multilingual groups

[Lisa Heft]

Hello, dear colleagues -

(get a cup of tea as this is a l-o-n-g reply so I can excerpt  
something for you)

The fabulous Rachel Pfeffer asked about how to work with translation  
during Open Space - and I know you will share with her some great  
ideas - Larry, I enjoyed yours (and did you not have an experience  
with translation of the word...what was it, butterfly? in one Inuit  
community? Was that you?)

I have found when you supply a group with a lot of professional  
translators, those translators are often politely waved away from the  
discussion groups, because participants are handling their own  
'whisper translation' in a lovely self-organizing way.  But they are  
very helpful as professional translators often have a wider range of  
vocabulary words in mind to offer the nuances of context across  
culture.  if you have capacity for this, it is useful to think about  
it in advance as part of your design.  And I would recommend thinking  
of culture in addition to language to see if that informs any of your  
design for timing, food, visuals or other elements.

As many of you know, my passion is for access and inclusion, as well  
as for honoring capacity within each participant.  So I think it is  
important to do a wonderful amount of work in advance to imagine and  
ask what individuals you are inviting will need, to feel truly welcome  
and able to participate like the others. I am excerpting here from an  
article in my "Open Space Idea Book" to share with you one particular  
experience in a multi-language Open Space environment.  Also, to those  
of you who are newer on this list - you may also find some past  
messages about translation and multi-language environments - and other  
questions you may be thinking about - in the archives of the OSLIST,  
at http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html . But don't  
ever let that stop you from asking right out here in the circle, as  
Rachel has done to invite this rich discussion.

Lisa

PS: Participants who come to my Open Space Learning Workshops each get  
a copy of the book I mention above - it has not yet been published.

excerpt from
Open Space Conference for Immigrant and Refugee Farmers

by Lisa Heft


In February 2007, two-hundred and sixty participants joined together  
for three days rich with learning, networking and knowledge-sharing at  
the National Immigrant and Refugee Farming Initiative’s (NIFI)  
historic Inaugural National Conference for Immigrant and Refugee  
Farmers.   NIFI advocates for immigrant farmers and works to build  
awareness about the unique challenges immigrant farmers face, while  
increasing the visibility of their important contributions to our  
communities and agriculture.

Participants speaking over 17 languages traveling from all across  
America to meet and share best practices, challenges, ideas and  
solutions for 3 days.  One of the challenges was that many of the  
participants were monolingual non-English speakers.  Languages  
included Spanish, Russian, Arabic, Hmong, Vietnamese, Somali Bantu  
(Maay Maay), Khmer, French, Navajo and others.  Plus, not all of the  
participants could read written word, even in their home languages.   
So our design for both the Open Space and the other activities  
included an emphasis on multiple languages and modalities.

The pre-work was complicated, the design work was challenging, the  
event and site kept the core planning and facilitation team on its  
toes - and, as is usual - the success of the conference was due to an  
interdisciplinary, intercultural, skilled, flexible and energetic  
team.  Registration was in two languages (Spanish and English - the  
two languages spoken by the most participants) and we knew that those  
who could not access written language, English, Spanish or computers  
would have an advocate working with them to register for the  
conference.  So we asked all registrants to pre-identify what  
languages they spoke.  We also asked who would like to spend some of  
their time helping us as notes-takers.  This helped us identify what  
translation and other support we might need, what were the top  
languages spoken, and helped us ‘seed’ the room with enough people of  
diverse languages who were comfortable writing as notes-takers.

Spanish, English and Hmong were our top three languages spoken -  
therefore NIFI collaborated with the Highlander Center in Tennessee,  
USA, who held a training in Maine, USA for a group of farmers serving  
as peer simultaneous translators for the conference.  To that we added  
a few professional translators from Professional Translation  
Interpretation Services in North Carolina, USA.  We had multi channel  
translation headsets for about 40 people, I believe.  Then, as we had  
asked in advance about languages participants spoke, we pre-labeled  
every participant’s conference badge with color-coded dots indicating  
which languages they spoke - and we gave them extra dots to fill out  
and apply to their own badges to add additional languages they spoke.   
This would help is with ‘whisper translation’ - people being able to  
sit together to translate for each other.  It was important that we  
support participant self-organization for translation as well as offer  
professional support.  The professional and peer translators wore  
strips of color fabric coded to match the dots on everyone’s badges.   
If a translator spoke more than one language, she would have several  
strips of fabric - they wore these as neck ornaments, arm-bands -  
whatever fit their personal style.  In this way, you could easily find  
someone to help you wherever you were in the conference.

