0:00:26.754,0:00:28.517
So about two years ago,

0:00:28.517,0:00:31.024
I was featured in[br]a New York Times article called,

0:00:31.024,0:00:32.761
"Adventures of a teenage polyglot,"

0:00:32.761,0:00:35.841
which featured my passion[br]for learning foreign languages,

0:00:35.841,0:00:38.253
this peculiar hobby that I had.

0:00:38.253,0:00:40.265
And at first I thought it was great.

0:00:40.265,0:00:43.377
I loved the fact that language learning[br]was getting more attention

0:00:43.377,0:00:44.736
and that it wouldn't always

0:00:44.736,0:00:46.121
seem like an isolating hobby

0:00:46.121,0:00:49.705
that was suddenly putting me into contact[br]with people all around the world.

0:00:49.705,0:00:52.395
And as I spent more time[br]in the media spotlight,

0:00:52.395,0:00:54.800
the focus of my story began to shift.

0:00:55.560,0:00:59.262
So whereas I've always been interested[br]in talking about the why and the how,

0:00:59.262,0:01:02.169
why I was learning foreign languages,[br]how I did it,

0:01:02.169,0:01:04.509
instead, it turned into a bit of a circus,

0:01:04.509,0:01:08.930
in which media shows wanted[br]to sensationalize my story.

0:01:09.659,0:01:12.112
So it would go a little something[br]like this,

0:01:12.112,0:01:14.885
"Hello, I'm here today with[br]17-year-old Timothy Doner

0:01:14.885,0:01:17.050
who's fluent in 20 languages.

0:01:17.050,0:01:18.057
Oh, I'm sorry.

0:01:18.057,0:01:20.515
He actually can insult you in 25 languages

0:01:20.515,0:01:22.573
and he's fluent in another ten.

0:01:22.573,0:01:26.237
Tim, how about you tell our audience[br]'Good morning'

0:01:26.237,0:01:28.769
and 'Thank you for watching', in Muslim?"

0:01:28.769,0:01:31.759
(Laughter)

0:01:33.003,0:01:34.781
"Er... Arabic."

0:01:36.261,0:01:39.304
(Arabic)

0:01:39.765,0:01:41.314
"Great Tim. Now can we get you

0:01:41.314,0:01:42.870
to introduce yourself and say,

0:01:42.870,0:01:44.899
'I'm fluent in 23 languages' in German."

0:01:44.899,0:01:46.741
"It's not really true. But..."

0:01:46.741,0:01:48.520
"No, no, just tell the audience."

0:01:48.520,0:01:52.212
(German)

0:01:57.778,0:01:59.141
"Perfect. Now how about

0:01:59.141,0:02:00.758
a tongue twister in Chinese?

0:02:00.758,0:02:02.250
(Laughter)

0:02:02.250,0:02:04.772
"Well, we could talk about Chinese,

0:02:04.772,0:02:07.790
you know, a lot more Americans[br]are learning Chinese these days,

0:02:07.790,0:02:09.978
and I think there's[br]a lot of value in that."

0:02:09.978,0:02:12.131
"No, no, no. [br]Just give us a tongue twister."

0:02:12.131,0:02:12.991
(Laughter)

0:02:12.991,0:02:16.111
(Chinese)

0:02:18.444,0:02:19.775
"This guy! Tim, how about

0:02:19.775,0:02:21.751
another tongue twister in Chinese?"

0:02:21.751,0:02:23.429
"I will prefer not to, but you know

0:02:23.429,0:02:25.107
we could talk about China.

0:02:25.107,0:02:27.551
There's a lot you can gain[br]by learning a language.

0:02:27.551,0:02:29.895
"Oh Tim, I'm sorry,[br]That's all the time we have."

0:02:29.895,0:02:31.428
(Laughter)[br]

0:02:31.428,0:02:33.772
(Applause)

0:02:37.506,0:02:39.507
"Now why don't you to tell our audience

0:02:39.507,0:02:40.668
'Goodbye' in Turkish

0:02:40.668,0:02:42.249
and we will be over here?"

0:02:42.249,0:02:44.908
"You know we haven't talk[br]about anything substantive."

