In the talk, Ridley explains the need for exchange in creating  ”cumulative, combinatorial things”, like a computer mouse and even the human body itself.  The example I like asks us to think about how trade and technology have brought us what many consider a basic element of modern life.

“Ask yourself how long you would have to work to provide for yourself an hour of reading light this evening to read a book by.”

If you were to try to procure light from scratch (makes me think of another TED talk about how Thomas Thwaites built a toaster from scratch), you could, for example, go out and find and kill a sheep, remove the fat, and turn the fat into an oil lamp.  Like building a toaster from scratch, you will eventually need a number of other tools (knife, pot, strainer, funnel, pan, bowl, jar) and raw materials (water, vegetable oil).  Is there anything left that we can do by hand?  Don’t answer that.

The next solution is to let someone else specialize in making an oil lamp or a candle or in getting electricity to your home, while you do something (hopefully meaningful and lucrative) to pay for that product or service.  According to Ridley, however, the average wage earner in 1800 Britain could not afford a candle.

This demand for technology (yes, my fellow midnight owls, a candle is technology) requires a system of exchange and trade, division of labor, and cooperation and understanding among individuals.  Ridley compares again the Acheuleun stone axe and the computer mouse.   The former was developed by a single isolated, self-sufficient Homo erectus; the latter by a cooperating society of perhaps millions of people.

Among the millions who developed the computer mouse, Ridley adds,

“…you’ve got to include the man who grew the coffee, which was brewed for the man on the oil rig, who was drilling for oil, which was going to be made into plastic, etc.  They are all working for me, to make a mouse for me.”

This idea that “they are all working for me” is curious.  Here, the relatively luxurious lifestyle of Louis XIV of France (1638-1715, the longest reigning king in European history (72 years, 101 days), is the example used by both Ridley and science writer and The Skeptics Society founder Michael Shermer (in this recent interview with “Socrates” and his talk on “Social Singularity”).  Apparently we, like Louis le Grand, have everyone working for us, and we depend on them to sustain our lifestyles.

So what about self-sufficiency?  Isn’t DIY a trend? Don’t we like to be, or at least feel, self-sufficient, independent?  Don’t we prefer holism to reductionism, the telescope to the microscope?  Does anyone actually like pigeonholing or being pigeonholed?

Apple co-founder (do I really need to write that?) Steve Jobs famously told the 2005 graduating class of Stanford that “remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.”  I wonder if the prospect of death, sobre todo, is enough to convince us that there are neither enough years in the life, nor life in the years to do it all alone.

But, slick networkers and aggressive outsourcers of the world, I don’t think you’re off the hook.  Even though this cultural evolution seems to suggest to us all we need to do is “have a friend in the business”, or worse, just cooperate (think Japan), I believe that know-how should accompany, if not precede, know-who.  In a brick and mortar model, specialized know-how (the practical, often hard-to-teach tacit knowledge; from the Latin tacitus, “silent”) is the brick, and cooperative know-who is the mortar.

The prospect of economic utility has never really motivated me to learn, but maybe it works for others.

Native speaker of English or not, you need English to do international business.  And the numbers are, on the surface, slightly motivating.  When you consider the numbers of native speakers + non-native speakers, English, with 1.5 billion speakers, is the most spoken language in the world.  Just imagine all those possibilities!

However, if you’re on some academic high horse and have the strategy of a colonist and wish only to do business with native speakers of a language, then go with Mandarin Chinese.  There  are an estimated 845 million native speakers, more than the combined #2 and #3 natively spoken languages, Spanish (329 million) and English (328 million).

If you’re learning “Business Chinese”, just keep in mind two points for now:

1.  Mandarin refers to a group of about 8 Chinese dialects.  You’ll start with the standard or Beijing dialect, and probably struggle with the other dialects like a non-native speaker of standard American English would struggle on the streets New York City and London.

