"How we learn a language" by Ryan Stenhosue

how_we_learn_a_langugae/README.md

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+# How we learn a language
+
+We all use language in fun and interesting ways, even when we don’t
+think about it. Our industry brings us together with people from all
+over the world, even some of the folks attending this conference will
+speak English as a second or even third language.
+
+In a past life I was a teacher of english as a foreign language, and
+these days I’ve kept that passion for languages alive by becoming
+multilingual myself.
+
+I’ll speak about how we pick up a programming language in much the same
+way as we learn to speak a natural language and then integrate ourselves
+in the culture surrounding that programming language in much the same
+way.
+
+I’m not going to talk at boring lengths about language theory, but
+instead evaluate how we learn a language as humans – regardless of its
+origin. I hope to make it clear that you can apply some of – if not all
+– the same skills you use to easily pick up a new programming language
+to give you a real leg-up in learning a foreign language.
+
+You’ll never think about abstraction or obfuscation in exactly the same
+way again, and hopefully leave with a desire to test my assertion and
+learn another language, and that would be just great. 
Why would I want
+to do this? Well, I’m biased but I truly believe that the world would be
+a better place if people understood each other better – and that means
+more people becoming multilingual.
+
+
+## Ryan Stenhouse
+
+Ryan's a Ruby fanatic with a love of languages, programming and
+otherwise. He's well travelled and has worked on projects of varying
+complexity for companies you've probably heard of. He’s also a little
+bit nuts when it comes to communication and has a burning passion for
+getting groups of people together to solve their problems. He also
+really hates describing himself in the third person and has only
+recently gotten over his aversion to tofu.
+
+## Past talks
+
+I spoke at the Scottish Ruby Conference about PCI DSS compliance,
+[the slides are on slideshare][1] and the [viedeo is on ConFreaks][2].
+
+I also gave a talk at the Scottish Ruby User Group about the importance
+of culture informing your localisation efforts. [video is here][3] and
+the [slides are here][4].
+
+[1]: http://www.slideshare.net/ryanstenhouse/these-are-not-the-credit-cards-youre-looking-for
+[2]: http://www.confreaks.com/videos/568-scotlandruby2011-these-are-not-the-credit-cards-you-are-looking-for 
+[3]: http://scotrug.org/2012/02/11/video-culture-of-internationalisation.html 
+[4]: http://www.slideshare.net/ryanstenhouse/the-culture-of-localiszation
+
+![Profile picture](https://github.com/HHRy/call-for-proposals/raw/master/my_picture.jpg)
+
+- [My website](http://ryanstenhouse.eu)
+- [My work](http://www.freeagent.com)
+- [My company](http://www.thehappygeek.co.uk)
+- [My twitter](https://twitter.com/#!/ryanstenhouse)
+