The TEDGlobal translator contingent — part of a group of more than 9,000 volunteer translators in 101 languages. Photo: Ryan Lash

“I write sci-fi novels, because if I wrote a white paper nobody would read it,” Daniel Suarez told a panel of translators at TEDGlobal 2013. The science fiction author and drone activist was taking questions during his Skype Open Translation session, in which he described a dystopic–and all too believable–future dominated by autonomous lethal drones. His audience sat on the edge of their seats (or beanbags), bursting with questions. For instance, German translator Philipp Boing asked why he used science fiction as a medium to warn about such a dire vision of the future. Avoiding obscurity was a pretty solid answer.

During breaks between talk sessions throughout the week, a curated panel of TEDGlobal speakers and TED Talk translators–appearing in person and via videoconference–discussed topics like drone warfare, cultural identity, humor and guerrilla urban development. While the translators and speakers did not always directly address the topic of translation itself, the theme remained a powerful undercurrent. And many of the translators’ questions for the speakers shared a theme, too. One favorite: “How will you (or I) carry your ideas off of the TED stage?”

Just as there is no such thing as a definitive translation, none of the speakers claimed to have a singular answer. For Suarez, fiction was one relatable way to convey his message. But he also works with advocacy organizations, hypothesizes legal frameworks, and models an open-source “immune system” designed to allow citizens to monitor rogue drones.

We know that ideas, predictions and solutions for the future come from a lucky intersection of what we know and observe with our informed imagination. When Teddy Cruz observed how Tijuana residents retrofitted their generic, developer-built bungalows, he saw a density of social and economic interactions that’s missing in certain sprawling, oil- and water-guzzling American cities. Swedish translator Matti Jaaro asked him how it might be possible to reinvigorate a sense of ownership among urban dwellers, rich or poor. Cruz answered that not only did he see in these developing-world neighborhoods a model to rein in sprawl, but also an opportunity to “establish a social platform through a kind of urban pedagogy.” In other words: reinvent the negative connotation of “slums” and invest in parks and social spaces in neighborhoods that are already vibrant, but lack a voice.

Translators are key to this process of reinventing assumptions and giving a voice to the unheard. They have first-hand familiarity with the power of language to generate ideas–for good or bad. Translator Katia Demirtzoglou, talking with artist Hetain Patel about language’s effect on cultural identity, described the unique brand of humor her multilingual family had developed as a result of rapidly switching among German, English and Turkish. “Others often don’t understand the jokes between us,” she said. Yet.

Shadia Ramsahye is a Mauritian-born digital media student living in Paris. She speaks four languages — Mauritian Creole, French, English and Urdu — and translates TED Talks into the latter, which she describes as “the language of poetry, the language of the heart.”

“Translating for TED has helped me keep in touch with this language I am very passionate about,” Ramsahye says, in this video (directed by Angela Cheng, DP’ed by Ryan Lash and produced by Roxanne Hai Lash). “It has helped  me connect with more people.”

Ramsahye is one of the 11,000+ translators who’ve participated in TED’s Open Translation Project, translating talks into 101 languages. Yesterday, as we got ready to kick off TEDGlobal 2013, 24 veteran translators representing 24 different languages got together for a full day workshop. The group shared experiences, watched the premiere of Ramsahye’s profile video and got updates on the future of the Open Translation Project. The group also participated in an Action Planning session, to set goals for the next year.

Swedish volunteer translator and designer Dick Lundgren created a gift for the translators — the cutting board you see below, themed around cutting-edge ideas worth sharing. Shepard Fairey’s Studio Number One designed this year’s translator T-shirt.

The 24 translators who participated in the OTP Translator Workshop. Photo: Ryan Lash

Kristin Windbigler, director of the Open Translator Project, talks to the group. Photo: Ryan Lash

Translators discuss the future of the program. At center are translators Els De Keyser (in green shirt) and Anwar Dafa-Alla (in dark-blue shirt). Photo: Ryan Lash

Meet more TED translators »

And read more about the program »

TED translator Khalid Marbou at work in the nanotechnology lab.

TED 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 live and what do you do by day?

I was born and raised in Tiznit, Morocco, and live in Cyberjaya, Malaysia, where I’m pursuing a bachelor’s degree in nanotechnology engineering. Aside from my studies, I spend most of my day online keeping in touch with friends and relatives — blogging, translating, reading and working on different projects in Malaysia and Morocco. 

