Why Global Success Depends On Separating Language & Culture | Tsedal Neeley | TEDxCambridge

How can language be used to unite rather than divide a global workforce? Through her unfettered access to the inner workings of the globalization efforts of one of the fastest growing technology companies in the world, Harvard Business School professor Tsedal Neeley disrupts prevailing beliefs by revealing the power of treating language and culture separately. Tsedal Neeley is an award-winning professor in the Organization Behavior unit at the Harvard Business School. Prior to her academic career, Professor Neeley spent ten years working for companies like Lucent Technologies and The Forum Corporation in various areas including strategy for global customer experience, helping to shape her work which focuses on the effects of globalization on organizations and their employees. An accomplished writer, Professor Neely has been published in leading scholarly and practitioner outlets. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at www.ted.com/tedx

[@shaik_6612]

She's the professor of Business Administration in Havard

[@jesuschristophersanluis2775]

We follow the same algorithm. Omg

[@JM-st1le]

Exactly I watched that video and KZbin recommended this 3 year old video with 80k views. I think people who had watch that video were clicking on this one and the algorithm noticed.

[@anaqueiroz652]

That's why she's os promotinhthe use of English globally... Next, Will be the USA law and order!!

[@kunganorbe9110]

What’s her name ?

[@selenachen7091]

@@JM-st1le yes! I watched her case competition just yesterday. Man algorithms are scary 😶

[@dabe3661]

Simple, the more languages you know the more you can get to know

[@ryiv1848]

This is true at most cases. Knowing to myself that english is not my native language, I spent years of my junior high studying it, to be coherent and eloquent in using the language, because I believe that english is a gateway language to have a firm grasp on hard concepts such as science and mathematics.

[@saj9221]

Nobody understands how much I love her

[@dan125874]

Is she ethiopian or indian

[@WinTW9]

@@dan125874 Ethiopian

[@wmuch1443]

I love her articulations

[@Charles-sg9zu]

Language shapes the way we think. We need to protect the difference of language to prevent the loss of thinking patterns. And also there’s thousands of different languages in the world. Why people have choose English to be the international language? That’s not fair for other languages. People should learn different kinds of languages to be multicultural. I know learning languages is hard, but it’s worth it. Learning each foreign language will delay having Alzheimer’s Disease in the future for 5 years. And people can also become smarter by learning different languages too.

[@coremitsi922]

I'm not suprised that an american would try to justify linguistic imperialism.

[@sanpehla]

We have to understand that language principle is the communication and communication is not only about learning language forms, it is also to know how that forms interact in every culture. It's true, we can understand english in Europe and also in America in the same way, but you're not understanding Europe and America if you don't know the ways english is used there. Therefore, it isn't productive to keep the language apart of society, because the language has the communicative function, but the realisation of that function only happens in a culture. You could separate language and culture and you could even mix language and culture.

[@nicholasmukundwa3115]

could listen to her talk all day

[@elbarca223]

Tsedal Neeley, do you know what happened in US and Canadian boarding schools? What happened to Native American and First Nations' children? What if HBS says from tomorrow we all speak Japanese and only Japanese? The idea that multiple languages cannot exist together, is false. There are many organizations use English while different languages are valued, and still thrive.

[@kirkjaerify]

I'm not surprised by this conclusion and agree very much with it. Though, you have to be very careful applying it outside a defined bubble like an organisation or a network. The way it is presented, as if we can just errase language from cultures world wide will most probably have incomprehensive impact on minority cultures - especially for the ones without writen languages, as their will be no means to transfer their stories and customs through generations.

[@ogechianusi6809]

beautifully said

[@elijahtwinamatsiko6352]

Just keep giving us such sensitive and educative case studies

[@andrewkurban357]

Bravo Tsedal in helping break down barriers to open the door to English language and the common thread of humanity.

[@JourneywiththeAndasPH]

Not sure why she's been recommended to me. First video was her case study in Harvard. Now this.

[@poojakashyap6608]

same pinch!

[@derekhollingsworth1704]

I find this quite disturbing. Language is the essence of a people or a nation - the intellectual library. To suggest you can decouple a language and a culture is like suggesting you can decouple your origins and your childhood identity. I live in Ireland where brutal historical forces effected a language shift. This resulted in the Anglicisation of the majority of the country that speaks English, and a minority Gaelic native Irish culture. Growing up an English speaking I was cut-off from my own history, stories, songs and communication with Irish speakers. This is the ultimate conclusion of such policies. Naturally, economic activity that is conducted in a language favours the prospects of those speaking that language. There is a huge drive from Anerica to anglicise the world in linguistic terms. Let's not forget that diverse languages represent multiculturalism and diversity. Language is closely connected with identity. In the example provided, employees were given an ultimatum to drop their native language. The motivation for this was agreed. The company had 90% of the native market but (as capitalism tries to consume the world and its finite resources) this wasn't enough. Greed dictated this and it's a very American model in that respect. If we could handle a little less greed and we focused on 'enough for everyone'rather than 'more for me', we could have a sustainable world with a healthy environment, the needs of humans met, and thriving diverse cultures and languages.

