1
00:00:05,759 --> 00:00:09,459
What color do you see
on the left side of the board?

2
00:00:10,037 --> 00:00:11,127
(Audience) Blue.

3
00:00:11,570 --> 00:00:14,898
Right. What color do you see
on the right side of the board?

4
00:00:14,898 --> 00:00:17,170
(Audience) Blue, light blue.

5
00:00:17,170 --> 00:00:20,040
(Laughter)

6
00:00:20,290 --> 00:00:23,110
Okay, let's say this
is dark blue and light blue,

7
00:00:23,110 --> 00:00:24,314
does everyone agree?

8
00:00:24,314 --> 00:00:25,314
(Audience) Yeah.

9
00:00:25,314 --> 00:00:28,674
Okay, so what would you
call them in general?

10
00:00:29,330 --> 00:00:30,340
(Audience) Blue.

11
00:00:30,340 --> 00:00:33,540
All right. Now, are there any people
who speak Russian?

12
00:00:34,620 --> 00:00:35,640
Yeah?

13
00:00:35,640 --> 00:00:37,960
Great. See a couple of hands.

14
00:00:37,960 --> 00:00:42,580
All right, so what would you call
the color on the on the left in Russian?

15
00:00:42,620 --> 00:00:43,539
Cиний.

16
00:00:43,569 --> 00:00:46,190
So what about the color on the right?

17
00:00:46,230 --> 00:00:47,480
(Audience) Rолубой.

18
00:00:47,490 --> 00:00:50,820
Uh-huh. Now, what would
you call them together?

19
00:00:52,366 --> 00:00:54,806
(Laughter)

20
00:00:54,806 --> 00:00:56,814
I got you trapped because in Russian

21
00:00:56,814 --> 00:00:58,628
you can't call them together.

22
00:00:58,628 --> 00:01:01,022
In Russian, you can't say just "blue."

23
00:01:01,242 --> 00:01:03,891
You have to either say "синий," dark blue,

24
00:01:03,891 --> 00:01:05,982
or "голубой," light blue.

25
00:01:06,662 --> 00:01:10,126
Now, I know that there are two or three
Armenian speakers too, right?

26
00:01:10,126 --> 00:01:13,960
So I'm giving you a sentence,
and you translate it to Armenian.

27
00:01:13,960 --> 00:01:15,699
"I have an uncle."

28
00:01:16,102 --> 00:01:17,632
(Audience member) Ես քեռի ունեմ.

29
00:01:17,632 --> 00:01:19,967
See, now Nana said "Ես քեռի ունեմ,"

30
00:01:19,967 --> 00:01:21,687
but she's not correct.

31
00:01:21,687 --> 00:01:24,436
(Laughter)

32
00:01:24,592 --> 00:01:26,798
Because "I have an uncle" can mean

33
00:01:27,162 --> 00:01:29,198
"I have an uncle from my mother side,"

34
00:01:29,198 --> 00:01:31,171
or "I have an uncle from my father side."

35
00:01:31,171 --> 00:01:34,752
What Nana said is "I have
an uncle from my mother side."

36
00:01:34,805 --> 00:01:38,225
But I can say "Ես հորեղբայր ունեմ,"

37
00:01:38,225 --> 00:01:40,895
which would mean "I have an uncle
from my father's side,"

38
00:01:40,895 --> 00:01:43,267
and that would also
be a correct translation.

39
00:01:43,695 --> 00:01:48,458
So Armenian, just like Russian
doesn't allow you to say just "blue,"

40
00:01:48,458 --> 00:01:52,061
Armenian doesn't allow you
to say just "uncle."

41
00:01:52,061 --> 00:01:55,465
You have to specify what uncle
you are talking about.

42
00:01:55,955 --> 00:01:58,674
There are these differences in languages,

43
00:01:58,674 --> 00:02:03,357
but when I was reading "Harry Potter"
by J.K Rowling in Armenian,

44
00:02:03,695 --> 00:02:06,465
I generally understood
what was going on in the book,

45
00:02:06,715 --> 00:02:08,292
even though it was a translation,

46
00:02:08,292 --> 00:02:10,829
even though there were
these differences in languages.

47
00:02:11,770 --> 00:02:14,757
I read the same book,
almost the same book,

48
00:02:14,757 --> 00:02:16,681
as English people did.

