Perhaps
you were thinking of the American comedy film about an annoying and rude teddy
bear while reading the title of this post...
Well, sorry to disappoint you, but today we’d like to talk about another TED: Technology, Entertainment and Design. It is a non-profit organization formed to disseminate “ideas worth spreading”.
TED is famous for its annual congress (TED Conference) and lectures (TED talks) dealing with a wide range of topics including science, art and design, politics, education, culture, business, global issues, technology and development and entertainment.
Among its speakers we find former U.S. President Bill Clinton, Nobel Prize laureates James D. Watson, Murray Gell-Mann, and Al Gore, the co-founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates, Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, and Billy Graham.
There are more than 900 TED talks available online for free viewing and downloading. Due to the wide variety of subjects they cover and the possibility of watching the videos with subtitles in several languages (English is always available), we think it is a useful resource for those of you eager to improve your listening skills.
Today, we give you an example of two talks available at www.ted.com. The first one became popular several months ago, when model Cameron Russell gave her insight concerning personal image. In the second one (the most viewed at TED webpage), Kevin Robinson explains his theory of how school kills creativity. You can watch the talks with subtitles in English from youtube (not accurate at all) by clicking on the subtitle button at the bottom of the screen. Or even better, you can also choose to watch the videos at ted.com (also with subtitles) by clicking on the links provided below:
Cameron Rusell:
http://www.ted.com/talks/cameron_russell_looks_aren_t_everything_believe_me_i_m_a_model.html
Cameron Rusell: "I won a genetic lottery but I'm insecure because I have to think what I look like everyday".
Kevin Robinson: “Creativity is as important in education as literacy and we should treat it with the same status”.
No copyright infringement intended. For educational, non commercial purposes only.
Galician speakers are also involved in TED conferences. Borja Tosar, an amateur astronomer from A Coruña, took part in TEDx Galicia; besides, every last Saturday of each month he gives free talks at the Planetarium of Casa de las Ciencias in A Coruña. I know this blog deals with English subjects but I think it’s also important to know that Galicia takes part in these international events.
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Fantastic, interesting post. No excuses for the listenig tests from now on... ;-)
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