TED Global 2013 Found in Translation Hetain

In the TED Found in Translation session following his talk, Hetain and a global panel of TED translators explore how languages we speak affects the way we behave.

- Hi, everybody.

Welcome to the Open Translation Lounge
here at TEDGlobal, 2013.

We're doing these sessions all week,

inviting TED speakers
to meet with translators

both here in Scotland as well as others
joining us via Skype

from all around the world.

Today we have Hetain Patel joining us,
who actually did an amazing talk

and if there was a speaker
we could actually pull out

of all of the speakers that was perfect
for this space, it was him.

Talking about language and identity

and how language shapes identity,
and things like that.

So, the conversation's going to be great,

given we have translators
in the room today.

Joining us here on site
is Sebastian from Argentina,

Palash, from Bangladesh.

Keumseong from Korea,

and Katja from Germany.

And joining us remotely from Skype,
we have Lidia here from Spain,

Jenny Chen from Taiwan,

Jenny Yang who is in Chicago,

and Lazarus joining us from Greece.

Hi, guys, how are you?

My intro talked about language

and how much of our identity
is built up into language.

And I was wondering, actually,
we did a session this morning

which was all in Arabic,
and I've been spending a lot of this week

with a lot of the translators, who are all
speaking their second language.

And I noticed the people that were
speaking in their native tongue

seemed different.

Their body language was different,
their personalities seemed different.

The question I pose
is if you speak multiple languages,

do you have multiple identities,
given your work?

I'm just curious.

Maybe you do.

Language theorists kind of say that you
think through your first language,

that you understand the world
and any subsequent languages you learn

through the, kind of, codes and constructs

and the rules of your first language.

But I guess with people who are bilingual
or multilingual from an early age,

it comes into question
which one of those languages

forms the way you think.

For example, my first language
was the Indian language of Gujarati,

but I feel like my first
language was English

because somewhere along the lines,
they swapped a bit.

So, if I had to describe which way
I think, I'd probably say English,

but it's probably not even English,
or Indian, or Gujarati,

but somewhere else
in-between, or elsewhere.

In terms of do you think differently
or have different identities,

as you were saying in your question,

I think certainly you
will feel differently

when you speak in another language.

I speak little bit of French

and when I speak French,

again, I find myself
moving my body differently,

just as you described,
almost in imitation,

almost remembering
French people I've spoken to.

You know, my wife is French.

And how they talk,
and some of that comes into that.

But I think, also, regardless of whether
it's a different language or not,

even different topics you talk about,
or who you're talking to,

I think can change
how your body language is

and the way that your body
and your words communicate.

Actually, Keumseong, do you feel
like you have multiple identity?

Is your English identity
a totally different person?

Well, it makes some difference,
but I'm slightly different from his ideas,

what he's saying,
because I sometimes get confused

between those two languages.

I speak Korean and some English.

Things like using gestures, in my country,

is not considered to be
very serious talking.

What we do is, like, you know--

Get your spine straightened up

and you speak slowly without
moving your hands or things like that.

Because speaking English, I get,
you know, I do very similar things.

So, it's kind of very hard to get
the line between those two languages.

- OK. Let's go back onto Skype.

Jenny Yang, who are you in English
and who are you in Chinese?

(She laughs)

I think talked to Crystal about this.

(Inaudible)

She mentioned that
when she goes to the West,

people think she has come from New York.

But when she's in New York,
people think she's from the West.

So, I'm living in Chicago,
I come from Shanghai,

at work, daily, I speak English.

When I talk to people who speak English,

I don't feel significantly different.

I feel I mix very well with my colleagues.

The interesting thing is when I go back.

If in Shanghai I speak English,
I felt totally different.

And they feel like I was coming
from a different country.

- OK. Hetain, if I can get back to you,
humour is a big part of your work,

and humour is one of the things
that gets so lost in language.

I think when you speak a foreign language,

trying to be funny in a foreign language

is even harder than being funny
in your own language, sometimes.

Could you talk a little bit about that?

Yeah, I guess.

A lot of my work, I like to use humour
because I talk about identity,

and because it can be such
a serious subject matter,

I always want to connect with an audience
or with someone you're talking to.

So, humour feels like a good sweetener
to kind of connect with somebody.

And I'm influenced by the humour
that I engage with,

which is a lot of English humour
from comedy which I like.

So, naturally, this is the way
that I also make humour in my work.

So, to me, to be honest, it was a question
whether it could work outside the UK.

I had anxieties also of coming to TED
and there being such

an international audience,
and whether that would translate.

So, to get such a heart-warming
kind of response was a bit unexpected.

And I think part of that--

Well, I'd be interested to hear
other people's ideas on that,

but there's so much more involved
in communication rather than words.

I think that translates not just to ideas

but also the transmission of humour
or warmth or connection,

body language that we spoke about,
facial gestures, tone of voice.

- Wonderful.

The session is going to start soon,

so we're going to wrap up
relatively quickly.

One more answer, actually.

I was hoping Katja could answer
that same question.

Humour - how it translates.

- For us, it's funny as we have
three languages in our family.

I am German, my husband is Turkish,
my children go to an international school.

They speak English.

So, sometimes,
there are very funny situations

when we switch languages in between.

I think somebody who's not
in our situation

wouldn't understand the jokes behind it.

So, we really enjoy
this multilingual experience.

And, sometimes,
we make a lot of fun about it.

So, no 'knock knock' jokes in the house.

OK, we're going to have to wrap.

Thank you everybody for coming

and please come back again after
the next session and tomorrow morning.

So, thank you so much. Goodbye.