In the spirit of the event, “TedxBGU2015: Breaking Barriers”, Roxanne brings our attention to language barriers. In a very interesting talk, she takes examples from linguistics, cognitive sciences, and her personal experience as an American living in Israel, to make a case for replenishing the world with multi-lingual people. Imagine a world without language barriers, and ponder whether the amazing ability that all children have to learn languages may be a helpful tool in conflict resolution.

Roxanne lived in Beersheva, Israel for six months to participate in the Overseas Student Program at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. Roxanne was the winner of a campus-wide competition to be the Student Speaker representative at TedxBGU 2015. Her talk was inspired by her intensive Hebrew-language learning program (Ulpan) experience and by being part of an international student body that developed strong connections quickly with the help of a new common language. Exposure to the Hebrew language at a very young age through Jewish traditions gave Roxanne a natural advantage in the language learning process: an advantage which, through her debut-Ted talk, she wishes people will be inspired to give to others, simply by making a conscious effort to expose the children in their lives to foreign languages.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at ted.com/tedx