TED2010
Alan Siegel: Let's simplify legal jargon!
Alan Siegel:让我们一起来简化法律术语
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Alan Siegel说纳税申报表、信用卡协议、医疗保健立法都充斥着冗长费解的官样文件。他提倡用简洁明了的简单英语重新设计人们能够理解的法律文件。
Alan Siegel - Executive, simplicity guru
A branding expert and one of the leading authorities on business communication, Alan Siegel wants to put plain English into legal documents for government and business. Full bio
A branding expert and one of the leading authorities on business communication, Alan Siegel wants to put plain English into legal documents for government and business. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
00:15
So, basically we have public leaders,
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所以，总的来说我们有些领导人、
00:18
public officials who are out of control;
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政府官员办事出格。
00:21
they are writing bills that are unintelligible,
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他们写的是无法解读的议案。
00:23
and out of these bills are going to come
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从这些议案将会产生出
00:25
maybe 40,000 pages of regulations, total complexity,
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约40,000页的条文，非常复杂，
00:30
which has a dramatically negative impact on our life.
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其对我们的生活将产生极为不利的影响。
00:33
If you're a veteran coming back from Iraq or Vietnam
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如果你是从伊拉克或是越南战场回来的老兵，
00:37
you face a blizzard of paperwork to get your benefits;
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想得到你的救济金，你得做一大堆棘手的文书工作，
00:41
if you're trying to get a small business loan,
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如果你想获得一小笔商业贷款，
00:43
you face a blizzard of paperwork.
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你也会面临一大堆棘手的文书工作。
00:45
What are we going to do about it? I define simplicity
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对此，我们应该如何去做？我将简单化定义为
00:47
as a means to achieving clarity,
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一种能达到清晰、
00:50
transparency and empathy,
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透明和共鸣，
00:52
building humanity into communications.
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使交流人性化的一种方法。
00:55
I've been simplifying things for 30 years.
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30年来我一直致力于事物的简化。
00:58
I come out of the advertising and design business.
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我是做广告和设计的。
01:01
My focus is understanding you people,
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我的关注点是了解大众，
01:05
and how you interact with the government
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了解你们如何与政府打交道，
01:07
to get your benefits,
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去得到你们应得的利益，
01:09
how you interact with corporations to decide whom you're going to do business with,
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了解你们如何与公司打交道而决定你们要与谁去做生意，
01:12
and how you view brands.
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以及了解你们如何看待品牌。
01:15
So, very quickly, when President Obama said,
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所以，当奥巴马总统说
01:19
"I don't see why we can't
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“我不明白为什么我们不能有
01:21
have a one-page, plain English consumer credit agreement."
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一份一页的简单英语消费信贷协议”时
01:25
So, I locked myself in a room,
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我把自己关在一个房间里
01:27
figured out the content,
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很快想出了这样一个内容，
01:30
organized the document, and wrote it in plain English.
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制定了这样一个文件，并且是用简单英语写的。
01:33
I've had this checked by the two top
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我让国内两个顶级
01:35
consumer credit lawyers in the country.
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消费信贷律师对其进行了审核。
01:37
This is a real thing.
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这是件真事。
01:39
Now, I went one step further and said,
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现在我又进了一步，
01:42
"Why do we have to stick with the stodgy lawyers
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“为什么我们只能有一份纸质文件
01:44
and just have a paper document? Let's go online."
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并且非要依附于那些墨守成规的律师呢？让我们上网去解决“。
01:48
And many people
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许多人
01:50
might need help in computation.
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可能在计算上需要帮助。
01:52
Working with the Harvard Business School,
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与哈佛商学院合作时，
01:54
you'll see this example when you talk about minimum payment:
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我们有一个关于最低还款额的案例。
01:58
If you spent 62 dollars for a meal,
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你一顿饭花了62美元，
02:01
the longer you take to pay out that loan,
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如果你采用最低还款额延期还款的作法，
02:04
you see, over a period of time using the minimum payment
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过了一段时间，
02:06
it's 99 dollars and 17 cents.
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则需还款99美元17美分。
02:09
How about that? Do you think your bank is going to show that to people?
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你觉得怎么样？你认为银行会向人们告知吗？
02:12
But it's going to work. It's more effective
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但它就是这样运作的。它比仅仅计算
02:14
than just computational aids.
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货款时间更有效。
02:16
And what about terms like
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你如何理解有些词汇
02:18
"over the limit"?
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例如超过限度？
02:21
Perhaps a stealth thing.
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也许这是一件隐匿的事情。
02:23
Define it in context. Tell people what it means.
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通过上下文来定义它，告诉人们它是什么意思。
02:25
When you put it in plain English,
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在你使用简单英语表述时，
02:27
you almost force the institution
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你实际上就迫使这家机构
02:29
to give the people a way, a default out of that,
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使人们了解如何去规避风险，
02:31
and not put themselves at risk.
