Grammar, Identity, and the Dark Side of the Subjunctive: Phuc Tran at TEDxDirigo

Phuc Tran is in his second decade as a Classicist and Tattooer. He has taught Latin, Greek, German, and Sanskrit at independent schools in New York and Maine and was an instructor at Brooklyn College's Summer Latin Institute. In 2010, he served on a committee to revise the National Latin Praxis exam for ETS. Phuc currently teaches at Waynflete School in Portland.

As a tattooer, Phuc owns and operates Tsunami Tattoo in Portland. He has been recognized in several national tattoo publications, and he has been quoted in The Christian Science Monitor and Time Magazine. Phuc has been a guest tattooer in Seattle, London, New York, and many shops across New England.

When he is not reading Latin or designing tattoos for clients, he is chasing his daughter about the house, riding his scooter with his wife, or practicing piano for his implacable music teacher.

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)

[dianamckibben]

This man's book, Sigh Gone, is a must read. He has a way with words that will astound, thrill, make you laugh, make you cry. I'm extremely grateful to have found his book.

[WonderlustThing]

This guy was my old Latin Teacher in 6th grade. He's the man!

[fdt]

Vietnamese has subjunctive... However, Phuc's dad's English isn't sufficient enough to comprehend what he said. His father probably didn't "catch" the phrase "would have", or he was unable to comprehense it in English since it's not his mother tongue... Also, Phuc's Vietnamese is quite incomplete since he's left Vietnam at a young age...
Vietnamese subjunctive form:
Nếu <Subj> đã <action/condition>, thì (có lẽ/perhaps) <alt consequence>
Just like a normal condition form, but Vietnamese language speaker could assume it to be in subjunctive form for an alternative result/future. Note that beside perfect tense,  tenses are often optional in Vietnamese, speakers could assume what tense it belong to...

[stevenboutcher]

Phuc is an amazing dude. I'm fortunate to have had him tattoo me several times and will continue to do so. He's a smart smart nerd and I'm here for it.

[karenvalencic]

I listened to this talk as I was navigating cross country travel in the 'Polar Vortex' it gave me great perspective on being present regardless of circumstance.  Thank you for a great talk Phuc!

[daviddouglas]

I greatly appreciated the reflections. What a thrilling thing to think about, the way grammar reflects philosophical emphases regarding the shape of reality. Thank you very much Mr. Tran.

[ngocbui]

I am Vietnamese and I find of most of his claims are absurd. Vietnamese has way to express condition, to think of what could happen if they had did something. About another claim that Vietnamese does not have "might, could, would", I think it's wrong too. While it's true that Vietnamese does not have "would", "could" could be expressed as "có thể", "might" could be expressed as "cũng có thể".


For example:
If he told me that, I would have lend him some money: Nếu nó nói với tôi, tôi đã cho nó mượn tiền.
If he told me that, I could have lend him some money: Nếu nó nói với tôi, tôi có thể đã cho nó mượn tiền.
If he told me that, I might have lend him some money: Nếu nó nói với tôi, tôi cũng có thể đã cho nó mượn tiền.

[Hiljaba]

I feel that this talk acknowledges language as a powerful creative force. What is emphasized in its use can either hinder our progress or propel us forward.
Thank You for a thought provoking,  great talk!

[trungduong]

Interesting talk and nice to read comments below. I am Vietnamese, speaking English and Spanish. I am not aware of three moods in my previous English classes, but they are very important in Spanish grammar. 

When I study English, I was a bit surprised to come across words such as "could", "might", "should have happened". I found them a bit bizarre and unnecessary. For Vietnamese speakers, it is possible to express imaginary thoughts on alternative realities, with words such as "có lẽ", "giá mà". So I am certain that Vietnamese speakers could be capable of imagining what life could have been different. However, instead of a systematic structure of grammar rules, we only have a few words to express these subjunctive ideas. 

So, I think there are two views at the extremes. One is that Vietnamese speakers cannot comprehend alternatives due to their grammar. I don't agree with it. The other extreme view states that Vietnamese are as creative, even more creative with alternatives with English speakers. I don't agree, too. My view is somewhere in the middle, that Vietnamese speakers do have alternatives in their mind, but they think about them less often than English. Phrases with "could", "might", "should have done" could appear in various daily life contexts of English. But words such as "có lẽ", "giá mà" tend to associate themselves with regret and disappointment in Vietnamese. Thus, their use is much more limited.

