TED Global 2013 Found in Translation Pico Iyer

In this Found in Translation Session, Pico leads a discussion on whether foreignness exists. The tension between expanded technology, more interaction, more mixing of languages, and the concept that finding places that are truly foreign is getting more and more difficult. But is the world growing homogeneously or is it in fact as full of foreignness and distance as it ever was? The translators offer a unique position as their work with TED Talks helps to preserve or revive languages and culture that have been threatened by politics or demographics.

Good morning. I'm Doug Chilcott.

Welcome to TEDGlobal 2013,
and the Open Translation Lounge.

This morning, we have Pico Iyer,

whose life and work has been all about
crossing cultures

which is an ideal topic
for us to talk about today,

here in the Open Translation lounge.

Also joining us today on site is Tariq
from Sri Lanka, Kinga from Poland,

Amaranta from Spain, and remotely,

we have Nafissa,
an Uzbek speaker from New York,

Sergio from Portugal,

Arpiné from Armenia,

and Meric, a Turkish speaker
Skyping in from California.

Welcome all of you.

- Thank you.
- Hello.

- The topic today, which is appropriate
for the Open Translation Lounge,

is the question
'of is foreignness is extinct'?

Pico, we all hear so much
about how technology and transportation

and the whole globalisation of the world
has made everything smaller,

and that cultures
and languages are melting together.

What do you think about that?
Is that true?

- I think get off the plane tomorrow
in India, Haiti or Yemen,

and you'll be as displaced and confounded

and unsettled as ever you were.

I think multinationals have an investment

in saying there's no more foreignness.

And I know CNN never uses
the word 'foreign',

and I remember IBM used to have
that campaign saying

'The word "foreign" is itself foreign',

and I think United Airlines does the same.

And it's true that as people have

more and more countries inside themselves,

if you think about the archetypal
global being, let's say Barack Obama,

he's not really a foreigner in Kenya,
or in Indonesia, or in the United States.

He is partially at home everywhere.
In that sense, I think it is eroding.

What's interesting to me
is the notion of home

and the notion foreignness
are constantly in movement now.

They're shifting but I think
they're still there very much.

But sometimes switching places
disconcertingly.

- I'll throw it open
to some of the translators.

You all come from
several different cultures.

You're linked in the sense
that you're translating TED talks

into your own languages and cultures.

I know we sometimes think
of things as being foreign,

usually locations, or experiences,

but sometimes ideas
themselves can be foreign.

I'm wondering in terms of the translators,
is sometimes the idea foreign?

- I think ideas definitely can be foreign.

For example, one I translate talks
into Uzbek, I only translate words

relevant to the Uzbek
culture and community

because some of the talks
might be addressed to,

on purpose or not on purpose,
addressed to American culture,

or the European culture.

So, some things
don't make sense to my culture.

So, when I'm translating, even the issue,
the idea of it, can be foreign,

so I don't translate it.

I'm just wondering,
when you're actually translating a talk,

and you encounter a word
that is so foreign that actually

there's nothing like it in your culture
or in your language,

how do you confront that?

Amaranta?

Normally, you have to keep
the original word and explain it.

But that's actually a way of enriching
your own language.

But I think most words are untranslatable

in a way that any word,

when you pass it to a different language,

it suddenly has different connotations.

And that can be scary,
but it's also really reaching.

(Doug Chilcott) Wonderful.

Technology, actually, has been
a wonderful way of exposing us

to so many things that were foreign.

Everything is very available.

And I'm wondering
in the context of language,

has technology helped
to preserve certain things?

- I imagine a lot of languages
that are growing out can be preserved

for all posterity, technologically,
as they wouldn't in a human context.

(Doug Chilcott) Foreign is an odd word.

It makes almost a judgement.

As an American, foreign language
was always presented as something

exotic and other than English,
which I'm not sure how that translates.

Well, I've lived in Japan 25 years,

and it still seems the most foreign
place on Earth to me.

And that's part of the fascination
and the allure of it.

How about you, Arpiné?

One thing that I can think of
at the moment is not connected

with a certain place,
certain location, but people.

It can be both in my home country
and in another country

that I'm visiting to feel foreign,

to feel foreignness in the company
of people that are so different to me.

Their mindset, their values,

and that's the most foreign thing
I can feel.

It's not connected with any location.

It's just about people
that I can feel foreign with.

Thank you. Nafissa?

For me, the most foreign thing
is actually what used to be native,

because I started travelling
at a young age.

Once you go back,
you're not the same person any more.

Once you have changed and seen
the world and been to different places,

all these places you've been
to become real, basically.

And when you returned to my home town
for the first time, I felt very foreign.

The culture and everything.

I had cultural shock not travelling
around, but coming back.

That was the very interesting experience
of realising how much we're changing,

how much native things become foreign
because of how it changes.

Kinga?

I think it was when I was travelling
to America for the first time.

It's the way people interact on the street
because a random person

can come up to you
and start a conversation.

If it happens in Poland, you wonder,
'What does he want from me?'

But, then, when I returned to Poland

and I tried to do the same thing
sometimes, and I noticed the reactions

are just like I would have reacted
a couple of months ago.

So, it has changed me
and I started to expect a different thing.

