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.”

Schwaitzberg, who spoke at TEDxBeaconStreet in November, is a pioneer in the field of minimally invasive surgery, which is less painful for patients and allows them to get back to normal life faster than traditional surgery. Schwaitzberg has spent his career not only helping to develop the techniques for laparoscopic surgery, but teaching the skills needed to perform it to others. As Schwaitzberg explains in this talk, the first step was developing a certification test for surgeons in the U.S. wishing to perform minimally invasive surgery. Now, this training and certification program is going global.

“Surgeons are not born. Surgeons are trained one step at a time,” explains Schwaitzberg. “But we have a problem—distance. We can’t travel everywhere.”

And there’s another problem, too—the language barrier. “Language is one of the most profound things that separates us,” says Schwaitzberg. “This examination is really hard. Even those who say they speak English [as a second language], only 14% pass this test. Because for them it’s not a surgery test—it’s an English test.”

This challenge has led Schwaitzberg and his colleagues on a hunt for a technology that will allow them to bridge both distance and language. And with the help of the IBM Accessibility Center, they have come up with something very cool — a Tower of Babel-defying tool that allows for translation in 11 languages.

To see a demo of this tool, which allows an instructor to teach complicated skills over video in real-time, with their words being translated into the student’s native language as they go, watch this inspiring talk.

Here, more talks on fascinating advances in the field of surgery.

Catherine Mohr: Surgery's past, present and robotic futureCatherine Mohr: Surgery’s past, present and robotic future “Surgeons are the tailors, the plumbers, the carpenters and some would say the butchers of the medical world: cutting, reshaping, reforming, bypassing, fixing,” says surgeon and inventor Catherine Mohr. At TED2009, she shows how far the field has come in 10,000 years — peaking with laparoscopic surgery, where the fixing is done via long needles in small incisions as doctors chart progress on a screen. She also gives a look at where the field is going — robots which allow surgeons to make tiny-but-complex maneuvers without any errors of the hand.

Quyen Nguyen: Color-coded surgeryQuyen Nguyen: Color-coded surgery Surgery isn’t as simple as it looks in medical textbooks, where different types of tissues are given different colors to differentiate them. Nope, inside the body, it is dark and hard to see, and the parts don’t look nearly as distinct. In this talk from TEDMed 2011, surgeon Quyen Nguyen introduces us to florescent markers that make tumors light up — making it much easier to for surgeons to operate and get all the cancerous tissue.

Yoav Medan: Ultrasound surgery -- healing without cutsYoav Medan: Ultrasound surgery — healing without cuts We’ve talked about minimally invasive surgery, but what about non-invasive surgery? In this talk from TEDMed 2011, medical inventor Yoav Medan shares a surgical technique that requires no cuts at all. It’s all about shaping ultrasound, and using it to treat issues like brain lesions and some cancerous growths … from outside the body.

Ed Gavagan: A story about knots and surgeonsEd Gavagan: A story about knots and surgeons Ed Gavagan had an emotional moment watching two medical students practicing their surgical knots on the subway. That’s because, years before, he was brutally stabbed on a city street and survived against all odds thanks to a highly-skilled surgical team. This talk from TEDMed 2012 is a love letter to the skills surgeons must master — as simple as tying knots but with the power to save lives.

Tal Golesworthy: How I repaired my own heartTal Golesworthy: How I repaired my own heart A boiler engineer, Tal Golesworthy has a deep understanding of how pipes work.  When he found out that he required a risky surgery on his aorta, he made an analogy to his work and recognized it as a plumbing problem. In this talk from TEDxKrakow, he tells the story of how his plumbing knowledge informed a new surgical procedure.

Erica Frenkel: The universal anesthesia machineErica Frenkel: The universal anesthesia machine It’s a medical nightmare no one likes to imagine: what if the power goes out while a patient is getting surgery, and their anesthesia stops flowing? In this talk from TEDxMidAtlantic, medical technologist Erica Frankel shows that these machines are too prone to disruptions and demos a new machine that could solve the problem.

Iain Hutchison: Saving facesIain Hutchison: Saving faces Iain Hutchison is a facial surgeon. But he’s not one you go to when you want plumper lips — he works with people whose faces have been severely disfigured. In this talk from TEDGlobal 2010 — which is not at all for the squeamish — he shares how advancing techniques have the ability to affect quality of life.

