The right to understand: Sandra Fisher-Martins at TEDxO'Porto

[@ryusm92]

As a son of an immigrant who had to deal with complex mountains of paperworks on behalf of my parents since when I was 12, I am so touched and moved by this speech. I always thought that I am the one with problems where my English was "not good enough" or "not native yet" to understand those complicated words and sentences, but now I understand that it was actually THEIR responsibility to have everything clear. Great talk! Truly appreciated.

[@ivyfariassantos]

She is a great, great, great person to inspire in a Sunday morning. Yes, let´s write to Mister Domingos!

[@BFGCristina]

A acessibilidade da comunicação é primordial! Urge que seja suficientemente inteligível,clara e acessível!

[@explod2A03]

Excellent talk! As a citizen of the United States, I am deeply concerned about consumer protection. I think it's only a matter of time before the concept enters the political spotlight, and this video offers clear, pragmatic solutions to a very real problem. I think the United States is proof that simply expecting the public to be educated and able to navigate tricky documents isn't enough, because we have a much higher literacy rate than Portugal and we still had the subprime lending crisis.

[@symbolt]

Great talk! I think this may be a common issue in Europe. I'm Polish, and recently I needed to figure out something new about taxes. Although I am a "languge professional" (translator, reviewer, sometimes writer), it was difficult for me to understand some texts, and when I decoded the language, I often could see problems in content (abstract arguments looping). I realized the tax info was written in jargon for experts, even on sites meant for the public. This needs to change.

[@oksigeno]

A nossa língua não é mais complicada que o inglês, os nossos doutores é que são mais peneirentos.

[@edoomb8524]

Excelente job sister

[@edsoncolaco]

Excelente! Política de Clareza, eu apoio!

[@JoshLightWork]

@eatcarpet Yeah, Portuguese can sound like a lot of different languages. One time I heard some Portuguese people talking, and I could've sworn it was 4 or 5 different languages before realizing that it was, in fact, Portuguese.

[@GrandPoivron]

So... apart from the accent, am i the only one to feel like somebody just woke me up from a stone-heavy sleep of unawareness? Or to phrase that a little more simply : SHE SO RIGHT !

[@denisepianista]

Fico a pensar se a língua portuguesa é mais difícil mesmo ou se os brasileiros e portugueses são menos inteligentes que os suecos...rsrsrs Fora das brincadeiras, penso que a preletora tem toda a razão!Precisamos mesmo simplificar nossa língua. Experimentem ver um texto em inglês e contem as páginas. Vejam o mesmo texto em português e vejam quantas páginas a mais...está tudo dito...

[@denisepianista]

Estava brincando...Mas acho que somos mais prolixos.A dificuldade da língua se relaciona com nosso contato com ela.Se começamos a conhecê-la cedo, fica mais fácil de aprender. Se temos contato com a norma culta da língua desde crianças também facilita o aprendizado.Quem começa a aprender com mais idade e tem pouca chance de praticar, tem mais dificuldades...O português é muito bonito e rico.Se soubermos usá-lo podemos enriquecê-lo mais.Mesmo sendo brasileiros...rsrsrsrsrs

[@helliop]

I think companies make their contracts difficult to read and full of jargon to HIDE all the flaws in their products. Take those mortgages in the US, if people could have understood the stipulations in the contract clearly, they may have been more hesitant to sign and that would lead to less customers for the banks.

[@miguelnglopes]

É preciso que os autores dos documentos QUEIRAM ser realmente entendidos.... Será que é sempre esse o caso??? Não haverá quem ganhe com o obscurecimento do sentido dos documentos?

[@CoolSafflina]

@Valca000 Then turn the volume down and just read the subtitles?

[@shindean]

The reason for that complicated speech is because of history. All those documents are legally binding, and historically, using that type of language is meant to protect the benefactors of those agreements. So instead of saying: "You" they'll replace it with "the person and or identified party pertaining to this agreement", so that the person making the contract has their rights protected. It's one of these really complicated areas in bureaucratic society, where we need these services but the people in charge running those services do everything protect themselves from lawsuits on a daily basis. "Your coffee is too hot!" That's a lawsuit. So now McDonalds have warning labels of: "Careful, hot" on all their cups. Now, is there reason to believe that there are nefarious reason for the use of this complicated language? Certainly, but then the problem isn't the language, as it is intent. So while Sandra talks about her solution, this is complicated to the point that it would require other innovations to improve this issue.

[@RickSaiz]

Brazilian Portuguese sounds much more smooth. Check this Brazilian TEDx for example: watch?v=UchzUJZsuA4 Same language, some different words, very different accents.

[@Silly.Old.Sisyphus]

Sandra has identified the problem, but regrettably not its solution, because no amount of legislation is going to protect the innocent from exploitation by the cunning. Their only defence is arm themselves with literacy and numeracy at the only age when language can be acquired, namely, infancy. But even this does not guarantee immunity; for example, her image of the dominos is inaccurate, because the actual domino chain was one of a tiny domino (mortgage default) knocking over one twice its size (CDO), which then knocks over another twice its size (credit default swaps) which knocks over the biggest one (derivatives). The domino chain was quietly put in place 6 years beforehand, before the plug was pulled at a pre-arranged time (in a repetition of the same kind of confidence trick that was played on investors in 1929) so the conspirators could suck up the real value of savings of the general populace through quantitative "easing" bailouts, which is doublethink Newspeak for quantitative dilution robbery, turning almost free citizens back into debt-burdened wage-enslaved domesticated animals.

[@eatcarpet]

Portuguese sounds a bit like Russian.

[@Jilluminum]

I thought her accent was cute.