ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Hannah Brencher - Letter enthusiast
Hannah Brencher believes in the power of pen and paper, and has started a global initiative that encourages strangers to exchange love letters.

Why you should listen

Hannah Brechner has always loved that her family communicates via handwritten letters. In October of 2010, she began writing love letters intended for strangers and tucking them away in libraries and cafes across New York City, for people to randomly discover. Soon, she offered on her blog HannahBrencher.com to write a letter to anyone who needed one. Over the next year, she mailed out more than 400 hand-penned letters. Today she runs The World Needs More Love Letters, a letter exchange dedicated to connecting strangers across the globe through the art of letter writing.

In addition, Brencher works as a copywriter and creative consultant, helping brands inject human touches into their communications plans.

More profile about the speaker
Hannah Brencher | Speaker | TED.com
TED@New York

Hannah Brencher: Love letters to strangers

Hannah Brencher: Letra dashurie per te huajt

Filmed:
2,170,009 views

E ema e Hannah Brencher, i ka shkruar gjithnje letra. Keshtuqe, kur ajo e ndeju veten te mberthyer nga depresioni pas universitetit, ajo beri ate qe ndjeu me te natyrshme--ajo shkroi letra dashurie dhe i la neper qytet per tu gjetur nga te huaj. Ky akt eshte kthyer tashme ne nje iniciative globale, Bota ka Nevoje per me Shume Letra Dashurie, qe i con njerezve ne nevoje te nje fjale te embel, letra per inkurajim.
- Letter enthusiast
Hannah Brencher believes in the power of pen and paper, and has started a global initiative that encourages strangers to exchange love letters. Full bio

Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.

