1
00:00:20,579 --> 00:00:21,865
Hi everyone.

2
00:00:21,865 --> 00:00:26,241
I'm here to wake you up, because
I'm speaking in English about Chinese.

3
00:00:26,241 --> 00:00:29,565
So, could get a little complicated, but --

4
00:00:29,565 --> 00:00:35,016
I want to take you with me on a search
for traces of culture in language.

5
00:00:35,016 --> 00:00:38,005
Because I feel that this
can help us overcome

6
00:00:38,005 --> 00:00:42,244
the outer limits of cultural difference.

7
00:00:44,541 --> 00:00:46,872
I'm taking Chinese
because I study Chinese,

8
00:00:46,872 --> 00:00:48,806
and Chinese is often thought,

9
00:00:48,806 --> 00:00:51,045
Chinese characters are often thought of,

10
00:00:51,045 --> 00:00:55,780
as very simple pictures representing
what they're supposed to refer to.

11
00:00:55,780 --> 00:01:00,051
because Chinese doesn't have
a phonetic alphabet.

12
00:01:00,051 --> 00:01:01,828
So, if we look at this sign,

13
00:01:01,828 --> 00:01:05,430
we can try to guess what it means,

14
00:01:05,430 --> 00:01:09,745
and maybe you guessed right,
it's actually just a painting of water.

15
00:01:09,745 --> 00:01:12,262
So, the sign for water looks like water.

16
00:01:12,262 --> 00:01:16,377
However, there are many characters
in Chinese

17
00:01:16,377 --> 00:01:19,516
which will have much more profound
and poetic meaning,

18
00:01:19,516 --> 00:01:24,555
because they actually refer back
to their cultural and historic context.

19
00:01:24,555 --> 00:01:27,658
So, I want to take an example,
this is the word "xiang";

20
00:01:27,658 --> 00:01:30,155
it means "to miss someone".

21
00:01:30,155 --> 00:01:32,301
So, it's composed
of 3 different characters.

22
00:01:32,301 --> 00:01:34,334
On the bottom we have heart,

23
00:01:34,334 --> 00:01:38,147
which is obvious
when you are missing someone.

24
00:01:38,147 --> 00:01:44,487
On the top we have, on the left, a tree,
and on the right, an eye.

25
00:01:44,487 --> 00:01:47,170
So, it's kind of weird.
Why do we have tree and eye

26
00:01:47,170 --> 00:01:52,948
or wood and sight together in the word,
which means to miss someone?

27
00:01:52,948 --> 00:01:57,655
So to find this out, we have to go back
around 3,000 years in history,

28
00:01:57,655 --> 00:02:01,411
and look at a Chinese divination book,
the "I Jing",

29
00:02:01,411 --> 00:02:03,739
which is also called
the "Book of Changes",

30
00:02:03,739 --> 00:02:06,474
I'm sure you've all heard of it,
or some of you.

31
00:02:06,474 --> 00:02:10,271
And in it there is one sentence,
which is quite banal,

32
00:02:10,271 --> 00:02:12,343
and it combines these two words.

33
00:02:12,343 --> 00:02:15,320
So, the sentence goes something like this:

34
00:02:15,320 --> 00:02:18,757
What we can see most of
on Earth are trees.

35
00:02:18,757 --> 00:02:20,493
So, it's a very banal sentence.

36
00:02:20,493 --> 00:02:25,832
But ever since this sentence,
these two characters have been combined

37
00:02:25,832 --> 00:02:30,247
in different Chinese words
to have the meaning "to see".

38
00:02:30,247 --> 00:02:32,161
So, if you remember this,

39
00:02:32,161 --> 00:02:34,749
we can look at this character
and think of a story.

40
00:02:34,749 --> 00:02:37,150
Basically, in my heart,
I'm thinking of a person,

41
00:02:37,150 --> 00:02:38,895
I've missed this person.

42
00:02:38,895 --> 00:02:41,045
I get up, I go to the window,
and look out,

43
00:02:41,045 --> 00:02:42,664
hoping to see this person,

44
00:02:42,664 --> 00:02:44,755
but all I see is trees.

45
00:02:48,578 --> 00:02:50,579
Before I continue to the next character,

46
00:02:50,579 --> 00:02:53,173
I wanted to talk about another thing:
Memory.

