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Did any of you translate 
Erin McKean's talk?

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For those who haven't,
here is a small extract.

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'Lexicographical' is the same pattern 
as higgeldy piggeldy.

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It’s a fun word to say, 
and I get to say it a lot.

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I would add to that: 


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higgeldy-piggeldy is also 
a fun word to translate.

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In Dutch, I used "olleke bolleke," as in…

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Olleke bolleke, rubisolleke,

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olleke bolleke, rubisolleke, 
olleke bolleke, knol!

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Luckily, this nursery rhyme is known

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in both of the major regions 
where Dutch is spoken.

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Dutch is the mother tongue 
of 23 million people,

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of whom 16 million live 
in the Netherlands,

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6 mln in the Northern part of Belgium, 
also known as Flanders,

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and 400.000 in Suriname
in South-America.

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We have an official 
"Dutch Language Union."

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So, where's the problem?

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Dutch from the Netherlands 
and Dutch from Flanders

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sound very different.

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If you meet Johan Cruyff 
in the morning,

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and if you're lucky, he will say 
"Goeiemorgen" to you.

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Kim Clijsters will say "Goeiemorgen."

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In subtitling,
this is of course irrelevant.

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So once again: where's the problem?

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We also use different words.

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A Dutchman will call this a "klokkromme."

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In Flanders we call it a "Gauss-curve."

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Last but not least, each group has 
their set of "typical doubts,"

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or deviations from Standard Dutch

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that occur more
in one or the other region.

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Over the years, 
the Dutch have lost their sensitivity

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to the gender of Dutch nouns.

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And so only a Dutchman might wonder

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whether a cow is male or female

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… or so we teasingly say in Flanders.

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In Belgium, on the other hand, 
whether we like it or not,

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our language is influenced 


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by our French-speaking fellow countrymen,

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leading to sometimes awkward
constructions borrowed from French.

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So there's the problem.

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If a reviewer from the Netherlands

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reviews the work of a colleague
from Belgium,

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she might see a text which she herself

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would never have written that way,

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and the other way round.

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If she starts correcting it,

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before she knows it, 
she will be caught up

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in an endless yes-no-discussion.

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It happened to me in my early TED days.

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I even confess that
for my very first translation,

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I made sure I asked a translator 
from my own country

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to review it, because I felt uncomfortable

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with a review from the "other side."

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But I quickly learned that if you stick

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to a limited number of ground rules,

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you can easily overcome this difficulty.

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This is what I want to share
with you today.

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The best way to stop discussions 
about "who is right,"

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is to agree on the standards you use.

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For Dutch, that is quite easy.

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The official thesaurus,
the main dictionary

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and the standard grammar
are all accessible online.

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All three are widely used and accepted

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in the Netherlands and in Belgium.

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If you indicate from the beginning

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that you will use these as a standard,

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you can avoid a lot of tension 
and discussion.

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But even if a word exists,

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it may be highly unusual 
in one of the two regions.

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Take the "klokkromme."

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It's a word hardly any 
Belgian would use,

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but on the other hand, 
it is not difficult to understand

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especially not in context,

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as is the case in TED Talks.

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There's really no point in replacing it

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with a term that no Dutchman
would ever use.

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I much rather treat it

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as a "word worth spreading."

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Of course, if the unusual word
is difficult to understand,

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the story is different.

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But then again,

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rather than replacing the word 
with a Flemish one,

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I invite my translation partner

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to look for an alternative
that is acceptable to both of us.

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I would like to end with a few words

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about what I try to to keep in mind

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when reviewing or translating into Dutch.

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First of all, I keep my audience in mind.

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I'm writing for people
from different regions.

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I might as well try
to step into their shoes

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and avoid words or expressions

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that I know are confusing.

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Secondly, I keep in mind
my translation partner,

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especially when reviewing.

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In one of my early reviews,

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I made the mistake of marking 
the translation as reviewed

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without having contacted my partner.

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After all, I thought I had only

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corrected some obvious mistakes.

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Since then, I always contact
the translator

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and invite them to let me know

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whether they agree with my proposals.

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Thirdly, I keep in mind
that I translate for TED

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in order to help spreading
the interesting ideas of the speakers.

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It's not about “winning” discussions
with other translators,

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it's about working together

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to provide access to TED

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to as large an audience as possible.

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Last year, a TED Translator 
from the Netherlands

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asked me whether I thought we should

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have separate sets of translations

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for Dutch from the Netherlands 
and from Belgium.

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I told him that to me,

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that made no sense at all,

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since it would only double the effort

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to spread the ideas.

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It did spur me to get better

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at finding common ground
across the regions.

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Last but not least, I can tell you

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that translating for TED has been

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an immensely enriching experience to me.

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My closing thoughts are therefore

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for my fellow TED Translators.

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I would have liked to create

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some kind of "Hans Rosling graph,"

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but you will have to do
with a wordle,

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in which the size of the name

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represents the number of times 
I worked with them.

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I wish all of you an excellent workshop

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and an exciting TED Global 2011.