2.  Mandarin is not the major spoken language of the two major business centers of China:  Shanghai (about 14 million native speakers of Shanghainese, a dialect of Wu Chinese) and Shenzhen (about 56 million native speakers of Yue/Cantonese).

Lest I wander, let me say that business language is not about dealing only with native speakers, but rather by communicating ideas and getting things done by dealing with the greatest number of people possible, native or non-native speakers.  That’s why English, with its 1.5 billion speakers, is the called “the most useful” business language right now.

This is where most educators of “Business English” end their spiel and start selling you their teaching services.  But, as a student or teacher, let’s not forget two essential points:

1.  Most English speakers out there are not native speakers.  Assuming that, at the bottom of the various levels of non-native speakers, there are those who can just barely “get by”, then the most basic task would be simple communication, just getting the point across, even if it means dealing with a limited vocabulary and butchered (can I say that here?) grammar and pronunciation.   If you’re a native English speaker, you may have to strip down your poetry and “clean up” your accent.  For these and other encounters, it is experience, not language, that matters most.  You have to know how to read people and read “the air” (as they say in Japanese, 空気を読む), adapt quickly to unspoken cues, speak impromptu about common topics from music and football to beer and politics at varying degrees of fluency.  You’ll have to learn non-verbal communication, including gestures.  A good universal starting point might be a smile and eye-contact.  Maybe.  The point is that you will need to be both willing and able to be versatile.

2.  What really motivates you to learn?  Does the prospect of using another language in some imagined business scenario really get you going?  Or is understanding the whispered nothings of a mysterious foreign lover,  decoding the rapid dialogue of an eavesdropped conversation,  or singing the lyrics of heart-breaking ballad?   Perhaps it is just passing a language exam or reading a novel alone in a room.

Before you sign up for your next Business English course, or before you label Business English “bullshit” or whatever, I think we need to reflect on what will really motivate us to learn as individuals.

The urchin is so stuck up
ウニがうぬぼれている
(Uni ga unuboreteiru)

To gently flatter Mr. Oda
小田さんを穏やかにおだてる
(Oda-san wo odayakani odateru)

To pile the umbrellas
傘を重ねる
(Kasa wo kasaneru)

To cover the turnip
カブを被せる
(Kabu wo kabuseru)

Speaking ill, one gets injured
悲して、けがをして
(Kenashite, kega wo shite)

Rub it like this
こうして擦って
(Koushite kosutte)

To be particular about Odawara
小田原にはこだわっている
(Odawara ni ha kodowatteiru)

To block the summer time
サマータイムを妨げる
(Samaa taimu wo samatageru)

The grain mutters
粒がつぶやいている
(Tsubu ga tsubugayaite iru)

The wife trips
妻がつまずいている
(Tsuma ga tsumazuite iru)

To stuff fingernails in the hole
爪を穴に詰める
(Tsume wo ana ni tsumeru)

Poison, move!
毒、どいて！
(Doku, doite)

To stroke the pink
ナデシコをなでる
(Nadeshiko wo naderu)

To thank the onion
ネギをねぎらう
(Neig wo negirau)

To encourage baldness
はげを励ます
(Hage wo hagemasu)

The anticlimactic dawn
あっけない明け方
(akkenai akegata)

The busy bubble
慌ただしい泡
(Awatadashii awa)

Courageous inheritance
勇ましい遺産
(isamashii isan)

The prosperous fish
盛んな魚
(Sakan na sakana)

Quick birdhouse
素早い巣箱
(subayai subako)

Noisy imagination
騒々しい想像
(Souzoushii souzou)

Shabby pine
粗末な松
(Somatsu na matsu)

Untidy debauchery
だらしない堕落

Calm relic from Nagoya
名古屋からの和やかな名残
(Nagoya kara no nagoyaka na nagori)

Happy rattle snake
朗らかなガラガラヘビ
Hogaraka na garagara hebi

Maggie’s confusing fodder
マギの紛らわしい馬草
(Magi no magirawashii magusa)

