0:00:12.558,0:00:14.098 ALRAFEE (an Arabic author) says: 0:00:14.098,0:00:17.187 "The degradation of nations[br]is in the degradation of their tongue, 0:00:17.187,0:00:20.421 and the downfall of their language[br]will always become their own. 0:00:20.685,0:00:24.416 That's when the foreigner colonizer[br]imposes his tongue 0:00:24.416,0:00:26.097 on the colonized nation, 0:00:26.692,0:00:28.932 shows off his majesty 0:00:28.932,0:00:31.431 and chases them with it. 0:00:31.431,0:00:35.291 He then sentences three judges[br]with one action: 0:00:35.291,0:00:36.411 The first one is: 0:00:36.411,0:00:39.874 imprisoning their language into his,[br]indicted to a lifetime behind bars. 0:00:39.874,0:00:44.417 The second: convicting their past[br]to be killed by oblivion. 0:00:44.595,0:00:49.772 And the third: chaining their future[br]to the cuffs he makes, 0:00:49.772,0:00:53.140 and his authority to be the leash[br]by which they’re bound." 0:00:54.041,0:00:58.048 (Applause) 0:01:00.026,0:01:03.033 The story started 8 years ago, 0:01:03.263,0:01:05.338 I was at my third year in college, 0:01:05.521,0:01:08.606 and I was asked to make a research[br]about a certain disease. 0:01:09.101,0:01:11.717 I asked for help from my elder friend[br]in the university. 0:01:11.717,0:01:13.742 He gave me books and articles and told me: 0:01:13.742,0:01:16.707 "If you want further information[br]go and search on the Internet, 0:01:16.707,0:01:20.478 but I don't recommend you search in Arabic[br]because you won’t find anything, 0:01:20.478,0:01:22.245 search only in English." 0:01:23.835,0:01:25.107 Why only in English?! 0:01:25.686,0:01:27.414 couldn't I find anything in Arabic?! 0:01:27.414,0:01:30.276 it's an old disease,[br]and it must have some articles in Arabic 0:01:30.276,0:01:31.907 just as in English! 0:01:33.377,0:01:35.186 I came back home and started searching 0:01:35.186,0:01:38.736 I truly didn't find anything more[br]than a few Arabic scripts in forums. 0:01:39.057,0:01:42.916 so I had to search in English, translate[br]and then present the essay I wrote. 0:01:43.078,0:01:45.676 next day, I kept thinking about that 0:01:48.900,0:01:53.199 maybe this particular disease doesn't have[br]much information about it in Arabic 0:01:53.199,0:01:55.888 thus I should search all over again 0:01:56.304,0:01:57.407 I searched with Google 0:01:57.407,0:02:00.989 and found that the first results you get[br]when you do a scientific research 0:02:00.989,0:02:02.321 is Wikipedia 0:02:02.441,0:02:06.438 when I entered it, I felt like[br]I've found what I was looking for 0:02:07.679,0:02:10.769 Wikipedia is a website[br]that contains 295 languages 0:02:11.039,0:02:16.039 the main page has 10 principal languages[br]including Arabic 0:02:16.579,0:02:20.901 which means they acknowledge Arabic[br]as a powerful and universal language 0:02:22.922,0:02:28.621 I looked at the written details[br]under each language, 0:02:28.872,0:02:32.137 and found that there are about[br]500,000 articles written in Arabic 0:02:32.258,0:02:36.812 In English, there is 5437962 articles. 0:02:36.812,0:02:40.083 - Don't check the number on the screen[br]as I can't memorize it - 0:02:41.352,0:02:44.633 (Applause) 0:02:45.054,0:02:47.852 I told myself:"It's not about the quantity 0:02:48.023,0:02:49.723 the quality is much important" 0:02:50.104,0:02:52.694 when you check any of these articles, 0:02:52.694,0:02:56.024 you'll find that there are articles[br]in English equal nearly to 40 pages 0:02:56.024,0:02:58.934 while they don't exceed[br]3 to 4 lines in Arabic. 0:03:00.434,0:03:02.041 It’s okay 0:03:02.706,0:03:07.832 why wouldn't I start to[br]do something about it? 0:03:10.235,0:03:13.976 So I really took the calculator 0:03:13.976,0:03:16.976 to calculate the time[br]I need to translate them 0:03:16.976,0:03:20.907 because I love typing on the computer[br]to compensate for my illegible font 0:03:20.907,0:03:26.224 and I love Arabic and have[br]a good knowledge of English 0:03:26.938,0:03:30.425 so I started using my calculator, 0:03:30.474,0:03:33.216 I found that if I want[br]to translate all these articles 0:03:33.216,0:03:36.148 then I wouldn't need more than 900 years. 