[NECountry]

I'm really glad to see that the first couple comments here call into question the entire premise of this talk. Though I don't speak or study Vietnamese, I am a linguist, and I would be very surprised if Vietnamese speakers couldn't talk about possible ways the world might have been different. For example, do people tell/understand fictional stories like in novels and movies? If so, then they're able to imagine alternate realities. I don't doubt that Vietnamese lacks certain verb conjugations found in European languages, but there are other ways to talk about possibilities. In linguistics, we call this modality, and so far every language examined has a way of expressing it. Nigel Duffield has done some work identifying it in Vietnamese.  

[damsyduc]

When he talked about how Vietnamese didn't have subjunctive, I was like ... Whaaaat? Dude, you obviously don't know Vietnamese well enough.

[mrnaruwan]

Phuc keeps talking about "the subjunctive" when he actually means the conditional: "If it hadn't rained, we would have gone to the beach."
I couldn't help thinking that Phuc's parents were probably quite capable of pondering and expressing the notion of "what might have been" but they just chose not to.

[barbarabonner]

I found this talk to be quite inspiring. I am sorry to see that some think it reflects poorly on the Vietnamese language. On the contrary, I took it to mean that phraseology of particular languages impacts human emotion and reaction to situations. This is not the first time I have heard this idea expressed and it is fascinating to explore how the nuances of different languages impact the culture. In fact, Tran points out that it was only through his father's Vietnamese approach to language that he discovered a path to his true calling.

[elizabethafu]

So inspiring to realize how much grammar effects our lives and way of thinking. I personally love this presentation and feel enlightened by his presence.

[alexas.]

I'm reading Tran's memoir for one of my teaching classes because my group is going to use it for our lesson plan book project. Seeing the comments its lowkey sad how it seems like he's undermining Vietnamese by saying it doesn't have any subjunctives, or that he said he was thinking of things his parents "couldn't understand". Sigh, Gone is a phenomenal book still. totally recommend it!

[RBDubzz]

The biggest idea that I took away from this Ted Talk was how powerful the indicative and the subjunctive are and can be. The idea that the subjunctive can act as a lens into the future is something I have never thought of before. Also, the fact that the subjunctive also holds this idea of regret through the phrase, “should have” is something that else that I had never thought of. It was very interesting to hear how powerful grammar and language can be.

[jormab]

Subjunctive is present in Spanish and is hard to teach it to native English speakers. We have the conditional or potential, the present of subjunctive and the imperfect or past tense subjunctive. But we also have the compound tenses for subjunctive and conditional. [yo he amado, tu habias comido, el habria ido] Further, the imperfect subjunctive has the 2 forms [amara/amase]. And each form has 6 different verb forms [talking about conjugation], so that we’re looking at a total of 48 different forms for any verb. Even with patterns, this is quite daunting to learn.
Tenses - - - - - - - - - - - - -simple--compound
Conditional  - - - - - - - - - - 6 - - - - - - - 6
Present subjunctive - - - - 6 - - - - - - - 6
Past subjunctive Imp 2x  12  - - - - - 12

[ChaplainSparky]

It is good to hear from a person from South Vietnam that escaped. I was aboard the USS Kirk that help escort about 32, 000 refugees to the Philippines so that, along with Phuc Tran, they are experiencing a world where they can expound upon the subjunctive. 

[DorothyPotterSnyder]

He forgot about the conditional mood. There are four. In fact, I would say -- and do always -- that the imperative IS the subjunctive because they both handle the realm of non fact. I like that anyone talks about these matters, but I also think that it happens better in the context of dialogue.

[Chrismayo]

I would guess that Phuc was making the point that although the subjunctive exists in all languages, it is not as accessible in certain languages, therefore making it less of the "go to" thought process, as it is in more Germanic languages. I'm sure if we sat down for a credit hour course with Mr. Tran we'd get a more nuanced and complete explanation.