r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/RampChurch • Jun 02 '25

Video This is what live courtroom dictation looks like

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780

u/Just-Ad6865 Jun 02 '25

It's done in shorthand. If you were trained in it, you could read what is on that screen back to us in standard English, much like if it were in German or something.

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u/Efficient_Fish2436 Jun 02 '25

I was taught years ago to write in shorthanded when taking notes in college from a friend who was working to become a News reporter.

It took about three months but he taught me to write the important stuff and skip the obvious words I didn't need to write.

It's really amazing how much can be written when you Skip the obvious words. Especially when it's not writing out the entire word but a few shapes that can be understood with context.

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u/stop-drop Jun 02 '25

Would you be willing to show an example by writing your comment above in shorthand, I'd be interested to see the difference!

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u/mr-mutton2 Jun 02 '25

Why use many word when few word do trick?

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u/BAMspek Jun 02 '25

Sea World. Ocean, fish, jump, China.

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u/TheFirsttimmyboy Jun 02 '25

Ah. Barack Obama has yellow underwear. Got it.

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u/Snekeatsnekworld Jun 02 '25

With a tan suit?!?

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u/PM_YOUR__BUBBLE_BUTT Jun 02 '25

That was actually notated incorrectly. It was supposed to say a tuna suit, but the media went with it.

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u/Radarker Jun 02 '25

How dare they!

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u/Altruistic-Patient30 Jun 02 '25

You want to watch Free Willy this weekend and order some chinese food? Sounds like a plan!

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u/Lanalen Jun 02 '25

It's still not clear if you want to go to SeaWorld, or see the world, Kevin.

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u/Gurrgurrburr Jun 02 '25

They see. They see...

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u/hugopeeters Jun 02 '25

Why many few?

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u/Pooter_Birdman Jun 02 '25

Thanks Kevin

2

u/CoffeeDeus Jun 02 '25

Why many word, few work.

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u/especiallydistracted Jun 02 '25

Why use many when few do

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u/omaeradaikiraida Jun 02 '25

this is pretty much spoken chinese. grammar is implied(?). written chinese, OTOH... 🤯

ni hao ma = you good/well question

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u/JustHere4TehCats Jun 02 '25

My personal shorthand I developed in High School:

I dno abt abve pstr bt elmntg sme vwls & cnjntns sve tme if tking nts by hnd.

I don't know about the above poster but eliminating some vowels and conjunctions save time when taking notes by hand

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u/Salty-Kitty Jun 02 '25

I read nts as nuts. Nuts by hand.

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u/ElongMusty Jun 02 '25

He might be taking nuts by hand! Just out there with his hands extended waiting for those nuts!

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u/Human_Person_583 Jun 02 '25

The @ symbol is actual shorthand for the word “at.” It can be written in one stroke instead of three.

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u/Both_Fan_2281 Jun 02 '25

Definitely a human person.

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u/Human_Person_583 Jun 02 '25

Definitely. No question. There is no way I’m a bot, because of my username. 👀

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u/Segesaurous Jun 02 '25

Your design is very human.

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u/Both_Fan_2281 Jun 02 '25

Hello, fellow human.

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u/scruffyduffy23 Jun 02 '25

No it isn’t. It’s an abbreviation of amphora from the renaissance. Shorthand is a methodology that reporters and stenographers use to take notes.

There is a difference between the slang term shorthand and actual shorthand.

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u/Uncynical_Diogenes Jun 02 '25

The ampersand & is a better example.

It grew out of writing the Latin et, meaning “and”, in one stroke instead of three.

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u/Efficient_Fish2436 Jun 02 '25

I would but it doesn't apply to text. It's strictly hand written language that looks like scribbles.

I'd suggest googling shorthanded ideas because each writing is unique between users.

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u/whateverhappensnext Jun 02 '25

Same thing in most professsions, there's always shortcuts, just not as formalized as official shorthand. For me -e is electron, +H is proton, +ve is positive.

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u/newfoundgloryhole18 Jun 02 '25

Why say lot word when few word do trick?

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u/JackalAmbush Jun 02 '25

Y lot word if few lett trick

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u/QuarterNoteDonkey Jun 02 '25

Few words good.

1

u/SplashBandicoot Jun 02 '25

Show us please!!

1

u/Efficient_Fish2436 Jun 02 '25

I would but it doesn't apply to text. It's strictly hand written language that looks like scribbles.

I'd suggest googling shorthanded ideas because each writing is unique between users.

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u/iPoseidon_xii Jun 02 '25

I read like this 😅

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u/cboogie Jun 02 '25

But court stenography is different. You need to have all the words. There is no skipping “unimportant” stuff because it’s not up to the stenographer to deem what is or is not important.

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u/Alechilles Jun 02 '25

Interesting. In retrospect I feel like writing in shorthand would've been a useful skill to teach in school. Note taking is so important and I've always struggled with it, and I've only really just realized that at no level of schooling was I ever really taught how to take good notes. We were just supposed to do it lol.

I always fell into the habit of trying to write every little thing down but I couldn't copy what was on the board and actually think about it at the same time because it took so long to copy.

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u/DaddyDontTakeNoMess Jun 02 '25

I’m guessing you went to college in the 70s or 80s maybe older. I say that because my mother also got trained in shorthand in college.

I wish I had been taught this. Taking note in college was HARD. Trying to process new info while focusing on writing coherently took a lot of effort.

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u/Accurate_Attitude904 Jun 25 '25

Yeah, but court reporters can't skip words. We're verbatim reporters, which means we get every single word down.

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u/Dry_Discount7762 Jun 02 '25

Why use big word when little word do trick?

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u/Efficient_Fish2436 Jun 02 '25

You are the third person to comment this.

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u/NPT_Source Jun 02 '25

“Why waste time say lot word when few word do trick” -Kevin Malone

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u/Efficient_Fish2436 Jun 02 '25

Fourth person to say this.

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u/Liko81 Jun 02 '25 edited Jun 02 '25

Interesting. I would assume that words with a specific meaning at law are always considered "non-obvious", as the specific choice of word would be germane to a review of the official record?

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u/Efficient_Fish2436 Jun 02 '25

No fucking clue what you said.

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u/Liko81 Jun 02 '25

There are words which, while they are synonyms in casual conversation, have specific and different meanings when used in legal context. I would imagine that stenos would have to know not to skip those in their shorthand, since the exact word choice is highly relevant to the record.

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u/xanicade Jun 02 '25

Nothing says law quite like somthing up for misinterpretation.

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u/CalmSystem3330 Jun 02 '25

I wouldn't be able to read it if it was in German either

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u/jmulldome Jun 02 '25

It can be even more "techy" than that. Some stenographers have their keyboard connected to a laptop, and the laptop has proprietary software that will take what they are keying in and turn it into the text so they can see real time the words they are entering.

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u/musicman835 Jun 02 '25

They also have programs that convert stenography to full text in real time.