thanks for the intro so I’m the last
person standing between you and dinner
but I’ll try to keep time so I will not
ask you to do any of those things like
closing your eyes for an undefined
number of seconds or stand-up but I have
one request for you please be honest not
with me but with yourself when I ask you
a few questions or just one or two very
important questions just honestly think
and reflect whether that is really what
you’re thinking whether you are
judgmental or whether you’re dishonest
with yourself you can lie to other
people but not to yourself okay
so let’s start with this very very
simple that’s the world and my question
is how global are you and by global I
mean what kind of global mindset do you
have now this is TEDx so I assume you’re
all the cosmopolitan elite the kind of
people who know that Rex it might have
been a mistake and that 2016 is a bad
year for democracy and that really we
should not become localized but we
should embrace the world we should
understand the world yeah sure sure sure
you all know that right and I also hope
your global enough to realize that’s not
a real world see you see that there’s no
countries okay this is a real world but
how global are you if you think yeah you
know maybe I went to an international
school where I have some friends from
other countries you know I traveled I
went around I’m quite global it is a
daunting task a lot of people in this
world a lot of countries even if you
think oh yeah I’ve traveled to like 20
countries I could lucked out more than
200 depends how you count languages 5 to
7,000 depending how defined languages or
or dialects so isn’t even worth it
pursuing as understanding the whole
world can you well yes and no over the
last couple of years me or I and my
colleagues we’ve worked with a lot of
different nationalities more than 80 and
was part of organization and a couple of
things I have learnt
of course is to be humble and to realize
how little I actually know about the
world but another one is something very
very simple insultingly simple one of
the main messages for me to you which is
so so basic that you probably think it’s
not worth listening to but it requires
your honesty and there’s also a bit of
an echo of some of the speaker’s before
suitably as the last speech you will
hear a bit of Iverson’s kind of travel
stories and a bit of dr. Lam’s kind of
curiosity of children but apply to a
different context a different kind of
challenging you know I’m pretty sure
you’re all agree with me that if you
really want to know about the world face
to face interaction that’s the best
right like talking to someone really and
I’m sure you’ve all done this whether
it’s with exchange students or maybe you
are an exchange student or you have gone
exchange you know you’ve met people and
you’re like yeah where you’re from
interesting cool yeah you learn about
the world and face to face but a few
problems with that number one is that
could mean many things you know you can
face someone and still not get anything
out of it or number two you could be a
very shy person and that’s the part
where maybe I put a bit of Jamie insight
because some people are shy some people
have lack of confidence when you’re
young you’re not when I was young I was
quite confident maybe maybe that’s my
parents fault I don’t know but then as I
grew older just like was Jamie
explaining before when I grew older I
started to lose my confidence six years
old
you see I’m already getting there like
oh god the world is scary then 12 13
years old and yes I know what you’re
thinking teenage teenage years are close
to graduation my hair started to grow
and that’s never a good sign so you can
you can see they’re like the teenage
awkwardness Indian even when I went to
university yeah exactly
even when I went to university a pretty
global university was people from all
around the world I was somehow not
getting that much out of it because I
had awkward conversations I tried to
turn them better I tried to adhere to
all the etiquette of go to small talk
and good conversations but the more I
did this the less I felt I learned about
the world which is really really weird
what happens now as we heard from the MC
I’m I’m weird and I’m proud of it I’m
shameless the people who know me know
that I can
save on the streets and not care what
other people like you look at me yeah
but but what what happened so it’s not
just that magically I got confident and
it’s not just something I can teach you
but there’s something else I realized
that trying so hard to have this kind of
proper small talk was really really
counterproductive in fact there’s
another way how can become so much more
not just confident because my talk is
not about confidence
but it’s about in global now comes the i
person part I love traveling the first
time went out was in India and I
realized how much I learned from nothing
just by talking to people in India
traveling brings in weird situations you
know random Indian dude a where you’re
