I applied to university to study medicine but switched courses to do maths so that I would havemore time to write poetry.
(Laughter) Thank you for laughing at my life choices.
(Laughter) (Applause) And, apart from oneof the first poems I wrote, being a love poem about prime numbers, I told myself that the twoweren't really that linked.
I liked maths because there wasalways a definite right answer, and I liked poetry becausethere wasn't a definite wrong one.
But for me, when I switchedcourses to do maths, I was given the optionof doing maths with a year abroad, and I thought that would bea fun way to live in another country and experience another culture.
So for a year I lived and studiedmaths in Germany, and I thought it would be a good ideato try and learn German because I'd heardit was really popular there.
(Laughter) When I arrived in Germany, my level of language speakingwas approximately: "Hallo, mein Name ist Harry.
Ich bin English.
Sprechen Sie English?" (Laughter) "Nein.
" - "Scheiße.
" (Laughter) Thankfully, as the year went on,my language skills improved slightly, and I'd like to share a couple of thingsthat I learnt along the way.
Now, I am aware that I am talkingabout learning German in a German speaking country, whilst relying on everybodyto understand my English, but don't worry, "Mein Englishist unfassbar gut.
" (Laughter) What struck meabout learning a second language is that whilst everybody hasthat same destination in mind of hopefully becoming fluent, the journeys that we go onare very different.
And measuring your progresson that journey using verb tables and grammar exams, whilst helpful for some, for me didn't fully capture the excitementof what it was to learn another language.
So I began to set up my own milestones for when I knewthat I was making progress.
The first was that oncethose basic building blocks are in place, being able to trust your instincts.
I remember explaininga story to a friend where everything had worked outin the end, and come together nicely, and I found myself using the words,"Alles hat geklappt.
" I don't think I've ever heardthat word before, but as I said it,it kind of made sense to me, because if you clap, that's a very literalcoming together of your hands.
But also if you make a planand it works out, sometimes you feel likegiving yourself a mini-round of applause.
The difference wasthat when I said these words, I knew that it was the right wordto use in that context because it felt natural.
Up until that point, if I didn't knowwhat a word was in German, I was just trying to saythe English word with a German accent, and try and get away with it.
But more often than notthat left me looking like "ein Idiot".
(Laughter) The second stage for me was when you first beginto dream in another language.
A lot of people talk about this, as for all of your external efforts, this is the point when you knowit's finally started to sink in.
And the first dream that I had in German, I dreamt that I was in a German classroomlearning some new vocabulary, which meant that not only hadmy subconscious taken in enough German that I could understandso that I could dream about it, it had also taken in some GermanI couldn't yet understand and was trying to teach itto me in my sleep.
(Laughter) Now, whilst I don't think this is the most foolproof methodof learning a language, it was quite exciting at the time.
But the third stage for me, and the moment when I really kneweverything would be OK, is when you were able to either understandor make jokes in another language.
I absolutely love puns, and whenever any of my non-English friendsare able to make puns in English, I'm always really impressed.
So, a moment came when I was speakingto my German friend who was a poet, and he was talkingabout how, when he has ideas, they begin to snowball into each otherinto a kind of ideas avalanche.
And he told me that the German wordfor "avalanche" was "Lawine".
Without skipping a beat, I said to him, "Hey, if there was a lot of snowbetween the months of March and May, would that be called an 'Avril Lawine'?" (Laughter) And he said, "That's hilarious.
" (Laughter) "You should definitelyput that in your TEDTalk.
They'll all laugh lots.
" (Laughter) I think being able to playwith another language is a very exciting thing, and it's not somethingyou always get an opportunity to do, in particular, [in] grammar exams - well, they don't give youbonus marks for puns, anyway.
What I was experiencing was somethingthat I had experienced before - something that at school, me andmy bitter maths rival / best friend Luke had called "the nerd rush".
This is the feeling you got when you first wrapped your headaround a concept, or were able to solve a problemin a particularly neat way.
This is a feeling I later experiencedwhen I started writing poetry, whether it was when the wordsjust seemed to fall into place, or whether it's coming upwith a particularly satisfying rhyme, or maybe even just thinkingof a ridiculous pun.
For me, the difference was now that I was getting thisin day-to-day conversations.
