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25.01.2022 This morning, I assisted at the Alice Springs Baptist Church as David Blackman recorded his Alyawarr translation of Dr Anna Wierzbicka's (Australian National University, Canberra) Seven Essential Message regarding Coronavirus. These are now processed and should be uploaded soon on the Alice Springs Baptist website. Tomorrow, Lord willing, I will be assisting Bess Price as she records the Warlpiri. Associate Pastor Gavin Brown is assisting with the recording eguipment. These messages are vital to continue getting the Covid-19 messages out to the communities in Aboriginal languages. We hope to add Anmatyerr and Western Arrarnta next week.

22.01.2022 Professional English speakers (lawyers, judges, etc) delight in using very complex English. This often serves simply to distance oneself from and confuse the listeners, particularly Aboriginal people. Consider this single sentence taken from a Supreme Court judge’s sentencing remarks: The DEFENDANT has pleaded guilty to engaging in conduct giving rise to a danger of serious harm to a person, in that he stabbed VICTIM, being reckless as to the danger of serious harm that cou...ld arise from his conduct, and further, that the reckless conduct involved aggravation in that it was committed with a use of an offensive weapon, which was a knife. Here are the obvious verbs: pleaded, engaging, stabbed, being reckless, could arise from, involved, committed. Here are the abstract nouns (disguised verbs): guilty, conduct, danger, (giving) rise (to), (serious) harm 2X), danger, conduct 2X), aggravation, use (of). Pity the poor interpreter! For years the Aboriginal Interpreter Service has encouraged judges and lawyers NOT to use such ‘high legal English’ but rather to speak plainly. How might the judge used plain English in the sentencing? YOU (DEFENDANT) WERE AGGRESSIVE. YOU STABBED VICTIM WITH A KNIFE. THIS IS A VERY BAD. YOU COULD HAVE KILLED HER. YOU TOLD ME YOU WERE GUILTY OF THIS.

21.01.2022 I just took delivery at home of the first shipment of my memoir--it's been a longggg time coming! They look great, IMHO!

21.01.2022 PLAIN ENGLISHABSTRACT NOUNS One feature of Warlpiri (the Aboriginal language I speak) is that it uses very few abstract nouns, a grammatical feature used extensively in English. Consider these two sentences: 1 ‘The doors are open.’ 2 ‘Nominations are open.’ Both sentences have the same grammatical structure. The are simple sentences of the type SUBJECT-VERB (stative ‘to be’)-ADJECTIVE.... Now, ask yourself thisDo doors close in the same way that nominations close? No, of course not. Doors are concrete objectsyou can see, touch and close them, and in the sentence above ‘door’ is a concrete noun. Closing them involves a physical action. Sentence 1 is fairly easy and straightforward to translate into Warlpiri, something like this: 3 ‘Tuwa-wati, ngula-julu lakarn-manu’ ‘As for the doors, (someone) opened them’. Now, ask yourself thisAre nominations opened in the same way that doors are open? No, of course not. One does not open nominations in the same way that one opens doors. The reason is because ‘nominations’ is an abstract noun which is really a verb (to nominate)an action word in disguise. All abstract nouns are hidden actions, often containing hidden or unknown persons doing those actions. So, since Warlpiri (and most Aboriginal languages) contain very few abstract nouns but rather use verbs to express the idea, we must unpack the action hidden within ‘nominations’. A nomination is when someone puts someone’s name on a ballot before an election so that the nominated person might win some political office. So, if I were to rewrite ‘Nominations are open’ into plain English before translating or recording it in Warlpiri, it would come out something like this: 4 If you want to put someone’s name on the ballot, you can do so now. For which the Warlpiri might be something like this: ‘Kajilpanpa ngampurrpa-nyina yapa-kariki yirdiki yirrarninjaku ballot-rla, ngulaju kajikanpa yirrarni jalangurluju.’ ‘If you want to put another person’s name on the ballot, you can do it today.’ See more

20.01.2022 English rewrites completed to date: 1 Community feedback survey regarding school-based science programs (Powerpoint voiceover in Pintupi-Luritja) 2 Child protection (Interview Proforma in Pitjantjatjara) 3 Transition from BasicCard to CashlessDebit Card (30-second ad in Warlpiri, Anmatyerr and Pintupi-Luritja)

15.01.2022 A couple of police jobs in the offing.

15.01.2022 Just completed a job for the NT Police here in Alice Springs.

14.01.2022 Well done, Alice Springs Baptist Church! I've been privileged to work alongside several others to produce messages of encouragement during this whole Coronavirus quarantine period. The seven messages are now on the church website in Warlpiri and Alyawarr, and within a couple more days, the messages should also be there in Anmatyerr and Western Arrarnta. Spread the messages around to family and friends by whatever means you can. Aboriginal people need to know who to stay safe and well. https://www.alicebaptist.org/

12.01.2022 Just completed a plain English rewrite of a Centrelink reporting message for I&G Media in Redfern. This is my second job for them this month, the other one being a Covid19 message. http://iandg.com.au/

09.01.2022 Plain English rewrite completed for radio ad regarding the Federal Government's '715 Health Check' for Aboriginal an Torres Strait Islander people.

07.01.2022 One thing I have noticed when working with English-speaking professionals, is that the working principle seems to be this: Never use few words to express an idea when you can use lots of words. The reasoning must be that using more words shows that you are highly educated. But if your goal is maximum communication with an Aboriginal audience, such as Warlpiri, then please use the KISS PrincipleKeep It Short, Stupid! To give you an example of how this works, consider a sign... that is affixed to the wall of an internal staircase at the RCH House office complex in Darwin. The sign says like this: PLEASE EXERCISE CAUTION WHEN USING THE STAIRS! What could be wrong with this? Well, were it to be translated literally into Warlpiri, the sentence would be so long that the words would not fit onto the sign. So, how can we simplify the sign? First, remove the ‘PLEASE’. Warlpiri has no such word, politeness being indicated by voice tone and using appropriate language for the person being addressed. Second, get rid of the verb ‘EXERCISE’ which in this context has nothing to do with push-ups. Third, get rid of ‘WHEN USING THE STAIRS’. Why talk about the context, eg the stairs? So, we could translate the sign: PULYA-JARRIYA WANTINJA-KUJAKU! Slow down to avoid falling! Easy-peasy!

07.01.2022 Just completed a Plain English rewrite for I&G Media in Redfern for a short radio ad regarding Covid-19 that will now be record.

07.01.2022 In subsequent posts, I hope to make clear all that was and still is involved in this most-necessary process. Without Plain English, Aboriginal people who speak English (if at all) as a second, third, fourth, fifth (or even more) language have little hope in understanding the messages that are directed their way. I dare say that it is not only Aboriginal people who struggle to understand the language of government, the courts, the police, the medical industry, Centrelink, et...c, etc, etcmother-tongue speakers of English often can not make sense, heads nor tails, of official documents and pronouncements that bombard each and every one of us. How can anyone have an informed place within society without the ability to communicate clearly. Don’t bother working towards such noble goals as Constitutional Recognition until matters of language are addressed. That is my passionclear communication between cultures and languages. See more