from Germany are Hitler and yeah right
but ends like is that all you know but
okay so how much do you know about India
Gandhi so okay that’s like the worst
comparison ever and I’m not even trying
but the thing is like from this not very
academic discussion I started to learn
so much about the country not from
reading a Travel Guide or reading a book
on a very basic conversation with
extreme communication problems I was 17
years old
half of these words I couldn’t
understand because I was not used to the
Indian accent some of you who might be
aware of this a few years later I
traveled some more in Thailand I
realized this was when this guy was just
out stood from government taxing see
most wanted for crimes against the
kingdom of Thailand
so yeah I heard of this you know the
photo I I read something on a news there
was some some kind of prime minister or
something and got out stood and but it
didn’t mean much to me until I had a
kind of a road trip there was supposed
to be a three day car sharing I turned
to it three hours or three hour car
sharing and turned into a three day road
trip with a car that kept breaking down
ending in a slum in Bangkok West then
spent a night without proper walls and
the atrocity and water and people who
couldn’t understand me I had worst more
spicy mango salad in my life which isn’t
the salad by the way it’s ridiculous but
I also realized that when I showed this
for to do those grandparents
that family they started passionately
arguing and talking and pointing at this
guy I was like what’s going on and I’m
desperate grandchildren and really bad
English tried to explain to me how how
this guy used to give free rights to
some of the supporters in the
countryside and subsidizing the farmers
and just this grandmother’s family comes
from his background and she was
defending him whereas the grandfather
was like angry because his family was
like a Chinese Thai family from Bangkok
and Wow
within this conversation with limited
English I learned so much mobile type
politics in history then it could have
been reading the entire book an
autobiography or that time in Russia in
Siberia when my system he got stuck in
the countryside in in Siberia hundreds
of miles out of civilization you know at
lake baikal where a fishing boat is
supposed to pick us up the next day
after camping didn’t and then we kind of
got saved and picked up at the Russian
military and then took us on a boat from
one day that by they had to do a
military exercise which turned out to be
barbecue chicken and vodka and beer
including for breakfast including the
captain driving the ship so you know I
couldn’t have dreamt that up in some
kind of a cliche Cold War movie but
whoo-hoo and this book pretty much zero
English the only English sentence was
like Russian military better than
American military and I’m pretty sure
I’m pretty sure that did understand that
we’re not Americans but who knows
the thing is though you know we started
playing silly games you know talking
about saying city names that start with
a sudden let any alphabet I’m pretty
sure it’s someone he was just making up
Russian cities and I wasn’t making up
German cities and it just playing or
jumping into the ice-cold lake and doing
some swimming through these weird
interactions again I learned so much
more about what the military in Russia
is like of course it’s not
representative okay any Russians in you
I apologize but that’s just a personal
experience and then I realized I
realized something really important I
get university back on campus so global
so many interactions so many people and
someone I learned so much less about the
world even though communication wasn’t
the problem but maybe it was but we all
spoke English and those travel
experiences there was no English for
hardly any other
why is that the main thing that I
realizing the main thing I want to put
into your heads before you have dinner
maybe even during dinner is that I
believe most people in cross-cultural
small talk have to walk it’s like
walking on a mountain ridge when you
walk along you have been careful not to
fall down to the left or fall down to
the right you want to avoid this kind of
slipping down by you want to avoid basic
embarrassment that you actually don’t
know anything about that other person’s
country so you know when I’m from a
faraway country you’re like mmm mmm
interesting you know like pretending
that you do know very well without from
any other hand you know you also want to
let’s say let’s say you meet on from
Kyrgyzstan not sure many of you have met
people in Kyrgyzstan and a conversation
would go I guess yeah way from oh okay
it’s done mmm interesting you don’t want
to say you don’t want to say sorry I
have no idea what that is can you eat
that over that’s a country okay cool
where I have no idea no you want to say
interesting maybe maybe you fall apart
which city as if as if you knew any city
there do the answer answer it’s like a
fish cake I mean the capital of Wales