Whether it was the thrill of beingunderstood by the person in front of me, or just having a kind of slight ideaabout what they were talking about, piecing together simple sentences became like mini-equationsto be solved there and then.
It involved the pattern recognitionand attention to detail that I love from maths, and it combined it with the creativity andthe ability to think outside of the box that I really enjoyed about poetry.
It combined the two in a waythat I had not previously thought about.
And in many ways, German is quitea logical and mathematical language.
I remember asking my housemateswhat the German word for a kettle was.
And I said to them, "How do you callthe thing that cooks the water?" And they said, "Das ist ein Wasserkocher.
" (Laughter) And for me, it just made perfect sense, and there wereall of these moments where - (Laughter) I would be really excited.
I remember when I found out, I came home and I said to them thatthe German word for glove is "Handschuh" - because it's like a little shoeyou put on your hands.
(Laughter) And I thought, that's incredible.
And they said, (Laughter) "Why are you so excited about gloves?" (Laughter) But I came up with this whole listof my favourite words.
My absolute favourite: I learnt that the German wordfor "turtle" is "Schildkröte", which is like a kind of "shield toad".
And when I found that out, I immediately looked up what a snail was, because I hoped that it would bea kind of "shield worm".
(Laughter) It turns out that the German wordfor "snail" is "Schnecke", but the German word for "slug"is "Nacktschnecke", (Laughter) because it's like a naked snail.
(Laughter) And I thought that was fantastic.
(Laughter) And my housemate said,"Why have you brought snails home?" (Laughter) But in a way, this sticking togetherof words could be quite poetic.
I remember learning that the German wordfor "iris" is "Regenbogenhaut", which translates as "rainbow skin", which I think is kind of quite beautiful and still hasthat weird sort of logic to it.
Similarly, I found out the German wordfor "nipple" is "Brustwarze", (Laughter) which means breast wart, which, whilst less beautiful, (Laughter) (Applause) has still gotthat weird kind of logic to it.
So I thought it would be funto try and invent my own words.
And where I lived, in Hannover,there's quite a large Turkish population.
So there's a lot of places that sellkebab and döner and also falafel.
I was really happy to find out the Germanword for "falafel" is "Falafel".
(Laughter) But the German wordfor "spoon" is "Löffel".
If you had a specific spoonthat you only ever ate falafel with, you could call it a "Falafellöffel".
(Laughter) So I've written a poemcalled "Falafellöffel", and it's about a guy called Phil.
You might be able to seewhere this is going.
It does involvesome kind of call and response, which is entirely in German, but I think you guyswill be slightly better at that than they are back in England.
"Phil ist voll.
Die Nacht ist gut verlaufen.
Phil sieht ein Geschäftund er fragt, was sie verkaufen.
"Falafellöffel.
Für Löffelvoll Falafel.
" - which means Falafal spoons,for spoonfuls of Falafel - "Was?" "Falafellöffel.
Für Löffelvoll Falafel.
" "Wie?" "Falafellöffel.
Für Löffelvoll Falafel.
" Phil doesn't speak German,so he’s left a little baffled.
See there’s this fella Phil,and Phil loved falafel.
In a falafel raffle he wouldsnaffle all the tickets.
He always answers in affirmativeto offers of falafel; even if he’s awfully full,he’d feel awful if he didn’t.
(Laughter) And for us it might feel effortless to live a life falafelless.
(Laughter) But Phil effervescesunless he gets his falafel fix.
So if Phil was everto be offered Löffel of Falafel he'd say "yes" despite not knowingwhat the F a Löffel is! For Phil a life of love and laughterwill have a falafel after.
(Laughter) So it’s "yes" despite not knowingwhat the F a Löffel is.
If a falafel fell off a Löffel,Phil’d feel awful, (Laughter) so it’s "yes" despite not knowingwhat the F a Löffel is.
A fluffy falafel is often iffyif he’s honest, but it’s "yes" despite not knowingwhat the F a Löffel is.
If half a Löffel of filthy falafelis overly lethal, even as we leave Philhe’d still have a message for his kids, saying "yes" despite not knowingwhat the F a Löffel is, always "yes" despite not knowingwhat the F a Löffel is.