[@derekhollingsworth1704]

Above should read 'greed' rather than 'agreed'

[@derekhollingsworth1704]

It's scary that you would have American academics talking this up. This is effectively how colonialism, imperialism and hegemony works - great news for the powerful English-speaking countries- but disastrous for local peoples and cultures. Imagine this the other way around? Imagine Americans being asked to learn Japanese? Never going to happen is it?

[@kibetkirui3949]

I like your case presentations Prof.

[@nadereed3786]

Omg. Came from Harvard MBA case study. AMAZING!!!

[@musaabidi1092]

I love her so much cuz She's got class

[@mortenhansen5339]

Very interesting talk and impressive research, Tsedal. Nice work!

[@leahairston3734]

Fantastic new way of looking at an age old issue. Thank you for sharing Dr. Neeley!

[@poojabalani8116]

Lea Hairstaaaaaaaaaaa😡❤️😘

[@julioarencibia7415]

Lea Hairston dd

[@nalemu]

Great presentation by Professor Tesdale of Harvard Business school. She is a trailblazer!

[@oasiskeshri4172]

Culture way we define rituals customs Belief is how manage cultures Cultures difference way we encode(deciphering) each other lang

[@elijahtwinamatsiko6352]

I really like your talks so much you God given angel😥

[@ShouryDasari]

What an informative speech. This was quite the watch.

[@creativeartbyluvensky]

Wonderful massage through an amazing speech!😍🤩

[@tonyvedantawilmot6518]

Interesting talk. Yes. Preserving ones original language and learning a second to achieve a purpose It can work. (If I understand what Tsedal was saying.

[@rwnorris24]

Amazing. Ms. Tsedal Neeley !

[@pranshu123pandya]

Wonderful! 😇 I’m doing my English project on this. The English teacher’s gonna be delighted 😊.

[@ReasonNotFightFlight]

By 1:07, she has set the context for what is Linguistic Imperialism but that is not surprising from the field of Business. I tend to agree with the Leontiev in that the ideally educated person knows at least 3 languages: (1) The language of Power (and for this speaker it is English), (2) a language of choice for the person in their context (and a command from a CEO would likely speed this choice for many who would want to stay in his company) and (3) the ethnic language or mother tongue (that is an essential human right according to UN documents). Let's face it: The history of Colonization has made English speakers lazy and they tend to always view their lingusitic imperialism as good. Even the URL is imperialistic. (If humanity moved to an IPA keyboard and URL, we could all be writing in a soundsystem to allow a uniquely world language to emerge, though there are issues with the fact that IPA is from a western european base of scholarship.)

[@glorenzfababair4576]

Little diversity is no capacity to expand potentials.

[@sazanagha4677]

Wow wonderful presentation good luck 🤞

[@jesuschrist8991]

You embrace culture by intermixing with Americans. We need to diversify ourselves as minorities and quit being prejudice too.

[@WhiteSpatula]

Well said! I think that spoken and written language could literally be a gift from the universe (or chance, or fate, or God, or karma, or the matrix, or aliens, or yadda-yadda; such details being ultimately unimportant to me, so I always just say “the universe”.. or “Momma Universe” when personifying). Basically, I believe that the sooner we collectively acknowledge the blessing- or gift-like nature of our capacity for language, the sooner we should feel free to extrapolate that we have literally been given permission to deny the animal urgings of our genes and instead to resolve.. nay.. to celebrate our differences intelligently. But if we fail to recognize our blessings/gifts/advantages and gratefully utilize them to the ends of cooperating and cohering as a species, I suppose it goes without saying, we’ll no longer be a species. Or rather, those fragments of humanity that do survive whatever the universe has yet to throw our way won’t continue evolving to become human as we know it. And for our hapless reluctance to grasp the full advantages of our intelligence, they will be thrust back into the realm of animal survival (for likely countless generations) as they battle for dominance, rediversify, and finally reach this same crossroads again. We should recognize the ignorance and futility of that haphazardly evolved urge we share to out-survive each other before dying, and acknowledge that it’s in the best interest of LIFE ITSELF for our species to abandon corporeal competition, imperialism, and bellicosity in exchange for collective survival, coherence, and peace in perpetuity.. and to do so NOW.. before the universe is tempted to rescind the beautiful gift of language, among who-knows what other advantages she’s allowed us, like so many unredeemed vouchers.

[@frankuwakwe6533]

This is fantastic

[@emunahbenuyah2853]

All respect mam... Wa woooo❤❤❤❤

[@Pajas15]

agreed

[@zramg6788]

language can't be barrier for a global society . so one world one language .

[@derekhollingsworth1704]

This is a complete fallacy. Thousands of languages have always existed. They represent cultures and world-views. Humans can still cooperate but the idea you get rid of another's language and culture is dangerous (and has disastrous historical precedents). I wonder would you sacrifice your own language and culture and speak, em, shall we say Russian or Chinese, or a native American language in order to facilitate your notion of a language of world domination?