0:02:44.908,0:02:46.612
"But Turkish please."[br]

0:02:46.612,0:02:51.767
(Turkish)

0:02:51.767,0:02:53.089
"How about that kid, right,

0:02:53.089,0:02:54.937
wonder if he gets any girls...

0:02:54.937,0:02:58.502
(Laughter)

0:02:58.502,0:03:01.017
Now stay with us because up next,

0:03:01.017,0:03:03.255
a skateboarding bulldog[br]in a bathing suit."

0:03:03.255,0:03:05.250
(Laughter)

0:03:05.250,0:03:10.742
(Applause)

0:03:10.742,0:03:13.997
So, as funny as that was,

0:03:13.997,0:03:16.081
it highlighted two pretty major problems[br]

0:03:16.081,0:03:17.698
in the way my story was covered.

0:03:17.698,0:03:19.554
On a personal level,

0:03:20.164,0:03:24.468
I felt that language learning was now [br]becoming like a bit of a task, almost.

0:03:24.468,0:03:29.364
It felt like something that was suddenly[br]had to be rigidly organized.

0:03:29.364,0:03:32.261
Something that had to be [br]compartmentalized, rationalized,

0:03:32.261,0:03:33.929
expressed in a concrete number.

0:03:33.929,0:03:34.925
I speak X languages.[br]

0:03:34.925,0:03:36.581
I know Y languages.

0:03:36.581,0:03:38.519
As opposed to what I'd always done,

0:03:38.519,0:03:40.976
which was just learning languages[br]for the fun of it.

0:03:40.976,0:03:42.759
Learning to communicate with people,[br]

0:03:42.759,0:03:44.457
learning about foreign cultures.

0:03:44.457,0:03:47.951
And on a bigger level, it's cheapened[br]what it meant to speak a language,

0:03:47.959,0:03:49.235
or to know a language.

0:03:49.235,0:03:52.041
Now if I can impart you[br]with anything today at TEDxTeen,

0:03:52.041,0:03:53.724
it's that knowing a language

0:03:53.724,0:03:56.885
is a lot more than knowing[br]a couple of words out of a dictionary.

0:03:56.885,0:03:58.481
It's a lot more that being able[br]

0:03:58.481,0:04:00.361
to ask someone where the bathroom is,

0:04:00.361,0:04:02.068
or telling them the time of day.

0:04:02.068,0:04:04.105
But, I'm getting ahead of myself.

0:04:04.945,0:04:07.681
So for those of you[br]who aren't familiar with my story,

0:04:07.685,0:04:10.627
maybe a lot of you here[br]don't know what the word polyglot is,

0:04:10.627,0:04:12.576
and it's a pretty weird one.

0:04:14.496,0:04:15.774
I started here.

0:04:16.754,0:04:19.736
So this little tot is me, circa 2001,

0:04:19.736,0:04:22.551
and this is the beginning[br]of my language learning journey.

0:04:22.551,0:04:24.146
I actually was a child actor [br]

0:04:24.146,0:04:25.877
before I'd learned any languages.

0:04:25.877,0:04:28.508
And I always had a little bit of a gift[br]for accent.

0:04:28.508,0:04:30.765
So I'm going to auditions[br]for radio commercials,

0:04:30.765,0:04:32.062
or for TV commercials,

0:04:32.062,0:04:34.152
and I'd do an Austin Powers impression.

0:04:34.152,0:04:36.138
I'm not going to do one now.

0:04:36.738,0:04:39.768
(Laughter)

0:04:39.768,0:04:41.196
Or maybe I would do [br]

0:04:41.196,0:04:42.624
Apu from the Simpsons.

0:04:42.624,0:04:44.862
In fact there was actually[br]one time an audition

0:04:44.862,0:04:46.304
which I was asked to leave,

0:04:46.304,0:04:49.264
because they told me to speak[br]like a little kid with a lisp,

0:04:49.264,0:04:51.819
and I wanted to do[br]Darth Vader in a French accent.

0:04:51.819,0:04:53.496
(Laughter)

0:04:53.496,0:04:55.919
But, that taught me the basics of

0:04:55.919,0:04:57.895
of how to breakdown sound.