would I be from there aren’t that many
cities they said oh yeah yeah right cool
yeah okay and then like you know some
nodding and then and then maybe so what
brings you to Hong Kong or wherever you
are and then maybe a few minutes later
you talk about good restaurants in
London or New York City because you want
to show how much of a global citizen you
are and how much you travel yourself and
how much you know and the conversation
is going nowhere
you haven’t learned anything about
Kyrgyzstan on the other hand your honor
you’re also gonna avoid like falling
down the other side you want to avoid
talking too much and making assumptions
because you don’t want to be that in
offensive jerk who goes around like
Kyrgyzstan Oh Stan that sounds like
Middle East you have like Isis or
terrorists or something there you know
you don’t want to do that which by the
way it’s not in the Middle East it
doesn’t have terrorists and even the
Middle East doesn’t mean to Isis okay I
hope you understand that but the thing
is so in order to avoid this in order to
stay on that path people usually play it
safe don’t talk to a little don’t don’t
don’t don’t show that you don’t know
anything but also don’t talk too much so
this is my most of the conversation are
the
interesting type of conversations but
then there’s something totally different
that’s the insultingly different thing
and you’ll your sense of theme there and
this is dr. Lam’s kind of theme again
you want childish curiosity you want to
be this kind of child and when I say
child again people who know me know that
I kind of hate children so when as a
child I don’t mean these annoying
teenagers I also don’t mean there’s like
crying Devils who will we don’t never
shut up no no no I mean it’s kind of six
six years old seven you know and they’re
really curious there’s lots of why but
not just curiosity that’s one more thing
yeah I think everything is awesome I
think everything is cool and interesting
and everything that waa you know you see
these eyes come out just so cool and you
can impress them by making up lies and
and talking about how you live in a
palace and they’re like ah you know but
if you apply a little bit of this
childish but also innocent curiosity you
can actually avoid all of those pitfalls
you don’t need to fall down to your left
and your right you’re going a different
path and you’re safe because of this an
innocent curiosity you can’t really
offend and also you don’t need to worry
about ignorance you’re like wow I don’t
know tell me more let’s say Kyrgyzstan
Oh what that sounds cool like what is
that can you tell me more about it well
it’s a country in Central Asia why like
China
no no essentially why like we’re cover
son or whatever right what does it look
like when you look out the window or
lots of mountains or cool mountains I
love mountains that tell me more like
what you do in a man is only right
horses you can ride a horse yeah of
course Wow
when did you learn to ride a horse oh
when I was six years old Wow
by the way this might happen because s s
a good friend from Kyrgyzstan told me
like yeah most people learn riding
horses when they’re six to eight to nine
basically everyone male and female so so
it’s like cool do you ride horses in the
city
no we have buses oh okay so thank you
you but you learn so much at the same
time you you you know you you’re just
like my Burt Iverson said you can be
unarmed you can throw away your shield
and your mask by being childish she also
doesn’t matter if you’re ignorant
because that’s kind of the point
you learn so much I want to highlight a
few examples of inspiration that are
really good fun from people that I
admire for skills that I don’t have I
wish I would be in water
that two people and one of them is even
sitting in this room that guy is called
Jay he’s from Singapore originally and
he learned a bit of Cantonese when he
came to Hong Kong to work with us he
improved his Cantonese but he does one
thing that is amazing
whenever we have a project at a
university at a school or anywhere in
Hongkong he immediately goes and talks
to these like middle-aged security
guards or janitors always and he comes
immediately practicing his Cantonese and
asking them whether they have eaten
today and what’s the best restaurant
around here and whether there they’re
warm enough because it’s getting cold
outside and you know all these like
middle-aged ladies that I thought this
guy is so cute no one really talks to us
and this guy keeps oh so nice and he
realized something that most of us
including a lot of Hong Kong stuff have
long forgotten is that janitors are
usually the most powerful people in any
institutions and you know he keeps
talking to them more than anyone else
and we get a lot of benefits this way
but also you learn so many things of of
almost lost stories you’ve all taken
ships maybe Star Ferry and Hong Kong or
other ships ever talked to the people
driving the ship well Jay has and found
out how this one guy you know stays from