So, in terms of moving towards the future,

Pico, your opinion is different
from everybody else,

that eventually, we're going to have
three languages.

It's almost like
multinational corporations.

they'll culturally take over
the whole nation, the whole planet,

and we'll bleach into
three different groupings.

I want to talk more about what happens
as we proceed into the future.

What do you see?

I knew the world is always going to be
be as diverse as it always has been.

And even if everybody in this room
is speaking English 20 years from now,

a Polish speaking person--

Well, let's say you had
a Mongolian, a Norwegian

and a Bolivian person in this room,
all speaking English,

I think they would still be as far apart

as when they were speaking
Mongolian, Norwegian and Spanish,

because of the values,
the implications behind each word,

and even the way they're using English,
and importing their own terms into it.

So, I don't see the world
becoming homogeneous.

I think the heterogeneity
just takes new forms.

- So, language isn't the last bastion
holding these cultures apart?

(Pico Iyer) I don't think so.

That's what translators find.

It's interesting going back and forth
between England and America

my whole life, I find they are
almost mutually incomprehensible.

When I first made that transition,
I thought they speak the same language.

And the longer I've made that commute,
the more I see they're speaking

radically different languages
but it's called English in both cases.

I just have one question.

When you spoke about companies
having these marketing campaigns

against the word 'foreign',
it seems they assume it's a bad thing.

Whereas when I hear foreign,
for me, it's an attractive thing.

I prefer to think of a foreign world
as a more interesting one.

It seems they're trying to avoid it
because it's worse.

So, how does this work,
these expectations,

or these judgements of good and bad,
related to 'foreign'?

Well, I think you've put your finger
on the main conflict within the planet

that we're witnessing now, that some
people are drawn into the foreign,

as you are, and some people
are turned off by the foreign

and want to recoil from it.

But I think in their cases, they want
to say they have reached everywhere.

And that Starbucks will be able
to reach 200 nations

and always be serving the same product.

But you and I, as individuals,
want the countries

to be as different as they always were.

And, so, their goals are almost
the opposite of ours.

But I'm with you very much.

I like the foreignness.

I always want to be
surrounded by foreignness.

I wonder if any of the translators
have a question for Pico?

Does anybody have a question?

(Sérgio Lopes) I want to share this
feeling that I have

that I seem I share
with the other people in the panel,

that there is beauty in uniqueness.

I do realise there is also value
in cultural mash-ups.

Typically,
if you're a very multicultural society,

you'll tend to be less prejudiced,
to be more tolerant, I would hope.

But there's also great beauty
in uniqueness.

I was in Germany a month ago,
in the Black Forest region,

and places that I liked the most
were the ones that were more unique.

They more special,
they were more picturesque.

Whereas in larger cities,
that shall remain nameless,

they could be in any country in the world.

So, I do think that being different

and preserving that uniqueness
is something we should strive for.

(Pico Iyer) I loved what you said.

And my sense is the more globalised
the world becomes,

the stronger is the power of the local,
just as you said.

Those German villages have something
that nowhere in Japan or America

or China can compete with.

And I also feel many of us here
are wearing jeans, T-shirts,

we're all speaking English,

and we're just as unique as we ever were.

So, I think we're able to draw from
the surfaces of many different cultures,

but each one of us
is still completely different,

and that's the beauty
of even the present world.

We spoke earlier
about your living in Japan

and you described Japan
as the most foreign place you'd ever been.

Could you talk about that and why?

Everything is reversed there.

People take their baths at night
instead of in the mornings,

the light switches go the other way.

Even at the airport,

the baggage carousels are moving
in the opposite direction.

And that's what I love.

It just goes to what you're saying.

I love the fact it's radically foreign
to everything I grew up with in England

and the United States.

- Do you think that
regardless of those differences,

there are some universal human values,

or universal human nature,

or do you think that
we're even different in our wishes

or ways of thinking of the world?

(Pico Iyer) Such a good question.
I think you're right.

In the level of manners
and customs and social interactions,

it's quite different.

But deep down exactly the same.

So, I have a Japanese wife, who's here,
and if we're having an argument,

she'll be very quiet, very different
from what you'd expect in most cultures.

But, nonetheless, I can see
she would be angry as any woman

from any other culture
would be in certain situations.

And, so, I think what's interesting
about Japan or any culture is that mix

of the different layers of foreignness

and familiarity,
and the dance between them.

So, on the surface, Japanese people
are shy about showing emotions,

seem very foreign, but the emotions
that they're feeling

are just the same as in Spain or the US.

(Amaranta Heredia) I have my doubts.

You don't think they're universal?
Interesting.

I think some basic things are universal.

But others are not.

So, it's just not manners.

Even your inner experience of love,

or of anger, or of goals
in life can be different.

Interesting.

But I haven't figured out how, yet.

But it makes your job as a translator
doubly interesting, too,

because if we say 'love' in English
and when you're translating into Spanish,

that's not just 'amor'.

It's something beyond, maybe.

Thank you all for joining us.

The first session's about to start,

so I want to make sure I get you out
in time to get your seats in the theatre.

Thank you, Pico, for joining us.
We look forward to your talk.

Thank you very much. Goodbye.

(Applause)