0:04:57.895,0:04:59.817
How to pick up a foreign accent,[br]

0:04:59.817,0:05:01.292
or foreign speech patterns,

0:05:01.292,0:05:02.769
and really live with it.

0:05:02.769,0:05:04.587
Now fast forward a little bit,

0:05:05.245,0:05:06.769
I'm now in about third grade,

0:05:06.769,0:05:09.110
and I've just started French[br]for the first time.

0:05:09.110,0:05:10.515
But six months into a year,[br]

0:05:10.515,0:05:11.760
into even two years later,

0:05:11.760,0:05:13.265
I can't converse with anybody.

0:05:13.265,0:05:15.272
French is just another subject in school,

0:05:15.272,0:05:17.263
and even though I can tell you words [br]

0:05:17.263,0:05:19.255
for elbow, knee bone, shoelace.

0:05:19.509,0:05:22.522
I couldn't really have[br]a fluent conversation with anybody.

0:05:23.522,0:05:25.510
Fast forward a little bit more.

0:05:25.510,0:05:27.200
In seventh grade, I started Latin.

0:05:27.200,0:05:29.016
So Latin of course is a dead language,

0:05:29.016,0:05:31.107
and in learning Latin, you really learn

0:05:31.107,0:05:32.351
how to breakdown language,

0:05:32.351,0:05:33.753
to see language as a system

0:05:33.753,0:05:36.128
with rules, and as a bit of a puzzle.

0:05:36.128,0:05:37.270
So that was great,

0:05:37.270,0:05:39.621
but I still didn't feel[br]like language was for me.

0:05:40.493,0:05:42.508
So, forward a little bit more.

0:05:42.508,0:05:43.515
About 13,[br]

0:05:43.515,0:05:45.536
and I've been interested in learning more [br]

0:05:45.536,0:05:47.447
about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,

0:05:47.447,0:05:48.868
I started studying Hebrew.

0:05:48.868,0:05:50.429
Now, I had no way of doing it.

0:05:50.429,0:05:52.647
I had no idea[br]what I was supposed to be doing,

0:05:52.647,0:05:54.478
so I listen to a lot of Rap music.

0:05:54.478,0:05:57.011
I memorize lyrics,[br]I'd spit them back out,

0:05:57.011,0:05:59.479
and I would just try to chat[br]with native speakers,

0:05:59.479,0:06:01.261
once a week, once a month,

0:06:01.261,0:06:03.600
and I've got that incrementally,[br]

0:06:03.006,0:06:04.751
I started to understand a lot more.

0:06:04.751,0:06:06.797
Now I didn't sound like a native speaker,

0:06:06.797,0:06:08.756
I couldn't speak very articulately and

0:06:08.756,0:06:10.712
I certainly didn't know the grammar.

0:06:10.712,0:06:13.396
but I had done what I'd never[br]managed to do in school,

0:06:13.396,0:06:15.548
which was to pick up[br]the basics of a language

0:06:15.548,0:06:16.829
all on my own.

0:06:16.829,0:06:18.544
Forward a little bit more.

0:06:18.544,0:06:20.592
I started taking Arabic when I was 14 [br]

0:06:20.592,0:06:22.614
in a summer program going into 9th grade.

0:06:22.614,0:06:23.776
This is summer of 2010.

0:06:23.776,0:06:26.233
After a month I found[br]that I could read and write

0:06:26.233,0:06:27.550
without a problem.

0:06:27.550,0:06:29.780
I'd learned the basics [br]of the formal language

0:06:29.780,0:06:31.600
and one of its major dialects.

0:06:31.600,0:06:35.470
And it turned me onto the fact that I[br]could really pursue languages as a hobby.

0:06:35.470,0:06:39.515
So, it finally came to March 24th 2011.

0:06:39.515,0:06:41.241
So I've pretty vicious insomnia,

0:06:41.241,0:06:43.317
and as I was studying more languages[br]

0:06:43.317,0:06:45.871
using grammar books or watching TV shows,

0:06:45.871,0:06:49.470
and let's say Arabic or Hebrew,[br]became one way of focusing my time.