49
00:02:16,681 --> 00:02:21,373
And you might be wondering
why I was holding this ruler, right?

50
00:02:21,373 --> 00:02:25,272
Well, the reason is that translation
is like measurement.

51
00:02:25,675 --> 00:02:29,153
So when you measure something,
let's say it's 20 centimeters,

52
00:02:29,153 --> 00:02:31,873
but, most of us know that it's not 20.

53
00:02:31,873 --> 00:02:35,026
It's 20 plus or minus 0.005.

54
00:02:36,250 --> 00:02:37,250
Yeah.

55
00:02:37,250 --> 00:02:39,739
Chemistry, physics, 10th grade.

56
00:02:39,948 --> 00:02:41,633
(Laughter)

57
00:02:41,633 --> 00:02:43,921
So it's very similar to translation.

58
00:02:43,921 --> 00:02:47,952
When I read "Harry Potter,"
I was also seeing the same 20 centimeters,

59
00:02:47,952 --> 00:02:50,887
but there was this small uncertainty.

60
00:02:51,127 --> 00:02:53,587
Because languages
are different for a reason,

61
00:02:53,587 --> 00:02:57,021
you can't just move ideas between them
without losing something.

62
00:02:57,021 --> 00:03:02,155
So I lost that 0.005, but it's so minor,
that it doesn't really, really matter.

63
00:03:02,702 --> 00:03:06,702
But is there a case
where it's not just 0.005,

64
00:03:06,702 --> 00:03:10,745
but it's one centimeter
or maybe even 10?

65
00:03:10,745 --> 00:03:14,745
Well, do you think this person
over here is a boy or a girl?

66
00:03:15,238 --> 00:03:16,958
(Audience) Girl.

67
00:03:16,958 --> 00:03:19,868
Yeah, most of you said "girl,"
and you were correct.

68
00:03:20,192 --> 00:03:21,174
But -

69
00:03:21,474 --> 00:03:25,827
she's actually the main character
of Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird,"

70
00:03:25,827 --> 00:03:28,264
and when I was reading this book,

71
00:03:28,833 --> 00:03:30,900
there was something really weird.

72
00:03:31,110 --> 00:03:35,859
I couldn't understand the gender
of the main character until about page 60,

73
00:03:35,859 --> 00:03:38,595
because the author was only giving clues,

74
00:03:38,595 --> 00:03:42,425
and the author was even
confusing me by quotes like:

75
00:03:42,425 --> 00:03:46,425
"I swear, Scout, sometimes you act
so much like a girl, it's mortifying."

76
00:03:46,653 --> 00:03:50,203
And when you say, "You act so much
like a girl it's mortifying,"

77
00:03:50,203 --> 00:03:53,965
we understand that the person
is not supposed to act like a girl, right?

78
00:03:53,965 --> 00:03:58,937
Or Scout was saying, "I beat him up
one time but he was real nice about it."

79
00:03:59,293 --> 00:04:00,992
Beating up and girls?

80
00:04:01,593 --> 00:04:04,763
In 1960? They are miles away, really?

81
00:04:04,763 --> 00:04:06,413
(Laughter)

82
00:04:06,413 --> 00:04:09,160
So that's why the author
really confused me,

83
00:04:09,160 --> 00:04:11,449
and I was thinking,
"Maybe my English is too bad,

84
00:04:11,449 --> 00:04:13,599
maybe I don't understand
this book correctly,"

85
00:04:13,599 --> 00:04:17,338
but then I realized that this
is an essential part of the theme.

86
00:04:17,635 --> 00:04:20,075
Because halfway through the book,

87
00:04:20,075 --> 00:04:22,746
this character comes
whose name is Aunt Alexandra.

88
00:04:23,035 --> 00:04:27,895
So she's Scout's aunt,
and she tries to make a girl out of Scout.

89
00:04:28,195 --> 00:04:32,732
So first in the book,
Scout identifies herself as just a child.

90
00:04:32,838 --> 00:04:35,345
I'm not a girl, I'm not a boy,
but just a child.

91
00:04:35,635 --> 00:04:38,470
But then, Aunt Alexandra
trains her into a girl,

92
00:04:38,470 --> 00:04:41,710
and at the end of the [book],
you can see Scout wearing dresses

93
00:04:41,710 --> 00:04:44,340
and drinking coffee
with her auntie and her friends.

