The surprising paradox of intercultural communication | Helena Merschdorf | TEDxNelson

What if English as the global lingua franca is both our greatest asset and biggest downfall in intercultural communication? While the idea of a global language is appealing – especially in the age of globalisation – it often creates “invisible misunderstandings”. This can lead to harmless awkwardness in the best case or have dire political, economic, and social impacts in the worst case. In this talk, Helena explores where these misunderstandings come from, and how can we work to avoid them. Helena is a social scientist, GIS analyst, translator, and writer, working at the interface of linguistics and technology. Growing up bilingually and between two cultures, it didn’t take Helena long to recognise the perils of intercultural (mis)communication – and decide to do something about it. She soon made it her mission to understand the complex interplay of language and culture, leading her to obtain master’s degrees in both translation studies and geographic information science. She is currently pursuing her PhD in GIScience, where her research examines how linguistic bias impacts our understanding of global human phenomena. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at