Opening the World's Doors: One Language at a Time - Chuck Smith | Hancock Symposium 2023

2023 Hancock Symposium plenary session #3 by Chuck Smith, Chief Technical Officer at Amikumu Pty Ltd Language/Social Media App Creator, on "Opening the World's Doors: One Language at a Time." September 20, 2023, at 3:30 pm in Champ Auditorium.
Get ready to be inspired! This motivational talk is all about how learning foreign languages can open doors to opportunities around the world and impact your life in ways you never expected. The speaker will share his experiences learning different languages and how that has helped him in his personal and professional life. Through his talk, the speaker wants to help you see the benefits of learning a foreign language and give you renewed energy when returning to your foreign language classes. Don’t miss out on this exciting opportunity.
Chuck Smith is a language enthusiast fluent in multiple languages, who has devoted his career to fostering linguistic diversity and enhancing cross-cultural dialogue. Early in his career, he founded the Esperanto version of Wikipedia, established the first job-search site for Esperanto speakers, and was instrumental in incorporating Esperanto into Duolingo's curriculum. His contributions earned him the "Esperantist of the Year" accolade in 2015. From 2014-2016, he co-organised the Polyglot Gathering, the mecca of global language aficionados and language bloggers. Since then, Chuck has served as the Founder and CTO of Amikumu, an innovative social networking app designed to link language learners with nearby native speakers.
The theme of the 2023 Hancock Symposium was "The Languages of Life": the words we speak, the movement of our bodies, the patterns of our DNA, and the characters that are eloquently drawn on pages for us to read are all examples of languages that we live and breathe daily. However, there’s more. How do the trees speak to one another to warn of a coming storm? How do companies persuade you to buy their product? How do politicians use phrasing to earn your vote? How do computers communicate with only zeros and ones and yet form a foundation for society? How does the shared experience of a culture or subculture create a vernacular only understood by its members? How can we foster better communication, by being inclusive and equitable with our words and our actions? This Symposium will engage experts who will help us understand the languages of our lives, and spur us to think carefully about how we choose to communicate with those around us. It will highlight the importance of values, character, lifelong learning, and problem-solving - all key components of a liberal arts education.
2023 symposium: www.wcmo.edu/s...
Westminster College: www.wcmo.edu