47
00:02:53,173 --> 00:02:57,320
Memory is very important in our connection
to thought and language,

48
00:02:57,320 --> 00:03:00,289
and what I notice
when I was intensively studying Chinese,

49
00:03:00,289 --> 00:03:02,358
is that my memory started to change.

50
00:03:02,358 --> 00:03:04,949
I started to get a photographic memory.

51
00:03:04,949 --> 00:03:06,981
That means that
when I remembered words,

52
00:03:06,981 --> 00:03:10,011
I started to remember
how they looked on the page.

53
00:03:10,011 --> 00:03:13,235
This is something I couldn't do before.

54
00:03:13,235 --> 00:03:15,843
Another thing is,
that when I started to dream in Chinese,

55
00:03:15,843 --> 00:03:20,160
which happened around a year after I was
studying the language and living in China,

56
00:03:20,160 --> 00:03:22,744
I actually started to have
a different dreamscape,

57
00:03:22,744 --> 00:03:25,584
which felt and looked differently
in my dreams.

58
00:03:25,584 --> 00:03:27,823
So, these are all just different examples

59
00:03:27,823 --> 00:03:30,936
of the neurological
and psychological process

60
00:03:30,936 --> 00:03:34,180
which goes on in our brain
when we're learning a new language.

61
00:03:34,180 --> 00:03:36,885
Scientists have done
a lot of research on this,

62
00:03:36,885 --> 00:03:40,794
and we found out that language is actually
the fundament of our memory.

63
00:03:40,794 --> 00:03:42,796
And so when you learn a new language,

64
00:03:42,796 --> 00:03:46,589
actually, you're also learning
a new way of remembering things,

65
00:03:46,589 --> 00:03:53,388
and also you have a new perspective
on what it is you remember.

66
00:03:53,388 --> 00:03:55,296
So, the next character
I want to talk about,

67
00:03:55,296 --> 00:04:02,265
is one about individuality,
because it means I or me.

68
00:04:02,265 --> 00:04:06,196
And before I explain the character
I want to ask --

69
00:04:06,196 --> 00:04:08,899
just think about it --
why has China --

70
00:04:08,899 --> 00:04:12,415
why have Chinese scientists
and researchers and artists

71
00:04:12,415 --> 00:04:14,789
won so few Nobel Prizes?

72
00:04:14,789 --> 00:04:19,452
Because the truth is that China has won
remarkably few Nobel Prizes

73
00:04:19,452 --> 00:04:21,415
compared to the size of its population.

74
00:04:21,415 --> 00:04:23,827
You can count them on your hands.

75
00:04:23,827 --> 00:04:25,342
So why is this so?

76
00:04:25,342 --> 00:04:28,682
Is it because China is not
an innovative country?

77
00:04:28,682 --> 00:04:32,363
I think far from it.
There's actually a different reason.

78
00:04:32,363 --> 00:04:34,650
Let's take an example, in the 60's,

79
00:04:34,650 --> 00:04:40,595
a Chinese research team developed
a new way of producing synthetic insulin,

80
00:04:40,595 --> 00:04:44,244
and they were supposed
to be nominated for the Nobel Prize.

81
00:04:44,244 --> 00:04:48,129
Now, the Nobel Prize Committee
asked the Chinese institute

82
00:04:48,129 --> 00:04:51,361
to submit the exact names
of the researchers

83
00:04:51,361 --> 00:04:55,202
who had made this discovery.

84
00:04:55,202 --> 00:05:00,991
And what the noble prize committee got,
was a list of 230 names.

85
00:05:00,991 --> 00:05:03,740
So, it was everyone
in that Research Institute,

86
00:05:03,740 --> 00:05:06,945
from the director down
to the cleaning lady.

87
00:05:06,945 --> 00:05:09,230
(Laughter)

88
00:05:09,230 --> 00:05:12,729
So, basically they weren't nominated
and didn't win.

89
00:05:12,729 --> 00:05:16,021
But this this is a different perspective
on individual achievement,

90
00:05:16,021 --> 00:05:20,390
and the way individual achievement
contributes to the group.

