Meet the translator: Khalid Marbou, who brings you TED Talks in ArabicTED Talks are available in 100 languages, from Albanian to Vietnamese, thanks to the tireless work of our volunteer translators. So far, more than 10,000 volunteers have created upwards of 40,000 talk translations — and every week, the TED Blog brings you a Q&A with one of them. Today, meet Khalid Marbou. 1. Where do you […]
5 mnemonic devices for reading Chinese charactersTo an outsider, the Chinese language “seems to be as impenetrable as the Great Wall of China,” says ShaoLan Hsueh in today’s talk, given at TED2013. Hsueh’s mission over the past few years has been to break down that barrier, making reading and writing in Chinese accessible to people who didn’t grow up doing it. […]
A new TED playlist delivers talks on language from curious wordsmithsLanguage is at the heart of all our interactions — whether you’re texting, emailing, talking, singing or heatedly debating. So of course, quite a few TED Talks are about the art of language. That’s why we created the new TED playlist, “Words, words, words.” Included in this playlist: Mark Pagel reveals how language transformed humanity, […]
Meet the translator: Elena Montrasio, who brings you talks in ItalianTED Talks are available in 100 languages, from Albanian to Vietnamese, thanks to the tireless work of our translators. So far, more than 9,400 volunteers have created the upwards of 40,000 translated talks. To celebrate this huge accomplishment, every week the TED Blog will be bringing you a Q&A with one of our most prolific […]
Texting as a “miraculous thing”: 6 ways our generation is redefining communicationTexting is not a blight on the English language, says linguist John McWhorter in today’s talk, given at TED2013. Rather, texting is a “miraculous thing”: a novel linguistic mode that’s redefining the way we communicate with each other — for the better. McWhorter points out that texting shouldn’t be categorized as written language –but as […]
9 great talks about talkingTED Talks cover an incredible breadth of topics – from mathematical origami to self-repairing architecture to personalized medicine. Some talks explore what lies at the very essence of TED — the act of talking. The 10 talks below explore the various dynamics of speech — from phonology to cognition to the socio-cultural role of language in […]
Meet David Peterson, who developed Dothraki for Game of ThronesThere are seven different words in Dothraki for striking another person with a sword. Among them: “hlizifikh,” a wild but powerful strike; “hrakkarikh,”a quick and accurate strike; and “gezrikh,” a fake-out or decoy strike. But you won’t find these words in George R. R. Martin’s epic series A Song of Ice and Fire, which is where Dothraki originated as the language […]
Meet the translator: Ido Dekkers, who brings you talks in HebrewTED Talks are available in 97 languages, from Albanian to Vietnamese, thanks to the tireless work of our translators. So far, more than 8,800 volunteers have created the upwards of 34,000 translated talks. To celebrate this huge accomplishment, every week the TED Blog will be bringing you a Q&A with one of our most prolific […]
Meet the translator: Els De Keyser, who brings you talks in DutchTED Talks are available in 97 languages, from Albanian to Vietnamese, thanks to the tireless work of our translators. So far, more than 8,800 volunteers have created the upwards of 34,000 translated talks. To celebrate this huge accomplishment, every week the TED Blog will be bringing you a Q&A with one of our most prolific […]
The linguistic miracle of texting: John McWhorter at TED2013More than 22 million text messages are sent across the world every day … many in truly terrible English. It’s the end of the world as we know it, many decry. The decline and fall of written language means the end for us all, right? Not so fast. Linguist John McWhorter has a great new […]
5 examples of how the languages we speak can affect the way we thinkEconomist Keith Chen starts today’s talk with an observation: to say, “This is my uncle,” in Chinese, you have no choice but to encode more information about said uncle. The language requires that you denote the side the uncle is on, whether he’s related by marriage or birth and, if it’s your father’s brother, whether […]
Saving for a rainy day: Keith Chen on language that forecasts weather — and behaviorBy Keith Chen How are China, Estonia and Germany different from India, Greece and the UK? To an economist, one answer is obvious: savings rates. Germans save 10 percentage points more than the British do (as a fraction of GDP), while Estonians and Chinese save a whopping 20 percentage points more than Greeks and Indians. […]
Meet the Translator: Alberto Pagani, who brings you TED Talks in ItalianTED Talks are available in 94 languages, from Albanian to Vietnamese, thanks to the tireless work of our translators. So far, more than 8,500 volunteers have created nearly 34,000 translated talks. To celebrate this huge accomplishment, every week the TED Blog will be bringing you a Q&A with one of our most prolific translators. Today, […]
Meet the translator: Laszlo Kereszturi, who brings you TED Talks in Hungarian and RomanianTED Talks are available in 94 languages, from Albanian to Vietnamese, thanks to the tireless work of our translators. So far, more than 8,500 volunteers have created the upwards of 33,500 translated talks. To celebrate this accomplishment, every week the TED Blog is bringing you a Q&A with one of our most prolific translators. Today, […]
Which TED Talks were the hardest to translate?With the help of more than 8,000 volunteer translators, TED Talks have been subtitled and translated into more than 90 languages. But the translators of TED’s Open Translation Project sometimes face difficulties while trying to find the right expression in their language. I put the question to my fellow translators: What talk did you have […]