the boat overnight so that he can take
the new 6 o’clock ferry that is pretty
impressive another one also work in my
team is she’s called linka
she’s from mainland China and it’s not
that she’s not aware of it but she
chooses to ignore like a child ignore
this does this kind of bad air that
sometimes can be between mainland
Chinese in Hong Kong and it’s implicit
discrimination and just goes all out
enthusiastically hey so cool nice to
meet you would tell me more about
yourself and just starts talking to you
there’s no dead air she will talk to you
whether you want it or not the moment
recently it was last summer she flew to
Sweden to visit another friend of ours
another colleague and I was a 12-hour
airplane flight and he’s 12-hour flights
you know I feel 12 hours fine I mean I
love flying so I I have to sit near the
window so I could
watchout is all nice but she’s like no I
don’t care about the window I want to
see in the middle seat like why because
imagine 12 hours is amazing you can talk
to your seat neighbors for 12 hours
non-stop and and she was like maybe
maybe she reinvented she was excited to
have 12 hour conversations with their
neighbors all of us in the office felt
sorry for those neighbors but this is
what I mean childlikeness Eve curiosity
passion and this is a last one that’s
actually nothing special she’s my
girlfriend and she would kill me if I
before I finish before I finish I can
already feel me you might have some
objections you might think we’re wait a
second you know maybe I’m still too shy
so I would love to but I can’t do this
but my answer would be exactly if you’re
shy this is the best tool you have
because if you’re shy you don’t need to
stick to this awkward this awkward
etiquette and protocol and you don’t
have to worry about being judged you can
see I’m a child
let tell me more and no matter how sure
you are you can do it it’s just try it
out
maybe you think come on I’m a little bit
too mature for this I know quite a bit
about the word I don’t need to do this I
want to have more like adult
conversations really I mean if that’s
the case fine so but I don’t want to
really address this so you can notice in
this case but but really if you really
think you know the world come back and
tell me location of every one of
Africa’s 54 countries if you can do that
then you know about the world but unless
you do that go and have some curiosity
the last point it’s maybe the most
serious one and I partially agree to
this that we live as some people say in
a post facto post truth society
especially now you know with democracy
and politics that people don’t really
look at data and numbers and just trust
anecdotes and opinions of people right
everything’s an opinion therefore you
can argue anything that is a problem
my background is actually mathematics
and computer science I love data I love
numbers but at the same time they are
meaningless if they’re not based on
something emotive and expressive our
brains just work like that our brains
don’t work like a computer or storing
endless sequences of numbers and facts
we can’t memorize Wikipedia so we have
to start with the human
with emotions and pictures so what I
would say is yes and no it is this kind
of important but we can combine it it’s
not a contradiction we can use the
critical minds of adults but use it with
the passion and wonder of children we
can combine those two together we can
say yes this is just an anecdote but
it’s a good starting point
instead what most people do is the other
way around which is terrible they use no
critical thinking but at the same time
they have no wonder and passion so
please use this wonder use this passion
it’s my main message for you you can do
that even during dinner we in our
organization do this as well we think
just like as you know traveling in life
should be related it’s like life is like
a book and if you don’t travel it’s like
just reading the cover page I’m sure
you’ve seen this floating around
Facebook but the thing is of course we
can’t bring everyone to the world and
the premise of our organization and our
business is actually quite simple we can
or should be animation we can not bring
people out to the world but we can bring
the world back to people this is why we
decided to have a school for global
citizens that’s what we’re doing in Hong
Kong universities and secondary schools
that’s why we interact with so many
nationalities and why do you want to be
more children more curious to do things
so that’s what I’d like you to do during
dinner even just after this talk ends
pick something from another country I
think someone you have not met before
and go like a child
whoa tell me more tell me what what what
reminds me of your childhood what’s to
smell when you wake up in the morning
what was the most frustrating thing
about your mom and your dad all those
emotions all those human is extracted
from people be a child and then think
again how global are you how global
thank you [Applause]