0:06:50.425,0:06:56.026
So on that night, while I was [br]awake till some ungodly hour,

0:06:56.026,0:06:58.738
I recorded myself speaking Arabic[br]into my computer screen,

0:06:58.738,0:06:59.754
subtitled it,

0:06:59.754,0:07:01.263
and I uploaded it to YouTube

0:07:01.263,0:07:03.198
under the title, "Tim speaks Arabic."

0:07:03.198,0:07:05.037
(Arabic)

0:07:05.037,0:07:06.513
Next day I did the same thing,

0:07:06.513,0:07:07.520
(In Hebrew)

0:07:07.520,0:07:08.757
Tim speaks Hebrew.

0:07:08.757,0:07:11.747
And the comments,[br]when they trickled in, were fantastic.

0:07:11.747,0:07:12.746
I got things like,[br]

0:07:12.746,0:07:15.899
"Wow, I've never seen[br]an American speak Arabic before."

0:07:15.899,0:07:19.980
(Laughter)

0:07:19.980,0:07:21.808
You blame them?

0:07:22.688,0:07:24.613
In addition to that I got things like,

0:07:24.613,0:07:27.013
"Wow, maybe you should [br]fix your vowels here."

0:07:27.013,0:07:29.231
Or "maybe this word [br]is pronounced this way."

0:07:29.231,0:07:31.121
So suddenly language learning had gone[br]

0:07:31.121,0:07:32.901
from the solitary pages of a book,

0:07:32.901,0:07:34.533
or my computer screen,

0:07:34.533,0:07:35.987
into the wide world.

0:07:35.987,0:07:37.499
After that I was hooked.

0:07:37.499,0:07:40.525
I had a community of speakers[br]to interact with,

0:07:40.525,0:07:43.247
and essentially had a teacher [br]or conversation partners

0:07:43.247,0:07:45.231
for any language that I wanted to do.

0:07:45.231,0:07:47.770
So I'll show you a quick montage of that.

0:07:47.946,0:07:52.699
Video: (Arabic) I started studying [br]Arabic roughly, 6 months ago.

0:07:54.140,0:07:57.124
(Indonesian)[br]This started... one, two, three, four...

0:07:58.765,0:08:00.286
maybe four days ago.

0:08:00.751,0:08:03.103
(Hebrew) I actually feel

0:08:03.103,0:08:06.187
that reading and writing[br]are easier in Arabic

0:08:06.624,0:08:10.261
(Ojibwe)[br]I certainly find Ojibwe difficult!

0:08:10.415,0:08:14.204
(Swahili) But I came home[br]the day before yesterday.

0:08:14.536,0:08:18.145
(Pashto) How is my pronunciation?[br]Thanks so much!

0:08:18.905,0:08:21.750
Have a great day. Goodbye!

0:08:24.014,0:08:27.874
(Applause)

0:08:28.260,0:08:29.909
Tim Doner: That became my way

0:08:29.909,0:08:31.528
of reaching out to the world.

0:08:31.528,0:08:33.643
But as I was learning all these languages,[br]

0:08:33.643,0:08:35.203
I faced a number of obstacles.

0:08:35.203,0:08:37.565
So number one,[br]I had no idea how to teach myself.

0:08:37.565,0:08:39.768
In fact, I'm sure many of you[br]if you were told

0:08:39.768,0:08:41.700
you have to learn Pashto by next month,[br]

0:08:41.700,0:08:43.185
you wouldn't know what to do.

0:08:43.185,0:08:44.254
So I experimented.

0:08:44.254,0:08:45.618
Here's one thing.

0:08:45.618,0:08:48.864
So in my Latin class, I read about[br]something that Cicero described,

0:08:48.864,0:08:50.520
called, "Method of Loci."

0:08:50.520,0:08:51.762
technically locorum.

0:08:51.762,0:08:55.244
But it's a technique [br]in which you take mnemonics.

0:08:55.244,0:08:56.805
So let's say you want to learn [br]

0:08:56.805,0:08:58.328
10 vocabulary words on a list.

