TED Community » Katja Tongucer

More About Me

I'm passionate about

finding appropriate words.

An idea worth spreading

Living and working abroad should become a basic part of education.

Talk to me about

We live in an intercultural world.

People don't know that I'm good at

finding my way in new places.

Comments

• TEDCred score: +279.20 TEDCred reflects your contribution to the TED community.

• +1

  A reply on Talk: Ken Robinson: How to escape education's death valley

  1 day ago: Yes, but education starts much earlier. Long before children start to think about job opportunities. If education can help children to have a strong personality, to find what they like and where their talents are, it might change their choices in the future.

• A reply on Talk: Ken Robinson: How to escape education's death valley

  2 days ago: True, but more and more corporates are struggling right because of that mechanic apparatus that they have been building up by standardizing everything and, even worse, everybody.
  
  Don't you think? And don't you think that future leaders growing up in a more creativity-focused educational system might bring change to those corporates?

• A reply on Talk: Amanda Palmer: The art of asking

  Mar 2 2013: I am sure the transcript will be added to the video very soon. Every TEDTalk has it.
• +1

  A comment on Conversation: What one feature would you love to see added to TED.com?

  Dec 6 2012: How about a "Add a link"-feature for each talk where you can contribute to a collection of links that help users to research on the topic. I know it might be problematic and imply some legal issues. It needs to be curated.
  
  But I think it could be great to have a possibility to share links whenever you find something useful and interesting that is connected to a specific talk: newspaper articles, blog posts, online classes, projects ... Also in different languages.

• A reply on Conversation: Atheism as a Spiritual Path

  Jun 10 2012: I was replying to you and to Obey No1kinobe in the same post, I shouldn't have done that, the discussions got mixed. Didn't want to confuse you.
• +1

  A reply on Conversation: Atheism as a Spiritual Path

  Jun 10 2012: Pranoy, you didn't read my post correctly.
  I just mentioned Opera as an example. I feel this connectivity all the time and I think I am a very spiritual person. But I still don't need a god to feel this and
  
  Obey, I don't think that spirituality is something supernatural. It is very natural, it's something that is produced in our bodies, in our brain. It's a kind of energy, that we produce and feel and share with others. This energy is still natural.
  
  The only thing that - in my opinion - is not natural, is the believe that there is a god or there are gods and goddesses somewhere out there that influence our lives and our destiny.
• +1

  A reply on Conversation: Atheism as a Spiritual Path

  Jun 10 2012: Only because we call it "spiritual", there isn't necessarily a spirit involved. It's just the language, the word, that implies it.
  
  I don't believe in a god, in a spirit that observes or judges or creates. So I guess I should label myself as an Atheist (again, that's just a word that's been created by humans, right?).
  
  But I do believe in energies or vibrations that are set free with whatever we do, good and bad ones and that these energies influence us more than we are willing to accept. And maybe we just don't have the means to measure them or we have lost the ability to see and feel them.
• +1

  A reply on Conversation: Atheism as a Spiritual Path

  Jun 9 2012: It depends on how you'd define spirituality.
  
  For me there are many spiritual things that have nothing to do with a god or a religion like spending a wonderful night at the opera, watching a performance that let me forget everything around me and connects me at the same time with the people in the room. For others it might be a spiritual experience to play a game of chess or even an online game throughout the night on your playstation, spending time laughing with good friends or family, a rock concert, a walk in the nature, ... attending a TED event!
  
  I personally think that people need those spiritual moments and I can understand that they find them within their religion and their faith. But I also believe that if we teach our children how to live spiritual moments without being religious, we will take away the last "core competence" of religion. And that's what religions are mostly afraid of.
• +4

  A comment on Conversation: After carrying you and giving you birth, what was the single most significant thing your mother did in your life?

  May 8 2012: When I fell in love with my husband, I told my mother, "Mum, I have a new boyfriend. I met him at the University. He is Turkish."
  
  In that moment I could see what was going on in my mum's mind: Turkish … , Muslim …, maybe he will treat her badly, maybe my now independent daughter will be suppressed and be forced to wear a headscarf one day…
  
  The story of Betty Mahmoody and her book "Not without my daughter" was very popular these days. We lived in a small village with very few foreigners, all we knew about Turks and Muslims was what we had seen and read in the media.
  
  But my mother had always taught us to be careful with prejudices. And that day, she didn't say a single word. She just said, "Okay, I hope I will meet your new boyfriend soon."
  
  She met him, loved him from the first moment, realized that he is a very nice guy who will always respect me.
  
  I love her for this moment when she wiped away her worries and prejudices and decided to give him a chance.
• +1

  A comment on Conversation: Having a TED event on slums

  Mar 26 2012: Dear Aries,
  
  there have already been several TEDx Events held in Kibera, Nairobi. You could check the TEDx platform for similar events and get in touch with the organizers.
  
  http://www.ted.com/tedx/groups/5063