WEBVTT

00:00:05.759 --> 00:00:09.459
What color do you see
on the left side of the board?

00:00:10.037 --> 00:00:11.127
(Audience) Blue.

00:00:11.570 --> 00:00:14.898
Right. What color do you see
on the right side of the board?

00:00:14.898 --> 00:00:17.170
(Audience) Blue, light blue.

00:00:17.170 --> 00:00:20.040
(Laughter)

00:00:20.290 --> 00:00:23.110
Okay, let's say this
is dark blue and light blue,

00:00:23.110 --> 00:00:24.314
does everyone agree?

00:00:24.314 --> 00:00:25.314
(Audience) Yeah.

00:00:25.314 --> 00:00:28.674
Okay, so what would you
call them in general?

00:00:29.330 --> 00:00:30.340
(Audience) Blue.

00:00:30.340 --> 00:00:33.540
All right. Now, are there any people
who speak Russian?

00:00:34.620 --> 00:00:35.640
Yeah?

00:00:35.640 --> 00:00:37.960
Great. See a couple of hands.

00:00:37.960 --> 00:00:42.580
All right, so what would you call
the color on the on the left in Russian?

00:00:42.620 --> 00:00:43.539
Cиний.

00:00:43.569 --> 00:00:46.190
So what about the color on the right?

00:00:46.230 --> 00:00:47.480
(Audience) Rолубой.

00:00:47.490 --> 00:00:50.820
Uh-huh. Now, what would
you call them together?

00:00:52.366 --> 00:00:54.806
(Laughter)

00:00:54.806 --> 00:00:56.814
I got you trapped because in Russian

00:00:56.814 --> 00:00:58.628
you can't call them together.

00:00:58.628 --> 00:01:01.022
In Russian, you can't say just "blue."

00:01:01.242 --> 00:01:03.891
You have to either say "синий," dark blue,

00:01:03.891 --> 00:01:05.982
or "голубой," light blue.

00:01:06.662 --> 00:01:10.126
Now, I know that there are two or three
Armenian speakers too, right?

00:01:10.126 --> 00:01:13.960
So I'm giving you a sentence,
and you translate it to Armenian.

00:01:13.960 --> 00:01:15.699
"I have an uncle."

00:01:16.102 --> 00:01:17.632
(Audience member) Ես քեռի ունեմ.

00:01:17.632 --> 00:01:19.967
See, now Nana said "Ես քեռի ունեմ,"

00:01:19.967 --> 00:01:21.687
but she's not correct.

00:01:21.687 --> 00:01:24.436
(Laughter)

00:01:24.592 --> 00:01:26.798
Because "I have an uncle" can mean

00:01:27.162 --> 00:01:29.198
"I have an uncle from my mother side,"

00:01:29.198 --> 00:01:31.171
or "I have an uncle from my father side."

00:01:31.171 --> 00:01:34.752
What Nana said is "I have
an uncle from my mother side."

00:01:34.805 --> 00:01:38.225
But I can say "Ես հորեղբայր ունեմ,"

00:01:38.225 --> 00:01:40.895
which would mean "I have an uncle
from my father's side,"

00:01:40.895 --> 00:01:43.267
and that would also
be a correct translation.

00:01:43.695 --> 00:01:48.458
So Armenian, just like Russian
doesn't allow you to say just "blue,"

00:01:48.458 --> 00:01:52.061
Armenian doesn't allow you
to say just "uncle."

00:01:52.061 --> 00:01:55.465
You have to specify what uncle
you are talking about.

NOTE Paragraph

00:01:55.955 --> 00:01:58.674
There are these differences in languages,

00:01:58.674 --> 00:02:03.357
but when I was reading "Harry Potter"
by J.K Rowling in Armenian,

00:02:03.695 --> 00:02:06.465
I generally understood
what was going on in the book,

00:02:06.715 --> 00:02:08.292
even though it was a translation,

00:02:08.292 --> 00:02:10.829
even though there were
these differences in languages.

00:02:11.770 --> 00:02:14.757
I read the same book,
almost the same book,

00:02:14.757 --> 00:02:16.681
as English people did.