TED’s Open Translation Project: 9,000 translators, 88 languages, more than 29,000 volunteer-contributed translations of TEDTalks. In this video, you’ll hear from some of TED’s language volunteers about why they choose to translate TEDTalks for the world. Learn more: http://www.ted.com/translate

Last week Google Translate announced that it now has more than 200 million monthly users. As Alexis Madrigal noted, this means that Google is now translating as much in a day as all professional human translators combined complete in a year — an amount of text equivalent to a million books.

Google Translate is far from perfect … but it is one Google products for which one can unequivocally say that it does more good than harm. Because of Google Translate, millions of people access ideas that would have once remained impenetrable.

Google Translate handles 65 languages now. But as it grows, the essay suggests, it’s time for it to add more regional languages and dialects, going beyond each country’s official language (and/or its shared lingua franca) to unlock ideas and connect minds from all communities.

As TED translator Anwar Dafa-Alla comments: “In Sudan, there are 600 different ethnic groups who speak more than 400 languages and dialects. Adding more local and national languages to Google Translate is very important for the future of our humanity.”

Read the Atlantic story >>

At TEDxSummit we caught up with Ivana Korom to talk about translating and planning a TEDx event in Serbia. Ivana is a freelance trainer and educator from Novi Sad.

When and why did you start translating for TED?

I’ve been translating for two years. I couldn’t find a job after university and was doing some NGO workshops when a friend told me about TED.com and said I should watch the talks. After two or three talks I saw the option to translate. I was especially interested in talks about psychology and by psychologists because the material was so new. I studied psychology in university, and our textbooks were from the ‘70s and ‘80s. I thought some Serbian psychology students might stumble onto these talks and I could help them access the information by translating.

What’s the most interesting project you’ve worked on recently?

TEDx! We held the first TEDxNoviSad in December, the fourth TEDx event in Serbia. Since then we’ve held two salon events and a TEDxChange event. We’re planning a salon event every month to keep the community interested and engaged, and to spread the word.

Is there anything distinctly difficult about organizing events like TEDx in Serbia in this time of transition?

As always finding sponsors is as demanding as a full-time job. Even lots of relevant organizations don’t know about TED. At the same time we also have to be sensitive about things coming from the West. Because of the NATO bombings 13 years ago, some people don’t want to have anything to do with Europe or America. “Russia is our best friend!” We make an effort to put on an event which feels local, one which is about the community and which people can relate to. It’s not a question of nationalism. We’re not coming with rebel forces. It’s a platform, who cares who made it? It’s a good place for connection.

At TEDxSummit we caught up with Kristine Sargsyan, TED translator and organizer for TEDxYerevan. Kristine has been working in the NGO and business sector as an Organizational Development Consultant and Project Coordinator for 13 years.

When and why did you start translating for TED?

I started translating TEDTalks in 2009 because of my son, Mika, who is ten. The first talk I translated was William Kamkwamba’s How I harnessed the wind. He loved it. I showed the translated talk to his class, and the kids loved it, too. They started asking him, When is your mom coming back?

Translating the talks is a kind of meditation for me; it helps me dive deeply into the stories. When I’m stressed, I transfer my energy into something good. It helps me lose my sense of ego. The same goes for TEDx.

What do you hope to achieve with your TEDx events?

In school, kids are using books and materials from ancient times; there’s no innovation or creativity. TV is full of garbage. TEDTalks is a new opportunity for kids to watch, learn and have a life-changing experience.

I recently decided to leave my permanent job to put more time into putting on TEDx events for kids, and being a translator helps a lot since I can’t show the talks in English for the kids. We have done two events for kids from disadvantaged communities with the TEDx Activators program.

So you hope to reach young people in Armenia.

Yes. As a parent you have to think about your kid and other kids. Recently there was a program on TV discussing environmental issues in Armenia. My son watched it, then he went to his room and started crying. He said, “I hate people because they do so much harm to our Earth. How are we going to change things?” I thought, What are we doing for our kids?

Actually my son is famous! In Armenia everybody knows he’s the reason I started TEDx. On the way here I was stopped in the airport by a Scottish woman, the representative of FlyDubai in Armenia. She said, “Aren’t we friends on Facebook? Aren’t you the mom of this great kid Mika who pushed you to do TEDxYerevan?”