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 multilingual 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 BenGurion University of the Negev. Roxanne was the winner of a campuswide competition to be the Student Speaker representative at TedxBGU 2015. Her talk was inspired by her intensive Hebrewlanguage 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 debutTed 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 http://ted.com/tedx