2. What drew you to TED?

Many factors made me into a TED fanatic, but I would say that the most influential of them is my constant search for inspiration and intellectual stimulation. Before TED, I found small doses of inspiration reading novels and watching movies, but when I first discovered TED, it gave me a jolt. It’s never ceased to inspire me to this day.

3. What was the first talk you translated and how did you pick it?

Charles Fleischer insists: All things are MoleedsMy first talk was Charles Fleischer’s “All things are Moleeds.” Most of the other translators avoided the talk because of its complexity and richness – it has made-up words and expressions — but I liked Charles’ sense of humor and wanted to share it with my friends, so they could understand it. I picked it up both as a challenge and as a test to see how prepared I would be for complex translation tasks. I managed to finish it within a day, and picked up another talk right away.

4. What have been your favorite talks to translate? Why?

Beau Lotto + Amy O’Toole: Science is for everyone, kids includedI would say Beau Lotto + Amy O’Toole’s talk: “Science is for everyone, kids included.” First, because I am very passionate about science communication and involving kids in scientific activities. I’ve been working on implementing similar initiatives in Moroccan schools and raising awareness about the subject in general. And second, having attended TEDGlobal2012, I saw Beau and Amy onstage and was tremendously amazed and excited. I said to myself, “That’s a talk I want to spend hours translating.” And I did.

5. Which talk was the most difficult for you to translate and why?

The most challenging talk for me was indeed that first talk I translated, “All things are Moleeds.”

6. What’s a phrase in your language that you wish would catch on globally?

I’d like to share a quote from my native language, Tamazight:

“أورا تمون أبلا إيح ترعي”

Which translates into:

“It won’t get organized unless it first gets all messy.”

TED 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 translators. Today, meet Elena Montrasio.

Where do you live and what do you do by day?

I live in London, U.K. I am a professor of Italian as a foreign language but at the moment I work as a literary translator.

What drew you to TED?

The desire to participate in a volunteer program where I could contribute my skills. That and general interest in the topics that TED deals with.

What was the first talk you translated and how did you pick it?

Peter Gabriel fights injustice with videoMy first talk was Peter Gabriel’s. I chose it because I have been in love with Peter Gabriel since I was 14!

What have been your favorite talks to translate? Why?

My favorite talks are the ones about marine conservation issues. The decay of the oceans because of damage from human beings is a topic that is very dear to my heart.

Which talk was the most difficult for you to translate and why?

It was actually a TEDx talk, “Captain Paul Watson: On upholding the international laws of marine conservation.” Not because it was hard in itself, but because I really wanted to do my absolute very best to contribute in spreading his message. So it took me a long time to make sure I was accurate and choosing words that would portray the heart that the speaker put into the talk.

What’s a phrase in your language that you wish would catch on globally?

“Se chiure na porta e s’arape nu portone.” It’s literally, “When a door closes, a wider door will open.” I think in English they say: “When a door closes, a window opens.”

TED 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 translators. Today, meet

Where do you live? What do you do?

I live in a small village in Israel, and I’m a front end web developer.

What drew you to TED?

I’ve known TED since it only had a few dozen talks, and I was always drawn to the topics and the quality.

What was the first talk you translated and how did you pick it?

Beau Lotto: Optical illusions show how we see The first talk I translated was Beau Lotto’s “Optical illusions show how we see,” I picked it since my then 9-year-old daughter didn’t know English well enough and I was acting as an online translator. Then, I saw the translate button. Ever since then, I’ve been hooked.

What have been your favorite talks to translate? Why?

My favorite talk to translate was … actually all of Marco Tempest’s talks. They are so riveting.

Marco Tempest: A cyber-magic card trick like no otherWhich talk was the most difficult for you to translate and why?

The hardest talk was the TED-Ed lesson “Making sense of spelling” by Gina Cooke. It talks about spelling and grammar in English, and it’s very hard to pass on to other languages.

What’s a phrase in your language that you wish would catch on globally? 

I think the most known phrase is “eihiye beseder” which translates to “everything will be OK.” People use it here all the time. We have so many worries, we try at least to take everything easy.

