Ted, when I first heard of the name Ted, it was actually a very important day in my television career. I was going to attend the Jay Leno show recording at the NBC studios in Burbank, California for the first time. So I'm sitting outside a small... cafe in Burbank, enjoying a nice weather, I was waiting for the real, waiting for the show recording to start, having a small talk with a stranger.
Now, I was saying to him how thrilled and excited I was about an opportunity of being able to... attend the show recording and then meeting with the writers and producers of the show and then in the future to be able to host that format back in Georgia. Now, he was saying to me how thrilled and excited he was because he had been nominated to speak at TED. real, real...
And I said, oh, that sounds interesting, but can you tell me what TED is? And he said, well, TED is... And then he said, you know, never mind.
mind. If you don't know, never mind. Right after that conversation, I went to have another coffee.
So I go to the coffee machine desk and right next to it, I noticed the sign. The sign said helium balloons, $2 each. I recall some of my favorite moments from the US comedy television, and that's where I saw an opportunity for humor.
So I go to the guy and say, can I have another coffee? And he says to me, sure, do you like anything in it? And I said, yes sir, I'd like some helium. Now, the guy looks back at the sign, and then looks back at me and says, that's only for balloons, you know.
Now, from today's perspective, I can see that all the three of us, all the three main characters of that story, the TED guy, myself, and the coffee guy, we're living in three completely different worlds. in our predefined subjective truths, in our predefined subjective realities that collided into a small cafe in Burbank. And cultures do that, right? help us pre-define the paradigm through which we see and make sense of the world around us. So let's talk about cultural differences.
Now, in the process of getting prepared for this presentation, I posed three very simple questions up front. I asked, when we talk about cultural differences, are we really different? Or are we the same? Or are we different? and the same.
So before trying to address those three questions, Thank you. let's define culture first. It seems that there's 5,000 different definitions of the world culture. Here's three of my favorites. Here's one with the beliefs and values and shoots and odds of life.
Here's another one saying that it's the collective programming of the mind. Here's the third one that I want you to pay more attention to. It's by Confucius.
He said, all people are the same. It's just just their habits that are different. And we measure different cultures, right? There's five different dimensions by Hofstede, and there's millions of other dimensions. I'm sorry for putting too much text on one slide, but I'm just underlining how much research has been done, especially in the direction of how different people are.
And of course we're different. There is no question about it. Everything's seemingly different about the cultures.
Our, you know... rituals are different, our symbols are different, our languages are different in the first place. In a Georgian culture, it's acceptable to be late for appointments, as in many other cultures in the world. And the language depicts that. In Georgian language, we say, I'm late because avtobus magamastro.
You know, the Georgian audience understands what I mean by that. So the... In English we say, I missed the bus, so it's my own responsibility that I'm late.
It's my own decision. But in Georgian language, we blame it to the bus. I'm going to make it.
The literal translation of the sentence would be, the bus was too fast to be caught. You know, we blame it to the bus, It's the brain's decision. not even to the bus driver, the bus itself.
See how different we are? On the other hand... On the other hand, however, you have noticed that in certain situations... No matter which culture we're coming from or no matter which language we speak, we behave so similarly, especially in the direction of taking technological developments for granted. On airplanes, for example, instead of appreciating the whole notion of being able to partake in a miracle of flying, what do we do when we are on airplanes?
Do we go like, oh my God, such a great thing, I'm flying, I'm flying, I'm flying. No. Instead, we complain about the things like, oh, this chair, you know. It doesn't go back a lot, you know. I need more space.
And I'm there thinking, come on, man, you're sitting in a chair in the sky. What is it that you're complaining about? So we're so similar in that regard.
Now, there is a certain direction of the research in cultural studies suggesting that human values, most of the human basic... values are universal. It's just the ways we express those values that are different. And I believe that's true.
And that pretty much goes back to what Hofstede says about people. All people are the same. It's just their habits that are different.
Respect to the elderly, for example. My Turkish friend always stands up when his father is entering a room. Now, because of the fact that I'm not standing up when my father is entering a room, do I respect my father less?
No, I think the value of respecting the elderly is the same. I just express it differently. I'm financing my father's trip to Spain this summer. And, you know, thanks to online banking, I can transfer the money to his account while seated.
I don't need to stand up. Now, we can laugh about those cultural differences, and my experience backs me up on this. It's always a perfect source for comedy. And I lead the television program. production studio that produces mainly comedy television programs.
And I lead the writer's team. And we've got like 35 different specific formulas, by the way, to write for comedy television programs. And by the way, that can...
On the surface, it seems that you either do or don't have a sense of humor. There are ways that you can learn how to write for comedy television programs. But that's a completely different TED talk. I hope to share that talk at the TED 2014. But going back to the stereotypical cultural humor, there's one example.
Heaven is the place where mechanics are German, cooks are German, and the food is German. are French, lovers Italian, and all is organized by the Swiss. Right? Hell is the place where mechanics are French, lovers the Swiss, And all is organized by the Italians.
Now, here's another example, too, from one of my favorite talk show hosts, Craig Ferguson. He said, when you look at America, the stereotype of America is that people are having party in America. It's dun-dun-dun-dun-dun. That's America. Now, Canada is like a neighbor above the floor, you know, knocking on the floor all the time and saying, oh, don't make too much noise.
Our children and elderly are sleeping. And America says, hey, come on down. Let's have a party together. And Canada says, oh, no, we're not coming.
We're not invited. And America says, we haven't invited Mexico either, but they came up anyways. Now, if we...
