Oxford London Lecture 2012: "21st Century -- The Last Century of Youth"

Professor Sarah Harper looks at the rapidly declining percentage of young people across the world as the population ageing moves across the globe.
She asks what implications this will have for societies, their economies and political structures. Professor Harper will also consider the potential collision of the two great 21st century transitions -- the demographic and the environmental - will they be complimentary or in conflict?
In association with the Guardian

[@sharobiddineraliev8721]

She is a great lecturer!

[@vellakovileducationalchann7453]

Fantastic lecture

[@ircrealstory1]

I am astonished!

[@diinimmc6567]

good lecture

[@maomix79]

nice lecture and very interesting arguments, many of them could be criticized however...the relationship between empirical data, sociological facts and theoretical aprroach enhace lecture....great

[@abdulahifarhanabdi4107]

That's wonderful, although I'm not supporting the ideology of reducing population, because I don't see clear argument.

[@springyes3668]

Thank you very much, it was lovely

[@allankumar7552]

i am very glad to to listen this lecture.

[@SALMANKHAN926]

brilliant its great i like

[@riturajkumar9916]

very good

[@AbdulWahid-yc2tq]

Great

[@howtolearnenglish596]

very nice lecture

[@mohamedgamal9643]

good

[@yagyabasnet4712]

nice

[@BaxterPine]

I don't want to belittle the weighty and important issues being discussed here, but I'd like to hear an Oxford professor say "have shown" rather than "have showed", "fewer children" rather than "less children" and pronounce "issue" as "isssue" rather than "ishoo". I believe language should change because of the necessity to extend and purify meanings and not just from an explosion of randomness. I'd like Oxford to be a beacon in this!

[@Krazydave9]

Most linguistic experts are of the opinion that a persons sociolect or idiolect should be accepted and embraced as a variation in our rich linguistic culture. You only need to look back through the timeline of the development of the English language to see that prescriptivist attitudes, similar to yours, are a common feature in language development. How you speak today is largely influenced by the "explosions of randomness" of the past so ironically you are fighting to retain a way of speaking that those with a similar attitude to yours were previously trying to prevent.

[@BaxterPine]

Language can change because of a new requirement (eg computer science), because poets want to stretch its capacity to express what they mean, OR simply because people are too lazy or incompetent to learn the language as it stands. A rich linguistic culture stretches itself as an enrichment rather than through a proliferation of errors. At what age should your triumph of 'descriptive' over 'prescriptive' grammar set in? Should we tell our primary school teachers simply to observe and rejoice at whatever their students write or say? Advanced civilisations moderate linguistic change and distinguish between good and bad modifications.

[@a.k.a4785]

John Pine The English language evolved through a concoction of various European and archaic languages. In order to establish one's understanding and application, it could be said that even those possessing "excellent" ways of speaking, are in themselves flawed; communication through presentation (extemporanous deliveries, uses in tenses, adjectives, etc) are in existence because of the multi cultural society we live in. We are in the 21st century after all, welcome.

[@BaxterPine]

Jumi Adeleke Yes, and English has stolen more words and linguistic structures than any other language, I think. That's fine. But we should have monitors to assess the changes (called lexicographers and teachers) and to decide whether to accept them or not. When you bend your arm, your triceps oppose and control the action of the biceps to make the movement smooth and beautiful. Many bad changes have slipped by - like the confusion between 'bastard' and 'dastard', still not sorted out. But we have a choice.

[@Dr4gonshade]

As a Finnish person, that is SO funny to me :D

[@vinodbundelasing2420]

on demand for you

[@prodigus7682]

It,is all right.

[@asmaladan4535]

I like to speak english but idn't know

[@BaxterPine]

I think 'complimentary or in conflict' should read 'complementary or in conflict' (by the way).

[@naveedkhan-zx4lg]

Nice very nice

[@jackmorris6775]

Perfect to geg to sleep

[@prodigus7682]

nnnnnnnnnnn

[@raghibalam7830]

i watched whole video without understanding, because of i want to learn English with British accent