Guest: Desh Pillay and Molly Babel
English has many versions.
In fact, it has so many that learning the language is one thing, but learning the local dialect is another.
Desh Pillay of Change Your Accent says, "Heavy accents make it harder to get emergency help, get or give directions and they can hinder your career."
Professor Molly Babel takes on a guided tour of how and why English took off as the international language. Today, there are about four times as many people who speak English as their second language as there are those who speak it as their mother tongue.
Chinglish, Franglish, Hinglish and so on, all of which have their own phonemes and graphemes that make understanding one another challenging. Desh Pillay says the good news is you can learn and adopt the sounds of the local dialect with the help of a speech pathologist.
We invited Michelle Vanderzon of The Kettle Society to join us for a Conversation That Matters about the role that not-for-profit organizations are playing in meeting the needs of people facing mental health, substance abuse, and poverty issues.
We invited Cathy Peters, the author of “Child Sex Trafficking in the USA and How to Stop It,” to join us for a Conversation That Matters about the need to be hyper-vigilant when dealing with anyone you don’t know online, especially if you are a teen.
We invited Wellington Holbrook, the CEO at Vancity Credit Union, to join us for a Conversation That Matters about innovative and entrepreneurial thinking that delivers for the marginalized and anyone else who chooses to be a part of the power of collective financing.
We invited Dr. Linda Schubring to join us for a Conversation That Matters about the how-to and benefits of embracing diversity within organizations.