91
00:05:20,390 --> 00:05:23,866
We can still find it today in,
for example, the political context

92
00:05:23,866 --> 00:05:25,926
when harmony is emphasized.

93
00:05:25,926 --> 00:05:29,293
Or we find it in the scientific context

94
00:05:29,293 --> 00:05:33,264
when we're talking about the difficulty
of intellectual property rights

95
00:05:33,264 --> 00:05:36,667
being put in place in China.

96
00:05:36,667 --> 00:05:40,434
So, basically this sign reflects
all of these thoughts.

97
00:05:40,434 --> 00:05:42,701
Because it's composed of two characters:

98
00:05:42,701 --> 00:05:45,716
On the left, we have a hand
which is grasping;

99
00:05:45,716 --> 00:05:50,152
on the right, I don't know
if you can recognize it, an ax.

100
00:05:50,152 --> 00:05:53,043
So, basically, an ax can be a weapon,

101
00:05:53,043 --> 00:05:56,074
but it can also be an instrument, a tool.

102
00:05:56,074 --> 00:06:01,313
I interpret this sign as meaning
that an individual, I or me,

103
00:06:01,313 --> 00:06:04,084
is someone who actually contributes
to the group,

104
00:06:04,084 --> 00:06:08,158
either by working for the group,
or by protecting the group.

105
00:06:10,137 --> 00:06:14,291
To explain this sense of community,
I wanted to take another example,

106
00:06:14,291 --> 00:06:16,328
which is eating.

107
00:06:17,374 --> 00:06:23,007
Food is so important in Asian culture,
we could talk about it until dinner time,

108
00:06:23,007 --> 00:06:24,966
but I'm just going to take
this simple example,

109
00:06:24,966 --> 00:06:30,750
and say that you'll never see
a person eating alone in China.

110
00:06:30,750 --> 00:06:32,836
So, this is actually something,
if you think about it,

111
00:06:32,836 --> 00:06:34,277
we do quite often ourselves.

112
00:06:34,277 --> 00:06:38,270
We grab a sandwich on the go,
we have a snack, we eat alone.

113
00:06:38,270 --> 00:06:40,921
But in China, there's a sentence,
there's a phrase,

114
00:06:40,921 --> 00:06:43,143
it's "吃獨食",
[Pinyin: chī dú shí]

115
00:06:43,143 --> 00:06:46,808
it means "to eat alone" word-for-word,
"to eat alone".

116
00:06:46,808 --> 00:06:48,876
But if you say it about another person,

117
00:06:48,876 --> 00:06:51,376
if you say, "This person is eating alone,"

118
00:06:51,376 --> 00:06:54,911
it actually means this person
is very egotistical,

119
00:06:54,911 --> 00:06:57,895
and only thinks of him or herself.

120
00:06:57,895 --> 00:07:00,784
So, if you reflect on that,

121
00:07:00,784 --> 00:07:04,032
you notice that eating together
with other people

122
00:07:04,032 --> 00:07:07,203
is a responsibility,
a way of taking care of others,

123
00:07:07,203 --> 00:07:11,797
but it's also the prerequisite
to experiencing culinary pleasures.

124
00:07:11,797 --> 00:07:15,120
So, to enjoy the food,
you have to eat it with others.

125
00:07:15,120 --> 00:07:18,457
That's why Chinese tables
are mostly round.

126
00:07:18,457 --> 00:07:22,209
And even the act of paying for a dinner --

127
00:07:22,209 --> 00:07:25,462
When you're out in a group,
you've eaten dinner,

128
00:07:25,462 --> 00:07:30,031
they'll be one person, so: I will pay,
I will pay because -- for everyone --

129
00:07:30,031 --> 00:07:34,099
because I know that next time,
someone else will pay for everyone.

130
00:07:34,099 --> 00:07:37,919
Now, you may think this is of no interest
and it's like banal,

131
00:07:37,919 --> 00:07:41,424
but actually it inscribes the relationship
between me and this group

132
00:07:41,424 --> 00:07:43,998
into a continuity, into time,

133
00:07:43,998 --> 00:07:46,816
and it produces a stability
and a sustainability

134
00:07:46,816 --> 00:07:50,586
to the relationship
I have with this group.