Then there was the challenge of how to design for a switch from the  
conference host and the facilitator speaking to the full group  
(welcome, explanation of the Open Space process and guidelines) -- to  
the voices of the participants themselves coming to the center and  
announcing their topics.  So we started with those who needed it on  
headset (Spanish, Hmong and Maay Maay listeners - others sat next to  
friends and peer translators for whisper translation).  Participants  
wishing to announce and host a session would walk up to one of two  
long tables (one in each of two aisles in the circle) and write their  
topic and name on the top half of an 11 x 17” piece of paper.  A multi- 
lingual person sitting at that table would help them if they could not  
write and would also add another language translation onto that sign  
(ideally in one of our three top languages) in another color.  The  
convenor would then walk to the center where they would stand at a  
microphone to announce their topic.  After I had invited convenors to  
announce and post their sessions, I joined a group of translators  
seated near the microphone in the center. We had a cordless microphone  
to pass amongst ourselves.  As this convenor would announce their  
session (in their own voice; their own language) we would pass the  
microphone to each other to translate immediately after them into the  
top 3 languages.  Then the convenor posted their sign on the Agenda  
Wall and so continued the Agenda co-creation process.

After returning to headset (for some) for my explaining the schedule  
for the day, the group broke into discussion areas and conducted their  
conversations throughout the day using whisper, peer or professional  
translators as needed.

Topics included a wide range of subjects in over 150 sessions during  
two days: beekeeping and pollination, how to apply for funding,  
engaging high school youth, organic pest control, growing mushrooms,  
abuse of immigrants, disaster response, organic corn for masa, organic  
crop development, growing ethnic crops, farming in an arid  
environment, building greenhouses out of found resources, and more.

Notes-takers self-selected for all the groups, though we knew we had  
seeded this thought of note- taking before the conference -- so those  
who were multi-lingual and able to write easily simply supported each  
group by notes-taking on paper notes-taker forms (with English and  
Spanish both on the form).  Throughout the day they would transcribe  
their notes at the bank of computers in the Newsroom.  If they had  
taken notes in a language besides English they would sit with a  
colleague to translate before entering them into the Book of  
Proceedings -- as our first edition of the Book would be in English  
and then we would have the book translated into several other  
languages next, thanks to the funders.  Note that this was not an  
event in which we created the Book for viewing during the event - we  
finalized and distributed it post-event, translated it into other  
languages and also had photos and video for non-readers to review the  
event.  Some groups also gathered post event to tell the stories of  
the event to each other and to their communities as a way of sharing  
the news with non-readers.

And so it went for 2.5 days, with Evening News happening much like the  
openings each day - with some folks on headset and others sitting next  
to peers for whisper translation.  For Closing Circle we allowed 2  
hours - as in many of these cultures speakers use more words to frame  
their experiences and tell of their experiences through telling  
stories or returning to themes while they speak.

My many thanks to all of my colleagues and partners who helped during  
the pre-work and during the conference itself - a true team effort.   
This was one of the most exciting and fulfilling Open Space events I  
have ever had the honor to be part of.  My hat is off to Rebecca  
Morgan, Tony Machacha, Kathy Findley, Alison Cohen, my other  
colleagues at NIFI and Heifer and to all the participants of this  
conference, including the wise, creative and dedicated farmers who are  
forging a new life -- and contributing to their communities’ health  
and wellness with their efforts.

Lisa Heft
Consultant, Facilitator, Educator
Opening Space
lisaheft at openingspace.net
www.openingspace.net

Join me for the Open Space Learning Workshop
December 9-11, San Francisco



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