Tell us about yourself.
My name is Dimitra Papageorgiou and I was born in Athens, Greece. I have a 14-year-old daughter, Amphitrite, named after an ancient sea nymph. When my daughter was 2 years old, I got divorced, so I raised her on my own. A year ago I moved to Thessaloniki, in northern Greece.
Since I was very young, I’ve been into arts and culture. I used to spend endless hours drawing and creating crafts. It was a way for me to express my thoughts and feelings, and it’s become a useful and creative pastime for my daughter and me. I studied photography and scientific photography, and later on I became fascinated with digital image manipulation, which is what I do now.
What drew you to TED?
I saw Brian Cox’s talk on the Large Hadron Collider and I was infatuated with his presentation, which was simple to understand, yet inspiring and informative. Most importantly, I could see his passion for particle physics on his face, and it was contagious. A lot of interesting talks have followed that broadened my way of thinking and at the same time entertained both me and my family.
Why do you translate?
I began translating so I could share TED’s wonderful talks with my young daughter and my family. It’s ended up being one of my favorite hobbies and has unraveled a whole new world of knowledge to me. I’ve encountered great people like Theodora Apostolopoulou — together we translated the first TEDTalks into Greek, and in the process, we became friends.
I am also a member of a Greek online community, where I now share the talks that fellow Greek translators and I have completed. We have interesting and long-lasting debates and conversations about each talk. TED give us a new excitement everyday, as we discover breakthrough technologies and admirable thinkers.
What are you favorite talks? Why?
One of the talks that affected me deeply was Jill Bolte Taylor’s stroke of insight. I enjoyed both of VS Ramachandran’s talks — the neurons that shaped civilization and on your mind — as well as Barry Schwartz’s, Isabel Allende’s, Elisabeth Gilbert’s, Helen Fisher’s … I suppose the list is endless.