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而不是把自己置于风险之中。
02:33
Plain English is about
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简单英语也就是
02:36
changing the content.
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改变内容。
02:38
And one of the things I'm most proud of
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我很骄傲的一件事
02:40
is this agreement for IBM.
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是我为IBM制作的这份协议。
02:42
It's a grid, it's a calendar.
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它以简单的网格形式，是一个日历。
02:44
At such and such a date, IBM has responsibilities,
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在这个日期，IBM承担责任，
02:46
you have responsibilities.
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你承担责任。
02:48
Received very favorably by business.
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这个作法在商务领域被欣然接受了。
02:52
And there is some good news to report today.
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今天我有好消息要讲。
02:54
Each year, one in 10 taxpayers
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每年每10个纳税人中有一个
02:56
receives a notice from the IRS.
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会收到美国国税局通知。
02:58
There are 200 million letters that go out.
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那就是要发出2亿封信。
03:01
Running through this typical letter that they had,
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我处理了一部分典型信件，
03:04
I ran it through my simplicity lab,
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我是在我的简单化实验室进行的，
03:06
it's pretty unintelligible.
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结果是它们很让人费解。
03:08
All the parts of the document in red are not intelligible.
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文件中所有标红的部分都让人费解。
03:12
We looked at doing over 1,000 letters that cover
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我们又看了1000多封以简单英语写的信，
03:14
70 percent of their transactions in plain English.
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它们涵盖了70%的业务。
03:17
They have been tested in the laboratory.
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这些信件在我的实验室进行了测试。
03:19
When I run it through my lab,
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当我在我的实验室测试时，
03:21
this heat-mapping shows everything
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热点图显示每一件事
03:23
is intelligible.
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都是简单易懂的。
03:25
And the IRS has introduced the program.
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国税局已经引进了这个程序。
03:27
(Applause)
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（鼓掌）
03:32
There are a couple of things going on right now
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我想让你们注意
03:35
that I want to bring to your attention.
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现在正在做的一些事情。
03:37
There is a lot of discussion now
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现在有许多讨论
03:39
about a consumer financial protection agency,
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是关于消费金融保护署的，
03:41
how to mandate simplicity.
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如何使其工作程序简单化。
03:43
We see all this complexity.
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我们都看到它的复杂性。
03:45
It's incumbent upon us,
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我相信我们
03:47
and this organization, I believe,
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和他们都有义不容辞的责任，
03:49
to make clarity, transparency
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使国家重点项目清晰、透明
03:52
and empathy a national priority.
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和与大众有共鸣感。
03:55
There is no way that we should allow government
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我们无法再允许政府
03:57
to communicate the way they communicate.
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按照他们的表达方式进行表达，
03:59
There is no way we should do business
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我们无法再与协议中
04:01
with companies that have agreements
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带有隐匿、晦涩难懂条款的公司
04:04
with stealth provisions and that are unintelligible.
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做生意。
04:06
So, how are we going to change the world?
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那么，我们如何去改变世界？
04:08
Make clarity, transparency and simplicity a national priority.
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那就是使国家重点项目清晰、透明并且简单化。
04:13
I thank you.
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谢谢大家。
04:15
(Applause)
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（鼓掌）
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Alan Siegel - Executive, simplicity guruA branding expert and one of the leading authorities on business communication, Alan Siegel wants to put plain English into legal documents for government and business.
Why you should listen
Almost nothing so mundane renders as many beads of sweat on the foreheads of the citizens of the United States than the looming of April 15, the day of the dreaded yearly income tax mail-ins. But Alan Siegel says the better portion of that anxiety ain't necessarily the pay hit -- it's navigating the legendarily confusing jungle of jargon (and cluttered checkboxes) that constitutes the IRS's tax forms. It's more than a question of convenience to individuals, he emphasizes; as our society's systems get more complicated, the perplexing legal documents that make them run are becoming more of a drain, undermining our potential prosperity.
It's also a problem that's bigger than taxes; it's even bigger than the United States. Siegel, one of the world's foremost branding experts (he's founder and chairman of brand consultancy Siegel+Gale) notes that the world is suffering from an epidemic of legalese: fear of loopholes and lawsuits is forcing the world's attorneys, contract designers and EULA scribes to take their art form to historically impenetrable lows.
Better for us, Siegel has spent decades as a pioneer in the practice of simplification -- as he says, "bringing clarity to such daunting documents as insurance policies, bank loans, mutual fund agreements" and government communications. He hopes to transform the idea of document simplicity from a creative principle into an aggressive movement for change.
Siegel was recently director of a project for the IRS to simplify US income tax forms. He has written on the topic for the New York Times, Across the Board, and the National Law Journal.
Alan Siegel | Speaker | TED.com