Young Waka
若々しい和歌
(Wakawakashii waka)

Just a bit of worry
わずかな煩い
(Wazuka na wazurai)

Snobby omens
きざな兆し
(Kiza na kizashi)

To fix one’s neglect
なおざりを直す
(Naozari wo naosu)

A glimpse of the public eye’s pupil
人目の瞳の一目
(Hitome no hitomi no hitome)

Friends’ POV
味方の見方
(mikata no mikata)

Everyone’s appearance
皆の身なり
(mina no minari)

Reflection of semi-permanent prosperity
半永久的な繁栄の反映
(han-eikyuu-teki na han-ei no han-ei)

Simple me
素朴な僕
(soboku na boku)

An advantageous free radical
有利な遊離基
(yuuri na yuuri-ki)

The vigor of the semester’s instrument
学期の楽器の活気
(gakki no gakki no kakki)

The extermination of complaints
苦情の駆除
(Kujou no kujo)

Hiro’s fatigue
ヒロの疲労
(Hiro no hirou)

Lonely logic
ロンリーな論理
(Ronrii na ronri)

Mr. and Mrs. Debt
負債の夫妻
(Fusai no fusai)

Busy with the infant’s toothpick
幼児のつまようじの用事
(youji no tsuma youji no youji)

Yes, I lost…
はい、ぼく、敗北
(hai, boku, haiboku)

Consensus in the difference of the idea
創意の相違の総意
(Soui no soui no soui)

To dispatch hegemony
覇権を派遣する
(haken wo haken suru)

Healthy shoulders
壮健な双肩
(souken na souken)

The hygiene of the satellite moon
衛星の衛生
(eisei no eisei)

The roundness of the the apeman’s engine
猿人のエンジンの円陣
(enjin no enjin no enjin)

There poop and luck in the canal
運河にウンや運がある
(unga ni un ya un ga aru)

An increase in artificial flowers
造花の増加
(zouka no zouka)

Solitary grave, vain grave
独りぼっちの墓地、儚い墓
(Hitoribocchi no bochi, hakanai haka)

To adore the stepmom
継母を敬慕する
(Keibo wo keibo suru)
By glowing, the mosquito burns
輝くと、蚊が焼く
(kagayaku to, ka ga yaku)

Bind the firewood
芝を縛る
(shiba wo shibaru)

To lead a tragi-comedy
悲喜劇を率いる
(hikigeki wo hikiiru)

The headline is messed up
見出しが乱れる
(midashi ga midareru)

To repay the innocent shaggy dog
無垢なむく犬を報いる
(muku na muku-inu wo mukuiru)

To give up the Yuzu
ゆずを譲る
(Yuzu wo yuzuru)

Give birth to the “yes or no”
有無を産む
(umu wo umu)

To dirty the mistress with mud
二号を濁す
(nigou wo nigosu)

To sagging mothership
凹む空母
(kubomu kuubo)

To gulp down the top secret
極秘をごくごく飲む
(gokuhi wo gokugoku nomu)

The sub-theme “maintaining indigenous languages, conserving biodiversity” is based on deeply ingrained positive feedback system (vicious cycle) in which the loss of biodiversity, often through large-scale environmental destruction, results in the loss of cultural heritage and traditional knowledge, including but not limited to that embedded in endangered languages, which then results in further loss of biodiversity.

Conversely, there is also, in theory, a fruitful symbiotic relationship between environment and language, where the diversity of one encourages the diversity of the other.

LINKING BIODIVERSITY AND LINGUISTIC DIVERSITY

But, aside from being the pieces of another interesting example of how humans and the environment are interconnected, why are biodiversity and linguistic diversity, as separate issues, even important at all?

