski - look it all up here!
- Location:
- United Kingdom, Swansea
- Current organization:
- 16kinds.com
- Past organizations:
- CSL Swansea
- Current role:
- Language consultant
- Gender:
- Male
- Areas of expertise:
- Language Acquisition, Teaching English as a Foreign Language, translating
- I am:
- Artist, Blogger, Consultant, Educator/Teacher, Global soul, Idea generator, Writer/Editor
- Associations:
- IATEFL
- Languages:
- English, Polish, German, French
- My website links:
- 16kinds - Learning Languages Better, My LinkedIn profile - stay in touch!, I tweet.
- Universities:
- University of Silesia, Katowice, Poland
More About Me
I'm passionate about
Languages - learning, teaching, speaking and discovering them. Communication - between people, cultures, nations. Learning - better, longer, more effectively and enjoyably. Oh, and coffee.
An idea worth spreading
Your first language is Newspeak. (Email me and I'll explain - or just write and tell me what you think it means)
Talk to me about
Reasons, methods and patterns for learning any language - better, faster and easier than you thought possible.
People don't know that I'm good at
Cooking. Really. Especially without recipes, scales or an end result in mind. My cooking is more of a jam session. And frequently involves jam.
My TED Story
Waiting to happen - but Sir Ken Robinson convinced me that there is goodness on the internet (apart from kittehs).
Comments
Favorite talks
This member doesn't have any favorite talks yet.
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A reply on Talk: Patricia Ryan: Don't insist on English!
1) Who gets to decide who "we" are, and who is allowed time and means to learn the common language - and who isn't?
2) Who gets to decide what the common language will be? English, Chinese, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic - all strong contenders, so which criteria would you use to choose - and how would you try to convince everyone else?
3) Finally - and most disturbingly, perhaps - who decides on the "common direction"?
Having a common language is every translator's fantasy (I used to be one and train them, so there). It's cute and sounds nice. But having to deal with the rough and wild forces of dozens of languages is, ultimately, the order of the day. And it feels much better to do a good job at a translation than to complain about the things "lost in the process."
A comment on Conversation: What's the best choice you have made?
The best choice I've made was not to stay on in my first job. I was going to settle, but the conditions and contracts later became a bit awkward. I could just swallow this bitter pill and put up with it - or start looking around.
I chose to start looking. That took me out of my home town, into my favourite country, onto a really kick-ass teacher training course...and on a journey that looks like it's never going to stop!