94
00:04:44,340 --> 00:04:47,800
So just like Scout reveals her gender,

95
00:04:47,800 --> 00:04:49,260
discovers her gender,

96
00:04:49,260 --> 00:04:52,535
the reader does the same,
so we have the same journey

97
00:04:52,535 --> 00:04:55,407
as the main character does,
we really live with her.

98
00:04:55,890 --> 00:04:58,074
But then, let's take a look
at this example:

99
00:04:58,074 --> 00:05:02,147
So when I say, "Mariam went home"
in English, Russian, or Armenian,

100
00:05:02,147 --> 00:05:06,007
I know that I'm talking about a girl,
because Mariam is the name of a girl.

101
00:05:06,007 --> 00:05:10,907
All right, now let's change Mariam
with a pronoun, with "she."

102
00:05:11,071 --> 00:05:13,077
"She went home," I know that it's a girl.

103
00:05:13,077 --> 00:05:15,676
"Она пошла домой,"
I know that it's a girl.

104
00:05:15,676 --> 00:05:19,173
But when I say "Նա գնաց տուն,"
it's just a question mark,

105
00:05:19,173 --> 00:05:22,065
because in Armenian, as Nana
probably knows,

106
00:05:22,065 --> 00:05:27,035
the pronoun "նա" represents
both boys and girls.

107
00:05:27,529 --> 00:05:31,348
But even if I really want to hide
the gender of a person,

108
00:05:31,348 --> 00:05:35,293
and I just give Mariam a nickname,
let's say "Scout."

109
00:05:35,293 --> 00:05:38,936
So "Scout went home."
I don't know if it's a boy or a girl.

110
00:05:38,936 --> 00:05:41,585
"Մեձաչքանին գնաց տուն,"
I still don't know.

111
00:05:41,585 --> 00:05:45,114
But then when I say,
"Глазастик пошла домой,"

112
00:05:45,114 --> 00:05:50,161
"Глазастик пошла домой, пошла домой,"
I know that it's a girl.

113
00:05:50,161 --> 00:05:53,811
Because, just like you can't say
just "go" in Russian,

114
00:05:53,811 --> 00:05:56,547
you cannot say just "went" in Russian,

115
00:05:56,547 --> 00:05:58,501
or just any verb in Russian.

116
00:05:58,501 --> 00:06:03,095
Because you have to either say
"пошёл," or "пошла."

117
00:06:03,385 --> 00:06:06,955
"Пошёл" would be about boys,
and "пошла" would be about girls.

118
00:06:07,145 --> 00:06:09,878
So when I want to translate
this sentence into Russian,

119
00:06:10,275 --> 00:06:15,145
I have to say "Я избил его,"
or "Я избилa его."

120
00:06:15,145 --> 00:06:17,288
And, wait ...

121
00:06:17,288 --> 00:06:21,235
So does this mean that in Russian
you cannot hide someone's gender?

122
00:06:21,439 --> 00:06:22,841
Yes, it does.

123
00:06:22,841 --> 00:06:26,424
And when I was reading
the Russian book, guess what?

124
00:06:26,424 --> 00:06:30,364
The gender of Scout was revealed
since the very first page.

125
00:06:30,777 --> 00:06:33,576
So if I were to discuss this book

126
00:06:33,576 --> 00:06:35,355
with my Russian friend,

127
00:06:35,355 --> 00:06:39,214
who doesn't know about
the "hiding of Scout's gender,"

128
00:06:39,214 --> 00:06:42,019
we would have complete different
understandings of the book.

129
00:06:42,019 --> 00:06:45,339
So it's no longer 0.005 -
it's already a huge difference,

130
00:06:45,383 --> 00:06:50,346
because my friend didn't get
that part of the theme that I did.

131
00:06:52,553 --> 00:06:55,106
That is why reading
"Harry Potter" in Armenian,

132
00:06:55,293 --> 00:06:58,723
and reading "To Kill a Mockingbird,"

133
00:06:58,723 --> 00:07:02,025
Убить пересмешника, in Russian,
are a bit different.

134
00:07:02,025 --> 00:07:06,423
Because even though there
are the differences in "Harry Potter" too,

135
00:07:06,423 --> 00:07:08,198
they don't matter so much.

136
00:07:08,714 --> 00:07:11,871
But Harper Lee decided
to use this uniqueness

137
00:07:11,871 --> 00:07:17,526
that English has and the opportunity
that it gives her to convey a theme.