[@nandadulalbakshi3121]

Alldiplomat call back. Replace by winner. It is hipo cast

[@RiazLaghari]

interesting!

[@dainironfoot5198]

Man, I can just hear Alex Jones reacting to this video.

[@shahrukhdaud7989]

👍👍👍

[@Stellathediamond]

❤👏🏾❤️👏🏾

[@sorayamj3366]

I'm wondering where the devices/laptops are. We had ours out in every class.

[@gazer947]

Interesting

[@princesskinuthia8788]

🤝🤝

[@dslopez145]

11:15 "You could separate language and culture and you could even mixed language and culture..." even she's understanding the necessity of treat language and culture as a unit...

[@ashishc7900]

I saw her case study and it was the best

[@JubinAdhikari]

That harvard mba class?

[@reallygoodperson9487]

Yeah

[@kashmirabhingare7388]

Same here came aftrr seeing that case study 📖😊

[@abduljalilmahama5682]

Her case study brought me here

[@comicsnehaofficial]

Me too

[@Shaniloka369]

So on point. American needs to be open minding and learn other languages. That's how you embrace culture truely.

[@farintiara1396]

I hope someday, I'll meet her

[@fhumutema8849]

Me too, she's awesome

[@andalanjawabarat]

In Harvard. I hope you will.

[@rameshgurung6820]

Such a vivid and impeccable deliverance just wow!!

[@bantusodaba8753]

She is/ was a Harvard Business School Professor

[@eternaltvmn8539]

What about future technologies that can clear language barriers in working places?

[@nandadulalbakshi3121]

If republican win all minister& associates need to change . Why.

[@abhisheksingh1435]

She's is so good🙌🙌

[@feelmehish8506]

Just another excuse for imperialism.

[@userwhatnever]

As I understand, in this case, language was used as a tool to solve a problem. I fail to see why culture(even by the speaker's definition, which is certainly lacking) needs to be separated from language. Learning, knowing and speaking a common language doesn't require separating language and culture, just an interest or inescapable circumstances or a strong enough motivation. Many cultures take great pride in their language. Indeed, they use enforcing their language as a way to preserve their culture. Even when you learn another language, you get 'enculturated' by the culture of that language to a certain extent. It adds part of the other culture within you and all your parts eventually adapt and fit with each other nicely. The context of this study is very specific but the extent of generalization of its implications is unjustifiable. Languages are not just a tool for communication, they reflect our ways of thought. So do our customs, traditions and way of living. All of these form our culture. Separating any of these components from the others just results in the formation of a sub-culture.

[@TeachersMarkandMatt]

Love it. Doing my EMBA now and studying this. Couldn’t be a more relevant topic for me :)

[@rabiarhallab1116]

She is amazing professor

[@Tactical_DZ]

If Harvard accepted me I'd take one of her classes. Haha but they won't 😂👀

[@siomaracassia3244]

Is it possible to separate language and culture? This is an intriguing subject clarified by professor Tsedal Neeley. Great explanation, Professor Tsedal Neeley! Cheeres!

[@MariadeLourdesAniesSanch-ze7hf]

for me I feel the job

[@MariadeLourdesAniesSanch-ze7hf]

this problem every day

[@MariadeLourdesAniesSanch-ze7hf]

why? never study

[@ketutsukarta2515]

I like this profesor...very great profesor of harvard business school...

[@damonangelo9135]

She's a socialist nutcase. English is the international language of commerce and science.

[@meroistlyrikeruwu6566]

Talk a bit slower please. You might Finish your speech in 30 Mins otherwise.

[@juliochino5204]

I think she´s got a point, but the only outlet that i see is that everybody needs to speak english

[@lambapinymontuel1025]

UNESCO)

[@emmanueloluga9770]

Interesting Perspective. Somewhat lacking though. The Business model of sociocultural interactions is already unsubstantiated in its own rights. At this point, all we are doing is some sort for rigorous mental gymnastics

[@adelmiratadeo5442]

Poiiu

[@rasiaijauoren]

Referred to video title, who said that? Whats the proof? Are we sure? It seem, currently-presently, success is/are bias towards one side of language, culture, etc...

[@dslopez145]

This conference is just understanding language in a wrong way, it is, as an structure that only has an organizational function. We have to understand that language principle is the communication and communication is not only about to learn language forms, is also to know how that forms interact in every culture. It's true, you can understand english in Europe and also in America in the same way, but you're not understanding Europe and America if you don't know the ways english is used there. Therefore, it isn't productive to keep the language apart of society , because the language has the communicative function, but the realization of that function only happens into a culture

[@jonl1015]

But as foreign learners you need to learn a language before you understand its culture?

[@kirkjaerify]

@@jonl1015 You can understand a culture or at least parts of it without learning its language. But you will never be able to fully partake as well as passing on the culture if you don't learn its language. Then again, this is not needed in a business, why her conclusion is good just limited.