135
00:07:52,690 --> 00:07:56,727
Finally, I want to come
to the third character I want to present

136
00:07:56,727 --> 00:08:01,318
which is love,
so representing all emotions today.

137
00:08:01,318 --> 00:08:05,589
And love is often thought to be universal,

138
00:08:05,589 --> 00:08:08,257
so we're supposed to
recognize it everywhere,

139
00:08:08,257 --> 00:08:11,549
and it has the power
to overcome all limits.

140
00:08:11,549 --> 00:08:16,416
But, actually, if we start thinking about
the way love is lived and perceived

141
00:08:16,416 --> 00:08:20,372
by individuals,
and inside of different cultures,

142
00:08:20,372 --> 00:08:24,267
there's actually a big difference
the way we understand love to be.

143
00:08:24,267 --> 00:08:31,066
For example, already in the West,
83% of Americans feel

144
00:08:31,066 --> 00:08:36,424
that true love is possible
without physical fulfillment.

145
00:08:36,424 --> 00:08:42,418
However, only 34% of French people
agree to this.

146
00:08:42,418 --> 00:08:46,734
So, we see then in France,
romantic words, language, literature,

147
00:08:46,734 --> 00:08:50,997
is very important in relation to love.

148
00:08:50,997 --> 00:08:56,297
Coming back to China, I would say
that it's almost the opposite,

149
00:08:56,297 --> 00:08:59,397
because in China many couples,
and also many married couples,

150
00:08:59,397 --> 00:09:05,490
actually, have never told each other the
three magic words "I love you".

151
00:09:05,490 --> 00:09:07,328
If we look at this sign --

152
00:09:07,328 --> 00:09:11,866
oh, yeah, by the way, being too romantic
in China, it seems insincere --

153
00:09:11,866 --> 00:09:16,302
so guys remember this, could be useful.

154
00:09:16,302 --> 00:09:18,303
(Laughter)

155
00:09:18,303 --> 00:09:22,066
So, if we come back to the character --

156
00:09:22,066 --> 00:09:24,629
you've already seen
two different characters --

157
00:09:24,629 --> 00:09:27,328
so this one has the hand on top,

158
00:09:27,328 --> 00:09:29,770
it's held over a roof.

159
00:09:29,770 --> 00:09:32,771
And under that roof we have one
which we could recognize,

160
00:09:32,771 --> 00:09:34,614
it's the heart -- again.

161
00:09:34,614 --> 00:09:37,960
And under the heart,
we have the sign for friendship,

162
00:09:37,960 --> 00:09:42,660
which is actually two hands
clasped into each other.

163
00:09:42,660 --> 00:09:44,898
So, if we take this thing seriously,

164
00:09:44,898 --> 00:09:48,277
we understand that
the Chinese notion of love,

165
00:09:48,277 --> 00:09:50,927
which is embedded in this word,

166
00:09:50,927 --> 00:09:55,926
is a notion of a feeling,
which is living together as a family,

167
00:09:55,926 --> 00:09:58,993
and which becomes more valuable over time.

168
00:09:58,993 --> 00:10:03,118
This is relevant, because our idea
of romantic love is actually the opposite,

169
00:10:03,118 --> 00:10:06,060
it's something which is special
in the beginning.

170
00:10:06,060 --> 00:10:08,960
That's why, for example,
young couples in China,

171
00:10:08,960 --> 00:10:12,476
they will try to marry very fast
after they've met each other,

172
00:10:12,476 --> 00:10:15,650
maybe even two or three months
after they first met.

173
00:10:15,650 --> 00:10:19,477
You will never see a Chinese couple
splitting the bill,

174
00:10:19,477 --> 00:10:22,063
each person paying for themselves.

175
00:10:22,063 --> 00:10:26,564
Why? Because, already,
they have associated the concept of love

176
00:10:26,564 --> 00:10:30,489
with the concept of family being one.

177
00:10:32,086 --> 00:10:35,280
Before I conclude, I wanted
to talk about fighting

178
00:10:35,280 --> 00:10:38,397
because fighting is important in emotion.