BIODIVERSITY

Biodiversity (short for biological diversity) emerged as an international political topic in the 1980s, although there is probably literature from long before that.  In 1988, American biologist and Pulitzer Prize winner E.O. Wilson edited and partially wrote Biodiversity, an important work treating what was then identified as “the most urgent global problem: the rapidly accelerating loss of plant and animal species to increasing human population pressure and the demands of economic development.”

Here’s an excerpt from the first chapter entitled “The Current State of Biological Diversity” written by E.O. Wilson:

“Biological diversity must be treated more seriously as a global resource, to be indexed, used, and above all, preserved. Three circumstances conspire to give this matter an unprecedented urgency. First, exploding human populations are degrading the environment at an accelerating rate, especially in tropical countries. Second, science is discovering new uses for biological diversity in ways that can relieve both human suffering and environmental destruction. Third, much of the diversity is being irreversibly lost through extinction caused by the destruction of natural habitats, again especially in the tropics. Overall, we are locked into a race. We must hurry to acquire the knowledge on which a wise policy of conservation and development can be based for centuries to come.”

Around the same time, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) began exploring the need for an international legal treat, and by 1991, in one of the early UNEP negotiating sessions for a Convention on Biological Diversity held in Nairobi, the convention already declared its objective

“…to conserve the maximum possible biological diversity for the benefit of present and future generations and for its intrinsic value, [and to provide for the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits of research in biotechnology arising out of conservation of the biological diversity.  This is to be achieved] by ensuring that the use of biological resources is sustainable; [by providing adequate, new and additional funding to the developing countries) [by taking account of the need to share costs and benefits between developed and developing countries,) and by [securing] [providing] economic and legal conditions favourable for the transfer of technology [to them on preferential and non commercial terms) necessary to accomplish this objective.]“

(from the Second Revised Draft Convention on Biological Diversity)

Today, on the UNEP Convention on Biological Diversity website, you can read the history of the convention as well as the the text of convention itself (in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish) which was opened for signature in June 1992 at the Rio “Earth Summit” and entered into force on 29 December 1993.  The three objectives of the current CBD are: 1) conservation of biodiversity, 2) sustainable use of biodiversity, and 3) fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising from the use of genetic resources.

After the first International Year of Biodiversity in 2010, the UN General Assembly declared 2011-2010 the United Nations Decade on Biodiversity and has adopted five collective strategic “Aichi Targets”:   A) address the underlying causes of biodiversity loss by mainstreaming biodiversity across government and society, B) reduce  the direct pressures on biodiversity and promote sustainable use, C) improve the status of biodiversity by safeguarding ecosystems, species and genetic diversity, D) enhance the benefits to all from biodiversity and ecosystem services, and E) enhance implementation through participatory planning, knowledge management and capacity building.

Furthermore, the UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre specifies three levels of biological diversity:

1.  Genetic
Genetic diversity refers to the heritable variations in the sequence of the four base-pairs which constitute the genetic code.

2.  Species
Species diversity, or species “richness”, is usually what people mean when they say “biodiversity”, and this would refer to the number of species in different taxonomic groups. About 1.8 million species have been described to date, but it is estimated that between 5 and 100 million species exist on earth at present (most are probably insects and microorganisms).

Regarding plants, in particular, the Botanical Gardens Conservation International estimates that the number of plant species currently in existence is probably around 400,000, although accurate calculations are complicated by various factors, including even the different names used for plants in different areas.  Moreover, more than 13,000 plant species have been identified by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, where over 9,000 species are listed as vulnerable, endangered, or critically endangered.

3.  Ecosystem
The quantitative assessment of diversity at the ecosystem, habitat or community level remains problematic. Currently there is no unique definition and classification of ecosystems at the global level, and it is thus difficult in practice to assess ecosystem diversity other than on a local or regional basis and then only largely in terms of vegetation.

