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

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