TED in 40 languages

Got this in my mailbox this morning from Chris Anderson, the Curator of TED:

Dear Global TED Community,

Our mission is "ideas worth spreading". But 4.5 billion people don't speak English very well. That's why we consider today's announcement the biggest event at TED since we started putting our talks online.

The TED Open Translation Project will enable thousands of volunteer translators to use subtitles to make TED available to their own communities. To do this the right way has taken a year of preparation. But now we're ready, and I couldn't be prouder of what our amazing web team has delivered here.

The announcement just went up. Or explore for yourself here.

Soon anyone anywhere will be able to understand talks in their own language from the world's wisest teachers. We hope you love this as much as we do.

Thank you for being part of TED.

Chris Anderson

TED Curator

P.S. Even if you don't speak another language, try clicking "interactive transcript" on any talk page (red link top-right). Click on a word. And watch what happens...

I just realized how poor my Italian was when I watched Richard St John's TEDtalk with the English muted and Italian subtitles. I think its a great way to learn languages! :-)