179
00:10:38,397 --> 00:10:43,223
And there's actually a quite -- almost --

180
00:10:43,223 --> 00:10:46,613
well, many Chinese couples fight
in a special way,

181
00:10:46,613 --> 00:10:49,759
which is called "几天不说话",
[Pinyin: jǐ tiān bù shuō huà]

182
00:10:49,759 --> 00:10:53,653
and it means not to speak
for several days --

183
00:10:53,653 --> 00:10:55,976
so it actually means
not to speak to each other.

184
00:10:55,976 --> 00:10:58,553
It's the silent treatment.

185
00:10:58,553 --> 00:11:01,701
I've actually witnessed this
with a middle-aged couple,

186
00:11:01,701 --> 00:11:04,937
and they didn't speak to each other,
after they got angry with each other,

187
00:11:04,937 --> 00:11:06,421
for 7 days.

188
00:11:06,421 --> 00:11:09,347
So, 7 days they were cooking,
making meals for their kids,

189
00:11:09,347 --> 00:11:12,441
doing everything as usual,
except in silence.

190
00:11:12,441 --> 00:11:15,421
And after 7 days,
they suddenly started to talk again

191
00:11:15,421 --> 00:11:17,077
as if everything was back to normal

192
00:11:17,077 --> 00:11:23,130
and they didn't talk about
what they were upset about or the past.

193
00:11:23,130 --> 00:11:26,690
So, it's just from this type of phenomena,

194
00:11:26,690 --> 00:11:31,030
we recognize that, actually,
words and language

195
00:11:31,030 --> 00:11:35,797
influence the way,
we, as individuals, feel emotions.

196
00:11:35,797 --> 00:11:40,769
And also that words are important,
just as important as objects,

197
00:11:40,769 --> 00:11:43,938
they have just as much meaning
for others, and weight,

198
00:11:43,938 --> 00:11:47,649
so we should be just as careful
handling our words,

199
00:11:47,649 --> 00:11:54,340
as we do when we're handing
material objects.

200
00:11:54,340 --> 00:11:57,654
So, to finish I took this image.

201
00:11:57,654 --> 00:12:03,196
This is a pictogram
from the Chinese sign for you,

202
00:12:03,196 --> 00:12:04,567
it's only part of the sign,

203
00:12:04,567 --> 00:12:09,161
and it actually represents,
with some imagination maybe we --

204
00:12:09,161 --> 00:12:15,019
it represents threads on a loom,
métier à tisser,

205
00:12:15,019 --> 00:12:17,810
a cross into a pattern.

206
00:12:17,810 --> 00:12:22,389
So, I wanted to take this image
as a symbol of our own personalities,

207
00:12:22,389 --> 00:12:25,588
our own personalities made up
of many different strands,

208
00:12:25,588 --> 00:12:28,247
and they're woven into a certain pattern,

209
00:12:28,247 --> 00:12:32,504
in the way we grew up
in our family and our culture.

210
00:12:32,504 --> 00:12:34,792
And, basically, learning
a different language

211
00:12:34,792 --> 00:12:38,152
gifts you the opportunity
to untangle these strands,

212
00:12:38,152 --> 00:12:42,651
and weave them again
in your own new and authentic pattern.

213
00:12:42,651 --> 00:12:46,829
So, what I want us to remember,
is that learning a language

214
00:12:46,829 --> 00:12:49,939
is not learning
another professional skill,

215
00:12:49,939 --> 00:12:53,676
it's actually giving yourself
the opportunity to change.

216
00:12:53,676 --> 00:12:56,652
For example,
I'm actually a German-American,

217
00:12:56,652 --> 00:12:58,895
and I live in France and in China,

218
00:12:58,895 --> 00:13:01,773
and each time
I switch languages or places,

219
00:13:01,773 --> 00:13:06,631
I actually show a slightly new side
of my own personality.

220
00:13:06,631 --> 00:13:10,299
So, basically, learning
a different culture or different language

221
00:13:10,299 --> 00:13:12,253
is an opportunity for change,

222
00:13:12,253 --> 00:13:16,888
and I want you to think that if you learn
an exotic language,

223
00:13:16,888 --> 00:13:18,853
it might just be your own gateway

224
00:13:18,853 --> 00:13:22,421
to a different way of dreaming,
eating and loving.

225
00:13:22,421 --> 00:13:23,562
Thanks.

226
00:13:23,562 --> 00:13:25,562
(Applause)