0:03:36.926,0:03:38.008 900 years! 0:03:39.347,0:03:42.308 regardless of which grandchildren level[br]I would have by then, 0:03:42.308,0:03:45.814 those 5 million wouldn't stay the same,[br]they may become 200 million 0:03:46.022,0:03:48.739 and eventually,[br]we'll have 5 million articles in Arabic 0:03:49.699,0:03:51.649 So I asked myself: "Why bother myself?" 0:03:51.649,0:03:55.608 I don't even understand economics,[br]engineering, maths, etc.! 0:03:55.970,0:03:59.009 I would work on[br]what's related to my specialty 0:03:59.149,0:04:02.260 I would translate what involves[br]medicine and pharmacy. 0:04:02.769,0:04:07.031 So I recalculated and found out[br]that I need about 80 years. 0:04:07.229,0:04:10.959 80 years in front of a computer all day[br]with the possibility of having backache 0:04:10.969,0:04:13.669 or having to wear glasses like I do now 0:04:15.350,0:04:18.949 I tried to rethink about it, why's that? 0:04:19.439,0:04:22.112 why isn't there any consideration[br]given to Arabic? 0:04:22.112,0:04:27.962 Why do we believe that English is[br]the essential language for all sciences? 0:04:28.951,0:04:31.360 when I went back in time a little bit, 0:04:31.360,0:04:34.731 I found that in the Abbasid Era, 0:04:34.731,0:04:37.682 translation process was so active 0:04:37.723,0:04:40.993 During that time, Arabs translated[br]every book that got to their hands 0:04:41.013,0:04:44.483 articles, researches, myths, novels... etc 0:04:44.962,0:04:47.782 regardless of the content[br]whether it's right or wrong, 0:04:47.782,0:04:49.461 they translated them anyway. 0:04:49.461,0:04:52.654 They translated them[br]so they can discuss them, build on them 0:04:52.834,0:04:54.893 or criticize them. 0:04:56.602,0:05:00.363 This might be a part of our problem. 0:05:00.924,0:05:05.562 Today, any undergraduate student[br]who wants to do some research 0:05:05.974,0:05:10.975 then he needs to look[br]for information resources. 0:05:11.212,0:05:14.564 Unfortunately,[br]they are available only in English 0:05:14.565,0:05:16.966 thus he needs to learn another language 0:05:16.966,0:05:19.955 and it takes a lot of time 0:05:20.264,0:05:25.855 regardless of that, the human being[br]can't understand 0:05:25.855,0:05:31.203 what's written in a foreign language[br]as his native language. 0:05:36.134,0:05:39.012 Even if anyone works in this field 0:05:39.012,0:05:41.208 eventually, articles and researches 0:05:42.127,0:05:47.479 are published originally in English[br]and are maintained in that language 0:05:47.587,0:05:50.286 and we can't find them in Arabic. 0:05:53.120,0:05:58.829 Honestly, we need to work on turning[br]this international scientific content 0:05:58.829,0:06:01.428 from English to other languages 0:06:01.428,0:06:06.968 just like Germans turning it into German,[br]Japanese turning it to their language, 0:06:06.968,0:06:09.012 and like - 0:06:09.398,0:06:12.050 Can anyone read[br]what's written on the screen? 0:06:14.206,0:06:15.206 Alright. 0:06:15.206,0:06:17.310 Does anyone understand this language? 0:06:17.310,0:06:18.880 Did it run across anyone of you? 0:06:19.261,0:06:21.509 This is called the "Cebuano". 0:06:21.870,0:06:26.690 It’s a language spoken[br]by a group of about 20 million people 0:06:26.921,0:06:30.371 who live in the far east in Philippines. 0:06:30.981,0:06:34.823 Still, on Wikipedia[br]there are, in this language, 0:06:34.823,0:06:40.382 4 million articles, and it's the second[br]language in publishing after English. 0:06:41.163,0:06:44.512 So is it possible that we don't have[br]the qualifications and ability 0:06:44.823,0:06:48.513 to support publishing Arabic content?! 0:06:50.684,0:06:55.154 I told myself: "I have to[br]start within myself 0:06:55.154,0:06:58.166 and do something to support this idea". 0:06:58.166,0:07:01.166 Why don't we launch a scheme? 0:07:01.166,0:07:05.607 And I started contacting my friends[br]in college and Facebook groups 0:07:06.034,0:07:11.194 and we started to work on translating. 