0:08:58.328,0:08:59.912
You take each of those words and

0:08:59.912,0:09:01.744
instead of memorizing them in blocks.

0:09:01.744,0:09:04.068
you integrate them[br]into your spatial memory.

0:09:04.068,0:09:05.165
So here's what I mean.

0:09:05.165,0:09:06.513
This is Union Square.

0:09:06.513,0:09:08.003
It's a place I go every day.

0:09:08.003,0:09:09.200
If I close my eyes[br]

0:09:09.200,0:09:11.079
I can imagine it very, very vividly

0:09:11.079,0:09:13.343
So I imagine myself [br]walking down Union Square,

0:09:13.343,0:09:15.663
and in each spot in my mind[br]that has resonance,

0:09:15.663,0:09:18.376
I associate it with a vocab word.

0:09:19.076,0:09:20.280
I'll show you right now.

0:09:20.280,0:09:21.926
I'm walking down Park Avenue,[br]

0:09:21.926,0:09:23.632
and in Japanese "to walk" is "iku"

0:09:23.632,0:09:25.520
I go a little bit further, turn right,

0:09:25.520,0:09:27.772
sit on the stairs where I can "Suwaru".

0:09:27.772,0:09:30.276
Directly north of there[br]is a statue George Washington

0:09:30.276,0:09:32.170
which I used to think was a fountain,

0:09:32.170,0:09:33.750
so that's "nomu", "to drink".

0:09:33.750,0:09:36.385
Right next,[br]there's a tree that you can "Kiru", "cut".

0:09:36.385,0:09:38.434
If you want to go north[br]for Barnes & Noble,

0:09:38.434,0:09:39.851
you can "Yomu", "to read".

0:09:39.851,0:09:42.860
Or if I'm hungry and I want to go[br]to my favorite Falafel place,

0:09:42.860,0:09:45.870
I can go one block west of there,[br]so I can "Taberu", "to eat".

0:09:45.870,0:09:46.849
I missed one.

0:09:46.849,0:09:49.377
Alright. So 8 out of 10![br]Not bad!

0:09:49.516,0:09:51.216
So I found that most of the time[br]

0:09:51.216,0:09:53.359
by experimenting with methods like these,

0:09:53.359,0:09:56.290
it made language learning[br]a much more interactive experience.

0:09:56.290,0:09:58.844
It made it something[br]that I can remember much better.

0:09:58.844,0:10:00.415
and I had a lot of fun with.

0:10:00.415,0:10:01.626
Maybe that's not for you.[br]

0:10:01.626,0:10:02.746
Here's another one.

0:10:02.746,0:10:04.381
So a lot of people often ask me,

0:10:04.381,0:10:06.977
if you're studying so many languages[br]at the same time,

0:10:06.977,0:10:08.417
how do you not confuse them?

0:10:08.417,0:10:10.664
Or how do you learn[br]so many vocabulary words?

0:10:10.664,0:10:12.416
In Spanish I learn a word for table [br]

0:10:12.416,0:10:14.630
and the word for book[br]goes out the other ear.

0:10:14.630,0:10:16.020
What I do is I embrace those.

0:10:16.020,0:10:17.519
So for example,

0:10:17.519,0:10:19.320
take these three words in Indonesian.

0:10:19.320,0:10:22.274
These were actually among [br]the first 50 words that I learned.

0:10:22.274,0:10:23.688
"Kepala", "Kabar", "Kantor".

0:10:23.688,0:10:25.699
Lexically there're unrelated[br]to each other.

0:10:25.699,0:10:28.501
"Kepala" is a head. "Kabar" is news.[br]"Kantor" is an office.

0:10:28.501,0:10:30.667
But they all sound similar "K", "A". [br]Right?

0:10:30.667,0:10:31.842
So what I would do,

0:10:31.842,0:10:35.066
is I would memorize vocab[br]in batches of sounds that were similar.

0:10:35.066,0:10:37.291
So if I hear the word "Kepala"[br]in Indonesian,

0:10:37.291,0:10:39.923
I automatically think [br]the words "Kebar" and "Kentor".

0:10:39.923,0:10:42.310
Same in Arabic, "Iktissad", [br]"Istiklal", "Sokot".

