Patricia Ryan | TEDxDubai
English is big business and languages are dying as never before. Is there a connection? Is this another manifestation of McDonaldisation — the undesirable face of globalization? Do we want to lose the variety of languages and all the rich culture that comes with them?
Patricia is British of Irish descent and has spent most of the past 40 years teaching English in the countries of the Arabian Gulf.
She is currently teaching at Zayed University in Dubai, and is studying for a second Masters degree in Law.
She is married and has five children, all of whom are bi-lingual Arabic-English speakers.
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The theme for TEDxDubai 2010 is REBOOT. But what does it mean?
For the technology addicts, it is a way to prompt a fresh start. Sometimes there is nothing else one can do other than start again.
REBOOT is sometimes forced upon us, so we should celebrate and share the events that prompt a fresh start, the failures that inspire new ventures and the ideas worth spreading from that journey.
When we Reboot we embrace failure and celebrate it as an opportunity to Re-think, Re-start.