Can We Do Without Words?
This manifesto, the ‘10 ½ Commandments of Visual Thinking’, is an interesting addition to a question that has been nagging me for many years. This particular example focuses on how to solve business problems using pictures. It is not based just on pictures, but pictures are used to highlight a core idea or object; the explanation, or the whole reasoning, is built around them. This method can be used to get the sharing of ideas going between people who speak different languages.
It follows a trend that has been developing over time, with the increased use of pictograms, for example at airport terminals. People of different nationalities can understand them, even though their meaning is often written in English and in the local language. Dan Roam, the author of the manifesto, developed his theory when he was working in Russia.
Whenever I have translated lengthy manuals in the past, I have always felt that many would be greatly enhanced by containing fewer words and more diagrams. In a more global society where communication is increasingly visually-oriented, with television and now Internet-based video, it will certainly make sense for the younger generations to use mainly images, especially in situations where several languages are needed. This will in turn require less paper and help save our forests, our water, and the environment in general.
So a new kind of communication may emerge, that translators will certainly not like, but it would undoubtedly solve many problems. Is there room for a new, visual language?
Consecutive interpreters have been working in a similar way for many years. While we listen to the speaker, we do not write down his speech in extenso, which would be impossible even in shorthand as the amount of energy required to write everything would distract our mind from the necessary effort of processing the message being conveyed by the speaker. Each individual interpreter therefore develops their own system as a way to support their memory. Memory remains the core element. It, with the aid of our note-taking system, enables us to listen to up to 5 minutes, or longer and still be able to interpret the whole speech accurately.
In this example, which I made up minutes ago, hence its nonsensical content and absolute fictional nature, the speech I would be listening to could be:
“He/she/they/the President of the World Bank/my friend (whoever we are talking about) said (quotes) that this country’s GDP (the country we are talking about, so no need to write it down) has increased tremendously or any variation of the idea (arrow and 3 lines underneath).”
The next bit would mean: “It has reached the same level as Germany, and it is now richer than the USA.” On second thought, I would have written USA+ if the USA had done better.
The elements not written down are stored in the interpreter’s memory, making the whole system highly contextual and extremely short-lived.
Delegates come after the meeting sometimes, as they are curious to see our note-taking system. They are usually baffled when they see these series of symbols, pictures, arrows and short words on the page. This system doesn’t make sense in the usual way, but it makes sense to us. It is our own visual language. It is a very valuable one, because it is a component of our expertise.