00:15
I was one of the only kids in college who had a reason
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Isha nje nder te vetmit studente ne universitet qe e kishte nje arsye
00:18
to go to the P.O. box at the end of the day,
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per te kontrolluar posten cdo dite,
00:21
and that was mainly because my mother has never believed
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dhe kjo sepse nena ime nuk ka besuar kurre
00:23
in email, in Facebook, in texting or cell phones in general.
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ne email, Facebook, mesazhe apo celulare.
00:27
And so while other kids were BBM-ing their parents,
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Dhe, ndersa studentet e tjere shkembenin mesazhe celulari me prinderit e tyre,
00:29
I was literally waiting by the mailbox
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une prisja prane deres se postes
00:32
to get a letter from home to see how the weekend had gone,
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per te marre leter nga shtepia se si kish kaluar fundjava,
00:35
which was a little frustrating when Grandma was in the hospital,
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c'ka ishte frustruese kur gjyshja ishte e shtruar ne spital,
00:38
but I was just looking for some sort of scribble,
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dhe une rrija e prisja per ca fjali,
00:42
some unkempt cursive from my mother.
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leter me shkrim dore nga mami im.
00:45
And so when I moved to New York City after college
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Dhe, kur leviza ne New York pas universitetit
00:47
and got completely sucker-punched in the face by depression,
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dhe pata momente depresioni,
00:50
I did the only thing I could think of at the time.
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bera te vetmen gje qe mund te mendoja atehere.
00:53
I wrote those same kinds of letters that my mother had written me
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Shkrova te njejtat letra qe me kish shkruar ime me
00:56
for strangers, and tucked them all throughout the city,
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per te huajt, dhe i ngjita ngado ne qytet,
00:59
dozens and dozens of them. I left them everywhere,
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dhjetra e dhjetra prej tyre. I vendosa ngado,
01:02
in cafes and in libraries, at the U.N., everywhere.
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neper kafe, librari, ne OKB, gjithkund.
01:06
I blogged about those letters and the days
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Bera bllog rreth kesaj eksperinence cdo dite
01:08
when they were necessary, and I posed
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kur ishte e nevojshme, dhe bera
01:10
a kind of crazy promise to the Internet:
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nje premtim te cmendur ne internet:
01:13
that if you asked me for a hand-written letter,
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nqs me kerkoni nje leter me shkrim,
01:15
I would write you one, no questions asked.
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do jua shkruaja nje, pas asnje dyshim.
01:19
Overnight, my inbox morphed into this harbor of heartbreak --
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Gjate nates, inboksi u mbyt me mesazhe--
01:23
a single mother in Sacramento, a girl being bullied
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nje nene e vetme ne Sakramento, nje vajze te cilen e tallnin shoket e klases ne
01:25
in rural Kansas, all asking me, a 22-year-old girl
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fshatrat e Kansasit, te gjithe duke me pyetur, nje vajze 22 vjecare
01:29
who barely even knew her own coffee order,
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qe as te porosiste nje kafe nuk dinte, ti shkruaja nje leter dashurie
01:32
to write them a love letter and give them a reason
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dhe ti jepja nje arsye
01:34
to wait by the mailbox.
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per te pritur ne kutine postare.
01:37
Well, today I fuel a global organization
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Epo, sot une jam gjeneratori i nje organizate
01:40
that is fueled by those trips to the mailbox,
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qe karikohet me ato udhetime ne poste,
01:42
fueled by the ways in which we can harness social media
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nga menyrat se si mund te shtyjme mediat sociale
01:45
like never before to write and mail strangers letters
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si kurre me pare per te skruar dhe derguar letra te panjohurve
01:48
when they need them most, but most of all,
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kur me shume kane nevoje, por mbi te gjitha,
01:51
fueled by crates of mail like this one, my trusty mail crate,
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karikuar me ate arke letrash si kjo, arka ime e besuar,
01:55
filled with the scriptings of ordinary people,
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mbushur me shkrimin e njerezve te zakonshem,
01:59
strangers writing letters to other strangers not because
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te huaj qe i shkruajne letra te huajve jo sepse
02:01
they're ever going to meet and laugh over a cup of coffee,
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ato do te takohen ndonjehere dhe do qeshin me nje filxhan kafe para tyre,
02:04
but because they have found one another by way of letter-writing.
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por sepse e kane gjetur njeri-tjetrin nepermjet ketyre letrave.
02:08
But, you know, the thing that always gets me
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Por, ato gjera qe me bejne me shume pershtypje
02:09
about these letters is that most of them have been written
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mbi keto letra, eshte qe pjesa me e madhe e tyre eshte shkruar
02:13
by people that have never known themselves loved on a piece of paper.
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nga njerez qe nuk e kane ndjere veten kurre te dashuruar ne nje leter.
02:18
They could not tell you about the ink of their own love letters.
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Ata nuk mund te te thone asgje per bojen e letrave te tyre te dashurise.
02:21
They're the ones from my generation,
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Ato jane gjenerata ime,
02:23
the ones of us that have grown up into a world
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ne qe jemi rritur ne nje bote,
02:26
where everything is paperless, and where some
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ku gjithcka eshte pa leter, dhe ku disa
02:29
of our best conversations have happened upon a screen.
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nga bisedat tona me te bukura kane ndodhur mbi nje ekran.
02:32
We have learned to diary our pain onto Facebook,
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Kemi mesuar te perdorim Facebook-un si ditar i dhimbjes sone,
02:35
and we speak swiftly in 140 characters or less.
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dhe flasim kuptueshem me me pak se 140 germa.
02:39
But what if it's not about efficiency this time?
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Por cfare ndodh kur kete here nuk behet me fjale per eficence?
02:42
I was on the subway yesterday with this mail crate,
