TALK - David Vaughan TALK - David Vaughan

The lively lecture and debate will take place in a very cosy cafe and hall located in one of the hidden courtyard of the historical core of Prague.

David Vaughan is a freelance writer broadcaster journalist and university lecturer.

In the Beginning Was the Word

There is a Czech saying: “Kolik jazyků umíš tolikrát jsi člověkem” – the more languages you speak the more you are a person. Speaking more languages enriches our lives and gives us new perspectives. But as anyone who is bilingual or trilingual will tell you the relationship between language and identity is a complicated one. The Czech saying could also be interpreted as “The more languages you speak the more people you are.” Do we really want to be more than one person? To what extent is the way we see the world determined by the language or languages we speak? Just because some Inuit languages have fifty different words for snow does that mean that speakers of that language see snow differently? And what about children who grow up bilingual? Do they have multiple personalities? And what about language and national identity? Speaking the Czech language is almost the definition of being Czech but if you are Swiss you might have one of several different native languages and still be proud of your nation. Can you change your “native” language?

You can buy the ticket here: Ticket link: