Comma story - Terisa Folaron
AdultsHistoryLanguageGrammar...It isn't easy holding complex sentences together (just ask a conjunction or a subordinate), but the clever little comma can help lighten the load. But how to tell when help is really needed? Terisa Folaron offers some tricks of the comma trade.
Hearing Hands
AdultsDisabilityLanguageMarketing...People Learn How To "Speak" In Sign Language To Surprise Their Hearing Impaired Neighbour.
How languages evolve - Alex Gendler
AdultsHistoryLanguageScienceOver the course of human history, thousands of languages have developed from what was once a much smaller number. How did we end up with so many? And how do we keep track of them all? Alex Gendler explains how linguists group languages into language families, demonstrating how these linguistic trees give us crucial insights into the past.
Music as a language - Victor Wooten
AdultsLanguageMusicMusic is a powerful communication tool--it causes us to laugh, cry, think and question. Bassist and five-time Grammy winner, Victor Wooten, asks us to approach music the same way we learn verbal language--by embracing mistakes and playing as often as possible.
Are Elvish, Klingon, Dothraki and Na'vi real languages?
AdultsBooksFilmLanguage...What do Game of Thrones' Dothraki, Avatar's Na'vi, Star Trek's Klingon and LOTR's Elvish have in common? They are all fantasy constructed languages, or conlangs. Conlangs have all the delicious complexities of real languages: a high volume of words, grammar rules, and room for messiness and evolution. John McWhorter explains why these invented languages captivate fans long past the rolling credits.
What is dyslexia?
AdultsLanguageScienceEducation...Dyslexia affects up to 1 in 5 people, but the experience of dyslexia isn't always the same. This difficulty in processing language exists along a spectrum -- one that doesn't necessarily fit with labels like "normal" and "defective." Kelli Sandman-Hurley urges us to think again about dyslexic brain function and to celebrate the neurodiversity of the human brain.
Vsauce Breaks Down The Problems Of Naming Everything In Our World
AdultsHistoryLanguageSociety...A misnomer is a word or term that suggests a meaning that is known to be wrong. Misnomers often arise because the thing named received its name long before its true nature was known. A misnomer may also be simply a word that is used incorrectly or misleadingly.
The language of lying
AdultsLanguageSocietyPsychologyWe hear anywhere from 10 to 200 lies a day. And although we've spent much of our history coming up with ways to detect these lies by tracking physiological changes in their tellers, these methods have proved unreliable. Is there a more direct approach? Noah Zandan uses some famous examples of lying to illustrate how we might use communications science to analyze the lies themselves.
Word Crimes
AdultsInternet CultureLanguageMusic...Music video by "Weird Al" Yankovic performing Word Crimes.
Can You Trust Your Ears?
AdultsLanguageSocietyPsychology...Should you believe your ears and the things they hear?
Valentina speaks about her experience studying in Vancouver
AdultsSmrt PathwayEducationTravel...Valentina speaks about how she took the Smrt IELTS program at the Canadian College of English Language and how much she loves Vancouver.