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Isha ne metro dje, me kete arke letrash,
02:44
which is a conversation starter, let me tell you.
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qe krijon biseda me te panjohur, garant.
02:47
If you ever need one, just carry one of these. (Laughter)
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Nqs te nevojitet ndonjehere, mbaj nje si kjo. (Te qeshura)
02:49
And a man just stared at me, and he was like,
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Nje burre po me shihte, dhe me tha,
02:52
"Well, why don't you use the Internet?"
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"Po, perse nuk perdorni internetin?"
02:54
And I thought, "Well, sir, I am not a strategist,
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Dhe une mendova, "Epo, zoteri, une nuk jam nje strategjist,
02:58
nor am I specialist. I am merely a storyteller."
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as specialist. Une jam vecse pak tregimtar."
03:02
And so I could tell you about a woman
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Mund t'ju tregoj per nje grua
03:04
whose husband has just come home from Afghanistan,
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bashkeshorti i se ciles sapo ish kthyer nga Afganistani,
03:07
and she is having a hard time unearthing this thing called conversation,
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dhe ajo po e kishte te veshtire te rifillonte ate gjene qe quhet bashkebisedim,
03:11
and so she tucks love letters throughout the house
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dhe vendoste letra dashurie ngado ne shtepi
03:13
as a way to say, "Come back to me.
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si nje menyre per te thene, "Rikthehu tek une.
03:15
Find me when you can."
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Rigjeme kur te mundesh."
03:17
Or a girl who decides that she is going to leave love letters
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Ose nje vajze e cila vendos te lere letra dashurie
03:20
around her campus in Dubuque, Iowa, only to find
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ne kampusin e Dubuque, Iowa, vetem per te gjetur
03:23
her efforts ripple-effected the next day when she walks out
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qe perpjekja e saj gurgulloi diten e neserme
03:26
onto the quad and finds love letters hanging
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dhe gjeti letra dashurie te varura gjithkund
03:28
from the trees, tucked in the bushes and the benches.
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neper kampus nga pemet, neper shkurre a dege.
03:32
Or the man who decides that he is going to take his life,
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Ose nje burre i cili donte te vriste veten,
03:35
uses Facebook as a way to say goodbye
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perdori Facebook si nje menyre per te thene mirupafshim
03:39
to friends and family.
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miqve dhe familjes.
03:40
Well, tonight he sleeps safely with a stack of letters
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Sot, i njejti burre, fle mire nen nje stok letrash poshte jastekut
03:42
just like this one tucked beneath his pillow,
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tamam si keto,
03:46
scripted by strangers who were there for him when.
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shkruar nga te huaj qe i ishin prane ne ate moment.
03:49
These are the kinds of stories that convinced me
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Keto jane ato histori qe me binden mua
03:51
that letter-writing will never again need to flip back her hair
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qe leter-shkruarjes nuk do ti duhet me kurre
03:54
and talk about efficiency, because she is an art form now,
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te perballet me dyshueshmerine e efikasitetit te saj, sepse eshte nje menyre arti tashme,
03:58
all the parts of her, the signing, the scripting, the mailing,
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c'do pjese e tyre, firma, shkrimi, dergimi i letrave,
04:01
the doodles in the margins.
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shkarravinat ne qoshe.
04:04
The mere fact that somebody would even just sit down,
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Thjesht fakti qe dikush do merrte mundimin te ulej,
04:07
pull out a piece of paper and think about someone
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te marre nje cope leter e te mendoje per dike
04:09
the whole way through, with an intention that is so much
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gjate gjithe kohes, me nje qellim qe eshte shume me i madh
04:11
harder to unearth when the browser is up and the iPhone
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se sa te nxjerrit ne drite kur shfletuesi shfaqet dhe IPhone
04:14
is pinging and we've got six conversations rolling in at once,
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nis fishkellen dhe ke gjashte biseda qe te shfaqen ne te njejten kohe,
04:18
that is an art form
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e cila eshte nje forme arti
04:19
that does not fall down to the Goliath of "get faster,"
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qe nuk zbret deri ne piken e "shpejto hapin,"
04:23
no matter how many social networks we might join.
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pa rendesi se e sa rrjeteve sociale mund te jemi pjese.
04:25
We still clutch close these letters to our chest,
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Ne ende i shtrengojme fort ne gji ato letra,
04:28
to the words that speak louder than loud,
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fjalet qe flasin me shume se fjalet,
04:31
when we turn pages into palettes to say the things
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kur ne i kthejme faqet ne palete per ti thene gjerat
04:33
that we have needed to say,
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qe kemi nevoje te themi,
04:35
the words that we have needed to write, to sisters
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fjalet qe kemi nevoje ti shkruajme per nje kohe te gjate, motrave
04:38
and brothers and even to strangers, for far too long.
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vllezerve, a ndoshta dhe te huajve.
04:41
Thank you. (Applause)
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Faleminderit. (Duartrokitje)
04:45
(Applause)
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(Duartrokitje)
Translated by Iris Xholi
Reviewed by Alisa Xholi

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ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Hannah Brencher - Letter enthusiast
Hannah Brencher believes in the power of pen and paper, and has started a global initiative that encourages strangers to exchange love letters.

Why you should listen

Hannah Brechner has always loved that her family communicates via handwritten letters. In October of 2010, she began writing love letters intended for strangers and tucking them away in libraries and cafes across New York City, for people to randomly discover. Soon, she offered on her blog HannahBrencher.com to write a letter to anyone who needed one. Over the next year, she mailed out more than 400 hand-penned letters. Today she runs The World Needs More Love Letters, a letter exchange dedicated to connecting strangers across the globe through the art of letter writing.

In addition, Brencher works as a copywriter and creative consultant, helping brands inject human touches into their communications plans.

More profile about the speaker
Hannah Brencher | Speaker | TED.com