Breaking the language barrier | Tim Doner | TEDxTeen 2014 (2)

And if you don't think that's true,

look at the reactions to Coca-Cola Super Bowl video.

So as I started to play around more with language learning,

I found that I had my own community

of learners here in New York.

I'd go to outer boroughs,

and for lack of a better word, embarrass myself.

I try to talk to people all day,

get their views on things,

and use my new found language skills.

Video: (Russian) What's your name? - Natan.

Natan. - Good day.

What's your name?

I'm Tim.

Pleased to meet you.

Pleased to meet you.

Where are you from?

(Urdu) This book is written by

Qudratullah Shanab himself.

What is 'nawist'?

It means the writer has written...

Oh okay, Khod-Nawist (self-write).

From khod-nevashtan in Persian!

TD: So maybe you have to use a lot of English,

maybe you're not really

that particularly interesting when you talk,

but the point is you're getting out there

and you're getting exposure.

So I don't speak Urdu that well,

it was kind of an awkward conversation,

but just from that, I've learned a new word: "Khod-Nawist".

I'm not going to forget it now.

So moving on, you may wonder again

what's the point in doing this?

And I try to explain to people a lot

what my various motivations are,

but I often feel that this quote from Nelson Mandela

is the best expression of that.

"If you talk to a man in a language he understands,

that goes to his head.

If you talk to him in his language that goes to his heart."

So as I began to see,

there's an enormous connection

between language and culture,

language and thought.

And quite honestly if you want to learn Persian for example,

you pick up a dictionary, you say, "I know how to say 'thank you',

I know how to say 'how much is this?',

and I know how to say 'goodbye'.

Oh, I speak Persian."

Probably not, let's see actually.

In fact, if you want to buy something in a Persian bookstore,

you might ask someone 'how much is this?'.

Generally, he will tell you this:

"Ghabeli nadaareh."

Which means, 'it's worthless'.

(Laughter)

So in fact this is an ingrained cultural practice called, "Taaraf",

in which two people having a conversation,

both try to behave more humble than the other.

So if I go to buy a book,

it's rude for that person to tell me 'it's five bucks'.

He has to say "it's worthless, please.

You're so good-looking, you're so talented,

(Laughter)

Take it for free, I'm so humble, take it for free."

(Laughter)

Or you might find something like this phrase:

if you want to thank somebody,

if you want to show your gratitude towards them,

or say 'nice to meet you',

I could say, "Well, I know how to say 'thank you' in Farsi.

I speak Farsi." Maybe not though.

In fact I've often heard this phrase when I talk with Iranians,

"Ghorbanet beram."

Which literally means,

"May I sacrifice my life for you." (Laughter)

So again, it's poetic,

you might call it melodramatic.

but this is something you really have to understand the culture to get.

I don't want to exoticize this,

because, think about it, we have this in English all the time.

If you ask somebody 'how are you?',

what you're expecting to hear?

'I'm fine'.

If you tell me anything else, I'm not interested.

(Laughter)

But we do it anyway.

We say 'bless you',

even though that has no real religious connotations now,

when people sneeze, right?

So, it's interesting we think about the fact

that most linguists believe

language doesn't inherently affect the way you think.

Right. There's no language that will make you a math genius.

There's no language that will make

logic problems impossible to understand.

But there's a real tie between language and culture.

There're so much language can tell you

about one culture's mindset.

And in fact on planet Earth,

every two weeks, another language dies.

No more people are speaking it.

Because of war, because of famine,

oftentimes just because of assimilation.

Maybe it easier for me not to speak my village language

but to speak, Arabic let's say.

Or maybe I'm from a tribe in the Amazon,

my habitat is cut down

and it just makes more sense for me to learn Portuguese

and lose my culture.

So think about that.

Two months from today is April 1st.

For many of you that day maybe stressful

because you have a paper due,

or the rent is due.

But for two groups of people around the world,

for two cultures that means the death of their language.

The death of their mythology, their history, their folklore.

Their understanding of the world.

Now again, you, brushing up on your Spanish,

going to Japanese class,

is not going to stop language death.

But what is does do, is begin to open up your mind to the idea

that language in its sense, in essence,

represents a cultural world view.

And if I can impart you with anything today at TEDxTeen,

it's this:

you can translate words easily

but you can't quite translate meaning.

Thank you.

(Cheers)