TED 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 translators. Today, meet 

Where do you live and what do you do by day?

I live in Mechelen, Belgium. By day, I work for the Financial Services and Markets Authority, in the department of supervision of the rules of conduct. Basically, we check whether financial institutions act honestly, fairly and professionally in accordance with the best interests of their clients.

What drew you to TED?

I stumbled onto TED in 2010 while preparing my MBA thesis on transparency as a competitive advantage in insurance. (I worked for an insurance company at the time.) Alan Siegel: Let's simplify legal jargon!  As a lawyer with a keen interest in plain language, I found Alan Siegel’s talk “Let’s simplify legal jargon” very inspiring.

What was the first talk you translated and how did you pick it?

I wanted to share Siegel’s talk with my colleagues at work. But that meant I had to overcome the language hurdle. I saw the “Translation” menu on TED.com and I thought, “Why not give it a try and translate it into Dutch?” The fact that the talk was only four minutes long helped too.

What have been your favorite talks to translate? Why?

I have a couple of favorite speakers, like Hans Rosling and Clay Shirky. They really changed my mindset. And they’re funny — I love the challenge of doing justice to their jokes. But the most moving talks, the ones that really stick with me, are often by speakers I would never have heard of if it hadn’t been for TED, Elyn Saks: A tale of mental illness -- from the insidelike Elyn Saks’s testimonial on schizophrenia and Alberto Cairo’s “There are no scraps of men.” Last but not least, I like to translate talks I saw live at TED or TEDx events, because working on the translation brings back fond memories of the experience.

Which talk was the most difficult for you to translate and why?

This summer, TED-Ed videos were added to the Open Translation Project. I translated a TED-Ed lesson on the art of metaphors, in which the animation illustrated the English imagery. I couldn’t just use the Dutch equivalent — because it would make the animation meaningless. In 3 or 4 seconds, I had to convey the meaning in Dutch and respect the original English image. This six minutes translation took me much longer than many an 18-minute TED Talk.

What’s a phrase in your language that you wish would catch on globally?

I would propose a word: “pretoogjes,” which refers to the eyes of a chuckling person who is up to mischief. It was the Dutch contribution to the Words Worth Spreading tray designed by Dick Lundgren and presented by the TED Translators at TEDGlobal 2012.

TED translators Dick Lundgren and Els De Keyser with the Words Worth Spreading trays.

]]> http://blog.ted.com/2013/03/12/meet-the-translator-els-de-keyser-who-brings-you-talks-in-dutch/feed/ 3 ElsDeKeyser ivanacat ElsDeKeyser ElsDeKeyser-with-plate http://blog.ted.com/2013/02/05/meet-the-translator-alberto-pagani-who-brings-you-ted-talks-in-italian/ http://blog.ted.com/2013/02/05/meet-the-translator-alberto-pagani-who-brings-you-ted-talks-in-italian/#comments Tue, 05 Feb 2013 21:49:14 +0000 Dimitra Papageorgiou & Ivana Korom http://blog.ted.com/?p=68873 ]]> TED 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 Alberto Pagani.

Where do you live? And what do you do by day?

I’m from Bologna, Italy — yes, the place where the ham-like thing comes from. I’m trying to make photography my full-time job, and am sort of a little more than halfway there. I also teach English, translate, volunteer for an NGO, have fun and listen to a lot of music.

What drew you to TED?

Random internet browsing in late 2008 or early 2009, I think. All I can remember is that I was doing some research online and I stumbled on a video from TED.com and, after watching A LOT of videos — one after the other — I realized I was hooked. Then I read about the conferences, the Open Translation Project and the TEDx program. I started translating and have gotten the chance to meet a lot of wonderful and inspiring people. Here we are five years later.

David Deutsch: A new way to explain explanation

What was the first talk you translated and how did you pick it?

The one I stumbled on about five years ago: David Deutsch’s “A new way to explain explanation.” Halfway through watching it, I thought of some friends who would love it as well — but they didn’t speak English. So I actually started writing down the text and translating it on my own. Then I noticed a link on the page referring to translations, I clicked there and discovered the Open Translation Project. I signed up immediately and started translating all the talks I could get my hands on.

What have been your favorite talks to translate? Why?