0:07:13.395,0:07:16.984 When we started, we actually faced[br]a fundamental challenge - 0:07:17.067,0:07:21.595 in a group of Syrians, Egyptians[br]and Moroccans 0:07:22.016,0:07:24.766 there was a disagreement[br]about translating some terms. 0:07:25.597,0:07:27.346 What should we translate "bacteria"? 0:07:27.366,0:07:30.037 should we keep it "bacteria"[br]or translate it to "germs"? 0:07:30.037,0:07:31.797 Or to "living organisms"? 0:07:32.025,0:07:34.570 And what should we translate[br]for example "metabolism"? 0:07:34.570,0:07:36.698 There are two synonyms in Arabic. 0:07:38.307,0:07:45.397 Is it possible that Arabic language[br]couldn't help us create new terms? 0:07:47.157,0:07:50.007 When the English needed new terms, 0:07:50.108,0:07:51.964 their language did not help them. 0:07:52.174,0:07:54.363 So they came up with two things: 0:07:54.643,0:07:56.814 Firstly, they used Latin 0:07:56.814,0:08:01.311 because derivation is easier in Latin[br]than English. 0:08:02.274,0:08:05.840 Secondly, they relied on abbreviations 0:08:06.150,0:08:11.673 to create new soft words. 0:08:14.473,0:08:18.142 What do you feel if I told you there is[br]a disease spreading around the world 0:08:18.142,0:08:19.772 infecting 35 million people 0:08:20.152,0:08:22.897 and causing death to about[br]2 million every year. 0:08:23.097,0:08:26.926 And that I liked to name this disease[br]"helps disease"? 0:08:27.775,0:08:31.811 Or to name the causing virus "FNMB"? 0:08:32.565,0:08:33.430 As an example, 0:08:33.982,0:08:35.997 it may seem a little weird. 0:08:36.347,0:08:39.084 Maybe some of us laughed. 0:08:40.033,0:08:42.861 I don’t know whether English people[br]are laughing now or not, 0:08:42.861,0:08:44.856 but until today they use the word "AIDS" 0:08:44.856,0:08:49.096 which is the acronym for[br]"Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome" 0:08:49.236,0:08:52.396 and "AIDS" in English[br]means "material assistance". 0:08:52.692,0:08:55.076 They didn't find any problem[br]using that word 0:08:55.076,0:09:01.419 in another field than it supposed to be[br]to refer to something else 0:09:02.317,0:09:05.836 while we find that shaky 0:09:06.026,0:09:07.294 and we don't like it, 0:09:07.294,0:09:11.701 maybe we should strongly believe 0:09:11.921,0:09:14.577 that the qualifications our language has 0:09:14.707,0:09:17.538 make it one of the most powerful[br]languages in the world. 0:09:18.008,0:09:21.547 So we actually need[br]a certified reference - 0:09:22.887,0:09:28.148 By the way,[br]in France "AIDS" is called "SIDA" 0:09:28.148,0:09:31.840 because words' order changes there. 0:09:32.667,0:09:35.188 We need a certified reference 0:09:37.138,0:09:42.469 so translators or researchers can refer to[br]when using terms in Arabic. 0:09:42.549,0:09:45.451 In fact, a book was made[br]called the Unified Medical Dictionary 0:09:45.461,0:09:49.102 and I don’t know if there are any other[br]similar thesauruses in other fields, 0:09:49.102,0:09:50.660 like economics and other fields 0:09:50.660,0:09:52.268 but they didn't spread that much, 0:09:52.268,0:09:56.080 Maybe because we don't believe[br]that we can use these Arabic words. 0:09:56.497,0:10:00.817 We need support to publish[br]these information and researches 0:10:00.817,0:10:06.211 whether they're new researches[br]or translated from other languages. 0:10:06.351,0:10:10.652 And we shouldn't underestimate the need[br]to have this content in Arabic 0:10:10.652,0:10:15.621 because it will save time and effort[br]for many researchers. 0:10:16.306,0:10:22.336 We need efforts which may be provided[br]by associations or organizations 0:10:22.606,0:10:26.219 but it has to start[br]from ourselves initially 0:10:26.479,0:10:27.459 because ... 0:10:28.609,0:10:34.514 efforts we make[br]will do a lot to reduce that gap. 0:10:35.284,0:10:37.162 Eventually, I'd like to remind you 0:10:37.162,0:10:40.561 that if anyone wants to translate[br]these articles all by himself 0:10:40.971,0:10:44.517 then he will need - as long as he's[br]on his own - at least 80 years 0:10:44.517,0:10:47.319 and he lost 15 minutes[br]while attending this talk. 0:10:47.519,0:10:48.789 (Applause)