Simon Tam: The power of language

If you knew you had a finite num­ber of words you had left to speak in this life, what would they be?

Would they be words of love, heal­ing and under­stand­ing? Or would they defend jus­tice, brav­ery and sac­ri­fice?

What would the world look like if we all thought a lit­tle bit longer before we spoke?

Simon Tam will illus­trate at TEDxSalem this year how words have start­ed wars, can break or make rela­tion­ships and heal or hurt peo­ple.

“My talk in par­tic­u­lar is about the way we use lan­guage and how we should treat our lan­guage care­ful­ly and con­sid­er our words and make every word count,” Tam said.

Tam uses his words dai­ly to fur­ther his cause, com­mu­ni­cate his exper­tise and build rela­tion­ships. He’s a founder and bassist for an Asian Amer­i­can band, The Slants, and a pub­lic speak­er. He has writ­ten two books on thriv­ing in the music busi­ness and reg­u­lar­ly speaks about racial jus­tice and diver­si­ty.

Tam par­tic­u­lar­ly seems to enjoy using words to chal­lenge com­mon def­i­n­i­tions and cause us to rethink what they rep­re­sent. The fact that he start­ed an Asian band named The Slants is a good exam­ple. The name takes charge of the car­i­ca­ture of the slant­ed-eyed Asian, and gives it a new mean­ing, Tam says.

“It would be an oppor­tu­ni­ty to talk about our slant, or our per­spec­tive, as peo­ple of col­or,” he said. “It’s a play on words, re-appro­pri­at­ing the term.”

The band has become a way to hon­or Asian her­itages and activists and break stereo­types.

But no mat­ter what your goals or mes­sage is, choos­ing your words wise­ly can only help, Tam says. And that’s only the begin­ning.

Some say actions speak loud­er than words, but it is when they match your words that you are most effec­tive.

Cur­rent­ly, Tam is the mar­ket­ing direc­tor for Ore­gon Envi­ron­men­tal Coun­cil, but he has about a mil­lion oth­er jobs, tour­ing with his band, speak­ing at ani­me con­ven­tions and teach­ing.

We’re so glad he has cho­sen TEDxSalem as one of his many plat­forms to spread his idea. If we’re lucky, The Slants may also make an appear­ance.

Get your tick­ets at the His­toric Elsi­nore The­atre or online: http://goo.gl/pI3UJ2.