I like the challenging ones — the ones that make me work hard and learn things in the process. Sometimes the things I learn are related to the topic, but more often they are related to transferring the talks into Italian — the mood, the concepts, the humor and the cultural references that are found in the talks. That being said, there is a special place in my heart for the final bit of the first talk I translated: “Take two stone tablets. On one of them carve ‘Problems are solvable,’ on the other one carve ‘Problems are inevitable.’”

Which talk was the most difficult for you to translate and why?

Jokes are the hardest things to translate, in my opinion, and cultural-specific references are a very close second. We need to find an equivalent in the target language that maintains the tone, the general sense and often the specific meaning of the joke. Trust me on this: from a translator’s point of view, stand-up comedy is much, much harder than rocket science.

What’s a phrase in your language that you wish would catch on globally?

“Let’s talk about this over coffee/lunch/dinner.”

The idea is that to properly address important issues, people require a comfortable and relaxed environment, something a large number of Italians would not find in formal settings like an office or a meeting. I think you could roughly translate that phrase as: “I think the issue is important and I value your opinion, so it will be worthwhile to invest our free time in discussing this where we can both feel comfortable and speak our minds freely.”

Meet more of our TED translators »

Pagani snaps a photo on the TEDGlobal 2012 stage.

TED 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, meet Laszlo Kereszturi, pictured above right, with his family.

Where do you live? And what do you do by day?

I live in Oradea, Romania, and I work as an information security professional at a telecommunication company. I translate in Hungarian and Romanian.

What drew you to TED?

Due to my job and my living place, I have feel a lot of negative emotions every day. Before 2006, I escaped in the realm of science-fiction — but watching TED Talks has proved to be a better way. TED Talks are about positive ideas, people with real great initiatives, happening now — not in the distant future. And since 2009, when TED OTP made it possible to translate TED Talks, I am truly happy that I can contribute.

What was the first talk you translated and how did you pick it?

Hans Rosling: Stats that reshape your worldviewMy first talk was “Hans Rosling shows the best stats you’ve ever seen“. This talk just found me; I knew I had to translate it after watching the first five minutes. “Robert Lang: The math and magic of origami” was the second talk I translated. I knew about the art of origami before, but its implications in real life — from space exploration to medicine — were very worth sharing in my language.

What have been your favorite talks to translate? Why?

“John Hodgman: Aliens, love — where are they?” because it is funny in a clever way.Ben Dunlap: The life-long learner Its final part really moved me. I also enjoyed “Ben Dunlap: The life-long learner“, because it presents his personal experience with Hungarian people and is just a great story. And “Joseph Pine: What consumers want“, because this was the first TED Talk I ever saw and is about being authentic. I have dozens of favorite talks, but I’ll stop there for brevity’s sake.

Which talk was the most difficult for you to translate and why?

I’ve translated talks on a wide range of subjectsSteve Keil: A manifesto for play, for Bulgaria and beyond and have deliberately chosen many difficult ones. A good translation takes time — you can’t rush it. Difficult translation for me means that I have a very short deadline, or the process took too long.

The most difficult translation was exactly the one I expected to do in a very short time, for a TEDx event: “Steve Keil: A manifesto for play, for Bulgaria and beyond“. It’s not a difficult talk and I had already translated it in Romanian, so it looked like an easy job. But it wasn’t, because I had to do it during the week, after work.

Bruce Schneier: The security mirage Another talk that was hard to translate was “Bruce Schneier: The security mirage“. It’s about information security, so shouldn’t have been hard for me. But my knowledge about the talk’s content made me very careful when choosing the words and the “diamond polishing” process took more time than usual.

What’s a phrase in your language that you wish would catch on globally?

We say in Hungarian: “A jó pap holtig tanul”. Meaning: “A good priest learns until his death”. This is very true today in the lifelong learning era.

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 a hard time translating? Sometimes, these talks were hard to translate because the speaker talked quickly, or used long and meandering sentences. Sometimes it was difficult because their talk was in an unusual form — like comedy, song or poetry. Other times, it proved hard to replicate a very literary or scientific speech. And sometimes, these talks simply contained distinctive scientific or cultural terms that needed a lot of research.

That said, when you pick a talk to translate, you feel a connection to it. And so, as translators, we power through. Below, here are some of the talks that OTP translators noted as especially difficult to translate, but completely worth the hard work.