0:10:42.310,0:10:43.899
These three words are unrelated.

0:10:43.899,0:10:46.382
One is economy,[br]one is independence, one is downfall.

0:10:46.382,0:10:48.652
But if I hear one, it triggers...[br](Laughter)

0:10:48.652,0:10:51.262
(Laughter)

0:10:51.262,0:10:52.774
it triggers the rest.

0:10:53.494,0:10:54.536
Same thing in Hebrew.

0:10:54.536,0:10:56.011
(Hebrew)

0:10:56.011,0:10:58.516
Even that those are [br]return, remember and to shine.

0:10:58.516,0:11:01.006
Or in Farsi in which they are related.

0:11:01.006,0:11:02.891
So for me if I hear the word "Pedar",

0:11:02.891,0:11:03.970
which means father,

0:11:03.970,0:11:05.689
I automatically think in the words,

0:11:05.689,0:11:07.263
"Mada", "Barodar", "Dokhtar".

0:11:07.263,0:11:08.509
Mother, brother, daughter.

0:11:08.509,0:11:10.268
So again this is one method,

0:11:10.268,0:11:13.304
and I'm not saying this will [br]make you fluent in a language,

0:11:13.304,0:11:14.896
but it has been one of my ways [br]

0:11:14.896,0:11:16.845
of overcoming those obstacles.

0:11:16.845,0:11:18.697
So you may be wondering,[br]

0:11:18.697,0:11:20.909
what's the point in doing this?

0:11:20.909,0:11:22.932
Why learn Pashto or Ojibwe[br]

0:11:22.932,0:11:24.344
when you live in New York?

0:11:24.344,0:11:26.529
And there's a point to that.

0:11:27.165,0:11:29.512
In fact,[br]I've lived in New York my entire life,

0:11:29.512,0:11:32.027
and I'm always blown away[br]by the number of languages

0:11:32.027,0:11:34.094
you can hear on a given day.

0:11:34.094,0:11:37.217
Walking at a street,[br]I see billboards in Chinese or in Spanish.

0:11:37.217,0:11:40.362
I see Russian bookstores,[br]Indian restaurants, Turkish bath houses.

0:11:40.362,0:11:42.220
Yet for all that linguistic diversity,

0:11:42.220,0:11:43.748
mainstream American culture [br]

0:11:43.748,0:11:45.366
remains decidedly monolingual.

0:11:45.366,0:11:47.174
And if you don't think that's true,

0:11:47.174,0:11:49.925
look at the reactions[br]to Coca-Cola Super Bowl video.

0:11:51.015,0:11:55.264
So as I started to play around more[br]with language learning,

0:11:55.264,0:11:57.048
I found that I had my own community[br]

0:11:57.048,0:11:58.502
of learners here in New York.

0:11:58.502,0:12:00.068
I'd go to outer boroughs,

0:12:00.068,0:12:02.462
and for lack of a better word,[br]embarrass myself.

0:12:02.462,0:12:04.121
I try to talk to people all day,

0:12:04.121,0:12:05.461
get their views on things,[br]

0:12:05.461,0:12:07.361
and use my new found language skills.

0:12:07.361,0:12:09.719
Video: (Russian) What's your name?[br]- Natan.

0:12:09.719,0:12:10.938
Natan.[br]- Good day.

0:12:10.938,0:12:11.984
What's your name?

0:12:11.984,0:12:13.770
I'm Tim.

0:12:14.150,0:12:15.611
Pleased to meet you.

0:12:15.611,0:12:17.099
Pleased to meet you.

0:12:17.099,0:12:18.387
Where are you from?

0:12:18.387,0:12:20.135
(Urdu) This book is written by

0:12:20.135,0:12:22.251
Qudratullah Shanab himself.

0:12:23.735,0:12:25.655
What is 'nawist'?

0:12:25.655,0:12:28.795
It means the writer has written...

0:12:31.282,0:12:33.036
Oh okay, Khod-Nawist (self-write).

0:12:33.036,0:12:34.728
From khod-nevashtan in Persian!

