#thought cafe

Crash Course Linguistics Preview

I’m excited to announce that the teaser trailer for Crash Course Linguistics is now up, and the following 16 full-length videos will be coming out around this time on Fridays for the next few months! 

Welcome to Crash Course Linguistics! Linguistics is everywhere and is super useful for pretty much everyone. Over 16 episodes, Taylor Behnke will teach you all about language, from its structure, to the relationship between language and our identity, the brain, and computers, to writing, language acquisition, and the diversity of human languages! 

If you’ve been meaning to learn introductory linguistics concepts in a more systematic manner, or you want an easy way to share your interest in linguistics with other people, Crash Course Linguistics is a great way to do that! 

It’s been really fun working on the scripts for Crash Course Linguistics since the beginning of 2020 with Lauren Gawne and Jessi Grieser (Lingthusiasm x Crash Course crossover), as well as seeing them come to life through our host Taylor Behnke and the teams at Crash Course and Thought Cafe. 

At times I feel socially awkward hiding away those eyes from contact mumbling and stuttering  as though I were stumbling upon the words as I was discovering  Please don't think I don't want to talk when I rush out  For I escape out of nervosity  I feel the fuzziness in my head the butterflies in my stomach the nervosity in my nerves  the lack of air in my lungs the fidgety feeling in my muscles and the gritting of my teeth on my nails I hide behind shadows so I don't encounter any social interaction

No matter how many times I plan  and play a conversation in my head  I shudder and fret in reality making me like such an awkward mess

I want to be friends I want to say hi  but the words do not escape  for I feel tongue tied

I feel conscience and dreadful for being such an awkward mess choking on words  unable to let them  escape from my tongue

I am thinking more than I am speaking I can have a conversation in my head  but somehow I find it difficult in reality

but then you reach out  and make the first move  It makes it easier  only to find myself being an embarrassment once again  But you don't judge  you play it cool and remain patient you still show an eager to talk  and maybe that was what I needed  to be comfortable and me