If we were to produce that particular joke for the Georgian television audiences, I, together with my studio's comedy writers, would gather together in the writers'room, sit around the table, and would have to come up with something like, what does Georgia do in the context of America, Canada, and Mexico? Well, Georgia goes to Canada and says, Hey, brother, if you're not going, I'll go. Go.
Ah. Another example. There was a competition among journalists worldwide.
And the assignment was to come up with an article about elephants. And we could observe some of the cultural characteristics right in the titles. The Spaniards wrote an article. The title was, Techniques of Fighting Elephants.
Indians wrote an article, the title was Elephants as a means of transportation before railroads. Americans, how to breed a bigger and better elephant. And Russians, how we send elephants to the moon. Now, again, if we want to have something Georgian with it, Georgians wrote an article too, the title was Man, that guy, Jumbere from Kutaisi, drinks wine like an elephant. So a completely different context, you know, when it comes to Georgia.
And this one too. In America, we say that everything's allowed unless it's prohibited, right? In Germany, we say it vice versa.
Everything's prohibited unless it's allowed. In Latin America, we say everything's allowed even if it's prohibited. In Georgia, we say, why do we have to care about it now? Let it happen first, and then we'll find out what's allowed and what's prohibited.
Now, I not only make jokes about different cultures and cultural stereotypes, but I also teach it. The same material, two different kinds of stand-up comedy, two different types of delivery. Now, because of the fact that I teach, for example, one of the courses, Global Business Negotiation Strategies, people sometimes come up to me and say, David, how do we negotiate with Chinese? And my answer to that question is, which Chinese?
Is it someone from Shanghai area? Or is it someone from Hong Kong? Or is it someone from Beijing?
Or is it an expatriate Chinese? Because they are all so different. And even if you know the subculture of people, or even within the same family, two different people can be as different as chalk and cheese. Me and my brother, for example.
My brother is too linear active, and I'm too multilinear active. My brother has to have a schedule. He might change the items on the schedule, but he has to have a schedule first.
If he doesn't have a schedule, he needs this, you know, neurological assistance. So he's got the schedule like 9.30, waking up, 9.45, taking a shower, 10 o'clock, tennis game. 11 o'clock, the end of the tennis game.
I can talk on the phone with my executive producer and discuss some of the possible comedy segments or possible... guests for the upcoming show, talk on another phone with the head writer discussing the possible topics for the monologue. I can, at the same time, talk with another person in front of me and discuss some of the new ways of attracting advertising while at the side playing tennis with my brother.
Now, if we take the scale of cultures, linear active versus multilinear active cultures, my brother has to be somewhere from Scandinavia. Scandinavia, and I must be somewhere from Brazil. But we are both Georgians, you know. We were born and raised in a Georgian family, and none of us have been adopted.
Well, at least from what I know, I'm gonna ask my father when he gets back from Spain. Now, we can laugh about cultural differences or cultural stereotypes, but in certain situations, it can be... be deadly serious.
There's a story of a plane crash. The Avianca flight was coming from Columbia to the New York City JFK airport. If there was no cultural miscommunication between the co-pilot on board, who was a Colombian guy, and the New Yorker guy on ground, who was an air traffic control officer, 250 lives could have been saved. Columbia is one of the highest PDIs.
you know, power of distance index cultures. So the Colombian guy had said something like, you know, our coordinates are this and this, and, yeah, by the way, we're running out of fuel, which sounded like more of a passing comment to the New York eye rather than an emergency signal. Wars happen because of cultural differences. The most recent war Georgia had, was the one with Russia. And we can talk a lot about, you know, political implications of that war and the role of international communities and all that.
But think of it this way. Soldiers died in that war. Just imagine a small family somewhere in the village in the mountains of Georgia and family members get together over dinner table, if they can afford dinner, and talk about the plans for their son when he would get back from the army.
But there is no more plans to talk about because their son died in that war. Now, can you imagine how hard it can be for a family? Now, can you really imagine how hard it can be for a family?
Let me ask you this. Isn't that the same in Russia? Don't Russian mothers and fathers suffer in the same way when it comes to losing our loved ones?
Now, going back to the three simple questions. Are we different? Or are we the same?
Or are we different and the same? My definite answer to those questions is the following. I don't know.
And this must be the most unexpected ending of the presentation. You're listening to this presentation for like 15 minutes already. The presentation that had three stupid questions up front and I don't know is the answer. But I really don't know.
What I do know, however, is that those kinds of differences create animosity. We tend to hate other people who behave differently. differently from us. And that's true not only in terms of cross-cultural context, but also within the same culture. We tend to hate other people who are different.
Here's a little something that we can do about it. Go to your email account and write an email to your enemy. Now, in the subject line, you type in 15 things I hate you for. I hate about you. Right?
And in the body of the message, you'll... you list those 15 things. Alright? This is an easy task so far, is it not? I'm saying 15 just for the sake of having a specific number.
It could be 63 or 9. Nobody knows why TED Talks have to be 18 minutes long. So 15. Alright? Now, let's Let's make a little difference over here. You might be thinking that you're too small to make a difference.
And I think that whoever thinks that he or she is too small to make a difference has never been beaten by a mosquito. Mosquito is too small, too tiny. But the difference it makes with a single bite is huge, is it not?
So let's make a little difference. You change the subject line. And you type in 15 things I forgive you.
Don't send it yet. And don't change those 15 things. You know, in the body of the message, those 15 things are 15 things.
And think about it now. Now, we have made a small difference, have we not? But think about it.
If there was no those 15 things, would you have learned 15 things about life? Or would you have grown up as a person? So now you go back to your email and change the subject line again. And you type in 15 things I thank you for. I think now you're ready to press the send button.