00:02:16.681 --> 00:02:21.373
And you might be wondering
why I was holding this ruler, right?

00:02:21.373 --> 00:02:25.272
Well, the reason is that translation
is like measurement.

00:02:25.675 --> 00:02:29.153
So when you measure something,
let's say it's 20 centimeters,

00:02:29.153 --> 00:02:31.873
but, most of us know that it's not 20.

00:02:31.873 --> 00:02:35.026
It's 20 plus or minus 0.005.

00:02:36.250 --> 00:02:37.250
Yeah.

00:02:37.250 --> 00:02:39.739
Chemistry, physics, 10th grade.

00:02:39.948 --> 00:02:41.633
(Laughter)

00:02:41.633 --> 00:02:43.921
So it's very similar to translation.

00:02:43.921 --> 00:02:47.952
When I read "Harry Potter,"
I was also seeing the same 20 centimeters,

00:02:47.952 --> 00:02:50.887
but there was this small uncertainty.

00:02:51.127 --> 00:02:53.587
Because languages
are different for a reason,

00:02:53.587 --> 00:02:57.021
you can't just move ideas between them
without losing something.

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.

00:03:02.702 --> 00:03:06.702
But is there a case
where it's not just 0.005,

00:03:06.702 --> 00:03:10.745
but it's one centimeter
or maybe even 10?

NOTE Paragraph

00:03:10.745 --> 00:03:14.745
Well, do you think this person
over here is a boy or a girl?

00:03:15.238 --> 00:03:16.958
(Audience) Girl.

00:03:16.958 --> 00:03:19.868
Yeah, most of you said "girl,"
and you were correct.

00:03:20.192 --> 00:03:21.174
But -

00:03:21.474 --> 00:03:25.827
she's actually the main character
of Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird,"

00:03:25.827 --> 00:03:28.264
and when I was reading this book,

00:03:28.833 --> 00:03:30.900
there was something really weird.

00:03:31.110 --> 00:03:35.859
I couldn't understand the gender
of the main character until about page 60,

00:03:35.859 --> 00:03:38.595
because the author was only giving clues,

00:03:38.595 --> 00:03:42.425
and the author was even
confusing me by quotes like:

00:03:42.425 --> 00:03:46.425
"I swear, Scout, sometimes you act
so much like a girl, it's mortifying."

00:03:46.653 --> 00:03:50.203
And when you say, "You act so much
like a girl it's mortifying,"

00:03:50.203 --> 00:03:53.965
we understand that the person
is not supposed to act like a girl, right?

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."

00:03:59.293 --> 00:04:00.992
Beating up and girls?

00:04:01.593 --> 00:04:04.763
In 1960? They are miles away, really?

00:04:04.763 --> 00:04:06.413
(Laughter)

00:04:06.413 --> 00:04:09.160
So that's why the author
really confused me,

00:04:09.160 --> 00:04:11.449
and I was thinking,
"Maybe my English is too bad,

00:04:11.449 --> 00:04:13.599
maybe I don't understand
this book correctly,"

00:04:13.599 --> 00:04:17.338
but then I realized that this
is an essential part of the theme.

00:04:17.635 --> 00:04:20.075
Because halfway through the book,

00:04:20.075 --> 00:04:22.746
this character comes
whose name is Aunt Alexandra.

00:04:23.035 --> 00:04:27.895
So she's Scout's aunt,
and she tries to make a girl out of Scout.

00:04:28.195 --> 00:04:32.732
So first in the book,
Scout identifies herself as just a child.

00:04:32.838 --> 00:04:35.345
I'm not a girl, I'm not a boy,
but just a child.

00:04:35.635 --> 00:04:38.470
But then, Aunt Alexandra
trains her into a girl,

00:04:38.470 --> 00:04:41.710
and at the end of the [book],
you can see Scout wearing dresses

00:04:41.710 --> 00:04:44.340
and drinking coffee
with her auntie and her friends.