0:12:34.728,0:12:36.909
TD: So maybe you have to use[br]a lot of English,

0:12:36.909,0:12:38.250
maybe you're not really[br]

0:12:38.250,0:12:40.336
that particularly interesting[br]when you talk,

0:12:40.336,0:12:42.381
but the point is you're getting out there [br]

0:12:42.381,0:12:43.822
and you're getting exposure.

0:12:43.822,0:12:45.438
So I don't speak Urdu that well,[br]

0:12:45.438,0:12:47.379
it was kind of an awkward conversation,

0:12:47.379,0:12:50.407
but just from that,[br]I've learned a new word: "Khod-Nawist".

0:12:50.407,0:12:51.977
I'm not going to forget it now.

0:12:51.977,0:12:53.740
So moving on, you may wonder again [br]

0:12:53.740,0:12:55.513
what's the point in doing this?

0:12:55.513,0:12:57.342
And I try to explain to people a lot

0:12:57.342,0:12:58.994
what my various motivations are,

0:12:58.994,0:13:01.491
but I often feel that this quote[br]from Nelson Mandela

0:13:01.491,0:13:03.101
is the best expression of that.

0:13:03.101,0:13:05.532
"If you talk to a man[br]in a language he understands,

0:13:05.532,0:13:07.159
that goes to his head.

0:13:07.159,0:13:10.005
If you talk to him in his language[br]that goes to his heart."

0:13:10.005,0:13:11.256
So as I began to see,

0:13:11.256,0:13:12.717
there's an enormous connection [br]

0:13:12.717,0:13:14.158
between language and culture,

0:13:14.158,0:13:15.520
language and thought.

0:13:15.520,0:13:19.015
And quite honestly[br]if you want to learn Persian for example,

0:13:19.015,0:13:22.221
you pick up a dictionary, you say,[br]"I know how to say 'thank you',

0:13:22.221,0:13:24.091
I know how to say 'how much is this?',

0:13:24.091,0:13:25.653
and I know how to say 'goodbye'.

0:13:25.653,0:13:27.313
Oh, I speak Persian."

0:13:27.313,0:13:29.015
Probably not, let's see actually.

0:13:29.015,0:13:32.022
In fact, if you want to buy something[br]in a Persian bookstore,

0:13:32.022,0:13:34.067
you might ask someone 'how much is this?'.

0:13:34.067,0:13:35.733
Generally, he will tell you this:

0:13:35.733,0:13:37.013
"Ghabeli nadaareh."

0:13:37.013,0:13:38.596
Which means, 'it's worthless'.

0:13:38.596,0:13:39.775
(Laughter)

0:13:39.775,0:13:43.150
So in fact this is an ingrained[br]cultural practice called, "Taaraf",

0:13:43.150,0:13:45.389
in which two people having a conversation,

0:13:45.389,0:13:47.760
both try to behave[br]more humble than the other.

0:13:47.760,0:13:49.264
So if I go to buy a book,

0:13:49.264,0:13:51.906
it's rude for that person to tell me[br]'it's five bucks'.

0:13:51.906,0:13:53.853
He has to say "it's worthless, please.

0:13:53.853,0:13:55.917
You're so good-looking,[br]you're so talented,

0:13:55.917,0:13:56.745
(Laughter)

0:13:56.745,0:13:59.224
Take it for free,[br]I'm so humble, take it for free."

0:13:59.224,0:14:00.767
(Laughter)

0:14:00.767,0:14:04.276
Or you might find something[br]like this phrase:

0:14:04.276,0:14:05.752
if you want to thank somebody,

0:14:05.752,0:14:08.029
if you want to show your gratitude[br]towards them,

0:14:08.029,0:14:09.370
or say 'nice to meet you',

0:14:09.370,0:14:12.230
I could say, "Well,[br]I know how to say 'thank you' in Farsi.

0:14:12.230,0:14:13.815
I speak Farsi."[br]Maybe not though.

0:14:13.815,0:14:16.776
In fact I've often heard this phrase[br]when I talk with Iranians,

0:14:16.776,0:14:17.852
"Ghorbanet beram."