So when I say: "Wie viel Falafelist zu viel Falafel?" - which of course means: How much falafelis too much falafel? - could you reply in unison, as one: "Vier Löffel voll Falafelist zu viel Falafel.
" - (Laughter) which of course means: Four spoonfulsof falafel is too much falafel! - If anyone doesn't speak German, I can talkyou through it, if you repeat after me: "Vier"- Audience: Vier Harry Baker: Löffel voll- Audience: Löffel voll HB: FalafelAudience: Falafel HB: ist zu vielAudience: ist zu viel HB: Falafel.
Audience: Falafel.
HB: Wunderbar! (Laughter) Wie viel Falafel ist zu viel Falafel? Vier Löffel voll Falafelist zu viel Falafel.
Wie viel Falafel ist zu viel Falafel? Audience: Vier Löffel - HB: Lauter! Wie viel Falafelist zu viel Falafel? Audience: Vier Löffel - HB: Schneller! Wie viel Falafelist zu viel Falafel? Audience: Vier Löffel - Vier Löffel voll Falafelist zu viel Falafel if it left him on his deathbedwith a message for his kids saying "yes" despite not knowingwhat the F a Löffel is.
always "yes" despite not knowingwhat the F a Löffel is.
Phil war voll.
(Laughter) Die Nacht war gut verlaufen.
(Laughter) Phil sah ein Geschäftund er fragte, was sie verkaufen.
"Falafellöffel.
Für Löffel voll Falafel.
" "Falafellöffel! Für Löffel voll Falafel!?" "Ja - Falafellöffel!Für Löffel voll Falafel!" You’ve got to make an effortwhen you travel! (Applause) One of my favourite poets in the UK,called Disraeli, once said to me that learning another language is like learningto think in another colour.
And I've spoken to other peoplewho say they feel like they have different personalitiesin different languages.
And I learnt quite early onwhilst learning German that when I express an opinion in English,I would often say things such as: "I think, maybe, if you want,we could possibly do this.
" Or: "I feel like, you know,if it's not too much trouble, possibly we could do that.
" And whilst in English that just makes mesound very unsure of myself, in German, it rapidly affectsthe sentence structure, and then I didn't knowwhere to put the verbs.
(Laughter) The result of thiswas that the German Harry became a lot more decisive and directabout what he wanted to say than English Harry, purely because I lackedthe language skills to be able to doubt myself in that way - (Laughter) which was an incredible thing.
Another side effectwas that whilst in English I think I'm slightly more comfortabletalking to a thousand strangers than one-on-one kind of small talk, in German, because I was so excitedabout learning the language, small talk with strangersbecame like homework.
I was really excited to ask questions and learn quite simple factsabout other people's lives because that was the sort of vocabularythat I could understand.
Similarly, I was really excitedto talk about myself because I needed to practise.
And so whilst German taught mea link between maths and poetry that I hadn't previouslybeen able to imagine, it also taught me things aboutmy own personality that I hadn't expected.
And I realized that these milestonesI'd given myself in German, and learning a language, were things that I've seen before.
When it came to maths, whilst it might be difficult at first to get your head aroundthe basic building blocks, once they're in place, I think then you can begin to have funwith it and jump between them and trust your instinctswhilst doing that.
When it comes to writing, if you can immerse yourself enoughin the world of a poem or a story, then it becomes possible for these ideasto seemingly come from nowhere.
I've often gone to bed,or just fallen asleep in the daytime, whilst writing a poem, and when I wake up,there'll be a new idea there, that's almost as if I've triedto teach it to myself in my dreams.
And the final thingwas with these two things, as with learning German,as with many other aspects of my life, I realized that once you put the work in, you can get comfortable enough withsomething, and be willing to take risks, but also have fun with it.
That's when you can really startto put yourself out there.
After I finished my year abroad, I came back to my final yearat university in Bristol, and I was moved up from the beginners German classto the advanced German class.
And, whilst at the end of the year I did quite well inmy listening and speaking exams, I still managed to failmy final grammar exam.
I did, however, pass my maths degree, and since then I've been ableto do the poetry full time, and travel around the worlddoing what I love doing.
So in a way it's beenquite a unique and weird journey but everything has "geklappt".
Thank you.
(Applause).
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