00:04:44.340 --> 00:04:47.800
So just like Scout reveals her gender,

00:04:47.800 --> 00:04:49.260
discovers her gender,

00:04:49.260 --> 00:04:52.535
the reader does the same,
so we have the same journey

00:04:52.535 --> 00:04:55.407
as the main character does,
we really live with her.

00:04:55.890 --> 00:04:58.074
But then, let's take a look
at this example:

00:04:58.074 --> 00:05:02.147
So when I say, "Mariam went home"
in English, Russian, or Armenian,

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.

00:05:06.007 --> 00:05:10.907
All right, now let's change Mariam
with a pronoun, with "she."

00:05:11.071 --> 00:05:13.077
"She went home," I know that it's a girl.

00:05:13.077 --> 00:05:15.676
"Она пошла домой,"
I know that it's a girl.

00:05:15.676 --> 00:05:19.173
But when I say "Նա գնաց տուն,"
it's just a question mark,

00:05:19.173 --> 00:05:22.065
because in Armenian, as Nana
probably knows,

00:05:22.065 --> 00:05:27.035
the pronoun "նա" represents
both boys and girls.

00:05:27.529 --> 00:05:31.348
But even if I really want to hide
the gender of a person,

00:05:31.348 --> 00:05:35.293
and I just give Mariam a nickname,
let's say "Scout."

00:05:35.293 --> 00:05:38.936
So "Scout went home."
I don't know if it's a boy or a girl.

00:05:38.936 --> 00:05:41.585
"Մեձաչքանին գնաց տուն,"
I still don't know.

00:05:41.585 --> 00:05:45.114
But then when I say,
"Глазастик пошла домой,"

00:05:45.114 --> 00:05:50.161
"Глазастик пошла домой, пошла домой,"
I know that it's a girl.

00:05:50.161 --> 00:05:53.811
Because, just like you can't say
just "go" in Russian,

00:05:53.811 --> 00:05:56.547
you cannot say just "went" in Russian,

00:05:56.547 --> 00:05:58.501
or just any verb in Russian.

00:05:58.501 --> 00:06:03.095
Because you have to either say
"пошёл," or "пошла."

00:06:03.385 --> 00:06:06.955
"Пошёл" would be about boys,
and "пошла" would be about girls.

00:06:07.145 --> 00:06:09.878
So when I want to translate
this sentence into Russian,

00:06:10.275 --> 00:06:15.145
I have to say "Я избил его,"
or "Я избилa его."

00:06:15.145 --> 00:06:17.288
And, wait ...

00:06:17.288 --> 00:06:21.235
So does this mean that in Russian
you cannot hide someone's gender?

00:06:21.439 --> 00:06:22.841
Yes, it does.

00:06:22.841 --> 00:06:26.424
And when I was reading
the Russian book, guess what?

00:06:26.424 --> 00:06:30.364
The gender of Scout was revealed
since the very first page.

00:06:30.777 --> 00:06:33.576
So if I were to discuss this book

00:06:33.576 --> 00:06:35.355
with my Russian friend,

00:06:35.355 --> 00:06:39.214
who doesn't know about
the "hiding of Scout's gender,"

00:06:39.214 --> 00:06:42.019
we would have complete different
understandings of the book.

00:06:42.019 --> 00:06:45.339
So it's no longer 0.005 -
it's already a huge difference,

00:06:45.383 --> 00:06:50.346
because my friend didn't get
that part of the theme that I did.

00:06:52.553 --> 00:06:55.106
That is why reading
"Harry Potter" in Armenian,

00:06:55.293 --> 00:06:58.723
and reading "To Kill a Mockingbird,"

00:06:58.723 --> 00:07:02.025
Убить пересмешника, in Russian,
are a bit different.

00:07:02.025 --> 00:07:06.423
Because even though there
are the differences in "Harry Potter" too,

00:07:06.423 --> 00:07:08.198
they don't matter so much.

00:07:08.714 --> 00:07:11.871
But Harper Lee decided
to use this uniqueness

00:07:11.871 --> 00:07:17.526
that English has and the opportunity
that it gives her to convey a theme.

