Providing linguistic services is an industry that has the goal of overcoming language and cultural barriers in endless contexts, manners, registers and recipients. Specifically, said industry is fundamentally based on two different types of services, each with its own scope of application, its own codes, its own workflows and, definitively, its own essence. These two services are, to no surprise, translation and interpretation. Although it is true that there is a wide catalogue of services in the sector, the fundamental difference between written translation and oral translation causes the rest of the services to fall into one of these types in one way or another. As we said, translation and interpretation attempt to satisfy different needs which are which are created through different channels. Interpretation, for example, is classically divided into three different services which include consecutive interpretation, simultaneous interpretation and whispered interpretation. Each of these is intended for a different communicative situation according to the needs of the speakers (individual presentations before a large audience, interview system in a question-and-answer format, bilateral interpretation done by a single professional, etc.). However, the most astonishing thing about linguistic services is the ability that professionals have for detecting new needs and proposing an efficient solution which lets the industry keep evolving. This is the case of “simultaneous simplification”.
For institutions, it is fundamental for the products and events to reach as many people as possible and, to do so, it is essential to overcome language barriers. To do so, translation and interpretation services become more consolidated over time. More recently, a significant awareness is becoming evident due to interpretation services intended to include other types of profiles, like the deaf community, which we have started to see much more often on television and in conferences by means of interpretation between spoken languages and sign language. However, the latest in the world of interpretation is arriving right now with “simultaneous simplification”, a type of service thought up to bring oral language closer to persons with cognitive disabilities.
This is an initiative proposed by Shira Yaalon-Chamovitz, a professor at Ono Academic College and developed by Gisèle Abazon, an interpreter and consultant for Calliope Interpreters and responsible for Israel in collaboration with the Association internationale des interprètes de conférence and the Cognitive Accessibility Institute of Israel. Due to this awareness about the difficulties experienced by persons with cognitive disabilities when following along in events with a high volume of oral texts, participating in them and understanding the main messages, a type of service was worked on which would enable the fundamental content to be brought closer to these persons depending on their specific abilities. This was how simultaneous simplification was born, a type of interpretation consisting of offering a simplified version of a presentation to persons with cognitive disabilities. This can be done in an intralinguistic or interlinguistic manner. Likewise, this service is considered to provide certain advantages when communicating with migrants who do not master the language of the country yet. From the beginning, they have tried to implement it as a type of interpretation within the context of the AIIC, so that the same professional rules can be applied.
The trajectory of this type is still very modest. They started by providing this service in conferences about subjects related to persons with cognitive disabilities in order to help them participate. In 2019, they received a request from the public Israeli television to do simultaneous simplification from English to Hebrew during the broadcast of Eurovision, a feat which placed the focus on this new linguistic service in Israel.
Below, we would like to explain a few examples of the kind of simultaneous simplification that was carried out in Eurovision 2019 in order to better know what it is and be able to see it in context according to this article in pairs of original text (O) and the simplified version (S):
O: Welcome to the most fabulous room in the arena. This is the beating heart of the Eurovision contest – and I think I can hear _____ ‘s beating from here.
S: Welcome to this wonderful room. This room is called the green room. The green room is like the heart of the Eurovision contest. Can you feel your heart beating?
O: When this contest was launched sixty-four years ago, it was in the hope of bringing people together through the power of music.
S: The Eurovision contest was created many years ago. This contest hoped to make people feel together with the help of music.
O: All of the contestants will remember this night for the rest of their lives. But will it be a memory of extreme joy or bittersweet disappointment?
S: All the singers in the contest will remember this night. Some will remember this night with joy. Some will remember this night with joy and sadness at the same time.
O: And, of course, thank you all, the Eurovision fans. You are the true spirit that brings the Eurovision Song Contest to life.
S: And, of course, thank you for watching the Eurovision Song Contest. You were wonderful!
With the goal of making this initiative more widely known, its promoters have started to work on training courses in which they explain what kind of audience would find simultaneous simplification useful, what their needs are, the basic principles of this discipline and practical sessions. There is no doubt that all the effort made to make understanding possible between different languages and different cognitive capacities are praiseworthy tasks.
Picture reference: https://www.strategy-business.com/blog/Start-the-New-Year-with-a-simplification-month?gko=f881a
