How to make language fun— and create a more inclusive world (with Juli Delgado Lopera)
How to Be a Better Human
TED
4.1 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 14 June 2021
⏱️ 33 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Do you remember the first time you used “Google” as a verb? Or a time before there were “selfies”? Language is constantly evolving, and as a result provides limitless opportunities to change how we see the world. Juli Delgado Lopera is the author of the acclaimed novel “Fiebre Tropical” (Feminist Press 2020), which was recently awarded the LAMBDA Literary Award for Lesbian Fiction. A Colombian now living in the U.S., Juli breaks down boundaries of English and Spanish in their work by de-stabilizing our notions of language, gender, and geography. In today’s episode, they explain the benefits of bending the rigid structures that language upholds and suggest exercises that can help us appreciate and find joy in words. “Fiebre Tropical” was a finalist of the 2020 Kirkus Prize in Fiction and the 2021 Aspen Literary Prize. Juli is also the author of “¡Cuéntamelo!” (Aunt Lute 2017), an illustrated bilingual collection of oral histories by LGBT Latinx immigrants. Their work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and has appeared in places such as Teen Vogue, The Kenyon Review, McSweeney's, The Rumpus, The White Review, LALT, Four Way Review, Broadly, and TimeOut Mag. They are the former executive director of RADAR Productions, a queer literary non-profit in San Francisco.
For the full text transcript, visit go.ted.com/BHTranscripts
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Ted Audio Collective. |
| 0:02.0 | Audio Collective. |
| 0:04.0 | I am Chris Duffy and this is how to be a better human. |
| 0:12.0 | So on today's episode, we're going to be talking about communicating across and between languages. |
| 0:17.0 | I love learning languages. It's one of my favorite things. |
| 0:21.0 | One of my favorite parts about learning a new language is getting to know |
| 0:25.2 | the idioms and the proverbs. They make me so happy. For example, in Senegalese Wolloff, if you want to say good things take time, you say, |
| 0:34.8 | in Danka Danka Moijap Golochinayay, which literally means slowly, slowly one catches |
| 0:40.6 | the monkey in the forest. Or in Swedish, if they want to say that someone is born wealthy, |
| 0:46.0 | instead of saying he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, |
| 0:49.0 | they say, he slid in on a shrimp sandwich. |
| 0:52.0 | And oh my God, I love that. |
| 0:55.0 | That is absolutely incredible imagery |
| 0:58.2 | and a dream way of entering a room. |
| 1:00.6 | And look, my point here is less about shellfish-based transportation methods and more about the idea that there are almost limitless potentials to language. |
| 1:10.0 | And it can be so joyful to experiment and creatively play around with how we describe the world around us. |
| 1:16.0 | The way that we use language, it can change the way that we understand ourselves. |
| 1:21.0 | And by breaking down some of these rigid structures that we've put up around language, |
| 1:24.9 | we can find freedom and liberation. Today's guest is an author and speaker who beautifully breaks down |
| 1:30.7 | boundaries in their work and challenges their readers to think more deeply about language, gender and location. |
| 1:37.0 | Puli Delgado Lopera just won the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Fiction for their fantastic novel, |
| 1:43.0 | Verebra tropical, which is written in both English and Spanish. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from TED, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of TED and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.