Translating a Health Camp Notice for a Village Board
A health centre asks a student volunteer, Farah, to put an English notice on the village board. The original English notice reads:
'Free health check-up camp on Sunday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Please bring your Aadhaar card and a list of your current medicines. Pregnant women and children under five will be given priority. No registration fee.'
Many readers on the board have limited literacy and are more comfortable in Kannada, but the health centre wants an English version for the record and for visitors. Farah is told to 'translate' it into simple English that can be read aloud. She wonders whether to keep words like 'priority' and 'registration fee', and whether to change the order of the information. A teacher advises her to think about what the reader must do, not just what the original says.
1. Rewrite the notice in no more than 45 words of simple English for the board. Then explain two changes you made and why they help a reader with limited literacy. 80–110 words.
Read the worked answer
Rewrite (34 words): 'Free health check-up this Sunday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Bring your Aadhaar card and your medicine list. Pregnant women and children under five will be seen first. It is free - no fee.' Changes: (1) 'priority' → 'seen first,' which tells the reader what will actually happen; (2) 'No registration fee' → 'It is free - no fee,' repeating the key idea in common words. 'Current medicines' also becomes 'medicine list,' which is shorter and more concrete.
2. The original says 'Pregnant women and children under five will be given priority.' Why might a literal translation fail for this audience, and what would you write instead? 50–80 words.
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'Priority' is abstract and administrative. A listener may not know whether it means a separate queue, an appointment, or simply 'important.' For a read-aloud notice, replace it with the concrete action: 'will be seen first' or 'do not have to wait.' That tells the audience what to expect and what to do.
3. If the same notice were to be read over a loudspeaker, what three changes would you make to your written version? Explain.
Read the worked answer
For loudspeaker delivery: (1) spell out the time as 'ten in the morning to two in the afternoon' and repeat 'Sunday' at the start and end; (2) break the notice into short sentences with pauses, e.g. 'Bring two things. Your Aadhaar card. Your medicine list.'; (3) repeat the free message - 'The check-up is free. No fee.' Repetition and concrete wording matter more than written compactness.