Ideas worth spreading

TEDxOhioStateUniversity

February 2020

|1.5M views

Who counts as a speaker of a language?

Backed by research and personal anecdotes, Spanish professor Anna Babel reveals the intricate relationship between language and culture, showing how social categories and underlying biases influence the way we hear, regard and, ultimately, judge each other. A talk that will leave you questioning your assumptions about what it really means to speak a language.

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This talk was presented to a local audience at TEDxOhioStateUniversity, an independent event. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

Read more about TEDx.

Backed by research and personal anecdotes, Spanish professor Anna Babel reveals the intricate relationship between language and culture, showing how social categories and underlying biases influence the way we hear, regard and, ultimately, judge each other. A talk that will leave you questioning your assumptions about what it really means to speak a language.

This talk was presented to a local audience at TEDxOhioStateUniversity, an independent event. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

Read more about TEDx.

About the speaker

See speaker profile

Anna Babel studies the relationship between language and culture.

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Anthropology News

Anthropology News covers all different types of anthropology, especially those relevant to current events.

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Homegirls: Language and Cultural Practice Among Latina Youth Gangs

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Growing up Bilingual: Puerto Rican Children in New York

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Jonathan Rosa | Oxford University Press, 2019 | Book

Looking like a Language, Sounding like a Race

A recent book taking on tough theoretical material on language and ethnicity structured by the author’s research on a Mexican-Puerto Rican high school in Chicago.

Laurie Bauer and Peter Trudgill | Penguin Books, 1999 | Book

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Think about how language can stand in for other types of social categories, even unconsciously, and reflect on how this may have played out in your own life. Particularly for those who are new to the study of language. How many of these “myths” surprise you?

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