Ben Goldacre: Battling bad scienceThe talk: Ben Goldacre: Battling bad science The challenge: At TEDGlobal 2011, Ben Goldacre was approached by a group of translators who had listened to the talk he had given earlier that day. He was just a little bit surprised when they told him: “We loved your talk — it’s entertaining and interesting and it was a great presentation. But you talked so fast, it will be a real challenge for translators.” Now available in: 37 languages

Ze Frank's nerdcore comedyThe talk: Ze Frank’s nerdcore comedy The challenge: Polish translator Kinga Skorupska explains why she struggled with Ze Frank’s TED Talk: “He’s talking and at the same time showing slides, and the clash between what we see and what he says makes it funny, but really awkward to translate. I am still not happy with the final result.” Now available in: 22 languages

Erin McKean: The joy of lexicographyThe talk: Erin Mckean: The joy of lexicography The challenge: It seems surprising that many of the talks that are difficult to translate are about language. Erin McKean’s is a good example. “It was difficult but at the same time so rewarding for translators because it addressed the beauty of working with the language and how creative you have to be,” says Magda Rittenhouse, another translator from Poland. Now available in: 28 languages

Regina Dugan: From mach-20 glider to humming bird droneThe talk: Regina Dugan: From mach-20 glider to humming bird drone The challenge: For Persian translator Soheila Jafari, Regina Dugan’s talk is one of the most challenging talks she has worked on so far. It’s a perfect example of a talk with specialized and unusual terminology. To find the correct words, Jafari did a lot of research in several different fields of science. Now available in: 16 languages

Imogen Heap plays "Wait It Out"The talk: Imogen Heap plays “Wait It Out” The challenge: The “E” in TED — Entertainment — can be either a nice gift or a real challenge for translators. Writes translator Katarina Smetko, from Croatia, “For me, translating any kind of poetry or song lyrics is tough … It’s very hard to do this properly without being a bit of a poet yourself — something that I certainly don’t flatter myself to be. That doesn’t mean I haven’t tried, though.” Now available in: 26 languages

C.K. Williams' poetry of youth and age The talk: C.K. Williams’ poetry of youth and age The challenge: Translating poetry is a difficult genre — and especially intimidating if the poet has won nearly every award out there, from the National Book Critics Circle Award to the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. Now available in: 18 languages

Virginia Postrel on glamourThe talk: Virginia Postrel on glamour The challenge: Have you ever tried to find four different words for “glamour” in your language? When a talk is focused on a specific concept, and one that is very culture-specific, translating can turn into a fiddly business. Now available in: 19 languages

This post was written by Katja Tongucer, who translates TED Talks into German. She is passionate about finding the appropriate word and believes that living abroad should be a basic part of anyone’s education.

Thanks to the intrepid volunteers who translate TED Talks into 96 languages — and thanks to the incredible reach of the TEDx community — TED has truly become an international organization. Which means that many of you watching talks are more comfortable reading subtitles in your native language than listening to them in English. We want to give you the best experience. So we are bringing you talk pages in your language, by taking your browser’s language preference into account.

Here’s how it works: If you’ve set your browser preferences to prefer a language over English, and a talk is translated in that language, when you arrive on the talk page, the text you see will be in your language of choice. When the video begins playing, it will be automatically subtitled in your preferred language. You will also see information on the TED volunteer translators who spent their time bringing you the talk in your language. And you’ll get a link to other talks translated in your language. It’s magic.

Here’s how to make this happen:

• If you use Chrome, go to “Preferences” and, under “Advanced Settings,” choose your language. Drag it above English. Restart the browser and check out a favorite talk.
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• If you use Firefox, go to “Preferences” and, under “Content,” select to choose languages. Select a language to add and move it to the top of your preferences. Restart the browser and check out a favorite talk.
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• To do this if you use Safari, you will need to change the language preferences on your computer itself. Restart the browser and check out a favorite talk.

A hint: Classic talks are more likely to have your language as an option, as translators have had a longer period of time to work on the talk. What happens if there is no transcript of a talk in your language? You will see the talk page in English, like normal.

Hate this and want to see talk pages in English again? Just make English your language preference in your browser, using the same instructions above.

Learn much more about our Open Translation Project, 8,000 translators strong »