The United States of America is a multicultural nation, comprised of citizens from many other countries. So, how would you communicate at a large event where some attendees treat English as a distant second language, at best?
We discovered one solution when BizVid Communications, a San Diego video production company, directed a Dr. James Dobson Family Heritage video series live at beautiful Skyline Church in Southern California.
In an audio booth just outside of the auditorium, a translator listens to the live presentation which is in English, then instantly translates and broadcasts it to Spanish speaking AND Spanish listening members of the audience. According to Wikipedia, The Spanish language is the second most used language in the United States.
In this case Spanish speakers could pick up special headsets in the lobby and listen to the presentation live while experiencing the spectacle in person.
Organizers of this videotaped event knew of the cross-cultural interest in the topic of raising a family. The earlier version of this Dr. James Dobson series called Focus on the Family was produced about thirty years earlier and was viewed by some twenty million people.
This translation approach is nothing new and has been used to bring people together for a long time. At the United Nations, for example, At any given moment, the UN Interpretation Services has a dozen interpreters working six booths—one for every official language. Attendees can then listen to the interpretations on headphones, clicking across channels for different languages. It’s an innovative way to bring people of different languages and cultures together in one place at one time.