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Imagine,

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a place where everyone
is talking their own language,

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and you have no idea
what they're really talking about.

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How do you feel about that?

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Well, that's not cool.

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I'm Tharique Azeez,

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Language Coordinator for Tamil

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for the TED Open [Translation Project].

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So I'm here to tell you,

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how you can be a part of this

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vibrantly and amazingly
talented translators,

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who are making ideas worth spreading
available to the world.

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So let's get the ball rolling!

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Before we get into the details,

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let's find out

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why it's important to have translation

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for the TED talks in the first place.

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[WHY?]

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It turns out,

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ideas are worth nothing unless executed.

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So it's really important to
understand the idea and to implement it.

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If we can enable those ideas

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accessed by the people
who are living in remote rural areas,

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and who do not speak English,

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we can make them to feel

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and initiate those ideas
in their localities.

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By doing that,

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we can help them to contribute

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to the development, creativity,
innovation in their localities.

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So there is a need for translation.

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For that, TED initiated a project
called "Open Translation Project."

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It started with 40 languages,

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and for the initial part, they had
300 translations done by 200 translators.

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But if you look at right now,

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the stats are staggeringly high.

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So now, it has 78,000+ translations,

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translated by 21,000 translators 
around the globe

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supporting 108 languages.

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So it's a massive project going on.

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So let's look at our local languages
we speak in Sri Lanka,

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which are Sinhala and Tamil.

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For Tamil talks, we have 47 translators

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who helped in making 97 translations.

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And for the Sinhala,

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we have 7 translators contributed,
making 7 translations.

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And I would love to have
lots of translators for both languages,

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so that we can make all these
translations available to the world.

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By the end of this event,

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I would have a couple of dozen people
enroll in these things

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and initiate it worldwide.

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[3]

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So there are three ways you can be

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a part of this amazingly
vibrant community.

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The first one is translate.

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Obviously, you need to know 
two different languages to translate,

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[TRANSLATE]

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but the translation project
is done by a platform called Amara,

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which enables you to have
all the mechanisms

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to do all these translations.

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But the translation process
works like this:

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First, you translate something 
and it's held for their review.

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There is an experienced translator

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who will come and comment
on your translation.

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If they feel like
it's a great translation,

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they will compliment you
and approve that.

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Or, if they feel like
there is a need for improvement,

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they will tell you
and collaborate with you,

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and it's a fun way to collaborate
and learn in the process.

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After that, it's held for approval,

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where a Language Coordinator
or a TED staff will approve that.

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Once they approved it,
it will go live on TED.com.

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So that's the real process.

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But don't fret, there are resources
for all these things.

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We have Facebook groups,
and a translation wiki,

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and language-specific groups
for all these things,

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as well as a dedicated YouTube channel

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with all the translation
mechanisms explained,

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and you can use that
to make yourself aware about this,

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how you can be a part of this community.

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So if you want to get started,
you can go to ted.com/translate.

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The second one is you can
contribute to the transcribe.

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The transcription
is the heart of translation.

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If you don't have a transcription,
you can't initiate the translation.

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So, normally, all the TED talks
come with a transcription,

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but for the TEDx events,
you need to have transcription.

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Let me tell you an example.

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Maybe next year, the TEDxColombo

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will host a speaker
with a native language, like Sinhala.

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While those talks
will be transcribed into Sinhala,

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and can be translated into English,

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from that, we can have
all the languages, like 106 languages,

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and the very idea comes
from Sinhala language,

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but made into hundreds
of different languages.

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From that, we can be a part
of global conversation with our own idea,

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and that's the beauty
of this transcription effort.

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So it's also helpful for people
who may have difficulties in hearing,

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and Google itself
indexes all the transcriptions

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so that people can
search on Google and find you;

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and as always, it's helpful
for the OTP [community] as well.

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To get started with that, you can
go to ted.com/transcribe.

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The third one is tell people.

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Just because there
are translations, TED talks,

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doesn't mean all the people know about it.

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So we have to tell.

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But telling people,
just not coming like nothing.

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There's a built-in mechanism
in TED.com itself

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that you can track your influence.

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If you go to TED.com
and sign in your account,

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so that you'll be given a unique URL,

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which you can share
with your families and friends.

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While sharing those URLs 
with your families and friends,

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you will have an access
to how many people

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you get [to come to those sites].

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So it's a kind of
a social influence tracking,

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but it's still, you are helping

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make ideas available to the world.

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So it's a nice thing to have.

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So, you find that you can translate,

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you can transcribe,

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and you can tell people.

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But...

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well, that's a big 'but,' right?

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But,

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(Laughter)

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Okay.

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(Laughs)

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What's the point of making
these translations in the first place?

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So why contribute?

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[Why Contribute?]

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Well, it turns out,
there are lots of benefits

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from making translations
in the first place.

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When you translate something,
you get to know all those ideas,

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so you start to share with your community.

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From that, you'll become
a thought leader in your community.

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And the next one is "TED Translator" tag,

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which looks awesome on your CV.

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So that will [help start
the conversation for your] interview,

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or anything like that.

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So it's a kind of cool thing to have.

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And you may get surprises in your Inbox,

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like TED itself send you an invite
to take part in a global conversation.

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Maybe it can be in Canada
or Brazil, wherever it is,

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but you can be a part of it

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when you keenly
contribute to those projects.

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And your name will be credited
with your profile link,

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so that people can visit your profile
and get access to who you are,

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and what are you really contributing to.

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And,

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some pleasant surprises
like translation jobs

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that people may come to you to have
when you contribute to those things.

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And you also collaborate
with like-minded people.

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Also, translating is a learning process,

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like, say, I personally know people
who actually read a book

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from the speaker itself
to get the translated talk available.

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Because you don't really
translate word-to-word,

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you translate the context.

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So it's really important
that you get the idea of a speaker,

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and translate [it into] that talk.

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So there is always
a learning thing happening.

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When you translate, 
you don't just translate,

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you start to learn things.

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So it's a great opportunity to learn,

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because we learn and grow,
so that there is a need.

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So I think you already got to know
about OTP Project and all sort of things.

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I believe after this event,
there [will be] dozens of people

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coming along and making
these ideas worth spreading

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available in Tamil and Sinhala

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so that we can contribute
to the betterment of our country,

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and having those ideas
in our local language,

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as well as our ideas
in the local language,

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local ideas can go global and [become]
part of the global conversation.

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So I'll be around here
and you can talk to me,

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and you can send me an email as well.

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[Thank you me@niram.org - @enathu]

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Thank you, you've been awesome.
Enjoy the rest of the talks. Thank you.

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(Applause)