LINGUISTIC DIVERSITY

Language diversity is also a relatively recent political topic focused on protecting languages as living representations of cultural heritage, including traditional knowledge and other intangible and unwritten sources of environmental understanding.  UNESCO, in its Action Plan of its 2001 UNESCO Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity, set objectives for:

- safeguarding the linguistic heritage of humanity and giving support to expression, creation and dissemination in the greatest possible number of languages;

- encouraging linguistic diversity – while respecting the mother tongue – at all levels of education, wherever possible, and fostering the learning of several languages from the earliest age; and

- promoting linguistic diversity in cyberspace and encouraging universal access through the global network to all information in the public domain.

But why we should we care about the heritage of a language, much less that of many diverse human languages? UNESCO’s Endangered Languages Programme explains that

“every language reflects a unique world-view with its own value systems, philosophy and particular cultural features. The extinction of a language results in the irrecoverable loss of unique cultural knowledge embodied in it for centuries, including historical, spiritual and ecological knowledge that may be essential for the survival of not only its speakers, but also countless others.”

Is the loss of linguistic diversity a rampant problem?  Exact numbers of languages are probably impossible to measure (due to the lack of definitions of things like dialects vs. languages, living vs. dead, etc).  Nevertheless, various sources, including UNESCO  and SIL’s Ethnologue, indicate that there over 6,000 living human languages in the world, and that over 2,000 of these are either vulnerable or endangered.

On this interactive UNESCO Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger, you can search for endangered languages by area, name, number of speakers, and vitality.  Below I have copied the six degrees of vitality/endangerment based on various factors, most importantly intergenerational transmission, with the current numbers of languages in bold.

Degree of endangerment		Intergenerational Language Transmission
	safe	language is spoken by all generations; intergenerational transmission is uninterrupted >> not included in the Atlas
	vulnerable	most children speak the language, but it may be restricted to certain domains (e.g., home) ~ 601
	definitely endangered	children no longer learn the language as mother tongue in the home ~648
	severely endangered	language is spoken by grandparents and older generations; while the parent generation may understand it, they do not speak it to children or among themselves ~ 526
	critically endangered	the youngest speakers are grandparents and older, and they speak the language partially and infrequently ~576
	extinct	there are no speakers left ~231 >> included in the Atlas if presumably extinct since the 1950s

“Het woord Bioscoop komt uit het Grieks, van de woorden βιος, bios (dat leven betekent) en σκοπειν, skopein (dat kijkenbetekent).”  [The word Bioscoop comes from the Greek, from the words bios (which means to live) and skopein (which means to look at)]

I learned the abbreviated slang form bios through my first Dutch-language song, “Ik Neem Je Mee” (“I’ll take you with me”) by young Rotterdam-born rapper Gerwin “Gers” Pardoel.  The post includes the Dutch lyrics, an original English translation, vocabulary and etymology lists, grammar explanations, guitar chords, and more!

Completed 1 film in the following languages:
Mandarin, Russian, Dutch, Farsi, and Serbian

Completed 1 song translation in:
Catalan, Norwegian, Filipino, Latin, Romanian

Just finished reading Marguerite Duras’ autobiographical novel L’Amant de la Chine de Nord, and in the above video, I’m reading an excerpt from the end of the work.

The story takes place in French Indochina (modern Vietnam) in the 1920s, and so there are a lot of local words you’d have to look up if you’re not familiar with that region of the world.  Here are some examples:

Thit-kho 
Vietnamese caramelized pork belly and eggs, according to this website.

Piastre
Formally called “Piastre de commerce”, it was the currency of French Indochina between 1885 and 1952.

Choum-choum
Alcohol made from rice distillation, referenced here.

Jonque (“Junk”)
Chinese sailing vessel developed during the Han dynasty (Wikipedia entry)

Coolie
Asian manual laborer  (Wikipedia entry)

Tussor (“Tussore”)
Silk woven from wild silkworms (Wikipedia)

Nem
Spring rolls, in North Vietnam.  Check out this site.

Pousse-pousse
Asian “rickshaw” (人力車), from Wikipedia.