Matthew Youlden: How To Learn Any Language Easily at TEDxClapham (Transcript)

Matthew Youlden

Here is the full transcript of polyglot Matthew Youlden’s TEDx Talk presentation: How To Learn Any Language Easily at TEDxClapham conference.

Listen to the MP3 Audio: How to learn any language easily by Matthew Youlden at TEDxClapham

TRANSCRIPT:

Learning a language can feel a little bit like rocket science, something out of this world and out of reach to the vast majority of us. This isn’t a belief, however, just held by many English monolinguals on our island. It’s also shared by many of our linguistic cousins Furtherfield say in the United States or Australia, let’s be honest, when it comes to learning languages or speaking them with the kind of people that likes to think we’re fluent in the multitude of diverse languages such as Geordie, Kiwi, Cockney or what about Canadian, now don’t get me wrong. I’m very very proud of my [monk union] heritage but I wouldn’t suggest it’s a separate language just yet.

After all we don’t need subtitles when we watch Coronation Street in our viewing, although I can see you do same I do. Yet, despite this, if you were to cross the channel or say if you’re feeling slightly adventurous, cross the Seventh Street, into Wales, there you would find that speaking another language or being bilingual is simply a reality. Yet there and further a field, many are still convinced of the fact that this is a long challenging, somewhat painful and dare I say a daunting task.