00:07:18.663 --> 00:07:20.530
So when you read it in Russian,

00:07:20.530 --> 00:07:23.525
you don't really get the theme
that she wanted to convey.

NOTE Paragraph

00:07:24.255 --> 00:07:27.608
Another example of this
would be "Room," by Emma Donoghue.

00:07:27.608 --> 00:07:31.157
But before going into the book,
I want to tell you something.

00:07:31.367 --> 00:07:35.277
For example, this ruler would be
feminine in Russian,

00:07:35.277 --> 00:07:37.317
because it's "линейка,"

00:07:37.317 --> 00:07:43.070
and if it finishes with "а,"
then it's feminine, or with "я."

00:07:43.070 --> 00:07:44.405
So that's how Russian works.

00:07:44.405 --> 00:07:46.925
Spanish works the same way;
German works the same way.

00:07:46.925 --> 00:07:50.465
These languages have a thing
that's called "grammatical gender."

00:07:52.795 --> 00:07:55.072
In this book, in "Room" by Emma Donoghue,

00:07:55.072 --> 00:07:58.585
a mother and her son are trapped
in a room for five years

00:07:58.585 --> 00:08:02.282
and her son has never seen the world
outside of the room,

00:08:02.282 --> 00:08:05.544
so it's logical to think
that he should be a little bit weird.

00:08:05.829 --> 00:08:08.211
How is the weirdness
expressed in the book?

00:08:08.586 --> 00:08:09.597
Well,

00:08:09.597 --> 00:08:14.323
he thinks that all the objects
around him have genders.

00:08:14.323 --> 00:08:17.605
So for example, this rug
wouldn't be just "it";

00:08:17.605 --> 00:08:20.315
it would be a "she."

00:08:20.315 --> 00:08:24.215
He has kind of a Russian mind,
but it's really weird for English people,

00:08:24.215 --> 00:08:26.826
because when you say
"rug, she" in English,

00:08:26.826 --> 00:08:28.516
then "rug" is personified.

00:08:29.206 --> 00:08:31.966
When he says, "We've been making
labyrinth since I was two.

00:08:31.966 --> 00:08:35.336
She's all toilet roll insides
taped together in tunnels

00:08:35.336 --> 00:08:36.906
that twist lots of ways,"

00:08:37.456 --> 00:08:39.207
Now labyrinth is "she."

00:08:39.207 --> 00:08:41.867
Fine. Now let's try
to translate this to Russian.

00:08:42.039 --> 00:08:46.997
First of all, "лабиринт" would be "he,"
because it finishes with the letter "т."

00:08:47.366 --> 00:08:49.041
But that's not what really matters.

00:08:49.746 --> 00:08:51.956
You can argue that it doesn't matter

00:08:51.956 --> 00:08:55.666
if you think of labyrinth
as "she" or "he."

00:08:55.666 --> 00:08:58.632
The thing is that in Russian
it's completely natural

00:08:59.216 --> 00:09:03.216
to say that "лабиринт" is "he"
because that's what people do.

00:09:03.216 --> 00:09:08.242
So the thing that is seen as weirdness
in English in Emma Donoghue's book

00:09:08.392 --> 00:09:10.892
is seen as a complete
normal thing in Russian.

NOTE Paragraph

00:09:11.626 --> 00:09:13.707
That is why I want to connect it

00:09:13.707 --> 00:09:16.220
to this thing that
Roman Jakobson has said:

00:09:16.220 --> 00:09:19.480
"Languages differ essentially
in what they must convey,

00:09:19.480 --> 00:09:21.274
and not in what they may convey."

00:09:21.810 --> 00:09:25.151
So in Russian, I must convey
the gender of a person;

00:09:25.151 --> 00:09:28.640
in Armenian, I must convey
the side of my uncle.

00:09:28.960 --> 00:09:31.070
I can't just hide it.

00:09:32.154 --> 00:09:36.112
So now I have a question for you:

00:09:36.112 --> 00:09:37.605
Is it really the same book?

00:09:38.073 --> 00:09:39.559
Thank you.

00:09:39.559 --> 00:09:41.830
(Applause).