0:14:17.852,0:14:18.910
Which literally means,

0:14:18.910,0:14:22.770
"May I sacrifice my life for you."[br](Laughter)

0:14:22.770,0:14:24.771
So again, it's poetic,

0:14:24.771,0:14:26.723
you might call it melodramatic.

0:14:27.833,0:14:31.598
but this is something you really[br]have to understand the culture to get.

0:14:32.536,0:14:34.263
I don't want to exoticize this,

0:14:34.263,0:14:37.266
because, think about it,[br]we have this in English all the time.

0:14:37.266,0:14:39.006
If you ask somebody 'how are you?',

0:14:39.006,0:14:40.451
what you're expecting to hear?

0:14:40.451,0:14:41.209
'I'm fine'.

0:14:41.209,0:14:43.535
If you tell me anything else,[br]I'm not interested.

0:14:43.535,0:14:44.896
(Laughter)

0:14:44.896,0:14:46.035
But we do it anyway.

0:14:46.035,0:14:47.217
We say 'bless you',

0:14:47.217,0:14:49.870
even though that has no real[br]religious connotations now,

0:14:49.870,0:14:51.527
when people sneeze, right?

0:14:51.527,0:14:54.123
So, it's interesting we think[br]about the fact

0:14:54.123,0:14:55.533
that most linguists believe

0:14:55.533,0:14:58.501
language doesn't inherently[br]affect the way you think.

0:14:58.501,0:15:01.444
Right. There's no language[br]that will make you a math genius.

0:15:01.444,0:15:03.152
There's no language that will make[br]

0:15:03.152,0:15:05.563
logic problems impossible to understand.

0:15:05.563,0:15:08.034
But there's a real tie[br]between language and culture.

0:15:08.034,0:15:09.868
There're so much language can tell you[br]

0:15:09.868,0:15:11.604
about one culture's mindset.

0:15:11.604,0:15:13.079
And in fact on planet Earth,

0:15:13.079,0:15:16.228
every two weeks, another language dies.

0:15:16.228,0:15:17.750
No more people are speaking it.

0:15:17.750,0:15:19.774
Because of war, because of famine,

0:15:19.774,0:15:21.730
oftentimes just because of assimilation.

0:15:21.730,0:15:24.483
Maybe it easier for me[br]not to speak my village language

0:15:24.483,0:15:26.245
but to speak, Arabic let's say.

0:15:26.245,0:15:28.763
Or maybe I'm from a tribe in the Amazon,

0:15:28.763,0:15:30.070
my habitat is cut down

0:15:30.070,0:15:32.819
and it just makes more sense for me[br]to learn Portuguese

0:15:32.819,0:15:34.874
and lose my culture.

0:15:34.874,0:15:36.064
So think about that.

0:15:36.064,0:15:38.264
Two months from today is April 1st.

0:15:38.264,0:15:40.349
For many of you that day maybe stressful[br]

0:15:40.349,0:15:41.864
because you have a paper due,

0:15:41.864,0:15:42.780
or the rent is due.

0:15:42.780,0:15:45.105
But for two groups of people[br]around the world,

0:15:45.105,0:15:47.860
for two cultures that means[br]the death of their language.

0:15:47.860,0:15:50.745
The death of their mythology,[br]their history, their folklore.

0:15:50.745,0:15:52.495
Their understanding of the world.

0:15:52.495,0:15:54.684
Now again, you,[br]brushing up on your Spanish,

0:15:54.684,0:15:56.496
going to Japanese class,

0:15:56.496,0:15:58.788
is not going to stop language death.

0:15:59.228,0:16:02.770
But what is does do,[br]is begin to open up your mind to the idea

0:16:02.770,0:16:05.517
that language in its sense, in essence,

0:16:05.517,0:16:08.743
represents a cultural world view.

0:16:08.743,0:16:11.490
And if I can impart you[br]with anything today at TEDxTeen,

0:16:11.490,0:16:13.003
it's this:

0:16:13.003,0:16:14.983
you can translate words easily

0:16:14.983,0:16:17.377
but you can't quite translate meaning.

0:16:17.377,0:16:18.382
Thank you.

0:16:18.382,0:16:19.858
(Cheers)