Why I translate TEDTalks

TED's Open Translation Project: 9,000+ translators, 88 languages, nearly 30,000 volunteer-contributed translations of TEDTalks. Hear from some of TED's volunteers about why they choose to translate TEDTalks for the world. Learn more: http://www.ted.com/translate

Thanks to the following volunteers for providing subtitles:

Albanian:
Helena Bedalli & Spartak Ferrollari

Arabic:
Anwar Dafa-Alla & Khalid Marbou

Bulgarian:
Mihail Stoychev & Kaloyana Milinova

Chinese (Simplified):
Jenny Yang & Zhihua Dong

Chinese (Traditional):
Bill Hsiung & Coco Chen

Croatian:
Katarina Smetko & Marija Marčetić

Czech:
Jan Kadlec & Mirek Mráz

Dutch:
Els De Keyser & Christel Foncke

English:
Krystian Aparta & Anna Obarzanowska

Esperanto:
James Piton & Leo de Cooman

French:
Anna Cristiana Minoli & Elisabeth Buffard

German:
Katja Tongucer & Judith Matz

Greek:
Dimitra Papageorgiou & Theodora Apostolopoulou

Hindi:
Gaurav Gupta & Sakshi Mittal

Hungarian:
Krisztian Stancz & Anna Patai

Indonesian:
Antonius Yudi Sendjaja & Wahyu Perdana Yudistiawan

Italian:
Anna Cristiana Minoli & Elena Montrasio

Japanese:
Yasushi Aoki & Yuki Okada

Korean:
InHyuk Song & Hugh Hyung-uk Choi

Persian:
Soheila Jafari & Bidel Akbari

Polish:
Krystian Aparta & Kinga Skorupska

Portuguese (Brazil):
Moema Schlochauer & Elena Crescia

Romanian:
Magda Marcu & Delia Bogdan

Russian:
Aliaksandr Autayeu & Olga Dmitrochenkova

Serbian:
Ivana Korom & Marija Stepanović

Slovenian:
Matej Divjak & Klavdija Černilogar

Spanish:
Sebastian Betti & Amaranta Heredia Jaén

Swedish:
Matti Jääaro & Pia Bergqvist

Turkish:
Ahmet Yukselturk & Meriç Aydonat

Urdu:
Neelma Mumtaz & Shahiryar Khan

[K. Sargsyan]
I started to translate TEDTalks

after seeing William Kamkwamba's talk
about how to fulfill your dreams.

And I told [about] this talk to my son.

He wouldn't believe me.
He said, "But he dropped out of school."

"He wouldn't know English.
How would he do this?"

So I said, "I will translate this."

"I want him to read every single word."

[W. Davis] Language is not just
a body of vocabulary

or set of grammatical rules.

A language is a flash
of the human spirit.

It's a vehicle through which
the soul of each particular culture

comes into the material world.

Everything that we do at TED
is driven by the same mission,

which is to spread ideas.

And if your goal is to spread ideas,
at a certain point,

you're confronted with the fact
that you're only speaking in English.

The very root of what we do
is about connectedness.

There's huge numbers of people

who can be part of
shaping a better future for everyone.

It'd be crazy to leave them out.

[K. Aparta] I wrote them,
saying that these talks

should have subtitles for the Deaf,

and also translations
for people from other countries.

There has to be that one person

who's so passionate about a particular talk,

who wants the subtitles to exist
in their language.

Initially, I started translating
for my sister.

She lives with my parents

in a very small town,
where I'm from in Kazakhstan.

And she doesn't get a lot of opportunities
in exploring the world.

But then, later on, I realized
it's not just my family.

Everyone who speaks Uzbek
could benefit from it.

[M. Pagel] Just as wings opened up
the sphere of air for birds to exploit,

language opened up the sphere
of cooperation for humans to exploit.

All of our speakers
are on the edge of their fields,

and therefore on the edge of language,

so many of the terms they use
you can't find in a dictionary.

It actually takes a lot of research
to accurately translate a TEDTalk.

Depending on how technical it is,
and how many words you have to look up,

it could take up to 10 hours.

I go and read about the speaker,
and his books,

so I get the whole context.

Because of this community of translators,

we suddenly have the ability
to find the greatest ideas

coming from speakers in any language

and bring them into
the English-speaking world

and beyond.

I translate because I want more people
to have access to these ideas.

It's an act of generosity
from many people,

just sharing knowledge.

To inspire people,
to give hope to some people.

This changes a lot of things in the world.