138
00:07:18,663 --> 00:07:20,530
So when you read it in Russian,

139
00:07:20,530 --> 00:07:23,525
you don't really get the theme
that she wanted to convey.

140
00:07:24,255 --> 00:07:27,608
Another example of this
would be "Room," by Emma Donoghue.

141
00:07:27,608 --> 00:07:31,157
But before going into the book,
I want to tell you something.

142
00:07:31,367 --> 00:07:35,277
For example, this ruler would be
feminine in Russian,

143
00:07:35,277 --> 00:07:37,317
because it's "линейка,"

144
00:07:37,317 --> 00:07:43,070
and if it finishes with "а,"
then it's feminine, or with "я."

145
00:07:43,070 --> 00:07:44,405
So that's how Russian works.

146
00:07:44,405 --> 00:07:46,925
Spanish works the same way;
German works the same way.

147
00:07:46,925 --> 00:07:50,465
These languages have a thing
that's called "grammatical gender."

148
00:07:52,795 --> 00:07:55,072
In this book, in "Room" by Emma Donoghue,

149
00:07:55,072 --> 00:07:58,585
a mother and her son are trapped
in a room for five years

150
00:07:58,585 --> 00:08:02,282
and her son has never seen the world
outside of the room,

151
00:08:02,282 --> 00:08:05,544
so it's logical to think
that he should be a little bit weird.

152
00:08:05,829 --> 00:08:08,211
How is the weirdness
expressed in the book?

153
00:08:08,586 --> 00:08:09,597
Well,

154
00:08:09,597 --> 00:08:14,323
he thinks that all the objects
around him have genders.

155
00:08:14,323 --> 00:08:17,605
So for example, this rug
wouldn't be just "it";

156
00:08:17,605 --> 00:08:20,315
it would be a "she."

157
00:08:20,315 --> 00:08:24,215
He has kind of a Russian mind,
but it's really weird for English people,

158
00:08:24,215 --> 00:08:26,826
because when you say
"rug, she" in English,

159
00:08:26,826 --> 00:08:28,516
then "rug" is personified.

160
00:08:29,206 --> 00:08:31,966
When he says, "We've been making
labyrinth since I was two.

161
00:08:31,966 --> 00:08:35,336
She's all toilet roll insides
taped together in tunnels

162
00:08:35,336 --> 00:08:36,906
that twist lots of ways,"

163
00:08:37,456 --> 00:08:39,207
Now labyrinth is "she."

164
00:08:39,207 --> 00:08:41,867
Fine. Now let's try
to translate this to Russian.

165
00:08:42,039 --> 00:08:46,997
First of all, "лабиринт" would be "he,"
because it finishes with the letter "т."

166
00:08:47,366 --> 00:08:49,041
But that's not what really matters.

167
00:08:49,746 --> 00:08:51,956
You can argue that it doesn't matter

168
00:08:51,956 --> 00:08:55,666
if you think of labyrinth
as "she" or "he."

169
00:08:55,666 --> 00:08:58,632
The thing is that in Russian
it's completely natural

170
00:08:59,216 --> 00:09:03,216
to say that "лабиринт" is "he"
because that's what people do.

171
00:09:03,216 --> 00:09:08,242
So the thing that is seen as weirdness
in English in Emma Donoghue's book

172
00:09:08,392 --> 00:09:10,892
is seen as a complete
normal thing in Russian.

173
00:09:11,626 --> 00:09:13,707
That is why I want to connect it

174
00:09:13,707 --> 00:09:16,220
to this thing that
Roman Jakobson has said:

175
00:09:16,220 --> 00:09:19,480
"Languages differ essentially
in what they must convey,

176
00:09:19,480 --> 00:09:21,274
and not in what they may convey."

177
00:09:21,810 --> 00:09:25,151
So in Russian, I must convey
the gender of a person;

178
00:09:25,151 --> 00:09:28,640
in Armenian, I must convey
the side of my uncle.

179
00:09:28,960 --> 00:09:31,070
I can't just hide it.

180
00:09:32,154 --> 00:09:36,112
So now I have a question for you:

181
00:09:36,112 --> 00:09:37,605
Is it really the same book?

182
00:09:38,073 --> 00:09:39,559
Thank you.

183
00:09:39,559 --> 00:09:41,830
(Applause).